Tag: Horse Adventures

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Mustang Story #12: They Paid Me $500 To Adopt A Mustang!!!

$500 and a new Mustang!?! Sign me up!

The MYWY Mustang Madness Competition was offering a $500 incentive if competitors wanted to adopt and train a 2nd Mustang. If you haven’t noticed, we will take any opportunity to play with another Mustang and it made it a lot easier to convince our dad of yet another Mustang when we explained we were “literally getting PAID to adopt another Mustang”🙃.

During selection my mom fell in love with an exquisite little bay yearling. She was full of life and trotted all about the pen with her head held high and an intelligent look in her eye. Right then and there it was decided that this was going to be my 2nd competition Mustang.

True to her appearance she was EXTREMELY Smart, bold and outgoing. Due to her fiery personality, I named her after my mom and my favorite country music artist Shania Twain🎶

To this day I haven’t had a Mustang that could learn so much in such a short amount of time. She was AWESOME! I spent the summer doing a deep dive into my advanced ground work and was absolutely amazed at what all this little filly learned!

At the competition, Shania absolutely rocked it putting in one of the best performances of my career. She was on FIRE🔥

We secured our spot in the top 10 and into the freestyle competition. I typically am a big prop person when it comes to freestyles, but with Shania, any prop or obstacle I added seemed to take away from her natural beauty and refinement. So, with the help of my sisters and mom, we crafted a freestyle that focused on advanced ground-work maneuvers strung together in such a way that created a beautiful performance, showing off what Shania did best.

You can see it at: https://youtu.be/AmwDqWPSUf0?si=7oGyqZceJlLQdelh

It was a huge success🤩 and landed Shania a “Grand Champion Finish”🥳.

And the best part of all is that Shania now lives with the same AMAZING family that adopted Elsie and Princess, two of our 2021 Mustang yearlings! It was the absolute perfect home for such a remarkable yearling!

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Mustang Story #11: The little yearling with a BIG personality!

Eliza at the mature age of 9 was already training her second wild Mustang for the 2022 MYWY Mustang Madness competition✨

She chose a buckskin yearling with the most crazy wild mane I had ever seen!

This little gelding had a big personality, and thought quite highly of himself. On day 1 he was determined he could make it out of our 6ft panels. Although he was unable, I was impressed with his attempts…luckily he was just a tad too short😅😅

Once he settled in, he and Eliza quickly hit it off and became fast friends. This Mustang was special and with his wild mane and exuberant personality, we knew he needed a good name. We tried naming him Aslan from Narnia as well as after his rockstar look-alike Rod Stewart (They share the same taste in hair styles😆 ) but ultimately Eliza decided to call him “Big Guy”.

Eliza and Big Guy had a great weekend at the competition and Eliza secured her 2nd “Reserve Champion Finish”.

Unable to part with this pretty gelding we ended up keeping him…now 3yrs later, he is the menace of the farm😂 Spoiled rotten! At a whopping 15.3 hands he still thinks he is the baby of the farm deserving all the attention…His current personality reminds us of a teenage boy that refuses to get a job and just drives his poor parents crazy!!! He is now going under-saddle, but will try everything possible to get out of work…straight lines and circles are nearly impossible…. Currently, Eliza rides him daily teaching him how to be a solid and respectable riding horse.

But this year he is in for some big life changes! He is going to enter the work force and be my Dad’s full time trail, jumping and all around riding horse. I’ll keep you updated on how that goes😜

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Mustang Story #10! Is her leg broken?!?

Can you guess what kind of Mustang Marissa picked for the 2022 MYWY competition??? If something brown and fiery popped into your head then you would be absolutely correct😅She chose a completely brown (besides a stripe on her face) 4yr old mare that could gallop circles in a 20 by 20 area with ease. 😳 We were in for another wild ride….

Half-way through our 10hr drive home from the BLM, we noticed her entire front leg was swollen from the shoulder down. Was it broken? Extremely Injured? We couldn’t tell…Upon arriving home, we assessed it the best we could but it wasn’t till the next morning when puss started oozing out that we knew it was an abscess🤢

This brown mare was VERY fiery and also …in pain..a bad combination. To get it to heal, we knew we needed to be able to clean it, so Marissa set to work gentling her. This turned out to be a bit of a challenge. She was aggressive and had a nasty habit of charging you. Marissa stayed the course and eventually won this fiery mare’s trust and respect.

Eventually the abscess healed, and Marissa proceeded to start the mare (known as “Freesia”) under-saddle. She was so athletic and trainable, within 3 months jumping 2’6″ with ease and learning to smile! Maybe our next eventing Mustang?!? The thought of keeping her was exciting… but all the Mustangs in this competition were required to be sold at auction. So we tried to not get our hopes up.

After a fantastic weekend at the competition, receiving Reserve Champion under-saddle🤩, the auction began. The price went right up to our limit…then it stopped. We all held our breath as the auctioneer counted down “going once… twice… SOLD”. We were THRILLED!!!!

It is now 3yrs later and Freesia is a family favorite💜 Marissa does everything on this horse! Need a fill-in horse for your Pony Club rating? Freesia was there!

Need a second horse for your Roman riding endeavors? Freesia can do that too!

How about jumping? Freesia LOVES it and can easily clear 1.10 meters.

Maybe a horse your mom can mosey down the trail on? Freesia also is game for that!

We love this fiery brown mare and couldn’t imagine our family without her!

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Mustang Story #9: The most judgmental Mustang I have EVER met!

2022 MYWY Mustang Madness

The Mustang Community has to be the coolest group of people you will ever meet. The people who adopt tend to love their Mustang with all their hearts and be absolutely dedicated to doing what’s best for them.

This handsome dun, Peachy (AKA Fox) was an example of this great community🧡 He was my draw for the 2022 MYWY Mustang Madness competition. He was my buddy and I was able to do everything on him. Walk, trot, canter in a big field, carry a flag, drag a raft, etc. I even rode him in town through a coffee shop and took him to a Police Horse Training Clinic.

But he had a couple quirks….Every time you tighten the cinch he would get a little tight and humpy…Not full on bucks, just very nervous and crow-hoppy.

He also was very judgmental of new people. He would size you up and snub his noes at you without even giving you a fair chance. It took a lot of convincing to show that you where worthy of his friendship😅 But once you had proven yourself, he was as loyal and true a horse as you could ever ask for.

Following the competition all of the Mustangs were required to be sold at the auction. I was a bit nervous where he would go but God brought along the perfect buyer. Someone who lived only a few shorts minutes away from my farm. She took the most amazing care of Peachy but he remained to be judgmental and skeptical of his AWESOME new owner. Wanting what’s best, my very talented photographer friend and fellow Mustang enthusiast @alicia_amerson adopted Peachy. Together we worked to help Peachy over-come his stranger danger and judgmental tendencies.

He improved so much with Alicia and she was added to his list of trusted people. But he still had some quirks… Over the course of a few months I found myself growing even more attached to Peachy and Alicia was so kind to let me take Peachy to Stonewater with me🤩 I was thrilled! I was able to ride Peachy every week guiding trail rides, adventuring on the trails and just having fun!

Peachy is slowly starting to allow more and more people to be trusted and has even started to teach the occasional lesson…but only with the girls that have past his inspection

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Mustang Story #7: Could I ride a WILD Mustang in only 100 day?!?

In 2021, the next phase of our Mustang journey began…So far we had had lots of success gentling Mustangs, training yearlings and 2yr olds for 100 day competitions. But we wanted to take the next step. Train a completely WILD Mustang to be a solid riding horse in just 100 days. The Teens And Oregon Mustang Competition gave us this opportunity through their Teen Riding” division, which gave 14yr olds to 18yr olds, a 3yr old Mustang to train to ride in 100 days.

Horse selection was random draw and I received a 14hh chestnut gelding. He was the sweetest, most friendly and easygoing Mustang I had ever met! He LOVED people from day 1 and I don’t think you could have ever labeled him as “wild”. With his fun loving personality we decided to name him “Dandy Andy”.

By the end of the 1st month of training I could do pretty much anything on him.

  • Walk, trot, canter under-saddle✅
  • Ride through obstacles✅
  • Work gates✅
  • And he even could stand quite while his rider ate pizza✅😜

We all know where our priorities lie😉

Progress was going WAY better than expected and I was thrilled! I was confident we would be ready to compete!

But then, tragedy hit. We came down with the dreaded covid and life came to a screeching halt…several weeks later, when we finally arrived back among the living, the competition was only 10 days away.

I pulled Dandy back out of the field and cautiously rode him for the first time after nearly a month off. To my delight he was perfect and remembered EVERYTHING✨

Only by God’s grace we arrived at the competition. With being sick Dandy only had about 70ish days of training and I didn’t have the opportunity to haul him to any off property arenas, so I was curious how he was going to handle the busy show environment.

Dandy showing what a truly remarkable horse he is, rose to the occasion and we had a fantastic weekend sitting us in 3rd overall! He was the little horse with a huge heart💜

He now lives in California where he is absolutely adored by his wonderful owner Rachel Vitorelo where they compete together in NATRC rides. And from the amount of blue ribbons I’v seen, they are doing quite well!

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Mustang Story #5: Never under-estimate the plain brown yearlings!

For some reason Marissa has always been drawn to the plain brown horses with spicy personalities. Put a flashy horse with lots of chrome next to a chestnut mare and she will always go for the chestnut mare. The 2021 MYWY Mustang Madness Competition was no exception. Despite the pool of stunning pintos, blacks and palominos, Marissa singled out a completely brown yearling without even a speck of white and instantly fell head over heels in love💖 It was no use trying to convince her to adopt one of the “flashy” babies. The brown yearling was coming home.

This yearling, Marissa named Elsie, was a sensitive and flighty baby, running about the corral crashing into panels. Marissa with her calm, easygoing demeanor quickly earned her trust and slowly introduced Elsie to the wonders of domestic horse life.

Elsie was very light and a quick learner, giving Marissa the opportunity to teach her advanced maneuvers on the ground, while making her cues almost invisible.

Prep for the competition was going great… until Elsie developed a horrible case of warts😷 We tried everything to get them to heal. But nothing worked. Just a few short weeks before the competition, we were desperate for a solution and our vet came and removed them surgically. The old timers swear by feeding the warts…so we made Elsie eat them…We were all gagging in disgust🤢 but Elsie didn’t seem to mind as it was mixed in with her favorite grain. Were the old timers right? Well, the warts didn’t come back and we made it to the competition… So you decide💁‍♀️

Removing warts

The competition was a whirl wind of ups and downs but Marissa secured a spot in the top 10 freestyle finals and put on a show-stopping woodland fairy showcase🦄💃

Elsie, now known as, Babe lives with Suzette Maiden’s wonderful family.

Here is snippet from her latest update: “Babe has become such an amazing horse. We go trail riding and just riding around town. She is my horse that I am comfortable with putting inexperienced riders on and she will treat them with so much care. She is my sweetheart and this year she is going to start a new exciting journey of learning to pull a sleigh for next winter. I am so lucky to have her in my life!” – Suzette Maiden (Elsie’s New Owner)

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Mustang Story #2: We adopted a Wild Mustang online!!!

On a cold wet northwest day in March during the 2020 pandemic we were mindlessly scrolling on Facebook when we stumbled upon the BLM Wild Horse Corral…An online auction for adopting Mustangs. We had no idea you could adopt a Mustang online!?! It was like amazon for Mustang lovers!

With our curiosity peaked we started scanning the pages of Mustangs available and within a few seconds there was no deterring us from participating in that auction. There were SO many beautiful Mustangs😍 We quickly built Mustang pens, got approved by the BLM and sat down with every electronic device in the house ready to bid.

The final hours of the auction was a whirlwind of being outbid, computer crashes and yelling at our internet to “HURRRY UP”! As the final minutes of the auction ticked down we had been out-bid on all of our favorite horses, so we placed a bid on a muddy 14hh bay mare with only a $70 dollar bid. Then the website crashed for good😱 It was completely stuck! Had we won the mare? Or had we been out-bid??? After what felt like ages (In reality only a 1/2 hour) we finally received an email saying we had won the bay mare!!! We were thrilled!!! We were getting a NEW Mustang and for only $70 dollars🌟

Unfortunately with covid we were delayed from driving to Burns to pick her up.. but we were finally able to make the 10hr trip serval months later in the summer. But we were shocked to see that our little bay actually shedded out to be a STUNNING roan🤩 WHAT!!! How could this be the same horse!

Now 5yrs later the roan, we named Tahani, is one of our top horses on the farm. She is technically our “Mom’s” horse but we often steal her to help work young babies, fill in at the occasional pony club lesson and to gallop down the trails. She is very sensitive, light and has the smoothest trot I have ever ridden! Not to mention, she is one of the prettiest mares I have ever seen🤩 My biggest takeaway from this mare is to never overlook the plain bays…even if they don’t turn out to be the next “beauty queen” of the Mustang world (like Tahnai) they may end up being the most special horse in your life💜#blmmustang#wildmustang

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Adventures With Minis!

Whoa it has been a really long time since I last posted! But believe me it hasn’t been from lack of adventures. It has been from too many! So here is one of our many adventures!

The cars flashed by as Meefy and I followed the side of the road, keeping a firm grasp on our lead ropes that held the two energetic mini horses. Just an hour before, We were having lunch at the orchard my parents work at, talking about what needed to be done that day. Last year we sold two minis to a lady, but she decided not to keep them, so we told them we would take them back. My mom was trying to persuade my dad to pick up the minis since we had the trailer hooked up to the truck.  My dad had a very busy afternoon and really didn’t have time to get the minis. Half jokingly he mentioned that Meefy and I could walk since they lived close by. Well,….Meefy and I thought it would be a new kind of adventure! To my huge surprise, my mom, even though she was worried wasn’t opposed to the idea. We looked up our route on google maps and after a few minutes of planning we struck out on our 2 mile expedition, with nothing but a smart phone, water bottle and the determination to retrieve the minis and return without being run over or kidnaped. The trip there was easy but by the time we arrived at the minis, both Meefy and I had discarded our jackets and were down to our t-shirts. We quickly haltered the minis and called my mom to reassure her we were both still alive. Then we carefully made our way back down the side of the road back towards the orchard. The minis were full of energy at first and absolutely didn’t like the cars. But after we stopped in a couple driveways and reminded them how to behave, they calmed down a bit and we made are way safely back to the orchard with no casualties, even safely crossing busy roads and cutting through parking lots!  Adventure seems to follow us around and barely gives us enough time to catch our breath before something else happens. I wonder what other adventures the Lord has in store for us in the upcoming months. Hmm…maybe we can ride our horses to go get ice cream next! We’ll have to see what my mom says.

 

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YHD AQHA Professional Evaluation

The sun is shining, the horses are finally shedded out and summer is quickly approaching.  Summer has always been an extremely busy time of year for my family with hundreds of acres of hay to be baled and 4-H practices twice a week, not to mention, the family reunions, vacations and horse shows to prepare for. With all that on our plate, I decided to to go ahead and schedule the AQHA Professional Horsemen Evaluation early before the summer chaos.  Deciding on an AQHA professional was pretty easy since Alaska’s dam, Cue Bars Cue Tee, is owned by AQHA Pro Allison Trimble.  After contacting Mrs. Trimble, we set a date for May 10th.

I spent most of April and early May preparing for the evaluation.  I spent an extensive amount of time perfecting showmanship maneuvers, loading her into a trailer and my most challenging struggle…Lunging!  Lunging had always been a struggle for Alaska and I. We worked day after day, all through April, practicing, and even though I saw some progress, I was worried we wouldn’t be ready for the evaluation. With only a little over a week left before the evaluation, I decided to enlisted the help of my mother.  She showed me how to use my body language to control Alaska’s speed and to have her reverse directions. She also showed me how to correct Alaska when she didn’t slow down. Alaska improved drastically over the next several days and by the evaluation I was feeling confident that we were ready.  I also worked on spraying Alaska off with the hose and being trimmed with the terrifying clippers so she could look her best. I was expecting to spend hours working with the clippers but no.  Alaska keeps on surprising me how calm she is and I was almost immediately able to trim her nose whiskers! She wasn’t too sure about the loud buzzing near her ears, but after using the approach and retreat technique a couple of times, I was able to get close to her ears without her flinching! 

In addition to getting Alaska ready, I also had a few things to work on to get ready for the evaluation. I spent many evenings researching Alaska’s lineage and memorizing the parts of the horse.  I am extremely thankful to my little sister for taking the time to sit out in the barn and help me with the memorization!  

My family and I live out on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State and Mrs. Trimble lives quite a road trip north almost to Canada with a ferry ride across the Puget sound. We decided to split the trip between three days with a campout at a tree orchard.   

On the departure day, I woke up early and headed straight out to the barn. After a light work out, I gave Alaska her first full bath with a mega amount of bubbles!  After she was rinsed and dried, I painted her hooves with hoof black and clipped her nose, bridle path and ears. That evening after our 24ft motorhome was packed and hooked up to the trailer, I loaded Alaska, who was sporting a purple sleezy, sheet and tail bag, and we hit the road in time to make the 6 pm ferry! This being Alaska’s 3rd trailer ride ever and her first ferry ride, she was a little nervous.  But, I hung out in the trailer with her and she quickly calmed down and enjoyed a carrot.

 

 

Once off the ferry, we headed down to the tree orchard and set up camp for the night. After the corral was built, my whole family, including Alaska and the dogs, headed out for an evening walk around the orchard. Alaska enjoyed running over wood chip piles and sneaking mouthfuls of grass!

 

 

The next morning, I woke up at 5:30am and there was no way I was getting back to sleep from excitement and nerves.  I went out and sat with Alaska as she ate her hay and then lunged Alaska one last time.  She did phenomenal! Excited, I did a few last-minute touch ups to Alaska and added another coat of paint to her hooves. Four hours later, we arrived at Allison Trimble’s and I unloaded Alaska! The Evaluation went by quickly and Alaska performed beautifully! She lunged, trotted, set, and tied wonderfully and I was able to remember the parts of the horse and Alaska’s lineage. I was also able to see Alaska’s grandfather, Cue Bars Laddie, which was super cool!  Before I knew it, we were headed back to the tree farm and the next morning we were on the ferry headed for home! It was an amazing experience camping with Alaska and meeting with Mrs. Trimble. I can’t wait to go camping with Alaska again!