The Progress: The First 100 Days

The Progress: The First 100 Days

September 21, 2016 will mark the 100th day since we have had our lovely ladies! The progress the girls have made in only 3 months is absolutely astounding. While they wouldn't necessarily be "Mustang Makeover Ready" at this point in time, they are pretty close! The description in the bold parentheisis is the Parelli Horsenality of each horse (don't worry I'll post a blog that covers what that refers too, but until then I have included a diagram). All of the girls have improved so much since their first few days at RFR. Here's what they've learned and what they've been up to:

Parelli Horsenality refers to being able to figure out which part of the brain the horses use the most. Left brained horses act out of dominance and right brained horses react out of fear. The extroverts have a tendency to speed up, where the introverts tend to slow down.

Roxie (Our Left Brain Introvert): This little girl is officially a fan favorite! She loves attention, and food, from absolutely anybody! At a little over a year and a half, she lets anybody do anything to her! She stands great for the farrier (she thinks Nick is an awesome person for holding her up) and has already had a saddle on. She was the first one to have her necktag off and her halter on. She was reluctant about leading, as that seems like a lot of work, but with consistency and patience, she leads like a champ! She doesn't mind fly spray, or saddle pads, or even the saddle for that matter! She has had a saddle on, just to judge her reaction and she didn't even flinch! She is growing like a weed and we are having a little trouble keeping weight on her. She is growing so fast that even she doesn't know what to do with her legs. She is a natural floating mover once she remembers to use her legs. She is a favorite of Delaney (who we consider to be the yearling of our group) and enjoys being pampered! She likes polo wraps, doesn't like water (yet), and is still discovering how lounging works.

Roxie during her first session 6/20/16
(2 days after adoption)

Roxie on August 29, 2016
(2 1/2 months after adoption)

Roxie's First Touch!

First Farrier Appointment!

Roxie's First Halter!

Roxie and I Cuddling!

Roxie's first venture outside of the fence!

Ruckus (Our Left Brain Extrovert): This sassy mare straight up stole my heart! I am not typically a fan of chestnuts and as a horse that I brought home when necktag 0248 and necktag 0148 were not available, she is progressing the fastest and is an absolute rock star at a little over 2 1/2 years old! She was the second after Roxie to get her necktag off and to get her halter on! While she is a small girl, at just barely 14 hands, she makes up for her lack of height with her personality. She enjoys being dramatic about new things, but once she is fine with them, she is really fine with them! She was the first of our girls to have a farrier appointment as she has a slightly clubbed foot on her front right. A little over 2 weeks after we got her she developed a crack in her front right. That day, she let me pick up her foot for the first time, pack it with hoof cushion, put a diaper on it, duct tape it and vet wrap it! She had her first farrier appointment a few days later. She lounges walk/trot/canter, she jumps on the line, she loads in a trailer, stands to be bathed, goes through water, she rides walk/trot, she stands tied, she stands to be saddled, she holds the bit in the proper place and stands at the mounting block! I've even ridden her bareback! She is a nice looking mare, with a lot of heart and a sound mind. I took her to the Barton Hollow Farm Hunter Pace on September 18th as her fifth ride, first time trailering, first field trip and first trail ride and she was absolutely stellar! We cantered for the first time under saddle and even jumped a couple, very small, jumps and walked over some bigger, scarier one 

Ruckus on June 18, 2016
(Day of Adoption)

Ruckus on August 29, 2016
(2 1/2 Months after adoption)

First Time Outside!

Learning To Bow!

Jumping In-Hand!

Scary Tarp!

Learning to Relax!

First Bath!!!

Cuddling!

Rhapsody (Our Right Brain Extrovert) This sweet, sweet mare absolutely LOVES cuddles! She was 2 months behind the other two girls, but she got her necktag off and a halter on within a couple of hours. This poor lady has experienced so much negative human contact that she spent 2 months realizing we weren't intending to hurt her. Good thing we aren't in any hurry! She slowly started realizing that humans were happy things that feed her. She finally came around to eating out of my lap and letting me touch her face. Slowly but surely, after that she let me touch her on her face and next, we progressed to haltering and leading! She caught on to leading a lot faster and leads just as well as the other girls. She is already worth her weight in gold! I can't wait to see how the fantastic mare turns out as she learns to trust people more!

Rhapsody on June 18, 2016
(Day of Adoption)

Rhapsody on August 29, 2016
(2 1/2 Months After Adoption)

Rhapsody's First Session!

Working On Cuddles and Leading!

Working on Join Up!

The Morning of Her First Halter!

Meet the Ladies!!!

Words can't even express how thrilled I was with the horses that ended up on our trailer! All of my top choices were mares, so no surprise here, I came home with 3 lovely ladies! Here are our new additions! Keep checking back to see the individual progress for everyone!

Love On The Rocks

"Roxie"

Current Age: Yearling
Approximate Date of Birth: March 1, 2015
Color: Bay
Date Captured: November 2015
Range and Location: Beatys Butte Range and Lakeview, Oregon
Necktag: 3478
Freezemark: 15023478
Confirmation Analysis: Roxie has nice long straight legs! She is already bigger then most of the two year olds at the Sale. We REALLY liked her height, and how well proportioned she is already. She has very nice feet! Also, her coordination and movement at her young age caught our eye.
What's Special About This Mare: The first thing we noticed when looking in the yearling pen was this mare and her sass! She was clearly the boss out of the five horses she was with. She was running everyone around, biting them and kicking them when they didn't follow her orders! Her inquisitive, bossy personality as well as her beauty and fuzzy ears made her a top choice for us!

Miss Roxie
#3478

First Touch Day: June 20, 2016

Necktag Removal Day: June 26, 2016

First Halter Day: June 26, 2016

Picking Up Feet:

Successfully Leading: 

First Saddle:

First Ride:

Carolina Gold Rush

"Ruckus"

Current Age: 2 Years
Approximate Date of Birth: January 29, 2014
Color: Chestnut
Date Captured: January 29, 2015
Range and Location: Humboldt Range and Lovelock, Nevada
Necktag: 2801
Freezemark: 14022801
Confirmation Analysis: Ruckus has that "apple butt" which we love! She is not overweight but rather built in the back similarly to a draft horse despite her small size. She uses her hind end very nicely! She seems to have hoof issues on the right front, almost a club foot. Nothing drastic enough to discourage us from liking her, but something to be aware of.
What's Special About This Mare: Similarly to Roxie, we like Ruckus' sass. Her extroverted personality made her inquistive, even at the sale! While she didn't exactly coming running up to the round pen panels for attention, her curiosity caught our attention! Her big Apple Butt and extroverted personality put her at the top of our list.

First Touch Day: June 20, 2016

Necktag Removal Day: June 26, 2016

First Halter Day: June 27, 2016

Picking Up Feet: July 3, 2016

Successfully Leading: 

First Saddle:

First Ride:

Bottle It Up

"Rhapsody"

Current Age: 6 Years
Approximate Date of Birth: January 1, 2010
Color: Bay
Date Captured: December 15, 2012
Range Location: Little Owyhee Range and Winnemucca, Nevada
Necktag: 4066
Freezemark: 10224066
Confirmation Analysis: Rhapsody is built more like a thoroughbred than any other horse that was at the auction. She's got an absolutely excellent front end! Her hind end is nice, she simply needs more muscle back there! She also has a nice scrape on her front right canon bone.

What's Special About This Mare: The first thing we noticed about this mare, aside from her stunning confirmation, was her skiddish and concerned personality. Her personality plus the cut on her leg made her a risk. This mare was the reason Mallory didn't sleep at all the night before the auction. Mallory debated all night long whether or not the mare was a wise choice. Something inside told her that she couldn't walk away without that mare. We are excited to see how she turns out!

First Touch Day: June 28, 2016

Necktag Removal Day:

First Halter Day:

Picking Up Feet:

Successfully Leading: 
First Saddle:

First Ride:

The Sale

The BLM sale came through Cornell University in Ithaca, New York which is about 30 minutes north of us. Watch the short video that the Ithaca Journal published regarding the sale.

Top Choices For The Auction

When we arrived at the sale, we were shocked at how small it was, there were only about 23 horses and 7 Burros available for adoption. People at the auction commented on how small the sale was compared to other years.
When shopping for a horse, you can never have too many opinions from other professionals. We chose Mallory's riding instructor, Gloria Cassetti and a current veterinary and farrier student at Cornell, Nick Ruocco. Gloria came to help assess the horses all around: personality, height, confirmation, feet and everything else. Nick stopped through to tell us if anything negative stood out to him about our top choices.
When we felt as though we had 10 top choices that we were satisfied with, Gloria left and we went around grabbing necktag numbers, basic information about the horses and getting pictures of them for reference later.
We returned to the sale shortly after midnight.  People had camped out the night before to ensure they got the horse they wanted. We were number 6 in line!
As the morning came and people started showing up (around 5:30 or 6:00 am) we started talking to everyone. It seemed as though there wasn't much conflict of interest between us and the other people in line.
When it was our turn, we walked into the office, gave them the necktag numbers and the office staff wrote us up an application for adoption!

We came home with:
#4066, 6 year old bay mare.
#2801, 2 year old chestnut mare.
#3478, 1 year old bay filly.

Necktag #4066

Preparing for the Arrival

As it started becoming more and more of a reality that we would be bringing home some horses on June 18, it became an instant preparation process!

To Read All BLM (Bureau of Land Management) facility requirements and frequently asked questions related to adoption for both horses and Burros: Click Here!

The Location
After weighing our options for where to keep our new additions, we settled on a property that is owned by Paul's mother and step-dad. The property is in the Beaver Dams area and has a lot of acreage. Room for expansion. They have a nice big barn on the property that hasn't been finished with stalls yet, so it was still open inside. On the far end of the barn, the door opens up into a nice big pasture (roughly 20 acres) currently occupied by cows and fenced with electric.  While this doesn't meet BLM standards, it does mean once I have the titles, we have 20 acres of already fenced in pasture for the horses. This also meant that we had some sort of double fence outside the barn, making the setup easy!

The Setup
We decided to attach a 40 foot round pen to the outside of the barn, and put round pen panels on the inside of the barn to make our home for the horses. The open barn on the inside was perfectly setup for us to bring in round pen panels and use the barn as a run in. We couldn't find 6 foot tall round pen panels without having to pay outrageous amounts of money or taking over a month in shipping, or both! Our solution was to take 2"x6" boards and secure them to the top of the round pen making an additional rail at just over 6 foot tall. We put in a gate at the door of the barn to separate the round pen from the run in, to make it easy to clean without handling the horses.

The Preparation

As we didn't have a functioning horse barn prior to bringing horses home, we needed lots of basic supplies to get the barn up and running. 

1. Water Buckets - We decided to use muck buckets for water in the round pen and in the run in.
2. Extra Buckets - We also made sure we had 10 gallon and 5 gallon buckets on hand for emergency use and to be extra prepared.
3. First Aid Kit - A must for every barn! Ours includes gloves, epsom salts, vetwrap, betadine surgical scrub (antiseptic), ichthammol (drawing salve), rolled gauze, non stick gauze pads, rolled cotton, ice packs, duct tape, diapers, thermometer, Benadryl, SMZ's (Sulfamethoxazole, an antibiotic) and Bute (Phenylbutazone, an anti imflammatory and pain killer). 
4. Feed Pans - Fortiflex makes fantastic mini pans to feed grain out of!
5. Trashcans - We need a trashcan for actual trash, but also to keep grain in. 
6. Food Scoop - Yep! We need one of those too!
7. Muck Rake and a Wheelbarrow - For basic housekeeping needs.

Equipment 

We wanted each horse to have their own color with both buckets and equipment. This makes everything simple, and appeases Mallory's color OCD. 

1. Rope Halters and Leads - We chose to use Parelli rope halters and leads. While we might not use 100% Parelli or endorse them, their equipment is AWESOME!
2. Nylon Halters and Leads - We chose halters and leads from Weaver leather as the quality is high and their color choices were amazing. 
3. Parelli Carrot Stick - We needed a whip/arm extension of some sort, and with a natural horsemanship background, this seemed like a logical choice.
4. 12' and 22' Lines - Once again, we chose Parelli equipment to fill this void.
5. Polo Wraps - This is a cheaper alternative to boots and provides an excellent back up for leg wraps in case of injury.
6. Rope - This is a 24 foot rope with a lasso on the end. Helpful for roping feet and general roping the horse. 

Redeeming Freedom Ranch

Redeeming Freedom Ranch was founded by someone who dreamed of helping the mustangs since she was 17. Mallory McBrayer has been an avid horse lover her entire life! Growing up in North Carolina, she had to complete what is known as the North Carolina Graduation Project. This pushes all seniors in high school to produce a research paper and do a practical experience on something they are passionate about.  Mallory chose the overpopulation of wild horses and burros as the topic for her paper. The more research she did, the more she discovered the lack of awareness both in the overpopulation issue itself, and in the severity of it. In Spring of 2016, the BLM, Bureau of Land Management, estimated that the range is overpopulated by a little over 65,000 wild horses and burros. This does not include the 45,000 or so currently sitting in government run pens out west. To read more specific overpopulation statistics provided by the BLM, click here.
While the statistics were not as severe when Mallory completed her project in 2010, she decided she wanted to spend her life helping the wild horses in any way possible.
Redeeming Freedom Ranch is still a very small operation, but we have big plans for it to grow. Mallory would like to become part of the Trainer Incentive Program next year and bring in and adopt out an average of 12 horses a year to start. She also wants to compete in the Extreme Mustang Makeover and open up an educational facility and sanctuary where the general public can learn about these incredible animals!