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!

Back to Back Expos kept us busy.

Sorry for not posting for a while. We have had a crazy three weeks. We had back to back expos in Vancouver, WA and Boise, ID. Now it is back to posting and working toward the Midwest Mustang Makeover at the Midwest Horse Expo in Madison, WI.

Ruben used the mustang for most of the clinics in Vancouver and ALL of them in Boise. He had the choice of using a trained horse or the mustang. He decided to use the mustang and not lose 10 training days which is 10% of the total training time we have. We had the chance to meet a fellow makeover competitor in Vancouver, Bill Campbell. He is from Michigan where he operates Common Sense Horsemanship.

Vancouver was crazy with a couple behind the scenes people missing. It was also the first expo put on by Silver Buckle Ranch. http://www.silverbuckle.org/. They did a good job for their first time out and we hope to continue our relationship with this very worthy youth equestrian group. Please visit their web sit and see a great group working with youth and horses. They were excited to have Ruben bring the mustang and let the public know about the Mustang Makeovers and the efforts of the Mustang Heritage Foundation. They set aside a one hour clinic in their main arenas each day for people to watch Ruben and the mustang train.

We were prepared for the worst Friday evening when the mustng enterd the building for the first time. He had never been exposed to the noises and crowds of an expo or the temporary indoor arenas they had set up. We decided to use the over head door rather than the man door. The mustang hesitated momentarily and then ealked right into the exhibition hall and the arena like a pro that had done it a thousand times. We will post videos of it when they are converted to disc.

Boise is a great expo to visit. We always enjoy being part of Horse Affairs for the past everal years and look forward to spending a weekend in March with these fine people. We were visited by Richard Shrake and he was complimentary in regard to Ruben's training methods, knowledge and his progress with the mustang. Below are a few pictures of Ruben and the mustang in Boise on the Trail Ride Competition course. The mustang must have figured he was back home in the wild with live llamas, tumble weed covered arbors, deer mannequins, logs and rocks to cross over and little hills. The trail course, a near by jogging path along the Boise river and the surrounding woods were the setting for a video shoot on Monday morning.

Ruben used the mustang for all his clinics at Boise. He did well but got a little resistant toward the end. We are so fortunate to have this opportunity to validate Ruben's training methods on a raw product virtually untouched or influenced by humans. The custom bosala that Ruben uses are soft and easy for any horse to become accustomed to. Some of the clinics the mustang participated in were: Fitting and using the bosal: The oldest known tool used to train horses; The Five Basic Ground Essentials; Lateral Movements (Richard Shrake particularly liked this one.) The mustang was side passing from one corner of the arena to the other. The crowd loved it.

It was a pleasure and made us all proud when people challenged us by saying the mustang had to have been gentled and halter broke before Ruben got him, otherwise he would not have been able to get as far as he has in four weeks of training. It was nice to be able to play the video of the first day of training when it took Ruben 30-45 minutes just to get the horse from the stall to the round pen. A few jaws dropped when they asked if this was the same horse. We hope to make shorter clips of these "special" moments to share with all of you.

The mustang was on display inside the exhibition hall a lot of the time at the Horsemen's Western Dressage booth. He was a perfect gentleman in the stall and welcomed attention from kids and horse lovers of all ages. We had many questions about him as a horse, the Mustang Makeover Challenge and the Heritage Foundation and the Bureau of Land Management's Adopt a Wild Horse Program. We were also pleased to be able to speak to and share time with the folks from the Bureau of Land Management's Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Program. It was a nice to have them nerby to refer people to who had questions we could not answer about adopting and the program itself. They had plenty of printed material on hand, and a variety of other mustangs that were adoptd, trained and are averyday parts of other people's lives.

these are pictures of Ruben and the mustang "playing" on the trail riding competition course in Boise at the Horse Affairs Expo. Many that watched said he should have entered him in the competition. Note the lightness on the reins and how these two work so well together.

We will post videos as soon as they are available. Hope everyone had a Happy Saint Valentine's Day! Less than 2 months to Madison.

Day 3: First day in the saddle

The mustang (still not named) continues to impress us. He trusts and accepts most anything Ruben tries with him. He is intelligent has learned a lot in a few short days. Ruben takes it slow, but does not treat the mustang differesntly than other horses. Caution is exercised with all horses and Ruben's ability to read a horse is phenomenal. This mustang has yet to buck once. I believe it is because Ruben develops a raport with each horse he trains. The horses learn to perform because they can, not because they are forced.

Day Two: Adding a saddle

Ruben tried saddling the horse and the mustang had accepted and trusted Ruben. He had no rection to the saddle and so it was off to the round pen. Ruben is very careful not to exceed the horses psychological ability to learn. This makes the each training session a lerning experience and gets the lesson across to the horse. Using this method, Ruben starts each lesson/training session with a goal in mind. If that goal is reached in 10 minutes he is basically finished for that session. If it takes an hour for the horse to accomplish the goal of tht training session, then it takes an hour. The bottom line is the goal of the training session. I believe that is why he has such a good response from the horse. Work till you get it and then reward the learning experience. Day two was accepting the saddle and building on day one of leading, grooming, being tied in the cross ties, handling of feet and lunging. Day two also began lateral flexing and giving to pressure amnd moving the rear, front and side passing from the ground.

Below is a poor quality video of the horse saddled for the first time. There are better videos however, I am having problems uploading them. You can see a clip of Ruben and another horse on youtube under a search for Ruben and Shadow

Day 1: Learning to move on a lead line. Day 1: Adusting to the bosal for the first time.

Day 1: Adding a lead line to the bosal. Day 1: Learning to lunge and giving to pressure.

Day 1: More lunging. Day 1: Twenty minutes later, a willing partner.

Training sessions have not yet exceeded 20-30 minutes. Baby steps at first to build trust and learn the basics. Ruben trains in a bosal. The bosal teaches the horse to give to pressure without pain. A bit in a horse's mouth at this point would be a distraction and not a very affective tool.

Arrival

Well, here is the wild mustang Ruben will be training for the Midwest Mustang Challenge (part of the Extreme Mustang Makeover sponsored by the Mustang Heritage Foundation ). He (as of yet still unamed) was rounded up from a herd in Nevada and made the trip Ewing, IL. From there he made the trip to Missoula, MT and then to Benton City, WA. Upon arrival Ruben looked him over from the trailer windows and decided to get in and halter him. That took a less than five minutes to get the halter on and he let him adjust to it. Ruben then attached a lead rope and lead him to his stall. It took little effort to get him into the stall. I think he just wanted a rest after all the traveling.

Sunday the mustang rested and had a visit from the veterinarian. All the traveling had been hard and he had some swelling in his legs. Otherwise, I think he was happy to be someplace that didn't move for a bit. Little did he know his training was about to start on Monday.