Explanation

This is a bit backwards, but since I'm reinventing my Blogger persona to become the Equine Chameleon, I thought a few people might find this blog and not understand.

In the Spring of 2007, my freshman year at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, we participated in a pilot program with the BLM to receive five year-old mustangs to halter-break and ground train.  This was done as part of a class held every year, required for all freshmen, in which the freshmen halter-break and ground train domestic yearlings, usually Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds, for outside clients.  With my class, two girls were assigned to each Mustang and told to "get as far as we could with them," after six weeks of classroom classes and training theory.  The goals were to have them halter broken, standing for the farrier, trailer loaded, lunging and possibly ground driving.

Unfortunately a strangles outbreak hit the holding center just before we got them and instead of five yearlings, we got three yearlings (really one yearling and a couple of nine month olds) and two three year olds.  I ended up randomly drawing the three year old. 

What followed turned out to be the most fascinating, challenging and anguished two months of my life.  The three year olds were so much harder to work with than the babies, who had most likely been born at the center.  I learned what they mean when they say the horse is a 'fight or flight' animal.  I got kicked, I slumped to the floor of the round pen crying with frustration, I got rope burns through my leather drivers.  But I also was able to touch my Mustang at liberty after nearly two months of nothing, and finally was able to lead him around in the round pen on the day of my final.  We had to give him back before we could accomplish anything more, and he never really trusted me, but it was the most inspiring two months of my life.

This journal was required for the class, so I decided to blog it.  For more information on the class, please read the June or July 2007 issue of Horse Illustrated.  And of course you can always ask!