Monday, January 31, 2011

30 day PNH blog challenge - Day 2

Day 2-What is your favorite savvy and why?

Liberty. No rope, no reins, no saddle. Just me and Duke...totally free. Liberty is one of the most challenging savvy's but it's also so much fun.

Liberty takes me back to the carefree days of my childhood when I lived in Southern California. I can remember Saturday mornings waking up early before anyone else in the house and eagerly hopping on my bike for a 9 mile ride from North Hills (fka Sepulveda) to Canoga Park. Waiting for me there was Pee Wee, a bay gelding (didn't know what breed, didn't care) whose owner had recently become a mama and was unable to devote time to him. I spent hours just hanging out and playing with Pee Wee; something I now know as undemanding time. I was in heaven, just being in his pasture with him. sometimes I'd stand on his water trough and he'd walk over so I could get on his back. He'd walk around, graze, stand...didn't matter because I loved this time with him. Now it's called bridleless riding, but back then it was just being there. On the ground, if he ignored me I made it a game to get his attention. I would spend hours with him, totally losing track of time and upsetting my mom more than once.

Sometimes when I look at Duke, I catch a brief glimpse of Pee Wee...and for just a moment I'm back in that pasture, playing...carefree once again.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

30 Day PNH Blog Challenge - Day 1

Found this today over at Brooke's blog Our Horsemanship Journey. Okay I'm up for a challenge.

PNH BLOG CHALLENGE


Day 1-How did you find PNH?

It was a change from cable tv to satellite that led me to PNH. In August 2007 I had just reconnected with horses through some friends who raise Morgans; it had been 24 years since I'd last been around these beautiful creatures. Around that time, one Sunday morning Sam and I encountered a new station called RFD-TV and on that station a show called Parelli Natural Horsemanship was on. Here was this cowboy wearing short chaps (chinks I later learned) playing with a beautiful black Friesian gelding...and I was hooked. It was immediate affinity. Everything this guy did made sense to me and I felt I was watching not only a cowboy, but a master horseman. I wanted to learn more and turned to the internet to find out who this Parelli guy was (wasn't there a tire company by that name?). One thing led to another and while I had always dreamed of having a horse someday, finding PNH was the first step toward that dream.



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Saturday, January 29, 2011