Cha'Cote

This page is dedicated to one little mustang....Cha'cote (cha-coh-tay). Pics/Video's at bottom of page. He is my version of the Extreme Mustang Makeover Challenge. I have wanted to compete in that event for more than few years now, but now don't have the ability to colt start under saddle, due to the car accident. It was fate that brought us together though. His current owners had given up on him, due to lack of knowledge and skill for such a challenging horse, and it is the third time since his capture that he has out witted his humans. When I got the call to help them, I thought he was more "gentled" than what I met when I first arrived. They wanted to re-home him, so they could lease a horse that they CAN ride. At that point his complete past was unclear to me, but I knew he had been with humans for @ 5 years and had most likely, NEVER had a halter on since the one he left BLM with. The time he has spent with humans has been in a 12x24 stall and he was sent through the barn to an adjacent round pen for handling and stall cleaning. When I arrived, I could not approach him in his stall at all, and I could not approach him and get closer than 15ft away in the round pen. By the end of the first session (about and hour in the pouring rain) I could barely get a rub or two on his cheek and neck. Over the next week and a half, I got in as much handling as weather and commuting allowed. My goal was to get him halter broke so that he would be able to be re-homed and have success with his new humans. I did my best to put principles and the relationship before the goals, and let him tell me when he was ready for more. But he proved to be more difficult than I thought he would be. The Round pen was too big and the stall too small. And he had learned well over the last 5 yrs how to evade a human. I am not capable of “roping” a horse so getting the halter on was proving to be quite difficult. Even though we were making progress and were close to getting the halter on, with the extra gas and time away from the family, it was getting hard for me to continue. It would be cheaper and made more sense to just bring him home. Not to mention, he stole a little piece of my heart. I talked to my husband about the feasibility of building him a safe corral, and he did. Turns out it was cheaper for me to build a corral than to spend the $$ in gas for another month for a horse that isn’t even mine. So, Cha’Cote (formerly known as Rocket) officially became mine on 1-1-10 and came home the same day. He has since progressed forward by leaps and bounds. And meets the official BLM deffinition of "gentled". With his help, I am now listed as a Mustang Mentor officially with the BLM. Email for free help on how to get started!


Savvy On
Michelle