Testing Parelli "truths" (unintentionally, of course)

You know how - no matter how many times you hear something -- and may even believe it (in theory) -- you still have to make your own mistakes before you truly believe it?? Well, that's what I did yesterday with Skittles: tested the truth behind the Parelli advice of don't be too direct line thinking/goal-oriented, and build the horse's confidence first before trying new things. I tested that with Gypsy last weekend, but I guess that wasn't enough... I had to test it with poor Skittles too.

Skittles hasn't been ridden since last November, so that was my "goal" yesterday: to get back on her and start working on her forward movement. And since she did well at the Parelli play date a couple weekends ago, showing no issues with the saddle, in my impatience, I took her out of the pasture and, after grooming her, I went straight for the saddle. The part that I conveniently forgot was that at the Parelli play date, I played with her for OVER TWO HOURS before putting the saddle on!!

So guess what happened? Yep, she freaked. She jumped sideways after I swung the saddle up on her from the right (the side she has ALWAYS had trouble with to start with!) which caused the saddle to slip, which spooked her more, prompting her to run off down the alley between my two paddocks, dropping my new saddle unceremoniously in the dirt, and bucking and snorting all the way to the round pen. I picked up the saddle and followed her into the round pen where she stood quivering. Whereupon I put the saddle up on the fence, forgot about it, and proceeded to ask for her forgiveness. You'd think I'd learn. ESPECIALLY with Skittles. Poor thing. I feel like such a heel.

So for the next hour or more I played the 7 games with her, completely forgetting about the saddle, which is what I should have done in the first place. If anything, Skittles is a GREAT teacher.

Eventually we circled closer to the saddle, then did some squeeze games against the fence where the saddle was, then did some "put your nose on it" games around the pen, including the saddle.

I made another mistake with the sideways game. She's really good at this, so naturally I kept her going at it until she blew up, then faced me with an incredulous look as if to say "WHAT THE HECK DO YOU WANT?!" Right, the release. I forgot the release. Sorry again Skittles! Sheesh. I swear I woke up with no brain yesterday!

Her confidence eventually started coming back (in spite of me!). I also did a LOT of friendly game with the rope and savvy string. Ropes continue to be a phobia for her. She's actually pretty good with ropes being swung around her when I'm close. But as soon as I move any distance from her and swing a rope, she's gone.

This probably would have been a good place to quit, but I didn't. I wanted to get the saddle on her (there's still that part of me that says "when you fall off, you just gotta get right back on," or "finish what you start"). So I was determined to get the saddle back on her. This time I didn't put it on her, but just walked around her holding it high and low and bumping her with it and then walking away. But because the saddle is so darn heavy, I probably did this less than I should have. Nonetheless, she let me put the saddle on her from the left side without any fuss. I then took it off and tried again from the right. More fuss (moving away, back humped up), but she eventually let me lift it up on her back (I didn't swing it up on her). I took it off again and repeated on the right. Then again from the left. She's definitely a LOT more comfortable with me on her left. Will have to make a point of doing LOTS more from her right. But for now, I just proceeded to do up the girths (again... goal-oriented).

Skittles has virtually no withers, plus she's "downhill" a fair bit at the moment because she's still growing. So I shimmed the saddle with large shims. But after I was done with her and took these photos, it looks like I still need more shims. The front is still a bit too low I think.

I did a few games with her with the saddle on, then mounted up. She moved a bit the first couple times I tried mounting, so I just stepped down, walked her around and kept trying until she stood still. She did after the 3rd try. I didn't try from the right.

I spent the next 20 minutes or so just being a passenger. I need to work on getting her to maintain gait. At the moment, this is just at the walk, let alone the trot. She pretty much did figure-8's near the round pen gate. A couple times she got almost half way around, but she pretty much stayed in the half of the pen closest to the gate. For now I wasn't going to be picky about where she walked, just that she keep walking. It was not easy. She's a stop-aholic. Each time she stopped, I would squeeze her to go, slowly moving up my phases. After about 15 minutes of this, she actually walked PAST the gate a few times and when she did stop, I would say she was responding to phase 2 fairly consistently. She wouldn't always start walking but she would respond to the pressure by shifting her weight. So I would release (yes! I remembered the release this time!). Then ask again until she moved. I never went to phase 4 (swinging the rope from side to side).

At that, I called it a day. Actually not quite, I yoyo-d her out of the pen after I got off. She wasn't expecting that. It wasn't pretty -- more sideways than backwards, well actually she'd go backwards but then try to turn and go out forwards, but by the 3rd try she was mostly out of the gate before she turned, so I accepted that. It was a good try.

I'll try to remember my brain the next time I work with the horses. In the end it turned out to be an OK session. Hopefully my next one will start out better as well (obviously the photos in this blog were taken at the END of the session!)

Spring rides on Gypsy and IndyAnna

I took Gypsy (left) out for a ride yesterday. She hasn't been ridden since last fall, so it was way overdue. Unfortunately, I had a destination. I went to tour a new horse facility being built down the road from us at a neighbor's, so I told them that I'd ride over for a visit. So, consequently, poor Gypsy was pushed through a number of thresholds in order to get there and we had a pretty difficult ride. Had I bothered to just work with her around home a few times before taking her out (and/or just left her home and walked over!) rather than pushing her way beyond her comfort zone, both of us would have had a happier ride. The one silver lining, if you can call it that, is that I DID NOT get frustrated with her for being difficult like I would have before starting Parelli. Because she was unconfident, she kept wanting to turn back, and then when we finally did head home, she wanted to run. I did lots of circling on the way home every time she broke into a trot. She did eventually figure out that I wanted to keep her at a walk, but it was about as fast as a horse can walk and still call it a walk! Poor girl. She was pretty sweated up when we got home, and not from exertion.

Today, I wanted to go out and ride again, but wasn't picky on who it would be. So I went out to the pasture, sat down on a cavaletti and waited to see who came to see me first. Indy was the first to come up to me, so I got the halter and took her out to play a bit. She seemed pretty happy to be given a chance to get out of the pasture.

I started just with some Friendly, porcupine and driving games just to see how attentive she was (paying attention to me is always a challenge with her). She did pretty well. Her YoYo is pretty decent as well. Then I decided to open up the trailer and see if she'd go in. The last time we did this, she would only step up with her front feet and back out. She did that again this time (no hesitation) a few times, so I took her out and did some driving and squeeze games around and beside the trailer, and between the trailer and the shed, then came back and approached the trailer again. She stepped right in. No problem. She did lots of nosing around and moving from side to side and then backed out without hesitation or fear. I let her in and out a few times more and then went to get my saddle.

Last year I only saddled her with the English saddle and she never flinched. Today, I wanted to try my new Parelli western saddle on her and see if she would accept that as easily. I started with the pad first - no problem. Even when it fell off her when I moved her around, she didn't even flinch, but just looked down at it on the ground and nosed it. When I swung the saddle up on her though... that was a bit different. She trotted forward and around me, then stopped and turned and looked at it. The English saddle, I can lift and place on her softly. The western saddle, however, I really have to swing it up and over to get it on her -- it's quite a bit heavier. So there's a lot more "noise" with the western saddle. I took it off and put it on quite a few more times (from the right side of her). She never really stood still when I swung it up on her -- even after about a dozen or more attempts. Each time I took it off, I would walk away and let her approach and look at it. She had no problem coming forward and nosing it when it was off her back. But she objected to my swinging it up over and on her back.

The last attempt was from the left side of her and she stood perfectly still for my attempt from the left. I wonder why? Anyway, I did up the girth after that, walked and trotted her around and tightened it up a couple times. She never objected to any of the fussing and adjusting with the saddle at all, she virtually ignored me. So it doesn't seem to be the saddle on her back that bothers her, just the swinging it on her from the right. Will have to work on that some more. Maybe with the English saddle again and work back up to the western? Not sure.
Anyway, after I moved her around quite a bit in the saddle, I mounted up. Again, no issue. And no problem moving the saddle around while on her back. I swung the rope from side to side a few times. No problem. So I just let her walk around the yard and worked on getting her to move off my leg now and then, but mostly I just let her walk around. She trotted a couple times and I let her. Mostly she just seemed to want to go hunt for good grass. I let her do that too!

Considering I haven't been on her back since last fall, she did phenomenally well! I'm really impressed with her today. Makes me feel a bit less guilty about how badly I treated Gypsy yesterday! I'll make it up to her soon.

Jake @ 3D

I took Jake to 3D Equestrian Centre yesterday.

I've never trailered him before. I've loaded him several times, but never actually gone anywhere with him until yesterday. My boy moves around a LOT in the trailer! And since he's so huge, it felt like the truck was lurching all the time. But when I loaded him he just stepped in and stood facing the front and just turned and looked at me as if to say, "Ok, let's go!" So we did.

Different story once we got there though. He was very right-brained and frequently tried to walk over me. I had to get pretty firm with him a couple times while walking him around to protect my space.

I led him up to the barn after a while, but he would have NONE of that. His threshold was about 20 feet from the door. He followed reluctantly to about 5 feet from the door then tried to back up. So I did about 30 minutes of approach and retreat and every time he got closer I rewarded him with a cookie. After that, he started forgetting about his surroundings and nosing my pocket for more cookies. Eventually I got his nose and neck into the barn and 3 tries later he followed me in. Even at that, I probably pushed him past his threshold rather than waiting until he did it on his own. Not exactly sure. Had a tough time reading him. He was doing lots of licking and chewing, but not much blinking.

Anyway, he did come in, and I led him through the barn to the arena. For quite a while I just walked around with him. He was pretty high-headed and uncertain, but he stuck with me. In fact, I took the 12' line off his halter and walked away. He followed me like glue. I even ran (trotted) a bit and he followed me at the trot too -- even over a jump! Very cool.

He did eventually leave me and I let him for a while. He hung around at the gate ignoring me after a while, so I did Linda's trick of heading toward zone 5 (his tail) and got "sneaky" as I got closer. He had his ears tipped toward me, but didn't move until I flicked him with the savvy string. Boy did he jump! He trotted off to the other side of the arena with me following behind. When he turned toward me, like Linda did, I turned away. When he turned away from me, I followed in zone 5 again, then turned away if he turned toward me. If he ever stopped, I crossed in front of him to see if he'd follow and if he didn't I moved toward zone 5 again. In no time he was walking at my shoulder again. Very cool !!!

I put the 12' line back on and gave him lots of rubs all over, brushed him off, then started doing some driving, porcupine and friendly games.

THEN, I put on my BRAND NEW, PARELLI NATURAL PERFORMER saddle that just arrived the day before! Woohoo!! It's a beautiful thing! The coolest part was that when I picked up the saddle, Jake didn't run away! He always used to try to get away from me when I brought the saddle out. But since riding him in the bareback pad, and then the Fluidity saddle last year (right), he's become much less afraid. Well, really - not at all afraid of the saddle. And yesterday was no exception. He stood quietly while I saddled and fitted the girth, and adjusted the stirrups. I moved him around a bit, tightened up the girth a bit more, then got on.

For about a half hour or so I was just the passenger. I didn't guide him at all unless he stopped at the gate. If he wanted to circle by the gate, so be it. I just wanted him to get used to the saddle. It was kind of fun actually. He started out trotting quite a bit, then just walked around with his nose on the ground snorting and blowing --- all good.

I had to get going so I'd be home before the kids came home from school, so we left it at that. Next time I'll try some more L1 ground work and riding.

Of course, I did bring my camera, but when I turned it on, turns out it didn't have a memory card in it, so no pictures from yesterday... just a couple old pics of Jake from last year!

Parelli Play Day at Rafter XX Ranch

Yesterday Skittles and I took part in a Parelli Play Day at Rafter XX Ranch east of Edmonton. Tamara N has been doing an excellent job of organizing and hosting these events to keep us inspired and focused -- even though the weather is less than desirable. We were actually having a really nice warm spring for most of March -- until yesterday! As I was driving up to the Ranch, I heard on the radio that the temperature was -15C with a -25C wind chill. Thank goodness the arena was heated!!

I took Skittles because of the fact that my tailbone was still hurting significantly enough to avoid riding. So since I wasn't going to ride, I might as well bring one of the fillies. The injured tailbone happened the day I took Skittles to 3D a week and a half ago. I slipped on ice getting out of the truck.

So we started the day by taking our time loading in the trailer (about 45 minutes total). Since Skittles got so sweated up in the trailer the last time I trailered her, I let her come in and out a lot more this time. I started out letting her go in and out at will and then would take her away and walk away from the trailer. After about a half hour of this, I decided she didn't really have any reluctance going in the trailer, she just didn't want to STAY in the trailer. So instead of letting her walk away, I just turned her around and asked her to load again. We did this about 5 or 6 times before she stopped in the trailer and stood still. So I left her alone and gave her lots of scratches. She came out again, so I loaded her up again a few more times until she stood still in the trailer. This time she stayed in long enough to start nosing things and reaching down to chew on my carrot stick. I asked her back out again and scratched her some more outside the trailer, then asked her back into the trailer. This time she stayed in facing the front, nosing the corner and sides, then slowly turned to face me and just stood looking at me. I scratched her and she licked her lips and blew her nose. I let her out one more time, then back in and then shut the door. She moved around a bit inside after the door was shut, but was less fidgity than last time. When we got to the Ranch, she had very little sweat on her compared to last time. Just a bit on her withers. So she was still worried in there, but not nearly as much as before.

Of course this was her first visit to an arena with OTHER HORSES in it. Woooo...scaaaarrrry...

She wasn't paying much attention to me and was pretty agitated with this new location and all the horses in the arena, so I just walked her around (I guess, mirroring her, now that I think of it) until she started to listen to me. Then we started practicing the 7 games. She's fantastic with the porcupine, driving and yoyo games, and getting pretty good with the sideways and squeeze games. Her circling game, however, needs work. This is also reflected in her inability to keep moving when I'm riding her as well. So I figure if we can get good at the circling game, her ability to maintain gait when I'm riding her will also improve. She was better to the left than to the right. We managed 4 circles to the left and only 2 (sort of) to the right by the end of the day. It was a start, and we'll build from there. It was great working with her with all those distractions. We both needed practice maintaining focus! I also did TONS of friendly game with her. She has always had, and continues to have, a phobia about ropes. So between all the other games, I'd do different things with the savvy string, 12' line and 22' line over her head, around her body and around her legs. She would always start by flinching each time (or kicking at the rope if it was by her legs), but would eventually relax. This will take time with her I think.

We stopped at lunch time for quite a spread. Everyone brought something, so we had TONS of food. It was great. I tied Skittles up to a ring on the arena wall and she stood quietly and calmly the whole time. At other times when I've tied her up for any length of time, she would pace back and forth. I attribute her calmness to 2 things: 1. I had just worked with her for the previous 2 hours, so she was left-brained and confident by then, and 2. there were 4 or 5 other horses tied in the arena and they were all calm and relaxed, so I'm sure that helped.

After lunch everyone saddled up and got on. I put the saddle on Skittles, but didn't ride. Saddling was a non-event. Not even a flinch. She trotted a bit once I got her feet moving, but settled down in no time. We proceeded to play a few more games on the ground for about another hour, but then I decided to head home. They were planning on bringing cattle into the arena shortly after that, and I wanted to leave things on a good note. There really wasn't any reason to think she would react badly, and she probably wouldn't have. But I kept telling myself, "don't push it." I'm notoriously bad for trying "just one more thing" while things are going good, only to end badly. So I need practice at quitting while ahead!

It was a good day. She loaded up that afternoon without any hesitation and we headed home. No sweat at all on her when we arrived home.

Jake gets some more trailer time

I didn't get a chance to take any of the horses to 3D Equestrian Ctr on Wednesday because we had to go to an Open House at the Jr. High School for my son instead. So instead I just hooked up the trailer and worked with Jake and trailer-loading (my Clyde/TB gelding).

He came right up to the gate once I had the trailer hooked up. All the horses are amazingly alert and curious once that trailer is hooked up! Either they think they're going somewhere, or someone is coming to visit!

Last summer when I loaded Jake up for the first time, he went into the trailer no problem, but had trouble backing out. Instead, he turned around and came out foward. But since he's so big, he would have trouble turning around and get a bit claustrophobic and bolt out. When I loaded him this time, he did the same thing. I tried to keep his head straight so he wouldn't turn around, but he just ignored me and pushed through and came out. So I stepped into the trailer and asked him forward, then backed him up and did this a few times. Then got him to put one foot on the trailer and back up, then 2 feet and back up. He had some trouble with stepping down even with just the front 2 feet on the trailer, so we did this a few times until he licked his lips, backed away and started trying to graze. Then I had him try just 3 feet in the trailer, but once 3 feet were in, he came all the way in. So I tried to back him out from there. He got all 4 feet on the edge of the trailer before stepping down. He didn't like that much at all.

He definitely wouldn't have backed out if I hadn't been holding his head straight. Luckily, despite being really unconfident, he still respected me and did what I asked. Otherwise I may have been sandwiched in there! We lots of just forward and back in and out of the trailer. He never did get quite relaxed with it, but definitely less worried. Each time he took less time to relax and lick his lips once he was out.

I wonder if I taught him to back from zone 5 (tail) outside the trailer, if he'd listen inside the trailer? Maybe next time....

I'm Back!

I'm finally back! Not that I went anywhere, I just haven't been blogging. My horses have had most of the winter off (not ridden) because of the cold, snow and ice, and well, because I'm a wimp.

The horses have all received plenty of undemanding time from me, which is not time wasted. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I think I'm making progress with Jake who's been avoiding me for months. Yesterday when I walked into the paddock to get Skittles, Jake came straight up to me and followed at my shoulder while I went to get Skittles. I actually considered taking Jake instead since he seemed so interested, but I actually had a plan for Skittles, so maybe next time.

I hooked up the trailer and loaded Skittles up and took her to 3D Stables (the same barn the Parelli clinic was at last spring). She loaded well. I took my time since it's been several months since she's been in the trailer (I know, it's not about the trailer) or since I've demanded anything of her. I let her come in and out a few times including opening and closing the door and she waited most of the time until I asked her to come out. She never hesitated to go in and she came out calmly each time. When I got to 3D though, she was pretty sweated up. So next time I have to spend a lot more time. Or maybe she just needs more short trips to help her get adjusted to it.

I had dropped by 3D a few days ago (that's the arena to the right... better footing than my icy paddocks!) to find out their drop-in fee and to find out when would be a good time to drop in. I was hoping for Wednesdays (the only day I don't have to drive kids somewhere) and it turned out Wednesdays were good. Great! However, when I arrived, there was a horse left loose in the arena and not a soul around to ask who he belonged to. As I had never been to the barn, didn't know anyone or any of the rules or expectations, I figured I'd better leave it be and try again another day.

But the visit wasn't a total loss. Skittles has never been in a barn either, so I persuaded her into the barn and walked her around and in and out a few times. Initially it took her a while to cross the threshold (literally and figuratively), but once she did she had her senses glued to me and followed my lead. Her whole demeanor seemed to be saying "this is really new to me, I'm scared, but I trust you to look after me". I was really impressed by how she handled herself and that she trusted me. It put a big smile on my face and she got lots of crunchies when we were done. Way to go Skittles!

Isn't it funny how -- a few years ago - walking into a barn with a horse would have been a no-brainer to me and I would have been frustrated and impatient with a horse that couldn't walk into a barn. Now that I've learned so much about reading these incredible animals, this small task felt like a huge success for us. Even though we didn't go into the arena, I know we'll go back, and we still made the best of it.