We have our bad days.

    So I know my posts are normally filled with everything we accomplished and how well she has done. This is mainly because I am an optimistic person and like to focus on the better things in life, but to add some reality to this blog, I thought I'd share about our bad days.
    Yesterday was one of the worse ones. I have found that when one does not understand something that is normally understood, they become quite frustrated. I know this from personal experience. It appears that my little mustang also becomes mad when confused.
    So my big goal recently has been to work with the trailer. I realized I needed to establish a lot of ground work for loading into a straight load, so I started by on-line lunging her. After, I realized she would probably need to swing her butt towards me, so I started on that. It took a good solid 15 minutes on constant work and struggle to get even the slightest try. She was tired and hungry and mentally drained so that may have made things worse. Now normally, my stories would have a happy ending or super ending such as, " Then she jumped right in the trailer and was totally fine." But this one ended with one step of the hind end towards me. That is all I wanted, I got it and left it at that. Hopefully the next session will go much better! Fingers crossed!
     Anyway, this blog is to remind me to keep my head up and realize everyone goes through struggles and that it is okay to be confused! My 4-H club is coming over on Friday to listen to a presentation about mustangs! Oh boy!

So many changes.

       So it has been a little over a mont and a half with this horse. All can say is I have never had a more rewarding experience. When I first got Vesta, she was the scruffiest horse I had ever seen. She was wild, untouched, and untrained.
       Exactly 63 days later, the same scruffy horse now has all four hooves trimmed, she leads and lunges on and off line. The resembles a tiny roan thoroughbred and is the sweetest horse I have met. Looking back on old pictures of her has made me realize how very far she has come.
       Wednesday, Vesta got her feet trimmed again. This time they all got trimmed and they look magnificent. She is so much happier and has so much more energy now that her feet feel good. Speaking of energy, I have been working with her lunging and it has improved dramatically.
      Her lunging today was very flighty and dramatic. As I suspected she had way too much energy and was much better after she worked it off. Her on-line lunging was very rough to one direction, eventually we got that worked out and she lunged beautifully with slack in the rope.
    We are nearing the end of this employment! I have my 4-H club over for a field trip to hear me give a talk and I am working on the promotional video! I am dreadfully sorry I haven't been more active, school is winding down so of course it is crazy. More information soon!

Little Genius and working on the Promotional Video.

Vesta is definitely the smartest horse I have met. She blows me away every single time I see her. I know I say that in almost every blog, but I am truly astounded by this filly. I never believed a wild horse off the range could accomplish so much and be so willing to learn.

I had worked on backing her around two weeks ago. She fought me the entire time, but took one step back at the very end. I decided to end on that. Today, I lunged her some and was curious to see her back. I held up my hands and did the cue and she backed five steps perfectly. Okay , she was a little crooked, but it was fluid and not resistant what so ever. Then next time i backed her I barely had to move the rope and she backed. I was so shocked and happy.

Part of my responsibilities for my employment is to create a promotional piece for my mustang in the media of my choice. I have been interested in some amazing Equestrian advertisements on YouTube, so I decided to have a go at making one myself. I am rather excited to try it out and I will post the results!
Ciao!

Awareness Essay

Part of my employment was to promote the American Mustang. One of the requirements was to write and essay about the American Mustang and a current issue they face. I finished mine and would like to share it to you all.

America’s Wild Horse

The American Mustang is often viewed as the embodiment of the American West. Though the Mustang is thought of as an American horse, it has a rich heritage that began in Spain.  The Mustang’s heritage is not one of grace and elegance, but one of hardship and adaptation. Unfortunately history has a tendency of repeating itself, and the Mustang’s fate will be determined by turmoil and politics.

            The history of the American Mustang starts deep within the Iberian Peninsula. Spanish missionaries and explorers brought along Spanish horses on their expeditions. Once in America, some of these horses got loose and formed herds. Eventually, these herds mixed with stock that had been released or escaped from miners, ranchers, or immigrants. Due to the many breeds involved in the formation of the Mustang, they tend to have characteristics from many breeds.

            In early 1900s the wild horse population dropped considerably. The drop was due to competition between the wild horses and cattle, along with the rounding up for stock horses, military horses, and draft animals. Early on, the rounding up procedures were often inhumane and unsympathetic towards these horses. In order for these methods to be changed, many letters and voices had to be heard.

            One such voice belonged to Velma Johnson, also known as “Wild Horse Annie.”  Wild Horse Annie earned her nickname while being a strong advocate for wild horses. Velma wanted to do something for these creatures that could not speak, so she launched a full scale “Pencil War.” Velma’s campaign raised so much awareness that the amount of letters sent to Washington was second only to the Vietnam War letters.

            Wild Horse Annie’s quest for humanity in rounding up was successful. In 1971 the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act was passed. This act placed the Mustangs and Burros of America under government control. As a part of being under government control, they were dubbed as the responsibility of the BLM (Bureau of Land Management ) and the USFS (United States Forest Service).

            Since the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act was passed, wild horses have had more protection and safeties. Now, the BLM is in charge of protecting these mustangs and the land they live on. Throughout the year the BLM monitors how many wild horses there are and how sustainable the land is. If the land cannot support the amount of horses, the BLM rounds up the excess horses and places them up for adoption to qualified adopters. By doing this, the BLM insures that the mustangs on the range will have adequate resources to survive, and the horses rounded up will go to proper homes.

            Adopting out mustangs can be a hard thing to do. These mustangs can be hard to adopt out due to the fact that they have had little to no human contact. Another factor that makes mustangs difficult to adopt out is their reputation. Many mustangs are said to be untrainable and temperamental. This statement is a stereotype; any horse without human contact will be wild. As for training, most mustangs progress quickly due to a mindset for survival and adaptation.

            Controversy swirls around the American Mustang. Is it right to take them off the range? Are the methods in which they are rounded up humane? Arguments against rounding up mustangs involve the amount of land the mustangs have to roam. A sustainable amount of land for one horse is much more than one might think. This amount of land is around 20 acres in the arid west. Because of this large ratio of twenty acres per one horse, many horses need to be rounded up.  But, does a horse really need that much space? The key factor of how much room a horse needs is very undetermined, which has many people asking, why do all these horses need to be rounded up? A solution to this question would be to have scientists survey the land to see how sustainable it actually is year to year. The round up numbers should depend on each year’s acreage per horse, not an acreage that is dated. These numbers should also be released to the general public along with the total number of horses that were rounded up. Though this solution is expensive, it can solve the problems with the controversy surrounding wild horse round ups.

            The mustang as a breed is quite similar to America. Each endured hardships and criticism throughout their histories. The mustang is a mixing pot of breeds like America is a mixing pot of cultures. Mainly, the mustang represents the freedom that America was established on.

Pictures!

I promised you pictures so here they are! A few of these are of her hooves getting trimmed and a few of her getting more shed out. I hope you guys like them. More updates later!

 The shadows are inhibit viewing, but her left hoof is trimmed and the right isn't. Huge difference!

My dad held her so she wouldn't associate me with any bad experience if it were to arise.

 Look at her little ribs! I am hoping she gains weight soon . Her neck is so long!

 Her belly was a little wormy after all, so her stomach is a little big. After we wormed her ( she actually pooped out some worms!) she is starting to look a little better! . I love her build and can't wait to see her grow

Look at those little markings on her neck!

 The mark of the true mustang! The brand is actually visible after being under all that white fluff. Those white spots on her neck are all shed out, they look so cool! They look like they are on he body as well.

I walked Vesta down to the end of our drive way. This was her farthest walk away from her pen and she did great! We did a small loop around our house and she spooked at some quail but calmed down again. Overall she did fabulously.

Double Day.

Two posts, one day! Well today was a very big day for Vesta. Ever since I picked her up from the BLM I wanted her feet trimmed. They had always bugged me, so that was one of the first things I wanted to work on. After a week or two from picking up her feet we finally scheduled a feet trimming time.

First of all, I'd like to thank Mr. Jeb Beck out at the BLM for taking time to come out and trim her after not trimming a horse normally for years. For her first trim Vesta did relatively well. She picked up all of her feet nicely and allowed three of them to be trimmed. She did very well on her front feet and well on the start of her back left foot. She was sore on the back feet and that was apparent, after some work on her left foot she wanted no part in getting the other trimmed. Deciding not to push it and end on a positive note, we left the right hind foot long. Granted this is not what I would have preferred, but I agree with the decision because she was getting quite frustrated. She is going to be sore because as Jeb said, her hooves were so stacked that everything wasn't quite right, so standing normally on her heel stretches out all of her tendons. Hopefully next week after I work with her and picking up her feet more we can get that last hoof taken care of. They look so much better! Pictures tomorrow.

The second first of the day was worming. We asked Jeb about her weight and he said she was a little skinny for a typical yearling, he also said that this may be due to her being a little wormy. She hadn't been wormed for 6 or more months so we figured he was right. I also learned that her middle may not be shaded out because of worms, I thought that was interesting and pretty darn cool. We went to Walmart and bought enough Strongid wormer for all of our horses. We also bought probiotics which Jeb said would help with her poop eating and stress. After dinner, my dad and I went out to worm the horses. I was expecting Vesta to be a bit of a handful but low and behold she was perfect. She didn't toss her head or spit any out, shoot she didn't even need a halter. This was definitely a surprise. Overall, this little mustang has been through a lot today!

P.S. Yesterday I was able to get her to back up, lead beside me, and walk over a tarp! Like I said, pictures soon!

Blanket Head.

Two days ago, I wanted to work with Vesta. So I took her out of the pen and led her to the round pen ,which has become something standard for her, and I was puzzling what to do. I had already worked over some manners and wanted to do something fun. We had an old horse blanket so I decided to try that out!
She was absolutely amazing! I went slow and made sure she was relaxed the whole way through, as a result I was able to rub her all over with the blanket and drape it on her with out her batting and eyelash. This is a smart little horse. I have some pictures of her with the blanket all over her! Earlier that day I also played with her mane and braided it, which she like so much less. Turns out she doesn't like the tension on her mane, but she sure looked pretty!

 I love this picture so so much.

This horse is truly my best buddy

Carpets and various other things

I have had an extremely busy week and weekend, not to mention that my last weekend was also hectic.

Today my best friend came over and we went on a long ride together which was rather fun. We also worked with Vesta. I led her out of the pen and to the round pen. We did some lunging and practiced more on-line lunging. She did okay and learned quickly with both. We had an old strip of carpet laying around so I put it in the round pen for some "scary object" practice. Vesta wasn't scared of the carpet what so ever. Although she wasn't scared she did not want to go over it. I worked with her but to now avail. Finally I made her do more work for not going over it, that made something click. After some online lunging and not letting her go over it, she finally went over it with out a problem or an attitude ( which she has more of than I thought!) Overall it was a very productive, fantastic day!