Tuesday, January 4, 2011

New beginnings

I can't believe it's 2011! My last blog date was in 2009. It has been well over a year. Perhaps the most life changing year of my life since I was eight.


For the past couple years my life's atmosphere had become nothing less of asphyxiating and my spirit had sunken to where no natural method seemed enough to lift me out of bed each morning. On a midst of giving up hope and looking for help I started to render a picture in my mind of how I wanted my life to look like, and I realized it was the same picture I had had as a child. A picture that now had long been obscured by other peoples ideals and stereotypes. For years I had been living just to survive, doing things to make others happy, holding onto excuses to keep myself in a miserable life situation.

So a year ago on new years eve as I was welcoming the year 2010 with some family and friends I claimed that my new years resolution was simply to "get a new life." It was an overwhelming statement. Yet that vision caused my life to take a 180 degree turn, and last August I took my horse Madeira, and left California and my life there for the last 18 years to travel to the Parelli Natural Horsemanship university in Colorado.


I had dreamed about going to the Parelli center for years and it had always felt like such an unreachable dream. But I genuinely believed that someday it would come true. And so it did. (And I lived happily ever after...)

I successfully completed the four week Fastrack course in Colorado, and stayed on as a resident student.

I have stayed at the Parelli ranch now for fife months, and I thank God every single day for this incredible opportunity, as I realize there are thousands of people around the world who would love to be in my shoes...


After my Fastrack course ended I spend a month at the Colorado Parelli campus before we packed up and traveled to the Florida campus for winter.

My poor confused Madeira! Who ever would have thought that I would drag her all the way across the country. She lost a "ton" of weight during travel and arrived in Florida looking rather scrawny and wide eyed. But she has adjusted beautifully. She lives in a large wooded pasture called the "Woods pasture" in a herd of six horses. And just the other day when I took off her blanket for the day I realized that I could no longer see her ribs sticking out.

This journey together has done wonders to our relationship. I feel so lucky to be here close to my horse, to feed her and take care of her, and play with her everyday. I wasn't always able to do that .


Life here at the Parelli ranch is very busy. Being part of the team helping such a large ranch operate really tests our physical stamina, but it is concretely more satisfying than anything else in the world I could think of. And has great potential to keep me in a desired physical shape, apart from all the chocolate intake... and food at the lodge which is excellent!!! The cooks here exceed my expectations most every day. They keep us well fed.

Needless to say I'm having the time of my life, living at Parelli ranch, learning tons about ranch keeping and caring for horses, and eating chocolate:)

I also get to meet lots of new people, students as well as Parelli professionals, who come here to study from all over the world.


My first impression of Florida was a sweltering hot and humid climate with bugs galore. The Parelli campus has a "Jurassic park" like feel to it with all its groves of oak trees with Spanish moss, like gray veils hanging down their branches. Hazy mornings with an eerie mist laying low to the ground. Echoey choir of exotic sounds I had never heard, that simultaneously intrigued and startled me.


I live in a small trailer that sleeps 4 people. It is a very cozy, rugged and sometimes very interesting living situation in a "oh boy..." kind of way. But I (the odd person that I am) absolutely love it! At the very moment I'm sitting all cozy and warm in a candle light with a cup of hot chocolate, writing a blog. And oh boy it is COLD outside! Yes Florida does too get cold. The temperature changes are wide-ranging, which makes playing with the idea of "to blanket or not to blanket" the horses very engrossing.

Some mornings we have woken up to frozen-solid water pipes. Scraped frost off the feeding truck window. Found that ice has cracked the pipes of the automatic waterers in each one of the 14 pastures, so that later on when the day thawed out there were pretty little fountains and trickling rivers running through the fields. Those days mean "all hands on deck" fixing water pipes. And our main concern is not to run out of propane in the middle of the night, unless one wants to wake up with white, misty puffs of breath rising out of their sleeping bag.


But those same days when the sun creeps up and the horses are peacefully munching their morning hay on the white, frosty fields it's the most beautiful, serene scene, that sincerely makes up for all life's little challenges.


I have learned so much while being a resident student. Amongst it driving the most incredible machines, which before I couldn't have even named, and towing the most incredible things, like the water tank. (I know, I may sound like a 3 year old little boy who gets excited about trucks and tractors, but hey, now I know why!!!) The coolest of them all is the harrow. Not because of it's size or mechanism, but it is the best tool to learn "feel" and "focus." (Remember the saying: "the best way to plow a crooked furrow is to look back to see if it's straight.") When Pat at a tour stop says that learning here is like the "wax on wax off" type of deal, it's no joke. No need to mention that feel and focus are profoundly important in good horsemanship, but It's a must learn to harrow with good feel, otherwise one may end up chipping a fence post. And trust me, that is immensely frowned upon! (Really, so sorry about that...!!!)


My favorite of all the things we get to take part in is the afternoon feeding, when I get to play "Kirsiana Jones" on the back of the hey truck. (Getting it done with a little fun...)

And yesterday I got to ride on the back of "thunder" and "Lightning", the draft horse team that is used for feeding half of the ranch horses. It was one of the best experiences here yet! A beautiful sunny afternoon on a hay wagon observing the driving master teaching one of the interns about driving the draft team.


I have truly had the most amazing past 5 months of my entire life! And fortunately I get to continue on as an extern starting January 15TH.

The picture in my mind of a happy life as I imagined it is starting to form clearer each day I spend here at the Parelli ranch. I have no idea what will be along-side the road ahead, but for the first time in my life I know where I want to go, and I am passionately excited about it. 2011 is going to be my best year yet!