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!)

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!

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."

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!

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!

We Made the Newspaper!

 Youth to Compete in Extreme Mustang Makeover Contest

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!

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!

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!

Day 72

So this past Saturday I took some horses to our church arena while my mother was in a bible class and one of them was my horse Rascal to practice the barrels with.

Pilgrim also went to the church arena.  This church that we are at is called Cowboy Church of Leon County.  Because I don't have an arena of my own, I went to the church to practice my routine.  Pilgrim seemed to have lot's of energy the whole time we were there! In this picture we are laying down together.

We made the newspaper! So if you live in East Texas or Centerville, go pick up a copy of the Centerville News and Farm and Ranch newspapers!

Pilgrim walking through one of the fallen down tree's at our place.

Pilgrim giving my little sister a kiss!!!

That's my little sister and her horse for the makeover, Magic!  And of course she's holding my Pilgrim :)  both of which will be available for adoption in Tennessee.

Priceless expressions...

My sister Kathryn and I call this one "Bragging Rights"

Pilgrim sidestepping over a barrel, it was really challenging because the barrel didn't quite fit under him and if he bumped it, it would move.  But he figured it our quickly!

Pilgrim's been doing really well lately, we've been working on our finals performance and making sure everything is really crisp for the finals.  Pilgrim and Magic both got their feet trimmed again today and they both did great at standing still while the farrier trimmed them!  Pilgrim's turned out to be an awesome little horse.  Can't wait to see what i can make of him in Tennessee!