Le Dude, part 2

I had a great afternoon visiting the little pinto and playing with him for about an hour. He is just as cute as ever and getting quite bold as far as crowding into the handler's personal space. I don't know his 'horsenality' at all, so my play sessions are like getting to know you events, where I play friendly games and then see how he responds.

He tends to anticipate being asked to go into circling game and at times would take off on the circle, pulling all the rope through my hands till it got to the end and I would let go.. After a few times of doing that I would interrupt his running off pattern with a big wiggle of the rope and he would immediately come in and stand next to me -after trying to bulldoze me with his shoulder first. I would porcupine him back a step or two then he would stand calmly and lick and chew a few times. It was interesting to watch how he would calm down quickly after being so fired up. Then after the calm he'd get frisky again.

The circling game and friendly game that I mention in this post are two of seven games used in the Parelli Natural Horsemanship methods. My brief definition of the games is this: they teach us to communicate with horses in a respectful manner in a language they understand.

August 2005


July 2006


October 2006


April 2007


The B side
All photos taken by my friend KM



What Pattern is My Brain?

Your Brain's Pattern

You have a tempered, reasonable way of thinking.
You tend to take every new idea in, and meld it with your world view.
For you, everything is always changing. Each moment is different.
Your thinking process tends to be very natural - with no beginnings or endings.

"You have a tempered, reasonable way of thinking.
You tend to take every new idea in, and meld it with your world view.
For you, everything is always changing. Each moment is different.
Your thinking process tends to be very natural - with no beginnings or endings."

Thanks to PoopeeShmoopee for forging the way to this website. Now that I know what kind of pattern my brain has I'm going to sleep.. I will dream of green, softly rounded bumps. :)

And now... The Dude

Last year I wrote about this sweet pinto warmblood that my friend K and I dubbed "lil' dude". I posted two pictures here along with a short blurb about how I fell in love with those long eyelashes, and cute face. One year later I took the second photo. Later today, 4-27-07 I am meeting my friend K and going to see "the lil' dude." I took my lead rope and halter home with me so that I can play with him while K plays with the other foals on the farm. After all this time "the dude" hasn't sold... I don't know why.. but shhh, maybe it's happening so that I will end up with him. K has been telling me "you should buy him" since I met him August of 2005!! "You should buy him, you should buy him." Meanwhile his price tag continues to grow higher as his owner is paying for board, farrier, and health care. Oh my little nugget horsey... I don't know what will happen.. I only know that if it is meant to be it will be.☺☺☺


Reliving the Best Saturday Ever

Saturday November 19th, 2005 is known to my friend K and I as the best Saturday ever. We STILL talk about that day and reminisce about the entire two weeks we spent at the Parelli ISC in Florida. Since we didn't have class on the weekends we were free to do whatever we wanted after feeding our horses and cleaning their pens. Rather than going sight seeing and exploring Ocala and its environs, K and I decided to stay with our horses and take full advantage of the facility. We took walks, lazed about on the grass while the horses grazed, and played in all the beautiful pastures and play areas from one end of the campus to the other. K and 'Rocky' ended up playing in the pond at one point, while 'Aristoitle' and I stayed dry and explored the log maze, car wash (two large vertical poles with a horizontal cross beam from which hang large, plastic strips that one can walk through), and small log jumps.




Stay tuned for more pictures from the Best Saturday Ever.
[middle and last photographs taken by KM]

I'm Happy

I found out this afternoon that this self portrait I took last fall recently won 1st place in the amateur category in which it was entered.