Elessar's Story




A 2-year-old Andalusian Arab cross gelding surrounded by predators... Roped, thrown onto his side, a saddle thrown on and a predator jumps onto his back.

That is how they "tried" to break my horse. After being terrified from being "Cowboy broke" he swore to himself that he wouldn't let that happen again. 4 years later when the people that owned him wanted to get rid of him because he was "incorrigible", "never could be ridden" and deemed "crazy" by a vet they set him up to be shipped off to auction to be taken to slaughter.

My dear friend has a "normal" trainer that saw potential in this terrified, beat up, anti social, gentle giant. (Being 17.1) So he took this guy home with him. The trainer in turn "gave" the horse to my dear friend for a Christmas present after losing a horse to colic. My friend brought the horse to California from Utah not knowing what his fate would be.

My friend introduced me and Cimmeran (his then name that my friend gave him) and there was a connection from then on. I started helping my friend teach this horse to trust. In a couple months time Cimmeran was doing very well. The 7 games made a marked improvement in the horse and Jerry (my friend) thought he just might be ready for a saddle. Without my guidance he tried it one day... Alone... Old memories from years before flooded back and Cim bolted in a right-brained terror. The saddle slipped and was on his belly rather than his back... No, my friend was not savvy at that time.

Having an itch to ride and still teetering on the "normal" / "natural" battle within, Jerry chose to take him back to Utah to the "normal" trainer to get "under saddle"

Needless to say it broke my heart because I knew how the "normal" trainer worked. Yes he saved the horse, but that doesn't mean his training techniques are all that. Before the horse left Jerry promised me that when Cim comes back, he would be my horse... So I held onto that. I also used that to my advantage when approached about what they wanted to do to him to "break" him.

Almost a year goes by, Cim went through the hobbles to stand still while they put the saddle on and off. Tied him up all night with no food or water with the saddle on... Yeah, I had a fit.

Finally the time for him to come home. Still un-ridden, still scared of the saddle along with numerous other things. BUT he was coming HOME!!!

July of 2004 my beautiful bay Andalusian / Arab cross jumped out of the trailer BACK into warm, loving SAVVY arms.

First 2 days he had to rest and remember that he had been to this place before. But on the 3rd day... We played. In 45 minutes I had gotten him used to a dressage saddle being put on with having the leadrope in the crook of my arm. By the end of 2 hours I was able to mount from a mounting block and sit on his back. No spooking, no running off, just watching and listening.

I hoped off and patted myself on the back and called it a day.

I did the same thing the next day and I got a couple steps out of him.

By the end of the week we were walking the entire arena.

End of 2 weeks we were trying out a trot... And that was not every day of saddling up! There was at least 6 days that were used for just bonding and having him refresh his mind on the games. (Which he remembered almost to a T when I played with him the first time) Yeah I was impressed.

At 2 months I was able to ride him around our facility by himself and with other riders and in the arena, we were already cantering!

His past and old name are behind him now. Elessar is now in a forever home. He WILL go to the Parelli School one day and we be able to tell our story there.

Thanks to all that have read this testimonial as I feel its important to share. I'd love to send it in to the "my story" section of the regular parelli site. But I am not too sure where to send it so it can get posted.

Thanks again for reading.