Introducing Miss Holly Golightly...

Well, after slacking for an entire month, I figure it's time to get this blog up and running. I've had Holly since June 14...what an eventful month. I'll get you up to speed-

June 13 my father, brother (from here on out referred to as "the boys") and I packed in the Dodge and headed to Ewing, IL to pick up our BLM Mustangs. The boys were both selected to compete in the full Extreme Mustang Makeover, while I set my sights a little lower on the yearling portion of the competition, dubbed Mission 007 for the year of the horses birth. We arrived at the holding facility in middle-of-nowhere, IL at around 9 a.m. on June 14 to pick up our soon-to-be loyal steeds. After checking in at the facility office, the boys received the tag numbers of their horses and raced around the pens trying to catch a peek. I was kinda given my pick of the three or four scrawny little yearlings in pen five. I decided on a leggy little bay that seemed less concerned with my standing nose-to-nose with her than her mouthful of fescue. That little filly seemed to have more guts than any of the hundreds of mustangs there that day!

When it came time for the little nameless filly out of Eureka, Nevada to get haltered and load on the trailer...well, it couldn't have been easier. She just waltzed right on the trailer like she'd been doing it all her life. The other two...well, they came out of that shoot and on to the trailer like they were projectiles shot out of a slingshot. The ride home was uneventful as far as the horses were concerned, and we got back to the Bar T around 1 a.m. on June 15.

The next morning we were up and out early to get a start on the horses. My partner in crime Molly also came over to see what we could accomplish with the filly. My dad had the round pen first, then Chapin. Molly and I felt like we could make progress just as easily in the corral as the roundpen, so off we went to ambush this little horse. Within the first hour, we were leading her around, picking up feet and spraying her with the water hose. Needless to say, we were both a little shocked. This horse just came off the range in January and has had zero human contact...how is this so easy? Not wanting to look a, ahem, gift horse in the mouth, we took full advantage!

It was somewhere between her her guarding my dad's bulldozer of a mustang from human contact and her eating out of my hand that I decided two things: 1) This little filly has the same doe eyes as Audrey Hepburn (one of my all time favorites) and the same carefree, mischievous nature as her character from Breakfast at Tiffany's. Her name just had to be Holly Golightly! 2) This little ballsy, easygoing, and full-of-herself horse would be coming right back to the Bar T in September after the competition.

Since Day One, Holly has been into all kinds of Shenanigans, from taking advantage of the buffet of feed barrels in the tack room, to jumping through the window in her stall (not quite sure how she managed that one...it's 3' x 3' and about 4' off the ground). Stay tuned here and I'll keep you posted!