Cathy made me do this!!

Ok, so following the "advise" or possibly "orders" of others I have decided to venture into the world of blogging to encourage myself to Git R Done. No idea how frequent the updates will be..but I will try.

My Goals.....Mwahahaha

Diva - just get out and ride! Teaching her to neck rein and pony another horse would be nice.
Piper - lots of wet saddle blankets, steering is a biggie and I'd love to get her out on some trail rides.
Aspen - 1) Groundwork basics in prep for riding, 2) saddle up and ride.
Seven - As long as I'm doing groundwork with Aspen I'd like to get Seven the basics
Lyric - Finish her gentling, halter training, leading and feet handling.
Jillian - Probably the same regime as Seven. basic groundwork in prep for saddle training next spring.

And the Victims.......

The Cast of Characters:

Diva aka Boss Mare: 13 yr Kiger mare that runs the show. She keeps the rest of the mob in line and is my dependable trail horse.

I purchased Diva when she was 4 and I was just getting back into riding after about a 20 year absence. Diva had 30 days of training as a 3 yr old then sat for a year before I bought her. My friend laughed her head off at me cause I kept saying "But she's broke." to which she replied "30 days is NOTHING!" I'm afraid to say she was right.
It's been a long haul but we've come a long way. Built a bit like a barrel I often find myself riding her ears going downhill and her tail going uphill. She still doesn't neck rein, and our favorite speed is mosey along. She could give lessons on snatch and grab snacking on the trails...she's so smooth you don't realize she's doing it. Has the most comfortable smooth gaits (when we venture out of the walk), and is the sweetest mare that and I can put kids and beginners on to plod around the arena with no fear.

Piper aka the Pink Horse:

Adopted as a PMU weanling in 2003 from Foal Quest, Piper is 1/2 Shire and 1/2 paint and some other stuff. Very laid back and the biggest of the mob at about 15.2H (and still growing I think). Piper had 30 days of training when she was 3, sat a year and then I took her to a Jon Ensign Colt starting clinic. She has that nothing phases me draft mentality and is very much a pocket pony...if a 1/2 draft can be considered a pony!
She can be a little stubborn under saddle, and knows she's stronger. So our biggest challenge is steering...going where I want to go and not check out the sights she wants to see. So far she has only been ridden in a round pen or arena.

Aspen: 4 yr Kiger mare. Very sweet and very short, probably right at the 14 hand mark...but...there's hope. She is butt high! Mustangs seem to grow up till their 5th and 6th year...not a lot but teeny tiny amounts. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for just 2 or 3 more inches.

You can't tell from this picture, but she is considered the Beauty Queen of the bunch by most the folks who see her. She is one of the first to great you in the field and is an attention hog. Because she is so small I have put off starting her under saddle. She has filled out a lot over the past year so this is her summer for training.....yeah right

Seven: Ahhhh Seven, she is the filly I waited for for 6 years. She's 3 yr Kiger mare out of Diva. Sweet like her mother but also on the short side like Aspen at the moment. She seems to put all her energy into growing mane and tail.

Should have named this one Rapunzel.

Seven is probably around 13.3 and still growing. Her mama is 14.3 and daddy 14.2 so I'm hoping Seven will get to that 14.3 mark.
Seven was my problem baby and has contributed to many of my grey hairs! She was born looking like a concentration camp refugee...all tiny and skinny while mama Diva was a blimp! Where was her baby fat???
She plumped up fairly quickly and then one day at about a week old I come into the stall and she's laying there like she's dead. I had opened the door to the outside run and Diva just left her...saw my other mare with her foal and proceeded to steal it. Not good! Now I have what I think is a dead foal in one stall, a screaming foal trapped by Diva and an anxious mama wanting her foal back. Panicked call to the vet answering machine... "I THINK MY FOAL IS DYING OR DEAD, WHAT DO I DO???!!!" Get the who belongs to who mess sorted out while waiting for a call back from the vet and call all my horse friends in a panic HELP HELP!!! Go back to Seven who's now awake in the stall and can't figure out where her mama is. Call back the vet...she's awake now but lethargic. Friend shows up we do refill tests on her gums and watch her she seems to be ok. Vet calls asks some questions has no clue and says observer her call back if she doesn't improve. Within a half hour she's charging around like a race horse....crisis averted.
Fast forward about 10 days. Diva and Seven are now allowed out in their pasture area 24 x 7 with access to their stall. I come by to feed and Seven is laid out on her side with this HUGE red nasty looking thing on her belly. Another panicked call to the vet... "IT LOOKS LIKE HER NAVEL SPLIT OPEN AND I THINK HER GUTS ARE COMING OUT!!!!" Upon closer examination she had some sort of oozing abscess or wound on her udder. Call back the vet a little calmer... and say ok not her guts but there's some sort of wound and puss and icky stuff coming out of her. sigh
I am usually not one to panic, but Seven is my dream baby. Waited 6 years to get a filly by this particular stallion who in about 11 years of breeding has only thrown 7 filly's to date. And you gotta love a vet that takes calls like that in stride. Best we can guess at is that she probably got bitten by something (wolf spider?) the day she was laid out and that the bite abcessed and burst.

Lyric aka Kiger McDreamy: Yearling Kiger filly adopted in Nov 2007. She is still not completely gentled but coming along nicely. She will be tall (15+ range...tall for a mustang), is English moving and very elegant looking with the most gorgeous kind eyes.
She is a real thinker. Unfortunately I think she is going to be smarter than I am when it comes to training. She watches and watches you. Bolder than the colt that came in with her she is now eating grain, taking grass from hand and allowing small touches to the face/mouth area. I have started some round pen training, controlling direction, inside turn, outside turn, turn and face, approach and retreat. We are getting close to that real first contact.
I have always wanted on straight from the wild and am very pleased with this girl. However the gentling process is taking much longer than I had hoped for due to only being able to go see her at her BLM approved holding home on weekends.

Jillian aka ???: We'll see when I meet her. She is a grade QH type 2 yr mare rescued from a feedlot 6/10/08. More info to follow once I get to know her.

The Peanut Gallery: Rookie, Xena, Merlin and Meri and Pippin (or the two tiny fur covered terrorists as I fondly refer to them). The sole goal of my cats is to ensure that I DO NOT get any sleep at night!
Rookie is now at the ripe old age of 17 and pretty much has reverted to a sleeping bed potato. Her ploy is to continually bump my arm and meow at me all night so I will pet her.
Xena just insists on curling up as close to my head as she can get and tickling my face with her tail all night long.
Merlin, well Merlin is just a trouble maker....and he drools when he purrs. He tries to lay on the top of the pillow and purr...drooling into my hair ICK!!! Constant battle to keep him away from my head.
The terrorists were the survivors of an abandoned litter that I was convinced to take in, hand raise and find homes for. After $300 in vet bills they became permanent residents. When they aren't wrestling on the bed, attacking my feet, burrowing under the covers or pestering the older cats, Meri is pacing across my chest and then staring at me and slapping my cheek with her paw, Pippin turns the purr volume to LOUD and then licks the end of my nose. There is no such thing as a snooze button any longer. Alarm goes off and my entire body becomes a trampoline.
Lock them out of the bedroom you say??? Not after you see the mess they make when unsupervised!

Meri and Pippin respectively, the "Terrorists"

Other supporting characters: Several fish, 2 rats and an EX I can't get rid of!