Lucy's Parelli Journey

Tuesday 17 March 2009

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!

posted by Lucy at 8:47 pm -

1 Comments:

At 19 March 2009 at 21:23, Em said…

way to go lucy :) Your getting Savvier but the day, how lovley for Lilly to come marching over the following day- pure awsomeness :)

xxx