The Background Story

So this is my first blog; please excuse any weirdness about it!

I applied and was selected as one of 200 trainers to compete int he 2008 Extreme Mustang Makeover. I saw the ad in Western Horseman magazine, and off I went to apply! And now here I am, accepted (who'd have thunk it?) and with my assigned Mustang, who I have dubbed Mr. Nine. So far I have been featured on the local news station (KNAZ Channel 2) in their "Someone 2 Know" section, which was filmed before I left to pick Nine up. More recently the local newspaper, the Arizona Daily Sun, sent out a journalist who did an interview and took pictures; according to her, me and Nine will be featured on the front page of Tuesday's paper. I will keep my eyes peeled.

I picked Nine up at the Pauls Valley Wild Horse & Burro Adoption Center on Friday the 13th in June. The loading ticket announced my horse's tag number is 9007, and as 007 agent James Bond is nothing like the sweet, gentle, level-headed animal I found in the trailer, I went with Nine as a name. My reasoning is that by calling him by a number I might be able to say goodbye in September a little easier. We drove almost strait through back to Arizona, only stopping to rest the horse, and usually eating and/or taking bathroom breaks when we were stopped anyways. Nine unloaded like a dream when we got home at 5 AM, then had two days off to rest his stiff legs. I was touching him and putting a rope around his neck by the second day. I had a halter on him shortly after. I got a saddle on him by day four, but while adjust the saddle I didn't undo the cinch all the way, and Nine moved, causing the saddle to slip underneath him. As anyone with any horse knowledge can tell you, this was bad. I took my time from there, just working him on leading (which is still having trouble with; he does NOT want to be next to me! He will follow along behind fine, but no proper leading yet), round pen work, even lunging, and also sacking out and started on picking his feet up.

Then this past weekend I got a saddle back on him. I threw it up on him again and again until he would stand with out flinching. However, while cinching up the leather latigo stuck to itself, and jerking it freaked Nine out, so naturally he spooked and the saddle found itself once again underneath the belly of a barely tamed 1,000 pound thing with hooves. Luckily Nine has learned to trust me a bit in the past several weeks, and he stopped and turned to me after just s few rounds in the pen. I couldn't un-stick the stupid latigo, so unbuckled it from the off side. I got the blanket and rubbed Nine down with it so we could at least end with a reasonable note as far as the blanket is concerned. I haven't worked with him since, as I have been watching my daughter, but while feeding he has been acting normal, so I don't think he is holding a grudge. I will try again on Tuesday when Elayne, my daughter, goes back to the baby sitter. This time I will use an English saddle that has no latigo.