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Linda Thomas writes:
I adopted Romeo at a BLM satellite adoption site in Stockton, CA
on March 3l, 2001. This was the first mustang and burro adoption that
my husband and I had ever been to. We just went to look at the
mustangs, and had no intention of adopting one, but Romeo caught my
eye right off and I immediately fell in love with him! After a long,
and very stressful day for me, I was finally able to adopt him. I was
so happy I cried! Then we had to arrange to have him trailered to our
house the next day, and then rushed home to put up a pen for him.
Romeo was a 3 year old when I adopted him, and had already been
gelded by the BLM in November of 2000. He was captured in August of
2000 at a round up near the city of Cedarville, in northern CA. He is
from the High Rock HMA which is actually in Washoe, NV., but it is
managed by the BLM out of their northern California office.
In April, the very first week he was home, he managed to get his
halter off and left it laying unbuckled in the middle of his pen. Our
initial training progressed slowly as we bonded, and just learned to
trust each other. By May I was able to touch him all over, hand feed
him carrots, and he began to learn what grooming was all about. He
was a sucker for a good scratching, and soon learned to love carrots
and being groomed. I had his halter back on by the first week in
June, and by September of that year he was fairly bomb proof, and I
had advanced to putting a saddle on and off of him with no problems.
With lots of good food and attention Romeo began to grow quickly,
and by August 2001 he looked like a different horse! He first met our
farrier in October of that year, and allowed her to trim all 4 hooves
with no problems. In November the vet was able to give him a
physical check up and all of his shots. He is now 4 years old and is
almost 16hh and is still growing and beginning to fill out. He
doesn't look at all like that skinny little mustang we brought home
just last April!
I was able to release him out to pasture by January of this year,
and he now has the company of a pasture buddy, our 7 year old 16hh
Standardbred Vic. Vic has been busy teaching Romeo his horsy manners,
and is very much the dominant horse. They are very attached to each
other, and Romeo loves to constantly tease Vic into playing with him.
I started using clicker training with Romeo last September, and
he really responded well to this type of training method. I am
currently working with him on lunging, and trying to polish off his
ground training. I hope to be able to advance to ground driving him
soon. He can now be saddled and unsaddled at will from either side,
and I plan to be able to mount and dismount him under saddle in the
near future. He should be ready for a few short rides, by the end of
this year, an experience I am really looking forward to.
Romeo is constantly amazing me with his intelligence and
ingenuity. Most day's I have to scramble to keep up with him, as he
always learns new things so much faster than I ever expect him to! He
can also be quite a mischievous fellow, and is always wanting to be
included in everything that goes on around here. He gets extremely
jealous if I pay any attention to our other horses, and I am convinced
that he thinks he owns me!
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Just brought home
Learning his way around
"This is interesting stuff."
"I still have to scratch that itch!"
"How do I look?"
"That's my mom!"
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