Catch up!

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

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...

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!!!

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

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

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

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!