This morning I was just walking around the field fixing the makeshift round pen that Anna and I had made when Kallie walked right up to me and nuzzled me. I was in shock, stunned even! I luckily had a treat on me and rubber her all over and gave her a yummt treat as a reward.
Then later on I played with Blue Online and he was amazing, he did the first few games which he is always awesome at – but this time he was just so light and responsive, I would think yield to the right and he would, or back up and he would. Then we moved on to the circling game and he was awesome. He hardly needed any correction to stay out on the circle and maintain the gate. He trotted around me quite a few times nice and relaxed, licking and chewing the whole time.
I know when I first got him I sort of spoiled the circling game because I lunged him so much, because that was what I was told to do. To chase him around in endless, mindless circles over and over, and over again. Thankfully I found Parelli and he can now go around relaxed and calm!
Next I played with Tru again and we worked on the friendly game with the savvy string and carrot stick, there were a few corrections on her left side, but not many. And then we did the circling game to the left and the right, she got it easily to the left but was a bit stick at the right and I had to go to Phase 4 a few times, will have to work on that more!
Friday, August 28, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Three Awesome Sessions
This week was Kallie’s week to get her feet trimmed, and since it was a bit cooler in the morning, and the bugs to bad I decided to tackle them today. She didn’t want to stand still a whole lot and kept trying to pull her feet away from me, so we moved around more than she would have liked, playing the sideways game, and yo-yo game until she could stand in one spot and let me handle her feet.
Once the torture to her feet was done we had a bit of a play session, we played through all of the games then I decided to try something new with her. We have two large tractor tires in the field that we normally use to do Figure-8’s around so I played around them for a bit, then I would send her to it and she would put her nose on it and actually put her feet on it. I was quite shocked so I asked for a little bit more and she put one hoof in, then another in. Soon she had her two front hooves in and I just waited and rubber her while she went into a major lick and chew session.
I think took her out of the tire, and sent her back too it, with her front feet in I then asked her to yield her hind quarters, while keeping her feet in the center of the tire. I just had to look at her hind quarters and she yielded them! We were easily able to do a full circle around the tire without me having to touch her. Then another lick and chew session.
Next we tried her back feet in the tire, and her front feet out, we waited again while she licked and chewed then I asked her to yield her fore quarters, at first she wanted to step forward but it only took two corrections to get her to keep her back feet in while we moved her front end around.
I was very impressed with my girl so we ended it there. I took her halter off and she had a huge lick and chew session again, I hung out with her, rubbing her, she then proceeded to give me a tongue bath, licking my legs, my arms, even my face! When I thought she was done her lick and chew session I stood up and she followed me to the edge of the paddock, this is a big thing for her, so of course I gave her a big treat, rubbed her all over and told her what a good girl she was. After I left she stood at the fence licking like crazy.
Later on I came out to play with Tru again, she was easy to catch and halter, I then scratched her itchy spots, making her make funny faces and lean into the rubs. Then I worked on just playing the Friendly Game with the carrot stick and savvy string. It didn’t take her long to stop moving her feet, I was able to toss the string over her back five times to the left and five times to the right with only having to start over twice because she moved her feet. She licked and chewed and let out a big huff of air so I took the halter off, she then followed me around so I loved on her a bit more. I am very impressed with my little girl.
After feeding the horses supper I brought up my halter and lead to work with Blue, we worked more on improving his lateral flexion, he is getting really good with it. I find he is much better to the left than the right. So we worked on the right side twice as long until I got the results I wanted. Next I worked on getting him to lower his head and keep it down while I stood up. We are at the point now where I just point to the ground and his head goes down and it doesn’t come up until I say “okay” very impressed with that! Finally we worked on getting him to yield his hind quarters around while I put the pressure on Zone 3 as if I were in the saddle and using my leg. I brought up my energy and just touched the hair barely and he was yielding. He did fantastic! We worked on this a few more times and I would just bring up my energy and he would yield!
Once the torture to her feet was done we had a bit of a play session, we played through all of the games then I decided to try something new with her. We have two large tractor tires in the field that we normally use to do Figure-8’s around so I played around them for a bit, then I would send her to it and she would put her nose on it and actually put her feet on it. I was quite shocked so I asked for a little bit more and she put one hoof in, then another in. Soon she had her two front hooves in and I just waited and rubber her while she went into a major lick and chew session.
I think took her out of the tire, and sent her back too it, with her front feet in I then asked her to yield her hind quarters, while keeping her feet in the center of the tire. I just had to look at her hind quarters and she yielded them! We were easily able to do a full circle around the tire without me having to touch her. Then another lick and chew session.
Next we tried her back feet in the tire, and her front feet out, we waited again while she licked and chewed then I asked her to yield her fore quarters, at first she wanted to step forward but it only took two corrections to get her to keep her back feet in while we moved her front end around.
I was very impressed with my girl so we ended it there. I took her halter off and she had a huge lick and chew session again, I hung out with her, rubbing her, she then proceeded to give me a tongue bath, licking my legs, my arms, even my face! When I thought she was done her lick and chew session I stood up and she followed me to the edge of the paddock, this is a big thing for her, so of course I gave her a big treat, rubbed her all over and told her what a good girl she was. After I left she stood at the fence licking like crazy.
Later on I came out to play with Tru again, she was easy to catch and halter, I then scratched her itchy spots, making her make funny faces and lean into the rubs. Then I worked on just playing the Friendly Game with the carrot stick and savvy string. It didn’t take her long to stop moving her feet, I was able to toss the string over her back five times to the left and five times to the right with only having to start over twice because she moved her feet. She licked and chewed and let out a big huff of air so I took the halter off, she then followed me around so I loved on her a bit more. I am very impressed with my little girl.
After feeding the horses supper I brought up my halter and lead to work with Blue, we worked more on improving his lateral flexion, he is getting really good with it. I find he is much better to the left than the right. So we worked on the right side twice as long until I got the results I wanted. Next I worked on getting him to lower his head and keep it down while I stood up. We are at the point now where I just point to the ground and his head goes down and it doesn’t come up until I say “okay” very impressed with that! Finally we worked on getting him to yield his hind quarters around while I put the pressure on Zone 3 as if I were in the saddle and using my leg. I brought up my energy and just touched the hair barely and he was yielding. He did fantastic! We worked on this a few more times and I would just bring up my energy and he would yield!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
I love my horses!
Today I played with Tru first, she was easy to catch in the field, I loved on her and rubbed her all over. I also had a plan for what I wanted to accomplish today, so my goal was to be able to play the friendly game with the carrot stick and savvy string but tossing the saving string and “giving her a hug” with it five times from either side without her moving her feet. Being an extrovert this of course is very hard for her.
I started off by just walking around and casually flicking the stick and string side to side, until she was comfortable standing beside me. Then I rubber her all over with the stick and string, then I began to toss it over her back. And like I predicted she had to move her feet at first, so I just left it on her back until she stopped, I’d then remove it and give her some scratching. We did this for a few minutes until she realized that it was easier to just stand still and let me hug her with the savvy string, so we were able to toss it over both to the left and the right without her moving her feet, licking and chewing the whole time.
We then played through the rest of the games and I decided to start her on the circling game, the one game I was putting off. So I sent her back and forth with the yo-yo a few times, making sure that that was still strong. Then once I was happy with that I brought up my energy and pointed to the left. I waited, and waited, and waited and no response, so I used the end of the rope and swung that towards her slowly working up to phase 4, as soon as she moved to the left, even looked to the left I would drop all the energy out of my body.
It didn’t take her long to catch on to what we were doing, and soon she was doing circles at the walk and trot (she offered at the trot) comfortable. Once we got two circles without any corrections I finished with that for the day.
Next it was time to trim her feet, she was really good for her front ones, but for some reason she decided she wanted to walk off for the back ones. So instead of trimming the back ones today we just worked on getting her to pick up her hoof without walking off. This took some time, and a lot of patience on my part but we got to the point where she would hold both back feet up, let me tap on them and rub them all over.
I then took off the halter, rubbed her all over and she proceeded to follow me around and try to eat the 22’ line! Very happy with that play session!
Next I was off to play with Blue, we worked on some of the things that we had the other day with Ron, Larteral Flexion. I wanted him to be able to do it with me on the ground without moving his feet on both sides 5 times, we only had one correction of the left and two on the right. We then worked on having him lower his head and keep it down even when I stood up, there were only 3 corrections for him to get this. I then taught him how to ask for a treat and he got that in seriously 5 seconds! I was so impressed!
Later on after I was done feeding the ponies Kallie came up to me (a very rare occurrence) so I happily treated her and rubbed her all over. I didn’t’ really play with her, but was very happy that she offered to come up to me all on her own!
I started off by just walking around and casually flicking the stick and string side to side, until she was comfortable standing beside me. Then I rubber her all over with the stick and string, then I began to toss it over her back. And like I predicted she had to move her feet at first, so I just left it on her back until she stopped, I’d then remove it and give her some scratching. We did this for a few minutes until she realized that it was easier to just stand still and let me hug her with the savvy string, so we were able to toss it over both to the left and the right without her moving her feet, licking and chewing the whole time.
We then played through the rest of the games and I decided to start her on the circling game, the one game I was putting off. So I sent her back and forth with the yo-yo a few times, making sure that that was still strong. Then once I was happy with that I brought up my energy and pointed to the left. I waited, and waited, and waited and no response, so I used the end of the rope and swung that towards her slowly working up to phase 4, as soon as she moved to the left, even looked to the left I would drop all the energy out of my body.
It didn’t take her long to catch on to what we were doing, and soon she was doing circles at the walk and trot (she offered at the trot) comfortable. Once we got two circles without any corrections I finished with that for the day.
Next it was time to trim her feet, she was really good for her front ones, but for some reason she decided she wanted to walk off for the back ones. So instead of trimming the back ones today we just worked on getting her to pick up her hoof without walking off. This took some time, and a lot of patience on my part but we got to the point where she would hold both back feet up, let me tap on them and rub them all over.
I then took off the halter, rubbed her all over and she proceeded to follow me around and try to eat the 22’ line! Very happy with that play session!
Next I was off to play with Blue, we worked on some of the things that we had the other day with Ron, Larteral Flexion. I wanted him to be able to do it with me on the ground without moving his feet on both sides 5 times, we only had one correction of the left and two on the right. We then worked on having him lower his head and keep it down even when I stood up, there were only 3 corrections for him to get this. I then taught him how to ask for a treat and he got that in seriously 5 seconds! I was so impressed!
Later on after I was done feeding the ponies Kallie came up to me (a very rare occurrence) so I happily treated her and rubbed her all over. I didn’t’ really play with her, but was very happy that she offered to come up to me all on her own!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
What I learnt from Ron Pyne today . . .
We had Ron Pyne, a 3-Star Parelli Professional come out today to give a clinic to myself, Anna and my friend Beth (who brought down her mare Sophie for the day). It was an AMAZING day, just fantastic! I can’t wait to do again!!
Now for what I learnt . . .
Focus. Focus. Focus. So apparently I am lacking in the focus department (which I knew because seeing as earlier in the day when Anna, Beth and myself were all sitting around looking at various Parelli material I mentioned that my focus needed some work!). When I want my horse to move his feet I need to focus my energy to where I want to go, not where I am or where I’ve been. So bring up the energy, take a deep breath and project that energy. I need to use my body language and energy first, my tools second.
Lightness. I need to be very light when asking my horses anything, always start off asking very quietly, having a long phase one buy just touching the hair. But I also need to make sure that I follow though and move quickly to phase four, and not stay stuck in phase two or three. I baby Blue a bit and don’t like going to phase four, but I really have to get over it and go to phase four to help him become lighter and more responsive.
Having a plan and setting goals. They don’t have to be a “got to” as in I don’t “got to do it now”, but they should be a “get to” as in I should work on “getting to it eventually”. It might take two minutes, it might take two days, it might take two weeks or maybe even two months but I need to set a goal and work on “getting to it”. I need to establish my goal, figure out what it is I want to achieve and then focus on it!
When I play with my horses I need to know what we are going to work on, how long we are going to work on it, when I’m going to stop etc . . . so when playing the circling game I need to know which direction I’m going to send my horse, at what gait and how many times I want them to go around. I should then count the amount of corrections needed to reach my goal, and work on it over the next few play sessions to see if I can make the number of corrections less and less.
He was pretty impressed with the repour and the relationship that I have with Blue, but said that Blue is trying to tell me now that he wants me to ask softer, and if I ask softer he will see me as a better leader. I’ve come to rely too much on my tools and not enough on me, I have confidence that my tools will get the job done, but not the confidence that I can get the job done. He was also impressed with the fact that everything that I have accomplished thus far has pretty much been self taught, learning from the DVDs and reading articles. Said that all of us certainly was on the right road to bettering ourselves.
Oh he also LOVED Tru and offered to buy her. He was VERY impressed with how well she is put together, that she was extremely chunky and I think he also got a kick out of her when she went over to the large Parelli Ball in the field and started paying and chewing at it lol. I’m thinking I might need to breed Kallie again lol, her babies appear to be in high demand!
Now for what I learnt . . .
Focus. Focus. Focus. So apparently I am lacking in the focus department (which I knew because seeing as earlier in the day when Anna, Beth and myself were all sitting around looking at various Parelli material I mentioned that my focus needed some work!). When I want my horse to move his feet I need to focus my energy to where I want to go, not where I am or where I’ve been. So bring up the energy, take a deep breath and project that energy. I need to use my body language and energy first, my tools second.
Lightness. I need to be very light when asking my horses anything, always start off asking very quietly, having a long phase one buy just touching the hair. But I also need to make sure that I follow though and move quickly to phase four, and not stay stuck in phase two or three. I baby Blue a bit and don’t like going to phase four, but I really have to get over it and go to phase four to help him become lighter and more responsive.
Having a plan and setting goals. They don’t have to be a “got to” as in I don’t “got to do it now”, but they should be a “get to” as in I should work on “getting to it eventually”. It might take two minutes, it might take two days, it might take two weeks or maybe even two months but I need to set a goal and work on “getting to it”. I need to establish my goal, figure out what it is I want to achieve and then focus on it!
When I play with my horses I need to know what we are going to work on, how long we are going to work on it, when I’m going to stop etc . . . so when playing the circling game I need to know which direction I’m going to send my horse, at what gait and how many times I want them to go around. I should then count the amount of corrections needed to reach my goal, and work on it over the next few play sessions to see if I can make the number of corrections less and less.
He was pretty impressed with the repour and the relationship that I have with Blue, but said that Blue is trying to tell me now that he wants me to ask softer, and if I ask softer he will see me as a better leader. I’ve come to rely too much on my tools and not enough on me, I have confidence that my tools will get the job done, but not the confidence that I can get the job done. He was also impressed with the fact that everything that I have accomplished thus far has pretty much been self taught, learning from the DVDs and reading articles. Said that all of us certainly was on the right road to bettering ourselves.
Oh he also LOVED Tru and offered to buy her. He was VERY impressed with how well she is put together, that she was extremely chunky and I think he also got a kick out of her when she went over to the large Parelli Ball in the field and started paying and chewing at it lol. I’m thinking I might need to breed Kallie again lol, her babies appear to be in high demand!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
Cattle Penning
Well this weekend Anna and I decided to try something completely different – Cattle Penning!! We drove up to Northport to Creekview Farm and registered for a day of Penning. We both entered in three teams (which gave us three runs per team). I took Blue in my first two runs and he was a little frightened of the cows, so we tried helping with the herd change and he got a bit better but we didn’t really have the time for me to get him more comfortable with the cows so a real nice cowboy named Sam offered to let me ride one of his horses. So I put Bluey back with a hug and adjusted my stirrups and hopped on Sam’s dun gelding named Chevy and got a real nice taste of what it was like to cattle pen. I rode him in the rest of my runs for the day and had an absolute blast. Tia rode Tia all day and I think we found something that Tia really likes! She would even bite at the damn cows if they wouldn’t get out of her way!!
Later that evening after supper we went for the beach ride, this time I was riding Blue, a whole bunch of us set out, I don’t even know how many horses total probably 25-30 if not more. Blue was great for the who ride down, we even crossed a big bridge then head out on the sand. I wasn’t sure what he would think about the ocean/water because he used to have quite a big water fear. We’ve been working on it slowly but typically he likes to jump puddles and brooks lol. But we walked through a few small streams and in no time at all we were out in the ocean, the water up to his belly and he was having a blast! He was splashing around with his front legs, dunking his head in the water. It was so much fun! We galloped up and down the beach, in and out of the water and had a great time! Blue and I really enjoyed ourselves!!
It was a fantastic weekend, full of great people, amazing horses and lots of fun! So many of the seasoned cattle penners were more than willing to help out and offer advice and tips, they were all so warm and welcoming!
I can hardly wait to do it again, in the meantime I might have to get Blue a pet cow lol!!
Then I traded in Blue for Chevy . . .
Later that evening after supper we went for the beach ride, this time I was riding Blue, a whole bunch of us set out, I don’t even know how many horses total probably 25-30 if not more. Blue was great for the who ride down, we even crossed a big bridge then head out on the sand. I wasn’t sure what he would think about the ocean/water because he used to have quite a big water fear. We’ve been working on it slowly but typically he likes to jump puddles and brooks lol. But we walked through a few small streams and in no time at all we were out in the ocean, the water up to his belly and he was having a blast! He was splashing around with his front legs, dunking his head in the water. It was so much fun! We galloped up and down the beach, in and out of the water and had a great time! Blue and I really enjoyed ourselves!!
It was a fantastic weekend, full of great people, amazing horses and lots of fun! So many of the seasoned cattle penners were more than willing to help out and offer advice and tips, they were all so warm and welcoming!
I can hardly wait to do it again, in the meantime I might have to get Blue a pet cow lol!!
Then I traded in Blue for Chevy . . .
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
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