Sexy Lexi's Road to The Makeover

Follow Marissa's progress as she takes a wild mustang yearling and trains her in 90 days in order to compete in the 2008 Extreme Mustang Makeover in Ft. Worth, TX. She will compete against over 200 other trainers to take home the $10,000 prize. Quite a task for an 8th grader! She picked up her filly from Bureau of Land Management in June and has named her "Sexi Lexi." This blog will document her daily tasks, joys and hurdles as she travels down the road to the makeover.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH!!!!!!

We had a major breakthrough this morning!!!! I went out to feed Lexi, and dumbo got the drag lead around her neck (just hanging over it, not like strangling her!). So I went in to get it back correctly. I got that done, no problem. Then I decided to love on her a bit, you know, scratching her forehead, givin kisses, etc. Then, SHE LET ME PET HER WHOLE NECK!!!!!!! I was SOOOO excited (& still am!)!!!!! Then I moved back to her back & she LOVED it! I wasn't brave enough to go to her rear end, as my brother isn't awake yet. I went to her other side too! I'm just SO EXCITED!!! You can probably tell that though! LOL! So I fed her then ran in to update this! I'll work with her more later today and see if I can get a different lead rope on her. She got hers all gross & muddy! :-)

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Leading!

We had our 2cd leading session tonight! She's doing REALLY good with it! As soon as I pull the lead just a lil bit she comes to me. She does that with turns too. I think we can make it! She's caught on REALLY fast! I'm very proud of her. WE'll work more tomorrow. She still won't let me pet her past her throatlatch area though. WE'll keep working on it!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Little Update

Unfortunatly, we didn't make it to the show yesterday, but there's another in August! Lexi's doing better, but still not as I'd like. However, today she let me snap a lead rope on her halter!! GO SEXY LEXI! So, that's always good. I think we'll get our bomb-proof old mare and see if I'm on her, maybe she'll be a little more confident. It's worth a shot. I'm going to let her drag the lead rope around for awhile. She's starting to understand the voice commands while free lunging. Yesterday, she stopped & I told her to trot, and off she went! I was so proud of her! If we don't get to pet atleast some of her bodt by next Saturday, I'm not sure we'll make it to Texas. :-( We'll see I guess... Only time will tell now.... Oh, by the way, I got pictures of her halter!
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Thursday, July 10, 2008

It's HOT outside! lol. Just got back in from working with Lexi! I worked more on the rope with her, she's doin good! She REALLY wants to be friendly, just not sure if she should be or not. It's funny though, because whenever I go in her pen she follows me around and wants me to pet her! But she's still VERY leary of me getting past her throat-latch area. However, when I have the rope around her neck, I'll slightly pull on it & she'll walk right up to me! We're going to REALLY work on touching her neck, then the rest of her body. I think she feels comfortable around me, because she fell asleep while I was scratching her forehead! You'd think I could pet the rest of her, but she's just to cautious, and I don't want to ruin the training we have done. But we'll get to it! Sexy Lexi got a new halter for the big show though! It's a nice personalized halter with her name on the noseband! I'll get a picture of it & put it on here. So, we are making progress, just not as much as I'd like......

Sunday, July 6, 2008

More Progress

Today I was able to pet Lexi's withers! She's getting more comfortable with the rope, now she lets me flip it all around & over her & she doesn't care. We started free lunging her in order to get her in shape in our short amount of time. She's VERY good at that! She caught on in about 5 minutes! She's making LOTS of progress! I think once we get her to overcome her fear of people, she'll come around really fast! She's doing great in the time I've put into her! She's gone from rearing in the loading chute to letting us pet her! So in my opinion she's doing good!

Saturday, July 5, 2008

2 Steps Forward!!

Hurray for Lexi!!! Today I was just planning on getting her used to the rope being rubbed all over her, as she was scared to death of it before! But, since she got over that in about 2 seconds, I decided to take the next step, controling with the rope. You put it around her neck and hold the ends. It's a 30ft braided nylon rope (very soft). So instead of 1 step forward, we made 2!!! HURRAY for Lexi!!!!! So all in all, I'm VERY proud of her progress in about an hour's worth of work! (Sorry for poor picture quality, took w/ my cell phone!) Next step, petting all over her whole body, but I think we can do it in just a matter of time.....

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Wednesday, July 2, 2008

More progress!

Sorry, been busy with other horses and her! So Lexi is doing good, loves her forehead scratched! She is starting to come to me without the pole for me to pet her. Tonight I will be going on to the next step with her, the rope. We will attached a long cotton rope to the pole and rub it all over her then let her drag it around on her back. She is getting better, but we have a ways to go. I'm hoping to have her halter broke enough to take her to this show on July 20.
http://ottercreeksaddleclub.com/
But we have a ways to go before then! But I'm sure we can manage it!

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