Arielle is an Irish Draught x TB, she came into my life in 1999. After four years at Uni and starting work at Rolls-Royce I finally had the time and money to start looking for another horse of my own. I was pretty clear about wanting an uncomplicated youngster that I could start to develop and eventually compete. It turned out that wasn't an easy horse to find on a limited budget. After a year spent traveling the length and breadth of the UK looking for the right horse a friend who was ten miles down the road suggested I come and look at a horse she was starting. That was Arielle.
It quickly became clear that she was the horse I was after. I had been told that she was three rising four years old she had just been started under saddle and was ready to go. However, on closer inspection during her vetting it became clear that she was a lot younger, barely two years old. There had been a misunderstanding between the owner and my friend who was training her. The vet still recommended me to buy her as he thought she had a wonderful attitude for such a young horse.
So I decided to buy her deciding that I would just have to take things a little slower than I had intended, giving her a good length of time off to grow and develop.
As Arielle got older it had become apparent that while she was a pretty straight forward character I was struggling to keep her motivated, we had never really gotten more than quarter of a lap of canter around the arena. I also had a bit of a problem convincing her to load in a lorry or trailer (on average it took about two hours!) she would just stand at the bottom of the ramp and refuse to move!! My traditional training just hadn't equipped me to address this and I was getting frustrated.
I met the Parelli Programme when Arielle was five years old and soon realised that the programme would give me the answers I needed to bring out the best in our developing partnership. Arielle was, and still is, an excellent and patient teacher. As long as each task is presented to her with consideration, in a way that she can work out what is required, she will give it her best and she has enabled me to graduate Parelli Level 4 and become an instructor.
Not only that, while I was away in the US she gave birth to my lovely filly Balandra passing on her good sense and attitude to her daughter.
These days Arielle often helps me out at clinics but our real passion is dressage. I am very fortunate to have a horse who clearly enjoys this discipline as much as I do and we compete as often as my schedule allows, currently at Elementary level, working at Medium at home. I am hoping that it won't be too long before we give it a go competing at Medium.
Arielle is really my 'Actual Proof' that 'Foundation before Specialisation' really works and makes the competition experience a joy!
