Mustangs Have Arrived!!!

Monday May 14th 

    A day just to settle in and just rest I noticed one of the five
year old has a here hip out of place, and is the kindest gentlest of the bunch.
I am trying to decide to call the BLM or see what happens. The bay horse is in
the best condition. The buckskin is the wildest and also the worst condition.
Braydon’s yearling is in fairly good body condition as long as she’s with the
five year olds she has a decent attitude and demeanor but when she’s separated
she gets pretty agitated.

Tuesday May 15th 

    Again another day for the horses to settle in to their new
  environment , but I did put them in a small pen in a corner of the arena so
  they could be exposed to the activity of me riding other horses, this didn’t
  seem to bother them at all. That evening after Hope Givers Cowboy Church
  Braydon came home with us to begin his journey.


Wednesday May 16th 

    Was a hectic day I had several customers come in and some shoeing
to do so again the mustangs basically had another day of rest there body
condition seems to be improving. The Black horse’s hip appears to be better
although there is an obvious difference from left side to right side. He doesn’t
seem to be as lame as he was the first night.


Thursday May 17th 

     The actual training has begun we are mainly trying to
get the horses to yield their hindquarter and drawing there attention towards
me. I was actually able to put a halter on the black horse out on the run where
the spend there evenings. This amazed me to be able to put the halter on a
mustang this early in training in that wide open of an area. He really is a kind
horse. After I got the halter on I got off to his side and put slight pressure
on the lead rope and began applying pressure to his hip just as I had done the
past two days while they were free. This horse accepted pressure with very
little effort and within minutes he 
was facing up with a pleasant attitude as I began to get out in front of
him he allowed me to move his hindquarters left and right. After a short amount
of time he began moving forward to release pressure.  I
  walked him around a little in the back pen then walked him into the barn. Once
  we were inside I tied him to a post. The buckskin was the next one to come in
  and what we done prior was helping 
because this horse allowed me to get my hands onto him in a fairly small
  pen fairly quickly his actions are more of what you would expect of a wild
  horse. He is accepting my touch but however he is highly cautions and ready to
  run at almost any movement I make. I just stayed there with him until that
  sense of fleeing started to melt away as he started to relax I was able to move
  more freely without him over reacting. After a few minutes he was wearing the
  halter the pen I am in is small enough that I don’t have to pull on the halter
  so I use the same techniques I use when there free to yield their hindquarters.
  When he was willingly facing up and softly moving his hindquarters away from me
  I began to lead him around as well. Inside this small pen things seemed to be
  working well however because of his instinctive flight I knew that when I open
  the gate to a larger area I would not be able to hold him. So I used a gate as
  a tool and tied a 12 foot lead rope to the end of the gate and let him go out
  on his own. I tried to be by the gate so when he reaches the end of the rope so
  that he associates not being able to pull free with me. His reaction was
  typical of a horse who had never been tied. He pulled, he would strike at the
  rope with his feet  that’s the
same manner as he would strike at a snake or some animal he thought was
threating him. It wasn’t long for him to realize going forward was a better deal
than pulling back, and I was able to lead him and tie him to a post. Now on to
the big bay this horse appears to be friendly he’s always the first to walk up
to you when you feed . He too allowed me to put the halter on fairly quickly but
when he felt a restriction of the halter and lead his attitude quickly reverted
to survival. He allowed me to yield his hindquarters but the moment he felt
  pressure from the lead rope he got tied I grabbed the lead rope it troubled
him. His flight response was not as prevalent as the buckskin. So I thought I
could lead him to a post to be tied however when the gate came open I realized I
had put myself in a position where the horse had a tremendous advantage over me.
I was not able to hold him outside of the small pen he would let me walk up and
  catch him but the moment I tried to direct his feet somewhere he would just
  pull away. So I drove him back into the small pen where I tied the lead rope to
  the gate just like I did with the buckskin horse. This horse tested being tied
  much more aggressively than the buck skin horse did. He tried with all his
  might to break free however the yacht rope was stronger than he. He then
  learned coming forward was a better deal than pulling back. However when I
  untied him from the gate I was still un able to lead him so I let him loose and
  when he went by the other horses where they were tied I grabbed the rope and
  tied him next to them.  Where he
tested the lead rope again but only for a short time this time. I let the horses
stand there most of the day and none of them tested the rope again. This is one
area where I do believe there is a difference in mustangs and domestic horses.
Some domestic horses in the same scenario would have fought even harder and
longer to get away sometimes even hurting themselves in the process. Mustangs
react in this situation much the same as a mule would. Self-preservation in
mustangs and mules is higher than for domestic horses. So hurting themselves is
not nearly as likely to happen. Braydon worked with his yearling as well and is
learning to read body language. He was able to drive her around, yield her
hindquarters, and walk up and touch her. They are progressing nicely we did not
put a halter on her.


Friday May 18th 

Mustangs had the day of because Braydon and I were packing to go
to the Ranch Horse Show in Columbia.