Oh, My Extroverts!

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!

A Lesson in Herd Dynamics

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!

Awesome times THREE!

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 :)

Upholding Responsibilities

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.

A Few Pics!

We had our first real snowfall of the season last night, and Prin and I took advantage of it today and had a nice online session. Here are a few photos. Take notice of how uphill and round she is, and the nice expression on her face :)


Tall horse, short girl ^^^


Drawing in :)


Big extended ROUND canter (using her shoulders for once!) Playing traveling circling game here.


This pic just blows my mind. she's uphill, round, LOOK AT HER HIND QUARTERS, theres slack in the line...it's just gorgeous.

Let me know what you think!!

Free Advertising

Not that she'll ever see this, but I just thought I'd throw out some free advertising for Farrah Green in here. If anyone wants to have a genuinely FANTASTIC learning experience, whether it be in clinic format or a private lesson, seriously, check her out! www.sittinghorse.us

Reason I throw the above message out there before starting my blog is because I had a wonderful, VERY effective session with my horse today, utilizing the information Farrah provided me in our lesson yesterday. To go into detail would basically be regurgitating what I wrote yesterday, but the result is what prompted the free advertising. Prin cantered 6 laps on the 22' line today without my being at all persistant, and I hardly had to up my phase much. I sent her out on phase 1, and asked her into the canter in like moderate 2 or so, and other than following her with my eyes with disbelief, she held in place with no reminders. Guess she realized that I can be and am bossy. The difference between this and what I had before (even when Prin WAS cantering more online) is like night and day, she's cantering A LOT, cantering WILLINGLY, and honestly putting effort into it. I'd rather have 4 laps of this than 18 laps of LBI "Ba...da...dum..." ANY day! Video/pix soon, I hope.

In other news, Nugget's owners came out to see her today, and were ASTOUNDED when I met them at the gate on her bareback with one rein. She's catching on so quickly, I think tomorrow I may start some L1 freestyle patterns with her.

Time to go eat some spaghetti, soak in a hot bath, and read a good book. Here's to comfort evenings! Savvy OUT!

Lessons in Emotional Fitness

ARGH...I hate being a girl sometimes. Go where you want with that, I just don't have very good self-control at some points. Ya'll get a cookie if you stick it out and read the whole thing :)

Anyway, had a FANTASTIC session with Crest today. This is the 3rd session in a row I've ended early, nearly in tears for how wonderful he is. This session was an interesting one, because it was absolutely NOTHING like what I was planning on doing. I was planning on bringing Crest down, tacking him up in saddle and bridle, and playing with some finesse with him.

Well, I got out there, and the entire herd was at the far end of the pasture. I decided I didn't want to walk him back (Lazy Franny!) so I haltered him up, gave him a cookie, and hopped on to ride back down. We didn't even quite get to the middle of the pasture, and I started just playing with some things, transitions, trotting circles, sideways, just some various little concepts. We started out doing some walk circles, trying to get him to loosen up and flex around my leg. That went really well, so I bumped it up to trot, and it was SO amazing. I remember watching Crest trot online earlier this year, (and you may find blog posts about it) and always though "Why can't he give me THAT trot undersaddle?" Well, he's been giving me that trot now! It is LOVELY, collected, and sane. After doing 6 circles in each direction with the reins on his neck, I softly asked him into the canter.

Crest has always LOVED to crow hop, buck, and play in the canter, and Linda gave me some thoughts and ideas for that, the main suggestion being to do a lot of "We're cantering...JUST KIDDING!" transitions, so he gets a taste of cantering, but not enough for him to even come up with any evil thoughts, and then gradually making the chunks of cantering bigger until he's reliable and doesn't crow hop. I've been playing with that the past few days, and today I REALLY felt the pay off. Crest cantered 12 circles for me on his bad (right) lead, with the reins loose on his neck, my hands at my sides. He then dropped from trot to walk off my energy. End of session. I got off, tears STREAMING down my cheeks, gave him a cookie and a huge hug and took his halter off. He is turning into the most WONDERFUL partner this girl could want. WONDERFUL.


Secondly, I got Prinny out, with the intent to practice a few patterns, and then do some finesse with her, since she's been out of comission for a couple weeks.

We had a really fantastic ground session, my LBI (remember that blog from a few days ago?) offered canter and stayed in it for 14 laps counter clockwise and 10 clockwise on the 22' line, which was awesome. She even did a gorgeous flying change of direction each way for me. In other words, the circles pattern, especially the traveling circling is going REALLY WELL.

So here's where the emotional fitness came in. Prin hasn't been ridden in over 2 weeks. She's out of shape and her topline looks like HELL (who knew those muscles went away so quickly?!) and she was in a completely resistant mood. We started out on the big rings of the cradle and did some fluid rein to get that longitudinal flexion going so she could round up. She picked up quickly, but was really dull about bending laterally "around" my leg, etc. We played with it a lot, and she finally got it, but she kept going slower and slower, and i didn't have my dressage whip, or even my savvy string, so she was IMPOSSIBLE to keep going. This is when my irritation started, I hate it when she sulls up, because she's SO beyond that phase, even in finesse. So I started to get a little un-savvy about it, instead of approaching the horse that showed up, I got too firm, then completely lost it when she refused to canter. Fortunately, I was savvy enough to GET OFF, and untack her, but then we had a very firm conversation on the 22' line (so much for 14 laps tomorrow). Fortunately for Prin, I reached a breaking point physically, so I had to quit, and that calmed me down quite a bit.

While she was a little taken aback, I think Prin kind of understood what I was going thru (she had a little tantrum of her own too) and she came over with this "WOW...can we start over?" look on her face. So I brought her over and we spanish walked to the gate,(She LOVES the Spanish walk, it's her new default trick when she isn't sure what I'm asking for. She goes "I'll spanish walk...see?) and I fed her cookies and then quit for the day. At least we ended on a good note and she felt smart.

So, lesson learned. I need to work on my emotional fitness and address the horse that shows up, even if we ARE into L3/L4. I'm not proud of my behavior, but I'm pleased that we were able to patch it up and end well. And I'm REALLY proud of Cresty, so my day is far from ruined.

Fresh start tomorrow.

Savvy out!