7 days post MMO Contest

Howdy faithful Ima mustang followers. It has been one week since the Horse Expo and I think I am finally ready to come up for air. I will apologize in advance that I am not half the writer that Ima is. She is at her new home in Wilton, CA and I bet they have no idea she knows how to use a computer. So on her behalf I will be filling in the final chapters of her diary.

First on the list is all the Thank You's she and I owe so many great folks for their help and support through these thrilling and very trying 3 months.

At the top of the list are the GREAT SPONSORS that helped Ima become the beautiful slick and shiny horse you see today:
Bar Ale Feed, Inc. of Winters CA for providing Ima with their Distance Plus and 101 feeds
Elk Grove Milling of Elk Grove, CA for providing Ima with their Stable Mix pellets
Lee's Feed, Placerville, CA for the goodie bag of fly products and shavings

The BLM EMPLOYEES
Videll, Grant, Amy, Sally and Jason for always going above and beyond their job duties for the love of the horses.

MY FREESTYLE TEAM:
Teresa, Michaela and Taryn for giving up their weekend and then some, Russ the welder, B-Bar Arena for its use and Teresa for the musical score. Sorry your efforts were never seen by the public.... Ima and I know what you did for us.

OUR FRIENDS, CLIENTS, STUDENTS and all the good ol' folks that helped or just wished me well especially: Eli, Amber, Jason, Pam, Brent, Andrea, Piper, Donna, Linda, Betty, Wendy, Morgan, Emma, Keith, Jim, John, Gena, Dan, Ronnie in FL, Dr. Larry, Erica, Joel, Katy and family, Ima thanks Walley for all his guidance and the eye candy. extra credit to Marjorie and Alma for flying out all the way from Texas, and to Dennis for letting them! They are the reason I entered in the first place! If Ima or I forgot anyone it is not on purpose! We love you all

THE TRAINERS, CLINICIANS AND HORSEMAN who truly gave of themselves and helped me refine and improve my horsemanship both mental and physical over the last 90 days including Richard Winters, Buck Brannaman, Teresa Trull, Dave/Gwynne Weaver and in spirit Ray Hunt.

And most importantly to a little non discript bay mare known only as 05219952 until she selflessly stepped out of the wild and into our hearts. She never asked or questioned why, as a human would have done every inch of the way. She just gave 110% when she understood what was asked of her and 100% when she didn't. It's not "My kingdom for a horse" I say it is "My kingdom to be more like that horse".

To explain in detail the medical condition she had which created alot of ups and downs over the 90 days, with many sleepless nights and worry some days for me. Ima had a perineal tear which occurred last year or the year before in the corrals or in the wild when she gave birth. Basically the foal's hooves completely tore out the separation between the rectum and vulva. So she had one giant 'hole' where everything mixed together. It was very messy and causes her to have no "control" ie: when she coughed or snorted she could shoot a road apple 20 feet! I learned by day 3 DO NOT stand right behind her and scare her with anything! LOL. Her aim was deadly! She got a bath every day and I spent hours keeping her extra clean and wrapping her tail.

The dilemma began when at day 30 I was able to get her to my vet and analyze the situation. Her 'problem' was in excellent shape and unbelievably she had no infections. But because the corrective surgery was going to be $2-3000.oo the BLM and MHF said she must be returned to the corrals, deemed unadoptable, and I was to receive a new horse. I refused to take her back. She was to good of a horse to let something like that keep her from making people happy for the next 20 years and having a loving home. Plus I was not starting over with only 60 days to go.

My wish was that enough money could be gathered to give the adopter "A coupon good for one surgery" But getting a solid cost amount from vets was difficult. As the days ticked by, one idea after another was worked on to ensure she could compete and be adopted. As we arrived at the Horse Expo there still was no solution..... Two days to go with no fix in sight. It was looking more and more like back to the corrals she would go and I was very sad.

A Giant Thank You goes to Amy of the CA BLM Wild Horse & Burro Program who was relentless in finding a solution..... Friday afternoon 24 hours to go and she pulled it all together. Amy from the CA BLM, Patti From the MHF and Sally from the BLM Washington DC office each agreed to pitch in $500.00 towards Ima's repairs. And Loomis Basin Equine Veterinary Hospital agreed to do the surgery for that amount. Last minute or not these are some great folks that all stepped up and did the right thing...... If you have a minute please tell them thank you. Their generosity will change Ima's life forever.

ON TO THE COMPETITION:

Much like my self, most horsey people I know are not the best with electronics: computers, cameras, camcorders, etc. I bought a brand new top of the line video camera just for this contest. The first camcorder in my life..... I even learned how to use it. Only problem I was not the one able to ever use it and I rarely had a second person to run it when I was riding Ima. So I have little footage of this event. At the Horse Expo apparently the last person who should have had the camcorder was the one trying to do my filming for me. I will leave his name anonymous to protect him from finger pointing with large bouts of laughter, In a nut shell he was one button push off. When I was not in the ring he was filming the ground, the sky and everything else around. then he would push the button again (OFF) and look thru the view finder and follow my go. Then he would push the button again (ON) and put the camera down. I have some very interesting footage..... just none of me.

To add insult to injury. I let everyone have my camera and take as many pics as they wanted. When I got home to down load the memory chip the camera came up with an error message...... memory chip failed. Not one picture!!!

So the following pictures were sent to me.. Anyone else out there please feel free to send me what you have. I'd love some pictures of the other contestants also. These pictures were all taken by Charles Brooks. He can be reached at http://www.brooksphotog.com/ Charlie was really great to come out for the entire weekend and film all the MMO action. Thanks again Charlie.

Friday morning was the in-hand trail and in-hand conditioning class:

Ima backing into the chute, she was awesome.... I on the other hand was not a good judge of angles and we got to close on this turn

From a halt, trotting out of the chute into the serpentine, was perfect.

Trotting right up to the front of the trailer and then loading at a walk, flawlessly.

Carrying the (not so scary)bag from barrel to barrel.

Halt in the box, then we did a 360' circle and on to picking up the feet.

Ima had a little trick up her sleeve, it is hard to see but I have picked up both her feet on the same side and she is balancing on her 2 right feet.

Our halt and stand at the cone for inspection was as good as any professional halter horse. I thought she would be a solid first in the conditioning, the judges thought otherwise and she came in 4th. When the dust had settled we were 4th in the in-hand trail and 4th in conditioning. The amazing thing is after these 2 classes: the first place horse had 56 points, second 55 points, third 54.5 points and us in 4th with 54 points. Only 2 total points separated 1st - 4th, that made us in 3rd place for the average. I was sure we were a solid contestant for the top 10 finals......