keepin me in check

Hey everyone, I have heard it said that the best thing for the inside of a man is the outside of a horse. That is true in so many ways. I was doing real good with Bailey,(still am) with tossing the rope, picking up his feet, jumping around him, and all that good stuff. I finally deemed him ready to don the saddle. I worked up to this as well, and I had made up my mind that if I had reservations I would work on it some more. (I have put the saddle on several horses for the first time but I am trying to be extra careful and not set him back). After I was able to flop the blanket anywhere I wanted I worked my chaps hitting him on the opposite side of where I was throwing, soon he was ok with that as well, only one thing left to do. When he saw me carrying the saddle he shied some so I worked very slow at this. Soon it was on his back but with the cinches on top. I don't feel like I should fool him and saddle him that way so I worked on swinging it on with the stirrup and the cinches on top of the saddle, soon he was able to relax and I dropped the cinches and swung the saddle on, I repeated this several times. Cinching up has not been a problem. Shortly the saddle was on, I moved his hind quarters and sent him around me at a walk, then he decided to trot. All I can say is that I am excited about the athletic potential of this little horse, that is how good he bucked. After that he has been leery of me, I work at getting him caught and he has to try hard to trust me, However every day he has had to wear the saddle. He hasn't bucked since the first time but I have to ease through the process, every time to get him saddled. However, I am starting to see some improvement and I can tell that he is trying, he is just afraid, and I can't blame him for that. I ponied him out today and he was wonderful. I am trying not to do too much to him while he is trying to sort out the saddle, he will let me know when it is ok to move on to other things. I have only seen one other horse in my career that didn't take the saddle well after the first saddling, so I am very humbled by my little horse. However I need to remember he is looking to me as an example so I am simply staying steady with my emotions and by doing this I am keeping my frustrations at bay. I have some one I really trust coming to help me when I put on the first ride. Him and I have worked together in the past and we work well when I am riding a colt and he is working it from the ground or from the back of another horse. In doing this we are able to get quite a bit done on the first ride and it is so much less traumatic on the horse. So even though several of the other competitors are putting rides on their colts as I am speaking I am not in a hurry to get my ride in, my ride will come when the horses says so. Ray Hunt told me "you are not trying to ride this horse, you are only getting him ready to ride, when he is ready you be ready," Thanks for taking the time to check in. I am having a ball with this little horse, God Bless, BW

Off and running

Well the first week with my mustang was a great one. On the second day of having him I did a lot of approach and retreat and was able to touch him on the jaw. I then worked around his body always retreating to a place he could handle it when he got nervous. Soon there after I got his halter off and put it back on a few times and left it off. He took right to coming off the pressure to his hindquarters and was easy to teach to lead. From there it has been a lot of sensitizing and desensitizing to get him used to me doing things and preparing him for the saddle. With all this he is putting up with me doing the dead man on his back but he is not completely ok with it. He acted like a horse and didn't live up to quite as good as he has been doing when we were videoing him but that just lets me know that I still have a lot of work to do. I still need to remember that I need to work him one day at a time not worry about the competition. If I move at his pace and do what I do, the competition will take care of itself. I hope that I have more good news to report next week. Thank you and God Bless. BW

Long Day

Hello, this is the first day reporting about my 2010 extreme mustang makeover horse I have decided to call "Bailey" like the cowboy hat. What an interesting day I had. We got up and set out for Canon City to pick up the horse. When we were almost there we noticed that our trailer light plug in had come out and was dragging down the highway. So we stopped at the first hardware store that we could find and bought new parts to fix it. We got to the prison and had to wait to enter to go get the horse. There were several nice rigs waiting along with us. I was reminded of my High school Rodeo days when we showed up in the older trucks and beat up trailers and were more competitive then the kids with the fancy stuff. So I wasn't intimidated by that. The wind was blowing hard and everyone stayed in their trucks, so I wasn't able to visit and meet very many of the other trainers. That is until we tried to start the truck and realized that when we were checking the trailer lights that we had left the headlights on and the old batteries in my truck had run down and I needed a jump. Everyone was very nice in helping us get going. When we entered the prison facility I was surprised at how big it was, at the horse facility it was a pretty impressive sight to see all the pens and horses and how they may use it. I wouldn't mind going back to take a tour, because everything happened so fast when we got down there. As I was signing paper work, I saw this little ball of fur fly by me and get in the trailer. It happened so fast that I didn't even get to look at him before he was in the trailer. Before backing into the loading area, they asked me if I wanted him to have a halter on. I asked how the horses were in the chute and they said that they were used to it so I said ok to the halter. When I finally got to look at my horse I poked my head up into the trailer. I expected to see a wide eyed bronc, instead he had a calm eye (worried but calm) and just looked at me. I figured that he was just feeling trapped by the trailer and had enough sense to not bang himself around. I thought that when we got him out into the pen he would come to life. Not the case. He walked to the end of the trailer and stood there looking around. Walked out and walked right over to the other side of the pen to investigate. Soon there after he started nibbling at straws of hay on the ground and soon found his way to the feeder and proceeded to chow down. I think that he probably appreciated being able to hog up all his own feed and not have to fight for it. He was stepping on his lead rope and I didn't like that. After a short process of approach and retreat he let me get close enough to grab the rope then I eventually was able to un clip the lead rope. I left him alone the rest of the day. I am super excited about this little guy. (He is little) He is showing me good sense. I am still along way away from putting a leg over him but I am glad to see that he isn't crazy. Bailey came from the Jackson Mountain range in Winnemuca NV. Hope to have some good news to keep reporting. The next step is to touch him and get him broke to lead. Thank you and God Bless. BW