Parade of Barns - Parelli Demo

So yesterday my friend Mariah and I did a Parelli Demonstration for the 1st Annual Parade of Barns. The Parade of barns is a showcase of the area's local barns, and I believe there were eight barns involved. Each barn had different demonstrations and things going on. It all ended with appetizers, a silent auction and a tour of Hinds' Feet Farm. Hinds' Feet farm is a special riding center for those that have suffered and are recovering from brain injuries.

Our Demo was at 1pm and Mariah and her family came at about 11:30am. We tacked up and warmed up and even switched horses for awhile! Then we headed to the lower arena to do our Demo. I felt like it went pretty well. We explained the 7 games, some of the patterns, the levels system and some horsenality as well. We demonstrated on the ground and then in the saddle.

Mariah let me try out her Natural performer saddle as well. Her back straps were just as long as the ones on my saddle and this time Duck wasn't scared, she just was a bit mad about that saddle. Grumpy attitude for some reason! But at least she wasn't scared! And oh how I dream of getting a saddle someday like that! But right now I'd settle for even having a saddle that fits my behind!

All in all it was a great time and wonderful experience! So much fun to be able to share what I love to do with horses with others. It was so much fun to play with Duck and good experience for her too! She even got on the pedestal while I was riding her and she's only ever even seen on once in Illinois right before I moved!

Play with the Boys

Today the boys and I tried to beat the rain and play at the barn. They have been begging to play with Buddy. It has been a couple months since they have played so I relented finally today.

Caught Buddy and he was ALL the way out at the back of the field. We saddled him up and then headed to the little barn to get Duck and get her saddled up.

Buddy enjoyed his grazing time and Duck of course just wanted to graze while getting groomed and saddled. Buddy is a LBI/LBE pony with a pony attitude! He doesn't want to do anything for anybody! Poor Christian was struggling with his grazing just to get him up TO where Duck was. 2 steps, head in the grass. Wiggle the rope, head up 2 steps and repeat. It is a challenge for Christian to manage the rope and the stick so he just had the rope.

Aricin led Buddy back to the arena and he got the idea real quick of wiggling. Then Buddy just followed along with a look on his face like "these kids are too smart, darn!"

Back at the round pen I set up a figure 8. I demonstrated with Duck how to do it and then told Christian to give it a go. Buddy just stood there when I asked Christian to back him up. Christian then pitched a tantrum by jumping up and down (which wiggled the rope) and imagine this, Buddy backed up!

I helped him through one figure 8. Then he wanted to ride. I tied the lead rope up but next time I am going to try a savvy string. The lead rope is WAY too long to tie as reins on Buddy because he is so small. Buddy has a habit of just going and doing whatever he wants. I had Christian practice lateral flexion before he headed off. Buddy has an ingrained habit of pulling on pressure, both on the ground and in the saddle. He will just pull on whatever pressure to get to grass etc. Christian's steady pressure wasn't enough to get through to Buddy and he got frustrated and quit. Buddy even did a crow hop when asked to move forward. Aricin went for a go and just ambled a bit. Plan for next time to use more driving game to support the steady pressure to see if we can't get through to him.

After the boys rode I put Buddy up and had left Duck in the round corral all saddled and loose. For a minute I thought she was going to roll when I left but she didn't. She took my carrot stick for a ride in her mouth! When I came back to get her she was on the opposite side of the corral eating grass.

I called her and she came right to me! I know a small thing, but it is big to me. And a year ago Duck would have and did just keep eating and ignoring me. So I put on her hackamore and we headed to the big arena.

I decided after reviewing the corners pattern to introduce that to Duck. She got it real quick especially since there is grass in the corners and she loves to eat! We circled left the corner, straight left the corner, sideways out of the corner, trotted to the next corner etc. Today Duck was offering to canter and kept breaking into it except this time she was bucking as well. So I kept slowing her down to the walk and trot. Upon Carol Coppinger's advice to combine the corners with the cloverleaf we tried that.

Unfortunately Duck wasn't enjoying herself too much. When I got to the gate, Duck took her neck and with a decided push, popped the gate open and proceeded to back out of the gate! Apparently in her opinion I didn't give her enough grazing time!

So after a tap on zone 4 and we were back in and I went straight to the cloverleaf. We got some good turns and then combined again with corners. Of course Duck's favorite part was eating in the corners.

I was done riding when I went to the close end of the arena and there was a small piece of tarp on the ground. Maybe another Parelli student at the barn put it there? It was layed out all flat which Duck didn't have a problem with. I had checked that before I rode by having her step on it etc. By the time we got done though it was really windy and it started to move. Duck of course spooked, which then I got off to deal with the green plastic monster.

I dragged it and her behind me all over the arena and got her to the point I could touch her with it while crumpled up and not flapping on both sides. Right side was harder to get to touch her with. I even got it to where I could put it around her front legs. This was a much needed session and I need many more like this to help build her confidence with plastic flappy things (see birthday trail ride post for more background). She doesn't have a problem stepping on/over them while they are flat on the ground but anything beyond that she is still unconfident. I took the piece of plastic and put it in my locker to use again.

So much to play with! I wish I had more time!

Here are some things I would like to focus on:

1. Zone 5 driving with 1 rein. We are starting to get it in zone 4, kind of!

2. Circling transitions and change of direction (I have been avoiding the circle game pretty much for a year to try and get other things better and her less impulsive about it)

3. Friendly game with bikes/tarps other odd obstacles

4. Build playground and get a pedestal

5. Play on 45ft line (I am thinking I need a left handed line so may need to sell current one)

6. Trailer confidence (which I have been slacking on lately)

7. Thresholds around the property

Not a big list huh? And that doesn't include all the stuff I want to do to get more into level 3 concepts!

Charlotte Jumper Classic

Niels and I had the chance to go to the Charlotte Jumper Classic on Friday night. We went to the opening classes. We saw the Junior (under 18) age group and then an open class. WOW! Those are some REALLY high fences! Over 5 ft or more! I can't imagine having done courses like that when I was under 18! I was lucky to do a 3ft course, and that felt high to me!

The second class which was the welcome class for the international competition had names such as Beezy Madden, Rodrigo Pessoa and Chris Kappler. Almost all the horses were Warmbloods, except 1! There was an American bred Thoroughbred and guess who won against all those European sport horses? Yep, that guy took the class! I was impressed!

All I can say is WAY better than dinner and a movie! Way fun date night!

A playday, cantering, and another near miss!

Last week I got to go to my friend Mariah's house to plan our demo for the Parade of barns next weekend. Traffic was horrible, so it took me about an hour and a half to get there. (Practicing patience at all those red lights!) Well she let me play with her cute horse Bebe for awhile. Then we switched horses again and I got to ride her beautiful Sundance. Sundance is completely in love with Mariah. He didn't want anything to do with me so it took awhile for me to even get him going consistently!

Mariah's brother Christian who is 11 and totally fearless was also out playing with Taco the donkey while I got the pleasure of watching Mariah practice bareback and bridle less flying lead changes. No problem right?

Oh my, what fun Christian and Mariah were. And then the switching, he rode with me on Bebe, and then on Sundance. I had forgotten how much FUN kids have. Just watching them just made me laugh and almost fall off my horse from hysteria. He'd take off trotting, bareback, bridle less, and BACKWARDS on Bebe. Then he tried getting on Sundance backwards by straddling his head and having him flip him up from the top of his neck onto his back. Fun stuff! It was a riot!

I even rode Sundance up on the Pedestal! I haven't done that before!

Then on to the planning. We went in the house and Mariah and her family were kind enough to feed me some yummy soup, crackers and even a homemade chocolate muffin as we discussed our Demo and the definitions of what points we want to convey. Ok, I am extreme RBI so I was wondering why I actually AGREED to do this demo! AHHH!

So when Mariah is a Parelli professional I will be able to say to everyone "Hey look I even rode her awesome horse Sundance and hung out at her farm back in the day!" :)

Previously that day I was out riding Duck. Had a great session. Duck is beginning to offer the canter. And I am completely lacking in my riding the canter ability! UGH! She is much smoother when it is HER idea! We've gotten about half an arena lap at the canter!

Let Duck graze in her favorite clover patch near the arena on the way back. Of course I am totally relaxed holding the reins at the very end when all of a sudden she takes off full tilt. I still struggle with the one rein thing in an emergency. I just grabbed!

Turns out it was a kid on a bike. Did I mention that we are still playing with getting used to bikes? He came up right on the side of the arena in the grass instead of on the dirt road. So he was maybe 10 ft from me and the bike was pretty quiet in the grass. So another near miss. Just when I think "I am going to come off if she goes any further" I am able to stop her. At least that is the case right? Instead of her running 1/2 a mile and bucking too?

Finally a ride!

Ah, I finally got to ride today. Yesterday we just did a little groundwork, mostly down by the pond. Currently Duck doesn't like the pond. One of life's ironic moments isn't it? I have a horse named Duck that doesn't like the pond! What Duck doesn't like a pond? We'll change that and are already playing with it! :)

Today Duck got a lot of grazing time. About an hour and boy was she happy! The field has really greened up and grown with all the rain we've gotten recently. I scrubbed out Duck's water trough since it was empty and then filled it. And then the pasture across from her was empty so I scrubbed and filled that one. It reminded me of when I used to work at the stables as a teenager. We'd always scrub out the troughs and fill them; and then drink right out of them! I didn't do that today although I was tempted!

After I was done for the evening working I went and got Duck and we played in the lower arena. I actually rode her from the barn to the arena, bareback (no pad) in our halter! The only grief she gave me was getting past the hay field although she gave me a very nice (and fast) sidepass to the right to try and get to the grass. Why are all my horses grass monsters? I must make them that way. Too much grazing time? But with Duck I feel really bad because she used to be out on a few acres in Illinois and grazed all day. And now her little turn out pen has NO grass at all. So I try to let her out to graze, a lot. On the bright side she will pretty much always meet me at the gate. (cookies are good too!)

So we ride to the arena and we rode for awhile. It is almost like the break we took has helped stuff settle. I didn't feel like I was getting the responses I wanted off my seat before we had this forced break of weather and housework. She was still really impulsive, and didn't want to slow down. Today was much better. Not perfect but I felt like she finally is trying to "tune into" my seat somewhat. As a bonus our sideways is getting lighter as well.

We did a little weave pattern, ground poles, and a couple rounds of figure eights at the trot. She just doesn't like that stuff though. I am going to watch the patterns again and see how I can expand on some of the things we are doing, move it up a notch.

It is so nice having her so light in transitions. I mean so much more so than a lot of horses I have ridden. We even cantered. She tried to buck the first time and I stopped her. Then we tried again and we went almost a half an arena length which is the most I've done with her in a very long time! The nice thing is she slows right down. I still need to figure out the bucking thing. I wouldn't mind riding her through it but my seat isn't what it used to be when I was riding a lot more often (which was over 10 years ago!) Duck just has such a different canter to me. It is SO different. I don't know if it is just so different or I was just so used to Kira for so long. It feels like I am flying up and down and the whole time she is trying to buck me off even when she isn't!

Then I got off and decided to do a little liberty. Shanna was playing with her cute paint Dakota in the arena. Duck stuck with me the whole time. We did the weave, sent her over the ground poles, cantered stick to me. Couldn't get a close circle today. I want to play with getting our lead by the tail lighter. I feel like it takes too much pressure still!

All in all it was a very fun ride! And to boot we are going to be able to build a playground down by the pond! Now we need to get some obstacles rolling for it! Yeah! I am so excited! Arena's can be SO boring, no matter how interesting you try and make it a change of scenery will be nice!