Animals are funny in a lot of ways. If you have a bond with any animal, they can be your best friend and closest confidant. Maybe your best friend isn't a horse but a dog or a cat, they can help just as much. However, for me and many other people, horses are the best animal. Horses are awesome when it comes to mental health. Even though they may not fully cure you of any mental problems like major depression, schizophrenia, or anxiety, they can do a lot to help heal what is broken. For me, no matter what is going on, just the thought of my horses makes me "crazy"; I get dreamy and happy and 100% calm (even if I start jumping up and down and get ready to go for a ride). 
     When you have a friendship with an animal, like a horse, you learn to love and care for someone other than yourself. As well as give you a feeling of unconditional love. I might have said this in a previous post but it's still very true. When you are riding a horse, that horse can sense what you are feeling. If you are uptight, stressed, and scared about something your horse is going to dance around and act very nervous. So, I have learned how to calm myself and release anxiety so that my horse is also calm. It is amazing what animals can do for your mental well being.

    Hey everyone. I don't know how many people are still following my blog, and I know that I haven't posted for a while, but today I want to dedicate my blogging to our dog, Kona. Even though this blog is all about horses today we had to put down our much loved yellow lab husky mix. So I want to tell everyone about her.
    When I first met Kona she was a young pup at my Grandma and Grandpa Bartholomew's, my mom's parents. She was full of energy and loved to chew on things. She didn't make a good fit with my Grandparents and the dog they already had, so they gave her to the pound and up for adoption. From the first day I saw her I fell in love with this one blue, one brown, eyed dog. When I went to Ang and Dad's I told them all about her and what she was like, especially that she was up for adoption. I was too young to know what her breed was so I just called her a husky. Well the hunt was on and they looked around, and they finally found her. Sure enough they fell in love with her just as I did. 
    I remember the day we adopted her as if it was yesterday. I was coming back after being with my mom and had no idea or even suspicion of what was going on. When I went into the house there Kona was and what a day. At first all I know was that this was Kona and I remember saying, "Hey, that’s Kona." very matter of fact like. After I processed what it really meant that Kona, the dog I fell in LOVE with, was in our living room. Aside from getting my first horse, Sanny, that day was one of the best days that I can remember. 
    After that first day Kona wormed her way into our lives and hearts. She ate a couch, several different electrical cords, and she was the biggest tattle-tale there ever was. She loved to go for runs in the horse pasture to look for birds and ground squireels.  She especially loved "killing" her toys with a good, strong growling shake.  We are going to miss her so much; especially the way that she "wooed" and told us her woes all day long. So here is my little bit to the highly loved, and now missed little girl, Kona.

    Horse Therapy not only helps those with PDD and Autism but also with Dyslexia. Developmental reading disorder (dyslexia) is a reading disability that occurs when the brain does not properly recognize and process certain symbols. When you have dyslexia, not only do you have a problem with reading but also with spacial difference and coordination. Just trying to learn how to ride a bike was one of the most challenging things to learn because I didn't have any coordination. I also have a problem with when to turn into traffic, I like lots of space. 
    Even though it did take more than just horses to help me with my dyslexia (a lot more) they helped a lot. 
When I would ride I had to learn how do use my hands and feet together instead of as separate parts of me. It taught me how to align my body and to work as one with the horse. In all horses have been my life both because of their loving nature and teaching me to coordinate things in my life.

    In all my research that I have been doing on horse therapy I have found amazing information that I want to share. Horse Therapy, along with its many different names and branches, is the use of horses to teach and promote personal growth in people that have a problem such as PDD or Autism. 
    Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) and Autism are when someone has impaired communication, emotional detachment, or other problems relating to others. So far there has been no finding of a cure. That is where horses come in. Out of all the ways people have tried to improve the lives of those with PDD and Autism, horse therapy has proven to be one of the best therapies. Not only does riding help improve focus and motor skills, but in some cases it allows a bond to form that will last for life. In learning to care for a horse they find it easier to communicate, interact with others, and in many cases the value of relationships. 
    Even though there are many different diseases out there, horses have a way of getting past the barrier of an individual and straight to their true self. These animals calm and soothe anxiety and pain when no other person, therapy, or medication could have. The horse, and even other animals, are God’s gift to us, to help us when we can't see any way out. Because we don't have our own wings to fly, our animals, most of all horses, lend wings to us so that we may see God's beauty in ways not thought possible.

    Hey y'all, just to start out I want to say thanks to those that are coming to my site and reading my blogs! Also I have started to learn how to make a macramé scarf out of baling twine and hope to have some pictures for you soon. Now, because I left out some of the story of Sanny and Rosa, I want to fill you in by telling you the rest of the story of Rosa's birth.
    After I learned that Sanny was to have a baby I prayed almost continuously for it to be a filly. However according to Angela and Grandma Jan, the way she was carrying the baby, they thought it to be a colt. (I never gave up that it was a girl.) In the last few days that Sanny was pregnant, we (Angela and I) stayed in Plummer and would check on her about every 2-3 hours to see if we could catch her giving birth. Now the biggest reason that we did that was because she never gave birth in the daylight and she didn't like an
audience. Also, she typically foaled a couple of weeks early, but with her more advanced age, we were worried she could have complications.  So, we nearly camped out, keeping a vigil because I wanted to see her give birth. Well, as time went on, it was time for me to go to my Mom's for the weekend, also the weekend that Grandma and Grandpa Z were to have a clinic at the farm.  I didn't want to leave Sanny, but Angela stayed on the farm to keep an eye on her and to help with the clinic.  By this time, Sanny was getting close to being nearly two weeks overdue!
    The weekend was coming to an end and it was Sunday. I was to go back to Dad's at 6 and I WANTED to see my horse. As it happened Sanny held out a couple more days and gave birth in broad daylight during the lunch break at the clinic on Sunday (without ME)!  For the first time ever, Angela was able to aid Sanny in her birth by literally catching Rosa and in front of everyone at the clinic. I was so bummed out, but too excited to be very sad. I knew that the first two things I was going to do were play with the little baby and ride Sanny just as soon as possible. Even though I didn't get to see her born, Rosa was the greatest gift ever. If you go to my pictures, you will see one with me and Angela holding the new little filly. Even though I was in a skirt and flip flops, I still had to see my babies.

    In the years that I have been around horses, I have always told my horse what I was feeling or even the things that I was too shy to tell anyone else or hadn't yet processed for myself. As a result I was able to relieve some of the stress that would sometimes literally make me sick. 
    As a result talking to my horse had better effects on me than talking to a counselor. The best part about talking to Sanny was that she didn't talk back, 'and how do you fell about that', she just listened. Watching and listening to my horse was what gave me peace inside. They don't have a care in the world but protecting one another. They don't care who the president is or what war we are in now. They just have the will take care of you as if you were its own child, just as God dose for us, his children.

    
    Horses have so many side effects to them and not a single one is bad! Horses have helped people with disabilities from a broken back to depression and even ADD. For horse therapy to work it takes more than just a few rides, it takes a friendship and the willingness to care for one another. Even animals will start to find a friend in people that take time for them. Although, horses can have a major effect on a person's life by improving their physical and mental well being.  There is no particular amount of time in which you would see a change in someone. For some people it is instantaneous, the connection they have with these big animals.  For others, it takes a longer time to bond and begin to trust a horse to take care of you.  However it is 100% worth it.
    Now some might question what horses have to do with the healing process, but until you experience a horse for yourself you will not understand. Even if you do not have any problems either mentally, physically, or emotionally, a horse can only improve your life.

   So after taking a winter break from writing and being free from school I have decided that it is time to continue with some awesome stories about horses and fun things that you can do with your horse! I am going to learn how to make macrame out of twine, tell more stories of my own, and show the miracles that can come from people with disabilities that have or know horses. 
    Today as I was doing some research on different people and the side effects of horses when I found that Kim Meeder has her ranch just a few hours away from the school, MILO that my sister went to for high school. When my Mom and I would go to see Kim, my sister, we passed right by it. Too bad I didn't know about Kim Meeder than otherwise I would have insisted on stopping. It is one small world we live in!

     Rosa was the last baby that San Ann Del had as a broodmare. She has a blaze in the silhouette of an ostrich down her nose, and she also has Socks on all 4 lags. When I first learned that she was to be born, it was an accident. I had been hoping and praying for a filly from the day that I had been givin Sanny, and it was a year later that I put two and two together. I over heared Grandma Jan and Angela talking about Sanny and asking each other if she was "Prego" or "Preggers." It didn't take long for me to process what they were saying and to ask if it was true. I don't think that I have ever been more excited about anything in my life before.
    She is 4 right now and I got on her for the first time this summer. Learning how to train a horse has been a wonderful experience. I have learned just as much as my Rosa has. I have learned that training a horse takes a lot of patience, a calm state of mind.  If you are nervous, then the horse you are training will pick up on your nervousness and will also be nervous, even if it doesn't know why. Being almost bucked of a horse because you were nervous is a big eye opener.
    Rosa is a fast learner and it is sometimes hard for me to keep up with her and see what she can do. It seems at times as if she is waiting for me to learn something as if she were the trainer instead of me. It will be very exciting when we can ride on the trails as Sanny and I used to do.