Lucy's Parelli Journey

2009-06-03T21:43:00.002+01:00

I will update this properly with pictures and plenty of info but uni work and other work takes priority when I sit down at my desk. Please don't tag me for not updating, dearest readers, I'm sorry. I'll try and break it down into bitesize pieces to update but I'd quite like to wait until I receive the pictures from Arran's yard manager, Rachael. Needless to say we had a fantastic time! :)

Bad blog owner...

2009-05-28T11:56:00.002+01:00

Sorry, guys, I have been completely neglecting my blog. Since the fantastic session with Arran, Saffy and I have played and ridden just a few times and I've played with Lily twice. Uni work has had to take priority for the moment to ensure that I can take a few days off for the clinic and a day or two after to recover. Not to mention that the weather has been very British in it's hit and miss ways plus horsecare and field management being the main things done up at the yard right now. Saffy's sweet itch has improved since I got her the Pagony rug and flymask but she had still been rubbing her face raw. I bought some new lotions and potions for her which I've been putting on each day and that has helped a fair bit so we're getting it under control I hope.

I haven't seen my beloved mares since Sunday when we trailered them over to Arran's ready for tomorrow. They were so well behaved and my leadership must've been in pretty good shape 'cos they were both loaded and ready to go within 10mins. I miss them like crazy but on the other hand I don't miss the twice daily visits, sweet-itch prevention and poo-picking.

Before they went, I had a play with both to see what our strong points are and what needs work. Lily's main issue is impulsion, shocker. Saffy's is FQ driving and the allow on a circle which is pretty typical of a LB pony, nothing major and everything else is good. I'm so excited about tomorrow, I think it's been 9 months I've looked forward to it. Expect lengthy posts and hopefully pictures to come! :)

Fantastic session

2009-05-09T11:10:00.003+01:00

Lately things have been a little bit hectic as I've said before so when I've had some time to spend with the ponies, I haven't had the right energies to play. Yesterday's session with Arran completely changed that!

I was quite excited waiting for Arran to get to the yard as he hadn't seen it before nor had he met Saffy yet. The weather had been rather unpredictable throughout the day but the wind was blowing the clouds over as soon as they came so it was sunny and mild - best type of weather for horsin' around. I wasn't sure what to expect from my lesson with Arran, I never do unless I have a specific issue I'd like to address which always makes me look forward to the sessions more. When he arrived, we had a bit of a catch up then I played on line with Saffy for 15/20mins and all was going great so we decided to look at my Freestyle. I had been rather lazy and only brought my bareback pad instead of my saddle which was silly of me but I wasn't really sure I'd be riding. I thought it'd be a good opportunity to better my independant seat so I popped it on and hopped on. It was the first time I'd ridden Saffy in her new home and I felt confident enough to ride her in the full acre of one of our fields rather than stick to an enclosed area which is most unlike me. Saffy is one of those ponies that you'd have to do something dumb or try really hard to fall off so off we went for a mosey around.

We then moved onto a cloverleaf pattern, walking at first and improving her lightness to my phases. Previously she has been handled with rather heavy phases and responded heavily in return so since she's come home I've been trying to refine them, so far so good. Once I could tell she really got the pattern, we upped it to a trot and maintaining gait was a lot better than I would've expected from her. I think this is because, being a LBi, she finds arenas really boring but if she's out in fields or on trails she's enthusiastic. We played with it on the left and right reins in walk and trot, it was great to help me remember my focus and to not look down, one of my bad habits from my traditional ridden life. The more we played, the more I learned not to micromanage her and to push her around turns from the outside rather than pull from the inside. Every once in a little leaf we played with purity of gait when our energies weren't matching and her trot has improved sevenfold since I got her hooves done. She can be a little bit buddy sweet and seeing as Lily was in the field with us, there was one particular corner she'd drift out from with the intention of going off to graze with her. This really helped me practise stronger focus rather than engage in a battle of wills with the reins, the more we did it the better she got, or the better I got perhaps? Hmm, how interesting!

Arran then suggested to play trot/canter transitions on the pattern and this was were things got a little tricky. My laziness meant I was relying on the bareback pad when really I needed my saddle to give me a little security whilst learning something new. I'd never cantered naturally so the aids were a little odd to get used to, when going round the cloverleaf so fast and having to remember all these things to do it was tiring! We got a few nice canters but as I draw back my outside foot to ask for canter, my outside leg and hip get tense and rigid so I lose my balance. Saffy also learned that when I ask for canter, if she trots fast enough she can unbalance me and I'll quit asking, clever pony! A few times I had hairy moments where I had to really concentrate on my butt sticking to her rather than landing on the floor which was funny. All the time Saffy wasn't bothered and just carried on doing what she wanted to do whereas Lily would've absolutely freaked if it had been her. Arran said I was doing everything right it was just the balance so I'd have no problem aceing this in the saddle and then I can progress to doing it bareback. I've hurt my leg muscles a little from the unsteady moments so that's something I really need to work on in both simulations and on Saffy.

We then moved on to Cherokee bridle riding! I couldn't believe it, the session had been fantastic any way but this was just the mother of all icings on the cake. I doubt Saffy had ever done it before so we were both new to it and after having a bit of a play with the safety net of my ropehalter and line still on, we then moved onto having just the Savvy string Cherokee bridle and carrotstick! This really put my focus to the test and also my ability to push turns rather than pull so we played on a figure 8, she did so well that we moved onto a trot. She was responsive, following the feel and maintaining gait throughout most of it. I kept forgetting to focus far into the distance of where we wanted to go but when I was doing all I should be, she was holding up her end of the partnership. What a great note to end on, I was absolutely ecstatic and felt Savvy. Arran thought Saffy was a really good partner for me and I happen to agree, our energies and person/horsenalities mesh well. I can't wait to see where our journey takes us now I know I've got such a fab levels partner! :)

oh and watch this space - Saffy will be having her own little webpage like Lily and I'll also be revamping my blog's appearance this week.

2009-05-01T20:06:00.002+01:00

Sorry I haven't been updating, my uni work is getting a little more intense so when I have some free time, I want to be as far away from the laptop as possible for the most part, lol.

Lily and Saffy have settled in brilliantly, in fact I've never seen Lily so at ease. The fields are beautiful, views are picturesque and a lovely little community around with the two other liveries and the family who own the property. They are both catching me well and had their feet done yesterday at long last. Tonight was the first time I've actually had the time to play with Saffy and she was a star. All 3 core games are in pretty good shape, need to be a little more responsive but I was really pleased how well she took them in her stride. She has sweet-itch and I wasn't too sure how much it would affect her in her new home, she still has it but thankfully it's mild. She seems to have confidence troubles with putting on and off the bug rug and fly mask. I did think it might be 'not that thing again!' confidence but she did get tense and need to move her feet so that's something we'll play with along with picking up and holding her hooves as that wasn't so great either. We've had no horsenality switchovers in a new herd and home and Saffy and I are meshing great, Lily and I are as good as ever. :)

I spent Wednesday at Arran's for the shared lesson as I mentioned in the previous post. It was definitely quite a test for me mentally, emotionally and physically but I came through it okay and had fun at the end. Arran lent me his sweet little rescue pony, Misty, who was quite similar to Saffy so it was good for me to be able to have a play with a LBi and practise some things on her that she knows already before I teach them to Saffy. At the end we were trotting a cloverleaf pattern driving from zone 5 which was so much fun, very tiring. The whole day taught me so much especially how I brace, when I brace and why... I sure slept on Wednesday night!

All change!

2009-04-27T13:51:00.002+01:00

Wow, what a crazy few weeks! A lot of change has been going on but it's great 'cos the more change I have thrown my way, the better I'm getting at embracing it. Boy oh boy, I am absolutely spent so this'll only be a rather brief update unfortunately.

Basically my now-old landlord informed me that he was selling the fields I was renting a week or so ago, that didn't really go down too well and I was panicking about where to go. However, thankfully I didn't have to look far. I have moved literally onto greener pastures on my hay merchant's farm which is under 10mins drive from my house. We have a little under 2 and a half acres with solid, brand new fencing, natural shelter with beautiful views and off road trails which is a luxury I've never had before. The next obstacle was travelling, how would I get Lily there and how could I pick up Saffy? My wonderful friend and her husband offered their help to go pick up Saffy with me so we went up yesterday and brought her to her new home. We spent most of the day travelling to and from the yard we picked her up from and just as I unloaded her and turned her out we went off to pick up Lily!

I was so worn out by this point and a little worried that Lily would be in one of her challenging moods. However as soon as I got to the gate she was there waiting for me which was very nice. We played for a little while and then I spent a while loading and unloading her, she was a gem! Then off we went to the new yard to see her new home and new fieldmate. She backed off the trailer by the tail like a pro, bless her. I turned her straight out in with Saffy because I knew both of them would be on unfamiliar territory and bunch together as prey animals do. After a little adrenaline and a trot around, they both settled nicely. I'm going to give them a few days to settle in properly before I play with either. Plus I need to rest up as I'm going to Arran's yard on Wednesday for a one-day clinic, playing with a new horse in a positive atmosphere will be very cool.
Here are a couple of pictures of our new place and Lily and Saffy, sorry about the quality; they were taken off my phone.

My new levels partner!

2009-04-14T21:26:00.003+01:00

Now that I have a way of picking her up and a date set, I can finally let it start sinking in that I have a new pony on the way! That means that I can at long last be less vague about her to you, my readers.

Saffron (Saffy for short) is a 13.2hand chestnut New Forest mare who will be 10 this year. She is a true blue mild-moderate LBi, low-medium spirit but mostly low unless she has the right incentive! She's got plenty of ridden experience, had a natural start and has had her owner achieve his level 1 on her a few years ago. I've known about her since the new year because her owner is a friend of mine, I've been up there and tried her twice now and I'm smitten. She is definitely what I'm looking for in a levels partner and I have played with her online, freestyle and ridden her out on the local roads with confidence. I haven't got a good, up-to-date picture of her yet so my apologies but she is very cute. I'm so excited to go get her! :]

2009-04-05T12:09:00.004+01:00

This week my Painted Ponies arrived and I thought I'd make a sub-post to talk about them! The blue one on the left was originally bought by my mum for me for a birthday present to symbolise my teenage journey from stormy weathers to light. I cherished it until Tyler accidentally knocked it off the window-ledge and it's leg was snapped. I had forgotten all about them until a friend mentioned them recently and I went on their main site hoping that I could find the same model again. Thankfully, although it is retired, I could still purchase it and whilst browsing I found the 'Tip-Toe Through The Tulips'. I loved the design especially seeing as it is a piebald so I treated myself to that also. As I said above, they arrived this week, packaged well and they are even more beautiful in real life!

I found them originally on the official site but then, to save on postage, I found a UK retailer . I thought I'd post both links for my international and UK blog readers in case they were interested in looking at the wide range of Painted Ponies available.

Attitude

2009-04-04T12:46:00.002+01:00

Today I had an interesting play with Lily today, we did nothing new but were still struggling with Friendly Game issues. So it wasn't a step back or forwards but whilst I was sighing and thinking "how long will it take before Lily realises that this is a Friendly Game!" I had a mini-revelation. I asked myself how I felt about the Friendly Game and I am sick of it so my attitude towards it won't be helping... How interesting! Something for me to have a little lick and chew about. 'Attitude' sure isn't #1 of Parelli Seven keys for nothing.

2009-04-01T20:54:00.000+01:00

Wow, today and yesterday have certainly been busy! Yesterday I didn't do much with Lily but hang out and groom her. Her mane is very thick and close to being a double mane so she's constantly got it in her eyes, especially at this time of year when the flies are causing her to shake her head a lot. So I decided to give her a bit of a trim.

Before:
There's a pony under there somewhere, honest!

After:
I got a little scissorhappy whilst playing Paramore out of my phone but, as far as previous mane trimmings have gone, this isn't too bad! :)
We then had a little bit of a play with the blue barrels seeing if she could jump them if I laid them on their side. As long as I've known Lily, she's never done jumping calmly so this was really tough for her and she got quite impulsive. Although if she was tense, I'd ask her to come in front of the barrels or ask for sideways beside them to get her to think. After 10 minutes or so, she calmly walked up to them, stopped, asked a question so I yo-yo'd her back and resent her and she jumped them very nicely. Success!

And today I popped up to a friend's in the next county to see if two of his ponies might be suitable for me. Both New Forest mares except one was bay, one was chestnut and the bay was 14.2h and the chestnut was 13.2h. My friend had told me the bay was a little more extreme than the chestnut but I thought whilst I was up there I'd have a play with both of them, he wasn't kidding! She was such a monkey and quite a challenge for me so although she was nice, I'm not looking for another project. I then played with the chestnut mare and she is more mild LBi than mod-extreme like the bay and she did really well. I then had a rode around the arena and then a mosey out onto the roads on her and she was so well behaved, I couldn't fault her at all. I got 'that feeling' about her but I'm not going into too much detail because I need to speak to Arran first and don't want to jinx it. So you'll have to hold onto your seats in anticipation just as I am until then, sorry. :)

It's only the Friendly Game...

2009-03-27T15:23:00.003Z

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! :)

2009-03-22T10:21:00.004Z

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! :)

2009-03-19T21:54:00.002Z

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! :)

2009-03-17T20:47:00.002Z

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!

2009-03-05T16:59:00.003Z

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! :)

Tough times.

2009-02-26T16:42:00.003Z

"If you're going through hell... Keep going." - Winston Churchill

This week has been tough on me and unfortunately it won't get easier any time soon. My partner of three years, Tyler, has ended our relationship... By phone none-the-less. I had not been dealt the easiest of cards in my early teens so I've experienced a lot of hurt and pain but nothing like this. My body physically hurts, I can't seem to get this ugly situation out of my head for long and I know that the only thing that is going to make it hurt less is time. Relativity being what it is though, because I shall want time to pass so I can stop hurting as much, it'll go slower. That's irony for you.

However, since last I experienced any hardship close to this I have come so, so far. I am much stronger, braver and give a damn about myself this time round. I will rise from the ashes as I have always done and always will do, it'll just take time. Right now I am in the state of shock which I think may be the worst state because I go for a little time thinking nothing has changed then I remember and break down. It's normal though because I honestly thought this would never happen. I will be okay, more than okay, just not for a while.

In regards to horses, the only change is that I'm not sure how/if I will get to Arran's clinics because I relied on Tyler's mum to trailer the horse(s). I have no idea what I'll do because a professional hauler (I haven't doubled checked yet but from what I've heard off a friend) will set me back about £120 for a return journey for just 30 miles because it's not a day trip. I'll just hope that someone is generous enough to help me out and keep my fingers crossed.

Thank goodness I have Lily, my friends and family to lean on right now. I have no idea what I'd do to busy myself/focus on right now if I didn't do Parelli. For now I'm going to submerge myself into my horsemanship and uni course and 'just keep swimming' as Dorey would say off finding Nemo, heh. I gotta let myself hurt when I need to but not too much to the extent that it hinders rather than helps.

Today, I went out, took a deep breath before I got out of the car to clear any thoughts that weren't about Lily. She came straight to me and we played with purity of gait/confidence in higher gaits, she did so well and I didn't let what's going on in other aspects of my life affect my emotions/judgement for one second. So, for that, I'm proud of myself as well as Lily. Hooray for emotional fitness!

2009-02-22T20:04:00.002Z

Today I went up and spent a while continuing on UDT from yesterday, she was a bit better to catch but there had been shooting going on so she was feeling a little fragile. Every now and then I'd look at her face and her eyes would just be glazed over, introverted and really as if there was a barrier in between us. I was a little disheartened but we've only really been connecting properly for the past few months so it is unrealistic of me to expect her to drop all her emotional baggage right away. I've got to have patience and understand that it's going to take time for Lily to fully trust me and be at ease that no matter what is going on, she's safe 'cause I'm there. I just gave her a stroke, gently practised my drive and draw to improve our catching and left it at that.

I went to the car, took the dogs out for a walk around the countriside by my yard and I came back to see Lily just before I came home. She walked up to me really enthusiastically with such elevation that I just sensed she wanted to play so we played 'stick to me' at liberty. She was left-brain, not straying from my side in walk and trot and as I jogged back to draw her to me, not expecting a lot, she trotted straight to me. Ears forwards, asking a question, her eyes looked completely different than before, feeling a lot more extroverted. She has never trotted straight to me at liberty and it just felt amazing. Horses are always full of surprises! :)

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

2009-02-21T21:07:00.003Z

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

Tired of Negativity!

2009-02-19T21:43:00.002Z

I am so tired of negativity and it especially got right under my skin today. So after thinking about it and talking it over with one of my most positive friends, Josh, I had a brainwave and thusly have made a decision. Every time I hear, think or say anything negative, I will counterbalance it with two positive things. It'll take a while for it to become a proper habit but so long as I try to do it when things are really getting me down, it'll make a big difference. And if I still don't feel positive or even neutral, I'll just keep naming more! Sure its not a fool-proof plan but it'll aid in gaining emotional fitness and I know that given the choice I'd rather be positive than negative. :)

2009-02-17T20:48:00.003Z

Today's lesson with Arran was interesting and really helped to add Savvy arrows to my quiver as always. I started off by showing him that I'd been able to hold the 22ft line over and around her HQs and he noticed that although she was tolerating it, she wasn't learning that it was something not to be afraid of. So more, more and more friendly game was what most of the lesson consisted of! It was tough at times for me physically and mentally and emotionally for Lily, but after a good while I could easily touch her HQs and above her hind leg hocks with the CS whilst driving her. We then played with purity of gait, asking her to be more left brain whilst trotting which was also tough for the both of us. I had a big BFO moment that I was holding the rope too firmly and as soon as I let up, she stopped leaning against the halter as much. After a few calm strides of trot, I'd draw her in and rest. I have to play with both these concepts for the next 5-6 sessions and it'll help our relationship and progress come on in leaps and bounds which is great. She did really well considering it was a rather testing play for her. I'm pretty excited to see just how much better she'll be with both these tasks once we've played with them consistently for a little while!

2009-02-16T21:51:00.002Z

Please click on above image for full sized version of my recent painting of Lily. If you are interested in my work and would like a piece done, I have reasonable prices and I'm a perfectionist!

I had a nice play with Lily today, advanced a bit more with holding the 22ft line around her hindquarters and I was also trying to refine out porcupine game by tying the savvy string around her neck and asking her to follow a feel, lead by the leg etc. and she did really well. I would elaborate more but that is basically it! Lesson with Arran tomorrow morning and I can't wait. :)

More Friendly, Friendly, Friendly!

2009-02-14T18:05:00.003Z

Still our weakest game and it needs to be our strongest!
It's about 30-40% perhaps and it needs to be 90-100%!!

She caught me well today as soon as she realised I had my Parelli 'fannypack' on which is always full of carrots or treats, little tubby. And, as we were just chilling out and playing friendly with the halter, Molly reached over and bit Lily on the bum so I grabbed the end of the 12ft line and started swinging it to drive her away. This alarmed Lily and she thought I was driving her away to so she followed Molly with a glazed eye. I tried walking alongside and rubbing her to a halt and wiggling the rope a little but she only really snapped out of it when I porcupined her hindleg over to disengage. I thought "Oh boy!" and for the next 10 minutes or so I played friendly game, whirling the end of my 12ft line around and above my head until she made a mental yield and decided that this was of no threat to her. Cool beans!

Then, I had to go to the gateway to pick up my CS and 22ft line and she was very hesitant about going over there with many thresholds. So we played falling leaf over towards it until she licked and chewed and squeezed between the gate and I calmly. I then picked up my stuff, changed the ropes and she was stood at a funny angle, I knew if I tried walking off as she was stood she would easily be able to run over me. So I porcupined her back a few steps and then moved, just as I thought, she moved off hastily and I didn't want her to become a runaway train so I walked straight forwards, driving her zone 3 with my CS and for about 20metres she was doing a responsive, calm but elevated sideways without a fence. It was awesome!

After that, I decided to do some more Friendly Game using the Carrotstick and Savvy string and continue playing with getting her more confident in zone 4, that went well. I also started rhythmically smacking the ground with the string about a metre away from her and at first, she was pretty tense but once she realised it was just the Friendly Game; all was good. Throughout the session there was just loads of Friendly-related licking and chewing which I was really happy about.

To finish, she just put the icing on the cake - we had a fab time driving in zone 5 at walk, a little trot, halt and had a very responsive back by the tail! We still have to use the fence but she was just so responsive and willing that I was able to back her using just a little chunk of her massive tail and phase 1. A great play session with a lot of love in the air, it being Valentine's and all.

Have a great day and go out and show your equines just how much you love them! ;]

Friendly Friendly Friendly!

2009-02-11T17:17:00.004Z

Today I woke up and the sun was shining so I sprung out of bed, chucked my horsey-clothes on and went to go play with my Lilygirl! It was so mild that after about 5 minutes up there, I took off my raincoat and Lily went a bit RB because of the noise and flapping so I thought 'oh boy!' and spent a while doing raincoat Friendly Game/desensitisation and it went really well. Afterwards, I could really shake it and make some noise within a metre of her and rub her with it, something I would have never been able to do months ago!
We then played the squeeze game around my bareback pad on the floor and I sent her to it, she was a lot more confident then last time and quickly relaxed as I played Friendly Game and put it on her. I then played the Friendly Game with my Carrot-stick and Savvy String because I knew it would make a weird noise being drawn back against the bareback pad and Lily reacted better than I expected her to. Alately, when I have been using the CS and SS combo to play the Friendly-Game after a good effort, she has actually been relaxing, blinking and stretching downwards which is something she'd have never done previously. Perhaps she's finally accepting and trusting my tools, yay!
I then delved into refining our sideways game a bit, I didn't do too much on it but I just asked for a few good steps at phase 1-2 and quit, Lily did really well.
Then to finish off I played extreme friendly, trying to get Lily more confident with our Driving the forequarters and I did it so well that then she was the opposite and was difficult to yield, always the way, lol. We'll work more on that but I guess I'd rather have her being unresponsive rather than over-reacting.
After hanging out for a bit, spending some UDT together, the heavens opened and it absolutely bucketed it down. Time for me to go home! :)

2009-02-07T23:11:00.001Z

Today was a good play session despite how cold the snow make the ropes and thusly my hands, ouch! Lily was easier to encourage to catch me than Wednesday but still not 100%, this shows that our relationship has been altered slightly now I am asking more of her. This is not because I am task orientated, quite the contrary, but I am asking her to do more so she can build her confidence in the long run and make life a bit easier for me! It means that temporarily she won't be sure as to how much she can trust me but, with Lily, you could say that'll always be present for quite some time yet because of her baggage.

We started with a bit of moseying and she still wasn't happy with the 22ft line dragging behind her and when asked to stop, she'd stop and move herself round to try and put the line in zone 1. I can only think that the more we play using the 22ft line, the easier that'll get. She was especially reluctant to move over it so I played Friendly Game on the move in zone 4 and as she moved round, she had to step over it, by the end of it she barely noticed it was on the ground because I was putting her mind on something else. The Friendly Game is zone 4 is still iffy and zone 5 even more so, I didn't attempt any FGs for long in her zone 5 because the more confident she gets in zone 4, zone 5 will become easier. We made most progress with FG in zone 4 when at a stand still, each time her face softened and her head lowered, I retreated and she understood pretty quickly. Then the little 'issue' was that she'd startle each time I lifted the Carrot-stick to play the FG so I stuck with that for a while until she was more comfortable/confident when I raised it. Our Friendly Game still isn't great but its getting better all the time and will always be a work-in-progress, it all comes down to the FG.

After that we then moved onto driving in zone 4 and Arran's homework was for me to hold the 22ft line so there was a bit of slack in the outside hand and I brought the rest of the 22ft line over her wither and around her hindquarters and hold it in place gently with my inside hand. I didn't decide to go the whole hog and try to put the line all the way around her HQ because that would've surely set me up for failure. Instead I made a loop and only held it this far down her back:

(Sorry for the poor quality of the pic and I apologise to Lily because she doesn't have a sheath as depicted here!)

At first, she wasn't overly sure, was a bit quick on her feet and was worried backing up but after about 5 minutes on both sides; she was great! Next session I will place the rope there again but put it further back as she gets used to it more. I doubt I'll have it around the bum in time for next lesson (17th) but at least I'll have made progress.

On that positive note, I spent 10 minutes UDT then a further 5 at liberty. I sometimes do the extra 5 at liberty when I'm curious as to her feedback, if the session has been too much for her, she'll walk right off. Today she stood by me the whole time and followed me as I went out the field, just little things such as leaving before she does when she's loose will improve my draw and catching for tomorrow. If she left before me, she would be seen as alpha and be scoring points and I can guarantee that catching her the next time will be tough. Never a dull moment with ponies! :)

2009-02-07T17:44:00.006Z

This is Lily's most recent horsenality chart (click to enlarge). I've also charted her in the 5 LtheL areas and filled these cups as a result of it:

So as you can see, her confidence is lacking mostly in her environment, she's very sensitive towards changes within the environment or a change of environment itself. This is usually where she will show her RBe side, its her 'go to' horsenality when she is lacking confidence and feels too much pressure.

I also thought about her temperament which I would say is a medium-hot, her spirit level is a medium-high one and she is a 'long horse' i.e. her impulsion is high and she could run a long while without stopping if she was really scared. So, although she can easily go introverted, I would say she is more of an extrovert on the whole or an introvert who likes to move her feet.

Managed to have a good few hours playing with her this morning and the session went well but I'll post more on that later/tomorrow.

2009-02-05T10:49:00.000Z

Car is snowed in... Again. Dangit. =(

2009-02-04T14:35:00.002Z

We've had the most snow we've had in a few years now and couldn't get the car off the driveway until today!

Lily wasn't where she was emotionally and mentally from where we last left it... Oh boy? lol, it took me about 15 minutes to have her catch me and it was all very right-brain, snorty and basically back to square 1 but thankfully I was not! So I just advanced and retreated and swapped my 12ft line to a savvy string so I could play the friendly game easier once she was close enough and she wasn't so bad after a little bit of a hop, skip and a snort.

We took it easy, moseyed once I'd put the 22ft line on, then played friendly game with the bareback pad and then groomed for the first time in ages, her mane is so long now! After I turned her out, I played the catching game again just to end things on a solid note and she seemed okay, not great but good enough. Its always something else to work on as we go on, it seems to be since I've been turning up with a saddle or bareback pad so instead of not doing that, I'll do it more. Oh boy, always something to work on!

2009-01-30T14:17:00.002Z

Sorry I haven't been posting, guys. Alately I have been busy making Arran's website, preparing for my degree course which starts again on the 7th Feb and trying to finish other personal projects before that date to reduce stress and then some! Being this busy though means it has taken a toll on my health so I'm not doing so great at the moment.

I'm hoping I'll be well enough to play with Lily on Sunday though so stay tuned.

2009-01-24T12:55:00.005Z

Today I felt a little reluctant to go play with Lily but I told myself things are never really as bad in reality as they are in your head! Catching was understandably a bit iffy but she caught me within a few minutes. I always feel like our catching game is a little like a game of chess, she makes a move, I do, she makes a move, I do until the Queen finally comes and catches the lowly pawn. :P

They were shooting in the next field which tested my Savvy under rather intense situations, we moseyed and as a friendly game, I flicked my savvy string over her hindquarters and rested it there as we walked along. But when things got too much and guns were blazing, I played falling leaf until she calmed down, she really got the idea of it quickly and it helped a lot although I kept tripping up over the 22ft line. After the shooters had moved on, we played a little driving game here and there, incorporating touch it with follow the rail and then to finish I played friendly game on the move in zones 2,3 but concentrating the most on zone 4 until she licked and chewed.

Because today has been such a lovely day, I'm going out to play with her again this afternoon! The plan is to play the basic porcupine and driving games but refining them and once again concentrate on zones 4 and 5. The blog entries will mostly be about zones 4/5 for a while until she's more confident and we can move on! Oh and she's getting a lot more confident with the 22ft line dragging around and behind her the more we mosey which is always good. :)

And my January Savvy club DVD arrived today which has just made it even better! I'm off to watch it for a little while, let my lunch settle and then I'm back out in the sun again for another play! Yahoo!

EDIT: So my DVD is warped and doesn't play properly, hmph. I went to go play with Lily a second time only to see that she was in rightbrain overdrive; she was disconnected, jumpy and just wanted to move her feet with this expression on her face (o.O) so we moseyed again and played stick to me on-line. That combo helped a lot but just as she was starting to come off adrenaline, I saw another load of shooters pull up. So I turned her out on a relatively good note rather than have to go through the kuffufle of shooters vs. me thing, I'm very glad I did because the shots were louder and more frequent and all 5 horses freaked out. My afternoon didn't exactly go as planned but it still wasn't as bad as it could've been and that's good enough for me!

2009-01-23T20:28:00.002Z

After having a rough play session on Wednesday, I'm ready to sit down and blog about it!
I'm not going to go into too much depth but I wasn't feeling confident, Lily picked up on it which exacerbated it and things just really went out the window. She got away from me twice which won't do wonders for her confidence with ropes in zone 4/5 and I decided to call it a day because although ending on a bad note is undesirable, if I kept on trying and getting the timing wrong and not being in control of the situation it would mean worse repercussions in future play sessions. I was so frustrated at myself at this point that I was just completely in the wrong frame of mind. I sat down and I cried at my incompetence and Lily, whilst coming off adrenaline and enjoying endorphins, was just looking down at me as if to say, "I'm sorry, my little pet predator, I'm trying". I knew it wasn't her fault but what I didn't realise at the time was that it wasn't anyone's fault.

I beat myself up about it ALL day Wednesday and most of yesterday. I felt like I had royally screwed things up including Lily's trust in me and our relationship, that we'd be right back to square one. No, we're not, I spent UDT with her for a while yesterday and she caught me just fine. Tomorrow I'm going to dedicate a whole long play to fixing any bridges I set fire to and she might be a little hesitant about catching me when I'm holding my ropehalter and line tomorrow but we'll play on as always.

It felt like a major mistake but a good friend told me that it wasn't, it was purely a learning curve and it only becomes a mistake if I do the same thing all over again knowing what I know now. I realise what went wrong and I spoke to Arran for a few Savvy arrows and a confidence boost. Now I've had time to reflect, learn and set the task up for success, tomorrow will be a good session. I'm planning to play with fixing this task, amongst other things, but the good thing about a plan is you can throw it out the window if needsbe. They can't all be great sessions and I need to learn not to beat myself up so much when we have an off day. I am a student and I can't know when to be, where to be, what to be and how to be all the time just yet!! :)

2009-01-17T15:52:00.002Z

Today I had a 3 hours tuition with Arran and boy, am I tired!! An emotionally testing session but still a good one as always. Arran said that I was doing a great job and had obviously done my 'homework' and spent a lot of time with her. He noted how she found it difficult swapping from her left side to her right side and vice versa and was still very tense about things flapping/being near her hindquarters so he asked us to try something a bit trickier.

n.b. Arran is a fantastic teacher and although his ways might seem a little unorthodox, they are always what's best for Lily and I. Lily is not a straight-forward, 'by the book' horse and thusly we have to explore other routes than the most obvious one to encourage her to develop into a calmer, smarter, braver and more athletic horse. He would not recommend doing higher level tasks for lower level students if he felt it was unecessery or that the student's safety would be compromised at any time.

So Arran had a bit of a play with her with two lines, using one for the friendly game and the other to encourage forward movement/control if needsbe. Whenever the lines or anything catches her on her HQ or hind legs, she gets very tense and will jig on the spot/kick out a little. After seeing how she reacted and playing around with swapping sides by flipping the ropes over, he asked me to have a play. It took longer for me to get the hang of it but after a few fumbling attempts, I got quite confident at changing sides from zone 5 and although Lily's still not that sure about it, she's getting much better and licking and chewing plenty. Arran believes that if I do this solidly for the next 6 sessions, it'll improve our relationship sevenfold. It's all about the friendly game! Oh, how I wish I could tell Lily that everything I do with her is for her own benefit.

After that we had a bit of a play with the saddle and she was a lot less tense than I thought she would be! She was quite relaxed and I rubbed the pad on her, the girth and put the saddle on and off, on and off and she was pretty good. After she was saddled up and ready we played with the purity of gait concept at the trot because I had told Arran she gets very short and introverted when wearing the saddle. It took a fair while and lots of laps before she could maintain gait within the gait but once she started calmly striding out and not bracing, I brought her in and finished whilst the going was good!

I always spend undemanding time with Lily before and after playing sessions so I don't have a catching issue the next day but today I felt like I needed to spend a while with her because the session had been tough on her. Once she yawned the tension out and licked and chewed, the endorphins of coming off adrenaline kicked in and she just sort of rested her head on me whilst I stroked her face. She is wooly because of it being January, she's yellow and black rather than white and black and she was sweaty but being with her at that moment and looking into her soft, gentle eyes I felt like I had the most beautiful horse in the world as my partner. I'm very lucky! :)

2009-01-14T22:33:00.004Z

Due to lack of health, time and having to go to mandatory appointments such as dentist, doctors etc. I haven't been able to spend much time with Lily. Not to mention the weather has been dismal, but then again it is January. My health seems relative to the 'chicken and egg' syndrome at times; is it because I'm ill that I can't play or is it because I can't play that I'm ill?

In any case she was right where I left her, after I'd hayed both of them and done the fence, I walked back up the field to get my equipment. She thought that because I was walking towards her that I wanted her to catch me then and there so I humoured her, she left her hay and had a nice expression on her face but she was dragging her heels. I fed her a treat, rubbed her neck then carried on walking. When I came back, this time holding my ropehalter and 12ft line, she was much more enthusiastic to catch me which was nice.
I didn't do anything too mentally, emotionally and physically taxing for the both of us although my main plan was to continue bettering the driving game so that she responds rather than reacts. After a few minor-explosive reactions, I thought about my phases and how loud or quiet they would be to other horses. Was my phase 1 really a phase 1 or had I assumed she wouldn't respond to it before I'd even tried? Was my body language implying for her to go forwards or to go around?
So, although it seems common sense now, I experimented to see how little it took for her to yield her FQ away from me. I remembered in Fran's blog she had said there were phases within the phases and I realised that what was the standard driving phase 1 taught in the Parelli levels packs turned out to be way too much for Lily already. After about 5 minutes of testing the waters I found that all I had to do was tap the air with my index finger, that was enough and then some! To make sure she didn't get away from me too quickly as I asked her to yield, I played plenty of friendly to get her to stop. At first she thought I was trying to kill her by moving so quickly but then afterwards, although there was no obvious licking and chewing, it got easier.

We also continued with our driving from zone 5 and she has been great on the left side but hadn't picked up the follow the rein pattern on the right. Sometimes it seemed like she had but she was scoring points when I had to get out of zone 5 to drive her then go back to zone 5. So today I played with my carrot-stick and she got the idea a lot better but then I realised that what phases I had been using to ask her to move forwards were difficult to do when holding a carrot-stick, she soon caught on and only did a few steps then quit. At that point, I wondered if most of her negativity towards the carrot-stick was because I'm not very co-ordinated when carrying/using it. Hmm, how interesting! :)

2009-01-06T22:35:00.002Z

Before I went to play today, I rung Arran to ask him how I can porcupine/drive Lily's forequarters without her getting evasive and moving out of my reach too fast. He said that I needed her to respond rather than react so plenty of friendly and use lighter phases. I then went out and picked the field with her on line, I tucked her rope under a velcro cuff on my coat so I did have to hold her but the rope was by my hand if I needed it. I think she enjoyed some undemanding time with me and she was licking and chewing a lot and coming for cuddles. Afterwards, I didn't have much energy left so I played plenty of friendly with the CS around and on her face and did as Arran suggested with driving her forequarters round with much lower phases and she was a lot calmer because I'd stopped 'shouting' at her with such high phases. I played a little porcupine, refining her back up and then played 'touch it' to finish. Once she got the idea, she was very enthusiastic about putting her nose on things and recieving a treat!

Added: I must've done something right because this morning (7th) she trotted to me with a good expression on her face. Feedback! :)

2009-01-02T15:27:00.003Z

First play session of 2009 was pretty good.

I'm still rather puzzled how to balance the ball/chair (newer level 2 concept of the porcupine game) and also how to improve her driving on her right side. Hmm, how interesting! :)
She's getting much better with the friendly game and is less resistant when I touch her face, at times she will even check in when I put my hand on her cheek or under her forelock.

Diane brought over a friend and her young children to see Molly and they were doing usual kids stuff; darting from here to there, jumping around and making loud noises. It was good desensitisation for Lily but I honestly nearly had a heartattack when one of them ran behind Lily despite numerous warnings. Thankfully she just got a bit introverted rather than boot him into the next village. Phew, crisis averted and a new thing I need to get her used to; little people!

2009 is going to be a great year, I know it! Lily and I are going to go from strength to strength, I will focus on being a better leader and, without sounding too predatory, I'd like to be in level 3 groundskills this year. It might be overly optimistic, but it might also be achievable, what I know is that I'm going to try my hardest to be the human Lily has always wanted.

2008-12-29T18:55:00.002Z

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all had a good day.

With it being the holidays and all, things have been a bit crazy so I've only played with Lily a handful of times. The friendly game is getting much better, especially when it comes to her face because I had to get numerous burr's out of her forelock. First of all she was really not amused or ready to give her face to me but then she had her face rested into my chest, licking my coat, ahh.
I wanted to refine her driving on her right side as she was still a bit unsure of it all and that went well after a little while and plenty friendly game. Reward for the slightest try was a good tactic, especially seeing as she was introverted. When she'd done it right a few times, we moved onto figure-8 to give her a bit of a break and she got on adrenaline and whizzed around them in the blink of an eye. Its something we don't do often and at first I thought it was right brain adrenaline but although her movement was a bit choppy, she was blinking and pulling faces at times. It was funny but before I started flying a black and white cob kite, I brought her in and gave her some lovin' so she'd associate the endorphins of her adrenaline with me playing the friendly game.

Here's a question for you folks out there, I know it's the holiday season so not too many people will be reading but...
My next levels partner is going to be a Left-Brained Introvert and Lily's fieldmate, Molly, is also a Left-Brained Introvert. Lily has her introverted side but she also likes to move her feet and play so with two energy conserving ponies as her herd-buddies, is this going to frustrate her or make her look forward to our play sessions as I get more interesting to her? Please post your thoughts/reflections on this in a comment, I'd love to hear your views.

Stay Savvy!

2008-12-17T21:43:00.002Z

Today was another good session, I really feel like we're connecting and understanding eachother a lot better. Previously feet have been a bit of an issue but I spent a good 10minutes giving her a leg massage and then she was an angel to pick her hooves out. I then spent some time playing the friendly game with gaining momentum on the rope and throwing it over her head and onto her other side which went nicely. I hoped to move it onto a nice porcupine game by moving the rope around her hind to get her to turn round and change sides but she was too tense and moved away too quickly, it'll save for another play. We sharpened up our zone 5 driving a bit more and I was trying to get her right side as good as her left but it still needs more time spent on it. It's sometimes tough to try and comprehend that what you do on the left side of your horse doesn't transfer onto the right side of them and to not expect that playing will be as great on both sides from the start. We had a few hairy moments where she forgot what back by the tail was and I knew the longer I left her wrong, the more I'd have to do to make it better. I nearly lost my cool because I didn't want another learned behaviour I'd have to undo but that was my old attitude and I quickly adjusted it to 'oh boy!'. Working on emotional fitness is just so tiring, as is making my whole new blog layout from scratch but you're just going to have to hang tight because its not ready yet. :)

Savvy out!

2008-12-16T21:11:00.000Z

Since my last post, the hours I've been up the yard have been spent on field management, horse husbandry and undemanding time - they do take priority, especially in winter. But I thought I'd post because I came across something that really struck a chord with me and I'm sure others can relate to it to.

Its from Paulo Coelho's book 'Like the Flowing River' and it is my favourite book of all time. It's a collection of short stories and I read it a lot and particular stories jump out at me at different times. One month several ones might stir something inside of me whilst the next month different ones will, its why I love it so much.

His passion is archery and I don't know a lot about it but I do know that you have to get your energies just right to be successful. Sound familiar?

So here's the excerpt which is a quote originally from Zen in the Art of Archery:
'My teacher gave me a very stiff bow. I asked why he was starting to teach me as if I were a professional. He replied: 'If you begin with easy things, it leaves you unprepared for the great challenges. It's best to know at once what difficulties you are likely to meet on the road.'

As most of you readers know, Lily has been a huge challenge for me and I've often felt close to breaking point. I've told myself all along that, although it'll take me longer to get through the levels than some students, I will be gaining a lot more Savvy along the road. So by having a tough cookie from the start it is setting me up for success because I will be better prepared for the future. 'No journey worth going on has no short cuts or easy routes' and I'm going to enjoy every step of the way! :)

2008-12-14T12:25:00.000Z

I had a nice session with Lily today, despite the weather. I decided that if her biggest issue is the friendly game, I was going to tackle it head on in the Savvy-est way I knew how.
So we played a variety of friendly games and by the end of the session I could smack the ground behind zone 5 with my Savvy String and her head was low and relaxed. We did play friendly game on the move but she has little tolerance for it sometimes and will walk with her ribs pushed in and her head faced out with her ears back. I thought extreme friendly game in zone 5 would get her to be more receptive and bending the right way around me and it worked. She was funny to begin with, she looked round at me with her ears flat back and prepared to lunge at me so she got a firm phase 3 sideways drive and she looked like the typical 'damn, she knows what I'm plotting!' LBi and ate some humble pie! A little while ago, that would've scared the heck out of me and I would've stopped but I didn't even give it a second thought so that's cool!
I had been thinking about what simulations would help her get more braver when it comes to riding and decided that jumping up and down next to her would be a good desensitiser - I really didn't think about how much it'd wear me out and hurt! It only took 5 minutes for her to be calm on both sides but MAN did that hurt because of my health and lack of physical fitness. I felt like my legs were going to fall off! lol. It was worth it though. Prior Preparation...

2008-12-11T20:57:00.000Z

Hi all,

Two friends of mine, Josh and Em, have recently started blogging.
Check out their links and give them a Savvy Blogspot welcome! Oh and let me know what you think of Em's layout; I made it. :)
Josh's blog
Em's blog

Savvy out! xo

2008-12-10T14:19:00.001Z

Finally! The past few days of being unable to play have felt like forever. The sun was shining and I had a really lovely play with Lily. We did plenty of friendly game and lowering her head because she had lots of burrs entangled in her mane and then we refined our simple porcupine games asking for little, expecting a lot and rewarding the slightest try.
Once she was in a confident learning frame of mind I thought that we'd carry on playing with driving from zone 5 using the follow the rail pattern. On Saturday her backups were fantastic but her forwards was wobbly because she was unconfident but today she was a lot more balanced; the backup was good and the forwards was good. After a few tries and wobbling off the rail, she got it and I only had to lift my hand a little for her to correct herself. I was so pleased with her yet again!
When she was in a good frame of mind and had her head low and relaxed, enjoying a rub on her neck I took her ropehalter off and ended the play session. I still spot glimpses of her wondering whether I can be trusted or not which is bound to happen with her, I don't expect miracles but those moments are lessening and I see a small change in her which is really good. :)
Over the winter when the grass isn't growing, we hay them and in previous years they've gotten over-confident and disrespectful when haying. This winter I am trying to remember carry my carrotstick, yesterday I forgot though and Lily got dominant and kicked out at me. So today after I finished playing with her, I went down to the haybarn and with hay under one arm and carrotstick in the other hand, I walked out into the field protecting my space and made them wait 30 seconds each time I put a bit down. Lily got a bit fed up of that so she trotted up to me with ears flat back and I drove her away assertively... She trotted off, licked and chewed and took two steps forward with a soft, quizzical expression so I let her have the hay; thats the face I want to see when I give her food!
I hope this good weather stays around, I love crisp but sunny winter days.

2008-12-08T20:52:00.000Z

Since my fabulous lesson I have actually been looking forward to playing with Lily. I honestly do not remember a time that I looked forward to playing with Lily, I always look forward to hanging out with her but anything that could prove to make her lose her head I'd subconciously avoid.
Now I know that in order to be the best I can be for Lily I have to be progressive and I've changed my attitude. I'm going to have a blast with her and learn so much.
Although finding time to play with her is proving difficult, I was hoping to today but couldn't find the car keys which was irritating! Tomorrow Benji is going home so it may prove to be an emotionally draining day, if I can manage to get in a good mindset to play with Lily then great. If I can't, there's always Wednesday. The little daylight we have doesn't help either, roll on Spring!! :)

2008-12-06T14:11:00.000Z

I am so happy and pleased with myself for the first time in ages! I have had such a great lesson today with Arran.
Recently, I've been absolutely ridden with self-doubt that I can't do this and each time I get up the yard to play, I wuss out and play friendly game in zone 2 & 3 because I know its something Lily is comfortable with or just go give Benj a cuddle. I was hoping that this lesson would give me a push in the right direction and give me a bit of faith that things'll come good. Arran reassured me that I sell myself far too short, that I've come a long way and I've made it a big deal when it isn't. I told him I think that the main problem is that I am taking things too seriously and not having fun. After showing him what I've been upto in the past month, he was very pleased and said we needed to kick it up a notch... Oh boy!
He asked me to show me a bit of our porcupine game, he said it was good but I need to refine it for next time and then I did some driving and he was pleased with that. So then, my dear readers, in the next hour I was progressive did something I never thought I'd be able to do any time soon...
I was driving Lily from zone 5 and backing her by the tail!!!
She was fantastic and I actually felt SAVVY! She was receptive, relaxing, licking and chewing plenty and we both got it so quickly and started having fun with it. I was smiling for the first time in ages and it felt good! We played follow the rail, walk forward one step, back by the tail two etc. and it was fab! After such a great play, we had about 20 minutes left but I wanted to end on a good note and Arran agreed.

I was concentrating so hard that about 10 minutes before the end, I felt dizzy all of a sudden and couldn't understand it. I had stopped breathing for ages and didn't even realise! So I made a concious effort to breathe and felt much better. Its so funny that, because I was thinking about doing so many different things, one of my most basic things I needed to do I forgot about!
After we'd finished, I was in complete shock that I did so well though, I'm still surprised. I was a completely different person, I was Savvy and I didn't doubt myself once.
I had been thinking of trying to put her out on loan to a level 3 student but Arran told me not to because I am more than capable of bringing her on myself and you know what? I'm starting to believe him. :)

Why backing by the tail can prove to be tricky for horses from my perspective.
Horses, being prey animals, are concerned about their safety and staying alive. Naturally, they would ideally want their pet predators (you) to be in zone 1 (nose and 1 mile infront of them) so they can protect their bodies and keep an eye on you. Usually, a person pulling on a horse's tail would make horses instinctively run forwards or lash out with their hind legs. This is because they are claustrophic, naturally lean against pressure and do not want to get their bum bitten. So going with the pressure by backing toward a human is the ultimate test of trust and friendly game. Some horses may also be hesitant about the task because they would worry about their leader reprimanding them for moving into their space. In the wild, they would not back into a horse unless they were asking for trouble!

***

I will no longer let my fear of failure get in the way of playing with Lily. I get scared because I do not want to make Lily worse and that is me assuming I will because I have a low self-esteem these days. So before I even start the session, that is not setting myself up for success; I am expecting to fail by worrying about it so much. I am going to read 'Feel the fear and do it anyway' cover to cover, I have been meaning to and remind myself to look at how much Lily and I have achieved in such a short time and that I can do this! Sure, there will be good and bad days but the good days will outweigh the bad days in no time, once I have developed a little faith in myself. I tell myself that Lily needs a better leader and she does, I am going to step up to the challenge!
I want to be recreation for my pony and to be the best leader I can be for her. Its going to be hecka hard but it will be worth it. Days like this make all the blood (ropeburns, biting, kicking in the past), sweat and tears worth it!!

And a quick note concerning the forum activity yesterday: I am staying off the forum for a while because the tone has gone sour and I don't want it to drag me down right now.
Anyone who has a negative view of me now is welcome to; what people think of me is none of my business.
What I will remind folk of is that I personally did not insult anyone nor did I speculate on Allure OR Linda. I do not have an opinion on Allure's lameness, I do not know enough to have one but I got involved because I was learning about lameness and feet from someone who knows a lot about them (Leah) and purity of gait from others and wham, the thread was gone.
I was insulted by the faculty by not getting a response as to why the thread was deleted with no explanation. That is all I wanted to say and no, I do not want to talk about it further.

2008-11-20T11:55:00.000Z

Happy Horse Test
Surprisingly, Lily got 95 points!!
And all three cantered up to greet me yesterday, boy did that make me tear up. I'm such a ham. (:

2008-11-15T20:38:00.000Z

After a good while of burying my head in the sand, I've decided that its best for the both of us if Benji went home and I concentrate on Lily over the winter. I love him to bits and he's such a cracking pony but is just a bit more tougher to play with than I had really wanted in a levels partner. Because he has been a companion pony for so many years with very little ridden hours on him, I essentially got a youngster as a levels partner without realising, which was exactly what I was told to avoid. He's such a fun, cool character that I thought we'd get by but as time goes on, the foundations that I'd laid as best as possible are crumbling in places because of my lack of Savvy, especially in our Freestyle. I'm rather upset about this decision so if I'm not very talkative at the moment, I apologise.

To be honest, I'm rather torn as to whether I should keep updating this blog over winter because progress with Lily will be slow, steady but slow. Also, Lily is complex so we're not taking the orthodox route through the levels programme and instead will pick out and play with what she needs at the time. For now, we're working on getting to at least level 3 Friendly Game because it is the thing she is least tolerant of and the most important game that needs to be good with her before we can progress. Most of my entries would be waffling, as its hard to describe Lily, her ways and what I'll be upto with her and I wouldn't want my blog to influence people to deviate from the programme because it is the best route for most people and their equine partners. Also, I have a feeling I will get criticism from students who feel that the route I'm taking isn't such a great one. Not that I should care but it would get frustrating.
If you enjoy reading my blog and would like me to carry on over winter, please comment. If not, I'll probably pick it up again in the new year.

Keep it natural,
Lucy xo

2008-11-03T21:12:00.001Z

I haven't been updating because unfortunately I'm not feeling very well at the moment. Both Benji and Lily are fine and we have nice play sessions when I can manage to. I would update but there's a lot to say and not enough energy or inclination to type it. I hope things pick up soon to say the least.

Your Horse Live on Friday, if you see me, say "hi"!
I'm the one on the right of the picture below. :)

2008-10-19T16:08:00.000+01:00

Refriendling the friendly game is going well! Tail is less J shaped, a bit more blinking, floppy bottom lip at times and I seem to be pushing the right buttons because he's doing plenty of licking and chewing. I can even move the carrotstick rhythmically in an arc facing him and he remains calm. I think I lost sight of the importance of the friendly game previously and it crumbled little by little. Lesson learnt and it won't happen again. This week will be more of the same and its a bit tedious at times but I'm learning a lot about Benji by focusing more on one specific thing. :)

2008-10-16T14:56:00.000+01:00

As of today I am officially overhauling my plans!
My plans and high expectations of myself have been causing problems in my head; stress, feelings of pressure, uselessness and frustration etc. SO if you are no longer happy with something you either change it or change your feelings towards it. This is something I can change so I will.

I reflected today whilst just hanging with Hoover (one of my numerous nicknames for Benji) and I thought to myself:

"What is the biggest issue here? Why are we in this rut?"

"Our Friendly Game is broken."

"Why?"

"I have not played enough of it for it to become pleasant for Benji; he tolerates introvertedly and panic will escalate. Every time I think I am rewarding him for something he does not see it as a reward, he sees it as pressure. I need to be a better leader and teach him the difference between life up motivational pressure and life down Friendly Game. I need to instill confidence in him that I am a leader to be trusted and thusly my toys should be trusted to."

Essentially, everything in Parelli comes down to the Friendly Game and the relationship. Success within the programme isn't having a horse that can jump 4ft or do flying changes at liberty, these things are nothing if the relationship isn't there.

Our relationship isn't as good as it has been previously because he is mostly Right-Brain introvert at the moment and I have been treating him as a Left-Brain extrovert. That may be his innate horsenality but because he hasn't done too much for a good long while, his comfort zone is very small. Almost like someone who can drive but only has driven to and from the local shops every week for years and then they are asked to drive long distances on very busy roads all of a sudden. Of course, he needs to be out of his comfort zone to learn but I have often passed the point of learning to the point where I've knocked his confidence. It is very easy to do, especially with horses who appear very confident and chilled but are really quite sensitive. All I might've done at one point is a phase 3 a few too many times when he needed more time to think, sometimes that is all it takes. I don't know...

I could spend ages trying to think about what I did wrong but instead I know that if the Friendly Game is broken, we won't progress until we've fixed it. So until I am satisfied that we're on much better terms and he is showing less introverted behaviour, we'll be Friendly Gaming in each session and the other 6 games can have a holiday. This is how I think we will get unstuck, pick ourselves up and carry on. Otherwise things will turn ugly and I do not want to turn the 7 games into the 7 tortures and give Benji a good reason not to want to be with me.

Today after reflection and the revelation, I played Friendly Game! Mainly Friendly Game rubbing with carrotstick minus the savvy string (I want him to be confident with the CS before the SS comes back into play) in 4 zones. Once I got past the middle of his back he stopped blinking for a little while, with A&R he seemed to relax and I thought 'cool, this doesn't seem so bad' until I got to his tail and realised it was absolutely clamped inbetween his cheeks. How interesting!

I played some more Friendly Game including a few moderate-pressure friendly games (Bumping the ground with the CS and bringing it back onto his back, rub, repeat. Rubbing then bumping it on my shoulder and bringing it back onto him, rub, repeat etc.) to encourage him to unstick his feet a little and show him that he can move his feet if he's anxious, that if I move the CS with a little speed it doesn't always mean my life is up and I want him to do something. General desensitisation and we got some licking and chewing, his tail was a little less tight.

Then I upped it a notch and retreated whilst waving the CS in a rainbow, a little advance, more retreat and eventually he was stood, relaxed and blinking whilst I did this which is pretty big for him. I was really pleased with that so I turned him out on a good note with a sense that this was definately the right path for us at the moment. I'll be thinking about his short term goals because I am scrapping the other ones on his page. I'll also be thinking about several Friendly Games for different situations and which ones would benefit him the most at the moment.

What a long blog post, phew. If you read it all you get a cookie! ;)

2008-10-11T19:20:00.000+01:00

Friendly/UDT/Scratch itchy spots day!
I didn't have much time so I just went to see Benji and hang out with him. It was hard at first because Lily was trying to protect me and even if I moved her away politely she'd be offended. So once she got bored and walked off I was determined to find itchy spots on Benji. In the past I've gotten lip-quivers but never a proper 'ohhhh that's good!' itchy spot, today I got a few smiles which was an improvement! Out of Love, Language and Leadership we've been lacking a bit of the love so this next week I'll really focus on becoming his best bud rather than his nagging drill-master. Its hard to find a balance inbetween LBe frisking me for treats/being bored and RB introversion, being tense when we just focus on the friendly game but I want to fix it so badly and I will!

2008-10-09T19:54:00.000+01:00

Today I went up just to check up on them as per usual but I took my halters out of the car in the hope that Lily or Benji might want to play. As soon as Lily saw me she was at the gate waiting patiently so I took her out and played the catching game, stick to me on line and at liberty and friendly game on the move. I am so sick of friendly game on the move but to get the heck off of it onto something else I need Lily and Benji to be okay with it. Lily was tolerant, a bit introverted but when we got a nice steady rhythm and pace she licked and chewed, I'd stop and we'd then start again.
If someone were to tell me a few months ago that I'd be able to turn Lily out in a full acre, walk around with her by my side and recatch her without resistance; I would've said they were delusional. So the fact that I was able to and did do so was a nice, short but sweet positive session. :)

2008-10-06T10:56:00.000+01:00

My dad rang me on the way to work to say that Benji was out in the big field. Last night I'd sectioned off an area for him to stay in overnight for the next few weeks whilst there's a lot of grass to give him a break. Well he didn't think much of that idea and broke some more fence posts. So we had an early play today.

He wasn't in a playing mood because he just wanted to get back to his mares (his ho's) but because I'm busy this week finishing up my Arts and Humanities course (then a break 'til February, woohoo!) and getting things ready for Tyler's birthday/our 3rd anniversary I didn't know when I'd get any chance to play.
We played friendly game on the move and he went completely right brain like we'd never done it before *sigh*... I mean, oh boy! although it's hard to feel enthused because we've been trying to fix this for ages. He tried bolting off a few times and when I asked him to walk he thought I was restricting his movement and either bronced/double-barrel-kicked, not sure which. My emotional fitness was being tested but I knew if I kept stopping when he behaved like this; I'd have another learned behaviour to undo. It took 20 minutes and plenty of licking and chewing but we got a relatively calm friendly game on the move in walk on both sides. Although I'm expecting another difficulty with it because he just does not want to accept it. I must admit I was suprised when he either bronced/D-B-K'd but when thinking about it he was feeling trapped so it's understandable, I'll have to think about what made him think I was saying 'stop' rather than 'walk'. He licked and chewed after one of his bolts because I couldn't control the front end and kept friendly-gaming the back so that is something that I can guarantee I'll have to deal with again, silly me.

We then did sideways and usually I ask without a carrot-stick but I remembered that Arran said working without it if he's fearful of it will boost our relationship but it'll depleat faster if I reintroduced it so to use it all the time. He was obedient and understood but his eyes were wide and starey so I stopped after 3 good sideways steps, he licked and chewed. Then one time he was blinking whilst doing 3 good steps I gave him a treat afterwards so from then on he was doing sideways a little then being bolshy and demanding treats. I had to change my leadership and show him that the treats are handed out for good behaviour and not when he wants them. After a bit of a better attitude we moved on and moseyed around before I turned him out.

Probably not the best of ideas to ask him to play when he's sulky but this is what winter is about; if you can find time inbetween non-horsey life, field management and feeding... Play! Although instead of starting with friendly game on the move I should've done something we both find easy to see which side of the field he woke up on. "Play with the horse that shows up."

2008-10-02T15:05:00.000+01:00

I managed to sneak in a play session this morning and our friendly game on the move was much better; I recognised his threshold and played as close to his paddock as possible which helped. Once I saw him licking and chewing and his face softened I thought 'it's going great, we'll just do a little bit more' and then I remembered that Panda both say 'if your horse has done something right, move off of it' i.e. do something else!
So I have planned to slowly introduce 'touch it' with treats to get him more curious. Although he's confident, unless the thing is food or other horses, he's not overly bothered about an object. I planted carrots around the place and drove him from zone 3 to go get them. They were all on objects low to the ground so I felt a bit stuck when I kept sending Benji to the object for him to just stand and stare into space by it. I then asked him to lower his head to the objects. We've never had much success with it but I know it's something that's important so why put off something 'til tomorrow when you can do it today! After several attempts, Benji was lowering his head and keeping it low after a phase two porcupine and finding the carrots. He wasn't as enthused as I thought he'd be but hopefully as we do it more he'll start looking for these treats.

Plenty of licking and chewing today and the weather was great. My new winter coat has arrived too and it's lovely so happiness all round! :)

2008-10-01T22:50:00.000+01:00

Okay while little Dillon sleeps I'll post an update about how our lesson went on Wednesday. I had a really great time. Arran gave me new arrows to get our friendly game on the move actually friendly, Benji still doesn't get it sometimes that it is a friendly game and either goes RB and speeds up or crowds me. It took a while but I worked through his adrenaline and we got a good result at the end. I will now practise it a little each session so even if I'm doing a rigorous friendly game that Benji will maintain a rhythmic gait and be thinking rather than going introverted. Our Friendly game is probably the weakest because he's tense when I'm using the carrotstick but the Friendly Game on the move will fix that.
We also played figure-8s and I'd told Arran that I was finding it hard to ask him to trot it but keep calm. So he also gave me some pointers for that and suggested that driving the shoulder rather than drawing him towards me would help him gain respect with his shoulders because he's too bargy with them. It was really fun to play at the trot with Benji, because he's mainly an extrovert he does enjoy playing the games at a higher level.
Having to be a bit more firm for both exercises made me realise that I tend to be more carrot than stick i.e. too gentle than too firm for fear of adding insult to injury in Right-Brain moments. I need to really find a balance between carrot and stick and go either side in the right situations.

I then had my first ride in my new Wintec Wide and Theraflex pad, I was really happy and comfortable and I think Benji was too! He was much more obedient during the ride with his lateral flexion and steering, very responsive about yielding his HQ's which I was pleased with. Arran gave me a few things to work on in preparation for sideways freestyle.

So I've got to better:
Friendly game on the move in walk, think about friendly game in trot if walk is great
Porcupine game FQ & HQ yield
Teach Benji 'touch it' online and freestyle
Indirect rein

Over all we had a great lesson! :)

2008-09-25T19:03:00.000+01:00

This is little Dillon and he's had a busy day in his new home! I've made a cute video of Trey (my other papillon)'s first meeting with Dillon and will post the link soon. :)

It's hard to believe that he will eventually look like this...

Although in comparison, Trey looked a lot different at 10 weeks old:

Dillon's first video

2008-09-24T18:26:00.000+01:00

Goodbye Stoneleigh. After getting frustrated for weeks that I hadn't been accepted onto the course, I have now decided to take it as a sign that 2009 is not the year for me to go. Recently my health has declined and for the next few years I have to be realistic and expect ups and downs. I would be absolutely devestated if I had spent weeks preparing for the course only to turn up and only be able participate for a few hours a day because I'd overdone it. It's really is a shame but I feel it's for the best; I will get more out of a Parelli course once I can comfortably afford the fees, I'm in level 3 and when I'm feeling stronger.
I've put out a few feelers to friends and instructors so I can make sure that I spend the course money to benefit my horsemanship as much as possible over the next 12 months. I'm determined that I will still have a fantastic year!

I had a good session with Lily today playing the friendly game and there was a lot of licking and chewing which is always nice to see. Well, hear because Lily is a sly-licker being an introvert and all. :)

For a little while I won't be around much because I am getting another puppy tomorrow! Making sure the chewing, piddling and pooping in the house is kept to a minimum will be my priority. His name is Dillon, he's a red, sable and white tri-colour Papillon and he's a sweetheart. I'll post pictures soon. I'll try and keep updating though when I get given a break I'll either be out with the ponies, doing my uni work or sleeping so internet activity will be limited.

Hope everyone's well

2008-09-21T20:23:00.000+01:00

Warning: LOTS of photos in this entry! :)

Today I had such an awesome afternoon with the ponies. The weather was beautiful and although I'm still unwell I once again had to get my Savvy fix. Turns out that it's not flu but a relapse of my condition which is a little concerning but I'm not going to let it stop me from going to see my partners! So out I went to the yard.

Benji caught me and we played friendly game with the carrotstick because he's been a bit unsure of it alately. He did plenty of licking and chewing so I moved on and introduced the technique of moving Benji towards me for mounting featured on the September '08 Savvy Club DVD and he understood it better than I thought he would! He got plenty of carrots and fuss for that.

We then moved on to sideways and he was very responsive but kept trying to put his head over the fence, seeing as the fence is pretty high he looks a bit awkward when he does that. I'm sure as he gets more confident going sideways he'll stop doing it because he does seem a little anxious when he does that. I'll just keep asking for a few steps at a time and give him plenty of praise for it.

(Click on images for a bigger version)
Friendly game is getting better!
Circling game to see how exuberant he was feeling today...
Turns out very exuberant. He was getting a little Right-Brain here and I couldn't understand why until I saw this photo...
That is not a neutral position that I'm stood in, it looks predatory as if I'm assuming he'll make a mistake and I'm too ready to correct it. I didn't even realise so now I know I'll make a concious effort to look friendlier when he's doing the right thing!
I'm in a predatory position again and watching him like a hawk; silly me. But, I had to post this picture because he looks like a little fairy with his little prancing legs! Hehehe.
Lead by the leg. He found it rather boring but it's a must-learn for ponies just incase of injury; you never know when you'll need to be able to lead from other parts of the body other than the head.

A rather willful and resistant yo-yo. They do say you tend to have one yo better than the other yo. Seeing as he backed up at phase 1 and judging by his "you and what army?" attitude in this picture; I might know which is my better 'yo' at the moment! ;)

After pre-flight checks, cinching up in stages and playing 'no, you come to me for mounting, little monkey' I hopped on. I checked my brakes and played the friendly game with my carrotstick because this was the first time I'd ridden him whilst carrying it. He was fine and seemed a lot more obediant because I was carrying the stick, how interesting.
Look at the little dangly bit under his ropehalter; his neck is so small that I can't make my two reins any longer without him being at risk of tripping over them, you should see how long our leadrope is on a 22ft line made into a hackamore - it's so funny.
We then moseyed round and I practised plenty of lateral flexion it has been less than 100% and I was determined to get our one-rein stops softer. At first he didn't feel the same way...
He just didn't want to yield at all. Then after some passive persuasion in the proper position; he kept up his responsibilities and started acting like a partner...
I was so proud of him for being more cooperative and willing; although he's 13 I'm pretty sure he's had less than 100 hours of being ridden (I'd have to check with his owner, Nat, though to be certain). Thats only 4 full days, not even a drop in the ocean to the 365x13 years he's been alive. You could say he's being rebacked after not being ridden for so long, I'm also asking completely different things of him than he's been asked before and he's doing brilliantly.

So we moseyed around the field!
"I've been a good boy so I've taken you to the Candy Shop. Feed me, missy!"
I really like this picture, he looks so healthy and laid-back.
Then we had a bit of a trot around the field. I was really proud of myself for having the courage to do so because I haven't trotted him out of the grass school on my own. It looks like I'm slipping to the right on this picture but it's because I felt his ribs bending out so I was guiding him back to keep 'following the rail.'
He once again got a lot of carrots and fuss for being such a good partner today!

I then went to go see Lily and play catching game/stick to me with her.
It must be said that my mum did an fantastic job at taking all these photos.
I really like this photo, Lily has managed to keep some topline even though she's barely ridden. She looks so pretty here. :)

"Strike a pose"

Lily's dishing the gossip on the happening of the yard whilst I'm not there but we had to keep it low-key.
Benji suddenly got interested in me again so he walked back over and it looked as though he was looking round me and saying "Oh, so you're here too?" and Lily's saying, "Hello! Didn't see you coming."

Proudly showing off my wonderful Parelli partners!

I'm a real sap at times and after seeing this next photo, I really teared up. After working so hard on gaining Lily's respect and trust these past few months, this exact moment really showed it's affect on Lily. Makes is all worthwhile and then some. We were just playing stick to me as usual but I made an effort to match her energy today and it really intrigued her when I walked backwards. I recommend clicking on this image to see it properly, her expression is just what I wanted.
Okay so you've seen pictures of my shrinking violet but you've yet to see her Hyde dual-personality. She's such a funny little mare and I love her to death even when she's frowning so much you can't see her ears, lol.
I hope you enjoyed reading this entry as much as I enjoyed making it! Please comment. :)

Hello, BFO. It's been a while!

2008-09-20T14:08:00.000+01:00

Since my last blog I've been going through the motions up and down which has been a test of my emotional fitness. AND I've got flu, woohoo!
I've been going up to see the gruesome twosome frequently but we've done little more than friendly game and undemanding time because my head wasn't in the right place. Today is such a beautiful day that I resisted my brain trying to convince me to get back in bed; I needed my Savvy fix!! I wrapped up warm and headed out to the yard very slowly as I can hardly move.

When I got up there both ponies were vying for my attention and Benji shoved his nose into his ropehalter. We moseyed down to the grass-school where I sat on a bucket whilst I squeezed, circled and figure-8'd him over/around/sideways in front of some jumps. He was responsive, stretching well and moving nicely but our draw wasn't as good as the drive so I thought he needed some time for bonding. I brought him in and he rested his head on my lap whilst I stroked his neck. He wasn't his usual nipping, cheeky self and I was glad; I think he knew that I'm poorly and couldn't handle boisterous behaviour.

As we moseyed our way back up to the field I was walking vvvverrrryyyyy slowly so I sent him out in circles around me and considering that was the first time I'd asked him to he was very good. I then stood and evolved our circling game by asking for transitions. Last time I asked him for transitions online he wasn't ready and we went a few steps back. This time I felt that we were a lot better prepared though. So as he went past my shoulder I got my life up and asked him to trot. He yielded his hindquarters and did his deer-in-headlights face which usually indicates he's going right-brain. Then I remembered what Darin had said earlier in the week that it was possible he could be acting right-brain. Recently I have panicked and brought Benji in if he went right-brain because I didn't want to make things worse. So when Darin gave me a new perspective on the situation I had a BFO (Blinding Flash of the Obvious); without realising, I had been teaching Benji to go right-brain if he didn't want to play anymore. Whether or not he is pretending to be right-brain or he actually is right-brain in a situation I need to remember that me shutting down isn't going to help either of us; it's not what a good leader does!
So! Back to today, I had remembered Darin and I's conversation and I looked at Benji and he looked as if he was saying, "Warning: I'm about to explode!"... If ever I did see a bluff that was it. I said back, "Cool, go explode out on the circle then!" and he was like "Wait... Whaaaaat?!"
I left him out there to think about it and after a few minutes of sulking (proves the point that he wasn't right-brain that time because there was no explosion, not even a little one... How interesting!) I asked him to trot and he did a fantastic transition and then went back to walk at phase 2. I was grinning like a cheshire cat!

We then had a grooming session to finish off and it was interesting asking him to lower his head so I could brush it whilst sitting down etc. and I found out he loves the back of his front legs being rubbed and his forehead being brushed. I feel a lot more perkier than I have done for a little while and feel a lot more Savvy. Yay! :)

2008-09-09T11:00:00.000+01:00

Lately I've been feeling so unmotivated about everything but especially Parelli. Since starting it I'm pretty certain there hasn't been a day gone by where I haven't been expanding my Savvy and right now I just don't feel up to it. I've been avoiding the SC forum, whenever I watch the videos I either feel disheartened that I can't even get out of this start of level 2 rut or I don't feel anything. Last week I was going into overload writing up articles, playing and planning my sessions so perhaps my mind is telling me I need a bit of a break to recover. We'll see. Today I hope to have a bit of a brainstorm and see where I'm at, where I'm going and where I've been in the hopes it might pick me up a bit.

2008-09-04T11:38:00.000+01:00

Rain, rain go away! :(

At least all this horrible weather will give me a chance to blog more about my aims, what can be improved and watch more Parelli vids, read articles etc.

2008-09-02T16:01:00.000+01:00

After a very miserable and unsuccessful play with Benji yesterday, I couldn't have gotten any success out of it because of the elements and circumstances. My little rainmac was blowing about which was scary, it was raining heavily and windy, my coat didn't protect me from the elements so I was cold, my face was scrunched up to avoid the weather because I'd forgotten my visor, Benji kept freaking out then slipping on the grass and the rope and savvystring both got heavy and muddy so I wasn't able to be accurate, the mares were winding him up because they were hungry. I couldn't do much about it so I came home feeling incredibly unSavvy. Then I decided that I wouldn't let the weather get the better of me and I am investing in better waterproofs including waterproof trousers for the winter. Well, it is England afterall!
We all have our bad days so I tried not to beat myself up about it too much and learned from it instead. Now I think as Autumn is drawing in I will have to play in the mornings as that is when the best weather is.

Today was much better, I decided to keep it short, sweet and simple so I had time to play with both and give them more grass. Lily caught me so I brushed her mammoth mane and picked her feet out, she's too sensitive with her hind ones so I friendly-gamed them for ages with a positive response. I then played friendly-game on the move with CS and SS; she snorted and hopped about the first time I threw the SS over her but then she soon settled. I found it really helpful to get my legs in time with her front legs to keep her from getting her legs sticky because I knew horses like sychronisation. Boy, it was hard keeping up with her, I was taking leaps to keep up with her long, lovely legs! After a few minutes she started blinking so we stopped and I kept the savvy string over her 'til she relaxed and then gave her a treat. Second try she did a lot better so we then hung out and she was very affectionate. I hadn't realised until today that Lily has a small light blue line around her eyes, she's so pretty! :)

Benji came to me no problem and I gave him a lot of treats to semi-apologise for yesterday and for him to associate being caught with something good. We then played friendly-game on the move too but I thought after yesterday it would've been too much too soon with the CS and SS so I used the end of the 12ft line. Benji just constantly wants to put me in zone 1 in order for him to relax and that just isn't practical so I made sure than 85% of our session was me stood in zone 2 or 3. It went pretty well so I gave him another treat and a fuss and turned him out.

Today I set it up for success and felt much more Savvy as I left the yard, hooray! And look forward to plenty of pics over the winter of me looking like a doofus in a waterproof overall. It's okay, I know I'm too cool, haha.

I've also updated both Benji and Lily's pages, go look now! :)

2008-08-31T23:56:00.000+01:00

Also please note that I have updated Lily's page! You can find it by clicking on her name on the navigation section. =)

2008-08-31T14:58:00.000+01:00

Your Heart is your Love,
Your love is your Family,
Your family is your Future,
Your future is your Destiny,
Your destiny is your Ambition,
Your ambition is your Aspiration,
Your aspiration is your Motivation,
Your motivation is your Belief,
Your belief is your Peace,
Your peace is your Target,
Your target is Heaven,
Heaven is no fun without FRIENDS!

I got sent this in an email and it struck chords with me in some ways but I altered it and THIS really applies to my life!

Your heart is your love,
Your love is your horses,
Your horses are your future,
Your future is your destiny,
Your destiny is your ambition,
Your ambition is your aspiration,
Your aspiration is your motivation,
Your motivation is your belief,
Your belief is your Savvy,
Your Savvy is your target,
Your target is heaven,
And your heaven is spending hours each day achieving true unity your horses!

2008-08-30T03:15:00.000+01:00

Today was my first go playing friendly game on the move with Lily and it went pretty well. First time I started it I spooked her but after that she was a bit sticky-footed but she was blinking after a while and responsive to where I was asking her to go. My arms were killing me afterwards. So she didn't associate her being caught with the scary friendly game on the move I hung out with her before and after whilst she grazed.

Arran said on Wednesday that I was getting too good at the catching game with her so now I've got to be a bit clumsy for her to be braver. It makes sense because if she cuts herself whilst I'm away, no one would be able to catch her to clean her up. So bearing that in mind I was a little bit laid back and ignoring her when she pulls her 'but I can't possibly do that!' face rather than going gently gently because she should be fine with being caught now.

She followed me around after I turned her out so I obviously didn't offend her too much! Sometimes I think the tough love, confident approach does work with the more introverted types because if I acted as unconfident as her I wouldn't be a very good leader. Its just knowing when to be gentle and slow or confident and having a 'you'll be fine!!' attitude in situations. I've got a 50/50 chance of getting it right!

Lesson with Arran

2008-08-28T06:52:00.000+01:00

This evening I had a lesson with Arran and it really helped clear a few things up in my head as always. I played with Benji whilst he played with Lily and taught me at the same time. My field-neighbour was also having a lesson with him this evening as well, she's traditional but is at her wit's end with her daughter's horse. For some reason she thought he'd said 7 so he arrived at my stables for 6:30 but then had to go to her's for an hour.
Whilst he was gone he asked me to work on the friendly game on the move. I told him that I thought Benji had some difficulties with the friendly game, particularly with the carrotstick, and that I had been playing without that week. He pointed out that although playing without the carrotstick would build the relationship, as soon as I started using it again we'd be back at square one so to work through the fear. First of all Benji went starey and couldn't maintain gait or pace very well but as I kept on asking him to move his feet around the place he got better. He kept crowding me and putting his shoulder too close for comfort so Arran suggested to try asking him to move sideways from zone 1. It really helped getting him to go away and around me rather than just going round in little circles in my space. Once he was blinking and keeping the same speed within walk and trot we moved on.

Once Arran had come back it was starting to get dark and I had wanted to ride so he said we'd ride in the dark and keep on line whilst it's still light. I thought he was going a bit barmy but it's great for your feel and seat. We then played figure 8s to improve our change of direction and asking him to switch eyes easier as he doesn't like taking one eye off me for the other. Arran also mentioned that Benji seems to only be able to relax when playing if he puts me in zone 1 which is true so the friendly game on the move and figure 8s will help that. We played figure 8s in between some barrels and then over jumps and Benji was so uncoordinated bless him.
I talked to Arran briefly about my concerns over Benji being introverted and sometimes right brain but he didn't seem worried and said that he was a great left brain pony. That's relieving to know and then I started thinking again and couldn't decide whether Benji's a Left brain introvert with extroverted tendencies or vice versa, Arran said only time will tell and that Benji will reveal his true character to me. At least now I can stop worrying that I've misread Benji completely, he is left brain but he does get unconfident and introverted from time to time.

We then rode when it got dark and Arran gave me some great tips regarding asking Benji politely not to eat unless I say he can and how to get a nice back up and a better indirect rein. Arran said Benji likes to keep his mind busy whilst being ridden so practising plenty of lateral flexion, indirect reins and back ups will help achieve obedience. He was having real tantrums when I was asking him to do things rather than just go where he wants and eat when he wants which made me chuckle. It was cool riding in the dark and I saw more than I expected I would be able to.

So we have plenty of homework - friendly game on the move with Benji and Lily. With Benji: Figure 8s on line with a variety of objects and to practise getting my lateral flexion light, back ups better and a more responsive indirect rein. Eventually he'd like me to be able to do a nice indirect rein leading into a direct rein with a barrel bend (i.e. pushing Benji into the circle by leaning out).

2008-08-26T22:05:00.000+01:00

After writing about 900 words in my notes on Benji's confidence in his leader (i.e. me) I felt confident that I'd have a good session today whether he was right brain or left brain. I still didn't use my carrotstick which helped things but it really won't help things in the long run. We went out of the field into the other and I drove him from zone 3, he's getting a better understanding of wiggling the rope means go down a transition which'll help our transitions On Line when we go back to them. He was confident and left brain for the most part and we went allover the place.
I then drove him to the fence and we worked on sideways, rewarding the littlest of tries. After a successful few attempts on the right side I tried on his left side. He thought I was asking him to go back so once I was clearer about what I was asking; it was as if he said "Ohhh! You mean this?" and he did 5 beautiful sideways steps with just a phase 2.
I was so impressed that I kept the session short and sweet and turned him out on that good note.

50/50 Left-Brain/Right-Brain but I stopped him from 'going there' for the most part!

2008-08-23T14:56:00.000+01:00

I spent most of my day up the yard today, I can't believe where the time went and I am immensly worn out now. Worth it though! Lily and I hung out, I drove her into the bigger field so she could graze, we had a good time and she was nice and calm without being introverted.
Today was session three of 22ft line desensitisation for Benji and it went well, a little introversion but not much. We then hung out, played a lot of porcupine and then I turned the 22ft into a hackamore with a very long leadrope (bless him and his little neck!). Played more with porcupine and driving game so he was light, responsive and left brain. Then I hopped on him in the grass 'school' and we practised hindquarter disengagements. He was very LBi in the 'school' and we were both bored so I opened the 'school gate' and we moseyed round the one acre field on a casual rein. He behaved very well and I was proud of myself for believing that positive things will happen rather than negative provided I prepared.

Benji was left brain today so I'll say hooray and lets keep our fingers crossed! :)

A video dedicated to Benji's supreme camera-confidence!

2008-08-22T14:54:00.000+01:00

Just for fun! :)

50th post, wahey!

2008-08-21T21:30:00.001+01:00

I went up yesterday (Wednesday) and decided that my only plan was to film Benji and Lily in their natural state (not on line, unbrushed and in their herd environment) and to carry on the 22ft desensitisation.

I took about 16mins of footage and that has been the only video I've been able to edit and publish so far. The song is "What More Do You Want?" by The Plain White Tee's and I thought it was very fitting as they're both wanting my attention solely on them. It also seems to fit in timewise which is awesome. Notice how much more confident Lily is, it's fantastic! I really do think that with time and more situations like this where the foreign object didn't turn out to be a lion will build even more confidence and she'll reveal an innate LBe/LBi character. I can guarantee that she hasn't always been more right brain; abuse, mistrust and a breakdown in horse-human communication caused it.

That video was after I played friendly game desensitisation with Benji on line. He knew the score and after having sticky feet then pawing the ground at the start; he was licking and chewing, blinking, had slack in the rope and good head carriage. This will blow your minds though for those who know Lily... As I was doing 100% retreat whilst smacking the end of the 22ft line on the floor she was following me at liberty every step of the way! Having both ponies not entirely sure that I'm sane but treating me as the leader was awesome and as soon as I got nice soft expressions from both for more than 3 steps I quit and turned him out.

You will see from the videos I took of him prior to the play session why I was so happy with him even then. He was being the cocky, pushy little dude that I know and love, I was even letting him overdo the 'I'm boss hoss' act so I can get his confidence back.
I explained in the films that have yet to be edited whilst he was frisking me for treats and nudging/nipping my hands: I am not unknowingly letting him walk all over me. I'm very much aware and I am happy about that behaviour because his recent right-brain characteristics were concerning. I feel that I could always put him back in his place when dominant but find it harder to encourage trust and confidence from him when he is wide-eyed and starey. I'd much rather him behave like that than act like he's shell-shocked because Benji is a very happy, charismatic, cheeky little guy and we love him that way!

I hope you can pick up on my radiating happy vibes that he was left brain yesterday! Wahoo! :)

Expect more vids soon and you can always catch them on my youtube channel anytime.

Savvy on!

2008-08-20T12:32:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I went up for some UDT with Benji on line. I wanted to understand more so I thought that'd be the best thing to do. I brushed him for a little while which he tolerated but didn't enjoy so I put the gel-mit-brush-thing on the floor. Within seconds Lily was touching it with her nose, licked it, picked it up in her mouth, wiped the floor with it and then chucked it up and down. I was absolutely gobsmackingly happy and I wish I had taken my camera. Ah well!
Molly wanted to see what it was next to she moved Lily away, pawed it and, once she'd decided she couldn't eat it, walked off. Lily then went to play with it again and Molly got defensive and shoved her off so I picked up the brush and hurled it halfway across the field. Lily cantered after it and played like a kitten with a ball of string for ages, I'm so happy that she's gaining confidence and developing her curiosity. Lily isn't often in a playful mood because it's a rare occasion that her safety and comfort needs are fulfilled.

Benji was very introverted and sometimes I've noticed he'll try and bite if he's feeling defensive so it's not always left brain behaviour. I also realised that him pawing the ground wasn't him being a snotty gimp; it was right brain introversion. I feel as though I've been reading him wrong and that he could be a RBi who can go LBe rather than the other way round.
I think the main things are that he's not keen on the friendly game and the longer rope, carrotstick and savvy string worry him so we started desensitisation with the 22ft today and will carry on with it for the next 7 days and reassess from there.

To see if there's a pattern or to try and make sense of it all; one of the things I'm going to do is to mark under my blog entries whether he was mostly Left-Brain or Right-Brain in that session.

Mostly Right-Brain.

2008-08-18T16:37:00.000+01:00

I've unfortunately been very busy with my degree course and other things this week so I've been able to play with Benji and hang out with Lily just twice in the 6 days. This has bummed me out but it's gotta be done. Not to mention that the weather has been terrible! When I've had a spare moment I've been thinking about PNH of course but mainly the change in Benji. I just still can't understand where it went wrong and I'm sad because he is more introverted and I don't know the reason yet. So many questions whizz around my head like have I knocked the learning confidence out of him? Where did I put too much pressure on him? How long has he been like this? Do I now have two RBi's? Have I caused this? *tension headache* Plenty more questions too.
I just wish I knew. =(

Benji's mum came to visit today!

2008-08-12T16:54:00.000+01:00

Benji's mum came up today for a visit to see how Benji and Lily are doing since she last saw them, it was really great to be able to sit and have a natter about Parelli with someone who understands. Sometimes it's a little hard not having a Parelli student who lives close but I have so much support from the SC and it's members that it makes up for it. :)

She brought the Patterns with her and I had a brief look at the online and freestyle packs and I am really anticipating my copy to come. I got an email from parcelforce saying 48 hours so hooray!

We went up the yard and I was wondering whether yesterday was a fluke and today he was still a little spaced out but I felt a bit more in control of the situation. I keep trying to figure out where the change has come from and it might not matter too much; what matters is the present. But if I can understand then I can avoid making the mistake again if I did something wrong to cause it. So many questions, oh boy! I knew not to put much pressure on him and thought that taking him out around the yard for a graze would be warmly received by him! The vet is coming to visit him and Lily soon so I thought that reintroducing him to the stables and getting him confident with them would be helpful. I expected a bit more right-brain behaviour because last time he went a little O_O and had to move his legs. This time he was very good, nice and calm and boldly stepped in and out of the stable. If we spend a little time each day around there he will be more confident for when the vet comes.

Lily bit Benji on the face and poor Nat got stuck in the middle and it got me thinking about LtheL and how Lily fits into it all. I've done about half the charts for her recently but she's such a complex little mare that I sometimes look and want to move/get rid of/add a dot here and there.

To try and understand Benji's current situation a bit better I am analysing the LtheL concept, seperating the situation into segments to see what may have caused it. So far I have done a confidence up and horsenality for his confidence in his leader (me!) and it doesn't seem to be our chink in the chain. Once I'm done with all 5 I'll be putting them up so prepare yourselves for a LONG post. ;)

Oh boy!

2008-08-11T21:00:00.000+01:00

Today after the weekend off to reassess things and to clear my mind I went up to play with Benji today. I decided for the first time in a little while I'd have a plan but be willing to abandon it if needs be. He was waiting right at the gate for me and I thought that seeing as my plan would be to work on driving using a figure of eight with two cones, I might need the 22ft line. This is one of the few times I'd used it and previously Benji has found it a little spooky following me alongside him wherever I go. I really don't know whether that was 100% the reason why he was the way he was or whether it was deeper than that. Right from the get-go today he was mildly right brain introvert. I thought "Oh no." and sat a little while to gather my thoughts and decided that I'd see what games made him better or worse as a starting point. All but the porcupine game made him go very starey-eyed and he kept trying to walk back to the herd who were incidentally only 10metres away. I decided that asking him to move in a consistent pattern may help so we played with the two cones in a figure of eight. He was blinking a little but still looking like a rabbit in headlights. I decided that maybe interrupting the pattern may help him check back in, not so helpful. Maybe only doing games I know he's confident with might help his confidence, didn't help much either. I was quickly running out of arrows. I tried all that I could think of including advance and retreat, emphasis on retreat, taking the pressure off, just chilling etc. etc.
I tried to reflect on our last session to see if it could help me understand. Our last session was UDT and inbetween frisking me for treats and grazing he looked C-O-N-F-I-D-E-N-T. Our last online session he was a little off-colour and he wasn't confident with the changes of direction or transitions. Perhaps that is what did it, I don't know.
I decided to set it up for success and drove him from zone 3 around the field wherever he wanted to go to end on a good note before I loosed him off. I left feeling so frustrated with myself that I couldn't get him back to his usual self and I was petrified that this is how he'll be from now on. After some cooling off I have now decided that I won't jump to conclusions 'til I see how he is tomorrow. If he is still RBi or has those moments I will completely reassess our relationship, his confidence in me, the herd, his environment and in the seven games. This morning I kept saying over and over in my head, "I CAN'T deal with two right brain ponies, I just CAN'T!", now I am calmer and looking on the bright side I am confident that it would be very perplexing if Benji did have a horsenality transplant last night but that I CAN deal with it. When I looked for a levels pony I pretty much wanted something that was rideable and less challenging than Lily and he still ticks those boxes. He might be a little more complex than I first thought out but that's cool because it means, although it might take me longer to get through the levels, I will get there with more savvy.
For all I know I might go up tomorrow and he'll be his usual self, if so, great. If not then I will go "Oh boy!" and try to figure out even more what has caused it and what I can do to help!

Leadership.

2008-08-08T11:45:00.000+01:00

So this morning I wasn't feeling so good so I just went up again to spend some more UDT with the terrible twosome. Lily trusted me enough today to touch her face and she was so happy to get her forehead and bottom of her ears scratched. I watched her every movement to pick up when she was confident and when she wasn't, when I should turn my foghorn off her, when I can apply a little more pressure. There's a 50/50 chance I'll get it right when she wants me to do something and for the most part I seem to be doing quite well with trying to understand what that is. As we were moseying about from grass patch to grass patch I tried to get my legs in sync with her front legs because I know that the pattern seems to calm her. She has been licking me a lot over the past few weeks and I'm not sure whether it's because it's affection or because I taught her to lick the back of my hand before she got a treat to discourage nipping/grabbing. I think it's affection because she licks my arms, knees, shoulder and sometimes forehead (yuck!) and not just the back of my hand.

I called Benji over after a while so I could spend time with both of them and Lily pinned her ears back and tried to move him away. He pretty much ignored her and we hung out. I tried to find Benji's itchy spots with little success and was trying to prove to him that my whole existance is not just to give him treats. After an hour or so of being in the herd I started walking up the field to put the electric fence that we used for the tracter and topper to get through without letting the horses out. I said my goodbyes to both and started walking up and they both followed! Lily will follow me frequently now but Benji not so much so I was happy about that. It got me thinking that I must've been a good leader today.

I then started to think why, out of 3 dominant ponies, was Benji the leader? I thought of the qualities a great leader needs and realised that Lily wasn't fair as she will try and tell Benji/Molly off for little reason nor is she courageous enough. Molly is not interesting/provocative enough for two exuberant horsenalities to follow, she never wants to play and only wants to eat. Benji, although the smallest, is a very subtle leader to the unknowing eye. Those who don't know could say that Molly was because she moves Lily about a lot. But Benji is a fair leader and will only exert his leadership upon Molly and Lily when they challenge him or don't do as he asks at phase 1 or 2. He doesn't have to prove himself constantly, he engages in play with Lily to keep her happy and eats/reserves energy a lot to keep Molly happy. He doesn't spook easily but he'll move his feet if something poses a threat to his herd. He's sensitive but not too sensitive and isn't hot headed. Although it obviously annoys Molly and Lily sometimes that he's boss hoss, he doesn't care because it is what it takes to keep them safe. I think he is a great leader and has helped sort out the herd dynamics.

I look at how Benji interacts with the two mares and know that I could certainly learn a few leadership lessons from him to become a better leader for him and Lily. I can also easily see why Benji thinks he is boss out of the two of us sometimes if he is leader over two big cob mares. I think fairness is a huge quality when it comes to leadership both with horses and the rest of the world. It's the knowing when to praise and when to reprimand that makes it tricky but hey, we've got a 50/50 chance and they aren't bad odds.

2008-08-05T13:26:00.000+01:00

Sorry guys, hope you didn't think I'd dropped off the fact of the earth!
I've been busy this week with boring field management tasks and my uni work.

Tuesday I went up with the intention of getting the transitions online real good so we could get off them. It was so peaceful that once Benji had caught me we just chilled out for a while. We moseyed over near Lily and she took one look at me and ran off, not good. So I excused myself from Benji and went to play the catching game with Lily. I was trying to figure out what I'd done wrong to cause that reaction and I think it was because on the Monday I had driven them into their new field with the carrotstick and didn't 'check in' with her afterwards. Within 10 minutes she was shoving her head into the ropehalter so that was cool. We then joined the rest of the herd and hung out with them for a while. Nothing like a good session of UDT in nice weather.

Thursday I'd come up with no intention of playing with them as I was busy but we hung out some more at liberty and for the first time in well over a year Lily groomed me, I was so happy!

I will post about today (Friday) later.

Pinned ears and plotting!

2008-08-03T18:53:00.000+01:00

Well Benji had some fun today! It makes me smile just thinking about it. We had a play and worked on transitions again and change of direction with a little success. So after he was calm and ready to ride I hopped on and he instantly took charge. He'd go when he wanted to, stopped when he wanted to and as we were going round he suddenly pinned his ears back so I thought "ah, plotting... Plotting, let's see what you got!" and he put his head inbetween his legs and I was like "oh no you don't!!" It was kinda funny and even though I'm certain he's never done it before in his life, I knew it was coming. Good old dependable Benji!
After that I worked on lots of disengagement (thank you for that section on the new DVD, Linda!) and hopped off on a good note. I rung Arran about it and he said that it is most likely because he is currently winning transitions online and change of direction so he thinks from then on he is leader. Makes sense so I'm going to get those going good 'til I hop on his back again. I was worried that he is bored in the round corral but he reassured me that up until level 3 he'll be pretty bored because it's still basic horse language. He said to keep my safety a priority and still ride him in the corral unless I'm confident we'll be okay out of it.
I still thought we had a good session regardless of the naughty thoughts in his head. Hehehe :)

2008-08-03T09:45:00.000+01:00

Today I felt as though I'd been neglecting Lily a bit so I spent about half an hour with her just chilling. I picked out all four feet using advance and retreat, it took a while but we got there in the end. Then I sat down and she stood behind me for ages and then gave me a thorough licking on my arms, lovely! All the time we were hanging out, Benji was closeby wanting attention. When I turned her out, something unexpected happened. When I grabbed Benji's halter Lily stood inbetween Benji and I and tried to chase him off. That was a little strange. So I kindly told her that I am the one who decides who I'll play with and caught Benji.
I took him into the big field to have a play and we worked on sharpening up the sideways game and also transitions online. I only had my 12ft line with me which I was annoyed about because I couldn't give him any drift on the circle if he got anxious. We got good results but I was left feeling a little frustrated at myself because he had been introverted and I hadn't noticed. So afterwards I spent an hour grazing with him, playing stick to me and took him down to our tackroom for some treats. Whilst we were there I grabbed a bucket, practised lateral flexion then just hopped on there and then which I thought was rather brave of me. Then we walked back up to the top of the field so I could turn him out and I knew I'd fixed our relationship when instead of walking off, he wouldn't go anywhere I wasn't going.

"Do as I say but don't be afraid" - Linda Parelli

2008-08-01T13:28:00.000+01:00

1st of August, I can't believe it!!

So, it's settled. I'm definately going to Stoneleigh on the 22nd of June for four days and I know it's 10 months away but I am SO EXCITED! :)

Today we got cracking and although I'm trying not to set goals, I want to make sure we're ready for the course so we started transitions online today. First of all Benji would just hide his hiney and look like this O_O. I stood and thought for a moment as to why he reacted the way he did and I realised that I'd been a doofus and not lead zone 1. After I twigged I tried again and he instantly got it. He's such a good boy.
We also had a bit of a ride around the field he's in with the mares and he got a bit RB which made me a little nervous but even when RB Benji is quite predictable so I knew what to expect. We practised our trotting for a little while and also follow the rail for the level 1 assessment we'll be filming for soon. Had a pretty good day. :)

YAYYYY!

2008-07-31T09:28:00.000+01:00

Ty's a genius! :)

And double YAYYYY! because the dates have been released and I AM GOING TO STONELEIGH 2009!! It's my every other sentence spoken at the moment, that's how happy I am.

Brilliant session with Benji!

2008-07-27T09:31:00.000+01:00

It is actually Tuesday due to video issues but I try and date my entries correctly for future reference. Pics to come, hopefully!

This morning I had a really awesome session with Benji! We had a nice groundwork play and I am so pleased with how well he's doing.
After he was calm, listening and was showing lovely lateral flexion I hopped on the bucket and desensitized him to me being up there. I know so many horses who won't stand when their owners try to mount, especially from a block and also horses who will get unconfident and put the block in zone 1. So we played a little squeeze and driving and I was able to get on and sit on him for a minute without him moving off which was cool.

So we practised move lateral flexion and some back ups before we set off. I was a passenger for a while and then decided to be brave and trot on him! I was very apprehensive before I tried because his little trot is so bouncy so I thought I'd exit out the side door. I bit the bullet and thought that the worst that could happen is that I'd have to do an emergency dismount. I took a deep breath and asked and I was so amazed at how comfy his trot actually was! I didn't slip once and if I felt a little wobbly I realised it was because I was off my balance point. My mum took a video of our last few minutes before I got off and gave him a well deserved hug!

Note: I was going to upload a vid of Benji and I but youtube, dailymotion and even my beloved blogger won't upload it for some reason. I will try as the week goes on but it doesn't look hopeful. :(

My mum took some good pictures of Lily afterwards:
Left brain, confident, pretty and curious about what that thing is in her hand...

Hello Mrs Jekyl and Hyde! In the middle of shaking her head she decided that the camera is very scary and deserves a spook. She's so funny. :)

Wahoo!

2008-07-26T16:28:00.000+01:00

So today I set up my round pen, it isn't exactly round but it's a good size and it's connected to the gate for ease of access!
Diane offered me Molly to really try out my new bareback pad on so I scrambled on with very little grace! I'm really pleased with it and felt quite secure. I haven't ridden bareback in more than a walk since I was traditional so I was a bit apprehensive as to if I'd do alright. I beared the Parelli's advice in mind to only go up a gait once I was comfortable in the current one and within 10 minutes I was cantering around the place on it; what a blast! It gave me a chance to assess how my new balance-point-not-groin seat really was with 'the truth' i.e. the saddle taken away and I was quite pleased with how it's coming along. I felt much more comfortable and didn't feel tense in my legs once because I pedalled quite a bit. It was really awesome. I can't wait 'til I'm careering bareback around the yard on Benji or Lily! :)
Once I'd done the round pen and ridden Molly I'd been up the yard for four hours so I didn't get to spend much time with Lily or Benji. Tomorrow I'll make an effort to get up and play with them early morning before it gets too hot.

Lesson with Arran

2008-07-24T18:14:00.000+01:00

Arran came over tonight to give me a couple of hours lesson. I wanted him to see how Lily and I were getting on and what needed to be improved. He was so happy with what he saw that we brought her back into the herd which was very interesting to see. To begin with Lily was either wanting to be nowhere near Benji or Lily or was lunging at them with her mouth or feet! So Arran drove them round the field 'til they were move synchronised as a herd.
I then played with Benji whilst he played with Lily on a 45ft line. I showed him the few areas where we were having problems and once he'd shown me what I could do better we were doing sideways without a fence and yielding his FQ 360° using phase 1 and 2. I was absolutely thrilled to bits. Now I think within a few weeks we will be able to submit our groundwork tasks. Although I might hold up a bit until my riding tasks are done too.
After playing with Lily for a bit Arran got on her bareback and walked and trotted her around. She looked very relaxed which is great for Lily. He recommended that I keep up the UDT and friendly game with Lily until my body language is a bit more refined because she's so sensitive. The better I get with Benji, the easier Lily will be which makes sense. I really feel like I'm progressing as a PNH student and that the ponies are beginning to reflect that. All is good! :)

2008-07-22T20:26:00.000+01:00

Last night my partner's mum rang up to ask if she could come over with her Dales pony today for some Parelli tuition. I don't consider myself experienced enough to teach in the slightest but she is new to Parelli and I feel that I know enough about level one groundwork to be able to give her pointers and encouragement. She's been interested in Parelli since I started and comes over whenever she gets time off work just for a bit of guidance and some fun.
Thankfully the weather was nice today and we had a good time. She showed me areas she was having problems with and I gave her a few tips and she listened and bettered her approach. She hadn't ever done a horsenality chart for Simba, her Dales, so I printed one out for her to fill in. It was interesting to see how much he had changed in my mind from when she had got him and it helped her understand why he did ___ when she did ___. I didn't get Benji or Lily out to join in on the session like I usually do because she had asked for instruction rather than our usual mini play days. She's really getting a good grasp of games 1, 2, 3 and is slowly getting there with game 4.
She also took up the gauntlet of having a PPL bareback whilst I led Simba around; she's never ridden bareback nor tried sitting on her balance point before so she said it felt weird but in a good way. Overall I had a really nice time and it helped me personally getting a better grasp of the games by being able to explain them to someone and why they are so beneficial. Pretty cool day!

UDT, UDT and more UDT...

2008-07-21T10:50:00.000+01:00

Yesterday my mum went out with all of my equipment in her car so all I had yesterday was an apple and a camera! Di and I turned Molly and Benji out for a run around in the big field and a bit of a snack. I knew Benji would come back but I had Di's leadrope to tie around his neck just incase. After about 10-15minutes I whistled and Benji trotted very sweetly back into the field, such a good boy. Molly on the other hand was a pain for Diane and leaning into pressure - if she played the porcupine game it wouldn't have been a problem.
Lily couldn't go out and play just incase she wasn't as good with the catching so she went right brain for a little while and I snapped a few pics. Afterwards I sat on a bucket and chilled with her and she came over and groomed me for atleast 15 minutes, it was awesome! She then focused on my visor and licked it a bit then took it off my head, that was really cool. :)

Hopefully today will be just as nice; I have a plan and my plan is to freewheel!

One on one with Benji

2008-07-19T14:03:00.000+01:00

Although I have been spending time with Benji I decided he needed 80% of my attention today because I have been spending considerably more time with Lily. Since Lily has come back Benji had been very safety conscious and tense, I couldn't understand why until today.

We were just chilling and working on FG with the 12ft line in zone 3 when it started to rain really badly so we put out butts to face the way of the rain and he looked over to Molly. I thought "ah, maybe he wants to go stand by her!" we were about 15 metres away so we edged towards her. She was stood by their saltlick with her muzzle on it, licking it verrryyyy sllllooooowwwwlllyyy. Benji stepped over into her space sideways (looked very fancy, probably to avoid getting his face rained on!), put his ears back, bit her slowly on the shoulder and then as she moved away he bit her bum to reinforce his first point and then licked the saltlick. Then a little lightbulb went on above my head and I realised all the time I had been watching Molly and Benji interact prior to today; they had been struggling with establishing who the leader was now Lily's home and having many dominance games. Now Benji is initiating dominance games and winning he is back to his usual cheeky self. Who would've thought the smallest pony would be the boss hoss!

I was very glad because I couldn't understand why he'd become a LBe borderline RBi. I know he will still get his ocassional RB moments because, confident as he is, he is still a prey animal. With Benji it's quite hard to tell when he's RB because he gives very subtle signs such as starey eyes. That is unconfidence and if I put too much pressure on him then that is when he'll panic.

We hung out even more and after assessing the situation and his mood I decided that good games to work on would be 1 and 3. I would like both ponies to be okay with me being in all zones rather than just zones 1 or 2 so I thought it'd be cool to see what his driving from zone 3 was like. I only used the end of the line to drive him forwards rather than the CS because I didn't have it on hand and it was much less fumbly. I had to ask him for only a few steps at first to make sure he understood but after that we moseyed allover the place and I didn't correct him for going where he wanted to go for him to build confidence in me being in zone 3. He was very good and he didn't even care that we were wandering away from Molly which is much much much better! I even got a little confident and followed in zone 4 and he was very laidback about it. We went out of the field for a little grazing and he was like "Molly who?". After such lovely positives we hung out for a little more then I turned him back out.

I began building my pedestals today which I'm excited about. We had two old tractor tires just lying around so I've put them together on a little hill and have started filling them with muck. After there's enough muck the top few layers will be sand and soil. Some people have mentioned that they needed plywood because their horses dug holes in the sand but we'll see. I put them together because I thought they'd be a cool jump too and encourage the ponies to jump in the middle because it'll be the area where the tires appear smaller and less wider. I can't wait to use them.

Lily was RB today because of huge tires being rolled everywhere so I sat with her for about 15 minutes and worked on her relaxing when I halter her. She did very well too. Quite a savvy day I reckon! :)

2008-07-14T23:23:00.000+01:00

Just a quick update!

Benji
Bettering:

Friendly game
Bigger thresholds for thresholds
Trust
Confidence rather than dominance

Lily
Bettering:

Trust
Catching
Confidence
Friendly game
Confidence rather than the fear
Confidence rather than dominance

It's so interesting to watch the both of them when I'm sitting in one field, watching the other and vice versa.
Benji is feeling insecure because he seems to feel that his leadership is being challenged by Lily. When I catch Benji in an insecure mood he's hard to get through to. When he's chilled he's great, wanting variety yet will panic if I move him too far away from Molly. Provided she doesn't intrude on our play sessions I don't mind playing near her and we'll work on it as we go along. I know a lot of people would be annoyed but I think it's cool that he's buddy sweet because it means that he's not feeling lonely when I'm not at the yard. I checked his feet for heat and digital pulse this morning just as a routine and although I didn't pick them up he wasn't too happy about it so my approach to that needs work. I should've worked my hand from the wither down whereas I came in from zone 1 and touched the bottom of his shoulder. Silly me, sometimes I take his confidence for granted and forget my manners!

Lily is doing well and is settling back in quickly. When she's RB we'll just chill out and when she's LB I'll apply just a tiny bit of pressure so she doesn't get bored. She decided to test me the other day by biting my belt loops so I sent her back, she asked me a question and I let her back in. I noticed she didn't lick and chew though. She did it again, wanted to see if I'd be consistent so I did and left her out a little longer and she licked and chewed. Pretty cool!
She had a cut on her hind leg from what I can imagine was her kicking the fence to assert herself to the chestnuts. I took one look and thought "wow, I need to take care of that but how?! She gets upset if I'm any further back than beginning of zone 3" but needs must and it took about 10 minutes to work my way down the first time and after that she was fine with it.
I took her out inhand grazing yesterday just about 10 metres away from her paddock, if that and because she was LB when she went through her main threshold she was LB 80% of the time whilst we were sat enjoying the sun. When she got too far away I could yield her HQ from where I was, sat down on the grass. I would focus on her bum and just wave my hand rhythmically a little and she would be like "you rang?!". She's such a sensitive mare but it can be a double edged sword at times.

Wow, okay, not such a quick update then. All in all a great first week back for Lily and I'm looking forward to my lesson on Friday! :)

2008-07-10T22:26:00.000+01:00

Quick update: Lily's settled in much better and I am now picking up some dominance vibes from her like I did before she went to Arran's. Being a LBi sometimes I know that will be present when her safety need is fulfilled and if I try to correct her when she is looking like a bulldog chewing a wasp or trying to porcupine my hand, she'll revert to RB within a blink of the eye. I'm going to have to think how I can try and balance our rapport so she sees me as a confidence-bringing leader yet not one she can challenge. Hmm, how interesting!
For the most part, Lily will still stick with me when I take her ropehalter off. When she was feeling more confident online today I just played a bit of driving from zone 3 and she was very good. I was going to take her out of her field about 10 metres to graze online as a bit of a change but she just couldn't deal with that at all. I hadn't realised that the little patch she's on has become such a comfort zone for her, we A&R the gateway a little and then left it on that note because I didn't want to push her.
It's so hard not to get all emotional and want to cuddle Lily; I missed her so much whilst she was gone. But I resist because her most favourite friendly game is me being there but not asking anything of her or putting any pressure on and I think if I were to try and hug her she would freak out. So after my session today with Lily I went into the chestnuts' field and made a huge fuss of Benji because I knew he wouldn't mind... I'm such a softie at times. Although I've seen and fussed Benji everyday I miss playing with him so I'm hoping to have a short play session with him tomorrow just to keep things going as well as they have been. :)

2008-07-08T22:47:00.000+01:00

I spent most of the afternoon up at the stables today and it was great. Lily caught me no problem and we chilled for ages online. It was sunny and quiet so I thought I'd meditate. Some might say that's not such a good idea with half a ton of horse stood near you whilst you sit cross legged with your eyes closed but I was pretty sure it would have a good effect on Lily seeing as I would be calm and not putting any pressure on her. I was right and very, very few times have I seen Lily fully left-brain but today after about 20minutes of meditation and occasionally feeling her breath on my head or her muzzle against the back of my hand, I opened my eyes to find her stood about 1 metre away from me with her head nearly to the floor, eyes blinking, ears floppy and her breath slow and deep. That was really cool. :)
I've noticed she's not comfortable with the rope touching her at all, her head goes up and her eyes freeze over if I put the rope over her shoulders before I put the ropehalter on so that is definately something we'll need to work on in the future.
She's not getting along with Benji and Molly too well at all, she'd much rather come stand with me even off-line and halterless and if they are stood too close to their shared fence she'll go over, face like thunder and start bickering with them. She got on great with the horses she was in with at Arrans so I wonder what's different. She's never particularly got on well with Molly and they always struggled to figure out which one was the leader and it changed frequently but Benji is boss of his and Molly's herd of two so I wonder where Lily slots in or if they even see her as being part of their herd etc. How interesting!

2008-07-07T10:09:00.000+01:00

After having such a positive day with Lily yesterday, I was worried that it was purely a fluke. Today my farrier was coming to do Benji's feet so I sat and watched all 3 of them first to see what had changed. Lily was my shadow(!!), Benji and Molly were down the bottom of their field. I stepped under the fence into the chestnuts' field, whistled and Benji lifted his head up, neighed at me then came trotting up and stopped infront of me. I haven't had a problem with Benji's catching for a long time but it was just so nice having both of them showing an interest in me.
To get up to the top gate for the farrier was a bit of a mission through the electric tape, down one field to the gate, through the gate then up to the top of that field and Benji was tense at the prospect of leaving Molly so we did some point to pointing and driving from zone 3 which was much better than last time. We then got upto the top quicker than I'd allowed time for so we spent some UDT grazing whilst I just sat down, made sure Benji didn't get tangled up in my 12ft line and listen to my iPod. He didn't stray far and kept checking in with me every so often and I interpreted that as him starting to have confidence in his little human when his environment was different.
Farrier came, hadn't seen him for a good while and he couldn't believe that I still had 'that coloured one', a new one and how little spending money I have left at the end of the month for myself. I said I was much happier that way and that all I needed was a bathroom, bed, kettle and wifi up there and I'd never leave! He sees many horse-mad women a day but he looked at me like it was the first time he'd heard that one. ;)
Upon turning Benji out once I'd moved out of the field he turned his attentions to Lily and I was thinking "uh oh, here we go again." but at long last he finally started reacting the way I had imagined he would yesterday. I swear he thinks he's a stallion and was rather offended when Lily showed him about 1% interest.

Now Lily's back I will be solely responsible for poo-picking her field, usually Diane and I alternate between picking the chestnuts' field but I can't ask her to do Lily's too. Arran told me the more UDT I could spend with Lily online the better so I got her to catch me and picked the field with the fork in one hand and her line in the other. There's numerous differences in her that I can see already but probably the most prominent for me has been that she licks and chews now (before she'd just hold her breath, didn't realise 'til yesterday.) and when I am in zone 2 or 3 she will, for the most part, let me stand and stroke her there without her tensing up and trying to put me in zone 1. Before if I tried to do that she'd get very tense and either walk off or become introverted but now she'll turn her head round and look at me, touch the back of my hand with her muzzle etc. which is a huge thing for her. After poo-picking I practised turning her out and getting her to catch me again as Arran taught me and she gave me two eyes one time! I noticed today that if I approach Lily and go to touch her shoulder, if she looks worried she will relax quicker if I stroke her shoulder with the back of my hand. How interesting.
I keep getting scared that I will do something wrong and we'll go back to square one but I try to banish those gremlins. Arran's coming to give me a lesson on the 18th to make sure that we're still on the right track so until then I intend on spending atleast 30minutes UDT online a day with her.

I realised where I went wrong last time with her which caused her to lose trust in me. She'd always been hard to catch previously but I had made it worse by putting the task before the relationship. I just wanted to get through level 1 because I knew the further into the programme we got, the easier things would get but without realising, I had put too much pressure on her and she started to see me as a predator rather than partner. Never again. This week is the turning point in our relationship and from now on it's going to get better.

2008-07-06T23:10:00.000+01:00

Guess who's home?
Can't guess?...

She's black and white...
Big boned...
A bit scatterbrained.

(Check out the rainbow above left)

Yep, Lily's safely home! The weather tried it's best to make things tricky as it was raining most of the day and a mad storm was directly ahead of us whilst Arran was trying to give me a lesson. She was great for him whilst she was there, doing the 7 games easily and he even rode her a few times. I have been studying my L&HB so I felt that I could hopefully understand her a bit more and I felt much more confident playing with her today compared to last time. Each time I asked her to, she caught me even at home which is awesome. For the next month I'll be spending plenty of UDT online with her and getting her used to being caught/turned out so it becomes a non-event to her and myself (I still feel anxious if she's not walking towards me with her ears forwards, old habit). I really see a huge change in her behaviour in general, not just when catching is concerned and although her fear is still an issue, it feels like an issue I can slowly help her overcome. It's really great to have her back and I hope that things can only improve from here!

Benji and Molly behaved very weirdly towards her, Molly wasn't interested for long and Benji was very overprotective of Molly as if Lily were a colt. She was being very LBi and defiant towards him and Molly was half enjoying them battle for her affection. It was fascinating to watch because it certainly wasn't the reaction I thought she'd get from him. I thought she might be a bit upset being kept on her own but she seemed much more content. How interesting!

"No journey worth going on has shortcuts or easy routes."

2008-07-05T10:36:00.001+01:00

I did it again! I forgot to post. This past week I've just spaced out about so many things.

Since I last updated I haven't had a whole lot of time so when I have been up the yard it's to do very boring things like move the fence, poopick etc. I did go up yesterday morning with the intention of playing but as soon as I got up there I noticed Molly and Benji were very spooky. I caught Benji a little while after but he was being bothered by flies and quite tense (I wasn't sure why until just before I left the yard I saw a VERY low flying helicoptor and assumed that he must've flown over earlier.) and I was feeling very unimaginative and was baking from the heat so we didn't do much. I found a chunky wooden pole under one of our bushes that I hadn't seen before so I tried to encorporate that with our play but yesterday he couldn't handle any pressure I put on him and just wanted to go back to Molly. I played in their field and was trying to 'play with the horse that showed up' but with all the stress of Lily coming home I just couldn't think of any strategies.
After a little while we weren't doing anything constructive so I gave him a brush and turned him out. As soon as he went off on his way I realised I hadn't picked out his feet and I needed to because the farrier is coming on Monday so I just wanted to check if there were any concerns that I needed to note for when he comes. He had calmed down a little after I'd brushed him and tried to find any itches that needed scratching and when I turned him out he only took a few steps away and didn't hurry off to Molly which surprised me. I grabbed my hoofpick and started friendlying his legs and had no problem picking all of them out. I kept my carrotstick closeby just incase but he was very good. We then spent some UDT together which was really nice but I couldn't do it for too long because I had to fix the fence Molly had knocked down and move the electric tape so they had a bit more shade.

I did have a think about the things that need improving as mentioned in previous blog and came up with a small list of goals which can be found on Benji's page which can be found Here! I haven't set a time limit because when working with animals or children, things don't often go to plan. Although obviously the bath thing will need to be sorted out before Autumn or postponed until Spring but hopefully it won't have to come to that.

I would like to be able to go play with him today but I doubt it'll happen because I am so nervous about tomorrow I am allover the place. I am trying to think of strategies for everything to run as smoothly as possible. One topic on the SC really interested me; it was about humans being vegetarians and if their horses notice a difference etc. and one person noted that they suck on a mint if they're nervous because horses can smell adrenaline on your breath. How interesting! So guess who has some mints for tomorrow. I'm so jittery you'd think I've eaten a jar of coffee. I can't decide if it's more nerves or excitement but they're both getting the better of me. I need a distraction, lol.

2008-07-01T20:15:00.000+01:00

Today I watched the L&HB section where Linda is using food as an incentive for Remmer.
I think it's in the predator/prey learning section where the barndogs are about and I was like "wow, that's pretty cool, maybe it'll make a few things sharper with Benji" so I took some carrots up.
I whistled; he trotted upto me and stuck his nose in the ropehalter, wrong section but ya know... We then played friendly game on the move which was pants but I drove him over to an apple core I left on the ground and he was like "oh my god! did you do this?!" and then to spice up our yo-yo's I asked for more energy and after the first yo-yo in which I gave him a carrot he was practically falling over himself to do it again!
Then I was practising bending to a stop with him to refresh his memory in the hopes that I'll sit on him in the next few weeks and that was made better by asking him to bend round with his ears forwards rather than his snotty 'no, go away!' face which made him more responsive and flexible after a real good yield i waited a few moments til he licked and chewed and at this point the rope was already halved over his withers so I unclipped it, walked off and he followed. We walked over to the gate and stopped. I opened the gate, gave him 'the look' and he went through and TURNED and FACED me!
I found it hard to contain my excitement and I resisted the urge to open my eyes wide in shock 'cos I knew that would've flipped the switch for my foghorn. Instead I smiled, told him he was a good boy, gave him a carrot and took his ropehalter off. So all in all I only had to off like 4 treats and I got all that, I was mighty pleased! :]

I'm going to have a think and make a list of the next few achievements I want to get with Benji. What needs improving and what I could do better etc. etc. Something to work towards but always putting the relationship first.

"Never ask a trying horse to try" - Pat Parelli

2008-06-30T17:06:00.000+01:00

I can't believe I haven't blogged in so long. I played with Benji a few times last week but was away Friday-Sunday evening so he had a little holiday. My L&HB finally came and it is amazing. I have learnt so much already and I haven't even watched all the DVDs. Learning more about horse's learning, confident and unconfident and particularly studying RBi was mind blowing. I realise now that both Lily and Benji have the power to get introverted quite easily so bearing that in mind I played with Benji today and got some good results.
I wanted to make sure we had some good foundations that he was confident in to go back to if he was feeling unsure about new things. So we went back to games 1,2 and 3. Sometimes he can get a bit worried if I am in zone 1 and reach out to touch him with the carrotstick so we worked on that. Porcupine game was great as always except his hind yield so we worked on that too. Then I knew I really had to up my savvy with driving the FQ because he is still being a little horror in that aspect. I tried and tried and tried and sometimes he was okay, sometimes terrible. Then one time he got a little worried, shot forwards... I made him back up to where he was before and he went inside so I thought "wait! Stop, don't ask him right now." and 40 seconds later he was back in the field so I gently asked him for a FQ yield and he did the best one yet! I was so pleased that we stopped there and I opened the gate to his field, backed him through at phase 1 and turned him out. Wahoo! :)

2008-06-23T21:36:00.000+01:00

The wind was absolutely mad yesterday so yet another day went by where I hadn't played with Benji. Today as soon as I got out the car he was up by the gate. I caught him without a problem and we had a great session - I felt really connected with him and that he was really tuned in to me. We tried more FQ yields which went better than last time so then I pushed it a little and asked for sideways and I got two sideways steps! Wahoo!
We also did leading by the pinkie which was fun and he's graduated to a 22ft line so we were yo-yoing and he's really getting responsive to phase 1!

When Lily comes home I'll have to concentrate on her for a while to make sure she's on the right tracks so my mum and Ty are going to be having lessons from myself to be able to play with Benji a bit whilst Lily's the focus. I gave my mum a lesson today minus Benji and using simulations and it was funny, hehe.

I've managed to get a second-hand bareback pad for a very reasonable price which is awesome. I can't wait to have a sit and a mosey around with it, it should really help me develop my seat. A lot of SC members ride in a BB and find a saddle too uncomfortable now which is hard to imagine but I haven't ever sat on a BBpad before so we shall see!

"You cannot teach a horse with shouts and expect him to obey a whisper"

2008-06-21T11:57:00.000+01:00

I haven't been able to play with Benji yesterday and today due to weather and other commitments. Hopefully tomorrow if the weather is better I'll manage to get some play in! Parelli withdrawal is an ugly thing. Urgh.

Where's my L&HB and Parelli clothes?! Grr.

2008-06-19T11:56:00.000+01:00

Today I went up in the early evening which I rarely do and Diane had opened to gate onto the other acre field which has nice grass because there was barely any grass on their current patch. I got up, reassessed the situation and thought "well, even if I can catch him in an acre and a bit that is a huge thing." so I moseyed up to him, kept cool and half played the catching game. BUT, even before I even thought of walking the 15metres between us and start driving him... He looked up, pricked his ears and trotted upto me. Wowie!
So I turned him back out immediately, it was a beautiful day and I just wanted to chill and he stood next to Ty and I whilst I was lying on the ground and grazed near us for the whole 20 minutes. Then I got up, caught him and turned him out twice to show him I wasn't wanting to make him leave the lush grass alone and moved the fence and gave them a bit more grass. He was very good.
I just love love love being around horses and feeling a connection! :)

"There are two types of horse owners; those who love their horses and those who love themselves whilst on their horses."

2008-06-18T11:55:00.000+01:00

Aloha!
So my birthday was yesterday and it's been a hectic 3 day celebration haha, 17 at long last!! So technically it is 20th of june, 17:50 but I'm going to update my blog from 2 days ago and work up.

"I'm not so sure of that thing in front of you, Luce" (on reflection I shouldn't have bent over, kinda looks predator-like)

"You go see, Molly. I don't mind if it eats you..."

"Hello, Molly. Told ya it wasn't a bear in disguise!"

"Trust me, trust my tools."

At long last!

Heart-throb!

"Savvy is the eternal, internal search for excellence" - Pat Parelli

2008-06-17T11:55:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately we didn't have a playsession today because I needed to move the electric fence to give them more grass then it started to rain. D'oh.
So I spoke to Arran last night; he has been doing well with Lily and has even had a sit on her. He said that it went well but she definately does need to be restarted which we had agreed on earlier this year. The best time for her to be restarted will be after I've finished level 2 groundskills because she still has a way to go before she's emotionally fit. He's been working on building her confidence with objects in zone 4 and 5 because they were a bit iffy adding to her claustrophobia which had become quite a problem. We said we'd sit down and have a proper chat about mine and Lily's partnership and whether I'm savvy enough to be a good leader for her because I had been having my doubts but in short he said he didn't seem to think so and said I had a natural savvy so I can't go far wrong.
I'm going to his yard on the 6th to pick her up and have a lesson with her to make sure we're heading off on the right track and I'm excited and nervous. I am really scared that old habits will die hard but I trust Arran's judgement and certainly respect him as a horseman so if he's not worried I guess I shouldn't be!
Hopefully I'll have a good long play with Benji tomorrow.

I did a horsenality chart for Benji today and I was chuffed with what I saw:

Benji's horsenality chart *click*

All the left brain extrovert traits are dotted and only one in mild. Well I did say I really wanted a LBe!

Reading the most recent Parelli e-news got me thinking about Lily's true horsenality too...
"QUESTION
I have a six-year-old Quarter Horse mare who is a Right-Brain Extrovert. When I play with her on the ground, she has a lot of "go", is very sensitive and is very willing to move around, play, jump, run, etc. She is playful and mouthy with toys, but very respectful with me. When I get on her, her Horsenality™ changes. She has very little "go" and will often stop dead from the walk or trot for no apparent reason. If I put pressure with my legs, she will swing her tail and pin her ears back. I would like to get her going at a good pace at the trot and eventually the canter, but I am not sure how to get the message to her feet! Hope you can give me strategies to do to help us both through this. I am currently working through my Level 3 with another horse. -Chantal

ANSWER
Hmmmmm. This does not sound like a Right-Brain Extrovert to me, but more of a Left-Brain Introvert with some Extrovert tendencies. Perhaps she has shown you a lot of unconfidence and even fear which puts her on the right side of the chart, but at the core she is really a Left-Brain Extrovert. So maybe you have gotten her to reveal her true self on the ground, but not under saddle.

So my question is... can you do a Horsenality Profile on her just when you ride her? That might reveal a totally different Horsenality, behaviorally speaking. And say it does reveal more Left-Brain Introvert tendencies; are you then approaching her in the right way? The most important thing that the Horsenalilty concept will teach you is how to flex your approach according to the different behaviors that horses present, at any given moment. As Pat says, there are four moments in every second, which makes most of us way too slow for our horses! But that's what mastery is all about. When you see someone who is so good with horses that even horses think they are good... that's what they are doing

So... I've not given you a step-by-step answer, but you should discover way more by thinking about her Horsenality and behavior in a specific situation."

Maybe at the core Lily is a Left-Brain Extrovert. She has a lot of confidence and trust issues but when she's calm and left brain she is still easy to keep moving and she still has impulsion without the "ahhhhh!!!" moments and surprisingly she LOVES my playball. In March when I chucked it in her field she was scared at first but went up and touched it within 5 minutes then after I put a few treats on it to encourage her to be curious she wouldn't leave it. It even got to when I was running around the field pushing it and she was cantering alongside and chucking her head around; no snotty face nor no wide eyes or snorting, just her ears forwards and really enjoying it. Maybe as we go further into the programmes she will start showing more of this side. That'd be something awesome but I'll still love her just as much whatever true colours she shows but none of us are certain she's a natural RBe, some say LBi but I think she has far too much energy for that. How interesting! It both fascinates and baffles me.

"Expect a lot, accept a little, reward the slightest try" - Pat Parelli

2008-06-16T11:54:00.000+01:00

This isn't going to be a long entry because I'm not feeling too great but I told myself I would try and blog everyday I played with Benji. Today he seemed like he had been feeling very playful for a while before I got up and was tormenting poor Molly who was trying to get an afternoon nap!
He decided he wanted to torment me too by trotting round the field tossing his head around which was funny to watch, very typical LBe and after watching him for a good while I then started asking him to catch me and within 30 seconds of driving he was playing stick with me pretty well so we went to graze inhand for 10 minutes before picking up where we left off last time...
We had a good session which was a lot of games on the move because he was feeling very fresh and he had a fly that wouldn't leave him alone making him antsy. Played a little on our circling game which was very good, especially the disengage and bring-back although he still wouldn't give me two eyes for very long - no biggy. :) After having a good few circuits I then knew I should do some more playing on driving the FQ and we were back to square 1 with it so we spent ages doing that with some nice results. Then to finish I thought we'd do what he finds easiest; yo-yo and he thought I was driving him back to go out on a circle and getting rightbrain so we had a little break after I got him to go back 1 step, he licked and chewed. Asked him to go back again and he panicked and set off on a circle again so I went up the phases until he took the slightest attempt and stopped; he licked and chewed. So then we were back to our normal yo-yo's of phase 1 and near-straight backward steps.

"Get firm without getting mean or mad" - Pat Parelli

I'm back!

2008-06-16T11:53:00.000+01:00

Well I'm back off my hols, had a great time and had a lot of reflection concerning my horsemanship studies. I thought of new ways to spice things up and what areas need improvement etc. etc.
I missed Benji quite a lot and when I first got there he was sulking because I'd abandoned him. So I decided to use some catching strategies to grab his attention and when I was trying to yield his hindquarters he purposefully turned his head away from me and his eye glazed over. I smiled to myself and thought "what can I do to focus him?" so I remembered Katie's post the other day and decided I'd hide his hiney! I went up the phases and he had a snotty look on his face and wouldn't budge so WHAM! I smacked the savvystring down in phase 5 and he shot off like a rocket, turned and faced me then trotted upto me with his ears forwards... I was like then ... Couldn't have asked for anything more. From them on all session he was very affectionate and wanting to stick by me and we had a really good play and I was very pleased with the both of us and how clear our communication was today.
“Never lose your focus; never let someone talk you out of something you believe.” -Pat Parelli

2008-06-03T11:52:00.000+01:00

We're preparing to go on holiday tomorrow so Benji has only seen me for about half an hour each day since Sunday, if even that. I've got a lot of time on my hands today so hopefully I'll go play with him properly. I've been thinking that I'm going to work on his feet because although he picks them up he needs persuading and I can't get him to pick up his hindlegs by squeezing his hocks. I think he'd love the "can you put your foot on this..." game so the more responsive he is with his feet the better.
As a bit of a side project since we came back from the Stiperstones, I've been working on him letting me fiddle around with his mouth and lips. This popped into my mind because he decided gravel looked appetising up on the carpark there and I had to stick my thumb where a bit would go to get him to spit them out because the grinding was driving me mad. I had no idea why he thought it'd be a good idea.
So I've been doing things like using the carrotstick and seeing if he'll let me stick it in his mouth hasslefree as if I were worming him and because he thinks the carrotstick is a cigar already he was fine having it done. I need to remind myself that I should work on needleprep - I'm sure he'll be fine but I'd rather prepare him for his vaccinations so they're less of a shock to him. It's such a good idea, I can't believe that Parelli seems to be the only method teaching it.
I'm hoping that we'll conquer sideways soon after my holiday because that is the last task before we begin our level 2 groundwork. After the new saddle is here and sorted I will also be working on saddling and mounting and dismounting because it could be better. "Good, better, best. Never let it rest 'til your good is better and your better is best."- I googled that to see who was quoted to say it but to no avail. Very fitting though!
Lots to do... Oh boy!

2008-05-31T11:51:00.000+01:00

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

2008-05-25T11:51:00.000+01:00

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!