The Cody Chronicles

My daughter, Ivana, and I (Sharon Doubek) were introduced to Cody in April 2004 by Denise O.  My daughter was having some difficulty at school at the time and needed a way to channel her engery in a positive way. She had been taking riding lessons at Fremont Hills for several years but wanted a horse she could call her own. Denise knew Cody was a rescue horse who needed TLC and thought he would be a good match for Ivana. We leased Cody for a few months then purchased him in January 2005. He and Ivana spent many hours teaching each other to trust and to not be afraid to try new things. Ivana trained Cody to go over jumps and to behave properly on trail rides with other horses. It was a labor of love for both of them.

When Ivana entered high school there was less and less time for Cody. He went back to his bad habit of running away whenever we came out to the pasture to catch him. This went on so long we considered selling him, but who wants a horse that can't be caught? Almost everyone at Pagemill offered help and advice on catching him. Finally, Giselle called me one day and said she managed to get a halter on him and had him in one of the feeding pens. This is when I decided it was time for me to get serious and start putting into practice the Parelli Natural Horsemanship techniques I was studying on and off for about a year. Within a few weeks of "re-hab", Cody became more calm and manageable.  Since then I have been working with him using the Parelli Level 1 "games".  If you see me in the round pen with Cody doing some unconventional things, please be aware that it works for us and we are making progress.  I look forward to joining you on trail rides soon (thanks to Pete and Margo for inviting me)!