A Savvy Mom's Journey - Lisa and Duck

New Barn

2011-04-02T17:38:00.000-07:00

Well it has now been a little over a month since I moved Duck to her new barn. She is LOVING having so much room to move around and grass to nibble on. We have been playing a lot at liberty between her pasture and in the cross ties. I am teaching her to stay in the cross ties without being tied to be groomed, saddled, etc. She is picking it up very quickly!

A couple weeks ago we were able to ride out with the barn owner and see the trails. Duck did great! There is even a gate to open and shut to get on/off the trails, so it was fun to have practiced that and to use it! The trails are quiet in some places, and close to suburbia in others with barking dogs, swimming pools and such. Duck did great! We only had one spook and that was when we were out in the open, with 2 horses in the distance running the fenceline. She did great while we were heading towards them but then they stopped and we turned away from them and headed back into the woods at the same time they started running again. Our one rein emergency stop is great though, so it was no big deal and she settled in fine right after that again.

We also have attended the Lake Norman Savvy Club's trail obstacle day. That was a lot of fun! Although we didn't stay long at all, just to do the trail challenge, it was tons of fun to do all those new things. Opening a mailbox and reading mail, trying to cross a tarp at speed, crossing then backing over a bridge, jumping a small jump, trying to get her front feet into a hula hoop and do a yield the hindquarters, as well as dragging a bag (we skipped that one but I tried it afterwards) were some of the obstacles.

I left right after I did the course because I had family with me and lots to do that day, but we ended up winning! I was super surprised and pleased, although that wasn't why I did it. I just wanted to expose us to more things! It was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to doing it again in October.

Next week will be another Lake Norman Savvy Club playdate. Online in the morning and freestyle in the afternoon with Demo's from instructors over lunch. Sounds like a great day and will be good for us to get out again!

Lessons and Change

2011-02-17T08:18:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been a long time since I have updated either of my blogs. There has been so much going on and I just haven't taken the time to write.

Duck and I are starting dressage lessons. We have only done 2 so far, but it is wonderful! I love that we are able to continue to refine our communication and I love how I am being taught even more about positive reflexes and how to get them.

On the other front, Duck and I will be changing barns soon. It is a very long drawn out story, but basically it looks like our barn is closing anyway, although I made the decision to move her before that really all came to light. The good side? I won't be having to work weekends anymore. For the last 3 years I have been working weekends in order to help pay down her board. This has made it hard for us as a family on the weekends with the kids' activities and also with Church on Sunday's. On the not so good side, I will be commuting 1/2hr to the barn instead of 5 minutes. I know this shouldn't be a big deal as 1/2 hour (or more) has been standard for me while boarding, but I have been so spoiled having her 5 minutes away for the last almost 3 years! The new place should be good though, she will be on pasture board on about 10 acres, so that will be good. She will have grass to eat and be on a decent sized lot. Her current turn out is very small and is a dry lot. This new barn I am told has more trails so hopefully we can go trail riding more often without having to trailer out.

Oh yeah, trailering, that reminds me. I finally bought a trailer! It is certainly nothing fancy, but it will get us from point A to point B. The really funny thing is that it is a brand made in Utah (where I am from), Logan Coach. So no one here has really heard of it, but I knew what it was right away! For the year it is in better shape than all the others I looked at, but it still needs a few things like new handles for doors so I can lock the tack room and hold backs for the dividers, but all in all it is good.

I am still learning to drive it and haven't driven on the freeway or any other place that I have had to change lanes yet. Working on my thresholds you know!

I am so lucky to be so blessed to enjoy time with my horse and continue my horsemanship journey. And I will try to be better updating my blog!

My Parellitube Submission

2010-08-20T11:00:00.001-07:00

Ok this was WAY out of my comfort zone, but I did it anyway. The theme for August's Parellitube (Parelli's you tube channel) submission is the theme of partnership. I originally just had my hubby take the camera just so I could practice having it around on me, in preparation for my level 3 audition when we get that far. I also thought it would be nice to re-learn how to make videos and edit because it's been so long since I have done that.

Partnership is such a wonderful thing, especially between a horse and a human. We aren't hard wired to act like horses, we are predators. And this can lead to some very frustrating problems with horses. Every day problems that until I discovered Parelli seemed impossible to fix.

This is a theme that just fit Duck and I so well! We've been partners now for almost 3 years. Only the last year and a half have I been able to put more hours into the relationship. So it is slow and steady going for us.

Here are some things I love about our partnership!

I love the way my partner, Duck comes to meet me at the gate EVERY single time I come to see her. I know it is a small thing but how many times have you seen horses run away from being caught?

I love that instead of having an instructor yell at me to use my legs/hands/seat in a certain way, that I KNOW how and why I am using them, not just because the instructor said so! And how to build more on using subtle aids.

I have always wanted to ride bareback and bridle less, since WAY before Parelli. I just couldn't figure out how to get there!

I love that I feel safe enough to put my kids up on Duck. I will say that even a year ago I didn't. She was still quite spooky at foreign things. But with all the progress and relationship building we have done through PNH it just keeps getting better every day!

I don't expect to be chosen for the submission and that is OK with me. It was more than outside my comfort zone for me to submit it and put it up here, too. I did find out that I get a copy of the UK celebration DVD for submitting it which is fantastic!

Guess what horsenality I am?

So drumroll please.....

I think it turned out pretty good! What do you think?

And here is my out takes video. I had about 30 minutes of footage, not everything would fit onto the limit of 3 minutes of video plus some funny stuff.

Funny, isn't it? :)

Tuesday Night Latta Trail Ride

2010-08-11T06:07:00.000-07:00

Ah the wonderful Tuesday night summer trail ride at Latta! I haven't been in a few weeks, one time the weather decided we didn't need to ride, the next week Niels decided he needed to work late. Ah, but it was worth the wait!

As I have been trying to do I played mostly on the ground in the morning to gear up for the trail ride in the evening. That way, I know we've been on the same page before I load up and head out to the trail. We played with the weave on the 22ft line using barrels that were layed down. Funny thing is near the end she offered to jump one, and I said "sure" let's just jump all 4 in a row! She did and I think she felt very smart for it, too!

We loaded up around 5:30pm, and my 8 year old, Christian, loaded Duck onto the trailer. She's becoming quite the champ at traveling! To the point that I can hardly believe that we ever had trailer loading issues at all. Up she goes, straight on in, and stands patiently for me to do the butt bar up and come around and clip her in. My 5 year old got a bit hasty and tried to load Eli before Duck bar was up. She squeeled, and kind of bumped the divider, but didn't try to back out! Yippee!

Did I mention it was HOT. Really hot. 93 but feels like 100 hot, which for this trail ride worked in my favor! We got there, and the horses were already sweating up a storm! Saddled up, moved her around a bit and then sent her to a bench for me to mount. She came right up and we rode on out of the parking lot.

I know that sound pretty boring riding out of the parking lot, but it was huge! In fact, this was the very first time that we had ridden out of the parking lot ( minus a couple non-savvy rides on my part where I should have 2 years ago). Before this ride I had always driven her from zone 3 out of the parking lot to make sure she was ready to ride. She was calm, she even led for quite a bit! Another huge success for us!

And then, to top it all off, we cantered! Four times (not for too long since it was hot). And once she even led! WOW, WOW, WOW! She cantered like a champ and felt totally in sync, and had brakes to boot! I could not of asked for anything more. So you see, the heat played into my favor for cantering, but it was well worth it. We all had a wonderful, warm, relaxing fun trail ride that did feel a bit cooler in the shade of the trees.

I've had this conversation with a bunch of my horse friends. It seems like all foundation work I have been trying so hard to get going well is finally starting to gel. And I am REALLY liking it! I am not saying it hasn't been hard to be patient. I've wanted to trail ride so much in the past but the few times we did go out it was obvious we weren't ready. I can see the difference now, and I wouldn't trade that for anything!

Playin' in the Heat and Playin' with the Truth

2010-07-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

So this week has been wonderful! My boys have been at camp at the YMCA this week, all day long! That is a first for me, no kiddos around especially for that long. So I've been spending lots of time at the barn with Duck!
Of course it has been really, really hot, especially today but that isn't going to stop me!
This week my friend Liz and I trailered out for a trail ride at Anne Springs Close Greenway. This was a very fun place with some real hills and trails and Duck went like a champ the whole way. Trailered well, too. I sent her up and right in she went both directions of the trip! There were deer in the woods that she just watched quite curiously, a rickety and narrow bridge that we crossed and later out found out we weren't supposed to be on that trail, and even riding through the Kudzu forest! We kept joking that we shouldn't stop to take pictures because we might get grown over in Kudzu!
Yesterday I was lucky enough to audit a friends' private lesson with 3* Parelli instructor Dan Thompson. What an eye opening experience. He has a wonderful gift of teaching just what is needed and explaining so well using lots of simulations etc. I learned so much!
Today though was priceless. I went and rode this morning which wasn't a super great session but did end well. Still playing with getting Duck to relax and not feel like she has to go so FAST all the time. So played with that but then left, had lunch with the hubby and came back for more fun in the sun!
I decided to test out our "truth." Pat Parelli says that when you take all the ropes off that all that is left is the truth. It's hard for me because it isn't our greatest savvy, Duck is very unconfident, she loves the rope there to hold her hand. And quite honestly things generally go south when at liberty for us. We have a decent stick to me but that is about it. Try and send her anywhere and she is GONE! But, I have been playing with increasing draw online to counter the GONE factor and I would say today went fairly well. The figure 8 has been a big challenge for us at liberty. It's also one of those things I need to be able to do at liberty for my level 3 audition. So we played with it today and had twice where she went GONE when sending her around the cone, but I tried to stick with it and get her back, and it seemed to work. We got 2-3 nicer figure 8's at liberty in the round corral. Then I figured what the hey, might as well ride a bit bareback and bridle less in the round corral. Duck doesn't have near as much "go" in the round corral and I had already ridden her a few hours earlier. Fantastic! Walk/trot/backup and figure 8 at the walk. I was super pleased!
Then I hopped off and wondered since she trailer loaded so well for the trail ride if she really is getting confident or if I am "making" her load while she is online. We played stick to me from the round corral all the way over to where Liz's trailer was parked which is a decent walk. I opened the back, sent her across the ramp (with a nice bring back I may add), then asked her to load up, and she did it perfect all the way in and stayed there until I backed her out by the tail. YIPPEE! I was grinning ear to ear!!
I've been playing a bit more stick to me out around the property with a savvy string on her neck for a safety net, and it has been going pretty good considering how much grass I have to contend with! From letting her graze in the field she will leave the grass and come to me generally from about 20 ft away which is great progress for us!
So I have one more day of fun in the sun tomorrow and I plan to enjoy it with Duck!

It's not the knee

2010-07-12T11:35:00.001-07:00

So after having the vet out yet again, we have determined that it is not Duck's knee that is giving her pain. It is still in the hoof. It's good that it isn't the knee, but it is bad in that it is another round of unknown slight grade lameness and that it has been off and on now for over a year. The vet says it may be navicular syndrome and for starters we are going to try putting shoes on her front feet to see if lifting her up off the ground helps. She goes so much nicer on the soft sand, so it is very apparent that with trail riding and such that she is going to need the extra lift of the shoe to make her more comfortable beyond the boots that I have been using to protect her feet. At this point I am up for trying about anything!

Beyond that though things have been going well. I didn't get to play with her over the weekend but headed out today.
But before I get to today's session I want to tell you what I did last week.

Trail ride! Yippee! Duck trailered very well and we rode on the trails for about an hour and a half with friends. She was SO good, even wanted to lead some of the way. And when a tree fell in the woods and was VERY loud (I thought it was a gunshot) She just tensed and didn't even try to go anywhere. All the horses were worried about that, but they all did very well. I was so proud of her! Even ended the ride by standing up on her

The chiropractor was also out last week for Duck. Her shoulders were a bit jammed up, which doesn't surprise me. Other than a few vertebrae here and there that were out though, she was in pretty good shape! That same day while a friend and I were talking with the chiropractor I was letting Duck graze. Well one of the guys at the barn came around by Duck with the really noisy tractor holding an 900 lb bale of hay in the front of it. I tried to tell him to stop but he kept coming closer to Duck and I knew she was going to spook. She took off with the 12ft line still attached and I figured she was going to run all the way back to her barn which is a ways. But I went after her and she only went about 4-5 strides before she turned back around to face the tractor, and me and then came right back to me. I was thrilled!

We have also been playing with the figure 8 a little on the 22ft line, playing with increasing our draw. So I send her out around the cone and bring her right back. At first she was very unconfident to come back. This was very revealing to me of how unconfident she can be about things. But repetition and lots of rest in between has really helped. Now we will be moving on to the whole figure 8 which is what i did today.

One whole figure 8. You wouldn't think it would be so difficult, but it seems to have eluded me after much play in this area. How do I know? Well if liberty is the truth then Duck was telling me that only the line was keeping her from leaving and that she really didn't know the pattern. So, I am breaking it down, and then going to rebuild it, hopefully stronger and better and with her feeling like she doesn't need to go away just to do a figure 8.

We also rode today and even got in some nice cantering. Some not so nice cantering the second time, but the first time was good. If I could just figure out what it is I am doing or not doing that is adding to the inconsistency that would be great. But most of the time we are going well for increasing lengths and that is huge progress!

Undemanding Time

2010-07-03T11:42:00.000-07:00

Today I spent over an hour just hanging out with Duck, doing undemanding time. We've been doing a lot lately and I realized I need to give her some more lovin' time! I tried to stay in her turnout pen, but between her and her pasture buddy Oakie, they don't like to leave me alone. Duck asked me to scratch her favorite itchy spot, her butt, so I did. I scratched and scratched all her itchy spots for a good 20 minutes. I got her halter and off we went to graze her favorite spot, the clover by the arena. The hayfield usually is where we go to graze, but it is still real short from being cut a week or so ago. We just hung out in the clover patch and I just let her graze for nearly an hour.
She gets so many flies on her, especially her face, so I did a second try on the fly mask since I first got her 3 years ago and couldn't keep one on her. Well, I found it in the pasture morning. She just doesn't like to wear fly masks even though the flies are so bad they are making her eyes tear and get somewhat goopy. And that is with me wiping fly spray around her eyes, ears, and face!
I tried putting it on again today, we'll see if it makes it until tomorrow. I may just take it off her later tonight if it is still on. Maybe then she won't feel like she needs to rub it off.
There's an idea...

Playin' Around

2010-07-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

So this week has been a lot of fun and quite a bit different for me! I've been getting up real early (the likes of 5:30 to 6ish) almost daily to get to the barn to play before the heat kicks in. With the heat index here topping 100 for several days in a row I was melting when finishing riding at 11am! It's been fun to say the least, and I feel like I've accomplished quite a bit with Duck.
Finally after almost 3 years, she is cantering online on the 22ft line. It's far from totally relaxed, but much improved on our former range of non-existent canter to raging dead gallop with lots of bucking and pulling my arm out of the socket.
For instance since last week, we've gone from 36+laps at the canter to the left (her easier direction) before getting a marked improvement in relaxation, rhythm, and contact, to yesterday about 12 laps to the right (which is her much harder, I'm going to yank the heck out of you, and crossfire to boot) direction. She is still fast while cantering, really fast at times, but most of the time after a few laps I am getting some slack in the line and to the right she is now more consistently picking up the right lead, and without cross-firing! She is also stopping dead in her tracks to ask questions occasionally which at least means she is checking in!
Cantering while riding, not near as good. Sometimes I wonder if we're just going to have to go the crazy fast you can canter until you want to relax route, but she can be SO unbalanced and heavy on the forehand I worry about us taking a spill which wouldn't be good for either of us. On the flip side though there have been a few days where I have gotten more than 1/2 lap with a very nice relaxed canter, both directions so I think that is a huge improvement!
We've also been playing around with the weave while riding and getting more relaxation at the trot. Can you tell that relaxation is on the agenda?
And the other fun in playin' around this week has been in playing with two of my friends' horses. On Tuesday I got to play with Melissa's horse Tucker. He is from my observation a LBE/LBI gaited Kentucky Mountain Horse. Ok, well I kind of stole him when I had seen her struggle so long over the course of a few months I couldn't stand it anymore with sideways and him running her over constantly. And like she said later in the session, she's so used to it that she didn't even notice! (even though I have mentioned the running over you thing to her before :) )To which my BFO is 'WOW" I am not the only one who's horse does stuff they shouldn't be and not notice it! LOL
Let's just say that I think an hour later things were much better although Wednesday morning my body did not quite agree with me. My arms do not appreciate being taken sand skiing even when in a power position (which I probably did not utilize enough), but well I just don't know that there was a way around it. Perhaps there was, but I certainly didn't have that arrow in my quiver to improve his attitude without some opposition. Tucker likes running the show and he didn't like my idea that he shouldn't be pulling my arm out of the socket constantly as a prerequisite to sideways! All in all though on Wednesday the two of them seemed very happy.
Yesterday I was able to play with and ride Liz's horse, Eli. He is a very well seasoned horse, also LBI. I learned so much from him! See I only have Duck to play with. Can only afford one horse, generally only have time to play with one horse anyway if I'm lucky. So there tends to be that comfort in the relationship of what is expected, how things go etc. Well Eli was a quick reminder not to be so complacent with other horses! I about got myself kicked playing the falling leaf by not sending him out enough sideways away from me. He REALLY likes to kick out! It took about 10 reps before he quit kicking out! WOW! Talk about an eye opener! He was just voicing his opinion that he didn't like the idea of yielding his shoulder! After we got on the same page I rode him for awhile. Liz had said I could borrow him to canter since Duck's canter is so inconsistent. Wow what a dream! I felt like I was if I'd been driving I would have been in the luxury SUV! It is amazing how so many miles and experience on a horse can teach a rider. He was wonderful! He seemed to enjoy my company as well because I tried to have Christian cool him out riding him and he didn't want to leave me. What a sweetie!
So that's been the week so far! Lots of BFO moments and lots of fun! Thanks so much to Melissa and Liz for letting me play with their wonderful partners!

Level 2/3 Camp at Carol Coppinger's Farm

2010-06-21T15:43:00.000-07:00

I had the wonderful opportunity again this year to attend a 4 day level 2/3 camp at 5* Parelli Instructor Carol Coppinger's Farm near Nashville, Tennessee. It is about a 7 hour drive with the horse and this time the hubby and the kids didn't stay. I drove behind Niels in our car and followed him pulling the trailer.
4 days of uninterrupted horse time. Life does not get much better than that! We built on what we had done last year including more patterns such as the weave, circles, etc. We also did quite a bit of cantering, and simple lead changes. On day 4 we got an introduction to "the game of contact" which was a ton of fun! I hadn't ridden Duck much in a bridle, but had her in the cradle bridle (which she loves!) for this.
A lot of people (the clinic tends to be the same group year after year) including Carol said we were looking pretty good and that we had made headway from last year, so that was nice to hear. I feel like we've accomplished quite a bit but of course not near as much as I would like!
We did so much it would be too much to list it all, but as usual Carol exceeded all my expectations and we made lots of positive progress. Duck did come up lame again on the last day, in her left knee again, so it is going to be x-rays to check it out. I am hoping it is nothing serious, and part of me wonders why it keeps showing up and this time after more than 4 days of harder work. Prior to the clinic I had trail ridden her and she had been turned out and ran pretty hard in the arena.
What is really interesting is that I used the red light treatment on it at Carol's but didn't ride after I got her home, and today she was quite zippy and seemed pretty good. That was mostly at liberty in the round pen though, so we will see how she looks on the 22ft tomorrow.
Of course the clinic was so good, I had to sign up for next year!

On the Mend

2010-05-06T18:12:00.001-07:00

So since I posted last a couple weeks ago Duck has been pretty much on rest. The day after my post the vet came out to do shots, teeth etc, and I wanted her to check out Duck's left knee. She had whacked it pretty hard a couple of times on her stall door back in January before I got her stall guard. Why would she whack it? Well to get to the grass of course! She figured out that if she leaned into the door with her chest and then whacked her leg against it (probably several times) she could pop the screws on the latch and get out to happily graze the hay field. I can't say I blame her. At that time the horses were in their stalls a lot (more than I like her to be) with the sloppy and cold weather.

So it hadn't fully healed or something else was going on so I had the vet do a lameness exam. She scared me again by using the "n" word, fearing that since the lameness was in the same area, the left front that it might be Navicular changes in the foot. YIKES! The vet was VERY surprised then when she did knee flexion and Duck came up extremely sore on that knee. WHEW! Anyway that meant time off, 15 days to be exact and bute (horsey aspirin).

So now we are coming off her rest time and we've pretty much just been walking. I started with hand walking and now am riding at the walk, and trotting on the straightaways sometimes. She offered a canter towards the hayfield and I went with about 12 strides because it just felt so good! But we'll see how that knee is faring tomorrow. I thought she was a bit off today, but when I flexed her knee and trotted her off she didn't seem sore to me.

So we're just going real easy and working our way back into things. I need her sound for our level 2/3 camp in June! So here's hoping she does ok. Otherwise I am going to be calling my friend Jody up and telling her to bring 2 horses instead of just one for her!

Keep it natural!

Turbo Drive!

2010-04-15T18:30:00.001-07:00

Ok so I had the kiddos at the barn today with me. They were running around enjoying themselves near the water.

My plan had been to continue practicing 2 carrot stick riding, and on the bowtie still.

My friend Liz and I were playing/riding out in the play area by the pond. Started on the ground on the 22ft line practicing sideways and a few figure 8's.

I was practicing figure 8's and then moved onto the bow tie at the trot, or so I thought! We did a couple laps trot, walk around the cone etc. Then I decided to canter and we did one loop around the cone, and then whew we were going at the canter, quickly. We missed our turn at the cone and kept going.
Duck slowed down alright, not super great but not horribly, and she wasn't trying to buck so I thought I'd play with this higher speed since we haven't done it at all.

WOW! My horse can GO! And although it felt super fast to me, Liz says we weren't going as fast as it seemed. But we just played with going and then slowing, life up, life down. At first she got on a bit of adrenaline, not wanting to slow, but as I played with it and towards the end I cantered, then asked her for a short gallop of a few strides and then quit to eat grass.

Granted our brakes weren't perfect but wow it felt good to GO that fast and not feel like I was going to get bucked off at any moment. And we were riding in open spaces!

Very fun, it was like being in Turbo Drive today!

Oh, I and now I can't get her OFF the pedestal! Every time we go near it, she puts all 4 feet up there and then looks at me for her cookie! :) Fun times! Now I just need to move on to the smaller one!

She has been slightly off for awhile in her left front, and the vet is finally coming tomorrow. So hopefully it's nothing serious, but with all the cantering we did today, she should be lame if she is going to show lameness for the vet.

So we'll see how the appointment goes tomorrow, but the play is going great!

Lots of Fun and Play!

2010-04-13T16:32:00.000-07:00

The last couple of sessions with Duck have been very fun! The other day when we played we tried driving with 2 reins for the first time ever! I had two 22 ft lines, and had them through loose loops on the bareback pad so they wouldn't be so heavy to carry, but would come out if needed. It took a little while but she seemed to get the hang of it. We drove from the pasture down to the arena. Got tangled after my loop came undone, started over and then went in and around the arena a couple of times. I then decided to drive her down to the play area by the pond and it went fairly well once I got her going!

I haven't had the opportunity recently to play for a long period of time. Yesterday I had an hour and was going to ride, but when I got there Duck was a shedding disaster! Hair everywhere! So instead, she grazed the hayfield and I curried and groomed for almost an hour! The hair never really quit, I just did. After that I had about 20 minutes left so Duck got a partial massage. (yeah she is WAY more pampered than me! LOL) She has some soreness in her back but it is hard to know exactly why. My farrier did notice that she was tighter than usual which made me realize I need to get back into a regular stretching routine as well. So I worked some points out of her back and stretched her legs and neck.

Today was a really fun day! I got there and we tacked up while she was in her stall. Brought 2 carrot sticks, a string, a 22ft line, hackamore, and her new confidence snaffle. We headed down to the arena to drop off some stuff and then I realized I could hopefully do all that I had wanted to for the session in the grassy play area by the pond. So we went down and played on the 22ft line. We have been having squeeze issues recently, more specifically with the bridge (which I think had to do with her confidence being lost when she fell off the bridge and scraped her leg way back when) so I decided to focus on squeeze game for awhile. When I realized we were having issues was last week when I asked her to come up to the bridge so I could get on, and she wanted nothing to do with it!
We started with the pedestal, first getting 2 feet, then all 4 on the pedestal. (Can you say, "cookie, please?")
Then we went to the bridge. After several tries she got her front feet up most of the ramp and I am considering that a success for the day!
We also played with the new telephone pole circling and maintaining gait at the trot. An interesting thing happened in that she kept wanting to canter after going over the pole. I have been wanting her to canter so I allowed it. First she only cantered a stride, the next time around all the way around and over the pole again. When she got over the pole she went fast and then stopped turned and faced and then backed up. This is a trick that she has been trying since a couple weeks ago. She did it when I was asking her for the canter. Today I let her drift (and it was a lot backwards) and then I just quit circling and we went on to practicing sideways.
Recently I have been trying to practice our sideways over stuff like ground poles, the new pole, and one barrel. It is not as easy as it looks! Duck is still wanting to go forward enough to get over the obstacle completely. Today while going to the right (her harder direction) I took it really, really slow but did almost the whole length of the telephone pole. 1-2 steps at a time and we made it! Yeah!
Moving on to riding I started with the hackamore and rode in the play area. Got over to the pedestal and did 2 feet and then doing it again we got all 4 up there! That was our first time getting all 4 feet up while riding!
Did the sideways thing over the log, just the last couple feet of it. She really wants to come forward while I am riding. Then we went to the bridge and she put one foot on the bridge so that was good.
Then since I need to practice freestyle carrot stick riding with 2 sticks I tied up my reins and rode with just 2 carrot sticks out in the open by the pond still. That was a first for us! The bowtie pattern at a trot and walk (mostly), some sideways with the fence, 2 feet on the pedestal, etc.
On the bowtie pattern she kept wanting to canter the direction of home, and did. I was proud that I didn't grab the reins right away and was able to stop her with my body and the sticks. We did some yo-yo's while on the bowtie pattern and got some more whoa happening!
And for one more thing in our busy fun day I put the reins on the bridle. This was only the 3rd time I had done this. We were back in the arena for this, and just played with the fluidity rein on the circle to the left to which she did some real nice blowing and breathing with a some longitudinal stretching!
We ended our day with me spraying her in the wash stall. Once while I was riding in the arena she was pawing and acting like she wanted to roll. I took the saddle off in the arena after I was done and she didn't roll. I then sprayed her with what turned out to be HOT water. Someone had hooked the hose up to just the hot side on the water, and I thought it was the cold side. Why would someone do that? Good thing I caught it before it got too hot! We went back to the arena and I was trying to get her to roll, pawing the ground myself etc. I have thought that she was totally too unconfident to roll around me which may still be the case, but after I pawed the ground and circled, she did a bit too, and I just sat down. She waited a bit, took a few steps, rolled (and flipped all the way over and back) and then got up real quick. But she did roll with me there!
This is why I don't blog so often. When I do, it is so long and boring that no one is possibly going to want to read it all. I am too long winded when writing. I guess I need to play with having more short, interesting and effective blogs....
Well for now, that is all.

More pictures from the play date

2010-04-04T16:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pictures from the play day. I just love how cute Duck looks out there with Eli in the field! They ran around for awhile, and of course had to meet the other horses over the fence!

Parelli Playdate!

2010-03-25T13:22:00.000-07:00

This last Saturday I had the opportunity to finally go to a Parelli Playdate! Got to trailer off the farm and head to Mariah Helms' place in Wingate. WOW, what a beautiful place. I have been there before, but it still is just such a nice farm!
Liz came along as well (since she has the horse trailer after all and wanted a fun day out) and we headed down.

We came up with a new slogan that we need to use as a sticker on Liz's trailer for when Duck and Eli are trailered together. "If the trailer's rockin' don't come a knockin!"

Duck and Eli are hilarious! It is a 2-horse straighload trailer, but there is no separation between their heads, so they can reach over and bother each other. And bother they do! It is constant! And they do it so much the trailer really does get to rockin'!

After we arrived we played in Mariah's new play area which is a big open area with obstacles as well as a new round corral. Duck did very well considering being in a new place and that we don't get to play in the open as much as I would like. We played online in the morning using the obstacles such as logs, poles, etc. I even played with Laura's mini named Ace, but that little LBE gave me a run for my money! He has a habit of pulling very hard on the lead and taking off! I seriously don't think that Duck has ever pulled on me that hard! Little guy got away twice! The first time just caught me off guard, and the second time he waited until I was talking to Liz to take off! Oh well, now I know not to hold the very end of the rope with a new horse like that. There just wasn't enough play in the rope for me to recover! LOL

At lunch we turned Duck and Eli out together in Mariah's huge pasture! I told her we may end up playing the catching game! Both Duck and Eli were loving all that room! But by the time we got back, she was at the gate and after coming to me once and then trotting off and then coming again, she was ready to "catch me". Later I found out from Mariah's mom that Duck and Eli had heard us coming and ran over to the gate to greet us! I can't think of a better compliment than that, it surely made my day!

We rode in the afternoon out in the same area. I practiced with some of the obstacles and also with going across the field and back several times. Christian, Mariah's brother and Bethany who were also at the playdate were running their horses back and forth randomly. Of course since Duck isn't used to galloping horses it upped her emotions. So it was good to just play with keeping her relaxed in spite of the thundering hooves!

Lately Duck has been super choppy wanting to canter all the time when I ask for the trot. So at the playdate I did the circling pattern around a log to try and get her more relaxed. It worked! It took quite a few laps there, but this week when I did the same she was much more relaxed at the trot and not trying to rush off!

All in all, it was a great playdate and I was tired by the end of the day. I think I was gone for 12 hours total with the trailering there, playdate, trailering back and unloading everything and taking care of Duck for the evening. Good thing I have a super supportive awesome hubby that watched the kids all that time so that I could play with Duck and my friends. I don't get to do that sort of thing very often because of working and time constraints on the weekends so it was a real treat! I am looking forward to being able to do it again really soon!

Full of of it for Spring

2010-03-19T12:01:00.000-07:00

It must be spring. Or at least Duck is acting like it is spring! She is frisky, and downright fast sometimes! She has a lot of buck in her lately which is OK when I am on the ground, but not so hot when I'm trying to ride!

So this week I have been playing around with the 45 ft line again. Just trying to use it (on the dog) to get used to it. I've put it on Duck a couple times, but she does seem a bit "lost" out there with all that rope! So for now I am just trying it here and there and trying to improve my rope handling skills.

Yesterday I went to ride and she was full of it online. So much energy she cantered 6 laps on the 22ft line for circling game! Yippee! Then she added in a gallop and about 3-4 good bucks! We played for awhile longer and I felt like she was pretty in tune so I mounted up.

I must have been W-R-O-N-G! She kept giving me really nasty ears and wanting to canter when trotting so I was doing transitions downward to get her back in tune. This is all while playing the corners game. After a few laps she decided to canter off and I decided to say "and a few more ounces" to keep her going. She didn't like the idea that I was asking her to go past the corner, so she promptly BUCKED a huge buck and then stopped very nicely in the corner. WHEW! I got off and tied up her hackamore so I had the 12ft to play on. And then I backed her, a long ways. And she is still full of it, so I decided to have her burn off some more energy. I sent her over every jump in the arena. Most of them were cross rails, but 2-3 were straight rails. 2 of them were 2 ft straight rails, well the other one was higher, probably 2'6" maybe a bit higher, I'm not sure. But she has been very hesitant to do anything other than cross rails and with all this newfound energy I decided to give it a whirl.

I sent her from the trot and she flew over it, turned and faced. Mind you I'm on the 12ft line and the standards are so high you can't throw the rope over so I am on the near side of the jump wondering if she's going to take off after she lands! But she didn't and then I stayed there in zone 1 and asked her to come over it again, and she did! With hardly any pressure!

And then she was tired out a little and not so energetic, so I got back on.

I had recently changed my shim pattern so I wonder if the major nasty ears were feedback from that. Today I changed her shims back and she still got some nasty ears when trotting but not near as much.

She does, however want to keep cantering when I am asking her to trot. I think that stems from the last serious play we did of "gaits within the gait" at the walk and trot. She wanted to canter while I was doing that and a few times I let her because she was in tune and didn't feel like she was going to buck! So we have done some passenger lessons at the canter, but we are still working on direction at the trot! She likes to get hard-headed and since my mustang was exactly the same I can only assume that it is me making her stiff. So I am trying the advice of "never, ever, release on a brace". I'll keep you in tune for how it goes!

The other news is that Duck got a new pasture buddy. Her pasture buddy, Kay that has lived with Duck since we moved to Sundance almost 2 years ago left a couple weeks ago. Now she has a cute black and white paint gelding named Oakie for a buddy. Duck owns the pen now though, before it was Kay that was top horse! She hasn't buddied up with Oakie too much yet, but she isn't running him all the way to the other end of the pen constantly anymore either.

Tomorrow we are headed to a Parelli play date! I am so excited to get off the property and practice our savvy at a new place! Hopefully someday I can get a trailer so I can actually start going on more trail rides! But that in itself is a whole different post for another day.

Another Parelli Lesson!

2010-01-26T14:23:00.000-08:00

I love that we have been able to do so many lessons here with Parelli professionals here in the last several months. In fact, this is more instruction in the last 3 months than I have had in a year, most years! This last Saturday 2* Parelli instructor Linda Algire came to Sundance Stables to give 4 of us Savvy club members a lesson.

We each got private lessons and they were great! In my lesson we really delved into the theory behind the horsemanship and playing with the theory of "how little can you do" to cause Duck to move her feet. I have always known Duck is sensitive, just wasn't fully aware HOW sensitive! I was able to get a figure 8 mostly off my intention and the smallest of body language, without even a carrot stick! Talk about an eye opener!

We all had a great time and learned so much! I have so much to play with and as usual not near enough time to do it!

An interesting Article

2009-12-16T06:49:00.000-08:00

On Dartblog.com there is an interesting article about Pat Parelli. You should read this, it is really good!

http://www.dartblog.com/data/2009/11/008740.php

The month of Lessons

2009-11-02T13:02:00.000-08:00

The month of October went by super quickly, and what a savvy month of learning it was! I was able to do two lessons with Parelli professionals in October. One with newly trained 1* Annie Shank, and another with 3* Professional Jesse Peters!

The lesson with Annie was first at our stable, so I didn't even have to trailer out! That was a first for me with Parelli lessons. I had never taken one at my barn! So it was very nice just with that!

There were 4 of us that joined in on the lesson, and Annie taught us 2 at a time. The weather wasn't super cooperative, it was pretty cold and windy, but we made the best of it. It was very muddy in the arenas so we opted for the grass play area by the pond to be our lesson spot.

We did simulations, how to play the circle game, how little does it take for your horse to feel you on the rope, and yo-yo phases. It is amazing how little it takes for your horse to feel you. And the fact that I need to be constantly reminded of that!

I was able to play with my circling game, which had previously been broken when trying to ask her for the canter. And finding out that I have been nagging Duck in my send. We played with refining the send and transitions on the circle, specifically walk, trot and then trot, walk to keep her attention and focus. Annie has such a fun personality and made it so enjoyable. She even played with me, with Duck. Then I played with using ALL of my 22ft line for obstacles and driving in zone 3,4,5. Duck likes to be close to me (for security) and I go close to her as well, but moving into level 3 concepts we need to build our relationship up so we are both comfortable and confident out on the 22ft and eventually the 45ft line.

For our lesson with Jesse Peters we traveled to York, SC which was supposed to be about an hour away. Well it was drizzling, dark and there was traffic so it ended up taking about twice that long to get there (and back). I have been playing with Duck and the trailer a lot quite awhile back and a little bit recently, and Duck is getting much more confident loading. I was even able to load her from zone 5 the other day into the 2 horse! When there is another horse in the trailer, that is another issue. So I decided to do some prior preparation before our lesson. Two days before the lesson Liz, my friend and the one that was going to be trailering Duck with her trailer and herhorse was gracious enough to come over and let me practice loading Duck while her horse Eli was in there. I let Duck approach and retreat as needed and it didn't take too long and she was doing pretty well! So when the morning came, she only back out once when Eli pinned his ears at her, and then after that went in just fine and besides them rocking the trailer from nipping at each other it was an uneventful ride. I was thinking that she may lose confidence from it on the way back and not want to load with him, but I was pleasantly surprised that when we were done Duck really loaded herself. Almost too much! I was trying to put up the other divider so I could get her in and she kept trying to get in! It feels SO good to have her more confident with loading and that wasn't even part of the lesson!

This was my first lesson with Jesse. Liz and Melissa were also there and it was their first lesson with him as well. He was fabulous! What a great instructor. We started out on the ground playing with the figure 8. Duck has always like to tromp the cones and not go around super nicely. Jesse came and took Duck and showed me the leadership I needed to get to be clear to her and gain her respect and confidence. He really encouraged us to"dance" with our horses, not drill them mindlessly and turn it into the 7 jobs, or the 7 tortures! When Duck was ready I was able to mount up and even more fun began!

We played with being effective. Specifically my leg and positioning, and my rein positions. We played "The Matador" game which was the indirect/direct rein in flowing succession, but amped up! Jesse was on the ground supporting with the carrot stick while I was riding it! WOW! It was amazing how swift and clean the exercise felt while he was supporting. And a wake up call to me to how ineffective I have been! I spent the next half hour playing this in conjunction with follow the rail and perfectly trying to practice that concept. I was struggling with my leg being in the effective position for the direct rein. Plus Duck was a lot more sticky when I wasn't focused correctly and didn't follow through with my phases. We got a few really good ones though, and I was quite pleased!

We also played follow the rail (making sure to use ALL of our corners) and doing small circles around barrels placed in the corners and along the half way point of the long side of the arena. My goal was to do them without using my reins and to be effective with my leg. It seemed every time I was effective with my direct rein leg she would speed up and get impulsive, so I played with interrupting that pattern with a direct transition to a 9 step back up. The 9 step back up was also improved by Jesse showing me how to lift the reins even more (and don't pull) and also move one up at at time in conjunction with Ducks front legs.

Other topics we covered over the whole lesson were NO BRACE and DON'T EVER RELEASE ON A BRACE! I can't tell you how many times I have heard this and thought I was getting softness but right off Jesse said our horses all looked bracey, and he was right. So we played around with lateral flexion softness both with the rein and then with the CS and then transitions from the walk to halt using lateral flexion and then the trot to halt the same. He kept telling me to hold it until it was soft and then release. I thought I had been doing that but not enough apparently!

Jesse also touched on horsenality when we first began. And I was shocked! I had said Duck was lbi/lbe which I thought she was. In fact I had just done another chart and was thinking that was correct, but he said that from his observation that Duck is most likely an RBI. I had thought that for a long time, especially in the beginning of our relationship, but as her confidence has grown in quite a few areas, she shows LBI traits as well and I thought that was really what she was. But the licking (for security), needing to be close to me and the way she shrinks and says "I can't" when pressure is applied are all traits of a RBI. He says she is just pretty centered RBI. WHEW! That makes me even more grateful that I hadn't bought the cradle bridle since I would have bought the wrong bit! I felt pretty stupid though, not even knowing her horsenality correctly. I mean gosh, I am supposed to be a level 3 student, and I have had her almost 2 years! How embarrising! I sure licked and chewed on that a lot, and am glad it is cleared up though because I had been wondering what she truly is for so long!

Another thing we talked about was having the "perfect picture" and it's relationship to attitude. And this goes back to the figure 8 online, but Duck is always crabby doing the figure 8 and so am I because it doesn't go very well usually. Jesse warned me to have a better attitude! He said he is always happy for a challenge, or to fix something. I told him that my attitude was just because of the lack of arrows in my quiver, to which he responded that he has lots of arrows in his quiver! Yep I believe that! It sure changes your attitude the more arrows you have! But that being said, he really played up the fact that I need to have a perfect picture in my head of the exercise, both what it is and where it is going. For instance he made the example on the figure 8 of what would Linda Parelli's horse Remmer look like doing this figure 8? WOW! yeah, so that is something to aspire to. But I got the idea and I have gone with it.

We also played with the question box pattern. Jesse had said this was a very important pattern that he chalked up passing his level 3 (which then included flying lead changes. Those are now level 4). We played with walking and trotting on this pattern. Again, using perfect practice. I was supposed to do it without my reins but quickly found out that we aren't there yet. We'd done this pattern before, first at Carol's place back in June, but it was far from perfect. I had a heck of a time keeping Duck super close to the cones. And he said that eventually I should be able to walk, trot and canter that pattern with my arms folded. Now there is my perfect vision!

We played this pattern using monopoly money. For every correction with the CS it would cost me $5, and $10 to use my reins for a correction. $5 if she hit the cone or barrel. But $100 if she left the circle completely. He was again trying to reiterate that everything on the pattern must have some value, or it really isn't a game. Point taken!

I've had very little time to practice at all this month. Between sick kids, work, and camping I haven't been with Duck hardly at all. In fact I hadn't touched Duck for two weeks prior to our lesson with Annie. And then I had only ridden once and played one very short session before we met with Jesse (and that was the trailer loading). And this week isn't much better. Kids are out of school since last week, and 2 days this week and I work all weekend. So I don't know how much playtime I am going to get, but I will for sure try and focus on quality and perfect practice as much as possible in the time I have.

Horsenality Test for humans

2009-10-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

Someone had this link posted on the Parelli Savvy Club forum. Looked like fun so I took it. A type of "horsenality" test for humans.

http://mindmedia.com/brainworks/profiler

These are my results...

Lisa, your hemispheric dominance is equally divided between left and right brain, while you show a moderate preference for auditory versus visual learning, signs of a balanced and flexible person.

Your balance gives you the enviable capacity to be verbal and literate while retaining a certain "flair" and individuality. You are logical and compliant but only to a degree. You are organized without being compulsive, goal-directed without being driven, and a "thinking" individual without being excessively so.

The one problem you might have is that your learning might not be as efficient as you would like. At times you will work from the specific to the general, while at other times you'll work from the general to the specific. Sometimes you will be logical in your approach while at other times random. Since you cannot always control the choice, you may experience frustrations not normally felt by persons with a more defined and directed learning style.

You may also minimally experience conflicts associated with auditory processing. You will be systematic and sequential in your processing of information, you will most often focus on a single dimension of the problem or material, and you will be more reflective, i.e., "taking the data in" as opposed to "devouring" it.

Overall, you should feel content with your life and yourself. You are, perhaps, a little too critical of yourself - and of others - while maintaining an "openness" which is redeeming. Indecisiveness is a problem and your creativity is not in keeping with your potential. Being a pragmatist, you downplay this aspect of yourself and focus on the more immediate, the more obvious and the more functional.

Hmm, how interesting!!!

The Flag

2009-10-03T16:22:00.000-07:00

So I had found a hole in my program that I wasn't quite willing to tackle for some time. The flag. I know it shouldn't be that big of a deal, but the saying "my horse doesn't to plastic" really applied to Duck. Not big flat blue tarps, she doesn't seem to have so much a problem with those or stepping on them, but smaller pieces of plastic and plastic bags. Especially if they come towards her at all. She can be quite reactive, striking out when startled. And one time when I was riding in the arena there was a small piece of tarp, it was about 1 ft by 3 ft on the ground. She was fine around it, but then it moved in the wind and I about came off. This was several months ago and despite trying to do tarps and stuff with wind swirly things I hadn't had much progress. That was back in June. Fast forward to about 3 weeks ago and I was riding in the hayfield. Since there is a road somewhat near the hayfield some trash makes its way to the field, plastic grocery bags especially. When I was riding one day I saw one stuck in the grass and thought (and paniked) to myself that if that thing moves in the wind I am a goner! That is how I finally came to terms with it that I had become an "avoid-a-holic" from plastic bags. I recently decided to change that.

So in comes the flag. I decided that I would use a grocery bag tied pretty tightly onto the carrot stick. Not to flappy for starters. And I made a program of it. We are on day 5 as of today. Every day I have played the friendly game with the bag. Rubbing (and now tapping) it all over her body. The hardest for her to tolerate is in zone one. Especially if the bag moves at all towards zone one, she had been leaping out of the way, quickly! We have made a lot of progress though beings how the first day I could hardly touch her with it. Today we can touch her all over, and are starting to get a little more confidence in zone 1. I had her follow it with her nose to it quite a ways to retreat. I even put a treat on the bag to see if she was confident enough to eat it from there and she was.

And today I finally got to ride on the trails around the barn (it has been a couple months) and she stepped on a plastic bag on the trail and didn't so much as look at it. Now, I don't think she'd like it if one came flying by still, but it is a good start. So I am pleased, and I am going to keep on with our program to gain her confidence with the flag.

We also have been doing circling game with obstacles at the trot, beginning to canter on the 22ft circle. We have gotten about 4 laps. She is struggling with her leads, but I am not being picky about that yet, just maintaining the gait. I would do it in the round corral as Carol Coppinger suggested, but I think with it's high walls and smaller diameter (60ft) it is just too much pressure for her. She goes totally RB. We have been playing a little in there and retreating out but certainly not anything too demanding!

I am also trying to use lighter phases and longer phase one. I tend to get jumbled and when things don't go right I go too fast and get harder which just loses her confidence. Somewhere along the line our liberty is gone again so I am not even going there right now!

All in all we've been having a good time and I really enjoyed riding on the trails today. It was a nice break from the arena. I would love to do it more often but I have to have people to ride with, and not just any people, people that understand that I want to keep mine and my horses' confidence both in tact!

Today there was a group of 5 deer that went sprinting through the woods spooking both of our horses. Duck did calm down enough to stop but then all communication was lost. I got off and sent her over a log, backed her a ways and then got back on. Things went much better and I played with disengaging her hindquarters while on the trails. See, the communication breaks down because she gets going and worried about what is going on around her and I simply don't exist. So we are playing with that!

In the arena things have been going pretty well. We have been doing lots of freestyle riding with one carrot stick, a few times totally bridle less with just the neck string at the walk and trot doing some patterns, and most recently follow the rail. She gets going at the trot and there is no rhythm in the trot, she gets rushy. So the last few times we've ridden I have done follow the rail at the trot focusing on her rhythm and relaxation. I have been seeing improvements there but still more to go. I would like to get to cantering and get her balanced at the trot and canter. Her impulsivness and forwardness have her with her head up (and emotions up) and on the forehand. I am trying to get her more relaxed, and reward the relaxation.

So many fun things we are playing with! Still enjoying the journey, and enjoying some new friends that have started on the journey as well.

Savvy on!

Catch up!

2009-09-25T06:20:00.001-07:00

We've been playing around on the 45 ft line a little here and there. Let's just say that I need increase my rope savvy! :) That is a lot of rope! Yesterday we did some yo-yo's on the 45 ft line over a pole. I was really focused on straightness, and trying to get her draw back. Her butt always drifts to the left while backing is what I noticed. 45 ft is a L-O-N-G way away too! We also did the figure 8 at the walk and trot. It went really well, in fact better than I had been getting. Much softer, less ears pinned. We rode freestyle for awhile. I usually just don't use the reins but have them there. She was offering the canter yesterday, so we cantered (I was bareback, with no pad and noticed how much I missed my bareback pad and it's stickiness!) and it was smooth, with a good rhythm for 6-8 strides for a couple times.

The day before we had ridden in the evening. Usually I am at the barn in the morning, while my kids are in preschool/school. In the morning there is no one around usually. Every once and a while a friend will show up. But the evening, wow! There were so many people! It was 8:30pm when I got out there so it was dark. That just leaves me the main arena to ride in as it is the only one with lights. I did some light warm ups in the round pen on the ground. Then we went to the arena. The UNCC (college) team was having a lesson. There must have been 6 of them, plus others just riding like myself. Talk about thresholds for Duck. We have come such a long way. Even though now she pins her ears still when other horses come into her bubble, I don't lose all control. I remember when I first started riding her and went to my first clinic with her. I had almost zero communication with other horses in the arena. She would just pin her ears and lunge at them, forgetting I was even up there! So now the worst was her getting a bit rushy if they were next to her too long. I will continue to play with it. But our brakes still work!

The day before this I played quite a bit on the ground and then rode some freestyle. The freestyle has really helped my seat. Now I just need to get better at cantering. I still have a gripping reflex when cantering. We did bulls eye a couple times and I put a treat on the barrel to get her thinking to the barrel. Well when I rode the next day all she wanted to do was play bull's eye! She kept spiraling down around barrels, and even the jump standards! I would like to learn more about the fine line between accepting what they offer and being the leader and calling the shots.

That same day I rode bridle less for awhile, following the rail and doing figure 8's etc. I still love it!

We have also been introducing the flag on the carrot stick. Friendly game with it. She is ok in zone 3,4, but still goes RBI when in zones 1 and 2. I have been trying to retreat but she still turns away and can't look towards it (and freezes up), so I am trying to go real slow but keep it in my program.

That is what we've been up to! October is going to be crazy busy. I am working a bit extra, but will have 2 lesson with PNH professionals in October! On the 17th, 1* Annie Shank is coming to our stable to help all of us PNH students along as part of her 50 hrs of lessons she needs to log with PNH. Then on the 27th 3 of us will be heading to York for a lesson with 3* Jesse Peters! I am so excited!!!

Question Box

2009-09-16T05:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I finally got up the nerve to play with the question box. Why would I need nerve? Oh yeah did I mention that this is what we were playing (and not so well) when Duck went lame the next session way back in June? Well, it was. Question box at the trot to the left. I was trying to get her relaxed and not have to correct on the circle. She kept running out. I guess I should have listened to the feedback that she was DONE with it! LOL

So yesterday I went to set it up in the lower arena. Nope, it was too hard and crunchy for my liking (like it was when she hurt herself). So I turned her loose in that arena while I moved everything to the main arena. I realized after I set it all up that I had put my markers (chairs) in the wrong spot. Oh well I'd just work around it. They are just guidelines anyway, right? :)

We warmed up on the ground first. I have been playing with getting Duck to canter on the 22ft. Our canter riding isn't great, and then it dawned on me that we really haven't cantered much online. She either breaks gait to to a trot or gallops like a mad horse. Really no inbetween there. So I had just did a snappy back up with her and sent her off to the left and she took off! I let her drift to the end of the 22ft rope. She came right back. WOW! I guess I amped her up a bit to much or I had too much "I'm going to tag you" feeling! Either that or she just wanted to GO! But away she went, running like a mad horse. I decided to just stick with it. The nice thing is that she is getting better running fast. Not tripping as much and she isn't pulling me as she's going, there was actually quite a bit of slack in the line which is good! After about 7 laps she slowed down and cantered 1 good lap. So I quit there. I used the CS to slow her (which was a complete halt!) So that is good too, starting to get more downward transitions with the CS online.

So we rode the question box pattern starting at a walk and even though it has been 3 months, she still remembered the pattern and to my surprise did it much better than last time in that I didn't have to correct her to stay on the circle hardly at all compared to in June. Trotting was better too, but she still FLIES around at the trot wanting to break into a canter (and did a few times). We played with it both directions and when she finally slowed down for a lap I quit.

Then we cooled out riding at a a walk and following the rail. This went really well, she didn't stray from the rail at all and had a really nice, forward walk. And like always we ended with some grazing time on our way back to the barn.

I love my horse!

The bridge incident and setbacks...

2009-09-10T14:22:00.001-07:00

So even before our 1st bridle less ride I think I didn't mention that about a week after we got home from our clinic in June Duck went lame on her left front and it has been kind of a comedy of errors since then. About 2 weeks of rest, one vet exam including a nerve block and a horse chiropractic visit later we were ready to roll again, until the bridge incident.

So I have to preface this by saying that the play area is by the big pond. We have a bridge, pedestal, trailer, barrels and the pond there to play with. It's great but the storms we kept having in July kept blowing the barrels into the pond. So we had 6 swimming barrels. After a couple weeks Liz was kind enough to "fish" the barrels out of the pond. Thing is, they were on the FAR side of the pond. Liz asked me to take the farm's Kubota to go get them. So I did. Then I set them all upright on the off side of the bridge so they wouldn't roll down the hill into the pond again.

The next day Duck was doing much better and I was cleared to ride. So I saddled up and had a few hours to ride. I had signed my boys up for a 4 hour camp Mon-Thurs that week. So it's Monday and I figure I'll head down to the playground. Everything was going really well.

We'd been playing with front feet on the pedestal and then the trailer. So then I figure we'll go over the bridge which we've done several times before. Well I figured the barrels would be just fine over there. I had a fleeting though that I should move them. Of course I ignored it...

So Duck had put her front feet on the ramp a few times and so I asked her to go over the bridge. Well she got on at an odd angle and ended up with her front feet on the tall flat part of the bridge and the upright barrel under her belly. (she is nowhere near tall enough to have that fit under her, even with her front feet on the bridge). She didn't panic although I was feeling really tense. She sat there for what felt like an eternity. Then she lurched to get her back feet on the bridge. She tried so hard but her back legs came up short and she ended up scraping quite a bit of hide off her back legs. Needless to say I didn't get to ride all week, and was still letting her heal the next one as well. Too bad I didn't go with my gut instinct to move the barrels...

There's a good reason to listen to your gut right there. I was lazy and Duck paid the price. I haven't been back down there since. I want to rubberize the sides so that will never happen again. It's just plywood, but it still scrapes pretty bad when they hit it like that.

She's almost all healed up now, but it has been several weeks. Meanwhile I think I lost a ton of leadership points grazing for weeks at a time.

I've been getting a lot of feedback from her that she isn't enjoying what we are doing. I've been trying out the 45 ft line and her confidence hasn't been great on it. Our liberty that had been so good when to pot as well. And I am trying to figure out where it all went bad and rebuild. Of course it doesn't help that she has round pen phobia. She just wigs out in there for liberty so I am always playing in the big arena.

We have ridden a couple more times bridle less, but generally there are other riders in the arena so I have just been dropping the reins, not taking the bridle all the way off.

Our other issue lately is that we're real heavy on the forehand, and she is constantly tripping because of it. So I am needing to look into how to get her to shift that weight back some.

But the last couple weeks with school starting I haven't done hardly anything with her because of a bunch of other commitments but am going to try and get back into it next week again.

I could sure use A LOT more arrows in my quiver right about now!

Our First Bridle-less Ride!!!

2009-07-26T15:09:00.001-07:00

Life Goals: 1. Ride Bridle-less. CHECK!!!!!!!!

I've been wanting to ride Bridle-less for SO long! As long as I have loved horses (which is as far back as I can remember) the idea of having the communication to ride without a bridle has always fascinated me. The type of partnership required for that kind of riding is the kind of partnership I knew I wanted. And that was WAY before I knew about Parelli or any other natural horsemanship.

When I was 13 I bought a book about riding bridle less, but it never worked. And then with Kira I was getting just to the point where we were getting close to it but then I had to make the decision to send her to her new home and start all over with Duck. So I never got there with Kira.

Perhaps that desire of that type of partnership is why I was SO quick to take on the "Parelli" way when I was finally introduced to it at a tour stop so long ago in Utah in 2002. I saw not only one person ride bridle less, but tons more on the savvy team. People that started as regular as I was and ended up with such great relationships with their horses. That and the whole way of thinking about horses was what I had always wanted. I am totally amazed and love the learning that occurs by constantly trying to"read" my horse and her body language.

So last week we finally did it! Duck and I went Bareback and Bridle-less in our large practice arena. I wasn't going to do it at first, but then I realized that it just comes down to a matter of trust. Do I trust her enough not to take off and buck me off? Did I trust that I had laid down the lines of communication well enough to be understood without the safety net of the rein to stop her? One of my biggest concerns are the sudden "spooks" that all horses can have. The "what if" scenario kept running through my head. After all, Duck is still pretty green, and we've been together less than 2 years.

Turns out I did trust her! But it was kind of like the first time you go rock climbing. You are SO excited to get up that wall and then you realize once you get going that someone else is holding your very life in their hands at the bottom. The higher you climb the farther it is to fall. I had to learn to trust my belayer to climb, and I needed to take the plunge and trust Duck, too.

That being said I didn't just jump on and ride bridle-less because it struck my fancy. No, I've been putting in a lot of effort to refining our communication to the point that I felt safe enough to go there. Ever since I got home from the Carol Coppinger clinic in June I have been practicing NOT touching my reins, so doing a lot of carrot stick riding with 1-2 sticks.

I've learned a lot about balance. And I've learned even more about how to communicate with Duck. I was doing a TON of micromanaging with the reins prior to the clinic in June. So my independent seat has come a long way, too

So here's how it went. A friend and fellow Parelli student at my barn Liz offered to take some pictures of Duck and I with her nice camera so we played with our horses in the arena and then went to the pond and did that. (Those cute pics to follow in the next post). Then we went back the arena and I was in there talking to Liz saying "I really want to ride bridle-less" and she says well "why don't you?" to which I reply "I am scared to take off the halter." So she says "well just take off the lead then and start with that." So I did a few steering and brake checks and then unclipped the leadrope. A few straight lines and a couple turns that went smoothly bolstered my confidence and Duck seemed to be doing well. So off it all came! We were totally "naked" besides the savvy string around her neck.

And off we went! We did walk, trot, halt transitions, played with the figure 8 a few times and even took a shot at sideways (we need more practice on that for sure!). All in all, 10 minutes or so and I was BEAMING! I kept telling Liz how happy I was and how for so long I had waited for this moment. For a minute I really did think I was going to cry!

And then she came up with the brilliant idea that she still had the camera so she went and got it and took some pictures! How cool is that? Pictures of our very first Bridle-less ride!

All I can say is YEAH!!!!

Here we are on the figure 8

Looking at something. I think I was thinking "go right"
trotting around
More figure 8 at the trot
Look Mom, no hands!!! :)

Ok I know you can't totally see me in this picture but I am grinning ear to ear. I love this picture!

Level 2/3 Camp with Carol Coppinger

2009-06-23T17:13:00.001-07:00

This is Duck and I in our last private lesson. I didn't get too many pictures of the clinic, the camera was dying and I never remembered it. But Niels came one day and took these.
From the lesson. We were playing with Rhythm, and bending. The beginnings of going the direction of finesse.
We're both focused over there! I think we were both looking at the trailer that had been backed into the arena for practicing the trailer loading later that day. I was trying to keep Duck AWAY from the trailer and she was trying to take me IN the trailer a couple times during the lesson!
I love this picture. It is my favorite from the clinic. We actually look good!
Carol telling me how a couple habits I had needed fixed. When tying up the lead line, don't fasten it at the top, only daisy chain it. Her other instruction was not to tie the lead line up until AFTER you get on your horse, and to undo it BEFORE you get off. Why? Well you might need them mounting and dismounting. Yep, seems logical but I was taught incorrectly earlier in my education in Parelli.
Warm up and getting ready to mount.
Duck in her stall. Isn't she cute? And below, Duck and I. Duck is a lick-a-holic!
I had the great opportunity last week to attend a long awaited Parelli Level 2/3 Camp. It was held at 5* Parelli Professional Carol Coppinger's Farm in Mt. Juliet, TN. It was about a 7 hour drive for us, which I had been preparing for with trailer loading practice with Duck for the last several months. (See prior posts about Trailer loading prep.)

I am probably going to post in a few posts about this trip as there was SO much to it! I'll start here.

The loading and trip there was uneventful except for the beginning. Duck was pretty nervous as we were leaving the barn, calling for her pasture mate Kay. We had to make a quick stop for gas and she was still quite jittery (RB for sure!) and calling for Kay. She did the same when we stopped in Asheville for gas, but then after that she calmed down quite a bit and would eat some hay when we were stopped (as long as someone was with her).

The first night Duck was defending her large personal bubble in her stall. We were having an informational meeting in the barn, and Duck was squealing and kicking the stall a lot! Her former pasture mate, Jody's horse Spirit, was stabled next to her. Spirit is also Duck's half brother, they share the same Sire.

After about a day the squealing lessened and she quit kicking the stall. I was totally worried about dealing with RB behavior the whole time we were there. Honestly, I didn't even know if I was going to be able to ride in that big of a group so I went in with no expectations. The first day she did go RBE on me a little bit on the way out to the playground, but then settled in. She did keep pinning her ears as horses would go by but it was nothing like the first clinic I took her to 2 + years ago. I felt like I was going to die at that one! She was lunging at the other horses with teeth bared, and I had practically NO steering! Thankfully the time we've put in together and the opportunity at Sundance to ride around other horses a lot more seems to really have helped. And the clinic helped even more. Yesterday I took Duck out to graze and she touched noses with a horse over the fence which almost always elicit's a huge squeal, but not this time! She just sniffed a little and moved on! WOW!

The general format for the clinic was private lessons in the morning starting at 8am, group groundwork/liberty starting around 10am or so, lunch about 12:30-2, and then ride from 2 till about 5 followed by more private lessons in the evening until about 7pm. That kind of schedule in the heat well lets just say I was pretty tired by the time I got back to the hotel and would pass out quickly and get up and repeat the whole thing again times 4 days!

There are so many concepts that we played with that I am going to do some separate posts on them but to give a couple to lick and chew on that happened in the first hour of the first day of the camp. We were doing lightness simulations with each other and no horses. How little does it take for your partner to notice what it is you want them to do? Amazingly the belly of the rope doesn't even have to move off the ground before you feel the change. Try it sometime with a friend. You will feel a lightness you didn't know existed. And then you will know how much you might have been "screaming" at your horse.

The other part before the simulation just blew my mind and everyone joked that we payed for the first hour of the clinic and the next 4 days were free.

Carol asked us "Are you pleased with your horse, your relationship with your horse?" And most of us said "no", we wanted this or that, or whatever, and we went on complaining about what was wrong. And then she responded by saying "Your horses can feel you being displeased with them, and it is a form pressure from which they get no release because they try and try, but they can never please you. ("It is the pressure that motivates, but the release that teaches." -PP) And then it turns into opposition reflex." And she followed this up by saying "Be pleased with your horses but not satisfied with where you are" That hit the whole group pretty hard I think. We all sat and licked and chewed on that thought for a long time. How to be "pleased" but not satisfied (always leaving room for improvement). Or even pleased AND satisfied.

For me it was a big, fat lightbulb and it didn't just relate to horses, but just life in general. Was I pleased with life? Was I pleased with Duck? And I realized in that moment that I hadn't been. I always wanted more, never was happy with what we had done, it was never enough. And I know she felt it too, because after I changed my attitude, so did she over the next 4 days. Hmm, how interesting!

Are you pleased with the relationship with your horse? Are you pleased with YOUR life? Satisfied? Good food for thought, isn't it?

More to follow...

The Beginning of the Playground

2009-05-31T18:00:00.000-07:00

So the barn that I board at has given our Parelli playgroup permission to use the area by the pond to build a playground for the horses! We are allowed to swim in the pond (15ft deep) and put up obstacles. Niels and I took the first (and most ambitious) step of building a bridge. We started the bridge before my trip to Utah and the Reno Celebration and left it sitting (in a nice pile I may add) in our driveway while I was there and Niels was in Seattle for work. When we got back from our trip there was a letter (a few days old) that was from the HOA. It stated that we needed to "move our unsightly wooden object out of the driveway." Needless to say Niels and I were NOT happy about that! It didn't look THAT bad! The good thing is that we decided to clean the garage out so we can make pedestals and work on and keep them in the garage until they are finished so we can avoid any more "pleasant reminders" that our stuff is ugly! UGLY? Seriously, like the yard that had a literal trash can's worth of trash in the backyard for 2 weeks. THAT was ugly. But a bridge?

We got it done (finally) between the many rainstorms that have been gracing us here in North Carolina and it is the beginning of many fun things to play with with our horses!

Other items include

1. Barrels (some with cow flavored covers)

2. poles that stick into the ground to use for weave etc

3. cones

4. pedestals (which are next up to build)

5. pvc pipe for jumps and ground poles

6. The pond (no work required, just savvy!)

7. Eventually a carwash obstacle and 50' playpen with a low fence

But so far just with what we have I've got plenty to keep me busy all summer. So far Duck has only jumped the bridge (which is 33" wide and 18" tall) and put her foot on the ramp in the last 2 sessions. Yes, it is going to be a fun summer!

To add to that we've done mounting bareback by the neck a few times. Nothing consistent yet, but I did get brave enough to try the put my legs between her head when it is down and get flipped up on backwards. Very cool!

Yes, Yes I know it is all tricks! But how else can I justify giving her all those treats that she loves so much?

Reno Celebration, Trail ride, & Kira

2009-05-27T07:17:00.000-07:00

I went on vacation! A true, no kids vacation! Well, I DID have to take them on the plane with me to get to Salt Lake and again (kicking and screaming) to come home, but other than that I was kid free for a week! Which is a first for me besides the time I went to help my sister with her new baby, Ayden one year ago.

The purpose of the trip was to have the kids visit my family and the ulterior motive was for me to attend the Parelli Celebration with my sister and her friend Tracy in Reno, NV.

We left for Reno the day after I got there and drove 8 hours. The Celebration was wonderful! Pat played with a Humane Society Rescue horse named Cheyenne. I love watching him play with horses. It is inspiring. His timing is almost perfect!

The celebration also had "savvy spotlights" which are basically regular people studying the program that brought their own horses for Pat to evaluate them. There was so much to learn!

Linda of course rode Remmer with Walter Zettl the dressage master. I was in the retail area looking at Walter's book when I hear a voice in a german accent behind me "That is a very good book!" It was Walter himself. What a sweet, sweet man and an awesome trainer that really knows his discipline and how to achieve it, naturally. I'd love to be able to ride that high of a level someday!

When we got back after 3 fun filled days Kris talked me into going for a trail ride. My trail rides are pretty far and few between. I usually get out twice a year or so. I didn't want to bother her with having to hook up the trailer but she insisted. So we headed out to Rose Canyon which was just so awesome! I rode one of my sister's schooling horses, Cleo. She is such a sweetie.

To top it all off I got to go visit Kira! My sweet, sweet mustang who is now 20 years old! She looks great although she has aged quite a bit since I saw her last. Oh how I miss her. She still nickers at me though, which about made me cry! She loves her home though, and it is truly the lap of horsey luxury!

Here is Cleo and I on the trail in Rose Canyon

Reno! Yeah besides the Celebration, lights and the good food at the brewery we ate at 3 days in a row, Reno doesn't have much happening!
Here are all of us with Walter Zettl. I bought the book (of course who could resist?) and he signed that as well as everything else Kris and Tracy bought too!
Linda and Remmer. My camera didn't work hardly at all in the arena so I didn't get hardly any pictures. They are all very dark!
Kris and I
Linda with Walter
Kris and I on our Trail ride. Kris is riding Sunny.
Grazing the horses after the ride
Kira and I!

Parade of Barns - Parelli Demo

2009-04-19T15:34:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-13T13:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-12T15:00:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-04-09T12:22:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-05T16:49:00.001-07:00

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!

Play in the MUD!!

2009-03-28T16:23:00.001-07:00

Today Liz and I met to play for awhile. It has been raining still. It was MUDDY! In fact someone said to me as I pulled up, "You aren't going to RIDE today are you?" Turns out I did. And it was fine. Yeah we mainly played on the ground on the 12 ft (so I wouldn't totally soak and get my 22ft muddy). We practiced stick to me and some sideways. Then we did a little bit of liberty. Our very first time doing any liberty with another horse in the arena. Duck stayed with me the whole time. She didn't want to do what I did (especially jump) in the beginning but then we got going and we even got a close circle at the trot at liberty! I was so excited. And cantering with stick to me. She is so dominant though, head tossing etc.

I've also been teaching her to bow with cookies. Well I need to make my cue clearer and different than "pick up your foot" because now every time I ask to clean out her foot she bows! My bad! So I just need to think of a different cue and refine it so I don't confuse her! I am so happy that she is trying so hard though!

I ended with riding bareback for a little while and still practicing transitions with my seat. It is getting better. Today I got 3 stops with just my seat. It isn't anywhere close to reliable yet, but going in the right direction!

And Liz seemed to have fun with Eli even though it was so muddy. She turned him out first and he ran like a Banchee, but didn't even come close to slipping. Very fun!

Hopefully it will dry out. I am not complaining though because we really need the rain, especially after last years' horrible drought.

I'm glad I checked first

2009-03-26T05:19:00.000-07:00

Well in my quest to search for a new saddle I thought I would try and make due with what I have. My current english saddle is too small for me as I have mentioned before. Funds are tight so buying a new saddle is out of the question unless it is a used saddle AND I can sell my other one first.

So Tuesday I headed to the barn with my western saddle. I haven't ridden western in at least 4-5 years, maybe longer. But I figured I soaped and conditioned my western saddle and it seems to have a bit more wiggle room in the rear if you know what I mean, so why not give it a try?

Well I got there and Duck was only interested in eating grass. Can you say food monster?

So I was also doing back tracings to see if I WAS able to come by a good used saddle what size/tree width I would need. I have currently been looking at the Duett Companion Trail saddle. I am thinking this would be a good fit for all purpose and trail riding that I want to do.

Back to the back tracing. My theraflex was too thick and big to be able to put on my saddle and then get a tracing with the saddle on so I decided to do it with no pad. Saddle up, walk around let the saddle settle. That all went pretty well besides trying to keep her head out of the grass to get the tracing! LOL

Then I brought my western saddle and figured I'd ride in that for the day. So I drove Duck to the saddle in the back of my open van from her grazing spot in the field. No issues. Had her sniff it and the pad. No issues there either. So we saddled up and did some driving from zone 4 ish out in the hayfield and then to the arena with no problems (with the saddle that is)

After a few tightening I decided to try a circle game at the canter to see if she was truly ok with the saddle. Well I asked her to trot, no problem, then canter. WOW! She cantered about half a lap before taking off full speed ahead bucking! I could see then what was bothering her, the long straps on the back of the saddle I had put on when I originally bought it to tie on camping gear.

Well after a couple circle laps full blown ahead I backed myself into the arena wall so she would have to stop sometime while running crazy! It took several half laps and then she finally calmed down, licked and chewed and stood waiting (and sweating.)

I decided to try again with the circle and off she went again, this time I shut it down much quicker. So then I decided to just flap the straps on her butt while she stood there. She kept trying to come into me (thinking I was asking her to move) but soon got it and stood still much more relaxed. We played stick to me for a bit at the walk/trot and did some sideways and backing and then I decided it was safe to mount up for walk/trot.

She went pretty well in the saddle although she had pretty cranky ears (which could have been from the other horses in the arena.) It felt so different to me to ride western I was having a hard time trying to decide if I was on my balance point or not.

Duck was ridden western in Illinois when Brian rode her, I remember he rode her in Carol Coppinger's clinic western too. I think Jody rode her english. But she hasn't had a western saddle on since moving to NC a year and a half ago.

Long story short, I am glad I did the groundwork and preparation to make sure she was OK with the saddle BEFORE I got on and was able to fix the issue on the ground (although next time I need to match her energy more and much, much quicker in hindsight). But you bet I'll be extra vigilant in checking it out on the ground until I know 100% that she is ok with it! WHEW!

More zone 5, transitions and a demo (gulp!)

2009-03-22T14:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after an extremely long day that consisted of a 6 am run for 30 minutes, morning chores at the barn (walking horses out to pastures), going home for 45 minutes and cooking Niels lunch (he has been sick) and then back to the barn to hostess a b-day party and walk ponies around for an hour, and then afternoon chores (walking horses back into the barn) lets just say my legs were really, really tired! They ached. I almost went home. But then since I haven't played with Duck for 2 weeks I decided to buck up and play/ride!

We played in zone 5 with driving. It took me a lot longer than I was hoping to get us back in "sync." Or maybe it just felt that way to me! We grazed and drove our way to the arena. Played figure 8 around some cones outside the arena to which the first time Duck just pretty much gave me the finger and didn't want anything to do with it. So I switched sides and made it so she'd have to go up/down a little hill (and over grass) while figure 8'ing and increased the energy of the "send". That did it! And we got some good figure 8's on the 12ft line with the hill.

Then we went in the arena and I did a few things on the ground such as sideways over a pole, and then I just decided because she was so distracted (there were about 5 other horses in the arena jumping etc) that I would just have her stick to me a bit and we practiced hindquarter disengagement from the ground.

I mounted up and Duck is getting a little too good at going towards the mounting block. She wants to go over it while I am standing on it sometimes! The nice thing was that when I got on she stood quietly for a couple minutes. That is a good improvement over her needing to just move right then. In fact her energy overall was less than I expected for the amount of time she has spent inside with the rain and me not being able to go play because of sick kids etc.

Started where we left off last riding session. Doing downward transitions. This time since I was in the main arena I used some outside line jump standards as the visual markers. The first 4-5 times she still just wasn't getting it. But then after she became "gate sour" for a minute I put her on the cloverleaf pattern and she was stopping in the middle rather quickly. So we went back to the original exercise and then towards the end the last one we did was really nice! She stopped pretty much right at the standard just off my seat! Yeah! Mixed in with this was also upward transitions, including into 2-3 strides of the canter (which the first time I thought she was going to buck but she didn't) and then back down to a trot. I then did a few trot/walk transitions at the standards and ended there! I still can't get over her canter. It is just SO up and down I feel like she is going to toss me every time! More fluidity practice I guess!

Looks like on April 18th I am doing a Parelli Demo at our barn for the Parade of Barns. The Parade of Barns is a fundraiser for a theraputic riding center in Huntersville. Basically they are selling tickets and there are 10 or so barns locally that will have demo's, lessons, etc. Our barn will be doing the Parelli Demo, UNCC Equestrian team demo and a lesson demo as well as pony rides all day.

I didn't want to do this all by my lonesome so I recruited a Parelli friend that is very close to being done with level 3 to help me, and hopefully some other students at the barn that are familiar with Parelli will too. Should be fun stuff although I admit I am a nervous about talking in front of a possible crowd. (That would be my very introverted personality. LOL) GULP! So we are working together to come up with what to say/demonstrate so far!

This is the website if you are local or want to check it out -

Hinds' Feet Farm

Not much play

2009-03-17T05:30:00.000-07:00

Between the awful weather and sick kids I haven't been at the barn very much! Well scratch that. I've WORKED at the barn but haven't played much! I was bound and determined to play with Duck last Saturday though. It was pouring and 35 degrees. Originally I was just going to graze her but I decided to do some driving from zone 4 and grazing all around the hayfield. I am playing with lessening her thresholds around the property. She is very unconfident in new situations (clinics, trail rides, etc) so I am going to play as much as I can around the property in addition to the arena to see if I can increase her overall confidence in new situations! She did pretty good walked out rather quickly even in the pouring rain but I think that enthusiasm was more adrenaline and pent up energy from being cooped up in her stall for a few days. We went towards the road, and then towards the woods and WOW she still is scared to death of the area by the woods. We played squeeze game from well over 100ft away and it took several passes for her to go through slowly and confidently. Now I know what to play with later if this rain ever decides to clear up and my kids finally get better. As of yet they both still have fevers of 101 so I won't be going anywhere anytime soon. :(

Duck the escapee

2009-03-05T13:20:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I went to the barn to ride with the kids in tow (didn't work out so well) and the barn workers told me Duck had too much to eat. Come to find out she had escaped fro her turn out pen to graze in the hayfield. (hmm, not food motivated at all huh?) She was out for about 3 hours.

Today I went to the barn to clean as I usually do on Thursdays and my horse was in her pen. On my way out my horse wasn't in her pen! Yep out again! I guess it is because for some reason the fences aren't electrified right now and there are just 2 tapes that keep them in.

So in the picture you can kind of tell she is out. If you look to the back fence you can see how she got out! Thankfully she isn't a wanderer! I was hoping to get a picture of her in the hayfield but she moved closer to Kay by the time I got back from the house getting my camera!

As for the ride Wednesday we played a little at liberty (but I wasn't as prepared as I should have been ) then rode practicing downward transitions off my seat using cones as a visual marker. Duck was pretty distracted with the beagles running in the rabbit field! But we played with it to the right walk/halt and trot/halt. Next time we'll go left.

Duck is officially a Wuss!

2009-03-03T06:06:00.000-08:00

So all day Saturday and Sunday it was raining pretty hard and temps in the 30's. So the horses were all in their stalls. So I grazed Duck in the rain on Saturday so she could get some outside time (and played a little) and then Sunday when I was working the rain let up around 11:30 when I was leaving from the morning shift so I decided to kick her out until 3pm when I would be back to feed for the afternoon.

My horse is a WUSS! She has now been stalled for almost a year (usually only in bad weather) and now she can't even stand 2 hours of cold rain. YIKES! My horse from Illinois where it is -20 can't stand a cold NC rainstorm for 2 hours! She was shivering up a storm and extremely eager to get back into her stall! WOW! Well I am guessing that I WILL need a blanket after all just in case!

Too funny! The thought did cross my mind though that it may be the combination that she is already shedding her winter coat and she doesn't have much of a winter coat anyway. She was much, much fuzzier in Illinois.

We Cantered!

2009-02-23T10:45:00.001-08:00

I know, I know, it isn't really that exciting for most people but for Duck and I it is! We cantered! And it was nice (no inclination of bucking or ears back) for about 3 strides. We did lots of transitions and did 2-3 canter strides as part of them. We've had such an issue with her bucking, refusing to canter etc. I am pretty sure it is the shimming of the saddle.

Riding her canter is a different story! It is SO different from Kira. Her stride feels HUGE and it moves you very up and down! It is going to take me quite awhile to get used to it!

But I am happy! This is great progress for us!

I've also still been playing with the cloverleaf pattern, to which now she knows that "X" in the middle is for stopping so she stops without me asking. But we'll keep playing with it!

Cloverleaf

2009-02-20T06:38:00.000-08:00

Well on Tuesday Duck and I played with the cloverleaf pattern. We started at the walk and did a whole pattern to the left, and then she felt pretty good so we trotted. She caught on pretty quick! The first few long stretches across the arena I had to do a few corrections to keep her straight, but then after that she headed straight for the barrels I set up as markers. We had one spook in the far corner of the arena but to my own surprise I just was able to push and disengage her and then I restarted.

See I learned the "grip as hard as you can" to stay on, and this habit is dying hard.

What I was most impressed with is the fact that we DID trot the cloverleaf pattern both ways at the trot with hardly any breaks of gait. She was however trying to turn before the very end of the arena (which I need to be more consistent about correcting) but WOW! We were trotting, and she had happy ears almost the whole time! Yeah! I know it is a small thing, but this is the first time since I have had Duck that I have done enough trotting for me to (and her) to break a sweat.

I am attributing it to the following, or a combination of these things:

1) properly shimmed saddle. This is the first thing that comes to mind because this is the second time I have ridden her with the new shim arrangement. Last time she was happier for a little and then went sour and stopped.

2) Me having a very strong Focus (and a plan). I admit I kind of lack in the leadership department here! (Yeah for patterns!)

3) Duck is getting more confident under saddle with me

4) I didn't play nearly as long online. In fact just on my way to the arena. Preflight checks etc. This could have helped too, because sometimes she doesn't want to go because she is done energy wise...

Of course on Wednesday it POURED rain, so no riding, Thursday I was working at the barn (it is just awful to see her look at my van and keep driving past to go to work) and today I have been stuck at home with the painters doing our final repairs on the house. So off to the barn tomorrow and we'll do it all again!

More of the same + Buddy!

2009-02-14T18:54:00.000-08:00

Duck and I are just really still playing with the trailer etc. I have ridden once bareback since my last post but it wasn't for very long!

Duck doesn't have any issue walking right into the trailer now when there is grain in there! All the way. She is even getting more confident about me rattling the divider. The butt bar she is getting better but still has to come out occasionally.

On Friday we also played friendly game with the bike. Christian was kind enough to ride his bike around. Duck is deathly afraid of the bike. She is getting better but this one will definitely take some more time! At least she isn't going all the way to the end of the rope and pulling on me when he rides by now. Now it is just a couple steps!

Christian has recently been coming to the barn with me to play with Buddy the pony. He has really been enjoying his time with Buddy, and he is responding really well so far. The first day he was dragging Christian all over (he has a bit of a pulling people around to do what he wants which is usually grazing) but today (just 2 short sessions later) Christian can lead the food hungry monster through the grass with hardly any issues. On his back is a different story but I am sure that he'll get even more responsive! He seems to be enjoying his play time. Little LBE!

As a side note Christian took all the pictures of Duck and I on Friday that are posted. I thought he did pretty well!

Zone 5 Friendly Game & Trailer

2009-02-11T10:53:00.000-08:00

Today I had an hour. I knew I wouldn't have time to warm up and ride as well (It usually takes us a bit to be on the same page before we ride) so I got my 22 ft line and headed to the practice arena. I also took with me a bucket of the grain I bought for using in the trailer as a "bonus." I opnened Liz's 2 horse trailer put the grain in, then walked away back to the arena with Duck. She definitely was NOT expecting that! She was expecting "oh we are trailer loading again...". So we get back to the arena and it is warm but SUPER windy. The wind is just howling and there is a ton of noise at the compost pile from the huge machinery there plus the regular tractors around the farm.

Mind you it was so windy that Christian, who was with me ran straight to the lounge, he didn't want to be out in the wind.

So I've kind of been playing with leading by the tail but it hasn't been going super great. I decided that since with the trailer and our loading issues in zone 5 that I needed to be more friendly in zone 5.

So that is what I did. The 12 ft rope (22ft was attached to her halter) rubbed all over her legs, the stick and string all over zones 4 and five. Then I worked my way to doing the helicopter over my head with the string and she seemed to be getting used to it pretty well.

Then we did a few steps of lead by the tail a couple times. The second time she really seemed to be getting the hang of it and was much more confident. See, I have a plan! I want to be able to get her out of the trailer when I am back at zone 5 so there is my purpose, teach her to lead by the tail so she'll come out of the trailer.

Then I did some approach and retreat with the 12 ft rope around her hocks. She seemed fine with that so I decided to try to get her to yield to that. The first time she just shifted her weight so I released. The second time she didn't know exactly what to think when there was more pressure on the rope and she backed a couple steps but with her hocks pretty high each time. I couldn't tell if she just wasn't used to it or if she wanted to kick against the pressure. Guess I'll find out next time! I quit with that. I kept checking her tail to see how tight it was. Her tail seems to be quite tight each time I start playing with her, so I have been checking to see if it is loosened while/after we are done playing.

We ended in the arena with "touch it" from zone 3. Carol has told me to play with zone 5 driving so I am going to work my way back there!

We headed to the trailer next but I didn't ask her to go in right away. I was trying not to be so direct line about it although now she thinks I always want her to go in! So I had her put her nose on the trailer, go sideways around the trailer and truck, and then I decided to try something different (zone 5 stuff again.)

First I decided to have her go over the ramp (that isn't new) but then we yo-yo'ed across the ramp and then I back her off it. First just her back feet, then up to all four. And then the new zone 5 thing.

I asked her to put her hind feet on the trailer ramp first. At first she didn't want anything to do with it! I just tried to be persistent about it, approaching and retreating from the ramp and also reminding her when she didn't want to go backwards that she needs to yield to that pressure (while not near the trailer) (She has backed all the way up the ramp and into the big trailer one time) But this is a much smaller (2 horse straight load) trailer. But with the approach and retreat I got her back feet up there, first one foot, then 2. And I quit with that. And we got lots of licking and chewing!

Then I asked her into the trailer. Mind you by this time the wind is just blowing like crazy, and strong! I figured it would be great practice for her because it isn't always a perfect sunny day to get into a trailer right? She went all the way in first try which is definite improvement. Our issue is still the butt bar and zone 5. Last time I ended with rattling the butt bar and she still wasn't confident with it.

This time though I think with the grain in there she could have really cared less about the butt bar almost the whole time. I rattled, and put it up and down and rattled it some more. Definitely much better!

Only 1 time did she get unconfident enough that she had to come out (albeit it was quickly!). There was a HUGE gust of wind at the same time I was doing the rattling of the butt bar (plus there is a tarp and exercise ball at the front of the trailer) so that could have moved enough to spook her and she came out really fast! But she went back in just fine but not as far up as she had been so I just did the butt bar around her leg and rubbed there. Then it was time for me to go so we ended there!

Of course we had to have a couple minutes of grazing on the way back to her pen....

A bunch of stuff!

2009-02-09T10:16:00.000-08:00

Wow what a beautiful day today! Duck was happy to see me. Yesterday I let her graze a bunch and she was happy about that.

So I am trying to get my shims all arranged better. Lets just say that to say the least my saddle is too narrow, and too small for my post kid bottom. :) But beings how a new fusion isn't in the budget (or even a wintec for that matter) I am donig the best I can with what I have. But I had to buy more shims which arrived on Saturday.

After looking at the instructions I decided to try a wedge shim with 2 thick shims. Duck doesn't have a high wither, isn't really downhill etc, but my saddle has got to be too narrow. Besides the fact that it puts me right on my frontside like close contact/jumping saddles tend to do anyway. I just could NOT get on my balance point consistently. What a difference today though! I actually felt much more secure and Duck seemed quite a bit happier trotting around. Her ears weren't back near as much and she was doing pretty well maintaining gait (until she saw grass!)

We just did follow the rail and some transitions today. I'm not sure if she's getting bored with it or not, but our downward transitions are still not that great. I am having to use my reins too much. I need to her stop more from my seat. I will keep playing with it!

Before I rode though we played on the 22ft line. Today I decided to try trotting sideways on the 22ft (with the fence). She did it, with slack in the line every time but really nasty ears too. Both directions same story. But she was being very responsive with slack in the line so I figured I'd try a little liberty.

So I took off her halter (this is in the big practice ring) and we played "stick to me." Our stick to me is getting pretty decent at the walk and trot on a good day. She still gets crabby ears though while trotting. Well we did the weave, a figure 8, went through a lane and then back out, and backed her through 2 upright barrels all at liberty! I only lost her once when she went ahead of me while trotting and she didn't even go that far just her behind had passed me when I was able to turn her around!

This was great considering that we haven't done liberty in quite awhile and when we did it wasn't great so I just left it alone for awhile.

It was a great session on a beautiful day!

Movie Night and Play Day!

2009-02-08T17:38:00.000-08:00

Friday I hosted a Parelli movie night. It was so much fun! I love getting to know people that also share my passion for Parelli and horses. I had a good turn out including quite a few people that I hadn't ever met which was great! We enjoyed some good food (my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies ended up being the favorite), watched the latest savvy club DVD and talked. Mostly we talked! It was just great to get to know some fellow savvy horse people! And I am going to try and keep it going more often than once every 6 months!

Then Saturday we did a playdate at our barn. There are 4 other Parelli students at Sundance now besides myself! Yeah! I am not the lone orange stick anymore! It is great to have like minded people around! I set up a weave pattern, figure 8, tarp, jumps, ground poles, and even the blue exercise ball. Liz even hooked up her trailer for trailer loading practice! (Duck and I need all the practice we can get!)

Christian and Aricin even came over and played with Buddy the pony for awhile! And then Christian came back again to play with Buddy! He like leading him over "jumps" (ground poles)

Buddy is one smart pony. Catches on quite quickly and seemed to be enjoying mostly everything except when I interrupted his pattern of dragging Christian on the end of the leadrope. But he is smart and catching on quickly!

Duck and I need to play more with the tarp! And bikes. I need to have my kids come ride their bikes so Duck and I can follow them. She is quite scared of the bikes, and tarps! In Illinois I remember doing quite a bit with the tarp, but either it's been too long or I didn't do as much as I remember. Anyway it gives me another thing to play with as Liz left her gigantic tarp in her trailer for me to use! :) I want to get her comfortable enough to wear the tarp confidently. Another goal!

It was so much fun and hopefully I'll be able to meet up again with people this week.

What an awesome weekend! And next time I'll try and remember to take some pictures but this time I was way too busy either helping people or my kids, or doing stuff with Duck!

Riding in the Chaos!

2009-02-01T16:31:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I went to the barn to play and ride with Duck. There were SO many people there! I've hardly ever seen that many people there at once, especially in the winter. It was kind of chilly and very windy too!

I saddled up Duck. I've been playing with her shims some, trying to adjust etc to see if I can get on my balance point better. Well today she was somewhat happier. She had happy ears at the trot probably 75% of the time which was great!

We actually started in the round corral and on a whim I decided to do some liberty. I turned her loose and we did a couple figure 8's at liberty. I then put the barrels down trying to get her to squeeze over them, but it was more of a lazy crash through! :)

Then off to the arena. It was pretty crowded. There were 2 trainers both with lessons going on, and then a couple girls that own horses riding, and their friends on the ground as well. Of course the practice arena was empty. I chose this arena just for that reason. See, it very rarely there is anyone else in the arena when I ride/play, at the most 1-2 others and that is only occasionally.

Duck has a rather large personal "bubble." So I wanted to see if she is getting any better with the other horses and help desensitize her to the groups. We were playing follow the rail and a million transitions. Of course as usual when there are distractions she ignores me, so I was really trying to be particular and effective in getting a downward transition. Towards the end she was listening much better to my body language.

For the most part she didn't have big issues with the horses in the ring. One of the trainers was eating her lunch while teaching and had a bowl of something. Duck kept trying to stop and take me over there to see if it was something for her!

And that was it, about an hour just riding up and downward transitions just to the trot.

I'm so excited though because I get to go to a playday on Feb 28th! And a 4 day level 2/3 camp in June with Carol Coppinger at her place in Tennessee. I'm so excited! I haven't done a clinic or anything "Parelli" with a group (minus a couple trail rides) for almost 2 years now.

Now I REALLY need to get Duck confident with the trailer!

Did I mention how excited I am for the playday and the camp!!! :)

More Practice, but is it perfect practice?

2009-01-24T13:01:00.000-08:00

We've been playing with the trailer a lot. Also playing with the pattern "follow the rail" a lot. I've spent quite a few sessions on both of these areas including today. Which leads me to the question am I following the "practice is only practice, only perfect practice makes progress" idea. I've been playing with the trailer as often as I have time for (which I guess hasn't been super consistent) and Duck is still not confident with it. And our follow the rail too. We are doing better but it is certainly far from perfect. We still have issues just trotting, let alone cantering.

After my fun trail ride on my birthday Duck obviously had some issues with it. Many thresholds were crossed for both of us. Both times I went out after that to play with her I had major issues. I tried to ride and she wouldn't do anything! She was extremely dominant and was trying to leave the arena to eat grass! I tried to get off and fix it on the ground, thought it was better and then tried again. No dice. She was still really acting up. So I quit on a good note on the ground and left it. The same thing happened again the next time I went out to ride but not as bad. Then we had a major cold snap and I had a major lack of time. So I didn't even bother to try and ride. So I've just been grazing her a little at a time when I have time which of course she enjoys.

So today finally I had time to play and ride and it feels like we're making some progress but is it good enough quality? Yeah, that I am not sure of.

Here is the other couple things. There are horses in the paddock that shares a fence with the arena. Duck has issues with other horses. Today she lunged at the one while I was riding. The other horses were acting totally friendly but Duck just has her hers flat back going at them for what looks like no apparent reason. This also happened at the first and only clinic I took Duck to in Illinois. She was very defensive of her space. I am still not sure if it is dominance or she is scared of them.

We had fun today. I was riding bareback and in the halter and we got a really nice sideways a few times. There was a triple jump combination up and and took her to the jump then side passed to the left, then got in between the next two jumps and side passed to the right, and then once more to the left. That was one of the best sideways we've had, it felt so light!

It was a good horsey day even if it was raining on us!

Birthday Trail Ride!!

2009-01-04T09:59:00.001-08:00

I haven't been on a trail ride since August. I had been waiting for Duck's boots to come in (she had very sore feet) and then to have a weekend off from work, then trying to find someone with a trailer that wanted to go! I worked every weekend but the 13-14th in December (for which I was grateful for the extra hours), had family in town (yeah, and see my other blog for details) and then all the other stuff that comes along with the holidays so when an opportunity to go trail riding came up I jumped on the chance! So for my Birthday which was last Wednesday another boarder at our barn, Liz and I went for a trail ride at Cane Creek State Park which is about a little more than an hour from the barn.

First off excuse the lack of pictures. I took both of these right when we got there and then of course my camera died. It is probably better anyway because I don't think I would have been able to take many pictures anyway. Why? It was REALLY windy, and Duck hasn't ever been on a trail ride in the wind. Let's just say there were a lot of horse eating plastic, deer, etc that made me wish I had saddled her western instead of english! It was very fun though and good exposure for both Duck and I. So below is Liz and her cute boy Eli, and then one I took of Duck (obviously too close).

Liz has a 2 horse straight load trailer which Duck did pretty well with. I went to the barn early to practice loading. We are getting there on the trailer loading. Duck is always worse on the way back, it was about 45 min to load on the way back, but now I know more what to work on. The Butt bar near her rump seems to be an issue so I will be playing more with that. On the flip side though she did really, really well getting out of the trailer. She backed slowly out only when asked.

What beautiful trails! The trails at this state park go all around Cane Creek Reservoir which is beautiful. We even stopped for lunch at a picnic area overlooking the reservoir. So many wonderful trees, and the trails are very easy. The first time we went past the reservoir Duck didn't want anything to do with it. The second time we stopped at the reservoir she stepped into the water (a little too far for my comfort) got a big drink and really tried out those new boots! Of course it was very muddy and they stayed put! I was happy about that!

I need to play more with plastic flapping around her. I thought I had done ok on that one but most of what she really spooked at was plastic flapping. One was an orange plastic barrier, another a garbage can liner. The other 2 things she really spooked at were deer running that we couldn't see while we were between a chain link fence and a bunch of trees and my favorite, out on the parking lot we crossed some dead leaves when flying towards us and for a minute I thought I was a goner! LOL. I kept telling Duck that she couldn't pitch me on my birthday!

All in all it was a wonderful trail ride with great company. We even stopped at the Waxhaw Tack exchange on the way back. I couldn't of asked for a better birthday because when I got home Niels had gotten an ice cream cake, we did presents and then Niels and I went out to dinner. Top that off with a few phone calls wishing me happy birthday from family and friends and it was a great day, even if I did turn the big 3-0!

Poor Duck!

2008-12-20T13:31:00.000-08:00

Ok I feel really guilty now. Duck and her bad attitude on the weave pattern and me trying to fix it came to bite me in the behind. While playing weave Duck was really crabby. Obstacles didn't seem to make a difference in her attitude, and sending her more snappy definitely made it worse. So I was trying another tactic, the "don't give me that attitude" with a phase 4 attached (with the lead rope). Anyway so after about 3 bumps she is getting a little better. Well I send her again and she puts her head down and ears back as flat as they will go. So I wind up my arm to do a phase 4, let it rip, and WHAMO the buckle hits her right in the eye! I thought I blinded my horse! She backed up about 10 feet and then stood dazed. I immediately went to pet her and check her out. She is holding her eye shut. She then opened it and I couldn't see any damage. Then I look and whew, it looks like it hit her the worst right under the eye. It left a small cut and was bleeding a little. That was a first for me (and hopefully a last). Who knew the leadrope could be that deadly?

The poor girl when we were all done she was eating a cookie in her corral (with electric fence) and she started leaning on the electric wire. I thought for a second the wire was off cause she leaned into it for awhile. Then SHOCK, and she took off quick! Poor girl!

Anyway other than our mishap the session went fairly well. She really is sticking to the rail quite well. She has been a bit rushy at the trot still and I am not sure if it is the way I am riding or her confidence or both? Time will tell. We did follow the rail at the walk, trot, with turns etc. She doesn't break gait although the whole time she felt like she was going to break into a canter.

On the ground we went first to the large trailer (the small one was at a show). I was trying to move the divider on the left side when she loaded herself on the right! And she only backed out after a minute or so! Then when I asked her in the second time she went straight in and stayed there nosing around calmly until I asked her out! Yeah!

We did a figure 8 on the 12 ft line around 2 picnic benches (and it was near a little hill too) for which I didn't get hardly any crabby ears. Then we went to the arena to do the weave (with obstacles) and got the major crabby ears. I need to pull out the liberty and horse behavior and review some of the sections.

All in all a a good hour and a half today. All because I went in early to work my barn shift so I wouldn't get done at 12. Instead we were done at 10:30 which was really nice so I had a little time to play after. I actually like going in early when there is all those stalls to do. It just feels better, like I've gotten more accomplished if I get done earlier! The barn got a beautiful gray horse in. He is the cutest thing. I think I will always have a soft spot for gray horses since my first horse, Rose N' Gray was a little gray arab. This guy is an absolutely gorgeous dappled gray. And it looks like he's gaited too. I always love to see beautiful horses!

With it being so close to Christmas who knows when I will be able to ride/play next. We are going to be doing holiday stuff I am sure!

Trailering play and more patterns

2008-12-18T08:00:00.000-08:00

Ok it has been foggy/misty/raining here since Sunday! YUCK! So it is REALLY muddy at the barn. I haven't been able to do too much because the footing is pretty slick but we did play with the trailer the other day. She will stay in for a bit and then come out. As long as the divider is to the side on the 2 horse. So progress! When it gets nicer I will try the bigger trailer again. One reason I don't like ramps is they are slick. Especially when wet!

I got Duck out yesterday and I didn't want to go in her really muddy pen to get her so I decided to let her out. The last few times she's followed me. Not today! She made a beeline for the grass (the opposite direction I wanted her to go). I was actually worried I wouldn't be able to catch her! LOL But she did let me catch her and I let her graze for awhile. We played some sideways and backing up. Then with the bareback pad I hopped on (from the back of my van) and we played follow the rail along the pasture fences all the way to the arena. I did trot her in the arena and she is getting the hang of it for the most part. The grass was an issue again though. When near the grass when we were on the outside of the arena she kept leaving the rail to go to the grass. I didn't want to fight with her about it but I ended up doing just that and making her stick to the fence line. hmm, I wonder how I can do that better so she doesn't feel so wrong about it?

And PS Kris, I DON'T have a lot of time to ride mainly. The only time I DO have is when both kids are at school! LOL. I've been trying to do stuff with my horse in shorter bursts (less than 1 hr) which is hard. And remember, I didn't ride for about 4 years with my 2 kids so you are WAY ahead of me in that you still even get a lesson once a week! I could only dream! They gave away free lessons in the drawing for our barn Christmas party. I was hoping I would get one! Nope, got a hat. :) Oh well guess it wasn't meant to be!

Patterns...

2008-12-16T05:27:00.000-08:00

So we've been playing with the figure 8 and weave patterns but with one little glitch. Duck hates it! She pins her ears, swishes her tail and has a majorly bad attitude. I wrote to Carol to ask what to do and basically she wrote back and told me this is where you experiment. Obstacles in the weave or more snappy departures. I went for the obstacles since she seems to get less confident when I do the snappy departures. She still had a bad attitude but after she was done she sighed, blew a lot and licked an chewed. We'll see how it is next time.

We also did a little with the trailer again. I don't have time to do a trailer loading marathon so we have been doing a little here and there. Yesterday we went to the 2 horse trailer and the divider was pushed off to one side. I had her touch the trailer and walk across the ramp a couple times. After that I asked her to load once to see what she would do. She went 3/4 the way in and stood there a good minute before I asked her out. I also tried rattling stuff around to see if it still bothers her. So far it is getting better. We ended our trailering time with that.

I rode just for a little while bareback follow the rail again. Last time she pretty much had the hang of the walk, so I decided to trot. We got maybe 5 steps in each direction before breaking gait. But yesterday when I asked her to trot first to the left she trotted off and we pretty much did a whole lap with only 1 correction to stay on the rail and not breaking gait! So we stopped in the middle for a bit then did the other side. She was a bit more rushy the other way but the last 1/4 she relaxed so I brought her into the center and quit.

We also did a little bit of liberty in the big practice arena. This was right after the weave pattern which goes to show what she thinks of it when I let her go she went straight to the gate and I didn't think I'd be able to draw her away. Well I tried and thankfully I was wrong it took a minute but she did stick to me and we trotted, walked, backed up, sent her over a small crossrail (the first time she didn't go) etc. I'm just happy that she generally stays with me now at liberty! It's getting better!

Follow the Rail & Liberty

2008-12-10T08:26:00.000-08:00

Ok so I was just planning on spending an hour with Duck today. I've got Christmas cards to mail you know, but I ended up being there for 2 because I was having so much fun! We started on the ground and the big trailer was open so I figured I'd try and squeeze her over the ramp. This trailer has 2 ramps, and one of them is pretty narrow and steep. Anyway today was the first time that she has showed any curiosity in the trailer. She was mouthing the butt bars and rubbed on them without spooking. In the past when she's done anything like that she gets scared when it moves and she will spook. Not today. Really it must not be about the trailer because I haven't been practicing this much, just a little here and there. Over the ramp a couple times and done with it. At one point I thought she was just going to load herself and she didn't look like if I did ask her to go in that she would be near as bracey about it. YEAH!

On to the big arena to play follow the rail. The walk went well even with her not stopping in her favorite corner or at the gate today. We tried some turns both with the reins and then w/ the carrot stick. I think she's getting the hang of it so I decided to trot. Of course she doesn't maintain gait very well and she kept acting like she wanted to roll. Dragging her nose on the ground etc. Well we got about half an arena lap of trot before I quit. I went to the middle and took off her saddle and then her halter. Might I add that I tied the gate shut with the lead rope because she likes to rub on it to open it! I wasn't expecting her to stick to me in the big arena much. Actually I had taken everything off her just to let her roll. She didn't but we had a great time just playing at liberty! A little of everything. I even got a couple steps of sideways without her running off! She is sticking to me pretty well including about one side of the arena at a canter! She left me a few times but I was able to get her to come back (even if it was slowly). We even did squeeze over some poles and crossrails. What was really cool is I went to send her over the barrels and she didn't do it. Then I was already on the other side so I asked her to come and then she jumped them! Even turned and faced and did it back the other way! It was so much fun!

After that I saddled her up and we rode following the outside rail of the arena/fence back to her paddock. She didn't get it at first but then she did.

I have also been working with trying to get more respect in regards to grazing. She was getting pretty dominant dragging me to the grass etc. I have been playing with just giving her a cue to eat and not letting her eat any other time. So far it is greatly improved! Yeah!

The best picture ever!

2008-12-07T18:08:00.000-08:00

My sister just emailed me this picture and I have to share it. This is the best picture because it has Kira, my mustang, my sister, who is also the best ever and her baby, Ayden!

I LOVE this picture because it has so many things I LOVE in it! Just look how CUTE!!!! LOVE IT!!! And wow, Kira still even has the same halter!

We passed Level 2!!!!!!!!!

2008-12-05T05:41:00.000-08:00

Ok here it is! Our 7 games in 7 minutes at Liberty that I sent in that passed us off for level 2! I am SO happy right now! Carol Coppinger called me yesterday with the good news! We just had this task and the transitions on the circling game left (which I also sent in) since Kira went back to Utah almost 2 years ago. So it has been forever, me trying to get Duck to even close the level Kira and I were at. I know this video isn't the greatest resolution but I couldn't get the file small enough any other way. (I need more computer savvy!)

We also got a stick to me at a canter! Not on the video but it still was way cool!

Carol even noted what a complicated dominant mare I have...

Hmmm, what did I get myself into?

Just kidding I really love Duck and we've come a long way already. Someday when I have a bit of time I will have to post our liberty video that I sent Carol for help in September, then you'd really see the improvement! I know I did!

What did I really learn through all this? It's not about the .... level!

Even Carol said all her students were going right-brained trying to get everything done before the switch over of the assessments to the new audition process January 1st.

Anyway a simple 7 games but fun stuff. Liberty has always been one of the things that has me totally enthralled and when it goes well it is one of the best feelings ever!

Moving on to one of my next goals that I have had forever (like since I was 12) to ride bridle-less. Ambitious, yep! I know we are nowhere near that but I am looking forward to the process!

Of course we will still be playing in level 2 for awhile but it still feels good to say I am a level 3 student now...

Random sessions

2008-11-13T11:50:00.001-08:00

As per Carol Coppinger's instructions we've been focusing on games 1, 2, and 3. The basics. We've also been doing "touch it" a lot. Especially with the trailer, and the ramp of the trailer. The first time we did it for the trailer and then moved onto something else, Duck spent the next 5 minutes just blowing and blowing. I didn't realize HOW stressed she was even near the trailer. I haven't ridden much lately. Just yesterday, and we mostly played "touch it" while mounted, including the trailer. There was a show at the barn on Saturday so I brought Duck out for 1/2 hour to watch, graze and take in the chaos. She was a bit "up" heading down to the arena, but quickly settled right down. The loudspeaker didn't even seem to bother her, even when going closer.

I also bought an electric massager. That was fun the first day. Now she's way used to it even in her ears. Which is good. I will have to find someone w/ a real set of clippers to get her used to the louder buzzing!

The grass is an issue right now. She wants to graze, and I want to play. She is pulling on me a bit to get to the grass and I usually end up playing "hide your hiney." which seems to work.

All in all going well. But my hopes for finishing level 2 before the changeover is pretty much dashed. Oh well more practice I guess!

Jousting Tournament

2008-11-03T13:40:00.000-08:00

Ok this just looks like so much fun! See my family blog for the rest of the scoop on this fun event!

Some pictures

2008-10-30T04:55:00.001-07:00

So I went to the barn yesterday all ready to play with Duck and she wasn't in her stall or paddock. So I went to the main barn to see where she was. I found her standing in a stall. It was her turn next for the vet. Time for shots and to have her teeth checked. When she saw me she started nickering and looked a bit nervous. Like "Where have you been? I've been sitting here at the MAIN barn all alone!" She only had to have one shot and I had dewormer for her. By the time the vet was done I didn't have enough time to do too much so I turned her loose in the round corral to get some pictures!

Duck enjoying a good roll. This is the first time I have seen her roll when turned loose in an arena at this barn. A good sign she is becoming more confident with her surroundings!
Trotting around. She was feeling frisky and kicked out at me as I tried to get her to trot.
Getting grass through the fence. Duck LOVES her grass!
Head shot. Doesn't she have such a cute face?
Standing there looking. She was a great poser yesterday! Followed by her vet appointment we came back at 4pm to have her feet done and get her new boots! They finally came in, yeah! I will post a pic of of them later!

Exuberance!

2008-10-20T10:29:00.001-07:00

Wow! Today I was running tons of errands so I only ended up with a 1/2 hour to play with Duck. I was originally going to go down to the arena because when I play with her near the grass usually it becomes a grass war! But today was different. We are still playing with the circling game and gait purity. Today in the grass she trotted 4 circles without stopping once for grass (or any other reason)! Last time we played I just kept asking her politely to go when she would stop for grass but it didn't seem to successful at the time!

Then when I went to send her to the right I pointed my finger and she left, fast! At a canter and held the canter for 2 laps! I decided not to try and slow her down because she seemed happy! She bucked on the line and just had that early morning frisky horse thing going on. Was it the weather? I don't know but in the past when I have asked for a canter she'll do it but not without literally dragging me on the end of the 22ft line. Not today. There was just a bit of slack in the line and she wasn't pulling on me at all! A first for us. Now is that more confidence or just a fluke? Time will tell. Of course right now everything else we've done is broken but our circle is decent now. Now if I can just add in the transitions. Talk about time pressure. 2 tasks and basically 2 months. That shouldn't be that big of a deal but it still feels like a mountain to cross. Here's to trying but if it doesn't happen we won't be any worse off we'll just learn even more hopefully by submitting the new way come January. It is my own ego I think. I just want to pass level 2 because everyone else has! :)

My Behind Almost Hit the Ground!!!

2008-10-10T08:13:00.000-07:00

Yep that's right. I ALMOST fell off, big time! Rewind here a minute and I will tell the whole story. So I went to the barn Wednesday to ride and since I still haven't oiled my saddle (it's sitting at home waiting patiently :) ) I put my bareback pad on to ride. In the mornings at the barn there is generally not too much going on rider wise. The kids are in school, most the adults are working. Just the staff is usually there feeding etc. So I went to ride in the practice arena. If you look at my previous post about riding in there and mirroring the far end of the arena is Duck's most unconfident place. Ok having said that we played on the ground for awhile mostly fun stuff like practicing leading from the mane etc. This day when I got up on the fence I didn't even ask her over yet and she lined up sideways perfectly for me to get on. I still need help getting on, I can't do it anymore from the ground but that is another story. So we went riding off and mind you the last time I rode her in this arena was when we did the mirroring. Well I felt like I was on a DIFFERENT horse. I mean seriously. She was calm, her whole body was relaxed and I felt more in tune with her than almost any other time.

Then this!!! We are riding around in the bareback pad, in our halter with the savvy string for a rein having a dandy time just walking. So another boarder that I talk to comes up with another guy. He is coming to look at this truck parked next to the "scary" end of the arena. I am chatting away and he starts the truck. Duck is totally fine. No tension, nothing in fact she's just trying to get nibs of grass. And then suddenly the guy completely floors the gas pedal for this already loud Diesel engine (which Duck is still fine) and then in a split second the engine sputters out and then WHAM! It ROARS back to life and Duck totally spooks! She took off so fast I was almost off her the first stride. I'm not sure if she was hopping but I remember looking down to my left (the side I would have fallen off of) just ready to let go and fall when she suddenly stopped. If she had gone one more step I'd of been off! I quickly righted myself and of course NOW she is tense. So we spent the next few minutes walking within her comfort zone of this engine (which instead of 3 feet is now 12 feet). UGH!

I guess I was just stupid for having her that close to it in the first place. The guy obviously knew NOTHING about horses and apologized as did the boarder.

See with Kira I would have never been that close to an engine, period. She was scared to death of them. Sure she got used to most but as loud as that engine was I don't think she'd of gone near it in the first place!

So then our confidence is shattered, again.. I decided not to ride her back to her barn. Good thing too. She was still on some adrenaline because barn staff sent her flying again when he came ripping around a corner from the hayshed at full tilt. Good thing I was on the ground. And hopefully this isn't going to be a new hurdle with now "scary" engine noises or even just that end of the arena, again! I will soon find out when I ride again!

Into the woods, again...

2008-10-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday I took Tarzan (our dog) to the barn with me. Beings how he is not the sharpest tool in the shed I decided just to hang out near the little barn where Duck lives. This is also near the hayfield. So we were playing in the hayfield with Tarzan tagging along. We did some more mini circles, bigger circles and now I have a new problem. She always thinks I am sending her on the circle so her confidence in just backing up is not there! So we played with that awhile! Then we went towards the woods with me driving in Zone 3. Duck has become much more confident around the property. I decided to see if she would go back into the "dark and scary" woods again. If you read some of my previous posts we have played towards going in there before. Well she didn't seem very bothered by it this time and was quite confident so we headed into the woods driving (as much as possible on a narrow trail with lots of trees) from zone 3. Then we got to a little ditch and I decided to send her across it. It is more like a ditch with a little water in it and has kind of short but steep sides. Got her going pretty well doing that and it crossed my mind it would be really easy to jump up on her while she was in that ditch! So I got her standing confidently in the ditch and then jumped on! We were headed out of the woods anyway and she did really great! She didn't seem spooked at all and it was a drastic change from the last time we were in the woods! We moseyed our way through the hayfield, bareback with the halter and one rein all the way back to the barn! Very fun! And either the exercises we did building her confidence near that area have paid off or the fun trail rides have. Or maybe a combination of the two. I am just happy that she was more confident about it. We were alone (minus the dog) and it was a huge accomplishment for us!

Mirroring while following the rail

2008-09-29T17:35:00.000-07:00

Today we played with some of the same stuff as yesterday. Trying to work with sideways towards the fence for mounting. This didn't seem to go as well today as yesterday. Not sure why. I will try again next time. Also did the figure eight around the barrels online. Did about 6 or more times. On the 6th one Duck did it herself with not as much as a crabby look on her face so I stopped. We then reviewed lead by the mane in the big arena. She didn't want to slow down once I got her moving! By the end I did get a couple steps of backup and her to lead forward one time without having to use the stick for support so I quit there.

Then I rode bareback with just the savvy string. I decided to try mirroring while doing a follow the rail around the arena at the walk. I think we did this about 20 times! I don't know but it was forever long! She was very unconfident to begin with, always looking outside the arena, even bending her whole body away from it. Also in the far corner she was very high headed and even a bit spooky. I decided just to mirror this as well. It worked! After all those laps around (minus the couple times she totally turned around) she really started getting more relaxed. Even in the far corner to the point that she didn't hardly look out of the arena down there. I know that I tend to be either not enough or too much energy while playing with Duck in general. Today I while mirroring I focused on being aware of how much energy I was using to match hers. I found that most of the time when she was bringing her energy up I still wasn't up enough to match her. So I played with this and then got it as equal as possible.

It was funny at the end of the session Duck offered me a sideways to the fence to unlatch the gate! I obliged and unlocked it from on top of her (a first) and we backed out of the arena and then grazed our way back to her pasture bareback with just the savvy string! It was pretty cool because I have only recently felt confident enough to ride her out and about alone and she was so different this time, like the exercise really made her more confident.

Fun stuff!

Mini Circles and the Kiddie Pool

2008-09-28T14:08:00.001-07:00

So my goal is to try and pass level 2 before they change everything over in January. I've been stuck in a rut for awhile and so when I went to Savvy Conference I took a DVD for Carol Coppinger (Parelli 5* instructor) to view and give me some feedback! I've had the same 2 tasks to finish since Kira left to go back to Utah over a year ago. Transitions online and 7 games in 7 minutes at liberty.

So Carol called me the other day and lets just say I was overwhelmed with life in general and this was just one more thing I wasn't doing "right" although she told me NOT to call it right or wrong! Anyway as I already knew Duck is unconfident on the circle to which Carol asked me how she was on the "mini" circle which is just 3 ft of rope. I told her I hadn't played with that with Duck, she was already doing the circling game way before I got or even played with her. So she told me to play with the mini circle and work our way up to the 22 ft line.

So here is what I found. Ah, she had NO clue at all what I was asking her at first! It took me one 40 minute session that first time to get her to walk ONE lap on the mini circle. Ok major BFO (blinding flash of the obvious!). How had I missed this? Of course it would make perfect sense to start back at the very basic mini circle to gain her confidence on the circle. It was very obvious that she didn't know what I was asking.

So over the last couple of sessions we have been playing with the mini circle and now we can get 2-3 circles at the trot! I decided yesterday to give the 12 ft line a try. We were able to get 4 laps at a trot at which I stopped!

We also played with a blow up kiddie pool that had Duck snorting and fleeing in all directions! This thing is just a 3 foot transparent blue kiddie pool that was supposed to be used as a liverpool for the barn show but wasn't. Well no one has moved it and it has been sitting outside the edge of the round corral for the last week. Well on one of my sessions with Duck she finally SAW it and about came unglued! Actually I don't know if she so much saw it has heard the sound of sand hit it from going around near it. In any case I have hardly seen her spook with such a right brain reaction so strongly! She did a half rear, jump, run and snort! WOW! So I have been playing approach and retreat with this pool for 2-3 sessions now trying to build her confidence. Yesterday she still had a pretty good spook by it but then was getting to where she would pass it without freaking out. She still will not put her feet on it, although she has touched it with her nose. So it has been a process and probably will continue to be.

I also received my savvy club DVD so played with those ideas a little bit. Leading by the mane and sideways to the fence (which we have done some of before). I just did more of it to help build her confidence. I was sitting on the top rail of the round corral (which is about 6 feet high) and I swear she was going to knock me off there every time she got her head near me! Sneaky or itchy I'm not sure!

So that is my update, I am still playing with the circling. Liberty will be next but we need to work on draw. Now if I could just figure out the basics on that....

More highlights of Savvy Conference

2008-09-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

Playing with Barnum and Bailey, the minis with A Hug and A Kiss (the 2 big paints) in the background. Then Amie with Nova and her baby Cassanova. Next is Linda on Remmer taking her dressage lesson from Walter Zeitel. He was such a funny guy and and inspiring to watch as a teacher! WOW! Then there is a picture of Kalley that works at the Atwood Ranch. She is riding one horse and playing with 4 Atwood colts at LIBERTY at one time! She is just phenomenal! I have a distinct lack of words to describe her talent! The last picture is of Amie again (Pat's niece) and Emily Thompson (who both her parents are Parelli instructors) doing their show which they only had 20 minutes to prepare for. It was so cool we didn't find out until after it that they hadn't rehearsed before. I would have never known! Then Pat came out and gave them both their black (level 4) strings. They deserved it, what an awesome pair! I hope to be getting my black string someday (as far off as it may be!)

Savvy Conference Continued!

2008-09-12T18:52:00.001-07:00

Pat riding Vision (I think), Thunder and Lightning the draft pair, Amie (Pat's niece) Driving Zeus, One of the instuctors (Lindsay I think) riding Cocomo Joe the mule, and then Linda giving a demo of Left Brain Introverts and Left Brain Extroverts at Liberty with both her horses Remmer and Allure

SAVVY CONFERENCE!!!!!!

2008-09-12T16:54:00.001-07:00

Savvy Conference!!! Yeah! I was SO excited to go to Pagosa Springs, Colorado to the home of the heart of the Parelli Program and go to this 3 day Conference. What could be better than 3 days all horses with good friends and great views? Here are some pictures of us. Me and my sister at our cabin. We stayed at Hartland Ranch, which was about 10 miles from the Parelli Center. Very beautiful cabins that make my house look cheap! Then there is the picture of Shay, Tracy, Kris and Jessica all part of our conference gang. This picture was taken at the Parelli Center.

There is a picture of the kitchen of the cabin, it was so pretty! And the bed is the bedroom Kris and I shared. Poor Kris she had to listen to me cough (I had bronchitis while I was on the trip and am still recovering now) the whole time!

And then there is this cute picture of Jessica and Tracy at the cabin sitting at the table.

Weave pattern

2008-08-26T17:12:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-08-16T15:50:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-15T08:18:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-10T12:24:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-10T11:05:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2008-08-06T11:37:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-08-05T19:56:00.001-07:00

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!

Another buddy!

2008-07-31T09:25:00.000-07:00

Ok so today it was still HOT! We didn't play too much on the ground today. The big arena was open (they took all the lesson kids to a cross country course today) so I jumped at the chance to ride in there. I haven't ridden in the big arena in several weeks, maybe even before the end of June! I decided to use the bareback pad today and for our warm up on the ground I squeezed Duck over some of the small jumps and ground poles and the like.

I decided to try and get on without a mounting block bareback! Well I USED to be able to do this with ease, and could still do it with my 13.1hh mustang, but not with Duck! She was quite patient while I tried bellyup jump, swinging up from the side, to no avail. I decided to get on an upright barrel as a mounting block. This went well, a lot better than last time. Last time she wasn't sure about me being all the way up there. And while today she wasn't 100% you could tell she was much better with it than last time!

Today I was still focusing on getting turns using my body and not so much rein. The walk is still going well. Trotting is another issue. Although today I did get a few decent turns I was still having to resort to using the reins (and too strongly for that matter) so we went back to the walk.

When trotting though we were headed toward the far end of the arena (closest to her barn) to the patch of grass. I had played point to point the last few times I was in this arena. Duck remembered. She offered a nice canter, it was about 8 strides to the grass patch. But it felt so much better than yesterday's. More balanced and she wasn't thinking about bucking me off! Yeah!

So we did some grazing and a couple times transitioning into the canter along with sidepassing over ground poles and backing between 2 poles and also a little bit of figure 8 around the barrel (tried the trot again it was better).

There is another lady at our barn that is studing level 1 as well as Clinton Anderson! Yeah! I am happy about that! She even said she had loaned her level 1 to the trainer for the kids to watch. Very cool! I am just happy that some other people KNOW what Parelli is!

We ended our session by riding back to Duck's stall with our new riding buddy! Yeah!

Improvement

2008-07-30T09:26:00.000-07:00

Duck was in her stall again for the day since it is supposed to be very hot AGAIN! I got her out and went to play a little with this month's savvy club DVD concept of the ropes on the feet. It wasn't soft but we did make some progress on both the front and the hind. This served 2 purposes for me, to practice and make it better and also to get Duck ready for the farrier tomorrow!

Today we played on the ground some on the 22ft line outside the arenas but near them. First off Duck almost took me to the woods on her own today so I was excited that she would even go that way without my prompting!

There is a small ditch outside the arenas in a bit of a grassy/dirt area. We played squeeze over the ditch both ways. Then we played yo-yo (it wasn't a great back up) through the ditch a few times. She seems to be getting softer on the bring back which is nice.

We went into the round pen next and played a little but I took the rope off very quickly. I wanted to try liberty again! I need to remind myself to put some obstacles in there for us next time. We did a little bit of sideways (w/ the use of the fence) a yo-yo (bring back was tough the first time but after a cookie on the return got better the second time), squeeze game between me and the fence and a bit of driving. All in all less than probably 8 minutes but I purposely keep it short!

Then we went to ride in the big practice arena where a girl was having a lesson on a big warmblood! Duck was doing well and the improvement today was great! Our direction was much better at the walk requiring a lot less effort and then the trot we started getting some direction with my body. I think it is me causing some of her problems trotting. I don't have the seat/balance down. How do I know I wasn't doing well on my balance point? Well let's just say I was a bit sore today where I shouldn't have been if I was on my balance point!

So for me getting in the way it went pretty well. She still was getting rushed at the trot so we did a lot of disengagement to the walk along the fence line and also a million transitions. I felt she was resisting me on this today but when we passed the grass patch I knew why! She really wanted some grass (obviously grazing outside the arena's wasn't enough...silly me) so we stopped to graze a bit. We ended with going sideways over a ground pole. Didn't quite get it over the pole but did w/0 it.

I have to put in my greatest appreciation to Duck today though. The girl having her lesson was having a hard time stopping that big horse from a trot. They were doing ground poles and then a small crossrail. About the 3rd time she did the crossrail the horse came off cantering. Not too fast but you could tell she was really worried. He kept going and she couldn't slow him down (he still wasn't worried but was a bit quicker), then she finally screamed and he ran off fast. She lost her seat some and then the horse hopped a couple times and she fell off into the fence at the end of the arena. I felt so bad that she fell off. I wish there was something I could have done to help her. I have to say that Duck did remarkably well just standing there while this big horse ran around a bit RB'd. Exposure to other horses is helping to lower her personal bubble crabbiness!

We trotted a couple crossrails that she hopped over slightly. When getting back to her stall I wanted to back her in again (or try because it is very narrow) She kept rushing into the stall so I brought her out we found phase 4 to STOP before she went in. Turned her around, got her lined up, she then figured out what I wanted and backed right in! So now I know it IS possible even with that narrow of a door!

Tomorrow I probably won't be riding, just groundwork. Maybe we'll go check out the woods again....

The farrier is coming as well. Also going to to some undemanding time first. I think she is getting a bit tired from all the sudden riding!

Thresholds and riding

2008-07-29T11:56:00.000-07:00

Today we spent about an hour on the ground working on thresholds. I was not very considerate of my horse the second day she was at the barn in May. She seemed fine. I took her for a "trail ride" around the property. There is a bit of a trail that goes off the hayfield and into the trees. Duck did very well while we were on this ride, but when I tried to take her over there again on the ground it was more than apparent that she wasn't confident about it. So well over a month ago we played on the ground in the hayfield towards the trail. The opening to the trail is between a fence and a tree and it goes from the open hayfield into the mass amounts of forest. LOL So it is an obvious threshold. Last time we were still a good 100ft from the entrance to the trail when I quit.

We played approach and retreat in the hayfield and finally made it to where she was comfortable grazing right outside the opening. I then sent her in squeeze style and she promptly came right back out! We retreated further into the hayfield (towards her pasture and stall) and grazed. We repeated several times until she could stand in the "scary place". Then she grazed right outside the opening for quite awhile. I sent her in again and she took me for a walk into the woods in zone 5! We didn't go very far but then I went to zone 2 again and stood with her. We got comfortable standing and then retreated out.

Then we headed to the practice arena to ride. She seemed in tune with me so I just did one exercise on the ground sending her one way and then another and then got on. Funny thing she had more trouble today getting TO the arena (on the ground) so we had to stop a lot and retreat. One goal I have is to get her confident enough to ride from the barn to the arena and back by myself.

I got on and my goal for the day was to get her softer to my body and more responsive to direction. We have had issues with direction. She has her idea and then wants to pull on me. I got her going good on a figure 8 between 2 barrels walking and then trotted. It fell apart again. So we went back to a million transitions so I could try and get her trot softer. It seems when she started to trot today she was getting rushy. Nothing too much but not relaxed. It could of had to do with the fact that there was one more rider in the arena this time. I introduced myself and we started talking riding around together. Duck has a huge personal bubble and her horse was "intruding" into Duck's space, in Duck's mind anyway! Gently with the carrot stick I reminded her no "crabby" ears. After about 5 laps around she was happy next to the new horse. I was also pleased to find out that Liz, the rider I was talking with is also familiar with and has studied the program some! Cool! Of course I went off on a tangent about how much I enjoy it etc!

I also tried backing from zone 5 on the ground and getting Duck to back up with pressure on her tail. It was another brief attempt but I did get a couple steps!

All in all I am pleased with our session today even though she felt rushed trotting. I don't know if it is just my riding skills (or lack thereof) or if it is just her still being green and unconfident about the arena.

Tomorrow I would like to continue with getting more direction at the trot. Perhaps tit for tat at the trot? We have done it at the walk several times and it went quite well.

I would also like to learn to do driving game from zone 5 and need to refresh and watch the video again to see how to progress to that. I am sure it is a ways off but I want to put the foundation into place.

Freedom!!!!!

2008-07-28T11:14:00.000-07:00

This week M-Th my boys are in Day camp from 9-1! Freeedddooooom! Time for some much needed play time this week! Of course I did a beeline straight to the barn today after I dropped them off with my cell phone in hand just in case!

Duck was in her stall for the day since it is looking like it will be over 90 degrees again today. We started with some grazing (as usual) while I groomed her and then saddled. I put her on the 22 ft line to go to the arena. She offered to go in her stall and I was trying to think of what I could do to play in there while I was outside of it. I thought I'd try to back her out while I was in zone 5, but I think I didn't have enough preparation in that area! :) We played with it a bit and then I ended when she took a few steps back towards me. When I came in the stall to back her out I figured out the problem. It is a pretty tight squeeze (her door doesn't open all the way) and so she wasn't even confident doing that. So we played with it and out she went. Now I know how to prepare!

There were lessons going on in both arenas, the big arena had a group of 8 hunter/jumper students. The practice arena had 2 students as well. I decided to go for the empty roundpen.

We got some cones and set them up in a line. Weaved her in and out of the cones on the 22ft line. Then I took off the rope and did it at liberty as well as a little sideways at liberty. She still tends to get very unconfident with any pressure so I make our liberty sessions very short!

I then mounted up and played with the line of cones weaving through them. She is starting to follow my direction better with my body, but sometimes it still takes a lot. The group of 8 was causing quite a stir (bucking horses, and cantering rather quickly as a group) plus Duck's pasture mate Kay was in there so there were some moments of RB whinnying and the like. I have recently taken the strategy of just making her do A LOT when she does the whinnying. We back up a long way, go sideways, yield front end and hindquarters with a bit more energy than she would like to exert. It seems to be working as it brings her focus back to me.

After the students left in the practice arena I took Duck over there and put her back on the 22ft line. We played with barrels and jumping them but she was more just knocking them around everywhere. She did sidepass onto the barrels which was nice and then stepped over with her hind legs to get off it! We played some circling where we practiced transitions. I don't very often play circling game and usually never without an obstacle involved but today she did well. We got transitions walk/trot both ways as well as a rough change of direction. I just don't want to overdo the circle game because last May we couldn't even circle without her rushing off at a dead run and pulling on the rope! So we've made progress! Still have a ways to go before submitting our transistions on line.

I only had 2 tasks for level 2 left when Kira left. Transitions online and 7 games in 7 minutes at liberty. I knew then that it would be quite awhile before I would be able to submit them. Duck is still quite green and pretty much has not had a lot of consistent riding/play. But it seems we are getting closer! I can't wait! Everyone I was in level 2 with before or who got to level 2 has since passed and moved on to level 3! Here I am, taking the long road!

We also did a little cantering in the round pen. Duck bucked a bit but I rode her forward through it until she gave me a nice canter. I still feel like I need to find a big horse that is used to cantering a lot and ride it just to remember how to canter on a big horse! I feel like I am not helping her at all at the canter because for the last 10 years almost exclusively I had been riding Kira and her 13.1 hand mustang/pony canter! Duck's just feels so different (way more upright and more motion) and I am lagging! I wonder if there is a way to simulate a canter that I can do at home? I'd love to practice being more fluid at the canter!

All in all it was a great day! I am pleased with how Duck is coming along. I barely noticed any thresholds going to the arena which is a great improvement. Along with the fact that our steering seems to be getting better and softer which has been quite an issue for us! I think the trail ride yesterday helped with both those issues!

At the end of the session I briefly introduced backing from zone 5 with her next to the fence just to see if I could get a bit of understanding. She did seem to get it and we got a few steps! More to practice on next time!

Our first North Carolina Trail Ride

2008-07-27T19:29:00.000-07:00

Today Duck got to learn what it was like to be a "real" horse! Some real trail work finally! YEAH! We went on our first trail ride in North Carolina to Latta Plantation! It was a savvy trail ride with some other savvy club members (crosswise and Becky B). Lisa (Crosswise) was so patient when Duck was unconfident about the trailer. It took about 40 minutes for me to gain her confidence enough to load her. She did get a bit of a scraped nose on one of her quick exits from the trailer! Lisa was so nice that she unloaded both her mules so that I could put Duck on first because Duck was unsure about them and the trailer!

It was a very HOT ride! It hit about 100 degrees outside (so much for the forecasted rain) while we were out! Duck was quite RB at first because of all the commotion at the trailhead. She settled in some after some playing on the ground. The shade and the breeze helped cool things off some although the humidity was quite high! We had one decent spook at the "monster" rocks where she spun around quickly but it wasn't difficult to manage. Those are the times that I miss Kira my trail loving and well trained mustang! It is so hard sometimes to go back to a green horse!

By the end although we didn't go too far in the heat Duck was exhausted both mentally and physically. You could just see how tired she was! She was almost in a full body sweat even though we hadn't done more than walk and stand! Definitely her emotions were high because there was a lot going on all around us! When we got back to the trailer we played again for about 20 minutes with the trailer. Duck was much more confident this time and loaded quite well.

Her trailer issues are my fault (but not totally). The last 2 times she has been trailered have involved lots of stress considering she had spent the majority of her life in Illinois at one farm. Last two trailerings have been:

1) from Illinois to North Carolina

2)From my last barn to the new barn in the new barn's trailer and with the barn owner

I don't have a trailer to play with so the only times she's gone on a trailer was throwing her world upside down and just getting on and going! Last time moving her to the new barn (at the first of May) she was unconfident getting on the trailer. I went to shut the gate of the farm and talked to her and she whinnyed a ton at me. It was almost like she was saying "where are we going now? I am scared? Will I be ok?" I think she has had so much trauma from moving and not going back to the same place. When she got back to the barn today she was quite excited because her pasture mate was out in the pen and calling for her and quite on adrenaline. I thought she was going to jump out the window of the trailer! I untied her and threw the rope over her back to let her out. I wasn't about to get in the way of that! I think she was excited that she came back to the same place again for once!

All in all it was a great first trail ride. Not too demanding physically, but mentally she really had to tune in and we did a lot of little stuff and some sitting around too which will help with patience!

Looking forward to many more trail rides to come!

Here I am on Duck in the shade of the trees

Duck heading back home to the barn
Lisa and Buster
Becky and Jake. Aren't these mules the cutest ever? I think so. The really funny part is they pretty much match Duck's color too! We were triplets today! One of them even has spots! More than Duck!
Duck Ear view. I think she has way cute ears!

Another Ride

2008-07-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

Today I worked at the barn. So after I finished morning chores I decided to ride. I have to note that I bought Duck some horse treats at the tack store because I ran out of my homemade cookies. She doesn't like the store bought ones. She ate one and now she isn't interested at all and she keeps giving me the "where are my REAL treats?" question. But hey it's still a question!

Duck used to be kept on large pastures and able to graze a lot on real grass. Right now she is with one other horse and there is nothing but a couple weeds in her pen so she is very interested in grass. I have been trying to use this to my advantage! Today we played on the 22' and backed between 2 barrels. I am trying to be more aware of playing on the end of the 22' line in more preparation for liberty. It seems to be helping. We also did sideways from zone 1 and incorporated grass.

For the riding part of our session we rode in the big practice arena today. Duck was for the most part much more relaxed being ridden. We trotted poles, stopped between the 2 barrels we previously backed through, and ate lots of grass as a reward (it is growing on the edges of the inside of the arena). Also did point to point with the grass and then did one whole lap of the arena using the same start/end point. The first time we trotted it. The second time Duck offered a canter so I went with it. I need to work on my cantering on another horse or something because I think I am just still so used to Kira and Duck has such a HUGE canter and very upright feeling compared to Kira. I feel so klutzy riding her canter!

All in all it was a good session and there was definite improvement in our direction today as well. I still feel like I have to be too hard on the reins though when her idea isn't mine, so I need to find a more effective phase 4 a couple times so I can get it softened up. Tit for tat maybe? We've played that before too.

Back to play..after a MONTH off

2008-07-24T19:10:00.000-07:00

Well between travel, house stuff, family visiting, bad weather this week in the evening (when I usually get to the barn) and more family obligations I haven't ridden in a month. It always seems to amaze me how time just keeps flying by whether I go to the barn or not. It always seems that I take 1 step forward and then 2 steps back! Play consistently for awhile, then stuff comes up and I haven't done anything for a month (or more!).

Tonight I finally got to play with Duck again. It was such a perfect night (minus the bugs) Just 70 degrees! I got to the barn around 8:30pm. Got Duck out although I confess I wasn't giving her my full attention. I was talking on my cell phone for a bit while I grazed, brushed and then saddled her. We moseyed to the round pen, there are still a few thresholds to the arena which I backed off, stopped and then progressed through.

In the round pen we did a few ground exercises and she seemed ready to ride. Wrong assumption. She was moving as I was mounting but it was mild enough to still ride. I could feel some RB creeping in. I was right, within a minute she was whinnying and looking around. I decided to get her busy and with a lot of energy. We backed (a lot), yielded hindquarters, drove her front end around etc. Then I quit, and waited. No change and she starting fidgeting again. Repeat. Then this time when we stopped I felt a change. She was much more relaxed and wanted to stand there. We stood there and did nothing. A big lick and chew and a huge sigh. After that she went much nicer but I made it short. We moved more as a unit in harmony after that and it reminded me of how soft and how little it can take to ask and get a response with Duck.

This also brought me to my next realization. It's not a new one for me but just glaringly obvious in situations like this. I think how much further she would be along with a much savvier partner than me. I can see that she is capable of much more and that I am am super slow, boring etc for her. That is painful for me because I really, really like her and want to be better!

Well enough of that. It is what it is and I am excited now! We are going for a trail ride on Sunday afternoon! A REAL trail ride! I can't wait! Hopefully Duck will be happy about it too, and it won't become a real RB situation. She usually does well but we've had over a month off. And I don't know if it is just me reading it more, or just a phase for her but we've been more unconfident/ RB ever since she's been here in NC. Especially at our new barn. There is so much going on all the time that she is distracted and I feel like I am just managing RB behavior instead of progressing. That is part of my problem, although before last month when everything flipped upside down we had started to make progress!

Back to square one, again....

Yo-Yo with grass

2008-07-19T14:59:00.000-07:00

Today was SO hot and humid (around 92 deg) and the only time I had to go to the barn was 1-3pm! I decided to brave it. It has been so long since I have played/ridden now that Duck was just so anxious to graze after my long absence. She has been stuck in her stall in the heat and her fan was broken so it was roasting in there! I decided to use the grass as an incentive so we proceeded to the best patch of grass which is between the dirt road and the hayfield (which is now cut and pretty much gone).

I decided I would yo-yo her on the 22 ft line while I was standing in the grass and back her onto the road. where there was no grass hoping it would entice a quick return and reward to eat next to me. Well it did get lighter but no sign of a trot. We repeated about 6 times. I am guessing part of her lack of enthusiasm was the heat. I wanted to try the same strategy riding but ran out of time when some people interested in the barn and lesson program needed help. So we walked down to the main barn to get them a brochure. The kid really liked petting Duck but meanwhile I was worried that I just bashed through a million thresholds taking her into the main barn. She has never been in there before and it is huge and there are coke machines etc down the aisle I walked her through. Not to mention the squeeze through the single door to get in. We'll have to play at the main barn again to build confidence and also try the yo-yo with grass again, both on the ground and mounted.

Family time!

2008-07-13T16:05:00.001-07:00

Duck and I
Duck Grazing (dive bombing the grass!)
My mom and I with Duck
My sister Kris (She is a Parelli horse girl too!) and her 3 month old baby Ayden. Ayden loves the barn and the horses. He just sits in his front pack wiggling and cooing while you go around the barn.
Aricin my little guy jumping the mud puddle. Him and his older brother could care less about the horses. :(

My mom, sister and her baby came into town to visit last Wednesday! They leave this Wednesday. We went to the barn today to show them around where Duck lives. We had a good time and Duck always enjoys grazing!

What a weekend!

2008-07-02T11:20:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to elaborate in this blog, but what an incredibly tiring weekend! It also ended up with me being sick, which means another non-horsey dry spell until I get better! Fever and sore throat, GO AWAY I need my Duck time!

Undemanding grazing time

2008-06-26T10:05:00.000-07:00

So I had a brief time today to go to the barn with the kids. I was waiting for the barn owner to tell me how much my board is for July since I will be gone when it is due. I work every 3rd weekend to help pay down my board. Cleaning stalls, feeding etc.

We spent about 15 minutes letting Duck Graze on the 22ft line. She really likes to have the extra room when grazing!

And now I am off to pack and won't be back to horses until next Tuesday at the earliest. :(

A Fun day and some progress

2008-06-25T18:47:00.000-07:00

Duck enjoying the grass in the field next to her pen
"You rang?" A brief head out of the grass when I asked!

Tonight I went to the barn for my last session before we leave town for 4 days to empty our house in Illinois and move the stuff here. On Monday I had taken the kids to see Duck and they sat on her bareback while she grazed along with a few steps of a pony ride in between. I must have won some good points for that one because she was VERY happy to see me and couldn't get her head in the halter fast enough!

We started out with Duck's favorite pastime. Grazing the edge of the hayfield for about 20 minutes. Then I saddled up and we headed down to the big arena. Confidence has been an issue. Right now Duck lives with just one other horse in a paddock and is stalled in bad weather only. Previous to this she has lived in larger groups mainly 5 other horses or thereabouts. We have been working on moseying and also crossing and eliminating thresholds on the way to the arena. I have noticed her more getting snotty now wanting grass even when I am asking for something else. But more pressure turns her unconfident again.

We sideways, backed and drove from zone 3 to the arena. I also noticed that the entrance to the arena is still a big threshold for her. We spent some time today just sitting and relaxing at the gate and then I squeezed her in and out a few times until she was feeling better about it.

There was one of the students of the barn (it is a large hunter/jumper barn) in the next paddock over with the mini pony named Hershey. She was talking to me for awhile and I took the opportunity to just mostly sit and let us linger there in the corner of the arena. I did do a bit of sideways over the pole (need to work on the don't go forward) and some backing as well.

That was a good enough warm up so I mounted up. Duck is getting pretty good about coming/staying near the mounting block. This is one good indicator if she is ready to ride or not. Generally if she won't hold still or keeps moving away I know she isn't mentally ready.

Right now we are working on riding with one rein. In the few weeks I've been at the barn (we moved there June 1st) we have come a long way after I got a better plan! Duck would go all unconfident right when I would get on. Head up, start to get quick, can't hold still. Last session I pretty much just played with driving her to the barrel, me standing on the barrel and friendly game. Needs work on friendly game in zones 3, 4, & 5. So this time was much improved riding. The first few times I rode in the arena she was totally right brain, not extreme but enough that she was whinnying constantly and basically what I felt like ignoring me as well. I tried to fix this on the ground with the thresholds and also being friendly mounting/dismounting. I have also tried matching her energy when she goes right brain with quick phases to get her attention. It seems to have worked since she is generally a LBI (also with RBE tedency when learning/scared) and doesn't like to move her feet. She now quickly gets to the point of "oh I would rather just stand than work THAT hard."

I have transferred this strategy to riding as well and the 2-3 right brain moments that she had today were pretty much quickly resolved by me upping my energy, phases and her workload!

We practiced walking a figure 8 around 2 cones first at a walk, then a trot. We certainly aren't pretty (I still have to use the carrot stick more than I would like) but considering that we now have some basic steering I consider it a major improvement!

We are also getting a pretty nice soft back up. I am still playing with the whole concept of riding like you don't have a hackamore when you do. It still blows my mind that people ride bridleless like they do. Cantering around, jumping etc. Kira and I were just getting to the point where I was really starting to play with it. But now starting over I feel like it is a long way from where we are right now! Riding bridleless has always been something I wanted to do, WAY before I got into Parelli. It had never worked before. Now I know it will eventually, we are taking baby steps. We have steering, so steering and decent changes of gait walk trot halt. We haven't ventured really to the canter yet.

I'm not looking forward to leaving the state for 4 days. I will miss Duck and the time we have been spending together. See up until I moved her to this barn I have only been able to get to the barn 2 times a week at the most. That is a pattern I have had for almost 3 years now. It is easier now that Duck is only 2.5 miles from my house. It is pretty much as close as I can get her without it being my backyard again. (I sure miss having horses in my backyard).

I need to work on being more confident with what I am doing around the other riders/trainers. I find myself not doing what I normally would if no one else was around. Duck senses this too and takes full advantage! I just feel shy about it for some reason but I doubt many people really care what I do anyway. I do however think that I must look extremely strange compared to all the hunter/jumper riders!

Some History and background

2008-06-25T10:36:00.000-07:00

I have finally decided to do an electronic version of a journal for my horsey adventures! I am studying Parelli Natural Horsemanship and have been for the last 6 years. I am currently a level two student. Here is some background on my horsey life/Parelli beginnings.

My sister and I have been in love with horses since we were very young. When we were 5 and 6 (she is 11 months older) my mom put us in dance lessons. On the way to the dance studio was a barn. I think I could have cared less about dancing (sorry mom) and we would beg for horseback riding lessons every time we drove by. After a couple of years she finally gave up and let us take summer riding lessons. We did this for the next 2-3 summers.

After that we found a stable out in Draper, UT that leased out horses. At the age of 11 and 12 my sister and I ran a pretty full babysitting business. Our $2-3/hr was saved to lease horses by the month over the summer. We then started saving for our own horses and both paid for and purchased our basically unbroke horses that we went on to "train" ourselves. The babysitting business eventually faded and became full time (when not in school) horsey jobs! We mucked stalls, fed horses, guided trail rides and taught lessons.

I purchased my mustang Kira in 1991 when I was 12 years old and she was 3 years old turning 4 in the spring. At the time she was barely halter broke and had had a saddle on one time. She lived on a 5 acre pasture. I spent the winter trying to pare down the time it took to catch her. At that time it was about 3 hours! We went on to do all of the "normal" horse things but she still was quite difficult in some aspects. She would not trailer load without a concerted effort (several people and a few hours), didn't like to be dewormed and would rear and also did a lot of pulling back when tied. Fast forward several years to 2002.

I started the Parelli part of my horse journey 6 years ago in late March/April of 2002 when my sister told me I was going with her to a Parelli Tour Stop in Ogden, Utah. I didn't really want to go at that time because I had just had my first son (hence the savvy mom - I have 2 young boys ages 6 and 3 years that I am a full time stay at home mom to) less than a month prior. My husband bless his heart didn't want the little guy all that time by himself (I was pumping/breasfeeding) so off we went with my baby, my breast pump and my sister from Salt Lake to Ogden for this event.

Like many people say, it was completely mesmerizing. I had known that I wanted to do what they could do, but I had never seen so many people, and students able to do such amazing things. They were riding bridleless, bareback, playing with horses on the ground at liberty, which meant there was no physical connection between the horse and human. Just a connection stronger than any rope!

I was hooked. Shortly after this my husband got a job offer in Colorado. He moved there and I stayed behind to sell the house. Well 2 months later in July 2002 they laid him off. So we moved in with my parents since we still had to get rid of the house and as soon as he got a job I started saving. I saved for a year or so. (at the time I was working as a part-time accounting clerk and some other temp jobs). I bought the Mega-Pack from Parelli which at the time included levels 1-3, 2 carrot sticks, halter and lead, 22ft rope, 45 ft rope, hackamore and snaffle bridle. I set off to learn Parelli!

By March of 2003 we had purchased a house in Riverton, UT that had a 1/2 acre of horse property. It was perfect! I could feed my horse, play in my backyard! It didn't get much better than that! That same year my horse had an accident while tied to a stall door where she flew back and ended up breaking her right hip. I was supposed to give her a year to a year and a half off to see how it healed. This was also the first year I did a clinic with my sister in Heber, Utah. We went to this clinic and I had only played games 1-3 (friendly, porcupine, and driving). It was all so new! I learned so much and was even more in love with the program.

In Sept 2004 I gave birth to our second son. I had been filming my level 1 to send in for assessment, but didn't get it done in time! So I ended up assessing and passing my level 1 with Kira the next spring in May 2005.

In September 2005 we moved again for my husbands work. This time we landed in Champaign, Illinois. I was lucky enough through the savvy club locator to find Jody, a fellow PNH student who also ran a boarding barn 45 minutes from where we would be living. So Kira made the trip halfway across the country to Illinois.

While in Illinois Kira and I moved on to level two. Rewind to her accident for a minute. I gave her a long time off, used laser therapy on her leg along with frequent massages. Kira still had a 1.5 grade permanent lameness in her right hind. Add this to 1999 foundering (from a college intership at a dude ranch in Colorado where they fed WAY too much grain) and again in the spring of 2002 when I had my baby and she wasn't in the greatest of physical shape. She had had corrective shoes for about 1.5 years and was very sound in her front end. But her hind end still bothered her and I knew she would never be able to jump or do stressful physical activities. I was doing at least 2 PNH clinics a year while in IL and I could tell that she was in pain, especially after the clinics. I was feeling really bad about what I was asking of her physically.

Back in Utah my sister had the PERFECT family that wanted Kira. I debated about this for almost a year! Finally I made the decision to send her to this family that would take EXCELLENT care of her forever. So in March 2007 Kira travelled back to Utah once again.

That left me HORSELESS for the first time since I had gotten into horses! Technically yes, but not quite. Enter Duck, at the time coming 5 year old Appaloosa (who doesn't have any spots) that Jody owned. I had previously played some with her at Jody's place. You see, Jody also has 2 boys to raise along with keeping up on a boarding barn, her corn farm and her other main riding horses! She is crazy busy so Duck hadn't had a lot of work for her age. At least it was the right kind of work! So Jody decided to let me lease Duck which I did from March until August 2007.

And then the unexpected (I guess I should have expected it by now) we were moving AGAIN! This time to North Carolina. In a frenzy of the month of August we found an apartment in a day and a half trip, I missed my yearly Carol Coppinger clinic, we went on Vacation to Utah (had prepurchased tickets to go home), and then MOVED to North Carolina just in time to start my oldest son Christian into Kindergarten!

But Duck was still in Illinois and now I had to find a barn for her in North Carolina. So I started looking but there would be no "savvy" barn for me this time. I moved Duck here in November. I wasn't happy at my first barn so I just moved her at the first of May. This barn is much better.

Kira and I had been 2 tasks away from assessing level 2. I knew I would be starting over again with Duck. She is young, and green but the exact opposite of Kira. And so after 5 years in PNH you can probably see why I am still not done with level 2, and probably won't be for awhile. But is has been said, it's not about the destination, it is about the journey. Well, I have had an interesting life and horse journey so far. Not all of it good, and at times very frustrating with all the moves etc. But the important part is that I am still plugging along. Slowly, but surely....

So this is where my savvy blog begins...