Weave pattern

Well I haven't written in a while but I have played with Duck. I played with her both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we played for almost 2 hours and then the kids came and did a pony ride on her.

Saturday's session was playing a bit with liberty (very short) which was just stick to me. I obviously totally ruined her confidence in me at liberty and it will be a slow process to get it back I am sure. 

Then riding we did the weave pattern on the barrels. I wish I had some exciting stuff to say about it but not too much. Just introducing the pattern at a walk, our hardest part is the turn to go around and do it again! I also tried to canter her because she seemed willing but then she bucked a few good bucks and I slowed her down. Thankfully it doesn't take too much to get her to shut down. It always catches me off guard when she does that. Well I did slow her down but the second time I was more prepared so I asked again and off we went. No problems, got about a half a lap around the arena which is fine with me!

Sunday we played again with the weave pattern on the 22' line. I realized how hard of a time I have keeping my feet still! Need to work on that! Then I got on and we did the pattern walking. Then trotting. She did pretty good with a cookie at the end for motivation, but then she started getting crabby ears and defensive about it. So I slowed it down and we repeated at the walk. Then we did the trot again and she was nicer about it. Online we also practiced yo-yo's into the arena and also outside the arena on a small mound of dirt both online and mounted!

I am getting really excited to go to savvy conference in one week! WOW! I can't wait!

Plus my HUGEST bonus is that my sister offered to give me a lesson on one of her horses that is good at cantering around a bunch so I can work on myself! I've had issues with riding a 13.1 hh mustang for 15 years almost exclusively and now have Duck who is around 15 hands or so. The stride is SO different to me and my seat is very lacking! It will be SO nice to practice on a seasoned horse again so I can become more comfortable with it without effecting Duck badly!

Successful Trail Ride and Trailer Loading!

Last night I went to drop off my freshly laundered ropes to the barn. Niels and I were on our way to dinner. Well Duck wasn't feeling well. She was very lethargic, wasn't eating much grass etc. So we ended up staying there for quite awhile keeping an eye on her and also taking her vitals. They were normal 36 for pulse and 99.9 for temp. So we checked on her again on the way home from dinner and she seemed to be doing better but not 100%. So I didn't think I would be able to trail ride today...

Well this morning I went to check on her and she was back to her chippy cheery self! Yeah! I was supposed to ride with the savvy group at South Mountain. We ended up not going with that group because Lisa (my most wonderful friend that also trailers my horse for me) needed to get feed for her herd. Turns out it was better that I didn't for a few reasons.

1) I was still worried about Duck not feeling great and I didn't want to ride a long ways

2) Once we did go riding, she was sore on the gravel because she doesn't have shoes on

3) I wouldn't have been riding much at South Mountain because Lisa said it is really rocky and very steep there

So we opted for a shorter afternoon ride at Latta today. Of course I was curious how the trailer loading would go since the last time wasn't so great and to see if the simulations I did helped or not. Well it took about 20 minutes for her to gain her confidence enough to stay in.

Off we went to Latta! I didn't get any pictures today because I forgot my camera. Oh well, next time! Today was just the two of us, Lisa and I. Christa was working at the barn, and Becky couldn't come as well.

Duck almost smashed me trying to turn around in the trailer to get out. Mental note to work on backing her out slowly!

The ride went very well and uneventful except both Duck and Jake wanting to eat grass, A LOT!

Duck was very, very calm. We even rode at some of the road crossings around some traffic. No problem. The only thing she jumped at was crossing the crosswalk. It caught me off guard but she jumped, not bad and then continued on. We rode for an hour or so. Just walking. I need to get Duck some boots so she won't be so sore on the trail. Now I know that her feet aren't tough mustang feet but they held up pretty well considering she did 16-20 miles last week!

So we got back to the trailer and untacked. It was getting more humid by that time, she was pretty wet just under her saddle. I prepped myself for trailer loading time again, and she loaded once, then twice, and the third time she went in, and stayed in! She didn't have a problem with me going to do the divider or anything! When loading at the barn we played "it's more work to be out of the trailer" and also "there is a cookie ONLY when you get in the trailer." She certainly seemed to be catching on to the "cookie in the trailer" game! 

All in all it was a fun ride and a great day with Lisa, Jake, Duck and I. I look forward to many more. I just can't even write how happy I am to be able to get out on the trails again! I just love it! And I am so grateful to Lisa for so willingly trailering us everywhere even though we still have loading issues!

A couple of sessions

I've only played with Duck twice since we went trail riding. It's amazing how time just seems to fly by and then I realize it has been 3-4 days since I last went to the barn! 

Played with Duck on Wednesday evening. It had rained all day Wednesday and was very cool. All the horses seemed to have that very "fresh" feeling! It was cool, it had rained and the wind was blowing some. Duck was no exception. I put on her bareback pad b/c my saddle pad was still at home needing cleaned from the trail ride. I took her down to the arena, as always we grazed our way there. LOL 

I decided since she had some more "go" today that we would try circling game. So I set her right up on the grassy spot in front of the arena so that she'd have to go through the ditch twice with each circle. I am grateful for using obstacles! I am trying to get our circling transitions decent enough to pass level 2. Have lately been focusing on using the carrot stick in zone 1 to slow her down. Well it sort of worked. She was quite fast and it took a lot of rope wiggling to get through to her as well! In the end when I played "if you stop with the carrot stick you can eat grass" she got the idea real quick and came to a complete stop each time! Yeah! Besides a couple RB I'm going to RUN on the circle moments it went fairly well. The nice thing is that since I have bumped zone 1 on the circle when she starts pulling she was running on the circle but not pulling on me near as much! Yeah!  

I decided we needed some thinking stuff for her to do, too much running around! So we headed to the outdoor wash stalls for sending in (trailer load simulation). To my surprise she went a lot better than last time. So well in fact that we went back to the arena, got a barrel and used it to block half the wash stall entrance so it would be a narrower squeeze in, just like the trailer. Went very well. She kept turning around at first, but then I was able to use my CS to get her to stay straight. We also practiced backing out by the tail. Cool stuff! I didn't end up riding because she felt like she had a bit too much RB for my safety. At one point she did one of her "I'm going to jump off the ground like a cat" for no apparent reason moves.

After that we headed for a walk around the property. I was looking for more squeezes. We did squeeze under the low hanging tree branches. No problem. So we headed over by the pasture fence line. Only one horse, Buddy the mini was over near us. Duck suddenly acted like she'd never seen that kind of horse before (she lived with a mini named Winnie in IL). So we played squeeze game between me and the fence line where the other horse was.  Well that got the rest of the horse's attention and we then had the thundering herd coming to us! I just kept playing and we continued to play with it with the other horses reaching over the fence. Good practice for reducing Duck's "personal bubble". She gets very crabby eared etc around other horses. So we played with this until they left and it seemed to increase her tolerance for the other horses.

That was our session for Wednesday.

For Thursday what a disaster for the most part! Ok the whole thing wasn't a disaster but the end of it was especially liberty! I saddled and we played our way down to the arena. There was a "question" box type thing already set up, as well as a long walk between the 2 parallel rail set on the ground. It was pretty long and had some turns. From the ground we walked through it a couple times then I decided to back her through on the 22ft rope. My goal was to stay 22ft away from her and back her through these rails. Wow! She went great without stepping out once!

So I decided to ride and I am still working w/ the savvy string around her neck as well as her hackamore. I figure that gives me a gauge of if what I am doing is more with my body or my reins since I tend to be rein heavy (I have always been a "strong" rider and encouraged to be so) so now it is a habit I am trying NOT to do! Easier said than done! But we rode through that same pattern a couple times and once at the trot. (had to use my reins for that). We did the question box and changed directions from it, stopped in it, sidepassed out of it, trotted out of it. Most of that was with my regular reins but I did do a couple stops w/ the savvy string.

We also worked on serpentine pattern around 4 barrels. I could do this at the walk with the savvy string so yeah! Almost trotted it but realized it wasn't solid enough at the walk.

So then I decide to go to the round corral for liberty. BIG mistake. I should have quit then! Well the other day I told you Duck offered her butt to my face and then kind of went through the turn for a spin. Well all she would do today was spins! Every time I'd ask for anything she'd spin! Ok not good. Good trick, but not communication! I know she likes to learn new things but geez! Every time I teach her something new it's like that is what she automatically does if I ask for anything! I know she was just doing it because that is what she offered and thought I wanted but I found myself getting harder and harder phases to get her to move. I even tried going back online several times but nothing really got better. By the end of the session I could barely do the friendly game. I need to learn to quit when I am somewhat ahead or at least. Lesson learned. Now at that particular moment I just wanted to quit, QUIT QUIT QUIT and be done for good! Just my emotional unfitness I know, but UGH! I feel like I have been at this SO long I should be BETTER than this and I still can't even finish my level 2. Yeah yeah I know, it isn't about the string. But that being said it is also hard to sit and watch everyone else you know pass level 2 and still be stuck with what is obviously a HUGE gap in liberty savvy!

That is why yesterday was such a bad day for me. The nice thing is Duck still likes her cookies!

King's Mountain Trail Ride

I like this picture of Christa and Duck after the ride

Christa and Kacey. She was in the same boat as me, Kacey had been on only about 2 trail rides. Ever!

Duck and I before the ride (I am surprised she stood still long enough for the picture!)

On the trail
Duck after the ride. She was VERY tired! I was glad. 16 miles is good work for her!

Yesterday was a way fun and long (16 miles or so) trail ride! We had a PNH savvy trail ride at King's Mountain State Park.

The day started off early. I got up at 5:10 so I could get to the barn by 5:30am to feed and grain Duck before our 6am trailer ride pickup by Lisa H. (Thanks again Lisa, you are awesome!). Of course I got to the barn, filled my haynet and grained Duck and then realized I forgot my coggins papers! So I rushed home to get them, got 3 blocks away from the house and realized I had forgotten to give Niels the GPS so he could take the kids golfing. Got back to the barn at 6:10. Christa had forgotten her coggins papers too and had to go back home to get them! The day of the missing Coggins papers!

It still took about a 1/2 hour to load Duck. Boy do I wish I had a trailer to practice with!

Got to the park after another stop to pick up Becky and her horse (she has a way cute place too)

Tacked up. Duck was pretty RB already. She wouldn't be tied to the trailer and was all over the place. So I saddled and moved her around quite a bit. She settled in. 

By the time we left we had about 16 riders! WOW! Ok not that I was disappointed or anything, just that I wasn't expecting to be riding in that large of a group! Duck had never been in that big of a group on a trail ride (I think we are on trail ride #3 or 4 total for her). As I mounted up she got to being pretty RBE. She didn't want to stand, AT ALL and was acting like I wasn't even there!

Of course as the group got started she went even more extreme! I didn't feel like I had any brakes and she was dancing all over the place. First running up the horses' tail in front of her and jigging to all get out! Well I had to be quite LOUD/HARD even to get myself even on her radar but we did a lot on the first 2 miles of the trail. We went backwards (for quite a ways), we sidepassed both directions, we went sideways over a few of the several logs/tree branches on the trail. I am grateful there were so many along with some hills so she had to at least think a little bit about what she was doing! I figured if she kept this up it would be a LONG ride for me! 

By mile two she had settled pretty much in besides running up the next horses' rump! Kim had offered to let me  play beep beep back up earlier which I didn't because I was thinking it just may be too much on Duck in that state but once she settled in I decided it was time to end this running up the next horses' tail. It took about 2 swats. The first time Duck wasn't directly behind the horse in front (she went crooked and I didn't prevent it fast enough) and she swung her head and so it didn't get her! The second time however the carrot stick got her right across the ears! She shook her head a few times and then was pretty polite about it with a couple more reminders. She is very smart though, she knew when I wasn't riding behind someone with a stick!

At about mile 6 (I think) we lost about 10 of the group. At this point we had been riding about and hour and a half or so. I was going to do the shorter loop but decided if Lisa and Becky(my ride too) were going the other 10 miles that I may go as well because I'd just be sitting back at the trailer (possibly with Duck being all RB'd for who knows how long) until Becky and Lisa got back. Christa and I decided to go for it and 6 of us, Becky, Lisa, Margo, Linda, Christa and I did the other 10 mile loop. I am glad we did because I think Duck really learned that she was in this for the long haul. She had a job to do, and she went to doing it. At one point we even led for quite a ways! And we trotted in the lead too to get away from the bees on the trail. It wasn't smooth, but it was a trot with her in the lead!

I kept playing with keeping her attention and her listening to my aids and it brought 2 things to my mind:

1) I still don't have enough of a leadership position with Duck in any situation with a major threshold

2) I need some more arrows in those situations especially when riding etc. 

The rest of the ride was uneventful (yeah), very pretty and a nice cool day as far as August goes! The real "fun" began when we tried to load up to go home!

Of course! Duck was now bonded to Christa's Kacey who also lives at our barn. Lisa loaded Jake her mule first. Then Christa tried to load Kacey but he didn't want to go in because Duck wasn't in! Then I tried for what felt like forever (maybe 45 minutes or so?) to load Duck first. No dice. Christa tried with Kacey and he went in. Duck didn't want go in now even with Kacey in. We played with it a few more minutes and she went in confidently enough that I put the divider in. Becky then loaded Bud man (who had watched our horses' bad examples and now didn't want to load either) and we headed home. 

We need more squeeze game practice, and more work with thresholds! Duck didn't get off the the farm much in Illinois so this is all new for her. It definitely tested my savvy arrows! I really had a great time and think that Duck will improve the more I get out there!

Aricin Rides

Aricin came to the barn with me on Friday after we dropped Christian off at golf camp. We spent some time with Duck and he rode around quite a bit. He even trotted some which I was very proud of. Of course Duck was more interested in eating grass, but as long as she got a few bites inbetween she was a happy camper!

LIBERTY!!!

Today started out interesting! Duck was in her stall again because of the heat. When I went to brush her in the stall I realized that her latch is very bent, pretty much broken and was rigged shut with a carabiner and a chain as well as the very top piece of wood missing from her bottom dutch door. When I went in the stall I realized as she was munching her hay that her feet suspiciously had white paint on both front hooves (her door is painted white). Now I am wondering if she tried for a jailbreak! Hmmm, interesting. I pulled her out and put on her bareback pad and checked her out. No lameness or anything.

So today was AWESOME for lack of a better word! Duck is now comfortable with me in at least zone 4 for driving. It is far from perfect but she is comfortable with me there and will walk forward! Turning still isn't so great but it is coming along. I decided to go try and find the employees at the barn to see if either of them knew what happened to Duck's stall. No luck, they didn't know what had happened!

Anyway in that quest I played with sending Duck into the main barn and then also played with sending her into the wash stalls. The washstalls all have crossties and that is where everyone else tacks up their horse. Duck didn't want anything to do with it at first, but we played with it. We ended with her feeling decent about it backing in and with more confidence being sent in but she didn't like to stay. More to play with later. We also walked through the barn to help get her used to it!

We headed to the arena where I decided to turn her loose! I wanted to see if she would stick to me and do some stuff! I am totally laughing (my fault) because when I ask her to go sideways she thinks I want zone 4 to come TO me (we did that twice at the old barn) and she swings her but in my face (we did backing by the tail twice I think?)! Ok so I went with it! We did backwards from zone 5 with me holding her tail at liberty! She didn't want to do sideways she kept coming towards me so I went with it some more and we got some full circles with the driving game! 2-3 of them! Then I took off and she followed and I sent her over 2 small crossrails! It was SO much fun!!!! I am so happy even though it isn't perfect she is sticking to me in a large arena! Yeah!

Then we went to riding. Again I put the savvy string around her neck along with wearing the hackamore. I was very impressed that it seemed mostly to take a lot less effort for her to move with my seat and the savvy string! Not perfect but not as much pressure as yesterday either and I didn't have my carrot stick on me like I usually do! So we just played with going certain direction, some transitions walk, trot, halt etc. We even got one canter loop (to the grass of course) which is in the corner of the arena she almost didn't stop at the arena fence! I think she thought I was asking her to jump! Mental note: make sure to stop riding sooner so she can slow down!

All in all it was a great fun day of play in less than 2 hours! Whew! Can't wait for more fun tomorrow!

More Play!

So I worked at the barn last weekend and played with Duck both days. That gave me a total of 7 days in a row that I played with her! That is a record for us!

Saturday was interesting. I wanted to play more with driving from zone 5. We played with it on the way to the arena in zones 3 & 4. I played off to the side in zone 5 some as well. We had one glitch where I wasn't clear I was trying to get Duck to yield zone one and turn on the long line but we were near the fence. I got a hardwired sideways response! I obviously put too much pressure on because what followed was a RB explosion that dragged me halfway across the arena, TWICE! OK! BFO after finally sitting back and seeing what happened. Too much pressure instead of me making it clearer for her while driving in zone 4/5, followed by pressure on a send on a circle and WHAMMOOO running, bucking snorting Duck! Well at least I am starting to figure out why and can say that instead of it being as common of an occurence like it was last fall, we haven't gone there as much until Saturday. Needless to say I spent the rest of my time trying to fix it and I didn't ride.

Sunday was much better. I played with some more "truth" at liberty in the large arena. I am surprised she sticks to me pretty well and will follow me over obstacles and I can send her to and from some as well and a decent Yo-Yo. We did a bit of sideways at liberty as well.

Then I rode and tried some more safe "truth" with a savvy string around her neck (as well as my hackamore for backup). I wanted to see where we were in riding off my seat and leg. Not as good as I had hoped! But we did get some decent turns and a few stops. I am going to keep playing with it. Riding Bridle less has always been one of my biggest goals and until I started Parelli I had no idea how to go about it. Now it still feels like it is far off but I feel a little closer on how it can come together. I could still use some more direction on it though!