How we got here

One of the reasons I have decided to start up with the blog again is that I have been inspired by a woman in Manitoulin, Ontario.  She has created an equine sanctuary in the hopes of helping to keep the Sorraia breed alive.  She is also very in touch with communication and living more companionably with our equine friends.  If you have a minute, check out Lynne Gerard's blog: Journal of Ravenseyrie.  It's a lovely reflection on our changing relationships with horses and with nature.  Ravenseyrie is also where I learned a bit more about non-invasive and non-combattive ways of communicating with horses.  More on that later...

I thought that I would briefly catch you up (if anyone is out there...) on the first few months of my relationship with Merlyn.  Originally, I started riding with Merlyn just to get my riding legs back and to help get her out for some exercise.  As you may recall from my last post, what began as "non-committal-I'm-not-getting-attached" horse time evolved into full on horse ownership.  This evolution is something I am entirely grateful about.  I know that we can not plan for all things all the time, and the arrival of Merly in my life is merely one illustration of that. 

Merlyn was officially adopted in July of 2009, marked by an email to my friends about the "new horse mama" on July12.  Merlyn is a nine year old  Belgian cross mare.  I have decided that she is strawberry roan, and more Belgian than anything. Hil and I often laugh that from her croup forward, in profile she is 100% Belgian, but if you look just at her hind end, she could have some QH in her.  She has the softest, most expressive eyes I have ever seen and a lovely long blond mane and tail.  Being the tomboy that I believe her to be, that tail ends up taking hours to keep clean! 

Having learned from my first horse, Maya, that relationship building is probably one of the most important parts of having a horse, I decided from the onset that I would take all the time in the world getting to know Merle, and having her get to know me.  We went on some trail rides, rode to Birds Hill Park, played Parelli type games, and just hung out.  Throughout, I would intersperse some short "training" rides so I could try and assess where we both were in terms of our learning.  I was concerned that her saddle wasn't fitting quite right so I decided to put some bareback into the routine.  Ultimately, this led to the temporary demise of my riding due to a fractured tailbone.  Always looking for the bright side, I saw this temporary setback as an opportunity to do some real bonding from the ground and to do some reading into alternative methods of working with horses. 

The out of saddle reading time has led me to the work of Imke Spilker, treeless saddles, bitless bridles and "naked liberty."  It was also how I came across Ravenseyrie.  I hope to share, in upcoming posts, how some of my experimentation with different approaches is working out for me and Merly. 

until then...