September 18, 2008

I am exhausted. We got back to the room a bit ago, and I got to have a little nap. It felt like dead sleep. Now we head back to the place for schmoozing with the press and the talent show.

Charles was a giant help today. He's getting into leading Miss Billie around and seems unfazed enough that she can relax and show her good girl side.

Our competition was today; we survived. Charles took her out while I went to the walk-through meeting. The course was no big deal, and we got to talk with the judges and ask questions. My turn was posted at the very end (3rd from last), so I figured I could watch a few. It's amazing how entering a huge arena with a lone baby horse changes the angel at the end of the lead into something else. Lots of "mistakes" were happening, some from nervous handlers (thank goodness I'm not the only one) and a bunch from nervous whinnying yearlings. About 10 into the list came two really good trips. Nice to see. I want to emulate, right?

Charles met me in the arena with a good report on Billie. After a bit, we headed over to the barn to check on her and start to get ready. That's when I heard the announcement that my ring was doing away with the list, and please just come when you are ready. Crap. So I got dressed in my nicer duds, pulled the boots on, brushed the horse out (no bath, thank you) and we made our way to the same arena we practiced in last night. There is a warm-up area right there and we went in. This was no angel on the end of my lead. She lunged a little, fitting a few bucks in, mostly trotting, mostly to the right. She managed a few piaffs, just to keep me on my toes. The best ones came while I was trotting her around the warm-up area. I then decided to head down for our body conditioning score, since everybody had left the warm-up area and this might be part of our behaviour issue. She seemed to settle a little, but started pawing pawing pawing. What does that mean? She want to roll, roll, roll. In the warm-up area, I finally saw someone else's yearling roll. Hurray! It's not just mine!

Billie stood for about half of our conditioning scoring time. I think they will count off for fidgets. Then we had to wait a bit more to actually go into the ring. I took her outside to the concrete, thinking that this would keep her from wanting to roll. Every time she'd paw, I'd make a right-hand turn (one of our maneuvers). By this time, the butterflies were roiling. I felt like I was going to hyperventilate. But I need to present this little filly like we just got offered a million bucks, right?

We headed in for our turn. This started out okay. I went to the first cone; we paused till acknowledged by the judges (I remembered). Then we walked toward the stock trailer to load and unload (our one good trick). Billie was breathing so hard, so I kept saying good girl, good girl. We turned to make the trailer approach, I stepped up, she paused like she does, she sniffed, she put one front hoof, she put the other front hoof, she stopped. She started to heave herself onto the trailer. She stopped. She backed off the trailer. Oops. I invited her again to join me in the trailer. She said "no thank you" and made to back away, a new trick. Oops. So I decided we were nixing the rest of the trailer load/unload. We walked to the next cone. We made our 360 turn to the right. It was not our best, but she was worried. We stopped. This was the time to pick up feet. I picked up LF. I went to pick up LH--she moved. Tried again and got it. I went to her RF. She waddled away, but I got it. She was having none of RH, moving moving moving, so I just ran my hand down her leg to show I know that's what I'm supposed to do. Somewhere in this maneuver, she ended up in the air, but we continued on.

Next, we trot. We are headed over the low jump, then through a serpentine of cones. I think we made it over the jump (maybe she walked while I trotted?) and she was trotting when we entered the cones. Then she was airborn again and having a fit. Continue continue use the energy yada yada. I bailed at this point and decided that we would walk the rest, if we could trot we would. We walked to the box; she was leaning in on me as I was pushing out on her. She kind of turned the 90 degrees, kind of backed and turned into the chute. Definitely walked out of the chute. We were supposed to trot a curved set of poles over to the exit poles. We started to trot, and she started to leap, so we finished with a walk.

I was in tears as we exited, not in disappointment, I don't think, but sheer terror. Charles took her over from me and she quietly led back to the barn.

Later, another gal told me that they gave up on the list since so many had to scratch, not being able to get to the arena in the first place. I'm shocked. At least we made it there. I spoke with one of our judges, Ken McNabb, and he told me to consider that at least I was out there working to make the mustang accessible. It doesn't matter how my trip went. He said some other things, too, to help me to see where I should be proud of my job done, and I am. It's nice to have it put in perspective: an untouched animal 100 days ago trusts me quite a bit today. It's not perfect, but I have no experience and am learning as I go. It's really a great thing.

September 17, 2008

We've had a lot of good work since the clinic in Marble Falls. Monday, I realized that I probably should try lunging Billie since I'd not done that yet, and with her staying in a stall for a few days it might be a good skill to have under our belt. Bev helped me with this on Monday. I nearly had a heart attack, too. Way too exciting for my likes. Bev handled the first part of getting her going around on the lunge line. Okay, really, Bev handled the wild maniac at the end of the lunge line till she settled down, then she turned her over to me. Something about using the energy that's there. Whatever.

I'm still having trouble directing this excess energy that Billie creates. No, really, it's gotten better, my reaction to it, but it's still coming out. What can I say...she's a horse.

I lunged her in all corners of the ring, till finally she had no more energy left. Then, she had to roll in the sand at the end of my lunge line. Not funny. But no exploding horse as I ended up with Sunday.

Don't you know, this morning we loaded her up to head to Ft. Worth. She was pretty good loading. Then the long ride in the trailer. Still good. Then unloading in Ft. Worth. Amazingly good horse. Sure, she looked around, had a startle or two, but really an absolutely trusting horse. After a bit we headed over to get her brand checked. They ended up shaving the hairs above the brand, and now it stands out really nicely. She was actually pretty good with the clippers! After, I took her in a practice ring to lunge. She was so hard to get going. I kept having the feeling that the little smartie-pants was getting ready to roll. Know what? She did! How embarrassing! One gal on horseback laughed and not too nicely. She quickly apologized, but big deal. We survived, and no exploding horse, thank God. She spooked periodically at the weird noises, yada yada, but generally seemed to relax.

I put her back into her stall, fed her, brushed her, then headed over for the marathon trainer meeting. Later, I took her over to our arena for a practice session, or should I say the practice session from hell? Let's see...it was crowded...some trainers were lunging/reprimanding/showing off in the arena. Then, some fool was moving chairs that scraped acrosss the concrete. Next, the same fool was dragging a heavy metal table/stand across same concrete. It's so much fun to have a bucking horse at the end of a lunge line while the other fools are lunging/reprimanding their horses right behind you...NOT. A bit later, some crackling noise, maybe a pop-gun? went off--Billie ran almost over me, made me fall, I did not loose the line, and she did a nice bring-the-hind and then came back to me as I got back up. Ouch. Oh, yeah, she rolled...again...what a pain. Some nice old guy tried to make me feel better (again, someone was laughing rudely) by telling me that Billie must feel very comfortable/trusting in my presence in order to feel comfortable enough to roll in this strange environment with all these horse around. Whatever. So, I'll try to take this as a pseudo-compliment. To ice our cake of a crappy warm-up (yes, there WERE some good moments), Billie flipped out while trotting over a raised pole (I didn't notice what the impetus was) and ran over me, slipped out of my hands, and was loose in the arena. Yikes. Of course, she circled back to me and wanted me to take up the lead again. What a baby. My goose is cooked. I'm really not having so much fun.

Oh, and I found out tonight that I go 68 in a total of 70 competitors. Isn't that fun? The event starts at 8am with the walk through with the judges. Great. Actually, this should give me lots of time to watch a lot of the others, learn the course, and lunge my maniac mustang. A good thing, right? Of course. Maybe I can get her to roll before we head into the arena. I can hope.

September 1, 2008

I am exhausted and as red as a lobster.

We took Billie to a clinic today that was geared toward folks participating in this mustange makeover. We learned so much! The basics were covered. We also got exposed to SO MUCH SCARY STUFF! Charles took pictures, and I will try to get these uploaded in the next few days. After today, I feel really good about how things will be in Ft. Worth. We've got lots of practice on our basics to get in still, and lots of scary things we need to find out about, but overall, I feel we'll be just fine.

Of course, it was dark when we left the house, and I forgot to put on my sunscreen, and then when I was out in the arena shading my eyes, realized I didn't have my hat on either. ARGH! The big shocker was seeing myself in the mirror when I got home--red red red.

August 30, 2008

I'm thinking that I probably will take Billie to Ft. Worth. Somebody gets to win the big bucks, and maybe it will be us. Monday there is a mustang clinic in Marble Falls--might be worth taking her.

We've been traveling around the outside of the pen the last few days. Mostly she is unconcerned about anything but getting to eat grass. This morning I learned that the caliche drive in front of our house bothers her feet. We'll try that again tomorrow.

Also tomorrow, I'm planning to work with Bev again. I'll take Billie over to Switch Willo and see what fun stuff she's been doing next door. Christy should be on hand and can show off Billie's tricks to me!

August 27, 2008

I've spent some time each day since Bev's visit on Monday taking Billie outside the pen. It's no big deal anymore. It helps that I trimmed the tree outside the gate so I do not have to duck anymore.

Christy took Billie over to the stables again today, and tells me that Billie was a Super-Star. They walked and trotted over poles, an X, and a gate. They even put a scary saddle pad across the X and she still went over it!

I'm planning to meet up with them on Sunday and see how it's done!

August 25, 2008

Yes, a very exciting day all around!

This morning when I went out to check on/feed/clean up Billie's pen, I opened the gate between the pens. Usually I leave this open, but we've had a bit of rain and I didn't want the footing to get real yucky, so I'd closed her out of the round pen for a few days. Billie was excited, mainly because in the interim, choice green shoots had made their way to the surface and dotted the round pen. She had a good time making her way around the pen sucking up juicy morsels. The perimeter had some good stuff too, so she stuck her head under the panels trying to get to that.

Yesterday morning I had a little scare. I was standing outside the pen gate, on my way back in. I think I had her feed in hand. Billie stuck her head through the gate panels as she sometimes does (which I hate), but this time when she started to bring her head back in, she had turned it and was stuck! OMG! I let go of the gate, and it swung in with her. She quickly got her head free, and it turned out to be no big deal. Funny, though, that she has not stuck her head through the panel since. Ha! Good lesson. Lucky pony!

So back to this morning...I used the opportunity of Billie being in the round pen to hang her Blocker bolt (for tying). We "chatted" a bit more, and then I went inside the house.

After a bit, I was feeling guilty, thinking that this poor little girl needs a bit of work. I'd neglected working her the last few days since I'd taken Decker to the horse show the past weekend. I headed out of the house, but before I could take two steps out the door, I saw that Billie was entertaining herself! She was running and bucking in the round pen! She'd make a circuit, then run into the small pen and stop. Next, she'd dash back out to the round pen and kick and buck some more. I saw her repeat this 5 or 6 times. What a hoot to see!

After a while more, I decided that I really should work her, so I made my way into the pen with all my "tools"--the bamboo pole and the stock whip. She was up for a bit of fun. I made her walk each direction, turn in toward me, and walk on some more. She was so hard to get going! She a Decker both are so NOT worried about me! Billie kept turning in toward me, licking her lips, as if to let me know that all she wanted to do was to play follow-the-leader. Well, we did that, too.

This evening as I was driving into the driveway, it dawned on me that I really do not have to take Billie to Ft. Worth. I decided last week that I'm going to keep her afterall. Why do I need the stress of Ft. Worth?

I feel like a slacker, though. I've not made up my mind about it!

I talked with Bev this evening, too. And in talking with her, got to face up to some of my worries. And then, of course, had to go act on them! I put my boots on and headed out to the pen one more time. Bev came over, too, which gave me something more to work on when Billie acted scared. We/I handled it! I took it as a training op! Good for me!

Next, Bev moved the junk from in front of the gate, and Billie and I went outside! We lived! Yippee! We had to repeat this a bunch of times, and it got better each time. We had to have "discussions" to go back inside the pen, but, hey, we lived! Billie even got caught up in the hose strewn across that area, and she handled it so well--it was no biggie--I love this horse! Bev helped point out where I needed to be a bit more abrupt in my corrections, and geez does this pony pay attention. It amazes me that the more she has to focus, the calmer she gets. Bev thinks it's because she feels comfortable knowing she can defer the leadership to the handler, and I'd have to agree.

At this point, I told Bev I needed to be able to trot Billie in hand, so we made a stab at this. Truely, Billie had no clue what I was doing--was I inviting to play? Did she need to run away? Did she need to rear? What was I doing? We kind of got the hang of a very ugly in-hand trot. Now I want to get a nice one going, with a nice float in the lead.

To end the evening, I tied Billie to the Blocker bolt. I was SO worried about this! So I looped the rope through, leaving her a little float to her head. She checked it out this way and that. She even tried to turn and pull away. It's amazing to me to be able to watch as she is thinking this through. She'd stand with a bit of pressure, then step up and release the pressure herself. She kept checking it out. After a few minutes, I picked a point so that the next time she stepped up and released her pressure and stood still, I would release her, and I did--end of lesson. Only one time did she pull enough slack that I felt the need to re-set the rope. Of course, next time, she may have more tricks up her sleeve. Next time, I'll let her check it out for a few minutes more.

Big day, huh?

August 22, 2008

This weekend, I'm at a horse show. I had seriously considered bringing Billie, but have had all sorts of things come up the last three shows which caused me to not be able to go to them, that I decided to focus on MY show and not take the mustang. At this last Summer Circuit show each season, there is a hunter breeding class for yearlings. It's not that I'm really considering Billie for hunters that I was thinking of taking her, it was the experience of getting her away from home. But I've not attempted trailer-loading her or even tying her yet, so opted not to take her.

I got to watch the yearling event today, though. Who knows how she'd have done? And when it started, this giant gust of wind hit and made a lot of the horses bonkers.

This morning, I put a log in the round pen with Billie. I was thinking that each time I looked out at her, she was hanging out on the other side of the pen. Surely she was not afraid of it?! I went out later and had her approach me at that side, then step over the pole, and she was fine. She must have just been sunning herself!

I found out today that for the event, we need these basics: walk in hand, trot in hand, back up, walk over poles, pick up feed, and trailer load. I expect we'll have more than this to demo, but we have most of these down. Next week I'll try trotting in hand in the pen. I'm not sure when we'll try the trailer-loading--hopefully not the day we are trying to leave!