Well, gang........What can I say? Here is the 2012 Idaho State Fair 'Mustang Trail' Grand Champion! He also placed Second in the Halter Show.
It's been a busy few weeks preparing Marty for his 'Debut' at the Fair, but now I can say it was all worth it!
My friend Sabine from Austria arrived late Monday night. She worked with Marty Tuesday through Thursday, and then showed him on Friday! Marty stood perfect all day long at the fair and waited for his 2 events to come up: Halter Show and Mustang Trail Challenge. Both Sabine and I have already realized that there is not too much that gets Marty excited but I was really pleased he did so well during the events. And Sabine was fabulous as his handler. I don't think we could have placed first in Trail Challenge if I would have showed him. At the last minute we found out the Challenge included some side-stepping which Marty has not even been trained to do yet. However, Sabine knew what to do to get him to side step and he did wonderful! And then I found out later, she had a few tricks up her sleeve to impress the judges even more. Sabine was supposed to lead Marty up to a roping calf statue and touch it. Well after Sabine touched it, she also had Marty touch it with his nose too! Great move Sabine!
Marty and Sabine
So it was a very very exciting evening for us both! We will float on this win for quite some time I'm sure!
Sabine, Marty, Joy
So this ends the Fair portion of Marty the Mustang! It'll take a lot to top this! But I will still post the training progress and events that we do from this point on! Thanks for staying with us!
Okay friends, we have just a few weeks until we enter Marty the Mustang into the Western Idaho Fair! I'm so excited about it. I have entered him in Halter, Showmanship, and the Mustang Trail Challenge. All will be held on Friday August 24. I'm taking the whole week off to prepare us for it. My friend from Austria will be here visiting so she will probably do the showing because she's had more experience showing horses then I have.
I worked with a girl yesterday who is also entering mustang yearlings into the fair. She's done it before and she showed me a few things that Marty would need to do. Some of it's pretty easy, other things we'll have to keep working on.
But the best thing this week was I finally got him to understand the 'forward cue' and can make him circle on a lead. Well, what I understood about it from yesterday's training was I am not aggressive enough when teaching a horse to 'go forward'. That's why Bocephus walks all over me whenever I try. But I had the trainer do it for me and then I did it afterward. NOW Marty knows what's going on and today when I tried it by myself, we did it! I still need to get his head turned into me and some slack in the rope. But at least I got to the point where he's not striking or rearing. Good Marty.
So now, instead of him just 'following' me into the trailer which he does so well, I'm asking him to go into the trailer with the 'go forward' cue. That's not as easy, but he's starting to get it. Next step will be to get him to stand quietly before I ask him to get out. He wants to turn around real fast and hurry out while I'm still standing in the trailer.
And, what's so cool about training my yearling Marty is that my 'Chi' (energy) is working on Bo too! I haven't had to use the stud chain on Bo to lead him for a few weeks now. Both of us feel good about that. And Bo is behaving on the ground like he's never behaved before. I think he watches what I do with Marty in the round pen and then learns by osmosis. I have to tie him to the 'patience pole' when I lead Marty into the Round pen because Bo will still try to eat him.
Bo stays tied the whole time we're in the round pen and does just as well as Marty. Good Bocephus.
Last few nights Bo and Marty have both been good so they get lots of grooming and attention afterward. Today, because it was so hot, we all got baths!
Marty does fine with the hose on him, but he still freaks when I spray the fly spray on him. What's up with that?
So lets compare. This is Day One (June 16, 2012) the first day I got Marty. I hadn't even touched him yet.
Below is Day 52 after his first bath.
Oh Yeah, I see the difference, can you? At least the white on his legs are clean now. And he's starting to lose his 'pasture belly' just a little and best of all, he seems much more relaxed!
I love Marty the Mustang!
