I've been very busy and haven't thought to update this in a while, but i thought i would show you guys a few pictures of how Lero is progressing. I need to get photos of us while we are riding but that requires another person! We've been working on collection and he's doing well! He collects at all 3 gaits (obviously some better than others), he needs the most work on the canter but thats to be understood. :) And I'm also trying to prepare him for this FULL WEEK OF TRAILRIDING! Yes i said full week of trail ride! Its a week of nothing but horse play! I'm super excited! Until later!
"MOOOMMMM i'm tired of pictures! " - Lero
Post workout!
June 21-23 come on out and visit Valero, Cordero, my mother, myself and many other wonderful mustang people to view and MORE IMPORTANTLY ADOPT some amazing mustangs! Stop by and see us!
So these past two days I was able to get out with the horses! I had several friends come over who had never ridden a horse, so who else to put them on but Kahlua! She as usual tested their patience and momma had to get on her to straighten her out( she even tried to pull one over on me that little brat)! I rode Valero while my friends were learning on Kahlua. Lero made a very good teaching assistant. He was very calm and when Kahlua needed a little push as far as speed goes he had no problem tailing her (Probably because he never gets to do that on his own out in the pasture ;D). I decided to do some trick stuff on Lero to get him ready for this adoption we are going to in Illinois! I stood on him, sat backwards and rode around on him, flipped off him, and tried something new.... riding him on his butt. He didn't like this, crow hopped once, and i landed on my feet disciplined him and got back on and he was good! Valero was barely sweating when we got off but Kahlua was dripping so i hosed Kahlua down. Great days!
May 30th.
Well its been a while since i've been about to get out there with Valero, but I was finally able to since I am now on summer break! I groomed him a bit. Then wouldn't you know, it started raining! I took this as an opportunity, put on the yellow rain coat we use for desensitizing and lunged him/disengaged his hind quarters several times. By this point it was pouring so I took him back to his pen, threw the rain coat over him a few times and let him go! Very productive little lesson!
Check it out! I am going to really start training Valero, riding and such :) The Youth Employment Program is going to pay me to train Valero more, write 2 essays(1 on an issue the mustang is facing, 1 on the history of mustangs) and they want me to educate the public so i am traveling to adoptions(With Valero to show people what they can be) and other events to speak about mustangs! This is my way of being involved with the mustangs without training another one,sense there isn't room on our property for anymore mustangs! haha Gate closed! ;)
Well my life has been crazy busy since i last posted! It is finally starting to slow down enough to be able to start doing some horsey things!! Check it out!!
Wooo! Wild Horses! ;)
"OMG GUYS THE HAY IS COMING IN!!! " :) Quote from Valero...
I like this pic because of the brands!
Yup! Theres Valero! Look at how collected he is! Makes me proud! :)
We have even started sidepassing!
I am going to head out and do some more stuff with them today! Hopefully get to ride Kahlua and get her back into shape! I am soo excited! 5 days and counting till EMM in Tennessee!!! Go Abby!!! :)
Oh and P.S. Please vote "yes" for Mustangs on this pole!!! It would help out a lot! :)
http://apps.nevadaappeal.com/utils/polling/poll_results.php?poll_ident=2884TaTa 4 now! :)
Well it has been a while since I have last updated! My pc lost connection and we just got it back up and running! YAY! I felt like i was trapped in the stone ages!
Welcome Gracie!
I have some great news as to the newest member of the "Huston Zoo" as my mother would call it!! Gracie came to us and her previous owner was unable to keep her due to her habit of jumping 8 foot fences(which isn't a problem on our property since we have no fencing! :) ) She is a 2 year old boxer/plott hound mix and is such a sweetheart! She is settling in very nicely as Gracie Huston!
Snickers and Gracies' meeting! If you look closely you can see snicker's tail puffed out! :) They have gotten better!
Sisters!
She does this thing where she does like a army crawl and when she stretches out she is around 3 ft. long!
Making herself comfortable on the couch!
Horsey Weekend!
Anyways, my most recent horse adventure was spending the weekend with Mrs. Karen Cooper! (CEO of Absofreakinlutely Awesome Productions, ;D hehe!) We saw Circus Flora Friday night which was absolutely amazing! There were so many great acts and performers! I think everybody really enjoyed it! And afterwords we got to be VIPs thanks to my vaulting coach!
The next morning Karen, my mom, and I had a while before we got to go see the movie Buck so we played with the horses a bit outside.
Pictures courtesy of Absofreakinlutely Awesome Productions .
Laying Your Horse Down!
NOTE: This is done with a hobble before you move onto handling their legs in this process! You hold a leg while holding their lead and asking them to back.
They will eventually put it on the ground almost as if in a bow position. Release if still in the hobbles until comfortable, then move onto the actual down.
He is down!
My cue for them to get up is,"Up,Up!"
ItAfter our fun morning at the horses we headed to the theater to see Buck! It was such an inspirational film and I can see so many similarities in our training styles! Buck's mom was so cute! I loved the joke she told at the end! In my expert opinion(;D) it is a MUST SEE movie for people of all ages! :)
Jessi(Who is very tired from all her camp counciling activities! )
Sunday morning we got to visit a few long term holding facilities in Oklahoma! And for those of you who think this is a dry patch of dirt, your wrong. It is the exact opposite, luscious green grass for 1,000's of acres! Everything a horse could dream about!! If an opportunity comes up to go to one of these events, I highly recommend going because its an INCREDIBLE ONCE IN A LIFETIME EXPERIENCE! We arrived at the BLM headquarters at 8 am and set out on a 1 hour drive to the first ranch.We traveled in style as you will see in the video! hehe! I was amazed that these mustangs didn't run FAR away being as though this was the first time many of them had seen a bus! The first ranch we saw a few herds of mustangs but they were quite a ways from the road. We stayed out there for a bit and then headed to the barn and corrals. They gave us a tour of where they unloaded the horses and gave them vet checks. The vet check area was very safe. It was padded and had a cover over the top to keep horses from rearing and hurting themselves.
BLM lady and the ranch supervisors in front of the unloading ramp.
Randy bringing out his inner horse in the chute. haha!
The second ranch we got to see 3 herds up close! This is the place to get the good pictures!! The 1st herd were geldings and they were only a few feet away from the road, but when people kept inching closer they took off across the road. I still got some good pictures. The 2nd herd was also geldings. Some were so close you could touch almost touch them! And the last herd was the mares and their babies! I really enjoyed them!! The last bit of our outing included lunch and our goody bags at the barn of that ranch. We got some cool NEW posters, a stuffed horse or burro and a hat or shirt!
Off Topic Of Mustangs: Later that night we went to the memorial downtown for the 4-19-95 bombing of the Murrah building. Let me tell you, I got so many eerie feelings being in the area where 168 people died... There were 2 gates, the 9:01 gate and the 9:03 gate. 9:01 represents the innocence before the bombing and 9:03 represents the chaos after the bombing. All the stuff in between represents 9:02- the time the bomb went off and the many lives that were lost. The reflecting pool (diagram below) running through the memorial represents the original street that was there before the bombing. On the left of the pool there is a field with all these chairs and each level represents the level floor the person was on when they were killed. The chairs are arranged where the most damage was done to the building. It really was amazing.
It says,"We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity."
9:03- the chaos after the bombing...
The 168 chairs representing those who died in the bombing. 19 of them were children.
The building in the background was the building across the street from the Murrah building.It is now a museum.
The black glass represents all the windows that were blown out when the bombing occured.
An original message written by a rescue worker.
The picture explains itself... literally. haha and the next one down.
Salvaged pieces of the Murrah building that is now used as a walkway.
The final part of our trip involved us visiting a friend of ours, Mike! Plus his horsies!
Mike and WinterHawk
WH and I.
Side passing over the barrel.
Diamond.
Joplin...
We drove through Joplin on our way back home... Wow is all I can say.
Wrecked construction sign.
A bill board got ripped off the poles...
It was a great trip and I and soooooooooooo much fun! I can't wait for my next horse adventure!
On alert!
Well Saturday I had the chance to work all 3 of my horses! It was great! I find that when I go out to the horses, my problems just disappear! Don't you just love that feeling? :) Anyways I started off with Valero. We did some work with the saddle(Reviewing flexing, pressure in the saddle, and walking on with "leg cues" by me tapping his side with my hands). I was really surprised how much he remembered! Then we did some liberty work, (Don't pay attention to the end part after he doesn't jump the barrel... hehe! Its still a work in progress! )
I have to laugh because he does the liberty routine GREAT off camera. Some of you may not believe me, but its true! hehe! After the liberty work we went over some obsticles and desensitized to the plastic bag and umbrella some more. He is doing great with the umbrella and the plastic bag, but he doesn't like the plastic bag above his head. We will work on it! Then finished with laying down!
He looks exhausted doesn't he? lol!
Then while Valero was cooling down and eating , I lunged the heck outta Kahlua! We gotta get some weight off that girl! She is a little chunky! :) And while she was lunging I attached the rubber reins to her bit and girth( they teach a horse to become more collected and give to the bit) After 10 minutes of lunging at all gates she was sweating like crazy!(Valero can go 15 minutes or longer but he is in better shape!) She got a well deserved bath afterwords!
Finally I worked Val. Mostly We lunged, she is giving to pressure WAY better! No more tugging! I started teaching her to switch directions and then we worked on side-passing! She picked it up real quickly! I was so proud of her! She has made me realize, she is real smart, and VERY capable of doing things, but she also is VERY stubborn! She needs to realize, she may think she is boss mare, but around me, she is NOT. When I ask her to do something she needs to do it then, no if ands or buts! :)
The last bit I have for you is just some pictures!
Valero~"Get my good side mom!"
Kahlua tired after her long workout!
Valero~ "Yaaaawwwnnn! I'm with Kahlua!"
Valero~ "Take my picture mommy!! Not Kahlua's!"
Signing off now! **Jessi** Who hates all this stormy weather we are having! Hmph!
When I went outside the other day I thought, "With how much Valero has grown, I wonder if he still fits in his blanket?" Sure enough I went out there and even when I loosened all the straps, it was snug!
Photo Shoot!
Impatient boy!
"You want more pictures? Hmmm I don't know..."
"Do I look mysterious??"
Tall boy!
He is sticking his tongue out at me!!
Now he is laughing at me!!
After our photo shoot, I got Val out to start to go over trailer loading again. She was a spaz... Let me tell you 1 Stubborn Mare+ 1 determined,equally stubborn girl= 4 HOURS OF TRAILER LOADING AGONY!! Valentine would get up to the trailer and then freak out and suck back... Every time she did that I lunged her for a bit then walked her back over to the trailer again(to teach her the trailer is a good place). We ended at 8pm. when she put her front two feet into the trailer!
The Next Day
Something just clicked in her and it just took me 30 minutes!!
P.S. Valero and I have this AMAZING liberty routine going!! I will have to get video of it!! Lua is doing great as always!
When we went out to the horses today I decided to do some lunging work at Liberty, but this time with a twist... there would be not one, but TWO horses lunging in DIFFERENT directions!! The boys were the only logical choice for this since Valentine hasn't been worked with enough and Kahlua... well Kahlua is out of shape! haha! They did great and eventually figured who'd go on the outside and inside! After we did this I did some desensitization with Valero! He figured out after 20 minutes the bag and umbrella wouldn't eat him! Then I figured today was as good as any to trot on Cord. This wasn't the first time I have trotted on Cord... but the last time I did I had a really bad fall that gave me a migraine for two days! I am so proud of Cord! He was a pro, except for one slip up when he spooked at an umbrella...he went one way,I went the other. So I got off and desensitized him to it then rode him again. There is one picture that looks like he is cantering but it is actually him deciding to jump the ground poles!
P.S. I had the boys laid down side by side but Cord wouldn't lay there long enough for me to get a picture!! ;P We will get there eventually!
Before...
After!!
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