How do I describe my horse, Monalita. She is a buckskin, who like many paso finos, is currently turning gray. She stands 15 hands high and is a good size for a paso fino. She has a long flowing mane and tail. In my opinion, she is quite pretty to look at. While Monalita would never win any ribbons as a show horse, she has more heart than most horses I know. Not only is she smooth as silk in her gaits but she is a fantastic trail horse.

She has proven to be worth her weight in gold after I had a very serious accident. In March, 2004, while helping a friend, I fell 15 feet through a hay drop and shattered both my arms along with multiple breaks to my sacrum and pelvis. After an two weeks in trauma and six weeks in a rehab hospital, I was told that it would be a year before I could ride again, but it was only four months after my accident that I had my first ride on Monalita!

Because of the breaks in my arm. I had to use a step and aid from my children to climb up on Monalita. She stood perfectly still for me to do my slow load onto her back. In no time at all, that very same day, I was at a corto!! It was such a joy to be back on my mare. If I had a non-gaited horse, I would probably have had to wait a lot longer, not to mention that the motion of the average horse still creates a lot of pain in my right arm.

Since I only have about 50% use of my right arm, it does present challenges. Because I can't lift my right arm up, I started saddling my own horse by climbing on a step so that I could place the saddle down on my horse. None of this bothered my mare as she stood perfectly still for me. She realized that I couldn't put my hand up for the bridle, so she started putting her head down so I can put the bridle on her and she does the same thing for the halter. The funny thing is that if anyone else saddles her, she will not put her head down for them. I can now push the saddle up on her without a step, but to do this, I must push the saddle part way up the side of her. I then push it the rest of the way up from underneath the saddle. The entire time I am going through this procedure, she stands without moving a step.

Since my accident, I couldn't get on or off my horse without the aid of a mounting block. I have ridden other horses, but always needed someone to hold the horse still so that I could do this without the horse moving. Not my Monalita. I can walk her up to the block and she quietly stands for however long it takes for me to mount her. Then when finished riding, I can walk her up to the block and she quietly stands while I dismount without help from anyone. This has given me such freedom and

independence so that I don't have to wait for someone to be around to help me and I can ride alone without worry. She has learned to line up and stand perfectly still while I slowly move up over the saddle or down off of her. I don't even have to hold onto the reins. She will not move until I tell her to. There was great excitement when I was finally able to get off my horse without the use of a step. However, I still need the mounting block as I have no upward strength to pull myself up onto my horse.

When I am on her, she is content to walk, corto, and maybe largo a little. She is also trained to use leg aids and can be turned without a touch to the rein. However, when my children ride her she is an entirely different horse. My daughter can make her do roll backs, jump obstacles, and switch leads in a canter. Not to long ago, they used her...bareback mind you...in a "round up" of a wayward horse! In my daughter's words "no horse is as much fun to ride bareback as Monalita." They also used her in a fun show for pole bending.

I have found that she is also very protective of me. When I am riding her, she won't let any horse get close to me. She will pin her ears back and force them away from me. Another thing that amazed me was that about a month after I started riding her, she did a "wooly bear" shake. It hurt my arms and I let out a shriek. From that day forward she waits until I am off of her to shake.

Another amazing thing was on a trail ride this past spring. We were crossing water that had a concrete colvert for cars to drive through the water. I noticed that the concrete was broken up in spots. I tried to get my mare to go across but she refused. She refused to be led across while I was on her. I got off of her and walked her and she followed with no resistance. When my daughter rode her horse across, her horse fell into a hole in the concrete. Thankfully he was ok, but it just showed me that she was still taking care of me. The rest of the culverts she crossed as normal. It was just the broken up one that she was bothered by.

Since my fall, I have increased from 15 minutes of riding to up to 4 hours of riding at a time. None of this would be possible without my wonderful smooth gaited,quiet mare. While my children enjoy their fast moving show horses, I am glad that there are pasos out there that you can just relax and have a nice "calm" trail ride.