Progress Reports on adopted Kigers!

[desperatehorsewife]

Nope, no breeding while in our hands. I figure there are enough wild ones to go around that I don't need to add.

Someday I'd like to see how she does at cutting or reined cowhorse. If she were to show enough talent, then maybe...maybe I'd breed to a nice working stallion. But I'm not into breeding just to have babies.

[kigerfan]

This is true, there are plenty out there. I just thought maybe part of her draw was that she was pregnant.

[desperatehorsewife]

No, we actually weren't looking for a horse. Then DD spotted a couple of Beatty's Butte mares she liked, but they were either older than I wanted to start, or too small. So then someone pointed out the brown mare was passed over. She ended up smaller than we thought she was, but oh well. Knowing my kid, she'll likely decide in another couple years she wants to upgrade again

If I ever were to breed her, it'd be to a working horse. She's pretty quick and I'd love to do some reined cow horse training with her down at a friend's place. She'd have to show an almighty amount of talent, though, for me to consider it. Neither of the other mustangs has quite the same athletic ability that I'm seeing in her so far.

[DianneC]

You know about Bobby Ingersol taking a Kiger from the wild to the 1992 Snaffle Bit Futurity? They took 21st place. Melissa in TN has Kiger Cougar now. They can be very quick and very cowy.

[desperatehorsewife]

Yeah, I know about Kiger Cougar. I've got a good friend who trains some pretty good cutting horses and once she's going well under saddle I'd like to take her down for a couple of lessons on her, just to see how she does. He's got the hydra bull, and I'm just itching to put a horse on it

[kigerfan]

That's a pretty cool bull there, The bulls here are the drag around kind that you rope head and heel. There's a couple herds of young cattle for team penning and roping and such. The arena is official size and they have official type rodeos. They had two large brama bulls here that Firefly was very curious about. She's not afraid of the cattle at all. She'd going to get into team penning and such maybe next summer, one of her boyfriends already does it and the other will start training in about a year, as he's too young right now.

[juslyn]

With all of this rain, which creates deep mud, I have to keep her training to lessons that won't make her feel the need to leave in a hurry when started. I am continually amazed by her willingness to try. She seems to really be bonding now. I am worried about getting her to a more gentled state before she foals and am trying to work on things with the goal of haltering her and toching her anywhere. I brought my daughter in with me a couple of times...her first time having anyone other than just me in her pen. With a little give and take, she allowed my daughter to touch her and so was so thrilled!! I have begun working on asking her to pick up her forefeet, but haven't graduated to actually holding the foot yet. I have been working on applying pressure to her halter under her chin while asking for her to take steps and then stopping. She has caught on wonderfully. She still has moments where she thinks she sees something she should get away from occasionally and I ask her to stay, but let her break away if she is really trying to leave. Ther are also times when she tries to get too close to me, almost stepping on my feet, and I just need to push gently on her shoulder for her to take a step back. I can also motion her forward to come to me from her comfort zone. She will also let me hold an ear while rubbing on her head and face. I've included a couple of photos, but more can be seen at http://public. fotki.com/ juslyn/xana/

Suzy

[desperatehorsewife]

Mud has been a problem everywhere, it seems. I need more gravel. We're no where near as bad as last year, but the clay beneath the gravel is solid as concrete so the water has no where to drain.

Xana looks good. Her belly is getting bigger, isn't it?

[MustangsInNC]

Suzy she looks great! And such a calm and curious look in her eyes. I can't wait till I get my boy home! At least by the end of March hopefully the weather will be nice enough that I can really devote some time to him.

[desperatehorsewife]

We're moving ahead here! Firecracker found out that saddle blankets really don't eat mustangs after all. It was just a nasty rumor... ;D



I may try the saddle tomorrow, who knows? She doesn't mind the rope around her middle, so it'll just be getting the saddle up over her back. Don't enjoy doing this sort of stuff in the rain, but such is life in the northWET these days!

[stormyranch]

Well, We learned a very scary lesson today. When we got home from work and went to feed, I noticed that River had her front hoof through the side of the halter. Now, we put a rope halter on her after we had the same thing happen as Juslyn did. A bad sore on her pole from the normal halter. We put a rope halter on her so the wound could heal.
The halter wasn't loose so I don't know how she got her hoof through it. It took a while to get the knot undone, but when Kevin did she gave him a nip, as if to say, "What took you so long?"
Here are Brian And Stephany Pfeiffer's horses they adopted and had us gentle.
From left to right; Rogue, Kevin and River!



Ready to go home!

[DianneC]

Cool, I've got to ask you Kevin. Did you lead them in there together?

[stormyranch]

No, we put one in and then turned her around and then put the other in.

[nrly]

just from the picture's I have seen they seem to be close, like they are one with each other. Kinda like twins.

[fantasykiger]

What cuties..they look darling. I am curious as I have only trained young captive bred horses never wild horses right off the range. Is it always worth the risk to keep them haltered rather then remove the halter and get them gentle and teach them to halter first? I am not saying your way is the wrong way like I said I have never trained a wild one.
Gosh, I drive by a QH training ranch they have a broodmare there they have had for years that lives with a halter and lead rope, appartently she is hard to catch...LOL.