Wildflowers & Wild Horses TAOM 2024 - Tag 8294 Maverick

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Wildflowers & Wild Horses TAOM 2024 - Tag 8294 Maverick

This page will document the continued journey of horses trained by Emily and then adopted out through the Teens and Oregon Mustangs competition program.

09/01/2024

Maverick is #45 in the auction lineup for any bidders watching 🩵💙🩵

09/01/2024

Figured it out a little late - but just in enough time before I had set my alarm… Maverick made it into the body conditioning showdown! 🥰

Congrats to everyone else on the list too! See you all bright and early 🩵💙🩵

09/01/2024

Maverick had a really decent day. Neither of our patterns were our best by any means but, he went out and tried and although not everything was perfect, he kept his head clear and wasn’t silly or spooky about much - except that damn banner in the corner that just about everyone hated 😂. I figured it was 50/50 on the bridge if he would just walk over it without a care, or he’d be concerned since it was a different one than home. He was concerned, but eventually walked over it fairly politely. The gate was a big disaster but I take full blame for that one. I realized at the walk though that I’d really only worked on the gate one direction - whoops 😬🙃.

He tried pretty hard in the riding pattern even though for a while there he figured he forgot he had a left lead. Our haunch turns sucked and that’s a bummer because he was doing well last night when we quickly rode. That’s alright though, he’s a baby and overall - I really can’t complain. I forget like others have mentioned that we seem to hold ourselves to a higher standard all the time, that we get so upset if we fail as riders and trainers. Today we followed the consistent mantra of one of the smartest trainers and mentors in world, and we “went with what we got”.

I showed what horse I had left after all the chaos of the weekend. I showed the 3 year old trying his butt off to be a good boy, even when things were scary. I showed the horse I sometimes I personally failed. What it comes down to though - is I showed a horse with real heart. This horse has so much try, so much kindness and so much willingness to please.

I don’t know if I’ll ever in my life say I’ll have had a “perfect ride”. It’s not fair to expect a horse to be an elite version of “perfect”. All I know truly, is I set this horse up to go on to be a wonderful horse to wherever he goes tomorrow. I hope to whoever takes him home - that you love him, you spoil him, you push him to learn, you treat him fairly and you know that you’ve bought one of the kindest horses I’ve ever had the pleasure to sit on, let alone start to ride. Maverick is a one in a million young horse and I hope he becomes your heart horse 🩵💙🩵

08/31/2024

Well, we had good moments and bad moments today. After yesterday’s incident with the hives, I chose not to ride him since he had been poked and prodded and medicated and was visibly uncomfortable. I didn’t think that was fair to him.

Once he had Dex in him prescribed by the vet and things started to improve, I let him go for a bit of a lunge to stretch his legs but didn’t ask much of him. I knew that I was taking a really big gamble doing that for how he may behave as a baby horse today.

Overall he was good. In the down time he was fidgety when we were working on standing quietly and reminding him of “whoa” while I pick up your feet and to not be distracted. He wasn’t “bad” but he wasn’t perfect either. He had a few good quick lunges and we worked intermittently on our showmanship.

Now to where I messed up….

Y’all have heard me tell you I loathe and am terrible at showmanship. I headed into this pretty confident in what we could get done with my lacking of refinement. We have worked in the show halter before, and we have had no issues but I’ve always had my chain captive or I’ve worked in a rope halter.

Things were going great until our back in our pattern. He didn’t love the chain pressure from the lead shank and just said “nope ✌🏻” and locked up. So after a few failed and ugly attempts to unlock him and continue backing, I had to give up the ghost and just turn like we made it to our cone 😣. I take full blame for that happening. I should have worked more with that lead and the halter set up that way. I gambled there, and I lost. Aside from that, he was very good albeit we were rushed, but things happen.

We was great in body conditioning. His only “bobble” was backing out of the big stock trailer. It was a BIG drop for him to back out compared to what he’s used to. So he finally hopped down with his back end but it was high enough he kind of stumbled a little with his front. He recovered and didn’t totally eat it, just wasn’t graceful - I’ve said those same words the first time I ever showed my national champion arabian too 😆.

He got some great compliments from the vet on his build and condition. He really liked him and had to give me a hard time about not keeping him. In the haltering by a stranger portion, the handler went to get him but Maverick was close to the fence on his left side. He fiddled with him and introduced himself and Mav joined right up with him and followed him to the middle of the pen. He did a few serpentines just to see if Maverick was really following him and he was. He let him halter like a gem and was an absolute good boy.

The day surely didn’t go as I wanted overall. It wasn’t a wash though either. I’ve let myself cry my tears over the mistakes, feeling silly and sorry for myself. Now we can move on to tomorrow and I can refocus on why I wanted to join these challenges, which is finding great horses great homes. Tomorrow is a new day, things will be better 🩵💙🩵

08/29/2024

We made it and are all set up! Unfortunately the detergent I apparently washed my sheet and sleazy in didn’t agree with Maverick so the poor guy is all broke out in hives. He’s had another bath since we have been here and some antihistamine. Hopefully he starts feeling better soon and they go away 🤞🏼

He settled in great though and has already devoured almost an entire hay net of grass hay and is drinking water like a good boy 🩵💙🩵

08/29/2024

Here we go 😭 Like everyone else, we are all squeaky clean and bundled up for the night. I’ll clip his ears, bridle path, legs and whiskers tomorrow now that he’s all clean. We had 3 mane washes with purple shampoo 😂 pretty certain he’s done with me and the wash rack for now. He put a sleazy on for the first time like a champ and it’s all nice smelling and fresh washed like his sheet.

Good night Maverick, you’ve got a big weekend ahead 🩵💙🩵

08/27/2024

I still haven’t packed the trailer, I still haven’t practiced as much as I think I still need to. I feel like I’ve still got SO many things to do. I keep having moments of big anxiety when I think that this weekend is literally the end of this whole competition.

You know the saying “I had so many things to do today but I was overwhelmed, so I took a nap?” That’s kind of where I’m at right now. My nap though is just enjoying my last few alone days with Maverick, and appreciating all that he’s given me this summer.

Here are a couple photos from Sunday evening. My boyfriend’s daughter (6) got to ride him completely solo in the round pen for their goodbye ride. He was so good to her and took wonderful care of her. This is the epitome of this horse’s disposition, and I can’t wait for someone else to discover this about him and adore him forever. 🩵💙🩵

08/26/2024

If you know, you know 🥲 Just hang on with your summer coat a few more days Maverick. We are in the home stretch - I promise 😂😭

Anyone else’s ponies doing this right now?

08/24/2024

I’ve been bad on the updates this week! I ended up sick for almost half the week, and of course right before competition it really out a damper on things. Now that I’m back with the ability to ride, we have just been fine tuning things and have been enjoying my last bits of time with Maverick being “mine”.

Outside of that, I’ve been working at encouraging g him to be soft as I can get him and working on rounding up his body and lifting his back and ribcage. I’ve been picking away at his jog as well, which is actually starting to come along pretty nicely now that he understands the concept when I ask him to round and drive his hocks under.

We’ve been working with the overhead sound system, clapping and all sorts of extras we’ll probably find at the competition too, just so he’s not surprised. His stall decorations have been ordered and should be here at the beginning of the week.

Aside from the remaining show prep that needs done closer to when we leave, all I need to do is pack the trailer. Everything we have worked for is almost here 😭🩵💙🩵

08/19/2024

We went on a nice trail ride this afternoon. Maverick was brave and had no issues at all with the people, bikes, dogs and other things we ran into. Not a single spook and led the way the entire time.

About 1/3 of the way back to the trailer though our bridle snapped at the cheek piece buckle (my bad for having not checked things prior to our ride. It’s a very very old bridle) so I snapped my reins to our cavesson instead and hoped for the best. He was absolutely stellar the entire way home. The whole ride he just walked, he never tried to get beyond the walk on his own. He was just as fabulous with no real bridle too. We rode up onto the dam at the lake as well.

I really couldn’t be happier with our ride. For taking a young horse out, he acted like a total pro and I got to spend some really nice trail time with my boyfriend.

A perfect Sunday Funday! 🩵💙🩵

08/16/2024

My boyfriend Elijah took Maverick for a spin last night! He doesn’t have much riding experience but he piloted him around great and Maverick took really wonderful care of him. The sunset behind the arena was really beautiful too, everything about it just made my heart happy. 🩵💙🩵

08/15/2024

I’ve had a few people ask over the last couple weeks how Maverick feels about cows. He loves the cows and the cows love him. Here is him playing “kissy face” with Adam and Steve 😅😂

08/14/2024

More PEMF for Maverick tonight! He’s been working really good the last few weeks, he more than deserves a feel good session. Lots of big releases this go-around and we have another session scheduled for next week too. We have a big fun weekend coming up so I wanted to make sure he was feeling great before and after 🥰 🩵💙🩵

Thank you as always Dannie Cole!

08/10/2024

Pre-bidding is LIVE! If anyone has any questions please let me know! I’ll be sending in more photos today of Maverick to add to his bidding profile! 🩵💙🩵

Click the link below to go right to his page 🥰🦄

08/05/2024

Post about our ride at Oregon Horse Center coming soon but in the meantime enjoy last nights shenanigans after we got home 🩷

I got the wild idea to see if I could get him to swim with me across my pond. Generally he will get in but doesn’t go super deep. I’ve also never actually ridden him ba****ck or in a halter 😅 all a good combination of things, right?

When I say this horse is so kind and patient, I really do mean it. He puts up with some much of my dumb blonde girl antics 🤣. Happy to report I did not fall off - or drown 🥲

That all being said we didn’t swim. My pond had a VERY steep and deep drop. It just wasn’t tapered enough for him to feel secure enough just hopping on in and swimming straight away. He did go as deep as he could have though and I’m sure he would have followed me in if I led him vs rode him. Just more things to try on another hot and sweaty day 😅🩵💙🩵

08/04/2024

Look out y’all - he’s a bucker! 🩵💙🩵 Glad he tolerates me 😂

*please note : no bucking occurred 😅 just in a bucking chute is all 🤣*

08/03/2024

Here is the highlighted schedule for the challenge! If you’re interested in watching us compete, there will be a live feed available on the Teens And Oregon Mustangs page OR come see us in person! We would love to meet you! Maverick will be in the adult riding, but I’ve also highlighted the awards session - just in case 🤞🏼 and the live auction since this lovely boy will be available to a new home! 🩵💙🩵 Just 25 days to go!

08/01/2024

I’d like to express a huge thank you to another of our sponsors this year, Lucinda Cristler for Mini Golden Inns of Hungry Horse, MT.

Mini Golden Inns is situated just a 10 minute or less drive from Glacier National Park’s west entrance! If you’re looking for someplace fabulous to stay on your way to Glacier or, just in your travels - Mini Golden Inns is absolutely a place to check out!

Thank you again Lucinda for your continued support. We appreciate you!

07/31/2024

Everyone has been posting their glow-ups as we head into this last month with our Mustangs. I still just can’t believe what a “horse” he has become in this amount of time. He has grown so much and just flourished, I’m so proud of him and how far we have come 💙🩵💙

07/31/2024

We got a nice surprise in the mail yesterday from one of our sponsors! Thank you so much for the goodies Cowboy Magic! We appreciate your support and the green spot remover for sure 🙈💙🩵💙

07/30/2024

Maverick was a good boy at the showmanship clinic! I will still for the billionth time testify that I am terrible at showmanship. I’m far too awkward a person to be able to execute things crisply and snappy (I’m built for comfort, not for speed and athleticism 😅) 🤣

We were able though to get some really neat and helpful tips to work on him committing more on his haunch turns before competition and kind of where we are just sitting skills wise. 🩵💙🩵 It was also really neat to finally put some faces to names! I got to meet a bunch of really wonderful ladies and their competition horses and I’m so excited for everyone and how hard they’ve worked.

Maverick was pretty spicy that morning. I was surprised he had energy to be honest. He spotted Cowboy Tag # 8296 - TAOM 2024 and remembered him! They have been in a lot of pictures we have found together and it was very cute for them to have a little reunion. I took him for a quick lunge in the round pen just to let him get rid of any energy he had, and then he went right to work quietly. It was a really fun afternoon 🩷

07/28/2024

Maverick always has the softest and sweetest expression. It’s true to his character too 🩷 I can’t say enough nice things about this goodest boy. Showmanship clinic tomorrow with Rachel Macdonald hosted here at our farm (Myers Ranch) for all Teens And Oregon Mustangs participants. I’ve said it before but I’ll always scream it from the rooftops that I personally loathe showmanship - but I’m excited to learn and figure out how to help Maverick and future horses be better and make their job easier. It’ll be good for him to be put in the arena with a bunch of horses he was in the pens with too! More to come tomorrow 🩵💙🩵

07/24/2024

Just a few more photos from last weekend of this handsome boy. He was so good for having his ears clipped for the first time and all the extra fuzzies off his legs. For being light colored, he really isn’t a dirty guy but he was due for a spa day and some beautification and man does he shine up like a gold coin 🥰

You can really see in his conformation photo without the saddle the extent of the scars he came with. I’d really like to know the stories behind them. All of his major scarring is on only that side of his body. There is a really big variety of them too. Some look like bites or kicks, some are just little knicks but enough to leave a spot. I’m sure this guy could tell some interesting stories if he were able 💙🩵💙

⭐️ Now is the time to get in touch if you have any questions about Maverick or, if you’re interested in bidding and would like to see some specific content to make sure he’s going to be a great fit for you. I have no doubt this guy could excel in ANY home however, I want to make sure you feel well educated about the horse you get. I also want you to feel like you got to be apart of the process if you get to take him home ⭐️

07/24/2024

The other day Maverick got his first PEMF session from Dannie Cole and he absolutely loved it. Lots of big releases and a happy boy at the end. I can’t wait to get him in for another one soon 🥰

Address

Camp Creek Road
Springfield, OR
97478

Website

https://www.teensandoregonmustangs.org/

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Videos

💙🩷🩵 Good boy yellow horse! 💙🩵💙

Yesterday my boyfriend decided he would steal Maverick for a trailer ride while he went to the card lock to fuel up my truck. Maverick hasn’t actually hauled anywhere since pick up day, but he also has only practiced loading in the trailer twice and never by someone who wasn’t me. He also has never been locked into the divider and rarely visits the side of the barn the trailer was parked on, or sees the other horses over there. Good boy yellow horse! 💙🩵💙

For how much more “whoa” than “go” this boy has, he’s awfully athletic! 💙🩵💙

We love a boy who sits on his blonde booty 🤭

The chillest boy 💙🩵💙

Hi guys! I promise I didn’t disappear! Maverick has been being a good boy and has had a ride with someone new. We have been working on moving his hips around and bending and moving more off your leg. Just overall committing to what he’s being asked and him realizing how much easier that is in the end 😅 I don’t have any super huge update other than that at the moment. I will be out of town from the 2nd until the 8th, so I likely won’t have much content in that time, but I’ll try and get some things together for everyone to share anyway. Enjoy a video of me looking stupid and Maverick being a very good boy 🤣

Second session working on trailer loading 🩵💙

Maverick day 43? 44? 45? Honestly I’ve lost count 🫣 I’ll probably stop listing the days after this post because I am terrible and the counting part of this 🤣 Today we worked on trailer loading. I’ve only loaded him back into the trailer once and he was great but slow to come around and step in but figured it out without a ton of pressure. I was curious to see if he would remember from that one very short lesson. Apparently, he had a very good experience and remembered a lot of it. He walked straight in with no hesitation and after a few times loading together I was able to just send him in on his own into the trailer. I added a little more pressure shutting one trailer door and giving him a smaller space to load through and that was no problemo either! Today was farrier day and that ate up a good chunk of the morning as we had 6 of my 8 to do. After working with the trailer we did some work on the mountain trail course in hand and being smart and pausing in-between the big step over crisscross logs. They are spaced just right so that they really need to stop and think not to rush them and stretch to take that next step and stumble over them balance wise. We went for a good lunge in the round pen after and a nice rinse off. Not a hard day, but still a good day 🩵💙🩵

Tracking the breakaway sled for the first time 🩵

Maverick day 41: Maverick has had the last two days off just to be a horse. We had things going on and working on our mountain trail course, so he just got to be a good boy. Thursday night though, he was able to ride in the arena with a few other new horses as well as start to learn to track the breakaway dummy and the quad. I think he really overall dislikes the exhaust smell from the quad, as he has no aversion to touching it or the breakaway sled when it’s off - but it’s much creepier to him when the quad is running. He wasn’t any different than any other horse for the first time tracking the dummy. He was a little wobbly and nervous about what was happening and the expectation of him, but in the end we were able to trot along tracking it for a bit and end on a really great note. He schooled great in traffic and was fine with everyone roping ground dummies and swinging ropes off and on while they warmed up. He is still very enamored with new horses but he gets better all the time with leaving them be and not worrying about what they’re doing. We had a really nice ride especially for throwing a lot of new things and scary stuff into the mix. He had a very well deserved few days off 💙🩵💙

Day 38

Maverick day 38 : just a quick little video of some of the things we did yesterday. I hopped on him for the first time with 0 lunging today. I usually at least let his trot a few circles to make sure he doesn’t have any crazy energy but bypassed this just to see how he would be and he had no issues at all. We worked a lot on moving shoulders around and moving more off my leg, as well as starting to give more to the bridle. We are just picking away at things slowly but surely. He got stung possibly by something earlier in the day and had a pretty big spot on his neck that I’m sure wasn’t great feeling. I think that is one of the contributors to him being a little stiff on his right side through most of the ride. He has really come a long way with flexion and softening there, and he just wasn’t quite the way I know he can be. We got some loping in and he was a good boy. He was a little stumbly and dragging his toes here and there, but my arena footing can be a little tough as well as deep for an horse working on balance and lifting their shoulders. After we were done we went out to play with a few things on the trail course under saddle for his second time out of the arena. He took to all the obstacles I asked him to try great and was able to ignore my neighbors 20+ cows right next to the course on the other side of the fence staring at him. When we were finished he re-tested out the new bridge my boyfriend built for us. We haven’t had a chance yet to move it outside, so we just practiced in the barn aisle where it’s currently hanging out. All in all we had a really nice ride. He is a fun horse to work with and see the improvements in 🩵💙🩵

Maverick day 37 extra 🩵💙🩵

He is very unbothered about the pond 😅 he would have gone way deeper if I’d have let him. 🐠🪼

Maverick day 30 : good boy got wormed and the day off because he more than deserves it. Good boy Maverick, happy 30 days buddy.

He lopes 🥳🙌🏻

Warming up for our 8th ride, day 25 💙

Warming up for our 8th ride, day 25

He’s tolerant of our shenanigans 😜

He’s not one I’d call “spooky” that’s for sure 🤣

Just another day in the round pen 🩷 #americaswildhorses #mustang #teensandoregonmustangs #wildhorse #palominobuttes #palomino #dunalino #maverick

He was a happy boy today 🩵💙 had his first flagged tail and snorts after being cooped up because of the rain.

He’s a Celine Dion fan… but I mean, aren’t we all? 🤔

Maverick would like everyone to know “it's all coming back to me now” 🤣🤣 Sound on please for the best effect 🫣😂

He’s unbothered by just about everything 😅

This was his first time seeing the broom, let alone something new and weird touching him. He’s pretty trusting and tolerant overall 🩵💙

My heart ❤️

I knew it could be a good choice or a bad choice. He and I spoke on the matter as I unclipped his lead. I’m no fool to how low my arena fence is at the east end and if he decided to leap it, so be it. We would figure it out. My round pen has just been a mucky mess and he has just tried SO hard to please. He deserved some time to run and let his heart be happy. He made good choices. Good boy Maverick 🩷

Maverick learned about where the food comes from in my barn. We have little hatches above each stall, so the food comes from the ceiling. You can see his moment to process that it was indeed what he thought it was coming from the sky. All in all he was an unbothered boy 💙 occasionally they hate the echoey footsteps upstairs too when they’re not used to it and he just ignored it all.

Playing in the rain 🌧️

Maverick got to check out the *very* wet roundpen on our first walk around out of his pen. He was great to catch again and led into the big barn aisle and back to his pen after. He’s been a very brave boy today! 💙🩵