Skittles at Fultonvale

I loaded up Skittles this morning and took her to the Fultonvale arena to do some ground work. Long overdue. The last time I rode Skittles, I ended up on the ground, so I've been avoiding her since then! Time to get back in the saddle, so to speak.

I didn't go with anyone to Fultonvale this time, so I didn't plan to ride (I prefer to have someone there to pick up the pieces if need be). Safety first!

So once we got there, I let her explore a bit, then I turned her loose in the arena to sniff around. After a while I started playing the "catching game" with her: chase her until she turns to me, then retreat with the intent of drawing her to me (get her to catch me). She was still pretty right-brained, so it took a couple of attempts, but it wasn't long before she came up to me.

Then I spent the next half hour or so with her on the 22' line doing the 7 games. She's really lazy on the circle, so we spent the most time on that.... just getting her to keep going. Once she managed a few circles on her own, I started changing direction. That seemed to help keep her going as well as keep her attention on me a bit more.

Her sideways is pretty good - even without the fence and her yoyo is really nice; phase 1 or 2 consistently. And of course, as always, her porcupine and driving are also really nice. She's so sensitive.

After about 30 minutes or so, someone else showed up to ride in the arena, so I thought I'd take a chance and try getting on Skittles. I felt better having someone else there.

I took her back to the trailer to go put the saddle on. I tied her to the trailer and she stood fairly well when I saddled her, but kept trying to turn around to watch the other horse in the arena. At one point (maybe it was the stirrups? not sure), she jumped at something and had a little snit, rearing up a bit and pulling against her line tied to the trailer. It was short-lived, but dramatic! Once she stopped, she lowered her head and started licking and chewing. I suspect that was her test for today... once she got past it, she was calm, cool and collected.

I trotted her around in the saddle on the end of the line for a while, making sure the saddle and stirrups bumped her enough to get her used to it before I got on. She was fine the whole time, lots of licking and chewing (like I said I think she'd had her snit and got that out of her system). So then I went to get the bridle and got on.

The lady who was riding in the arena graciously took these few photos for me. The ride was uneventful. I got on and off a few times in different parts of the arena, and Skittles actually let me steer her away from the gate without too much fuss. She got a bit agitated when the other horse left and headed home, so I got off and walked her around from the ground until she re-focussed on me, then I got back on again. I didn't do more than just walk her around today. It's the first outing for her since March, it was a new place and I wanted to make sure we ended on a positive note: building confidence in BOTH of us! :-) Beautiful day too!

This and that

Today I decided to try to get 2 horses in the trailer. I've never trailered two at a time because I've never had to, but I figured I'd better work on getting two in the trailer before I HAVE to.

The last couple times I took Gypsy to Fultonvale, I managed to squeeze her behind the divider in the trailer (before that she always had the entire trailer to herself). So that was a start. She's still not relaxed in there, but she does go willingly. I hope with a little time and experience, she'll eventually relax.

So I started by putting Gypsy behind the divider a few times, let her out, repeat, etc. Then I took her out and went to catch Indy. Then I loaded Indy in and out a few times and then got her in behind the divider as well. She's a lot better than Gypsy. She's also still not comfortable, but probably more so than Gypsy. I repeated this a few times as well.

Then I loaded Gypsy in behind the divider, closed it, then loaded Indy. I could get Indy all the way in the trailer, but wasn't able to get my hand on the door before she'd back out, despite multiple attempts. So then I unloaded them both and tried again the other way: Load Indy behind the divider (photo), then Gypsy. That worked better and I was able to shut the door. I was tempted to drive to Fultonvale and work with them both, but then decided I should probably work on the 7-games at liberty with Gypsy in the round pen instead. I can try Fultonvale maybe tomorrow or Wednesday.

So I unloaded them both, let Indy back in the pasture, then took Gypsy down to the round pen.

I started with letting her wander around (no line) and just wait until she wanted to come to me. Once she did, I started with the carrot stick and string and the friendly game, followed by porcupine. She left. Hmmmm. This isn't starting out well... last time I at least got past the porcupine and to the driving before she left! OK, get the line back on and start over. I went through all the games on line with her with the goal of trying not to use the line to restrict her. But she still kept leaving and it was always the line that brought her back. Then I started thinking, ... I wonder if it's the carrot stick? Maybe I'm being too "loud"? So I dropped the carrot stick and just used my hands to signal her. And it worked!! She didn't leave. I took the line off and did ALL SEVEN GAMES at liberty!!! WAHHOOOOO!!! I'm doin' my happy dance! Unfortunately I was alone, so of course didn't get it on tape. But I did it! That's all she needed -- she wanted me to lower my phases.

After that I put the bareback pad and bridle on her and worked on the sideways without a fence some more. We've taped this one already, but because she still fights to go forward, I wanted to see if we could get it done with a little less head-tossing and rooting into the bit. I used the carrot stick this time to help drive her sideways, and that seemed to help. She did OK, not great, but I think it was better than before.

Then I asked her to go sideways to the gate so I could open it and try it in the larger paddock. I've never been able to get her close enough to a gate to open it while mounted, but after only a couple attempts this time, she actually did it!

In the paddock I sidepassed her over a pole and some barrels to help work on preventing her forward movement, but it didn't help much, she still always wants to go forward as her first answer to any leg cues. So then she always bumps into the rein, which is followed by head-tossing and rooting. Sigh....

Attached above is the best I could do for a photo of myself riding! :-)

I keep telling myself to be patient. We'll figure it out eventually. I've certainly made other progress with her, so we'll get there with this eventually too.

Then after a few walk/trot/stop transitions, I took her out on the road for a half hour or so and then called it a day. Maybe when my kids are home I'll see if I can get a repeat of the liberty session with her, but this time on tape! :-)

Almost done Level 2 tasks (I hope)

After my last 2 taping sessions I had about 6 tasks left to tape. Yesterday I taped 4 of them, so I'm nearly there!!

I'm not sure what will be good enough for a pass or if the quality of the taping will show enough for a pass ... or maybe I'm worrying too much. I'm a bit of a perfectionist!

The only tasks I have left to tape are the 7 games in 7 minutes at liberty and sending her into a trailer. The liberty one is going to be a challenge for us (so far Gypsy just leaves when I try doing sideways or a yoyo without a line on her), so I have to work on that one a bit. The sending Gypsy into a trailer isn't a problem, I just keep forgetting to tape that one! So I'm really close!! I just really hope they're all "savvy" enough for a pass.

Attached is my finesse task #2 (riding sideways without a fence). If anyone reading this with their L2 can comment on this, I'd appreciate it! Gypsy tosses her head a bit on this... is that considered a pre-L2 or would this be OK? I wish I could post all my tasks on this blog for my Parelli friends to comment on, but they take up a lot of space!

So close now I can almost taste it!

Fultonvale with Indy again

Tania and I met at Fultonvale again today. It was a fair bit cooler today than last time, but still sunny. I brought Indy again as I wanted to work on getting her to yield to my leg pressure better. Last time she moved into my leg as much as away and had a tendency to buck if I added pressure (hop and toss her head more like).

Anyway, after playing with her lots in the field in the last week doing just the porcupine game, today's leg yields were much better. Tania thought so too. She's still better at the walk than the trot, but she did start getting better at the trot as well at the end of our session.

Tania worked on more life in her backup with Jack. She's been coming along great with him. He's a gorgeous horse and he's really starting to come along well.

It's been great having Tania around. She sees a lot of stuff I'm missing. One of which is that Indy tosses her head a lot and it's because I'm blocking her too much with heavy hands on the reins. I left her head alone and her response to my leg got much better! Go figure hey?

Attached are some photos of Indy doing some side passes. Cues are really exaggerated (weight-shift, leg off on the side she's moving to, open direct rein ...). She's been such a great horse, I think I may reconsider selling her!!

After we finished working in the arena, I followed Tania and Jack outside for a wander through the trees, alongside the road and out on the grass around the arena. Indy was fantastic. Her first ride "outside" -- away from home and away from the arena. I think we're definitely ready to try some trail riding.

More L2 tasks with Gypsy

I met Tania at Fultonvale yesterday morning to tape some more Parelli Level 2 tasks. I'm getting close! Gypsy did phenomenally well on the nice level sand ring at Fultonvale. What a difference good footing makes!

About a week or so ago Gypsy cantered on line for me for the first time. Yesterday she did again and we got it on tape (along with the up/down transitions between walk and trot as well). Not real pretty (she leaned on the line a fair bit), but she maintained the canter until I asked for the trot, which was huge for her. She's better to the right than the left... her circle was about half the size to the right and so there was some slack in the line.

We also did the simple changes while riding. It was almost like someone has been working with her behind my back! She cantered around the whole arena no problem (at home she's frequently breaking to a trot because of the uneven surface). We cut through the middle and broke to a trot and I asked for the other lead and VOILA, she picked it up immediately. I couldn't believe it! Well, we HAVE been working on this for a while, so I guess it's not that much of a stretch, but seriously, she picked it up without hesitation. No trotting faster before picking up the canter, just boom - canter. She's such a superstar!

Then we re-taped my trotting around pylons (Freestyle: figure-8/change of direction) on a casual rein. Last time we taped that (Shirley taped it at my place right after the Martin Black clinic along with a bunch of other tasks) it was OK, but not great. So I retaped in case the second one was better. I think it was because Gypsy was slightly less forward, so she wasn't leaning on the rein into the turn as much. Not sure if it will pass, but I guess there's only one way to find out.

Anyway, another SPECTACULAR day. Really pleased with my girl! Gyspy's just the BEST horse ever! :-)

Indy's first road trip

Tania called me up first thing this morning and asked if I wanted to go to Fultonvale again. It IS September after all, so the weather we're having is definitely not going to last. So I agreed, hustled my butt and met her out there at just after 9:00. I didn't take Gypsy though... I decided to take Indy. She's the only horse I haven't taken anywhere yet, so it was definitely her turn.

I loaded and unloaded her a few times before shutting the trailer. No problem. She's done this lots before, so now it was time to actually TAKE her somewhere. Road trip! She actually moved around a lot less than Jake does, so she did really well.

Once we got there, I walked her all over the place and let her check everything out; she's so curious about everything. Then I turned her loose in the arena and just let her explore in there until Tania arrived.

We started with lots of circling, yoyo, squeeze and sideways. She did sideways really well this time and her squeeze was even better than Gypsy (nice disengagement and backup after). She was pretty low-key by this time and Tania was already riding, so I decided to get her saddled and get on.

She didn't stand all that well for the saddle, but it wasn't about the saddle, she was more distracted - trying to see around the trailer to where Jack was (Tania's horse). I had to reposition her several times to get her to stand while I did it up. Mounting was similar, she kept wanting to go toward Jack and check him out. I did eventually get her to stand for me.

Then for the next 45 minutes or so we did lots of walk/trot transitions, change of direction and disengaging. I tried some sideways with her as well, but she'd always give a mini-buck every time I bumped her side. So I did lots more of that until she stopped trying to buck (more like a kick and a head-toss than a buck, actually). She still objected to my heels on her side, but she was less demonstrative about it toward the end of the session. I guess I need to do lots more porcupine-game on the ground with her.

I was really impressed with her today though. Yes, she gave me some attitude here and there, but really, she showed me that she's actually a pretty solid horse. Nothing much fazed her at all. She almost cantered when we were following Jack when he was loping, but she didn't quite make it. I wasn't really aiming to canter though as I just wanted to work on refining some of her rein and leg responses, which is a lot easier at the walk/trot!

I'm still using just the hackamore halter on her. Once she's going well off my leg and turning and stopping well, etc., I'll introduce the bit again and start asking for some refinements.

Really pleased with how she's coming along! Another superstar in the making! :-)

Skittles bucks, but Gypsy canters on line!

For the first time in AGES, I actually rode two of my horses today: Skittles and Gypsy. Mind you, after Skittles, I wasn't sure I was going to attempt another horse.

Again, I just went to the field to see who wanted to come play. Skittles came up to me first, so I brought her out. I started doing tons of on-line work first, including lots of friendly game with the big green Parelli ball, which I just got. I've done stuff with my own smaller exercise ball with her and she did OK. Again, she eventually came around and I was soon rolling it up on to her back and dropping it off and bouncing it off her sides. Then we did some figure-8 and weave patterns... she's getting really good at these although she had trouble focusing on me when all the other horses headed to the back of the pasture. Then we did some more sideways and squeeze. Sideways is still kind of right-brained/reactive, but once I got a few good steps I stopped and she did tons of licking and chewing. Then we did some squeeze over the jumps, including the barrels which she hasn't done before. She jumped about twice as high as she needed to (impressive!), but not really any problem. A couple times she stopped and stuttered a bit. I backed her and let her approach again until she could make it. She was better going to the right than the left today.

Then I put the saddle on her. No issue with that. Then, because it's been a couple months since I've been on her back, I did more playing on the ground with her with the saddle on. On her first time back over the barrels with the saddle on, the stirrups slapped against the saddle which made her buck a couple times on the other side. A few more times back and forth and it was no problem.

So then I got on. She groaned and grunted (flattering!). She moved off my leg amazingly well today. I guess that porcupine game really does do the trick! I didn't go more than a walk as I just wanted to refresh her memory about moving off my leg and disengaging, etc. Plus I haven't trotted her outside the round pen, so wanted to see how she'd handle just walking around in the bigger paddock(yes, plus I'm a 'fraidy-cat too). I did some figure-8's on her back as well as some weaving and point to point between barrels. She was going pretty well, but was still somewhat distracted with trying to see where her field-mates were in the other field. Then out of the blue (yes, I know, it wasn't really out of the blue, there were probably signs, but obviously I didn't see them), she reared up and jumped sideways at the same time and I was on the ground. Really rang my bell. In hindsight, I think I may have startled her with bumping my heel on her side when her attention was in the opposite direction and not remotely on me. But I'm not completely sure. Anyway, it took me a moment to clear my head. I fell on my backside, but really jarred my spine. I'm gonna be sore tomorrow! Skittles didn't go anywhere or seem remotely upset once I came off. In fact, as I was gathering myself up and getting to my knees, she came over and nuzzled me as if to apologize.

Eventually I got back on and resumed walking her around. We did a few more figure-8's and point to point with the barrels at the walk and I left it alone soon after that.

I was going to go inside, but thought, no... I should spend a bit of time with Gypsy and work on her on-line transitions. I didn't think I'd ride, given that my back was pretty sore, but I figured I should still do some on-line stuff with her.

However, I did put the saddle on because I wanted to see if that made any difference to her behaviour on line. It did... way more "go" with the saddle on (just like when I'm riding her). At first I just let her trot around at the end of the 22' line until she started to settle into more of a rhythm (relax). She eventually did (her head came down a bit), but stayed at the trot. So we worked A LOT on her down transitions. I spent most of the time trying to get her to walk. She'd walk a few steps, then pick up the trot, I'd wiggle the rope and she'd slow, but then pick up speed again. After what seemed like an eternity of transitioning to the walk (probably about 15-20 minutes), she managed to walk one whole circle and I disengaged her. I gave her a fair bit of thinking time for that since it took her so long, then we did the same thing in the other direction. Not quite as long the second time, but almost!

Once she was finally maintaining a walk OK (i.e. managing a full circle without breaking into the trot), I asked for the up transition, which was pretty much instantaneous, like she was bursting to trot. I let her trot a couple circles, then I asked for the canter. Her trot got faster and faster, but lo and behold, she CANTERED!! Sure, she was pulling a fair bit on the line, but it wasn't a right-brained canter like it was in the round pen; she was just cantering and trying to stay on the circle. After one circle I disengaged her and gave her a great big hug. This is a FIRST! I was so thrilled!! We've been working on that for quite a while. We still need to work on it until she can do it without pulling to the outside as much, but wow, I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!

We did the same in the other direction, and I transitioned her down and up a couple more times. The down transitions are still pretty fleeting, but she's trying!

Then we did go for a ride. I probably shouldn't have, and I'll probably regret it tomorrow, but I wanted to see if her simple changes were getting better. She's really starting to pick up the canter well now and gets the right lead almost all the time. If she doesn't, I know it's my fault for not setting her up right. The simple change is definitely there, but pretty rough (again, the down transition is difficult for her). REALLY pleased with her though. She's got so much try in her. We even jumped over the barrels a few times in both directions. Every time I've tried that in the past, she veers around them, but today I pointed her at them and she didn't veer!

So even though my experience with Skittles was less than perfect, Gypsy more than made up for it. I'm really glad I didn't pack it in after Skittles. Gypsy really turned my confidence around after being dumped by Skittles, which is what I needed.

Bareback on Gypsy

I had a cool "play" day with Gypsy yesterday. Nothing specifically planned, I just went out to the pasture to visit them all. I've been pretty lazy lately... enjoying time alone with a book now that the kids have started school!! The horses were all just lazing around; some grazing, some dozing. Gypsy came up to me with a nice positive look on her face (usually she ignores me or leaves), so I gave her lots of rubs and scratches. Then I decided to try jumping on her bareback. I've tried this before (last year I think), where you get your horse to lower their head and jump on to their neck, then swing over and onto their back from there. Last year it was a comedy of errors, but after MANY attempts and thankfully lots of patience from Gypsy, I did manage to jump on.

Luckily, AGAIN, Gypsy was in a patient mood yesterday, and lo and behold I managed to jump on. I just sat there laying on her neck for a while giving her lots of love. I didn't have a halter or anything on her, so I was completely at her mercy. She was inclined to just hang there with me.

So after rubbing her all over, leaning over her neck, then laying on her back, I decided to see if I could move her front or back with my heel (porcupine game). On the ground when I use my finger tips on her side, she moves away from me. But when I'm on her back, the same signal with my heel she generally interprets as "go forward" even if it's only one leg instead of two. I worked on this a fair bit when riding her before, but I always had the bridle to correct her with. Yesterday I didn't have any of that. Anyway, she went forward. I held my heel at her girth until she turned in the right direction. I'm sure it wasn't in response to my leg, just a random turn, but I released when she turned. I did this several times over and a couple times I'm sure she turned in response to my leg!! Very cool!! :-)

After a while all the other horses started to get bothered by me riding Gypsy through them and they eventually left and trotted out of the field and up to the waterer. Gypsy followed and I got off her at the waterer to let her get a drink.

While she was busy with that I decided to try the same thing with Skittles. I've never jumped on her bareback before, but wanted to see if she'd stand for that. Again, no halter or any restraints. She did pretty well actually. She lowered her head when I asked and let me jump up on her neck a few times, but I never managed to quite get up high enough to swing up on to her back. Then she'd had enough and left. I followed her until she turned back to me and then I gave her a hug and kiss, a few rubs, and walked away.

Gypsy was following me around at this point, so I decided to give it another try. This time every time I tried to jump up, I'd get almost there and then she'd lower her head to the ground! Hmmm, I'm going to have to work on a signal to get her to raise her head to help me out once I'm on her neck... how do you separate the cue to lower her head (putting pressure on her crest) from the cue to raise her head (because me pushing on her neck is also pressure on her crest/neck!)? Maybe the halter would help.... maybe next time. In the meantime I'm going to have to work on my vertical so Gypsy doesn't get so beat up!