Hi ! Once again it has been longer than i planned, but here i am. So many exciting things happening. The tours have been wonderful and as always we have met some amazing guests and made some great new friends.

We had some bad news too, Mandela our new horse got bitten by a snake whilst out in the field over night. Thanks to a wonderful dedicated team of helpers, and vets he has made a miracle recovery. Thanks also to all the people from around the world that sent positive wishes and prayers his way. I have told him how many people were rooting for him. He is now well on the way to making a full recovery.

After advertising for an equine chiropractor to come and hang with us for a week, we were offered lots of wonderful people and finally fate brought us to Cindy Hart, a wonderful equine chiropractor from Texas, we are so excited she is coming. Our horses are all rescues and finding a good body worker down here is super hard. We owe it to theses horses to make them as comfortable as possible in their working lives. We literally can not wait to see Cindy here and have her work with our horses. I will post photos and video for sure when she arrives in the first week in December.

Also on the cards is a visit from Brandon Crew of Healthy Stride. He is the Parelli's hoofcare man and a wonderful advocate for working with body issues as well as just the feet; so paired with Cindys knowledge and Brandon expertise our horses are going to feel wonderful. Chris my husband is a wonderful barefoot trimmer who has studied his heart out for the past 4 years, so he is particularly happy to be able to spend time with Brandon and pick his brains and learn ways to help more horses down here in Costa Rica.

We have more dogs....i know i know, but what can you do, we are up to 9 right now, but are sending a request out to the universe to get some of our fosters rehomed soon.  We have Meg the three legged doberman who had her last operation this week, so she will soon be charging around the fields on her three legs happy as a happy thing. Yesterday Barney came into our lives. He is covered head to foot with mange and needs some serious medical help. Luckily our dog rescue friend Leo Hogan was on hand with meds and we started him on the road to recovery. He is a sweetheart and we can not wait to patch him up and find him a forever home. Did you know dogs can go from Costa Rica to the USA, we just have to arrange paper work and flights...soooo if ever you want a fab dog that needs an amazing forever home, just get in contact. :)

We have had hardly any rain through the so called rainy season this year so the farm is looking amazing and lush but with no mud! Yippee. Today we have two honeymooners out on a private ride, and my husband Chris is setting up iced champagne and strawberries at the waterfall as i type. They have glorious sunshine and i am sure in the hands of our fabulous guide Julia they will be making lifelong memories. Congratulations to them.

I have been finding sometime to do some training with the horses which i love of course. I have been introducing clicker training to my bag of tricks and getting great results. Watching a horse want to play is the best thing; rather than forcing them to do as they are told, that just makes them resentful. Our horses are all trained using whichever natural methods work best for the individual horse, but so far clicker is my favorite! I have included a video below so you can see what we have been up to. We offer vacations for people that want to come down and learn how to play with their horses in a way that horses enjoy. Get in contact for more detail (also vacations are available for people that just want to ride). Our next clinic is in December.

Well, i am back off into the sunshine to see the horses and check on Mani. Have a wonderful day where ever you all are and i send you a whole bunch of Pura Vida.

Andrea xx

Here is the video link for my games with Archie and Coco. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV_DRdznwiM 

Well things rarely stand still in our life and this month is no different! We have been lucky enough to have some wonderful groups who love wildlife and were duly rewarded. We have seen on tours in the last month, wild pigs, deer, monkeys and coati's. Not to mention Scarlett Macaws, Toucans, Montazume Orpendolas and Loras. 

We have been getting a bit of rain but nothing that has affected riding which is nice and of course the forest is looking lush and green for the rain we did have. I love green season!

We have been making some changes to our herd this last week, it has been sad and happy. Casper has left us now and gone to live with a wonderful lady called Sunny who recently moved here and fell in love with him. Casper is a character and was a little too challanging for most tourists, so we had been wanting a 5 star home for him for some time, and we were rewarded with Sunny. It is great as he is being kept where we have the horses of our beach ride so we get to see him most days and to see the progress she is making with him.

Also the wonderful Lord Byron will be leaving us at the end of the week. He is going to be so hard to say goodbye too, but he struggles a little with the heat down here and being a big horse it is hard for him to stay cooler on the longer rides. He had a rough life before coming into our lives so we are happy to see him to a wonderful American couple just down the coast, but there will be tears on Friday thats for sure, it is bittersweet, i am thrilled for him and very sad for us, i will miss him dearly, but we have to put the horses first.

On a positive note we have welcomed this week the beautiful Merlin and the elegant Mandela. They are both going to be such wonderful additions and are settling in very well. They need to gain weight, but that won't take long. They are booked to have their teeth looked at to make sure they are all good and then they will be ready to go. 

My play times with Archie are continuing to be a huge source of joy and pride in my life, to think this horse wouldn't even let us pick up his feet when we got him 2 years ago. We have been playing a lot at liberty lately (on the ground with no ropes connecting us) Yesterday i even got to play tag with him on the beach at liberty, a dream come true for me to have a horse so connected to me. Parelli Natural Horsemanship has had such a positive impact on ours and our horses lives and i will be forever grateful to them for their groundbreaking work into the horses way of thinking.

Chris has been out on trail all this last week holding the jungle at bay just enough for us to pass through with out disapearing into the lushness out there, the trails are so beautiful. We have both primary and secondary forest on the rides and both offer such a great up close and personal view of the forest. It also shows just how quick forest can regenerate, proving it is never to let to save the planet!

Sorry for the late post, life has been very busy and exciting. I have just got back from a wonderful trip to California. Turning 40 prompted me to follow my dream of seeing Pat and Linda Parelli live, and that is just what i did. My friend Leo and I left our wonderful husbands alone for the week and heading up to LA to see the Horse and Soul Tour. It was wonderful and did not disappoint. The Parelli's were as inspiring as ever. I got to meet both Pat and Linda and let them know what we were doing down here in Costa Rica. 

I also got to visit Disneyland which was a first for me.....i cried when i saw Mickey Mouse hahaha (only a little!!) we had the best day. We even manage to get a trail ride in with a friend in San Juan Capistrano which was beautiful, except for the rattle snakes we saw..scary!

Our new horse has arrived, we have called him Banjo and he is very beautiful. I started reschooling with him yesterday as he is great to ride, but not very trusting of humans yet. He has not learnt that not all are going to hurt him. He is a total sweetheart and is going to be wonderful. Some bad news this week, Coco, our lovely white mare pulled her tendon out in the field and is going to be on enforced rest for about 4 months poor girl. We will have to find things to entertain her as she gets bored in the field and gets herself into all sorts of trouble in the name of fun!

Chris is working on a new project, but i can't tell you too much yet, except that it will use all his skills and imagination! More to follow.

The rains arrived big time here yesterday, the grass was completely flattened by the rain, but it was much needed. The trails were all smelling and looking so fresh yesterday.

We still have spaces on the Amy Bowers Parelli clinic in December if anyone is interested, check out the website for more details.