Extreme Mustang Makover 2011 Ft. Collins

As you can tell from the previous videos, we went to Scott's Extreme Mustang Makeover competition in Ft. Collins last weekend. We were in Colorado anyway for Great Grandma's birthday, so we made a day out of it on Saturday.

The way these competitions work, the trainers draw a wild mustang (they don't get to choose). They then have 90 days to train the mustang. The competition includes reigning (taking your horse through patterns, changing leads, planted turns, etc), horsemanship (how well you can handle/train your horse), and a working cow horse (boxing a calf at one end of the arena).


The competitions are 3 days long. We only went on Saturday, so we saw the reigning class and the working cow horse class, along with the finals. To see what some of these trainers were able to do with a WILD MUSTANG in just 30 days was nothing short of amazing.

Jacob did pretty good for a 3 year old boy! :) It was pretty boring in between events and for a boy that's not really into horse things, he was pretty patient. He stayed for several hours, then Grandpa & Grandma took him back to Great Grandma's house to play with his tractors and soak up all that undivided attention. :)

Titus was a dominant horse in his pack, so that made training a bit challenging (he kicked Scott several times). Scott really didn't think he would do very good, but Titus was very calm for most of the weekend. He did a great job.

Yes, my husband wore jean shorts and sandals. I just shook my head when he came upstairs that morning. :) Anna insisted on wearing her bandanna from VBS. She was just in heaven all day.

She comes by her love for horses honestly.

Shawnda, you're going to kill me but this is what you get for 1) taking horrible, unflattering pictures of me and 2) for posing like this! haha!! My cousins came up from Denver to cheer on Scott and Titus, too.

The Mustang Riders of Northern Colorado came out and did a little show for us. It was really cool to watch!

Ready to ride.

Scott and Titus.

One beautiful, spunky horse...full of energy and athleticism.

Titus was HIP #35...so we always had to wait through the other 34 riders before Scott & Titus performed.

Talking shop with another trainer.

The Mustang Riders of Northern Colorado.

Waiting, waiting...

and still waiting...

Scott easily made it into the top 10 (out of about 40 horses).

Announcing the Top 10 Finalists.

Isaac had fun watching, too! When he wasn't napping, that is. :)

Alan came out with Scott and helped get things ready and get the tire and teeter-totter out in the arena for his final show.

Miss Anna being silly in front of Titus's stall.

Nate, Ange and Isabel (or Shawnda, Jr)...it was so great of them to come up and support Scott. And it's always fun to hang out with them, whether it's at a race, the house, or a horse competition!

Aaron was a MESS during the competition! He was so nervous and he didn't even have a stake in the thing! I told him he better get it under control or when we take Maverick to the one in Texas, I'm going to ban him to the hotel with Jacob and Isaac!! He had to go outside at one point and said he even had to lay down on the sidewalk because he was so worked up his heart was racing! He's crazy.

Cousins! Ange, Scott, and Shawnda.

Titus with all his ribbons. He got 3rd place overall (excellent job Scott & Titus!!!!), first place in the working cow horse class, and 2nd place in the reigning class.

It was such a great experience and I'm so proud of how Scott handles himself and his horses. He uses every opportunity he can to give God the glory and shine the light on Him, not on himself. He had so many people ask him about his Ranch and how he uses horses in therapy. He takes every opportunity to talk about his faith. We're all so excited to see how Maverick does! I'm planning on taking the kids over tomorrow to visit. Scott said he rode him for the first time today and he bucked for an HOUR! :) He said it's a good thing he's got 3 more months to work with him!

Top 10 Finals

Here's the final video of Scott's competition. As you can see, he did phenomenal! It was so exciting to be a part of this and Anna absolutely loved it. We were there for 8+ hours and she never once complained or asked to go. She is a cowgirl! We can't wait for Texas and Maverick's competition!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Mustang Makeover Videos

It's late, I can't remember which ones I downloaded here, Isaac is crying. SO...this is part of Scott's competition this weekend. He was phenomenal! (Okay, these are from the two classes on Saturday afternoon...I think it was the reigning and cow-working)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Getting Close to Maverick

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I thought I was getting the clips in the right order, but they're not. I'm so proud of her for getting so close to him!!!

Meet Maverick

On Friday Anna, Isaac and I woke up WAY too early to go to Scott's house so we could ride with him to Elm Creek, Nebraska and pick up our mustang. We left our house just after 5am. For two people who are nowhere near "morning people"...that was a feat in and of itself! Anna was still sleeping. In fact, when I put her in the van, she snuggled up to her pillow and said, "Good night Mom." She slept for about 20 minutes, then realized that she was in the van and we were heading to get the horse. Then there was no more sleep for that little cowgirl!

For a little girl who hates mornings, she was awfully chipper for 6am!!! It was FREEZING that morning and since Anna was still asleep and wrapped in a blanket when we left home, I forgot to grab her jacket. In all honesty, we could have used our winter coats!! We got to Scott's and moved our stuff (car seats and bags) over to Scott's pickup. And then began the long trip to Nebraska. It's about 3 hours up there, I think. Scott & I both were running on too little sleep so it was an even longer trip! And Little Miss Cowgirl didn't sleep the entire trip!! She had trouble falling asleep the night before because she was so excited. She even cleaned her room instead of sleeping!! Couldn't be too mad at her for that! Anyway, we made it to the holding facility around 10am. It took about 15 minutes for Scott to get the paperwork together and then we backed up the trailer and waited for them to get #81 up the alley and into the loading chute. Anna and I stood up on the walkway to watch. They told us as soon as he got close, we needed to duck down so he wouldn't see us and run the other way. I could see him down the alley and he was prancing around, frantic and not wanting to come down the alley. He would run down a few yards and then turn back. Pretty soon he just took off. I couldn't see him anymore, but the guy down with him said he jumped the 7 FOOT FENCE!! It took them a while to get him back to the alley and he wasn't very happy! They got him into the loading chute and he gave them a hard time trying to get the halter on him.

I think Anna was a little overwhelmed by the whole deal. But she was incredibly excited! And freezing!

This is how she spent most of the trip home...watching her horse! He let us know just how unhappy he was to be in the trailer, too! He put a few more dents in Scott's trailer. But after Scott hit the brakes and jostled him around a bit, he quit doing that! Show him who's boss, right Dad? :)

This little guy did really good considering that he was in his car seat for 6+ hours!

This little girl is one happy cowgirl!

We had to make a stop at Orcheln's...so Anna picked out a new halter and lead rope for her horse! :)

She FINALLY crashed, head buried under her pillow. But only for about 30 minutes.

For a horse that was so crazy when we loaded him, he was so very calm when we unloaded him at Scott's. When we left, Scott was spraying down the pen so the dirt wouldn't blow so much. He called me before we got 5 miles and said "We picked the right horse. He's really smart." Scott said that this wild Mustang (who has only been in captivity for 9 months, gelded for 5 months) simply stood there, relaxed, eating hay while he sprayed. Scott has had 3 of these Mustangs and he said they usually take a couple days to start eating. Ours started eating right away. We're a little upset because he is much scrawnier than the video clip we saw to buy him. Almost as if they quit feeding him good feed/enough feed when he was bought! You can see his ribs through his winter coat!! Definitely wasn't the case in the video. But we can fatten him back up.

So today (Monday), Anna's class had a field trip to the Great Bend zoo. The boys and I loaded up and joined them! And of course, then we made a trip to The Ranch to see our horse (who was still unnamed!) Scott was doing some therapy when we arrived, so we went in the house and visited with Amy. His next session cancelled, so Anna & I got to go see the horse. I didn't expect to go into the pen with him. After all, he's a wild Mustang! We've only had him for 4 days! But Scott hollered, "Anna! Go on in there with him!" She was a bit nervous at first and stayed right by the gate. Scott came in and we went and stood in the middle. The horse ran around while Scott tried to pick up the lead rope. He finally got it. He gave us a little training in horse training. :) He had Anna hold the lead rope as well and started walking toward the horse's hind end. Scott told us that as soon as the horse takes a step toward you, slack the rope. But keep the rope tight until he does that. That starts teaching the horse how to be lead. So we did that a few times, then Scott backed off and let Anna have the rope. She and I held our arms out and slowly walked toward the horse. We got a few steps and I asked Anna what we were going to name him. She had suggested Champ long ago. She wrote a note to Papa and Binga and asked them what they thought. They emailed and suggested several names, one of which was Maverick. She and Daddy liked that one. I wasn't so sure. But as we stood in that pen with him, it fit. So we named him Maverick! :)

I am SO PROUD of Anna! She was really nervous. Goodness gracious, who wouldn't be?! It's a wild horse and she's an itty bitty kid! But Scott is 100% right...there's something about little kids that horses trust pretty quickly. I've never seen anything like it. Maverick was completely relaxed as Anna inched her way closer. He never once laid his ears back, showed aggression, or really move away from her. She got within a few yards of him and didn't want to go any closer. I moved a little closer behind her and Scott handed her some hay and then she started going closer on her own. She got within TWELVE INCHES of him!!! He was so close to eating that hay from her hand! So close!!!!! And Anna would have stayed even longer, trying, but her arm got tired. We were out there for probably 20 minutes. I am just floored that happened. When we got into the house, my hands were shaking! Adrenaline! It was so amazing. Scott and I both feel like Maverick is definitely a horse we will be able to keep for Anna (and Jacob and me :)). I am really excited about this whole experience and what it will teach Anna. After we got done with Maverick, she sat and watched Scott train another horse for another 30 minutes. I'm pretty sure she would live there if I let her!! I can't describe what it means to me, seeing my daughter around horses and the natural love and ease she has with horses.

Mustang Owners

Yesterday was a big day...we are now the owners (well, adopters) of a wild Mustang!!! Scott has been training and competing with wild Mustangs for a couple years now through the Extreme Mustang Makeover competitions. So we decided this year, we would go in on it together. We would put up the money for the horse and Scott would train and compete with it (I think we got the easy end of this deal!! ha). An auction is held to adopt out the Mustangs. You don't have to be at the actual auction...it's televised so you can just call in and bid over the phone. Talk about CRAZY!! We had a certain amount saved and had picked out 2 of our favorite horses. The first was a dun gelding that was ninth in the lineup. We were pretty sure it would go for too much and after a dun before him went for $5000, we decided to not even call in for ours! $5000?!?!?! As #9 came up, the bidding wasn't going anywhere...

$300...$200?...$300??...$300??....$300??

At this point, we're thinking this is crazy! So Scott hurriedly hits redial to try and get a bid in.

$400...$500

Scott gets through...

Number 9...we want a bid on #9!

And then we hear on the TV

$600....SOLD!

We could NOT believe that it went for only $600!!! We figured if the first dun went for so much, this one would go for close to the same! It was so crazy. But as I had been telling Anna, God would work it out and we'll get the horse He has for us. So I guess it wasn't #9! :)

Our next choice was #81, so we had a ways to go (they went in numerical order for the auction). It was just crazy seeing how much the horses went for...some you thought would get maybe $300 went for $3000, others you thought would go for $3000 went for $300! As it got closer to #81, Scott called in. That's when we found out that the TV was about 10 seconds behind the real thing! Which in an auction can be a pretty big deal!! Anyway, he placed our bid and up came #81. It started out pretty slow and then all the sudden it was like two more people were bidding on him! It went back and forth and while Scott was on the phone, 10 seconds ahead of what we were seeing, we were watching/listening to the TV thinking we had missed out on it! But we got him! It's a bay gelding and we are super excited. (He was me and Scott's favorite pick anyway) Anna has been trying to come up with a name for him. We get to go pick him up from a holding area in Nebraska next month. And then...let the training begin! I have a feeling we'll be making a lot of trips to Great Bend this summer! :)

And of course, what's a trip to Scott's house without some riding? ALL THREE of the kids got some riding in! :)

Isaac just wanted to eat the saddle horn.

This is Leah's (Scott's 1.5 yr old) horse Maximus! Anna rode him bareback.

This puts his size in perspective a bit!

Anna wanted to ride a big horse, though. She had a lesson in "show him who's boss" this time! The horse was mild and gentle but he knew it was a little girl on his back so he just meandered wherever he wanted. Scott and I kept telling her, "You gotta show him who's boss." How many times did I hear that line, Dad?? :)

Jacob even rode this time! He got to ride Daniel's (Scott's 3 yr old) horse, Bullseye who is a pony. Just the right size for Jacob!

We all had a lot of fun and are excited to watch Scott train the new Mustang! Anna didn't want to leave, of course. Jacob didn't either! I found out today that it was because he really likes Daniel's Thomas the Train sets!! He told me after church today that he was going to Scott's house to play with Daniel's Thomas trains!

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

And the Winner Is.....

At the end of September, Scott was in another "Extreme Mustang Makeover" competition in Nebraska. He got first place!!

Praying before he competes.

We're so proud of you Scott! And it's so great to see how God is using him and his passions to glorify His kingdom!