Coppersmith#900 - we are now on a freshly mowed meadow...

I spent all day today mowing a beautiful meadow for Coppersmith and Aragon...and then worked him on it in the sunshine. Due to the Virus-outbreak all arenas are closed to us and the mountain don't yield the kind of training we need now. So my friend Trisha made a maiden property available, so that we are basically in quarantaine and separate from all the other horses...This is actually pretty posh, except it challenges the rider since the footing is grass and there is no rail or fence...for guidance...

Here is the beautiful finished painting by Melody Perez, Coppersmith#900, with his beautiful neck carriage.

"COPPERSMITH TAG#900" by Melody Perez, ...

I have been waiting for this one, there was something about that day, when Linda Hanick came by and met Coppersmith and we rode for her. He was exemplary, the way you hope them to be during the Makeover...And as of today he is on his way despite Herpes and Rain....and Melody has been a steady companion and visitor...Her home is a warm place that emits the dream of Wide Open spaces (room to make a big mistake) good cooking and amazing images of life-size wild horses in the rugged Sandwash Basin...I know it is not easy to cough up a couple of thousand dollars for an original painting of Picasso, more so I embrace and respect her determination and conviction to keep with her passion and with her art.

Photo by Linda Hanick - Painting by Melody Perez of www.runninghorses.weebly.com

If nothing else we are establishing a collection and library of what might be gone soon and to our and the benefit we are learning and engaging in a very worthwhile and beautiful adventure....

June the month of the shining horses...Equine Herpes gets us all wrapped up.

MOSAIC put together by Lourie Zipf of all my mustang experiences in OSHOTO>

I took Coppersmith out of the barn about 10 days ago to do trail and cross country work and was planning to have him in an arena environment again by today. But that is not possible. I am hesitant to return him to a barn with Clinics and traffic of horses coming and going and that is in fact not even an option because most facilities have closed down. So we work on getting SHINY...and I think we are doing great, the grass is growing and the muscles start to bulge...

THE POWER OF SUGGESTION...WHAT A DIFFERENCE A LIFE MAKES...

This is what happens, when you train a mustang for the Extreme Mustang Makeover, it is evening and time to take a nap...the bathroom sink is reflecting an image....

NORTHERN COLORADO MUSTANG RIDERS FOR HIRE....

Always trying to add new aspects of the life of the Wild Ones...Gary Gayler on Gracie, Patricia Burge on Marvin, Gabriele Moritz on Aragon, Taryn Hillman on Koda, Megan Jones on Nevada, Robyn Hall adoring Coppersmith#900 and in the Foreground: Janet Carabello and Candy...

We are accepting new members, especially from the NEW generation....(Photo:Lourie Zipf)

Bitless and treeless...

No pictures of today, the mountains are veiled in Fog and it is very muddy...Coppersmith had a simple lesson plan today. Walking and grazing by the road while cars drove by and trotting with me without overtaking me and staying nice parallel. Then he lunged in the meadow on a hillside in trot and some canter and got good out of breath (8000ft elevation), then he got to graze and then he got to have more plastic bag with equine senior all over. We were in the roundpen with the woodshavings and the ball and then he got to graze some more...Aragon, who is a member of the formation drill team and also has to be prepared for the Makeover got to wear the FREEFORM treeless saddle and the LG Bitless bridle today....I love riding with minimal equipment...all treeless saddles have great close contact, one can feels the muscles of the horse without putting too much pressure on the spine...The results when I pull the saddle off are convincing. So I can use one saddle for all my different horses...There is the BOB MARSHALL SPORTS saddle for x-country and trail/endurance, the ANSUR for more dressage and arena/jumping and now the Freeform/high tech...always with a solid 3/4inch temperfoam saddle pad. Either a Grandeur or a SKITO or a Supracor or a Saddleright...The LG-bitless bridle was developed by my friend Monika Lehmenkuehler from Germany. She is at the forefront of negotiations and trials to change the rules of the International Dressage Federation to allow bitless riding in higher leves of dressage competition. Her bridle is a headstall with a wheeltype element next to the mouth which when engaged excerts some pressure on poll, nose and chin...without metal in the mouth...HER SLOGAN IS:
The bit in the horses mouth creates a saliva building chewing and eating reflex interfering with air-intake...TRY JOGGING WITH A SPOON IN YOUR MOUTH...
Anyway, Coppersmith is not there yet, neither the treeless saddle nor the bitless bridle....but I am working on it...

This goes to show that intention and practice can overcome any odds...

 This started as an idea during last year's Mustang Make-Over when I thought that it would be only fair, if the local mustang owners would have a chance to show off their horses during an event like this. Then the word was that usually those kinda pipe-dreams don't amount to much, when the actual riders are challenged to put something worthwhile seeing together...Well that might be true, but we tried again this year and started out with calling and talking to people who we knew had mustangs and were able to ride them or wanted to participate some other way. Then we started riding approx. 12 of us and quickly it showed who had the stamina and resilience to stick to it. (I thought that if we end up with half of what we start out with, we will be doing fine) well surprise: WE ARE EIGHT -the cool eight...
And after practicing nearly every weekend we are getting together and are making sense. There is some fun factor in this also...And the horses now actually stick together and when the heads come together in the flower there is some smooth operators and good headshaking and nuzzling going on....We would love to do more of this and are looking for more riders to add to our group...

Photos by Linda Hanick, taken at CSU equestrian center in May 2011

Photos Linda Hanick

Photos Linda Hanick

NORTHERN COLORADO MUSTANG RIDERS FOR HIRE....

Heads up and smile...Pat Garrett...praise the tall, but saddle the small

A little bit of EYE CANDY by Michael Golembeski...

Branded - who can read this Freezebrand (photo Linda Hanick)

I love the Coppershine on Coppersmith with his coppercroup and his coppergolden eyes...

The NORTHERN COLORADO MUSTANG RIDERS...

 Taryn Hillman, Gabriele Moritz, Gary Gayler, Cindy Loader, Mark Loader, Megan Jones, Patricia Burge (missing Shannon White)

Patricia and Coppersmith#900, this is a class horse...

Photo by Michael Golembeski

Coppersmith has not had a lot of time off, yesterday he met with lamas, bicycles, packers with flapping maps, dogs off leash, donkey, drunkard in tent and he had to go over bridge stump and back through L, he had to wait in the trailer and then he came back home up here to meet Escalante, the grey horse in the blog picture, who usually is not the most accommodating to new herd-members....So he had his plate full....He got a nights sleep, good water and hay and good mountain air and today I hauled him with Aragon to our drill practice and the first thing that Pat did, was put him on a tree trunk....this is a class horse and it will take a class person to win his heart...

It getting a bit quiet around here...

With the days passing, I realize that part of the attraction of the Makeover might be not knowing exactly how it all went day by day....So here it will be getting a bit quiet until June 10th...The horse is getting a break for a day, I am laying out some plans for the competition and mostly I feel it is time to do the endless loop the 8 Lying on its side a little quiet...Always happy about comments and questions, both on the blog and on Facebook...Some of my friends are in the Sandwash Basin to visit the Wild Horses and this is the best time to be out there actually encountering the herds and band structures...I hope they find beautiful horses - healthy and wild - and bring back stories of comraderie, images of art and inspiration for paintings...

Coppersmith visiting CSU Equestrian Center to meet some of last years mustangs from the Makeover

Today we hauled Aragon and Coppersmith to the CSU arena drill practice. And he met Koda (Taryn Hillman) and Nevada (Megan Jones) and Candy (Janet Carabello's burro) They are all participating in the formation drill that we are practicing for the Makeover...Coppersmith had a little workout at THE LAST RESORT before and we had some leftover jumps in the arena from the 4H last night....