Trust

Well, every day offers new surprises.

Lately, it seems that every time I see Sante, we have "the best day ever".

Its like as though a few weeks ago, he had a major "lick & chew". Something changed in him... 18 months of friendly game, 18 months of confidence building, rewarding the slighest try, and not reacting when he accidently trod on my feet has paid off.

Today, he let me approach him while he lay down.

I was contemplating going into the padock with a camera "just in case", but decided not to, because i wanted him to trust me, and I didn't want to be preoccupied with the camera, so i left it in the car.

I found Sante lying down (not flat out, but "sitting up"), and was quick to try to get out of his line of vision. About 20 metres out, I had a very serious talk to myself - In that I should NOT be sneaking up on my horse, he should be trust me enough to allow me to approach while he is lying down, and I should not resort to sneaking up on him. After giving myself an upper cut, I called out to him. (he already had his ears pricked, he knew SOMEONE was back there), I walked over to him (not sneaking but not direct line either). And i was just praying "Stay down, please oh please oh please stay down"

And, well.. he did!!!!! I was beside myself - I was giggling like a kid in a candy store. He didn't even try to get up, he just... let me approach! I just continued talking to him, about mindless rubbish but i was laughing and couldn't beleive that he had finally let go of that insecurity.

I knelt down in the mud (it has been raining) and scratched him behind the ears, on the neck, down his nose, everywhere, rubbing him and telling him how happy I was to see him. I was careful to move consideratly around him, he let me move around him, rubbing him on the back, on the side, I fished treats out of my pockets, and he thought that all his christmas' had come at once.

After about 5-10 minutes he was still down, and i was quite happy to sit like this all day! But he shifted his weight, and i got the impression he wanted to lie flat out.. so I moved around to where his legs were - and to my absolute wonderful shock, he lay down completely - with a long deep groan. I crouched down in between his outstretched legs and rubbed his feet, up his legs, just laughing (trying so hard to contain my excitement), and talking to him.

All the while he was groaning, every time he exhaled he groaned, imagine you've worked a 12 hour shift on your feet all day, and your sitting down for the first time, beer in hand - it was that kind of groan! He rubbed his face on the ground, and contemplated dozing off. He let me rub him on the stomach, and then decided that it was time to get up. He got up slow enough to enable me to get out of his way, and after some time, we left the paddock at liberty, not before he had found a stick to pick up and show me that he was clever!

I was gobsmacked - floored - so freaking happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had such a great day after that! We did a little "stick to me" in the grass arena, and then I decided to see whether he really understood the "pick it up" command. I walked him over to a stick and asked him to "pick it up" At first, he did nothing, so I gently smooched at him, and tapped my CS near the stick asking him again to "pick it up".

He did!! He did!!!

He has changed in the last few weeks. Our bond has deepened, he trusts me with so much - He has just offered me everything in the last few weeks - What we had in the paddock today has always been my dream of horsemanship. Everytime I thought about owning a horse, I imagined myself sitting in a paddock next to my horse, by my side - complete trust. And today, we began to acheive it.

This journey rocks :)

Confidence

What a day!!!

For the first time in weeks, it wasn't blowing the dog off the chain, it wasn't raining, there was no threat of thunder. The sun was out, it was a bloody nice day!

So - What better way to spend a Sunday, than - sitting in the sun drinking tea all day, er, I mean, riding!!

As it happens, I did both. Sante, being the sporting type that he is, met me at the gate this morning. I was planning on sneaking into the paddock, hoping to catch him lying down and get some sleeping shots of him, but he decided to meet me at the gate. God love him :)

After getting his feed done, I decided I had earned myself a nice cup of tea. So I sat, in the glorious sun, watching Sante eat, while i drank tea..

This took two hours. (Hard work i tell you!)

At 11:00am My friend and I decided it was about time we accomplished something with the day, so we saddled up.

Yesterday, while riding, Sante was tossing his head a little when i asked for the trot. I figured I'd put his saddle to far forward. I'm still getting used ot this new saddle position. The right position just looks to far back!

But today, i remeasured his scapula at rest & extended, and put the saddle back. Yikes theres a lot of horse in front of me!

Anyway, we headed out for a nice ride, at the cracking pace of a dawdle.

Confession time: I'm not a very confident rider. I used to be.. well.. mostly, but now I'm not. After the first fall on Sante, I was ok. Then the second, i was a bit shattered, but thought I got over it, well, the third & fourth knocked off whatever confidence I had left.

See -- the problem isn't that Sante is spooky or crazy or anything like that, he just lacks confidence.

When i bought him, he was a super quiet horse with no issues. He was also a super introverted horse with no spirit.

Parelli has enabled me to give him confidence, and as such, I have awoken his spirit. He is not afraid to act like a horse, and he is not afraid to tell me what he is thinking.

He is not confident under saddle. Now, I know that your saying green on green makes black on blue, but its not quite like that.

See, I have tremendous confidence on hte ground - We are accomplishing sooo much, He offers me everything. But my problem is - I'm far to nice, and under saddle, I "don't want to pull on his mouth" "don't want to upset him" ... I... well.. don't show any leadership.

I rarely use my one rein stop - Something that I only really discovered on the trip down the freeway as I was thinking about the upcoming ride.

See, my fear issues are as follows:

I'm afraid of Sante spooking at things & me falling off
I'm afraid of Sante avoiding the bit and running off
I'm afraid of Sante doing his little western spin thing & throwing me off
I'm afraid of yanking on the mouth I've spent so much time making sensative.

Through all these fears, I realized I wasn't getting terribly pro-active about solving the problem.

Sante's lateral flexion is fantastic, but lateral flexion when he's on adrenaline - not so good. Stopping from a canter to a stop in an arena? perfect. Stopping from a canter out on the open trail when the horse in front of him is still cantering -- Not so good.

And, these have been my issues - Fear of a lack of control.

Today - I decided to confront these issues.

I did a lot of transition work, walk to trot, trot to walk, all the time asking politely for the stop:

Phase 1 - Stop riding with my body & breath
Phase 2 - life the rein
Phase 3 - Slide my hand down the rein
Phase 4 - Lateral flexion

All went well. Our next challenge was when he was getting on adrenaline. See, he's ok when he's walking, but if he's trotting and the horse infront is trotting, If I ask for the stop, and the horse in front doesn't stop, he gets upset, and throws his head in the air, avoiding the bit.

We got to practise this so much today, and i could not beleive the results. it was like the act of lateral flexion was hitting " reset " switch.

Horse in front would trot off, after about 20 metres, I'd ask for the trot, and shortly afterward cue the stop. He would throw his head up, get bracey and try to jig jog or break into a canter. My USUAL reaction is to brace and try to continue to ride the stop - BIG MISTAKE - and this is where I have come off in the past. Today i rode the jig jog, got myself into the correct position to get the stop (shortened reins etc) asked for the stop, and not releasing hte lateral flexion until he was soft in the flex. As soon as I asked for the walk again, he would drop his head, lick & chew and wander off as if nothing had happened. He was with me, listening. Even though we had to repeat this over & over and over again, every time i did the one rein stop, he "came back to me" A few times he got spooky - I did the one rein stop, he came back to me.

Today's ride has done wonders for my confidence. I feel like I can control him, no matter what he does. As long as i continue to interrupt his pattern before he has a Right Brained reaction under saddle, I can encourage him to modify his behaviour.

Our journey just got a lot more interesting.

We can canter!!

We had a lovely day today!!

When i walked into the paddock, he was chewing on the rug of the same horse that I left him with last Sunday.

I sat down and waited for him to finish his game, and after about 10 minutes he wandered over. A few treats later & we left the paddock together.

I was hoping to go for a ride, but thought i should start with some ground work. Following a promise i made to us both that I would never ever do the seven games without an obstacle ever again, We wandered down to the sand arena to cause some trouble ;)

We worked on our bow. He's getting very very good at shifting his weight now. He just needs to learn to keep position, but we'll get there.

Back up by the tail is doing really well. He's very good at it. And it cerainly makes grooming & saddling at liberty a lot easier. when he walks off, i take his tail, and ask him to back right up again!!

Anyhoo, after a little bit of sideways work, we started the travelling circling game. My idea was to wander a little bit, and then get him to jump a jump (something that he has discovered that he can actually accomplish). Anyway - sent him on the circle, and after gently asking for a trot, he pinned his ears at me. So I asked for a change of direction. He was spectacular, the change of direction cue was a P1- he spun around and went straight past my shoulder, as he continued on the circle, i realized that i didn't recognise the rhythm of his stride, I turned around the see what he was doing, and he was cantering.

My pony was cantering on the circle!! - We're talking about a horse who has had major issues with cantering & circles - All due to bad saddle fitting causing a wasted topline, and wasted hind quarters). He did a full circle before i disengaged him & bought him in.

WOW WOW WOW!!!!

It was awesome! He did so well!!

I let him stay with me for about 3-4 minutes and then asked for the circle again. Same result, after a few changes in direction, he offered the canter.

We went away and did other stuff, like sideways over a trot poll & knocking over drums & things like that, and then I decided to ask for the canter & see what would happen.

It didn't go to well, he freaked agian & ran off, after he ran off, he kind of stopped, turned around, looked at me, and gave me his "what happened?" look.

I could only laugh and yo-yo him in. Little darling.. at least he tried.

So now I have to find out how to get him to continaully offer me the canter ;)

I'm also in the process of teaching him to pick things up. After his antics of last week, Every time he goes to pick up a stick, I say to him "pick it up", so that he associates the command with the act.

We did end up going on a ride, and it was very exciting - we encountered motorbikes & speeding cars, and a big storm that never was, but we made it home in one peice.

the big change i love, is that he now LOVES his face scratches. Sante was so so head shy when i got him, but using my "never release on a brace" technique, he now trusts that I will never do his face any harm, and loves nothing more than resting his chin on my shoulder & getting a face rub.

Its the best part of our day!.

When i put Sante in the paddock today, he found a nice patch of grass to lie down in and have a big roll - managing to roll all the way over!

He's gettin' fit!!

Savvy on!

Introductions Part II

OK,

So I finished off a brand new horse owner, a brand new Parelli L1 pack owner with absolutely NO IDEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, i started with pocket guide 1! On the FIRST day of horseownership, there i was, flicking a carrot stick & savvy string over my RBI (and at that stage still catatonic) horse. I thought "Gee he's really good at the friendly game" when i first started, but in all honesty, I don't think he was present. Being a riding school horse, his method of "dealing" was to just "find a happy place".

I had no idea. I could leave Sante tied at the railing for hours on end, and he would stand there quite happily, purely because he was asleep, or "out of his mind". It took a fair few months for him to snap out of that behaviou, but not before some serious lesson learnt for me!

After about 2-3 months of doing Games 1,2,3, - Friendly Porcuppine & Driving, I started to get "riders itch" I wanted to be riding dammit!!!! Things were going well on the ground. Friendly was great! I could touch him all over, including the ears (real headshy when i got him) and belly etc. Porccupine - I was no longer using P4! Thank God for that - i was literally knuckle deep before he would yield the hind quarters - All was progressing! So I started riding with the others.

Riding was fun! I was having fun! Here i was with my RBI (at this stage i had NO IDEA about horsenality) riding through the great Australian Bush with my mates - it was everything i had dreamed of. Until i started falling off!

My first fall - I was out with a small group of people, who had decided to break into a canter, so wel followed - When all of a sudden we weren't cantering anymore?! I was flying. Huh? Flying?

Sante, my dear darling trusty stead, had broken into a gallop! I had no idea how to sit a gallop, and neither did I have a chance to try, because all of a sudden, he made a 90º change of direction, and I was looking at the sky as I skidded across the ground.

Ouch. Dammit. Ouch.

So --- didn't tell the parents about that one! waited 15 minutes for the stars to clear & got back on, rode home.

For some unknown reason - don't ask me what I was thinking at this point - over the next few weeks, I started concentrating more on the riding and .. ... less... on.. the... groundwork..

I know! Looking back now, that was the most stupid thing I could have done. But everyone was out riding having fun in the Australian summer and i was... flicking ropes at my horse.

So! A few months later, on a long ride out with a group of 3 other people. My dear wonderful beautiful boy, took me on a slight detour through the Aussie underbrush, and GOD love him, got a branch caught in his tail.

Bugger me if he didn't think he was being attacked by a dingo. He FREAKED OUT!!!!!!!!!!! Bolted before I knew what was happening. Colided with one of my friends, catapaulting me out of the saddle & onto his rump, causing him to buck. Meanwhile, he is still running forward, my forward momentum has been stopped in its tracks due to the collision, and i fall off his butt, still holding my split western reins. I hit the ground on my stomach still holding the reins, which were wrenched out of my hands as he ran off. My last image of Sante was a 16.2hand freight train running off with a 4ft long branch lodged firmly in his tail.

I rolled over & started ordering myself to breath again. The guy that I had collided with, rode over & asked if i was ok" My response -- "Don't let him die!! Please". My wonderful knight in shining armour galloped off after my horse.

I stayed on the ground, in a puddle of water, on my back for 15 minutes as the pain set in. Right shoulder, completely useless.

15 minutes later my wonderful knight came back with my horse. Apparently he was still running when he was caught. Branch still in his tail. Poor baby.

I walked out with him for 15 minutes before I was assisted back in the saddle. Right shoulder screaming in agony completely useless. My 3 fantastic awesome friends rode in front of me, preventing Sante running out if i lost control.

It was a 2 hour ride back home. It took 4 people to get me out of the saddle. The diagnosis: Torn Rotator Cuff Muscle.

I was out for 8 weeks. It was that final accident that forced the decision. Get serious about Parelli. DO the program. There is something WRONG with your horse, he is seriously lacking in confidence. Lift your game.

So I did just that. I didn't ride for about 6 months. I worked with Sante on the ground. Though Level 1, bought level 2, and started working through level 2 before I started riding again.

The difference - I had a horse who now thought before he freaked out. I did so much work desensatising him to noise & pressure around his hind quarters / tail etc, I worked on his confidence, driving game, going for long walks, anything I could think of on the ground we did.

All the time thinking - exposure is key. Approach & retreat, gotta keep his confidence in tact.

the release of the horsenality model turbo charged our progress. Discovering he was a Right Brained Introvert, gave me the strategies I needed to encourage him, to build his confidence, all the while helping him to realize that i was his leader and I "meant him no harm"

I've now owned Sante for 20 months, we've had our ups & downs, but every weekend we progress. Every weeknd he teaches me something. This journey is awesome. Its what Iv'e always wanted, and to be honest, 2 days a week, isn't enough. I get to work on Monday wishing it were Saturday. I finish work on Friday praying for Saturday morning to hurry up.

Parelli has given me the information & the method to communicate with my horse. Me, a wannabe horse person with no experience and no idea, finally living my dream, thanks to Parelli.

Find your own stick

Well, it looks like I will have to put off the second part of my Parelli beginning till tomorrow, because today was another fantastic day.

We didn't do a heck of a lot, but about 2 months ago, I began teaching him to bow. Then i put my back out, and decided not to do it until he could coordinate himself properly :)

We tried again today, and he went all the way down! WOOHOO!! Mind you, i was still holding his leg, but you know - we got there!

The most exciting part of our day was actually again - when i put him back in the paddock.

He went and found another stick, or branch i should say, this thing was huuuuge, only fit in his mouth if he opened wide. I mean huge!

He picked it up and looked at me again as if to say "Whaddaya think of them apples?"

I of course, broke into laughter, which made him drop it and pick it up again to see if he could get me to do anything else (darned horse is training me)

After a few minutes of this, another horse came over to see what was going on. He wanted to play with the stick as well, but Sante wasn't giving up on his prized possession. So he stood there. still as a statue, for at LEAST five minutes. I mean, there was drool coming out of his mouth because his mouth had been open so long, and still he refused to drop the stick.

The other horse bit his rug, pulled the buckles on the neck, pulled his main, tried to bite his neck and even though Sante moved his head around to avoid some of it, he still did NOT drop the stick.

He actually resorted to hitting the horse with the stick! I'm not joking. I am serious, I stood there watching my horse "Phase 4" the other horse with this "branch" firmly lodged in his teeth.

I was roaring with laughter, Sante thought this was great - it was the best game he's played I bet.

Eventually he lost interest, and thought surely mum has treats for me now, dropped the stick and wandered over.

I was amazed. Sante has shown the most increadible increased play drive over the last few weeks. Its just awesome! It might have somethign to do with the spring grasses -- I don't know, all I know, is he is having the time of his life!

The most absolutely perfect day

I had planned to give a brief summary of our progress from "day one of our parelli Journey" to now. But i "have to interrupt this broadcast for an important news flash"

I had the best Pony day ever ever ever.

I walked into the paddock and this is the scene that greeted me. I keep Sante in a paddock with approximately 70 other horses. They have just been introduced to the spring pastures - This photo was taken about 2 hours after they were taken off the spring pastures. It was quicker to count the horses standing up, rather than lying down. They were so contented - I can imagine their bellies were full, and they were quite happy to sun themselves.

A quick inspection lead me to find my boy. He had been competely flat out, but by the time i got the camera on him, I think he figured something was happening and sat up. He was quite happy to just sit there are enjoy the sunshine, which i thought was lovely, and I took my time in approaching him, because although we have an absolutely fantastic relationship, he still loses confidence when I approach if he is lying down. So I slowly walked in a wide arc around him, until i was standing in front of him, and I tell you what, He was as pleased as punch to see me. Never in my life have I had such a fantastic welcome! Normally he nickers at me and then wanders over - which is awesome anyway! We normally leave the paddock at liberty and mosey on out to get breakfast.

But this morning, even though he was sitting down - this is the lovely sight that greated me. And you can't tell in the picture (obviously) but he was nickering at me, I'm not just talking about a quiet gentle nicker, he nickered softly at me for about 30-40 seconds. I of course went goo-gah and sat down taking pictures, he continued to nicker. It was the most wonderful welcome. I was aboslutely floored.

After about a minute, he still had not got up, so I slowly stood up, and began to walk towards him. I was able to get to within about 3 metres, and he turned away, So i retreated a few steps - He was instantly able to look at me again. I waited, and then slowly began approaching again, i progressed 5 steps, and then he turned away, so I retreated again. I was able to get to within 2 metres I'd say, and then he decided to stand up.

I couldn't have asked for a better start to the day!!!!!

During our play session, we worked on sideways at liberty, sideways in general, figure eights around two tree stumps, but the two most important "tasks" were

1/ The bulldozer is not really a scarey horse eating machine & 2
2/ Send horse to pedestal from 22 feet away

Both were a raging success!!

We spent 20 minutes mozeying up to the big scarey bull dozer, until all of a sudden, Sante just waltzed up and put his nose on it. A few cookies later, and he was practically ready to jump in the bucket.. Ok.. well not really, I settled for squeeze game between the cabin & the bucket, and then we wandered off to the Pedestal.

I really turned the challenge up this week, by standing a full 22ft away from the pedestal. And sending him to it from that far away. It ony took a few attempts before he got it, and jumped on quite happily. Once we'd done that a few times, we moved on.

We went for a short ride - which was - eventful, My predominately RBI horse (tending LBI) on the ground, is borderline RBE when it comes to riding. He isn't confident by himself.

The ride could have gone worse -- I could have fallen off! But, i think we handled the day pretty well. We had to get past the equine killing blue motorbike, which took 5 minutes convincing and a lot of approach & retreat, which he appreciated.

And then there were the horse attacking shadows & the haunted rocks which Sante was convinced were following him. I must say, all the bareback riding I've been doing has made my seat a lot better, because my poor little angel was a teensy bit worried, and did a lot of jumping on the spot before remembering he was trying to be brave.

All in all, the ride back was great, he finds unheard of confidence when heading back home, and he even offered to trot all the way. Even though he was happy to settle for a brisque walk.

But the absolute best part of the whole entire day, was actually when i put him back!

I'd done about 15 minutes in the round yard before i put him back, and there was a small tree branch in there, leaves & all. So I stood on one side of the round yard (its a 22ft yard) and backed him to the opposite side, I then drove his forquarters to the branch.

He thought this was fantastic! He pawed the branch, picked it up, shook it, dropped it, picked it up, ate the leaves, shook it and kept going & going until i was laughing so hard i couldn't stand up.

I walked over there and decided to do a bit of extreme friendly with the branch. His care factor? Zero.

I even put the branch above his head and shook it really hard - His response was to reach up, and chew the leaves on the branch. I was beside myself with laughter, and i think the fact that he was getting such a response caused him to carry on.

So when i put him back into the paddock with the other horses, he set himself to task. Admittedly, there isn't a heck of a lot to do in that paddock, being a sacrifice paddock, it doesn't have any grass in it at the moment, so they get bored.

Sante set himself to playing two games.

1/ Pick on the new horse &
2/ Pick up the stick and see what mum does.

These were the fruits of his labour:

Yes, thats right. There was a random stick lying on the ground, so he picked it up and noisily dropped it, to see what I would do. As he kept doing this, other horses were gathering round to see what all the fuss was. I, in the meantime was howling with laughter, causing him to just keep doing it, because he liked my reaction.

I also discovered how his rug got ripped! He followed this horse around for about 20 minutes, grabbing him by the tail part of the rug to stop him walking off, and then following him around. Sante doesn't normally do this (around me anyway) So i was thrilled to see him interacting with other horses, and playing (he's a bit of a loner and doesn't really hang in a particular group).

I have just had the best day!!

Introductions

Right.

First post! Hmm... where to start?

I might start by introducing myself. I am slightly horse obsessed. When i say slightly.. i live, breath & dream horses.... have since i was 5, see.. only slight... That said, it took me 21 years to get my own horse.

Let me start at the beginning.

Ever since i knew what horses were, I've wanted one, however all the begging pleading & tantrum throwing in the world didn't get me a horse. My parents were convinced by other "knowing" members of my family that i didn't need a horse, it was just a girl craze, and i would grow out of it, and that would be that!

I had to settle for riding at the local riding school, which was fun, but didn't happen often enough and surely wasn't as much fun as having my own.

When i was 13, i had a bit of an accident - I got kicked in the bum! (Not by a horse) and dislocated my tailbone, it was enough for my parents to say "Right! No horseriding for you, it will make it worse". This is not a good thing when you have a horse addiction, and needless to say, the obsession did nothing but fester & get worse for years.

Fast forward to 22 years of age, I've got a full time job, self sufficient, financially independant, and still driving off the road every time i drive past a paddock with a horse in it, when i had the bright idea "Right! I'm getting myself riding lessons".

5 minutes later, the lessons were booked, and i was starting the beginning of the journey I had always wanted. My plan was to learn to ride, and then once i was proficient enough, buy a horse.. maybe.

For 4 years, i had a 1 hours lesson and went for a 2 hour trail ride every week, rain, hail or shine. Let me tell you.. that one day a week spent at the riding school was food for the soul. It refreshed me. Reset the batteries, enabled me to go back to work and face the real world for another week.

However, it wasn't enough. Simply riding & being around them wasn't enough. I wanted one. I was waking up every morning dreaming of owning a horse. I was daydreaming of owning a horse, and every night i went to bed praying for a horse.

So.. i started to look for my very own. I looked for about 12 months. Some were to fast.. to slow.. pacers... completely nuts. In the process of riding the "completely nuts" horse, I fell off and was trampled.. breaking my fibula in the process. Fearing the horse would run off more than fearing i had injured myself, I jumped up, grabbed the horse and walked back with a broken leg. The owners were greatful, and i had a broken leg...

3 months out of riding, and momentarily contemplating never riding again, and then all of a sudden i was back in the saddle.

Not long after that, I was told about a beautiful thoroughbred Gelding called Sante. 8 years old, 16.2 hands, really really quiet horse, *perfect!*.

I arranged a trial ride, only to be told that I was to late, and he'd been given on trial to someone else! I wasn't happy! I was told that he hadn't been moved yet, and technically hadn't been payed for yet, so i could take him for a ride.

Well.. from the second I saw him, i fell in love.. it was one of those love at first sight things. There standing before me was this tall SKINNY lanky awkward looking thoroughbred with the softest eyes & saddest face. And i was sold. I took him for a ride, and he was perfect. I was kicking myself that he was already given. I loved him.

The yard manager said something to me which ended up being quite important.... "I'm a firm beleiver in fate, what is meant to be, will be"

So imagine my reaction when three months later I get a call from the yard manager saying "It didn't work out! He's come back, he's pretty skinny and in need of a bloody good feed, you can have him for $400".

In my insane rush to get to the yards and pay for him before someone else did, i tripped over and broke 2 fingers - not a terribly good start to our relationship!

But all of that aside, On December the 22nd 2006 (contrary to the date on the picture) I became the proud owner of my first horse - Sante. And what a sorry sight he was! ALL ribs, all hips, and like I said.. the saddest face.

I had always had this dream - you know the one.. a typical teenagers dream of sitting in a paddock with my horse, lying down next to me.. or seemingly invsible communication & understanding between human & horse. I had always imagined my horse would love me, and whatever i did with him, it would be based on love & understanding but more importantly, no fear & no force.

During my riding lessons, I became familiar with "Parelli" After googling Parelli, I decided that this was exactly what i wanted. This was it. Here I was, a 26 year old horse owner "wanna be" with all the heart, but zero experience or know how. Sure, I'd been reading horse care books, but reading it in a book, and the real thing are two entirely different things. I had no idea! What do i do when he doesn't want to be caught? What do i do when he wont pick his feet up, How many times am i supposed to kick him before he moves?

So, studying Parelli seemed the obvious answer.

Thanks to Ebay, i became the proud owner of a second hand Parelli Level 1 kit. And so... our journey started.........