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.