Ugh.....help!

I still haven’t done anything with the horses. Well not absolutely nothing. Last night I trimmed spirit’s feet. My shoulder is now KILLING me. I am ok to trim the left side of the horse, but the right side is too hard on my right shoulder. He was a good boy for the power grinder. Honestly, I have been nothing but shocked that ALL of my horses never have had an issue at all with the power grinder. I know I presented it well with approach and retreat, but still. If ever any of them have had even the slightest hesitation, it has been over the moving extension cord……not the loud buzzing and whirling, and flying pieces of hoof, at 5000 revolutions per second. Head scratcher for sure, but wonderful none the less.




I don’t know what is wrong with me now. Doing nothing with the horses. I had such a blow to my confidence in general last week, I think that it has set me back quite a bit. I know initially, it was better to do nothing with them, my head in the wrong place and all. But it has spilled over and carried on too long and now I am afraid. Of what this time I don’t know. I just lost any and all desire, and it is upsetting me. I was cruising along at a fairly good pace for 3 months, made tons of progress with Cha’Cote, and had a big breakthrough with Rose. And now…no desire….and unfocused fear. I have come to realize that confidence is conditional and a VERY fragile emotion. I am hoping to get it under control before the week is over and it gets totally out of control again. I cannot go back to the way things were last year.



Last night Cha’cote let Jason walk right up to him again while he was grazing. I got some intimate pictures of them. Will up load tonight. Maybe he is getting lonely with no play for over a week. Who knows. Jason said when he let him out last night, that Cha’Cote came up to the gate and let Jason pet him too. That is for sure a first for us here. I am told he used to, at one time, let you give him carrots through the fence, and you could steal a pet here and there. I still get a little teary eyed from time to time, watching him graze or nuzzling one of the other horses, knowing he hasn’t grazed or been able to be part of a heard for 7 yrs. He certainly takes advantage of every moment he is out, and does not let one single moment go to waste. While I was trimming Spirit’s feet, I heard Cha’Cote walk over the pedestal all by him self. I was tickled pink as it was very hard for him to put his feet on there in the first place.



Tonight is supposed to be lesson night with a friend. I have to say I am proud of her. She has been off the horsemanship path for about 9 mos, almost like the pied piper mesmerized her and led her astray. Anyways, I have been helping her again for the last few weeks here and there, and she and her horse have mad an amazing turn around. I taped her OLL2 last weekend, and I know she will pass with flying colors. Now we are working on freestyle L2. She has a young horse, just turned 3yo, who has been barely started and needs direction and a clear cut plan. Let’s face it, you ain’t got nothing if you don’t have a plan. That’s what is so great about Parelli. A clear cut progressive plan. They have logical sequential patterns and one tasks builds a foundation for the next. So tonight we are putting her new saddle on, and doing some ground play and see if we can discover what his bucking is all about. He is an LBI who likes to wear LBE clothes whom I suspect is secretly an RBI in disguise at times. I think…..THINK…..a few thresholds have been blasted through when he was started. He is such an easy going fellow, that when he is unconfident, it goes unnoticed. It is possible that because he is not extreme in anything, that it is easy to mistake the ‘horse” that shows up, for another horse and use the wrong strategy. Only time will tell, we shall see what we have tonight.

Savvy On

Michelle