Kustom Color Equine

I’m proud of this little Safara. Everything is starting to click & she’s getting a good feel to her.

Who’s hiding under there?

Safara has a handful of rides on her now & she’s learning each ride to become softer & understand different pressures. She has her moments where she’s still opinionated but she’s been doing well so far & seems to enjoy having a job.

Milo’s first time with the surcingle on! He was curious when I was putting it on but he didn’t mind at all! No buck or anything. He’s going to make someone a really cool little partner!

Today, Safara got ponied for the first time around the ranch & on a few short trails before it started raining on us. Lots of snorts & spookies in the first few minutes as she was nervous, but she got over it quickly & seemed to really enjoy being out & about!

Safara’s first ride went just as I expected! Uneventful & her first steps with a rider, she showed off to us with a nice turn on the hindquarters. She’s like Look what I can do!

Milo: Cold Blooded Killer. RIP Poppy!

Milo is doing great! He was gelded over the weekend & you can see by his expression what he thought about that. His ground manners have improved wonderfully & he now leads respectfully, is (usually) easy to catch & is learning how to lunge well- off & on the line. We will continue this work, as well as other groundwork, to lead up to eventually be started under saddle.

Safara & I have been working on ground driving so that she has her cues down. She will be having her first ride in the next couple days!

We’ve been working up to this moment for quite a while. Phoenix had had one other experience with a rider being on him & it ended really badly, which ultimately left him quite traumatized about a human climbing aboard. When I first started working with him, he was extremely flighty & if something scared him, his brain turned off & he went into flight mode. I’ve spent several months doing ground work with him, working on getting him to relax & to think about situations that m...ay be scary rather than just taking off to get away. My great assistant, Felicity, & I have been working with him for a couple weeks on mounting. He was very, very fearful in the beginning days but every day, we got progress. Yesterday, he was finally relaxed enough to finally seal the deal & get on. It could have gone two ways- he could have thought about it before reacting or he could have gone back to his old ways & gone in panic mode & just took off, trying to get away from the scary human attached to him. Much to our delight, HE CHOOSE TO THINK about it!!! I was & am so so so sooooo proud of this horse for reacting to this situation in this way. Something we weren’t sure would ever be possible for him in the beginning- now doesn’t seem impossible. This was truly one of those moments that makes me love doing this kind of work- especially with rescue horses who sometimes have a traumatic past. I could have cried out of pure pride over this creature. He is so special. See more

Laggy wanted to ride today! Safara wasn’t too sure about all the monkeying around at first! But after some confidence building exercises, she relaxed & did great!