Well I am in no mans land again. Every new mustang I feel like there is a huge learning curve. They never just train like a domestic horse. They are way better at somethings and way slower on others. I have done a lot but I was only able to ride them every other day this week due to my wacky schedule. At the beginning of the week I pulled up the Mustang Million trainer group on Facebook, which I try not to do because it discourages me. It make the process way more competitive then it should be. You see people roping cow, jumping obstacles and all kinds of other amazing things. It makes you want to hurry or give up one of the two. When in reality it is a snap shot of how the horse is kinda doing. It is very distracting. So that being said I opened a video of a trainer that has been a good friend to me. She is the one that won Reserve Champion last year and is unbelievably talented. In her video she started loping her horse (this years mustang) around bridle less and as she finished her perfect circle (Yes, a circle bridle less!) the horse came to a sliding stop. I was like "really" ???? Then it showed her at liberty (no tack on her horse) in the arena and the girl would run on foot as fast as she could and call her mustang by name and the horse would run to her no matter where she was. I reminded myself that was what I was competing against. After a small pity party I realized how she might have trained the horse to come to her on foot. Knowing that she rarely uses cookies or treats I kinda thought it through. So the next day I ran out of time to ride another horse, so I pulled out Sunday and released her in the arena. She ran around a few minutes and I started working with my theory. Within minutes Sunday faced me and ran directly to me. That lead to me running backwards and forwards around the pen and she was right on me the whole time. No halters needed. I had achieved what I wanted. I was encouraged by that day that I am competing against some brilliant and inventive trainers but with the right motivation to go outside my box I can do things like that too. Since then I try not to short change myself.
The next day I pulled out Sable to ride her. She had a moment of defiance while saddling. It wasn't the breast collar this time. It was tightening the saddle. She figured out that I use to hands to pull my latigo and when I would pull she would run forward. I corrected her and haven't had an issue since. Riding Sable has done amazing. She is so "normal" that I never feel like she is interesting. But I am really learning to trust her. I have ridden in the big round pen on everyone recently but that is mainly because it is shaded in the morning. I hope to get her in the arena this week. She is very soft. She is moving shoulders and hips fairly well and has a HUGE stop. I am really excited about her.
Sunday is different. I have had a very hard time progressing on her. She is fine on the ground but very unstable in the saddle. I feel like if I breathe wrong she will bust open and start to buck. I say that but she bumped the fence with her hip yesterday and all she did was jump. To make it even tougher she is having a lot of trouble in the bit. She can't seem to find were her tongue goes and all my tricks to fix it haven't really worked. She fusses with it the whole time I am riding her. So yesterday after not getting anything done for about 10 minutes I got frustrated and pulled the bridle off and put my halter back on. I tied the lead back to the halter and got on. I started to ride her around and realized she knew how to turn, move her shoulders and hips and stop with the halter alone. She was very soft and manageable. She is still a little worried about my movements in the saddle. I will be really glad when she gets over that. I came in and started looking at what it might take to ride her in a bosal instead of a bridle. After checking on what I needed I ordered one today and can't wait til it gets here. I will continue in the halter until then.
So once again the mustangs have forced me to broaden my skills and learn something I have never learned before. Sable is working on my seat and my stops and Sunday is going to teach me how to correctly use a bosal and bitless bridles. As I look back though my life I can remember lessons that my horses have taught me through out the years. Wildfire was my first horse. He taught me what a good horse feels like, because of him I have never owned a bad horse. He was patient while I learned horses and barrels. He taught me to quench my fear. Katie was my next horse. I rode her for almost a year and she ducked off the second barrel every time, every weekend. After attending Josey's summer school I learned to hold my balance and ride her correctly. She taught me that it is never the horses fault, and you can always ride better. Perfectionism was born in my life. She taught me persistance, perfect practice, and to never give up. The years to come were epic. I won more then I could imagine and this was before the 4D was invented. Katie taught me what it was to win. Then came my love, Star, I bought her when she was 2 years old. I think I was 10 years old. She was started but I had to train her and finish her. She was my first horse to train. It took me three years to get her finished to the point that we were running. She got to the 1D and we never looked back. She is still in my pasture today, retired of coarse. Between Katie and Star I ran youth rodeo until my freshman year in high school. I won a lot of titles and money those years. They taught me how to maintain horses that were athletes. That freshman year I was forced to start riding another horse due to Star's health. It was a professional horse that belonged to a friend, Sage. We matched perfect from day one. I rarely lost a rodeo or barrel race for a year and a half, always in the top placing. I bought him after the first twelve months. Sophomore year, He had an injury to his hip. I went from never losing to struggling to place. Sage taught me that a champion is a way of life not a title that you win. He taught me that you don't need a title to prove who you are. He got better and earned me a scholarship, but never ran the same. While I was running Sage I was training a young mare, Diamond. She was a very large horse and extremely spooky. She was the poster child of a HOT horse. She is the one that taught me patiences. She taught me to do things the natural way. She taught me how to keep a horse from blowing up and how important it was to gain their mind and trust. She taught me how important it was to have a bond. She was by far my greatest challenge to that point, but was a great teacher. I owned her 12 years. She went though thick and thin with me. She went to college in Louisiana to California and back to Texas with me. She was my sanity and my closest friend though many tough years. Sunday reminds me of her. Manna is my current barrel horse and he has taught me to just have fun and to never judge a book by his cover. Funnest horse I have owned in a while and the ugliest too :). The mustangs have revolutionized my professional life I can't tell you what they have taught me and where they are taking me. I owe Spade a ton. He has been my greatest teacher. Now that I am training many colts a month each one teaches me little things here and there. They are why I am a better person and I am convinced that God has a training plan for me spiritually and professionally. Jer 29:11 And it is HIM that sends me the right horses at the right time to teach me in both areas of my life. Currently He is working on my trust. Sometimes it is important to stop and look where we have come from to remember where we are going. I am thankful that God has always had his hand on me in what I do. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen. Heb 11:1 Faith is what activates God in our lives. I have faith that God is moving me in the right direction. This week I have learned that you don't have to trust your horse or trust in people, you just have to trust in God and He will make the paths straight.
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