Miss Abby , or "Miss Mare" as I often call her, came to us in 2022  and as of 2024 Christmas is retired from riding.  She had narcolepsy, and she may or may not have had a minor stroke.  She's just a pasture pet now in 2025 and hopefully a buddy to Ryka, the mare we brought home in March 2025. 

- As of Sept 2025, Willow has been discovered to be in foal.  We don't know when it will happen, she's making a heckuva udder, and is getting fat.  After doing some research, I'm finding out that her son may be the baby daddy, as the farrier has stated that the previous owned kept them stalled together and that he "was bigger", whatever that means.  We are frantically building a 3-stall shelter with attached round pen where I can get in there and help with birthing, get hands on the foal, etc. and still keep Miss Abby around.  Abs is just around to tell Willow it's ok.  Why is this needed?  Bc after much more research and 6 months of daily working with her, Willow is super scared of ropes, totally doesn't trust people, is scared of being shut in ANYWHERE.  Once again, I am finding that horse sellers don't tell the truth a lot.  They either bred this horse, or were careless and let her colt breed her, which makes a complicated medical situation for me to deal with. In any case, this horse is NOT going back to that home, as they have in the contract that they have first rights to buy her back.  It's not a safe home.  I'm in it for the long haul, but I knew that going in.  I have documented her progress on all my socials, up there at the top.  

And don't even get me started on the seller that sold me a dead lame, injured horse, that was drugged, and presented him as sound.  He has been humanely dispatched, so nobody else will abuse him anymore.  Too bad I can't find a way to stop the person that sold him, bc apparently she has a reputation in our local horse community and this is an abuse situation for the horses she sells. It has been reported to law enforcement, but she's been doing this for a long time.  Years. At least one horse is safe from her. 

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 Willow, formerly named "Ryka" is said by the previous owner to be  9-10 yr old Colville Rezervation untouched mare.  I bought her from a person for $900 as a "project horse"  She's scared half to death of everything little noise and movement and spooks like crazy at first, but she's very willing, and wants to try.   The person that I bought her from bought her from the Colville roundup program.  She was pregnant, so she foaled and then when the foal was sold, this mare wasn't really worked with at all except for being fed and turned out for two years before I took her.  Still, she loaded herself into my trailer MUCH easier than my mare Abby.  I was told she hasn't had any unpleasant experiences, and I'm aiming to keep it that way.  

  I am documenting her training and progress here with video and pics.  I use Tik Tok a lot, and do live streaming as we get to know each other. The plan is to get her gentled enough to be a LOT less jumpy, lead nicely, trailer load, then drive a few miles down the road to work with a trainer for continued training. She's going to be my new ride. 

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Mar 8, 2025:  We purchased her and brought her home after meeting her once before.  I had looked at another mustang mare, a BLM trained prospect.  But that one seemed, although willing to pick up her front feet, unwilling to do the back feet and was just as jumpy as Ryka was.  Also this other mare was only 14 hands and I taped her at about 900 lbs, too small to meet the 20% rule to carry me. Also, this other mare spazzed about me doing the tape around her belly.  I figured, I was gonna have horse drama either way, the way this one was acting.   After a couple of days deliberation, my husband and I agreed to get Ryka.  

Ryka is said to be 15 hh, which would make her big enough to carry me easily.  When loading, I observed again, her temperment, that she spun around to run back down the walkway we had herded her down to get into the trailer.  I was in the way, but she stopped short from mowing me down, something Miss Abby never did.  Abby mowed me down a lot in the beginning, until I got confidence and learned to take charge.  Ryka is not deliberately "mean", she just spooks like crazy, even when my boots scrape the concrete. Every noise, fast movement...   Still, she loaded herself onto the trailer with just a few tries.  She traveled loose in the trailer on the short ride home because she would injure herself being tied. 

Mar 9, 2025.  This is Day 2 of her settling in to my "staging place", a square I have marked off in my lower field with a couple of shelters, and a small enough place I can sort of use as a round pen if I want to. I can't have her spazziing in an enclosed space around my other horse and somebody getting injured. 

 Hubs and I spent some time hanging out with her in the field, tried to feed her by hand, but she wasn't having any of it.  She has 3 little mini goats we are boarding as her buddies for now, but she pretty much ignores them.  I put her food in the trailer, because that is a place I want her to be very comfortable with.  She's got free choice hay as well.  She is not haltered in any way, as she could injure herself if she happened to snag the halter on anything.  We are gradually working over to touching her today, and she lets us get about 5 feet away from her. It didn't help that hubs brought my mare Abby down to the field to introduce them through the fence.  I would have rather waited on that one, but he felt it was important to get it out of the way.    They did the typical "mare" thing, where they ran around and blew out their noses at each other, but Abby quickly switched to nickering at Ryka, kind of seeming to ask if they could be friends.  I didn't let Abby into the enclosure with Ryka yet because I don't want Abby to be injured in her wobbly state.  She "THINKS she's still a tough mare, but she wobbles a little when she walks.  Ryka just ran around the enclosure a lot.  There was a lot going on and she is freaked out by every sound and movement.  We tried to be gentle, but also, she's got to learn to get used to having a dog around, cats, other people, another horse... all the things she has to learn, to have good manners.  The plan is to spend every day just hanging out and gaining her trust.   

First goal:  Touch her and get a leadrope and halter on. 

Second goal:  Rub her all over and get her used to being handled without kicking or spooking.  

Third goal:  Lead her around and have her attention, more desensitization. 

Fourth goal:  Get her trailer loading and desensitized to the trailer noises and motion, to be able to haul her. 

I'm not sure how long this will take, but today on Day 2, she allowed us 5 feet away from her with no rope on, and followed us when we were carrying food around.  She snatched a mouthful of grain when we sat 5 feet away, and carried it farther away to chew on it. Note that there was a lot of wind today too because a storm was blowing in.  

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