7/27/09 riding with spurs, he has learned to sidepass. We have made progress by leaps and bounds in the last few days. I have many things to teach him. He is taking it all in stride without any signs of resistance or fear. I am confident that he will be ready to go to Fort Worth. Check out Terri Russells's story that aired on kolo8 news last week. 7/23/09 . Go to kolotv.com click on hot topics, click on extreme Mustang Makeover.

Riding IlDivo

I have been really working hard on ILDivo since my last post. Many things have happened. To begin with, Terri Russell from KOLO8 aired our first part of the story last Thursday. It was fantastic. We have had wonderfull reviews. The ending to the story was to say the least, priceless. Anyone who is reading this may see the segment by going to kolotv.com. Click on hot topics, type in the Extreme Mustang Makeover, click and watch.

I have started the process of riding ILDivo. He has been a joy to work with. In the beginning, I knew that I needed to go slow, steady, but slow. If something really scares him, his reaction is to run. He also showed his anxiety by ducking his head and bucking a little bit. I have spent many hours and days, ground driving, ponying him with Presley, and exposing him to new people and new things. My last experience with Diva, my last Mustang Makeover Horse, taught me many things. The most important lesson was that she was not exposed to enough HUMANS. She bonded with me, however, did not like others. When her new owners started working with her, she wanted nothing to do with them and did not want Janice to get on her. The process of transfering the riding of Diva over to Janice was to say the least, a 2 month process. I have read in many emails in the mustang Makeovers that others who have purchased mustangs trained elsewhere have had this same problem.

For these reasons, I decided it would be best for me to hold onto ILDivo with Presley and have my helper get on him first. I could keep the horse from running or bucking, I kept Nick safe as well, and I could keep this a very positive, quiet, calm situation for my horse. It worked great, Presley kept everything in complete control, Nick hung on, ILdivo felt safe. The end. After two more rides like that, I got on and rode him. He was co-operative , at ease, and all the ground work and extra time paid off. I will continue to have different riders on him throughout his training.In an effort to not make him a one person horse, he has to trust all Humans in general, not just his Nanny Saunya.

This is the beginning of his 7th week in training. While I am happy with our progress I must move along quickly now. At this point he has learned to be ridden, tie, haul, wear a pack saddle, he ponys along with another horse and the list goes on. He backs up , moves his shoulders around to the right and left and will go forward pretty good. Today, I will add spurs, (not sharp) he will start wearing a snaffle and I will begin to push him for more. He is happy, we are great partners, he has many friends, lots of food and water, and security. What more could a pretty wild horse ask for?

I will be posting pictures of me riding him as soon as I get one! Check out my Sister's face the day of pick up. It says it all!!!!!!!!

LDivo 4th week

July 12th, The end of the 4th week. I cannot believe how fast time is flying by. We have made alot of progress and I am very close to getting on LDivo for the first time. He now can be ponied, Kolo 8 came and filmed this first expeirience last Monday. Terri Russell wants to film all of LDivo's first. I must say, it was a little wild. The " Wildone took one look at my big horse, Presley, and ran. It took me awhile to catch him in the round pen and for him to become used to such a BIG HORSE . After a short lesson I took him out of the round pen, down the street, and out to the desert. The news crew followed us and it is all " caught" on tape. He was so tired when we got back to the place but I must say he learned very quickly. The next time we went out you would have never known that it was only his second time. I need him to get used to me above him. Even though I need to get on him, it just isn't quite the right time. I am still ground driving him everyday and adding something new to the daily routine.

Friday I stood on the stool beside him, put my foot in the stirrup, hung over the saddle, and then pulled off the saddle and just layed over his back. He had his first bath,and got his mane and tail braided. I am now tieing him up for longer periods of time. Again, it seems like this is something he has been doing forever. He looked very pretty for his filming this afternoon.

Terri and Walker came to film his first time being loaded. I told them not to expect much as I did not expect him to get into my trailer. Well, he proved me wrong and walked right into the trailer with me. I unloaded him and then he didn't want to go back in. Finally, reluctantly, he did after they left. Today, Sunday, he walked in with me 6 times.

Everyday I am in awe of this pretty little bay gelding. He learns quickly and remembers. He only needs to be shown one time and the next time he just does what is expected of him. It's all about trust, love, kindness, firmness, and consistency.

I am planning on getting on him next week. He knows how to back up, saidepass, whoa, pivots, walk, trot, and lope, all on the driving lines. Now he needs to learn how to carry me and I am confident that we will progress very quickly from here.

LDivo's progress 7-4-09

LDivo has been with me for 3 weeks today. His progress has been way beyond what I had expected of him. I just cannot get over his willingness to please and his nosey, friendly, curious demeanor. He is much more interested in what I am doing than anything else. Terrie Russell from KOLO 8 and her cameraman, Walker, came out to start filming his progress last Monday. It was LDivo's second trip to the round pen. I saddled him and started my ground driving process. I put a sidepull on him for the first time and then hooked up the driving lines. As I would expect he ran, kicked out, turned around and wrapped the driving lines around himself a couple times and then he figured it out and that was the end. From that day on he has learned to stop nicely, reverse, back up, walk, trot and lope from my verbal cues. Today was the day to introduce him to my paniards, which are saddle packs that go over the saddle. They bounce around, sack him out, and get him used to things bouncing on the saddle. I introduced him to the the white "things" in his pen without a saddle. He looked at it as if to say " so" what? I put them on his bare back. From there I saddled him, put them over the saddle, hooked up the driving lines and off he went. No bucking, spooking, he just did his job as if he had seen that thing forever. I put a jolly ball in each side, they bounced around, stuck out, and again, no big deal.