naturalremudaequinelearningcenter.com

August 25, 2008

We have been busy as heck this last week or so. We did get some rain. Now we don't look so much like the Sahara Desert.

Penny finally decided that claustrophobia was in her mind. She had a fit the other day when a new implement was parked beside the arena where she was being worked. So, now she has bags, balls, and implements parked alongside the arena all over the place. She is getting used to squeezing through everything and is so much better about it. She has really settled down and is now leading by a leg and by her middle. She is so much calmer and is actually listening to Jere instead of thinking about running. From day one, she wasn't worried about tarps, and is still the same. That seems weird because she was so scared of everything else. She is jumping now but she jumps 3 feet in the air when she jumps a 2 foot jump.

Shasta has no claustrophobic tendencies at all. She has a lot of curiosity about all the stuff laying in the arena. She goes and investigates all of it.

Both of the fillies are turned out into a larger trap now. They run all the way around the arena every day and buck and jump. I think they sure like getting out of the little 1 acre trap they were in.

We only have a little over 3 weeks left to go until we head for Ft. Worth to show them. We want to say thank you in advance to all the people who are coming to the show to watch us. We know that takes some commitment to go that many miles to see us. Thank you all!!

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August 14, 2008

We sure do see a difference in these two fillies. Granted, Penny is a little younger, by her size, but Shasta is so much farther ahead of Penny in training! We think it is due to their different personalities. Thank goodness we have studied the Parelli's Horsenality program and can see where they fit.

Penny is a right brained extrovert. She has a little switch in her head that clicks on and says RUN! And she does. This morning, though, we saw that she is starting to think a little sooner. She will run for a second and then she stops and thinks, instead of reacting. She is tight in her body, and lots more reactive. But on the other hand she has the lightest in feel of these two fillies and is much more sensitive. She will work on a far longer rope than Shasta will. We tied her up with a Blocker Ring for the first time this morning and she gave one little tiny pull and then stood there for an hour while other horses were being worked.

Shasta just takes everything in stride. This morning Jere swung his stick and string while he was walking all the way around her. He laid the rope on the ground while he did this and she didn't even pay any attention to him. We tied her up with the Blocker Rings and she didn't move. But I took a series of pictures and it looks like she is saying, "This sure is boring!"

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August 13, 2008

This morning Penny loaded into the trailer at a trot. It is amazing to see the progress she has made. Then Jere worked with the flag (a sack on the end of a stick) and she didn't give much trouble with that. She is so much calmer and tied onto Jere that I think it makes her trust whatever he challenges her with. After we got done with the flag, she was introduced to the ball. She was pretty wary of it at first. Of course she still doesn't like to squeeze through anything and Jere had quite a time getting her to do that. But she is settling down a lot now. It is amazing what the ground-work does for these horses.

On the way to the trailer this morning, Jere laid the rope down and Shasta got into the trailer and waited for him. She is such an unusual colt, in that she will do almost anything! Work with the flag didn't bother her and she sniffed the ball and Jere lifted it up and put it up on her back and she just looked like she had been doing this all her life.

We still have to give both colts a bath, get them around crowds and a few other things. We have such a good foundation on them now, though, that we think it will be fairly easy to do all the rest.

Our Newsletter is on our web site, http://www.naturalremudaequinelearningcenter.com/

August 12, 2008
Seems as though Penny is having a good solid breakthrough. She was much calmer this morning. The trailer sits in the path we walk when we go to the arena to work her. Jere showed her the opening to the trailer, and she just walked in like she was an old hand at this. Jere turned her loose in the round pen and worked at catching her. It didn't take long, as she is finally approaching him by herself. He worked on the tarp and then it started raining hard (praise the Lord!!). We quit till it stops raining.

We have set up a schedule of things we want to get done with them, now that we are so close to the Extreme Mustang Makeover date. One thing we really have to get done pretty soon is haul them to some shows and get some crowd noise miles on them. We know it will be noisy in Ft Worth and we want them to show well.

We want to thank all our clients and friends and neighbors for the interest and support they have shown in these Mustangs. It is certainly a lot more fun doing this when everyone is interested.

Our web page is at www.naturalremudaequinelearningcenter.com
We have our Newsletter on there and also a litst of our clinics.

AUGUST 8, 2008
Today’s session with our Mustangs just proves that the Natural Horsemanship way of training horses really works. We have felt that we were fairly slow in how much training we were putting on our Mustangs, and that probably, everyone else was way ahead of us in training. But we were sticking to our training schedule because Shasta was doing so well and Penny was coming along nicely, but slowly. This morning we had proof of our theory.
Jere started with Penny. She was really quiet and showed no sign of the nerves and head up fear that she usually shows. She worked quietly in the arena and when Jere came out he thought he would load her in the trailer. She looked into it twice and put one foot up. Jere always gives the horse a way out, so he guided her out away from the trailer and turned her around. This time he just sent her and she walked right inside the trailer. So, going with Natural Horsemanship principles, he sent her out to stand on the ground again. Then he sent her in again, and be darned if she just walked in like she had been doing this all her life!! Jere and I are such skeptics!! We figured that we would get her part way in and then have to finish her the next day. But the little sweetheart proved us wrong. Jere sent her into the trailer a few more times and put her away for the day.
Then it was time for Shasta. We had company, so they watched while Jere worked her. Then Jere decided he would try to load Shasta. As Jere was walking to the trailer, he looked over at the dogs, and Shasta walked over to the trailer and hopped in. Just like that. We are so proud of them, we are busting our buttons!!

AUGUST 7, 2008
Jere played with both horses on the playground and worked on transitions and draw.
Jere still plays catching move with them. Penny still is not tied on as well, but now she will walk up very cautiously and let herself be caught. We are going to start letting her walk up to us and rubbing her and playing with her face in her “sweet spots” and then walking away from her. We will see if this gets her to be more trusting of us.
We are also starting with the trailer loading, by driving them in. We have a 4-horse cattle trailer and most horses will get right into it. We will see about the Mustangs loading by the halter, instead of loose.

AUGUST 1, 2008
Shasta and Penny are backing, yielding their hindquarters and circling. They do the side pass very well and are started on transitions, both up and down. They don’t get spooked at too much any more and we have even tied sacks to the top of the arena and round pen. They are also going over the tarp, and Penny, our little chicken, went over it without even thinking about it. It is amazing to watch them and see how they work things out in their mind.

JULY 31, 2008
The light did come on for Penny today! She is much easier to catch. Finally! She isn’t spooking near as much and for the first time, Jere led her to the round pen, instead of having to back her a lot of the way.
A word about personality types. Penny is definitely right brained and an extrovert. She will get an idea in her head, and it is if a switch turned on and she goes running frantically around. In order for her to settle down, she has to have lots of disengagements and finally, she will start thinking.
Sweet Shasta just seems to be getting better and better. You folks that want a horse that will go on the trails and has been started right and ready to go on, sure should look at Shasta. She is really a doll!

JULY 25, 2008
Today while Jere was trying to get Penny to hook on, at Liberty, she jumped the gate on the round pen. She was frantically trying to find a place to get away and we put too much pressure on her. She just stood up on her hind legs, right beside the gate and flatfooted jumped over! Maybe she can be a jumping horse!! But the good thing was, she let Jere walk right over to her and catch her. We were really surprised that she would let him catch her so easy. After that we worked her some more, and she seemed to settle down and come to him better. We will see if it is just a false alarm, or maybe she is getting ready to tie on.

JULY 20, 2008
The Mustangs can now lead, they have had ropes around their legs, they are used to brushing and ropes being thrown over their back and rump. They will follow a feel, can have their feet picked up and are both leading by the front and back legs. They have had ropes around their bellies, know all the Parelli games, except for Penny, who we don’t do the circling game with yet.
Jere has also been taking them out to our playground, on a 22-foot line. They have gone over the bridge, walked and trotted over poles, jumped the jumps, and stood on a pedestal. Penny, of course, had some trouble, but after a couple of days she seemed to have calmed down a lot. A bigger area gives her much more room in her bubble, so she likes that better.

JULY 15, 2008
Our granddaughters have both of the colts eating out of their hands. They also follow the girls around while they walk around the outside of the pen. Kids really tame horses quick. It has something to do with them being small and more importantly, the kids don’t walk like predators yet. So they are not a threat.

JULY 5, 2008
We hauled the Mustangs back to the Center without any trouble.

JULY 4, 2008
We did have great fireworks this year. Our house sits on a hill and we could see the whole show from the front porch!!

JULY 3, 2008
Our granddaughters arrived today. They are 9-year-old twins and great de-spookers of Mustangs!! We also have had lots of company.
We loaded the Mustangs loose in the trailer and moved them over to a pasture we have with a barn on it. We didn’t want the fireworks to scare them enough to jump out of the pens. They loaded really well and hauled over to the pasture. They were close to about 5 of our other horses there and they liked that.

JUNE 26, 2008
Today the Mustang colts made the trip to the round pen. It isn’t that far and Shasta walked over like she had done it a million times before. Penny had to be backed almost all the way there, to get her brain in gear, but she made it too.
They had a really good session in the round pen. It seems to free them up some.
Jere got Shasta moving off of pressure and did the catch me thing to see if she was still tied on in a larger area. This colt is so sweet and trusting, that she hardly ever spooks or tries to run. And she didn’t this time either. Jere even did some Liberty work with her and she did really well.
Penny didn’t get off the rope at all, but Jere spent a lot of time disengaging and getting her to think. She really has trouble with circles, because her brain seems to go into “run faster” mode after the first or second circle. So, we won’t do many circling things until she can use her brain better.

JUNE 19, 2008
Today we took some more pictures of the Mustangs. We can’t get them out of their pen yet, but got some good pictures of Jere leading Shasta and Penny being groomed.
We have found out that our neighbor is in charge of the fireworks for the town of Utopia and he has been practicing. The Mustangs are pretty spooked by this, but with horses next to them really help. We will move them to the pasture barn about 5 miles away when July 4th comes, so we don’t spook them out of their pens.

JUNE 18, 2008
Since we have separated the colts, the tying-on process has improved a bunch.
Shasta is letting Jere pick up her feet and letting him flip the rope around her body. She is calm most of the time. She is also learning to follow a feel and is getting used to scary objects.
Penny is still spooky, but is improving at a much slower rate than Shasta.

JUNE 11, 2008
Our local veterinarian, Dr. Sells, stopped by today to see the Mustangs. He cautioned us on how much protein to feed them. He said, because we really didn’t know how they were fed before, we need to be careful with their feed. They are in very good body condition, so they were fed well in the holding pens by the BLM.
Shasta has really tied on to Jere now. We put the rope halter on her today. She just turned and walked away with Jere. It is unbelievable how easy she was to start on this. She will follow him everywhere and loves to be scratched and brushed.
In our training program, it seems like a long time before we put a rope on the Mustangs. But we feel that catching and tying-on is the most important part, and the rest will come easy after we get the foundation built.
Penny still has not tied on. She is on the other end of the spectrum from Shasta. She is very spooky, moves her feet fast, and usually the other way from you. She is making some progress, in that Jere can brush her and she loves to have her mane brushed. Sort of like horses groom themselves.

JUNE 7, 2008
We have another Clinic at the Center today. Lots of people will come to look at the Mustangs. We have also had company all week and that really helps them. We have until September 18 to show both these horses in Ft. Worth at the Mustang Makeover. They are judged on an obstacle course, and body condition. Watch for more developments.

JUNE 3, 2008
I am trying to write in this blog every day, but not succeeding too well. We are very busy with our Clinic business and the Mustangs have to have time every day too. And on top of everything else, it is hot!! What great problems to have!
We have chosen names for sure now. The bay filly is Shasta. She is the sweetest horse! So we named her after a sweet tough flower. She has big eyes and a truly gentle nature.
The red dun colt, we named Penny. We actually named her because of her color, but after working with her for a while, we decided she was “Henny Penny, the sky is falling”!! She has not tied on to Jere yet, but I think when she does, she will really be tied on. Penny hides behind Shasta when Jere comes into the pen. It is interesting to have two so different types of horses to train.

MAY 31, 2008
Today, we are having a Clinic at our house. We have several area people who are attending. This is an excellent desensitizer for the Mustangs, because lots of people come and look at them. They are getting used to people being outside the pen and will come up to the fence to check them out now.
There has been a lot of interest in our area in these Mustangs. Lots of people think the Mustang is a wild, skinny, ugly horse, but these colts are proving this fallacy wrong.

MAY 28, 2008
This morning we decided we better get busy on our pen for the Mustangs. We have an extra round pen that we don’t use much and it has good high panels, so we will use that.
When the Jere Johnson clan starts to do some building, we have lots of “board meetings”. For those of you who are married under 5 years, this means we fight like crazy over what we are going to do. So, today consisted of lots of “board meetings”. But we did get the pen up. It is really nice and the Mustangs seem to like being separated.
A word about the colts we put in the trap beside them. This seemed to really help our Mustangs. We would see our two colts talking through the fence to the Mustangs and when the Mustangs would get excited, our colts would settle them down. Because horses are gregarious and herd animals, they need to at least see other horses. And we also wanted to ensure that if the Mustangs jumped out, we would be able to catch them without chasing them down and roping them, or some other method that would set our training program back. We are believers in the Natural Method of horse training and would like to keep out as much trauma as we can.

MAY 26, 2008
Jere has gotten both the fillies to eat out of the bucket, while he was holding it for them. They like the grain, probably for the molasses in it. This surprised us, as we thought they wouldn’t pay any attention to grain.
They will also stand still when someone comes into the pen. We have been spraying them with water in the afternoon, because it has been so hot. They seem to really like that on their rump, not on their head.
One of the main reasons we are enthusiastic about this project is that these wild horses are part of our heritage, here in the west. But for the Mustang, the iconic wild horses of America, the stakes are much higher.
The BLM (Bureau of Land Management) oversees the wild horses in ten states. They estimate they have over 33,000 Mustangs in these herds. In addition they have about 30,000 horses in holding facilities in several states that have been previously rounded up. In the past, people adopted 7,000 to 8,000 horses annually. But with the economy letdown, the adoption has slowed to only 3,000 horses so far this fiscal year. These figures are staggering. And even more staggering is the fact that the BLM will spend a majority of its annual budget—about $26 million of the $37 million—caring for the animals in captivity.
Now, the Mustang Heritage Foundation is stepping into the fray. They have created the Extreme Mustang Makeover in several different states and the excitement is growing. Both older horses that can be started riding and younger horses that will be shown in hand will be coming to the contest in Ft Worth, TX. There are cash prizes and scholarship money up for grabs by the trainers. But most importantly, this is your chance to adopt a part of the West and to get a really nice well trained horse in the bargain. These Mustangs can be adopted in a silent auction on September 20, 2008 at Ft Worth. If you are interested, please contact us and we can give you details.

MAY 25, 2008
Today is Sunday and the first day we have cleaned the Mustang’s pen. Jere was able to go inside and move slowly and they didn’t try to jump out.
We made the decision when we got the Mustangs, to put them both into a small pen, because we weren’t sure how wild they would be. But we will get busy next week and put more panels up for another pen, so both of them can have their own space. It will also be easier to work with them if they are separated. Here is a picture of both of them in the same pen.

MAY 24, 2008
Well, the Mustangs are still there. Guess they didn’t jump out last night. Jere went to feed them and they came to the feed when he stepped back. They don’t like him to be close, because, after all, they are Mustangs. We spent the morning just sitting around outside the pen, getting them used to the movement of people. The evening feeding was a lot better. They aren’t nearly so scared.
We are an older couple, in our 60’s, who have worked on ranches and feedlots all our lives. We raised three children in the Colorado 4-H Horse program. Jere has trained horses all of our married life. We have been following Natural Horsemanship since the 70’s. In 2005, we went to a Tour Stop put on by the Parelli Organization, and we were blown away seeing the whole Natural Horsemanship picture. We got to see how the groundwork and riding tied together. Before, the only prerequisite that Jere had for groundwork was that they didn’t drag him from the corral to the saddle shed! Now, all of the sudden, we could see how Natural Horsemanship fit with the riding. So we took many clinics, went to many seminars and started really studying Natural Horsemanship.
Last year, when it came time to retire, we decided to open a Learning Center, where we could teach Natural Horsemanship and we could do clinics and some training. Our whole purpose now, is to teach people how to help their horse, instead of throwing him away when he they can’t get him to do what they want.

MAY 18, 2008
We had not heard about the Mustang Makeover, but during the week of May 18, one of our clients sent us a newspaper article about it, and suggested that a young man like our son might find this a fun project. Little did we know that it wouldn't be our son, but ourselves, who were about to begin our Mustang Makeover Adventure.
We read the article and noticed that there were some yearlings going to be included in the makeover too. I absolutely refuse to let Jere take on a wild horse to ride, because, after all, he is 63 years old. And while he is a spry old feller, I still don't want him breaking bones!! But, the yearlings would be a little different deal.
I e-mailed Patti Colbert of the Mustang Heritage Foundation and she was enthusiastic about us getting a yearling. So we got our paperwork together and had some people fill out references for us, and faxed it to them. We were chosen to be one of the Yearling Mustang Makeover Trainers. We decided to take two of the Mustangs because they would settle each other down. And, why take one, when you can take two of them?? We were approved on the Friday before we had to pick them up in Elgin, TX.

MAY 23, 2008
We traveled from Utopia to Elgin, a trip of about 3 hours, to pick up our two Mustangs. We didn’t have any idea of what our horses would be like, so we came prepared and brought ropes and halters.
We started from home at around 7 a.m. and got to Elgin around 10 a.m. We took care of the paperwork and backed up to the chute to load our Mustangs. The crew they had to load was evidently very experienced and we were amazed at how quickly they loaded them and we were on our way. To get home we have to go through Austin. We were worried that all the traffic would worry our Mustangs, so we went around Austin and came in through Johnson City and then on South and home.
We made the trip home fast and when we got there, put a couple of panels up and backed the trailer up to their pen. They both walked off the trailer like they had been doing this all their lives! We kept them in the same small pen for a little while, because we didn’t know how wild they would be. We also went and got two of our yearlings to put in the pasture beside them. We figured if they jumped out, they would at least stay with our colts and we wouldn’t have to chase them all over the country.