Mustang Annie's surprise
*Annie is looking for a home of her own, please PM or email us if you are interested and able to give Annie a good, long-term home and a job.
Some details on Annie: Annie was gathered in 2016 from the Three Fingers HMA in OR. Her freezemark is 12023930. She is 9yo based on her brand, right around 10yo based on veterinary inspection of her teeth. Annie stands 14.1hh tall (we measured her pre-trim, this poor mare had 1 1/2" of extra height on her then ), is very stout and a nice mover.
Annie is current on vaccines, deworming and trim, easy-going with a calm demeanor and gets along well with mares and geldings. Easy keeper, good with her groundwork, ties and stands to be trimmed and sprayed. Quiet for saddling and happy to be brushed and fussed over. We're looking strictly for a riding home for her to ensure that she continues to add to her resume and never ends up at auction again. Adoption fee applies to ensure her safety, and goes directly back to the Mustangs for this year's hay fund. Located in Central Colorado.
Annie is the first auction Mustang our nonprofit was able to help, thanks to the kind and generous support from our followers and friends (last pic is of her at auction). I think she was worth saving, don't you? Let's have her be the first of many!*
It's been a while since the last Annie update, so Taylor and I decided to get some photos of a happy, friendly and less fuzzy Annie who has had a much needed trim. What was supposed to be a quick photo session morphed into 'I wonder if she'll take a saddle' and from there to riding... Bareback, in a halter.
Not sure what to expect as we have limited history on her, I did all the usual prep work: A bit of lungeing to get our minds aligned, some flexing with the bridle, leaning over her from the mounting block, touching all over her off-side.
I was not quite tall - or brave - enough to just swing a leg over, so I walked her up to the walking pen fence to see how she would handle seeing me above her...only to nearly get squished as she confidently sidled up to the panel
I took the old saddle off prior to mounting, as its purpose is just to get horses accustomed to wearing one; that saddle retired a long time ago. A hesitant sit on Annie's broad back turned into a few steps, then some circles. She wasn't worried about me up there, but didn't seem to know exactly what to do with the bit so off came the bridle and the halter back on.
A calm and very comfortable Annie carried me around the pen, said hello to my Mustang mare Lacy who just had to know what was going on, and put up with me hugging and goofing around all over her. Note the expression on Lacy and Littlefoot's faces as they watched me riding Annie
After not having been ridden in who knows how long, she did phenomenally well. Loose horses, a curious dog, Taylor with her camera... None of that fazed her.