Friday, December 30, 2011

Forth Worth Supreme Extreme Mustang Makeover 2012

As you all know Pilgrim's Pride's story has been shared throughout this blog, but now I have new new story to tell you about.  On March 31, 2012 I will be adopting a new mustang, this time he's mine to keep.  In this adoption, it will be a competitive bid starting at $200 for the yearling division.  I'll pick up the wild mustang May 11th or 12th and will compete with him the following September in Forth Worth Texas. So if anybody out there is interested in adopting a wild mustang apply here. And to view the prospects for the next mustang makeover click here. I can't wait to see what this next batch of yearlings will turn out to be! Here's a link to an article written by Quarter Horse News about the Supreme Extreme Mustang Makeover!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

The Looking Glass

Pilgrim's Pride and I have shared many memories through out our journey together, but our paths have parted now.  Pilgrim now lives in Fredricksburg TX with the Berkman family, I loved him very much and I hope to hear from them soon but there was one more thing I would like to share, about a month ago I wrote a personal essay for school.  It's a story about Pilgrim and Me before I had to say good bye to him, I hope you guys enjoy it:


The Looking Glass
By Michelle Deden
            I never thought I would fall in love with anything else the way I did with Sue, the way we went together.  The second I had laid eyes on her it was love at first sight.  She was me, I was her, and we were one sole entity working together.  I couldn’t see it any other way.  Sue may just be an old bony nag to you; but in my eyes she’s something different.  When you meet somebody for the first time, you have this barrier; kind-of like a wall to pass, or as I sometime’s call it a first glance judgment.  When I first met Sue, I reached my hand out to pet her and she did something unusual in my mind for a horse.  She pinned her ears back to striking mode, and spun her age-old head in circles.  My first reaction was to flee my hand from her before she took a chunk off of it.  But when the same head motion occurred over and over again, I just could resist.  Something about Sue struck me right then; what caused this? I didn’t know, she was getting into her geriatric age so it could’ve happened years ago or mere weeks but what really mattered was once she learned to trust me.  After that I couldn’t keep my hands off her.  Whenever my mind would travel, it would always take a pit-stop on Sue.  She was my horse, my love, and everything about me shined through to the heaven’s when I was around her.  I cherish every moment with her, my old nag.  But this story isn’t about this horse, it’s about another horse who I considered a nag.  Who, at first glance was “a mule-brained and mule-lookin’ mustang.”  But every horse has a story, and here’s Pilgrim’s.
            Pilgrim was one of twenty yearling selected to be trained for an Extreme Mustang Makeover; in which the trainer’s have roughly ninety days to train them and then they get adopted out into new homes.  Pilgrim was a brown little gelding with black mane and tail or in horse-talk, a bay.  Pilgrim, meaning he’s traveled a long way, became my horse for the competition.  And I could tell you right-off-the-bat I was not happy about this.  Out of all the mustangs I could’ve gotten, I managed to get the one that reminded me of “Uncle Sam.” This was nothing like the relationship I had with Sue.  With Sue it was love at first sight.  With Pilgrim…”you mean I got him?” But you would be surprised what a little time can do to you. 
            Pilgrim took all of twenty minutes to learn to lead and let me pet all over him.  And by the fourth day I had a saddle on him.  But something inside me just wouldn’t like this horse.  Not until now, Day 67 when I’m looking over all the pictures of me and him; and we are doing all these cool things like laying down and standing on his back.  I found a picture of him jumping a fallen over tree, his legs tucked underneath his and his eyes closed shut.  That’s when it hit me like a lightning bolt, this horse really trusts me.  And I didn’t even notice, sixty-seven day’s for me to see the light.  To see Pilgrim’s light glowing in the darkness; lighting up my path to victory.  Sixty-seven days later…
            But don’t get me wrong, this horse wasn’t always the perfect little angel. I remember days when he drug me around the ranch because he didn’t want to jump the barrel outside the pen.  And just a week ago when I was cleaning out his feet, the horse stepped on my foot and just turned his head as if to say “well aren’t yah gonna move that? It’s kind-of under my foot…”  But the worst of all things was the electronic shaver…Pilgrim’s worst enemy.  You see for show horses, you shave the whiskers from their nose and around their eyes, under their chin, and a bridle notch so that the halter with lay flat.  And about the first month in I decided it was time for him to get his nose shaved…he had other ideas.  He flung his head behind a tree where I couldn’t reach his and when that did work, he would just back up until the shaver’s plug become taught and fall out.  He wasn’t scared of it either, he was just being belligerent!
             Pilgrim’s had his good days and his bad days, but something about him is making it really hard to let him go. With Sue we have this bond because we are alike. But with Pilgrim, we have this connection that’s irreplaceable, something you look at and say “Wow! Did we really do that?”  I’ve never had another horse like Sue, and Pilgrim will never be just like Sue. But the two horses have one very special thing in common; they both have a very special place in my heart that nobody could ever replace.  I just don’t know how I’m going to be able to say good-bye to him…My Pilgrim…

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Pilgrim's Freestyle Performance & Carly's new horse...

Youth Competitors Finals Performance

Me standing on Pilgrim's Pride in my freestyle performance.

Pilgrim's Pride jumping over the barrels in our freestyle performance.

Pilgrim's Pride with his new family Carly Berkman (the girl sitting on him) I know she'll love him as much as I have. Carly loves her new horse...
Here's a link to a clip of my finals performance, although we didn't win it, Pilgrim's Pride gave a horse and a half out there I couldn't have asked for a better horse and he's got a great horse now with Carly daughter of Lance Berkman, the guy who plays for the Cardinals that won the World Series yesterday.  I know she loves him as much as I do and I know he'll never be lonely with her by his side.  They make a perfect pair.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Day 93 Finals Performance



Hard work and a lot of sewing finally pays off...


Pilgrim getting ready for our freestyle.

Julia Farmer and Aspen



Pilgrim and I had a great 90 days and at the end of it, we placed 8th.  Pilgrim was such a good boy and I learned so much from training him, and I'm so proud of the winning pair Presley and Abigail Brown and all of the other youth for working so hard with their mustangs through out this Extreme Mustang Makeover Yearling Challenge!

Friday, October 21, 2011

Day 92 The Competition Begins!



My little sister's decorated their horses stall!  Doesn't it look just adorable?

My little sister's and Magic!

Jennifer getting ready for the show with Magic.

Magic and Jennifer in front of their stall...the look so cute!

Pilgrim meets the other competitors!  Julia Farmer and Aspen are another pair  who are going to be in the finals performance tomarow.  Pilgrim's likes Aspen.




Pilgrim's Pride practicing for the show.

Pilgrim and I walking to our first marker i.e. the cone.

Another younth cometitor showing her horse in the showmanship class.  This is Rachel Ward and Doc's Princess Jasmine, they will also be in the finals tomarow.

All of the youth lined up for judging.

Pilgrim's also lined up for judging, but he was just a bit too "relaxed" I saw the problem quickly and soon fixed it.

Julia Farmer and Michelle Deden(me!)

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Day 91

EMM Murfreesboro, TN

Pilgrim went into the arena super green! He was having a blast bucking around as i lunged him for the first couple of minutes! The first competition is tomorrow. Jennifer won a saddle pad for being the youngest competitor and Pilgrim and Magic are calmer on  the obstacles than some of the adults horses! I think they liked it when i laid Pilgrim down and took a nap on him :) wish me and my friends is the makeover good luck! Oh and the above is a video from the first day of all the mustangs at the competition.  Watch the whole thing through because Pilgrim and I are at the end of it!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Day 90 "Wild to Willing"

Carly Berkman sitting one Pilgrim

Taught Carly a couple of tricks on the fantastic Pilgrim's Pride!


These are pictures from Monday night, the last night I've been with Pilgrim until the day of the competition for he is heading to Tennessee right now.  This little girl has grown very fond of Pilgrim in the weekend she's known him.  I think Pilgrim like her too because I have a picture with Pilgrim's ears forward with Carly standing on him.  I think those two make a great pair!




These other pictures are from day one.  They look like two different horses now don't they?  Pilgrim and Magic have both gotten a lot darker and they've really filled out into two beautiful mustangs!  It's hard to believe it's been 90 days since this picture was taken.  It just goes to show that even the wildest of mustangs can get a makeover to go from "WILD to WILLING."

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Day 87

Magic in front of the Mustang Makeover Sign.

Magic meets the Tarp!


Meet Carly!  She's the daughter of a famous Baseball player named Lance Berkman.  And she met Pilgrim yesterday morning when I was in the PSAT.  When I had come back it was like a little angel had come over!  She had cleaned their pen and Pilgrim looked super content when I came to see him!  Pilgrim and Carly get along really well so thing morning I let her sit on him.  But she didn't stop there, she insisted on doing everything I did with him.  So I taught her how to stand on Pilgrim's butt, and jump barrels, and even showed her how to make him side-step!  She seemed like the happiest girl in the world!  Pilgrim liked her too!  We leave for our long journey to TN on Tuesday.  And so begin's Pilgrim's last days with me...with less than a week 'till the competition, I'm sure Pilgrim's going to make a good name for all of the Mustangs out there!  Just look at 8 year old little Carly!  That horse did everything for her and I'm sure he's going to make one very lucky family very happy too!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Day 84

Here's a sketch of one of our Mustangs, I was sketching some for a Spanish Poem and this one seemed to be on of the best mustang drawings i'd drawn. Minus the nose, i messed up a little.

Pilgrim's tail has grown allot since we picked him up in Oklahoma this past July!  It's now has a gorgeous shine to it!

Pilgrim Girl-i-fied! He looks good in french braids...

I have a neighbor who his kid and him have become very fond of our two little mustangs.  Today he gave me this beautiful bible, I will always cherish this and remember them and the times I had with Pilgrim.
Pilgrim's been doing excellent the past couple of days, he's finally filling out a little bit more and looks show-worthy!  With all of one week left before we compete, i have 4 more days to work with him...wow it still feels like I just picked him up in the holding facility yesterday.  It will be different without him around.  There's one thing about him that i've never seen any other horse do before, he sometimes forgets to swallow his saliva and then all of a sudden he opens his mouth and a pool spit lands all over my arm!

Monday, October 10, 2011

Day 79 lazy brother

Pilgrim trying to eat his feed...

My big brother Robert was lazy today, so he made Pilgrim carry his food!
It's hard to believe I've have Pilgrim for almost 80 days now.  Time have really flown by.  In 8 days we pack up and head to Tennessee for the competition against 20 other amazing youth and their mustangs.  Every day the competition gets closer, the more the butterflies fly through me.  I don't know how Pilgrim and I will do in Tennessee, but I know that whatever happens, we did it together the whole way through.  The two of us!  Pilgrim's Pride and Michelle Deden.........wish me luck in Tennesse!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Day 78

Pilgrim's been up to a lot of stuff lately, but the funnest thing to seem him do is was him pull this huge tractor tire around!  I didn't think he could do it, but he managed to pull this huge thing with no problem!  I wonder what he will surprise with next?
With the competition closing in, Pilgrim and I have been working on our routine, sometimes it's good and others not as much.  But the one thing that he always does good for me, is he always keeps trying.  "No" is never the answer to him.  I just hopes he keeps that mind set in TN!  Can't wait to meet all the other trainers and their horses in TN!



Jennifer's mustang Magic! He's the prettiest jumper around!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Day 74 Pilgrim goes to School!

Pilgrim and Me in front of the High School community meeting area!

Though I wasn't prepared for this picture, this is one of my favorite pictures of Pilgrim and me.



I'm standing on Pilgrim inside our high school building and grabbing onto this pole, which I managed to swing off of Pilgrim and onto as we got oooo's and aaaa's from the crowd of students!


Pilgrim bowing for all of my friends to see!


I got to a small Montessori school in Houston called Woods High School.  And every year the student are asked to do a soapbox in which we share something important in our lives and I chose Pilgrim!  I would like to thank my spanish teacher Ms. Mernies for taking these great pictures for me!  Pilgrim even went inside the building where I had him stand on a tarp(just in case he pooped which he didn't) All of my horsey friends were impressed with how calm he was, being inside surrounded by a hundred er so people trying to pet him.  But he held in there!  We even managed to sneak outside and do some of our act for all of my friends to see!