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ARRIVED	September 2005
ADOPTABILITY	Adopted! Went home winter 2006/2007 SEE HER UPDATED PAGE, 2011
SPONSORED BY
BREED/AGE	2-year old (2004 model) quarter horse paint cross

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Cherokee's Paris

Paris now is part of Blue Rose Animal Communication

Summary: Paris is an adorable, nicely sized paint/quarter horse cross filly who does not have any significant paint markings. She arrived as a yearling, rescued out of the Danville sale barn, who has had a muscle tear in her neck that is healed but will always have a nasty scarred shape. She is sweet, energetic, and rapidly learning nice manners, and the old injury should not effect her ability to ride or work in her future. She began riding training in July 06 and is fantastic! Pam is adopting her, and plans to take her home in fall to a local boarding barn, when both Mom and Horse are ready to go!

History: Paris came to Crosswinds from the Danville auction. Her parents are both registered, and she could be registered as breeding stock paint or as AQHA. The hay shortage of 2005 meant there are a lot of weanlings and yearlings being sold inexpensively, many going to slaughter. We made sure Paris wasn't one of them.

Note the scar in the muscles in Paris' neck. We don't believe it will affect her riding in any way. She seems to have perfectly normal movement of the muscle groups and vertebrae, and will have her neck checked for any chiropractic issues from this old injury.

It appears she tangled with a fence post, or similar, and the injury was never stitched, resulting in the permanent muscle scarring.

We look forward to helping take the excess hay belly off this little girl, getting her wormed and her shots, and beginning her riding training. She is currently 13.3hh, and we expect her to be a nice, small horse size as an adult. She appears to have quite a bit of growing yet to do, with her haunches easily 2" higher than her shoulder as of October '05. She may not be ready for riding training in spring, if she is not yet done growing.

January 06: Paris is such a sweet girl, such a lover! she is easy going and a joy to be around. She's learned to have her feet done, leads wonderfully, and is just overall a real joy. She thinks winter blankets are really chew toys! :-) We cannot wait to see just who this little girl matures into.

July 06: What a GREAT little mare this is! Read the CWER email list for an indepth discussion of her training. Here's the July 3 note from AnnMarie...

This weekend I worked Paris for the first time in weeks. It's like we worked yesterday! she picked right up where we left off, and was easy and enjoyable from the first stride. I bridled her, and was thrilled to find no more mouthing and playing with the bit. She saddled and unsaddled easily.

I added the surcingle (its like a girth that is padded and goes all the way around her -- no saddle -- and has rings on the sides of it), which didn't bother her at all either. Snapped on a set of reins -- the first time we've ever attached to her bit -- and she figured out my steering requests, walking beside her, with ease.

For those who don't know, "long lining" or "ground driving" is the act of exercising or training a horse, usually for driving, by using a pair of driving length reins, but the handler isn't in a cart. S/he is simply walking behind, or near the side, of the horse, using the reins to teach the horse to respond to rein pressure and turning, stopping commands. Here's an article on it with some photos (http://www.adairmag.com/articles/archive/longlines.html ) the article doesn't tell you much about it, but gives you some images and a basic idea.

Essentially, ground driving is like lunging, except with a rein on each side instead of just a single line. The reins go through rings on the surcingle so that the pull on the reins are back in a similar position to if the horse were being ridden.

Anyway, Paris did GREAT ground driving! Figured it out pretty much immediately, and within minutes I was walking in the center of the arena with her circling easily. Amazingly, she handled the reins 'bumping' her rump as we changed directions as if nothing was there at all.

This is one GREAT little mare. I cannot wait to ride her -- tonight just might be the night!!!

In fact, her first ride WAS July 3, and she was nothing short of fantastic! On the 5th, AnnMarie rode her again, walk/trot both directions, including outside the round pen, and had Gerry Cross ride her as well. What a FABULOUS little mare! Wow is she going to make someone a really great little horse!

And the successes just keep coming! To keep current with Paris' entire story, be sure to join our email list, where her work is discussed almost daily. Here's a July 12 note from her 3rd rider, early intermediate Pam N:

Certainly much work is involved in training and bringing potential to completion, but Paris is already sensitive. I was blown away that, from where I was standing, it appeared that AnnMarie only shifted her weight and maybe pushed her feet a bit forward and DID NOT even pull back on the reins for Paris to stop.

I wasn't even apprehensive about getting on Paris. I felt safe with her and it's just not my being naive. I've looked at horses during my horse buying quest that, for whatever reason, made me feel like "there is no way I'm getting on that horse". Whether I felt the fear in the horse or in me or that something wasn't just quite right. In one of my equitation lessons through the local community college one afternoon, the horse I was on (a beautiful appaloosa/arabian used for children) just seemed - I don't know - like something wasn't right. I couldn't tell if she was in pain or what, but I stopped and asked the instructor to check out her cinch and saddle and to check me to see if I was irritating her. The instructor said nothing was wrong and for me to continue. Well, the next person to follow me was laying on the ground not too long after she got on and the instructor spent some time "riding out" the horse's "misbehavior" . Anyway, Paris has such a good feel to her. And, though I'm just learning, I love doing ground work with horses and I know that I'd enjoy working with Paris with a horse trainer. And hey, we can show each other our scars!

I spent some time on the Front Porch of Reason this morning. For some reason, being on the front porch engages that part of my brain and lets
me think logically. I'm trying not to get carried away by love and madness and really think about what I can give Paris and what I want in a horse and if I see us as a good match. I want to do dressage at some point, too. Mike said he could see Paris with a young girl and they could grow up together and I also wouldn't want to take a horse away from his/her intended life with someone else if they would be happier there. And until I win the Pulitzer, I can only afford to have one horse. Maybe Paris is that horse.

July 18 '06 update: Pam N has been approved and her adoption is in process! Paris will be staying at CWER until fall, finishing her training and she and her mom working together to get to know one another and prepare for their future together. CONGRATS, both of you!

Spring 2007 update: We get to visit Paris regularly, as Mike is her farrier. She and Pam are doing terrific together! They're a great team, and it's a joy to see them both so happy. Now that Pam and Larry are buying a property in the country, we cannot wait to see Paris on a farm of her own...hopefully with another CWER horse as a companion!!!

SPONSORSHIP: Penny's sponsor is also helping us with Paris. Thanks so much Heather and family!