What Color Is Marty?

Here's a good pic with his color in the sunlight.  But if you look at some of the evening photos he looks much darker (he's kind of like a mood ring).  But his mane is very bright almost white and his tail his a bit darker with red hair intermingled.  I've been calling him a Sorrel Chestnut w/flaxen. What color would YOU say he is?

Sorry about the Delay....

Hello All!  Sorry I haven't posted in so long, but I've had a rough week, workwise, horsewise, husbandwise, all in all!
Anyway,  let's see if I can update you with all that's been happening lately.


Marty is an alien.  No question about it.  Sometimes I think he is the answer to any spiritual question anyone has had.   He's got it!  All the answers to the universe.  No kidding.


But aside from that.  I've been able to do so much with him.
Oh wait, I must interject.
A BLM employee, who treated Marty's eye infection when he was first captured, came by on Sunday last week to help me with a few things.  I was having trouble making Marty do circles and also backing up.  She got him on the right track.    While she was backing him up, I happened to mention that sometimes when he gets frustrated he 'strikes' with his hoof.  JUST as I mentioned that to her, Marty reared up and ripped her shirt off! Yes, you read correctly...Reared up, hoof came down and tore her spaghetti strapped pink shirt right off of her!!  And, as expected from a horse trainer, she  just kept scolding and scolding with the whip not even worried about her shirt being torn!  Once I realized his hooves had not touched her skin and she was okay, I felt better, but it was still pretty scary! She was a 'Fencepost'.  No anger, no emotions, just discipline.  After she left, I made sure Marty understood the backing up process over and over again.  

A few days later I decided to put Marty in the corral and then add the two mares, Honey and Sassy.  They got real possessive and tried to corner him in the barn and he cut his eye trying to escape (hit it on the barn wall).  He also got a cut on his hip.  I should have waited and put the 3 of them out in the pasture first then herded them into the corral at night.  They are all fine now.  Just the first night was rough.

A few days later, I put Bocephus in the corral with Marty.  Bocephus, if you remember, is my troublesome 18 year old mustang bred, cut-proud gelding.  I was so surprised at how good he did in the corral with Marty.  They did so well.  My mistake was putting Bo's 23 year old Mustang Mama Honey and his 13 year old Auntie Sassy in the corral with them!  It turned into quite a wreck!  All 3 of them 'herded' Marty in the barn and cornered him and beat the crapola out of him!  Oh I felt bad! I tried to get in the middle of Bo and Marty and the next thing I knew I was lying flat on the ground in the corral with Marty's hooves flying over me! No worries. I'm fine.  Stupid!  But fine.  But Marty once again got beat up pretty good.  He was so scared he ran through the corral fence and tore the post out and knocked out a few boards.  That's when I knew he was scared for his life!  I finally got all 3 horses out and was able to tend to Marty.  He put his little yearling head on my shoulder and sighed a big sigh of relief after it was all over.  My poor sweet Marty.  He's fine though. He actually wanted out with the herd right after that.  (Guess he's got a few things he wants to 'say' to Bo.  We'll wait till he gets a little bigger before we do THAT again!).


Anyway, I think I will have to keep Bocephus separate until Marty gets bigger.  The mares are okay with him now but when Bo gets in the picture, the dynamics are way different. It was funny because Honey seemed to actually 'push' Bo into Marty!  What's up with that?  Seriously, if anyone does any 'horsewatching' please comment on what you think happened here!  I'd love to know!



So other than those few fiascoes, Marty gets caught, groomed and loaded into the horse trailer every night.  Then he gets his oats and corn husks (He LOVES those corn husks!).  That is all going well.  Tonight, I closed the horse trailer up and let him sit there for about 30 minutes.  He didn't move a muscle and was totally quiet!  Good ol' Marty anyway!  


I also ponied him on Honey for 1.5 hours in the desert!  He did perfect, if I do say so myself!  He really is a sweetie!
I love Marty.

What's Up with All These Cowlicks?

Check out all these cowlicks on Marty.  What in the world?.....

This is Crazy!

Now I'm no Horse Whisperer by ANY means, but I do believe Marty is a....shhhh.....**human whisperer** I had the greatest week with him.  He no longer has to stay in his round pen, even at night.  He has gone out to graze with the other horses on my weekends when I can keep an eye on him.  But when I'm working, he stays in his own little pasture. I lead him all over the property and he is so good with his 'Whoa" and backing up after his stops!  One day, I was showing off in front of my friends and I led him right to the horse trailer, opened the door and put him in!  He hadn't even been anywhere NEAR that trailer before this!  He followed me right in and didn't even hesitate.  Then stood there in the first slot!  Then I backed him out and did it two more times!!  He  has never even been loaded yet, except for his trips from Nevada to Boise to here.  Maybe he's used to it now.  But he did not follow the rope....he followed me.  So last night I practiced some more with his 'forward' cue.  He's doing real well with that, but I'm still having a little difficulty knowing what I should be doing.  No worries.  There is enough on Google.com to get me going, I'm sure! 


Last night I didn't have the gate shut and he ran out of the pasture and down our lane!  I called to him like a Dog.  He didn't hear a word I said!  I thought "Oh no, there goes my perfect mustang!"  There is a lot of barbed wire fencing in our neighbors pasture.  Instead of running to our corral with my 4 horses, He ran hightailing it to the neighbors horses.  Well, he worked himself into a little 'aisleway' in the pasture and I was able to just go halter him up and bring him home.  Whew!  I really was worried.  


Anyway, here's a few more pics.  I'm going to find out what I have to do to take him to the County Fair this year!  That will give him some acclimating to peoples and things, won't it!?


On and today we are celebrating our one month anniversary.  I love Marty!

                                                               Marty and Honey

Marty and Bocephus

Marty Hiding from Me

Sweet Baby

Marty with Honey

Marty and Me in the Trailer!

Are you Listening to Me?

Just Checking....Is anyone 'subscribing' to this blog or checking it every now and then? If not, then maybe I'll stop blogging.  But if this is interesting to anyone, please let me know and I will continue..  Just wondering......

Old Mustang/New Mustang

A couple of nights ago, I put my 23 year old Palomino Paint Mustang Honey in with Marty just to see how they did together.  Marty immediately wanted to suckle and Honey did this cute little....I can't make the noise...but it was like "eeeehhhhh" in horse talk.  But all in all Honey took good care of Marty and Marty loved Honey.

                                     Marty..................Honey


When I put Honey back into her corral with Bocephus (her 18 year old baby) and the other 2 mares, the mares acted fine, but Bo sniffed her up and down and got a woody and really made Honey mad!!  Honey had to kick him good to keep Bo from mounting her. Bo's crazy, there's no doubt about it!  But Honey can handle him!

Bo  Honey  Sassy Patches

Marty Needs a Trim

Tonight our farrier came out to shoe and trim our other four horses. I noticed that Marty has a flat piece of hoof over his back foot so I can't clean that "V" the way it should be.  When I asked our farrier to take a look at him, he didn't feel comfortable and Marty finally pulled back on the 'patience pole' while he tried to get near him. 

This made me realize that Marty is not comfortable with EVERY human, just me.  Although this makes my head big, I realize it is not good.  Now I will need to socialize him with everyone that comes out from now on.    I told the farrier that he will be ready in 8 weeks when he comes out again!

A Free Horse Again....Kind of....

Well, here we are 3 weeks into owning my mustang and he is already out on pasture.  He is so worried about eating, this was one of the rare times he put his head up.  


We also tied him up to a post.  He wound around it and then unwound himself about 25 times.  He did not pull on the rope once.

But as you can see, he is STILL eating.  I'm going to tie him up a little shorter tonight.


I've groomed his mane finally!  It looks beautiful but haven't got to his tail yet!  He is so very willing for me to do anything with him!


But don't think it's all fun and games.  Oh No!  I tried to make him do circles with the lead rope on him and he did just want I have trained my 18 year old mustang Bo to do (but didn't want to).....He CHARGED AT ME!  I am definitely doing something really wrong with this lesson and I will not do it again until a professional shows me the ropes...literally!


Later tonight.........


I tied him up to the post again.  The only time he acted up was when his halter came loose and he had the side of it in his mouth.  I thought he was chewing on the lead rope but he was trying to get the 'fake halter bit' out of his mouth!  He was so funny!  He stood perfectly still while I took his halter off, rearranged it, put it back on him, and then clicked him to the lead rope again.  I went and drank a glass of wine and watched him and he didn't do one thing!  Each time he pulled he moved right back into the post.  Here's a picture of him trying to 'mindmeld' with the post.  He stood this way for 5 minutes unmoving.

I couldn't stand to see him so sad that he couldn't move the post so I went and groomed him completely!  Head to toe.  I even picked all four of his little feet and held on to them before he wanted to put them down! IS IT ME OR IS IT MARTY!!!!!???????    Who Knows, but I sure am happy with him!

                                                                           Does my butt look big with this horse?

2 Weeks into Marty

Sorry for the delay in posts....I've had company from out of town, my husband retired, and I am on a 10 day vacation myself.  My goal is to have Marty out of the Round Pen and into a section of pasture by the time I go back to work on Tuesday July 10!


So here's where I'm at with Marty as of today.  I've been working with him twice a day for about 20-30 minutes.  It's been very hot outside so that's enough for both of us.  But a few days ago our session was going so well we were 2 hours into training.  Finally Marty threw his head down and shook it a few times and pawed once.  He's been so good, I figured this was his way of throwing a 'temper tantrum' so we stopped.  I really haven't had one bad day with him yet.


I will post some more pics of Marty in the next few days. 


I can lead Marty around now better than any of the other 4 horses I've had for 20 years.  He Whoa's before I can get the word out.  I can touch him all over and I've picked up his front feet.  He's not showing any aggression but his ears are still back 40% of the time.  But when he's happy, he's really happy!  I can now walk into the round pen and catch him and put his lead on.  I've stopped lunging him at this point because I think I need to get him out of the round pen soon.  We can always go back in if we need to.    I can remove his halter and put it back on him with one arm over his head.  I've pulled his tail toward his head.  My friend Shelby, came by last week and showed me how important it was to get to his side (right in the middle) without him blocking me.  That's what my 18 year old Gelding Bo does all the time.  Marty was blocking me quite a bit too.  But finally today I was able to get to both sides (in the middle) without him blocking me.  The trick was to move fast before he knew what was happening.  Now I can do it slow or fast and can walk behind him or in front of him and stop at his middle sides and he just stands there.  He's soooo smart.  He catches on soooo quickly.  That's why I want to do everything right so he doesn't learn any bad habits.  


My next goal is to have the lead rope in my hand and make him do circles.  I don't want him to follow me.  I want him to follow the rope.  But when I point the rope to the right Marty just faces me.  So I took the whip and tapped his shoulder but nothing happened.  When I tapped his hip then he finally took a step to the right where I was tugging the rope.  All the while I was trying not to move my feet.  If this is the correct way to do this, I have a feeling it might take a little while because he seems content just staring at me.  I'm remembering to take the pressure off  the minute he moves his feet.  


As soon as I can be assured our fence is hot (it comes and goes, you know how that is...) I am going to start trying to lead him outside the round pen in the pasture section and show him what a hotwired fence is.  If he does well with that, then I can let the other horses in the section next to him and they can start getting to know him.  


I also plan to tie him to a post for a few sessions to start training him to stand and not pull.  But he seems to have learned that pulling doesn't get him anywhere so he barely does it anymore. 


It was so cool to discover that I could hold on to him when he did pull away.  He's still strong, but nothing like my 16 hand mustang Bocephus.  I tried so hard to hold onto Bo's rope one time I actually 'bit the dust'..... literally.  I had quite a vertical 'gravel trail' going down my face after that incident.  I am learning so much with Marty, that once he gets out of that round pen, I think Bocephus will be visiting it a lot more......

This is Bo.  How many of you own a horse you are more comfortable with in the saddle then on the ground?