It's Official!

It's official! I received the title to my Mustang and I am now the legal owner!! Woo Hoooooo!



I can't believe I have had Chance a year already. She has come so far, yet she could be further. I did not accomplish everything I wanted to, but considering I don't work with her as consistently as I should, she has done everything I've asked of her. But I still have a lot of work to do this winter.

I can't wait to see what the future holds for us. Besides blazing trails, I'd love to try something new, maybe cutting (Tracey?) or reining or? I want to show the world what a Mustang can do.............because I am a believer!!!!!!

So Much To Do, So Little Time!

I don't think I have mentioned yet that I am going to U.S. Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma....in October. We leave in only a few weeks. I can't believe how fast the time is going by. I have so much to do! I hate last minute packing so I always start a couple weeks in advance. I need to do laundry, start setting clothes aside, run errands for snacks and other necessities. Plus I really need some new clothes for the barn, but I don't have any money to go shopping! I will be gone almost the whole month of October, so I need to pack a lot. We don't have a condo in Tulsa like we do in Scottsdale, which means we will have to use the laundry facilities in the hotel, something I am not looking forward too. But I must have clean clothes. I will pack as many clothes that I can, I do have a couple pieces of luggage that I will take with me. The good thing about these long trips is that since we drive there, we can bring as much luggage as we want. We throw it in the horse trailer along with everything else. It is a really long trip for us...2,000 miles, and we will layover half way. From what I hear the weather can be interesting, especially on the way back. And guess what? I am going to be one of the main drivers. We are taking 2 trucks and trailers with 9 horses.

Picture taken in July. I am really wishing that I could be out lunging my horses in shorts again!



We have only had a couple of nice days this week, but I couldn't enjoy them because I was at work. Now it's raining again, then on Saturday it is supposed to be nice, but I have to work. It is supposed to rain again on Sunday and Monday. Figures, since those are my days off. So much for getting horsey stuff done. Looks like I can get started on laundry for my trip.

Chance learning to come to me when I ask.



Since we have a ticket package to our local WHL (Western Hockey League) team, opening night is tomorrow (Friday.) It will be very hectic. I have to leave work by 4:45 so I can get home, shower and hit the road to get to the game on time. It will be a late night and then I have to be up early to go to work on Saturday, leave a little early again because we have another hockey game. We have plans to go out to dinner with some friends after the game so it will be another late night. At least I can sleep in a little on Sunday.

Summer, you can come back anytime!



Our weekends will be quite busy now that hockey has started back up. At least 2 weekends of ours are devoted to hockey. But now that the rainy season has arrived and it is getting dark earlier, I won't be able to do much with the horses. I will be back on the Sunday and Monday schedule, as long as the weather holds, which isn't too likely this time of year.

I seriously need that indoor arena!



Hopefully I will have something of more interest to post about in a few days! Have a great weekend everyone!

Where Has Time Gone and Chance Goes For A Ride!

Go, go, go....rush, rush, rush....crazy, crazy, crazy....Breathe Paint Girl, breathe! Seriously, I have no idea where time has gone....I have just been so busy and it has been extremely busy at work getting ready for U.S. Nationals and having photo's taken of the sale horses for our annual sales flyer. Something has been going on everyday and I just can't seem to get a break. I am literally exhausted every night and I have only been on the computer a couple times. I just haven't had the time, nor have I been able to get motivated to get a post typed up. I have also had some computer issues, which really wasn't a computer issue, but my cable company was having issues, so when I finally sat down at the computer, I couldn't get online.

Anyways, I am back. It has been one helluva week. I have been miserable in this humid, rainy weather that we have been having. I feel like I live in a rain forest, but without the snakes, parrots and monkeys!!! Okay, enough complaining from me.

One of the things I have been busy with is that I loaded up Chance and took her for a spin. This was her first "real" trailer ride like a big horse. Last weekend my sister came up and we all went out to play with the girls. It was a rainy, dreary day. Imagine that. (I told you that I live in a rain forest! I'm just sayin'....) While I loaded up Brandy, my OH held onto Chance. You should have seen the look on Chance's face when I came out of the trailer after putting Brandy in there. Her ear's were up, her head held high and her eye's open wide! She was very curious and interested in what was going on.



I took Chance from my OH and headed towards the trailer.



Chance hesitated for a second, I think she was wondering why there was another horse in the trailer.



Then she walked right in. I tied her up and shut the divider.




I shut the doors and my sister and I jumped into the truck. I was just going to go through the neighborhood, but I ended up going up the freeway one exit and then taking a back road home. Every time I stopped, I listened for pawing and scrambling. Nothing. It was so quiet back there that I almost pulled over to check on them to make sure they were okay! I am so used to Fritzy pawing like crazy in the trailer, and it is so loud and irritating. But Chance and Brandy must have been happily munching on their hay, not even moving a muscle.



When I got back to my house, I had to back my horse trailer down the driveway (we back it in so we don't have to back it out when we leave.) This is when Fritzy won't stop pawing. But since I left the impatient horse at home, it was the quietest backup ever. Not.a.sound. Once I got the trailer where it needed to be, I went and opened the doors. Chance had dumped all of her hay out of her hay bag, so she didn't even have anything to eat! I was also expecting her to get a little nervous and possibly be sweaty from the trip. Nope. She was perfectly dry. She didn't appear to be nervous at all. I opened the divider, untied her and walked her out. She seemed a little excitable when I first unloaded her. I am sure she wasn't expecting to be back at the place we just left.

It turned out to be a great trailer ride for Chance, and Brandy was a very good leader in hauling. I am planning on doing a couple more trailer rides in the next couple weeks with Chance and Brandy. Then I will take Chance for a ride, ALONE! I want her to get used to hauling by herself too. That is when she might get a little nervous, but we shall see!!

Thank you for taking picture's of Chance's big day, sis!

I Have A Hitch In My Giddyup!

Gosh darn it. Just when my back has been feeling pretty darn good, it has to go and putz out on me again! I was going to a few Chiro appointments a week, and we had just gotten to a point where we could slow them down to a couple a week, then once every few weeks. I was doing great. My Chiro was very happy with how I was doing, even though I still had pain, but it was very minimal from what it had been. In the last month or two, on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the worst, I had been around a 3. I have constant back pain still, but a 3 is doable. When it was bad, the pain was around an 8, and that is about what I am at today. So I thought I was doing really well.

I had a Chiro appointment next week, but after today, well, I had to call and see if I could go in sooner. None of the Chiro's were in the office today (just my bad luck, again!) so I am going tomorrow after work.

Since the busy show season has slowed down, I haven't been doing as much bending and lifting. Plus we had some extra help at the barn during the summer. Once of our 14 yr old clients was coming in and helping us do turnouts and getting horses ready. That was a huge help. But school started for her, so now it has just been me and another girl, A. We are waiting for a new girl to start next week. Then A, the other girl, got injured the other day. The same ankle injury I had last February, which I still have some problems with. So she didn't work today. I was all alone. And being all alone is not a good thing when you already have a bad back, are shorthanded as it has been and work at a very busy training barn. So my back went out.

By around 2:00 p.m., I was feeling like I had a hitch in my giddyup. I was walking around like my hip was totally out of whack, which it probably is. I even took a prescription Ibuprofen, which I hate taking. Now I know why, it didn't help me at.all. I am in dire need of an adjustment. Such is life..............

Silly Mustang trailer loading update: I wasn't able to continue trailer loading training the day after the first trailer training session due to a torrential downpour. It rained cats and dogs all.day.long. No break whatsoever. So on Wednesday when I got home from work, the day before my back went out, I brought Chance out for another training session. When I climbed into the trailer, Chance put a foot in, backed out, put 2 feet in, backed out, then she walked right on in. She happily munched her hay. I decided to tie her and unhooked the divider. I slowly shut it and I had to push it against her body to get her to move over. She stepped over no problem. I latched it, stood back and watched. At first she was a little worried about what was going on, but she relaxed and was fine standing in the stall and eating her hay. After a few minutes, I opened the divider and untied her and walked her out. We again went back in, I tied her up and shut the divider. She wasn't scared at all. I left her in the stall a little longer that time, then opened it, walked her out and put her back in her pasture. She is getting really good at exiting the trailer. Once I get her turned around, she immediately stops and waits for the next cue. She does not just jump out. This is exactly what I want. Such a smart little Mustang! This weekend I will load up Brandy and Chance and take them for a short drive. I am hoping that Chance will be okay. I am a very overprotective horse owner, probably a little too much sometimes and I will worry the whole time. But I am sure she will be fine. Plus her adoptive mother will be in the trailer with her, so she should handle it easily.

I got to do something at work the other day that I don't think I have ever experienced before. Well, I have, but not quite like this. My boss asked me if I wanted to ride one of our western purebred Arabians. I was like, yeah! She has been shown in junior horse classes (snaffle and bosal), but since she is over age for the junior classes now, she is going to be trained in the bridle (curb). I have ridden a western horse at work, but mostly english (saddleseat) horses, which is funny because I am not an english rider, I am a western rider. Once I got on Angel, my boss gave me a lesson on her. I was in total awe at how well trained she was and how much I need to learn about training a show horse! Even my show horse I had in my youth wasn't this well trained. I used my body to go left or right, there was no need to use the reins. I just had to move my right hip down and over to the left and she would turn to the right. There was so much involved in keeping her collected and straight that I think I was starting to get confused with everything my boss was telling me to do. I jogged and loped both directions, and my boss said I had Angel going nicely the second direction. Goodness! It was a lot of work. But in a good way. Just trying to listen to my boss telling me which leg to use, when to use it, which hip to use and when to use it, push her back together, how to cue her to lope, use this leg, use that leg, use both legs....I was a little confused, plus trying to remember everything he is telling me and figure it all out while I was riding. I think my stirrups were too long, so I felt like my legs were flopping all over. If only I had video of the ride, then I could critique myself! But my boss said I did well, without ever having ridden her before, I didn't have spurs on and she hadn't been worked much at all in 2 months. I sure hope so, because I sure would love to learn how to ride her, the way she is trained and do it all on my own!

I will be back at the end of the weekend for an update on Chance's first trailer ride!

Mustang Trailer Loading......

Now that I did a post on horse trailer accidents, I am going to do a post on training my Mustang to load in a horse trailer! Sure, that silly horse has been in a trailer a few times, but never haltered, led in and hauled like most horses. I had been meaning to get Chance trailer trained properly all summer now, but I just have not had the time.

This morning, my OH asked me what was on our agenda today. I wasn't sure. He said that if we wanted to work on Chance loading in the trailer, we better get it done before it started raining. Whaaatt? Seriously OH? He is such a great guy for pushing me into high gear and getting it done. I was going to start trailer training next week, so my sister could come up and help. But my OH really wanted to start now. So we went out and hooked up the trailer. I was planning on doing the trailer training in our field next to our house. It is not fenced though and I was a little worried about that. So we decided to back the horse trailer all the way up the long run, which is the turnout paddock in between my horses pasture and my sister's horses pasture. That way we could shut the gates at each end and if we had a problem and Chance got away from me, she couldn't go far. Not like I was anticipating a big problem, but you always have to be prepared. You just never know, especially with a horse (baby) that hasn't been in a trailer since she was 6 months old, and that was an experience in itself, getting her in a trailer when she had barely been handled by a human!

I have a 3 horse slant trailer, and I shut the first divider. I filled a hay bag with hay and put it in the middle stall and made sure the other divider was secured open. I opened all the drop down windows to let more light into the trailer, but left the bars shut for safety purposes. Once I backed the trailer up into the long run, and made sure we were on flat ground, I opened up both rear trailer doors. Everything was ready to go. I went and haltered Chance, put on her boots and we were ready to start trailer loading training. My OH was the photographer and took all of the pictures you are about to see.



We walked up to the trailer. She stopped about 5 feet from the trailer and Chance was on total alert. I did not force her to go any further. I wanted her to relax and see this as a good experience, also that the trailer was not going to get her and that using excessive force would only cause more problems. I was not in a hurry.



Chance took a couple steps forward on her own. She was curious about the empty box in front of her.



Between the green grass at her feet and the little bit of leftover hay from my trip on the trailer floor, she stepped forward again. She started to nibble on the leftover hay. I praised her and just let her take her time and relax some more.



Yes, silly Mustang, you will go into the box, and you will love every minute of it!



Before this next picture was taken, I was still standing outside of the trailer, when Chance put a foot into the trailer, all on her own. Once she put a foot in, she back out, turned around and trotted the other direction. I got her under control, let her stand for a second and walked her back up to the trailer. She again, put a foot in, then the other foot, she felt the trailer move and turned and ran away. I again got her under control, walked her back up to the trailer and each time I did this, she became more relaxed and less fearful, although she was never really that fearful of the trailer. By the time I climbed into the trailer, she had already initiated the first steps into the trailer all on her own. I never had to pull her, push her, or use any force whatsoever. So once I got inside of the trailer, she again put a foot in.



Then she put the other foot in. Notice the slack in my lead. I never had to tug on her. I just let her figure it out on her own.



Even if Chance only put her 2 front feet in the trailer and that is all she would have done, I would say that would have been a very successful trailer loading session. But oh no, Chance was not done. She wanted in that big, white box! All of a sudden, she puts a rear foot in, all on her own.



Then the last hind foot came in. Tada! Chance was in the trailer! She wasn't in there for long when she decided that she wanted out, so she spun around and ran out the door. But that is okay. We did it again, and each time she went in with all fours, she stayed in a little longer. I praised her up and down for being such a big girl. I could have stopped there with the training session since it was going so well.



But she found the hay bag with hay, and decided she wanted to eat for a bit. At first she would take a bite, then turn and run out of the trailer. But she would go right back in, and each time she would take more bites of hay before she wanted out. (I was in the trailer with Chance, but I backed out very slowly. I did not want to be in a bad position if Chance decided to turn and run out again.)



She finally decided that being in the trailer wasn't bad at all. She got to eat and I was right there to tell her that she was fine and a good girl. At this point, she would have probably stayed in there and finished off that flake of hay. But I wanted to end this lesson on a good note, by getting her out of the trailer on my terms, not hers.



I went into the trailer with her to slide her butt over to the right, so I could turn her around and walk her out (I will eventually teach her to back out of the trailer, but for now I want her to be comfortable with the trailer and felt walking her out in the forward position was best) her butt hit the divider on the other side and it spooked her, so she came flying out of the trailer. I told my OH that I wanted to do it one more time. I knew that she could walk out of the trailer calmly.



Chance looks like a little pony in the trailer!



I led Chance back into the trailer, and as she went to eating hay, my OH went and took the above picture from the outside and I just petted Chance and told her she was a good girl. She was so relaxed. I then moved her butt over without hitting the divider and we turned around, we whoa'd and waited before we jumped out of the trailer. Here we are before the big exit.



Now this is what I call a very successful trailer loading training session! I never shut the other divider, nor did I tie her in the trailer. This lesson was all about Chance getting into the trailer and being relaxed in there. Tomorrow we will have another lesson, and if all goes well, I might shut the divider. We will see. Next weekend Chance will go on her first drive in the trailer, a short drive through my neighborhood. I haven't decided yet, but I might put Brandy in the trailer with Chance for her first "drive" while being tied and with the divider's shut. I think it will help keep her calm. Brandy is a good hauler and I think she would be the best one to do this with Chance.

I know a lot of people take a much different approach to get their horses to load for the very first time, shut them in and take off down the road. We do that at work. But I want to do things slowly and not rush anything. I have never had a horse that won't load (except when Fritzy had some issue's about being up on the wall of the trailer) and I don't want to have any problems in the future. I have all the time in the world, so I will take my time and hopefully this silly Mustang will never give me any problems trailer loading!