100 Day Journey to Mustang Makeover

100 days ago he was nothing, no... he was a bit of wind and plains trapped temporarily in horsehide. The BLM ( Bureau of Land Management) round up, brought him in and he was put with a shipment headed east to TN. There he ran through chutes and into the waiting  trailer of trainer Geoff Goodson and a second journey, this time to Connecticut.

Now his 100 days are up and he is off again. This trip is to Clemson, SC. and the Extreme Mustang Makeover. The competition of  horse trainers and Mustang horses is a unique look at the incredible intelligence, compatibility, and flexibility of the Mustang.

They leave today for the long ride south. A team effort to put Lil Joe Wrangler into the competition with other Mustangs and trainers. With Geoff Goodson are a ring crew and more importantly to us back home, updates from Clemson! Lil Joe will compete in compulsories, and freestyle. Check it all out here at their site:
http://www.extrememustangmakeover.com/emmsouthcarolina.php

Compulsories are the useful and safety oriented skills of a good equine citizen. Expectations are high and all the Mustangs need to  exhibit a strong foundation before moving on to the freestyle.

Freestyle, an event to measure how much trust and training can be developed in a 100 day program of foundation building. Lil Joe Wrangler was a star pupil. His work sessions were kept short to accommodate his young age and physical development. He became a go everywhere, do everything horse. Lil Joe developed a fan club, he has a big heart and a personality the size of the open plains. Before leaving for Clemson and the big weekend long competition Geoff Goodson and Lil Joe Wrangler put on a public demonstration here at Round Stone Farm in East Hampton CT.
 http://www.facebook.com/pages/Roundstone-Farm-LLC/169194046424247

Here is a video compilation  from the Mustang Demonstration with CT. Horse trainer Geoff Goodson.

Here is a link to Geoff Goodson's site: http://www.geoffgoodsonhorsemanship.com/

Best of Luck to Geoff Goodson and Lil Joe Wrangler in the Extreme Mustang Makeover.

Previous Blogs in the Lil Joe series:

http://carolynstearnsstoryteller.blogspot.com/2012/08/lil-joe-mustang-horseadventure.html

http://carolynstearnsstoryteller.blogspot.com/2012/07/american-mustang-horse-from-bottom-up.html

http://carolynstearnsstoryteller.blogspot.com/2012/06/utah-wild-mustang-in-connecticut.html

http://carolynstearnsstoryteller.blogspot.com/2012/06/wild-horses-couldnt-keep-me-away.html







 

Equine Bug Control - Got Barn Swallows?

Bugs really bug horses, they bug people and pets too. Some bugs we need, some we don't. I don't like the use of chemicals to limit the bugs, so I really appreciate the job Barn Swallows  do in controlling insect population around our barn and yard.

It  all started when a solitary pair showed up a number of years ago. Now we have a full barn with the main aisle resembling the flight deck of a battleship. It is small inconvenience to have these masters of air in our lives each spring, the wonderful job they do in bug control really valuable. This season a full 12 nests of babies have hatched and taken flight.

We have plenty, but Swallows are having a tough time and populations are dwindling. Click here to check out Mass Audubon's  research project - If you are in Massachusetts you can help them with the research.
 http://www.massaudubon.org/Birds_and_Birding/birdstowatch/bigbarnstudy/

 The Big Barn Study hopes  to find answers and that will help keep the bugs from bugging you!

For bird identification and high quality photos and info check out  Cornell Lab of Ornithology site at:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/barn_swallow/id

an earlier blog for horse lovers:
http://carolynstearnsstoryteller.blogspot.com/2012/06/wild-horses-couldnt-keep-me-away.html

1 Author, 3 Horses, Thoroughbreds,Lippitt Morgans and Me

Tonight I was watching the Saratoga Yearling Sales Streaming Live from www.fasigtipton.com  I have, since childhood wanted to see the sales at Saratoga. Those days I wore a thin path through the commercial carpet in the school library to the shelves that held the collection of books by C.W.Anderson. Weekly I walked over to carefully select a favorite that would be my companion for the week.

C.W.Anderson wrote so you felt you were right there, including his writing about the yearling sales. His lessons  embedded in the text are on grooming, handling, health issues, rearing colts and more, all were taught in a simple natural way. His equine art was exquisite and precise, yet warm and soft on the eye, I was in love!

                                                                     

Here are some C.W.Anderson resources:
Author page at : www.equitainment.com.aufactsheet.asp?ID=48

Art For Sale or View: www.encore-editions.com/categories/horse-sketches-c-w-anderson

Buy His Books: www.amazon.com/c.-w.-anderson/eB001HCUBMM


It was the beginning of a new story that continues with a new chapter next weekend. If before I could read I liked horses, once the books were in my hands the love affair began in earnest. I read other authors as well I loved them all. Will James and so many more, if there was a horse or pony on the cover my nose would be buried in it. I read Justin Morgan Had A Horse and that was prophetic.

Christmas Day 1974 a black Morgan mare was in the back yard. She was decorated with icicles and happy eating her hay. I didn't feel the cold or snow and ice I just wanted to stand out there in disbelief that this was MY horse. Cindy was with me from that Christmas Day until 2002, what a gift! A new love affair began with Morgan Horses, which continues today.

I leased a look alike mare to my Cindy for breeding purposes, her name was Ryegate Bridget. She is a Lippitt Morgan ( the old blood lines preserved in this group of Morgans) I was hoping for another black mare and she was bred and the long wait ensued. Wait and wait and wait, she drew out the suspense into the 12th month. I was sleeping in the barn my eye easily checking her through a knot hole on the final night. The foal was coming. I ran and got my children we ran into the barn just in time to sit with her and watch the foal enter the world. I got my filly, but as she dried we realized she was bright pumpkin orange. Her color subdued as she shed the foal coat into a lovely chestnut. I gave her the name Storybook Salute Vermont. A homage to her lineage of Vermont Morgans and to C.W.Anderson and my favorite book Salute!

This spring Salute ( with new owner Dave Godding [CT] calling her Sally) delivered a beauty of a colt, Hail Vermont. The tradition continues.

                                                                         


The Lippitt Morgans will be strutting their stuff and showing their beauty and courage in the ring at the Lippitt Country Show Aug 20-21 in Tunbridge Vermont. I can't wait to get there and sit in the shadow of the Green Mountains watching these magnificent Morgans. www.lippittclub.net  Just sitting here dreaming about next week I had to look back at my videos , join me:

                                                                         
                         

Last Year at the show they introduced a new drill team this is the video I took of that performance - all Lippitt Morgans!

                                                                         
Pinch Me, I think I'm dreaming when I get to be the show announcer and see the beauty and majesty of the Morgan Horse on this historic show grounds where on the perfect day you can hear their ancestors thunder over the Green Mountains and on into greener pastures.
                                                            storyteller -announcer
                                                www.carolynstearnsstoryteller.com

"Galloping Horses" Tired of Snow? Green Images, Good Music

Green images on a cold and wintry day
remember summer does return!
The grass  comes  again
and the horses hooves will thunder on the valley floor
and over  hills
asleep under snow
no more

There Shall Be Mud

Why on earth after creating heaven and earth did mud ever get created. Is mud the after thought or uncalculated by product? I beleive that it was made to humor someone with good boots! They were certainly there watching the day the mud sucked the boot from my foot and left me windmilling my arms at the gate. Prayer was never so dedicated as that moment when I truly did not want to fall face first in the mud manure combination. Oh I know kids on the school bus and commuters got the laugh of the day when passing by.
There is a certain percentage of the population that revel in mud. We have several horses that fall into that category and love the earth to body transfer of mud and then the grooming that follows to send the mud to earth again. All this to only dash to the next mud puddle in the morning and recoat themselves in glorious oozing dripping MUD!
New England traditionaly celebrates and glories in its four seasons marketing each one to tourists from a different view point. I have never seen marketing of mud season! It is not written up in Yankee Magazine there are no glossy inserts in a Sunday paper luring you to New England in Mud Season. It is like the family secret, the never spoken of. I am here to tell you Mud season does exhist and we are in the middle of it. I used to have a pair of white sneakers they succumbed to mud season 09 today. I have lost more than one shoe to a mud season and the black bottom on some socks comes from an invasion of shoes to a degree where the Clorox companies research hasnt dared to follow. I like new socks in May!
Where do earth worms evacuate to in Mud Season. It is the equivalent to a hurricane Katrina and the devastation to the worm community is intense. Where once tunnels and mounds occupied the ground now a brown foul swill has oozed into place. I pity them their exhistance in a mud filled world. There is enough soap and dry socks for me to escape for a few hours each day to a dry clean place. Mud free living, it could be a good cover story for Country Living Magazine. That magazine has never quite understood the heartbeat of real country. Well a fair wind blows and the mud would dry, but the forcast is for rain and mud season has just begun its hijinks for 2009. I have yet to lose a shoe or boot, I havent fallen although I pulled a few muscles I forgot I had in avoiding that event today. There has not been a large mud track in the kitchen when someone fresh from mudville made an emergency trip into the house. So far the dog the mud and the couch have not been reunited, a success story in a baby gate.
Pack your bags it is not to late to miss New England in Mud Season, you too can enjoy the age old tradition of slip sliding across the barnyard on a greased track of glorious brown mud. Welcome!