We Ride Sport and Trail Magazine August 2019 | Page 21

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Our last day together was spent celebrating our life together. Her herd hung out with us as I scratched her itchy spots, I fed her applesauce, sugar, and Bute. She was a happy girl when the vet arrived that evening. Fancy was 19. We had spent 17 wonderful years together. As I looked back in my mind's eye, I pictured all our triumphs, accomplishments, and adventures. I felt proud of my little junk yard horse, they called Peanut. She had become my Super Star after all.

Nancy Slater is a Parelli Professional who has dedicated her life to making the world a better place for horses and the people who love them. Her self-less passion for educating kids as well as demonstrating how a real partnership with your horse can lead to competitive success is what makes Nancy stand out. We could not be more proud to be represented by Nancy as she helps us to teach horse riders, trainers and owners to use love, language and leadership to reach their goals with horses. Thank you Nancy!

Pat and Linda Parelli

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advancement was exciting! I watched Parelli videos, challenging myself and Fancy to do what they could do.

She would work on voice commands in harness. I could drive her easily in a rope halter, with just a touch of pressure. We competed in driving obstacle competition. We did demos for the Parelli events pulling a lightweight sled my husband fabricated. She seemed to be able to do anything!

I started back riding her. Fancy was so fun to ride and soon became a Level 4 Parelli Finesse riding horse. For a stocky, muscular, 14.2 Paint, she floated under me and we danced... What fun it was to ride that powerfully athletic horse! I was encouraged and excited about our future together!

Then one day as we were working at Freestyle (loose reins) in the arena at the canter, she stumbled and fell. She crashed like a plane; I saw dirt flying out on either side of us, the front of her face sliding across the ground as she tried to recover. She was able to scramble to her feet, and stood quietly, shaking.

Maybe it was a misstep, I reasoned. I put aside negative thoughts, as she walked out just fine. But a year later, it happened again. This time she did not recover her feet, falling all the way down to the ground at a canter. She seemed alright, but she landed on her right side, injuring my right knee and ankle, and breaking my big toe.

I retired Fancy at age 13. She was herd leader now that my old mare had passed. Her days were spent languishing in large pastures. I noticed she stopped running in playfulness. With time, it became increasingly harder for me to trim her hooves. Then one day, I saw her lying down in the pasture. As I approached, she got up, and I could see her lifting her right back leg.

She called desperately to me, in her deep voice. I went to her and asked her to come with me to a shade tree. She whinnied again. She couldn't.

Nancy and Fancy