Fran's Savvy Up

Solving the "LBI Package"

2011-04-13T09:29:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

It's been literally months since I've been compelled to write about anything at all. Been having some huge discoveries in my horsemanship,and in my journey, and only recently have I been processing coherently enough to start blogging again. However, yesterday's session with Prin was super-cool. So cool in fact that I felt I not only SHOULD share, I HAD to share.

Prin and me in FL. Photo by Coco

A little history beforehand: Prin has a bundle of "braces" that I like to call the "Left-Brain Introvert Package"…kind of a pattern with LBIs that have had their dignity stripped. She’s challenging to bridle, can be a little cinchy, is funny about needles, used to pull back, and is a terror to clip. I became acutely aware of these things after I spent a considerable amount of one-on-one time with John Baar during my externship, addressing her clipping troubles, and realizing that there were braces that I had ignored just about everywhere else.

So with that in mind,yesterday was "deworming day"…and that is one of the things I’ve just sort of plowed through in times past with her. She’s always been easy enough, and as a human, I’ve just done it without thinking much. But since becoming aware of these braces, I’ve been sure to address things more thoroughly and put the relationship first.

Her behavior was no surprise, she snorted and pulled away pretty hard when she saw the tube. Over the next 30 minutes, I played around with her, asking her to keep her feet moving so she couldn’t lock up and explode aggressively, something she's been more apt to do since exposing these things. I’d stay at her shoulder out of the strike zone and I’d offer her the tube to sniff. If she got snorty, I’d move her feet again, if she looked at it, sniffed it, touched it, I’d give her a rub, and I’d let her eat grass.


John Baar and Prin in FL

By the end of the session, she was offering to put her nose on tube, and I could put the syringe in her mouth with NO protest. All with her ears forward lower lip floppy, and eyes half-open. She looked happy and boy, did I feel happy! I didn’t deworm her, of course. Talk about a horrible reinforcement for great behavior! Today, I plan to play with it, and give her a syringe full of applesauce.

Needless to say, I’m VERY pleased. I feel like we broke down a major threshold and she felt successful. SO cool!

Stay tuned for more of the things I've been learning from Prin since returning home from my externship. She's teaching me HUGE lessons, and expanding horizons I didn't know existed

11 weeks and No Updates...

2010-12-11T10:44:00.000-08:00

Hello gang!

My life of insanity has definitely taken over my blogging time, but when I peeked at my blog the other day, I realized that it had been over 11 weeks since I last updated. Sorry!!!!

Just a brief "catch you up to speed on Fran's Parelli adventure"; I'm now heading into week 9 of my Externship. I'm on campus in Reddick, FL, and learning an amazing amount of information! This has turned out to be exactly what I expected and more, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity.

In reflecting on the past 9 weeks, I cannot begin to decide what I want to blog about. There's SO much to this experience, it's hard to pick just one thing. Not to mention, as with every time a person spends time here, it's not just what you do and learn in the moment, it's the days, weeks, and months of learning afterward that is even more worthwhile to share. (Stay tuned for multiple BFO-themed blogs in January/February/March etc, I'm sure-ha!)

So I've decided to open that decision up to my readers. What would YOU like to read about? The entire event is far too much for a single entry, so I'd challenge you to come up with something specific for me. But I'd love to share the experience, and I want to hear what you're interested in knowing.

Let me know in a comment or an email: savvyup@yahoo.com and I'll start writing something up.

An Update Just For Petra

2010-09-23T14:44:00.000-07:00

As I was doing my evening chores last night, one of my blog followers (and new friend!) Petra came up and teased me about needing to update my blogs more often, that a month without writing was simple unacceptable. So, especially for Petra, here I am, updating my blog ;)

For those of you who don't know, I'm currently in Pagosa Springs, CO as a working student at the Parelli Ranch. I've been here since September 7th, am in Pagosa until October 7th, and then I'll leave for Florida. I plan on being with Parelli until January of 2011 at least, hoping to start as an Extern on the 15th of October.

It's been a really wonderful adventure thus far. There are people here from all over the world for the Fast-Track Course, as Externs, Working Students, and Mastery students, and it's been a wonderful opportunity to make new friends, as well as a chance to spend some time with familiar faces.

I currently have Crest on site and Prin will join us in a few days from her current location at a ranch about 10 minutes north of the Parelli Center. It's been a wonderful opportunity to have my horses in such a beautiful place and with like-minded energy. We've had lots of fun playing with all kinds of things, and life is good.

I'm also totally in love with the town of Pagosa Springs itself. At home, I live in a pretty small town, so this isn't culture shock, and I love the home-y feeling. I'm already on a first-name basis with the gals that work at the local coffee shop, and they know my usual order.

So that's what's up for now. Updates on here will be time-permitting, and right now, computer time is pretty limited. But for daily updates, add me as a friend on Facebook!

Savvy on!

Where did Crest Come From, Anyway?

2010-08-23T17:42:00.000-07:00

Since the lesson with Linda, I’ve had quite a few inquiries about where Crest came from, as well what his history was. Linda had implied in her blog that he was a rescue, and we never really did give much background on him during the lesson, so I thought a blog to clarify and share might be the way to go!

So just where did Crest come from , anyway? How did I end up with him? This big, handsome bay horse of mine has a kind of colorful history. Crest was born May 23^rd 2001 on a private farm in Kellogg, MN. He was named “Crest” because he was born the day that the spring floodwaters on the Mississippi River crested in 2001. He is by a tri-colored Paint stallion named Cherokee, and out of a red roan mare named Frog. Both parents carry a majority of Thoroughbred lineage—this is why I refer to him as a Paint x Thoroughbred.

The owner of the farm on which he was bred was not a cruel-hearted person. However, he didn’t handle his horses much, and when they were handled, it was not naturally, to say the least. Crest lived essentially feral as the second and younger stallion in large herd of horses until he was almost 3 yrs old. His father was the lead stud, and he continually ran Crest off and wouldn’t allow him to be a part of the herd. I suspect he was essentially run into the poor condition he was in when I met him, and not being allowed to be a member of the herd probably did considerable damage to the young Crest’s mind.

In October of 2003, a family friend of ours (also the ex-girlfriend of the farm’s owner), bought Crest. She was really the one who “rescued” him, not me. He was loaded into a trailer (I’m still not sure how exactly they did it) and brought to Pepin, WI. When he arrived, he was a scrawny, wormy, sick-looking 3-year old stallion. He was gelded, and then turned out into a pasture with two dominant mares who also liked to beat up on him. The photo at left was taken a month after Crest arrived at our friend's place.

Our friend is a very kind person with lots of knowledge in holistic horse care, and is also interested in Parelli. She nursed him to a place of better health physically, but Crest had some very intense mental and emotional scars, and she knew that she had gotten way more horse than she could or wanted to handle. She called me the following summer (2004), and wondered if I’d be interested in giving training Crest a go for her.

I was almost 14, and just finishing level 2 at the time. Though I had played with several dozen horses, and had started a few youngsters, including my levels mare, Prin, I had never dealt with a horse of Crest’s extremity before. Hindsight being what it is, I probably was not cut out to deal with a horse as fearful or as extreme as he, but at 14, I was cocky and bullet-proof. So I took him on.

I agreed to put 30 days of training on Crest. I remember the first day I played with him. Another “trainer” that I knew was there as well, and I opted to let her give him a shot first. Truth be told, I didn’t know what to make of him. Evidently, neither did she. She tied him to a corral post, slapped a western saddle (back cinch and all) on his back, and turned him loose in a round pen. What I watched happen next is something I always keep in the back of my mind today, as a reminder of what he’s capable of: Crest bucked, and he bucked HARD. A minute passed, and he didn’t stop. Then two minutes. And then the saddle came sailing off over his rump. He had bucked so hard that he had managed to BREAK the back cinch, and loosen the front one enough that it slid back and over. Once the saddle was off, he ran a couple more laps and then stopped at the gate, head out towards the corral, dripping with sweat and literally shaking.

Not knowing exactly what the right thing to do was, but also knowing that what had just happened was not right, I went over and snapped a lead onto his halter, and said “Okay, I think I’d like to try some things now.”

A long story short, after not thirty, but ninety days, Crest and I had still not made much progress. I had taught him the 7 games online to a level 1 standard, but he was still very reactive, very spooky, and prone to go into a frothing panic if something worried him. He was terrified of anything touching his back legs, and of course anything on his back. We had hardly made ANY headway with him carrying a rider. I could sit on him, but he was so claustrophobic that if my legs touched him at all, I was in for quite a ride. Obviously not at all what a person has in mind when they start a riding horse.

Anyone who knows me knows that to give up on something is just not in my nature. But after being hurt at least twice a week for the final month, I was beginning to have some realizations. I realized that Crest was WAY more horse than I had given him credit for. I realized that I did not have the savvy to help him be a partner for myself, let alone someone else. I also realized that he had the potential to be a super horse—I’d never met a horse so sensitive before, nor one with as much versatile athleticism and as natural a mover as Crest. And finally, I realized I had two options: either I would dedicate myself to learning what he needed, or pack up and go home.

So I did what any obsessed Parelli student would have done: I threw aside everything that had already happened, abandoned the “must be trained” timeline, and I bought the horse for myself! Crest came home as mine on July 22^nd, 2005.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), our story still hasn’t been the “happily ever after” scenario that we might have hoped for. Crest has constantly challenged me to grow and evolve every time we reach a new level, especially when it comes to being ridden. He still has residual baggage about having something on his back, there have been a number of scary “near misses” we’ve had, as well as one really bad accident, and there are still days when I don’t know what to do with him. This is part of why his online and liberty are so advanced, but his under-saddle savvys are not—his confidence blossoms and play drive emerges when we play on the ground.

But our lesson with Linda has led to a much greater understanding of why he does what he does when he’s ridden, and it has led to a strengthening of bond and understanding that we both had only dreamed of before. It has allowed me to let Crest be the horse that he is, and help him by shaping his innate character for the positive, and becoming a leader that he can feel confidence in. Now, not only am I riding Crest, but we’re riding and doing things with more confidence than ever before—we’ve even cantered bareback with relaxation on a trail ride now.

I hope this clarifies and gives answers to some of the questions people have had about Crest, and I hope it also sheds some light on why this was such a complex, but necessary lesson for Linda to teach in the way that she did. Crest’s layers run deep, and he carries some heavy baggage, and he and I both needed to be taken to that limit, but not over. Linda delivered perfectly, I know that I’m grateful every day for those 3 intense hours in that arena in Columbus Ohio.

Born to Fly

2010-08-21T10:10:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,

More blogs coming soon, I PROMISE. I've started two that I need to finish. But for now, I wanted to give you a little treat. Or...well..I think it's a treat, I'll let you make the final judgment ;)

Below is a video of me playing with Sunny on the day that I took her home. She taught me lots while she was here. Some of the big things were being in the moment, as well as an acute sensitivity to personal space, and understanding comfort/discomfort motivation to a new level. I'm very proud of what the two of us were able to accomplish in our time together, and I hope that her owner finds as much joy in playing with her as I did :)

Please let me know what you think!

The Truck of My Dreams

2010-07-30T20:08:00.000-07:00

Just for fun and off the topic of horses somewhat.

I've been sort of half-shopping for a truck for a couple of years now, but not until this summer did the push really start to get to me. (well, actually, all through the winter I lamented that I needed 4WD, but really...) I have a trailer already, (is that like getting your cart before your horse?) and I hate having to ask people to transport my horses everywhere, especially on longer trips. I've been searching casually for a truck on craigslist and a couple other sites since April, and have gone so far as to call on a couple of ads, but not much has come of the search.

I had gotten pretty much fed up with sifting through pages of ads, and was ready to start giving my specifications to dealer owners to see if they could find what I needed...I didn't think it was that complicated--2003 or newer Dodge Ram with a Cummins diesel motor, (prefer a one-ton but 3/4 was fine) in good mechanical working condition under $20,000. I had some other specifications too, but they weren't the set-in-stone kind; I'd prefer a long box and crew cab, but wouldn't turn down a working short box in the right range. I wanted an automatic, but could learn to love a manual, I would love to get something with a goose-neck ball already installed, but obviously was set to put one in if it didn't have one. I liked blue, silver, or white for color, but would take anything functional. You know, that sort of thing.

That is until Monday night. It was pretty late, probably about midnight or a little later, and I was getting ready to tuck in for the night. But for whatever the reason (I, personally, am a believer in the Law of Attraction to some extent...) I got the itch to check craigslist for the first time in several weeks.

And there it was. I knew it was the truck for me without even opening the ad (it was that "that's it!" feeling). But when I did, my jaw hit the floor. 2003 Dark blue Dodge Ram 3500 Cummins Dually (BEAST!). Crew Cab, long box, gooseneck ball already installed, and totally set up to tow. A truck that, mileage and condition included, blue-books for $17,000 for sale for $12,000. The small used-car dealership had just bought it as a re-posess from Chrysler financial, and they weren't even finished prepping it to sell.

I went Tuesday morning to take it for a test-drive, and Wednesday, I was back with a check. Though the truck has high miles, everything about it is mechanically perfect. I'm still getting used to all the POWER in that thing, but I love it. I've named her "Kat"... the acronym stands for Kick-Ass Truck, and it's a very fitting name--she doesn't roar, she purrrrrrrrs! The photo above was taken just after test-driving on Tuesday, and deciding that she was indeed my truck.

I didn't waste any time getting Kat home and putting her to work. My trailer has been sitting in the same spot for 5 years (actually belongs to Richard, my barn owner, and his truck doesn't have a gooseneck ball in it right now) and so we hitched up and pulled the trailer out to give it some TLC. Spectacularly, the trailer is in great working condition, though it will need some more extensive work before I take it anything farther than locally. I spent the majority of the afternoon yesterday pressure-washing the heck out of it, and it looks better, anyway. The photos at left shows the rig all hitched up--the top was taken pre-wash. The photo below is a fun one, taken by my friend Sherri, who generously let me use her pressure washer to get the project started. It was definitely a satisfying and productive afternoon, even if we did all get a little bit wet!

This afternoon was my first time hauling the rig with horses in it. My friend, mentor, and instructor, Kristi Smith, is here for the weekend to teach workshops and lessons, and instead of my usual afternoon spent riding my horses into town, I got to haul them myself. Thank heavens both of my horses are good travelers, because Franny was a little bit nervous, hauling my very own rig for the first time! (Interesting how driving someone else's doesn't phase me!) But all is well, and it's fun to have a little base to call "home" at the event :)

We're Featured on Linda's Blog!

2010-07-23T15:12:00.000-07:00

Linda wrote a blog featuring the lesson she gave Crest and me! Too cool, and a VERY informative read :) Check it out!

http://linda.parellinaturalhorsetraining.com/2010/07/peeling-back-the-onion-layers/

Would love to hear what people thought! :)

Ohio Recap Pt 2: While We Wait for the Arena...

2010-07-08T10:42:00.000-07:00

This month is proving to be a busy month for facility maintenance and upgrade at the barn. We're in the process of re-fencing a permanent dry lot for our...um...plumper equines, as well as taking out a couple of old lines, and while we're doing that, we're (FINALLY) putting in a fenced outdoor ring. There's a flat spot at the bottom of my playground that I've always used as my "Arena", but it proves difficult for things like Follow-the-Rail, and corner-to-corner, which actually require rails and corners! So I'm thrilled that we're actually adding those elements! More to come on the Heart and Desire Horsemanship Blog as construction begins and progresses!

Anyway, most of the things that Linda had initially suggested for exercises while riding Crest are exercises (partial disengagement!) that are better set up for success, especially with a more impulsive horse, if they're done on a rail. What needs to be done is this: First, starting out, we need to establish some walk/trot/walk transitions. In the downward transitions, I'll use partial disengagement to "push" Crest down into the walk from trot, starting in his ribs and inside hind leg. I'll hold that until he can easily flow and relax in the walk, and he stretches his neck down. (See photo--though it looks like he's about to bash his head on the panel, I promise he was just stretching!)

Once those are smooth, I need to ask Crest up into a canter, using proper fluidity and core strength, cantering in my body (as opposed to the semi-fetal, fear-based squeeze and scream that I used to do, that usually results in Crest trotting like a dressage horse on steroids, and me about falling off). Once in canter, I'll allow a couple of strides at most, and use the same partial disengagment concept to bring him down to walk again. Rinse and repeat.

However, as I mentioned before, all this requires a rail of sorts. So whilst we wait for our arena, Crest and I have been preparing to ride by playing with partial disengagement online. I must confess, I felt like a total fool the other night when I had this realization. Parelli is so much about preparing online for what you want to do in the saddle, and yet I had not connected the dots from the ground exercise of partial disengagement to the saddle. I had taught both of my horses partial disengagement online months ago, as a means to encourage longitudinal flexion online. But I had not used it as a means to encourage relaxed transitions! So, that's what we're playing with now. Crest learned very quickly what I was searching for, and currently (as of 7/7/10, last I played with him), he's doing beautiful trot/walk transitions, beautiful (SMOOTH) canter/trot transitions, and is starting to find some rhythm in his canter/walk transitions, all on about 18 feet of the 22' line.

So that's where we're at for now. The journey SINCE the lesson has been so fulfilling in and of itself, I just am loving this process :)

So savvy on, and keep your eyes peeled for another addition to the "Ohio Recap" series, as I come to understand and dissect Crest's tendencies as a learner!

Ohio Recap Pt 1: Processing, etc

2010-07-02T10:06:00.000-07:00

I know my followers are going to kill me for this post. It's going to be a far cry from the "I can't wait for what Fran blogs about after that lesson!" post that a lot of people mentioned to me at the Ohio Celebration!

This week has been a far cry from break-through week. I've learned since being at the Parelli Center, that more often than not, "seeds" of knowledge are planted in your head, and you've just got to trust that they'll come about and grow when the time is right. I knew this lesson wouldn't be an exception to that, so instead of going out and immediately trying everything that Linda had us playing with, I've opted to take a slower approach, and allow the information to sink in as I go S-L-O-W-L-Y with Cresty.

The main things we HAVE played with have been finding responsibility and asking questions with the Patterns. That's something that I was confident enough in to begin with that I feel like I can support him through it. For those that weren't in OH, basically Linda commented that Crest wasn't asking many questions online, and that I was greatly over-using my stick to micromanage him though the motions, but he wasn't really thinking about the pattern. Using the figure 8 pattern, Linda had me interrupting Crest's pattern of continuing to circle, and then send him through the cones, and tag the center of the pattern...that way if he didn't put effort into it, he'd get tagged.

That's going well, today will be magic session #4, and I'm sure, just like with everything else, that we will begin seeing some understanding. Our previous 3 sessions have provided some small changes (the first session being the one some of you saw in OH), I'm having to interrupt him coming around the cones a lot lighter and less often, and he knows what he's supposed to do when I do, so I HARDLY have to bring my energy up and he goes through the cones. I call it success :)

Other than that, I've not been on Crest's back since the lesson. Mentally, for me to go that introverted MYSELF, for HIM, was very trying, and I'm just allowing the experience to process and sort itself out before I dare go and play with what we learned there. Hopefully as things sort out a bit, and I understand more for myself what I'll need to do to help his many layers become confident, I'll have a more thoughts on the experience for you. For now, all I can say is that slow and right definitely beats fast and wrong, and I'm looking forward to what the future holds, but I need to think before I act.

So for now, keep it natural. Stay tuned for a Part 2, and who knows how many more! Stay savvy!

New Website, New Blog, Exciting News, etc

2010-06-03T11:43:00.000-07:00

Howdy folks. Yes. I did abandon you again. I had some things to sort out, here. But, the good news is, I am here now. Alive, well, happy, and ready to continue to learn, and progress in my crazy journey.

So, First order(s) of business. Who's game for some updated material?

I have a brand spankin' new business name, new website, and new blog to go with it!

I am now proud to call my business Heart and Desire Horsemanship. My website is getting the finishing touches put on, so if you go check it out immediately, bear with me if there are a couple of blank pages yet. You can view it by clicking here: HEART AND DESIRE HORSEMANSHIP WEBSITE Take note of the URL while you're there!

Secondly, new blog! A place for me to share all things going on with my business--Trainee horses, posture and trimming experiments with my own horses, lesson highlights, and learning opportunities. Check that out here, and FOLLOW: HEART AND DESIRE HORSEMANSHIP BLOG

Thirdly, I have some HUGE news! HUGE HUGE HUGE!

Crest and I have been accepted, and invited to participate as "Linda's Lesson" at the Parelli Across America event in Columbus, OH! You want to talk about one proud, excited mommy! I've been hoping for an opportunity like this for years with this horse. I told Parelli that my goals for the lesson were to gain some insight into a more safe, enjoyable, and eventually, progressive riding experience with Crest. Since his online and liberty are L4 quality material, I'm struggling to find where there might be a hole in our communication on the ground, and so am searching for thoughts from atop zone 3 to progress us beyond Crest's emotional tendencies. This'll be a wonderful opportunity to have a lesson with someone who is considered a master! I can't wait, and of course there'll be a play-by-play post (novel?) and many pictures to follow!

So, was that enough of an update for you? Will I see any of you in Columbus?

Savvy on!

Something to Tide You Over...

2010-04-26T18:35:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks,

Though there is plenty to blog about, I'm pretty flat out around here, so the probability of me writing much for the next couple of weeks isn't too high.

For now, here's what you need to know:

~I'm in Wisconsin (home) for 3 days this week
~I was at Kristi Smith's in Iowa through this past weekend, assisting in her workshops
~South Dakota is alright--I've learned a lot, and we've had a foal born on the premises who's been my greatest teacher, along with Crest.
~My goals and time-line for the summer have shifted drastically, more details as I work things out myself.

In the mean time, here is a video of Crest and me playing at liberty last weekend. Some of you may have seen this if you follow my life on Facebook, but I thought it would be nice to post here, too. Enjoy, and I'd really love to hear your feedback. My relationship with Crest has becoming extremely important to me at this phase of my life, and I am so proud of how far both of us have come, in seeing this video!

So, that's it for now. I'll be back from SD in a couple of weeks, and my life should resume with relative normality. I hope everyone is well!

Yes, I'm Alive!

2010-04-03T13:57:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to pop in and let you know that I'm still alive. Insanely busy, perhaps, but alive, none-the-less.

Things are going pretty well here at Heartland. The facility is absolutely gorgeous, and the people and horses are wonderful to be around. I'm playing with between 3-8 horses a day depending on the day, doing some facility maintainence (Fancy phrasing for "grunt work"!) and some work on Heartland's website, as well as taking lessons and developing my own horsemanship.

The current excitment around the barn is that we've got a mare who's due to foal literally any time. My guess is that she'll go tonight, she's starting to act a little "labor-y", getting cranky, defensive of her space, and isn't eating so much. I'm on the "foal watch" crew, which basically means I've been keeping really odd hours the past couple of nights, and have to be ready to spring into action at any moment. I'm well over-due for a nap, to say the least. I'll keep posted here as things progress, and yes, of course I'll have a camera at hand!

Today is technically my day off, and I just returned from a really nice ride out with Farrah, Farrah's husband Michael, and another gal who works here named Dana. It was a beautiful (albeit EXTREMELY windy) afternoon, and we had fun taking our horses out for a trek around the property and through the beautiful fields. Prin was wonderful and we played with some lead changes in the field, and are playing with developing her canter some.

So that's what's up here. I'm off to take a nap for the rest of my afternoon off so that I can stay awake tonight. I'll try to get this up and blogging again more often, but it's been really hard to find time to do more than check email occasionally, so I'll do my best!

Savvy on!

My South Dakota Adventure

2010-03-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

So I've mentioned it, now it's time to elaborate some.

Prin, Crest and I will be leaving for Heartland Ventures (Click link to check the place out!) on Tuesday, March 23rd. I'll be working full time as kind of an all-around helper--Farrah I think referred to me at one point as the "Sha-BAM Instructor-in-Training". Yes, that will go on a name-tag, just watch!

Anyway, my duties will be as follows: playing with the young horses Farrah started (a few 3-year olds, several other yearlings/2-year olds), general barn-management/maintenance stuff--feeding, turning horses out, grooming, cleaning up, stalls (I am nothing if not ace at picking stalls by now), as well as developing my own horses, assisting Farrah while she's teaching, and keeping things running smoothly. Like I said, pretty general responsibilities, and all-in-all more great experience.

So that's what I'll be up to. I'm not sure how long I'll be there, (pending when I leave for my externship), but I look forward to it! I shall keep you posted as best I can--I intend to keep an album of pictures on my facebook page as we progress and move along in this adventure, so please add me as a friend if you haven't already, and keep track of it that way, too :)

Savvy on!

Elvis is For Sale!

2010-03-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

**If photos don't format correctly, click on image and it will open in a separate window**

**I'm Advertising this horse for a friend/student of mine**

Elvis is an 11-year-old Arab/Appaloosa Gelding. He stands about 14.2hh, and 1000lbs. He is dark bay with a star and two small white socks.

Elvis has been brought through Level 2 of the Parelli Program, and is a Left-Brained Extrovert. He has lots of confidence and energy, and loves to be played with. He’s a very brave horse. He knows the seven games up to a 22’ line, handles scary obstacles in stride, and has been ridden freestyle in both a Parelli hackamore and a snaffle bridle. He’s been ridden on trails, and was used in two lessons with 3* Parelli Professional Farrah Green in 2009. He is currently ridden in a western saddle, including a back cinch.

Though Elvis is a smart, playful guy, I wouldn’t suggest him for a total novice. He does best with consistency, and enjoys being played with on a daily basis, and appreciates a leader who can offer him variety and mental stimulation.

Elvis is only for sale because current owner is looking for an older, more reliable mount horse to introduce her husband to Parelli and riding.

Asking $1300, negotiable to a loving, Parelli home.
Contact Fran with any questions regarding Elvis.
Email: savvyup@yahoo.com Cell #:715-495-0094

More photos below!

What a Week!

2010-03-14T08:29:00.000-07:00

Life went from "busy" to "insane" this week, and since I've been eluding to some new opportunities on Facebook, I just wanted to share what I can about them :)

First of all, my externship audition package is off! I sent it out in the middle of the week last week. So begins the game of waiting. Usually I'd be nervous and unable to get it off my mind, but with all the stuff that's going on around here, I'm actually having to use that as a positive reminder to myself to get my mind off the STUFF I've to be doing! I'll keep you posted, hopefully I'll hear back on that in a couple weeks.

Secondly, I am relocating to South Dakota sometime in the near future! (I'd be more specific, but my coordinator is being a little vague with me about timing) Farrah called me a couple weeks ago and made a pretty interesting proposal. Apparently Farrah was asked to take up the position of barn manager at her current facility. Trouble is, she's taking that as well as instructing full time, and playing with their young horses, and even though Farrah is the queen of getting way more than I could get done in a 24 hour day, that's still just too much. So she asked if I'd be interested in coming out, taking up some of the management responsibilities, as well as finishing the young horses she's started. I'll be bringing Prin and Crest with me, and in exchange for my work, Farrah's offered me a series of lessons. I'll use that to finish up my L4 and get Crest going, I think. Talk about an awesome opportunity and more experience, which I'm so excited for.

Finally, slightly less for the positive, Prin has been sick. I'm still not entirely certain what's wrong, whether it's an upper-respiratory infection brought on by moldy hay, COPD coming on from the moldy hay, or some other kind of allergic reaction. In any case, she's been snotty and coughing some, right now I've got her on antibiotics and some anti-inflammatory, antihistamic, and soothing herbs. Poor little lady. I have lots of faith that she'll be okay, but it's just sad to see them when they're not alright.

So that's what's going on here. As I find out more of what's going on, I'll keep you posted.

Extern Audition Video

2010-03-07T17:15:00.000-08:00

Hey All,

Just wanted to share this--in addition to the compulsories, I put together some "Just for fun" clips with my horses to go with my Externship Audition film. I felt like even though our compulsories looked really good, I wanted to showcase some of the things I'd been playing with my herd beyond that.

Check it out, and I'd love to hear your feedback!

Well That Was Humbling...

2010-03-06T09:58:00.000-08:00

So I did something different today.

I went out to the barn and had my mom film me just for the heck of it. I saddled Prin up, bridled her, and rode some patterns at a L2 standard--casual rein with Carrot Stick, like what's required as a compulsory for the extern audition. It's been about 3 months since I've had enough decent footing to play with anything other than isolations and follow-the-trail, so I wasn't expecting perfection by any means...

As the title implies, I was given a bit of a check to the ego. Not only does my riding look horrific (Tell me, Fran, have you ever ridden in a saddle before?), I seem to have forgotten how to be NEUTRAL!

I confess, I've neglected my fundamentals a little. I've done so much bridless riding on Prin that I forgot how to ride casually with reins and a bridle! I found myself lifting my reins before switching my focus, lifting my reins before asking her to turn with the stick, lifting my reins to stop, lifting my reins, lifting my reins!!! Arrrgh! Beautiful excuse for my LBI to lose impulsion, I'm so sorry, dear Prinny!

So, needless to say, I'll be teaching myself to ride again this week! I'll probably continue filming it, too. It's really good friendly game for me, because I tend to get kind of bracy in front of a camera, too. So, I shall keep you posted.

Progress with Cresty

2010-03-05T09:00:00.001-08:00

Hi folks!

The past week has been a really educational week for me with regard to that big bay horse of mine! I'm still in the process of becoming "unconsciously competent" with the information I've learned, and since a recap of the sessions would be ungodly long, I'll hold off on writing this as a "I actually know what I'm talking about" sort of article for the time being.

Here's just a quick, overall recap of what's come in our relationship, and things we've been focusing on and playing with.

**Bringing confidence in zones 3 and 4 to a new level
**Expressing himself with obstacles (Vs. me telling him what to do with them)
**Emotional balance in the canter online to a new level
**Maintain gait, maintain direction, more laps, 22' and 45' lines
**Western pleasure gaits (!!!!!!!!!) More on this in a later post--this is important!
**Purpose to the circling game
**Levade (okay, I admit it, this one is for my own entertainment!)
**Excellence in sideways from Zone 1

Our progress has been huge on an emotional level for both of us. I made some discoveries about myself when he becomes emotional, in that I have a tendency to want to just put him back and not deal with it--talk about dumping my horse off a cliff when he needs a leader most! Time for me to start finishing what I've started--and the results have been FANTASTIC. Crest has gained tons of confidence in my leadership, and the things he's been offering throughout the past week have been amazing...yesterday he began to stretch downward, slow down, and use his back in the canter online. I've NEVER seen him do that, even in the pasture on his own. He also offered a western pleasure jog at the end of the 22' line yesterday. THAT definitely passed the mental "Does that horse look rideable?" test in my book, although I'm holding off from riding him for now.

So. That's what we've been up to. I will continue posting, probably in smaller, specific-task/behavior oriented posts, since this horse has so many interesting behaviors to consider! It's certainly taken some time, but I'm beginning to see this horse in a different light, and I think I'm actually, dare I say, enjoying the complexity?

Savvy on!

Slow and Right...

2010-02-24T08:39:00.000-08:00

"Slow and right beats fast and wrong, and slow and right BUILDS fast and right, and NOTHING beats fast and right!" ~Pat Parelli

Over the past few days, I've gained a new appreciation for that Parelli-ism. You see, I've been hitting a new level of incompetence with Crest. It seems to happen more often with him than with my other projects, which is not all-together to shocking, but this particular bout of incompetence has been a bit more extreme, in that I couldn't simply step back and research my way out of it.

To be honest, this all started with my realizing that I'm unconfident enough that I cannot canter on Crest and feel safe, and I feel like that's really holding us back from progressing into L3 freestyle.

It's cause by different things for both of us. For me, it's fear. I've never been hurt cantering on him, but I've had too many near misses and little hits to my confidence that have built up over time, as well as not recognizing fear and plowing my own thresholds. That's an easy enough problem to solve with approach and retreat mentally--but then actually fixing my fear on his back is really hard, especially since it's not a worry about my ABILITY to canter (put me on any other horse and I'll canter standing up, backwards, forwards, you name it, all with confidence), but in my ability to canter ON HIM.

For Crest, it's an emotional issue. He comes unglued really fast and really easily with a rider. You've probably heard me elude to that fact in prior posts. It used to be that he had a hard time controlling his body--he'd get very emotional even cantering online, but after spending the early summer with Farrah, and spending the majority of the fall developing his online to L4, that's not much of an issue anymore. When I get on his back, though, he falls apart. I'm sure I'm not helping. I tend to want to canter, but only a little bit, so to speak. That trust isn't there 100% a lot of the time.

The issue I was faced with was how one builds confidence as a rider, while helping the horse become a less-emotional individual WITH a rider. To me, it seemed like the kind of thing that shouldn't be solved at the same time, but the problem was, I couldn't seem to find another way to do it.

I sent emails to 3 friends of mine who are Parelli professionals, seeking their thoughts and feedback. Two of the three gave me really really good philosophical thoughts to ponder...post-its with these thoughts now line the frame on my monitor as I type this. The third came back with "hands-on" information, and this is where "Slow and right" comes in.

We often generalize that extroverts need to move their feet. They are, after-all, extroverts. What I seem to forget, apparently too often, is that confident, Left-Brained horses are not always confident left-brained learners. In fact, in Crest's case, he's not a confident learner at all.

The FIRST thing my friend said in her email was this thought-provoking paragraph:

"You have to make your horse's confidence primary. When you get him calm, confident and trusting, it will be easier for you to trust him. I think that you're not paying enough attention to his emotional state and pushing him over thresholds that you are probably not even aware of. Slow down, make it easier for him. Break things down in to little chunks. And where necessary, get off for HIS confidence - which probably goes before yours. And when I talk about his confidence, it may not be that he's afraid, as in prey animal afraid, but that he's lost confidence in your leadership."

...Naturally. We've been through this before. I think there's a blog entry from early 2008 with nearly the same advice with regard to a different subject.

So for the past week, Crest and I have been taking it SLOWLY. When I say slowly, I mean observing MICROSCOPIC behaviors. I've re-watched some key demos in the Liberty and Horse Behavior pack, and have actually incorporated some things Pat has done with Casper into our liberty play, here, as well as lots of short pattern-oriented rides. Haven't seen any huge effect yet, but again, "slow and right..." We'll get there, it's been a great lesson in dropping the time-line (which I hadn't even realized I had on him!)

Interestingly enough, the effect that this has had on Prin is for the better, too--I think my introvert is feeling a little resentful--"Sure, you'll finally slow down if it's HIM?" ...nah, kidding! But seriously, she's doing really well as a result, too--the giddyup and go that she's got in her draw, flying changes, and circling game are pretty impressive. It's only taken me 7 years and another horse to teach me the lesson, but hey!

So anyway, with that said, I'm off to go play with a couple ponies.

...and Fun Was Had by All

2010-02-19T16:31:00.001-08:00

Today has been an absolutely remarkable day. I had two awesome plays with Prin and Cricket, and they're soooo worth sharing about.

I started out this morning playing with Prin. Last night I got a round of inspiration to start playing with some Finesse again, for whatever the reason. I've been avoiding the savvy as much as possible because I tend to turn into a scary person when I ride with contact. I've been focusing my attention to the details and pieces of successful finesse since November, and it suddenly dawned on me that all of my primary pieces were in place at suggestion level. I also came up with some new ideas for ways to develop lateral maneuvers without a rail to follow (I felt brilliant!), and wanted to play a little with it, at the walk, just to see what we could get.

Prior to today, when I'd pick my reins up at the beginning of our session, Prin would be fairly heavy. I'd have to do a fair amount of suspension rein and duck-landing transitions before she would be light enough in her front end to even handle "coiling the spring" so to speak, and collecting up.

Today, I just lifted my reins and her head came in, when I picked up contact, I felt her ENTIRE FRONT END come up to meet my hands. Not that I didn't believe it was possible, but I've NEVER felt anything like that come out of Prin before. It was exhilarating and we hadn't even moved yet!

We rode some figure 8's, focusing on keeping zone 5 closest to the barrel (focusing on keeping weight back and HQs flexible), and she felt REALLY solid. Did several more figure 8's with leg yields through the middle, and then played with the weave pattern, doing haunches and shoulders in through the cones. This all went really well, the neatest thing I found was that she was actually a little TOO flexible in her lateral stuff--it used to be that she couldn't do haunches and shoulders because she was so braced and locked up. Though she's still not 100% correct, I consider over-flexibility to be a HUGE step in the right direction for her. And the best part was, neither one of us ever lost our patience or our confidence. HUGE HUGE HUGE. It was awesome, and a huge success!

Next, I played with Cricket. I'm in the process of developing her into my lesson horse troop for 2010, and so I've been playing on developing her knowledge for patterns in online/freestyle up to Level 3. She's doing really beautifully online, especially, but recently she's been getting a bit presumptuous about the circling game, and has lost a lot of her play drive. I'm sure I've just drilled her a bit, is all, so today, I set out to make it right and bring her curiosity back out.

I used the touch-it game as my motivator. Cricket is innately a very dominant LB horse, set into some very resentful, almost RB-esque patterns from poor previous handling. I chose touch it because it allows for a horse's dominance to come out through the nose, something Left-Brain extroverts especially have a tendency for.

At first, she wanted none of it. Though she would touch the cones, she would do it with a "Why would I WANT to do that?" expression on her face. But as the game progressed (cones, barrels, round corral panels, tree limbs, etc), her curiosity started to take over, until she was getting a bit playful. Below are a couple of photos I snapped as we played toward the end of our session. The photo with the barrel was taken right before we quit. She had knocked it over, and had pushed it about 10 feet, before settling in to bite it. The one with the cone was taken just before she knocked it over, and then picked it up. Isn't she just the cutest?

BITE!

"I'll knock it over, then bite it!"

As you can see, we had fun :)

Alright, off to bed. Savvy on, folks!

Parelli's Newest 3* Professional

2010-02-19T15:42:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

I just wanted to share some super exciting news. I talked to Farrah Green today, and she shared with me that she received her 3* PARELLI PROFESSIONAL RANKING yesterday!

If there's anyone I know who deserves that promotion, it's Farrah. She's been working hard to achieve that for 3 years, and it's so time for this. She's 3* and more in my book, and I'm SO PROUD AND HAPPY for her. She is amazing. I cannot wait to see what she continues to offer the horse world with this. Congrats, Girl!

Farrah and her two super horses, Caesar and Wesley.

Somewhere in Level 4, Precision is Born

2010-02-13T15:29:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

Just wanted to share a few photos from today with you. I'm not usually one to be very pleased with the way things turn out with pictures, but I'm quite happy to see the results of these! My horse looks very happy and content in all of them, her physical posture is AMAZING, and I actually don't look too shabby either. I guess that's what L4 is all about--isn't that where mental, emotional, and physical come together to form a magnificent performance creature?

Anyway, check 'em out! If the computer screen formats the shots funny or cuts a piece off, click the image, it'll open the photobucket link they're taken from :)

FQ Isolations done with refinement (Mane hair and body language!). She's in mid-speed spin here, actually. I can't get over how blissful she looks!

Trotting. She's looking VERY through and athletic in her movement. Very driven from her HQ, and looks very loose and light in front end, not to mention HAPPY! WOW! Plus--that trot is actually getting hard to sit!

Just a hair more flexion, and she'd be vertical on her own volition! Wow. HUGE for this stock horse. Talk about developing self-carriage! I love her so much!

So that's all for now, let me know what you think if you feel so inclined :)

Savvy on!

Lemons to Lemonade

2010-02-12T09:18:00.000-08:00

Hi Folks,

Gonna get a series of short blogs here over the next couple of days. The weather for the most part, is beautiful, but I've been kind of caught up in my head, so writing is essential. Anyway, today's topic is going to revolve around a segment of the January Savvy Club DVD with Dr. Robert Miller, entitled "Lemons to Lemonade".

Dr. Miller is a world-renowned veterinarian, writer, public speaker, the developer of foal imprinting, promoter of natural horsemanship, and also a long-time friend of Pat Parelli. (Click HERE to visit his website) This segment was filmed at a 4-week Masterclass course this summer in Pagosa Springs, where Dr. Miller was invited to give a talk, and told some stories about Pat to the class. He centers his talk around Pat's ability to take difficult situations, and turn them around and work them to his advantage (Hence Lemons to Lemonade). Some of the examples he gives are just befuddling--I knew Pat was good at that, but I didn't realize he was such a master at it. It got me thinking, that is for SURE.

The past couple days here have been kind of chock full of disappointments. In addition to several financial explosions, and bad experiences, I was supposed to be at Kristi Smith's today through Monday at a weekend set of workshops. The weather is looking rather unpredictable, so Kristi had to make a very difficult decision, and cancel the event, and reschedule for April. Yesterday was a very emotional day for the both of us--she more-so than I, probably, though I certainly did my fair share of crying.

In all of my frustration last night, that segment of the DVD kept haunting the back corner of my mind. I finally gave in to temptation and pulled it up on the Savvy Club Vault and watched it again. If nothing else, the lesson to learn from it is exactly the title of the segment. In hearing some of the situations that Pat managed to make good (And from another person's perspective--not his own!), I was reminded and inspired to do just that.

So--even though I'm very disappointed not to spend the weekend with Kristi, you know what? It's 27 degrees, sunny, and not windy. Our driveway is plowed and I started teaching both my horses some neat things yesterday--what a shame it would be to not finish what I started! So this weekend, my goals are to help Crest find rhythm and relaxation for two laps of canter, both directions at liberty, and to teach him to find connection better doing stick-to-me to the right. With Prin, I'm going to finish my externship audition tape, and develop more connection and energy in our large-area liberty.

Savvy on, folks!

Stickin' Out Like a Sore Thumb

2010-02-03T17:53:00.000-08:00

Apologies on the hold up for Pt. II of my article/story, folks. I'm typing rather slowly as it is, as I had a bit of an accident on Monday.

A rather long story short, I was trimming my barn owner's mare, Izzy. It had gone really well, up until the last 3 rasp strokes on her last (left hind) foot. She lost her balance slightly, and her hoof slipped off the hoof jack. Would not have been a bad incident, except that has her foot fell, it caught my gloved hand between her un-rasped hoof wall and the hardened rubber topper of the hoof jack. At the time, it just hurt like the dickens, but a minute later when I took my glove off, I was greeted by an almost entirely-skinned thumb that was bleeding freely, and piebald bruised thumbnail.

I ended up getting 5 stitches put in, and honestly, the Novocaine needle experience has proved to have a longer-term effect than the actual stitches, it left a nice bruise at the base of my thumb that actually hurts more than the injury.

So anyway--doing my best to get that second part out to you. Just know that I'm typing with my hand wrapped like in the picture below ;)

One of Those Opportunities, Pt I

2010-01-25T11:17:00.000-08:00

I'm finding it increasingly irritating that I'm stuck inside due to this weather. It's making my writing material somewhat limited, but at the same time is forcing me to spend more time indoors--perfect for blogging. So today, for your reading pleasure (and since I conveniently left you hanging in my last post) I'd like to give you an in-depth recap of the lesson I had with Kristi Smith two weeks ago, since it was a very neat experience. I've broken the entry into two parts, since I can tell it's going to be long!

Kristi hosted a series of workshops at 7A Ranch, in Oxford IA (about 10 minutes from where she lives) on the weekend of January 10th-11th. Saturday held a set of L1/2 workshops, and Sunday, L3. I reconnected with several old friends, and met some really fantastic people during both days. One of the women in particular, a fantastic gal named Mary Anna, and I hit it off immediately--it was one of those "instant" friendships. I'll give you one guess at to what horsenality SHE was ;) Anyway, she was signed up to participate in all of the workshops, and the communication she had with her GORGEOUS Oldenburg mare was nothing short of amazing. The horse looked at her with the most beautiful expression throughout the weekend, she obviously is someone who has put lots of time and energy into the relationship and Parelli program.

Anyway, I was fascinated with this pair throughout mainly because I couldn't quite peg the mare's horsenality. She looked just so genuinely happy, all the time, always asking questions, playful, wanting to follow her leader always, but wanting to play, too. I guess that's what Parelli is all about, but even so, usually you can pick the information out of the excellence just by reading tendencies. Not the case for me here. Anyway, I digress.

So, come Sunday morning, Mary Anna approached me with the introduction of "I wanna talk to you!"...I still get kind of bracy about that kind of approach from being in high school, but I was pleasantly surprised when she explained to me that she had to leave early to get home, but that she was signed up and paid to ride in the afternoon workshop, and would I be interested in taking her spot with her horse. WOULD I???? And turn down the opportunity to play with such a high-quality horse? I think not! What a compliment!!

I'm not going to lie, I'm always a little geeked out playing with other people's horses that they've so much time on. Not that I don't trust my own ability, but that I feel like the intricacies of the relationship won't carry through. It's pretty irrational, but it happens, and usually I'm a little too light as a result.

The FIRST thing this mare taught me was how to calm down. When I went to her stall, she turned her head and I swear, this wave of just easy, settling energy just washed over me. I was able to relax and halter up, etc. Once in the arena, the goal was just to put the horses through their paces in prep for riding--walk/trot/canter online, over a jump, etc. Five minutes in, and she taught me another important lesson, and that was about true neutral. Neutrality is something I struggle at with home with Prin, my being an extrovert who tend to want, and want it now, and Prin being an introvert who, until recently, didn't uphold her responsibilities very well. At any rate, with this mare, I found that if I didn't totally relax my body, neither would she. And the interesting thing was that even though disharmony with her was NOTHING compared to disharmony with my guys, it was more uncomfortable for me to feel.

I experimented a little with what breathing and neutral in ME felt like to this mare, and discovered that I really, truly had to RELAX my body, breath through my entire core. I figured out that I carry a tendency to inhale and hold a brace my shoulders, as if to say "KEEP GOING!" I really tried to pattern this new feeling into me with this horse once I figured it out, and at home, it's actually changed Prin's entire demeanor at the canter on the circle--I figure "What the absolute worst that's going to happen? She breaks gait?", and she actually really appreciates the attitude shift, and is less prone to break gait. Anyway--I digress again. Lots on my mind, obviously ;)

Anyway, after a little bit of testing the waters, we saddled up, and after a little more moving about, I mounted up.

Cont'd in Pt. II..

Road Trip!

2010-01-22T17:35:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm seriously REALLY BAD at updating this bad-boy. I think I might be the last person to actually accept that fact, but hey. I try. I really do!

Anyway, Prin and I had a little adventure over the past couple of days! As I had mentioned in a previous post, one of my goals currently is to head to Florida to do an Externship at Pat's barn. There is an application process to this, and one of the things that they ask for is an audition video. It's a pretty basic thing, the requirements are online, liberty, and freestyle, show saddling and bridling, ride some bareback, and some patterns under-saddle. All pretty easy stuff to do, provided you've got the footing to do it in the winter, which we certainly don't, right now.

So, on Thursday, despite freezing rain warnings, Prin and I loaded up and hauled to The Horse First Farm in Brooklyn (just south of Madison), WI, to film my tape with my friend and 2* Parelli Professional, Michelle Manshardt. This was my first solo haul, and it was a bit stressful--Firstly being that I was driving a borrowed rig, of course carrying my baby inside, and with the weather. Fortunately, it went fine, and I gained a lot of confidence in my ability to drive with a trailer. (Previously I'd only driven a couple small rigs locally is all) So that's a new arrow in my quiver of "stuff I can do within the horse world".

Thursday was pretty much my warm-up day. I still have a tendency to get a little paralyzed and forget how to use my brain in front of a camera, so the better a plan I can have ahead of time for what i need to show, the better I do. Prin was pretty much the happiest I've seen her in weeks, and after some tips and suggestions from Michelle, we had improved several aspects of our relationship (including our much-struggled-with large area liberty) substantially. My horse now sticks with me in the 100x200 arena (with a couple other horses in the arena at one point) without thought of leaving--too cool!

We finished out the evening at Sr. Peppers (local Mexican restaurant, one of my favs!) and had some nice chat time.

Yesterday was filming day...ahhhh! I'm not going to lie, I totally clammed up. Michelle was very patient with me, and although I'm sure it was really hard for her to watch, she was wonderful, and was able to play enough friendly-game with me and the camera, that after starting over several times, everything flowed. We got everything but three tasks filmed (freestyle patterns on a casual rein), simply because we were so crushed for time, my camera battery died, and Prin was HOT (talk about totally NOT being in condition to be moving for an hour and a half straight). But I feel REALLY good about what we got filmed, which doesn't happen very often. Though it's really kind of a glorified L2 tape (7 games on a 22' line, and at liberty, some bareback riding, saddle and bridle, mount, etc), everything looks SO quality and flowing, I feel very confident that it's exactly what they're looking for. I've got a few more tidbits to film before I send anything in, but I really do feel good about it!

So...that's what we've been up to. The time spent between my last few posts has pretty much been spent keeping my horses alive and getting other aspects of this application package put together. Oh, and I had a lesson with Kristi Smith in there a couple weeks ago too, on a gigantic, fancy Warmblood mare, who had a lot to teach me about emotions and fluidity. But that, my friends, is another story all together. So until next time, savvy on!

A New Year!

2010-01-04T20:13:00.000-08:00

Hey, Folks!

Remember me? The girl who promised that she'd start blogging more consistently, did it for like two weeks, and then disappeared again? Yeah, hi. When I said that, I had forgotten that holiday season makes my family into a pack of crazy creatures that run around like chickens with our heads cut off. I'm back, I hope, for a while, now.

So, first things first. Happy New Year! I can't believe how fast 2009 flew by! A year ago tomorrow, I left for my course at the Parelli ISC. That's mind-boggling to me. Seriously, where has time gone?!

Regardless of that, 2010 is looking to be a big year. What are your goals? Do you have something you'd like to accomplish with or for your horse? With or for YOURSELF? I'd love to hear about it! Feel free to share!

Here, 2010 is looking to be the year of my dreams. I didn't blog about this earlier because I still had details to work out, but I feel pretty confident in sharing now. My parents and I have been talking, discussing, and making plans, and as of right now, I'm in the process of putting together my application and audition package for the Parelli Externship and Parelli Professional program! No idea when I'll be going yet, but there is positive motion in the right direction. I will definitely keep everyone posted. Besides this, I'm also going to try to begin the process to become a Certified Equine Podiatrist through KC La Pierre's school. That'll be another pretty hard-core commitment, so if I don't get through it this year, I won't be broken-hearted, but it's a focus point for me, anyway.

Besides all that, I have some personal goals, and goals to accomplish with my horses, as well. They are listed below:

Parelli/Equine:

*Graduate Level 4 with Prin
*Bring Crest into Level 4 in all 4 savvys
*Finish teaching LB to drive
*Buy a truck (I've got a trailer, but nothing to pull it with!)
*Earn my 1*, perhaps my 2*
*Build my business

Self:

*Grow first and foremost as a learner. 2009 was a challenging year for me as a learner. I'd like to improve my ability to handle feedback, as well as to learn and see the good in negative experiences.

*Grow as a teacher and inspiration.

*Share what has been shared with me

*Lose 10 lbs. My Wranglers should not be fitting as tightly as they are right now!

*Develop and grow as a trimmer and photographer. These are good trades and abilities to have. I'd like to continue to learn about them, and possibly add them to my list of services :)

So there is a list. I'm not going to put a timeline on myself or my horses this year, but I'm not going to forget or give up on these things, either. It's a balancing act, and I strive to be centered!

So, here's to a savvy new year, and I'll be better about blogging now that life is not so insane! Don't forget to tell me what your goals are for the year!

Savvy On!!

Savvy String Saves the Day!

2009-12-11T14:28:00.000-08:00

People have asked me why I carry multiple savvy strings on me...this is why:

I live in the currently-snowy state of Wisconsin. We had a blizzard this week, and my region of the state is covered in 12-15 inches of snow. I drive a Ford Taurus station wagon with two-wheel drive. I've been essentially home-bound for the past 3 days, first waiting for the snow to stop falling, then because the roads were so bad. Today is my first day REALLY out and about since Monday.

Today, I went to visit some friends of mine who live about an hour away. As I pulled into their driveway, I cringed a bit to see it hadn't been fully plowed, but figured if worse came to worse, I could probably crawl my way out--I've lived here long enough to know how to get myself out of smaller snow "situations"

Ugh, Principle #2 comes to bite my butt--make or teach no assumptions?

The snow was packed down in the tire tracks, but not so much that it didn't cave a little when I turned my wheels. Both front wheels fell neatly into a rut, and dropped the front of my car practically into the snow. Peachy.

My friends, fortunately, are horse people, so they have a truck and offered to pull me out. The only problem: Connecting a tow strap to the frame involves either reaching a hand through the mechanics under the hood (learned the hard way never to try that again) or getting underneath my car--something I could not do with front of the car almost in the snow. So, conundrum, right? My friend said sarcastically that a coat hanger would be useful. And then it hit me...Why use a coat hanger when I could use...MY SAVVY STRING! So...slightly reluctantly, and with a "Please don't fail me now, baby!", I pulled my green string off my belt and handed it to my friend, who stuck it through the mechanics under my hood. I hooked the strap to the loop in the string, and my friend pulled it up and through with ease and dropped it on the other side of the bar, where I connected the hook to the strap. My friend was able to pull me out, and I was able to get home in time to play with my horse.

Savvy strings...such simple little things...SO MANY USES...I'm so glad I carry mine with me :)

Um...WOW?

2009-12-07T18:43:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I don't even know how to talk about my session with Prin today. I'm honestly at a loss for words for how INCREDIBLE it was. You ever have those days where everything you've been playing towards just suddenly drops into place? That was today.

I took Prin out, vowing that I wouldn't get hung up or obsessed with the big picture, the goal, the task, whatever, that I was going to focus on the pieces and reward the slightest try. Interesting how motivating that strategy is for an LBI...Isn't it fun? I can have the same BFO on a half a dozen times on different levels...all in one year!

Anyway, everything sort of just fell into place. I've been playing for the past week or so in isolating porcupine games and getting different parts of her body super light and responsive to a feel. Isolate, separate, and recombine, and all that. I'd been focusing particularly on zones one and 3/4, because this is pretty much where my Prin's biggest physical blocks are. I started using cookies as incentives in her zone 1, simply because I could, coupled with some lift and driving game in circles, really close in until she relaxed and REALLY flexed around me. I saw some big changes there, but the biggest surprises came when I decided to play with some zone 5 driving. After some small isolations in her hind end, she offered amazingness: QUALITY haunches in/half pass from zone 5 with ONE LINE! Um...COOL?! I'm really excited for this, because it's going to help our finesse SO MUCH. I'm really loving how my online is turning into my finesse!

When it comes to zone 1 with Prin, one scenario has always stayed true in my head--I feel like the ultimate zone 1 accomplishment with her (and maybe this is because of how..DULL Prin used to be!)is to achieve quality and correct vertical flexion in the halter, and be able to perform collected maneuvers as such. Farrah and Caesar are a great example, and I once asked her if it were as simple as a broken porcupine game, or if there was more to it than that. Farrah responded that yes, it was a broken porcupine game, but the reason probably wasn't disrespect so much as a lack of strength/flexibility, and that she's just telling me by resisting that she isn't strong enough to do it. That's been a journey in and of itself--helping her find that strength! But recently, I've felt that we're on the edge of a breakthrough.

Well...ladies and gentlemen. Today. I isolated, separated, and recombined. I showed Prin what it was I wanted, helped her find comfort in it, and she got it! Prin, for the first time in our partnership, was prancing around like a dressage pony with her head all in and down...in a HALTER! This is just...well...like I mentioned, can't really find words for it! It shows me that my horse has developed physically in a way I had truthfully seen as only wishful thinking, and is starting to offer it as her own ideas. It also shows me how much EASIER my finesse journey is going to be if I continue to develop this on the ground, then apply it to my riding.

So. That's what's going on here. Yeah, Prin is pretty much awesome. I'm SO proud of her!

And now I'm off for bed. The forecast is promising a blizzard tomorrow (6-12 inches of snow), so I may be home-bound tomorrow...or I may be riding in the snow. Either way, I'm tired now! Savvy on!

Three LBEs in the Snow

2009-12-05T15:23:00.000-08:00

Yeah, that's what happened at Brown Coulee Farm today. It was chilly again, though not nearly as cutting as it was yesterday. I was going to play with Prin, but one look told me she was not in an active mood, which is never pleasant when it's chilly outside. But I knew who would be in the mood to move...

I have a little project visiting me for several weeks right now--my friend Micky's horse, Shadow, is here to have some foundation time put on him. It's a nice swap, Hart is living with Micky for a while to get some extra feeding and provide her with some confidence.

Anyway, Shadow is a character, I blogged a little about him when she first got him last summer, but here's a little refresher. Shadow is a 3 yr old bay roan AQHA gelding. Totally a LBE, very dominant, (I must be drawing these horses to me, subconsciously!)and so far, hasn't really done a whole lot just with schedules being the way they are. So he's pretty fresh.

I've had a couple sessions with him already, but figured I wouldn't blog until there was actually something to talk about. Shadow, being extremely dominant, is not the type of horse that I'm going to be playing with on my own on the ground at first. It's really difficult, and not safe for me to try to build rapport with a horse that wants to be on top of me, and even more unsafe for me to try to establish boundaries with him, because of his punk tendencies (that include rearing and striking--I've watched him extensively in the herd). So with that in mind, I've decided that until I can safely, lightly, and effectively play all 7 games with him from the back of another horse, I'm not going to attempt to talk to him on my own.

Today was my second day of playing with that, and I used Crest as my back-up, because he is Mr. Amazing when it comes to colt starting...something about the responsibility that it gives him really works well. Anyway, it was quite interesting, it was really a good-natured battle of wills between the three of us (all LBEs, yikes!), but the fortunate thing was that I had Crest on my side. We played with only very basic things--friendly games (He has the same over-sensitivity to high energy that Crest does), and learning to yield HQ and FQ, which wouldn't have gone nearly as well, had it not been for Crest's awesome assistance. He was not only solid and confident for me, but he also helped out applying pressure when it was needed, and reinforcing my phases when Shadow got sassy. He's turning into such a fabulous partner.

Shadow learned the basics of yielding his forehand and hind-quarters, follows a feel, and plays stick-to-me pretty well. We need to keep playing with desensitizing him to high energy, but sensitizing him to driving games (in other words, creating more of a defining line between the two), and all around developing more respect. I'll keep blogging as we go, and I'll try to get some pictures of our upcoming sessions--perhaps even tomorrow, since Micky's going to spend the day with me.

Savvy on, I'm going to bed early!

B-B-B-RRRR!

2009-12-04T17:30:00.000-08:00

Ack! Winter is upon us all of a sudden. It took two days, the temperature dropped from high 40's to low 20's, and we got our first noticeable snowfall last night. I'm not opposed to winter weather, but today was uncomfortably chilly--with highs only reaching 21 and gusty arctic winds blowing on us.

Regardless, I managed to get motivated to go play with Prinny this afternoon (please don't ask what possessed me, I froze my tail off!). We practiced some things online, which went alright. I'm fairly certain both Prin and I are getting more clear in our communication, because she's gotten very accurate at showing me EXACTLY what is broken when I lack something, and I have less and less trouble interpreting it, which is fun.

Anyway, she exposed some holes in our communication, namely in our porcupine/driving games from zones 4/5 that I think will have a big impact on our liberty. I apparently cannot communicate my ideas effectively to the break between zones 3 and 4, FROM zone 5, or from zone 4, if that makes sense. We played with it a bit and started to get some really nice soft results, but there's definitely a lot to do yet.

So that's pretty much it. I'll keep blogging as I learn and develop in it. It's always something new to learn in this. Neat stuff :)

Savvy on!

Oh, Heavenly Day

2009-11-30T17:32:00.000-08:00

Oh goodness, I could not have asked for a more marvelous day with my horses, today!

So that blog I wrote a couple days ago about partial disengagement? Yeah, I was definitely onto something. Today, though it took a bit of time for her to find that sweet spot, Prin was a stretching MACHINE, online. It was absolutely amazing to see her truly come through and over in her body--this is something we've been struggling with for a year! I can feel major changes in our online coming, very VERY soon--this is the key that we've been missing to flexion on the 45' line, quality in close range circling at liberty, and a happier horse on the circle in general. This is the key to better finesse. I cannot believe that it finally clicked. I'm SO proud of her! I'll try to get some pix ASAP.

In other news--I taught LB the beginnings of driving today--just started out in zones 3/4/5 with long lines. She was a little unconfident with it at first, she was downright confused as to how I was communicating with both sides of her at once, but she got the hang of it, and picked up on some basics right away--she now knows "Whoa", "Step", and "Back" all verbally, and ground drives walk/halt/reverse fairly well. I'm trying to convince my dad to get me a harness for her for Xmas, so we shall see where this goes. Little horse LOVES having a purpose, and honestly, she needs to start pulling some weight around...chubby little booger!

So that's where it's at tonight. Feeling VERY happy with how things are going out there, and SO proud of my girls!

Savvy on!

A Note on Tying

2009-11-29T17:51:00.000-08:00

A short, unrelated note tonight, as a blog of today's events would, I'm confident, bore you to tears.

Recently, a lively discussion has come up on the Parelli Forum about the subject of tying horses. There seems to be a bit of rift--most Parelli students have been taught the benefits of tying. Pat encourages everyone to teach their horses to tie for up to 6 hours at a time. Reasoning being it's a builder of patience, emotional fitness, a high level porcupine game, and sometimes is a convenience, too. But, on the other side, someone actually went so far as to suggest I was condoning animal cruelty for stating that I've tied Prin and Crest for 4+ hours at a time.

So, for tonight's blog, I thought I'd just share with you what I wrote in response to the person who said I was being cruel. I don't take it to heart, by any means. I know that my horses are happy. This is meant to be purely informational.

A Note on Tying:

Pat's definition of respect is "the appropriate application of pressure, and the appropriate response to the application of that pressure"... it seems to me that teaching a horse naturally to stand tied for an indefinite amount of time is just that. I'm not going to FORCE my horse to stand there for hours right off the bat (That IS unfair, and goes against all things Parelli, not to mention sets the situation up for complete failure)...I am, however, going to help my horse learn and understand how to respond appropriately to both the porcupine game and extreme friendly game, and slowly and gradually increase both the amounts of time he/she can stand, as well as the level of commotion he/she can tolerate while being tied. There's a process, just like with everything else we teach our partners to do. To me, that indicates high levels of communication in both porcupine and friendly game. That's all it breaks down to.

There is no malice, no cruel intent in asking my horse to stand still on my terms. As long as my horse knows his/her responsibilities in the partnership (mine do), and I understand mine (I do), and the situation has been set up for success, then it's not unfair or wrong.

My horses stand tied willingly because they never learned tying to be something UNCOMFORTABLE. They get fed off and on to keep them busy, almost ALWAYS have access a bucket of water. And it's not like I just up and leave, either...most of the tying situations they've been in have been at clinics in which I was assisting and/or hosting, or some other situation in which I could not physically be there with them all the time, but was close enough that I could keep an eye on them They're usually tied near, or, in some circumstances, even IN the arena that the event is being presented.

I hope that provided some insight on what I think is an interesting topic. Questions, requests for clarification and/or specification, and feedback are, as always, very welcome. Let me know your thoughts!

BFO leading to Breakthrough (I Hope!)

2009-11-28T15:39:00.000-08:00

Short post tonight, I had a very nifty BFO today with Prin. In developing our L4 online stuff, Prin struggles to keep good flexion in canter out at longer distances. Her rhythm and relaxation are good, and she keeps contact in the mental aspect of the word, but has a hard time maintaining true physical contact, i.e being straight on the circle, and it's not her fault--she's just been physically incapable of it.

I had lunch with my friend Michelle, a fellow L4 student and also a 2* Parelli professional, this week, and we had an opportunity to talk strategies, as her little horse, Connor, also struggled with this.

I've been told, time and again, that the solution (or at least part of it!) is longitudinal flexion at the trot online. That this will build Prin's ability to bend and flex her body independently. I've been given lots of instruction on how to achieve this--I've tried it all, but never seemed to be able to achieve satisfactory results. I've used porcupine games as well as driving games to try to get my horse's ribs and body flexing, and it just never happened.

Michelle, again, made this as a suggestion, but she, unlike everyone else, gave me the key that was missing--she said "If you're walking with her while she trots, you can actually use your driving game and communicate with her inside hind foot. Linda calls it a 'partial disengagement', and if you push it under, she has to use her HQ more, and her natural instinct will be to stretch and breath more."

EUREKA!! Prin and I found it today, almost immediately! I was just playing on the 12' line, and switched my focus to that inside hind, instead of her ribs. Instantly, Her head sank lower, her eyes softened, and she started to stretch and blow. I quit pretty much on that note--no need to overload. But how COOL! I'll continue playing with it over the next few days, and I have a feeling she's going to make HUGE changes. Shall keep you posted!

Okay, to bed with me!

Oh, My Extroverts!

2009-11-27T14:35:00.000-08:00

Today's play was an interesting wake-up call to me with regard to two of my little herd. I am innately a Left-Brain Extrovert, and though I'm pretty adequate at handling all the horsenalities, I've always been partial to my left-brain horses, particularly the extroverts, recently (though it used to be LBIs, hands down! Thanks Prin!). Today's events revolved around two fascinating (and perplexing, in some cases) sessions with two of my horses--and involved my digging deep into my savvy quiver at points.

I started my afternoon out with a half an hour long session with little LB. It's been a long time since I've put any effort into LB's development, simply for time's sake. LB is QUITE the little extrovert, and what little time I've put on her has been centered around developing obedience--something, she taught me right off the bat, that doesn't last unless she's played with consistently. Note to self...

LB's version of disobedience--she was supposed to be trotting a circle!

We played with developing obedience and smoothness on the 22' line. LB's circling game particularly has lots to improve upon, the little rascal likes to circle with her nose IN THE AIR, tilted away from me. My usual strategy for dealing with this is actually to just hold my hand closed and firm with as little rope as possible, and then release on the slightest try, but LB wanted none of it. I have NEVER had that strategy not work, most horses get tired of carrying themselves incorrectly within a couple laps and start to relax--not her! I isolated it as a broken porcupine, and inspected some other areas--broken draw in yo-yo, broken bring-back on the circle, and decided I needed to focus on porcupining the front end.

We started with basic L1 porcupine games, and moved on to other things while in motion--I used the figure-8 pattern to my advantage, looking to continue the pattern until she showed signs of obedience. I was very impressed with her persistence, I must say--she came up with about 28 ways NOT to do the figure 8 pattern, but all of a sudden, she just fell into a rhythm. I got several repetitions of very soft, pretty, obedient pattern, and brought her in. I unhaltered her, and she started offering to do some things at liberty on her own, which I thought was pretty darn neat! We played for another couple of minutes before I put her back and went for my next playmate.

I played with Crest, next. Crest was VERY emotional today--whether it was the weather, the fact that I was still a bit mentally bound up over my session with LB, or just because that's how he was meant to be today, I don't know. But he started out by telling me quite plainly that he NEEDED to move his feet. I obliged, and let him move about at the end of my 45' line. That was not probably the best move on my part--had I been more on my game, I might have put him on a pattern or something, so as to keep his mind occupied. Anyway, it ended fine, he just took a little longer to focus.

We played a lot online, focusing on walk/canter/walk transitions (hoping this'll transfer to our riding), and then moving to long-line driving--which he is now the champion of. I'm still a bit clumsy when it comes to changing bend/flow from side to side on circles, and it bothers him a little, I think. I'm pretty sure it just breaks down to a communication slip--my timing isn't perfect yet, and Crest is so sensitive that we're just missing something by a hair. I'll keep playing with it and let you know how it goes--I think I'll probably use the figure 8 pattern here, too. It's a pattern he knows well (he's playing in L4) so that buys me some opportunity to work on myself without worrying about him. We shall see how it goes.

I got on his back for a few minutes and just focused on isolations again--my GOODNESS he's getting light! I got several GORGEOUS 180 degree rollbacks using practically nothing, and he's getting this super speedy, but super controlled backup going, too. What a neato horse!

So, that's pretty much it for today. I'm so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open right now. Again, I'm very wordy, but I hope I gave you at least a little insight into my day--again, feedback is welcome if you wish :)

Savvy on, I'm off for BED!

Principle #7...In So Many Ways!

2009-11-25T19:40:00.000-08:00

Here it is, as promised, the beginnings of what I hope can actually be an account of my sessions again. Bear with me, awkwardness may ensue, I've really taken up the life of an introvert in the world of my ponies--really focusing on learning for me.

Today, my friend Jessy, a very driven and enthusiastic L2 student, came down to spend a day learning and playing with me. She was partnered with Prin, and I chose to play with Crest, since he's had almost 3 weeks off.

Jessy has a LBI of her own, and so her focus in playing with Prin is to learn to motivate an LBI that already knows her responsibilities (Principle #7: Horses teach people and people teach horses), as well as to just plain ol' advance her horsemanship. Prin proved to be an excellent teacher today. Jessy learned immediately that being slow and particular (and slower, and slower and slower) is a valuable tool in motivating Prin. We showed her some things, too, the difference between Prin's just doing the task, and putting effort into it. Jessy hopped on later, and discovered, much to her dismay, that she and Prin had a communication breakdown.

I've got to segue here for a moment: Even though Prin is playing late into L4, she's still my horse--she doesn't ride the way she does for me with anyone else, and for that, I'm extremely grateful. She's by no means dangerous, but she will expose holes in communication effectively. I'm so grateful to have her as my partner in teaching, as well as my personal horsemanship journey! Anyway!

Jessy was a little upset, I think at having my horse test her. She felt there was a BIG roadblock in front of her. Something to prevent her from progressing. At this point, I introduced her to the concept of Isolate, Separate, and Recombine. Through this, Jessy figured out that she and Prin had not established a strong enough driving or porcupine game on the ground. This gave Jessy the ideas she needed, and she got off, and set to establishing that communication with more refinement. I'll be interested to see how their relationship develops from this knowledge and new set of tools.

Meanwhile, I had one HECK of a session with Crest. He's had about 3 weeks off now, 3 weeks in which he must have sat and come up with a zillion ways to make me laugh. I put him on the 45' line today, and though he was wild and crazy, he just wanted to play with ME! We spent the better part of 20 minutes just running around being sassy. Crest was jumping, kicking, rearing, bucking, striking at the air, tossing his head, and overall just showing off and feelin' fine. Throughout this magnificent display of athleticism, however, Crest maintained contact with me, and eventually, I was able to take his energy and "Shwung" and put it to something productive--using two lines in driving reins, we were able to achieve several strides of passage (which were STUNNING...I wouldn't have believed it, except that two other people saw it as well), as well as a couple of lovely flying changes (complete with head toss and body flail), as well as just some beautiful round, Andalusian-looking movement, transitions, etc.

I also got on his back briefly, and we played with HQ/FQ isolations (He's learning to SPIN, too cool!) and also being particular with all things walk. He's getting his pleasure-horse walk down so nicely, even with the time off. Hooray for emotional fitness development in the world's most emotional horse!

So...That's it for today's session. Fun was had by all, I think everyone learned a ton. In reading back on this, I think my personal homework I'm going to take from all this is that I should how to express what I learned in half the text--jeepers, I'm wordy!

Anyway, stay savvy, play often, have fun, and let me know what you think! I'm off for bed!

Back to It!

2009-11-25T06:58:00.001-08:00

Hey there, all!

I'm home now, yay! I arrived home late on the afternoon of the 20th, and since, have pretty much hit the ground running in my own personal journey (not so much elsewhere, unfortunately, which I'm trying to change). Florida was definitely a learning experience in more ways than one, and so mentally, I've been wild and crazy since before returning home. I apologize to any of you who have been following me on Facebook/twitter, and have been worried, I promise it wasn't as bad as an experience as it apparently came across!

On the equine front, my ponies were actually thrilled for my homecoming, it's been one of the best in that pasture so far. The day after I got home, I went out and called like I usually do, and 3 heads popped up, and all 3 of my riding horses upped and left the feeders, two of the three nickering as they came. Love my little herd :D

Unfortunately, I haven't had a whole lot of time to play with my guys since being home. I've had one short session just with Prin, and then I had a double session on Prin, with Hart, which was day before yesterday. I'm not entirely sure why I hadn't thought of this before, but Hart likes to play the "I'm really tall, you can't reach me!" card, and I had been struggling with refining all things forehand with him--even with the Carrot Stick, he's just tall enough that my phases cannot be totally fair to him. So duh--put myself on my 16.1hh partner, and we most likely can communicate with the tall one! It was a really fun session, I LOVE having Prin as my assistant--she's very good at backing up my phases and being in the proper position even when I'm not, sometimes ;) We got quite a bit accomplished, too. Prin was successful in teaching Hart the sideways game to the right (something he and I have struggled with a bit because of his height), and we also got some really nice stick-to-me stuff going. Very cool!

Other than that, our herd has been reduced a bit--two of our horses left for new homes, which is sad, but also a Godsend, since our corrals were getting pretty crowded. We're down to 12 now, which is a pretty good number for the space we've got.

So that's the update--I think I'm going to try to get back to a regular schedule of blogging, even if the sessions are short. It benefits me to organize my thoughts after each session, and I've gotten a few "hey, would you start sharing about your sessions again?" types of inquiries. So there we have it.

I'll try to get back into it!

Off to go play with a wet horse.

Re-inflating the Bubble

2009-11-13T05:44:00.000-08:00

This is an excerpt from a journal entry I wrote earlier today. For the record, I'm now sitting in the computer lab at the Parelli Center, surrounded by cinder-block walls ;)

It's a little past 7:00am. I"m sitting here in a green plastic chair, watching the sun rise over the hill playground at the Parelli Center in Ocala, FL. Kristi's horse, Maxi, grazes on some hay in a pen about 20 yds in front of me, and around me, the last of the externs finish up their morning routines and head up the hill to Pat's barn.

A typical day at the Parelli center, for sure. Yet as I sit here, I feel something else. I was here in January/February, and it was a life-changing experience. I returned home to Wisconsin with a new attitude, a sense of renewal and happiness, and a place to go with my journey.

Fall was a very hectic time for me this year, and yet, through it all, I felt like I did alright. My dream was (and is) still alive, though perhaps a bit duller...or...distracted (Yes, I like that, better word choice!). I hadn't lost sight of it, I just couldn't remember quite how to get there.

Sitting here now, I feel a great sense of renewal. There is nothing quite like the feel of being here, in this beautiful place. Pat and LInda have worked hard to create an environment of positive, progressive, and natural, and that truly IS here. For me, it's a refresher of my goals and dreams as a Parelli student, and a swift kick in the butt to remind me to STOP MAKING EXCUSES and just do it! I strive to be this happy all the time, and this is the starting point. So think of this as a home-coming for me. It feels good to be back, to the place (and mental attitude!) where I belong. I'm ever so happy to be here :)

Neat Online Stuff

2009-10-31T22:18:00.000-07:00

It's been raining like mad here again, go figure, so The past 3 days, again, have kept my playtime to a minimum and it's making me sad. Fortunately, the forecast seems to be looking clear and sunny for the next week or so, so the lake that is our farm should start to try up, FINALLY!

Had a beautifully progressive online day with Prin today. Started out feeling REALLY unmotivated, it was chilly, despite the sunshine, and I had a hard time getting going, which I'm sure my LBI appreciated ;)

Prin and I started out playing with improving draw. That was not my original plan, but Prin actually showed me that that is what we needed to play with. We spent about 10 minutes being really particular with our yoyo to the end of the 45' line, and I spent some time teaching Prin to REALLLY put effort into her draw. I've been able to draw her to me at the walk, trot, and on a good day, at the canter, but she's never put effort into it, and I've always maintained drag on the rope to bring her energy up. Kind of an obnoxious BFO for me, realizing that part of the reason her draw at liberty is so sticky is because I use my rope in drawing her online any faster than a walk. Anyway, she and I spent a little time at it, and by the end found that we could play a little game of dance and anticipation, one step forward, one step back, etc, without my having to touch the rope. A ton of fun, really, and got her energy up in a playful way, not in a "just cuz mom asked" sort of way.

Next, we moved onto a little circling game--that's our most broken game in L4, maintaining rhythm, relaxation, and contact, at 35-45 feet out, usually at the upper gaits. I opted to look for quantity, instead of quality this time, seeing how many laps of canter she'd give me, build it, and see what kind things I could help through improving quality as well (Biomechanics, etc)--I was quit surprised not only to get 4 laps at the VERY END of the 45' line in each direction RIGHT AWAY, but also to find that other than a little stickiness in the first half lap each way, that she also maintained realllllyyy nice rhythm, relaxation, and contact, throughout. I think she would have given me more, too, but I brought her in before she realized she wanted to come in. Totally cool to see the improvements from being more particular up close--I'm anticipating a BIG breakthrough any day with it!

Next, we played a bit with quality of circle--Prin's flexion has improved a ton even since we passed L3, but I know the standard Pat is looking for in a L4 audition, and she's just a little shy, yet. Not her fault, either, more mine for not being more particular in the earlier stages of development! Anyway, something Farrah's really emphasized (and I've stubbornly ignored, for whatever the reason) is the importance of longitudinal flexion on the ground. If you've ever watched her play with Caesar, you'll see him CONSTANTLY flexed over the top on his circles at trot, especially. I've started to teach Prin this several times, lost faith in humanity because it requires so much quiet persistence, and quit. I'm so not a LBI when it comes to teaching details! Anyway, today, for whatever reason, I felt emotionally fit enough to play with it, and the results were PHENOMENAL. By the end, going to the right (her difficult side!) she was stretching down at least a foot (goal is nose essentially on the ground), and breathing rhythmically at about 12' of line. That, for her, is remarkable! I was so proud, and I know she felt brilliant--she sent me the feeling too! We were both probably thinking "Why didn't we try this before?!"

Finally, I did a little one-rein long lining, but with the rein on the opposite side to me. This makes her essentially at liberty, since I physically cannot micromanage where her head goes and when from that position. My goal is eventually to be able to play with her like that on the circle w/t/c at the end of the 45' line with no brace, as well as do sideways to and from, and draw various zones to me--that'll be my "given" to go to large-area liberty, when we can do all that with slack. As it is now, we've got really great connection at walk/trot circles, sideways to and from, as well as drawing zone 5 at a max of 15-20 feet away. Not a bad start, but something we'll need to continue building on before we go playing at liberty in any big fields.

Prin was all smiles during this session--we played with transitions and building a faster, longer zone 5 draw, and she kept reminding me again and again of how clever she is. I love her so much when she's in a mood like that--she gets adorably cocky, and we just tease back and forth. Very fun.

So...that's pretty much what we've been up to--we'll be ready to audition L4 online shortly, I'm sure, but just taking things at the speed she needs to at this point.

We'll keep ya posted!

Bedtime!

Learning How to Bend

2009-10-27T16:52:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting forever to use that as my blog title! It's a great song by Gary Allen that I totally love, but the moment never seemed appropriate...anyway, today it seemed to be the theme! I had two awesome sessions with two awesome horses, both focused in some way on flexibility and bending.

First, I played with Prin. She's a bit out of shape from lack of attention, so a few times a week, I'm going to try to start taking her out for long trots, much like I did last fall, except this time she's in better condition to handle it, and will benefit from it more. Anyway, I digress.

Today, our focus was on finesse, specifically in bringing the shoulders up. Prin, being a stock horse, built essentially level and made for getting INTO the ground quickly, is not naturally made to come up in the front end and be flexible throughout her shoulders and rib-cage. Using an exaggerated suspension rein as my active rein, and a solid fixed rein, as well as the shoulder-in maneuver, Prin learned VERY quickly (I was actually very impressed at how much effort she put into learning this, today!) how to move in a much more tall, elevated posture. It felt lovely to ride, I'm impressed at how quickly she's picking up on it!

We also played with all manner of trot. I would bring it down to a slow little collected thing that was starting to get some elevation to it (baby-steps to passage perhaps?), and then we'd bust out of it into as big a working trot as she'd offer on a concentrated rein. Very cool stuff, she's really starting to USE herself through her transitions nicely.

To aid the process of developing finesse, I've been playing with my own riding posture, as well. In my last lesson with Kristi, she told me fluidity was beautiful, but in order to advance to where I want to go in Level 4/5 finesse stuff, I was going to need to do a few things:
A)Open my hip angle, engage my own HQ, and really stretch my legs DOWN (Prin, being an LBI, will use it as an excuse not to move out if I don't)
B)Lengthen my stirrups a hole or two to aid that
C) Develop a more side-to-side flow in my sitting trot.

I've been playing with all of that, but mostly really focusing on lengthening my leg and engaging my OWN body for finesse. Long legs are definitely NOT what I'm known for, so that's been an adventure, but it's REALLY come along nicely now, and the more flexibility I gain, the more I realize it affects my horse! Great journey, and definitely learning how to bend!!

After finishing up my session with Prin, I took Hart out to play. He's been pretty much put on the back burner since I've owned him, which I feel awful for, but fortunately now, (going into winter, ew) I've got the time to spend on him. As of right now, he's just thin, and horrifically out of shape. Everything will come at once with him I think--both being more proactively used (as opposed to lounging around the pasture), coupled with more...caloric...feeding (my poor holistic care friends would be horrified at the CRAP I'm pouring into this horse to get weight on him!), will help him get back on track.

So today, we started out just trying to work the kinks out. He's a very one-sided horse. Years of being ridden to the left has done a number on his right side, and he has a noticeable strength problem with his right side. He's very inflexible throughout his ribs, has trouble picking up his right lead, and carries and almost constant brace in his neck going to the right.

Rule #1 when playing with a horse as lopsided as this: Slow and right beats fast and wrong, and slow and right BUILDS fast and right. Hart needs a lot of focus on flexibility throughout his right side, and so I chose to use small, but slow walk circles to build this. Cue the bracy, upside-down movement. Ew! Is that the gorgeous English sport horse I bought? Really?

Rule #2: Never release on a brace. Though it's hard to watch and horrible to consider, the easiest way to discourage this kind of movement is to hold the rope firmly (his nose is tilted to the outside, zone 3 closest to me at this point) until the horse makes an offer at correct movement, and then to release, LIGHTNING fast. That way, he finds comfort in correctness. It didn't take me more than 3 repeats of this before Hart's head came down, he licked his lips, and he switched his bend on the circle, and maintained it.

Next, I pulled out some ground poles and set them up.

Horse's Responsibility #4: Watch where you're going! Oh my...this horse doesn't know where his feet are! I set the poles out in a cavalletti pattern, and sent him through at a walk. Clunk, clack, clunk, CRASH. Hmm...how interesting! I continued this pattern, and he did get progressively better--I stopped when he made it through without knocking any poles out of position.

Finally, I taught Hart the figure 8 pattern. Again with the whole "slow and right beats fast and wrong", except this time, I had created my own impulsive behavior. Often, once a horse finds comfort/a new way of moving, they'll beg for more--Hart had found it in walk and trot, and all he wanted to do was trot! I had to interrupt the pattern rather vigorously a couple of times, but he finally found himself. At that point, I guided him through the pattern, and he got this wise-ass look on his face. He totally understood it, and dang it, he was GOING to trot before we were done! We ended by trotting the pattern twice, and then circling 3 gorgeous circles to the right on the 22' line. I put him back, and he stood there rather regally for several minutes, regarding me with mild interest, licking and chewing, before heading back to his hay. He's such an interesting horse. Definitely a LBI at heart. Very great lessons for both of us!

Anyway, it's bedtime for me, I have lessons tomorrow at 9:30 am! Feedback on the post is always appreciated. Thanks folks!

Savvy on!

Here, There, and Everywhere!

2009-10-26T20:46:00.001-07:00

Hi guys!!

I just went through, found, read, edited, and ultimately deleted literally 4 posts that I have started to you since my last one, and then got sidetracked on before finishing. What an awful blogger I am! So sorry!

Per usual, life has been insane around here. This month has been a particularly busy month, coupling horses with really cruddy weather has not done nice things for me. I've had two trainee horses come and go (Sunny and Gunner), and practically no time for my own ponies, mainly because every waking moment at the barn NOT in the pouring rain (and/or snow!) was being spent putting time on the horses I was being paid to play with. It's a wonderful concept for an LBE, being so busy you don't have time for relaxation, but it got a bit overwhelming toward the end. Fortunately things have calmed down here, and I can now relax and breath a little. I'm looking forward to having the rest of the fall to develop and advance my own horsemanship and focus on my students as well.

I have some exciting upcoming events around here--I have a lesson weekend in Mosinee (Near Wausau, WI) planned weekend after next (if Anyone is near or around Wausau, and would like a lesson, please contact me (savvyup@yahoo.com), I'd be happy to swing by Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, November 6th-9th.)

On November 12th, I'll be heading down to FL for a week. As of right now, my plans are to ride down with a friend who's going to the Parelli Center for a month, (that'll be an adventure in and of itself--the two of us in a truck for 26 hours is a hilarious thought!) and I'll stay with my friend Susan, in Orlando. I'll be teaching, riding, and just re-connecting with friends and enjoying the nice warm weather :)

Finally, schedule pending, Farrah Green may be in the area teaching in late November. Hopefully that happens--it's been discussed. If that is the case, I will be filming part of my Level 4 that weekend. Won't THAT be neat? Freestyle for sure, hopefully my online, as well. If not then, I'll do it sometime before FL--our freestyle especially is just SPECTACULAR, I'm so proud of Prinny!

Anyway, I think that's all for now--I'll leave you with some fall photos from the Brown Coulee Farm Paddock! Enjoy!

Prin came trotting to me when she heard me call this afternoon--it warmed my heart to see that eager expression, had to snap a photo :)

What a pretty face, despite the mud! Such an exceptional girl!

I've been lusting over Crest since I downloaded this photo. Isn't he just GORGEOUS?! And check out those leaves!!

Fran and Crest--"The Story"

2009-10-06T21:02:00.000-07:00

Introducing Fran and Crest's new video! Finally! Please give me some feedback :)

When it Rains, it POURS!

2009-10-06T16:55:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how when life picks up, and a horse person needs all the nice weather in the world, it just POURS rain. We're on day 6 in a row without a day's break (We had about 3 hours of sun yesterday, which was then ousted by MORE rain), the ground is totally saturated, and it's affecting everyone's moods. I personally have been a big ball of emotions recently, and for no particular reason, either. Just the weather, I think, coupled with some big decisions that need making soon. Anyway...

I mentioned on a facebook a couple days ago (and then failed to follow through) that I would blog about an awesome opportunity that has presented itself to me. Well here's the update: My vet, who treats 300 some odd horses around the area, (including several professional training facilities, as well!) has asked me to start a colt for him this month! Not only is this a huge compliment to my horse handling and to Parelli Natural Horsemanship, (He's not the most tolerant of horses that don't stand for treatment), but can you IMAGINE the word of mouth this can and will do for my business, should this go well? Now, the catch is that Tom wants to sell the horse at a sale at the end of the month, so I'm kind of on a time line, here. I'm seeing it as a challenge to stick to my principles on a timeline. I think it'll be a wonderful experience.

So, we picked the horse up on Sunday. Gunner is his name, and he's a 3 yr old Quarter Horse colt. He's chestnut with a front sock and stripe on his nose (I'd have a picture for you, but it's been raining since he got here!). He appears, so far to be very Left-Brained. I initially had thought he was LBI, but he's shown me a fair share of LBE traits as well. I guess time will tell, I plan on playing with him for real for the first time tomorrow, because I guess it's supposed to be pretty nice outside, finally. I'll definitely keep you posted :)

Anyway, that's all for now! Savvy on!

My Sacrificial Lamb

2009-09-30T19:11:00.000-07:00

"You can be so stubborn, there's times I think you just like to fight. And I hope and pray I live to see a day when you say I might be right. And there's times I'd rather kill you than listen to your honesty. But you've always been a friend to me."
~Garth Brooks, "A Friend to Me"

Pat Parelli has said that the first horse a person brings to level 3 (and now level 4) is a "Sacrificial lamb" of sorts. That horse is the one that is put up against all our personal flaws, teaching errors, emotional fitness (or lack there of), and they help us become who we need to be as we learn.

I've been thinking about this concept all day since it came up in the lesson I was teaching this morning--one of my students inquired about something, and I explained that sometimes, though we do our best, the horse we learn PNH with gets to suffer some blunders for the sake of learning.

I had a learning day with Prin today. A big one. It's been an off couple of months for us, and I'm FINALLY starting to get back into my routine of "normality"--that is to say, being able to go to the farm and be positive, progressive, and natural, all at once. Since our freestyle is pretty much ace, I've chosen to develop and focus a bit more energy on our online, while of course keeping the balance with our other savvys. So--to our online.

I made an observation while playing yesterday that really was spark for some thought last night and into my session today. With regard to the circling game, Prin, though very light and responsive in her send, is not biomechanically correct. Breaking down the movement, my horse is not *really* using herself. She falls onto her forehand, and actually does like a haunches-in out onto the circle--her weight falls inward and forward, and her ribs invert toward me. The overall lesson she taught me yesterday was to be more particular about her zone 3, something that I put into practice immediately, and have seen some nice changes with already.

Today, I started out playing with some review of what we did yesterday with zone 3, which went alright. I recognize it's a learning process, and so grant her (and myself!) some room for improvement. We also played with strengthening and stretching her haunches using more vigorous and particular sideways, coupled with circling and slow, flowing backward S pattern. Also played with finding more refined communication with long lines (When did I get so clumsy with 2 reins?!) Though this all went "okay", Prin was erm...kind enough (?) to show me some holes in our online communication that are key to the holes in our communication in large area liberty. These are answers I've been seeking for quite some time, so I was glad for them, but at the same time, it was a bit difficult to stomach. Accepting self-inadequacy is not always an easy go, especially when one is looking to make progress.

I took some of what she showed me, put together a slip-shod plan, played a little until we found a good place to stop for the day, and I packed up, and headed home to think. At first I felt VERY inadequate and frustrated, thinking how badly I wished I had found all this prior to the 6 week hiatus, and how I felt like I was right back to where I was about this time last year: non-progressive, annoyed, and lost as to where to go next. But as I thought further, I realized this is not the case at all. The trend here is simple, I'm not AT ALL where I was last year with regard to HORSEMANSHIP...mentally maybe, and here's why--when Prin gets brutally honest, it's usually because she's telling me I need to move on, that there's more to be learned, and I'm stalling (and by extension, boring the snot out of her). Last year, it was just before I made huge leaps into finishing up L3. I think the trend is the same here--she's asking me to "finish what I've started" so to speak.

In understanding this, I realized how grateful I am to have Prin as my partner, and how essential it is that I finish L4 with her. I had toyed with the idea of finishing my levels with Crest--the superior athlete and learner by far, but I realize it's totally not about that right now. Such a patient, kind, and tolerant horse is HARD to come by, and Prin has stuck it out with and for me all the way. I need that friend and that partner with me to help me learn the final stages. So, as sappy as it sounds, I'd just like to take a chance to thank Prin. Thank you for being my Sacrificial Lamb, girl. I need ya more than I sometimes realize!

Parellifying the Beast

2009-09-15T18:44:00.000-07:00

I think the one of the most commonly asked questions I've gotten in recent times here has been "Hey, how's Hart?". Remember him? The big Gray Thoroughbred that I bought, and have since not mentioned at all? Well, for those of you who've been wondering, he's still around, and is now doing well. He got kicked in the hock after being here for 3 days, and he was lame for almost 6 weeks off and on, hence my lack of update, there really wasn't much to say. But now we're pretty much out of the woods with his leg, and now we're back to the plan.

So. Parellifying the beast...exactly what the blog title implies, Hart and I are FINALLY getting a chance to play together. He's a hoot, he knows he's magnificent, he moves beautifully, but beyond that, doesn't have a clue as to what to do with himself. I think he's pretty much lived in a field and not been told to do much all his life. So today was our first "official" lesson, though I'd taught him the motions of the 7 games the day I got him. It was a humorous experience tonight, he was very dramatic and prancy. We played with friendly game and porcupine game, and building positive reflexes. He was totally horrified that i wanted to throw my savvy string over his back, but once he got confident, fell asleep with his nose practically on the ground. Silly horse. His porcupine game was heavy, but it didn't take much before he understood what needed to be done. After we found a flow, I hopped on and we played with some transitions and lateral flexion. He's just such a dream to ride, it's like riding a cloud...albeit a cloud with a massive trot.

I'll keep you all posted as I continue to progress with him. I"m so thankful he's sound again, now we can focus on beefing him up and getting his mind stimulated ;)

Savvy on!

PS--had another great ride out on Sunny--we cantered at least 100 feet more than once, she's so brilliant! Carrot stick riding and transitions are getting super smooth too! She also stood tied for 30 minutes while I played with Hart. So proud of her!

Unstoppable!

2009-09-14T22:23:00.000-07:00

Okay, so that title may be inspired by the mood I'm in now, by how I feel about my little horse in training, or it could just be inspired by the fact that I have Rascal Flatts blaring as loud as I (and my neighbors!) can stand it at nearly 1:00 am. I'll let you make the call.

Anyway, life has, in essence, been quite the roller-coaster. A bizarre schedule, coupled with burning the candle at both ends, a 19th birthday bash, and Laura Ingalls Wilder Days all were cause for what I can only describe as an off week that I did not plan for. I found myself floundering with organization a little, but fortunately, I've found my track again and things are back to positive, progressive, and natural in a big way :)

Today was a very full pony day--I played with Prin for almost 2 hours this morning. First we went on a LOVELY trail ride. I emphasize on the lovely, because I could not have asked for a more responsive, comfortable, biomechanically CORRECT horse on that ride with me. We did lots of trotting, trying to get back in shape (Prin's rockin' the beer gut a little these days!) and throughout the entire ride, she offered nothing but beautiful rhythm and awesome self-carriage. Too cool! Once we got home, Played with some 22' line stuff. Before her time off, Prin was able to canter between 10-20 laps on the thing without much by way of reminder of difficulty. She struggled to find rhythm in 2-3 today. It's amazing how body condition can degrade so quickly! We'll continue to develop it. We have a lesson with Kristi next week, so let's hope we'll have something to show her at least! I can say though that she was beautifully obedient, just not exactly fit ;)

Also had a lovely session with miss Sunny. I know I've said it in every single other post I've written about her, but this horse is brilliant. She's just BULLDOZING through her lessons, she's been her for 22 days now, and other than needing a bit of smoothing over in Carrot Stick riding, she could EASILY pass L2. We've even started to play with a little liberty. She's particularly talented at downward transitions--last night she gave me a canter/halt that left a cloud of dust hanging! Anyway, today I first rasped her a feet a little, then took her out for her first trail ride alone. She was HILARIOUS, it was by far the most backward trail ride I've had, I couldn't stop her leaving the farm, we trotted a quarter mile at least! We also cantered the first time, it was 3 strides, but it was great. Turning home was a different story, she zig-zagged at a tiny little walk, looking anywhere but up the road, and 3/4 of the way back, she just stopped and refused to go any farther. Her little horsenality reminds me of Micky's old horse Digger, truly a "barn-sour" horse, for once, what a hoot! I'm so proud of her, though. She's awesome! New pictures soon!

Other than that, I've got some big plans cookin' for the fall. Some wonderful opportunities have presented themselves in the teaching department, as well as horsemanship and horse development, and I look forward to seeing what happens. I'll keep ya posted!

Savvy on!

"Mom, I Think We're Ready..."

2009-09-10T18:16:00.000-07:00

That's what Prin told me today. I think we are ready to film our L4 freestyle. I've spent several weeks isolating and separating the components, just playing with being very particular, especially in her HQ/FQ yields. I've been playing with only a neck rope, and hardly touching it except to back up my body language, and it's just beautiful how subtle and in tune our communication has gotten. I figure that if I can essentially "ride naked" with low phases, that when I film the audition, and add a neck rope and carrot stick into the mix, she'll have it an then some. And oh boy, will she ever.

Today was the proof. she was going sideways with just a focus, trot leg yields, doing slow spins with me just lifting some mane hair and shifting my weight/focus, and doing biiiigggg stretchy trot figure 8's with me hardly asking anything. We also played with a squeeze game pattern Pat had shown at the Kansas City celebration--Canter to halt, rollback, canter to halt, etc. Though she was a bit confused at first (totally new pattern for us!) after several slow repetitions, she just got it, no questions. Pretty quality rollbacks off my body, beautiful canter departs. Just awesome stuff. I'm dreaming up ideas to show in our audition, I want it to be just mind-blowing. So...no promises of when I'll have it (I'd like to film soon, but I'm going to prior and properly prepare big time) but know it's in the works. My horse gave me the go-ahead. Her attitude has never been so positive and progressive. So. That's what's going on for now.

Keep your eyes peeled for an update on both Crest and Sunny, too. They're pretty spectacular, too :)

My Little Doppleganger

2009-09-03T18:55:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share some more recent pictures of Sunny (taken last weekend)with ya. She's progressing faster than I could have every imagined or anticipated. She's BRILLIANT! She is totally me in horse form...little blonde firecracker! Loving every second of it! Tell me what you think of the pics!

We match ;)

Learning to maintain rhythm, relaxation, and contact at the walk on the 22' line

Learning the weave pattern--my focus is terrible-lol

Figure 8 Draw :)

Figure 8 Drive :)

First intentional canter on the 22' line. Looks pretty pleased with herself ;)

Little bit of liberty...

A good scratch...

Disengaging the HQ

Marveling over her awesomeness, I'm sure.

Playing "Follow Micky" is a fun game!

Anyway, that's all for now. She's really really awesome. She's got a solid L2 going online, and is very soon to follow on the Freestyle front--she's riding walk/trot/halt/back/sideways now, and also ponies from Prin's back beautifully. She's an awesome little learner! I'll try to take some video within the next couple of days.

F

Oh, So THAT'S What Productive Feels Like!

2009-08-30T18:49:00.000-07:00

Hi you guys!

It's been a very bizarre week, hence my slight drop off the face of the planet. Physical exhaustion, coupled with major disorganization, and a rather unkind man-made knock to my confidence have all taken a toll on my horsin' around these days. So anyway, I figured you all were due for a bit of an update!

As I mentioned, it's been slow here, and the tension within MY MIND has been building slowly, and got to the point last night that I COULD NOT ignore it anymore. So last night, I broke, and went "I'm going to LISTEN to my body for once! I want sleep, I want to get up early and enjoy the morning, I want to stay hydrated, I want to stop eating crap at random times, I want to read, I want to get back to my learning frame of mind, I want to spend all day at the barn and love it like I used to. I'm going to get organized, and I'm GOING to do this." So I did. I was up early this morning, actually ate breakfast, made coffee, drank 3 glasses of water before I left. I cleaned my car out, then headed to the farm and had my first round with the horses--an hour and a half long session with little Sunny.

That was an adventure. I had a wedding to go to yesterday, and so little Sunshine got the day off, which was fine, she had earned it, but she must have spent the day plotting her next playtime with me! Today's session revolved around all things porcupine. When she arrived here, she was very unconfident in zone one, and made up for it with confidence and dominance in zones 2 and 3. All last week revolved around getting zone 1 really nice and friendly, while keeping her ribs and shoulders where they belong--not on top of me ;)

Today was quite the opposite, she offered some of the most beautiful correct trotting circles she's given since she's been here, but she was very snotty and pushy with zone 1. Talk about swinging the pendulum! Anyway, We played with porcupine pressure on the poll, leading by the chin and ears, as well as by the legs. She was a little resistant at first, but really caught on quickly, and by the end of the session was leading all over the place by different parts of her body, and offering to put her head down, around, or up, depending on what the situation called for. Really cool stuff!

Afterward, I hopped on her back. I'd been on her twice before, and really focused on getting her to accept my existing there, lots of friendly games, etc, and she's been a champ, so today I started teaching her the beginnings of HQ and FQ yields. At first there was a little brace, which was more my not having my weight correctly distributed, so once I fixed myself, she picked right up on it. I think she's going to be just wonderful! Pictures and VIDEO to come, I promise!!!

I headed home, and ate a healthy lunch (I have developed some really unhealthy sporadic eating habits this summer, and that's something I am determined to correct now), caught up on some reading, and then headed back up to play with both Crest and Cricket.

I had a really fun and educational online to Freestyle session with Crest, involving lots of play with a flank rope--how interesting. I followed an interesting path of indicators to get there, and let's just say his take on the whole concept has changed a bit since I last played with it. But it ended well, and I really want to include some of that good stuff in a video of us. He's awesome ;) The Freestyle riding was an entirely different story (For me anyway!). I opted to ride bareback with a carrot stick today and really start developing and progressing towards L3 Patterns. This was interesting for two reasons. One, I haven't ridden Crest in almost 3 weeks, and two, I haven't carrot stick ridden on him in who-knows how long. The main lesson I took out of it was that I need to do it FAR more often, and that I use my reins to balance on him A LOT. Yikes! I'll be playing with that in the near future! Overall his response was great though--much more responsive than I anticipated, and I got gutzy and rode with just a savvy string for a while (hackamore for safety net), and I actually felt very connected with him, which is super cool. More to develop there soon, I'm sure.

My session on Cricket was very rewarding. First of all, I took the time and shimmed her up in my fluidity saddle, which is huge, because when she came here, my 32 cm Stubben Roxane (WAYYY narrow) was too wide for her. She uses less shims in the super-wide fluidity than Crest, now! Gotta love her for that little Arabian rib cage! Anyway, I had a really really nice freestyle ride on her. We played in the round pen first on isolations (HQ and FQ), and then playing with follow the rail and transitions which she did magnificently with. I can't wait to develop her futher, she's going to make someone a PERFECT partner, I just know it!

Anyway, that's all for now folks. It's now 11:00, and I'm going to pattern that whole "early to bed" thing this week! Savvy on!

Sunny Days

2009-08-26T21:34:00.000-07:00

Two for one post day today, but I thought this deserved special introduction. I have a little gal in for training for 6 weeks. She arrive here on Sunday the 23rd, and she is really quite the character. Her name is Sunny, and she is a 3 yr old Palomino QH mare. She stands 14.2ish (haven't measured), and is a totally LBE. She's very interesting to watch because she is SO extroverted. You can tell this little girl HAS to move her feet. She was trotting/cantering around the pasture for the fun of it this evening, while her boys (Crest and Hart) stood and watched from the long clover.

And MAN...so SMART, too! Her owner is a L1 graduate who is a student of mine from Minnesota. She'd already taught Sunny the 7 games before she came, but even so, I CANNOT believe how fast she's picked up on things. She's already playing on the 22' line with fairly high quality, considering she's only been here 4 days, and we're playing with developing some more particular and subtle things that I think will really help this little girl move to the height of her potential...and fast!

Anyway, more to come on this sassy little blonde, but for now, here's a picture ;)

Subtleties in Adrenaline

2009-08-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

It's been an interesting couple of weeks around here, but I'm finally started to settle back into a routine of things with my ponies and the like. I had my second session with Crest since my accident, and like nothing had ever happened, he's back to being a miraculous teacher and partner for me.

Recently, it's become increasingly apparent to me that Crest's walk and canter (and the behaviors that surround them) are connected. He has a tendency to get very adrenalized and excited in the canter with me on his back, and of course, he power-walks like a fiend. I decided to examine his transitions online to see if I could get a feel for how things are transferring to his back.

I've found that Crest had a lot of trouble maintaining rhythm, relaxation, and contact in both canter and walk online. Now granted, I'm looking at this from a L4 standpoint. He's a shoo-in for L3. But he lacks that contact that I'd need to get the kind of ride I'd like out of him. Anyway, I've been playing a lot with getting his walk slow...and...rhythmic...and...not...adrenalized. Yes. At that pace. It is SO HARD for him, especially at the beginning of a session or after a downward transition. He gets very hyped up. Eventually what I'd like to see is for him to do canter-walk transitions online, and be able to find a nice relaxed walk almost immediately.

The key has been to recognize and release when he's truly found his relaxation, so that he knows that THAT is what I am looking for. The rest will come with repetition with him (once he figures out the pattern, he'll be great, he's so clever!). The subtle difference has to do with the tension in his body, as well as his breathing and I have to be VERY careful that I recognize it. I took a couple photos to show the subtleties I'm looking at. Thought you guys might be interested in them :) See if you can spot the difference. And yes, he's covered in mud, it poured all morning yesterday.

The "Adrenalized Walk"

Notice the tension he's carrying, particularly in his back, haunches, and withers. His topline is taught, stride long and deliberate. You can also see a flared nostril if you look carefully. His head is also above the vertical.

The "Calm Walk" (I tried to get it as close to the same place in stride as possible)

Here's his calm walk. Though it's not as evident through a photo as it would be in video, you can see that he's really using his whole body. He's reaching up and over the top, his head is lower, and his hind leg is REALLY reaching under him, indicating that he's actually focused on using his hind end. His head is also much closer to vertical. And finally, take a look at his tail. In the first photo, it's between his back legs. Not that it wasn't a bit sticky and humid, but it indicates that he was pretty braced. In the second photo, near the same place in stride, his tail is loose. Pretty interesting huh?

So that's what I've been playing with in him for now. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this transfers to his back--I may start playing with this walk-trot style freestyle. Let me know what you think!

Awesome Videos

2009-08-19T07:07:00.000-07:00

Short post this morning, ya'll, I'm running out the door on my way to a lesson, but I wanted to share these videos with you guys.

My awesomes friends Sarah and Hannah made them for me :) I love them, and I love these girls for it! (and for many other reasons too, of course-hehe) Take a look! They are BEAUTIFUL!

FANTASTIC Lessons

2009-08-15T09:02:00.000-07:00

Hey All,

Quick update. My internet has been down, I'm typing on a library computer right now. I'll have more for you probably on Monday when my mother gets home and can wrangle the turkeys at CenturyTel into giving us information as to WHY our computer isn't working. (That's another story)

So, Kristi Smith was here Wednesday evening through Friday early morning. She taught lessons all day Thursday and we had a TON of fun. I shared a 3 hour semi-private with my good friend Anna and her horse Piper. We had a ton of fun, and by the end, I was literally riding a spotted hovercraft with hooves. Prin was SO LIGHT and responsive to everything Kristi had us playing with, it was truly a pleasure. I'm loving the progress that comes with these monthly lessons--be it Kristi or Farrah.

Richard took a lesson on Amigo which was REALLY nice to watch. Richard hasn't done a whole lot of riding recently--injury coupled with lack of time I think has really gotten his motivation levels. Anyway, they played with freestyle, and the patterns that go with it. Amigo went through one HELL of a transformation. Not that he's a difficult horse, but he hasn't really been ridden at all in the past 6 months. He went from cutting corners and neglecting responsibilities to following the rail and doing figure 8's like a L2 pony should. It was just beautiful to watch, and Richard, Kristi, and Amigo were all smiles throughout :)

We finished with my friend Jessica taking a lesson on Prin, which was just AWESOME. Kristi read my mind on subject matter, put a bareback pad on Prin, and proceeded to blow our minds with the most magnificent freestyle/fluidity lesson and transformation I've ever seen, personally. More on that later, I need to compose my thoughts and actually write this out. It might even be a seperate post, it was that amazing. So cool.

Kristi's demo, though slightly less-attended due to the rain, was wonderful. I was particularly pleased and impressed with her long-line driving, they've come so far even since I was in FL this winter. And of course their liberty, Maxi is such a hoot. Kristi did a great job engaging our group for the Q&A too, there were several...skeptics...in the audience, and she definitely got them thinking. To see members of my local saddle club leaving with horsenality charts was priceless. YAY!

Anyway, there's my short update. There will be pictures as soon as my internet is back up. I have pix of everyones' lessons, as well as some of the demo, courtesy of Raven Flores and Richard Knopf (when they arrive).

Savvy on!

Some Horses Are Like Playing With Fire

2009-08-09T18:44:00.000-07:00

...and this time, I got burned.

I have had enough people requesting information on what happened to me (regarding my recent slightly vague facebook updates about a mystery injury), I figured I'd better write a blog about it.

I have been teaching lessons and visiting a friend in Green Bay, WI since Friday night. Yesterday I was giving a lesson (my last one of the day) with a difficult, and very dominant filly. She was just full of piss and vinegar, first scared, then dominant and very difficult to shut down. The hardest part was finding relaxation and obedience, and she wasn't wanting to give in, so finding a good note to stop on was tough. Anyway, toward the end of the session, things took an ugly turn. I had found a fairly decent stopping point. She was willingly doing some figure 8 pattern, and would lead behind me without trying to run me over. Anyway, We had a rough lead back to her paddock. There was a VERY strong draw back to the pasture, and she wanted no part in leading respectfully, or allowing me to walk ahead OR WITH HER for that matter. Anyway, we had finally gotten back to the pasture (another 10 minutes of extreme yoyo games, etc), and I was just beginning to take her halter off. She took advantage of my arm being near her head, and she reached over and bit me--and not lightly, mind you, probably just another dominance game. So I stopped what I was doing, and asked her to back up...rather vigorously, and of course, hind-sight being 20/20, probably a little too roughly. She took a few steps back, and I was just about to stop (she was being polite, or so I thought) and she reared up. What happened next is kind of a blur, but the fact that I can recall it demonstrates how damn lucky I was: She reared up, and very deliberately struck me in the head multiple times. She was (and accepting this is scary) trying to kill me. Of course I crumpled (maintained consciousness, fortunately) but knew it was bad, because as I scrambled out of there, I started bleeding heavily from somewhere on top of my head--down my face, into my eyes, etc. My friends told me I was not allowed to go into the bathroom to see myself--I must have looked awful!

Anyway, I was fairly certain I was dying for 10 minutes, simply because I was in lots of pain, didn't know what I looked like, where I had been hit, or where all the blood was coming from. They got me cleaned up and to the ER, and fortunately, it was not nearly as bad as I had expected. They told me before I was even admitted for examination that I was far too cognizant and "with it" to merit serious inspection for concussion, but that they'd see what the doctor said. Upon further examination, the source of the blood was found--a laceration about an inch or inch an a half long right on top of my head, cut fairly clean and down to my skull. I had to have 3 staples put in it (Just call me Frankenstein), and was told that though they didn't think I was "concussed", and that I could go home, that I should probably be woken up during the night.

Coming home from the hospital was another whole ordeal--the stress from the entire ordeal made me ill. I had to get two injections, one of novicane to numb for my staples and an update on my tetanus shot, which would have been fine if I weren't deathly afraid of needles. Then of course there was the shock of the accident, and the realization of what was happening...not to mention the fact that I wasn't allowed to get my head wet, and so was facing the prospect of having to sleep with bloody hair. Yeah...I was not happy. But I did end up taking a nice hot bath and rinsing my hair at least (I WOULD NOT have slept had I not), and I was back to feeling pretty normal mentally by 9:00pm

Anyway, I'm just REALLY SORE for now. Turning my head to the left is painful, I have scrapes and bruises down my arms, and of course my head is tender. My jaw must have gotten good and yanked around, too, because it's really sore and I bit my tongue up pretty good too, so that makes eating tough. But overall, I'm fine, healing, and now am focusing on staying mentally healthy--so far so good, too ;)

So, thank you all for your concern and well wishes. I'm just thankful to be alive at this point, and am focusing on not letting this hinder me--though a word to the wise, don't pat my head or feed me anything crunchy for the next few days ;)

Oh, and for some sick reason, my friend took pictures of my head. Anyone wanna see? LOL.

Savvy on!

Like a Painted Wild Mustang...

2009-08-04T22:17:00.000-07:00

"...flyin' out across the open range... Finally gets to live her life that way, no fear, no fences, nobody, NO REINS!"
~Rascal Flatts

That song is one I've claimed as Prin and my "signature" song, we love it for demos, and it seemed appropriate for tonight's excitement. Prin and I learned something new :)

Yep! It's there, it's consistent, we're rearing now! Like a painted wild mustang, indeed! Pretty neato, huh?

Cricket Update

2009-08-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

Hey All,

Just some pix of Cricket from the other day, I wanted to show off how chubby and wonderful she's gotten :) We've been playing with solidifying our L2 ground stuff, as well as preparation for under-saddle. She's proved to be a horse that transfers every detail from ground to saddle, and so the catch is, I have to be careful about what I reward--for example, I used to just reward her circling because she had a huge mental block about it, and since I've realized that helping her find rhythm and relaxation is much more important than the actual circles (hence why I'm playing on about 6 feet of the 22 line at some points in these photos), because otherwise she gets very bracy undersaddle.

Building up on relaxation

this is how it transfers--more like 18 feet of line here, and much more soft and relaxed.

Stretchy circles are becoming a more commonly seen thing, which is super cool--fluid rein from the ground :)

So darn cute :)

Isolate, separate, and recombine--zone 1 porcupine games to eventually lead to less brace both online and undersaddle.

We really love this girl, she's proven to be such a wonderful student :)

Green String and Some "Thank You's"

2009-07-28T10:40:00.000-07:00

I am proud to announce, that after 6 years of playing and enjoying the journey, Prin and I received confirmation that we had passed our Liberty audition, the final leg of our level 3 journey. I received this fantastic news in person this Saturday at the Kansas City celebration, after Kristi Smith viewed our audition. We passed with a very solid L3+ (everything was L3+ or above--had things in L3++, L4 and one in L4+, too, YAY!)

Fortunately, I had a wonderful group of friends there to share this with. Starting with Kristi, at least a dozen people got a very happy and excited Fran flung at them. I cried for about 10 minutes, and went through the initiation process from Farrah in receiving my green string, which included having to unlock an EXTREMELY stubborn trailer door, being "knighted" with the string, and then being taught to follow a feel rather rudely by it (in the photo we took, I look like the LBI cartoon, and Farrah looks sadistic--she enjoyed strangling me I think!), and then trying to find enough greenery in a very sad, run down Kansas City parking lot to take a nice photo of the two of us together. All of those coming soon, as soon as I can get them from Farrah.

I'm in the process of making a video of Prin and me throughout the years to commemorate the accomplishment, which I hope to have done in a couple of weeks. In the mean time, I've got some thank yous to say to the people that have helped me on this journey:

Firstly, to Kristi Smith. Thank you so much for taking my audition as your last, and giving me honest, useful and positive feedback on it. Thanks for being there for both me and for Prin at the center, for the many times I couldn't find my positive attitude, and when I needed a good smack into reality. Thanks for helping guide and shape my LBEness into something positive, and for being a dose of similarity when I was overwhelmed by my LBI trailer-mates ;) I can't say enough for what your presence in my life means.

Next to Farrah Green. Where can I start there? Big sister, best friend, mentor, idol, wonderful companion, teacher, shoulder to cry on, supporter, voice of sanity and reason...any other role I'm missing that she plays in my life? Farrah is pretty much the reason I am where I am in my journey. She opened my eyes to a level of detail, subtlety and particular that i didn't even realize existed, and helped me find it in my relationships with horses and humans. She's offered me opportunities that I never would have had, had she not been there. She's stuck with me through thick and thin, good and bad, and one particular REALLY REALLY UGLY. She's pushed me (sometimes not so willingly) into doing things I'd never have done otherwise. Just ask our company the first time we ate sushi together ;) I never would have believed in myself or my horses enough to film my auditions or pass my level 2, but Farrah did, and so I learned to as well. She's encouraged my teaching and my learning, and gotten me to a level of confidence in both myself and in leaders (and as a LEARNER!) that I didn't know existed. I could keep gushing, but I'm on the point of sounding like a sap as it is. Words can't really describe what Farrah means to me in my life, and I'm so thankful that Julia Wooldridge was stubborn enough to drag me to that first clinic in April 2008. My life and journey would have have been very different had she not.

Next to Linda Parelli. I can honestly say I've never met someone who supports me as much as Linda does. Whether it's out of a maternal state of mind, or just someone who recognized a devoted above-and-beyond student, Linda has helped me through some of the toughest times of my life, both with and without horses. Linda truly "gets" me in a way that no one else does. Often when no one else can answer my questions or get into my head, Linda will break down the barrier with a list of brilliant questions and a mind full of advice. I can ALWAYS count on honest, productive feedback, a heart full of fantastic support and a hand to guide me when I fall off course. She's largely responsible for the learner I am today, and because of that, I give her a large portion of the credit for my accomplishing level 3.

Michelle Manshardt--My fellow tiny person in the Farrah camp! Michelle might not realize it, but her sense of humor and total ability to become 6 characters at once in a fantastic improv. show has gotten me to laugh when I needed it most. She's made seeing the humor in everything and every situation so much easier. Michelle is also truly a master at redirecting strong negative energy into something really productive, something that I've needed quite often. Overall, just a wonderful friend, someone I can always count on to have an interesting discussion and lots of fantastic information up her sleeve when I need it. Thanks for making our threesome a funsome :)

Next--the Savvy Sisters--you know who you are. This journey without friends is nothing. We've known each-other forever (Anna, Emily, this is year 8, can you believe it?!), we've laughed, cried, fought, made chocolate chip cookies (BOBS!),and grown up together. And through it all, we're still friends--how the hell? We were definitely brought together because of this wonderful program, but we stuck together through love and friendship. I appreciate everything you all have done for me, being there when I needed support, good or bad, always willing to hear me, answer the phone late at night or early in the morning, always there for me and my crazy escapades all over Parelli events (through swamps, flying lead changes in the warm-up arena that led to very suspicious boyfriends, signatures on foreheads, sleeping on newly purchased theraflex pads, and trying to pose seductively for photos while cracking up laughing, chucking bark out of trees at Linda and Remmer riding), and for all the other various great times--Starbucks with Sarah("Ma'am...do you know where you are?"), Floating on inflatable alligators with Virge ("Yes...I do need to know that this thing is unsafe for children under 8...IN CHINESE!"), on the way to Karen Rohlf's clinic with Jessica and Katie ("Pronouns are for amateurs...Fran, Anne, Katie, and Jessica are NOT amateurs, Fran, Anne, Katie, and Jessica are PROFESSIONALS!"), Late-night conversations with Carissa ("Fran is totally 1/2 pornographic water buffalo."), Bobs with Anna ("We must name them...they shall be called Bob!")...and the list goes on and on, please feel free to add memories if you care to--the bottom line is, I love you girls, I'd never have made it here without ya!

To my parents--yes, we butt heads, fight, disagree about just about everything involved with my horsemanship journey, but in the end, I know and appreciate the undying support that is there. They have helped this journey of mine in any way that they can, and I appreciate it sometimes more than I remember to tell them. My mom's tears of happiness and pride when I told her about passing level 3 was all I needed as a reminder.

To my local group--Students and friends alike:

Richard for pointing me TO Parelli and giving this little girl the opportunity to ride all those years ago. Supporting, promoting, and allowing me to hijack his property for my own uses in more recent years. Thanks for hauling my butt everywhere I need to go, taking thousands of fantastic photos and always allowing me "just one more horse" ;)

Sherri for being a total guinea pig--bet you didn't know that, did you? :) Poor poor person has suffered most of my worst possible teaching and horsemanship moments. I may never forgive myself for almost getting killed on your property, allowing my silly LBE to eat your window, or putting your horse sore for 4 weeks. And yet here she stays--supportive and tolerant (when she can be, anyway, bless her)

All my students for allowing me to grow and become more well rounded as a horsewoman and teacher. Thank you for trusting me and putting your journeys in my hands, and allowing me to learn from you. I promise to keep improving upon everything I do, and to always put the relationship first :)

Finally--to you guys--my readers, friends, etc. It's been so much fun to go to tour stops and celebrations and be greeted with "Wait, are you Fran with Princess? And Crest? I follow your blog! I love it!" It makes me feel really good that people are interested and excited in sharing my journey with me. I really appreciate your feedback and support throughout.

Thank you! And now that I'm thoroughly emotionally drained, i think I'll go finish de-tangling Hart's mane. Savvy on :)

My Potential Audition

2009-07-21T21:27:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Here is the potential last leg to my L3 journey, my liberty audition. I think it turned out fairly well, but I did have one concern that I wanted some feedback on before I sent it in. We live a hop, skip, and a jump up from a river, and so during the summer months, we've got a horrific deer fly problem. We practically bathe our horses in flyspray and it hardly dents the issue. Anyway, in this video, my horse does a lot of tail-swishing and head-nodding. While it's evident through the video that it isn't directed at me, what I'd like feedback on is whether or not you think it detracts from the quality. Also, if there are any glaring horsemanship things that need fixing (like Pre-L3 things), feel free to point them out as well.

I'm not really looking forward to the prospect of filming it again, but if it needs to be done, it's done. I don't feel 100% confident about the quality in this audition, so please give me some feedback.

Thanks!

F

Audition Results!!!

2009-07-17T20:13:00.000-07:00

EVERYONE got their auditions back today, it seems. First of all, I'd love to give a huge shout-out to two of my students, first to Arianna Halverson and her pony Princess, they passed their Level 1 audition today! These two are the most awesome students ever, very focused and determined. YAY! Red String here you come!

Secondly, congrats to Sherri Anderson and her mare Cerra. These two just passed their L1 AND L2 today! I did the filming on their auditions, and am pleased to say the results and feedback were positive and useful. Can't wait to see those pretty colored strings on your belt either, girl! How exciting!

VERY proud of you both!

I'd also like to announce that I received my results on my Level 3 Online and Freestyle (still pending on the Liberty). I passed both those auditions with L3+ and FANTASTIC feedback. I'm not entirely pleased with L3+ (perfectionist, I know!), but I take comfort in the fact that they're almost 3 months outdated, and I KNOW that Prin and I have improved far beyond that. I'm also really happy to say that we received L4 on our relationship, rapport, and Level 4+ on mounting, friendly game, and one other (don't have the specs sitting right in front of me)...not to mention tons of L3++'s and a few L3+'s. I hope to hear about liberty next week perhaps :) I'm REALLY proud of my girl, and am very happy to have finally heard back. The feedback received was useful and wonderful.

So YAY!

Congrats to everyone!

One of Those Impulse Buys

2009-07-17T09:56:00.001-07:00

This is going to be a double-post Friday, since I'm cool like that, and I think each one of these stories deserves it's own title. So, me, being me, am always sort of semi-looking for nice horses for sale. Not that I can really afford to own more than what I've got right now, but anyway. So, quite often I find give-aways that, while being nice looking, aren't really what I'm looking for.

So anyway, I'm also a sucker for a big English sport horse. I've kind of turned Prin INTO that image because I'm such a sucker for it. Anyway, It's not often that a beautiful big English sport horse comes along at a price I can afford. Well... it did, at the least expected time ever.

There is a family that owned (until recently) a weekend home about 6 miles from me. They had a GORGEOUS facility, pool, rock climbing gym, prime horse facility, beautiful barn, and 3 gorgeous horses, one of which is this beautiful TB gelding.

He's a 12 yr old gelding, 16.3-17hh (haven't actually measured him yet, but he's at least as tall as Caesar, who's 16.3), Unraced thoroughbred who IMO, looks more like a warmblood. He moves more like one too, and I think he's an AMAZING dressage prospect off-hand, we'll have to see how he'd be as a jumper, too. I get a good feeling from this guy though, hes super fancy.

He'll be home on Tuesday, and after that, we'll play and see what happens. He's just too cool :) More later on him...pretty excited!

Many Fine Learning Opportunities

2009-07-07T22:54:00.000-07:00

Hey...it's the second blog post of the month...I made it past my June record...GO ME!

Anyway, this month is flying by. I can't believe it's already early the morning of the...8th?! WHAT?! Okay, anyway. The month of July thus far can only be described as a series of many fine learning opportunities :) I've been playing and riding for hours on end every day, with so many horses it's hard to keep track of! So, let me see what I can say about it.

The 5th of July was a day filled with horses. Micky and I took several rounds of rides, starting with Prin and Clue, Dawnelle's big QH gelding. I rode him and he did fantastic, that's the happiest all of us have seen him in months. He's very out of shape, but Micky and I are shooting to start playing with him 2-3 days a week at least. He's a wonderful gelding, he falls into that category that everyone loves--10-12 years old, quiet, reliable, friendly, etc. Makes for a nice trail ride, and he'll feel better being used more.

Next ride was Crest and Prin, and boy did I have fun! I rode Crest, and played with slowing his walk down. Crest is a power-walker, and often causes people who don't know him well to ask me if he's got gaited in him. The answer is absolutely not, he is just...super impulsive, and will running walk and fox trot if he's feeling particularly peppy. So, I focused on slowing that. Using a combination of lateral flexion, hind quarter disengagement, fore-quarter disengagement, and very very particular back-up, we established some communication. See, Crest is an extremely intelligent, observant horse, and one pattern that he discovered in me is that I'm not very particular with what he does with his hind legs.

He'll "run off" so to speak, at the walk, because I'm not asking his hind end to listen to me. (I discovered this after about dying, asking for a HQ yield about 3 weeks ago with Farrah). So, the way it would work was this: Crest would get braced in the walk, so I'd bend his head, ask for lateral flexion/disengagement UNTIL HE LOOKED AT ME, (respect/attention thing) and then allow his front end to move around in a direct rein, and ask him to continue forward. Rinse and repeat as necessary as he showed signs of rudeness, braciness (I think I just made that word up!). Once he got that pattern, and understood that I would take control of his hind end if necessary, all it really took was my asking him to stop and back up several steps at my speed (another thing he used to RUN through with no respect or control) and he'd settle down. By the end of the ride, he was walking slower than Prin, and actually taking time to eat some grass and enjoy his walk :)

Later on that evening, Prin and I played with some of our finesse stuff. It's going pretty well, but I found some holes in myself and my experience that I need to play with before trying to advance Prin, because unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure what I'm feeling for, and Prin doesn't particularly care to have her body be the grounds for that sort of experimentation, and I can't say as I blame her. Fortunately, I have both Farrah and Michelle coming in 3 days, and so I'll have the resources to research and improve with! It should be a lot of fun!

Yesterday was another long riding day--Micky, Sarah and I played with Prin, Crest, Clue, and Micky's horse Shadow. All was successful, and we had a very good time. Shadow is a quick learner with a stubborn, naughty streak, and so he's been a fun challenge for me to play with.

Yesterday I also played with a friend's horses. These two ponies are neat characters, but are also challenging for me. One (previously mentioned on here--Luna, a Quarab) is a LBI with a dislike of the canter or actually being polite in her responsibilities. Last night I spent 45 minutes playing with JUST her circling game, demanding instead of just doing the circle, that she do it at the trot, with rhythm, relaxation, and contact, something I hadn't been a stickler on in the past. She found it in the walk almost immediately, which was neat, But the trot took the entire session, and by the end she was sweating and panting, (and she was only being asked to TROT!) but she finally found half a lap of obedience and contact. I realized right then that I would NOT be riding that until it could happen at all 3 gaits on the ground. I'm really beginning to learn the value behind that. It's amazing what repetition will teach in my brain.

The other horse I played with is Fig, a National Show Horse gelding, a LBE, who doesn't care much for maintaining the same responsibilities as Luna, but for him, it's in the slower, downward gaits. He's quite impulsive, and doesn't read energy and body language AT ALL, so we played for 45 minutes with sensitizing him to that. By the end of that session, he was doing walk/trot/walk/halt transitions on the circle without my even having to lift the stick. Too cool :)

Today was just downright weird. I won't get into details, but lets just say it didn't flow very well. Anyway, Micky and I trailed Prin, Crest, and Shadow to Hay Creek recreational area near Red Wing, MN, to do some trail riding. Hay Creek is a beautiful area with MILES of groomed trails up and down hills, etc. Lots of fun. The idea was of course to enjoy a nice ride around the area, but also to socialize Shadow and get him doing things with a herd of obedient, seasoned ponies. We started out with me riding Crest, ponying Shadow, and Micky on Prin. Crest was FANTASTIC, being totally collected and relaxed in his new environment, not impulsive (our lessons from recent times are sticking!), and an excellent leader for Shadow to follow.

We stayed in that configuration for about a half an hour, and then, I hopped on Shadow (who was being wonderfully obedient) and Micky rode Crest, and ponied Prin. Again, Crest wowed me by being perfect for Micky, too. What a superstar! We ended our ride (the last hour) by switching one more time--Micky finished the ride on her little man (HOW AWESOME WAS HE?! He was totally perfect for her!), and I rode Prin and ponied Crest. All in all, we had a fantastic time, and I think we all learned a ton. Good stuff, and I think my horses have earned a day off tomorrow, they've been playing hard!

Savvy on, I'm headed back up to bed. Remember my mentioning that today didn't flow very well? Well, the 4 hour nap between 7:30 and 11:30 pm was part of that off flow--I was wide awake for a while there, but now, back to bed!

F

Where Has She BEEN?!

2009-07-02T19:17:00.000-07:00

Some day, I swear, my life will slow down...maybe not in the foreseeable future, but ONE DAY! So...where have I been? What have I been doing? Why haven't I blogged? Where are my priorities? How are my horses? What are we playing with? All very good questions. I'll try my best to get things sorted out for ya ;)

I have been what seems like all over kingdom come and back in the past couple weeks. I got home from my travels with Farrah on the afternoon of the 23rd of June, and hit the ground running. Teaching, trimming, training, all of that good stuff. Mostly trimming, I must say though. I get home from 5 weeks off, and every single client I have has a horse with long toes, go figure. So needless to say, my hands have re-calloused, and my hoof jack feels far from neglected.

I'm in the process of tying up loose ends on the plans for another lesson...weekend with Farrah--July 11th-12th, Pepin Trailblazer's arena. I currently have 3 participant slots left, one on the 11th and two on the 12th, with several people pending. Cost is $120/90 minute lesson, auditors welcome at $10/day. PLEASE let me know if you're interested in coming, I'd love to see you there!

My horses are doing quite well, I returned home to find both Prin and LB fat and out of shape (My last 12 days with Farrah were completed with Crest). Prin had absolutely no topline, a half inch of extra hoof, and a pot belly. Okay so that whole body condition thing? It doesn't keep itself up. So, we're currently playing with..well..getting in decent condition again. I trimmed her 3 days ago, and now we've been going for long trots/canters to get the muscles moving again. We're also playing with stretching, and building more flexibility, especially in the hind end. Not that Prin's got problems, but being that she's build like a QH, and not for collection necessarily, I figure it can only help.

Yesterday a friend called just as I began my session with Prin, and so I needed something to play with that didn't involve a lot of use of my arms. I stood her up on the pedestal at first. Incidentally, standing with only the front feet on the pedestal is a great stretch and rotation that causes the shoulder apparatus to open up and lift. Great for the topline and movement ;) I had her stand for a couple minutes, and then had her hop off. She offered to sidepass over it, so I took it, wondering what I could play with from there. As we were doing it, I remembered Farrah mentioning that she had taught Caesar to sidepass over a pedestal and put one back leg on and hold it, and that it had helped the flexibility throughout his hind end, and ultimately aided in his ability to do flying lead changes.

Though Prin and I aren't nearly to the point of flying changes that Caesar and Farrah are, (don't I wish I could do 3 stride tempis in near-perfect rhythm-haha) I thought it might be a fun pattern to start building on, so that when she fully understands the concept, she'll be physically fit to do it. Neato, huh? So, with that in mind, that's what I taught her yesterday. Today she did it without question, and I'm going to slowly start building the amount of time I ask her to stand there. I've noticed small improvements already :)

Crest is learning to be a more reliable and respectful riding companion. During our time with Farrah, she caught some subtleties in Crest's behavior that have totally changed his attitude towards being with me and performing for me. He's learned (and practically mastered) a Level 4 porcupine game, that is learning to hobble. He has greatly improved his level of patience with long sits both tied and in a trailer, sees me as a provider and partner, and he's learned that I can indeed communicate with his hind quarters and dictate how fast he backs up. He's also figured out (after much hassle and giggles with a dressage whip and cookies) how to Spanish Walk, and now I have TWO Spanish-walking fools in my pasture ;) Very cool stuff, and I've really been enjoying his company.

I've also personally been playing with improving my own balance. I'm not going to sell myself short--I'm an excellent bareback rider, but beyond being able to stick to just about every antic a horse could throw at me, I'm useless. (Yes, I know, I'll stop, but this is MY goal for self-improvement, bear with me) So...what have I been doing? I've been teaching myself to Roman Ride. Yes, you read that correctly. I'm not screwing around, I'm really, genuinely, honestly learning to Roman ride. That, and I've been learning to ride standing up on one horse, too. The reactions Prin and Crest have had have been hilarious, I'm pretty sure they both think (as well as my students, and barn owner) that I'm totally insane. But they're tolerating it well, and helping me learn to balance on a new level. Oh what fun :D

So that's pretty much what I'm up to. I have an early morning tomorrow first cutting firewood with my dad then helping a friend/student film her L2 auditions, lesson at another student's place, and then 3 trimming jobs. Life is busy and insane, and I'm pretty happy :) I promise I'll be better about updating now. I can breath again :)

Savvy on, I sure have missed ya'll!

F

A Promise...

2009-06-12T23:36:00.000-07:00

...I WILL blog more often, I swear. All I can say is that life is freaking INSANE right now. Between traveling, teaching, assisting, playing with my horse, spotlighting, celebrating, and going crazy, I have found myself with practically zero time to do anything on the computer. As I write this it's currently 1:39 am, and I'm still up, babysitting a large load of laundry that needs to dry faster than it is. That gives you an idea of the time crunch I'm in.

For those of you dying to know, my spotlight went fantastically in Madison. I've heard a lot of really wonderful feedback, some rude feedback (okay, seriously guys, I'm sorry if my cantering around bridless bores you), and some downright strange things. But overall, I don't care, my horse and I had fun, and that's what matters, honestly. We scored exactly what I felt we deserved, and I'm happy with it. I'm not satisfied, because I know there's ALWAYS room for improvement, but I'm pleased, have lots of things to play with and I cherish my fat ol' green ribbon that we got, along with the compliments from Pat, Linda, and everyone else who I spoke to. Thanks for your wonderful support! Pics and hopefully a video to come soon (working out copyright stuff with Parelli)

As i said earlier, I'm currently in the laundry biz. I'm home for a night from Rochester MN. I'll be switching horses out tomorrow, and taking Crest with me for the remainder of my 10 days with Farrah. This will be a huge opportunity to really give my up-and-coming boy a lot of attention, and hopefully develop some new ideas and fast-track our progress :) I'll try to keep you all updated. It'll also be a nice opportunity for my girl to rest up and have some time off, so that when I get home we can start to play with our L4 more seriously.

Other than that, I just keep dreaming and playing and enjoying life. I'll do my best to keep you all updated. I've learned a ton, and now need to go to bed so that I have a hope at retaining it. Thanks all for being patient with me, and I'll be back in touch soon.

For now:

WE LOVE YOU ALL!

Savvy on, Fran and Prin

Trusting the Process...

2009-05-29T16:00:00.000-07:00

One of those things we're taught in PNH is to trust the process, and it's something I've struggled with in waves since developing myself as a horsewoman. While I was in FL, I was totally receptive to whatever was said to me, and I totally trusted everyone I was with. Since, it's been in waves, as usual.

Today, I had a reminder about trusting the process that I wanted to share. I just found out last weekend that I was selected for a savvy spotlight, as I had blogged earlier. I hadn't choreographed much of anything other than my savvy, what I wanted in the arena, and my music, since I wanted to consult with Farrah about it. Today, we finally got a chance to play with it for the first time.

Well...long story short, it didn't go very well. Prin was wild and a bit distracted (first time in this particular arena, brand spanking new, with rubber shaved footing, to add weirdness to the whole situation.), and honestly, I couldn't get a whole lot accomplished. I came out feeling like I had a knot of tension in my stomach, and though I wasn't upset, angry, or frustrated, I didn't feel...good. I felt like I wasn't going to do very well if sessions kept up like that.

Then, as I was walking out, Farrah said something in response to my declaration of the above feelings. She said "Fran...I don't care what she does right now, this is about YOU. YOU need to understand, and YOU need to go through and get a feel for it. Don't stress, today is a terrible day to play with this anyway." (They're prepping for grand opening here tomorrow).

Wait. Stop. I need to learn this. Right. Duh. Process. Memorization doesn't happen all at once. Of course. So. With that in mind, take two on Sunday. Woohoo!

Also, my friend Olivia wrote something to me a couple days ago that really hit home with me that I'd like to share, too. I have a tendency to be in director mode when I ride, which is great as long as I can keep my head on straight, and not turn into a dictator. What Olivia said made me realize just how much I need to support Prin, but not push, now more than ever.

"Remember, you're never alone in front of thousands of people...you've got Prin."

~Olivia Mayer

I cried. I will not lie.

So, anyway, we'll keep going and see what happens. It WILL be a good experience.

Savvy on, off to go feed, shower, wipe tables, and get ready for dinner--sushi :D

Ioway? Iowa? Whatever...

2009-05-26T09:26:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

So happy to announce that the venue where the first clinic was has internet. Thank goodness, too. I never realize how much I miss my computer until I come back to it after being away.

Anyway, keeping pretty busy. We're in Hampton, IA for one more day before moving on to Madison, WI for almost 2 weeks. The clinic here went very well, we had a full group, with 6 enthusiastic participants plus the hostess and me, as well as several lovely auditors. The focus of the clinic was building excellence in all 4 savvys. We covered a ton of information in 3 days, playing with many patterns, games, and simulations. It was very neat to watch everyone's transformations with their horses. There were some genuinely FASCINATING partnerships and things going on, and it was really fun to watch.

Also, I have to say, this clinic I think holds the record for the largest number of absolutely STUNNING horses. We had a golden palomino, a red dun, two TALL auburn-y sorrels, a jet black morgan, a 6 yr old Dapple gray who looks like she'll stay dappled with no fading until the day she dies, and then a deep dark liver chestnut. And then of course Farrah's cuties, and then Prin. Stay tuned for photos. I need to dump them onto the computer later today, and I'll hopefully get a few up on here tonight.

Let's see...what else...I played with Prin in Farrah's Natural Performer last night, and I have to say, I'm thinking I might have to have one for myself. She actually moves better in it than in the Fluidity, I *think*. I'd have to see it to know for sure, but judging by how excellent our finesse play was last night, I think I have a keeper on my hands...now...to find the $3200 I need to get one of my own-haha.

Today, we finish up private lessons, we'll play, I'll have a lesson, and we'll maybe go out dinner, and then pack up and head out bright and early tomorrow. I'm not sure what opportunities I'll have to blog, but stay tuned anyway, because I could pop up at any moment ;)

Now, off to watch the lesson Farrah's giving to that GORGEOUS gray mare.

Savvy on!

Spotlight Acceptance

2009-05-21T16:42:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Quick post, wanting to let you all know that I have been accepted to perform in the Savvy Spotlight at the Madison, WI, Celebration coming up here in a couple weeks. Prin and I will be performing a spotlight in Level 3/4 Freestyle, which is our best savvy, by far.

It's funny because I've run the gamut of emotions already. I was totally excited (very much like I was when I found out about the savvy team two years ago), and then of course I went through the "Oh shit...I'm not comfortable doing this in front of 1000 people...alone!", and now I've settled into the "It's okay, you'll have 2 weeks with Farrah before the event, she'll be able to cure you of any pre-show jitters!" Not to mention, think of how much fun this is going to be, spending 4 days in the equivalent of a Savvy Conference...WITH MY HORSE!

So yay! Just had to share my exciting news! There will be pix and video, of COURSE!

Flashback to the last time Prin and I were presented in Madison :)

While I've Been Gone...

2009-05-17T08:02:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Okay, so it's been approximately forever since I last blogged. My apologies, but if it makes you feel any better, my parents have heard about the same amount from me as you have. Life is insane!

So what have I been doing? Playing with horses, teaching lessons, trimming feet, going to playdays, giving first rides. All kinds of crazy stuff.

So, I guess the last time I thought about blogging, but didn't, was last weekend. My darling friend Jessica came down from Mosinee to spend the weekend horsin' around with the Pepin crowd. We played ponies, trimmed feet, and all around had a great time.

Next I went out to her place for a day, where we did her horse's feet, and then I went over to Anne's, trimmed Blixen, who proceeded to prance around like the little stud muffin he is. Anne says she's never seen him trot or canter after a trim before...we got an entire rodeo show! Amazing what can happen when heels are level and bars kept in check ;)

Last week was the week of insaneness. I had lessons every day except for Thursday, with Tuesday being my craziest, with 4 in one day. I'm really enjoying teaching these days, it's getting more and more fun as my ability to see things, especially tiny little subtleties (that make all the difference) improves.

Yesterday, I went to a demo/playday with one of my students. Since my student lives a distance from me (over an hour), I didn't bring Prin, but I took her little AraAppaloosa gelding, Elvis, to play with. Elvis is s a trip, because he's basically a Mini-Crest. At any rate, everyone played, and enjoyed connecting and hanging out with other savvy folks. Pics:

Me with Elvis

Matador/Mirror games-Me on Elvis, Jenifer on Mamma

So...how good is YOUR squeeze game?

Jenifer and Mamma

About to backflip off. I landed on my knees, because El is so small, (14.2ish) it doesn't allow for much time for my feet to unfold--I'm used to Prin, who's 16.1-lol

This guy gave a Reining Demo and talk

And he wonders why his horse is on the forehand?

Spinning--I had to chuckle, he was struggling to get a good plant in the hind, but kept leaning forward as the horse spun.

My personal favorite.

Standing.

Other than that, I've been at home, improving myself and my horses. I'm in the process of doing some intensive fluidity/saddle fit study, that I'll report on when I finish up.

Last night I had an...erm...interesting...session with both my girls. I took them out to start playing with some double stuff with them (the entire reason I got LB in the first place), only to find that number one, Prin is not thrilled about playing side by side with something 1/4 her size, number 2, Prin can sense "tired and cranky" a mile away, number 3, so can LB, and number 4, that DOES NOT END WELL! Hehehe. But, I did get some pictures, none-the-less.

First with Prin, Liberty in the big field (My mom's timing was about as awake as I was-lol):

Playing the Cutting game

About to do a spin, actually.

Not entirely sure...by the looks of what my legs are doing, sideways?

Both of us on our HQ...cute.

And Now LB, in the Round pen, showing off her stuff-hehe

If it were any other horse, there'd be panic...

Lying down :)

Sit! Farrah has seen this now, too, so I am officially a member of the Sitting Horse Tribe--yay!

She's learned to roll over and do this on command...SO FUNNY

And...a kiss?

This week is shaping up to be about as crazy as last week, too. I have a lesson today, a couple tomorrow, at least 3, maybe 4 or 5 on Tuesday (schedule pending), one on Wednesday, and then on Thursday, Prin and I leave with Farrah again. We'll be with Farrah for about 5 weeks, and we'll be "touring the upper mid-west" so to speak. She's got clinics in IA, MN, and WI, as well as the Madison celebration and The Horse First grand opening, and I'll be tagging along in the role of assistant, which is always a grand time, a fantastic learning experience, and overall lotsa fun!

So, that's all for now, I'm not sure when I'll update again. Could be this week, or it could be into June. I'll be in touch, though!

I CANNOT Believe...

2009-05-06T16:16:00.000-07:00

...the difference ONE TRIM can make in a horse.

WARNING: VERY roundabout post ahead!

For those of you who have been following me for more of an extended period of time, you'll recall that Crest has had some very annoying, border-line serious bio-mechanical issues going on in his body that were caused by a nasty accident we had a couple years ago. Results of these issues are things like a block in his ribcage on the right, a stiff stifle on his right, and a tight hip on his right.

About a year ago, after viewing some of our issues, Linda saw how largely Crest's uneven body played a role in his reactions, and suggested that maybe I look into having him shod using Jim Crew's method, a method that focuses largely on lateral balance and causing the horse's body to be symmetrical through shimming and padding of shoes. Instead of jumping on the shoes (I won't even get into that), I decided I wanted to do some research on bio-mechanics to better understand what was or wasn't happening in my horse's body. Since, I've done about a 180 in knowledge on the subject, and have developed a pretty keen eye for it.

Anyway, for the past 6 years (the first 4, inadvertently), I've been playing with Natural Barefoot trimming. I say the first 4 years inadvertently simply because I just trimmed by what looked like needed trimming, and hoped it worked. For the past two years, I've been seriously researching and playing with methods, most effectively being that of Pete Ramey, and more recently, KC La Pierre. I'd put some of these trims to the test on Crest. A lot of times, I'd see a little effect, but nothing dramatic or helpful, and it would gradually go away over the course of the next trim cycle.

Now, obviously I just got done spending 2 weeks with Farrah, who is also very interested and playing with Natural Barefoot. This time around, I needed to do Prin's feet, anyway, and so asked if Farrah would be interested in watching and giving me some feedback. A long story short, Farrah had been investigating La Pierre's stuff, introduced me to it, and we did his HPT (High Performance Trim) on her this time. The results were PHENOMENAL. We discussed it afterward, and she gave me her thoughts on Crest's feet, as well, and what might help him, too.

The high performance trim is based upon the principle of lateral balance, and subtle changes in the angles and planes of the hoof. Most of the trim is done on the file side (the fine-toothed side) of the rasp. It's all in the subtle changes, and overall balancing. I won't go into the serious details here, but let's just say the subtleties were just what Crest's feet needed.

I started out on his back feet, picked them up, cleaned them out, and now knowing what I know, realized just how unbalanced his feet were. He had worn the insides of his feet down, but the outsides were high. The hoof wall was worn practically to the white line on the inside, and was nearly 1/2 an inch thick on the outside. The plane of his hoof was literally tilted inward. There were thick, angular flares on his heels and quarters on the outsides, and the insides were practically vertical. Wow...how did I miss that?! I should mention, this was all developed since last trim, done sometime in March.

I immediately set to work. Please note that these are not in order, nor are they the correct order of steps in the HPT, I'm just listing what I found. I exfoliated the frog, trimmed it back, and found a ton of bruising. Yikes. I exfoliated the sole. Same thing. Yikes again. I took his bars back, (That was a CHORE!). I took a great deal of time balancing the wall to itself (Heels to themselves, heels to quarters, heels to toe, etc), and made sure it was all even. I took his outer wall back so it was relatively uniform. I used a guillotine stroke to address the outer wall flare, and then rolled only slightly.

After I finished, I only had a short time to play before I had to leave for a meeting. I had a great deal I wanted to examine and observe--I wanted to see how Crest stood, how he tracked at the walk and trot, if he could pick up his bad lead (right) at the canter without cross-firing, if he could do a flying change without a slip in the back. Wow...okay. First thing I did was tie him so I could go get my 45' line. He stood quietly...and square...Wait...square?! Yes. Crest's hind legs were solidly under him, and he stood evenly. Wow...there's a change. I grabbed my 45' line and snapped him up. I yo-yo'd him back, and sent him out on a circle at a medium trot.

Not that Crest has ever had a problem tracking up (he's got a pretty big stride), but the track in his trot was unbelievable. He was actually OVER-TRACKING in his medium trot, and all with his head low and using his back! Usually when he gets moving, his back hollows and head comes up. Next, I asked him to canter out on his tough lead...and...IMMEDIATELY he got it. There was no hesitation, no break in stride, he got it IMMEDIATELY, and maintained it, on a hill, for a lap and a half, before doing a snotty change of direction, squeal, buck, and lead change on his own.

Needless to say, I'm thrilled. Not only did I see a little bit of improvement, I saw 2 years of issues melt away before my eyes! I'm totally sold on this trim. Totally sold. I cannot wait to see how Crest's body and posture changes as I keep this up. He's always been a hunka horse, can you imagine how he'll look one his body is totally correct?

I'll post pictures, for sure.

That's all for now, but if you're at all curious about anything, want more description, photos, explanation, anything, please let me know, I'll be happy to share.

Savvy on, and leave me a comment :)

F

A Lesson in Herd Dynamics

2009-05-04T09:24:00.001-07:00

In studying with Farrah, one of the things that she really emphasizes is to examine herd dynamics, and how the horses have to communicate with each other to get a message across, and then compare the similarities with how your communication is going. For example, with Prin, I've struggled recently with her taking what I say (no matter what it is) very personally. In watching her interact with Caesar and Wesley, Farrah's two horses, they'll be very polite to her, and she'll act pissy and offended. Hmmm...how intersting.

Anyway, recently, I've really tried to tune in to how horses will interact, and have really started to try to mimic those discussions, and read the super-subtleties that could be the difference in a polite or a rude response. The results have been fantastic, and my levels of communication and awareness with my horses have deepened 10-fold since returning home from Madison.

Last night, all that newly-found stuff was put to the test. I have recently decided to start playing with Richard's Morgan mare, Belle. Belle is a very interesting case because in short, she's RUDE. She's like an 8 or 9 on the Body Condition index for equines, a poster child for laminitis, a LBE, the daughter of the lead mare, and hasn't been handled in a training scenario more more than 50 hours in her 8 years. See why she might be a little rude?

Anyway, I've basically decided that I don't even want to put a saddle on Belle's back until she's lost a substantial amount of weight. What I decided is to do a couple weeks of intensive hill therapy, coupled with ponying her on any trail rides I go on (up and down hills and long distance are sure to happen). Yesterday I started on the hill in the pasture. It's a pretty gentle slope, great for beginning both under-muscled and over-weight horses because it's not a huge challenge. Here are photos of how it started out:

See how resistant she was? Even though her movement looks really nice, if I were to let go of the rope, she'd have taken off. She's got a VERY broken porcupine game. Unfortunately, it didn't take Belle long to figure out that I was on a bad foot (she's NOT dumb, just rude), and she also figured out that I couldn't stop her if she took off. So, she waited until LB distracted me (little horse was attacking my equipment), and she took advantage of it, and made a run for it. I had to let go.

Look, fatty can run!

To make matters worse, she took our entire herd with her. So not only is one horse running around like a crazy loony, they all are! I followed at a distance for a while(they were only in a 3 acre paddock, so it's not like they could just have their way and leave), before I realized how badly my foot was hurting me. "Dang, I could REALLY USE another set of legs right now..." I thought, somewhat incredulously. As SOON as I thought it, I got a small taste of true unity. No sooner did I think the thought, Prin peeled off from the herd, and came RUNNING to me. Richard was there to see all this, and would later say that it was one of the most beautiful things he'd ever seen. Prin sidepassed up to me, almost begging for me to get on, and so I did.

What happened next was really neat. On her own, Prin cut Belle from the herd, cornered her, and then played approach and retreat until I could reach out and grab her lead rope. Once I got her, Prin set her up next to the fence so that she couldn't pull anything silly.

We proceeded to play with some online things for the next 1/2 and hour. Belle had this great resistant behavior going on, she'd blast out on the circle, and say "I'm LEAVING!" and like a good girl, Prin would follow with just enough drift to stay out of her way, but enough closeness to keep from ripping my arm off. Soon, Belle was getting curious as to what this new game was, but she wasn't about to give up her leadership to me.

Her next attempt was to actually take Prin, "My herd", so to speak, away from me. If you'll notice in this next photo, Prin is resisting her leadership, and trying to stick with me.

That behavior is a lot like walking up to a couple on the street, taking one half, flipping the other one off, and leaving. It's rude, mean, and NOT something a considerate individual does. So, two things, firstly, Belle's doing that is really not acceptable, and secondly, the fact that Prin resisted her and stuck with me says a ton for our partnership.

The session continued, and Belle began to realize she was running out of options. Oh no, it meant she might have to actually...give to my leadership? OH NO! She reluctantly started asking me questions. I could tell she wasn't thrilled with the idea, but asking a question is huge for a LB horse.

I started giving her the option of coming in and checking in with me. However, she didn't want to come to me, she wanted to come in and hide behind Prin. How interesting!
If you think about how an interaction would go between two herds that are first meeting, the leaders of the herds would most likely go meet up with each-other, check in, introduce themselves, and have a conversation. By coming in and hiding behind Prin, Belle was sort of coming in and trying to sneak into my herd without having to talk to me, the leader.

I didn't take it personally, but started getting a bit more insistent. The game was now "If you want to be in this herd, you come in and talk to ME, or you get kicked out...hard..."

Here, she resists that idea. I've invited her to walk with us as a herd, and she says "No, don't touch me.".

I kept playing with it, getting firmer and faster, until finally, Belle let out a HUGE exhale, and asked a question. I allowed her to come in, and she came right to me, touched my hand. End of session.

Thank goodness Richard was there to capture the entire thing on film, otherwise this story would sound far-fetched. It was a fantastic experience, and I came out of it with a TON of ideas on how I can more effectively communicate with Belle, and turn her development into a more positive thing.

I also came out feeling extremely touched and proud of my partnership with Prin. Not only has she proven herself as a friend, but she also showed that she upholds her responsibilities in the relationship. She went through this entire thing with me totally bridless. I didn't once have to ask her to do something, she just knew what I needed. That is what I call a partner!

I'll keep you posted as this time with Belle progresses. It should definitely be interesting!

Please leave me some comments, I'd love to hear what you think!

Auditions!

2009-04-29T23:00:00.000-07:00

Finally. As I write this, it's 1:01 am, and I'm seriously writing this and then going to BED. I'm too tired to think straight right now. My online and my freestyle are up, and embedded below. Liberty to come tomorrow. I'm still struggling to get it off the camera.

Enjoy! And please give me some feedback, I'd love to hear it!

Online

Freestyle

CONGRATULATIONS FARRAH!

2009-04-29T08:06:00.000-07:00

Okay, perhaps some of the more exciting news in recent times, I'd like to throw a big shout-out and congratulations to Ms Farrah Green, who totally passed her Level 4 yesterday!! She has been waiting for the result on her liberty, and jokingly been telling people for a week now that she has 4.5 feet of her black string. Well...now she's got all six! She passed her liberty L4++, which is AWESOME.

Congratulations, girl!

I'm off to go teach now.

F

PS--I'm through filming my L3 stuff, as well, I'll have those up soon!

Five Fingers, and A Ton of Laundry

2009-04-26T21:27:00.001-07:00

Hi all,

Quick informative post tonight, I'm TIRED, and want to go to bed, but not without saying hi to my lovelies! HI!

Long story short, I'm home from Madison for a day, before blasting off for another day of lesson excitingness with Farrah. Right now, I'm waiting for a load of gross, wet, dirty laundry to finish doing its business...hence the title. The place where we stayed is a gorgeous barn, but the drainage systems they have worked out are slightly, erm, questionable, especially when it rains for 3 days straight, so the result is lots and lots of muddy pants cuffs, aaaaannnd super dirty shoes.

Speaking of shoes...I got some new ones this trip. "What shoes?", you ask. Vibram FiveFingers! These shoes are seriously the most amazing thing ever--Time Magazine agreed, too, they were the 2007 "Most Useful Invention". Anyway, for those of you who are familiar with the concepts of Natural Barefoot in horses, it's actually very similar in people. Our foot has tons of tiny little muscles, joints, ligaments, tendons, etc, that are designed to MOVE.

Nature intended the human to land heel first...ALWAYS! What traditional shoes (and particularly riding boots!) do is this: They typically jack up the heel and arch for "support", and include a pointed toe, which causes toes to contract and "stick" together. As a result, much of a person's weight lands on the toe/ball of the foot, causing an unnatural position. Consequently, the body strives for the heel-first landing and makes up for it by bracing the knee, kicking the calf and ankle out, and slamming the heel into the ground, sending all kinds of shock and negative compression all through the body. There's a cause for aches and pains if I ever heard one! I challenge you to stop and think about how you walk in your boots/shoes.

What the Five Fingers do is very neat. They are, quite literally, a toe-shoe. They resemble a toe sock, but are complete with a full-strength Vibram sole. The shoe is light-weight and flexible, and encourages the foot to flow in it's normal way, hitting heel-first and weight rolling through to the front, but while providing the support and protection against rough terrain (the anticipation thereof also causes a brace, which is why these are better than just going plain ol' barefoot)

What I've noticed personally is a huge increase in awareness of where my hind-quarters are (so to speak, haha), as well as a HUGE change in posture, flexibility throughout my legs, and overall athleticism. The back pain I've had for several years is instantly gone (interestingly enough, all it takes is to put my boots back on, and it's back). I can easily run double the distance I used to without getting tired, and my riding has taken a huge turn for the better, with my "long legs" emerging quickly, my balance being more refined, and my fluidity much more subtle and easy to obtain.

Natural Barefoot...ALL THE WAY!

If you're interested in reading more detail from the creators themselves, check out the FiveFingers site at www.vibramfivefingers.com.

I own a pair of the Women's KSO in Palm/Gray.

Savvy on! I'm off to BED!

PS-More on my trip with Farrah on Tuesday, after my brain has fully recuperated!

Updates from Madison

2009-04-18T07:15:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Life has been crazy the past few days, and is liable to remain so for the next week or more, so I thought I would shoot you a quick update and let you know what's going on in the life of Fran.

Tuesday evening, Farrah arrive at my house to teach private lessons on Wednesday. Her horses stayed at Sherri's. We had a nice low-key evening and hit the hay relatively early. Wednesday morning started at 5:30am, and involved lots of running around setting things up, etc. We got everyone rounded up (including LB's second ride loading up in the back of my car!), the arena set, and all that jazz by 9:00am, and lessons began.

Long story short (I'm going to avoid posting details of people's lessons publicly, if you'd like to hear specifics, please shoot me an email) it was as fantastic day and fun was had by all. Farrah and I ended with an inspirational demo with the 4 of our big horses (LB watched). Crest made an AWESOME cameo, playing double online while I rode Prin bridless. Pictures of all this next week (you'll understand why in a moment)

For the rest of this week and all of next, I'll be traveling with Farrah. We headed out for Madison, WI, on Thursday morning, to spend time at the Midwest Horse Fair, and then teach a clinic next weekend. Our trip down was uneventful, thank goodness. We had a lovely sushi dinner that night, and then hit the hay.

Friday was day 1 of Horse Fair, and Farrah and I both woke up with the beginnings of a cold. Nonetheless, we spent the day handing out flyers, editing website stuff, talking to customers, and promoting Parelli and The Horse First (AWESOME new all-natural boarding facility built by some good friends of ours, check out the link!) After the fair was done for the day, we went out riding and we had a FANTASTIC ride. I rode Prin, of course, and Farrah rode Wesley and turned Caesar loose. We rode like crazy people for an hour and a half, trotting, cantering, galloping (I haven't done that in a year at least!!!!) and just generally enjoying the gorgeous evening. I think the particular highlight was Caesar, overall. He's not a very naturally round horse, and Farrah's poured a lot of energy into getting him to look good and carry himself better, and BOY did that show! He looked FANTASTIC! He and Prin were having "extended-trotathons", and he honestly looked like he'd blow them away in the high-level dressage arena. Awesome.

Saturday, I was super super sick. I could hardly breath, let alone do anything productive. I kind of stuck to myself for most of the day, did some website editing for Farrah, and then moseyed around watching presentations for the rest of the day. We hit "The Old-Fashioned", a restaurant owned by another friend of ours, for dinner, and then headed home and after doing chores, crashed (almost literally!) for the night.

Today is the last day of horse fair. After this is finished, Farrah and I plan to go for a ride and do some playing. This week is going to be fun, Farrah will be teaching private lessons on Thursday and Friday, and then a clinic on Saturday and Sunday, and I'll head home Sunday night.

Somewhere in there, we plan to film all the L3 auditions for Prin and me, and see if we can attempt some Level 4 stuff (we'll see how that goes, I think I may be able to do online and freestyle, but like I said, we'll see). I'll get those videos up ASAP. So anyway, just keeping busy for now. I'm going to finish up editing Farrah's calendar, and then head out to lunch with a Parelli friend of mine.

So, I'll try to keep updated, but if I don't, it's only because life is crazy good :)

Savvy on!

Fran

Lovely Liberty

2009-04-13T18:29:00.000-07:00

Sherri and I rode the ponies down to her place today so that they can be "readily available" for Lesson Day with Farrah. The ride went pretty well, I rode Crest, Sherri rode Prin. Crest was a bit riled up, but anyway, another story for another time.

I debated going back out for a while this evening. I had a migraine earlier, and was really lethargic, but a bite to eat and some homemade Gatorade did the trick, and at about 7:00, I decided that I wanted to go back out and play a bit.

I decided to take advantage of Sherri's gorgeous play pen, and play with Prin at liberty. Our liberty has been sorely lacking recently, simply because #1, the footing in our round corral was terrible up until last week, #2, I've been too chicken to relive my last liberty session at the Parelli center and #3, with regard to #2, I've wanted to develop a more solid L4 online relationship before taking the line off.

Anyway, in the round pen, Prin was kind of un-responsive at first, but after a brief "Hello? It's ME!" discussion, she was flying, and on a whole new level of liberty I'd not gotten from her in quite some time. Very snappy transitions upward and downward, as well as some GORGEOUS sideways toward (trot/canter at phase 1 and 2!), and a couple of nice spins, and a flying change of direction.

Our draw is a little sticky, so I need to play a bit more with getting "come to me" worth it :) Cookies will help immensely, I imagine :)

Anyway, I'm off to play with the finishing touches on my stupid tax sheets. Gotta get those sent off tomorrow, weeeee! (I sound enthused, but on the inside, I'm gagging).

Savvy on!

Fran

Inspired by the Lyrics...

2009-04-10T20:57:00.000-07:00

"When you cry, be sure to dry your eyes,
'Cause better days are sure to come.
And when you smile, be sure to smile wide,
And don't let them know that they have won.
And when you walk, walk with pride,
And don't show the hurt inside,
Because the pain sill soon be gone."

~"Dream Big" by Ryan Shupe.

The past two days have been two of the most emotionally trying days for me in a very long time, and it's non-horse related, entirely. In addition to my being my allotted week to be moody, I've been sent lots of challenges to my emotional fitness for whatever the reason. Maybe it was time for a reminder that I'm not invincible, maybe it was time for an attitude check (I'm thinking that's it, actually), but whatever the case, it has really sucked, and I certainly don't pretend to have been right, either.

So, when I'm stressed, upset, angry, or just need to think, I often turn to my iPod. I'm always inspired by lyrics to songs. Even the music on my blog are songs that mean something to me on my journey to whatever I'm after--excellence in horsemanship, with people, as a person, you name it, the songs are meaningful (ask me sometime, there are some cool stories to some of it!)

The song quoted at the top of the page is one that, though I've heard before, didn't really hit home with me until last night, shuffling through my iPod at 2:30am, trying to fall asleep on the couch at my friend's house (HAD to get away). I had had a huge fight, a blow up, a debate, a meltdown, and finally a raucous dance party, and was honestly an emotional piece of work. The song, a pretty country-style, mostly acoustic piece, mellowed my nerves enough to keep me from over-thinking my situation (something I tend to do when I'm not confident or comfortable)and it put me in the state to really take comfort in some music. The lesson approached in this song are SO simple, and things that every person should consider, and remember. That, put into a beautiful song, and it's perfect.

Not entirely sure what the concept behind this blog was, other than to let you know what I've been up to. I'm off to bed now, and am determined to make tomorrow a better day, and be a better person because of this off spell.

Savvy on!

PS--Go check out the full lyrics to that song. Fantastic. I'm going to use it for my L3/4 freestyle audition :D

It Started as "Touch It"...

2009-04-08T21:09:00.000-07:00

...and then got bigger...much much bigger. Muahahaha.

I had another really awesome playday with Prin today. She's been in a very naughty, playful mood recently (ah spring, I love you!) and so we've had a ton of fun PLAYING!

Today started out in what could have been a bad way. Prin pulled the "you can't catch me!" card, and took off (at the speed of a slug on steroids...ooh the trot!). I ran with her instead of after her, and she thought that was pretty funny, so she joined up and we haltered. Almost immediately, Prin revealed that she wanted to play touch it (she pulls off circle toward obstacles), and so I obliged. It looked fun enough. So, I sent her to a barrel from about 40 feet away. Prin trotted over to it enthusiastically, and put her nose on it. She nuzzled the barrel, then got a sassy look about her, and pushed it over. She turned and checked in. I had no idea what she had in store, so I just shrugged and allowed her to proceed.

Prin proceeded to shove the now-sideways barrel with her nose. It rolled. She seemed very satisfied with the result, and did it again...and again...and again...This lasted for 5 minutes, until I had an idea. I decided that we should put it to a purpose. So, I sent Prin to get her barrel, and guided her through the motions, until she brought the barrel to me. When it got to me, I relaxed, gave her a good rub, and a cookie.

*Prin pauses* "Wait...You mean...I get a cookie if I bring you barrels? I'll be right back!" Prin leaves, and takes me to the other barrel. Which she proceeds to knock over, and start to push, this time, bringing it right up to the other one, and setting it almost perfectly next to it. She turns, questions, with the unmistakable look of "See? I did it!" I gave her another cookie, and cracked up laughing. Prin loves it when I laugh, and so she went and started pushing the barrels again. Oh my horse, the comedian. The continued for another 10 minutes. Moral of the story? I think I need to bring my big green ball back into action, my horse is getting cow-y again!

After all that commotion (I've not seen my horse that genuinely amused in a while), we played with zone 5 driving again, which was splendid again. Love my horse! Love spring!

More tomorrow :)

Fran

PS--One week to lesson day with Farrah. One spot open still, anyone interested? Auditors welcome, too! SOOO Excited!

On the floor, LEVEL 4! Let's go!

2009-04-07T18:32:00.000-07:00

Nope. You don't get the background on that title. Inside jokes remain inside. But maybe you can imagine ;)

So, long story short, Prin was FANTASTIC today. I decided to go out and play with some patterns online at L4, with hopes of continuing the development of our rhythm and flow throughout, and find what kind of holes I've got and start smoothing them over so that my auditions have the best chance for success.

I set out a weave and a figure 8, haltered Prin up (after playing some REALLY AWESOME stick-to-me in the 4 acre paddock!) and snapped the line on. I started out just playing with some transitions online, getting them snappier at the end of the 45', which she immediately fell into, and was totally great about. I also played with some increasing and decreasing circles (like a bulls-eye online)at the trot and canter. She found her rhythm REALLY nicely there. Once she got the idea, I asked her to weave and figure 8 just at like the 30 foot mark, to see if we had any resistance. But much like the rest of the session, Prin led herself flawlessly through the patterns. Awesome! Yay communication.

Next I brought her in and tied the line into long line driving reins. Started out just playing with transitions there, and got her to do several simple changes, etc, before heading over to the patterns. We started with the figure 8 at a walk, which she did pretty much effortlessly. She basically started offering the trot after about the second go-around, and trotted the pattern beautifully. I stopped her at "x" after successfully flowing through the pattern, and then Prin offered something VERY interesting. She started offering to back to me, which, usually wouldn't be a big deal, but I decided to play with it a little. I started to back the figure 8 pattern, and she followed. Once, twice, three times around, without my having to touch the lines other than keeping them out from under foot. It was fantastic! I stopped and gave her a rub, and she licked and chewed really heavily. Did we learn together or WHAT?!

I was so pleased that I took the halter off, and put her back on the spot. She was SO wonderful! I'll try to get some photos today. She's just awesome :)

Savvy on!

Busy Busy!

2009-04-03T22:42:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update because I'm a bad blog host. I'll try to get some real information up soon, but for now, just a general update will have to do :)

It's been pretty busy around here. We've had several days of crappy weather, with several days of nice weather. Fortunately, regardless of weather, I've been chained to the computer arranging things for something I'll mention in a minute.

On the nice days, I've been able to play quite a bit. Cricket is doing extremely well with her riding, and has been enjoying daily brushing, online play on the hills, (actually, much to her dismay) and a little bit of light riding here and there to get her conditioned. I plan on taking her on some longer walk/trot rides on varied terrain to get her in condition starting later this week. Prin and Crest are keeping me busy and progressing in the patterns. Prin and I are smoothing out our Zone 5 long line driving patterns in the hopes of auditioning for not just L3, but possibly L4 online. Also, today we uncovered some interesting porcupine games that need some play. I'll report back on that as it goes. Crest and I are just having a fantastic time progressing for once. Every session I've had with him within the past two weeks has built higher and higher. He's a super horse!

My lessons have really picked up now that there's no snow and it's not 20 degrees, too. I'm having a blast teaching and learning from my students and their experiences, and I'm really enjoying being back into my routine. Let me know if any of you want to get back into lessons and training! Always looking for more contacts!

The vet was out today to do vaccinations and pull Coggins, etc. All went fairly well, we've got a few that need some play with needle prep, though! Some of these horses hadn't been handled much at all in the past year or two, let alone vaccinated, so that was an interesting time. I also had him do an exam on Cricket's weird leg, and he diagnosed it as mild string halt that wouldn't get better or worse, and confirmed her totally sound for riding.

Also, recently, (as referenced to in the previously-mentioned computer bondage-hehehe) I've been pulling out all the stops to organize a private lesson day with my primary instructor, Farrah Green. She'll be passing through Pepin on her way to the Midwest Horse Fair, and asked if I'd be willing to set a day up for her. That'll be Wednesday April 15th, weather permitting. I still have two spots available, Cost is $115/90 minute lesson, and well worth every penny. Farrah's incredibly knowledgeable and ready to share! If anyone from our area (MN/WI or otherwise) is interested, please let me know!

Other than that, life is good. Plans are slowly but surely coming together. I'll try to keep this as UTD as possible as we go along here.

Until next time, savvy on!

Awesome times THREE!

2009-03-29T19:56:00.000-07:00

I had a busy busy day today, and of the three real sessions I had (I played with a 4th, but only to keep him occupied while the others ate their grain) were absolutely FANTASTIC. I haven't felt that productive with my herd in a VERY long time. I played with Crest, Cricket, and Prin, and I think the easiest way to summarize will be to just go down the list.

Crest:
I've been trying really hard to get into a consistent schedule with Crest, since he thrives best when he's played with often. So, since the last time I blogged, we've actually played twice, not including today. Anyway, we've been playing with really progressing in the patterns. The ground was too hard by the time I got them last fall, so I only got to introduce them to him.

All I can really say is HOLY CRAP, this horse is a speed-demon learner. I knew that about him from the start, but he's now blowing my mind more and more. I started playing with these patterns at L2 two days ago, and today, he was consistently offering me L4 with everything. He kept pulling flying changes out of NOWHERE, he was cantering like I've never seen before, and his circles were GORGEOUS, and amazingly rhythmic!

After being thoroughly mind-boggled by Crest's ground play, I decided to hop on and do some stuff. We started out just walking around and playing with walk-halt transitions, which he did flawlessly. We toddled around the playground a bit, w/t/c and playing with obstacles, and then I somehow got the idea that we should play with turns on the haunches. It started out a little bit rocky, being that it's physically challenging for him, but we played through it slowly and persistently, and by the end, I was getting some LOVELY pivots, and twice got what I think were pretty high-quality spins. He's truly a very athletic horse, he just needs proper guidance, etc.

Cricket:
Poor Cricket is going through some difficult things right now. I'm just starting to get her back into riding, something that hasn't been kind on her in the past. She's basically been taught nothing but to resist, and unfortunately, has been punished for a lack of understanding. The result is a very skeptical, very unsure, very unconfident horse in all aspects of riding. I've spent the past couple weeks getting her friendly to the concept of being saddled. I pulled out Prin's original saddle for the job. It's a cute little general purpose Trainer's brand saddle, pretty narrow, but has decent weight distribution throughout the panels, which is why I chose it. Coupled with the Theraflex, it does fairly well.

Anyway, today, for the 3rd day in a row, we've played with bridling. Cricket must have evaded bridling really well in her days prior to my riding, because she knows practically every trick in the book to get away from it now. Today went fairly well though, we only had to "discuss" yielding to poll pressure for about 3 minutes, as opposed to the 15 and 5 we spent the past two days.

Once we got bridled, I hopped on, and proceeded to play with fluid rein. I've got her in the confidence snaffle because of the rough handling she's had in her mouth previously. Three days ago, When I'd get on, she'd turn her neck inside-out to get away from any sort of pressure on her mouth. Today, we made HUGE strides with fluid rein. Though a bit skeptical (and astounded!) that I really wanted her to stretch into the bit, Cricket finally got the idea, and we spend a half an hour walking and trotting around with Cricket's nose barely above the grass, exhaling and blowing almost every stride. Talk about a pressure release! It's going to be a long road, but she's going to make a LOVELY riding horse. I'll be continuing this journey, so keep checking back :)

Prin:
Today's session with Prin will be dubbed successful simply because it was short, sweet, and I totally blew my horse's mind. I had originally planned to tack up and take her out for a long trot up the road, but after I heard gunshots coming from Dusek's, our neighbors up the road (the 3 brothers shooting pigeons, no doubt), I decided that we'd better not. So, I hopped on bareback, and took her for literally a 5 minute ride. We cantered up the driveway, to the top of the hill, stopped, backed up, did a roll back, and cantered home. Once I got back, I took her to the tackroom and I groomed her from head to tail, gave her a cookie, and put her back. The look of astonishment on my horse's face was fantastic, and I know I left her wanting more because she followed me along the fence line as I walked out.

So. All in all, a VERY productive day. I love spring, I love my horses, and my life is going very well. I'll hopefully get the camera out this week sometime if it's not too nasty (they're predicting freezing rain/snow on Tuesday), and will keep progressing along.

Keep it natural, and I'll post again soon :)

Focus? Energy? Fluidity? Oh yeah...

2009-03-27T12:19:00.000-07:00

Today was an excellent reminder of all those concepts, usually all together, at once. It's amazing how things like that can totally change a session, and believe me, they can.

You know how Linda says "You're not playing for today, you're playing for tomorrow?" She means it. Usually when you leave off great in a previous session, the next session will be even better, and more progressive. Conversely, if you leave off on a bad note, generally the next session will be poor, too. Keep that in mind as we go along here.

I headed out to the farm today with the intent to play with Crest. He and I had had a slightly scary session last week, and I, truth be told, have been making excuses to not play with him since, simply because it was a disturbing flashback to how Crest used to be. I guess you could say I was visiting some sort of denial phase.

Last week's session left off with Crest frothing, me panting, and both of us thoroughly pissed off and scared of each-other. Though I won't go into detail, needless to say, it didn't go well. But one of the things that triggered the session was Crest's "sticky" sideways game. Crest is a pretty bio-mechanically screwed up horse, and so going sideways, particularly to the left, can be very difficult for him. This is all thanks to an accident we had a couple years ago. Anyway, as a result, he's crooked all down his right side, but especially through his ribcage. We've played with it for over a year, and we've corrected a lot of it, but it still causes him some discomfort from time to time. Unfortunately, being as extroverted as he is, Crest expresses his discomfort in a large, animated way that often causes me to lose my confidence and brace, which in turn causes him to get even more animated, and it usually ends up with me getting off and feeling a little dejected.

ANYWAY. What does ALL THIS have to do with today? I decided, based upon last session, that playing with the sideways box pattern might be a smart thing to do. For those who aren't familiar, the sideways box is comprised of 4 markers (barrels, cones,etc) formed in a box shape about 10-20 feet apart. The goal is to side pass from one to the next in a Z pattern.

So, I got Crest out, and warmed him up playing with patterns and sideways on the ground. It was going really really well, he was peppy, but not crazed, focused, but not clingy, it was perfect. So hopped on, and went first to show him the box I had created. I wasn't going to ask for him to go sideways, I just wanted him to see it. He saw it, and immediately perked up in a way I wasn't so sure I liked. So I decided to play with some figure 8 before I even TRIED to get sideways. This is a pattern he's plenty familiar with, we play with it almost every time we ride because it helps calm him when he's on adrenaline. So I send him in, he goes around the first barrel like a gentleman, and comes to the second, goes 1/2 way around it, and then, without warning, SHOOTS sideways. It wasn't a spook. Crest is a bolter in those situations. No, this was totally defiant. He does it when he doesn't get his way, though it's been getting less and less common. I sort of sighed and asked him forward, and completed the 8, and went for another one. We came 1/2 way around the second barrel, and BAM, same thing. He did this twice more. Okay, so now I'm starting to get angry. I'm not proud of it, but there you have it.

It always seems like I have to blow up with Crest before we succeed. This is not something I'm proud of, and honestly, after this session, I have some keys to fixing situations like that before they become explosive. But anyway, what happened next was embarrassing. I'll ask you to try to see the humor in this image, because honestly, that's what gets me by after acting like a complete ass.

I got off (I was losing my confidence) and proceeded to send Crest in a pretty aggressive falling leaf pattern, while growling orders at him, that he clearly doesn't understand. Now as I'm doing this, I'm realizing just how ridiculous I must look at sound. Crest is 3 steps away from leaving the planet with this "What the HELL did I do?!" look on his face, and I'm growling like a maniac, while doing something completely unproductive. And then I had a thought. A thought that stopped me dead in my tracks. Why not try the figure 8 on the ground, Fran? WHAT A NOVEL IDEA!

So that's what we did. And Crest, probably relieved to not have psycho-Fran growling at him, was absolutely tuned in and fantastic on the patterns. He never broke gait on the figure 8, and several times popped a flying change at the canter. I felt really good about that, so after two sets of 7 (I did one regular, and then one where he had to spin to get the correct direction) I hopped back up, and tried again...only to get the same result as when I had tried riding it before. Puzzled, I asked Crest to stop, because I really had to think. I had no idea what was causing this gap between ground and riding...and then, like a ton of bricks, it hit me.

It's me. Of COURSE. He's shooting sideways, and I'm tensing up. I've patterned myself to tense up at that second barrel. But WHY? I asked him again to figure 8, while I examined my behavior. I was indeed tensing up, but also, my focus was NOWHERE, and my body wasn't following either. I was asking him to go around a barrel, sure, but was I going around the barrel? Nope.

For the next 15 minutes, I played with figure 8's with the reins on Crest's neck. HE followed the pattern at a trot, and I didn't even have to pick up my reins. He's an EXTREMELY sensitive horse, and so as long as the components for lightness are there, he'll take it.

So...Focus? Energy? Fluidity? Oh yeah...those...they're handy! Today I'll head out and play again :)

Savvy on,

Fran

One Picture

2009-03-26T21:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry guys, this is all you get today. I was a poop and didn't do much. Curse this gray and mushy weather.

Cricket and me playing with trot poles a couple days ago. (Photo is from the session I last blogged) The poles are one of the things we've been playing with, along with hill therapy, and now we're also starting some riding. I'm hoping to keep somewhat of a photo diary of her progress this spring and summer, and keep posted on here. She's a very special girl and her journey is going to be worth noting :)

Savvy on, I'm off to go read some more Outliers, which is a FANTASTIC book, by the way. It's on Pat and Linda's reading list, and for good reason :)

Tis the Season to be Naughty...

2009-03-24T16:57:00.000-07:00

Short blog today, but I thought I'd share what's up at least.

Spring has sprung, and along with lots of rain and mud, we've got a herd full of SASSY horses. I headed out to the farm late in the afternoon, let Prin and Cricket into the west paddock and went about my routine of mixing feed, etc. Got everyone fed, and decided to play with Cricket, simply because I'd played with Prin for a while yesterday, and it had gone well.

I haltered her up, just on the 12' line (my 22' is soaked and muddy at the moment)and played with getting her using her topline (it was circle pattern meets bullseye, meets hill therapy, oh yes!). She did wonderfully, I think she's going to be just a GORGEOUS English riding horse, she's got such nice floaty gaits, and she carries herself nicely.

After playing with Cricket, I had to put Prin back. She'd finished her cubes, and was on the "I'm going to play with you if it's the last thing I do!" path. So, away she goes, cantering and farting. Fortunately, though, she really did want me to play back, so I went running WITH her. Not after her, or chasing her, but with her. Almost immediately, she slowed, stopped, and turned to look at me, like "Oh...well that was my grand idea, what's the plan now?" and I led her by the ear (oh the humorous expressions on her face for that...) back to the paddock and put her in.

So all in all, a very wet, sloppy, and fun day. I'm looking forward to the rain stopping so I can start riding again.

That's all for now, folks!

Spotty Girls!

2009-03-18T15:31:00.001-07:00

Had a lovely lesson with Phoebe and the mini today. They started playing with some patterns, as well as using the 7 games for obstacles. It was truly a treat to watch, and I was fortunate enough to have my camera with me. Here's some of the best pix I got. Enjoy!

They're both thinking the same thing..."Can I keep her?"

LB is a quick study, and with Phoebe's help, learned to operate your standard jacket zipper--here she takes a break after zipping up :)

In action!

My "Coco-esque" shot of the day--and the actual picture doesn't cut off the poor horse's eyes. Click on it to view full size.

One foot?

Two foot?

Ta-da!

Itchy-itchy!

Cute as buttons-lol

MINI JUMPER! Part of my new logo...Coming soon ;)

Let me know whatcha think :D

Life's a Dance...

2009-03-15T19:32:00.000-07:00

Especially when you're riding Crest out for the first time all year :)

I had a VERY successful horsey afternoon with my kids. First of all, I did a practice-film of my L3/4 online audition. It was really good quality as far as play went, but the footing was so terrible that I could hardly ask her to canter, and thus could not submit it for L3/4 had I wanted to. But that's okay with me for now. The intention was not to ace it, but to get a feel for what needed doing, and how I might go about it when the footing was good. And honestly, I LOVED it. I was disappointed when my camera-person called the 8 minute warning ("I HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO SHOW!" was my thought)and I feel really confident in filming when the ground hardens (a week or two, yay) So I'm really glad I got that taken care of :)

After that, I went out on a really lovely ride with Micky and our mutual friend Sarah. Sarah took Prin, who was a gem, Micky rode Amigo (she's decided to do this more often, we could tell he missed being out), and I took Crest, which brings me to my title line. Today was our first "real" ride out this year, and Crest was...well...a total LBE-on-adrenaline dancing queen. I had saddled him up in the fluidity (MAN I MISSED MY SADDLE!) and had a new bit I wanted to try with him. He was fantastic, behavior wise, but totally high on life and thus very hard to ride because of his perpetual bounce tendencies, that were magnified by 10. The result? A passaging, dressaging, haunches-inning Warmblood-wanna-be who had ALL the moves.

I kept track, and Crest performed like 4 grand-prix level dressage maneuvers when asked, simply because it involved being fancy. I got like 150 yards of lovely passage, a hilarious set of VERY collected tempi-changes, and about 3/4 of a canter pirouette. How funny *eye roll*

So all in all, a very nice ride. Fun was had by all, and I'm really looking forward to progressing with Crest, now that his TRUE athletic ability has been revealed-LOL.

Savvy on, I'm off to bed EARLY tonight :D

A Nice Low-Key Day

2009-03-12T15:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm really confused about this whole weather thing, here. It is March 12th, daylight savings has begun, and for the past week and a half, it has not been under 32 degrees, hardly, except apparently the past 2 days. The past two days, it's been 15ish degrees. Now, I don't know if you've ever experienced 15 degrees in March,but it's really bizarre. The ground wants to be warm. The sun wants to be warm. It feels warm coming from those two areas, and yet the air temperature is FRIGID, stubbornly holding onto the fact that it's still technically winter for another 9 days. Ah well, melt starts again tomorrow, and I'll be out playing in it!

Anyway, I didn't do a whole lot today because the footing is really bad (frozen manure and icy patches)but Prin and I toddled around and did some play with being particular in the walk. We both had a blast, surprisingly enough, (this whole attitude shift from negative nit-picky to positive particular is doing us wonders!) and even though I didn't ride for more than 20 minutes I bet, we had a ton of fun. Prin was SUPER light, and her shoulders were moving over SO fluidly!

It actually caused me to think back to my course, when we were first struggling with isolating and moving the shoulders over. I had spent the better part of all afternoon one day trying not to lose my patience, smack my horse with inappropriate phase 4's, or yell at Avery, who was trying to help me with it. That was not a pleasant afternoon at all, but I'm glad I persisted with it. Days like today remind me of how worth it it was. :) I can just feel our finesse developing in little sessions like that.

Oh, on a side-note about finesse, I recently recieved Walter Zettl's book "Dressage in Harmony" as a late Xmas gift from my friend Sarah. I've only just paged through it a little, but HOLY COW the man knows his stuff. It's a really thick book, probably about 300-400 pages, and every page is packed full of thorough, fantastic information, as well as drawings of maneuvers, exercises, theory, and troubleshooting. "From Basic to Grand Prix" is the subtitle, and it really doesn't do the amount of information justice. It really delves into the horsemanship and horsenality aspect (minus PNH references, of course) I can hardly wait to have good footing again, I'm thrilled to give the stuff a try :) I'll keep you posted on how that goes!

Anyway, time for dinner. Savvy on!

"These Are MY Carrots!"

2009-03-03T13:14:00.000-08:00

I had the most hilarious session with LB and one of my young students today. This won't be a real long post simply because you really HAD to be there to truly grasp the adorable hilarity, but it's well worth sharing.

Phoebe (my student) is a very precocious little individual, and extremely talented young rider, and also blossoming as a horse-woman, too. She's a quick learner, very LBE, and is really quite fun to teach. She has Mini/Shetland pony crosses at home, and so has taken quite a liking to little LB. Watching the two of them interact is really hilarious because it's stubborn snotty kid vs stubborn snotty kid. Occasionally, one of them needs a slight correction, but for the most part, they duke it out in sibling-rivalry fashion, and they're both smiling and laughing at the end.

So. Today, Phoebe brought several large bags of baby carrots to the farm to share with the herd. Instead of getting caught up in the middle of the herd of 13, she just dumped piles here and there along the fence-line. Saaaavvyyy. Anyway, she made a separate pile off to the side for LB, but then haltered her up after not much time at it, so there were a few left.

We proceeded to start our lesson, a review of the 7 games etc, and mostly focus on games 5, 6, and 7, since both Phoebe and LB need help there. Things were going extremely well. LB is a VERY smart little LBE, and she picks up on things super quickly. But, she's also got a naughty streak, so I decided in order to set the situation up for success in the circling game, I'd plant myself near enough the pile o' carrots that she could stop and eat them when the time was right.

Boy, did that backfire on me. I always forget, food motivation only truly works with LBIs. Sure, she likes her carrots, but her main source of incentive is play (and naughty thoughts!)So...I send LB out in a circle--Buck,squeal, buck, squeal, buck--and then she comes to the pile of carrots, screeches to a halt, lies down, and starts rolling on them, then leaps up and takes off bucking and squealing again. She repeats this cycle 5 times, each time, stopping at the carrots, dropping, and rolling on them. So I pass her off to Phoebe, and the same thing happens.

By this time, all 3 of us (Phoebe, her mom, and I) are gaping in disbelief, and Phoebe's mom says in a baby-talk voice (personifying LB): "You guys, these are MY carrots! MINE! And I like how they smell!"...indeed. My little snot was being possessive of her carrots!

Anyway, the rest of the lesson went well. At the end, I sent Phoebe and LB into the playground and told them "use your 7 games, and go play with the obstacles."...that was a treat to watch, the imagination of a 10 yr old at work partnered with a young mischievous Miniature horse. They did some really fantastic stuff, and they both appeared to just be having a ball. I have to bring my camera sometime. They're just fantastic.

So anyway, I just wanted to share that little story. That little partnership is coming along so nicely, and it's truly a treat to guide it :)

Savvy on!

Mirror, Mirror...

2009-02-25T15:17:00.000-08:00

"Mirror, mirror, tell me true. I see me when I see you. Am I patient? Am I kind? You'll tell me, 'cause you don't lie...Horses don't lie!"
~Mary Ann Kennedy in "Mirror, Mirror"

In Parelli, we are all taught early on that our horse is our mirror. Most of the time (at least in a lot of cases) we hear it, we say we understand, and we probably do, to a point. But usually we really realize it when some experience comes and slaps us in the face, and we go "Oh my GOD, reflection of myself much?". I've had several big experiences like that, and a lot of little ones, and they're sometimes exciting, and other times a little bitter to swallow. Today, I had a really blinding one. A "how-the-hell-could-I-have-missed-it?!" type of experience. But before I explain, I need to give some background information.

My mom and I do not get along. It's not something I'm going to whine about, I've accepted it. But it's important to know that, and also to know why for this story. I am a very strong-willed person. I don't take no for an answer, I'm stubborn as a mule, I am overly-sensitive and easily offended, and am often viewed as arrogant, defiant and self-centered. My mom is very structured and has a very clear image of what she wants in life. She's quieter, and a lot of times, is motivated to do things out of the fear of losing that structure. She comes off a lot of times as judgmental, and especially around me, has extremely high standards and sometimes overlooks everything that is well done, because she gets tunnel vision toward a goal (gee, she doesn't sound human, does she?). I don't blame her for it at all, but I end up very frustrated, unmotivated and asking "Why should I?" around her a lot of the time, particularly recently, for reasons that I won't get into.

Anyway, today I set out to play with Prin. I pulled out my 45' line, and we went off into the slop (yay for 50 and sunny!) to play with some things. The session started out okay, but not nearly what I had hoped for. She was a bit unresponsive, but ever more so, she lacked draw entirely. Now, being that I've totally adjusted my focus to the relationship, I stopped as soon as the backward S pattern wasn't effective, and went "Why isn't she wanting to draw?"...the obvious answer is "I'm doing something that makes her not want to be around me." But WHAT?! Hmmm...

So I decided to play a bit more, and examine my behavior while I did it. I sent her out on a circle, with my goal to just have her trot loosely toward the end of the 45' line. Now, by all standards, my horse did it. But she wasn't trotting with biomechanical correctness, so I asked her ribs over. She swished her tail and leaned into the halter. "How RUDE!" I thought...so I asked her to go sideways "Fine, go sideways then!" More tail swishing, and then she SHOT sideways away from me, and about pulled me off my feet. My exact thought process was laughable: "MY GOD, Prin, don't take that so PERSONALLY, I merely suggested that you might be more comfortable if...OH MY GOD...PRIN IS REACTING LIKE ME AND I AM ACTING JUST LIKE MY MOTHER!" How about THAT for a self-imposed knife in the gut?! Could I get any more nit-picky?! I mean, Prin and I are at a point where it's okay for me to focus on the physical, but to not even acknowledge the try first and let her settle in? That couldn't be more like my mother's relationship with me!

I stopped, brought my horse in, and proceeded to burst out laughing. I couldn't be mad at that! It was so simple! My horse is my mirror. Of course. How could I have missed it? Even the defiant looks she was giving ME were ones I was familiar with from doing them myself! (Talk about an interesting attitude shift on the thought "WIPE THAT LOOK OFF YOUR FACE!") I had been nit-picking the ENTIRE session, not allowing and recognizing a try, and certainly not thinking about what would make her feel good and excited about performing for me. And the more I thought, the more I realized why prior sessions had gone well or not. All my good sessions in recent times have been when I've sacrificed my leadership and given Prin "The 51%" so to speak, and let her choose what she wanted to do, and then I had just slipped in and molded it a little. All the ones that had gone poorly were like this one; my critic persona and I had taken over the session. No wonder Prin's feedback had gotten more outspoken. You should hear the things I've said to my mother recently! OH BOY!

I had been talking to one of my instructors last night, and she suggested (since my mom and I have been fighting) that I stick close to my horse, because her feedback could be trusted to be honest and unbiased. Honest and unbiased indeed (and slice of humble pie too, while you're at it!). While it was alarming, and a bit amusing, I know it was the key I needed, because of course, it worked! Immediately that I realized what I was doing, and consciously went "Wow, I'm not fond of that image, how do I change?", Prin said "THANK YOU!" and let all the tension and brace out of her mind and body. We proceeded to finish up with some of the best long-line driving we've ever had, both with smiles on our faces.

Now, what's interesting to me about this discovery is that I've always called myself an LBE. Prin is an LBI with Extroverted traits, and now that I read back on this, I'm realizing I've got a lot more Introverted traits than I had originally charted. "Defiant, stubborn, unmotivated"? That's not LBE! And the more I study this realization, the more I realize we're more alike than I thought, my horse and I. It's almost comforting, and that's why I've taken this feedback so well, because I now realize just how easy it'll be for me to communicate. All I have to do is think about how I'd want my mother to motivate me, and then translate it into equine terms! Maybe easier said than done, but it's a skeleton for progress at least!

So. I'd like to firstly thank Kristi Smith for reminding me that my horse will give me the feedback I need and can trust. Secondly, I'd like to thank Linda, who's little voice in my head totally motivated me to see the humor in this experience. (Not to mention, inspired me to write about it!) and thirdly, I'd like to thank my large, spotted mirror. How I managed to miss it for so long, I do not know. This will be an interesting transformation to go through. I'll keep posting as we go along here.

Savvy on!

Upholding Responsibilities

2009-02-20T15:30:00.000-08:00

Principle #4 of the Eight Parelli Principles is "Horses and Humans have mutual responsibilities." Mutual Responsibilities? Yeah. That. This is broken down even farther into the Eight Responsibilities-four for each horse and human. I had a fascinating session with Crest yesterday, in which our problem was deeply rooted in the Eight Responsibilities. I'll list them below so you know what I'm referring to as I go along here.

Human:
1. Act like a partner, not like a predator
2. Develop an independent seat and independent feet
3. Use the Natural power of FOCUS*
4. Think Like a Horse*

*These two responsibilities have been printed by Parelli now in reverse order. In Pat's book, published in 1993, 3 and 4 are reversed. In my course pack, they're in the order they are now.

Horse:
1. Act like a Partner, not like a prey animal.
2. Don't Change Gait
3. Don't Change Direction
4. Look where you're going.

Refer back to these if you need to at any point while reading this entry :)

So, I decided yesterday to play with Crest. It was gorgeous, 27 and sunny with no wind, and Prin was busying herself with a bucket of hay cubes anyway. We haltered up and I decided to be a kind leader and play with him in his paddock with the other horses. So I set out, and my first error was to set out with no plan, really. Crest is really out of shape, so I had no expectations of him, but my first problem was that I really had NO expectations at all. So after 5 minutes of a session of Crest saying "No" to every suggestion I made, I realized that as his partner, I've done a very poor job of holding him to his responsibilities, both in this session, and in times passed. Okay, I accept that, so WHY? I think probably because he's got an RBE side, I've been babying him and really cherishing the fact that he wants to do anything for me at all. But now this is turning into a pattern, and I need to do a better job of holding him to his responsibilities, but particularly #2.

This makes me sound like a horrible partner in that it sounds like I don't REALLY care how tired or of shape he is. But what I figured out was this. Crest is not asking a question before he slows and breaks gait. He just does it. "I'm tired, I'm stopping." Regardless of how out of shape a horse is, he should not be so tired as to not be able to trot 3 or 4 laps on a 22' line. Or, if he is too tired, he needs to ask me if he can stop/slow. So, with that in mind, I started playing with being more insistent for the trot. I was more intent with my send and kept my energy up more as I allowed. If he went to break gait, I'd check and see if he asked a question.

The first time, he didn't even ask, he trotted 1/2 a lap and came in. Because he came in so quickly and I wasn't anticipating it, I got totally tangled in my rope, felt anger rising, and I totally lost my patience, before realizing that I was being a hypocrite. If I expected him to uphold his responsibilities as a horse, then I sure as heck better uphold my responsibilities as a human. I had totally just plowed through #1 and #2 (Independent feet/Independent seat include having the ability to manager your equipment with savvy) and was getting mad and blaming him for it. As SOON as I realized all this (took about 5 seconds, roughly), I allowed him to come in, played some truly genuine friendly game, adjusted my attitude, and then decided to start over.

The second I sent him out with my new thoughts and attitude in mind, the change was instantaneous. He started trotting more willingly and consistently in a good rhythm, if he got tired, he turned and ear to me and asked before he slowed down. It suddenly became light and fun to trot around online, and I turned it into a traveling circling game, with the goal being "All that we do will be done in the trot." We had a BLAST! He took me over obstacles, and into the 60' round pen, then out of the pen, down through the ditch (I HAVE MY LBE BACK!), and then I settled at the flat spot at the bottom of the hill. That's when the neatest change occurred. Crest trotted a lap, then blew some adrenaline off, which isn't unusual, but then he blew it off again, and this time kept his head stretched down. He trotted 3 laps with his nose on the ground, exhaling and blowing as he went. I was mind boggled, and so I brought him in, gave him a good scratch on his itchy spot, and unhaltered.

The reason that was so huge is that Crest has had lots of trouble learning about longitudinal flexion. He's had lots of biomechanical issues, and so to have him find a rhythm and discover the "Sweet spot" in a downward stretch is great, and really reassuring. Hopefully as he gets back in shape I'll be able to focus on and develop that more, but for now, I'm thrilled he's offering, and will keep playing with upholding our responsibilities.

Behold the Powers of an Attitude Adjustment!

2009-02-19T21:18:00.000-08:00

I want to just comment on this:

This girl is probably the most talented young PNHer I know. Every time she puts a video out, I watch and my jaw drops. She's more consistent in drawing that effect in me than Pat and Linda are.

Anyway, more than being an awesome girl (She's 14, and that little chestnut with the star is a 2 year old!) with awesome relationship-building skills, Hannah's also a fantastic reminder of what I need to do for myself. She put up a post a couple days ago on her blog in which she talked about a question I had asked her. She had been struggling with her horse Blaze's attitude, even in undemanding sessions, and I asked her "Are you doing the undemanding time for him, or are you doing it because you feel like it's necessary to change him?" This is a question they asked us OVER AND OVER AND OVER at the center. Not specifically that, but more "Are you doing it for the horse, or TO the horse?". By the same token, we're constantly reminded that "It's not about the ___, it's about the relationship."

I suppose this is the first "growth" from the seeds planted in my head at the center, but this video, combined with that blog post, combined with what's happened at our farm the past few days REALLY got me thinking. I apologize if you have trouble following--I'm thinking in segues tonight, and have A LOT on my mind.

I digress (I promise I'll get back to it in a minute) I've been to the farm every day for hours at a time since I've been home, and I've been really hesitant to DO anything. Not entirely sure why, I'm still trying to figure it out, but I think it's because I'm honestly trying to acclimate and introduce my little piece of "Parelli bubble" to my "home bubble". I have all these thoughts and things I did at the center with my horse that I want to do at home, but I don't know HOW to do it. The Parelli Center is magical like that. People ask me "What'd you learn?", and I don't know! Or rather, I don't know how to express it! But it shows in the relationship with my horses. Prin has left the herd and whatever she was doing and come trotting and whinnying to me every day since I've been home. She's been BEGGING for me to play with her. And this behavior is starting to catch on Crest, too.

So, how does this connect with Hannah? I've seen a lot of task-orientedness since I've gotten home. Auditions being submitted only for a string, a list of tasks being checked off, a person asking what new "Things" I learned to "DO" with my horse, hell, even a fantastic young horse woman asking me "What can I do to make my horse do this?" Hannah's stuff represents to me someone making a conscious effort to be with her horse for the sake of a relationship (and from something I SAID!) and since being home, I'm seeing how much MY attitude has changed in the same way. My horse NEVER used to RUN to me (she's an LBI!) and talk like that! I want that so much more and appreciate that so much more. I'm really learning what it's like to truly "walk my talk", as the faculty would phrase it, and it feels so good!

I've been asked a dozen times "When are you submitting your audition?"...Audition? Oh yeah, that. Um...whenever I guess? Make no mistake, I'm still intent on passing my L3, and L4, but more important than that right now is establishing that relationship right now. I've realized that I don't want to look back on my L3 journey and go "My God, where did it go? I put my horse through hell for the sake of a string, and WHY?!"

Tying in a little, Kristi Smith, an instructor on the faculty, and a newly-found personal mentor of mine, gave me some fantastic advice in one of a couple really great conversations we had. She said (and this is the gist, not verbatim) "Fran, I look at you and I see a huge drive, talent, and lots of dedication, but you've got to slow down and just LIVE YOUR LIFE, lady! You have MAYBE 2 years of your 'childhood' left, if you STRETCH it. The fact that you are who you are is awesome, you've found your passion, but slow down and appreciate it a little! Go play with your horse! Have some fun!" Have some fu---WHAT?! No, no time for that! It's about my goals and my future! It's about the stri--NO IT'S NOT!

So. Fran is no longer going to be on a quest for a damn green string. Farrah made her point quite clearly "I have two, want to borrow one?" No, I don't, I want to earn my own. The string represents a great relationship, not a bunch of well-performed tasks. That's the green string I want.

And this is not to say I'm not concerned with my future anymore. No, that's still really important to me. But I have a much renewed faith in that if I build a strong relationship base now (and not just with horses, but with the people surrounding and influencing me too!) when I'm 21 years old, I won't have to work my tail off to get where i need to, because it will have falling into place as I went along.

Savvy on. I'm going to do something with my horses tomorrow, I think. Lord knows they've been begging!

Thanks for reading, and again, sorry to be so scattered. As I said earlier, one of the planted seeds in my head just burst into full growth.

Oh Cresty...

2009-02-15T20:03:00.000-08:00

I say this in the most loving, adoring possible way, by my GOD he is FAT AND OUT OF SHAPE! Of course, lying almost completely dormant for 6 weeks *might* have something to do with it, but seriously-lol.

So, that being said, it's probably obvious I played with da boy today. It's the first time since my being home that I've done anything with him other than feed him cookies and give him kisses. Anyway, he's totally obese and out of shape. He's got a huge hay belly, and virtually no topline. His neck is short and bunchy, and he's tight in his stifles and HQ, surprise, surprise. Seeing this, I decided that I'd be nice and not ask him for anything vigorous at all, but opted for lazy-boy hill therapy to at least get his body loosened up and hind-quarters going again. I headed out for our hill, which is a very lovely sloping corn field. For those who have been to my place, it's the one out behind the West Paddock/Driveway that runs parallel to the road. It's a pretty steep hill, but it's a good walking/trotting hill therapy hill, and fun for a good gallop on Prin occasionally.

Anyway, I headed out there with Crest on the 22' line (45'? are you kidding, he'd die!) asked him out on a circle. What I got from him was the most embarrassing thing I have EVER seen. He sent out at the trot, and within 10 seconds, was panting. He offered a downward transition, which was fine, I didn't want to push. He walked several laps before giving me this "Can I PLEASE come in?! I'm DYING out here!" look. I let him come in, gave him a cookie, and sent him out the other direction. Same thing. We repeated this for 15 minutes, and by then,I was seeing a bit of change, his walk stride (that is SO embarrassing) was lengthening and he started to show signs of his handsomeness again. But I'm not going to delude myself, this is going to be one heck of a journey to get him back in shape. Cavaletti and more hills tomorrow, Cresty. I'm not riding him again until he's got some muscle. Oy...

I also trimmed Clue's feet. He's got nice, hard, well shaped feet, I did some minor adjustments (His bars were a little long) and gave them a nip and rasped them down and they look pretty nice :) Have to do Cadence's tomorrow, and I should probably do Crest and Silver too. One thing at a time though.

I'm off to finish my dishes now.

Savvy on,
F

A Business Idea

2009-02-14T10:56:00.000-08:00

Things have been pretty slow around here, and the weather is pretty unpleasant so I'm not inclined to want to be outside much. I had this idea for a little side business.

My dad is an ornamental metalsmith (I'd say blacksmith, but he doesn't work in only iron) and he's taught me a lot of what he knows over the years. For my 18th birthday, he made me a nameplate for my saddle that was really fancy and pretty. I've gotten dozens of compliments about it, and a lot of "where can I get one of those?", which got me thinking: I'd like to start making them to sell. The picture below is of the one he made me, but I assure you that I'm pretty handy with metal, too.

My dad would ask about $75-$100 for one of these guys (he's a perfectionist and enjoys detail work far too much ) but I think I'd be confident asking about $25-$40, depending on how ornate they are. Would this be something there'd be any demand for around here? Let me know, there's a pretty wide variety of things I can do, different metals, shapes, and designs, etc. Feedback is welcome, and if you're interested in a nameplate, please either email me (savvyup@yahoo.com) or leave me a comment!

Home Again

2009-02-10T08:21:00.000-08:00

Hey all!

Back to this blog now! I'll keep the other one around, because I may be doing another course this year (more details on that LATER, as the emerge), but for now, let's focus on what's going on back in Pepin.

I got home Yesterday around 1:00 pm, totally exhausted. I flew out of Orlando at 7:25 am (keep in mind, I'm an hour ahead of here, so it would be like 6:25 for me) so I'd been up since 4:30. But anyway, I got a good 10 hour night of sleep last night, and I'm pretty well back to normal. A couple more wouldn't hurt though.

Brown Coulee Farm (this is the official name of Richard's by the way) is literally very brown. The way I understand it, it's been above freezing for about 5 days now, and so everything has gone from snowy to muddy and soupy. My poor ponies, LB looked like a ball of mud yesterday. I didn't get a chance to play with anyone much, it was just too rainy and nasty, but I plan on heading up to play with what I anticipate to be a VERY wild Crest. I've missed him!

So anyway, that's all for now folks. And if you want, I've uploaded about 50 pics from the trip onto an album on my facebook. I may or may not put them on photobucket, I hate uploading photos. But if you want them and don't have facebook, shoot me an email, or leave a comment and I'll start putting them up slowly but surely.

Savvy on, ya'll!

F

We're On Our Way...

2009-01-06T14:15:00.000-08:00

Everything is packed. Clothes and tack all stuffed into plastic storage bins, neatly placed (okay, who am I kidding? They're "hastily strewn") by the front door. All that's left to do is load up and hit the road. Farrah is supposed to be here in a couple hours.

I'm left to sit here and contemplate my feelings, thoughts, etc, of the journey ahead of me. I'm so jumbled and mixed, it's driving me nuts. I'm thoroughly excited and enthralled, to begin with. I've lived for this day for 5 years, in a sense, dreaming of the time I could attend a course at the Parelli Center. I'm anxious, too. My horse and I have never traveled this far, this long, together. I've never driven across the country with anyone but my parents. The longest I've been away from home is two and a half weeks.

Then of course, there's the endless list of "Who? Where? What? How? Why? What if?" that keeps running through my head about the actual curriculum. Who'll be in class with me? What's the new format like? What will I learn? How will Prin benefit? How will Prin respond? All these QUESTIONS! All will be answered in due time, I'm sure.

Anyway, when the student is ready, the teacher will come. Opportunity has presented itself, now it's time to take the plunge. We'll be on the road for 3 days, arriving Thursday afternoon sometime. I'll blog again when I get there, and get things figured out. There will be massive amounts of pictures, too! I PROMISE :)

Savvy on, Savvy out. From now on, all blog entries will be on my parelli course blog: www.fransparellicourse.blogspot.com. Talk to you soon, and for those of you with my cell phone number, call or text any time. Later!

Pissy Mare...

2009-01-03T16:26:00.000-08:00

I didn't do too much out at the farm today. I did go out and trim feet, though, and also had a great time observing herd behavior.

We moved the herd into the West Paddock today. We've been having windmill troubles, and therefore don't have much water to spare. We put them in that paddock so that they'd have more space to eat, but also fresh snow to eat on top of (Thus making them less thirsty). Anyway, watching the herd dynamics in the new space was fascinating, especially when it came to feeding time. Everyone was pushing eachother around (not the usual herd order) and there was mass chaos for a few minutes.

The one thing that really shocked me, however, was watching Prin. She's usually middle of the order, Dominant over the smaller ones and Crest, (they interchange, actually), and also over Clue. Today, she was just on the war path. ANYONE who got in her way, she charged and bit. She actually chased Clue around with her teeth clamped on his withers. She chased Cricket the entire perimeter of the fence, and kicked Crest once. It was rather amusing. Guess she was cranky eh?

Well I'm off to shower and go to bed uber early. I'm SO done with this mental exhaustion. Course countdown 3 days. EEK.

Savvy on!

New Year, New Goals

2009-01-03T10:05:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

Apologies for the belated post, It's been a really weird few days. I just wanted to quickly review my 2009 goals before I leave for my course :)

Equine Goals:

*Make the most of the course experience (learn all possible, stay open to suggestion, etc)
*Pass L3 no later than April (You've put this off LONG ENOUGH, Fran!)
*Perform in the Savvy Spotlight at Madison
*Attend several clinics--Nita Jo? Dave Ellis? Karen Rohlf?
*Delve father into L3 with Crest
*Buy truck and possibly trailer (haha, that's a stretch!)
*Continue studies with Farrah
*Begin some jumping lessons with Prin (Otter Creek?)
*Go to Pagosa for a week with Crest? ($$ permitting)
*Develop and learn more about Natural Trimming

Personal Goals:

*Lose some weight (Yes, this is EVERYONE'S goal...but I'm actually gonna do it!)
*Don't sweat the small stuff (And Remember, Franny, it's ALL small stuff!)
*Figure out what I'm doing with my life (Furthering my education)
*Become a better teacher
*Learn to address that 10% (Katie would get this, not many others)
*Continue to develop as a centered (and edgeless, LOL Linda!) individual.
*"Que Cera, Cera"
*Manage my finances better (ACK! WHERE IS MY CHECKBOOK THESE DAYS?!)

This is what i can think of off hand. More to come I'm sure. But for now, Off to find my checkbook. Which I KNOW still exists!