First Trail Ride

Well, I will try to recap particular days in the past couple of weeks while we were busier than one armed paper hangers. On the 19th, Ruben and the mustang went on their first trail ride. It was out in the back of the ranch. Nothing special other than it was the first time they had been riding outside an enclosed area. The mustang did great. the next day Ruben repeated this with a purpose. A horse had decided to go wandering and Ruben used the mustang to go out to collect him. In the process, the mustang had his first exposure to working other animals. I watched in amazement as Ruben side passed the mustang to push this horse back into the pasture. I am beginning to believe there is nothing a mustang cannot do with the proper training and trust to follow the cues of the rider. Ruben never forces a horse to respond. He teaches the horse to trust that he will not hurt him or put him is an unsafe position. Then Ruben asks the horse to respond because he can, not because he is being forced. I think this is why the mustang has done so well at the expos over the past two weekends. He trusts Ruben and knows Ruben will not endanger him. I cannot wait to see the final product after the next two months. I know whoever adopts this horse in Madison will have a great horse.

These videos are of poor quality, and from the second day of training. This is the first time the mustang was saddled. Please note that this is NOT a gentled or calm back yard pet. It is a wild mustang experiencing things for a very first time. Ruben's philosophy about a pulling horse sort of goes like this: Let him pull. He will figure it out and then it becomes the horse's idea that standing still is a good thing. There is no way you can hold a 1,000 pound animal that wants to pull away from you. Let the horse figure it out and he teaches himself not to pull and to give to pressure. By the way. he stands perfectly now and is amazingly calm and gentle while being blanketed and tacked up and untacked.



Speaking of the adoption! We have decided that if anyone in the Pacific North West would like to adopt this wonderful willing partner, we will carry your bid to Madison and if you are the successful bidder, we will back haul him for you.

He will have a traveling companion to Madison as Ruben has been invited to perform in the "Dancing With Horses" presentation at the Midwest Horse Expo with one of his finished horses. It is too hard to say if the mustang will be ready for that level exhibition at that time, otherwise we would use him. If you have not seen the intensity and action of Ruben and his finished horses in exhibition, please check out the link to Ruben and Shadow the Dancing Horse on YouTube.com. It was recorded by a friend, Brian, at the opening of the Walla Walla Rodeo here in Washington.

Well I am afraid that is it for now as I have to sort through videos and see if I can get some action on here for you to look at. Hope you have a great weekend!