Not so difficult decision

For the past year & a half I've been looking forward to taking a course at the Parelli Center in Ocala, FL this November. I'll be attending "Level 2 Breakthrough" & had planned to, of course, take Kisia. After being started, she & I have had almost a year to ride. We've ridden through the level 1 & 2 patterns (my personal favorite piece of Parelli educational materials) & just poked around the property "trail" riding. All went smoothly until we started having saddle fit issues. She started bucking during our online play & offered her 1st ever buck under-saddle during a ride. Not yet able to get a shim pattern going that would keep her saddle in place, I purchased a crupper to get us by. It keeps the saddle in place & is of no concern for Kisia. Great! Back on our way! Then she comes up lame with heat in a hind leg. It got better then after a cool morning with much bucking & running with her friend Foxy, she seemed to be off on that leg again. At this point the course is looming, I found myself becoming impatient & annoyed with her. We have a bit of a personality/horsenality mismatch. I'm pretty serious & like plans. Kisia is a total "Girls just wanna have fun" type. When it became obvious I was putting my goals ahead of her mental health & probably affecting her physical health, I knew the answer was to not take her to FL. No hand-ringing, stressful, this or that thinking needed. It was the only answer. My girl is young & needs a break. She's headed to a fabulous trainer in January with experience with Baroque horses for what should be imo an amazing opportunity for both of us. I'm headed to FL in a couple of weeks to work on myself for once. Not my complicated, difficult horse (sorry Miles!) or my young, green filly. Will be leasing a mare named Faith who I imagine will be an honor to share space with. Pic here is my Kisia getting a good start to her "break" in her most favorite place....a dried up creek.

Zorra's sire wins at Nationals

Video here is Zorra's sire Chulo, who won his 2nd National Championship class last week taking home the 2010 National Champion 3 & over Spanish/Portugeuse Stallion title. I hear he's heading home with his new & very lucky owners to MI. This video belongs to Heradurra Andalusians & much thanks to them for allowing us to breed to Chulo.

Zorra's 1st 6 months

Slide show here are some favorite pics of Zorra's 1st 6 months. She was weaned last weekend. I can honestly say that she is the one thing I've wanted my entire life. My earliest prayers, wishes on 1st stars (you recall the poem) & falling stars were for a mare to ride & foal to play with. Not sure how I knew it then, but she's been every bit as fun & wonderful as the child me knew she would be!

Getting Healthy

Sedona & Cash have been with us two weeks now. It's amazing how quickly they are improving. They were wormed the week before coming to Oxford at their rescue. I wormed Sedona her 2nd day here. Then Cash got wormed the next week when Dr. Heaton came out. Both got immunizations & Sedona got her teeth rasped. I can't say enough about how easy Sedona is to work with. For a mare with hardly any handling to be easy to worm, get her first ever shots & we all know how awful it is to have anything dental done.....she's been all patience & grace. While Cash is still far from "tame" he started showing interest in me after a few days. The 1st day or two he wouldn't look at us (although he loves the other horses). He now approaches me in the pasture & allows me to pet his face a moment before he heads off. He decided to taste his grain about 4 days after his worming. Took a few bites & did that head nod horses do when something they eat is new or strange. Skipped the next meal, then dove in with gusto the next. This was my biggest concern after getting them wormed. After Cash's 2nd worming he passed a pretty heavy load of worms. For safety reasons he was only given a small dose for his 1st worming so was still carrying around what was obviously a heavy parasite burden. I believe that was part of his lack of interest in grain. He must have felt bad & who knows what his mouth or belly felt like. So to see an obvious sign of growth yesterday evening was wonderful. His hind end is about an inch higher than his wither area. It wasn't that high the day before! His coat & expression look better too. Watch for some pics of him soon here. He's another black beauty like our Zorra, just in a smaller package.