That was not fun! Hauling ass for JC on hwy 18 to get out of the cone. Thankfully the tornado didn't touch down. The path was somewhere between Lark rd and Paint rd but no damage just heavy rain and washing out on the side of the road. Horses are fine and everyone is eating. Thank you to my family and friends that reached out already to warn us and check on us. ❤️
Adult High Point 41-60. Showing Frosted Arbuckle "Bella" and Hotroddin Jetsetter "Hotrod." Eastern Kansas Horseman's Association Awards Banquet
Wow! 14-18 kids killing it! Brianna Hill was 4th overall, Lane Savoda 3rd overall, Alexandra Buckley was Reserve High Point, Kaitlyn Watkins was High Point! Super proud of these girls that battled it out all summer building great friendships at the Eastern Kansas Horseman's Association show series.
Lexi's rides this weekend in Ranch Pattern and Horsemanship. She has 17 points in Ranch and qualified for regionals. Bri has 8 points, needs 7 more to qualify for regionals. Lexi and Bri have 14 points in Horsemanship, need one point each to qualify for Regionals.
Dodson finishing up his 30 days here. Lexi popped on to ride English for us tonight. Such a lovely quiet gelding. Brianna Hill is on the 3BH Equestrian Team so we'll be seeing more of the big guy this summer. That way we can focus on his left lead and getting him into a shank bit for shows next year. He has been tagging along to 4H meetings and went to the horse show this weekend. He's too old to show two handed in western so he was disqualified but it was worth it for the experience.
#ottbsofinstagram #OTTBwestern #warhorse
Lexi ponies Emory off her mare, Rio. Rio has never been asked to pony a horse we know will fight. She did very well and enjoyed bossing him around pulling against his weight and forcing him forward. #appaloosasofinstagram #mustangsofinstagram #mustangheritagefoundation #mustangsinthewild
Mini Seminar this Sat 9-12. Sign ups are available for those interested in learning more about communicating with your body language. Learn how we read and interpret what the horse is communicating back. We'll be discussing the differences in posture ours and theirs and what it all means. See us with our mustangs as they learn to understand humans and share their wants and needs with us. This is indepth hands on learning through the various ages and horse experiences from never been touched mustangs to babies and into the subtle ways finished show horses seem to read our mind. Come learn the secrets of horses.
Located in Abilene, KS at [email protected] #mustangsofinstagram #2020foalsofinstagram #aphcfoals2022 #appaloosasofinstagram #paintworld
Lexi was on Hottie tonight, she will be taking him into her hunter jumper lessons now that he is ready. Brit and Justine have done a phenomenal job getting him back to work with confidence.
Rio is done for the season. She's going to get a nice rest, keeping in light work while she continues to cook up next year's foal for us. That foal will be available if you're interested. We also have her beautiful Dun filly for sale. Summer is growing like a weed.
Lexi also took Rocket down the road about 7 miles in total. Jazzy and I caught up to them for the last three miles. They had quite the adventure it seems.
Rio and Bella went yesterday to the IEA team practice so they had the day off. Only horse I missed today was Brother. He's still recovering from a stiffel injury that's causing him issues at the canter.
This weekend is our team meeting and first practice to those interested in joining the team. This is an excellent opportunity to gain show preparation level experience.
In two weeks I'll be hosting our first mini-seminar. We'll be working on body language.
Maddox is definitely an interesting challenge. Pick up his feet or even touch them? Hard no. Add a saddle pad or put on a surcingle and the world is fine. Whatever.
Inching along refining our communication and adding more skills. Maddox tends to complete a new task or two then blows up over something I'm renewing. Patience is my best friend. Now that running away has been removed, you will see him stand his ground. If I let this go further he would without a doubt charge me. While the angle of the video is not great, I am not hitting him in the head. You will see the short driving whip (minus the popper that makes it sting) come over the crest of his neck. I take the poppers off my driving whips when I buy them. Those things sting more than I want. If I need to get a little bit I ask for the black whip. Naughty horses get to meet the black whip but they have to be pretty naughty for me to ask for it. Instead I'm reinforcing the gesture to go : arms wide, my left pointing where I want him to go, the right hand with whip increases the pressure until he goes where I want him. You can't hear me but I say good boy and release the pressure. If he stops before I ask we resume a few more feet and then I change direction. You'll also see the over exaggerated gestures I was talking about.
Working with Maddox tonight to get his feet held. We recently hit a wall in moving forward so I went back to the basics and worked forward. He is becoming increasingly spooky again and resistant to repeating tasks we know he is good at. It was time to bring correction into the teaching. Maddox has tried to bite a few times and now uses blowing up and running away as a means of avoiding me. Since he knows how to tie I could remove the run away option and the flag can be used to induce a bite or run. In return I'll use the flag to take my response as high as his until he stops fighting then reduce my own response back down to a level where we can work again. He wasn't really happy with my change of pace but it was time to say enough.
Emory also decided he was not going to play along and I helped Lexi get him to tie and stop kicking at the flag.
Hotrod update. Today it was time to try a bit. Major complaint was that he would not take a bit. Keep in mind we were very clear he had some issues, the bit was new idea to him and you had to take your time. It was best to present the bit with cookies or he would refuse. Horses have quirks and when you're as good has Hotrod, a bit quirk is nothing to us. We have 3 others that need time putting the bit in their mouth: Rocket, Diva, and Brother. Justine took her time but it was not a huge issue. He will for some time be an adult only kind of bridle horse. The longer he is given consideration the faster it will become a non-issue. They all have preferences and we need to treat them as individuals.
Showing you what ponying the boys teaches them is to follow you. Being these boys are both close to 15 hands at 2 yrs old, they are a handful to fight on the ground. Since the horse on horse tug a war is equally balanced, it removes the days we'd have to spend trying to get them to give to someone that weights a fifth of their weight. We have the skills, we have the equipment, might as well use them.
Lexi was working with Emory tonight in the shelter. He prefers the solitude of the smaller space. She was able to treat his various cuts, apply liniment to his jaw area, equispot on for flies, pick his feet, and brush out his tail to braid it. Emory prefers the simple things like grooming the most. Most impressively she accomplished all of this without a halter or lead rope.
Maddox got some fly spray today. Since he ties now I can start pushing his boundaries and asking for more from him. I've started working on touching legs and rear end with him.
Emory did not go to plan at all. It's easier for Justine and I because we've done a hundred versions of this together now. We have very similar styles, we both read the horses very well, and have some pretty cool backgrounds long before we started this adventure. Teaching Lexi as well as working with the mustangs adds an element that can delay the results and cause missteps but that is what teaching her is. She takes some dumb risks that we try to prevent but Justine and I have been there before and had mentors or dumb luck get us safely through. Emory ended up breaking away on the ground with Lexi once and on the fence. He tends to go quiet and wait for you to get distracted before acting on his plan. In this case he bolted mid dally and took off. It was cute to watch him circle back to Lexi for help. I took over for safety reasons and because Emory realized that fighting will set him loose. To overcome that moment it was going to test Justine and my skills too. Horse training is far from perfect but we do what we can and learn from the rest. Unfortunately Emory did cut up his face but otherwise is okay. He's going to need some Underwoods Horse Medicine for a few days. He did learn to give to pressure and that the fence doesn't give but was not ready to be tied and won't be for some time. They move at their own pace.
Maddox's tying was textbook perfect and exactly what we needed. His preparation was a little different but so is his temperament. Maddox's wants to learn and we've built a bond and he trusts me so this next step was just easy. Misery is an excellent head horse and used to pulling with awesome instinct and she reads the horses and Justine really well. Maddox gave a little fight like I expected but in the end really just understood the tasks and went with it. He's such a nice horse. Wild to mild in just 14 days.
Emory gave three of four feet before we attempted tying him. As I expected he gave a huge fight once he thought this whole thing was stupid. Unfortunately he has banged his head and cut his face up. He did allow Lexi to treat the worst of it which was good. He's not a fan of tying or going past the point where his fun meter is pegged. He's going to need several days of healing before we try again. Until then Lexi will work on other things. Emory is also sporting braids tonight which was really good accomplishment for the 14 day mark. He loves to be groomed and doted on.
