Ding dong, the Mustangs GONE!

I know I shouldn't be as gleeful as I am, but I am incredibly thankful to Bear John Hollow (www.bearjohnhollow.net) for taking in Merry! I hated to have to quit the competition, but I truly feel that this move will be the best thing in the world for the horse, as well as mine and my families sanity! Thank you as well to Mark Lyon (http://marklyonhorsetraining.com) who took time out his busy schedule to help me trouble shoot with him over the phone, as well as Michelle Stemerick ((http://www.ourextremedream.com/apps/blog/) for her kind email and offer of help.

After we got Merry settled in her stall on Saturday over in Steele, Alabama, my friend Debbie (who I also owe a huge THANK YOU to for letting me use her trailer to return Merry!) and I took our two broke horses, Playgirl and Joe, on a trail ride at Bear John Hollow. WOW was I impressed! The terrain was beautiful and we rode with the best family of regulars who offered to show us the sights! I wish I had brought my camera to show you the "Devil's Den", which had tons of natural rocks on a cliffside. There was also a bunch of old houses built in the woods from who knows how long ago! I'll definitely have to plan a return trip to this place when I can have more time to explore!

Sunday morning I woke up, hitched up the trailer, grabbed Mom, and went to go look at a prospect at the Double Lazy B in Locust Grove, GA (http://www.doublelazyb.webs.com). Those of you who know me know that I love a good resale project, so I thought with Merry gone and a stall opened up I wouldn't waste any time trying to find another one... one with a brain this time preferably!

Ended up bringing home a CUTE 3 year old red roan mare that I have named Rosie. She's already got a good foundation on her and is starting to work the flag. I can't wait to ride her tonight!

Well that's all for now. I'll leave you with one 2 year old picture of Rosie... more to follow as soon as I can get her shed out a bit!

Heidi :)

Wahoo!

I feel like a weight has been lifted ever since I made the decision to let Merry go on her merry way. Pending the paperwork, she is going to live in Steele, AL at Bear John Hollow. These folks have TONS of experience working with mustangs, and I have no doubt that they will be able to turn Merry into a respectible equine citizen in no time! The plan is for myself, my friend Debbie, Merry, and two of our broke saddle horses to drive to Bear John Hollow on Saturday morning. They also have miles of trails so we're just going to make a day of it and go on a nice trail ride while we're dropping Merry off! I'm really looking forward to it!

Last night the kids came over to ride, and I opted to just use my 2yo, Pepto Ziggy, to get him used to riding in a bunch as I usually just ride him by myself. My other motive to not riding one of the broker horses is that I am still SORE from this weekends horse show and so really didn't feel like jumping anything! Speaking of this weekend, I showed at Rolling Hills up in Alpharetta (www.rollinghillssc.org) and had a GREAT show! Blondie and I won the Low Jumpers and Itty and I won the Chris Elliott Medal Class! Zelda and I got a 2nd in equitation on the flat, but more importantly we survived our first show going over the scary jumps! I also want to give a shout out to my helpers, Madisson and MacKennzie Grimes... don't know what I would have done without them on Saturday!

Last night Zelda wasn't in the mood either apparently to ride... she did ok until I pulled out the triple bounce. She was NOT happy about it! Luckily when Zelda gets mad she just shuts down and doesn't want to move (I call it the mule gene) rather than takes off bucking or anything like that. The funny this is she went over it fine the first time! In the end we just backed the jump back down to just two jumps and will work our way back up next time. Madisson did a great job handling her through it though and keeping her temper and nerves in check! Jonathan rode Itty and MacKennzie rode Playgirl and both did a great job as well! And of course Ziggy was a prince! Last night was his first time in a running martingale, which he wasn't sure about at first but soon got used to after a few laps. I think I've pulled a thigh muscle also, so I was really glad I decided to take it easy last night! I'm definitely going to take at least today off from riding, maybe Thursday as well, to give everything a chance to mend before our trail ride on Saturday.

More later! And I know I still owe everyone the "destruction story" mentioned on Monday!

Heidi :)

Day 13 - 16 (Thursday through Sunday)

It is with a heavy heart that I am admitting defeat with Merry. I'm planning on calling the BLM to see return options this morning. Thank you to everyone who has been following our saga, and I will let you know how the return goes.

This weekend Merry did some things that just make me have to deem her dangerous to my family, friends, and fellow animals on the property. Pictures of her destruction will come soon... unfortunately I had the camera at a horse show with me on Saturday so you will only get to see the aftermath. That, combined with her sour attitude towards me and the other animals, make it just impossible to be able to get her where she needs to be with less than 54 days left.

I think if I had about a year with her she might turn around, but I honestly can't ever see her being a people or horse-friendly kind of horse. Her agression issues just seem to be too firmly rooted!

Will update more later...

Heidi

Day Twelve - Wednesday

I had another good day with Merry! When I got home I went out and cleaned 1/2 of the stalls, and then pulled her out during my "break". I tied the longeline onto the lead rope again and just worked on leading her up and down the aisleway again since it was so cold and windy outside. She's getting a lot better with watching my body language and stopping when I say whoa. The only thing that bothers me is that she just looks so hateful the entire time with those ears pinned back!

After a short session I put her back into her stall (she walked in no problem!) and then pulled Itty out for his first showmanship lesson. One of my 4-H kids is going to show him at the State Fair, and Itty has never done showmanship that I know of so I've decided to start working with him now so he'll be perfect by June! I was incredibly pleased with his progress in just one night. My aisleway is too narrow to practice pivots so I just focused on setting the back feet. The first few times he danced back and forth a lot, just not understanding what I wanted, but by the end he was getting it on pretty much the 3rd or 4th try! I then tried to clip him for my show this weekend but quickly realized that my clipper blades just weren't going to work.

Put Itty up and jumped in the car to go to CVS to buy another pair. I don't know if everyone knows this, but I've had great luck just getting the CVS cheap-o's and tossing them when the blades go dull. Much cheaper than horse clippers, and they're the exact same thing! Un-lucky for me though, they were out of the cheaper ones, so I had to pay $34.99 for a pair of Wahls. Nice clippers though that should last a good bit of time!

Went back outside, finished stalls, and pulled Merry out again. This time I worked on her letting me approach her from both sides and just petting her and praising her a lot when her ears were forward. I then pulled out my roughout training saddle and she stood still for the most part while I saddled her up! It did take a few trys to get the girth hooked, as she wanted to move off when I reached under her, but the actual cinching didn't bother her a bit. Her odd one habit she has is to pick her left foot up in the air and just hold it there... I really need to get a picture of that! I do have pictures of her standing here looking cute saddled, although I have to apologize for the photo quality!

After I unsaddled I went to put Merry back into her stall, which she was having no part of this time. She reared straight up one time and I really think would have flipped over if she hadn't hit one of the other horses stalls. This scared her though and I think she thought that I had somehow been the one to make her almost lose her balance. This moment was the first time she tried to pull out of my hands tonight, but lucky for me I had my trusty longeline on so she couldn't get away! I calmed her down by talking to her and then she decided to just walk in her stall again like she did earlier.

I think there is hope for her, but progress is definitely slow!

Heidi :)

Day Eleven - Tuesday

WAHOO!!!! Progress was made today! I called my mom on the way home from work and she said that Merry let her lead her to the roundpen and back today with only one snafu of getting away from her. So I was determined that when I got home after my dentist appointment that I was going to improve on that even more.

Came home, changed clothes, and headed out to the barn. After cleaning stalls I went ahead and fed everyone, including Merry who seems to have now decided that eating sweet feed is a GOOD thing for the most part. Came inside and ate dinner myself, then went back out to have a session with Merry.

One of the biggest challenges I've had with her as I mentioned yesterday was her getting away from me. And when I first start working with her she won't let me near her head to clip a separate line on her aside from the drag rope. So it finally dawned on me.... just tie the longeline to the end of the drag rope! SOOOOO simple - yet so effective! Merry is now learning that she can't get away from the pressure, even if she slings to the side!

I really wanted to try to put a rope halter on her today too, but could never get it hooked onto her. I got as far as slipping it over her nose before she would snort and back away. Going to keep working on that tomorrow as it will be good practice for bridling!

It was so windy last night that I decided to stay in the barn instead of head to the roundpen. Merry and I worked on leading up and down the aisle, and for the most part I was thrilled! There was only a few moments where she tried to bite me, and she never did offer to kick! Progress is good! She's getting better about me being by her shoulder when she's walking.

The big news of the night though, and I wish that I had gotten pictures but it was too COLD to go back in the house to get the camera, is that she let me saddle her up for the first time! Like a big girl, she was wearing my barrel saddle and a big Diamond Wool fleece pad! Outside of some pawing, she was a very good girl for it all too.

All in all, this was a great night! I'm definitely feeling better about her... maybe there's hope for my little mustang yet! Go Amerrycana!!

Heidi :)

Day Ten - Monday

Today was the first day I officially had to go back to work instead of staying home with Merry. I admit too that I was not too enthused to go back to working with her when I got home too! My mom did tell me that she spent a little bit of time with her during the day, which I very much appreciate! She said she set a barrel up in the roundpen with her and just sat with her for a while. Merry also apparently was much more agreeable to coming into the barn, and mom was able to move her back and forth on her own!

When I got home I grabbed mom and went to the tack store for some last minute items for my show this weekend. I'll be leaving on Friday afternoon and be back Saturday night. Sunday is going to be declared "Merry day" and I'm planning to just work with her all day if I have to.

After getting back, I went out to visit with Merry, clean stalls, and feed. Working with Merry in the roundpen is kind of like pulling teeth. She HATES it when you walk next to her shoulders and pins her ears and makes all kinds of faces. Occasionally she'll try to snake her head around and act like she's going to bite.

Her worst habit though is that she's learned that if she pulls away to the outside really hard that I can't hold onto her and will drop her drag rope. I'm not quite sure how to fix this! If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to share. I think she definitely knows that she is stronger than me. She's also in RAGING HEAT which does not help!

I fed another one of my horses outside of her pen today, and thus our accomplishment was that I was actually able to get her to eat a little bit of sweet feed! She kept looking at Playgirl eating and then sniffing her bowl, finally getting brave enough to take a few bites. I'm dying to get these supplements that I bought into her to help with her awful coat and hair, but I can't get them into her if she won't eat! She of course still loves her hay, but powder and hay just doesn't go well together!

It really didn't take much to get Merry back into her stall, and I even halfway led her in. It really consisted of her dragging out behind me and following me in, but I was thrilled that it only took two tries!

I started reading some of the other Gatorland blogs today and now I'm determined to get a saddle on her by this weekend. Tonight I have a dentists apointment so won't be home until later, but her pen is lighted so I know I just need to suck it up and cut out on a few hours of sleep, although that's easier said than done!

Heidi

Day Nine (Sunday)

Sunday morning was spent travling back home from Augusta. I got to my friend Debbie's house around 11:15 and then helped her hook up her trailer as she brought her two boys over to ride in the ring and also help with Merry.

Got home a little after noon and showed my parents all my pretty new stuff, ate a quick lunch of mac and cheese, and headed back out to the barn. Over the weekend my parents made the roundpen a little smaller (awesome!) so I could hopefully gain some ground back with Merry. It again was NOT a good day. She still didn't want me to touch her, and would just run around and around.

My working cowhorse trainer told me that he'll actually work some wild horses on horseback himself (aka out of harms way) so I decided to take his advice and give it a go. I saddled good old Itty Bitty, my 16.2hh bay gelding that is quiet as can be but doesn't take anything from anyone in the pasture. Entered with Itty and was just met with flying hooves, bared teeth, and pinned ears. Merry even kicked my foot one time! I eventually decided this just wasn't working, as Itty would not fend for himself with me on his back. I exited stage left, and went back to the drawing board.

The only other thing I could think of was to run her back into her stall (which went MUCH more pleasantly this time... got her inside in about 10 minutes!) and put a slightly longer drag rope on. Once accomplished I put her back out and left her be. This new rope was now long enough that I could grab it and still stay out of kicking distance.

Debbie and I went ahead and rode the other horses and left Merry to her own discoveries. I'm proud that I even got Debbie into an english saddle and over a few crossrails! Woohoo! Debbie went home after that and I went to cleaning stalls and bringing the other horses in for dinner.

Merry still won't eat any grain, so I got the idea to feed Blondie (my princess) directly in front of Merry out of a bucket. I think I got her interest up, and she was definitely watching me scrub and pet all over Blondie. Put Blondie up and said goodnight to everyone, and thought I would try one more time with Merry.

She let me brush her in the roundpen again! I was thrilled with the small victory. I was able to get my hands on the longer drag rope and led her around a bit and just brushed and scratched and walked away. Now lets hope tomorrow she remembers again and doesn't revert one more time!

Heidi :)

Day Seven & Eight (Friday and Saturday)

Nothing much to post on these two as I went out of town to the Augusta Futurity! Had a royal BLAST... especially with no killer mustangs to think about (lol). Spent lots of money and watched a lot of good horses. For those of you who don't know, I spent several years traveling every weekend to NCHA cutting shows. Rode an awesome gelding done of Handle Bar Doc named Red Hot Handle. Here's a few pictures of us!:

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My major purchase this weekend was an awesome pair of bright blue boots. They go quite well with my usual orange!

Heidi :)