Marty the Mustang

Ahem, hello.  My first real blog I intend to keep up on.  The Chestnut with the flaxen mane (second to the last horse) is my new mustang I just adopted from Boise Idaho Wild Horse Corrals.  A herd of about 200 mustang yearlings came from Ely, Nevada and they have been corralled since August of 2011.  My new mustang was originally named Martha because the BLM folks (Bureau of Land Management) thought she was a mare.  She was pretty furry at the time and by the time they got her in a chute and trimmed her feet and gave her shots, they soon realized she was a colt so she was gelded too.  However the BLM folks kept calling her Martha due to her beautiful long eyelashes.  I couldn't sway too far from that name so I gave her the boy name of Marty (with a "Y").  Now Marty is home with me on my 10 acres sitting in a round pen acting as perfect as can be!  They haltered him and put a rope on him and 2 young girls came and delivered him directly to my round pen!  This involved maneuvering their horse trailer through a rocky pasture and removing panels from the round pen to make a makeshift "chute" to turn him in.  I was pretty impressed with these two girls!  Thanks Ruby and Shelby!

So, yesterday, I was so beside myself with excitement, I spent as much time as I could just sitting in the round pen with Marty and talking to him and chasing him a little around the pen.  I was able to get his rope a few times but he freaked and I lost it each time I had it.  I found out today from Shelby when she e-mailed me as to what to do to get started.....she said never ever let him get away from you or he will learn that habit.  Dang it!  Did I mess up with him already!  Good Lord!

June 18, 2012
Yesterday I didn't even try to grab the rope but I also got a John Lyons book (for my kindle) and took my tablet out in the corral and read Chapter 1 out loud to Marty.  I think we have the gist of it.  John Lyons says this ground training takes 5 days.  As much as I'd love to get him out of that corral and leading good, I will take a lot more days then that to do this project.  Plus I work  four 10 hour days so I will be getting most of the training in on my 3 days off.  It was 98 degrees yesterday but we did do a bit of Chapter 1 which is lunging the horse to the right and left and moving toward their head at a diagonal to get them to turn inside the round pen (toward you).  John Lyons says to make your horse do this 2000 times before you move to the next step.  Between today and yesterday, he's done it 8 times.  We're on a roll!  Maybe he'll be 3 years old by the time we get to Chapter 2!
Just got a message from a trainer at Hidden Valley Paints Ranch (where my dear friend Sabrina lives).  I will shower and get in my fastest car and head over there to see her in action!

Need you even ask......?  In case you can't see it, the bumper sticker says "My other Mustang is a Horse".


Well I just got back from Sabrinas and met the two mustangs yearlings that were picked up on the same day I got Marty.  I was totally taken by surprise when I saw them; they looked groomed, shaved, and were as friendly as ever.  I petted them both all over and then got pissed off because I can't even TOUCH my mustang yet.  I really don't want to hurry things but WHAT UP MAN!?  As I was leaving Sabrina's, the trainer of the mustangs took it's halter off as I watched it follow her around like a puppy!!  %^&$@$*!!
So this trainer will be coming to my place tomorrow after work to see what we can do to at least be able to TOUCH Marty!  I sat next to his hay while he ate tonight but I still couldn't touch him.  I understand that he needs to trust me and I'm not going to be impatient.  But Come ON......Really?  What's it gonna take?!

June 19, 2012 (Day 4)

The 'Mustang Whisperer' was supposed to come and help me touch my horse tonight after work, but she couldn't make it.  A little bummed, I poured a glass of wine and sat next to Marty's feed bowl (outside the round pen) and decided if he wanted any supper, he was gonna have to let me pet him.  I sat out there for four hours.   He did a little stomping  and his ears were back. He was really hungry!  He left me several times and hung out at the other side of the pen.   When I did try to force my hand to him, he tried to bite me a few times but I couldn't tell if it was out of anger or just hoping there would be some food in that hand!  He watched the neighbor man irrigating for a long time.  The neighbor came over and started petting him!!!  What the?!  I said, "Neighbor, I haven't even got that far yet!".  My neighbor quietly said, "I think he likes soft voices".  What was he insinuating anyway?  So after the neighbor left, and Marty watched him for 30 some minutes pining for him till he was out of sight, he came over again to see if there was any food in this bowl.  I decided I would be quiet for a change and in about 5 minutes, he let me touch his nose....ever so briefly......As soon as he allowed that, I put a handful of hay in his bin and let him eat.  Then he tried to eat more but I made him touch me first before he could.  In a matter of minutes, he was resting his little nose on my hand for as long as I wanted.  In no time I was scratching his cheeks, forehead, rubbing his ears (real hard I might add --- he seemed to love it!)  After every successful 'rub' he would run to the other side of the arena looking for the neighbor guy.... As if he had to 'tell him all about it'.  But he still had to come back to me to eat.  I wonder sometime if horses truly are more in tune to a certain gender....  Anyway, at the end of the evening I was actually stroking his neck like I do any horse!  It was truly amazing.  It would have been great to have someone help me tonight, but I can't think of a more rewarding feeling then me accomplishing it on my own!   Man I feel good!  Now if Marty will only get over his crush on the neighbor, things will be great!

All I could think about at this point was "Man I can't wait to start grooming that mane!"