Ranger's Journey

Ranger is a 15h ~3 yo mustang, barely started, but smart and curious. He thinks about things and I think he will become an awesome horse. This year will involve a lot of basic groundwork, ground driving and obstacles, and maybe a little riding. We’ll see how he does. It took a bit to have him comfortable enough that I could brush him at liberty. Lots of standing and breathing on my part, courage and curiosity on his. It helps to have the herd telling him it’s ok.

Lots of friends have been asking about Ranger: what's he like, when am I going to start "training" him, can he be ridden, etc. So I decided to share the things I'm doing and not doing with him so you can see how we/I go about bringing a new horse into the fold. Ranger was ridden about 10 times before I bought him, so he has had a human on his back. But he's still pretty young, and this is a new place so that's all on the back burner for now.

How traumatic it is for horses to change owners!!! Can you imagine? Especially performance/show horses whose lives are often a series of one buyer after another. No wonder horses have ulcers, fear issues, quirky behavior. So Ranger is just getting a chance to settle in. He has to feel that his environment, his person/people, herd are all safe places so he doesn't have to be hyper-vigilant all the time. Just think how hard it is to learn or focus if you are distracted by worry for your personal safety! Yesterday was a huge day for him - long trailer ride, strange people, way more horses than he had lived with before, strange environment everywhere he looked. I was very proud of how he was willing to take a chance and trust me to pet, brush and halter him. His owners said he was hard to catch so I felt it was big medicine when he let me do that.