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This past week has just flown. The weather has either been miserable or I've been in pain so we haven't played much. Ty's mum took Benji and I up Stiperstones in the hope of hacking out with her and her Dales. I wasn't feeling prepared so I intended on walking and playing games on the move perhaps a quarter of the way then heading back to the trailer. That didn't go to plan because we spent half a mile walking down a road the wrong way courtesy of Tyler and then back again so by that point I was in agony, Benji wasn't calm to ride and didn't want to go any further. So, although Benji went RB and was a pain in the bum to keep still once Simba was out of sight, we waited by the trailer for them to come back. A very pointless and pain-filled day for me!
I've decided I'm not going out again this year. He was brilliantly behaved at Haughmond Hill but it was a fluke and we're not ready to go out safely. I've also decided not to hack out with traditionals because they just don't understand. It was suggested by Ty's mum and Diane that I put him in a bridle 'for piece of mind' so 'I can ride and have fun'. If keeping my lad's dignity intact and our relationship 110% means that I don't ride then so be it; I am one of the few who can appreciate that it's not about riding and it's certainly not about putting a piece of metal in his mouth to yank on so I can stop. For those of us who know better bits aren't for control, they are for clearer communication. If one doesn't know the difference, then they shouldn't be allowed to use one. I'm finding it very difficult at times to keep my emotional fitness when people give me lousy, nonsensical advice. Thankfully I kept my cool when they both said to bridle him in future and told them assertively but not sharply that I will ride him in a bit when I can ride him just as well without. They didn't understand but I was proud that I didn't get grumpy about it and gave them a logical (well, to me it was) answer.
Yesterday the weather was great but I was housebound all day because of the pain but today we had a great session working on the driving game and circling game. He kept confusing being driven back to mean back then out on a circle so that took a while to fix. After about 15 minutes of working on "yes, you're going back but not on a circle 'til I ask you so" we got a great 3 lap circle in walk over a small pole. I was so chuffed about how good that was that I decided not to push it and to end it there on a good note.
One thing that still isn't so great is Benji giving me the opposite eye to the side I'm working on if I let him. For instance if I yield his hindquarters or stand and accidently block his view he will hastily move his head over my shoulder, clonk my neck and put his head inbetween me and his body. I'm trying to decide if it's a nervous behaviour or dominant but whichever it is he now tries to do it quicker than I can put up my arm as a body block. 80% of the time I'm quick enough but the other 20% I just back him right up to let him know if he wants to do that he must take a step backwards first and not be so rude. 
Ah well, if that's the only bone I have to pick with him, it's a fairly small one. It'll get better over time!
I'm currently searching every nook and cranny of the net to find Parelli pics in the hopes of printing off good ones and pinning them up on my wall as inspiration. I've found some pretty amazing ones. 
I love the quotes a lot of SC members have in their signatures, I don't really have anywhere to store them so if I remember I will put one at the end of each journal entry.
If a dancer was forced to dance by whips and spikes, He would be no more beautiful than a horse trained under the similar conditions - Xenophon |
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Today the weather is so pants I doubt I'll get chance to have a play inbetween showers so he can have the day off. Yesterday was really great, had to play the catching game again but it went much better and I feel happy to know that Benji is wanting to be caught rather than not having a choice. To me, liberating the horse and letting it ask questions and show it's emotions without punishment, is the best way of showing them you care. So I don't care if I come up and he shows interest but isn't happy about being caught as long as he is willing to listen when I ask him if we can go play. It only took 5 minutes and I've noticed it has made our sessions much better because he wants to do it. Pre-Parelli I honestly didn't know the difference between Want Vs. Make when it comes to horses, I'm so glad I do now.
Di went up to lunge Molly and because Molly and Benji have bonded so strongly they get absolutely heartbroken when seperated. So Di took Molly down to the stables to tack up and Benji and I stayed in the field, he was quite upset and was ready to get into a right state. So I put the 10 months of dealing with Lily's RB outbursts into practise and I played the squeeze game until he was calmer and then we had a good 15 minutes or so of amazing, light play. I was able to send him on circles and squeezes using phase 1 or 2. We could yo-yo 12ft using phase 1 and a few phase 2 moments when he saw Molly and got distracted. Porcupine game was also going well and we finally got some nice HQ yields. So I was looking through the level 1 assessment list in my head and checking them all off and I think we had two left - squeeze over a jump and sideways. Sideways will have to be put on hold 'til we've got the FQ driving yield going nicely but I couldn't see why squeeze over a jump would be a problem. I took him down to our school and squeezed him over the small log and he stepped over it both ways... Anyone know if it's still a pass even if he doesn't jump it per se?
Wahoo I was on a high for the rest of the day.  He behaved so well despite Molly's antics trying to distract him and I was really pleased. Hopefully when I get back off holiday and get the new saddle we'll be ready to start filming for level 1 assessment! |
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| Finally, it has clicked! |
We have successfully cracked the forequarter yield! Whilst playing, we had got the porcupine going really well I had a thought that when you teach sideways in level 1 it is by the fence. *cue Lightbulb going on above Lucy's head* What a simple change and yet I finally got some nice forequarter yields, wahoo!
Today I got out the car, came in through the gate and as usual Benji comes over and when he touches me I give him a treat for catching me. I rubbed his forehead and worked my way down his neck and as soon as I looked down to my ropehalter he walked off. I followed him and tried again and he half-heartedly trotted off! At this point I knew I had two options 1) Turn into a huge mess, blame myself for having a curse of not being able to catch horses, go home and never go out again OR 2) To go over, get my carrot stick and get him interested in me by yielding his hindquarters when he's not paying attention. It worked really well, he came to me and was willing to be caught and when I left his ropehalter on and 12ft line over his withers and walked off he followed! So I'm going to do this each time I go to catch him if he seems reluctant.
All these changes must be very difficult for him. Most of his life he has been a companion and he has mostly only come in for grooming, routine horsecare and cuddles so now he's in a new home where I am asking him to do some work (it will be work whilst we are still in level 1 'cause it is boring to horses) atleast every other day. That in itself is a huge change and if I were him I'd prefer to stay in the field and eat too so I'm not blaming him.
What a great session, we're on the road to level 1 graduation in no time!  |
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Today we had a nice play, we did point to point so I could get down to the tackroom and put some e45 on his sore little nose and it went really well. I picked up a tip off the SC saying to smooch as the first phase to ask him to get his head up from the grass and he listened. He did his usual hoovering as we moseyed and that's fine aslong as he can eat and move 'til we get to our next spot. I feel that little things like this as in "I say when we stop and when we go" will help him to see me as a leader and so far so good.
We then worked on backing through the gate and I did at phase one, I was absolutely chuffed with that - shame I didn't get it on camera. Ty came along and took a few pictures and one video for me generally playing to see how we're doing, I got all fingers and thumbs when I knew I was being filmed but the vid looks a lot better than I thought it would. I mixed up the games a little to keep Benji's ears pricked and interest on me and it worked for the most part and he did a very nice squeeze game to finish. Hopefully I'll add some of the photos when I've resized them but not the video, not feeling confident enough to get shot-down by the general public yet. haha 
 Having a cuddle.   Moseying!
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| Games 1,2,3 are your horsey ABC! |
Okay, first of all... Whichever heavily mustached cowboy gave the guideline that level 1 usually takes between 3 weeks and 3 months to pass is one heck of an optimist!!
Week 3 and we're still struggling with games 1,2 and 3. It feels weird saying week 3 because it feels as if I've had him a long time, not just 15 days. I guess that's a mark of a good relationship if you feel as though they've been around forever.
Today's weather was absolutely beautiful; really bright and sunny but with a cool breeze so it was perfect to play in because neither of us were puffing and panting in the heat.
He was a little iffy with me when he saw I had my rope and halter in-hand but I used the tactic Arran taught me and Benji was so curious as to what I was upto he stood perfectly still when I gave him plenty of chances to walk off - it was pretty cool. Needs work though so I can prevent future "oh no, not her again" situations. I don't want two ponies I can't catch! Hahaha. (In re-reading that I've realised I need to be a bit less B-line in my moseying which might encourage him to not see me as the teacher calling him in from breaktime.) There's just so much info to digest it is incredibly confusing at times!
I realised that he got tense when I played the friendly game using the c-stick and savvy string so I knew I couldn't stop and avoid the problem. When I continued he got upset so I did advance and retreat which went really well. It took a while and halfway through, whilst I was flicking the savvy string in a rainbow shape with my life down, I stopped when his eye softened and he came and put his head into my arms. It was really sweet and a definate moment when I thought to myself "he is really trying hard to understand". It's moments like that that make all the testing times worthwhile. After I got a few more softening of the eyes I stopped because although I didn't get him to lower his head or get him to stand 100% of the time, my arms were getting very achey.
On reflection I should've probably ended our session there on a good note because I feel he will learn a lot quicker from brief but frequent plays rather than long ones. It got me thinking about attention spans and whether it is constructive to keep asking a horse to do more after it's concentration has gone a little. Is asking a horse to do more than it wants to compromising on the relationship or does it become something a LBi starts to use as part of his usual routine to get you to get annoyed and quit?
I think Benji definately is more so LBi than LBe at the moment because he doesn't see a point to all that I am asking of him just yet because what I am saying to him is boring. Like Linda says it is me saying the ABC's and See Spot Run over and over to him. But in order for me to progress to more sophisticated 'horse' language, he has to humour me so we can whizz through the first two levels relatively hasslefree.
We then played the porcupine game and I played it using my carrotstick which I rarely do and it didn't go so great but there were some definate positive notes. He distracted me off-course and made me laugh a lot by snatching the carrotstick off me or trying to nibble my fingers off the stick. He was difficult to porcupine his hind-end around and he chose to ignore it and try to eat grass so by bumping him to stop grazing him he took that as the signal to yield his HQ. We worked through it though and improved it.
Driving game was a bit better than last time but I'm still struggling with yielding his FQ, I have to really go up the phases to move him and I feel terrible doing so. He's only got a little face and I don't like tapping it in the slightest as I am very worried it'll make him headshy. Hopefully I can scrounge some money together and have Arran come over and give me a lesson soon. Whoever assumes that people who own horses are rich; it is very much the opposite as whatever money we do get goes on looking after them! |
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| Undemanding time. |
Ever since the concept of undemanding time was explained to me I've found it amazing for many reasons. I really don't know why it never occured to me that I could just sit and watch my horse and how they behave when turned out. I've sat and watched my previous horses a few times but never to think "how interesting that she does..." more of a "I can't believe she's mine" way before I left the yard after a long day. They say it'll blow your horse's mind visiting them and asking nothing of them - I'm sure it blows the human's mind too!
I've had a busy day doing various jobs and didn't really have time to play so instead of catching him quickly and rushing through a few exercises I decided to sit, watch and learn.
When I go up to the yard I rarely call him as soon as I get there, instead I just enter the area they're grazing in and stand for a little while to see if Benji shows interest or not. Today I came without my tools and I went in through the gate and leant against it. He had his ears pricked forwards and he came walking up to me nodding his head. It seems whenever he's really interested in something that he knows isn't a threat he'll nod his head when he's walking and it is too cute! Although as soon as he realised I hadn't got a treat he got bored and walked off. Bucket love, lol. Someday he'll want to hang out with me regardless of whether I have treats or not... I hope!
Whilst sitting and watching then walking around doing field checks I noticed various different things and I was looking at the shape of Molly compared to him for a little while and noticed he is built quite uphill which is great. His back is looking a lot better, he didn't have that much muscle on either side of his spine but now he's exercising more it's filling out a little. Concerning herd dynamics Molly is definately the leader and Benji has pair-bonded with her quite strongly which I am happy about because I'd rather he hang around with confident, cool Molly rather than sensitive, emotional Lily. I wonder whether he will be bottom of the herd or middle when Lily is finally put back in with them. |
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| Short but sweet |
Benji and I had a nice play today. He has still not yet moulted properly so whilst he grazed online I gave him a really good groom. He now looks less fluffy but there are still a lot of patches that just won't budge, he must be boiling when it's sunny! He trod on his rope a few times and I was anticipating an explosion because Lily would've gone mad if it had been her but no, he wasn't in the slightest bit bothered and was even stretching with his nose still on the ground trying to reach more grass. Before his gut exploded due to being over it's capacity limit, I then decided we'd practise games 1 and 2.
Friendly game -
He was much more relaxed when I was playing the friendly game with the c-stick and string and held his head lower than usual. This was a huge positive because I have been working hard on desensitising to the c-stick and string when I have my life down. I was able to touch him everywhere with the stick without any fuss. I stood a little further away that I usually do because I am working on personal space and he was confused to begin with but was fine with it afterwards.
Porcupine game -
I played the porcupine game with the mindset of rewarding him for the littlest try and it worked brilliantly. Porcupining his hind end was a little difficult but I passively persisted and won. :)
I was able to back him and yield his forequarters using just phases 1 and 2 again. When I was backing him up from the chest I noticed he had his own little porcupine game going against me by using his head to move me away so I ignored what he was trying to do and used bodyblocks with my free arm when he got too close. He looked irritated when I did this but he licked and chewed and did it less.
The more I play with him the more I pick up on these little games that are to constantly test my leadership and it's really funny. The most occurrent one is when he puts his mouth on my hand and starts to mouth it and my instant reaction is to move my hand away to avoid being hurt; I've lost the game! When he does that I try and ignore my brain telling me to move my hand away and do what Linda recommends with active-mouthed horses to be over friendly on the side of his face and almost 'clumsy' and he quits. I find all these little behaviours fascinating and I think they are the reason why we are finding some parts of level 1 hard because he doesn't respect me or see me as a leader yet. More things to lick and chew over!
To end the session we did a small driving game by going backwards through the gateway and he did it very well. I was even able to move the c-stick up and down and move the 12ft line in my other hand left to right at the same time - it felt pretty weird! Haha
An awesome, short but Savvy session. |
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Today was quite soggy considering it's May but I can't complain seeing as we've had 2 odd weeks of sunny weather. I decided I would work on our catching today and it went really well. I used the techniques Arran taught me when I went to see Lily. He said he does it each time he goes to fetch in his horses so he knows the particular horse wants to be with him. It went really well, a few times when he lazily walked off I just put my hand on his wither and walked with him. Not sure if that was what I was supposed to do but it worked well and at the end we had a good moment where he was really like "ahem, where do you think you're going? I thought you wanted to play!" and followed me. Sod's law that one moment I could've done with a treat to praise that behaviour my pocket was empty!! 
After such a positive session concerning the catching issue it got me thinking about my piebald closet-leftbrain and I'm worried about her coming home yet missing her at the same time. She's so happy where she is it'll be almost a shame to bring her home.
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It's two weeks today that Lily went to Arran's yard for retraining. Tomorrow will be two weeks since I've had Benji. In some ways in these two weeks I have accomplished more with Benji than I have with Lily in the 9+ months I've had her. Arran's spent 7 hours working on her so far and has been working on catching and the friendly game and gave me a few eyeopeners about her. He confirmed my suspicion of Lily being a closet leftbrain which is great because I'd much rather have 2 leftbrain than 1 leftbrain, 1 rightbrain. He showed me what he had mainly been working on and then taught me how to get her interested in being caught. I felt quite proud of myself that both times I had tried to catch her had been successful but I still worry that she's too much for me.
Arran doesn't necesserily agree with me when I say she is complex and difficult, she may not be to him because he's dealt with so many and he is much more experienced than I. I wouldn't say she is the most challenging horse I have ever met but due to my lack of Savvy, she makes it very hard for me to bond and play with her. I love her regardless of her flaws but I really hope that her difficulties and having to cope with them will make me a better naturalhorsewoman in the long run and it would be great if my love was recipricated.
She's really happy at Arran's yard and the more time he spends with her, the better she is getting and I am so worried that I will undo all of his good work by making silly mistakes when she comes home. But I'm going to try really hard with her in the hope that I can atleast finish level 2 groundwork. All of her education for the benefit of the both of us is really burning a hole in my pocket and I still don't know if it'll be enough. *sigh*
I'm not Benji's biggest fan at the moment, between muzzling him in the evening and putting suncream on his nose in the morning he's having a bit of a boy strop. It's quite funny really. If only I could tell him it's for his benefit, not mine...
I bet he's absolutely boiling today because he still hasn't fully shed his winter pony fluff yet. I'm going to give him a bath to encourage the hair to come off and then atleast he'll feel too clean and have a really good roll and it'll come off more so. Will also have a bit of a play because I've been feeling unmotivated so I'll give it a whirl and see what happens. I need to set myself some short term goals with him and maybe think about my gameplan for when Lily comes back. It'll be a good while yet but I need to be prepared! Time to put the thinking cap on.  |
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| Okay so I haven't posted for a fair few days because I haven't had a dedicated Parelli play session for a little while. Time spent with Benji this week has mostly been general horse care, undemanding time and working on the friendly game. Today we had a nice play session but it kicked off to a bad start when he cantered off dragging the rope out of my hands to go be with Molly who was down by the stables. It was my fault that he got the final "oomph!" to properly gear up to go because he did start walking in that general direction and pulling on my arm. When he did this I tried to 'hide his hiney' which resulted in him freaking out because the savvy string hit behind him in zone 5 so when we get round to it I will work on objects being in zone 5.
After that I was working hard to keep his attention. My main aim today was to get a basic understanding of driving the front and also that each time I drive him backwards/yoyo him it's not always to then send him out on a circle. Once he gets to the end of a yoyo or I've driven him backwards for a good few steps he then goes out and round as if on auto-pilot and I know it's him anticipating me asking for that so I got him to back a few steps, then come in for a fuss, back a few more steps, come in for a fuss. It worked a lot better and he seemed to be calmer doing it.
Working on driving the front didn't go as well, I'm now able to drive his head and neck around in the direction I am asking him to yield his front so I thought that'd be a start, a better plateau to work from. Hoping to ride him sometime this weekend if we're both upto it, if not no biggy as long as we have a play.
Going to see Lily and how she's doing at Arran's yard tomorrow. I'm more anxious than excited because I'm worried that Lily won't have come on as far as I'd hoped when she comes back to mine in a few months time. I don't want it to seem like a waste of money. :/ |
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First unsavvy moment with Benji!Today I went upto the yard and it was a little breezy so I knew Lily would be in a weird mood because of it but wasn't sure if Benji would. He came up to me no problem which is still an absolute shock that some ponies have no issue with catching!
We played and made great progress with the porcupine game but, I'm not sure if was due to the wind, he was a bit nervy concerning the carrot stick again when playing friendly games. I worked on it for a while but admittedly probably not as long as I should've. I wonder when he's got his head down eating if he's still paying attention to me and taking things in or thinking more about his stomach. Men! 
After playing a few games I decided to saddle him up, I remembered the 3 steps of tightening a girth so I only did it up 'til it seemed a little snug. During a yo-yo he anticipated me sending him on a circle and trotted off. I tried to stop him by wiggling the rope which he ignored, I went up the phases and he was still working himself up. After a long phase four I tried to hide his hiney without thinking that he's still anxious of the carrot stick so he sped up and pulled away... His saddle slipped back so he started bucking and panicking and it slid under and I was absolutely crapping myself and still trying to get him to slow. Thankfully the stirrups fell off so they didn't get caught and I managed to get him to come in and I took the saddle off. He still wanted to move his feet but I felt upset, worried and angry at myself so I was a bit too firm with him. At that moment I knew I'd wiggled the rope too hard too soon I went WHOA!! to myself. I slowed myself down and went to sit on the log and let Benji graze. I felt very unsavvy although I was proud of myself that I did manage to control the situation effectively once he had exploded but I knew I shouldn't have got him to that point! I stayed on the log for a good few minutes reflecting and then thinking about my next plan of action and how I would prevent that from happening again. I guess the good thing is that I realised it had been my mistake rather than blaming him. Another savvy lesson! :)
Once I had calmed down and felt as though I could be a good leader again we had a long friendly game including hands, carrotstick and saddle. I was expecting him to react badly to the saddle after the scare but he wasn't bothered though I still made sure to let him know it was okay. After a calmer yo-yo I then hopped on and did a PPL with a little bit of trot which at the moment is still incredibly uncomfortable but it'll get easier, especially with the new saddle because the current one tilts me forwards. He was a little gate sweet so I asked him to go back to the gate a few times before he thought of it to let him know that it won't tick me off. Sheesh, I feel like I'm learning to ride all over again which is admittedly very difficult at times but I know it'll get better!
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To eat or not to eat? That is the question!God, it is such a learning curve going from the 'gently gently' approach to the 'no you ARE going to do this!' approach! It's days like these I am really thankful for Benji because I will never stop learning between his left brain antics and Lily's right brain panics!
I went up this evening after having a bad day healthwise, I found it a bit harder to walk than usual but I decided to push myself and go see Benji. I didn't have playing in mind, I just wanted to see how he was, see if his new emerald-coloured ropehalter fit and make a fuss. But when I arrived he trotted up with his ears forward and happily put his new halter on and I thought it'd be a good opportunity to play if he was showing so much enthusiasm.
We had a great session but I was very confused as to let him graze when he wanted to. I didn't want to feel as though I was irritating him but I wanted him to engage in play with me too without unnecessary breaks. I sort of did 50/50 and tried to only let him graze when he did something right. (I've since posted on the Savvy Club re: this and was told that I should dictate when we play and when we eat, not him. Also that he is probably grazing because I am being boring which I agree with but he has to understand what I'm asking of him before we can move onto the real fun!)
After we had warmed up with a few games we had a walk and trot around making sure he was in tune with what I was doing and going and woahing when I asked, he did great apart from a few tantrums when I wouldn't let him rub against me or graze. I also introduced the circling game because I felt that at this point games 1-4 are going nicely so we needed another ingredient to the mixture. He did very well after 2 confused attempts so we ended on a good note. All in all I was very pleased with him! :) |
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Wednesday, April 30, 2008
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Today I played with Benji for just about two hours and we mainly worked on the first 4 games. He had a bit of an issue with the carrot stick again so I concentrated on making sure he was okay with it for a little while. Porcupine game was good but was yielding from phase 3 or 4 for the most part. Driving game was very good yielding the hindquarters and backing him up but we're having issues yielding the forequarters, not overly sure what to do about it! I'm pretty sure it's due to confusion rather than dominance so I'll keep persevering and hopefully it'll just 'click' soon. He did a great yo-yo game seeing as he's only done it a handful of times before and was backing up with just phases 1 and 2.
I remember Linda saying that you should ride bareback at least an hour a week so I sat on him and had my first ride in his new home today. I was a bit concerned that I was doing it too soon but he wasn't worried about it at all and we had a nice mosey around. Trying to figure out the healthy balance between asking and rewarding him i.e. asking him to walk forwards rather than put his head to the ground and eat, is pretty difficult. I was expecting a complete change working with a LB from a RB but didn't realise how hard it can be, it seems easy to feel as though you're making your horse do something it doesn't want to do but as I gain more savvy I'm sure that'll disappear. Savvy on. :) |
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My name is Lucy Middleton, I'm 17 years old and from the United Kingdom.
I started Parelli in January 2008 and it has been an incredible journey so far.
Pre-Parelli I did the best with what I knew but now I know better; I want to do better!
This is my blog to document my progress as a natural horseman.
Want to 'follow' my blog, fellow blogspotters? Add my url to your list on your dashboard to stay upto date!
View my profile
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I am owned by this gorgeous piebald cob mare, Lily. She's an interesting character, fun to play with and is a great teacher.
There's more about her on her own page.
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It's not about disposable horses; it's about relationships for life.
It's not about quick fixes and artificial aids, it's about savvy; true understanding and expertise.
It's not about winning and others losing; It's about win-win: you and the horse need to feel good.
It's not about me me me; It's about changing the world for horses, becoming a person of knowledge and influence, and sharing what you know.
It's not about fear and doubt; It's about unconditional love and trust.
Love for the empowerment of others and trust that you'll never ask the horse to do something that would hurt or diminish his dignity.
Reveal your horse. Discover your potential. Live your dream.
-Parelli
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Profile designed, made and coded by Lucy Parelli Student.
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posted by Lucy at 
