| It's only the Friendly Game... |
Today Lily and I played some more with saddling and purity of gait - today's session was all about the Friendly Game. I say purity of gait with Friendly Game because the emphasis wasn't about how well she was moving but whether her movement was Left-Brained and flowing or Right-Brain and short/choppy. Lily is well known for having restricted movement whilst wearing a saddle, not because of physical issues but more emotional and mental difficulties. It seems that she has never been taught how to wear a saddle and comfortably move under it. Previously, she has gotten tense and introverted when around the saddle and being saddled up so I thought that my plan today could be to get her to be less sensitive about the saddle.
So I arrived at the yard and she instantly started walking over, first thing I did was collect my saddle and Theraflex pad and put them in the field on the floor. Last lesson I had with Arran, when she saw the saddle, I kissed goodbye any hope of catching her for a little while. Since then, I decided I could either confront that issue head on or only get the saddle out once she'd caught me which wouldn't solve the issue. This had been the second time I'd put the saddle in the field before she caught me and I'd placed a few treats on the saddle and pad so that once she'd caught me, I'd instantly send her over to them.
I must've spent at least an hour playing various different types of Friendly Game with the saddle, pad and girth. She was much better than she has been previously and the more we play with saddling, the more confident she becomes. Each time she got a bit tense, lifted her head and/or had a vacant expression in her eyes, I would ask her to lower her head or flex laterally to bring her back down to earth. This proved to be a good little arrow for her as it made her a lot more relaxed. To be progressive, I had tied one of my Savvy strings to a ring on the back of her saddle so that it would rub her right side and even touch against her hind leg from time to time. This was a bit tough for Lily to deal with at first on top of having the stirrups flapping about but she soon started concentrating on other things and worrying about it didn't seem important. Success!
We played with purity of gait and the main plan for this was to get her more comfortable with moving under the saddle and stretching out as she usually would. At first, she couldn't trot for more than a few strides, her head was up, she was bracing heavily against the halter and it was as though I was asking her to gallop through 4feet of mud! At that point I thought to myself, "was this such a good idea? Am I Savvy enough to be able to tackle this issue" which I answered "yes" to both because I wanted to be positive and progressive. To get Lily more confident with wearing the saddle, the thing that seemed to be the best remedy was to ask her to move as much as possible and she'd figure it out the more she did. I was trying to play Friendly Game on the move at the same time to encourage... well, friendlyness... but I realised that right now that 12ft circle was too tight for her to trot whilst wearing the saddle and that I was micromanaging her. I then took the initiative of trusting her to figure it out herself if I gave her more rope and left her alone. As soon as I stopped playing the Friendly Game, it became clear that our circling game was broken because she would come in behind me. So I stuck to walk until we patched it up again and then asked for trot. It was tricky for her, especially seeing as she was introverted and wanting to go slowly and everytime she went back to walk, I'd ask her to trot again. As soon as I started to see her put slack in the line and relax her neck more, I'd draw her in and rest. Once she'd licked and chewed, I'd ask her to do the same thing again. After 3 more tries (after playing the pattern well 4 times, move on), we then played the same thing on the other side. 10 minutes later I had a much more fluid pony, maintaining gait and direction on a loose line for the first time. It felt great!
On that brilliant note, I brought her in and she rested with her head under my arm, licking and chewing and coming off adrenaline. After petting her and telling her how pretty she looked, I reached my arm over to the other side to bring the stirrup over in preparation for unsaddling her. Silly me! She jumped to the side and right into me, jarring my neck and shoulders and then bolted off to the gate. That's the thing about introverts, they can often surprise you when things cause an explosion, she looked fine and tired a second before. It was quite the assumption that I made and I'm paying for it, I feel like I'm being forced to wear a plank of wood along my spine. As soon as I drew her back to me, I tied another Savvy string to a stirrup and drove her from zone 3 whilst I flapped it about. I've been doing plenty of desensitisation with her, especially stirrups but I suppose it was the stirrup going from the left to the right eye that bothered her. I played with that until she was calmer but she still didn't fully get it which is fine, another thing to play with next time.
After I took her saddle off, to finish off our session I thought it'd be cool to play touch it at liberty. So I undid her halter and loosened her off and then went to hide treats on different objects whilst she just stood watching me. I called her over and drove her to the tire about a foot or two away from me and it was as if a lightbulb went off above her head... 'TOUCH IT!!'. I then set off at a fast pace to the next item and she came trotting after me, after all, I know where all the good places to go are. I stopped a few metres away from the next object and sent her, she got the treats and trotted back to me. It was fun to see Lily so animated and excited, it's strange how she's mostly RBi yet she loves treats; she is a tubby cob when all's said and done. She followed me to the gate after I'd hugged her goodbye and called after me when I was getting in the car to go home. She's a special kind of crazy but I do love my black and white pony! :) |
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Yesterday the weather was gorgeous once again so my godmother and I went up to see Lily. It was all about the Friendly Game, I'd brought my saddle and TF pad and a plastic bag to tie on the end of my carrotstick. Saddling went brilliantly, huge improvement since I last saddled her and whilst I was stood chatting to my godmother whilst playing Friendly Game with the TF pad, it blew off Lily's back and onto the floor. A few months ago that would've warranted a huge explosion but thankfully she just got a bit tense so I slapped it on the floor, mimicking the noise and motion it had made and she did really well.
Once I'd saddled her up, we then did some friendly game on the move and my godmother took a nice photo of it.
 Her gait when wearing the saddle is still quite Right-Brain Introvert like a shrinking violet stepping gingerly but once she's had a bit of a trot, she walks a bit less tense. Watching her step around being that tense proves to me that she's not quite ready to be ridden yet. So we'll keep playing Friendly Games so when the time comes when she's emotionally fit to be ridden, she won't sweat the small stuff. Once she was more accepting of the Savvy string slapping around and against the saddle I then drove her from zone 3 whilst tugging down on the stirrup and flapping it about on both sides, just little things that bother green horses. She did really well.
We've played with plastic bag friendly last time Arran was here but it was only a small, clean doggy poop bag so this time I tried with a much bigger bag and it was completely different to her. She reacted quite strongly but it was nothing compared to how she would've reacted once upon a time. So I did more rhythmic friendly until she calmed down then played approach and retreat until she was happier with it being about 2 metres away from her although she was still sceptical. Once again, this'll improve the more we play with one.
To finish off on a good note, I thought playing with a concept that was within her comfort zone would be best. So I leant a tire against the fence and a bucket about 30 metres away from the tire and popped treats on the both of them and we played 'touch it' simultaneously with 'follow the rail' from zone 5, she loved it! :) |
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Yesterday I went up and spent about 30 minutes in the sunshine with Lily, applying the new technique of making her more interested in catching me with great success. We then had a little play at liberty, not asking much, just having fun.
Today the weather was even more milder and sunnier so I sure as heck wasn't going to spend it inside. I got my assignment finished as quick as I could then headed out up to the field. I popped my equipment in the field, including the saddle and TF pad because this usually causes catching difficulties. Turned out it wasn't so much of an issue as it has been but whilst playing on-line after her catching me, her thresholds walking towards the equipment were very close together. So I left it for a while and put a few barrels along the fence-line with a few treats on so we could play 'touch it' whilst driving from zone 5. She loved this game and got so confident that she was knocking the barrels over with her nose in search of more, it was cute. She's been a bit buddy sweet alately, not a whole lot but it's been noticeable so I couldn't really go any closer to the saddle and 22ft line etc. without going too far away from Molly. The buddy sweet thresholds are something that won't get instantly better after one session, so I tied her to the fence whilst I put the saddle and things further down the field to make things easier.
I then played a little puzzle with her to encourage her to be more confident about walking over the 22ft line when it's dragging around on the floor. Previously she has gotten fearful about doing so and would either jump over it or just refuse to and shut down. After about 5-10 minutes she was calmly stepping over it on both sides which was great. We then played squeeze games, advancing and retreating towards the saddle; Lily was in a gotta-move-my-feet mood so sending was great, allowing was great, disengagement and drawing was OK so we played some more. I knew Lily wasn't overly enthused about the saddle but I didn't realise that she was so suspicious of it so I purposely took my time to ensure I didn't push her too far. After a little while, she was calmly walking through the squeeze and looking curious about the saddle so I let her go inspect it and whaddyaknow; there was an apple on it! Lily was very pleased to find the apple and after having a thorough inspection of the rest of the saddle and pad, I drew her back in and she asked me a question! We ended on that good note and I stood hanging out with her after I'd taken off her halter before I moseyed on home.
Lily's attitude towards me was the best it has been for ages and it's awesome. I know I can trust my pony not to break my heart and hopefully not my bones when I ride her later on this year! :) |
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Wow! A lot has happened since I last posted! I'll backtrack and see if I can remember it all.
I haven't played with Lily too much a lately due to uni work, weather and, if I have had spare time whilst the weather is pretty good, my mindset hasn't been up to par! And the one exception was on not the Sunday just gone but the Sunday before; the weather wasn't too bad so I thought I'd head out and have a bit of fun with Lily. As I drove round the corner and looked down the hill onto my fields I saw her trotting around like a headless chicken and thought, "Hmm... How interesting!" - she was in one of those moods! I spent just over 90 minutes trying to get her to come near me with little results and after random outbursts of hail which flicked the back of my ears and rain which soaked me, I came home and collapsed in a heap of tears. I was convinced at the time that that was it, our relationship was shot, that everything in my life was falling apart. However, the day after she came right up to me and once again I got teary but out of gratitude this time that my horse hadn't turned her back on me to! Can you tell, dear readers, that I might be a tad emotional at this moment in time? Haha.
I played with her a few times last week but not much and then on Friday I went up to Cheshire with Arran to go see a horse that I thought might be a suitable match for me. He was a really interesting character and had a lot of potential but I thought he was just a bit too green for me. Had I been looking for a bit of a project, he'd have been fabulous! Ah well, I still had fun and learned some more about Left-Brained horses. :)
This Sunday, Lily was iffy to catch once again but this time it was definitely Left-Brain behaviour and plenty of it! So reading the behaviour and situation, I noted that she basically just wanted to stand up the top corner of our field with Molly so I stood there and sent her in a large squeeze back and forth around us in an arc until she realised that not being caught was hard work! We then went on to have a good play. I did wonder if using that technique to catch her would hinder our progress or help it and decided that only how she was to catch the next day would tell me whether it was a good idea or not. Funnily enough, I went up the next day and she walked all the way from the bottom of the field with a good expression on her face and caught me easily. We then hung out and I groomed her a little. I remember this time last year she just could not find relaxation if I touched her anywhere on her body, now I can groom her nearly everywhere and she's relaxed and Left-Brain without introversion. I'm sure if anyone who is doubting their horsemanship can think back to the same time last year and instantly feel better that their Savvy level has improved more than they realised. This is a huge factor that plays into why I keep a blog, to track my progress.
This morning I had a lesson with Arran and I arrived early so I could put all my equipment in the field ready and set up. Lily seeing the saddle was basically a kiss of death, once again she didn't see why she should want to come up to me when she can throw herself around the field, lol. So Arran arrived and gave me a few more arrows in my quivver to appear more interesting to Lily so she'll come catch me which worked well! I do spend a lot of UDT with her to show that I don't want to ask something of her everytime I come up but I hadn't realised that even catching is asking her to do something. In future, I'll hang out with her more with the herd and prove to her that I'm not all work, work, work!
We then had a cool session playing plenty of friendly game as per usual, especially with the saddle and flappy things to desensitise her some more. I'm hoping to do heaps of that in future sessions because Arran and I are hoping that I might be able to ride her at the clinic in May which is an exciting and petrifying thought at the same time! Although I know Arran wouldn't ask me to do something he didn't think I was ready for so I don't have any real reason to be afraid and if I do i.e. Lily is being Right-Brain when I'm thinking of getting on, you know what? I won't get on! That's good logic for you.
So I've got plenty of stuff to play with until our next lesson in April, hopefully I can get Lily going really well with the saddle on and things flapping whilst being Left-Brained. If not it'll give me something else to play with, oh boy! |
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There has been a few times I've gone up to play with Lily and just couldn't get into the right mindset. It's a shame but it will happen and I have to decide at that moment if I can get into the right frame of mind or if it's best to play another day. Today the sun was shining on and off, I'm not feeling as bad as I have been so I popped up for a few hours. We just had a play with the plan of free-wheeling in mind and things were going so well that I thought it'd be nice to play at liberty in the fenced off area at the bottom of the fields. As we were moseying down, I felt a lot of thresholds from the both of us so I didn't push it and played mostly the squeeze game and sideways/advancing and retreating before turning her out to end the play session.
On Tuesday evening, my friend Kate and I went out to my first Shropshire Parelli social get together. It was good fun with a range of abilities, including Carmen Smith and others from the Stoneleigh office who to came to surprise Shropshire's 1* instructor, Sally Brett and hang out after a busy day at work. I was anxious about going with all that has happened this past week and all but I'm glad I went. Carmen took some photos of us all and we should hopefully be in next week's E-news! :) |
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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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