Update 12/01/2008

Diggy and I had a GREAT weekend! On Friday, I took him over toBartley Ranch (local public arena) with all intentions of riding. I lunged him for a while and he was being really good, working off my voice commands and really tuned in and listening - even though there were 2 other horses in the big arena with us and another being ridden around. So I took him over to the smaller arena for some 1-on-1 and ground drove him around for a while, from each side (I'm "ground driving" by walking next to him as if I were mounted, hands in the same spot).

Again, he was being just perfect so I told myself, "Self, he's being great. You need to just go ahead and get on him. I know this arena is bigger than you would like, but you're going to have to just do it." So I did, but I was still kind of jittery and could feel my legs shaking, so I just sat on him for a little while. He's great about that, will just stand for me to mount and then just stands there until I tell him to walk off, how perfect! So I sat for a bit, then got off and did a little more ground work, then got BACK on (less the jello legs this time) and he was PERFECT!!! He was *such* a good boy. We walked all over and did lots of turns and flexion. Still at the walk for now, but he was a very good boy. I only rode him for about 15 minutes or so, keeping things short and positive.

Then I took him over and unsaddled and turned him loose in the big arena to play. And play he did! =) He ran, and ran, and ran - tail up in the air, just having a great time. He was putting on such a show, I think there were 6 or 7 people stopped and watching him (it's a local park that has popular trails for people to walk, w/ or w/out their dogs). =) He let me catch him really easy (good boy) and then I took him for a walk.

The trails are "groomed" hard-packed sand with some gravel, but there's a bunch of antique (like wooden, horse-pulled era) farm equipment that line the paths, with little signs saying what the equipment is and how it was used. Diego walked right past everything, just kind of sniffing and a quick look, but not even stopping. We also went past thick bushes that were over our head tall, horses across the way in their own corrals, and a big hay pile covered with a blue tarp. He just looked at everything, I was so proud of him. Lastly, as we were going back to the trailer, we went across a 20 ft long wooden bridge. He walked on it, stopped and sniffed, then followed me across. His neck was arched, but he didn't rush or anything. =)

Then yesterday we did some more riding work at home, and I now have a pretty good stop and a consistent back on him. =) Things are coming along really well, I'm just so happy! I take my last final 12/17 and then have over a month off school. I'm planning on keeping my same hours at work, so that I can still get off at 3 and have some daylight left to do more with him. If things keep progressing like they did this weekend, hopefully we'll do our first little trail ride around the end of the month! I need to take him over to a round pen and try out the trot under saddle, to make sure my brakes will still work first. LOL

Diego's Breeding

I've been learning more and more about Diego's (Dream Makker) breeding. From all indications, he should take to endurance like a duck to water.
http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/dream+makker


Here is a little background in Diego's daddy, Mackies Image: http://www.vangilderarabians.net/atstudmackiesimage.htm

Diego reminds me a lot of his daddy, from the pictures and video I've seen of Mackies Image.

Mackie's Image did well on the track, and both Muhuliand his son Abu Malacar have been solid endurance sires. Perhaps the most prominent horse with a similar pedigree was AERC Hall of Famer RTMuffin, by Rabiycar and out of Muferra, a 3/4 sister to Muletta. Muletta is a multi grand dam in his pedigree.

Update 10/12/2008

And we're up! =) He was a VERY good boy. Flopping on him every evening last week paid off. I would go out in the dark after school or work and make him stand next to that big blue bucket in order to earn carrots. Then I started rubbing his back, rump, and then leaning farther and farther over until I was laying across his back. Lots of carrots were consumed during these activities. But it worked and he go so that I could lay across him from either side and he didn't care.

Need to work on "go forward" now since tapping with the heels and verbal cues resulted in a hesitant backwards. =) I had to reach down and pull on his halter to get forward, and hanging forward off his neck isn't necessarily the best position. LOL Got on and off about 5 or 6 times, and he just stood there. VERY good boy! He was way more mellow trying all of this at home as opposed to in a new, scary place.

He is a very sweet horse and he does try to please. You can tell he's *trying* to figure something out if he doesn't quite get it. Like when I was trying to get him to go forward, and he was like "...?? back?? step to the side??" He's very bright though and he catches on quick. Tonight I took my dressage whip and would stand next to him and say "walk" and then tap him on his butt. He figured out what I wanted REALLY quick (like in 3 tries) so that I could walk up to him and he would stand there, until I said walk, then he would walk away.

He's adjusted well to being by himself and the new place. He LOVES the barn!!! Wussy... I thought he was supposed to be some tough ranch horse. LOL He's in there quite a bit, especially when it is windy or the other day when it was snowing. He was quite happily all tucked in there, dry and warm the few times I checked on him. He's been laying down and sleeping in there at night. Tonight it took me a bit to find him in the dark since he was laying with his head toward the wall (not the opening) and I was just searching for the "darker" shape until he heard me and moved to stand up.

Update 10/05/2008

I need to finish dinner so just a quick Diego Update. =) First, he's MUCH slimmer. He's not eating nearly as much as Sinatra did and I'm still trying to decide if it's because Diego isn't eating enough or Sinatra just ate SO much! But the uberbelly is pretty much gone, I was really surprised how quickly it went away. He seems very mellow and happy, but I don't think he likes the grass hay very much. I need to get some new stuff pretty soon anyways, so maybe I'll just buy a couple of bales from some different places and see which are the yummiest.

Diego isn't scared of kids anymore. =) I knew that one wouldn't last long with Taren around here. LOL Taren was climbing all over the fence today and Diego was following him around and sniffing at him. We all 3 went on a walk on Friday afternoon and Taren rode his bike, so Diego's getting used to bikes now too. Wait until the boys get out the dirt bikes and/or Taren's quad. I'm so lucky to have such good de-spookers here at home. =)

We went to a local arena today and did some under saddle stuff. He did good but is still pretty jumpy. I need to spend some more time with him under saddle here at home in his corral where he's more relaxed and work on just touching his butt and tapping his legs and belly with my foot, and having him stand next to me while I sit on the fence and stuff. More with "it's okay to have a human up above you" type of things. He would scoot out from under me, and bolted off the first time, when I tried to put my weight in the stirrup. But overall he did great. He was having a TON of fun running around - little stink-butt took over 30 minutes and 2 of us to catch him the one time, he was having SO much fun racing around. =P It got a lot easier after he tired himself out some. Here's a pic, this is as far "up" as I got today (laying my belly across the saddle). We called it a day on that note.

Life in Idaho

So for the past two years, I've been living the good life. Hangin' out at the Teeter's Ranch in Oreana, Idaho with a bunch of my buddies. Being able to just be a horse, run around when we feel like it, sleep when we feel like it, eat when we feel like it, play when we feel like it, you get the picture.

Then, Merri started messing with me and playing dress-up. She made me a necklace out of jugs. I didn't mind wearing it. I especially liked the orange jugs because they smelled yummy, almost good enough to eat... almost. I looked really cute in my necklace and it was kind of fun. It made Merri happy for me to wear it and she would give me lots of smooches and carrots, so that was good. Carrots are always a good thing. I love carrots.

Merri also made me a bonnet. I liked my bonnet. It kept the sun off, and I know how dashing I looked. So I posed for pictures, held my own lead rope like the big boy that I am, and did my best to look cute, which wasn't very hard. Merri would put my bonnet all over me. She even put it on my back. I didn't mind. It was soft and fuzzy and I got carrots. Anything for carrots.

Merri told me that I was becoming such a big boy, that one day I might even get my very own person. Someone special who would spend lots of time with me and teach me a lot more new things and take me fun places. That sounded pretty good, but I was really happy just hanging out with my friends as well. As I was saying earlier, life on the ranch was good and I enjoyed it there.

~ Diego

Introducing - ME!

Welcome to my blog -

Some of you may already know me. I'm the famous Diego from Merri Melde's blog at http://www.blog.theequestrianvagabond.com/ I've decided that since I'm so cute, and since things have been changing in my life so much, I should have my OWN blog.

First, a little more about me. My name is Dream Makker but all my friend's call me Diego or Diggy. I just turned 4 in September, 2008. My daddy was the famous Arabian racehorse, Mackies Image, http://www.vangilderarabians.net/atstudmackiesimage.htm My new mom says that I look a lot like him, especially when I'm running around with my tail in the air. I guess I'm what they call a "CMK Arabian", but I don't really know what all that means. All I know is that I'm cute and I love carrots.

See, here I am as a 2-year old, see how cute I am:

And here I am hanging out up in Oreana, Idaho, tell me I'm not cute:

I guess that's it for now. Stay tuned to here all about my NEW home and all the different stuff I've been doing there. It sure isn't what I've been used to, but I kind of like it.

~ Diego