2 Steps forward, 1 Step back

Today I had all kinds of plans and ideas for Skittles thinking we'd move forward in leaps and bounds since our last session was so great. Well, there were lots of leaps and bounds, but not the kind I was hoping for! The old Skittles showed up today. So I worked with the horse that showed up!

She was very agitated throughout the session today. I started out just doing lots of friendly game with her mixed in with grooming her. I used the carrot stick, the lead line and the saddle pad, alternately swinging these around and grooming her. She was less concerned with the saddle pad than she was with either the carrot stick or rope. The rest of the horses in the pasture were starting to head to the back and away from her by this time and when I started losing her attention, I gathered everything up, including the bareback pad again and led her down to the round pen.

I took the halter off and let her drift for a bit, then asked her back in where I started swinging the saddle pad on her back again, followed by the bareback pad. Again, she was not too concerned. So I did up the girth, stepped back and asked her to move. She bucked again for a bit, but way less than she did last session. Throughout this session, the bareback pad did not bother her at all. I moved it around, I patted it, I leaned on it, but nothing seemed to bother her. The rope, on the other hand, was a python with 6" fangs to her today.

I did more of what I did last time: swing the rope around when she left and stop when she turned in or approached me. She's getting pretty good at coming back in, but is not doing so well with staying. We worked LOTS on rhythmic (non-threatening) movement of the rope. She started to get better: a couple times she thought about leaving (tensed up and stepped away), but didn't actually leave.

So next I put the halter back on and started doing some yoyo and circling game. Yoyo is excellent. But circling game needs more work. Last session I just had to point my finger to get her to move off around the circle and there was lots of licking and chewing with her head low. Today I had to use the carrot stick a couple times to put some pressure in zone 2 to turn her (which caused her to rear) and in zone 4-5 to get her to move off around the circle. She'd bolt more than trot, and as soon as she was behind me, she'd disengage and snort. I faced her and asked her into the circle again starting with phase 1, then lift the stick, then swing the string. We did this about 4 or 5 times before she managed to circle twice without stopping. The reason she couldn't get it today was because her head was high the entire time... she wasn't thinking at all. She had the same issues with the other direction, but we persevered. At one point she wheeled away from me, turning into the lead line which really startled her and made her bolt. I let the rope go rather than let her feel trapped, but then there was that 12-foot python with 6" fangs chasing her. After a few laps around the pen she eventually stopped and backed away from the rope and stood (left). I approached her and retreated. She tried to approach me, but the rope moved so she stopped and quivered, so I picked up the end of the rope and walked away and she followed.

I spent the next 30-40 minutes swinging the rope some more. I walked away from her swinging the rope, asking her to follow. Each time there was slack in the lead line (i.e. she released to the pressure -- toward the swinging rope), I stopped swinging. Eventually I was able to swing it closer to her and then over her and around her legs without her needing to leave.

I took the halter off again and did some more with the rope. She left a few more times, but kept returning. She started snorting at my carrot stick, so I started tapping it on the ground while walking around her, then retreated, approached tapping the ground, walked around her and retreated. She followed each time.

Next I tried getting a front end yield. I started by holding my carrot stick parallel to her neck and just moving it slightly (driving game). She left. Hmmm, Ok, next I just put my hand on her nose and my other one by her girth (porcupine game) and asked her to yield away. She backed up. I kept up, adding more pressure to her girth and eventually she stepped across in front. Yay! Release. I asked again but this time she moved away before I even touched her. Release. She stopped and faced me, licking and chewing. I stepped to her left side again and raised my left hand toward her head again and she yielded away a step again. Wow, she's sensitive! I repeated this a few more times until I was able to get 2 steps from her, then tried the right side. She's WAY more sensitive on her right side and she really doesn't like me there. I raised my right hand and she left. I stepped back as soon as she took one step, but she was already gone. She came back fairly quickly though and we tried again. It took a few tries before she'd only take one step away. It really only took me raising my index finger to drive her away ... that was enough pressure for her!

The last thing I did was go back to the halter and lead line. I swung the rope around her a few more times, then brought it around her haunches and asked her to yield her hind end from both directions. The first one was more of a jump than a calm step across, but the last 3 or 4 she was yielding quietly with her head down. We called it a day after that. Whew!

Skittles - Parelli L1 and the Bareback Pad

Skittles is a quick learner! Man she's quick and sensitive and so inquisitive once she gets past her habit of snorting at everything new. However, despite always snorting, she tends to come around fairly quickly, settles down and trusts me. She asks LOTS of questions and today, when I gave her answers she could understand, there was lots of licking and chewing. It was an awesome day.

I started by just swinging the savvy string around her just to get her back to where we left off last time. She twitched a few times, but didn't leave and we moved on to a saddle pad. She sniffed it then ignored it. So I swung rubbed her all over then swung it up on her back a few times. No problem. This was all up by the tack shed. So I just left the saddle pad on her back, grabbed the bareback pad, girth, my carrot stick & savvy string, and my red exercise ball and headed down to the round ring. I just kicked the ball ahead of me and she wasn't too sure about that at first, but followed a ways behind me.

In the round pen, I swung the saddle pad off and on her a few more times, then got the bareback pad. I let her sniff that a while, then moved it around her body, legs, and swung it up on her back as well. Then I pulled the girth up under her, and then let it down and repeated this several times - each time bringing it up a bit tighter. The first couple times she tensed up, but then relaxed and appeared OK with it. So I pulled the girth snug again and did it up to the bareback pad. It never got overly tight - just snug enough to keep the bareback pad from moving. Then once I stepped away from her, she jumped sideways and up at the same time and circled the pen a couple times bucking the whole time. After a couple times around she slowed to a trot and then stopped by the gate and looked at me. I approached her but didn't touch her until she came to me. Once she reached out to me, I took hold of her lead line and led her around the pen. She let out a big sigh and followed quietly.

The rest of the time we spent doing the Parelli friendly game with the savvy string, carrot stick, and red ball, the driving game, porcupine game, yoyo game and circle game. I am astounded at how sensitive she is and how quickly she has responded to the cues for the circle game and yoyo game. I never got past phase 2 for pressure on anything and she very quickly responded to phase 1. She's brilliant - so focussed and sensitive. She's really going to teach me to lower my phases and see just how little it takes. Very cool.

A few times when I had her at liberty, she would leave. Which is fine, she's allowed to do that! So when she left, I just would swing the string back and forth on the ground, and as soon as she turned back, I stopped swinging it. I think by the third time she left (I was sitting on the ball at this time), I just lifted the carrot stick slightly and she came back. What an amazing feeling to have her do that. At liberty!!

I did a few other things like jumping up and down beside her leaning my weight on her back by pulling on the saddle pad handle. She didn't flinch from either side. And I rolled the red exercise ball up both sides of her up to her back and let it drop, rolled it around her legs and under her belly. No significant reaction. She'd raise her head each time I rolled it up on her back, but didn't do anything else. I probably should have held it up there until she lowered her head. Maybe next time.

She was so awesome! I'm thrilled by how well she's coming along! So cool! This warm fuzzy feeling is what makes everything worth it! The last photo is Yarrow peering over the fence watching all the fun!

Skittles - back to basics

I took Skittles into the round pen today to start at the beginning with the Friendly game again. The horse that showed up was a high-headed skeptical Skittles, only slightly less scared than yesterday (left). I took the halter off and worked with her at liberty. So she chose when to come in and when to leave (tests my savvy!). I started with just the carrot stick, scratching her nose, neck and body as she let me. When she left I'd swing the carrot stick and when she stopped and looked at me or turned in to me, I lowered the stick and backed off. She came in, and I'd start to scratch her again and we continued this pattern until she stopped leaving. Then I dropped the string at the end of the carrot stick and we started the pattern again: she'd leave, I'd swing the string back and forth in rhythmic motion and keep it moving while she was moving, until she looked at me or turned toward me. As soon as she did, I stopped swinging the string. I kept this up until she could stand still and let me swing the string around her and over her back, neck and around her legs. I then did some more leading with the rope around her feet. She did great with this again, although I'm hoping eventually she'll give with less and less pressure (still a phase 4 at the moment before she'll lift her foot). This took about 30 minutes (so about half the time of yesterday, and the added bonus was this was at liberty!).

Next we did some friendly game with my jacket. It was pretty windy today, so it was blowing back and forth in my hand without any help from me. So we started the pattern again.... lots of approach and retreat, approach and retreat and eventually she let me swing it up over her back from both sides, on her neck and around her legs. This took about another 30 minutes (the wind kept making the jacket move and startle her enough to leave). Once she was relatively relaxed with the jacket swung multiple times on and around her, I dropped it and let her sniff, mouth and nose it around and I went back to the carrot stick and savvy string - just to make sure she didn't perceive it as a new threat. She didn't react and was consistently licking and chewing, so we called it a day. She's getting closer to the more confident filly she had become after her 2 weeks with the trainer last winter. I think (hope) the remaining sessions will get easier and easier as I try new things.

Back to the old Skittles

I worked with Skittles yesterday. It's been a while since I've done much with her and what I've learned is that she's the kind of horse who will forget everything you've accomplished unless you work with her regularly.

Rather than calling the horses up to the paddocks and then catching Skittles after she's come up, I decided to see how easy she would be to catch in the pasture. When she's up in the paddock, she's often one of the first to come and say hello. In the back of the pasture though, it's completely different. I think in her eyes I've grown fangs and horns or something when I walk to the back of the pasture. It took some convincing to get her to come to me (lots of approach and retreat). But I did, and eventually I got the halter on her. So I started to lead her back to the paddock. Soon the other horses started to follow (as expected) and then as we got around the trees, they all started to gallop past me (as expected). Skittles, being Skittles, jumped forward as well, reached the end of the lead line, panicked and pulled away from me (gave me a bit of rope burn in the process), then took off across the remainder of the pasture and then into the next bluff of trees trying to get away from the 12' line following after her.

She eventually charged into the paddock with the rest of the herd and galloped around the paddock as well trying to escape the lead line that magically kept pace with her. As the rest of the herd slowed and stopped, she eventually did as well, but stood there absolutely quivering. Poor girl! She let me approach and the look on her face was quite comical. She looked like she wanted to approach me, but every time she'd move her head, the line would move and startle her. The look on her face seemed to say, "You gotta help me! Every time I move, this rope keeps chasing me! Yikes! See?! There it goes again!"

So guess what we did for the next hour (give or take)? Yup: Friendly game with the rope. And it took that entire hour (+/-) to get her to relax. By the end of the session I was swinging the rope on either side of her, over her back, around her legs and over her head. And I started using the rope around her front and back legs to try to get her to give to the pressure and lead her by each foot. She did fantastic with that! Hopefully we'll be able to move past the rope today.

No photos of the rope chasing Skittles. I didn't have my camera with me. Today's pic is just a headshot of her from my "library".

Gypsy takes care of the girls

My daughter had another friend over last night and today; another friend who is also a horse nut! So this time I decided to use good ol' dependable Gypsy. She's such a star.

I caught her, or rather she caught me! She does that all the time now. I think if she had thumbs, she might actually put the halter on herself! That's how enthusiastic she is these days when I come and get her. It's such a pleasure to spend time with her!

After grooming her, I had to do quite a bit of friendly game with the bareback pad. She wasn't intersted in standing still for that, but we eventually got it all figured out she eventually relaxed about it. But because she was a bit uncertain about the bareback pad, I spent more time with the 7 games before I got on.

I had her move sideways toward me (another thing she couldn't do a year ago!) while I was standing on the trailer hitch so I could jump on. At the Parelli clinic this spring, Amy showed us how she gets on bareback by having her horse lower her head, then Amy jumped on her neck and when her horse raised her head, Amy slid down onto her back. Looked really slick! I'd like to start trying that with Gypsy, but not today. The girls were getting impatient!

So I took Gypsy for a bit of a test drive first to see what kind of horse showed up today (first photo). She was my golden girl again today, so after just trotting to the end of the subdivision road and back, I led her into the front paddock to give the girls a chance to ride her. Holly started and she just walked her around (second photo). At first Gypsy kind of stuck to me and wouldn't leave, but Holly finally got her attention (she's about the size of a peanut, so it took some convincing!) and she was off riding around the paddock.

Then it was Katie's turn. Katie even tried trotting (third photo). She did awesome. At one point she started slipping sideways and slowly fell off. In the past if this happened, Gypsy would spook and run off to the gate. Today though, she slowed as Katie started slipping, and then when Katie fell, she stopped completely and waited for Katie to get back up. Like I said: My Golden Girl! (And by that I mean she's pure gold, not that she's old!). And because of how good Gypsy was, Katie did not get scared, but got right back on and tried again. She trotted one more time and then both girls went around the paddock a couple times together (last photo). Smiles all around!

Poor little Yarrow gets some attention

My daughter has a friend visiting from out of town for the week this week. She's a HUGE horse fanatic, just like I was at her age. And she loves the little Arab we have boarding here named Yarrow. His owners haven't been to see him for over a year, so I always feel sorry for him. He is often the first one up to visit me when I go out to the pasture and always seems to be saying "Pick me! Pick me!" but because I have FOUR other horses to work with, I just can't find the time to do anything with him. The fact that he's not mine factors in as well. I know his owners are trying to sell him, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to get on his back a couple times just to remind him what it's like. Last time he was ridden was the last time I rode him last summer.

So I thought today would be a good time to get back on him and give Emily a chance to ride him as well. I got on him first (obviously... it's been more than a year since anyone did anything with him!). I started with some Parelli games before saddling him, but he was way more interesed in grazing the lawn! Saddling wasn't an issue, but he couldn't stand still for the girth. Took a while to settle him enough to get the girth done up. After that we only tightened it a notch at a time until it was tight enough. Then I just mounted and dismounted a few times and he was completely unconcerned. He did great! I let him wander wherever he wanted and only guided him when he'd stop in the corner by the gate. He tossed his head a couple times (well, he IS an Arab!), but other than that, he was completely A-OK.

So I rode him down the alleyway to the round pen to give my daughter's friend a try on him. She only stayed on for a few minutes before she thought she had enough, so then each of my kids asked for a turn. Callum started in the round pen, but quickly wanted to move to the bigger paddock and then Pearce and Holly each took their turn in the paddock. Holly had more difficulty steering him. But she did manage to do a couple of turns on him. Considering how little he's been ridden, I was impressed! What a great little pony.

1st Trail(er) Ride!

Today was our first trail ride and trailer ride with the new trailer. Yay!

Saturday Tania (a friend I met at the last Parelli clinic who, like me, is looking for like-minded people to do horse stuff with) trailered her horse over to my place and we did some work on trailer loading and unloading. With Gypsy I was just trying to get her to wait in the trailer until I asked her to back out. With Tania's horse Jack, we worked on unloading using the tail-pull. It started raining pretty hard, so we kind of gave it up after an hour or so, came in for coffee and then decided to haul Jack to an indoor arena so Tania could do some more work with him there. I followed her to the arena and gave her a few suggestions here and there on a couple things she was working on. Although she didn't need much help. Jack is an awesome horse. Only 4 years old, and from what I can see - rock solid. Really well trained.

Saturday was more or less a bit of preparation for trailering and trail riding for today. Each time I worked with Gypsy loading in the trailer, she would get better and better. On Saturday we had her in the trailer with the door closed a few times, so I was pretty confident by the time we quit that I'd have no trouble loading Gypsy for the trail ride today.

And of course, she did great. I didn't use the sway bar (still haven't quite got her to move up enough to close the sway bar), but just let Gypsy have the whole trailer to find a comfortable position for herself. We drove to Blackfoot Provincial Rec Area, unloaded and got saddled up for the trail. We stayed at a walk the whole time which is a bit of a challenge for Gypsy. She has a lot of go! She did manage to stay at a walk most of the time, but on the way back she got a bit impatient. Tania helped me with Gypsy's patience by being patient herself while I had Gypsy stop and stand quietly several times on the way back. We aslo got off after another couple riders passed us and walked a bit. I walked and worked on keeping Gypsy behind me rather than pulling ahead. She walked through my swinging string a couple times, getting whacked on the face in the process, before she settled in behind my shoulder. Tania was also very patient while I mounted and remounted Gypsy a couple times on the trail as well. Gypsy didn't stand as quietly with me today as she usually does at home. So it was great to have someone not only understand why I had to dismount and remount, but also ENCOURAGE me to do it. As we got closer to the staging area, we made Gypsy walk behind Jack and each time Gypsy tried to sneak by, Tania swung her reins in front of her face to keep her back (much like I was doing while walking with Gypsy). It was a great ride. Besides the couple who passed us, we also encountered a couple of men in a wagon being pulled by some big draught horses. Both Jack and Gypsy were pretty curious about that big noisy thing and all the paraphanalia jangling around the two horses. The men driving the wagon were great. They stopped to talk and let our horses have a good look and then when they went on ahead, Tania and I followed them a bit to help our horses relax a bit more. Very cool!

A perfect start to the big wide world opening up to me now that I have a trailer! And it was a gorgeous day too! Couldn't have been more perfect. I'm still grinning.

Parelli saddle fits Gypsy too!

Couple of weeks of 30+ temperatures, a week of camping and then post-holiday catch-up with work has kept me from spending any time with the horses. Today I finally got out with Gypsy.

I tried the new saddle on Gypsy just to see if it would fit and it does. I thought it would be too big, but with her broad QH chest, it fit quite well (photo). She's wearing her new hackamore as well. Looks pretty sharp with the nice clean white ropes, but that probably won't last long! :-)

Before we went riding though, I thought I'd try her in the trailer again too just to see if she'd be any better than the last time. She was about the same. She'd go in but she wouldn't stay. So we went in and out a few times, did some circle game transitions in between then I took her for a ride. We tried a new route this time: my brother-in-law next door cut some trails through his property recently (for his quad), so I took Gypsy through those (something a little scarier than usual). She did awesome. She did try to turn back a few times, but didn't object too much when I turned her back the way I wanted to go. She's such a great horse.

I only spent about an hour riding and an hour with the trailer total. When we finished riding, I got her in the trailer again. She'd stay in the trailer as long as I was in there with her. For a while again she'd just keep stepping in and then backing out immediately. This time I didn't give her any rest when she backed out, but asked her to step back in. Each time she stepped in, I'd leave her alone and give her lots of scratches and even a couple treats. If she stepped out, I'd let her, but then asked her to come right back in. The last one she stayed for several minutes while I scratched her neck and belly (which she loves). Trying to make being in the trailer a cool place to be! She did much better this time and seemed more relaxed standing in the trailer. However, she still hasn't been able to stand in there alone and I still haven't been able to close the divider.... Hopefully soon, since I'm planning on taking her out to either Fultonvale or Blackfoot to meet some other new Parelli friends this weekend!