Rocky

Statistics

  • Registered name: Rojo Cerro Risco
  • Height: 14.3 hh
  • Color: Chestnut
  • Year of Birth: 2002
  • BLM Freezebrand: 02216036
  • Origin: Twin Peaks, California HMA
  • Breed Registry: American Mustang and Burro Association

 

Last but not least is my nine-year-old mustang Rocky. He came to me by way of some neighbors who were involved in re-homing him from his previous owner who could no longer afford to keep him.

 

 

He’d been owned by vaqueros, some of them very cruel and abusive, though his most recent owner was kind and loved him very much. I fell in love with Rocky (I renamed him from Borracho, which means drunkard in Spanish) when I met him at the neighbors’ place, and he eventually landed at my ranch.

 

 

 

 

 

I thought he would make a good interim project for me—a kind of dry-run in preparation for Pokani—along with relieving Toby of his duties as the husband/guest horse for trail rides. He was great on the trail, but in the arena he had the most rigid, short trot, and all he really wanted to do was canter around in tiny circles.

 

 

 

 

 

It took months of work to open out, relax, and extend his gaits, but he began to show nice promise as a dressage horse. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The abusive past had left Rocky somewhat troubled, so I sent him to Susan for sixty days of training. She had a lot of success in carefully drawing out his issues and helping him find appropriate ways to express himself. Working with him has taught me a lot that I have been able to apply to my work with Pokani. I’ve also trained him in liberty work, which he loves.

 

 

Competition, however, is difficult for him. Twice I've taken him to dressage shows, and though he showed promise with a good score on his very first test, he was nervous in the show environment. He did better in a Trail Trials competition; though not completely relaxed, he tried very hard and we won a Fourth Place out of fifteen riders. I think he has a lot of potential in both dressage and trail work, and do plan to explore these further with him.

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, he is a happy camper, enjoying life on the ranch—which is pretty much as close to the life of a wild horse as a domestic horse can have.

 

 

 

 

 

On to Horsekeeping>