Day 48

Day 47 time for new obstacles!

Jesse's such a good boy!  Today we working on getting Jesse to lope a little smoother.  Next we worked on pivoting on his hind and fore-quarters and walking beside me.  Then we tried some new obstacles to test how much control I had over his feet.

Asking for Jesse to put a foot on the pedestool.

Both front feet!

Uphill

Balancing...sort-of.

Downhill

Day 46...Jumping Lessons

Today Jesse and I worked on some barrel patterns.  We worked on jumping multiple barrels, side-by-side, and lounging around and over them.  He's such a smarty-pants.  By the end of our session he's be tracking the barrels as if he was bred to do it! And for all I know he might be part-jumper!  He really is turning out to be a nice little mustang!

Waubonsie 4H Horse Camp Day 42-44

So this weekend I did one of my HOPEFULLY many presentations for the Mustang Heritage Foundation.  It went really smoothly and all the kids loved it.  I think I might have done my presentation a couple weeks early, but it still went wonderfully.

Mark, Miranda and I brought some horses down to Sidney, Iowa for a horse camp.  We came to improve the kids horsemanship, they really progressed a lot this weekend.  Jesse and I even did a demo for the kids on Sunday.  We had a great time teaching the campers about horsemanship and becoming better horsemen and women.  I hope they learned a lot and I really appreciate them having us this weekend to put on a couple demos and clinics.  It was a lot of fun.

My Props

Mark and Relay Teaching the Campers

Day 36...bring on the blue ribbons!!!

Jesse and I both had a pretty long day today, we went to our first show!  We got there, and I realized I was too old for the youth division, so I had to compete against the adults.  But sure enough Jesse proved himself the best out of all of the horses in the class, bringing home a blue ribbon.  He did great! I also competed in three divisions with Miranda's horse Frosty, we competed in the Basic Trail, Trail Rider Challenge and the Xtreme Trail.  All of which Miranda's sweet horse Frosty and I got first place! I had a great time today and I hope everyone enjoys the pictures.

Day 33

Jesse did great today!  I went out to his pen and he walked right up to me.  So we straight to work on lunging, he did great!  Didn't pull on the halter rope at all.  After that we went through a couple obstacles, pivoted on hind & front feet, worked on trotting beside me, and called it a day!

Through the tarps...

and pool noodles!

Jumping Practice

Zen mode, hummmmm....

Day 32

Picture day!  Today I took plenty of pictures of the mustangs.  I don't recall telling anyone this, but Mark and Miranda are also training mustangs for this year Supreme Extreme Mustang Makeover.  They are doing the Legends Division.  So I took a couple pictures of them riding their mustangs for the competition.  Jesse did great too!  He's walking a trotting a lot better today.  Nebraska has such great weather it's much easier and comfortable to go running around in jeans than in Texas!  Can't wait to see all that we accomplish tomorrow!

Miranda & Finnegan

Standing Up

Mark & Relay

Relay Laying Down

Bridge

Stopping

Day 31

Jesse did fabulous today!  He's really turning out to a wonderful horse.  This past weekend we were in Iowa for a colt starting competition.  Jesse got to come too so we walked over all of their obstacles and had a blast using their training equipment, sadly, I forgot to take pictures.  Today we worked on lunging really softly, he hardly ever pulls on the halter rope anymore.  He trotted beside me like a champ today too.  The coolest part though, was when I stopped, Jesse did too!  For the past couple of days, he either been kinda draggy on the lead rope, or trying to run ahead of me, but today we finally found a medium!  I love it when we have a breakthrough.  My job as mustang trainer Representative has kept me pretty busy, talked to Carly and they've been teaching Pilgrim some more saddle training stuff, they sure do love him!  What a great day!  Can't wait to see what we'll accomplish tomorrow!

Day 27

So I haven't really told much of anyone who I'm apprenticing this summer, so here they are!  Mark and Miranda Lyons.  Here's a picture of them and their new poster.  They are pretty cool people.  Today the three of us went over to another lady's house so Mark could ride her TIP mustang for her, he was a very hard headed horse.  The pictures of the grey horse are him, he is quite a challenge!  Yet another reason to NOT pick a horse just based on their color.  Although it is not always this case...it shouldn't be the reason you adopted a horse in my opinion.   But Mark hung in there on him!

Jesse did great today!  Jesse walked right up to me for the first time today, usually I just walk up to him.  He really likes grain so after he ate we went to work.  He walked over the tarp like a champ, lunged great, trotted beside me smoothly, and  ended with him jumping beautifully over the barrels.

Mark and Miranda Lyons

Feedbag.

Tarp

He's got the cutest spots on his legs, some white with little black spot on them.

Jumping beside him.

Laying on Jesse rubbing his belly.

Day 20

The little guy did great today, we got a bunch of awesome pictures too!  Worked on lunging really softly at a walk and trot.  He's doing awesome!  He's still a little unsure about things, but I think he'll come around.  I can't believe I've had my horse for this long!  Also I've decided on changing his name, Twain was just kind-of hard to call him, but I'm sure the name I picked out is just right for his personality.  Let's call him Jesse!  Like Jesse James or Jesse Katsopolis from that old show Full House.  I think the name's pretty fitting, and it's a WHOLE lot easier calling him Jesse than it is Twain!  Enjoy the pictures...if anybody has any question feel free to leave a message on my blog.

Itinerary: Days 10 - 19

Day 10 : Big Brother graduates
Day 11-15 : Finals Week and Current Issue Paper for MHF
Day 16 & 17 : Little Sister's Ballet Recital "Alice In Wonderland"
Day 18: Load the new mustangs and head to Whitesboro, Texas
Day 19: Head to Nebraska

This has pretty much  been my schedule for the past week.  Sleep has been removed from my schedule almost entirely!  After working with my mustang on Day 9, my family and I headed back to town to get ready for my big brother's graduation.  Then I jumped right into finals week with side-typing of papers for the Mustang Heritage Foundation.  Just as I had said before, SCHOOL COMES FIRST.  NO EXCEPTIONS!!!  And sure enough all the hard work I had done all year long paid off with straight A's for my whole junior year of High School!  After school let out for the summer, it was on to back stage help for the biggest ballet performance on of my sister's has ever had.  She had the lead role as Alice in "Alice in Wonderland."  She did a fabulous job at it too!  After her two night performances with a little hair styling help from her big sister (ME!) we headed back up to the ranch and I finally got to see my yearling again.  But shortly after heading up there we were moving again.  We dropped two of my sisters off at camp and then the rest of the family went to Whitesboro with me and our mustangs.

I have failed to mention that I get to apprentice great people and horse trainers.  I said my farewells to my family and then we headed to Nebraska.  Here are some of the pictures of my moms and sister's mustangs, I can't wait to see what they'll look like after a couple months on good feed and a little training on them will do!

My mom named him Justin Time, can't wait to see what great food and care will turd him into!

My yearling neighing good-bye to his buddies.