My Journey with Filly

Hi All

If you are not interested in horses now is a good time to leave this blog. This is the tale of my journey into Parelli Natural Horsemanship and two young horses.
First about me. I am a pilot by proffession and have spent my life competing in gliders as a hobby. I did spend some time with horses as a teenager but lost interest as gliding took over. It is still a passion of mine and I continue to compete up to World Championship level.
My wife, Ritchie, is also in the airline industry and also spent some time as a glider pilot, but her true love is horses. Some time ago she had a problem with her horse and after much searching found Parelli and that is when her journey started.
For me however I stuck to gliders. Last December 2009 there was a Parelli Celebration in the UK at the NEC. She said that having spent many days being my ground crew at gliding competitions, and living in a tent to boot, I should come to see what her passion was about. It was over two days and I agreed to go for one day and the evening party, privately expecting to come home the following morning. I sat riveted to my seat for two whole days !! This was a different type of horsemanship and it strongly appealed to my scientific, analytic mindset.
We came home and I started working with Ritchies horse, but felt I needed a fresh horse to play with. I know that Pat Parelli says that Green on Green makes Black and Blue, but I like a challenge. My other hobby is climbing ice falls after all ! Asking around the yard the yard owner told me that he had three horses from a bankrupt yard for which he had no time and I could pick one, or two, or three to play with. Ritchie picked the smallest for me to start with thinking she would be the easiest. She was a very pretty 19 month old filly called ...  Filly. Well we didn't know her real name and so she was called "the filly" at the yard. This got shortened to Filly and has stuck.
She has had a difficult life to say the least. Born with an umbilical hernia and rejected by her mum at a very young age she had no horse training in horse manners. As a result whenever she went in a field with other horse they beat her up. She went through barbed wire twice and was found in a horse trough once. To protect her she was then confined to her stable with one hour in the indoor school on her own each day. The yard owner took her to the field to graze whenever he could in his busy schedule, but that was no substitute for proper field time. The theory was that even a greenhorn like me could scarcely make things worse.
Our first few days of playing were "eventful". It was like trying to land a 300kg fish on the end of a 22foot line. And this was just friendly game. I would go to the pub on the way home and on arriving my friend would ask " is it a 2 or 3 beer evening ?" 3 mostly.
Slowly but surely we began to gain trust in each other with the friendly game and we could move on to the porcupine game.
Nobody had really tried to tell her where to go before and she was not pleased with the idea. Especially the idea of a hind quarter yield. This was usually met with her trying to porcupine me with a hind leg. Pilot reflexes came to the fore and she repeatedly missed. More beer.
A few days later we had backup and hind quarter yields going. Finally I could get her out of my space and breathe a little easier.
Around this time I went to a drinks party and the host introduced me to a guest who was also "horsey" After a short conversation she asked what I did. I replied "Parelli, but the filly is too small for me to ride" She replied that "it is just as well you don't ride if you do that stuff". Conversation over !
Back to the yard. We now moved to fore quarter yields. Funny thing how big horses teeth can appear close up, they are herbivores after all. Many many session later we had a mutual understanding that if I asked very politely she would give a yield.
I then to my surprise discovered that actually she takes offense very easily. Once she has the idea of the various yields / body language she will do all you ask as long as you ask gently. The merest suggestion of too much pressure and she fights back, just the right amount and she starts polishing that horse halo and does whatever I ask.
Now we became friends in the truest sense. She started whinnying when I entered the stable and willingly put her head in the halter to go and play. Slowly I built her self confidence and now she spends the day in the field with an old pony who good naturedly lets her be the "boss".
Her football is coming on well, but still having trouble with the offside rule. "Chestnut mare" the others at the stable say "what do you expect".
We now play all the seven games, some at liberty and enjoy walking around fields that not long ago terrified her.
Came the day for her pre operation checkup to remove her hernia. Yard owner to vet "she is a bit different, Tim has been Parelliing her" Vet "seen it all before". Entered stable with Filly lying down, not the best position to check her hernia ! Vet pushes on her to get her up. She surprises him somewhat by rolling on her back and staying there while he examines her. " True, never seen that before"
There is much more to tell, but it is late and I must go to bed now to dream of perfect hind quarter yields