Jonathan Field clinic - SPECTACULAR!

"Wow" is insufficient to describe last weekend. I was absolutely bagged at the end of the 3 days, but still didn't want it to end. Even as I was driving home, I thought of about another dozen questions I wished I'd thought to ask before it was over. I wish I could have got more pictures or video, but didn't have my camera until the last day (and even then, the batteries died). There was one particular moment I wish I'd been able to get video footage: when Jonathan was showing me an example of what to do "next" once I have Gypsy connected and bending on a circle. I got what I was asking for (the bend on a circle), but then didn't have anything to ask of her once I got her full attention. So he showed me how to ask her for the next challenge (rather than continuing to ask her what she was already giving me and then annoying her) -- he suggested picking up a canter on the circle. And as she's always had trouble with that, getting him working with her on video would have been great. But I'll just have to do my best to remember what he did instead! Essentially, once I get the connection (which is amazing, by the way!), move her out and ask for the canter - as firmly as necessary. Get a half lap (or a stride or two, depending on how difficult it was), then relax and allow her back on to the responsibility circle until she relaxes again. Then go again and try to improve on the last attempt each time, but don't go more than 20 minutes. When Jonathan got a couple strides of canter from Gypsy on a short 12' line, when I could barely get her going on a 22' line, it was amazing! Shirley even came up behind me and asked if I was crying yet!

The connection on the shaping circle was my shazam moment. Jonathan called it the liberty circle as well ... so THAT's what it feels like! Pretty sweet.

Jonathan Field is an exceptional teacher. Full stop. He has a way of relating all things horses to all things human in order for us to understand the how, the what, the why and the when of horsemanship. I love the Parelli program, but there were some gaps which Jonathan filled in seamlessly. I find the Parelli program is more oriented to the person and Jonathan's program is more oriented to the horse. So they complement each other very well.

So what did I learn? Phew.... I don't think I could articulate it all! Some important key fundamentals were the 4 elements of the primary language (neutral, friendly, touch and driving); finding neutral (both standing and in motion); the priorities of maintain path, then speed, then bend and then flexion - in that order; having a plan; focussing the horse on moving toward comfort rather than away from discomfort; lateral flexion leads naturally to vertical flexion (but you need lateral flexion first); and putting practice to purpose.

Besides the bend on the circle (and the liberty connection), other breakthroughs included getting more lateral movement from Gypsy, better neutral (but we'll still need to work on this a lot more), and we managed to get a good solid canter on a smaller circle for the first time ever (the video clip below shows some of this, but we got a much better circle later after the batteries died, which we ended with. Also, Jonathan is speaking to another rider on this clip, not me). It wasn't perfect, but it was a huge improvement on our previous attempts! Prior to this clinic, the best canter we managed was around a very large outdoor arena. Amazing what improving her balance with a lot of lateral flexion will do! :-)

Anyway, it was a spectacular weekend and way too short. You know you're having fun when time flies by too fast. He even had us play a cool "bull fighting" game where one person on horseback was the bull who guarded a cone and tried to "attack" the other person on horseback who was trying to get to the cone. It was fun and challenging and it put all our practice of lateral movements to a purpose. We need to do more of that!

Play ball!

I introduced the big green ball to the colts last night. They're both so playful, I thought they would probably welcome the diversion. Morris was in the paddock with them at the time and he took off to the other side as soon as I brought the ball in. The colts, on the other hand, trotted over to have a closer look to say, "Hey, whatcha you got there?"

At first, it was actually Allegro who was most curious and he put his nose on it right away. Then he poked at it with his foot and made the ball and his foot bounce which kind of freaked him out. So then he was more cautious. Sherlock took a while longer to get close to the ball, but in no time was pushing it around, leaning on it, trying to bite it, kicking it and chasing it. He was a little more skeptical when I started bouncing it, but didn't leave. Couple very confident boys!

Allegro and Sherlock

I've been playing with the new colts quite a bit these past few days. Allegro needed his feet trimmed pretty badly, so I've been working tons with picking up his feet. Today the farrier came and trimmed them. He did really well.

Yesterday Tania came over to meet the boys and took to them right away. She couldn't wait to play with them, so we put a halter on each of them and she took Sherlock while I took Allegro and we started playing some of the 7 games. I've done a bit with each of them, so not all of it was new, but they're still pretty unsure and a bit pushy at times, so it was awesome having Tania give it a go with Sherlock. At one point she was trying to keep him from pushing his shoulder into her and they had a bit of a battle going. Tania won, so Sherlock sulked. He really did! He wouldn't even take a treat from her after that (at least not at first). She also succeeded in teaching him more porcupine and yoyo and a bit of circling.

I've done quite a bit of driving, porcupine and circle with Allegro too. We struggled quite a bit with circling a few days ago, but yesterday when we repeated the exercises, he was much quieter and quicker to catch on (and willing). I love how patient persistence always seems to work!

Today after Allegro got his feet trimmed and after I took my son to gymnastics, I just hung out in the pasture with the colts, brushing them and porcupining them away, occasionally driving them if they got into my space too much. I didn't halter either of them, just let them move around at will. Neither left. In fact they followed me around all over the place, so I decided to put my rubber boots on and see if they'd follow me into the giant puddle at the bottom of the paddock where all the snow was melting. Wouldn't hurt to see if they'd willingly cross water, right?

Well, they followed me down to the edge and watched curiously as my dogs and I waded about. Eventually Allegro got his toes wet, then took another small step and eventually came forward enough to almost get his hind feet in, but not quite. Sherlock just stayed on the edge and watched. It was cool to see how much Allegro wanted to follow me. We walked back out again and tried again a few times, but he didn't get any further than that. Sherlock didn't get more than his toes wet. But I can see tons of confidence and curiousity in Allegro. Sherlock too, but with a dab of willfulness as well! ;-) Could be a lot of fun!

Going for a walk with Sherlock and Allegro

Back from a few days of skiing and I found myself missing my new boys! When we got home last night, I went out to see them and they were both down in the round pen. I called to them and they both came galloping up! It was so sweet! What a lovely homecoming.

Today I wanted to work more with picking up Allegro's feet, grooming him, and just overall handling. My son came out with me, so we ended up bringing out both colts. And Allegro stood very quietly while I haltered him (both times previously he backed up a bit before I was able to get the halter tied). Both were groomed (they both love that) and while Pearce was walking around the yard with Sherlock I worked on picking up Allegro's feet. He's really getting better. Even after several days off, he picked up each foot fairly easily. He still has trouble standing and struggles a bit with me holding each foot, but in no time he was figuring out that if he relaxed and held still, he would get his foot back. But really, his struggling is pretty minimal and he settled pretty quickly, and stroking his leg while holding it seemed to help settle him. I picked up all 4 feet several times and each time he let me hold it just a bit longer before trying to pull it back. And each follow-up time I tried to let him have it back before he started to pull back. I am really pleased so far.

After that I took him up the driveway and back. When I did that, Sherlock got worried, so I let Pearce walk with Allegro while I took Sherlock. He's a very sweet horse, but is starting to show signs of being pushy, so we need to look after that now before he gets bigger. So while Pearce walked Allegro (who was amazingly good with Pearce), I walked and stopped, walked and stopped with Sherlock a few times to help him find the "sweet spot" while leading. It didn't take long, but we need to keep working on that lots because he still has a tendency to move into my space fairly regularly.

At one point one of the dogs spooked Allegro and he jumped away from Pearce, but once he reached the end of the lead line, he stopped and turned around and came back. It was great to see -- both that he respects the line and that he's able to come back to left-brained fairly quickly after being spooked.

I also measured Allegro today... and he's as tall as I first thought (I'm not over exaggerating!). He's 15hh!! And only 10 1/2 months old! He's gonna be a big boy!