Well Crap

You would think you could get a little cooperation once in awhile.  I'm not asking for much.  Jessie and Dusty live side-by-side.  They have for like 8 years now.  In preparing for the new Oak Creek horse, I thought I would get a round pen for us to work in.  If I could get Dusty and Jessie to bunk together, I could put the new horse in Jessie's paddock.

Dusty's side is 60'x40'.  It's the larger side.  I put Jessie in there this morning.  We fed.  They did well.  They moved around, postured a bit, kicked the air, but nothing really aggressive.  We rode a couple of hours, put them back together for the afternoon.  We had a function to go to, so I threw them each a flake of hay, watched for a bit, then off we went.  Havoc must wreak while we are away.  We come back to find a gash in Dusty's left butt and a few nicks on Jessie.

On to housing plan B.

A New Opportunity

After much consideration and discussion with my wife Ranae, I decided to test my horsemanship skills at the Vaquero Heritage Trainers Challenge.  You'll need a little back story.

Last year I covered the event for my Whoa Podcast about Horses and Horsemanship.  The way I understand it, there were many Morgan horse breeders in the Tehachapi area in the late 1800's.  In the early 1900's as WWI was looking inevitable the US Cavalry came looking for horses.  The Tehachapi ranchers did not like the price the Army was offering.  The Army responded by drafting the ranchers thinking they would get the horses in the deal.  The ranchers let the horses go and hid in the mountains.  For the next hundred years the horses were left pretty much to themselves.

Now there are too many horses on private land and, with the drought, unable to adequately support them.  They are known as the Wild Horses of Oak Creek.  Some folks have taken up the challenge to shrink the herd by having a colt starting competition, The Vaquero Heritage Trainers Challenge.  I applied and was accepted as one of six trainers.

We get our horse on June 14th and will have until October to train him (or her).   The show will be October 9th. 10. and 11th at the Sterling Arena in Tehachapi.  On the 9th, we will get another Oak Creek Horse.  This one we will train in front of a live audience and judges.  Over the three days we will show the horse we've been training all summer and on the final day all the horses will be auctioned to support the management of the herd.  (Some trainers may elect to keep their "long" horse.)

There's the background.  I hope to add more as we go along. This is set to be one exciting journey.  Please share it with me.