Journey Update - EDITED

Saturday

I have taken on an old challenge, one I took in a year or so ago. The challenge, his name is Starski. He is a 18-20 (?) year old, bay, mystery breed gelding we rescued some time back. His history is only known from the damage that was done physically and mostly, emotionally. When we got him he was skin and bones, hardly no hair on his body at all, could hardly walk because of his club feet and showed no soul in his eyes. I've given him his last home, I promised. From his coggins and other information he has traveled the United States in search of a home, at least one that would care for him. We checked his teeth, which were of course out of shape and sure couldn't have helped his weight problem. Along with the floating, we learned a little more about his past. Gashes and scars on his tongue, from bits. We figured he had a bacterial infection on his skin and gave him a bath with medicated shampoo 3 days a week for a couple of months, had the vet come over along with the farrier to find a cure for his boxy feet and gave him the best fattened and nutritious food from the feed store. And of course the most important damaged area, his soul, we gave him love. Since then he has recovered into a beautiful, painless, joyful being full life and opinions, ones that he never felt he could express without pain. I figured a couple of days ago he was ready to learn some games, so I started with the seven games 2 days ago. Today, the smart and sweet boy now knows Level 1 ground and a lot of Level 2. Tomorrow, we will be moving on to introducing him to the Level one riding concepts but not dwell too deep because I will be gone next week. My goal with him is to turn him into a horse I can teach lessons with, I really love creating that natural bond with a horse so we can work together as a team and change lives willingly. It is such a great feeling when you teach a student along with the partner you've chosen to bless with the gift of teaching other people, it feels wonderful. I think my favorite parts are when you teach the lesson you see the bond you and the horse have made, the horse just looks at you with a content face as you teach with him. A lot of people that teach lesson use a lesson horse, but I believe in creating a relationship and teaching with the horse. You couldn't teach without him couldn't you? You teach with him, you teach together. Lick and chew on that one for me.

Sunday

The past couple of days I have been playing with Sundance with our bareback and bridless riding, liberty, spanish walk, bowing and the cutting game like Pat does with Casper. Our bridless riding has taken a total turn for the better, the spurs have also helped create some lightness in our communication and not just with his go button either. I did some bareback and bridless riding at Charlotte's and said she was very impressed with our lightness and harmony. I soon received a call and was asked to do a bareback and bridless demo with the Parelli Varsity Team at a Breed show coming up on October 12, 2008. Of course I said, YES! We will also be doing some other show off type things like liberty, the spanish walk, bowing, cutting and jumping which will be tons of fun for both of us. Our liberty has been going pretty well, doing figure eights and close contact liberty has been fun. Since I do not have a liberty pen to do some stage 2 liberty, I will be trying to finish those tasks at Charlotte's because she has one. I will have 5 days to do the tasks, which should be enough because I know he can do them. Sundance and I will be leaving bright and early tomorrow morning, maybe 6:30 am. I hate I can't update daily, I really wish I could. Maybe I can keep a journal or something! I think I will. I will update on Bebe's progress soon.