#27

Wow, it's been several months since I've been able to write here again, and quite a bit has happened since then! First of all, Bella is definitely showing the signs of being heavily in foal. She has had all of her shots, got her feet all trimmed up nice and will get her scheduled worming medicine in the next few days. She's also been getting grain every day with supplements to help her and the foal with their nutritional needs. I have been exercising her as much as I can to keep her in shape, and even though she's hard to stay on now, I pretty much just ride her bareback. She does so well with just the halter and our partnership has developed so much over the time I have spent with her it's amazing. I was able to finally ride her bareback at the walk, trot and even a good lope for the very first time a few weeks ago, which also shows how much my riding has improved! ^_^ The weather has been nice and warm, but not too hot, perfect for riding and spending time with Bella. As another instance of a leap in our partnership, Bella allowed me to approach her while she was lying down the other day and she even let me sit down next to her! That's the first time she has let me get close to her when she is in such a vlunerable position. She even decided to plop her head in my lap! Every time I see her, I realize what a wonderful blessing she's been to me and I can't wait to see where we will go from here. Bella's due date is anywhere between the last week of June to the first week of July, so I am now working towards getting a place ready for her to give birth. I am fervently hoping all goes well and that nothing major happens to either her or the baby. My only other concern is a name for the foal. With so many choices it's hard to even come close to picking the perfect name! I am excited to see whether the foal will get any of Bella's Dun coloring or not... I am hoping it will. But, I guess I will find out when the little baby is born!

#26

Lots of things to do to get ready for winter. Now that all the wood is chopped and stacked, the summer things put away and the leaves all raked up, I can finally do some things with Bella! Yay! It's been so long since I've been able to do anything with her. She is definitely getting bigger around the middle due to the unexpected foal that she is now carrying! The blanket needs to be adjusted, the belly straps mostly, so it can fit her better. She is behaving so well now and I have been able to ride her bareback, with just a halter!!!! I've never done that with her before and she is so calm even though I am not always as relaxed as I should be. She is definitely the best horse I've ever had, and she's not even all the way trained! God has blessed me so much with this wonderful horse!

#25

Hey all! Here's a new update for you. Bella and I are progressing so much. I find that she is so much more willing when I just take the halter off and let her play with me instead of controlling her and keeping her so close with the 12' line. She has grown so much and is filling out beautifully. I just love her to pieces. I have also had the opportunity to realize how wonderful she is. I've been doing ground work with another 3 year old mare that is about 14.1 hands and a LBI/RBI. She is so dull and dead to the world. I can't see what she's thinking and it makes it harder to find what makes her comfortable and what makes her tick. She is really a sweet mare, but definitely a challenge. I've been playing with her for about a week and it's she is slowly improving. I was following my riding instructor's ground training methods which are close to Parelli and very natural, but Julep (the mare) was just not wanting to cooperate. She would stick her head in the corner and not budge through the phases... she just would have rather "taken" the phase four instead of moving. I started her out in the bridle doing the round pen work but now I find that if I start with the halter first and then switch to the bridle she does much better. She's a bit more responsive and shows a little interest in me. I'm doing things a little differently than what I was used to doing with Bella and I think I'm getting the hang of playing with "jules" as I call her. I am so excited that today she finally gave me a canter when I asked. She is getting better at managing herself in the Circling Game instead of expecting me to micro-manage her. It's a tough, but rewarding journey and I know that I will only come away with more knowledge and I know she will keep on improving. The only disheartening thing about working with someone else's horse is that you don't know exactly how they will treat the horse and if all your work will be ruined. I have no clue who the owner of jules is, but I am determined to give her the best training I can while I'm working with her. Learning to adjust to different horsenalities is difficult to say the least, but I want to be as changeable as I can!

On another note. Earlier this year in July, Bella was found suspiciously outside her pen in the barn with the resident Haflinger stud. Bella had just come into heat and it was obvious that she had been bred by the little stud. Today's Vet check confirmed the pregnancy, though we couldn't see the foal because the vet couldn't get the Ultra-Sound probe far enough into Bella, she is undeniably in foal. I am both thrilled and a little dismayed, because Bella's training will have to be put on hold for the latter part of the pregnancy and then until the foal is weened. Plus, Bella is only 4 and she's never had a baby... so a little bit of concern lies with that topic. I am excited to see what the foal turns out to look like. Bella is a tall Quarter Horse/Thoroughbred and has a leaner Thoroughbred type body and the unusual coloring of the dun... Armani, the Haflinger, is a small golden boy with a beautiful head, nice conformation and a thick mane. He's average Haflinger size and not too heavy but plenty stocky. A good looking little horse. Anyways, I'm going to see if I can get some pics to post of both of the delinquents so you all can see them. I'm already thinking of a name for the foal, whatever the gender it turns out to be. I want to name it something that has "Memory" in it... in honor of all the family we have lost in the past 3 years (6 people to be precise). I also thought of giving it the nick-name of "Char" in honor of my 10 year old cousin Jackson who passed away earlier this year from a re-occurring bout with brain cancer. He loved all things Pokemon and was quite the Pokemon information buff, his favorite of all the characters being Charizard. Anyways, thanks for reading my blog and I hope you all have a glorious fall! ^_^

#24

I'm back again with another update on our progress. Bella and I are still doing great!!! The weather is really hot (102 degrees today!) so she hasn't been wanting to challenge me a lot when I ride. Which is absolutely great! I think she's finding that riding is not such a bad thing and that it is a whole lot easier if she listens to me. Bella has calmed down a lot more too... She's not so fidgety in the cross ties and doesn't move much when I put the saddle on. She also picks up her feet more willingly. I love the progress we've made and I absolutely love the fact that I don't get upset as easily as I used to!!! Big step for me! :P I'm struggling a little with motivation sometimes... Partly because I don't have very many Parelli people around here... but for the most part I do okay. My riding instructor is talking about Bella and I showing at the county fair this year. It will be definitely a new experience for the both of us, but I am excited to do it. I hope you are all having a great summer with your horses and that you are all enjoying the weather!!! Thanks for following my blog!

#23

Hey! It's been good weather for being outside, a little warm, but good none-the-less! I took a little break from playing with Bella in the middle of May so I could finish up school (I only have one subject left!). I graduate Father's Day weekend so now I'll have all my time to play! Well, that and work.... Bella is doing really well, she is getting back into the swing of things and she is working really well in the round pen. I bought a back cinch for my Western saddle and I'm going to get her a pair of ballistic overreach bell boots and some sport boots for her. She is a little enthusiastic and sometimes hits the fence. Other than that her head carriage is good, she is accepting the bit better, she's happy and she loves it when I let her run! I have gotten her to Game #5 (in the Parelli program) already and she is doing really good! She is a little fearful sometimes, but I've been working on her confidence, and she has definitely improved! She had an issue with being sent through the gate into the round pen so I spent about an hour or more with her on that. I think it might have had something to do with an earlier incident with a gate (when her saddle caught on it), but now she sends through the gate nicely, a little faster than I would like, but she does it with more confidence now. I can't wait to get her out on the trails!

#22

Finally the weather has been safe enough to really get out and play with Bella! During spring break, I went out every day and played with her out at my riding instructor's house. I consistently spent about 3 hours just getting her back to where we had her last fall. She remembered everything and, despite all the energy, actually settled down quickly and got to work. We always started out playing the Circling Game, at liberty in the round pen. She responds really well to what I ask her, and even moves out in the direction I point. Her favorite thing is loping of course, and she is not cross-leading anymore, which I am very happy about.
She didn't have any problems when we put the saddle on, so that's a pretty good sign. She really moves out well. Sometimes I find myself so surprised to see her acting so well, like I expect her to misbehave.... My family has always had older horses that were allowed to get away with a lot and never trained very well. And of course no Natural Horsemanship. Bella has been more well behaved than any horse I've ever owned! She is really liking Parelli and she is showing more and more curiosity every time I do something with her. She is a lot of fun and, call me crazy, I think she likes to make me laugh.
I got to ride her for the first time with a saddle at the end of the week. She did so well, no bucking or anything. She's a little pushy on the bit and tries to stick her nose out most of the time, but she's getting better. She responds pretty well to me and she is really fun to ride. I even got to lope her for a while. It was so much fun! I can't wait to do more!

#21

Hey all! I went out to play with Bella a couple days ago. The sun had finally decided to poke its glorious head out for the day and I took advantage of the beautiful weather. She always responds well to haltering even if I have to "go get" her. She's willing to stick her nose in it and she gets a little eager sometimes. I tied her to the fence and gave her a good brushing while she ate a little grain. She loves to smell the brushes each time I use a new one and she finds it interesting to watch me as I groom her. I took some pictures of her and I will post them on the page here. I absolutely love this horse!!! I don't remember if I said or not, but I believe her horsenality is an unconfident RBI and when she gets confident, she's a LBE. She's getting to be on the left side of her brain more and more and she's really fun to play with. I did lots of friendly game with her, allowing to know that the carrot stick isn't going to hurt her and she doesn't have to move her feet every time I pick it up. She was doing pretty good with it so after rubbing her with it, I tossed the string over her back. She was so brilliant and calmed down quickly after each new thing I tried. Next time I'm going to do some porcupine. Anyways, Bella needed some excersize so I took her out on the 12 foot line and we went for a nice late winter walk. We found an open space where Bella got a little excited and didn't see my little sister, Anna, coming up a ways behind us. Bella spooked a little but that got her really excited and wanting to play. I let her play a little of the circling game and boy did she have fun! She started the circle at a nice walk, but soon she wanted to play. She started kicking and bucking all over the place. I made her stop and back up using the yo-yo game only when she got a little too close to me. I think she kind of looks at me like her momma; she wants me to play with her. I told my little sister to stay at a safe distance while Bella played and she watched from the sidelines completely awed that I wasn't scared of this big 3 year old mare. I had to explain that Bella was just playing before Anna could watch us comfortably. It was so much fun playing with Bella and I am so excited to get out there to do it again! Right now the ice is pretty thick over the ground, it's snowing again and the temperature doesn't get much above 30 degrees farenheit (sp?). I hope everyone is enjoying their horses as much as I am!!!! Wishing you all the best!!!