Lucy Found a New Home

Tamara Cisek, my trimmer friend extraordinaire, took Lucy home with her! Their personalities are a perfect fit! Tamara is an advanced Parelli student, and Lucy and her worked wonderfully together. I am so happy that all of the foundatation work that Lucy has will be put to good work. Tamara was looking for her next all round super horse, and Lucy has that in her to be versitile and fun. Good luck Tamara and Lucy!! A happy end for the Mustang Makeover Finalist! This was the best home she could ever want.

Doomed WIld Horses have a Possible Solution

A Dramatic Rescue for Doomed Wild Horses of the West

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/17/AR2008111703680.html?hpid=artslot

Finalist - Extreme Mustang Makeover

Lucy and I were finalists in the Extreme Mustang Makeover. Actually, we were in second place going in to the Freestyle Finals, and I didn't have a very good freestyle class planned, so we ended up in fifth place. Other routines included leaf blowers, pedestals, bull whips, swimming intertubes, etc. We did the best we could considering this was the first time in an arena for her! Each yearling there was absolutely amazing - each one was so well gentled and trained. You could have ridden each horse there had they been 3 year olds. As a matter of fact, most horses carried a saddle or bareback pad in the finals, and a few yearlings were carrying children on their back throughout the weekend. Each yearling was wild 90 days ago, and they all looked like seasoned competitors there. I was blown away. We were scored on body condition, muscling/coat condition, manners, and then a trail course in hand. I hadn't practised trotting in hand with her head next to my shoulder, so we learned this the night before. SHe did fantastic in the trail course in hand, loaded in to the trailer like a champ, backed, and went over the trotting poles beautifully. We fudged the trotting of a serpentine in hand.... and fudged it again in the freestyle.... We'll work on that!

The only problem was, for the adoption, it was a silent auction and then a live auction to close the bids on the horses, and there were only 3 adopters!! The winners didn't even get adopted! Most trainers took home their horses, like me, but a lot of horses went back to Palomino Valley. That was so, so sad, especially for the youth whose parents wouldn't let them keep their horses. We all did this to help promote the mustangs and place them in good adoptive homes, already gentled, but there was no one that wanted these babies. What a shame. It must be the economy and the price of hay. I lucked out and got a beautiful, athletic filly out of the deal, but I didn't really need a 5th horse.

I have to thank all of my helpers at the show - my clients Kelly (who let me borrow her beautiful show clothes) and Tamara, my friend Leslie and her neighbors, and then my other friend Shannon who helped me groom Lucy and clipped her mane up beautifully! And Trina who let me borrow her hat and show shirt. Thank you THank you Thank yoU!!!

Lake Play with the Mustangs

When it is warm in the afternoon, I like to take the horses up to Greenwood lake, which is about a half mile from my house. The girls love to swim, roll, and paw in the water. Here is a photo of Feather rolling - I was on her bareback and was in the process of jumping back on her in this shot. For a gallery of photos of water play - go here.

Lucy Update - Extreme Mustang Makeover

Okay, Lucy is ready. She has her health certificate, she trailers, ponies, walks through water, swims, walks over tarps, does cavaletti, picks up her hooves, etc... she is ready to compete! Attached is a photo Logan took a week ago. The competition is August 15 at the Wild Horse and Burro Expo at the Reno Events Center.

Extreme Mustang Makeover - Lucy Update

We are about half way through the Extreme Mustang Makeover, and Lucy is doing fantastic! She lives in a big pasture, gets haltered, lead, hooves picked out, fly mask on/off daily. Lucy has been all over the trails, she is a very confident trail horse. She swims at Greenwood Lake, rolls in the water, plays with it. She walks through creeks, over downed trees, through brush, no worries. I am confident that she will make someone a very nice horse. And if she doesn't get adopted, I don't mind one bit keeping her for my own.

Extreme Mustang Makeover Update

Lucy is now turned out in the big front pasture, and is easy to catch. We took her on her first big walk off of the property yesterday evening, and she loved it. She was very calm, her head down, licking, chewing, blowing out of her nose, and eating grass. We went for a couple miles and even ran into neighbors, cows, tractors, and cars. She is very athletic, sweet, confident, and pretty.

Lucy Update = Extreme Mustang Makeover

Lucy wore her halter for the first time today, willingly put her nose through it. I can pet her all over her body, including her teats, flank, and legs, and she follows me around. We are making great progress. She still lives in the round pen, I would like to turn her out in the front pasture once she is consistently haltering easily. She is so pretty, and has gorgeous action! And so sweet and tries so hard. She would make a great horse for anyone - very athletic.

Extreme Mustang Makeover Update

I have my wild horse - she is about 10 months old, liver chestnut with a white blaze and 2 hind socks. She is a right brain extrovert. Very curious, but also cautious. I have had her for one week, and she is currently following me around the round pen, eating hay out of my hand, and I can rub her neck and her withers and face with a carrot stick. I have spent the night out with her a couple times, and she lays down right next to me at night. That is so special. I have named her Lucy Sky Diamond, and call her Lucy. She has a beautiful white diamond like marking on her face. She has gorgeous movement and looks like an athlete. She spent the majority of her life in the wild outside of Ely, NV and was gathered in December.

So I took Britt Porter with me to help me pick her up, and she was so excited, that she signed up for the Mustang Makeover too. Her baby is a bay with 4 white socks and a blue eye. She shows signs of either roaning or greying out. Her baby was born in captivity and has come along very quickly. They are haltering her and leading her already. Amazing!

Extreme Mustang Makeover

I am in the Extreme Mustang Makeover - Yearlings for the Wild Horse and Burro Show in Reno in August. I am so excited. I pick up my yearling this weekend. He will be wild, so I get to gentle him and start him on ground work. In August, I will compete with him in a trail course in hand and then he will go up for adoption. This will be a fun project for me. I can't wait to see him. We are busy getting the round pen all set up for him. He will have to pivot and backup and go into the trail and walk over poles. That sounds like fun! I'll post photos when he arrives.

Mustang Adoption

The Warm Springs Correctional Facility in Carson City, NV held an adoption yesterday for prisoner trained mustangs and Logan and I attended. The program takes wild horses and matches them with a prisoner for 4 months. The prisoners work with the horses 5 days a week, 6 hours a day. These mustangs get a fantastic foundation - they are broke and trustworthy. The horses were so well trained - sidepass, back up, walk trot canter, flags, double riding, bareback, bridleless, riders standing in the saddle, crawling under their bodies. The horses were awesome with all the people and commotion.... I was so impressed and I highly recommend them for any type of rider. There were big horses, little horses, quarter horse type, hunter type, endurance horses, colored and plain horses, a horse for everyone. The sad part was that there were not enough buyers, some horses went for $200!!! The highest horse (a black quarter horse type) went for $2300. The average price was about $1000, but a lot were around $600. You can't get a month of training for what a new horse with 4 months of training went for. To read more about this program, http://www.mustangs4us.com/prisonhorses.htm. The next adoption is in June, and if you are at all considering adding a horse to your collection, go to this adoption and just see what kinds of horses are there. A lady from LA came with her trailer to get an endurance horse. She got a really nice one for $800. I hope to see her at the Tejon ride in September with him. Great hooves on all the mustangs, and ready to hit the trail.