Confidence. Confidence. Confidence.

Mine and the horses'. Been a while since I last posted, been a while since I seriously played. I was in Red Deer for the Mane Event Equine Expo - selling pottery, and the week before that was spent getting ready for it... so I haven't been as active as I'd like in the horsemanship department.

Dewormed last week with a program of getting them ready using apple sauce in a syringe. Awesome reulsts. Even after the "nasty" tasting one, 2 of the 3 horses wanted more. I managed to convince the third to try some - of course giving her apple sauce - and they all want it, now.

Now to prepare them for injections! I have my toothpicks at the ready, hypotonic muscles, here we come!

Bailey kicked me in the hand last week. I took her out for grass without preparing her, she was out of her comfort zone, I didn't have my stick and string and I used the end of the 12' line to ask her to move forward past me - she did, with an explosion that caught me in the hand. Her loss of confidence lead to my loss of confidence. Keep the confidence in your horse and you can keep yours, too!

What do you do when your horse kicks you? Say "Ow". I said "Ow" and put her away. Then I took the time to realize what I could have done to avoid being kicked and to have her confident enough to not feel the need to kick me.

Here's what I came up with. Always have the right tools with me. Keep her within her comfort zone and slowly approach and retreat from thresholds. Learn to RECOGNIZE thresholds. More friendly. Stay out of the kick zone! (the right tools will help with this one).

So then I took her out a few days later (as my hand felt better and more useable) and recognized moderate RB behaviour, retreated and all was well! I was quite wary of her hind end, mind you. I'll need some move closer, stay longer and lots of friendly with that.

Been taking all of them out for grass - they're all so sensitive. I don't realize HOW sensitive until I gently ask them to do something and they respond, almost without seeming to notice. If I'm rude and go up my phases too quickly, they react, rather than responding. Wow! How cool to notice.

At any rate, I'm still at it, just had lots of stuff going on the last few weeks. Cleaning, preparing for the show, more cleaning, organizing etc. Phew! Spring is here, the work begins!

Using my horse for transportation

Today Maya and I rode/walked to the NDRC riding grounds for the Spring Clean Up. There was another ride today in Trail the "Fort Sheppherd" ride, but we dont' have a trailer and most everyone else was full... plus, I'm not sure about riding in a big group, yet. I want our relationship stronger before I test it with something of that magnitude. Might not happen this summer, since I'm getting bigger in the belly with a baby and I'm already starting to get a bit more awkward. I nearly tipped over backwards mounting today - sorry Maya.

We walked to Verigin road and then I got on and we rode the rest of the way except on the short paved Blewett road stretch. As far as that goes we did well. Mounting was a bit iffy today, and we worked on it some... but the predator in me is alive and well when riding - and especially when I am running late to the riding grounds. We still took the time it took MOST of the time. I know I can do better for her than that, however.

The ride home was interesting in that she got it in her head that we had to go RIGHT on Marello road instead of LEFT to go home. So up the road we went after a battle (her idea my idea... ) didn't really work, though so I ended up getting off and re-establishing leaderhip on the ground. We passed some spooky lound engines revving on 49 creek road and she was worried a bit, but then we went home pretty well, even passing some horses going the other way - she wanted to go with them, but listed to a relatively soft rein and seat asking her to go towards home.

I got both front feet from the same side with no confusion at all, today. Hind foot after the ride was very reluctant, however. Have to fix that next time. I was too tired.

I am too tired, now - bedtime!

A lovely ride...

Went for a ride on Maya on Saturday with my sister and her horse who got her name during that ride, "Kona".

We played on the ground first, saddled well - no fussing or moving around - and I walked and drove her from zone 3 up the road towards the black gate where we were to ride from. On the way I met Connie coming back because her horse wasn't ready to go trail riding and kept trying to back up all the way home.

Maya had one case of the druthers just around the first big bend in the road, but I retreated some, then kept her feet busy and she soon settled into following Kona (who had yet to be named).

We rode to Malina road through some new road construction and on the way found a large clear puddle that we stopped to give the horses a drink out of. It was very sandy around the puddle and when I turned Maya to head off, she thought she might just have a little roll and lay down with me on her. She couldn't roll over with my leg holding her up, I gave her a squeeze and she got up and we continued on, though she was still looking a bit like she wanted to roll, so I asked her to trot to change her mind. It was very cute. I think she'll probably be easy to teach to lie down to let me mount, if I can just stop her from rolling right away before I can get on!

We stopped at a house to visit some folks and pick up some money for a saddle that Carla had sold them - their kids were cool. Their youngest daughter really took a shine to Maya and even sat on her - she hadn't been on a horse since she was really little, too little to remember. Maya was a trooper but did scare the girl a bit when she gave a good shake. That can feel so unsettling. I taught the girl how to play the yo-yo game and Maya and I played stick to me because she was feeling really connected to me. That part was great.

I do think that i need to prepare her a bit better with me in the saddle. On the ground I can ask her to do lots of things that I can't get from the saddle, so I am sure that it's time to play in the saddle more in the round pen and locally where she's comfortable and I'm comfortable, so we can learn new things like sideways. That could be very valuable when I don't want to be run into every bush & tree on the side of the trail.

Her feet held up well, though they are getting a bit long, she wasn't sore or ouchy at all like she was last year. My rocky paddock must help with that - that and not having just been trimmed after 3 years of practically no hoof care before I got her.

I haven't played with her much since then, just spent undemanding time and played a bit at liberty in the paddock. It's so cool how I mirror her and she mirrors me. She's getting to be very sweet towards me and isn't ignoring me much at all, anymore.

One more thing: I have a story in the Parelli E-news this week. -=) A while back they asked for submissions from Canada - so I sent one in, never thinking that they'd include it in its' entirety. I saved the pdf of the e-news this week cuz I thought it was cool. My two minutes of fame. ;-)

Nighty night.

Played with Maya after work yesterday - she's getting more confident with me, definitely, asking her to squeeze over new ditches is no big deal, she even anticipates - but I should start doing other things with ditches so she doesn't JUST think we're going to jump them!

Circling game is still a mess - I wasn't very focused yesterday because my sister and nephew came out and were watching me, it distracted Maya for a bit, and then I felt like I needed to explain what I was doing.

After circling going so wrong and RB I decided to slow everything down and just play friendly & porcupine games with her. We did smell your tail, very nice and soft, and I picked up both front feet from one side with ease for the first time. She understood what I was asking for. Used to be that she would keep picking up the near foot when I was asking for the off one. I haven't tried back feet, yet- I have a bit of a "move closer stay longer" issue with the back feet. Though she's getting much lighter and offering more when I ask for her back feet.

She's so lovely to halter and unhalter - I finally understand why we bend their heads towards us and ask for it to be soft when putting on or taking off the halter - it's mental. Brace in the body is a brace in the mind. No brace in the body - soft mind! I let the halter pretty much fall off her nose when we release and then it's not a big "WHOOPEEE!" to get away like most horses used to give me before I had this savvy. She wasn't quite as easy to cath yesterday as she was the day before - we had to play catching game for about a minute.

When I released her for her roll in the round pen she did just that - and there were a bunch of distractions. People riding in the field above us, kids yelling and playing in another house nearby - and then my sister arriving. She wanted not much to do with me - I just persisted with catching game until she was really with me and then we haltered and played.

It's so much fun, even though I don't feel much progress in the circling game. I think I'll re-watch everything about circling tonight from Level 1, 2 and L&HB - that ought to give me some new insights!

I wonder who Pat and Linda are going to call in the Savvy Club ? I keep trying to think of questions to ask them... so far they're all around circling game! No wonder! I'm trying to figure this out on my own and when I run out of things to try, I'll call Fawn and talk to her about it. I could save myself some trouble, I'm sure, but I want to try to do this on my own. It's not that I'm worried about asking her, it's just that I really feel like I *can* solve this - and I'm not frustrated at all by it, just FASCINATED! I love this new me!

I realize how rude I've been with Maya in the past, just saddling up and trying to ride to the mailboxes, or trail ride with other people when she wasn't connected to me. I think things will start to go better with that, now that we're becoming more connected on the ground.

I love my horses. I miss playing with Bailey - but imagine how much better I'll be for her once I start again with all this practice with Maya! I already have new savvies around thresholds and confidence to share with her!

My horse likes me!

I forgot to mention that yesterday was the first time that Maya not only met me at the gate (she usually does that) but stayed at the gate when I came in with the halter and very nicely put her nose into it. Usually we have to play catching game at least one time!! Whee! My horse likes me!

Played for a good long time today - an easy walk up - a right brain snort when the neighbour's dog barked, but then a nice soft squeeze over the ditch. Up to the round pen and we squeezed in today instead of backing in (like we have ALWAYS done - boring!) Turned her loose, took off a layer, had a drink and watched her roll. She loves to roll, my horse. =)

We then played catching game - she's QUICK at that one - haltered with 22'line and played first three games - checking for ball or chair. Still a bit chair like on the PP HQ yields - but they're coming along. Driving is getting better and better. A little extreme friendly from a distance and we were ready to try circling.

Her sends are much better overall - which means mine must be - and we tried change of direction when she would break gait. That worked a few times but I think she gets quite unconfident out there quite quickly and then she would ignore my change of direction request and just speed up in the direction she was going. I'm not certain what to do about that but I'm going to try just slowing down and having more friendly time and also waiting a bit longer before I ask for the change - make SURE she's REALLY going to break gait. I did use the friendly a fair bit this time and it really seemed to help her confidence with me as her leader. After some sideways - trying to get her further away from me and still sideways - we then had some more turnout time while I packed up the 22' and had a drink so we could walk to the mailboxes.

On the 12' line we squeezed out of the gate - and she rushed out so I asked her back in and out over and over until we got a nice soft walk through the gate, then turn face and wait. Thanks Linda! Our walk up the road had some unconfident moments so I would interrupt her RB running all over the place and just hang with her, gently stroking her until I could see a change in her, then ask her with a subtle phase 1 "would you like to continue our walk" and if she left first, I went with her.

At the mailboxes we sat and grazed for about 10 minutes and then walked home. We stopped to talk to drivers on the way up and down the road and she seemed to like poking her head into their cars to see what was there - any treats? She is always more confident on the way home and we walked in synch for almost the whole way - I tossed the leadrope over her back and we would walk, stop, trot, stop etc. together. Just to see, I squeezed her over the ditch that used to scare her and she did it calmly and with confidence - yay!

So even though I still haven't solved the circling game problem, it's coming along. I can see progress and I can think of new things to try until I get the right savvy arrow.

After playing the other day, I watched the problem solving dvd in L&HB. I am going to try the change of direction tactic to get Maya continuing on her circle instead of stopping so much. I think it might work for her tendency to get right brain when I ask her strongly to GO (or I'll tag that spot you're standing on!) Here's hoping it works. I think we're well on our way to a basic circling game - then it'll be time to have FUN with it! I'd better watch the "having more fun with the circling game" DVD so that I'll be ready with some creative ideas!

A few more things to do in the studio and then I'm going to PLAY.

Been a while since I've been able to play. Went to Vancouver, then got a cold, then headed to Kimberly to surprise Matthew for his course completion dinner. I was finally able to take Maya out yesterday and play with her. We were puttering around the place, fixing things and whatnot and every time I came into view, Maya would whinney or nicker at me. I swear she was saying - "come and PLAY with me!"

We played a little catching game and she was then easily caught and haltered. We walked up to the round pen at Tommy's with a few snorts and starts in between - dogs and other things in the bushes. Jumped the ditch at Hermosa but from a different angle and she wasn't having any of it for a while. Built her confidence up (but forgot to walk her by it a few times, first- silly me.) And we eventually got a few soft jumps and continued on our way.

Once in the round pen, I released her and she rolled ( of course ) then we played catching game until she was really WITH me and we put the halter back on and played driving, porcupine, sideways and circling. I tried the methods that Pat displayed with George in L&HB and it seemed to work pretty well. It's a fine balance between "don't be afraid, but do what I say" but I think we worked it out pretty well by the end. Her bring back is amazing - mainly because that's all she wants to do. I don't think she's all that confident out there on the circle. We played close range and medium then the full 22 feet. We'll see if it made a difference NEXT time we play. Today it's too snowy.

With sideways we worked on getting her to go sideways further away from me. Till now it's mostly been very close range stuff - and I want her way out on the end of the line. We'll get there, we got some good stuff at about 10 feet, which is the best we've done, so quit on that note then tried some liberty. Driving game, yo-yo, catching game again.. (heheh) and tried circling - like I said, her bring back rocks. Just bend over and she's coming in! Lots of draw. She left me during driving game, not yo-yo as one might expect. She almost backed out the round pen gate (I didn't latch it as it's quite stiff). We often back out of and into the round pen so she's quite good at lining her own butt up - I hardly have to be particular at all and we can do it from a full 22'. Fun!

After the round pen I tied her at my neighbours while I tried to play catching game with a mare that needs to have her halter put on so they can separate her from the other horses. Got some good looks from her, but the field is quite big and it was feeding time, so tough to keep her attention. I'd like to be able to catch her and then play in the round pen, but with a foal at her side, it's not something I'm savvy for, yet.

Played about 1 hour. Yesterday seemed to go somewhat backwards with Maya, but I realized in retrospect that I was able to read my horse better and to cause her to be more left brained when she went right brained. We jumped a ditch online, which at first was a very right brained event, to the point of me having to move my feet as the rope slid through my fingers just to give her enough drift (I had her on a 12' lead going for a walk) but we progressed from her trying to jump it THROUGH me, to her jumping it RB away from me, then progressively more confident until a lovely soft hop over the ditch and we called it quits.

Put your foot on it she seems to be bored with a little, so I'm going to build that pedestal - she even went to the point of putting one foot on the bucket lid, but only partially, so I asked for more - and when I did she put the other foot fully on it and looked at me, I swear, as if to say "Will THAT satisfy you?! Sheesh!" She was also quite insistent on getting cookies, so I've slowed those down a bit - and I won't be bringing any more to the paddock randomly for a while, that seems to be what tipped the scales to the point of distraction.

All we can do is try our best to adjust, adjust, adjust!

I love my horses - I'll be in Vancouver for the next few days, so I'm going to miss them. *snuffle* But I get to see my family, so that's wonderful, too.

Till next time...

Went and took Maya out yesterday, her usual gig when I approach her with the halter is to allow me to approach, sniff the halther and then casually saunter off a few times. Normally, I outpersist her but yesterday I put some pressure on her as she left. She cantered away and I walked along behind her. She curved around and started to come towards me, so I kept walking in the same direction (which was now away from her). She stopped, so I arced my curve towards her and she kept turning to face me. Casually I approached with halther offered for a sniff, and I could tell the moment she relaxed and was going to STAY STILL. That was a first, usually it takes a good while to have her catch me. She must have liked having her brain engaged with the put your foot on it!

We walked down the driveway and then I saw that my electrician had just arrived - he didn't tell me he was coming, but I was expecting him yesterday and he didn't make it. He went to work, I got a phone call from my neighbours saying they'd be here in 10 minutes to help me pull my truck out from where it was stuck, so I decided we'd just "put your foot on it" a couple of times and put her away. It seriously took THREE little tries (and the 2nd try her foot knocked the lid out of the way) to put her foot on the bucket lids. I swear she had a look on her face like "Whaddaya think of THAT?! Eh? Where's my cookie?!" I was so proud I could burst. So we moseyed back to he paddock, I gave them a few flakes of hay and we called it a session.

That rocked.

Today I'm going to build a pedestal out of a really sturdy oak pallet that I have kicking around and we'll see if we can't advance our "put your foot on it" Whee!

I haven't been this excited about *my* horsemanship journey in a long time, and that's saying something - cuz usually I'm pretty excited. What ELSE can we try??!

I'll have to either bring a chair down to the gate, or just sit on the ground and back her in (as per Pat Parelli's challenge on the February Savvy Club DVD) but since I haven't been riding much, I have been sending her through puddles and ditches and rushing water and other things, so I think I've got that down from the ground. Here's hoping we can have some saddle play soon, too. Seriously, I think we'll just incorporate what we've learned on the ground with put your foot on it and we'll aim for the biggest puddles we can find, to start with.

Learning new things...

I did play the day after the last post, Maya and I went down the road a bit and hopped over and through rushing ditches full of rushing water, played circling game and porcupine game a bit of sideways without a fence, but I think we need to go back to the fence or find a nice big log in an open area. We are now somewhere between a ball and a chair on porcupine - much better than a boulder!

Today we went back to the same spot, but I took some bucket lids and a 4' 1X4 with me to start playing "put your foot on something". I think she's starting to get it - it was so fun to have that purpose and watch her trying to figure out what the heck I was being so particular about. It also came in handy when we went up the road past Tommy's later and I must have missed a threshold or fifty, she kind of took off, gently but a bit snorty, into Tommy's field so I went with her, but I could see that she was unconfident - we jumped a stream a few times, played circling game and I noticed that she was snorty, impulsive and tried to lay down and roll a number of times on the circle. She succeeded, once. How interesting that I have a horse that lays down and rolls when shes *unconfident*! Anyway, on the way back home, she was still snorty and jiggy so when I spotted a couple of short boards on the side of the road I used the opportunity to play "put your foot on it" remembering that Linda says it's a great way to get a RB horse to start using her LB. It worked! At first she was trying to walk around all over the place, but I was PP in the PP (passively persistent in the proper position) and watched as she started to go, "Whoa? Huh? Oh!" and she put her foot on it! She got cookies for the first few times she put her foot ON the object as well as immediate release of all pressure, and she got a cookie that time, too. The last one. =) Then we walked back down to the bucket lids LB the whole way. When we got to our driveway she wanted to go that way, but I paused, blocked her, then got friendly and asked her to go down to collect our bucket lids with me. We put her foot on 3/4 things, picked them all up and headed home. YAY! A new arrow for my horse when she's unconfident! Get her brain busy. I swear she was thinking, "Phew, that feels better!" When she was LB again. Played for about and hour and 45 minutes.

Yesterday played with Maya a bit in the paddock, driving game from zone 3, lead by the foot, porcupine and driving backwards. She's good at put your nose on something, especially since I usually pick clumps of old grass that are beginning to be uncovered. ;-)

Played with Bailey, too - I didn't read her indignation/uncertainty properly and proceeded to try to get her to give me her opposite front foot - the head toss, tail swish and almost nip weren't enough to stop me and they should have been. Her final choice was to offer to kick me in the head (which I declined by ducking out of the way). When I told Matthew he said "you shouldn't do those things alone!" I just said, "No, I shouldn't mis read my horse so badly!" Now I know. Sorry Bailey. We started again with friendly from the side I wanted to pick up, then progressed and it was better.


Today Bailey wanted to stick her head in the halter but I wanted to play with Maya so I approached her, she left I retreated, re-approached and this time she stood still while I scratched her and asked her to put her nose in the halter. We walked down the driveway to the road where the ditches (not very deep) are flowing with spring run-off. She had a nice drink from one after a couple of retreats to build confidence and then we walked down the road near the nieghbour's house - there we squeezed over the creek, through the creek (ditch, but more like a creek right now), rolled in the snow and nibbled on new buds and trees. Then we went to the road and played circling game, falling leaf, backwards s-s (she really gets offended on the right side of her body during falling leaf). We got two laps of circle. I find if I have to be firm to send her, she keeps going, but if I get firm when she stops on the circle she gets upset and unconfident, so I brought her in, sent her again and this time she made three laps to the right. Best yet with no stops. She didn't want to go left very much, but we persisted, yo-yoing her back and then leaving her there until she could stand, bringing her in and back again, THEN sending. Not as good as to the right, but if I keep up daily play we'll get there in no time.

We then moved on to porcupine. Ball or Chair? Neither. Absolute, immovable BOULDER in the hindquarters with the carrot stick. Can I lean on that, mum? Can I bite it? Not quite the answer I was looking for, so to give her the idea I switched gears and we played hq driving game FAST and then went back to asking softly for porcupine, SLOW. I got two continuous steps (with one good disengaging cross over) and QUIT - accross the creek once more for a roll in the snow and then back to the paddock with a stop for some shedding blade action and nibbles on dry winter grass. About an hour all-told.

What I really love is when she gets so in synch with me that when I trot off, she trots off and when I stop suddenly, she stops suddenly. SO. VERY. COOL. That's usually on the way back to the paddock, so I figure I'm doing *something* right.

Today I just went to the paddock, shed, detangled manes and tails after a long winter and played at liberty with my three girls. Mostly it was the catching game with Maya, friendly game and driving game with Jasper (to keep her away from dumping out my bucket of grooming tools) and a little friendly, driving, yo-yo and squeeze with Bailey. I spent about 2 hours out there.

Observations: I need to play more online, though their draw was fairly good today, I could easily disconnect them by asking too much, being rude. How small can my phase one be?

I realized the other day that I have the same circling game problems with all three of my horses. Send is okay, then they peter out just behind me and come to visit. Then I get firmer and they get right brained and try to run off. Obviously it's something that I'm doing too much of, not enough of! So I played with that with Maya and asked quietly with loooooong phase 1 and corrected as gently, yet consistently as I could when she stopped on the circle. We ended up with 2 walking laps each way (a level 1 pass!)

I also realized that I need to play every day, not just once a week - that's a whole lot of hours spent horsing around with just other horses - not enough time for me to prove that I'm a good leader. That same day I took Bailey out, thinking to take her back to the driveway and shed her out, but as soon as we left the gate, she started to get unconfident - so I changed plans and just let her eat stray bits of hay near the gate, asking her to back up to new piles of hay or yield her hindquarters/forequarters to move her to other choice spots. Then I put her away. She was pretty unconfident the whole time, but I think that a few more days of that and she'll be able to move further away. We'll see. Learning to read her and not PUSH too much. Hooray for L&HB.

Enough for today.

The first post in a journal I should have started long ago. I am a student of Parelli Natural Horsemanship. I study using the Levels packs (currently Level 1/2), clinics and playdays with Fawn Anderson and with other friends that I met through the Parelli Savvy Club.

I began the journey two years ago in January, when I was in 2nd year clay at Kootenay School of the Arts. I must say I was a bit distracted from my schoolwork during the latter part of that year. I also broke my finger in March of that year leading my waaaay too right brained yearling through about 20 thresholds. She finally couldn't keep her feet still at all, and twisted the leadrope around my ring finger of my left hand. The result: what I thought was a sprain turned out to be a spiral fracture. That was on my birthday. I had one month of throwing (forming the wet clay on a potter's wheel) left until the end of school - so much for that!

I'm happy to say that I've come a long way since then, though I also know that I have a long way to go. Thankfully it's a lifelong journey, just as my love for horses is a lifelong love.