Never to be forgotten

I write this today of my beloved horse "Palidor(Pali)" of who I lost May 31st 2009.
I lost my best friend, but gained a larger heart and super memories for life! After owner 2 X-race horses off of the track, of which I loved. I decided, after I retired the last racer. That I think, I will start with a brand NEW baby colt and train him myself.
How hard can that be?
That led me to Palidor a 11 month old Friesian/Percheron cross that came from a 2000 thousand acre farm in Ohio. The day I went to see him, was the day Pali had a halter put on! My friend and I watched him run around a round pen. My friend told me, not to buy this horse he seemed "crazy". Of course, I was way in love already! Palidor came to live with me at a boarding facility about a month later. I had him gelded at the breeders, that was the delay. I would go out to the barn everyday just to spend time with him. I noticed training a horse was gonna be a lot harder than I had thought. Especially, since I could hardly catch him, nor get a halter on him. I started to check out on training programs to help me along the way.
I decided to go with Parelli.
Why, you ask? Well, the first step in the program was how to put a halter on your horse!!! I thought, that's for me!! From then on, Pali and I started to bond quick. We even went to a few Parelli clinics to help us with our learning even faster. By the time he was 3(I waited for his joints to mature and knees to close) I was riding. By 4 yrs of age we were already camping.
Now the training and spending all my free hours with him definitely helped. But, let me make it clear, that Palidor was the most sweet, soft, quiet, kind horse out there. All I am trying to say, it was kind of like Pali had read and watched the Parelli DVD's with me and even if he hadn't he was eager to be with me!
As we progressed, I was able to ride him without a bridle, or a saddle! I could just think left and Pali would just start heading left!! It's such a cool feeling! We could trail ride anywhere without another horse, he loved water, and most of all he enjoyed just hanging out! It was such a good feeling to have people ask me how did you get that horse to trailer so well? He loved his trailer and would just jump on!!

Palidor and I swimming in Kensington Park, MI

People asked all the time, why did I ride him bareback? When, I had my TB's I remembered never staying balanced enough and hating that feeling! Someone told me, I would never get that feeling of staying center......kind of like when your on a bike, if I never REALLY learned how to ride bareback. Sooo, one day, I choose this is it! I am only going to learn bareback from this point forward, until I get it. Then, I finally got it! So, there were many moments of feeling completely free on Pali's back out in the fields!!! I was never worried on him, since he was always conscience of me! I do remember there were times I would be racing around a 10 acre field and times I might loose my balance, and I did fall off. But, Pali would feel this ahead of time and actually start to slow down and kind of place me slowly on the ground. Then, he would just look at me as to say... what are you doing down there? I always smiled back, thanked him, and eventually found a tree to climb back on my 16'2 best friend. I wanted to eventually teach him to lay down for me, so I could get on easier. Since, I am only 5'1.
But, there were a lot of things I did miss out on.
Every year, at Christmas time Palidor would get super sick, where he would end up at MSU. I cannot tell you the numbers of times they saved him for me. And, I cannot thank them enough for all there care to him! We were like old friends coming back to MSU for a visit all the time. The techs and Dr's all knew us too well by name. At 8.5 yrs his last Christmas he got sick again. I took him to MSU and after a week of many, many more test he was finally diagnosed with Lymphoma cancer. Only 2% of horses in the world get diagnosed with this disease. All the vets told me "sorry" already and gave him 6 months to 2 yrs to live(since they were really not sure, or they were trying to make it seem better for me?). They even mentioned to me, I must have done great care with him all these years. Because, this was only their second case of lymphoma they had ever seen at MSU in horses and all other cases they read about the horses had passed away within 2 years of age, or younger.
I lost him 5 months later.
I was majorly blessed I did get as many years as I did with my beloved Pali and again very thankful for the all the things he taught me. I miss him so extremely much!

I have started a new Parelli journey now.
I purchased a new 4 month old horse Friesian colt named Enzo.
He currently is 10 months old and everyday I thank Pali for teaching me patients and guidance to deal with the antics of this new free feeling, exciting, not wanting to keep all 4 of his feet ON the ground baby!


Enzo May 25th

My second journey awaits!
-Janine