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Life after the 90 day mustang challenge.

70K views 452 replies 76 participants last post by  jaydee 
#1 ·
As some of you know I said I would make a separate thread if I was selected to participate in the Youth and Yearling Mustang Challenge. I got my acceptance letter on Wednesday. I will be picking up an un-handled yearling this Friday at 8 a.m. I do not know which horse I will get, whether it is a colt or filly, big or small. It will be a complete surprise. After that I will have 90 days to train and gentle this yearling, and then I will go compete on July 25-26. There are three separate parts to this competition; Handling & Conditioning, Leading Trail Class, and Freestyle.

The handling and conditioning part is how manageable your yearling is, and how well it is taken care of (body condition, coat, hooves, etc.).

The leading trail class is where you lead your yearling over obstacles such as; ground poles, tarps, cones, load into a trailer, pick up feet, etc.

And freestyle is where you do whatever you want to show your yearlings athletic abilities and trainability.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Emma. I have worked with horses for 5+ years, and always wanted to have a career with horses. I plan to go to CSI and get a degree in horse management. I currently own a Appaloosa Mare, Misti, and a Paint gelding, Kiowa. And since I am in absolute love with both of them, there are some photos below. This will be a huge challenge for me, but I suspect the reward this yearling will give me will be greater than I can even imagine.

If any of you have any tips or ideas, they would be greatly appreciated! This is the first time I've trained a horse from the ground up, so I will probably seem stupid to you guys who are amazing with horses. If you took the time to read all this, thank you!!
 

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#9 ·
There is some interest! Now I will for sure keep this updated! I'm so excited, it's going to be a long time until Friday! So today we leveled out the ground where the round pen is, and added three new 12' panels. My dog, Jazzie, is in one of the photos. She's a funny little thing. The leveling out really stabilized the panels. Hopefully we get the panels anchored down, like SlideStop mentioned, before friday. I have a lot of preparing to do in a short time! Hopefully that will speed up time!

What happens to the yearling at the end of the training period. In other words, is it yours or does it belong to a ranch, BLM, etc?
On Friday I will adopt the yearling, it will be mine by the time I leave the BLM. At the end of the training period I have the option to find an adopter for him/her, or I keep the yearling. So in other words, yes the yearling is mine. I do not know exactly what I will be doing, as it depends on the horse. I can only sell this yearling for money after owning it for a year. I hope that makes sense?

I'm not sure what the requirement for yearlings are, but you may want to look into anchoring the walls with posts. Also, you may want to raise the height of the walls temporarily. The trainer by me just got some small pieces of wood and the orange fencing and put it up all around the perimeter for a few weeks to prevent his 'stang from jumping out. Posted via Mobile Device
The requirements were 5' or 6' fences. Our fences are 5'. The orange fencing is a really good idea! I hadn't thought of that. Anchoring the fence with posts is also something I will have to do soon. Thank you for the ideas, I appreciate it!
 

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#5 ·
Subbing!

I'm not sure what the requirement for yearlings are, but you may want to look into anchoring the walls with posts. Also, you may want to raise the height of the walls temporarily. The trainer by me just got some small pieces of wood and the orange fencing and put it up all around the perimeter for a few weeks to prevent his 'stang from jumping out.

Good luck to you!!
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#13 ·
Wow thanks you guys so much! I can't wait to see what yearling I get either! If you guys want to make guesses on what gender the yearling will be, and color, that would be fun ;) I was going to put that in my last post, but I completely spaced it! There's technically only one more day until we go pick the yearling up. (I can't wait until I can say he or she.."the yearling" is getting annoying.) I'll go to school tomorrow and then come home. We leave in the morning at 7! I can't wait!

We got some stuff done today. After school I ran to D&B and got some equine junior feed, hopefully that will help him/her put on weight and develop a nice coat before competition. I also got a bucket that hangs on the round pen panels. I probably need to buy another one.. Anyways that will be his water bucket. I'll feed on the ground or from a haynet, it depends on the weather. I also picked up the sturdiest rope halter I could find. Hopefully it fits! *fingers crossed* My mare (the bay) was so curious about what was going on! They both followed me around everywhere. It was so cute.

Oh goodness I would love that, I've always wanted a black horse. But as long as he/she is healthy, I will be happy with whichever yearling I get :)

So make guessed guys! Maybe one of you will be right!
 

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#14 ·
I'm guessing it'll be a.....spotted filly..lol

I can tell you're excited about it and I'm looking forward to reading your blog as you progress....

Good luck, and above all, have fun...
 
#17 ·
No idea on gender/color, but definitely subbing to read about this. I'm debating on doing one of the mustang makeovers within the next two or three years. Do they not require a 12x12 shelter with the 20x20 outdoor pen? I could've swore that was a requirement, which is why I didn't grab a colt last year.
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#18 ·
Woohoo more guesses! I have about 15 friends guessing too! This will be fun :) It's about 9:30 right now and I am jumping around because I am so excited. I got everything finished today. The pen he/she will be in is ready to go, and the trailer is hooked up. We leave at 6:30 tomorrow morning. I also got a chance to ride my mare for the first time in a few days and it was amazing. I feel a little bad about getting another horse because I feel like she will be.. I'm not even sure what word to use. (She's just that type of mare.) I'm sure everything will be okay though! Anyways I have four different halters, two rope and two nylon, so we can make sure that the one we put on the yearling fits. I also put some buckets in the tack room of the trailer. Anything else you think I will need? I don't want to forget anything.

I think I am going to go insane before we even get this yearling o.o I should just go to bed, although I don't think I will be able to sleep. Right now I'm feeling more nervous than excited, but I'm sure that will go away when the yearling is home and in the pen. Also the farrier comes out tomorrow! I'm going to post some more photos, hope you like them! (Oh and one has me laying on my mare, she really is just amazing. I love her more than I can even explain.)

No idea on gender/color, but definitely subbing to read about this. I'm debating on doing one of the mustang makeovers within the next two or three years. Do they not require a 12x12 shelter with the 20x20 outdoor pen? I could've swore that was a requirement, which is why I didn't grab a colt last year.
I don't think the required a 12x12 shelter for this one, but they did require a 400 square foot corral. I copied the text from the rules and regulations so you can see:

"Facility can consist of a corral/paddock/stall/round pen. Facility must be a
minimum of 400 square feet (i.e. 20’ x 20’ or 10’ x 40’, etc.) and have fences at least 5 feet high. You must provide shelter from inclement
weather and temperature extremes for your Mustang. Shelters must be a two-sided structure with a roof, well drained, adequately ventilated and accessible to the Mustang. The minimum two sides need to block the prevailing winds and need to protect the major part of the bodies of the horse. Tarps are not acceptable."


So far the guesses we have for colors/gender are:

Black w/ two white socks - Colt
Spotted - Filly
Sorrel w/ star - Colt
Buckskin w/ blaze and sock - Filly
Grey w/ blaze - Filly
Bay Paint - Filly
Grey Paint - Colt
Completely Bay - Colt


I won't include my friends because I don't remember their guesses.
 

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#23 ·
Sorry for the wait you guys! I've been so busy all day.

We left this morning at 6:30 and arrived at the horse corrals at 8:00. When we got to the corrals the yearlings were in a pen up front. There were only two other trailers picking up when we arrived. We went into the office and signed papers, and got the papers for the yearling I was assigned to. All I knew about him once I got the papers, was that he was a sorrel gelding with a star, strip, and snip. They didn't have any pictures of him. We walked back outside to see if we could find him based on the picture they drew of his markings. After searching for a few minutes, we found one that looked to have the right markings. Once the other trailers were loaded they went to round him up. He was taken back to the squeeze chutes to put the halter on him and then they ran him into our trailer. It was really an amazing experience!

He is over two years old, not what I expected. He is also very small, maybe 14 hands, but not much over that. His height is the only thing I'm a little disappointed with, other than that he's perfect! Within a few hours of bringing him home I was able to pet his face. Only one kick so far, and no biting or striking. I think that's pretty good. He seems to be kind and smart. He also loves hay, and will come up to you after thinking about it. He is very spooky, but I didn't expect him not to be. I have a lot of work to do, but for right now I am exhausted.

Any name ideas? I was thinking about Rüger? (Roo-ger) I'd love some name suggestions! Oh and oobiedoo, you were almost exactly correct about his markings!! I will post some photos of him now, I hope you guys like them!
 

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