Mountain Valley Murphy looking for a new home

Everyone circle Saturday November 7th on your calender as the day a little mustang gelding in a plain brown wrapper could change your life. Mountain Valley Murphy is one super guy and he will be up for adoption at the Heber City, Utah MMO contest. I can't say enough about what a fun horse he has been to train. I usually never have a problem letting my young (equine) students graduate to new owners and new lives, but Murphy is definitely an exception. He is one easy guy to be around. He has a great work ethic and loves to have a job. He took to roping like no horse I have every trained. Within 2 days of seeing his first cow I was roping then and he would face them up and hold them. He loves to dig in and drag a log or calf. Will trot down the trail all day. He gets along with everyone and everything. PLEASE email if you are thinking about adopting him. I will gladly trailer him back to California or drop him any where between Sacramento, CA and Heber City, Utah after the contest.



Here are some 'glamor' shots of 'Murph the Snurf'. He stands a solid 14 hands tall and is almost as wide and long. I keep thinking I should have named him Sherman ( after the tank). He has 4 very solid black feet, massive bone, very correct legs, not one scar or blemish anywhere on his body. It doesn't matter if he is coming or going you either get lost in his big brown eyes or the size of his hindquarters

Day 70.....

Mountain Valley Murphy checkin in to say Howdy on day seventy of 90 days training for the Heber City UT, Mountain Valley Mustang Makeover Contest. I am very tired after a wonderful weekend training with the world renown Richard Winters from the Thatcher School in Ojai, CA, so I will turn the keyboard over to Sue. I don't know why Ima liked to blog so much guess it is a girl thing I have no interest in typing when there is hay I could be eating.

Thanks Murphy. Well now that he is out of earshot, I can tell everyone he is one awesome horse! I really feel blessed to have been given such a wonderful creature to transform into an enjoyable human companion. Murphy is everything you could want in a great riding horse. He is quiet and easy to be around. He gets along great with all animals from sheep to cows, mini horses, etc. He is still wary of dogs as his mothers words that they will eat him still ring in his ears. Although he has never shown any aggression towards them, they still worry him a little bit.

woops... I'll finish later...

Time Flies!!! It is day 50!!

Wow here we are at Day 51. I am so sorry I have been too busy to keep you all posted. but actually being gone for 5 weeks there was nothing to say! Now we are well over half way there. Murphy is doing as best as can be expected considering his very little training. Today was a big day we went to a Western Horse Show at the Sacramento Horseman's Association. I also took my number one leadline student, who graduated to riding her 3 yr old Kiger Mustang filly alone today and had the most picture perfect rides in the trail classes I have every seen for any age! Earning her a 1st and 2nd in trail plus 2 -8th's in the riding classes.

To bring you up to speed on Murphy's culmination today riding in a real arena with other horses, loud speakers, etc. Here are his statistics: He has been 'captive' for 51 days. He has worn a halter 21 times, He was saddled 6 times before I climbed on. Today was the 8th time he has ever been ridden. Today was the 3rd time he has been taken off the ranch.

His first trip was the 3rd time I saddled him when I took him to a regional park for a ride, his riding companions were a donkey and a mule! He saw back packers, hikers and had to cross narrow 'person' bridges over the irrigation canals.

The 2nd trip was Friday night to a local team penning where I ponied him through the cows.. He loved it! He is going to be a cow eating machine! He was a little too 'goosey' to ride, so I just ponied him off "MY " mustang Walley.

And today's outings started with us entering the Halter classes.. Murph has only worn a rope halter so I was surprised the transition to the show halter went so smooth. I used a long lead rope with no show chain, in case he did one of his 'turn and burn' I'm outa here moves. But he never batted an eye. Not even at the miniature horses that attended the show and did a good job of spooking lots of horses. With a 5th place win in Halter, non-color, Open and a 6th in Halter 3 yr olds and older, Open. Murphy said he was ready to try a riding class.

After lots of preparation in the near by round pen, we headed to the trail course. I train from day one on lots of obstacles, but Murphy is very careful of anything new, bordering on spooky. They had lots of fake flowers in the arena, so I kept my nightlatch close by. LOL

The course started with opening the gate which went smooth until the closing part which we gave up on. I see I need to get the lateral work started. He just didn't understand sidepass.






Trotting through the brickwalls was touch and go, just a little narrow for Murphy's taste. Trotting over the jump was flawless.

But then the lack of lateral training reared its head again as we made a disaster of sidepassing over the pole.........

Trotting into the box and the 360 turn was quite nice... all considering

The trot serpentine through the flowers got a little dicey, as they were VERY close together. But we did not miss a one. Yea Haw!! Was I proud!

The second time at the gate was much better. It took a few tries but we did the whole thing!!

Three Cheers for Mountain Valley Murphy!!! WHAT A GUY!
This is one incredible horse. I have never in my life tried to do something like a trail course in a public arena on a horse with 8 rides. This horse is priceless!!

Day 3 for Murphy

Murphy is definitely going to make me a better horseman. I will really have to step it up to make him "be all he can be". He has the attention span of a Bartlet Pear. Never stops moving, but forgets 2 feet later why he was moving and scares himself. He does not show any tendencies to kick or strike. Once I get his feet stopped, he is very sensible. But they don't stop very often. He is mortified of anything that flaps from a small rag to a saddle blanket. He seems fine with ropes any where around him, but nothing that flaps....


The flies and mosquitoes here are driving him crazy. He runs and kicks all evening and is covered with hives in the morning. On a positive note it helps with contact as it feels so good for me to pet him. But I feel so bad seeing how frustrated he is. I have to get a fly sheet on him! That was my goal today.

I started by moving him to the round pen and advancing my ground work. After some preparatory rope work I was able to get a surcingle on him.... sans the saddle pad which he still will not touch. It was close to 100 here so after a good work I figured it was a good time to introduce the water hose. I tried it on day 2 and he almost jumped out. Today was a success. By the end he was standing quite and even trying to drink from the hose..... here is Murphy after his first bath.











I came back in the afternoon and picked up where I left off. The morning session and bath really helped.... Here is Murphy sporting a brand new fly sheet. I hope he realizes what it is for. LOL I don't know how I will get it off..... the Velcro sound is very unacceptable to Murf the smurf! But he likes the color and the 'new car smell' the plastic has. NOT!

Murphy's first day

Murphy walked out of the trailer like he had done it all his life. We got stuck in the Hwy 80 night repairs road closure so had to sleep in Boomtown which was completely full because of Hot August Nights. Murphy's Law! So we spent 24 hours in the trailer. I was so impressed he had no problem drinking out of a bucket.... I have had mustangs take a week just to walk by a bucket. And never shied at the semi's driving by with in 2 ft.

He is awesome. What a great looking horse! This is truly going to be a buckaroo's horse. He neck is a little thick but so is the rest of him. And he is going to be a mover..... As the old cowboy said to me "There ain't enough land or cattle around here to get that horse tired". Boy that is a fact. I wondered how he could get so muscled up in the BLM corrals... now I see He NEVER stops moving. Always walking and looking, very busy.... going to be hard to keep his attention!

I was hoping to break Ima's record of being pet 20 minutes out of the trailer. That didn't happen in fact after 45 minutes I was getting worried about the trainablilty of this horse. I changed my tactics and once I finally got my hands on him things started moving quickly. :) Within an hour we were taking pictures of our selves. Sorry my arms aren't longer.

The end of a very eventful and expensive trip (Did I mention I had to buy 3 more tires?)

and the first chapter in Murphy's big adventure!!

Murphy gets his name

As I prepared to leave.. everyone asked me where my horse was from.... which in mustang language means which HMA. I was excited to find out also because prior to leaving I had studied the Utah HMA's and their horses and so I had just enough knowledge to be dangerous. I dug the papers out of my bag of BLM goodies and .......... Three Fingers.... Vale, Oregon. WHAT!!! Yes I drove to Utah passing 3 closer BLM holding facilities to pick up my Utah horse who is from Oregon! Now that is Murphy's Law. I guess very few of the geldings in this contest where born in Utah..... Go figure.

So I walked up to the trailer to see my OREGON horse, I stepped up on the running board and said "Hey Murphy how ya doing." He looked at me and touched my hand like that had been his name all his life....... Well, I guess it will be now!!!!

I am exited to say that Murphy is taking to technology as fast as Ima did and he seems to have a sense of humor. To keep him busy on the long drive home I showed him how to use the camera.











The first thing he wanted to see was "Utah in the Rear View Mirror". I told him the song was about Texas and he said.. wild horse don't know state lines......

Here's another shot of what you get to look at for 6oo miles if you come watch me in the finals on November 7 in Heber City, Utah.

Murphy cracked me up when he took this picture for all his new friends in California who have never seen this while pulling a trailer...... (For all you non-Californians the speed limit for trailers is 55 in CA, 75 in NV and UT). Murphy's law every time I come home from a road trip I get a speeding ticket in CA. LOL

Salt Lake City Wild Horse Corrals

Tired, cold and 14 hours late it felt good to see:











As soon as I got out of the truck, I knew it was worth the trip! What a great bunch of Horseman! The weather was temporally perfect. News reporters, friends, family, MMO trainers, MHF staff, BLM wranglers and everyone smiling, laughing excited to see each trainers horse.











I filled out the paperwork and was informed I was getting a solid brown 4 year old gelding w/a very small white star, no other white. Tag number 7392. As I looked over the corrals from the catwalk, I could not see the tag numbers but I saw 2 identical brown geldings in the pen.... Identical except for one thing..... one was sound a sleep in the middle of the pen, head down in the shade of another horse. One was running up and down the fence very up set about the horses that had already been loaded and gone. Which one was mine? Murphy's Law told me













And here he comes down the chute. Halter on with out incident and right into the trailer.....