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9/26/06: Since it�s been awhile I figured I would do some more updates. I have more pictures that I need to load up and it seems I just can�t get the time to sit and do it. I have more pictures of Fancy playing games and showing her progress. I also have some great pictures of my Husband and Elessar doing some cool stuff together.
All the horses are doing well. Chris and Elessar have had a couple rides and did very well. Remember this is the same horse that was going to be destroyed because a VET thought he was crazy. Men couldn�t get near him and he was afraid of his own shadow. Wish I were able to send a video to the vet now and show him the beautiful creature he almost sentenced to death due to enormous ignorance. Chris and Elessar have really started to bond. They go out and play as much as time permits and I just love watching them together. Those two are just about done with level 1. We just need a saddle that fits both of them so they can continue on with the level 1 riding tasks and then be assessed. To me that is incredibly exciting. I am SO proud of the two of them.
Fancy is still up for negotiable sale. She is progressing little by little when I have time to work on stuff with her. She really does need a home that can devote a lot more attention to her than I can. I do love her but I just don�t do her justice. I know she would be great if she were the only horse. Unfortunately, she is the last horse that was given to me and the horse that needs one on one the most. Fancy is capable of doing level 1 and some level 2 tasks on the ground. She has pictures in her section of doing the tasks so please feel free to look if you are interested. She will make a great partner to someone that can devote a lot of time and patients to her.
Royal is status quo. His feet have improved so much since Mike LaGrone has been trimming them. Royal and I take it easy together. He is my true blue guy and we have a lot of fun together. We still are in need of doing our level 2 riding tasks but with 3 horses its extremely difficult to get the time for focused riding. Royal doesn�t mind in the least just puttzing around the barn. I�d love to take him on a trail ride sometime before winter sets in. We�ll see how that goes ;)
Hopefully soon I will have a new section to my website for Blue Ridge Distributing. They are an herbal supplement company that has fantastic products. Once finances permit I will be putting the kids on these supplements so I have real live testimonials with my own horses. I have used them previously and I really liked what they did for the horses. Anyway that�s a little bit of an update for those interested.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the Blue Ridge Win � Treats Supplements or if you have an interest in giving Fancy a good home. Thanks all for looking!
8/30/05: WARNING!!! VERY LONG UPDATE!!! ;) Oh my goodness its been WAAAY too long since I have updated the site! My apologies to those who have been wanting to see pictures from my weeklong stay at Pat�s ranch in early July.
My life has been so upside down since I got back I haven�t had much time to get on my computer and share my time with others. I have been asking my boyfriend to please help me get the pictures up so ya�ll can see and things just haven�t been working out. Out of site out of mind.
For those who know me on a more personal level, but haven�t been able to chat, I got a couple temp jobs after I got back from Pagosa (Praise the Lord). One place I was only supposed to fill in one day for the receptionist and it turned out that they liked me so much that they called me back for another week. After that week they said they weren�t ready to let me go and asked me to hang around a few more weeks. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they will choose to make me permanent. Doing temp work has its perks but in my situation it sucks. No paid holidays, vacation or sick time. No benefits or steady paycheck� But if I need time off to go play horse stuff I can. That�s the major part of the reason as to why I am not on the net as much. My current place keeps a very close eye on internet use, mainly because we do a lot of classified work for the government and we don�t need viruses. It�s not like the last place I was. There I was on the net all day long and just waiting for someone to post something on HI forum or Natural Neighbors. (Speaking of which I need to get a link to that in my links section) *Notes to self* ;) Plus when I get home I am too busy. I eat, change and head down to the stables. When I get back I spend some time with the bf and then I am ready to get to bed! Plus I have so much to say and don�t know if anyone really cares to hear it now since I have been gone for so long.
Some of you might be wondering if I will be going to the Savvy Conference. Well I wasn�t planning on it this year since I had already seen Pat in May for the tour stop and then went in July for my week. Financially there was no way I could afford to go since I am temping right now and I was without a job for 2 � months. Going back really wasn�t an affordable treat. But, with sincere thanks to my dear friend Jerry, again he is funding my way to Colorado. We�re considering it an �Early Birthday Present� since my birthday isn�t until October. On this trip I get to stay with my Aunt and Uncle in Chama, New Mexico since they run a bed & breakfast there. They are only 6 miles from the Colorado boarder and it takes a little under an hour to drive to Pat�s ranch from their house. I would like to have stayed in town because it makes it easier and much faster to get to the ranch, but I get to see family and the most hotels in the area are completely full this time of year. If you want to stay at a hotel you have to book 6 months to almost a year in advance for a room the weekend of the Savvy Conference. Also instead of buying expensive plane tickets we�re taking Jer�s new truck to break it in. I am very excited to go although I wish my mom could come with us. She has to stay behind and tend to the herd since most of the people at our stable aren�t capable of tending to them. (Sad but true fact � not to mention we�re rather picky as to how are pets are treated). I am still trying to convince her to go and have someone baby sit (even though there aren�t many we trust to do such a job) I guess I will keep trying to get her to go� So for those of you going this year I WILL be there! WHEW HEW!!!!!
On another happy note my bf has started getting more interested in doing Parelli with the horses. I am WAY excited!!! Him and I go down to the stables together a couple times a week and I give him lessons on how to do more with the horses rather than just running them around and walking them. That�s all he knew how to do and very little Parelli, but still knew how to tenderly handle them since he has been exposed to it for so long. So since his interest has come up we have started watching the level 1 Dvd�s together. He is doing very very well and he actually knows more than he gives himself credit for. I know if he spent like 2 weeks straight coming with me to the stables he could easily pass his level 1. His timing and feel are coming along by leaps and bounds and I just know he will be a fantastic horseman. This is an awesome testimony since my bf was in no way interested in horses. He likes them and cares about them, but they aren�t his passion. Music is his passion... But, since he is one of the few people I trust to handle the horses and we�re planning on making our relationship last, he has gotten to the point where he wants a proper HorseMan�s education. Seeing that smile come across that face when the horses willingly do something for him is priceless.
Along the same lines a few weeks ago he mounted Elessar from a mounting block bareback for the first time. Chris is the only male and only other person that has been on his back except me. I was SO proud of them both! With my guidance he was able to mount, do some lateral flexion, yield the hindquarters and dismount safely. I was SO excited to see Elessar responding so well to Chris. Elessar has been a great horse to learn from and Chris has told me he likes the challenge of working with such a sensitive horse. He still has a lot of Green Horse stuff to work through, but my plan is once I get my blue string I will switch gears and do a lot more riding work with Elessar. Once he gets to a more advanced stage and Chris is into more riding he will be working more with Fancy. Right now Fancy just needs to be a horse and continue to settle in. She too is doing well and making progress daily.
Fancy and I are learning EVERY day. She is going to be quite the horse for me to learn from. They all offer you something to learn, but I know I will have to learn quickly and be exceptional for this poor mare. Her overly sensitive and unconfident nature is making me research, stay in contact with my instructor that I had while at Pat�s ranch and have little discoveries daily. Some of them have been BFO�s (Blinding Flashes of the Obvious) and some it took hearing a story from an instructor to actually find out what to do for this mare to build a trust and bond between us. There have been days where I thought I should sell her to a more savvy home that has more time for her since mine is so stretched with 3 horses. Then I thought No! She was given to me out of the blue, I love her and she needs me. I will just have to learn and become a great partner for her. (Which I was always willing to do) She was given to me for a reason� Fancy can offer me SO much to learn. Elessar and Royal have also contributed to my huge ever-growing learning process� Its just taking the time it takes. Fancy�s weight is finally starting to show. Her ribs are still showing a bit but not like they were. Instead of looking malnourished and unhealthy, she looks bright and athletic. Her grotesque looking rump is filling in and making her look more round along with making the over developed muscle not as noticeable. The withers and back still need some filling in but it�s a lot better than when I brought her home 5 months ago.
The best thing that I have seen in a long time with Fancy is last week. (8/23/05) I had her in the turnout by herself for a few minutes so she could roll and just have some personal horse time. After a little while I got Elessar out to join her. When I took his halter off and encouraged him to run he bolted off in a flash of brown, bucking, tossing his head and kicking out his front feet. Well Fancy saw that and she thought being silly looked like fun and she ran after him tossing her head and bouncing around! This is the FIRST time this horse has exhibited ANY �play� since I met her. Especially with other horses and especially Elessar. Since Elessar�s confidence has grown dramatically over the year he tries to be top dawg when he�s turned out with another horse. Well in Fancy�s case that would just scare her. If he were running behind her, she would get very braced and threaten to jump out of the arena. He wouldn�t even be looking at her or doing anything to her, she would just get uptight. (It�s a rather short fence that a lot of other horses have already cleared, including Elessar years back when he still belonged to Jerry.) So for her to �want� to play and bounce around is a HUGE deal to me. That gave me a much-needed glimpse into our future together. Seeing that a play drive that was so suppressed for so long finally emerge just a bit made me feel great. Better yet, just seeing that one actually existed with her to begin with was a great sight.
I will try and get some new full body pictures of her so her adoring public can see her progress. We�re through all 7 games and she can do them well, of course there is always room for improvement on both sides, but it�s a start. Her body is still very much in need of more chiropractic attention and continuing on with keeping her hooves trimmed so she is more comfortable. After Mike trims her you can see the immediate change and you can tell she wants to run. I think I just might ask him if he can show me how to keep her balanced over the 5 week period. I can really tell with her when she needs her trim. We�ll just have to see how that goes. I�d love to learn how to trim my horses.
Onto the other boys� Well Royal and I survived our looooooooooong drive to Colorado. The trip to and from was smooth and went very well. All of the horses that went did fantastic. They all ate and drank on the trip and within a few hours of arriving at our campsite (the day before we got onto the ranch) they were ready to go out to play and explore. Royal was quite the handful for the first few days. There were so many things he�d never seen before. All the wide open spaces, deer, elk, bears, coyotes etc. Finally around Wednesday he settled in and was back to his old self. I was thankful for that. We even saw a bear early Weds morning and he didn�t even care. He looked at it like �What the Heck is that??!! Is it a big dog??� *giggles* �No Royal that is NOT a big dog!� Then he went back to eating. Meanwhile all the other horses that saw it were panicking in their stalls. I think it was because the bear wasn�t upwind so Royal didn�t smell it. All I know is that there was a bear less than 200ft away from me and my horse and *I* was the one that had to be brave! Not an easy thing to do for a California city girl! It was a cool thing to experience. It�s the second bear I have seen out in the wild in my life, but this second experience was far more intimidating since I had no where to go if it chose to come towards Royal and I. The first time I saw a bear was a few years back, it was raiding a dumpster and we watched it from the cabin windows and doors. Not only that but the one I saw was a HUGE bear!!! You could hear its steps in the bushes and see them move and part as he walked through. I even heard his breathing and low rumble of a growl. Course it wasn�t really a growl� I guess just throaty breathing??? I don�t know I am not a bear expert ;)
Anyway, we made it through the week and back home safe and sound. I was glad to be back, but then again I hated to leave. To anyone that has thought about taking a course I strongly recommend it. Just the atmosphere itself and seeing Pat Parelli riding around on a horse or in a golf cart is an amazing feeling. Being able to see their horses in their stalls and watch them film stuff for RFD-TV or for the Savvy Club was great.
As for Rainy, nothing huge has gone on with him. Although mom got a new saddle for him and she should be up and riding more soon. Hopefully we can get some pictures of that once she gets a good pad to go under it as well as getting the leather oiled a little more evenly. He looks great in it and it fits him well. It�s very similar to the Parelli Fusion saddle only for a fraction of the cost. I�ll give more updates on him once we can get some pictures of him all tacked up and looken pretty.
Whew! I think that is about it for now� I think I got everyone up to speed on what�s going on with the horses J Thanks to all that read and that are interested. Hopefully *crosses fingers* I will be able to get my beloved to get those stinken pictures up! See ya!
5/30/05: I PASSED!!! I PASSED!!! I am finally offically through with level 1!!! Royal and I have been stuck in level 1 purgatory for several years now... Very long story short - I put my principles before my goals. Royal and I had been taking this last year and a 1/2 to get him healthy. Between his feet and chiropractic it was a long road to recovery but very worth it. I was able to assess with my #1 partner today and it felt great! Susan Nelson a 2, soon to be 3 Star Instructor came to our stable today and did several hours of savvy injecting! It was awesome, we went into level 2 ground work helpful hints or for those who know, she gave us some new "arrows to add to our quiver". Susan was great! Made the day go by fast and kept it fun! I was nervious and I know Royal was picking up on that a bit as he was being a bit of a booger and made me work a tad to make sure our games were up to snuff. I can't wait to have Susan out again so we can do more level 2 stuff! Although I will be gone for a week for a level 2 intro to level 3 in Colorado next month so I just might have to wait to have Susan back again. By then I will hopefully be looking at doing my level 2 assessment. We'll just have to wait and see if my game plan works out. Anyway, it was a fantastic day! With Susan keeping it light hearted and fun it helped the butterflies calm down and fly in some sort of "formation" instead of all over the place. I can't wait to get my string and certificate in the mail! I am going to frame that thing and it will be displayed proudly in my room! Thanks all for listening and being interested in my progress! Pictures soon to come! Please check back soon!
5/27/05: Melanoma information up for those interested to read! Interesting stuff, especially since my recent studies found that US Davis also believes in boosting the immune system by making a vaccine out of the chemotherapy drug and cells from a horse host. Interesting, but stupid... If they would just do it naturally they could make things a lot easier on the horse itself. But since US Davis is powered by the all mighty dollar the drug companies will keep their fingers in all the pies. Seems I was onto something anyway, only I will stick to boosting my horse's immune system naturally instead of harsh chemicals and drugs! More nutrition stuff to come. I think my next article will be on putting weight onto hard keepers the slow and sure way. Thanks for looking all!
WAIT! I'm not done yet! Oh my Gosh how could I forget! For those of you fellow Parelli people that are here, I have my level 1 assessment on Memorial day. Its looooong over due, but with Royal's physical problems its worth the wait since I will be able to assess with him. That thanks goes to Alan Brownlie at Riding High LLC. He is the maker of the TheraFlex pads that Pat and Linda Parelli use. I got into contact with him this week to see if I could price a pad so I could have it for Monday. Let me tell you, Alan was fantastic to work with. He went through extra effort to make sure I got what I needed for my up coming assessment and my trip to Pagosa Springs for my level 2 into to level 3 week long course. I can't wait till Monday so I can finally work with a certified Parelli instructor. Another thanks goes to Jerry as he helped me with getting my pad in the first place. I used it tonight to see if I could figure it out and to see what Royal thought. There were mixed emotions but I think towards the end of the ride Royal figured out he wasnt going to be sore this time. I can't wait to use it again!!! Hold a good thought for me everyone! Monday is judgement day and I really hope things go well. Royal and I are so beyond level 1 now... I will just be super excited to get my string. I'll update when I know if I got it or not. Pictures will be up soon of the new pad and of my assessment! Thanks everyone!
4/20/05: New Pictures!! Go to the Pictures page to check out the latest action shots!
3/27/05: Soon to come! More pictures of Royal's hoof transformation! Plus see the change in Fancy's hooves! We cut almost a 1/2 inch off the insides of both her rear feet! No small wonder her hips hurt! Anyway, I will get those pictures up as soon as I can. Come back soon for more updates!
2/24/05: Hi Everyone! Well I finally got some pictures of Royal's feet both before his trim during and after! If you all want to look at the pictures go ahead and click on the thumbnail. Once into the new window with the larger picture you can zoom in on it again by clicking on the red button that pops up. Then you will be able to read the text a little clearer explaining the picture.
You'll have to excuse the extremely furry legs! But as you can see Royal is making some great progress! His hoof is 1/2 way grown out and he is doing very very well! We still have some time before it will be all grown out, but at least he is doing better! When he walks I can see his foot falls are trying to fall where the new angle is so he still trips. Not for much longer though that's for sure!
2/8/05: Since the site has gone up poor Royal as really been going through a BIG transformation. The biggest thing has been his feet and addressing his White Line issues.
Since the beginning of October Royal has been seen by a Natural Barefoot Trimmer by the name of Mike La Grone. Let me tell you the changes in my horse have been incredible. A lot of questions I had about Royal's soundness have been answered which I am so glad about. For the first 3 years of owning Royal I had a farrier that didn't tell me what was going on with Royal's hooves. He was pretty much just maintaining the White Line and not fixing the problem. Royal's soundness was getting worse and thing we used to do were becoming painful for his feet. He was tripping and stumbling more and I could see when he did want to go run he was having issues with getting any type of collection or action. He didn't have the beautiful lofty Arab trot that he used to. At some point before meeting Mike some thought it could be just him slowing down, as he could be older than we know. I would get very angry with that thought and burst into tears! Its NOT because he is getting old!!! I know it!!
A very long story short it is NOT because he is getting up there in years. It was the White Line breaking down the hoofs stability. The front hooves were/are the worst and has taken some time to get under control. If I hadn't found out about it or addressed it when we did I know I would have some more serious issues. Founder could have happen easily since it was more than half way to the cornet band. I think having him on a healthy diet and not pushing him to "work" saved him from serious situations.
This week has been fantastic! I have been able to ride 3 times in one week! The last ride I had was last night and it was the 4th ride he has felt good enough to do in 4 months. The first 3 months Royal was pretty much stall bound because of the rain and when it wasn't raining he was too tender to go out because of abscesses in 3 of his hooves one right after the other. As soon as one healed another would come up in another hoof. You could say I was getting to my wits end. To add even more stress 3 weeks ago Royal, Rainy and Elessar all got West Nile vaccines. Within 4 hours of the vaccine Royal's legs had swelled to 3 times their normal size, he had a slight temperature and was swollen around his face and neck. Yep... Another reason to sit in the stall and cry... That was a very long night of just watering his legs, taking his temp and making sure he wouldn't go into founder. At this point he now has about an inch-inch 1/2 of healthy new hoof growth, but still could easily lose what was gained because of the stupid vaccine.
Anyway, yesterday morning he was feeling VERY good. Mom turned him and Rainy out together and did he put on a show! He ran, bucked, tossed his head, snorted, reared, jumped in the air and would spin in the air! When he reared he do a 3/4 turn in the air and then take off running again. It has been MONTHS (at least 8 months) since he has been silly like that in a turn out. That is extremely encouraging, especially when I get there later that night and he is wanting out again! Plus I got to ride! Last night was a very good night!
Elessar was very good last night too. We had taken a break for a while not only because the rain pretty much forced us too, but also there was something else that wasn't "right". He was still very protective with his hindquarters and jumpy with some stuff so since we proved our point I figured taking a couple steps back to develop our foundation a little more would be smart. Well I found that it wasn't the training. Elessar had pain in his hips from when he was thrown on his side so many times whenever the past owners needed to do his feet or what ever else they wanted to do to him. Royal, Rainy and Elessar all visited Dino and Leisure Ranch in December for some much needed Chiropractics. Since then all 3 horses have changed considerably. Not only that but I pulled Elessar's shoes and he is also being trimmed by Mike. So there have been a lot of transitions that the guys have needed to get through before I can even consider going forward with more intense training activities.
Elessar's "Horse"-anality has certainly come out since he has been with me. He has gone from a scared, jumpy ball of nerves to a confidant somewhat pushy at times booger! He makes me laugh and I love watching him play and run in the turn out. He is still learning that I can play with him while he's running and it doesn't mean I am going to "get him" its to initiate play! I will be getting some new pictures of him and Royal real soon. I would love to show him in his Portuguese Saddle. It looks really awesome on him! We tried that on this past weekend and he did real well for not ever seeing a saddle like that before. I just need to get a cinch long enough for it and then some stirrups and we will be good to go! That will be so much fun getting odd looks from people at the stable. I can just hear it already. "What the heck kinda saddle is THAT!?"
There is SO much more to share that has gone on... But all in all things are looking up and Royal is on the mend. Thanks to Mike and Dino. They gave Royal a second lease on life and got me my exuberant beautiful Arabian back.
For those of you interested I will be taking pictures of Royal's hooves to show the progress and the HUGE difference in the healthy foot compared to how bad his angles were because of the white line. I can't wait to get his feet all grown out! Thanks to all those that read this WHOLE thing! Its rather long, but still I know there are those out there that can learn from what my experiences were with the feet, chiropractic and the vaccine reaction. SHEESH! These last few months have been tough!
