Tag: MYWY

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Paisley Desert Princess (2021 Washington Mustang Madness Makeover Overview)

Can an 8yr old safely handle a yearling Mustang? This was the question of the year for my family. Eliza, the youngest of us sisters at the age of 8yrs old, decided she wanted to train a wild Mustang. At first, we all were pretty against the idea as she was still just so young but Eliza was determined. Not only did she add it to her evening prayer list but she also started dragging Marissa and I out to the arena to teach her how to do showmanship on a daily basis. Seeing Eliza’s determination, we got her a very, very small and laid back unhalter-broke yearling pony for her to train. Well, the short story is she did indeed succeed in training that yearling and we agreed to let her enter the 2021 Washington Mustang Madness Competition.

Paisley Dessert Princess, a 13.2 hand palomino yearling, was Eliza’s Mustang for the competition. “Princess” was bold, brave and extremely smart. That first day she was very curious and Eliza was able to make more progress with Princess than we ever could have hoped for. Eliza was able to pet Princess, take her tag off and even walk her around. Princess was a bit spunky, very opinionated and tested her boundaries, but was the perfect first Mustang for Eliza.

Eliza took Princess everywhere with her from walks down the road to adventures through the woods. They practiced showmanship, trail obstacles and overall basic horsemanship each day improving each others skills.


When we showed up in CleElum, WA for the final event, Eliza had no signs of nerves but the rest of us were all super nervous for her. Eliza had never shown any horses before so we had no idea how she would handle memorizing patterns and performing in front of a huge crowd of people not to mention dealing with a nervous yearling Mustang. Would we be able to even get Eliza and Princess inside the arena? Our main goal is to always have fun so we brushed our nerves aside and settled in for a fun weekend. Eliza’s first class was the Handling class. The class included loading into a trailer, picking up all four feet, brushing both sides and releasing the horse into the round pen and catching her again. We had absolutely no idea how this class would go….would Princess load into the trailer? Would she be crazy in the round pen and not let Eliza catch her? Would she bolt and take off running around the arena? When Eliza went into the arena, we all stood in anticipation ready to jump in and help if needed but to our great relief they did amazing together and all the hard work over the last four months paid off. Princess and Eliza completed all of the elements of the class to the best of their ability and came out of the class with a huge smile! Eliza placed 2nd in the class in the 13 and under division!

The next two preliminary classes went by with out a hitch and they took 1st in pattern class and 3rd in Obstacle. The Freestyle Class the next morning was a swirl of nerves and excitement for everyone involved. Eliza’s freestyle was a super cute routine which included umbrellas, rain jackets and even a balloon arch! Even though they were both exhausted from the weekend, they put on a stellar performance and placed 2nd in freestyle moving them into 2nd overall!

Eliza did an amazing job with her Mustang, Princess, and even though it was a very hard and sad decision, she decided to go ahead and re-home Princess so that she had time to train another Mustang next year. Princess went home with her best friend, Elsie, and is enjoying life making another 8yr old happy!

PREVIOUS POSTS

Part 3

Elsie (2021 Washington Mustang Madness Makeover Overview)

Part 2

Picking Up The Mustangs (2021 Washington Mustang Madness 100 Day Training Challenge)

Part 1

We Got Accepted!! (2021 Washington Mustang Madness 100 Day Training Challenge)

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Elsie (2021 Washington Mustang Madness Makeover Overview)

On March 26th, we made the 10hr trek down to Burns, OR and picked up three adorable yearling Mustangs for the 2021 Washington Mustang Madness 100 Day Training Challenge. The competition gives participants 130 days to train a completely wild and unhandled mustang before returning for a final competition to showcase the trainability of wild Mustangs and for a chance to compete for prizes.

Once home, gentling the three yearlings started bright and early March 27th and within only a few hours all three yearlings were leading, accepting being touched and had their tags removed. We immediately deemed them the easiest Mustangs we had gentled so far and couldn’t have been more pleased with their personality and willingness to learn.

We had a very special opportunity to be able to train and gentle three Mustangs all the same age and from the same herd HMA (Paisley Desert) and compare each of their very different personalities over the four month competition.

Marissa’s Mustang for the competition, Elsie, was the biggest of the yearlings and from the first time we saw her we knew she was going to be the most reactive of the three. Her panicky flight reaction had her running into the 6ft corral panels on more than one occasion that first day home. The first time Marissa entered Elsie’s pen to start Elsie’s training, she had to stand in the middle of the pen and stay super calm and quiet while Elsie frantically paced back and forth, breaking out in a sweat just from nerves. Marissa stood quietly for a long time and let Elsie get used to her. I predicted it would take Marissa a few days or even a week before she would earn Elsie’s trust enough to touch her so I stopped watching and busily began working with my yearling, while coaching my younger sister with the third Mustang yearling. I turned around a few minutes later and to my surprise Marissa is petting, Elsie! Within a few more minutes, Elsie is not only enjoying being touched but moving closer to Marissa for more scratches. Once Elsie realized Marissa wasn’t a threat, she trusted Marissa and not only was Marissa able touch Elsie on the first day of training but picked up all four feet, trained her to lead walk/ trot and took her on her first outing outside the round pen. We were all astonished! Elsie had gone from frantic to a very well behaved halter broke yearling in a single day! I think we all knew Elsie was going to be something very special! Here is a video of Elsie’s First Day Of Training.

Over the four months of competition Elsie had her fair share of challenges and successes. Elsie was a sensitive filly with a huge desire to please which allowed Marissa to really refine a wide variety of advanced in-hand maneuvers. But… Elsie was also very reactive to obstacles. At first even walking between two cones or barrels was extremely nerve-raking and took Elsie several weeks to finally become ok with it. Each obstacle Marissa introduced to Elsie took a lot of patience and time before she was comfortable with it and still by the end of the four months some certain obstacles caused Elsie grief. After 4 months of trying Elsie would still try to jump over a scary blue tarp that she had seen at least 500times…silly filly.

Lunch With Elsie
April
Bath Day

We always try to take are Mustangs on multiple outings to different arenas before competition. With Covid putting a halt on most shows and 4-H functions it was harder than normal to find places to bring our Mustangs. Then our Mustangs all got juvenal warts…Eliza’s and my Mustang only had warts for a few weeks but Elsie got big nasty ones all over her nose that dragged on for months and months. Typically warts aren’t that big of a deal in yearlings, they eventually just fall off and then the horse is immune. But since we were trying to go to a competition we wanted to get the warts gone fast. We tried essential oils and a bunch of different creams but a few weeks before competition we ended up contacting our vet and she came over and crushed her warts and then we had to feed the warts to Elsie….. Not our first choice of treatment but the warts cleared up within a few days.

Removing warts
Almost done
Look at all those warts
All Clear

But by then we didn’t have time to get Elsie out to a different arena before competition. She had gone on outings to tree farms and trail walks but never to an arena so we weren’t sure how she would do at competition in a huge indoor arena in a completely new environment.

On August 4th, we loaded up the Mustangs and headed to Cle Elum, WA to the WA State Horse Park for the final competition. The first day of competition consisted of a simple check in, a trainers meeting and the first of three preliminary classes;The Handling Class. The handling class entailed picking up all four feet, releasing and catching your Mustang in a round pen, brushing your Mustang, trotting between two barrels and loading into a trailer. Everything required in this class, Elsie was practiced up and ready for. Elsie’s pattern started out prefect until Elsie realized she was the only Mustang in the arena and all of her friends were waiting outside. Elsie, in typical yearling fashion, called and screamed to her buddies and pranced about nervously. Marissa did a great job staying calm and helping Elsie through the rest of the pattern but Elsie did not regain focus and continued her nervous banter throughout the entire class. They ended up coming in 9th in that class.

The next morning bright and early was Pattern Class ( think Showmanship). Elsie was much more settled in and was a rockstar! She placed second in this class with only a one point difference between her and first place.

Late afternoon was the last of the preliminary classes. Whoever’s combined score placed them in the top 6 would return the next day and compete for overall champion. Nerves were high for this last class as everyone wanted to do well and make one last effort to secure their spot in the top 6. It was a tough trail pattern with some advanced technical maneuvers including trotting between and around three very tight barrels placed around 3-5 feet apart with poles lining each side so it wasn’t possible to make wider turns. There were long stretches of side passing over logs, a bridge, gate, weird pole configurations and even a campsite complete with tent, rubber ducky’s and every kind or scary water bottle/coffee container you can find. During training Elsie’s biggest struggle has always been obstacles, so we all held our breath as Marissa and Elsie entered the arena for their turn. Overall, Elsie did fantastic! She hesitated for a split second on the barrels, got a little distracted side passing and gave a huge nervous look at the camp site but held it together and performed a very very nice pattern. We were thrilled!!!!

They didn’t announce the placings for the trail pattern or who placed in the top 6 until the next morning. When they announced the placing’s, Marissa placed forth in trail leaving her with a 9th in Handling, 2nd in Pattern and 4th in Trail which snuck her into 5th overall and into the freestyle performance. Marissa and Elsie’s woodland fairy freestyle was beautiful and perfect. Elsie really shined in this class and showed her true colors of what an incredible Mustang she truly is. Elsie placed second in Freestyle which landed her into placing third overall!

Previous PostS

Part 2

Picking Up The Mustangs (2021 Washington Mustang Madness 100 Day Training Challenge)

Part 1

We Got Accepted!! (2021 Washington Mustang Madness 100 Day Training Challenge)

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We Got Accepted!! (2021 Washington Mustang Madness 100 Day Training Challenge)

We are once again competing in the Washington Mustang Madness Training Challenge. The challenge gives competitors 120 days to train a wild Mustang before returning for a final competition on August 5th-7th. All three of us sisters will be competing this year and we couldn’t be more excited! All of this years picks are yearling fillies from the Paisley Dessert HMA in Oregon. These pretty little fillies will be looking for a perfect home after the competition, but for the mean time, let’s go take a look at this stunning group of horses!

Meet #6125, Eliza’s competition Mustang! It will be her very first Mustang and she picked an adorable yearling palomino. Follow Eliza’s Facebook page to keep up with their adventures>>

https://www.facebook.com/Elizasmustangs/

Marissa’s pick, #6075, is an interesting brown/livery chestnut yearling. We are very curious to see how she sheds out. This will be Marissa’s third Mustang and second Mustang TIP Challenge. Marissa’s Facebook Page>>> https://www.facebook.com/MarissaZanesMightyMustang

And last, my (Sierra’s) cute little filly. She will be my second Mustang to train, but my very first to train for a competition!

Sierra’s Facebook Page>>https://www.facebook.com/sierrafarmergirlsequinefiasco

We will be picking these fillies up at then end of the month and I can’t wait to begin their training and see what all these Mustangs have to teach us!

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Week Three and Four With Crumpet! Washington Mustang Madness 100 Day Training Challenge!

Week Three And Four With Crumpet
May 3rd-16th

What a couple of weeks! Crumpet has learned many new things including the beginnings of Side-passing, haunch turns and forehand turns. Now we just have to focus on trying to stick her turns and not move around so much. I also introduced her to standing tied and after testing the rope a couple of times she figured it out and stands pretty well and even allows me to brush her while tied. I started working on picking up Crumpet’s feet and she once again was so well behaved that I was able to clean out all four feet and still remain in one piece! We continued working on obstacles including the tarp, pedestal, bridge and jumps and backing between poles which she is really starting to get the hang of! Here is a video of are progress! Crumpet is a little wary of my photographer but she is getting better about new people everyday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE3hQM34r5s

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Week Two With Crumpet! Washington Mustang Madness 100 Day Training Challenge

Week Two With Crumpet
April 26th-May 2end

The beginning of my second week with Crumpet brought a surprise. My family was all in the house when we heard this really weird sound coming from outside that kinda resembled a fog horn on the ocean. We have never had a donkey before, so it took us a few seconds to realize that it was Crumpet, the Burro! It has become her morning routine to bray. I am pretty sure she is competing with our roosters for who can wake the family up first. I have to say it is pretty fun to hear her in the morning! I also learned that Crumpet is a huge napper. I see her outside laying down at least three times a day just dozing in the sunshine.
As far as training goes, the second week with Crumpet was a very successful week! I started teaching Crumpet how to be haltered and she has now graduated to not having to wear a halter all the time and is super easy to catch. I also introduced her to a bridge, pedestal and even a scary tarp. She was a little worried about the obstacles at first, but after I let her stand and figure out that it wasn’t scary, she was very quick to learn how to walk over all of the them! I am so impressed with how well she is coming along! Week Two Video>>>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5jbIhmJvis&feature=youtu.be

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Mustang And Burro Update

With all the craziness happening in the world right now we had to make a couple very hard decisions. With the online auction Mustangs plus Marissa and I’s competition animals we would be up to 5 wild equines.  So we asked ourselves, “Do we really need four more wild mustangs plus a burro if the economy crashes?” The answer was of course no. After lots of debating, we decided to drop our yearling Mustangs for the competition and just train the burro. As of now we are still planning on getting our auction horses but we can’t pick them up until after the quarantine ends. On the brighter side, I was able to pick up my Burro, #5096 on April 18th!!! Here is a video of our trip >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJXIutThAXs

I have never worked with a donkey/burro before so this is going to be a whole new adventure for me! The first week with her was very successful! At first she wanted nothing to do with me but  by day three that all changed. We had a huge breakthrough and she stood for me to touch all over her and later that day she met me at the gate!!

She has learned how to lead and we have taken multiple walks outside the round pen. At our obstacle course she walked over ground poles and a couple small cross rail jumps!

Burro #5096 also got her tag taken off and is now known as Crumpet! IMG_2264

Later in the week, Crumpet had her first grooming session and also met a new human, my sister. Both events went without incident. She is such a good girl and is all try. To my astonishment, she hasn’t offered to kick or bite… yet.  I am excited to see what she teaches me over the next couple of months! Here is a link to a video of our first week together>>https://www.youtube.com/watch?vXsW6fmJA

 

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2020 Mustang Yearling Washington Youth 100 Day TIP Challenge

March 18th, 2020

I am super excited to announce that I have been accepted to participate in the Mustang Yearling Washington Youth 100 day Challenge! The competition gives trainers 100 days to train a wild horse or burro from the BLM and then compete in the final competition which will take place on August 6th through the 8th in Cle Elum, WA.  I applied for the Competition back before Christmas and had to wait several agonizing months playing the guessing game of whether or not I was accepted! But finally, after all the waiting, I received an email saying I was accepted to participate in this years competition and that I would receive horse #5577, a beautiful appaloosa yearling!!! And if that wasn’t exciting enough, I made a last minute decision to apply for the burro division and received #5096, a super cute 11yr old  female burro! I am so excited!!! This will be my very first time training a wild mustang or a burro so I will be very busy but I am super excited to see what I learn from the experience!!  I can’t wait to meet both of them! It is going to be so hard to wait to meet them but luckily we go to pick them up in less than a month!

Tag number #5096

Check out my Facebook page for updates ➡➡➡https://www.facebook.com/sierrafarmergirlsequinefiasco

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Summer Adventures: Marissa’s Wild Mustang!

Summer 2019

Imagine a horse that had spent it’s whole life running wild with no human contact. Then imagine taking that horse and having only 100 days to train it to, not only load into a trailer and lead, but to be able to complete trail courses, showmanship patterns and Freestyles. Now, I am going to tell you about my 12 yr old little sister, Meefy, also known as Marissa, and how she trained one of these untouched wild Mustangs! Back in March Marissa was accepted to participate in the Mustang Yearling Washington Youth 100 Day  Training Challenge.  The Challenge gave the participants 100 days to train an untouched wild BLM Mustang and then go to a final event and compete for cash prizes!  In recent years, Marissa and I have always talked about doing a Mustang Makeover but I never imagined that my little sister would do it before me, much less this year! But there we were, on April 27th,  picking up Marissa’s untouched wild Mustang in Longview, WA.  Marissa received #4871, an all white, 2yr old Mustang from the Warm Springs HMA herd in Burns, Oregon. IMG_4422 After completing paper work, the skilled BLM guys ran the horse through a chute and after getting the halter on for us, opened the chute and drove her into the horse trailer.  It was super hard for me to figure out what Marissa was thinking on the drive home but you could tell  she was excited!fullsizeoutput_1e1dFour hours later, we arrived back on the farm and backed the trailer up to the round pen and unloaded her.

Going into it we had no idea how long it was going to take for the mustang to let Marissa touch her but to our surprise the very next day Marissa was able to rub all the way down her left side and touch her face!  She also was able to get the tag off and the mustang became known as Stardust! IMG_4485       Over the next 3 months, Marissa spent countless hours working with Stardust, teaching her how to lead, load into a trailer, pick up her feet and everything else that horses have to do. Marissa also took Stardust on outings to 4-H practices and she ponied her on a trail ride. They attended a 4-H horse show after only 9 weeks of training and received first in the Showmanship class and second in the In-hand Trail class.  Stardust was super calm for the entire competition even with the excitement of new horses and people, as well as, all of the RVs, tents and horse trailers.  She took everything in stride and you would never have guessed she had once been running wild.  The last month leading up to the competition, Marissa taught Stardust tricks such as the Spanish Walk, Spin and how to bow.  Marissa and I had never taught our horses tricks before so it was a really fun challenge for her.

Morning Snuggles
First Bath
Walk in the fiield
4-H Practice
Learning To Wear A Saddle
Trail Ride
First Show
Jumping Hay Bales
Ponying

On Wednesday, August 7th, we headed out on the long drive to the Washington State Horse Park where the final competition was being held. Stardust took the 5 hour ride like a champ. Arriving at the horse park, the temperature was in the 90’s which is very hot for a couple of girls who live were the temperature average is in the 50’s.  My mom and dad quickly abandoned us for the air conditioned motor home and I would have joined them if I hadn’t already deemed myself Marissa’s coach for the competition many weeks before (much to Marissa’s dismay).  So  I was out there with her in the scorching heat, supervising and getting Stardust settled.  “Supervising” lasted for about 5 seconds, and before I knew it I  was hauling water buckets, unloading tack trunks, retrieving hay and dumping out bags of shavings. I was now Marissa and Stardust’s Stablehand/Coach.  After finishing up, Marissa and I escaped to the coolness of the motorhome. Later that evening, when the temperature had dropped some, we took a family walk, including Stardust, the family mutt, Buck, and my new red healer puppy, Jack Jack( fittingly named after the baby on the movie “The Incredibles).”  We explored all  three of the massive arenas and then went on a little walk on one of the many trails the horse park has to offer before heading back for the night. The next morning, we woke up early and explored  the woods around the park. There was some fun trail obstacles and cross country jumps that Marissa led Stardust over. Stardust did everything Marissa asked without hesitating at all, even going over a teeter-totter, a bridge and a balance beam.    Later that day was the Body Conditioning part of the competition where the horses are scored on overall appearance such as weight, hoof care, coat condition, etc. Stardust took 3rd out of seven horses!

The next day was an early start at 8 am. Marissa is not a morning person so I had to literally drag her out of the camper at 6:30 to get her to come take care of Stardust. When we arrived at the stall we realized that Stardust had laid down and even under her sheet had gotten a huge stain on her side. So Marissa stood half awake in the wash rack holding the Mustang while I scrubbed the stain.  I was definitely the stablehand.  Later that day was their Handling class where Marissa had to load Stardust into a trailer, brush Stardust off, pick up her feet and take her halter off, leave the round pen for 30 seconds and then catch her again.  They did amazing and took second!

 

The next class was the Pattern class, a simple, typical Showmanship style class.  Marissa and Stardust would have easily nailed it… but, just as they went to the first cone the rain began to downpour on us!! Stardust did not like the rain at all and would not stand still and didn’t stick her forehand turn or haunch turn.  Marissa did a great job staying calm and controlling Stardust, and even though I am sure she was disappointed, she came out of the class with a smile.  Later that day when the results were posted, Marissa and Stardust still managed to get third place in that class!

2-2

The next class was the Trail course. Stardust and Marissa did amazing. They conquered side-passing on the off side, backing through poles, going through a gate and weaving poles perfectly but there was a box made out of poles where Marissa had to perform a 360-degree haunch turn. Stardust stuck it perfectly but Marissa was so focused on making Stardust stick her turn that she went around twice instead of just once! That sadly marked her down to 5th place in that class but she still managed to get into the top 5 overall and perform a freestyle the next day.

 

 

The next day was the hardest. Marissa was extremely nervous and we were not sure if her nerves were going to allow her to perform in the Freestyle class. But after we got her out to watch the burros perform, she was laughing and feeling much better. The freestyle started at noon and Marissa was going second. She looked so nervous but she got up the courage and she went out and totally rocked it! Here is a link to a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h65sBMzEH6Y. After their performance, Stardust and Marissa had a crowd of little girls around them, all wanting to meet the Mustang with a tutu on. They had definitely won “fan-favorite” in the 8yr old and under crowd!

 

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After watching the rest of the Freestyles, we waited with anticipation to hear the final results. Marissa received 3rd place on the Freestyle performance and 3rd over-all in the Youth Division! Marissa and Stardust did such an amazing job. Marissa is so blessed to have Stardust in her life. She is a special horse who showed both of us just how trainable Mustangs really are and taught Marissa many valuable lessons in patience and training horses. Marissa and I are definitely hooked on Mustangs and are planning on competing next year! To learn more about this amazing competition check out their website http://mywy.org and like their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/emmw

Also Check Out Marissa’s Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/MarissaZanesMightyMustang 

And Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUgibYg5wZSE4_7dpAGf1SWFukpLR2fpo