Yes, I'm Alive!

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

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!

Somewhere in Level 4, Precision is Born

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

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!

Um...WOW?

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!

B-B-B-RRRR!

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!

My Sacrificial Lamb

"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!

Unstoppable!

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!

Like a Painted Wild Mustang...

"...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

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 :)

Many Fine Learning Opportunities

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

A Promise...

...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

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!

Fitness and Flexibility

It has become painfully evident to me over the past few days that Prin is grossly out of shape, and also very inflexible. I've known of some of the inflexibility since June, but only now is the extent of the problem becoming obvious. Prin's got what I would call a fairly straight, inflexible rib cage, some (although not nearly as much)tension in her stifles, and of course, really locked down shoulders. Such is the build and intent of a western-pleasure type stock horse, but I DON'T WANT THAT, so, we're going to change that.

Yesterday and today, under the guidance of Farrah (over the phone-haha), I set up some obstacle assessments to see where exactly my horse is at, and what needs to develop, and based on that, I think I've kind of come up with a fitness and flexibility program for her that is as follows:

Finding a Rhythm

Prin has a bit of an issue finding a good rhythm online with an obstacle in her path. She has a tendency to think in straight lines instead of circles (typical LBI much?) and so as she's circling, she'll jump the jump, then continue off in a straight line, instead of flexing and bending back into the circle after jumping. She does fairly well on the 12' line, but the goal is to get her doing it out to the end of the 45 line comfortably. Planning to build the 12' line to up to, say 30-50 laps (currently comfortable at about 15-18), then get the 22' line to that level, etc, and hopefully by the time we're to the 45' line, someone will be fit enough to handle lots of cantering.

Lateral Flexibility

I'm going to find a copy of Karen Rohlf's book/video, and start using her flexibility exericises. Farrah introduced me to just a taste of that at her clinic in June, and it seemed to make sense. I'd love to see how Prin does and builds in her movement with consistant use. So...with that out there, anyone have a copy they'd like to part with?


Longitudinal flexibility

Prin and I have been playing a lot with longitudinal flexion all summer, but I never realized how vital it was to my horse's ability to collect until earlier this fall. Getting Princess to do it in the walk and trot, and even some in the canter (PLEASE email or leave a comment if you're wondering about this) and having her STAY IN IT long enough to build muscle will really help Prin's topline strengthen and grow.

Stamina

Long trots/canters to build rhythm and stamina will really help her I think. My plan is to take her for trots/canters 2-3 times a week, starting for 15 minutes and building up. I know it sounds like a lot, but to put it in perspective for you, Farrah was telling me that when she was training for her 2* in eventing, she was CANTERING AND GALLOPING (not walking and trotting) but CANTERING AND GALLOPING up to 2 hours A DAY. Yeah, that was one fit horse. I don't need Prin to be THAT athletic, necessarily, but I want her to be fit and comfortable enough to be able to do the kind of high level manuvers I want to complete.


Nutrition

This is the one area that I'm still a little iffy about. I've heard so many different opinions, and I'm not finding ANY consistancies. Prin is getting fed with 14 other horses about 8 small square bales a day. Probably gets about 1/2 a bale for herself. Right now I have her supplemented with a 5 pint scoop of soaked alfalfa cubes and a half scoop of oats and sunflower seeds for fiber and oils once daily. I feel like this might be off. She's turning her nose up to the hay cubes pretty badly, which makes me think that that might not be what she needs. Anyone have any ideas? She needs to GAIN WEIGHT as well as keep it on. I'd like to avoid anything high in sugars, and unhelpful fats, and really focus on proteins, fiber and healthy oils. Thoughts are appreciated right now, and I've got a bit of a budget to play with, but not too much.


That's what I've got in the works right now for Prin. It's really sad to look at Crest and think "That horse could do this already...argh Prin!" Oh well, such is the life of a LBE vs an LBI. Please let me know your thoughts :)

Savvy out!

F

PS, YAY OBAMA!!! Talk about a change we can believe in, check out that LANDSLIDE of a win :)

QUICK!! I have a COOKIE!!

So today was one of those interesting reminders for what exactly WORKS for an LBI.

My dear darling friend Jessica is coming to visit in a couple weeks, and the main goal of her visit is to film the majority of my L3 assessment, because for the LOVE OF GOD, it's time for me to finish the dang thing! Anyway, in times past, I've had a hard time filming because I just tried to film without practicing first...well DUH, no wonder I'd get frustrated. I woke up at about 5:00 this morning thinking about it (you know you're obsessed with PNH when you actually DREAM the L3/L4 online patterns)and decided that from now until Jess gets here on the 11th, we're going to PRACTICE. Not in the task oriented sense of the phrase, like "We're going to work on these tasks until we can do them in our sleep." but more along the lines of we're just going to play around and do those tasks in with our playing every day.

Anyway, back to the interesting session. SO, we set out on the 45' line, I set up some barrels, a jump, and some cavalettis, and we started. And instantly, Prin started in with her old trick...she'd stick her nose to the outside of the circle and PULL. A constant, annoying contact, that said "You know, if I were at liberty, I'dve left already, you boring, stupid, rediculous person. You call yourself a leader?"

One of my faults as a person is that I have a huge dignity complex. I cannot STAND to have anyone be downright RUDE to me, human, OR equine, especially if it's unprovoked, so this behavior out of Prin just ANNOYED me. Score one for Spotty. I could only think of one solution/idea off the top of my head, so I tried it. Every time she'd pull off, I would send her off harder/sideways, until she'd turn and ask me a question, then I'd bring her in and give her a rub. This is a friendly warning to all of you. DON'T DO THAT! It makes the situation WORSE. After trying this for a couple minutes, Prin was literally WHIPPING away from me, and trying to escape pressure. ARGH...time to reassess the situation.

I knew I wasn't getting anywhere continuing at that point, so I unsnapped the line, wound it up, put Prin loose in the west paddock and walked back to my car to have a good think. I got back to the car, sat down in my back seat, and remembered back to June, when I was having a similar problem, but it was only at 10 and 2 oclock on the circle. I was trying to remember what I had done then, and remembered what Linda had suggested; to bring Prin in when she drifted off and give her a cookie and some scratches...My thought was "That worked to a mediocre level...obviously the problem is reoccuring now...so it wasn't solved" or I did something to spark it again. So I'm thinking "What is not clicking here? She comes in, she gets a cookie. I'm the comfort spot..."

And then it hit me. I'm not making it UNCOMFORTABLE to pull off. I went back to the pasture, all excited to try my new idea. Prin, surprisingly enough, came RIGHT up to me, and allowed me to put the line back on her (she had this look on her face of "you gonna get it right this time?")

I sent her back out, and got the same drill, except, this time every time she'd pull off, I'd disengage her *almost* rudely, and DEMAND that she at least trot, maybe canter to me...with an urgency...like "COME HERE! QUICK! I HAVE TO TELL YOU SOMETHING!!!" and then, as soon as she got in to me, I'd drop my energy, give her a scratch, and pull out a cookie and give it to her.

I did this maybe a dozen or so times (I really should invest in Winnies Cookie stock...) and within 10 minutes, she was offering canter on a loose rope. So...ya think I might have done the right thing? Maybe? Score one for Franny. I'm VERY proud of myself, and I'm REALLY excited to see how this evolves and progresses...although I will need to get some more cookies...blah!

Savvy on!

Lessons in Teaching, and a CRAP Homecoming

"The real skill in teaching comes when you don't cause chaos... that goes for teaching horses or humans. So setting it up for success and knowing what to teach when and in what environment is the key."
~Linda Parelli, 10/25/08

It's quotes like these that make a profound difference in how I look at my actions and how I plan to better myself. Advice taken and VERY appreciated.

I recieved an email (actually two) back about the situation portrayed in my last post. While I won't go into great detail (they were long emails), lets just say that the big thing I was missing was the environment in which I needed to teach. Just because I *think* I may be setting a situation up for success doesn't mean I necessarily did. Success, at that point, would have been away from the horse, perhaps in a simualation or just sitting down and discussing. Time with the horse is reserved strictly for feel, experimentation, and play. I type that out now, and all I'd really love to say is "Of COURSE...I KNEW THAT!" And probably to some degree, I did, but you never know how much you know, or don't know, until it throws itself in your face as a dirty, ugly reminder. So. Duely noted, and I will be a better person because of it.

Anyway, with that update covered, lets talk a little bit about the beautiful letdown my home state of WI has given me since returning. First off. Snow. Let's discuss this form of precipitation. Common usually from mid-late November onward, and present in our lives until late March (or later!). Notice firstly that there was NO MENTION of snow in October in that statement. And yet, here I sit, on October 26th, 2008, watching gray, icy flakes fall out of the sky. While they aren't sticking, there will be no denying it, SNOW has officially fallen for the first time this year.

Secondly, let's discuss WIND. While I don't mind a little here and there, cutting up to 40 mph in nasty gusts is anything but what I'd call pleasant. I'm not pleased with it.

Other than that though, I'm THRILLED to be home. Got to see my fuzzies today, and they were, *shocker* FUZZY! Prin was a spanish walking MACHINE (SEE MOM?! I STILL CAN DO IT!! I PRACTICED WHILE YOU WERE AWAY!!) Crest just a love bug, and Lady was...um...clingy. She whinnied for me when I got there (AWWW!!) and then proceeded to chase me around, etc. I'll be going back out soon, after I change into my fuzz-butts (winter riding pants)...first ride in them this season! WOW!

Savvy on!

Lady Bug!!!

My Bug is home! :D

She couldn't have been any cooler about everything, she unloaded, sniffed about, then settled into her munching.

Introductions were interesting, she met Crest, Prin, Amigo, and Silver. All but Prin went well. Prin seriously seemed like she would love to kill the little thing if she had the chance. Photo:




Crest and Silver were both totally smitten, they both carried the air of "Oh my GOD...she's so FREAKING CUTE!" and Amigo was mildly amused, I think. Picture of meeting Crest:



Other than that, um...she's hell on four hooves, VERY LBE, snotty, and is the most adorable thing to play with. Unfortunately (PLEASE try to understand why-lol!) it's *almost* impossible to dish out discipline to something that cute, so I have a bad feeling that she's going to get away with murder.

I taught her to lie down this evening, and believe it or not, there was no force involved, I used her offering once to my advantage, and now it's a consistant thing, I sit down, she lies down, and then she gets a cookie...muahaha! I have a picture on my friend's phone that will come as soon as it decides it can send to me. SO CUTE.

Off to FL tomorrow. Excited, but will miss my fuzzies mucho! Toodles!

F

Trail riding and Fluid Reins

Had one very long, busy horsey day today. Got up to the farm around 2 O'clock with every intention of reading for most of the afternoon (BLOODY HOT! DANG!!)and then riding in the evening. Well, I got out there, and Cricket, my poor poor Cricket, was solidly REFUSING to use her lame leg. So, slowly and carefully, I put her, Princess, and Knight in the north paddock, and let them graze, and then called Virge, who, thank GOODNESS is home now. From what I described, Virge said it sounded like Cricket might have a deep absess in her foot. So, this afternoon involved lots of running around looking for epsom salt and hot water to soak feet in. Hopefully she gets better after this treatment.

But now for something completely different, related to the headline of this blog. I rode Cresty tonight on a trail ride. This new saddle has given me OODLES of new reasons to ride him, and I'm not regretting a second of it! The past few rides I've put a bridle and confidence snaffle on him so we can start actually erm, PROGRESSING into our riding. And I'm finding, go figure, that part of our riding issue is caused by Crest's complete and total BOREDOM with what we've been doing. He gets out on trail and he's completely different...he goes "OOH! This is INTERESTING! New places! New things! SPOOKY MAIL BOXES! New sights!" Once he settles into a rhythm though, I've found that I'm able to start some fluid rein concept, and that he GETS IT. Gets it so well, in fact, that I had Mikaela hop on and ride him tonight...she rode him about 3/4 of the distance home, and she did fluid rein, as well as some sideways and back, and she DID NOT stop marvelling about how well he's doing once. And this is coming from MICKEY...Who isn't the most confident rider on an energetic horse. So YAY!

Pix and updates to come soon! Sorry, I'm bad, but hey, I'm BUSY!

Lameness, Lessons, and Learning

HA! Do you know HOW LONG it took me to come up with that third "L" word to finish the alliterative (I think I just made that word up!) title? HUZZAH!! Anyway, back on topic, while I can still hold my eyes open.

Lameness: POOR CRICKET! She is still unbelievably sore. I have NEVER seen a limp this bad in a horse before other than a founder case in all 4 feet, but this is only one leg. We poked and prodded and wrenched her poor leg around today, TRYING to find the source of the pain, and we're having little luck. Her foot isn't hot, it's not cracked, she's not swollen anywhere, and there's no evidence of abraision. We did find a little hot pocket in what would be considered her "armpit", but it's not tender to the touch, so we have no clue what happened. I'm hoping it's not a fracture or something more serious, although I would guess that would be more than a little tender to the touch if it were the case. Anyway, she's gimping around, we let her into the north paddock to fill her belly in peace (she's low on the totem pole and they push her around on that leg) and also, we tried to get some bute into her as well, to at least make the pain more tolerable. She's pretty sore, but man did she fight the syringe going into her mouth. For having a bad leg, she did surprisingly well.

Lessons: Gave 2 lessons today, both of which were very successful. First came Phoebe. Such a talented rider in such a little package. She rode Princess in my Wintec Wide ("It's actually pretty comfortable" she says!) and had her first (That I know of) cross country gallop, completed in two point, with her whooping and hollering, and Princess looking sheepishly proud (she loves to teach kids, whether she'll admit it or not). I was impressed with the pair of them!

Next came Cynde and Shashi. They had a HUGE breakthrough, and it made me feel wonderful as a teacher. The breakthrough was fairly simple, and that was that Cynde interrupted a RBE blasting circle VERY assertively (but neutrally), then brought Shash in and stroked him with a friendly look. For Cynde, this is HUGE because she's got a fear of being firm with Shash. For me, it was a wonderful breakthrough, because I was the one shouting "INTERRUPT THE PATTERN!" and she listened and acted on it. Makes me feel effective and VERY proud of my students.

Also had some good effects with "Breathing while you act"...Something Farrah REALLY emphasized in the clinic was how important breathing was as you played with a horse, especially with a tense person/pair. From the second she mentioned it last weekend, I realized that breathing, as well as possibly singing (LOL... Farrah, if you ever read this, Cynde was ready to stab me after singing the ABC's 3 times!) while she played would greatly benefit Cynde, because of how tense and nervous she is. So whenver I saw her get tense, I'd just lightly say "Breath while you do that..." and she'd exhale and say "Thank you, HOW can you see that?!" and then she'd get WAY more confident. Interesting, eh?

As far as learning goes, I'm referring to Princess, here. We did some learning of new actions in 3 separate short sessions today. First we played with lifting and placing a single leg (Prep for Spanish Walk and bowing/lying down) and then we worked on getting more energy underneath us in the back up, and then we played with "How SMALL can we canter?" when we went on a trail ride. Prin's doing really well with the bowing, backing, and tiny cantering (Richard was teasing Amigo, saying "Why can't you just copy her?" as he jogged along beside us as we loped like seasoned pleasure riders) but we're still sort of struggling with the concept of picking up a foot and holding with the driving game, though I'm sure it'll come, since she's sort of getting it.

Her bows were probably the high point for me, she REALLY got down low today, on her knees twice (and NOT because I pushed her, either) and completely LB andconfidently. So proud!

Anyway, off to bed. Pray for Cricket please!