Karen and Horses in training

Fun with Skittles after 3 months off

2010-02-15T07:54:00.000-07:00

It's taken me a while to clean all the dust off that's accumulated on this blog since I last added an entry, but here we go!

I spent about 3 hours at RafterXX with Skittles today. I took Holly and a friend of hers and met Tamara there with Toby and Spy. It's been about 2 1/2 months since I've done anything with my horses (besides playing/sitting on them in the pasture). Time to get back in the saddle - literally! But on the bright side, I've been spending time getting back into shape --- a long, arduous journey!

One very key lesson I learned from Johnathan Field last year is - when you are asking something of your horse - BE SPECIFIC. Especially when they're learning. That was what I focused on with Skittles today. After letting her explore and sniff all the poo and obstacles and things, I decided to ask her to jump a barrel. I've asked her to jump 2 barrels lying on the ground (end to end) before, and that's never been a problem. Today I just laid one barrel down and asked her to jump it. It actually took about 15 minutes because it was way easier for her to dart around rather than over, so there was lots of stopping, backing up, and re-aligning her in front of the barrel. She finally did jump over it and I let her stand there on the other side for quite a while to think about it. The second attempt did not take as long.

After that, I worked on sideways (without the wall)... she's amazing at that, then did some circling. By this time Tamara had arrived with Toby and Spy. My daughter and her friend were with me, so they immediately started playing with Toby. Tamara helped me out a bit with softening Skittles on the circle. She doesn't have much flexion around the bend at all and virtually none at her poll (she turns at the shoulder). So Tamara suggested trying some of Jonathan's shaping circle with her. She had a tough time with that, but we did get a couple good bends and I left it at that. I asked Tamara to watch me ask Skittles into the canter on the circle because I've been having trouble with keeping her in the canter (as soon as I stop asking, she stops cantering). However, today she actually cantered fairly easily and actually cantered a few strides after I stopped asking before breaking to a trot. Tamara just told me to keep up doing what I was doing and ask her to stop after a quarter of a lap, then a half a lap, then a full lap etc until she can maintain the canter until I ask her to stop... which was what I was trying to do, but before she'd always stop before I asked, so I had to keep after her to maintain the canter. Anyway... hopefully she'll be able to keep it up. It's the same problem I have with Gypsy -- although Gypsy's problem is more about being ABLE to canter in a circle (i.e. balance issues).

OK, I started typing this on Friday, and it's now Monday.... I need to stay focused!

After all that, I tried practicing mounting from the ground (asking her to lower her head, jump on her neck and swing up on her back). She was very patient, but I have virtually no vertical and every time I managed to jump on her neck, she'd swing her head away from me and I'd slide off. So I gave up for now (maybe I should practice my vertical before attempting it with my horse -- spare her from my flailing around on her neck!). Instead I stood up on the cavaletti and hopped on her back that way. I tied a savvy string around her neck to see if she'd listen to that pressure to turn and stop. I still had the halter and lead to correct her if she didn't listen too. She did respond correctly a few times, but then she didn't just as many other times, and I had to use the lead to correct her. It was a good start though... I think I'll keep trying with that. I think I'll use the bridle next time since it'll be a quicker correction that the lead (i.e. I don't have to worry about flipping it to another side before correcting).

I put the saddle on shortly after for a short riding session. Tried to get a soft, round circle at the trot. It was mostly soft - except on the side closest to the door where she tended to drift and constantly needed correcting. She corrected well enough, but I never did get a full circle without the correction. She was starting to warm up at this point and since it was so cool outside, I didn't want her working up a sweat. So I left it at that and worked on sideways over a cavaletti. Last year she's was very claustrophobic with anything under her (she wouldn't stand quietly with something under her.... she had to move away). On Friday though, she stood perfectly fine with the cavaletti under her and then moved very nicely sideways off of it. Initially I started with her stepping over the cavaletti, then moving sideways off it. Then I tried asking her to start sideways beside it - then over it. She had a fair bit of trouble with that at first, but we stuck with it and she figured it. Once she understood what I was asking she settled right down and did it flawlessly!

I was very proud of her and all the try she gave me Friday. After riding her I asked her to put her front foot inside a hoola-hoop. She didn't have much trouble with that, but when I asked her to put a hind foot in the hoop, she did have trouble with that. Lots of forward/back/sideways to get her to put a hind foot in there. After about 10 minutes or so though, she managed to get it. Then it was the tarp. She still really struggles with tarps and probably will for a while - so I have to keep at it until it's no more scary than grass. I had brought the tarp into the middle of the arena right after we arrived, but ignored it most of the time -- it was just there to move over or around as she felt she needed. I didn't avoid it, but I didn't ask her not to either - it was just there. Anyway, at the end I did ask her to step on it. It took a few minutes, but she did step her front feet on it. Back feet - again - were an issue, but with patience and persistence she did manage to step her back feet on as well. And we left it at that. It was a pretty successful day considering I haven't done anything with her since probably Oct/Nov last year!

Just Playin'

2009-12-02T07:42:00.005-07:00

Whew! December already!!!

I had a friend (Sarah) visiting from England all week last week. She took hundreds of photos (mostly of the horses) while she was here. She's as crazy about horses as I am, but unfortunately doesn't have any of her own, so she spends a lot of time with mine when she's here.

We spent a lot of time just "hanging" with the horses, but also managed to ride a couple times. The first time she rode Roma (a friend's horse) while I rode Gypsy. We borrowed my neighbour's arena, then rode around the fields after that. I was trying to get Sarah to trot without letting her hair bounce (i.e. absorbing the movement through her pelvis).... I think she managed it a few times, but needs more practice! :-)

I rode Gypsy in the bareback pad and halter and asked for some lateral flexion, sidepasses, circles, etc. and she did them all nice and soft. She still is way more forward outside the arena. Not prancy like she used to be, but every time I stopped her to let Roma catch up, she got upset, and kept trying to leave without me, so I had to circle and make her stand until she could wait for me to ask. I probably should have kept at that until she blew or could stand still more relaxed, but I didn't.

The second time we rode, Sarah rode Gypsy and I rode Saphira. My neighbour and her friend also joined us on their "seasoned" horses. I rode Saphira in a bareback pad and halter (first time without a saddle). Gypsy and Saphira were awesome. The "seasoned" horses had trouble though... lots of spooking and jigging. And here's my little 2 year-old who's only been ridden outside an arena one other time, just walking along calm as can be! I was so proud of her! I don't think I'll ride her bareback again for a while though... she's so bum-high right now that I felt like I was sliding into her withers the whole time! :-) Growth spurt.

Below are some more photos of us just playing with the rest of the herd.

Updates for everyone

2009-11-16T09:18:00.006-07:00

I've been playing a lot with all my horses in the past few weeks, so I'll see if I can provide an update on all of them:

Sherlock: Actually I haven't done much with him because he injured himself 10 days ago. He scared the crap out of me when I found him struggling to come up the hill (after all the other horses were up at the hay), dragging his front leg. In my panic, I was thinking he broke his leg (being a mom -- or is it just being female? -- I immediately feared the worst!). But after taking a few deep breaths, and upon closer examination, nothing seemed obviously injured. He had a bit of blood on his shoulder and some swelling, but no other marks. I thought he must have been kicked and he injured his shoulder. So I backed the trailer to the gate and managed to encourage him to hop on 3 legs up the hill to the gate and into the trailer. He's such a trooper. I was so amazed when he even hopped into the trailer on 3 legs! What a guy. The vet poked and prodded him, shaved his shoulder and revealed a puncture wound. She could not feel any damage to the shoulder at all and his range of motion seemed ok, despite the soreness. She figured that the punture probably jammed some nerves. So she put him on bute for 4 days and antibiotics for 10. After 3 days on bute, he was trotting around like his old self. Big relief.

Allegro: I took him to 3D a couple weeks ago to play with him online. He's starting to settle down a bit... less tail swishing and pulling away when he's asked to do something. He can circle both ways (better to the right) with slack in the line, yoyo is spectacular, driving is about 80% consistent and even sideways is getting better. He's really ticklish too, so porcupine tends to lead to friendly. But he does move away from the pressure pretty quickly.

He loves to play with the tarp, so I started putting it on his back. Really no big deal (see short video clip at the end). He's still pretty skeptical, but is starting to be more interested than upset when we try something new.

Saphira: I've probably done the most with her recently. She's going to be a nice horse (provided I don't screw up!). She's starting to learn to move off my leg pressure (forward as well as sideways). Sometimes I still have to go to phase 4, but I think that's more about her testing me rather than not understanding. However sideways off my leg still needs work. Her first instinct is to move into my leg. I've tried incorporating adding driving with the stick if she moves into my leg, and that has worked sort of, although I'm pretty uncoordinated with the stick while on her back, so I've abandoned that. She's starting to understand the different cues for moving her front feet vs her back feet. Although we've only worked on this at the standstill, not walk or trot yet. On the ground, her sideways is OK, but could use more work: I can drive the front end and the back end, but not both together yet. Yoyo is nice and light and the circle is wonderful to the left, but still a bit stiff to the right (she tends to stop and look at me a lot more going to the right).

We've started playing with obstacles too now. I tried sideways over a barrel last week. I had to take it really slow - I think she thought I was trying to drive her into a wall! She did eventually figure out that the barrel would fit under her and I let her stand there until she licked and chewed, then let her step out. Smart girl! I still can't get Skittles to do that! I'm still working on the pole with Skittles, not even close to a barrel yet!

Skittles: I haven't rode her in a couple of weeks, but I played at liberty with her last week which was kind of fun. I had her going sideways, yoyoing (although the bring-back was more like a catching game!) and even backing by pulling on her tail. She does all of it really well... although she did decide to leave a few times. I got her up on the pedestal at liberty too. Just the front though. I'm hoping to work with Tania to get her "bring-back" a little sharper. Even online, her first response to pressure on the halter is to pull back. It's only for a second, then she comes forward, but I'd like to fix that. Plus the bring-back is sluggish, so if I can get Tania to swing a savvy string behind her when she pulls back, maybe she'll come forward quicker.

Gypsy: Gypsy is pregnant now, so I will only have a few more months to ride her before she starts to get big and uncomfortable. I took her to 3D with Saphira last week so my daughter and her friend could ride her. She's my friend/kid-proof horse. Although she was a bit wingy when we got there, so I did some ground work and riding before I let the girls get on her. She's such a pleasure to work with. Sure we still have some things to work on (lots!), but she's so responsive and tries so much for me, I just love playing with her. We've really come a long way. She still struggles with cantering online. She - like Saphira - is much better to the left than the right. I know she can do this because we did it for the L2 tasks, but that was in a huge outdoor arena... I wonder if that has anything to do with it (perception of more space)??. Anyway, I did manage to get nearly a full circle of canter to the left, and about a half circle to the right. I was focusing more on her response to "the allow" than the actual distance she cantered. I just wanted her to pick it up. I left it at that, then got on and rode for a while.

She is so much softer than a year ago. Her rooting is almost gone and her sideways and lateral flexion are starting to get nice and soft. She's even starting to get some vertical flexion. I'm so pleased with that progress, because it's been a long time coming. I had a hard time relinquishing her to the girls! Next time I'd like to work more on sharper transitions. That's our next big obstacle.

Skittles + Tarp

2009-11-01T12:36:00.004-07:00

I know it's been ages since I've blogged, and I apologize for those who've mentioned it :-).
I've been busy with the horses, I just haven't taken photos or blogged, and I apologize.

Saphira is coming along really well. She started out with sticky feet (didn't want to go) and wiggly lines (couldn't walk in a straight line), and was very stiff circling to the right -- which was more like a square actually. Left was nice and soft. However, now she's got lots of forward, is getting nice and straight, has maintained very quick, soft responses to cues and has even started softening on the circle to the right. I haven't done anything in about a week with her now because one hind leg was swollen the last time I took her out, so I've been leaving her to heal. She doesn't appear to be lame, so it could have just been a kick or a strain from slipping in the mud or something. She seems a lot better now, so will probably try to ride her again tomorrow.

I've also been working a lot with Skittles. She's also been doing well. She had about 2 months off after she dumped me back at the beginning of August. Did I ever mention that? We were walking along in the ditch near my house and she reached her nose down (I thought she was reaching for a bite of clover). She sniffed a scrap of newspaper, it fluttered, and she LAUNCHED into the stratosphere, striking at the killer piece of paper with her front feet, and lept sideways at the same time, leaving me hovering up in the clouds. I landed, as you can imagine, quite hard -- on my left cheek. Thankfully there's lots of padding there, but it still hurt like hell and required sitting on ice for several days, while it turned every possible shade of purple, black and blue. There's still a dent. After I was able to breathe again, I got up, picked up the offending piece of paper, put it in my pocket, got back on Skittles and walked her up and down the ditch again, got off at home and played friendly game with the paper. She got as far as sniffing it with her neck outstretched and I left it at that (she started with flying around me on the 12' line, so I felt that was pretty good progress).

Since then, I've mostly been focusing on the colts and Saphira (i.e. not sitting in a saddle for a while). So it was way past time to get back on Skittles... which I did early in Oct. and have been riding her every week since.

Last week - on Monday, I spent close to an hour with her and a tarp. Tarps are categorized in the same "killer" category as fluttery pieces of paper. I've been avoiding tarps - because they're difficult, and I'd rather work on things that are easy. Wrong approach, I know, but that's the way my brain works (and don't tell me yours doesn't either!). Anyway, long story short, we made a bit of a breakthrough.... she's still not entirely hunky dorey with the tarps, so we'll continue to work with it, but she's WAYYYYYY better than before. At the end of Monday, she was able to put one toe (if she had a toe) on the tarp, and I was able to rub her all over on both sides with it, walk away and she was licking and chewing.

The video clip below is last Wednesday -- session #2 with the tarp. She even stepped on it with a back foot! :-) I will continue to play with the tarp until it's as common as dirt for her. The difficult is starting to get easier.

More with Saphira

2009-10-04T07:35:00.005-06:00

I had another session with Saphira the other day. She's improving with her driving and circle. I can't get a trot out of her in the circle yet... she'll trot as long as I keep pressure in zone 5, but as soon as I lower the stick, she goes back to a walk. I need to keep at it until she can trot long enough for me to ask for the walk before she does it herself. Then build on that. Maybe I'll try Linda's trick of changing direction each time she slows to a walk. But for now, I'll just work on getting the circle good at the walk -- see if she can stay on the circle without veering toward the gate (path first, then speed, right?)

I keep forgetting about squeeze for some reason... will try that next time! I also did more driving from zone 3. She's getting good at that. And we did more with the pedestal. There's no hesitation with stepping up with her front feet at all. I tried several times to get her to put a hind leg up, but as soon as one of the hind legs steps up, a front leg steps down. So I practiced getting more specific with where she puts her feet by asking her to step (and stand) into a small hoola hoop. She did this several times with her front feet without much trouble. I couldn't get her to do the same with a hind leg, however.... will have to keep working on that. She's less confident with her hind legs stepping on anything at the moment. Anyway, I did get her to let me lift one of her hind legs while her front legs were on the pedestal, but she wasn't able to set it down on the pedestal. But it's a start.

Then I saddled her up and rode for a while. I was hoping her walk/trot transitions would be a bit better this time, but they were actually worse this time! She really didn't want to move much. I didn't use treats this session... I was just planning to give her rest if she managed to trot across the paddock. Leg pressure meant nothing at all, so I continually had to use phase 4 (savvy string on the butt) to get her to trot... and even to walk when we were near the gate. Hmmmm.... not sure how to fix that. I get off her at a different place each time and I've even left from the gate at the other end of the paddock once. She continually drifts toward the side of the paddock where the other horses are. I guess it'll eventually get better, as long as I find places away from the gate to give her rest, but I have to get her there first! I wonder if it will help when I start trailering her to other locations. and get her away from the horses altogether. That seemed to help with Skittles: whenever we were alone in a strange location, she was much more connected to me. My "training" paddock is pretty small and boring... so maybe a new location will help. And I haven't tried any of the patterns yet either... now that she's better with the 7 games, maybe it's time to start some patterns... perhaps that will help as well.

It's definitely getting interesting! A new puzzle to solve... OH BOY! :-)

Saphira continuing training at home

2009-09-29T14:38:00.003-06:00

I had a really cool session with Saphira today. Third ride since coming home last weekend. I haven't ridden too much because I want her girth sores to heal. They're scabbed over right now... nearly dried up, so we're close.

I started today's session with just some 7 games again. She's pretty sticky on the driving game and I had to stay at phase 4 a few times trying to drive her front end around (popping her on the side of the head with the stick). She would occasionally turn her head away (which I gave relief for, but only for a few seconds), but wouldn't move her feet. Eventually she moved her feet sideways and I released. We repeated a couple more times and then she got it. And when she got it, she virtually SPUN away. Very cool. I hope it comes easier next time. Driving her hind away is easier, but at the start I still had to get to phase 4.

Circle is still tough for her. We started out with a struggle going to the right again ... always as she's coming around and away from the gate. I know it wasn't a squeeze this time (I made sure of it), she just wanted to go toward the gate and not away from it. But I was patient and persistent in asking her to continue around and finally she did. The first few circles to the right I had to re-send just about every quarter turn, but I kept it up until she was able to do one full circle, then I asked her to disengage. I gave her lots of pats and rubs and let her stand there a while before asking for the other direction. Going left only took about 3 sends before she made it around once without help.

I didn't do any squeeze or sideways. After finishing circling, I took her around to various obstacles to get her to touch/push or put her foot on it. At the pedestal, she stepped up right away this time (remembering the treat she got last time). At the ball she put her nose on it, but didn't push it. She got a treat. So when the wind blew the ball down the slope, I asked her to follow it and she did with great focus and when she touched it, she immediately looked back at me for her treat! Smart cookie! I can see that treats are going to be a major motivator for her! At the hoola-hoop she nosed it, then pawed at it.

After all that, I went and put the saddle on her. She stands so well for saddling. I still can't get either Gypsy or Skittles to stand that well! Once in the saddle, I asked her to trot around me both directions a couple times. It takes a lot of encouragement to get her into a trot, but we're getting better. Then I hopped on. Steering is working great... I barely move the rein at all to get her to turn her head. It's really lovely! But staying straight in one direction is definitely a challenge. We weaved around quite a bit to get from one side to the other. But she's is definitely responding well to both rein and leg pressure, so I'm very confident that straightness will come.

I trotted her today too. She kept wanting to go back to the gate, so I used that to get the trot. She wouldn't trot past the gate though, so I had to use the treat strategy to get that to work. First to get her to trot away from the gate, I had to use phase 4 (savvy string on the butt). But then when we got to the other side of the paddock she got a treat! This time we walked back to the gate, then asked for the trot... she walked faster, but I still needed the savvy string to get the trot. And she got another treat on the other side again. She really liked that idea. Then she turned toward the pedestal and stepped up! And again, looked for the treat! She's such a smartie-pants. And offering so much. I did give her treats since she's trying so hard for me. I know I can't keep that up, but I also want to continue to make these early sessions with her as positive as possible. THEN she meandered over to the hoola hoop and picked it up! She's such a cool horse. I'm getting such a kick out of her. I got off after that and called it a day. What a sweetie.

MY first ride on Saphira

2009-09-23T12:53:00.005-06:00

Saphira came home from Redwater on Sunday afternoon. I've left her alone for the last couple days to let the past few days sink in. Today we got back into the training again.

I was excited to get on her. I wanted to try before taking her to Redwater, but decided not to -- just in case she decided to object -- and I didn't want to mess with her head before Martin and his crew started her. So I didn't. But TODAY.... now I can continue what he started.

She didn't come out of the pasture too nicely. Lots of stopping and wanting to turn back because that's where her herd was. But we got there. Lots of waiting on thresholds, but also applying pressure. One of the other horses eventually decided to follow us and once there was another horse heading out with us, Saphira didn't object. No problem. As I do more and more with her, this will get better. Once out of the pasture I groomed her and picked her feet. For the first time she stood still when I picked up ALL FOUR feet. First time. I was ecstatic! Every time before, she had trouble with her hind feet and had to move away from me. Today she stood perfectly.

She still has sores under her girth from the clinic. Five days in a row with a saddle and girth on after having never had one before -- sores are inevitable. So I was very cautious and slow doing the girth up. She stood very nicely to be saddled. I noticed all of Martin's guys saddled from the left side. I generally saddle from the right, so I was interested to see if she'd react at all to the change. Nope. She moved a bit and pawed the ground when I did up the girth though. I expected that since I knew she'd be sore. But I did try to be as gentle as possible.

Once saddled, I let her loose in the paddock (my newly filled in paddock!) to explore and get a feel for the saddle. She trotted around sniffing this and that. I kept her moving until she slowed down and started blowing. Then I put the halter back on, led her around, tightened the girth a bit, then prepared to mount up. When I put my foot in the stirrup, she turned her head toward me and looked like she was asking what I was up to? I pulled down on the horn to ensure she was braced. She was ready and so I mounted up. She stayed in the same position the whole time, sniffing my foot as I mounted up. Then she sniffed my other foot. Then she decided to graze. I flipped the lead back and forth a few times and asked for lateral flexion. No problem. Then I asked her to move her feet. No problem, but mostly she went in circles. I just let her go where she wanted and just kept using the lead to change direction. I only stayed on for a few minutes - long enough to get a few turns and for her to move off my leg. Then I got off. Great start! I'm so pleased with how positive she is!

I spent the rest of the session working on the 7 games: porcupine, driving and circle. She knows yoyo really well. She still tends to move into pressure, so we worked on this quite a bit. As well as driving from zone 4/5. This is also a challenge. We had quite an argument at one point trying to get her to go around me to the right. She kept stopping and wheeling left. Then I FINALLY figured out it was because we were getting close to the fence and the pedestal was on the other side of the fence. She was feeling SQUEEZED! I backed further away from the fence and she was able move past me to the right. Duh. She's more of an introvert, so my read on her isn't as easy. I'm glad she's patient! I did finally get it. We tried a few more circles to the right, then switched to the left. She was licking and chewing by this time, so we called it quits.

She was pretty sweated up when I unsaddled her, so clearly the "arguing" was stressful for her (even if she's not as expressive as my extroverted Skittles or Allegro). I need to be more aware of that in future sessions. I need AMY here again! She's my local introvert specialist! :-)

I put some dermagel on her girth sores, let her wander and graze a bit, then let her back in with the others. She did great. She's going to be a cool horse to work with.

Saphira meets Martin Black

2009-09-23T11:49:00.005-06:00

Saphira went back to Redwater last week to participate in the Martin Black colt start clinic held there from the 16th to the 20th. This was part of the very generous purchase agreement with Rocking G Ranch: the 2-year-old colts sold at the auction last spring were eligible to come back and get started by Martin Black for free. I wasn't overly concerned about how she'd handle it. She has such a lovely personality and positive attitude toward all the new things I've tried with her, that I didn't think being ridden would be any different. I was right. She took everything in stride. She was one of only a few horses that didn't buck even once during the whole clinic.

To start, Martin put a rope on each horse's hind leg while the cowboy on the ground held the halter. She was allowed to get used to the feel of the rope and to learn to give to it ... that is, to stop when there was pressure applied to it. She was more annoyed by it than anything, but quickly figured out how to accommodate it with the least fuss. Once she figured that out, she was saddled. She moved around a bit, but again, quickly figured out that standing still was the easiest path and in no time she was standing calmly licking and chewing while they did up the saddle, buckles, breast collar, etc. Then they put a snaffle bit in her mouth (attached by a string around her poll), to get her to learn to carry it; then removed the halter and let her move freely around the round pen with the saddle to get used to the feel of it. She was the second horse saddled, and once they had about 10 of them loose in the round pen, Martin started driving them around and asking them for the up/down transitions. He says it's the transitions that horses have the most trouble with at the beginning. Saphira handled it all really well and even figured out how to stay out of the way of the horses NOT having an easy time of it. Once Martin was satisfied that none of the horses was going to hurt itself, he let them run out in the large arena. The only thing Saphira did was to kick out a couple times - and that had more to do with keeping some of the horses from running up her backside than anything!

Then they were brought back into the round pen one at a time. The rope was put back on their hind leg and then the cowboy assigned to each horse mounted up. Cory had Saphira for the first day. He was one of the cowboys from last year, so I was pleased she was getting someone I knew. She didn't even bat an eye. He got on and started asking her to give to the lead rope by flipping it back and forth from side to side. She did wonderfully and was walking around responding to Cory as if she'd been doing it all her life.

The second day of the clinic was a replica of the first, but it went a bit faster for the horses that were OK with the saddle. Mounting was preceded by getting ahold of the hind leg with the rope again, just to be safe (sometimes the second or third ride is more difficult than the first one). But Saphira did just as well on day 2 as day 1. In fact, if anything she was impatient! She started pawing the ground after being stopped by the rope on her leg... I got the impression she was saying - "I'm good! I get it! Stop pulling on my leg!" So days 3 to 5 there was no rope. And by day 3, they introduced the bridle and started asking her to understand the rein pressure instead of the leadrope. As with everything else, she took this all in stride as well.

The horses that were still having trouble (bucking) on day 4 and 5 were ridden more than once each day. On the one hand I was a little disappointed that Saphira didn't get more than 5 rides. But on the other hand, this just meant that there were no issues with her that needed to be worked on, so that was a GOOD thing!
I was very pleased with the pace of this clinic and the softness of the riders. There was virtually no stress for Saphira at any time. Of course, I know if she had been more right-brained, there would have been more stress, but still. I was also pleased that the goal each day was to stop each day when the horse was soft, supple and relaxed, ending each day a positive experience. Some were done sooner than others because of this (like Saphira), but they made sure each horse got to that point. It was a great experience for her and it will subsequently make my job a LOT easier.

Creative trail ride

2009-09-09T10:29:00.005-06:00

This past Monday (Labour Day), Maureen, Meaghan, Tania and I met at the Blackfoot's Central Staging area for a nice trail ride. Tania has become disenchanted with trail rides lately because there's no creativity in them, so we all agreed that this time we'd do some creative things on the trail and not just go from A to B. And Maureen and Meaghan are definitely the ones you want along if you want creativity! I brought Gypsy this time as she's been pretty neglected this summer while I've spent most of my time with Skittles.

Before we even got on the trail we started with going sideways over the logs bordering the parking lot! Khan (Maureen's horse) had absolutely no trouble with this, so she also jumped back and forth a few times as well as just had him stop over top of the log. Gypsy had trouble with sideways over the log while I was on her back, so I got off and asked her from the ground. She managed that OK, so when I got back on, she managed to work it out better and we went both ways over the log.

After we were on the trail a while, we played "leap-frog" where the last horse passes all the other horses and moves to the front to take the lead. When Gypsy was in the back, I asked her to stay behind while the other horses kept moving. She got really agitated when the other horses were out of sight - lots of jigging sideways, up and down, pawing the ground. I worked on asking her to stand until she was able to stay still long enough for me to ask her to go forward (rather than let her). After the first couple tries, I realized this was too far out of her comfort zone to start, and the next few tries, I asked her forward if she stood still while the other horses moved ahead, but before they were out of sight. That worked way better. We can build that threshold over time.

We also worked on sideways down the trail, backwards up hills, jumping logs, point to point (eg. allowing grazing only when they got to a chosen spot). And at a couple spots along the trail we had to go through gates. There was a bit of a squeeze between fences and then the gate just pushed open. Maureen had no trouble at all getting through the first gate (she really had no trouble with anything she asked of Kahn!). Gypsy had some trouble because I had to ask her forward enough to get her head and neck over the gate so I could reach it to push on it. And since the gate was in the way, she got confused. Eventually we figured it out, but then she squirted through the gate and ripped the leg on my riding pants (argh!). Meaghan just drove Reesa through from the ground (smart girl!). Tania and Jack also managed without any trouble at all.

At a similar gate on the way back, Gypsy managed it much better and came through the gate a little slower, but I had to let go once we were through because I couldn't get Gypsy to yield her hind end around so I could move sideways to close it. Oh well, baby steps right? I'd like to work on gates with her more at home so it'll get better the next time we're on the trail.

Maureen actually backed through the second gate! Woohoo! Very impressive. Good Better Best!

Back at the staging area, I asked Gypsy to go sideways over the log again and she did it without any trouble.

A really nice and very interesting trail ride! I hope we do it again soon.

Sherlock meets Amy

2009-09-02T10:09:00.003-06:00

Amy came over on Monday to visit and play with my horses. Amy just recently finished her L3 and is working toward her L4 with her horse Sugar, so I was thrilled to have her come play with my horses. Amy has quite a few more "savvy arrows" than I have, so getting feedback from her was excellent. I hope she's able to come out again soon!

We brought both Sherlock and Allegro out of the pasture. They're the two that Amy hasn't met yet. She started with Allegro while I worked with Sherlock, then we switched. Immediately Amy realized she was going to need the 22' line on Allegro. Amy is used to working with an introvert, and Allegro is very much an extrovert. And right-brained to start. I think he's innately LBE, but frequently goes RB because he's young and still quite unconfident. Without pressure, he's really quite playful. Eventually Amy had Allegro settled and listening to her. His most obvious "tell" is his switching tail. Once that stopped whipping back and forth, he was able to come down and respond appropriately to her cues. I had the same problems with him when I played with him at RafterXX: Like a kite at the end of the line at first, but pretty soon he was getting it.

I had pegged Sherlock as a LBE. But Amy figures he's LBI. He's REALLY pushy. He tends to walk right through you (especially if you're on his right). I really enjoyed watching Amy work with him. While Allegro's "release" was being allowed to chew on the carrot stick, Sherlock's release was just being walked around. Several times when Amy asked him to come forward off pressure, he'd try to go through her and she rather vigorously had to defend her space (first photo). And a couple times when she ask him to circle - he waited until she used phase 4, then tried to leave rather emphatically. They had a few arguments like that, but Amy had a great attitude with lots of humour and pretty soon he was doing what she wanted with a good attitude as well. I can learn a lot from her. I tend to get frustrated easily. Less than I used to, but I still notice it. If I talk out loud to him like she does, maybe that'll help! She made me laugh at one point when she asked him to back up (after crowding her again) and showed me she was still grinning - and it was a very forced grin! :-) She was trying REALLY hard to stay positive! But sometimes I guess that's what it takes, right?

A few times he went introverted and she had to change the pattern quickly to break him out of it... he was having a hard time with the stick and string - differentiating between driving and friendly (not unusual) and he got into the pattern of just running around her. Instead of continuing to swing the string until he stopped his feet, she quickly changed direction over and over until he was able to stop. Then she re-introduced the friendly stick and string and he was able to stand still. There's those savvy arrows at work! Way to go Amy! I really enjoyed watching her work with both horses. I got a lot out of it and I hope she did as well!

Sherlock and the kids

2009-08-11T09:51:00.006-06:00

Sherlock is turning into such a cool little horse. Well, he was always a cool little horse, actually, that's why I bought him! Callum has decided he wants to work with Sherlock, so I'm all for it. I've started teaching him the 7 games and how to reward the slightest try as well as making sure he has a plan each time he goes out to work with him. So he's gone out a few times now... he's tried the porcupine game, yoyo and circle game. Sherlock is a very left-brained horse (mostly extrovert), so there's a lot of playfulness. I showed Callum how to use phases and he had to use phase 4 a couple times to get Sherlock moving on the circle, which resulted in Sherlock going off around Callum with a few bucks and kicks thrown in for good measure. That gave me a good opportunity to show Callum how to stay safe! Just because Sherlock is small doesn't mean he can't still cause injury! Anyway, he got it all worked out and they did pretty well together!

A few days after that, Holly had a friend over and they went to get Sherlock to brush him and play with him and let him graze on the lawn. Kevin decided to try playing Friendly Game with him - with an obstacle.... our daughter! He picked her up and put her on his back (letting her hold on to him so he could lift her off if Sherlock objected). We've put lots of stuff on his back before without any adverse reaction, so this time was no different. He was perfectly content to carry Holly while he grazed. She's only about 50 lb, so I wasn't too concerned with causing him any harm if she just sat on him. Anyway, in no time, Holly and her friend were boosting each other up on him and jumping down from both sides several times and Sherlock just took it all in stride (see attached video clip). Way to go Sherlock! He's going to be a great little horse.

Sandbar Ranch on the McLeod River

2009-07-30T15:12:00.007-06:00

Wow what an awesome weekend! Shirley hosted the (now) annual Sandbar Ranch Parelli trail ride. It's held at her sister and brother-in-law's ranch which is a spectacular piece of property on the McLeod River south of Whitecourt. I missed it last year, but am SO GLAD I made it this year. In fact, Shirley emailed me back in like February when she had to set the date for this year to make sure I'd be able to make it. I'm so grateful for that and thrilled that I made it. It also happened to fall on my birthday weekend, which was the absolute most perfect gift I could have given myself. It was probably the most fun I've ever had with my horse.

Well, except for the very beginning. Thankfully Louise was with me to help with the horses as well as maintain some good humour. I picked up Louise and her horse Rascal before heading out and everything was going great... horses loaded really well, the truck was packed and comfy, air conditioning on, we were laughing at our various adventures of late, then hmmmm all of the sudden there was a slight change in the vibration of the truck and trailer. I looked out my rear view mirror and it looked like there was mud or something flying off the trailer. Except there was no mud on the highway. Crap. I pulled over.... yup blew a tire. Crap crap crap! Oh well, it's 30+ degrees out, so we unloaded the horses so they wouldn't cook inside the trailer, and Louise led them into the ditch to graze. I got out the tire irons and jack to change the tire and a lovely man stopped right about then to give me a hand. We had no trouble getting the blown tire removed, but the bolt holding my spare tire on was so long my tire wrench couldn't reach the nut! Crap! And of course I didn't have any other tools. Neither did the lovely man who stopped for us. I called AMA, but they were going to charge me for the full service - even if all I wanted was to borrow a crescent wrench - because I didn't have RV coverage on my membership. The lovely man who stopped then offered to drive back to Stoney Plain to purchase a crescent wrench. What an amazingly generous thing to do! I gave him all my money (which was only $10) and we sat by the road and waited. Before said lovely man returned though, another man stopped who did happen to have a crescent wrench, so we were able to remove the spare tire and install it. Which was just as well, because Lovely Man #1 was unable to find a crescent wrench. I tried to get him to keep the $10 I gave him - for all his troubles -- but he was having none of it. After the tire was installed, I noticed it wasn't quite inflated enough, so I took it back to a gas station to inflate, then came back and parked in a nearby service road to load the horses up safely. And we were finally on our way again. We called Shirley to let them know we'd be late and to not hold anyone up waiting for us.

It was about 2:00 or so when we arrived. We found pens for the horses, pitched the tent, and grabbed a drink. I was going to head back to Whitecourt to replace the tire (I didn't want to return home without a spare), but Shirley's brother-in-law found one with exactly the same rim size and bolt pattern for me to borrow until I was able to replace the damaged tire back home. Another lovely man! So we were able to start playing with the horses and leave the stress of the blown tire behind us. Louise and I spent a few minutes in the arena with the various obstacles, then a bunch of people were heading to the river, so we grabbed our bareback pads and tagged along. I was thinking it might be too soon to ride Skittles (not enough ground work to get her mind settled), but didn't want to miss out on the river since I was a puddle of sweat by this time (really hot day). I rode her in just the bareback pad and halter (first time I've ever done that too!) and Skittles was amazing.

Her first exposure to water was a bit tentative, but after a few steps in, and pawing/frothing in the water, she got braver and braver (it helped that there were other horses there too!). That first day, she got in to just above her knees. I got off and also splashed water on her, which she really seemed to appreciate. After a while she was so relaxed, it almost looked like she was dozing. Maybe she was!

After the potluck dinner Saturday night (which was FABULOUS), most of us (about 15, I would say) got back on the horses for a nice long trail ride. This time I used my saddle. She was a bit more agitated in the larger group and I was grateful I put the saddle on as she was jigging a fair bit in the open fields ... I wasn't quite ready to let her canter and held her back in a trot. She probably would have been fine, but I'd rather try cantering her in a smaller group first. It was about 10:3o by the time we returned to the ranch and getting pretty close to dark. Amazing ride, wonderful scenic trails and even a couple challenging hills - which Skittles handled like a pro. Very proud of her.

Sunday was another scorcher day, although thankfully a bit more overcast. Louise and I started playing in the "playground" with the giant tires, bridge, log jump and "carwash." A year ago, I don't think Skittles would have gone into the same field as this scary fluttering carwash contraption, but last weekend, I was able to get her to walk calmly through it with about a third of the plastic strips tied back. I am continuously marvelling at her trust and confidence this year. A different horse! She also handled the bridge no problem and stood on the pedestal -first with just her front, then eventually with all 4 feet. No issues. And of course she jumped the log no problem (with about 3 feet to spare - as usual!).

Then we saw Shirley heading back to the river, and I shouted for her to wait and we tagged along. On Saturday, a couple of the guys were actually swimming with their horses, so I wanted to see how deep Skittles would go. I played circling game with her and each time around, I'd see if she'd go a bit deeper. Eventually she got deep enough so it was nearly to the top of her back, but didn't want to go any deeper. I didn't push it. I want this to be a positive and fun experience for her too. But while she was that deep, I was able to use the buoyancy of the water to jump up on her back. And she stood very politely and quietly while I flailed and splashed in the water and squirmed up on her back. Seriously - a different horse! We continued to play around in the water for a while, then eventually got back on and meandered through various trails back to the ranch. We gobbled up leftover potluck for a late lunch, then unfortunately had to pack up and head home.

I can't say enough how impressed I am with Skittles with every new thing I throw at her this year. She's turning into such a cool horse. I'm so glad I stuck with her. This weekend was amazing. I can't wait until next year! Thank you Shirley!!

Allegro goes to play @ Rafter XX

2009-07-04T14:01:00.006-06:00

On Canada Day, I met Tamara and Toby (her little mini) over at Rafter XX. I decided to give Allegro some travel experience and start playing online with him. My daughter came with me and she absolutely fell in love with little Toby. Such a cutie! She had tons of fun playing with him and I think Tamara was happy to have someone to play with him (since her pregnancy limits her playing a fair bit these days!). Toby was really wary of Holly at first and vice versa. But within an hour or so, and with Tamara's guidance, Holly got more confident with him and he with her. It was pretty cute. Video clip of Holly and Toby at the end.

Allegro loaded and travelled really well. Once in the arena, we just walked around and investigated stuff at first. Then started playing the 7 games. Friendly was fine...we've done tons of that at home with just about everything. Porcupine was good as well... he's actually really ticklish in his side, so he was twitching, swishing his tail and swinging his head around to scratch his side every time I touched him there, but he soon figured out that just moving away would stop the tickle! Yo yo was no problem. Driving game was stronger on his left side than his right... which really became apparent when we tried sideways. He'd go sideways really well to the right (with me on his left), but couldn't figure out what I wanted going the other way. It was the same with circling as well. If I tried to send him to the right, and support with the carrot stick, he'd move in the opposite direction. So we had some fairly lengthy "discussions" and he eventually managed to figure out what I wanted. I quit as soon as I was able to get 3 good sends in that direction.

Squeeze also had some issues.... more with disengaging and stopping than anything. He kept wanting to continue in a circle, and especially going left, he'd pull against the line and run into the savvy string rather than come off that pressure and stop against the wall. Again, we had some lengthy discussions, but came through it out the other side with 2 or 3 very nice disengagements in each direction in the end.

Then we just went around and played with some obstacles... cavaletti, ball, cones and tarp. None of the obstacles caused him any grief. He's really quite confident with most things, which I love. Photo attached is of Allegro pawing the tarp. The first time he crossed it, he pawed it up under him, then stretched out and peed on it! Crazy horse.

We were there for nearly 3 hours. A really fun day, and Allegro made some great progress.

Robin's Misty Lady

2009-06-30T08:01:00.008-06:00

Not sure how this happened, but I now have another horse! (But no, unfortunately not the guy in the first photo). I went to Rocking G Ranch's first production sale last weekend. I really only went to see how the horses were going to sell. I picked up an auction number -- mostly because I wanted a chance at Jae's Blue Shocker - the blue roan colt started last summer at the Martin Black clinic that I had named "Socks," and that I kind of bonded with(pictured left). Once I found out his registered name, I started calling him BlueJae. I really didn't think I'd be able to get him/afford him, but I got the number just in case. I ended up bidding about $2-300 more than the limit I set for myself, but still didn't get him. Sigh... I also bid on a really nice buckskin filly, but didn't win her either.

Toward the end of the auction, a couple other nice colts went through... I bid on a grade filly who was really sharp looking, but then Amy also bid on her, so I stopped. Amy ended up winning the bid, but it was challenged by someone else, so she let her go to the other guy. Then came this other nice blue roan filly that I hadn't really looked all that closely at. Kev encouraged me to bid on her (he figured she was as nice as BlueJae, plus I think Kev hates to leave any auction empty-handed!), so sure, what the heck? Somehow I ended up winning the bid! So I am now the proud owner of a cute 2-year-old blue roan filly named Robin's Misty Lady (pictured above, and she's the 2nd horse running past in the clip below). She's a lot lighter now than in the photo. Kind, friendly and easy-going. The best part is that the purchase price includes starting her at the Martin Black clinic this September at no additional cost. Woohoo! After the auction, I went out to have a closer look at her. I walked up to her and said, "well, I guess you're mine, little lady." She responded by nosing/nuzzling my shirt. So I guess that's a good sign, right?

I haven't given her a name yet. We've tried on "Robin," "Ladybird," "Bluebird," (all closely related to her registered name), as well as "Saphira". My daughter likes Saphira (or Sapphire). Another friend suggested simply "Misty" (or maybe Misty Blue?) ... it might grow on me.... I'm not completely sure yet. Shiloh is another possibility (that's the name of a Neil Diamond song I've always liked). Anyone out there have any suggestions/votes? :-)

Skittles' first trip to Blackfoot

2009-06-16T17:42:00.004-06:00

Today was Skittles' first trip to the Blackfoot. I've been looking forward to this all spring. Last week I took Skittles to Sunset and rode with Amy through the fields. We started in the arena and because it was so windy, Skittles was a bit jumpy, but manageable, then we moved to the fields. She was pretty prancy, but again, relatively manageable and I was pleased with her. So even though it was kind of a trail ride, it wasn't really on a trail, so I'm going to call today her first official trail ride. :-)

Amy met me at Blackfoot this morning. We let the horses wander around the staging area for a bit first to get acquainted with the area, then headed onto the trail. Amy took the lead first. She started by walking Sugar for a bit, then eventually got on once Sugar relaxed. Skittles followed no problem. I asked Skittles to take the lead a few times, and she did, but reluctantly. We moved so slowly while Skittles was leading that Sugar got fed up and passed us, then gave Skittles "the look" every time she tried to pass, so Skittles stayed behind.

There was one point on the trail that was a bit washed out which neither of the horses wanted to cross. We let them come up, then retreat several times, but they really weren't too sure of it. So Amy got off and led Sugar over it. I stayed on at first to see if Skittles would follow, but she still wouldn't, so I also got off and lead her across. She still hesitated, but each time she tried, I backed her up and rubbed her face, then asked again. On the third attempt she LEAPED over it. And we continued the ride. Once we turned around to head back, Skittles had NO issue whatsoever with leading! And she started giving Sugar "the look" this time when she tried to pass! Too funny. Coming back over that washout, Skittles still hesitated, but only once and then leaped over. I didn't have to get off that time! The rest of the ride went really well. Skittles and Sugar took turns leading on the way back. We stopped lots to let the horses graze (what a nice change from dry hay!) and drank in the beautiful day!

Very successful ride with Skittles and I am once again thrilled with her confidence and her progress. Yay!

Last Week - Riding with Tania @ Fultonvale

2009-06-16T17:18:00.005-06:00

Time to catch up on my blogging again. I've been riding Skittles tons lately, but just haven't blogged any of it. I do want to write about my ride last week at Fultonvale with Tania though. She came with Jack. I rode Skittles, but I also brought Sherlock. It was kind of last minute decision. He was standing at the gate and looked so eager to go do something, so I decided to load him up just so he could have some fun and associate the trailer with something other than a trip to the vet! So once we got there, I tied him up next to Skittles for a bit, groomed him along with her, picked his feet, etc., then turned him loose in the arena. It was interesting how protective of him Skittles was. She made a point of keeping herself between Sherlock and Jack as much as possible.

After riding around a bit and having Sherlock frolicking around, it became apparent that the little guy was going to be more trouble than he was worth! So we ended up moving him to the small corral at the end of the arena and let him trot around there (photo). At first Skittles didn't want to leave him and kept trying to turn back to that end of the arena. I let her circle at that end for a while and slowly built the circle until we were able to ride at the other end as well. She settled relatively OK. Although there was one point when I asked her to canter while we were turning away from Sherlock and she objected. I asked harder and she bucked and turned back at which point I found myself on my butt on the ground! After that Skittles got to canter online for a few minutes and once I got her back focussed on me, I got back on. After that, she didn't have any issue with riding away from Sherlock.

Tania - on the other hand - was spectacular! She impressed the socks off me by showing me how Jack could walk, trot, canter, turn and even spin with only a savvy string around his neck! I bow to the master! WOW! I took a couple photos with my phone, but it's a bit far, so you can't tell she's only using the string, but she was! I was SO IMPRESSED! What an inspiration.

Riding Skittles

2009-05-29T18:51:00.003-06:00

Well, my camera is finally fixed! So I can post some photos of riding Skittles this morning. As I said in my previous post, she's been coming along wonderfully this month. So this is us from this morning at the Fultonvale arena. My son was home sick, so I asked him to come along and sleep in the truck (for safety reasons), and he ended up taking a few photos. We had a blast (me and Skittles, that is)! She started out snorty like she does in new situations, but after saddling her up and doing some ground work, she's settled down quickly. Then when I was riding her, she tended to want to avoid the corners, so we did the corners pattern (trotting/cantering up to the corners, then letting her stop). She wanted to go into the corners after that! However, we didn't stop in ALL the corners all the time, so she had to pay attention. I could tell she "asked" about stopping in the corners (by hesitating), but listened really well when I steered her to a different corner to rest.
After a while in the arena, we walked outside the arena because she seemed so curious about what was "out there". We walked around near the trees, around the arena and out onto the side road and back further down. We also tried jumping the loading ramp.... she did awesome! I'm having a blast with her this spring. She still has spooky moments, but I don't feel like she'll try to run away or buck anymore. She's definitely building curiousity and confidence. Looking forward to trying a trail ride with her soon!

So far behind! sorry!

2009-05-22T11:55:00.005-06:00

Wow, I've seriously been slacking off in my blogging. And I've been told so by a few friends, so my apologies! I didn't realize I was such a hit! :-). I've been doing lots with the horses - especially Skittles - since the JF clinic... I guess I was truly inspired!

So in a nutshell:

Skittles was cornered and chased over/thru a fence last month (on Good Friday, actually, so you can probably guess at the vet bill that day!), and tore up her back leg again -- same exact injury of a couple of years ago when I first started this blog. She's now done the antibiotics and is just healing now. Still a big scabby scar, but definitely better. And she's sound, which is what is important.

Then I took the colts in to be gelded the first week of May (did tons of trailer loading the week prior). All went well, but about 5 days later, poor Allegro swelled up and was barely able to move (he was stepping very gingerly). Poor guy. I took him back to the vet to have the swelling drained, then put him on antibiotics for a week. Luckily he loved the medicine/molasses mix I made for him and he literally would trot up to the gate for his daily dose. So he seems to be OK now.

We had another Parelli playday a few weeks ago at Sunset Stables which was fun. Amy, Beth and I tried out a couple ideas for a routine for the Horse Showcase coming up (this weekend!). We tried doing the circle game with all 3 horses together, but poor trusting Chase (Beth's horse) came up behind Gypsy and got fired on with both barrels into his side and leg by Gypsy. So I guess Gypsy told us in no uncertain terms that she doesn't like horses behind her. I felt so bad! So that idea was out. Anyway, we did practice some other stuff -- mostly 7 games stuff in the arena, all with obstacles, put to music, and so we'll just keep all the horses at a safe distance! We played with lots of other cool obstacles, including a bank jump which Gypsy hadn't done before, as well as took a short ride through the pasture. Louise and Rascal came with us. It was great to see them again!

Shortly after that, Gypsy was chased over/thru a fence at home (same gelding who chased Skittles), and this time I saw it happen. When Gypsy got up on the other side, she was hopping on 3 legs and I nearly died. She came straight toward me (which was cool), and I found a large gash on her foreleg just above her knee. She had a scrape on her face as well, but nothing serious. The leg was the worst. I thought about getting the vet out to stitch her up, but decided to just let it heal. It'll take longer, but it'll heal. She was lame a couple days, but now is OK and I'm just giving her antibiotics and cleaning her leg every day. She doesn't like the medicine/mollasses mix as much as Allegro and frequently makes me play the "catching game" for quite a while before letting me catch her. She had her last dose last night.

I've been riding Skittles quite a lot in the last couple weeks (took her to a nearby arena). She's really coming along nicely and I'm very pleased with how level-headed she's becoming. For sure, she still has her spooky moments, but no bucking! Yay! The ground work up to now, added with another year of maturity, I think is what has really helped. I'll be taking her out on the trail next month for sure. Since I'm breeding Gypsy next month, I'm hoping Skittles will become my new solid riding horse. It's looking good!

I know this is a bit short, but hopefully I'll be more on top of the blogging in future! Sorry!
Chat later... it's finally sunny and I'm going out to play.

(also, camera is in for repairs, hence the lack of photos!)

Jonathan Field clinic - SPECTACULAR!

2009-04-22T19:34:00.009-06:00

"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!

2009-04-13T08:06:00.004-06:00

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

2009-04-07T15:10:00.004-06:00

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

2009-04-03T16:12:00.004-06:00

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!

Another play day with Gypsy

2009-03-29T10:09:00.005-06:00

I took Gypsy to Rafter XX again yesterday and met Tamara and her mom there for another play day. I've been dying to try the new shim pattern that Doug helped me with last weekend, but couldn't because of my injured hamstring. This weekend, though, I felt my leg was better enough to give it a try.

We started, of course, with lots of on-line playing: circling in and around pylons, transitions, change of direction, sideways over cavalettis, sideways over barrels, squeeze over barrels, tarp, ball, etc. I also had Tamara give me some tips on trying to get Gypsy to canter on line. We ended up not getting (or asking for) the canter, but instead worked on just getting her speed (up and down) working better at the trot. She gave me some excellent suggestions -- including incorporating the bullseye pattern into it to improve her confidence. She noticed that as I continued to ask for the up transition, Gypsy started going right-brained and trying to escape and was therefore not "listening" anymore anyway. So to build her confidence, I just asked for up-down transitions at the trot, including asking for an extended trot, then leaving her alone until she relaxed. It went really well.

The bullseye worked amazingly well to help her relax too. She's always been more confident close to me, but loses confidence as she gets further away. By circling her close, then pushing her out, and bringing her close again, she really started showing more relaxation even as she moved further away. I'm keen to keep this up to see if picking up the canter now will be an easier transition down the road. AGAIN, thank you Tamara!

Soon after that I saddled her up, played a bit more online with her in the saddle, then mounted up. Immediately I noticed a difference in her walk. She's always been a very forward walker (which is wonderful on the trail), but her strides felt way more animated! Even Tamara noticed that her hind legs were pretty much stepping right up into her front footprints. WOW! Same at the trot. She's always had a very fast, choppy trot with a high head. Now her stride -- while still fairly quick -- is much longer. And her head was lower too. Amazing what a difference a shim pattern makes! THANK YOU DOUG! And I could tell that Gypsy thanks you too!

We worked more on sideways movements as well. She's actually starting to figure out now that leg pressure doesn't always mean go faster. She's almost going too much sideways now and not enough forward! I'm thrilled with her recall (after most of the winter off) and her improving softness. It really does work if you stick to it and stay consistent! We still have a long way to go, but it's very satisfying knowing we're making progress. No photos though, sorry... forgot my camera.

Allegro comes home

2009-03-25T15:19:00.006-06:00

I picked up Allegro yesterday finally. I was supposed to drive out Monday, but we had a huge snowstorm on Sunday and there was no way I was going to get the truck or trailer out of the snow on Monday, so had to wait until hubby plowed the driveway. So yesterday morning I go out to start up the truck and hook it up to the trailer and ... nothing. Dead. Kev left the lights on. Crap. I'm starting to wonder if the Fates are conspiring against me!

Anyway, a couple hours later, I managed to convince my father-in-law to come boost the truck so I can get on the road (he's the best!). I was starting to feel rushed as I had to get there, pick him up, and get back before the kids got home (3 hour round trip, plus loading time). I drove out of the yard at 10:30 and my kids get off the bus at 2:55. But everything worked out... I was home by 2:15, thankfully. Allegro walked right into the trailer without hesitation. What a guy!

He's 10 months old (born May 17 last year) and he hadn't been handled at all until about a month ago, and never without first being pushed into a chute to be haltered. Once haltered, he was pretty well behaved, but not overly willing. Anyway, once I got him home, I turned him loose with Sherlock and Morris (a big gentle TB boarding with us who has taken it upon himself to be Sherlock's guardian). Morris, however, was not as accommodating with Allegro and the poor guy was chased away. So I let Morris out with the other horses and left Sherlock and Allegro together to get acquainted. They soon became joined at the hip and within a couple hours were getting quite playful.

I went out to the paddock to see if Allegro would let me approach. Nope. He stayed away, but eventually got curious while I played with Sherlock. He came up behind me to sniff me, but would dart away if I turned. So I got a bucket of grain and both he and Sherlock stuck their noses in it and followed me as I backed away holding the bucket. So I left them alone while they ate the grain and took a few pictures. At one point Allegro stuck his nose right in the camera. I didn't try to pet him, but just let him sniff to his heart's content as I'm thinking his curiousity and confidence will allow me to touch him in no time.

Today I walked into the round pen with all my brushes and carrot stick & string. Sherlock followed, so Allegro did as well. I started brushing Sherlock all over (he was in heaven), then approached Allegro. He trotted away, so I pushed him a bit until he faced me, and I backed off (catching game). He came toward me and I let him sniff the brush, then scratched his nose. And that was pretty much the extent of the catching game. I worked from his nose to his cheek to his neck and in no time I was grooming him all over. The only problem was that every time I tried to brush Allegro, Sherlock would try to get between us and park himself in front of the brush! Too funny!

In an hour I was able to groom Allegro all over his body including his legs. And he let me pick up all 4 feet (lift them, but not hold them yet). All without a halter. A pretty good day! I didn't think it would take long, but this still went way better than I thought. I even rubbed him all over with the carrot stick and swung the savvy string over him a few times. No problem.

Sherlock is Mr. Curious as well. He was playing quite a bit with one of the barrels in the round pen and even managed to peel a sticker off the side, making a loud tearing sound as he did, which startled neither him nor Allegro. I think I've got a couple of LBE's!

Rafter XX playday

2009-03-23T08:21:00.004-06:00

Gypsy and I attended the Rafter XX Parelli play day last Saturday. It was wonderful to catch up with fellow Parelli friends after a long winter. The morning was for playing in the arena with the horses and obstacles and the afternoon was dedicated to riding and playing with cattle! One of these days we'll stay for the cattle, but because of my injured hamstring, I didn't ride.

However, Gypsy had great recall despite the long inactive winter. We did all 7 games with various obstacles and she did really well. I attempted to get her to canter online again (she was able to do this last fall for the L2 tasks at the outside arena at Fultonvale), but she couldn't do any more than a couple strides before going back to a fast trot. I tried a few times more, but she couldn't do it. I really don't know what to do to get that working better. I'll try again at Fultonvale when the snow is gone and maybe see if it's a space issue for her? If I can get her going again there, maybe work from there to seeing if she can start circling smaller. She cantered really well freestyle at Fultonvale too, but always seems to have trouble in smaller indoor arenas. Not sure why?

Amy had also brought in a pedestal for us to play with. At first Gypsy wasn't much interested in getting up on it, but soon I had her standing on it with her front feet. By the end of the day though, with a little help getting that 3rd foot on it, she had all 4 feet on it. And she looked so proud of herself! I think it would be fun to have one of these at home and work on driving either the back end around with the front end on the pedestal or vice versa. On line and freestyle!

The best part of the day was having Equine Therapist Doug Moran work on Gypsy and help me with my saddle shimming. Gypsy has a fair sway in her back and I think that may be the source of some of the riding issues I have with her. I am really anxious to try riding her with the new shim pattern to see if it makes a difference, but that'll have to wait until my hamstring is better. However, just having him work on her though... she became so visibly more relaxed and calm after he worked with her, I nearly cried! She was also noticeably straigher in the back after he was done with her. I will definitely get him to see her again soon. The change was amazing.

Getting caught up and PRAYING for spring!

2009-03-20T13:05:00.008-06:00

Wow! Two months since I've blogged! Shameful. Sorry!

It's been a long, cold winter and even though today is the first day of spring, it doesn't look like spring will be here any time soon (no, this isn't what it looks like right now, but it was recent!). Getting really tired of the weather actually. Back in December my automatic waterer froze and I've been hauling between 14-18 buckets of water to the horses every day. And of course none of the outside taps work either, so it's the kitchen sink that I have to use. So really... spring cannot get here soon enough. There have been a couple "teaser" days of warm weather here and there, but mostly it's been TOO COLD! My pasture is icy everywhere so it's too dangerous to ride. If I do anything, it's just sit on their backs and walk around a bit. I've done some of that, but really not much of anything to write about in the last couple months. I spend lots of time just hanging with them on cold/snowy days.

We did install a fireplace this winter though! That's been a nice addition to cope with the weather! :-) I've also done some tiling in our kitchen and continue to be Taxi too my kids all week long.

The Jonathan Field clinic is less than a month away and I've really been able to do nothing with Gypsy in preparation for that. We finally repaired the brakes and shocks on the truck and dug out the trailer, so I probably should load her up a couple times a week and take her to an arena between now and then, dust off some cobwebs!

I've started helping the new owners of Indy and Jake with their horsemanship skills. They're keen to "do it right" so I'm more than happy to help them. The plan is supposed to be twice a week, but so far we've managed to connect only once. Maybe that'll pick up with the warmer weather too...

And I started working with one of the boarded horses here as well (when weather permits). Her owner would like to send her to a trainer this spring, but wanted to give her a bit more of a foundation before sending her. Then last week while I was working with her (first nice day in AGES), I slipped and badly pulled my hamstring. So that put an end to that for a bit! OUCH!

Some other exciting tidbits of news: I've acquired two new colts to start! I know, I know I need my head examined! "Sherlock" is an incredibly sweet little TB-X colt who was an "oops" pregnancy and so wasn't born until last Sept. He's only 6 months old (just picked him up yesterday). He's just about the sweetest, most well-behaved little guy I've ever seen though. You can handle him all over, lead him (even at the trot), pick up all his feet, and when I went to get him, it took only 1 hour before he was walking in and out of the trailer! Super little guy. Looking forward to working with him (as are my kids!).

Allegro (I think that's what we'll call him) is a gorgeous TB-draft cross colt out of the same mare and stallion as Indy. He was even born on the same day as Indy! (So it was meant to be!). He's going to be a lot taller than Indy, I think, but probably the same horsenality (LBE). He's only been handled for about the last month, so I've got my hands full for the first while with him. I need to get both colts gelded, and for sure Allegro will also need his feet trimmed soon. I will be picking him up next week.

So that's the news up to now. Stay tuned for more adventures with Sherlock, Allegro (Al?), Gypsy and Skittles soon! And pray for spring.

Enjoying a warm winter day with Gypsy

2009-01-20T14:49:00.005-07:00

I took Gypsy out for a ride yesterday and today. The weather has been blissfully warm (above zero for the past several days), so I wanted to take advantage of it before we lost it.

I just rode her in the bareback pad and rope hackamore and mostly walked/trotted around my brother-in-law's property where the snow is nice and deep and untouched. So less chance of her slipping -- like on the road where it's packed and icy.

She started out moving pretty forward like she usually does, but bumping her back and/or turning circles in deep snow eventually got her to slow and relax. She seemed to enjoy the break as much as I did. I didn't have an agenda... just wanted to enjoy the rides as much as possible! The sun on the untouched snow was stunning. It was so nice and quiet and clean and peaceful. I really enjoyed it. And Gypsy got a couple pretty good workouts in that snow!

Sorry the photos are a bit blurry... my daughter took a couple through the willow from our side of the fence, and the camera focussed on the willow!

Put-your-nose-on-it with Skittles

2009-01-16T16:46:00.004-07:00

FINALLY some warm weather! Yay! It was gorgeous today (+6/+7C)! I spent some time playing with Skittles around the yard. She tends to pay better attention to me when we're in an arena. In the big outdoors, there are TONS of distractions, so it's more of a challenge for her to pay attention and stay left-brained. So I figure we should do lots more scary stuff outside to help this.

Today we just played "put your nose on it". I would drive her up to a variety of objects all around the house and ask her to put her nose on it. To add to the challenge, I did it on her "bad" side (right side). Our first objects were the big round hay bales... she had no problem putting her nose on those! She also took a couple big mouthfuls. Then we tried some buried flower pots, my picnic table, the trampoline, a few trees, a birdhouse, a taboggan and the big black garbage bin beside the house. She had the most trouble with this one because it was right next to the back step and we had our compost bin on the step which had a compostable bag flapping around in the wind. So we did some approach and retreat with that one as well as some squeeze beside it a few times. She eventually did put her nose on it, but didn't really relax. I left it at that... we can come back to that later! I also brought her into the garage a few times and up and down the driveway insisting she stick with me (at my shoulder). She didn't do as well today as she did while we were in the arena last weekend, but we'll build on it.

She did great with putting her nose on everything. She's a smarty-pants. She figured out what I was asking after about the 2nd try. And every new thing I brought her to she put her nose on. She's still pretty right-brained, but if I keep doing this along with other games, she'll get as good outside as she is inside.

"Stick to me" with Skittles

2009-01-13T10:39:00.004-07:00

We've had a long, cold, miserable and busy December, so my poor horses hardly saw me all month. Now it's January and it's time to get back in the saddle, so to speak!
I took Skittles out to Rafter XX last Saturday to play with her along with Tamara and Gitana. I've been DYING to play with my horses, so I really enjoyed it. I only wish I could have stayed longer!

My trailer was so buried, after I dug it out and hooked up the truck, I STILL had to get my husband to pull me out with the tractor. Crazy! But we made it. REALLY wish I had a 4X4!

Skittles hopped into the trailer without hesitation -- almost as if she was anxious for some change too. We played for nearly 2 hours on line working on circling, transitions, weave patterns and weave-within-circle patterns, sideways, squeeze, sideways+squeeze, squeeze over jumps, put-your-nose-on-it (even a scary roping dummy!), and lots of stick-to-me as well. Tamara gave me some excellent ideas of how to keep her interested and engaged (she gets bored and ornery once she's "got" the pattern), so I'm definitely going to use her suggestions, such as using cones on a circle and varying between weave, circle inside, or circle outside or choosing one of them as a target to change direction etc. etc. Lots of great ideas.

Skittles has always been really good with all the games when I'm on her left side, but really is uncomfortable and struggles with me on her right. So I spent a fair bit of time playing on her right side until she got more relaxed (even though the video below shows me on her left! Oops!). She was awesome. She had so much try in her Saturday, and she was so relaxed and trusting, that I felt almost like it had only been a couple days (rather than more than a month) since I last played with her. She did great. She loves to jump, so we did lots of squeeze over jumps and stick-to-me over jumps and Tamara graciously taped one of them (attached below for your viewing pleasure).

After all that I decided to jump up on her bareback and work on her yielding to my leg. She was doing great, but then got spooked when Jeanne came in with Maverick. It wasn't terrible, but just enough to get me sliding sideways (she's slippery!). She did disengage nicely, but I was sliding off her anyway, and fell. She jumped away from me, but didn't go far and in no time she was beside me again snorting and looking baffled. :-) Even though I fell off, I was actually pleased with her. She didn't explode like she used to. And if I had been in a saddle, I wouldn't have fallen off at all.

I got back on and she was blowing and relaxed in only a couple minutes, and we continued doing sideways both ways and turns on the haunches. She's going really well to the right, but still struggles to the left. But I'm thrilled with her building confidence.

Farewell to Indy and Jake

2008-12-13T08:05:00.003-07:00

Indy and Jake went to their new home this week. :-(

I'm sad to say good bye but I've made some new friends, so I'm happy about that. Andrea and Doug and their girls are really nice people and will spoil "my babies" (now their babies!) shamelessly!

Originally the plan was to raise, train and sell both fillies. In the last few months though, I actually thought I would keep Indy, then sell Skittles and Jake instead. Not because I was less attached to either of those horses, but because poor Jake just wasn't getting the attention he deserved and because Skittles was more of a challenge than Indy (that's me wanting to take the path of least resistance). But Andrea and Doug fell in love with Indy (and Jake), so after some soul-searching and chats back and forth with my "sounding board", Tania, I made the decision to let Indy go. Tania more or less just listened to me figure it out and supported whatever decision I came to. Thank you Tania.

Anyway, Doug and Andrea recently joined the Parelli Savvy club and I've lent them my Level 1 DVDs, so we may see them at some Parelli clinic or function some day in the future. Indy and Jake are now living not far from here, so I may stop in and give them treats from time to time.

I miss them already... especially Indy who never failed to trot up to the gate whenever I came out to see them. I know they'll be loved and cared for a great deal, but it's hard to say good bye. I'm a big mush when it comes to my animals. I think I'd get attached to a fly if it hung around me long enough!

My husband said, "now we can go get two more weanlings and start all over!" I admit, I had to do a double-take, wondering who he was and what did he do with my husband! As tempting as that is, I think I need to focus on Skittles' training for a while and seeing how far I can go in the levels with Gypsy. Although.... I may consider breeding Gypsy next spring and raising my own foal .... hmmmm.....

Playing with Indy

2008-11-26T15:55:00.004-07:00

I've been slack in my blogging, sorry folks! I've played with Indy and Jake (last couple weekends while a family came to "try them out") as well as Gypsy the other day and Indy today, but have been a lazy blogger. I guess that's better than not playing with the horses!

I've had a family interested in buying Indy. When they phoned to ask if they could come see her, I agreed, but qualified it by adding that I've been thinking I might keep her instead of sell her since she's been coming along so well. Well, that just made them want to see her more! Anyway, the family is extremely nice and I have no doubt they'd take great care of her (or Jake... they tried him out as well). They came two weekends ago as well as last weekend. So not sure where their heads are at, but if they decide to buy her or not to buy her, I won't be heartbroken either way. And I've probably made some new friends as well.

On Monday, I took Gypsy out for a short trail ride with my neighbour. I didn't do any ground work with her before heading out, and as a result, she was right-brained the whole time. Poor Gypsy. You'd think I'd learn. It was a beautiful day though, so even though Gypsy was all GO, and I had to do quite a few cirles with her, we still enjoyed it. That "pre-flight" check really is important... every time I skip it, the ride is more work than enjoyable. But when I do take the time to get her calm and trusting, the ride is calm and enjoyable.

Today, I took Indy over to my neighbours again (she has an arena and I don't) and played online and did some riding as well. I let her loose in the arena for a while to start and asked her to move out (she did, and seemed to really let loose!), then asked her to change directions a few times. She didn't always listen, but I eventually got her to respond and go the direction I wanted. She always came trotting back to me though, which is really nice. Then I put the 22' line on her and we did some squeeze, driving, sideways, circle and yoyo before getting on. Indy is so much different than Skittles. She always does what I ask, and she seems to do it fairly well, but I always get the sense she's only half paying attention, whereas Skittles is glued to me. Indy often objects at first when I ask her to do something (tossing head, little bucks), but will do it when I insist. Not sure if I'm handling that right or not. I guess time will tell. I'd like to eventually see more willingness (less testing). For the moment, all I've been doing is letting her have her little tantrum (basically ignoring it), but continue to ask until she does what I ask (patiently persistent). If any of you has an opinion about how to deal with that, I'd love to hear it. She's not being unmanageable, just constantly objecting or maybe testing me before complying. Maybe I'm not doing enough on the ground for her to believe I'm the leader before riding? Not sure.

Anyway, once I was riding her, we did lots of patterns around the barrels at the walk and trot, worked on straightness, moving off my leg... that was more difficult when I asked for sideways AWAY from the gate, then when I asked for sideways TOWARD the gate.... maybe I should use the gate to my advantage and worry about obedience later?? Anyway, I insisted she move off my leg even though we were moving away from the gate, and I got a couple tantrum bucks before she complied. I was aiming for a barrel going sideways and once we finally got there (kind of a wonky forward/back sideways), I rewarded her with some crunchies on the barrel.

Anyway, despite some questions, she's doing pretty well. I just need to figure out how to get through a ride without any "arguments"!

Skittles at Rafter XX

2008-11-10T21:49:00.006-07:00

Today was a great day at Rafter XX ranch with Tamara and Tania. We need to do this more often! We met there at 9:00 this morning, took our time getting going which helped relax the horses, and let us chit-chat too! :-) I brought Skittles this time. I've been avoiding her. Well, not entirely, but I've definitely picked Gypsy or Indy way more than Skittles, simply because they're less challenging, so I can relax more around them and it feels less like work. I'm really glad I picked Skittles today though -- having Tamara and Tania provide feedback and advice was exactly what I needed with her because it really helped me improve my communication with her and consequently my confidence!

We spent 2 hours just on playing around on the ground... jumping barrels, weaving between pylons, trotting over poles, circling, changing direction and playing "stick to me". This was the first time I've played "stick to me" with Skittles and she figured it out pretty quick! Her tendency whenever I add pressure to her halter (pull on the leadrope) is to pull back and even back up sometimes. So I worked on getting her to move forward off that pressure by adding pressure behind her. Her first response was to scootch sideways around me, but eventually I got her moving forward and from there I got her to start trotting beside me, then stop and back up too. I think she had it mostly figured out after about 3 or 4 tries. Smart girl! (see video clip below). I do need to practice this more though, because I tried running beside her as she was trotting over the poles a little later, and she pulled away sideways again before moving forward. I guess it's really more "friendly game" and getting her to understand that me running beside her doesn't mean I'm chasing her! And I need to do it from both sides... she wants to keep me on her left all the time.

When I saddled her, I worked on keeping her head down like I did before and this worked great again. It took time, but each time I asked her to lower her head, she kept it there longer. Pretty soon I won't have to ask her at all.

Before I got on though, Tamara asked if I'm able to play the friendly game with Skittles (with stick and string) while she's moving. I've done it before, but she's phobic about strings and ropes, so it's worse when she's moving. Tamara suggested I work on that before getting on. So I did, and after several explosions from Skittles and with much guidance from Tamara, I eventually got her walking calmly in both directions while I swung the rope over and around her.

It's interesting that even though I KNOW I need to get firm with her at times, I still find myself tip-toeing around her when she goes right-brained. Having Tamara and Tania there to point it out and give me pointers (match her energy, don't let her pull/push me around, etc.) REALLY helped me and it really didn't take very long (definitely less than 2 days!) before she was walking calmly around me, licking and chewing with her head nice and low while I swung the string over her back. She was definitely more ready to ride after that!

We mostly walked once I got on her again (still a bit of the 'fraidy-cat in me worried about being dumped again), but after I told Tania I hadn't trotted her before (well, I did a bit at home in the round pen, but I don't count that because it was never more than a few steps in a row), she says, "well, why don't you? What are you waiting for?" So I did. And she did. Not for long, but we did it several times and she did some very smooth up and down transitions. What was I worried about anyway? So now we just have to work on maintaining gait and direction! But I was really pleased with how the day went.

Thank you Tamara and Tania!!

Skittles @ Fultonvale - take 2

2008-10-29T13:12:00.006-06:00

Another spectacular fall day, so I didn't want it to go to waste. My original plan was to take both Indy and Skittles to Fultonvale and spend several hours working with both. But I ended up only taking Skittles because I couldn't get both in the trailer. I know Indy will load into the front with the divider closed, so I practiced loading Skittles without Indy there, but with the divider closed (less room for her to stand or turn around). She would stand in there with her front feet up, but would never step up with her hind. So then I loaded Indy to see if that would help Skittles. It didn't. So I took Indy out once more, then loaded Skittles a few more times into the whole trailer. Then tied Skittles and went back to Indy. In the end I just took Skittles because, well she needs the most work. And because she exploded while tied to the trailer (while I was working on loading Indy) and pulled herself right out of the halter. It was after that when I decided I should just take one -- and obviously it had to be Skittles... there was no way I was going to put her away after that incident. She needed to work through it.

She actually loaded just fine after I caught her again. And she let me catch her up pretty quickly too. So even though she can be explosive, once she comes down again, she's back to being "good" pretty quickly (looking for a silver lining!).

I invited Tania, but didn't know if she'd be there until I got there. And she was (yay!). I wouldn't have rode Skittles without Tania there. It makes such a difference to my confidence with Tania there. If for no other reason that I know I'm safer with someone around, so I'm less up-tight. So it also helps my horse!

Anyway, while Tania was riding, I worked with Skittles on line -- trying to get her attention and focus on me while playing the 7 games. One thing Tania noticed that I didn't was that when I stand in zone 3 and drive zone 1 away from me, whenever I stopped, Skittles would turn into me (drop her shoulder) and move her hind end away. I didn't notice, but Tania did, and told me not to let her do that because it's a dominance thing (and it's true, whenever she does that, I move away!). The next couple times she did that to me, I whacked her with the carrot stick to push her shoulder away again and it worked! Didn't happen again! AND she was way more respectful, with lots of bobbing her head as she approached, and lots of licking and chewing too. This also really helped me to build my confidence as the leader. The explosion with Skittles earlier made me apprehensive and afraid of her again, so naturally I'm more wary and tend to move out of her way when she moves into me... the opposite of what I should be doing. Having Tania there to point that out helped me immensely!

I had her jump some barrels -- both before and after I saddled her. I think she really enjoys jumping... she approaches the barrels with lots of energy and a positive look on her face... plus she gets lots of "GOOD GIRL" and scratches from me after :-) She really jumps them well too with plenty of room to spare.

Another thing she does really well is move up beside me when I'm sitting on a fence. We worked on this a lot in the round pen last year and she's remembering it really well... she never fails to position herself exactly right when I go sit on the fence. Makes mounting easy!

I took my time saddling her and again, Tania helped me with some suggestions while saddling. She suggested I work on lowering her head before, during and after saddling. Her tendency is always to pop her head up, so this was a great suggestion and it made a huge difference. I made some commotion with the saddle a few times on both sides of her before putting it on her back and every time she popped her head up, I asked her to lower it. By the time I put the saddle on, she was keeping her head pretty low. It was the best saddling session I've had with her yet. THANK YOU TANIA!

I mounted from the fence (since she's so good at that) and just let her walk around. I only used the halter and lead rope today, and practiced flipping the rope from side to side and even turning her without flipping the rope over (eg neck-reining). She did really well. I didn't bother her much at first... just let her drift around and check things out, but once she was settled and relaxed, I did some more with the steering with one rein. She did really well.

So despite the disastrous start, we ended on a pretty good note. I just need to do more with her more consistently (a common theme on this blog!).

Parelli Ride at Blackfoot

2008-10-20T12:11:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was the last Parelli ride of the season, held at the Blackfoot. I decided to take IndyAnna rather than Gypsy. I already know Gypsy is good on the trail, plus Indy needs more miles and more experience.

I took lots of time to walk her around and play with her at the staging area before we started off. I arrived an hour before the scheduled departure time. So she was relatively settled once I got her saddled and ready to go. This time there were LOTS more horses around for her to watch and "talk" to, so she never really completely settled down, but enough to feel OK about getting on.

There were about a dozen or so riders in the group, so it was a good test to see how Indy would do in a large group. There were a few faces I recognized, but there were also quite a few new ones I hadn't met yet. To start with we all kind of rode grouped together on the first part of the trail before we got to the fields and so Indy had a group of horses in front of her as well as behind her. I could tell she didn't quite know how to handle that and she was feeling pretty uptight. She started prancing a bit and glancing backwards and side to side to look for an exit. Luckily the riders directly behind me backed off a bit and we got to the gate fairly quickly and were soon in the fields, so she was able to relax a bit and figure out where she was most comfortable in the group.

Several horses took the lead and I held Indy back in the middle group. She wasn't sure she liked that much as she seemed to want to catch up to the lead group, but at the same time kept checking back on the group behind us! So many choices! We stopped a few times while waiting for others to catch up, which Indy also didn't like. She crow-hopped a bit and gave me a couple of her "tantrum bucks" (kind of like a rocking horse) while I was trying to keep her still, so we did some circling and disengaging and she started to settle down. It took her about an hour or so before she was comfortable just walking. I never really felt -- even with her prancing and crow-hopping -- that she would do anything dangerous or unpredictable though. She was never afraid - just impatient. She was always responsive to my cues, she just didn't agree with me all the time! After a couple more stops to wait for others, she began to realize that stopping meant she could graze! And Indy isn't one to pass up on the opportunity for food! Once she settled into the group, and got comfortable with the other horses, she was perfect. I had absolutely no issues with her at all.

We mostly walked, but did some trotting while we were in the fields as well. We stopped at Running Dog picnic area for lunch at 1:30. We were all pretty hungry by then!

The pace on the way back was significantly faster. Mostly trotting. It's amazing to me how the horses all seem to know when they're headed home! We were in the lead group on the way back and Indy continuously seemed to want to take the lead. So I let her try a couple times and she'd get to the front only to back off as soon as she was even with the lead horse. So she wanted to be out front, but really wasn't QUITE ready to be the leader. She was happy to share the lead. I was thrilled with that -- It's pretty good when you consider she's only 3! Just before we got back into the fields, a few of the lead horses picked up a canter and Indy followed. I wasn't planning on cantering exactly, however since the opportunity presented itself, I just let her go to see how well she'd do, and she did great. We only cantered a half-dozen strides or so, but it was nice and even and controlled and balanced. Wow, our first canter! Granted, it was short-lived, but it was perfect! Again, I'm so impressed with this horse!

When we were heading back through the fields, I let her wander off the main trail and explore a bit to satisfy her seemingly unquenchable curiousity. She didn't seem the least bit concerned leaving the main group. She'd check back and see where they were headed, but didn't feel the need to be right close to them. Again, another great sign of her confidence.

We got back to Waskahegan at about 4:30 (5-1/2 hours later). Indy had barely broken a sweat all day, so another clear indication she was in no way stressed during the ride. She got lots of treats and lots of love. A really successful day. And what a pleasure it is to ride with Parelli people! So much good-will, helpfulness and calm patience. I really enjoyed it.

Indy & Gypsy get a "float"

2008-10-16T08:52:00.002-06:00

Yesterday Indy and Gypsy got their teeth floated. This was new to me... I've never taken any of my horses to have their teeth floated. I know, my bad. In my defense, it was always my understanding that if a horse wasn't having trouble keeping weight on (which is true of ALL my horses), then not to worry about the teeth. However, I've recently been hearing more and more about the importance of equine dentistry and how -- even if they're eating OK -- it can affect how comfortable they are carrying a bit, or how easily they respond to pressure. So I decided to give it a try. Gypsy -- at 12 years old and never been done -- definitely needed to be looked at. And Skittles had her wolf teeth removed at a year old when she was sedated for a completely different reason, so that left Indy and Jake. Since I'm just starting Indy and hadn't put a bit in her mouth yet, I decided to have her teeth done. I'll definitely get Jake done as well, but need to spread out the expenses, so will get his done next spring.

So I loaded up Indy and Gypsy yesterday morning (first time I've taken two of my horses in the trailer!) and took them to the vet. Initially I was planning on having a well-known licensed equine dentist come to my place and do all 4 horses (as well as my boarders and a few others), but it turns out he needed a barn to work in (which I didn't know, having never done this before), so we ended up cancelling. So instead I made the appointment with my vet.

We got there a bit early so I could give both horses a chance to walk around and settle down (Indy, especially, was pretty wound-up). Gypsy went first since I felt Indy needed more time to settle. She never really did; when I put her in a stall while we worked on Gypsy, she neighed and pawed the whole time. In hindsight we probably should have done her first since she would have been sedated! Anyway, Gypsy - in true form - was great. She walked calmly into the stocks, took the needle like a true Parelli pro and stood quietly through the entire proceedure. Turns out -- despite never having her teeth floated -- her teeth are in excellent shape. The vet only had to grind off a couple sharp points and a "ramp" at the back and she was done. No wolf teeth to be removed.

Indy had wolf teeth, so she got the sedative as well as some novacaine (sp??) freezing around her teeth. Indy did extremely well considering how new this all was to her (trailering with another horse, being brought into a stall, then into the stocks and sedated, and having a grinder vibrating in her mouth!). She pulled back a bit and tossed her head a couple times, but really she accepted everything really well. I was so proud of her! Her wolf teeth were so tiny... it's hard to believe something so small should be a concern. But they're out now, so she's ready to try a bit once she's all healed up.

Indy's teeth -- like Gypsy's -- are in pretty good shape. A bit more of an overbite than Gypsy, but still working OK. Good to know! I guess, if my kids haven't inherited my good teeth, then at least my horses have! :-)

The vet's assistant assured me both horses did extremely well... I guess they've had some serious struggles with some horses and have needed multiple doses of sedative. The whole process was really low-key and calm. I was worried... as I always am with something I've never done before... but it all went really smoothly. I credit Parelli with that. I'm so glad I've learned to "take the time it takes". And my horses are so much better for it.

Christening my neighbour's arena

2008-10-14T10:33:00.006-06:00

Sunday I rode Gypsy over to my neighbour's place to help "christen" her new arena. They built it last year, but only just got all the sand in and rocks removed recently, so I helped her break it in. It was fun. She's got barrels and cavalleti's, jump standards, and some solid jumps as well. Lots of stuff to play with.

For the first while, I just let Gypsy explore and relax about all the new stuff in the arena. She snorted and tried to run away from the barrels and jumps in a couple of the corners. We did the "squeeze game" back and forth by each of the corners until she was able to go up and put her nose on them. Once she decided there was nothing to be afraid of, I moved the barrels into the center of the arena and started riding the cloverleaf pattern. I've done some of this at home around my pylons, so she settled into it fairly quickly. She's starting to bend nicely around the corners and is actually starting to move off (turn with) leg pressure better and better. She really is starting to understand that leg pressure doesn't always mean go faster. She still does occasionally, but it's less and less, and I can tell she is really starting to think more now than just react, which I love. The Patterns really do work!

We also did some figure-8's and simple changes. Then we did some trot-poles and jumps as well. At home I've jumped her over the barrels plenty of times, but always at a trot. This time we approached the jumps a couple times at the canter, and WEEEEEE... she LEAPED over them. Wow... lots of air! Plus it's been about 20 years since I've actually "rode a course", so I was feeling pretty loose! She refused a few times coming off her right lead, but eventually made it with patience and persistence. After the first refusal, I went back to just trotting her up to it, then approached again at the canter. It took about 3 attempts, but she made it. Off her left lead, no problems.

She seemed to have fun too. She was nice and soft and was doing lots of blowing and licking and chewing. Plus her ears were forward most of the time. Something different! A good day (although quite chilly!).

Doin' my HAPPY DANCE!

2008-10-12T08:41:00.007-06:00

I passed Level 2!!! Yay!!!

I sent in my DVD with the L2 tasks last week and Don phoned yesterday to let me know I passed all the tasks!!!! My husband took the message, so I didn't get a chance to talk with Don about it, but it sounds like I must have done OK. It was WAY quicker than thought it would take. I was expecting maybe a month or so before I'd hear back. So now I just wait until my shiny new blue savvy string and Level 2 certificate comes in the mail from the Parelli Center. I can't tell you how relieved, excited, thrilled, and HAPPY I am!!

Woohoo!! Doin' my happy dance! :-)

Indy's First Trail Ride!

2008-10-01T14:12:00.006-06:00

Tania and I met at Blackfoot this morning for Indy's first trail ride. The day was gorgeous - bright and sunny and warm and the fall colors were spectacular!

When we arrived, I just wandered around the parking lot with Indy letting her sniff things and get a good look around. Then after I put her saddle on, I circled her a few times and then played "put your nose on it" around the parking lot, the picnic area and grassy area until she was calm and unconcerned. She's naturally a very curious horse, so it doesn't take much to get her to put her nose on stuff. I also yoyo'd her to the tie rails and up a grassy bank.

Eventually, I felt she was ready to ride and so I got on and walked her around the staging area. There were a few other horses arriving by this time, so Indy was calling out to all of them and had to watch them all. So much to see and smell!

We started down the trail with Jack in the lead (which Tania also wanted to work on -- Jack being the leader -- so this trail ride benefitted both of us!). For about the first 200 m or so, Indy was trying to look at everything at once with lots of weaving and snorting, but mostly in a curious "holy cow there's a lot of new stuff here" way, rather than fearful. In no time she settled into a nice steady walk. She tried to trot off a few times when we got to more open areas, but I checked her back to a walk and she listened.

We stopped to take pictures here and there and Indy managed to wait almost patiently and had no problem with being re-mounted the couple times I had to get off (I was expecting her to walk off like Gypsy always does when she's agitated). She listened to my leg and the reins really well. She also took the lead a few times and managed it like a pro.

A couple other horses passed us on the trail and Indy wanted to follow them and jigged a bit and tossed her head when I held her back, but other than that, she did amazing.

At the end of the ride just before we got off the trail, Jack spooked at a squirrel and wheeled around to go back down the trail. Indy, being right behind him, also had to turn quickly to avoid him, but she didn't get upset or take off down the trail, she just stopped as if she was just trying to get out of his way. I was so impressed!

What a spectacular day! Indy is impressing the socks off me. She did fantastic for her first time on the trail!

Skittles at Fultonvale

2008-09-30T15:00:00.010-06:00

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

2008-09-29T13:32:00.005-06:00

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)

2008-09-28T10:12:00.005-06:00

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

2008-09-25T15:24:00.008-06:00

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

2008-09-18T14:32:00.014-06:00

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

2008-09-18T14:32:00.013-06:00

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!

2008-09-10T14:25:00.006-06:00

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

2008-09-05T18:54:00.005-06:00

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!

Martin Black colt-start in Redwater

2008-08-27T09:58:00.015-06:00

Last weekend I helped out with the public viewing days at the Martin Black colt start at Rocking G Ranch near Redwater. Mostly we looked after the admissions, parking and some clean-up, but we also managed to see quite a bit of the action in the round pen with Martin. Really interesting weekend. Plus I went back on Monday to watch as well. He's at Rocking G from the 15th to the 30th this month starting about 70 colts in that time. They saved 10 for the clinic last weekend. Most of the colts had never been haltered or handled much at all.

Martin uses the same basic concepts that Parelli is based on... make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult... but he turns up the volume quite a bit more than Parelli. In this case, because his time is limited, he has to push through faster than someone doing Parelli would do, but then the results are faster as well. A lot of horses struggled with the "wrong thing" before finding their release, but eventually they would find it. Even then, some would keep testing the boundaries. But consistenly, Martin would continue to make the wrong thing difficult.

That was one of the things that really stood out for me this weekend: CONSISTENCY. Martin never let the horses find release doing the wrong thing. Definitely a lot of cowboys got bucked off, but they always got back on and always the horse was worked through the tough spots, and the horses always found where the release was. Some took longer than others, but eventually they all found it.

There's no way I could do what he does. Mainly because I don't have the skill. Which is why I'm doing Parelli.... I like things slow and safe! But I also learned that you can push a lot harder and still come out the other side with success. That's probably something I don't do enough. And a lot of concepts were really underscored for me this weekend:

- Consistency

- Have a really clear picture of what you're asking

- Always release (provide relief) when they get it right.

- Accept the slightest try... Sometimes this was really small, but Martin always found it.

- If the horse can't find the answer, try a different approach (ask differently).

These are all concepts I'm plenty familiar with and use with my own horses, but were also strongly emphasized in this clinic.

I also fell in love with a nice 2-year-old blue roan colt I named "Socks"... really sweet disposition, nice mover, but more than I can afford. Not to mention that I already have too many horses! Really nice colt though (pictured right), ... I would love to take him home! :-)

(Post-clinic note: A week after writing this blog, I found out that Martin bought this colt! I guess I have a pretty good eye for horses! :-))

Thanks to Rocking G Ranch (Blair and Tami) for allowing us to come watch Martin Black. They didn't have to open this up to the public; they could have just quietly got their own colts started, but they opened their doors and I, for one, appreciated the opportunity to watch and learn from a Master.

Catching up again

2008-08-21T14:01:00.004-06:00

Monday this week the temperature got to about 35C without a breath of wind. HOT man!! So I took the opportunity again to spray all the horses. This time the only snorting and backing up was from the movement of the hose as I approached. After the water started flowing, they all stood still with an "Ahhhhhhh" look on their faces! Even Indy who went kind of snakey last time. She flinched at first, but didn't move away and quickly settled once the water started flowing over her.

Tuesday was warm, but not hot (26-ish). I decided to try the 7 games in 7 minutes at liberty with Gypsy. Well, actually, I didn't time myself; I just wanted to see if I could do the 7 games at liberty. Most definitely, a liberty session gives you the TRUTH! AND, it teaches you when you need to back off. I DEFINITELY need to work on this one more. Friendly game went fine -- even the extreme friendly game with slapping the savvy string on the ground all around her. Porcupine was OK too, although she wasn't as responsive as I would like (phase 3). Driving game went OK too, front and back, although she walked off a couple times when I was trying to drive her hind end away. I guess she thought I meant "move forward" (which tends to be her answer to most things when she's not sure). But after a few more attempts I got my timing right (the release) when she got it right, so she didn't feel the need to leave. Yoyo was hilarious. She's always resisted backing up, so without the line shaking, she just tossed her head at me with her ears back (annoyance), so I flicked the carrot stick at her chest which got her attention, but then she just left. So I brought her back, tried again and took it one step at a time: Yoyo one step back, then bring her back, yoyo 2 steps back, then bring her back. The bring back is no problem, but she really hates backing up. So this will definitely need more work as well. Wow, liberty really does test your savvy!

Circling went OK, if you disregard the yoyo at the start. I more or less sent her on the circle from where I was standing beside her. She frequently asked to come in the first 4 or 5 circles, so I was constantly sending her, but eventually I got a couple good circles and her bring back was nice.

Sideways was equally as challenging as the yoyo. Once I started driving her sideways, she'd just leave. So again, I needed to break it down to one step at a time and reward for that. Squeeze: same thing: She'd squeeze just fine, but wouldn't turn and back up, she just kept going!

Wow, this really opened my eyes! And this was in the round corral too, so really even that wasn't the WHOLE truth! :-)

Then I decided to try getting her to canter again. She's never been able to canter online, and the last time I tried this, we did it in the round corral as well, but all I succeeded in doing was making her go right-brained and look for an escape. This time wasn't much better (I had to keep adding pressure to get her to canter a few strides and the added pressure had her looking for a way out of the round corral). However, once she did canter a few strides I immediately stopped the pressure and stood in the center, and she immediately broke to a trot. I asked again - first the pointing, then raising the carrot stick, then swinging the string in zone 5. Again, I had to repeat this several times to get her to canter a few strides, and when she did I stood at "neutral" again, and she immediately broke into a trot. We repeated this a couple times more, the last time I stayed facing her, but kept my stick low (after she started cantering), then after about 4 strides, I asked for a disengagement before she stopped on her own. I left it at that. She was still pretty right-brained, but she did come right in at the trot when I disengaged her and immediately started licking and chewing. Hopefully next time will go better and she can start to maintain the canter on her own -- a bit anyway!

Then I just went for a quick ride up and down the road and let my daughter and her friend have a ride as well.

Tuesday was humbling for me. Definitely, Gypsy has been great on line, and I've been pretty pleased with myself. But liberty really makes you pay attention to what you're doing and it's clear we (I) have work to do to get Gypsy to WANT to stay with me. It went OK, but I definitely thought it would go better than it did!

Revisiting L2 tasks with Gypsy

2008-08-13T20:29:00.007-06:00

I finally got back to working on L2 tasks with Gypsy today. We had an awesome day! She behaved exactly the same as she did at the clinic. I started just by working on holding her tongue. Don had done this for me at the clinic as I hadn't had much success with that particular task. I tried again today and did fairly well! At first all I did was rub her nose and lips until she dropped her head, then stuck my fingers on her tongue and held them there until she stopped fussing and repeated this a few times. Eventually I did manage to sort of grab her tongue (slippery little sucker!) and pull it a bit out of the side of her mouth. Not as much as Don did, but I was pretty happy with it!

Then I did some extreme friendly game. Absolutely no problem. She moved her hind end over as I walked around behind her, but not from fear... I think she just thought she should move over for me. Then she did a lovely yoyo over a pole a couple times. I did 7 games with the barrels and she did awesome with all of it! I should have been taping!

We did sideways without a fence (toward and away)... she's pretty straight when she comes toward me, but always drifts forward still when going away from me, so I had to check her back a few times. Will have to keep working at that one. We did some transistions and change of direction on line which were great. The only thing I still can't do is get her to canter on line. I may save this one for an arena. Our ground is really uneven, so she's not comfortable cantering in our paddock (trips a lot).

After all that I went for a ride and walked some patterns around the barrels trying to get her to respond to my body movement rather than the rein. She's slowing starting to get there, but I still have to use the rein. Definitely better though.

I did try some cantering while riding her and she did pick up a canter in both directions, but just didn't maintain it for long. I didn't push it too much, just asked again, then transitioned down before she quit on her own. It's getting there!

Awesome day! :-)

Jake gets some attention

2008-08-11T16:48:00.005-06:00

I intended to work on L2 tasks with Gypsy today, but she had other ideas. She REALLY didn't want to be caught today. I played the catching game with her for quite some time and a couple of times she came back to me so that I could have put the halter on, but I wasn't satisfied (not as willing as I'd like), so when she moved away each time I'd also push her away.

As an aside, we have a new horse (Morris) boarding with us and Jake won't let him anywhere near the rest of the horses OR near the water. I've had to catch him every day to bring him to the water (our water is situated in a place where Morris would feel trapped, so doesn't feel safe going there). Long story short, Gypsy got the whole herd trotting around while I was playing the catching game with her and eventually they made their way back to the water at the other end of the field. As soon as Morris saw everyone leaving, he followed me through the gate toward the water. Jake tried to get past me to go after Morris and I stopped him. Jake had also been following me around while I was chasing Gypsy before, so I just decided to catch up Jake (since he seemed to want me to). I figured that would help Morris get a turn at the water as well, and help him bond with the rest of the herd without Jake in the way.

Sarah (my friend from England) was the last one to work with Jake at the end of June (yeesh!). So I repeated what she did with the 7 games. Again Jake flew around me as I was rhythmically slapping the ground with the savvy string. He really doesn't like that. It took quite a while for his feet to stop. Eventually I stopped moving the string as soon as he stopped trotting. He stopped. I let him think about that a while and then walked away and started again. Again he started trotting around, but not too long after that, he snuck up behind me (like he was hiding behind me) and stopped. I stopped too. A couple more of these and he started to figure out that I wasn't asking him to move. He wasn't calm, but he was getting it right at least, so I moved on to porcupine and driving games. Porcupine was great one time, then ineffectual the next. He was having a hard time focussing. I quit on one of the times he got it right. Yoyo was a banana to the right each time (he had to keep me on his left), but once I stopped he would eventually look at me with both eyes. I accepted that. We can work on straightness later.

Driving game he did really well at yielding his hind end, but it took some bumps on his nose to get him to yield his front end. And then when he did step over, he also walked off. So I had to check him back by bumping the lead line; he tried to turn into me and his hind end away, so I had to bump his nose back away from me while bumping the leadrope back until he stepped back rather than sideways. We repeated this about 5 or 6 times on each side and by the 4th or 5th try, he was stepping across and stopping. Good enough! Boy, this just REALLY speaks volumes about being inconsistent! Just like with Indy.... I really have to work with ALL of the horses more regularly. I need to set up a schedule and STICK TO IT. Sheesh.

Anyway, after that we did some circling/squeeze over my barrels (walked over). He seemed to like that. He always stopped to look at me with his ears forward as if to say: how was that? There was even a point where I was trying to get him to change direction and he was resisting, so I started waiving my stick in front of him which he skirted around, then moved toward the barrels, stepped over and turned and looked at me. I had to smile. He's trying! I'll take that.

At this point I felt he'd calmed down enough to ride and went to saddle him. Since we got the natural performer saddle, saddling is no longer an issue, which is phenomenal! Jake used to bolt as soon as we brought any saddle out. And I couldn't blame him. He's such a wide horse that no saddle ever fit him properly. Now mine do and he's visibly improved as a result. And now he's even wider what with all the grass and lack of exercise!! I felt like I was riding a tank! Look how fat he is!! :-)

We rode around the pylons and over and around the barrels, then I got my son to open the gate and we rode down the road a bit. He's really unconfident on the road. Lots of stopping and trying to turn around. So we did quite a few circles or I'd just let him stop and work through those thresholds. Good thing we didn't have a destination or we might never have got there!

It started to rain as we were making our way back, so our ride was cut short (yes, I'm a fair-weather rider!)

It's a start (again), so if I can stick to a schedule, hopefully we'll move forward rather than keep repeating the same thing over and over as if it's new!

Indy's first bit

2008-08-10T14:15:00.007-06:00

I've always ridden Indy in a hackamore. Today I decided to see how she'd handle a bit.

After grooming and saddling, I took her into the paddock to review the 7 games again. She was definitely better today. Maybe I was more patient? Anyway, yoyo was nice and straight and responsive at phase 2. Circling was more consistent (and more round!). She did pull a bit to the outside at first, but eventually settled into a circle and even maintained gait. We did both directions a couple times at the walk and then moved on to driving and then sideways. She has a tendency to drift forward when I drive her front end around (much like Gypsy), but I was able to stop and check her back each time. Will have to keep at that until we can get a consistent step across in front without walking off. Her hind-end yield is nice. When she yields her hind end, she almost crosses in front of me with her head... almost like she's blocking me... probably is! Sideways was MUCH better this time. Probably because I stopped as soon as she got it right (go figure!). We repeated both sides 3 or 4 times and each time got a bit better and more controlled.

We did everything nice and slow today and it went well. I wonder how she'll do when I turn up the volume? She was almost sleepy today!

After all that, I went to grab the bridle and put it on. She stood nicely while I was trying to put the bridle on, but it was quite a while before I got the bit in her mouth. She tossed her head quite a bit and avoided the bit. I stopped a couple times and just rubbed her mouth until she stopped fussing. Then I tried the bit again. I managed to get it in her mouth and the bridle over her ears and then just left her alone to play with the bit. She rolled her tongue quite a bit above and below the bit trying to spit it out, rubbed her nose on the ground, tried to scratch it off with her hind foot, and shook her head a lot. After about 5-10 minutes she settled down and her mouth quieted.

I then started asking for lateral flexion using the reins. Lots of resistance at first. and more on her right side than her left. I think I asked about 15-20 times from each side before I felt she was starting to figure it out. Not really great, but coming along. I left it at that and put the hackamore back on her to ride her in. She's not quite responsive enough to be ridden with the bit yet, and I'm not sure enough of myself yet that I won't pull too hard in reflex if she does something unpredictable.

When I first got on her she just stood there and wouldn't move. Quite a bit different from the last time we rode and she could barely stand still. So it took a fair bit of encouragement and change of direction to get her moving. After she did get moving, her responsiveness was much better than the last time we rode. Her lines are straighter and she's starting to yield to my leg pressure better. We pretty much did everything at a walk today which was fine. It wasn't about the speed, but her responsiveness today. We weaved around some pylons and barrels did some sideways and hind end yields and some backing up and called it a day. Not too bad considering it's been about a month since I rode her last. I really have to get past this crazy busy summer so I can build some consistency in their training!

Bath Time!

2008-08-08T15:58:00.009-06:00

I took advantage of the 30+ degree weather today to see how the horses will handle the hose and spraying water on them. The theory being that the cool water will feel nicer if it's really hot out, so theoretically the horses should accept the hose better. I caught all 4 of them and went to work. Jake was the easiest (he only moved away a few steps when I started the sprayer before settling down). He's also the easiest to apply fly spray to. He seems to love it - the others... not so much. Next was Gypsy, who trotted around me a bit, but then after some approach and retreat and stopping the sprayer when she stopped moving, she got the message. Plus I think she started to like the water! Skittles pulled back, then trotted around a bit. Eventually she stood still, but not calmly. Then she lowered her head and was licking and chewing and relaxed. Lastly was IndyAnna. She went pretty snaky on me to start with (sorry no photos of that!). It took me a while just to get her to move forward without the hose on. She never really completely calmed down, although she did stand still for me eventually (I would stop the sprayer as soon as she stopped her feet). And once we were done, there was lots of licking and chewing. By the time I put Indy back though, Jake and Gypsy were already dry! And Skittles rolled in the dirt. By the end of it all, I think I was as wet as them!Attached are the photos of each of them, before and after they accepted the sprayer (in order: Jake, Gypsy, Skittles and Indy):

Collection, Cantering and Cues with Gypsy

2008-07-09T18:03:00.010-06:00

Today Tania and I planned to meet at the outdoor Fultonvale arena, but since it was pouring rain, we switched to 3D Equestrian Ctr. Tania has been to Parelli clinics as well as various reining clinics and helped me out a bit by sharing some of her reining experiences.

Because Gypsy usually interprets any leg pressure as "go forward", we worked on getting her to yield to the leg pressure rather than move forward. One thing was trying to get her to differentiate whether I wanted to move her front end vs her hind end. Tania suggested I may be quitting before she gets it and/or maybe not having a strong enough phase 4, because Gypsy frequently ignores my leg. We worked on leg yields while up against a wall. She was really good to the left, but struggled moving off my leg to the right. I kept at this for quite a while until she was responding relatively consistently, then moved on to trying to get her to yield one way or the other while moving. She seems to forget everything once she's moving!

Most of the time Gypsy would drift off the rail toward the middle of the arena (and completely avoided one side of the arena with a cutting dummy mounted on it... seems she didn't like the wires much... maybe reminded her of electric fence??), so I worked on getting her to yield off my leg. When I added leg pressure while we were moving forward, again she interpreted as go faster. So for a while we had a bit of a battle -- her moving forward instead of off my leg, then also pushing through the bit as well. Tania felt that if I got spurs, she wouldn't push through my leg. All I'd need is to let her know the spurs were there for phase 4 if needed, but don't use them unless she ignored me. Might be something to consider because I was digging my heel into her side with no effect except her thinking "go faster."

A couple times I got frustrated and emotional, but managed to work through it, and by the end of the day, even though it wasn't perfect, Gypsy was starting to respond.

After all that I also worked on softening and collecting her (see attached video clip...much of the background noise is the rain on the roof) . She still tosses her head a fair bit. She frequently finds the sweet spot where I release to her, but doesn't stay there. She's also better going left than right. Her head pops up more when we're going right. But I have to say, I am pleased with her progress considering I only tried this for the first time at the Parelli clinic a few weeks ago.

After that we also tried cantering (above photos). Each time we try this, it gets better and better. She's picking up the canter quicker, managing to maintain gait longer and today even let me pick up the reins a bit without breaking to a trot. Long way to go before it's nice and soft and responsive, but we're making progress!

Anyway, I came away from this with some good encouragement from both Tania and Stacey (one of the owners of 3D who was also riding there) as well as some ideas for improving Gypsy's sensitivity to my cues. Really appreciate their help!

Skittles teaches me to lower phases

2008-07-09T16:50:00.007-06:00

I spent an hour or so with Skittles on Monday. The last time I worked with her (sadly, over 2 weeks ago), I started wondering if it was always going to take so long for her to settle down and move from right-brained to left-brained. I've been doing tons of retreat retreat retreat, assuming that if she's afraid, I need to retreat. Anyway, long story short, instead of retreating last time, I upped my energy to match hers and started getting more firm with asking her to yield. And if she wanted to back up, then OK, let's back up a LOT and QUICKLY. Or if she wanted to go sideways, then let's go sideways LOTS and QUICKLY. And guess what? She calmed down almost instantly. Lowered head, lots of licking and chewing.

On Monday, I started with that again if she felt like being her usual freaky self. And she was, so we repeated what we did last time and it worked again. This isn't to say she still didn't go right-brained here and there after that, but it was less frequent and for less time. Amy suggested this might be "left-brained fear".... I wonder if there is such a thing, because it makes sense... since as long as she acted like that I wasn't asking anything of her until she settled (which she never seemed to want to do) .... hmmmm.....

Anyway, becoming more assertive and firm right at the start seems to really establish me as the leader in her eyes and she gets left-brained MUCH faster.

After I had her attention we worked on refining the 7 games, and added in obstacles. One thing I often forget with Skittles is that it takes WAY less ask for her than for any of my other horses. She's SO sensitive that when I start waiving my stick around I might as well be shouting through a bullhorn; too much noise. I finger-waggle is all she needs. So once I have her jumping out of her skin from shouting at her with the stick, I remember, "Right, this is Skittles, LOWER THE PHASES!" I still held the stick in my hand, but mostly kept it lowered unless she ignored my phase 1 cues (for the quick 2-3-4, right?)

The attached video clip (I just figured out how to do this!!) shows me working on the driving game through pylons with her. This is just after I realized I was shouting, but just before we had it perfected with just lifting my finger. After about the 4th time through, all I had to do was point my finger at her head to drive her away, and just take one step back to draw her toward me. Very nice! And lots of licking and chewing. My son took the video, so it's not a complete circuit of the pylons, but right at the very end you can see me pointing my finger at her head to go on the far side of the next pylon.

Practicing canter @ 3D

2008-07-04T16:07:00.003-06:00

It must be like 35C today. HOT!! I took Gypsy over to 3D Equestrian Ctr. today so I could use their INDOOR arena. Still muggy and hot, but not as hot as outside. They've done some work fixing up the place lately... stalls all painted white and now there's a new partner who co-owns the place: Will Hansen. I met him today too -- he was riding in the arena when I started and we chatted a bit. Nice guy!

ANYWAY... once I got on Gypsy (after a bit of ground work), we just walked around on a loose rein for a while until she was nice and relaxed and blowing. Then we just worked a bit on moving her off my leg without moving faster (still not getting much success with this), and getting the softer feel in the bit.

Once she was loosened up and paying attention I started to ask for the canter. Will was still riding around, but other than that, I had the arena to myself -- so lots of room for Gypsy to move. It took a few tries (lots of saddle slapping at first), but eventually she picked up the canter. And after several stops and starts, the ask took less and less. Still a fair bit of trotting before she picks up the canter, but I am confident that with regular work, she'll get more and more responsive.

While I was riding her, Will commented that I should leave her head alone more. I thought I was, but old "english" habits die hard I guess. And the pictures prove it! I guess I was holding her back a bit. The last photo at least shows me leaving her head alone. I also have to sit back a bit more. Again, I thought I was, but it doesn't look like it in the photos. Always good to see what you look like. I'd like to start taping some of my rides... I think it might help me improve faster. A girl working at the stable helped me out by taking these few photos.

Toward the end of our ride, I even managed a few rough simple changes through the middle of the arena. She managed to get on the right lead each time, so I was really proud of that. I still haven't attempted to get her to canter online yet, but hopefully once she learns to collect a bit at the canter in an arena, maybe cantering online will be easier. When we were done, I took off her saddle and let her roll around. She was pretty sweaty! So was I!

All in all, a really successful day, albeit a HOT one! :-)

More 7 games with Indy

2008-07-02T21:56:00.005-06:00

Today I worked with Indy. I wasn't sure if I would ride or not when I started, but for sure I was going to get through all 7 games with her. In the end, I didn't ride... the 7 games took longer than I thought it would with her! Maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist!

Friendly game: no problem.

Porcupine Game: Zone 1 - phase 1. Zone 2 - phase 1/2. Zone 3 - phase 1. I don't think I did the porcupine game in zone 4 or 5. She started not paying much attention to me, but I got her attention with the carrot stick on her chest when she was ignoring my finger pressure on her nose. That got her attention which resulted in mostly phase 1 after that!

Driving Game: Really good driving her hind end. But she didn't always step under, but rather stepped sideways and back. So I persisted each time until she stepped under. Probably being too picky? Driving her front end was not as easy. She tends to be rather pushy and tried avoiding the carrot stick instead of yielding, but once she figured out she couldn't get her head over the stick, she yielded. Again I was picky about her crossing in front rather than behind before I released. We've done the 7 games before, so I figured it was safe to be picky (i.e. not releasing as soon as she shifted sideways, but waiting for the specific foot movement).

Yoyo Game: We worked on this a fair bit. Her yoyo back was pretty decent. After a quick phase 4 I did when she looked like she was falling asleep with phase 1, she really paid attention and was fairly consistent with backing at around phase 2. But there was a lot of resistance with her bring back. And it didn't improve a ton the rest of the day. I tried to yoyo her back through some barrels and my first attempt did not work at all. She kept veering away and trying to trot off. So I tried it backwards and let her lead through the barrels, stop between them, yoyo them back and a bit forward of the barrels, then back, etc. etc. until she was able to start well in front of the barrels and back quietly through them. The last few 2 or 3 times back she did lots of licking and chewing

Circle Game: Wow, we spent lots of time on this one. She had a really hard time with maintaining gate, or perhaps it was just not understanding what I wanted. In hindsight, I should have started with the small circle game (like I showed Sarah with Jake). She would trot ahead and abruptly stop. Then do that again over and over each time I re-sent her. Many times she would stop behind me and when I asked her to go again, she'd cut the circle toward me and I would have to defend my space to keep her from coming over me. A couple times as I tried to drive her hindquarters away from me, she made like she was going to kick. She's done this a lot this year. Serious attitude from this girl!! At one point she ignorned my send and tossed her head at me and I immediately went to phase 4 with the string behind her, which launched her (and ultimately me too) sideways into the air. Then she stood there blowing and staring at me. Hmmm maybe I mean business, hey? I sent her again (phase 1), she stared but didn't move, then I slowly lifted the carrot stick to the side and she launched into a trot around me pulling all the way around, the abruptly stopped and changed direction and kept trotting around. I left her doing that. I think she did about 4 or 5 wonky circles and started blowing, so this was when I disengaged her and rubbed her a fair bit. I tried a couple more circles after that and tried to keep her at a walk. The last couple were a more relaxed, but not precisely "circles".

Squeeze Game: No problem with this one. Maybe a bit slow, but she got it. Nice disengagement and back up after as well. We did both the basic squeeze against the fence as well as squeeze over a jump. She didn't really jump. She kind of just stepped over. I didn't ask for anything faster today.... I'll maybe ask for some more life next time!

Sideways game: She struggled with this one as well. And maybe I was too picky with this too. She moved her front and back separately most of the way. As soon as she was able to take a sideways step with both front and back feet I stopped and rubbed her with the stick. But again, a few times while I was driving her hind end, she threatened to kick. I was far enough away to be safe, but it irked me! She was able to go sideways better to the right than the left. Not sure if that had anything to do with going downhill in that direction or not? But I continued to ask both way until she gave me at least one simultaneous sideways step before the release. I guess we'll see if it worked if it gets better next time!

She's definitely flexing her left-brained muscles. She may be more of a challenge than I first thought! But this threatening to kick has got to stop! Anyone out there have any advice? Do I put her to work as soon as she does that? Not sure.

Thanks for listening! See you next time!

Sarah tries 7 games on Jake

2008-06-30T18:50:00.008-06:00

A couple days after the Parelli clinic Sarah (friend visiting from England) and I took Gypsy and Jake out of the pasture for some Parelli fun. After watching 3 days of L2 clinic in Redwater, Sarah was raring to go with trying some of what she'd learned on Jake.

I gave her some pointers for starting the Friendly game with him, starting with rubbing him with the carrot stick, then flipping the string over him, then rhythmically flapping the ground near him. This last always makes Jake start trotting around. So I encouraged her to walk away from him, but that didn't work as he just kept going around her. Then I suggested she back up against the fence and if he stopped to look at her, to stop moving the string around. This eventually worked and she quit on that and moved on to porcupine and driving games and then went back to the friendly game later (which went lots better the second time).

Jake was very much a chair that day. A heavy recliner actually. So it took phase 4 of the porcupine game for him to budge. Last year he was easily moved with phase 1. Just goes to show you that if you don't keep it up, the horses easily regress! Sarah's fingers were getting tired, so she switched to the carrot stick.

At this point I wasn't paying too much attention since I was playing with Gypsy. I started just playing the driving game around some pylons, and then a figure-8 around 2 barrels (one of which I was standing on). Then I decided to hop on while she was standing so nicely beside my barrel. With just the halter on, I tried to get her to change direction just with leg pressure. Unfortunately, she still thinks that means move faster. So with only one rein, we did lots of circles. Eventually I gave up on the one rein and went and got the cradle bridle. It was really hard to correct her with one rein because by the time I got it on the right side to turn her in the direction my leg was asking, she'd forgotten what I was asking in the first place. So supporting her with the reins needs to be quicker.

With the cradle bridle I worked on softening her feel, and collecting her trot a bit. Definitely WAY better since the clinic. Then I spread out the pylons a bit more and asked her to sidepass through them back and forth. She managed to stay soft through the first two, but got heavier and picked up speed through the last two and almost trotted through them. We repeated until she was able to walk slowly and calmly through all of them, then disengage at the end. Then I tried weaving through them again just using my body and leg pressure to direct her. Again, she picked up speed again and I used the suspension rein to slow her. After about 5 or 6 turns through the cones (using very exaggerated body movements), she seemed to be responding to my turn cues. Cool! We didn't try the trot. That's too much for today.

Then I let her wander while I helped Sarah some more with Jake. By this time she was ready to try the circle game. So I suggested she start with the close circle game (resting the carrot stick in neutral on his back, but ready to encourage him to move if he stopped). They did well with that, so I showed her how to incorporate the yoyo into the larger circle game. Jake had a tendency to leave as soon as he was yoyo'd back, so I encouraged her just to do a couple more yoyo's to get him to wait for her. He did and she asked for the send. He did several lazy circles around her and I showed her how to disengage him. His disengage was pretty half-hearted and lazy, so then I showed her how to play "hide the hiney" after which Jake started to disengage rather smartly! :-)

I left her to play with that a bit more and I went to play the catching game with Gypsy. She didn't move away from me when I started walking toward her. When she looked up I stopped. Then she did move away, so I followed. When she turned away from me again, I added some pressure in zone 5 and she trotted off a few steps then changed her mind and came back. I backed away and she followed. So I swung my savvy string over her back, backed away some more and she sidepassed toward me!! So cool! Then I just draped the string over her neck and asked her to follow me and she did!

Unfortunately Sarah had to head back to England last week, so now I'm on my own again (sniff, sniff). But I think she really enjoyed playing with the horses and is hoping to find a horse back home to play with.

Hopefully I'll get Indy and Skittles up to speed again this week. Stay tuned!

Parelli L2 clinic June 21-23

2008-06-29T09:12:00.008-06:00

The Parelli level 2 clinic last weekend was fantastic. A LOT of questions and problems were fixed with me and Gypsy and we made a great deal of progress into L2 tasks. For me it was the best clinic I've attended so far. It also re-charged my energy and motivation and improved my confidence. I had a friend (Sarah) visiting from England who came as my auditor. It was great to get feedback on what she was seeing... what I might be doing right or wrong. Excellent, excellent clinic!

DAY 1
For most of Day 1 we reviewed Level 1 stuff, which was good because we (I) had kind of gone back to a lot of that anyway. We went through all the 7 games on line and started refining it and adding obstacles. Of course we started with friendly game and then the extreme friendly game. Gypsy quickly learned that to stop the "flogging the ground" with the stick and savvy string, all she had to do was lower her head. So I continued to move around her with the extreme friendly game and she kept lowering her head. Then when I stopped, but everyone else kept at it around her with their own horses, she looked like she was trying to bury her nose in the ground to get everyone else to stop!

Gypsy and I also got better at the sideways over a pole, and yoyo over a pole. At home she had trouble with both, but really improved at the clinic. She has very little resistance backing over the pole now. And I'm also able to ask her to go sideways over a pole now without holding her head. We're not at the end of the 22' line yet, but she's definitely better.

We worked on doing needle simulations as well... encouraging them to relax their neck when pinched. We've worked on this at home and she's doing fairly well with this too.

With the circle game, we added the level 2 tasks of transitions and change of direction, which Gypsy is also really doing well at. Still struggling with maintaining the walk, but she's listening to the request for the down transition at least. We didn't do any cantering online (too little space for everyone to try that), but I know that one is going to be a challenge as she hasn't been able to do that yet.

In the afternoon, we reviewed saddling and bridling with savvy as well as mounting. Then once everyone was mounted, we started with lateral flexion, reviewing rein positions, disengaging the hindquarters, emergency stop, etc. I had a lightbulb moment while riding ... in the middle of reviewing the rein positions while we were all still walking around on a loose rein, Gypsy lowered her head for the first time since I got on and started blowing. And from that moment on she became more focussed, relaxed and responsive. Major BFO (blinding flash of the obvious): Hey, maybe I should do this every time with her... wait until she starts to blow before "riding" her. And by that I mean asking for riding manoevers, transitions, sidepasses, etc. Maybe then we'll have more successful riding sessions!! I can't recall if I've ever done that before (at least not consciously)... so that pretty much explains why she always (usually) seems so right-brained while we're riding. The suspension rein to stop or slow was one I had forgotten. And I definitely need to work on that one more... I still have a tendency to pull back rather than up. I also have to remember to start with STOP RIDING before using the reins. Not so good at that yet. Usually I use the rein, then go "oh ya" forgot to stop riding. I think I need to start a mantra: "don't use the reins to stop, use the reins if she doesn't stop!" Maybe doing the stop transitions at a target like in the June Savvey Club DVD will help me with that.

We also worked on front and back pivots. Gypsy still has a lot of forward movement in both of those manoevers, so I was doing a lot of circling to try to isolate either the front or back pivot before releasing. She did eventually do each of those manoevers, but she's not able to do it consistently yet. The supporting rein is helping out a lot with this (preventing her forward movement), but my timing has to get better. I think I'm way better than a year ago with my timing, but it can definitely be better.

DAY 2
Day 2 we dove right into L2 tasks and refining riding skills. The morning was on the ground and the afternoon in the saddle. On the ground we worked on trying to get the horses quiet while holding their tongue. Don was able to do this with Gypsy, but I wasn't able to actually get ahold of her tongue... slippery little sucker (I also tried this with my gelding Jake just yesterday and promptly got bit....OUCH! must remember not to let him roll my fingers into his teeth!). She was fairly quiet with my fingers in her mouth though.

We also worked a fair bit on being specific about where we want the horse to lead (throat latch at the shoulder) at the walk or trot and change of direction. We followed this up with leading at liberty as Don asked people individually to remove their halters when he thought they were ready. A couple horses got away from their owners at which time we got ahold of our own horses and proceeded to make it uncomfortable for the rogue horse to be anywhere but with his owner (waving arms, sticks, strings, anytime he moved away from his owner, until he figured out the safest place for him was with his owner). Some took a fair bit of convincing. Gypsy left me once, but only went about 40 feet away, saw a waving stick and promptly turned back to me. Good girl!!

We did more refining with the 7 games on line, improving our L2 tasks. One was sideways toward (rather than away). Gypsy and I have worked on this, so with only a couple taps on the opposite hind, I was able to get her to move sideways toward me just with moving the stick in the air and toward me.

We also tried sideways over a barrel. At home we've never been able to do this. Actually at home, straddling a pole is difficult for her, so we've only been able to get close to the barrel, never straddling it. I think my barrels at home are too big. At the clinic we did manage to do sideways over the barrel. I started with just getting her to stop beside the barrel and just let her stand there until she relaxed and started licking and chewing. Then I only asked for one step at a time until she was over the barrel and then again let her stop until she lowered her head licking and chewing. This was huge for her! Moving sideways the rest of the way went quicker and now we have to work on her just stopping and standing beside the barrel when she's done. Once she was clear of the barrel, she trotted forward. Definitely a breakthrough for her, so we'll keep building on that (once I get some smaller barrels)

In the afternoon with the riding we did a lot of sideways and disengaging on a change of direction. After quite a bit of this, she really started to soften up on those turns. We also learned to get the soft feel on a concentrated rein. This was the first time I've been able to do that with Gypsy... mostly because I didn't know how to ask for that. At first she really tossed her head a lot and rooting into the bit. Once Don taught me how to fix my hands until she got quiet, asking for the soft feel and lowering her head was a breeze. Another huge breakthrough!!

Another technique I learned which worked really well for down transitions from trot to a stop was doing a rising trot to sitting to ask for the stop. Another BFO! Of course that's going to feel a lot different to Gypsy than just trying to "sit deeper" from a sitting trot to a stop. She really responded well to that. So at home I'm going to start with the rising trot to stop before moving to a sitting trot to stop.

Then we tried cantering. We divided into two groups at each end of the arena and each took turns trying to get the canter on the circle. I'd been dreading this, but at the same time knew I needed help. We struggled and I did a LOT of saddle slapping around the circle at a really fast trot while trying desperately to sit in the proper position (weight to the outside, inside leg off, outside leg back and squeezing). Gypsy managed a couple awkward strides at the canter, but mostly we did a lot of fast trotting. Quite a few others had trouble with this, which made me feel a bit better (I'm not the only one!), but a lot also had no trouble at all. Don said I was doing the right things, I just had to keep trying until she got it.

DAY 3
LOTS of stuff on Day 3. More creativity with the 7 games. We did tandem circling game (back to back). Lynn and I partnered up for this and I think we did really well. We even managed a change of direction. Very cool!! And fun! :-)

Then Don asked me to yoyo Gypsy back over a pole while standing on a barrel. At first she was a bit disconcerted with me being above her, but she did the yoyo as asked without any problem.

I also did the circle game with her while sitting on a chair. She did this without any problem. Then we did some transitions as well as change of direction from the chair. She did awesome. Very cool.

We did the driving game too -- driving the back end and following through with driving the front end into a pivot on the haunches. That definitely takes a lot of coordination with changing hands on the carrot stick behind your back! Poor Gypsy got poked a couple times with the stick while I was trying to change hands, but after a few tries, I think we got it. I swear sometimes Gypsy does some of these things in spite of me. She almost seems to know what I want before I ask it. Maybe she's watching and learning from the others too!

Then we started combining multiple games in a row: Yoyo to half circle to sideways down the side of the arena to squeeze game, wait, lead forward at a trot to squeeze over a jump, back up and rub. Up to this point, Gypsy hadn't jumped a barrel. On the first attempt through this combination, she didn't jump. But I circled her around again and she jumped it the second time with only a couple moments of hesitation. After we finished, my friend Sarah who was auditing, told me one of the other auditors noticed that I had lifted my leading hand just as she was approaching the jump which Gypsy interpreted to mean stop. I obviously didn't know I was doing this (I was probably simulating jumping with my leading hand), so it was definitely good information which will help me with future attempts. The other thing I learned was that it's OK to put pressure behind her as she's moving toward the jump, but to leave her alone as soon as she's at the jump (the "allow") and then to move her back as soon as she stops trying. The window between approaching and allowing is pretty small too, so my timing really has to be on.

In the afternoon riding session, we worked a lot more on feeling the horse while riding (feeling which feet were moving and when, feeling for the step under during a disengagement, and feeling with and of the horse on a transition (up and down)... in other words: don't leave without your horse. Feel forward, then go forward with your horse. This is no problem with Gypsy (it takes very little "feel" for Gypsy to go forward), but she's definitely less responsive with the down transitions, so we have lots to do there.

We also worked a lot on change of direction, starting without the reins. Eyes - Belly Button - Reins - Leg (and Think - Ask - Tell - Support). "Don't use your reins to turn, use your reins if she doesn't turn." Definitely slow responses, but I think she was actually trying. Of course with all the horses drifting around the arena, a few times you'd have to pick up your reins fairly quickly to avoid collisions, but a few times I think she was starting to respond to my body before the reins.

We worked on sideways without a fence as well. Here we worked on isolating the sideways and the correction if she moved forward. In other words, don't try to back up (if she drifts forward) WHILE asking for the sideways. If she drifts forward, stop going sideways, ask her to back up, then ask for sideways again. We've also tried this at home a few times and she's starting to get better at this. She still drifts forward a lot, and requires correcting, but she's really trying.

One new thing I learned -- because Gypsy frequently resists backing up -- is that disengaging the hindquarters before backing really helps. When she gets stuck and starts tossing her head, Don told me to ask her to disengage the hind end with an indirect rein, then bump her with the other rein for a back up. This really helped.

Then we did the cantering exercises again. Again, I kind of dreaded it. Then just before my turn, Shirley said "think canter, believe it will happen!" And guess what? She did!!! I set her up slowly and made sure she was in the right position. She knew what was coming -- probably a combination of watching the other horses, while standing in the middle (same as the day before), plus my own body energy. After a couple false starts, she picked up the canter and cantered half way around the circle before losing it and breaking into the trot again. Don said to go again and keep going until it was my idea to stop. The second attempt we got up into a canter quicker and she stayed in the canter for more than a full circle and didn't stop until I asked her to!!! I was so happy I cried! What an emotional moment. I got off and cried happy tears into Gypsy's mane with lots of hugs and kisses for her. I was so proud of her!! That was huge for both of us. What a great way to end the clinic!

Transitions, transitions

2008-06-12T20:22:00.006-06:00

I had a better day with Gypsy today. She let me walk right up to her today and didn't move away. She sniffed me, then resumed eating grass, but didn't move away. I scratched her all over, then asked her to put her nose in the halter. No resistance. Which is good! Especially considering my session with her yesterday.

I took her out, groomed her, let her graze, then put on the saddle. I didn't get on right away though, I started by doing some yoyo between the barrels, backing over the pole again, sideways without a fence, squeeze over a jump and circling game. The yoyo through the barrels was almost perfect. Almost straight and very little resistance (almost all phase 1). The second time was even better because she understood what I was asking with the barrels. Nice positive look on her face when she stopped and lots of licking and chewing. Yay!

She still had trouble backing over a pole. But she did it, hesitantly. I didn't push that one. Sideways without a fence still has a lot of forward drift. This time I tried to just get her to move sideways one step at a time and if she stepped forward, I stopped and asked her to back up. Unfortunately, when I asked her to back, she'd turn and face me then back up. So I drove her head away from me, then asked her to back again. Pretty crooked, but I got her going in the right direction eventually. Then I asked for sideways again. Still lots of drift forward and lots of asking her to back up. We switched sides and she seemed to have an easier time of it going to her left. I found that riding her as well... she'd go sideways easier to the left than to the right.

We only did squeeze over a jump a couple of times; the only problem she has with that (as with most tasks) is turning to face me, then standing still. After each squeeze I mostly worked on getting her to stand still for 10 seconds. It took a few rope wiggles to get her to stand, but eventually she did. Then I asked her to circle. As usual, she stopped after each circle and started to come in. It took about 4 or 5 re-sends to get her to circle 3 times without asking to come in. After the 3 circles at the trot (she always trots), I started asking her to walk. Each time I wiggled the rope though, she would stop and try to come in and I would re-send, she would walk, then trot, I wiggled the rope, she'd stop and turn in .... re-send etc. etc. for about 7-8 times. Finally she walked one whole circle. I asked her to disengage.

Then I put on the bridle (snaffle this time to see if it made any difference) and got on. We walked around for a while, then I asked her to trot. Immediately she started speeding up. I tried the one-rein stop and she turned and slowed, then trotted off again as soon as I released. I repeated this every time she trotted off without waiting for me to ask her. Finally she walked off (fast walk though) and we did some smaller circles at the walk and then I asked her to trot and immediately asked her to walk again. We did this about 20 times, but she never got softer. If anything she got stronger and it got harder to get her to slow down. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. Eventually I started circling her smaller and smaller each time she sped up and only let her straighten out when she softened. As long as she stayed at a collected trot, I left her alone. Eventually I could get about half way around the paddock at a nice collected trot before she would speed up. Partly that was because she had to trot downhill, so it's hard to stay collected downhill. On the downhill - as soon as she started to speed up, I asked her to walk. I'm still having to pull way too hard on the rein to get a response. I know I'm doing this wrong, I just don't know how to do it right. Maybe picking the same two spots to ride to and stop? Would she anticipate the stop or transition then?

I also tried to canter her. She did pick up the canter, but she's REALLY front heavy at the canter and she really leans and drops her shoulder into the turn. Picking up on the reins to try to collect her a bit only makes her trot. She can't maintain a canter around any kind of direction change. She always breaks to a rough trot as soon as I ask for a turn (because that involves picking up the rein!) Don't know what to do at all. It's not a nice canter at all and no matter what I do, I can't keep her going for more than about a quarter of the way around the paddock. And there's no cantering her at all in the round pen, she just won't do it. ARRGH!! I'm really at a loss as to what to do about the cantering.

I abandoned the cantering, because she also goes right-brained when we canter, and we lost all of her collection at the trot. So we went back to trotting and trying to get her collected again (lots of circles). Then we did some backing up and sideways, and once she was focussed again, I let her walk around, then let my daughter ride her a bit in the round pen. Not sure what Holly did with my camera to get the photos to show only black and white except for green.... but it's kind of a cool effect!

2 steps back with Gypsy

2008-06-12T08:54:00.004-06:00

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours with Gypsy. I downloaded all the Level 2 tasks I need to master in order to pass Level 2 yesterday - and there are a lot of them we're not close to (most of them). So right off the bat, I started out goal-oriented, since I was hoping I'd be at least half way there when we go to the L2 clinic on the 21st (just over a week away!). The result was a pretty frustrating session because I was goal-oriented and consequently she spent most of the session right-brained. And looking back, I didn't address that.

Actually I started out waiting for permission from Gypsy to catch her. She's usually pretty easy to catch, even though she doesn't exactly come up to me. But yesterday, I waited until she came up to me. For a while there (as it was taking longer than I thought it would), I fought with that voice in my head that said "screw it, just go catch her so we can get started!". Instead I waited it out and followed her around until she came to me (I would stop following and/or back up if she turned toward me instead of away). It took about 15-20 minutes. Which sounds like a short time, but really, seemed like an eternity.

I wanted to work on a more straight yoyo, more precise driving game (getting her to move her hind end without moving her front end), getting her to wait at the end of a task rather than always immediately coming in to me, backing over a rail and then a more consistent circling game. We worked on all of those and accomplished some success with the yoyo. She managed to back over the rail only once after about 9 or 10 attempts (she'd always veer sideways or come forward when she got to the rail). I left that one alone after she did it. She backed through a couple of barrels which helped with the straightness, but we have lots of work still to do to keep her standing still at the end of the line (not coming forward as soon as she's done).

The hardest for her, for some reason, is the circling game. She can't do this at a walk and really pulls to the outside. And she stops every time after one circle and asks to come in. She was doing this so beautifully last year, that I don't know what has changed. Maybe it's because I've started changing it with transitions and change of direction that now she's constantly questioning what I want. Maybe I should just go back to plain old circling and keeping her there for the 4+ rounds before asking for anything else. Either that or using her stop as a change of direction (turning her idea into my idea??) not sure what would work best. Also, she frequently changes direction on her own and always at the same place. I tried moving the circle to a different location, but that didn't change it. I've been stopping her and making her go back in the original direction, but that hasn't worked either. I'm lost.

So each time I failed at trying to get her to do the tasks, we moved to something else in the hopes we would succeed at something. We did some sideways with a fence and then without a fence. Without a fence she is constantly going forward, so that going sideways with her involves constantly wiggling the rope to keep her from moving forward. The L2 pass requires no more than 2 corrections! Long way to go there.

Then I tried to get her to back up by pulling her tail. At first all she did was pull away from me. So I strung the lead line between her legs under her belly to use that as a support. I started out just pulling her tail, then supported with the line. She eventually got it, but was far from responding softly and never from just pulling the tail. I then tried pulling her sideways a bit, but she resisted and pulled the other way. Instead of going back to just backing up, I tried again, until she pulled away more, stepped on the line, startled herself, got tangled and freaked out. She then spent the next 10 minutes or so avoiding me. So again, I collected myself, took a deep breath and kept following her until she turned and came back to me. A number of times I could easily have picked up the 22' line dragging behind her, but I waited until she chose to come back to me. So at least I did that much right.

I finished the session by playing "put your nose on it" using treats. I wanted to end with something positive so she wouldn't avoid me forever the next time. She enjoyed that and found all the treats pretty quickly and nosed around for more.

Also, I didn't blog my last session with her a few days ago. I rode her for about an hour or so working on up/down transitions. Since she's always moving forward, we mostly worked on the down transitions and at the same time, staying on the rail. She still really pulls into the bit. By the end of the session she was starting to collect a bit and soften on the transition. Not a lot, but a small change. She really can't stay collected though. If I leave her alone, she always picks up speed. I've done lots of circles with her, but maybe not enough. We'll need to do a lot more of these and a lot more transitions. Backing up is also a huge challenge for her and we worked on that a fair bit as well. Lots of head-tossing and pawing the ground when I ask her to back.

These last two sessions with her have convinced me that we're a LOOOONGG way from passing Level 2. I just hope we make it through the clinic with some improvement!

I'm actually concerned about having to canter at this clinic. She can canter, but it's really awkward, stumbly and uncontrolled. I have NO idea how to fix that. I rarely canter with her because it's so awkward, but now that we have to for the L2 pass (as well as do smooth transitions... HA!), I really need to address this. I sure hope Don has a lot of patience! :-)

Spring turnout

2008-06-06T08:31:00.006-06:00

Yesterday I picked up a few bags of oats at G&E. After emptying them into my bins I decided to use one of the bags to do some "friendly game" with the horses. Gypsy came right up and started chewing on the bag and flipping it around subsequently scaring off all the other horses. It was a windy day as well, so as soon as she let it go the wind picked it up and blew it across the paddock, scaring the horses even more in the opposite direction. The bag stopped at the gate and all the horses stood with their bums against the fence at the other end, heads up, ears forward just waiting for that sabre-toothed oat bag to come and devour them. So I picked it up and folded it nice and small and did approach and retreat with all the other horses (besides Gypsy) until I could rub it over all of them. Surprisingly, IndyAnna was the least able to stand still (a year ago, she would let me do just about anything around her without flinching!). I didn't use any halters on them, just moved amongst them with the folded bag and kept going until I could rub it over all of them without them having to leave. Indy couldn't do it. I will have to try again, maybe in the round pen later.

It was a spectacular day yesterday and I should have been working with the horses. But the veranda and my book were calling me and persuaded me to take the afternoon off. And Yarrow and Jake kept pawing at the gate to get at the grass in the pasture. So, since we were out of hay as of yesterday morning, I opened the gate and let them out. They barely got their front feet through the gate before they were grazing! Mmmmm... yummy grass!! Pretty happy horses. :-) Me too... good book and a cup of coffee on the veranda... a perfect day all around.

Trying to get a canter from Gypsy

2008-06-05T10:46:00.008-06:00

Yesterday I worked with Gypsy again in the paddock and in the round pen. I started with the 7 games, including more sideways without a fence (she's starting to get pretty good at this!). Then I took her into the round pen to see if being in there would help her to pick up a canter. We started with just doing walk-trot transitions on line along with changing direction, then I tried to get her to canter. I used slow deliberate swings of my carrot-stick and string in zone 5 repeatedly until she picked up a canter. Also, I had taken her line off to give her some more freedom. Except for a couple of disunited strides, she really couldn't do it. She kept trotting faster and faster (above) and all I really succeeded in doing was scaring the crap out of her. She wouldn't turn into me after that and kept crowding the gate clearly wanting to get away from me - the crazy woman with the stick. I never touched her with the stick or string, but it was too much pressure and it was obvious she couldn't (or wouldn't??) canter. The few strides she did pick up where really choppy and short. Not sure why she couldn't canter. I know she can (I've seen her!). Maybe she's just a really long horse and needs more space? (at least until she's capable of being more collected). She's also really "downhill" (I used 3 large shims when I rode her last and the saddle was still tipped forward), so not sure there's a discomfort factor involved or not?? I don't know. I wish I knew what it was so I could do something about it. Just not sure where to go from here with the cantering.

Anyway, we carried on with the session because I wanted her to calm down and finish on a positive note. So we abandoned cantering and started working on the walk-trot transitions on line. Once I had her doing that a bit more calmly, I decided to try doing some of the change-direction at liberty, which is much easier to do in a round pen! (remaining photos). She did really really well with the changing direction at liberty. She was really focussed on me. Except for a couple of out-turns when I wanted her to turn in to me, she responded very well. The only trouble after that was that I actually asked for too many changes of direction, so when I wanted her to keep trotting around me, she would stop behind me and come in or change direction on her own. So then I had to try to keep her on a circle in one direction. That took some doing. Just about every 3rd or 4th stride, she'd turn in asking "do you want me to turn now? how about now?...." Loved that she was asking me questions all the time and, OH BOY, I got to practice my send over and over! :-) The session turned out really well in the end. I'm glad I was able to settle her down and get her to trust me again. These horses really are the most amazing animals. And I love this one, in particular, a great deal! :-)

Trying the cradle bridle on Gypsy

2008-06-05T10:35:00.004-06:00

A couple of days ago I took Gypsy out for a ride to try out the cradle bridle I got earlier this year. I hadn't used it up to now because I wanted to work on softening Gypsy without a bit before introducing a bit again. She's actually been doing fairly well, so I thought I'd give it a try.

As long as she is in the paddock, she's pretty soft and responsive. But once I get her out of the paddock and take her down the road, she goes right-brained and a forward-aholic. Keeping her to a walk is a challenge. She definitely did better this time out that she did the last time (her first outing this year back in March), but she was still pulling more than I would like. When she would speed up while we were still in the subdivision, I would circle her until she slowed or stopped. But once we were on the County road, there really wasn't any space to do that safely, so we got in a bit of a tug-of-war. Again, she was softer than she usually is, but not as soft as I would like. She still roots and pulls and tosses her head too much. I think maybe I better just keep her in the paddock for a while and work on her softness there before taking her out again. Next time I ride her I'll work on the "million transitions" ... maybe that will help get her more responsive and softer. I might have been able to do some of those while on the road, but she really didn't have a down transition and every time I asked her to slow down, she would toss her head and root into the bit. Or if I stopped her, she would paw the ground impatiently.

Displaced right-brained behaviour, right? I guess I'm pushing her out of her comfort zone too soon.

Cramming for L2 clinic!

2008-06-02T16:15:00.006-06:00

Boy I really am getting lazy at this blogging. Sorry to those who check this frequently. Or am I being optimistic? :-)

I am now done with the conference I've been working on for the last year (YAY!), and no more gymnastics competitions for my son until next year (double-YAY!). So now it's CRAM CRAM CRAM for the Parelli L2 clinic in 3 weeks.

I worked with Gypsy yesterday for an hour or so. When I went to go get her she saw me go into the shed to get a halter and when I came out she was at the gate. Very cool! :-) I took her out and let her graze for about 15 minutes while I groomed her. Then we went back into the paddock to start our session. I started with the 7 games, this time with the 22' line to see if she'd be as responsive further away than 12'. I haven't used the 22' line since last fall. She did everything really well. Even sideways without a fence. It took us quite a few tries to keep her from moving forward (she's a forward-aholic), but after about 6 tries, she did pretty well. Only moved forward a couple steps. Here she is (above) looking at me after the last really good sideways -- waiting for her "atta girl!".

We also worked on the squeeze over a cavaletti. She did really well with that too. But when I got 22' away, she tended to go around the jump rather than over it. I'll stick to working a bit closer for a while on that one and move further away slower until she's got it.

Then we did some sideways over a rail. She had a pretty tough time with that one. She's uncomfortable with straddling a pole. I think my initial mistake was trying to ask her sideways from too far away and once she stepped forward over the pole, she couldn't back up. So I slowed it down and held her head while asking for the sideways. She leaned on me a fair bit as she wanted to push forward, but with the closer communication, she managed to figure out what I wanted and stayed over the rail while going sideways. A few tries later, I was barely touching her halter, but just had my hand there to correct if she needed it. And when I did correct her, it was with a much softer touch. She's doing so well! I find each time I work with her, she's really paying attention and really trying hard. It's amazing, and an amazing feeling to see her so focused.

Then we got to the transitions online. Last time we did this, she was pretty right-brained and whether I asked her to transition up or down she just got faster. This time, probably because we had done so much playing already, she was very left-brained and attentive that nearly all of my cues were phase 1. Well, actually all of my cues for her to transition up were phase 1. To transition down were about phase 2-3 (forward-aholic). I never did get a tranisition up to a canter, just a really fast trot (which I accepted as good enough for today). And as she speeds up she really leans on the line. So she doesn't seem confident enough to try the canter online yet. I may move her into the round pen next time and see if that helps. She stumbles a lot at the canter, so that may have something to do with her confidence. I've always wondered about that, actually... what do you do with a horse that stumbles a lot??

We also did some very nice changes of direction. Again, last time - change of direction meant speed up to her. This time, she was way more relaxed and I got some very nice steady changes at the walk and the trot.

Every time I disengaged her she came right in and buried her head in my chest. I completely melt when she does that (picture left is her coming in for her snuggle) :-)

Then I let her out with all the other horses to mow my lawn (below).

Playing with Indy

2008-05-12T08:12:00.010-06:00

I spent about 4 hours playing with Indy on Saturday this past weekend. My goal was to be able to saddle her from the right without her trotting off, and if I had time to ride, then bonus! But riding wasn't my plan, just the saddling. (However, as you can see in all the photos, I did get to ride too!)

My neighbor Dani brought her young mare over as well to do some work in the round pen, so I helped her out a bit too. At the end of the session with her, she suggested we get together every Saturday morning to play with the horses. I'm all for that!! It was great having someone else to do horse stuff with. And I think I may have ALMOST convinced her that this Parelli program might be worth trying. Dani really likes Stacey Westfall and has been watching her videos to help her with her horse. I also think she's great, so if Stacey's videos helps her with her horse, I fully support her.

It took nearly 2 hours to get the saddle on Indy quietly. Well, that's not quite true because I spent the first hour grooming, then playing the 7 games with her, partly using the saddle as an obstacle. So working SPECIFICALLY with putting the saddle on her was about an hour. And because I was using the western saddle, I can't even begin to tell you how tired my arms were at the end of it!! I used the western saddle because she only trots off when I swing the western saddle up on her, not the english one. It's Monday today, and my shoulders are still sore. I started with swinging the saddle pad on and off her for a long time from both sides until she just ignored me and started looking for grass. Then I spent a lot of time just lifting the saddle up her side and resting it on her back. From both sides. Then I would swing it from her left side (which she doesn't object as much to as with her right). She still didn't quite stand quietly, so we did lots of repetition. Then I had to rest and I yoyo'd her some more to and from the saddle. Boy that saddle was getting heavy! Then I pretty much worked exclusively from her left until I could swing the saddle up without her trotting off. I wouldn't say she was COMPLETELY relaxed about it, but she didn't trot off. She tensed, but stayed put. I left it at that, because really, I probably couldn't have lifted the saddle up again anyway! I will repeat this again over the next week or so (once my shoulders recover) and hopefully each day will get a bit better.

Then I let Dani have the round pen and I took Indy off into the paddock and worked on getting her to move off my leg. Initially, I wasn't picky about where she went, just that she move and keep moving when I asked her. She had no trouble walking/trotting TOWARD the gate, but I really had to work to get her to move AWAY from the gate. So I tried using the barrels, like Linda suggests: get her to go to the barrel, then rest. Then go to the other barrel, then rest. She was still pretty distracted by Dani and Tommie working in the round pen, so she often overshot the barrel (or would go past the other one and continue to the gate), so I tried to not worry about the barrel so much as the fact that I gave her a reward for getting from A to B (whether A was the gate or the barrel or B was the round pen or the barrel). Not sure if I should have been more insistent on the barrel (as in the photo to the left here where it looks like I'm barrel racing, but really just asking Indy to stop at the barrel), or if it was OK just to give her a point to go to and stop. I think I should have been more insistent on the barrel (consistency), rather than letting her choose the place to stop and letting her pass the barrels to where she wanted to go. Anyone reading this... I'd love your opinion!

In the end, she was actually objecting less and less to moving away from the gate though, and we even trotted quite a bit. She's doing quite a bit better than Skittles with impulsion, so I was pleased with that. So maybe I shouldn't be too critical. I don't know. Seems the more I learn, the less I know!

I got off and on her a few times (mostly to help Dani in the round pen), and each time I got off she thought she was done. So each time I got on again, she gave me a bit of attitude when I asked her to go again (stomping feet, tossing head, even a little mini-buck). But nothing too serious.. just expressing her Left-brained opinion. I just ignored it (didn't release) and continued to ask until she responded appropriately. The photo above shows her objecting a bit to me asking her to move off my leg and away from the gate (head up, ears back).

One other thing I noticed was that she zig-zagged a lot (had difficulty going in a straight line). Mostly, I think, because I was asking her to go somewhere she didn't want to. I tried to keep aiming her at the barrel, but she rarely got there in a straight line. Maybe that was another reason I should have been more insistent on stopping at the barrel... so she'd get the message that's where I wanted to go and that's where she would get her rest. I also (in hindsight) probably didn't repeat that enough for her to understand the pattern. Oh well. It was a pretty decent ride, she responded fairly well to my leg commands, and we're making progress! We'll eventually get straigher lines and keep her moving for longer distances.

Catching up again

2008-04-21T20:37:00.006-06:00

I'm getting behind in my blogging again. Two weekends ago (April 12-13th), I went to Blackfoot on the Sunday with my neighbors (Cam and Dani)and a friend of theirs (Roy). I took Gypsy since she's the only one with the confidence for a long trail ride. Jake might do OK, but I may do more damage than good by taking him. I'll get there eventually with him, but he's extremely unconfident, so it's too soon too fast to push him on a trail ride. So good ol' Gypsy got to go.

In preparation, on Saturday I did some 7 games (transitions on line, yoyo, driving from zone 3, etc.) . She had trouble walking on the circle. First she would leave before I asked her to, so I did lots of yoyo to get her to wait for me. Then when she got going on the circle, she couldn't stay at the walk. I never really got a chance to ask her to go from a walk to a trot because she started at the trot! So I kept trying to slow her down by blocking zone 1, which only seemed to make her go faster. Finally after much rope wiggling, she slowed her trot and eventually walked. But then she wanted to stop and come in to me. So I asked her to keep going and she started trotting again. Rope wiggle, slower trot, rope wiggle, walk..... then trot, rope wiggle walk/stop and turn in. OK, slowwwwly ask to move around the circle again, she walked. Then trotted. I wiggled the rope, and she walked and licked her lips! Yay! She stayed at the walk for a full circle and I asked her to yield and come in. Good girl! We tried again in the other direction (to the right) and started it all over. It took longer to get her to slow to the right. She even caught herself going around a tree, but eventually figured out how to get untangled. Once I finally got her slowing to a walk to the right, I let her come in and we quit.

Next I tried the western saddle on her (since I wanted to use it on her at Blackfoot). I've tried it on all 3 of the others, but not on Gypsy yet, so I wanted to make sure it was shimmed right and the girth was set right, etc. Skittles was the last one to wear it, so I expected to use smaller shims on Gypsy and a longer girth. Turns out, the shims stayed the same (since I forgot that Skittles was under-shimmed). Actually, Gypsy could probably have used additional shimming too. Hmm. Then I took her for a trot down the subdivision road and back to see how she liked it. She seemed pretty happy with it. All set for Sunday!

The day was spectacular. The nicest of the year so far (24 degrees), but since the snow was still melting, the trails were pretty muddy. So my fancy horse and my fancy saddle got all muddy! :-) Oh well. Gypsy -- like always -- started out at a good clip. I wanted her to stay behind Cam's horse and not keep trying to take off down the trail. She kept pushing and trying to pass for quite a while, but eventually she settled in behind the lead horse. I didn't try to pull on her, just kept steering her back into Diesel's tail. Cam's fiance, Dani, was riding her 4-year old mare, Tommie (who's previous name was Madonna when she was boarding at our place). She's recently trained with a pretty good head on her shoulders, but still pretty green and unconfident. Poor Dani was dumped a few times when her horse spooked. Once because Dani herself startled her by adjusting her martingale and the second time was my fault. I was giving Dani a leg-up on her, but was paying more attention to Tommie than what I was doing with helping Dani. Consequently, I kind of fumbled her up on Tommie and Tommie wanted nothing to do with that and she kind of reared and jumped forward. We were about 2 km away from the lunch stop, so to help both Tommie and Dani come down off the adrenalin, we decided to walk the horses to the lunch stop. Cam and their friend (Roy) rode on to the lunch stop. Walking through that mud is hard work! I got a good workout (and wet feet), plus I got to work on keeping Gypsy at my shoulder instead of ahead or on top of me! It settled the horses, so it was worth it. I also discovered that my saddle bags were not evenly weighted. By the time we got to the lunch stop, the bags had pulled my saddle right over Gypsy's side. I was so busy working on keeping Gypsy at my shoulder I didn't notice the saddle slipping until we stopped. Maybe that might have had something to do with Gypsy trying to trot ahead of me!

Gypsy also got another lesson in patience while standing tied to the hitching post at lunch. Once upon a time I couldn't tie her to anything because she'd freak out and pull back all the time. It's extremely satisfying to see her past that and standing quietly!

Tommie had another objection to being mounted after lunch, but with some "friendly game" (jumping up and down beside her, foot in and out of the stirrup, etc) by Roy, eventually Dani was able to mount without incident. Crazy how well that Parelli stuff works, eh? Cam and Dani aren't Parelli folk, but they do trust Roy, who uses many of the same principles, so naturally it works!

The rest of the ride went really well. We passed quite a number of other riders along the way. One poor lady was hit in the face by her horse's head when he jerked back after getting too close to the horse in front and got a kick in the jaw. When we came across them, she was on her hands and knees on the ground with a bloody nose (I hope she didn't break it!), and the horse was bleeding a bit from the mouth. Apparently her horse is a show-jumper and this was his first trail ride. She was pretty resilient though and was more concerned about her horse. We gave her a ziploc and filled it with snow to ice her nose. We ran into her again back at the parking lot at the end of the ride. She seemed better, but I imagine she'll be pretty black and blue after that! Her horse looked better too.

Gypsy was pretty sweated up by the time we got back. Tough slogging through the mud all day (she's pretty out of shape after the winter off), 24 degrees and still lots of winter coat left. But she was relatively relaxed and settled compared to when we started. It really was a fantastic day. I was really pleased with how well Gypsy did. Can't wait until the next ride!

Testing Parelli "truths" (unintentionally, of course)

2008-03-30T11:19:00.009-06:00

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

2008-03-23T15:18:00.005-06:00

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

2008-03-20T21:06:00.009-06:00

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

2008-03-17T19:23:00.005-06:00

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

2008-03-15T19:44:00.005-06:00

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!

2008-03-06T17:59:00.004-07:00

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.

Skittles comes home for a week

2007-11-06T10:58:00.000-07:00

Ken had to go out of town this week, so Skittles came home. She'll go back on Thursday. In the meantime, I get to play with her myself! It's not quite as nice as working in a covered arena, but we survived. As long as there's no wind, it's not too bad out here (now that winter has arrivved!). We got pretty spoiled with the nice fall weather, I'm turning into a bit of a wimp!

Skittles has been doing quite well at Ken's these past couple of weeks. He's worked more with her on the ground than from her back -- mostly because she still has a lot of fear issues that she needs to work through. She's definitely getting better each day. He generally does ride her for a few minutes each session, but nothing significant yet. She's really quite hilarious when he gets on her back. She's still trying to figure out how to carry the extra weight and stay balanced. And the whole time Ken is on her back, she groans and grunts. So funny! Sounds like she's going to collapse any minute.

Thankfully when I got on her today she didn't make a sound! Whew!

I started working with her on the ground to make sure I had her mind, had her relaxed and could do everything from both sides without any issues. This was about 30 minutes. Then I put the saddle on. Since Ken has been working her in a western saddle, I did the same -- just to be consistent. I don't want to introduce too many changes to her right off, but rather keep her comfortable with her existing routine. I started out by climbing up on the fence and asking her to come up beside me and see me from above. I swung the rope from side to side moved the stirrups back and forth, and then sat on her. She's done this tons at Ken's so she's pretty OK with it. He also throws his lariat out in front of her on the ground and then drags it back over her and coils it up. I don't have a lariat, so couldn't do that.

After that I got down off her and off the fence and led her to the middle of the round pen and mounted up. At first I just got on her left side and off her right side. Then moved her around again and mounted up again. Also, I didn't have her in a bridle --- just the halter and lead rope.

So I turned her right until she moved her feet. She pretty much kept going in circles by the gate. The other horses were hanging by the round pen too, so she kept turning back toward them. No big deal at this point. The idea is to create a pleasant experience for her. She tends not to walk too far before stopping, so I made it a goal to get her to walk once around the round pen without stopping. I'd only ask her to go (squeeze with my legs) when she stopped and as soon as she moved her feet, I'd release. Sometimes I only got 1 or 2 steps, but eventually she got most of the way around the pen. Keeping her to the outside of the pen was a challenge. She mostly used the bottom half closest to the gate and the other horses. I let her stay within her comfort zone for now. This was my first time riding her after all! Like Ken, I didn't try to micromanage her. She's still working out how to move her feet and maintain gait.

After about 20 minutes of riding, she managed to get around the pen without stopping (only cut off about the top third of the pen). So I worked on backing her up next and could do that almost with just shifting my weight! A couple times she needed the support from the lead line, but she's pretty sensitive and light! Cool!

I scared her once while flipping the rope over her head to change sides and she bucked a couple times, but didn't flip out like the old Skittles would have, and settled pretty quickly. After that I swung the rope a couple times beside her head before flipping it over! She was OK with that.

I had her stop in the middle of the pen away from the gate and got off. BIG sigh and lots of licking. I tied her up to the trailer and went to get my camera, so that's the only photo for today. A pretty good day in my books!!

Indy under saddle

2007-10-15T20:40:00.000-06:00

After I worked with Jake yesterday, I also spent some time with IndyAnna. I wanted to try her in a saddle and see how she'd handle being mounted from the ground. After some ground work, friendly game, driving game and circling game again, I got the saddle. Immediately she started nosing and licking it like she does most everything. She didn't flinch at all when I put it on her back, but rather turned and sniffed the saddle and mouthed it a bit - definitely more curious than scared. I only have 2 girths - one is too small and the other is nearly too big. I used the bigger one, but it was on the last hole on both sides of the saddle. Even at that it wasn't as snug as it should have been because it slipped a bit when I was mounting up.

I mounted and dismounted several times on her left side and after each time I'd move her around just to make sure she wasn't freezing up and going introverted. Although all her other behaviour didn't suggest she was bothered in any way (blinking, head low, looking from side to side). I also worked on getting her to bend her head from side to side to make sure I could bend her to a stop once on her back. I then rode her around the round pen. Getting her to stop is not a problem! Getting her to go is a whole other story. For about half hour I would go from phase 1 to phase 4 in leg pressure to get her to move forward. Each time I'd have to go to phase 4 before she'd move, I'd release, and she would stop. It was quite a while before she'd move more than a couple of steps, but then finally she took 4 steps, then 6 and soon after that she made it once around the round pen before stopping. Yay! It'll be a while before we're trotting, but for now it's one step at a time, literally!

After we were all done I put Holly up on her back and led her around the pen. She was just like an old hand at this! I'm very pleased with her so far.