BLM Expo 2013

Although I personally couldn't go to the Wild Horse and Burro Expo this year, my mom and sisters went and had a great time.  Virginia competed in EVERYTHING she could POSSIBLY compete in with the mustangs.  She placed pretty well in everything too!  Lighting performed quite well in English too!  That and my sisters had a great time making and re-using props for the costume contest!

Virginia and Lighting in English

A Dittmer boy helping my sister with her saddle.

Jennfer and Lightning

My sisters and my 'Stangs

Waiting her Turn

Somebody's Bored...?

Switching Head-stalls

Virginia and Relay barrel racing.

Larry-boy? Plunger girl?

Knight in Shinning Armour, Trusty Steed, and....Dragon?

Costume Contest

Mustang Million 2013 Good-news, Bad-news, Sad-news

The Mustang Million was an extremely eventful week for my sisters and mom and our friends.  Although this week brought a lot of good accomplishments we also had a loss.  At the beginning of the competition Prince Ali became ill and died the following day...this was extremely heartbreaking new for all of us.  He was an amazing horse and I am so proud of Virginia for what she had accomplished.  Virginia has had a very long week up in Fort Worth but I am nevertheless proud of what she has done for and with Ali.  This was her first time competing in the Mustang Makeover and she and Ali I was sure would make top ten they were truly one-of-a-kind AMAZING.  RIP Aladdin.  You were truly "Something Special."

 Jennifer on-the-other-hand with Larry did great!  I couldn't be more proud of her!  She place so well in all her classes.  Even got 3rd in her age division and 19th out of 100 over-all.  She truly is becoming a great young horse-woman at only 12 years old.  Just wait until she's 16!  She'll blow us all away!

Jennifer and Larry

 Sarah and Eli are an amazing young pair that my sisters made friend with over the course of the competition. These two were titled Reserve Champions and they did an amazing job from what my sisters told me!

Sarah and Eli

Jennifer and Larry's 3rd place!

Chillin' in the Stalls

 So I thought my family was getting to have the time of their life up in Fort Worth without me.  So I was so blessed to get to come down and watch the Legends Finals with them the last night.  It was truly a one-of-a-kind performance!

My family

Setting up.

Dan James and his Mustang

 My former mentor came into the free-styles performance 7th out of over 200 people!  So happy for her and her little mustang.

Miranda Lyons in her finals performance.

Jennifer and Larry

Pattern Class

Trail Class

End-of-August Goodbyes 2013

So at the end of August my horse career has  put on hold with college and all.  But that doesn't mean we can't have a little fun every now and then!  Aladdin is by far one of the smartest horses I've ever worked with!  He's cunning, agile and backs up like a dream!  I'm so proud of how he and my little sister Virginia have bonded and made such a wonderful relationship!

Aladdin on the See-saw

Virginia and her Prince Ali

Mom and Pickles have been doing pretty good as well.  He's had a good bit of down-time but that hasn't stopped the two of them from really working hard to make up for it.  His pivots look great and he does everything my mom asks him to do.

Mom and Pickles on the Pedestal

With saying good-bye to all my pretty boys for a few months I got my family to take some pictures of me and my boys.  This is Lightning Bolt.  I adopted him when I was 8 years old and he in now 11.  He was the very first wild mustang I have ever worked with and I have learned so much from him.  This big grey has grown up to be a huge role in my life and how it has played out now.

My Lightning

Just Chillin'

Virginia and Lightning

 Of course my quarter horse Rascal.  After Pilgrim, my first Extreme Mustang Makeover yearling back in 2011, Rascal became my new project.  Since then he has become my do-it-all pony and I'm very proud of this little Center-E-Ranch horse.

Little Texas Tech Spirit with Ol' Rascal

We are trying so new riding techniques. ;)

 Then you have the famous Jesse James!  Where would I be without my Supreme Extreme Mustang Makeover horse?  This guy is growing up so fast.  Every time I turn around he's gaining a few more inches on me.  He's going to be one heck of a riding companion though!  He's still the best with those sliding stops.  Can't wait to start feeling them under-saddle.

Single Barrel with the famous Jesse James

Can someone say...woah!

Relay

Nap-time

My Maverick

Going to miss all my horses but my education comes first!  I'm sure when I 'll see then it'll be all the better.

August See-saw Party 2013

My sisters and I get pretty creative when we are bored so finding fun stuff to-do it quite entertaining to watch. This time Jesse got involved in the fun! The goal was to life him off the ground! We did it pretty well! See-sawing with your horse is  even more fun than you'd think with all your sisters with you laughing and giggling the whole time!

Mustang Million Pre-work!

So Bobby Kerr, who won the Legends Division last year in the Supreme Extreme Mustang Makeover decided to hold a workshop for all of us mustang folks before the Mustang Million came to know what we needed to work on. My family brought 5 mustangs! We brought Relay, Jesse James, Pickles, Larry, and Aladdin! It was a lot of fun and great exposure for the horses and for my little sisters.

In the Pre-work, we hard a trail class and a reining class. Both classes you could choose between competing in-hand mounted. Since we had three yearlings, my family members competed in-hand, then I rode Relay and showed Jesse in-hand.

We definitely left an impression on everybody with our 'stangs. I'm very proud of everyone who brought a horse. They have all come so far since Pick-up this past May!