Dancing the Day Away

This morning I woke up and headed to church hoping that encoded somewhere in Pastor's sermon there would be a hint on how to help my mustang come along faster. I know that is kinda funny but there have been many times God has done it before. Pastor made a great point...when you are in your calling make sure that you keep the passion. I took that for me as a mother and a horse trainer. God has called me to both. This spurred me to come home and do the best I can no matter the frustration of yesterday.
So I came home this afternoon ready to start figuring out what I needed to do next with Spade. Being that my round pen is still damaged from yesterday's fiasco, I had to get creative. First things first, I went in and took care of the house keeping. I cleaned his stall and refilled his water. Both seem to be horrifying to him. Although I have noticed something interesting. Spade is a good house keeper too. I have noticed that he backs up to the same spot every single time to use the restroom. Which is kind of odd, knowing that Manna walks in circles and spreads his all over. I am not sure if it is his personality or if it is a mustang thing. All I know is it makes cleaning really easy.

Then the creative part came. I decided to leave him in his stall and start using my natural horsemanship techniques to see how well he could understand me. I started out in the run behind his stall and as I got closer to him you could see that the fear would get to him and he would stiffen up. So I started a approach and retreat routine. For a while he wasn't interested. Finally I got close enough that he turned away showing me his butt. I gave him the "mean mare" look and he quickly turned and faced me with a head bow to say that I was the boss and he didn't want to mess with me. Immediately I dropped my shoulder and turned to ask him to follow me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him take two steps toward me...HUGE. I was so excited. This was my first sign that he might actually get over all the fear. For the next 30 mins to an hour I would walk toward him and he would back up. Then I would turn and retreat and he would come to me. Slowly I was getting closer and closer. We started to resemble two middle school children at our first school dance. We were making the same moves but we had a gap a mile wide between us. By the end of the day I was able to control his hindquarters and his front with just a look. I also was able to get him to follow me from his stall on comand. I still have yet to get a halter on, but I hope that we can fix the gate tomorrow and then I will be able to move on.


It has been tough to see all the other trainers on Facebook and see how far they have gotten. But I know that once I get to a certain place and get him to trust me then I will be moving fairly quick. In my frustration last night I sent a message to a good mustang friend about how frustrated I was. She gave me some of the best advice...this is what she wrote:


"Once Al Dunning told us all to expect a 1% progression every day (any more is just a bonus). At 1% each day you will have a heck of a horse in 120 days. You got in the pen with him. He got interested and thought about approaching...I'd say you got your 1% today. Baby steps are OK. Some days you'll make great strides, some days not, and that's OK. Just don't get too frustrated. I'll bet you'll be laughing about this day not too far down the road!"


Today I got to thinking about that and realized that is great advice to live by in the pen or in life in general. Sometimes you just have to take baby steps in life and if you just keep taking them before long you will turn around and see how far you have come. In Zach 4:9 it tells us not to despise small beginnings. God knows that sometimes you just have to take small steps and sometimes just because we have the faith to take the small steps God fills in the rest and gives us more then our 1% for the day. So no matter if you are struggling with something in life or relationships OR you are just training a mustang...keep you head up and be faithful to do your part for God today. Even if it seems small.