Undemanding grazing time

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

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

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...