Sunday, June 13, 2010

My 2010 EMM Mustang....Shoshone's Sonic Boom

It was a long eventful fun drive to Elm Creek, NE to pick up our EMM horses. 

We truck pooled with our friends, Angela and Jessi.  Jessi was selected as a youth trainer for the yearling division.  GO JESSI!  We have 4 people from our Midwest Mustang & Burro Saddle Club who are in the competition, which is very cool!  One has been training mustangs for over 20 yrs and competed in the 2007 EMM.  Another has been training horses for about 10 yrs and he has a mustang at home......then there is myself who is a newbie trainer and Jessi, who is the youth trainer.

Welcome to Elm Creek, NE!!!


My horse is a gelding, about 14 hands tall, captured when he was 4 yrs old and he is now 6 yrs old.  He was captured from the South Shoshone HMA, near Battle Mountain, NV.  Sooooo.....he was out in the wild for quite a while before he was captured and had time to get set in his ways.  Survival and preservation were necessary.  He is a stocky built bay and is GORGEOUS!!!

I had a couple of names picked out but wanted to meet him first.  Neither name worked...I knew I needed a strong name and kept joking about names like T-Rex, Carnivore, and Jay (trainer) mentioned Gator.  Jessi had mentioned eating at Sonic and I thought about Sonic Boom.  Big name for a horse with big ideas and opinions about life.  He is from the Shoshone range, so he was appropriately named Shoshone's Sonic Boom.  We will call him Boomer, in memory of a mustang we lost to a freak accident.  Altho I have been calling him Boom.  :-)

They ran him down the alley way and into the chute.  He kicked, and kicked some more, then struck out with the front hooves...he did not want to cooperate for the halter.








Here is Brian trying not to bond with Boom.... (hee hee!)



He is very smart and has avoidance down to a fine art.  He did not want to look at us after he was loaded up.  This was tough after watching everyone elses horses sniff on their trainers hands out of curiosity.  We joked about my guy being a meat eater!  Ha ha!  I was not worried tho...I knew it would all work out.  He just needed a reason to trust me.



Reflections in his eye....looking back at once was......


He has been branded on the rump too.  This is the mark of being put in to long term holding...which means he has been thru 3 adoptions with no takers.  It doesn't mean anything is wrong with him, it just means that someone did not take a fancy to him.....until now!  :-)




Angela and Jessi stayed at our house that first night, so her little horse Steen's Valero had his first slumber party with us.  Both horses unloaded quietly.  Jessi and I went to work that same night!

Here is Shoshone's Sonic Boom after being unloaded....



Jessi and I got right to work!  Jessi and Valero are in the pen behind us.



Jessi working with Valero.....



I was rubbing Boom with the lunge whip, but he was just tolerating it.  He was not one bit curious or as reactive as I thought he would be.  He drops his head, starts breathing fast and heavy and just shuts me out.


Tandee was smooching with Valero...he likes older 'women'.  We will start calling her Cougar Tandee.



On the way to Elm Creek, we stopped in Kearney, NE.  We got a good laugh over this sign.....You are Now Here.....or You Are Nowhere!  Ha ha!!!



Here is the group of trainers in front of the sign.  Jay, the other member of our saddle club was not here yet.



After we got home and unloaded, Batman had to be available for his fan club...




It was a very long trip and we were all sick of driving, but it was so worth it being able to share this with friends!  We all wish we could have sat around all day meeting other trainers and watching horses being loaded.

I will have another report later....Boom has let me touch him, but not without him making me work for it.  He is absofreakinlutely gorgeous, and I can't wait until he realizes that I am a worthy leader.

Will have another entry soon....

Until later, Karen and Tripp who says "But he is just a brown horse!"  :-)

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