June 28, 2008

Things have been going so very well with my mustang, that I got the wild idea to take her on an outing. I was thinking I would take her with me out to the farm over July 4th. We've got a round pen out there that we can move under some shade, and she'll be just fine for an overnight. To this end, I've been really working on the leading and working up to taking this little girl out of her pen. Mark told me I should be sure that I'm really leading her, not just her following me, so I've been working on turning into her and making her come round. In the pen it seems to be working great.

This afternoon I decided that while I was still sweaty from riding, I should try taking Billie out of her pen and see how that goes. She's been really wonderful so far, right?

I put the halter and long lead rope on her as usual. I opened the gate and stoood at the opening with her--not usual. She wanted OUT! I made her wait. I think that I led the way out the gate. Billie kind of took over from there. She was keyed up right away. My thought was "do not let that lead rope get too long!" I kept it short and kept her head my way. This was too exciting for me. We'd made it about 20 feet from the gate, and all I wanted was to get her back inside the pen. She let me lead her back to the gate, even keyed up as she was, and we got back inside. I kept her head by me, keeping her hind end away. I unsnapped the lead and made a bee-line for the gate. I got it closed before she could make it out again. SHE WAS MAD ABOUT THAT, I think.

She came up to me at the gate and I was able to get the halter off, no problem. Then she started snorting, shaking her head around, bucking, kicking, and more for what seemed 5 minutes. She made direct hits to the pen panels a couple of times. She's not happy about this, or maybe she just got keyed up getting out of the pen and not sure what to expect.

My heart was pounding in my head.

I stayed out there till she seemed her quiet self again. I definitely need some more help/guidance next attempt.