Meet Nova! She is a 1 yo Bay and White Pinto Mare I adopted from Palomino Valley Holding Corrals near Reno, NV. I adopted Nova and picked her up, along with Malibu, from Nevada on August 12, 2013. Special thanks to the Modern Mustanger and Adopt A Living Legend Facebook Groups, without which I would have never seen or adopted this girl.  I had originally intended to keep Nova for myself, until I met Opie. Luckily someone was already as enamored with her as I was and I was able to find a great placement for her which allowed me to keep Opie. I wouldn’t have reassigned her if I wasn’t sure she was in a GREAT home.

December 4, 2013

Nova has settled in nicely with her adopter and is making new friends!

November 23, 2013

Nova has been reassigned to a fellow mustang lover. It was hard to make the decision to part with her but I found a great home for her where she’ll be loved and pampered. Nova is still one of the most awesome horses I’ve encountered. Keep an eye here for updates on her progress!

November 11, 2013

I’ve found some information about Nova and believe I located her dam. I believe her dam is  #09-616267, listed as black with 4 socks and star-strip-snip at Palomino Valley Corral. She’s from the Calico Mountain gather of 12/02/2011. Here is a picture taken July 3rd (making Nova a June baby). The buckskin is nursing the creme / palomino baby and I believe mom is the mare with the high whites off to the left. Talk about a cute baby!

Nova has been enjoying pasture time in her 50 x 50 paddock. She occasionally gets turnout with Opie since Malibu isn’t gentle enough yet to be loose in Nova’s pen. Sunburn has been our biggest issue. Even with every other day application she still gets burns occasionally. Mostly on her face but we discovered the left hind leg has some scabs too. Such a good baby though and always the same when I pull her out of her pen. Just an easy going baby.

October 12, 2013

September 15, 2013 – Day 35

Makeover day for Nova! She was excellent as usual. I’m going to stop posting training days for her but I’ll still do updates. She’s pretty much like any other baby at this point. Hardly anything bothers her. She DOES need work with foot handling so the farrier can come out. Today she got a full bath. Mane and tail washed and her feathers trimmed. This was her first bath at the tie rail (tied) and she did very well. Very proud of this little baby!

September 5, 2013 – Day 25

Training Day 10

Today Nova was introduced to the fly mask. She wasn’t sure about the velcro at first but after a couple snorts she decided it wasn’t hurting her and got over it! I also led her out of her stall for the first time (well the first time on purpose!). She did great and this video shows her first time over the bridge!

Later in the day we decided to try the teeter bridge. After all, the regular bridge went very well. First we took her through one of our new obstacles…the ravine…she did OK with that. Next the teeter bridge. This video just shows a short clip of the before and the after. You can see she was CLEARLY not happy with the movement of the bridge. We helped her through it by repetition. We just kept asking her to cross it. That was going great except she would ALWAYS dart off the bridge to come off it. Even if she stayed still for the rocking motion. To help her through that we started controlling her steps. Instead of allowing her to choose her pace we dictated that she take one step at a time. FINALLY the light bulb went on and she got it. Took about 30 min of practice for her to gain enough confidence to walk on slowly then walk off slowly.

August 31, 2013 – Day 20

Training Day 9

Worked with Nova on grooming. Especially picking up feet. We only worked with the left front today. She’s not afraid to pick it up but if you hold her foot for longer than she thinks you should she wants to stomp it down and if you don’t release she gets upset. Worked to build confidence by slowly increasing the amount of time the foot was being held. We ended being able to consistently hold the left front for 30 seconds.

August 24, 2013 – Day 13

Training Day 8

LOTS of firsts today! First bath, first fly spray, first time having her mane and tail brushed, first time picking up feet, first time being introduced to the height stick. More details later but she did great! Here are some photos.

August 22, 2013 – Day 11

Training Day 7

Spent about five minutes with Nova today. Video is entire session start to finish. Used the carrot stick again to rub on her whole body on both sides. She was a little ticklish under her belly the first time! I was then able to rub her all on her left side (not the legs) with my hands. She just stood their, lips pursed but letting me. Such a good little baby. She is very dirty so I am looking forward to bathing her this coming Saturday.

August 20, 2013 – Day 9

Training Day 6

Worked with Nova for about 10 – 15 minutes today. She’s such a good little baby. I was able to touch her all over her body with my carrot stick (well…I actually didn’t do under the belly). Then I used my hand and was able to rub / pet on her whole head, ears, neck and withers from both sides. She did very well with that! One thing i have noticed is this baby has a NICE neck! Long and elegant like a thoroughbred / pleasure horse! I noticed some raised bumps on her skin when I was rubbing on her. Picked one off and I’m pretty sure they are old fly bites right on her shoulder / neck area. I grabbed my rubber curry mitt to see if she was itchy. She was skeptical at first but we used approach and retreat to work through it. I ended the night able to curry her neck and withers on both sides. One thing I think is neat…she has a SUPER thick mane. Can’t wait to get her bathed and brushed out!

August 18, 2013 – Day 7

Training Day 5

Very brief lesson reinforcing approach and retreat from yesterday. The video shows the first time I’ve touched her neck / withers area with the carrot stick. Prior to this she’d only accepted the stick on her face / cheek. Because she was OK with that, i.e. didn’t jump, strike, nip or bolt, I decided to try petting her with my hand. Was finally able to see her brand too. She has such a cute itty bitty baby brand!

August 16, 2013 – Day 5

Training Day 4

Worked with Nova on approach and retreat for a few minutes. Also reinforced her leading lesson.

August 15, 2013 – Day 4

Training Day 3

Worked with Nova on giving to pressure and baby steps towards leading. She was very attentive and caught on very quickly to what was being asked of her. Full video will be uploaded as well.

August 14, 2013 – Day 3

Training Day 2

Today I spent 10 minutes working with Nova in her stall. My overall goal with her is to build her curiosity in me and also to get her to pay attention to me and look at me. She’s pretty good at ignoring me. If I kneel or sit she does want to come up and say hi! I worked a little bit on putting pressure on her by walking towards her then releasing that pressure when she would look at me by walking away. If she looked away, I would put the pressure on again.
This video shows Nova getting her first carrot. Just prior to filming starting she did take a bite of the carrot from my hand. She’s very skeptical and as you can see could care less about the carrot and thinks I’m much more interesting, at least for now! I’m sure she’ll develop a taste for them.

August 13, 2013 – Day 2

Training Day 1

The goal for today was just to assess Nova’s curiosity and bravery. I hung out in her pen, even sat down for a few minutes just to see what she thought. She’s very inquisitive and was brave enough to come up to me and say hi! She’s not very flighty or reactive. Very left brained. At this point she’s not too worried about me but doesn’t want me to come too close either. Around feeding time she came up to the gate a couple more times to say hi! I think she’ll come along pretty quickly.

August 12, 2013 – Day 1

Pickup Day

Nova was loaded behind Malibu. She’ll be my first BLM yearling and I’m super excited about her. She was a little difficult to halter but not bad when comparing to Malibu. I”m going to have to watch her front feet as I work with her, at least in the loading chute she thought they were a good defense to being haltered. Of course, I have learned how they act in the chute has no bearing on how they will be at home…at least not thus far! Once Nova got into the trailer she was quiet as a mouse. Once we got home she was easy to unload and commenced picking up leftover oat hay off the ground. I didn’t go in the pen with her at all but sat beside her feeder and she was brave enough to come up and eat about 18 inches from me as long as I didn’t move a muscle. That’s a good starting point for me! Can’t wait to get started with her. Here are some pictures of Nova.