Back in March we adopted two Mustangs off of the Online Mustang Adoption put on by the BLM (Check out these posts for the full story>> Online Mustang Adoption.& Online Mustang Adoption. We Got Two!!!). When all of the Covid craziness hit we had to postpone picking them up for several months (the waiting was torcher)!!! On May 31st we finally set out for the Oregon Mustang Holding Corrals. My little sisters stayed back with my Mom to take care of the farm while Dad and I made the long trip out to Burns. The 8hr drive there went smoothly and we camped in the back of our horse trailer at the base of a BLM Campground full of cows.
Home Sweet Home
The next morning (June 1st) we were up bright and early and arrived at the Holding Corrals at 7:30 and were done and out of there before 8!! Those BLM guys are fast! They got them haltered and loaded into the trailer in about 10 to 20 min!!
With the mustangs in tow we headed home! The mares road great all they way home and we arrived at the farm somewhere between 7 and 8pm ( a crash occured on HWY 84 and we had a nearly 3hr delay rerouting through downtown Portland during curfew, ugh). The mares unloaded easily and after getting a good look we realized these Mustangs are in EXCELLENT condition!! They are the perfect weight, have a shine to their coat and their feet are trimmed!!! You would have no idea they were wild mustangs and would assume they are pampered domestic horses if it wasn’t for the fact that they were terrified of everything. The Oregon BLM has done an amazing job taking care of these horses! Check out our video of picking up the mustangs>>>Bringing Home #4915 and #4810
Wow, it has been a long time since I last wrote anything! It has been a crazy summer and it still hasn’t slowed down! Right now we are currently in our Big Foot motorhome with our three dogs headed to Kansas to visit my grandparents. The to do list was a mile long but some how we managed to get all the animals taken care of, stuff packed and last minute fencing projects taken care of. Our motorhome is pretty fit for off the grid having solar panels, LED lights and a composting toilet so we are planning on dry camping the whole way from Washington to Kansas. Yesterday, we headed out at 4pm and drove till about 8pm. We decided to spend the night at the Washington State Horse Park. The park allows over night dry camping for no charge and has fun trails to explore, a giant cross country course, over 50 temporary stalls and 4 huge arenas for hosting events. Its the off-season now so we had the place to ourselves and the dogs loved the jumps all through the woods. We are planing on coming back sometime with some horses to ride the trails. This morning after taking the dogs for a quick hike we headed out. But about 30 miles down the road right after you cross the Colombian River on I-90 there is a scenic viewing area where there is a herd of huge metal horses on the top of a hill.
We decided to take the climb to see the horses and Meefy AKA Marissa, even got on top of one!
Hopefully while we are driving I can get some blog post done about my crazy summer!
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!
At the beginning of March, my family, Buck (the family mutt) and I loaded up in the Big Foot(our RV) and headed out to the Washington State Horse Expo in Ridgefield at the Clark County Event Center.
We arrived late Friday night and parked at the local Walmart parking lot. We checked to make sure overnight parking was allowed and grabbed a quick and convenient sub at Subway for dinner. The next morning, we woke up early, excited to get to the Expo. Meefy recently applied for the Mustang Yearling Washington Youth Challenge, where you have approx. 100 days to train a mustang off the BLM that has never been touched! So the first thing we went to go see was the “Teens and Oregon Mustangs” talk. It was very informative and we had so many questions about Mustangs answered. Meefy left the talk confident she could do it. Then we headed over to see Smokin Double Dutch, a Quarter pony who has a Breyer made after her. I’m pretty sure this was E’s favorite.
We also watched horse training clinics by Steve Rother, Warwick Schiller, Evan Bonner and my personal favorite Alina Stasik, a trick rider!! She began trick riding when she was 7 and went pro at only 14 yrs old! She performed in rodeos and eventually the traveling show Cavalia!! It was so cool to watch …and really motivated me to exercise more!
Saturday night we stayed for, “The Extravaganza.” It was awesome! It featured acts and demonstrations from over a dozen different groups. We were able to see the Latigo n’ Lace drill team, Esmeralda’s & Charro School Mendoza (They did tricks with lassoes) and Alisa Stasik, who did amazing trick riding stunts. She performed one trick where she climbed under her horse’s neck while she was blind folded at a gallop! Steve Rother’s All Disciplines Demo had me laughing so hard I was sure I was going to fall off the bleachers. Here is a link to a video I found of him doing the same skit several years ago. It’s hilarious! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gSaoVTMcY3w.
We also brought home three new ponies this month, Barbie, Bling and Hidalgo!!
From left to right Hidalgo, Bling, Barbie
Barbie is a total sweetheart. She is a princess and loves to have her mane braided and to be brushed. My mom, sisters and I have totally fallen in love with her. She is also in foal so we will have a baby pony soon! It will be so much fun! E has led Barbie all over the farm and we are thinking of keeping her as E’s next riding pony after her baby is born!
Barbie
Bling is Barbie’s baby from last year. She doesn’t trust humans yet and wouldn’t let anyone touch her until recently. This week I was able to touch her forehead, shoulder, back and rump and lead her outside the round pen! Yay! But every time I touch her, she does the baby face (what baby horses do to older horses to show they are not a threat) so she doesn’t quite trust me yet. In the future, I hope to cart train her, but right now I am focusing on getting her to trust me and allow me to touch her all over her body, particularly her feet so we can trim them.
Bling
Hidalgo is a sweet pony. Meefy and I have been riding him, working on the essentials, steering, stopping and trotting. We also have taken him out to a tree farm three times this week. He is such a good boy and let’s E and her friend, Chelsey, ride double on him.
But,… he is a bit of a trouble maker. A couple of days ago, Meefy put Hidalgo out in the field to graze. She took off his halter and turned around to close the gate… to her surprise Hidalgo plowed through the fence. Apparently, he doesn’t know about hot electric fences. This is when I’m very thankful of our 8 ft tall woven wire perimeter fence around the entire property. Loose horses aren’t that big of an emergency. They can’t escape to the road, at least. Luckily, he was easy to catch. Meefy and I reassembled the fence and returned him to the field. I stood by the fence charger ready and waiting for the signal that Meefy was clear and to plug in the fence . Meefy leaped over the fence and I turned the fence on lightening fast. Hidalgo boldly touched it with his nose ready to bulldoze his way through it again, but …it shocked him and he jumped back. He tested it a few more times, getting the same results. Furious, he started galloping around the pasture. Then suddenly, he turned towards the fence and pick up his pace to max gallop speed. Meefy and I watched wide-eyed as he jumped and cleared our 4ft electric fence! Ugh! Back to the 6′ tall round pen he went. We will have to build a bigger fence if he’s to be put out to pasture…maybe tomorrow.
Iroquois and I were also able to participate in a reining clinic with Mike Stokes this month. It was awesome and really gave me some things to work on. I can’t wait to see how we improve over the summer!
Buckwheat went to live with an adorable little girl. They hope to do Pony Club with him in the future. They are going to have so much fun together!
The sun is shining, the weather is nice and warm and the days are getting longer. Summer is feeling likes it’s right around the corner. With all this nice weather, I decided to get Alaska use to getting sprayed off. At first, she didn’t want the water to touch her and she did circles around me, determined to not let the disgusting cold substance touch her legs. But eventually, she decided the water wasn’t going to kill her and she relented. To her surprise, the water was really fun and she now loves playing in the water with her nose. She is such a silly filly!
My sisters and I are really enjoying the longer days and we love taking evening rides in the sunset! Everyday I thank the Lord for these many blessings. I hope everyone is having a blessed month, and please don’t forget to follow!
from left to right I am riding Iroquois, Meefy is on Echo and E is on Abu.
On Saturday, my whole family (including the dogs) all loaded up into the 24′ motor home pulling our 2 horse trailer. We hit the road to go pick up my “AQHA Young Horse Development Program” filly in Connell, Washington. The ranch named the filly KT Alaskan Ruby calling her “Ruby” but since I’ve known of so many “Ruby”s I have decided to call her “Alaska”. Saturday night we stayed at a pretty camp ground that was only 9 minutes from the ranch. As we pulled into the ranch’s driveway the next morning, we could see the weanlings. They were so cute! Toni from KT Ranch greeted us at the gate and was really nice and knowledgable. The filly was a bit flighty at first but soon settled down and Toni was able to catch her. Once she was caught, Toni had me come into the pen to meet “Alaska”. She wasn’t sure about me at first but eventually let me pet her. When it came time to load her into the horse trailer, Alaska did not want to hop in the trailer at first, but with the help of some grain, she got in. She rode in the trailer really well and without incident on the entire 10 hour ride home, but was very happy to get out of the trailer once at our farm, even boldly stepping down out of the horse trailer into the black night. Thank you KT Ranch for giving me this beautiful filly!
RATTLESNAKES!!!!!All loaded up and ready to go to her new home
Steffen Stampede 