Behold the Powers of an Attitude Adjustment!

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...

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

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

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...

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...

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

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!