Sunday, July 31, 2011

Day 6!

6 full days of work have gone by and each mustang has developed at their own pace. It is amazing to watch the way Talitha, Cinnamon, and Twister have changed. 

The obvious rock star has been Cinnamon. His curious and willing attitude has allowed us to introduce the fly mask, grooming tools, saddle pad, and even the saddle. He looooves to be scratched in his mane and will tilt his head sideways for you to rub. He has even let me pick up his hoofs to begin introducing him to hoof picking. What an awesome guy!  




Twister has been taking things a little slower, which is just fine for all of us. No one wants to feel rushed, especially when you are taming a wild mustang. Although he has not gained interest in touching us, he has accepted the pole to rub him all over his entire body. He becomes comfortable with us in the pen after a little bit and will walk (on his own) about half of the length of the pen towards us. Ever hear that saying "slow but steady"? That's Twister!




Talitha is the youngest at only 17 months. She is also the only female, which makes her the most finnicky! Some days she is quite interested. Others, she would just assume walk away from us. One trick we have been using is petting the horse next to her pen. She seems to realize he is getting all the attention and it might be a good thing. She has also been interested in objects like saddle pads and grooming tools. She especially enjoyed sniffing Anthony's head! 
 






Wednesday, July 27, 2011

2 days of progress

After 2 days of working 6 hours each, you can see that we made some really nice progress!

Cinnamon is incredibly curious. He is friendly and kind, letting me pet him since early this morning. He loves to get his ears scratched. I really enjoyed working with him today. This is one very nice mustang that is going to make someone really happy! He is easy to work with and that makes training fun. Today he sniffed a fly mask and got brushed, tomorrow we will introduce a few more exciting items.
 

Twister is a little bit different. Since he was older when he was caught, he stayed a stallion longer and you can really see the difference in his body compared to Cinnamon. He has those stallion jowls! For this reason, he is a little tougher to work with. Still, he has already made a lot of progress, being touched all over with the stick. If his attitude is any indicator of what he will be like, I could easily describe him to his future owner... boss! Even though he doesn't want a whole lot to do with people, he is confident and steadfast. I think this will translate into being an awesome trail horse once he has bonded to his forever owner.
 Here is my boyfriend Anthony working Twister. You can see he is beginning to be interested...from a distance of course!
 This is the closest Twister got to contact today. I think it is pretty darn good considering he is a tougher mustang to work with.

Sweet little Talitha really loved Anthony. She was not feeling so great because she was de-wormed at the corrals and had quite an infestation to get rid of. Despite the tummy ache, she was still willing to be worked with today and that says a lot about her willing personality. 




My new best friend!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Twister, Talitha, and Cinnamon

Here are the lucky 3:

(Carter Reservoir) Cinnamon
3 year old sorrel gelding


(Twin Peaks) Talitha
17 month old bay mare


(Twin Peaks) Twister 
4 year old dun gelding





Monday, July 25, 2011

Litchfield means...




New horses!!! Woke up at 5am and headed out to Litchfield to pick out some TIP projects. It is a good thing that there were only 3 open mustang paddocks at the barn otherwise, the 4 horse trailer might have been full. It is always fun to pick out horses and today was no different.