It's that time of year again!

We will be getting a new wild horse Friday! It's time for the Extreme Mustang Makeover. It will be held in Albany Or. again. So Friday we will be heading to Burns to pick up my horse for the competition. I don't know what I will be getting, but have heard that they are all geldings. Last year I wanted a gelding so bad, and after a week of getting Princess home, I would have wanted nothing else. So stayed tuned to see what my horse looks like on Friday. Lisa will take pictures and upload them right away.

Our T.I.P. horses both found Great homes!

Dunbar with be staying with us for training. He was adopted by friends of ours who need a new trail horse as their's is getting old.




Duke has gone to a wonderful home in S. Oregon. He will become a search and rescue horse. His new owner, Stacy was riding him within 3 weeks of getting him home. I think it was a match made in heaven!

It's been almost a month

Kevin working with Dunbar with Dino's help.
I know it's been quite a while since my last post. A lot has been happening. First we moved to a new place and so the boys have been put on the back burner as we've just been too busy.
Second, Duke had an accident on his third day home and we have been waiting to see if he would recover enough for us to continue training. He flipped over in the round pen and got a bad concussion. We had the vet out and had him on steriods to get the swelling down on his brain. He has held his head with a tilt and every day it get's a little better.
Dunbar has been difficult to work with. Kevin has been working with him but has not been able to get very far. He can scratch his whithers and up his neck, but then Dunbar bolts. He wouldn't let Kevin get to his head. Kevin has finally been able to scratch his head a little.
I finally started working Duke again the other day. He is different than most horses. He get's scared when I am next to him. He wants me facing him. So I approached him and bent my head forward so he can smell my hair. He put his nose up to me and smelled, then his lip went up. I guess he doesn't like my shampoo. I did it again and he sniffed my hair and gave me a little nip with his lips. It was quite an experience to approach a wild horse this way, I couldn't see him as my head was bent down. He lets me scratch his forhead with the stick and then I can work my way up to use my hand. He kind of goes into a trance and then realizes I am there and snorts and moves away. It was quite a thrill for me as Kevin has always been the one to gentle the wild ones.

First week

Well it has been kind of crazy around the ranch, so the boys haven't been worked very much. We can pet both Dunbar (Coyote Lakes gelding) and Duke (sheepshead gelding). They are still very leary of us when we go into there pens. Once we get a hold of the rope we can touch them with the stick and work our hand up to pet them.

Having their feet trimmed

The wrangelrs at the Burns facility were nice enough to trim our horses feet and worm them before we loaded up.
Here are pictures of the trimming process. First they put them in a squeeze shoot that it is padded inside. Then it squeezes together so they can't thrash around. Then it tilts over and the bottom opens up. The tie there feet down so they can't kick and then the trim away. They use a electric trimmer sort of like a sander. Pretty neat and fast.

Day 1

Kevin worked with Clyde(I just have to call them something)the Coyote Lakes horse when we got home. He responded really well to the first pull on the rope and the stick touching him all over. Kevin did touch him on the nose a few times. Then he worked with Duke, (sheepsheed horse)for just a short time. He was not responding as well as Clyde. He was shaking with fear pretty bad, so Kevin didn't push him too far.

We picked up our two T.I.P. Horses today

We picked up our two T.I.P. Horses today. We have 78 days to get them ready for the mustang show July 25th. They will be available for adoption at this show. We will also be showing them at the Pacific Wild Horse Club show July 18th and 19th in McMinnville.
We first looked at a few mares and had one picked out. She was built really nice. We had them put her aside so we could look at the geldings next. They brought the geldings in and Kevin had one picked out right away. Tom the Manager of the corrals pointed out another nice guy to us, and we said, “we’ll take that one for sure.” We had to decide on the gelding that Kevin picked out and the mare he picked out. It was a tough decision but, we eventually went with the gelding. Kevin said if we got the mare he would end up keeping her.
They brought the boys into the shoots and trimmed their feet and wormed them for us. That was a bonus! The boys were really well behave in the shoots, but when it came time to halter them neither one of them were having any of it. Finally the halters were on and we loaded and headed for home.

This is the mare that we liked but did not bring home.She is from Coyote lake/Alvord Tule. She is three.

This gelding is a three year old from Sheepshead herd management area

This gelding is also a three year old from Coyote Lake/Alvord Tule HMA.

Kevin and I will be picking up our wild mustangs Friday May 8th in Burns for the trainer incentive program. This blog will follow our journey with them as we get them ready for new homes.

Lovely

This is Lovely, my 3 year old Kiger filly. She is out of our stallion Lui.
I went out this morning and worked with Lovely, my 3 year old Kiger mare. She has been saddled and driven one time before. I sat on her once that first time. I saddled her today and drove her, she was doing really good. I had planned on riding her today so things were going as planned. I put my foot in the stirrup and stepped up. She moved once. I did it again and she didn't move. I went to the other side and did the same thing there. I went back to her right side and put my foot in and stood up, she didn't move. I swung my leg over and sat down. She didn't move, and i gave a big sign. Then......this is the good part! My little kitty was meowing and walking towards us. She wanted to see me. I was trying to say PSSST with out scaring Lovely. It was having no affect on either of them. Then my kitty walked right under Lovely. I just sat very still and told myself everything would be fine. The cat would just walk under us and keep going. Lovely was watching her. She would normally like to chase the cat. So what does the cat do? She lays down. I waited a seconds and pulled on Lovely's rein trying to get her to move a foot. She did and the cat got up and left. I breathed a huge sign of relief and then preceed to ask Lovely to walk. She did without any problems. We worked on walking, stopping and turning. She doesn't like the turning to much. I will have to drive her more. Anyway, it was quite an adventure and I just had to share it with you all. Lovely is a pretty good girl, I am very pleased with her.
Lisa

Lovely's first ride!