Welcome to my blog where I can share my journey with you! I am a Licensed Parelli Professional Two Star Junior Instructor. Here you can read about my experiences with Parelli Natural Horsemanship, my personal horsemanship journey, and my journey with being a Parelli Instructor. I hope to inspire and empower you with my quest for never ending self improvement. I have been studying Parelli for 11 years and am an official Level 3 graduate. I am studying Level 4 with my two horses, Max and Savannah. I grew up riding horses the traditional way and was in the United States Pony Club for 12 years, where I competed in Eventing and Dressage. My first introduction to Parelli was with my pony, who at the time was not a problem horse. I've had my andalusian mare, Savannah for 7 years now and after 2 years of struggling with her while not using Parelli methods, I knew I had to change something. I have been doing Parelli with her for the past 5 years and graduated Level 3 with her fall 2010. In the Spring of 2010 I received Max from Kelly Sigler. I owe it to my two amazing horses, as I would not be where I am now without them, they are my greatest teachers. The journey so far with Parelli has been fun, fulfilling, challenging, and life changing.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Saddle Fitting Day!

Today was the Saddle Fitting Seminar. The morning started with some classroom time for the theory behind parelli saddles, shimming, and saddle pads. It was full of information! The course was run by Letitia Glenn and Tina Giordano. In the afternoon there were saddle fit makeovers. All but one of the horses were already in parelli saddles, and their problems were solved by changing saddle width and/or changing their shimming pattern. The horse who was not in a parelli saddle made the most dramatic change. He went from being tight in his back and not able to use his body correctly or with relaxation, to being slow, relaxed, and very comfortable. It was a huge change! Just goes to show how much research Parelli has put into their saddles and how much they really help horse and rider.

Why is saddle fit so important?
-distributes the rider's weight
-helps the horse and rider to move better
-improves attitude and behavior


When fitting your saddle you need to consider...

The Horse:
-shape
-muscle
-frame
-shoulders
-weight
-fitness
-way of going

and

The Human:
-skill level
-balance
-seat
-position
-fluidity
-crooked
-fitness
-faults

Posture vs. Conformation
-Good Banana?
-Bad Banana?

2 comments:

  1. Is there anyway we can sign up to have your blog posts emailed to us? I have Mariah's blog set up that way and I'd love to have yours like that as well.

    Thanks! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great idea! I'll try and figure it out.

    ReplyDelete