Lucy's Parelli Journey

Saturday 21 February 2009

Four and half hours worth of play to be documented - LONG!

Today was such a beautiful day that I spent four and a half hours up at the yard! The time just flew, it was so mild that I was able to be out in just a vest and long sleeved t-shirt, it was great. As I drove up over the hill and looked across to the yard, Lily was cantering around so I was wondering what my birdbrain was up to. As I got there, turns out she was just kicking up her heels because Spring is on the way and she was feeling good! I spent a good 15 minutes trying to draw her in with very little success so once I got her to even take one step in my direction I retreated and went to go read the new Savvy Times on my tire pedestal. It didn't interest her enough to come over but it gave her time to come off adrenaline and have a more obedient attitude. I managed to draw her in to catch me but I just didn't feel the mental yield or 'click' - she was coming because she either knew she'd get a treat or she felt she had to. Its a bit hard to fully explain but recently I've had to go 80% of the way for her to come the 20% and I knew that was something I had to address. I played the catching game for about 5 minutes but her heart just wasn't in it. I wracked my brains to figure out why we had this barrier, if I'd done anything different recently and the only thing I could think of was that I had thrown the 12ft line over her withers the past 3 times I caught her. That wouldn't be an issue with many horses but this is how sensitive and easily-offended Lily can be. I decided that it wasn't either the techniques or even the timing that were causing the issue - it was the attitude. I thought I'd play a bit and then really put in some quality time with her afterwards.

So after playing the base games, checking brakes, sensitivity, emotions and responsiveness; we played more with the Friendly Game in zone 4/5 concept. I started out by driving her around playing follow the rail, they're in a different field from Tuesday so Lily may've had a whole bunch of threshold issues sticking to the fence that goes around the road but she was fine. I then started tapping her rhythmically working from poll to quarters then retreat, advance from poll to loins and retreat... Gradually going further back and getting her desensitised and calm with the carrotstick touching more sensitive areas. Of course, this technique/task would be awful for a horse that is unresponsive and desensitised but because Lily is so delicate and sensitive, it is helping her become braver and less sensitive when needed. She remembered this from Tuesday and within minutes I was able to tap and rub her rump and above the hock with ease on both sides, I was so pleased because usually it takes a lot of refreshing her memory for things that could be seen as scary. Things were going so well that I decided to make me 22ft line into two reins and play Friendly Game/Driving/Porcupine with those!

Of course, as we started out and I dropped the outside rein around her hiney, she was a little tense and glarey eyed but because I started on her best side (left), she soon settled. We moseyed here, there and everywhere whilst I rubbed both reins against her legs and swapped onto the right side to make sure play was equal on both sides. I then played with asking her to play with lateral yielding whilst I was in zone 5 and asking her to move her HQs over - this was tough for her because moving her HQs away meant she had to press her body against one of the reins. Although I moved the outside rein out as far as I could, it is still a claustrophobic and potentially too much pressure for some horses. Last time I tried, it was too much for Lily and as a result it knocked confidence out of the both of us. Today though, I took active steps in making sure I was setting it up for succes and I regularly checked her body language for any signs of reluctance or tension, lifting her tail is a great way to check if she's calm although I really wouldn't advise doing that if your horse obviously does look right brain! lol. At this point I just felt really connected with her. The mutual trust was there, even a few times she backed up into me and bumped me with her big ol' butt and I trusted that she wouldn't boot heck out of me, she trusted that I would not put too much pressure on her or be inconsiderate about her thresholds. It was really cool! After a good few yields on both sides, I decided to quit whilst the going was great.

The remaining 2 and a bit hours complete UDT, the weather was just so good, I had lunch with me and nothing else I'd rather do. I knew that if she isn't keen on coming to catch me when I arrive, something in the relationship is missing or broken. At first she just kept licking me to try and get a treat of out me, I didn't give her one because I'd be rewarding her for pestering me. I only gave her one when I felt she deserved it and didn't feel pressured to by her. I saw a huge shift in our relationship after our session and I could rub her allover her body without resistance or tension which is something that hasn't happened before. Her head stayed lower than her withers for all of it, I remember a time when I just could not get her to relax, period, so its such a joy to see her in that state around me! I read Fran's recent blog entry (blog link is on my navigation bar, I thoroughly recommend clicking on it) about a discussion between her and Hannah about UDT and doing things for/with the horse rather than to or to change your horse and it really got me thinking. Whilst I was sat with Lily reflecting, I realised that I don't want Lily to change; she's perfect already. What I want to change is her perceptions of me by increasing my Savvy and proving that I am a good leader - to do this I need to change myself. As you can tell, in such a long time sat with Lily, I thought a lot about our relationship, my dreams with her and how to always better my best - it did me the world of good. I now have a lot more clarity and I definitely saw Lily mentally yield and start enjoying having me around. At the end, I turned her out and ducked under the fence so that I purposefully left first. However I was on the side of the fence that was in the other field and I needed to cross the field she was in to get to the car. I gathered my stuff and climbed under the fence again about 5 minutes later and she instantly pricked her ears and walked upto me enthusiasticly; it made my day and made it all worthwhile just to see that shift in her in such a short time! =D

posted by Lucy at 9:07 pm -

1 Comments:

At 21 February 2009 at 22:19, Merlin said…

Awsome lucy! one of my fav things pat has ever said is "you brought your horse dont try and change him!" lol love that XD sounds like you had alot of fun =D bet you was worn out :P