Beau Beau Chibeau is the name given to Beau at the barn by my friend Sarah who is from France, it means Handsome, Handsome, so Handsome, and it's the first word I would use when asked to describe my boy.
Beau was born in 2003 in Idaho. His sire was CW Major, his dam - Dianas Guard, his great grand sire was Major Bonanza. His AQHA registered name was Bonanzas Shiny Boy. I think this picture say's it all.
We passed our official Level Two assessment back in December of 2008. We were quite confident about all of the tasks except for holding his tongue, mostly because he was SO mouthy, he had sucked my fingers up into his back teeth a couple of times and chomped down. The night before my assessment we came up with a solution, I taught him to stick his tongue out rather than me going in there after it :0), ever since then he did it on command, you can see it here.
He had so much character that we even featured him a couple of times on the Facebook - "Put a caption on it" photos. This was the first picture, and this was the second.
He was superb at Liberty. He was super smart and picked things up at the drop of a hat. Being a Left Brain Extrovert, he craved learning new things and constantly challenged me to be creative. His flying lead changes were to die for, he was a natural, better at them than I was able to ask for.
In 2009 when Beau was five and just as we were moving into level three, Beau had check ligament surgery in both of his front legs. He was doing OK for a while but he had a couple of setbacks during his recovery, and in July of this year he had a major setback, one that he would never recover from.
I was forced to make the heartbreaking decision to say goodbye to him at the age of seven, and on November 11th, 2010 at 3.26pm, my handsome boy left this earth.
I felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest and it has been difficult to write this post, fighting back the tears as I am thinking about him. I have heard Linda say that "We are exactly where we are supposed to be", and deep down I believe that our paths are written. It would be so easy to let the sadness take over and it has on several occasions as the loss is still so fresh, but I do feel lucky that in Beau's short life that he belonged to me, and even though he had been through so much in his short life, when it came to love and affection, I know he didn't suffer. We accomplished so much together and I don't think a day went by that he didn't put a smile on my face, even up until the end.
To those who have reached out and offered support at this time, I thank you. Your heartfelt words have meant so much.
To my boy - may you have four good legs where you are now, and may you be running and bucking to your hearts content.
Well it's official, the Colorado Parelli Campus has closed down for the winter. The remaining working students and Interns worked hard these past couple of weeks 'winterizing' the place; cleaning, building new fences, fertilizing the play areas, storing of equipment and general clean up. It weird to see the place so empty, no horses in the pens, no students in the playgrounds, no courses going on, tack room and cabins empty. There are a handful of horses left on the ranch including Sienna and her new friend Juno, until we can find a place to rent, and who knew that was going to be as tough as it is! I have to say though, that it's kind of cool to have the entire ranch to ourselves :0)
It was great to have Justin here for the weekend, he got to see the ranch and the small town of Pagosa, but the highlight for us both was the hike up to Wolf Creek Pass and along the Continental Divide. I don't think I will forget the scenery for a very long time and the fall colors just made it all the more special. You can see pics of our hike here. 
I have been letting Sienna graze more and more these days as she has not been on grass for two years, and she's very likely to end up on pasture when we find a place to live. I got permission to start letting her out in one of the pastures here since all the courses have finished and it's very quiet here at the ranch,and I couldn't help think that this is how it's meant to be. My heart felt good watching Sienna just be a horse and exploring her new surroundings. I think she enjoyed it too, you can see more pics here.
Now I just need to get the hubby here with the dogs and Sammy, and figure out what's best for Beau. I miss them all so much, but it's worth the wait, and I know they are going to love it here.
Just last weekend the Parelli Performance Summit was in full swing. There was about 700 people in attendance, which made for a very busy ranch. The buzz was exciting with tents and vendors all eager to share in the event. We regularly hear Pat talk about putting the foundations before specialization, and this event was ALL about specialization. We saw everything from cow work to dressage, and jumping to driving. After the first day I didn't know if it could get any better, buteach day had us glued to our seats wondering what was next. The event ended on the Sunday with pat and Caton doing a wonderful father son demo with 5 of the Atwood horses, it was very touching and inspirational. You can see pictures here. 
