Lots of Fun and Play!

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

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!

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

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!

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

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

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.