Christy and Jewel's Journey: February 2010

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Horseplay!

I had a really good time playing with Jewel today. We started out playing me and my shadow. Doing that always put little miss Jewel in a good mood. She loves it when I give her some leadership. We did that for about 15 minutes and then moved to driving game from zone 3. She did great with that too.

We played with follow the rail today too. We just need to work on that a bit more before I'll get someone to tape my level 2 freestyle audition. She is doing a lot better about getting impulsive when trotting too. Level 3 riding here we come!

Sunday, February 7, 2010

My better late than never update on how my lesson with Kristi Smith went.

I had a lesson with 3 star Parelli instructor, Kristi Smith, on January 26, 2010. It was extraordinary! Jewel was so good! Kristi helped me a lot with refinement. It feels so good to be able to increase my energy to send my horse backwards with the yo-yo game. I seldom have to go past a phase 2 with anything now.

Kristi also helped me a lot with my fluidity. I am definitely lacking in that category. Kristi did help me realize that it's not all due to my riding. Jewel just doesn't collect herself enough for me to sit to her trot. So for right now, I am posting her all over the place trot. It's amazing, when I take her to another farm she collects herself and moves beautifully. Every time we are here though, she is a mess. I have faith in my little Jewelsie though.

My Goals

Well at one time, I wanted to be a Parelli Instructor. I don't think that God wants me to go down that path though. Right now, I am just focusing on finishing college and developing a better partnership with my horse.
In the future, I would like to operate an ex-racehorse rescue and redevelopment program. Although most of the people that I have come in contact with think Thoroughbreds are crazy hyper horses, I do not agree with this at all. I've had a special relationship with two in particular and quite a few others that belong to my grandparents. I will tell you that yes, they can go right brain extrovert, but so can a lot of other horses. You just need savvy to deal with the situation put in front of you. I have known Thoroughbreds to be some of the sweetest horses in the world.

My Journey Through Parelli Natural Horsemanship

In June 2006, my grandpa gave me the opportunity to retrain one of his ex-racehorses, Diz's World. I quickly realized that I didn't have enough knowledge to deal with him. After researching several different natural horsemanship programs, I chose Parelli. I started the program in July 2006. At first things went well and then Scooter (Diz's World) really started testing my leadership. I decided to restart level 1 from the beginning and take it a little bit slower. Soon things started looking up and in May 2007 I rode Scooter for the first time. In July 2007, Scooter went lame and stayed lame until November. Finally, I paid for x-rays and learned that he had a knee joint fracture. All of my dreams for Scooter and me came to a screeching halt. The vet recommended that we NEVER jump him and refrain from cantering him. By this time I had become extremely attached to him and had pretty much adopted him as my own horse. My grandpa gave me two choices: A. I could find him a home or B. I could let my grandpa take him back to WV and eventually, in my opinion, be turned into dog food. Of course I opted for choice A and now Scooter has a loving Parelli home in NC. In May 2008, I was given Purpleshade Jewel, an 11 year old Thoroughbred ex-racehorse mare for a high school graduation present from my grandparents. She has absolutely no health problems and now I know that I can get to where I want to go. Although I don't get to spend as much time with her as I would like too, we still have formed a great relationship. She is my true equine partner.