Mustang & Friends

Ladies, gentlemen, and those who know better . . . we've got a hack winner

The new 'stang has been here for a solid four weeks. His progress is both exciting and freaking adorable. Have I mentioned how stinking cute he is???

The name game is ongoing. Right now, the group is stuck between Alejandro, Ranger, and Agave. I'm very much team Agave. Alejandro is way too machismo, and Ranger feels too potato bread. I don't really have a say as he's, uhhhh, very much not my horse. I thought about just mashing the name together for blog purposes, but then that'd be awful to type. I'm going with Agave. Maybe if I say it enough, I can manifest the group into agreeing with me?? We'll see . . .

This but with that Instagram audio that's like "Hi, yes, I placed an order for love and affection."

The biggest thing with him over the past couple of weeks was 1) establishing basic control and 2) finding him a turnout group because the stall situation is very much a merry-go-round. All of the boarders have access to their stalls 24/7, but Trainer T's horses switch off with some going out at night and some staying in during the day. For the initial part of his arrival, Agave had to stay in the stall because obviously wild horse does not understand being caught and using a halter. Then began the process of introducing him to turnout in one of our smaller but more private pens.

Agave and the donkey's first meeting. The donkey literally saw Agave and screamed
(and this donkey has started making strangely humanoid brays for some odd reason).
Agave's response was basically "What'd you say? Lemme come closer so
I can hear you better." Curiosity is one of my favorite traits in horses.

Initially, Trainer T took him out with a lunge line and let him walk around just to see how he'd react. He's been good about leading from one place to another, so no one expected him to have any issues there. Once the cord was cut, homeboy was stressed. Poor boy got so lonely. So, yeah, supervised turnout did not last very long. It's clear that he likes people, learns quickly, and is eager to do things. This week, he graduated to group turnout! And he's loving it! Still comes right up to the fence whenever someone walks by.

I'm hoping that once show season ends, we can start ponying him on trail rides. I did make a mistake in my last post; he's only 1.5 years old, not 2.5, which makes the height thing even more exciting. There's tons of trail shows around here too, and it's never too early to start giving them more experience. Maybe (just maybe) if I can consistently push my work schedule back, then I'll be able to get out to the barn more and work with him. We'll see . . .

Somebody broke that fence, and it surprisingly wasn't the fully wild animal in view
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