Thursday, October 28, 2010

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.

1 comment:

  1. Kisia is beautiful! I applaud your decision to "put relationship first" and still enjoy the Level 2 Breakthrough course. I was an assisting instructor during the course in CO and it's a wonderful way to progress thru Level 2.
    Safe journey and enjoy two weeks filled with learning!

    Petra Christensen
    Parelli 2Star Junior Instructor
    Parelli Central

    ReplyDelete