June 1-7
June 7th concluded our first official week with the Mustang mares. My sister, Marissa decided to train #4915 (the roan) since I fell in love with the #4810 ( the chestnut) from the first time I saw her on the internet adoption. Our goal with these two mares is to see if we can get them riding in 100 days like you would for a Mustang Makeover. To start out with lets talk about #4915 ( the 3yr old roan). She is doing spectacular! When she arrived at home we noticed that her lead rope got wrapped around her neck twice. We did not want to leave her like that all night so I stood on the other side the panel closest to her and used a luge whip and was able to fish the lead rope off from around her neck. She was super calm and just stood there and I was even able to rub all over her face, neck and shoulder! The next day Marissa started working with her and she was absolutely amazing! This little mare is such a sweet heart and is super curious! She was so well behaved that Marissa was able to take her tag off the first day.
At the beginning she didn’t like Marissa on either of her sides but she quickly got over that. Besides learning that people are her friends and that being hand-fed grass is awesome, she has learned how to lead, be brushed, wear a saddle pad and even a saddle! And if that wasn’t impressive enough she learned the beginning of round penning! She was super calm about all the new things and took everything Marissa threw at her in stride. She was a little suspicious at first of the saddle pad and saddle but quickly warmed up to them.
She also picked up leading pretty fast and was totally fine with being brushed. When round penning her, she likes to get stuck by her friend’s pen but they have been working on it and she is not quite so sticky as she was at first. Marissa was also able to get her dreads in her mane untangled and brushed out (it took her close to an hour). This mare is making amazing progress and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for this special Mustang! Check out her Youtube Video>>
https://www.youtube.com/watch…
Also we were playing around with our camera and got this neat photo of Marissa in her sweatshirt with Stardust’s ( Marissa’s first Mustang) brand on the sleeve and #4915 right after she took the tag off.
#4
Now onto my mare #4810. On the ride home we could definitely tell that #4810 was the more timid of the two and a little more skittish. On top of that, she some how took her lead rope off in the trailer. This first week we have been working on round penning and approach and retreat. At first she was very reactive but she is slowly starting to settle in and get used to these scary two legged creatures(people). She is getting a pretty good go and stop in the round pen and is even taking multiple steps towards me!! At the end of the week she started taking grass out of my hand but still wants nothing to do with my hand actually being anywhere near her. She is going to take a little more time to warm up to us than the roan but I am sure she is going to come around in no time! Check out her video>>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inPm8q2qx9c
Steffen Stampede 