Happy New Years!!!!!!!

Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! I got 3 new horse books: Raise Your Hand If You Love Horses by Pat Parelli, Tom Dorrance's book, and Naked Liberty by Carolyn Resnick.

So, have a very merry horsey Christmas!

Okay, So Before I Forget . . .

I JUST HAD AN AMAZING DAY! There I said it. Okay, so I just had a super horse-filled day today. We'll go in chronological order, since that's going to make it easier for you to follow my musings and theories.

Firstly, (I wonder if that's a word. . . hmm) I had a lesson with Shirley today. She had me play with a RBI named Ollie. He was a chestnut Morgan, a bit large, although that seems to match his heart. He seems like such a sweetheart. He tries so hard to please. He's a pretty cool guy, and I like him.

Well, I didn't care if this was a riding or ground lesson, so Shirley picked riding, because she said Ollie could use it. We got him all tacked up, then I want to cinch him up 3x, like normal. Did some circles, and squeezes and various things. Shirley has me go through the car wash with him. He had some trouble with it. It took him a while to go through it, but he did eventually. I learned I have to pump up the leadership skills a little bit.

Here's what I wrote to Shirley about my riding part of the lesson:

And I thought I should mention, too, that riding Ollie was very cool. I believe that is the first time in about a year that I've been able to ride a horse without feeling nervous. I think it was just because I wasn't over-thinking it, but still it's a very cool feeling. When I used to take lessons from another trainer, I'd always get nervous getting on the horse, so it was never any fun. I tried sitting on Moose bareback tonight, to see if I felt safe up on him, and I didn't, but our play on the ground more than made up for that. I'm sure once I start riding him in a saddle I'll feel much better, since I think bareback is just intimidating to me right now.

Kind of getting ahead of myself, but yes that's how it felt. I was not scared of being up on him. I didn't feel nervous. Just happy, and wishing I felt confident on lots of horses, so I could ride more often. :) But as I said "our play on the ground more than made up for that."

So, fast forward to later tonight. I went outside by Moosey, went and said hello. Quite ironically, he didn't want to be caught. He does this a lot, where whenever I put the halter over his neck, he throws his head up. So, it wasn't like he left or anything, just being a silly. But once I got the halter on, I took him outside for a while. Well, SUPERB my dear, is how it went. The kind of session where you don't care if that's the closest you ever get to excellence, because that was just incredible. A brief overview:

I played with Moose once I got home, and he did FANTASTIC. Sometimes when I ask Moose to back up or stop, he thinks I want him to turn and face. Well, tonight he didn't, so we were able to play with Zone 3 Driving Game, and when I stopped, he stopped. When I backed, he backed. We even did it from Zone 4! Huge improvement from what he used to do. And it's incredible how little things make such a big difference. Changing my focus from him to where I want him to go made such a big difference. Our yo-yo game is incredible now. He backed to the end of the 22' without me changing my rhythm in Phase 1. And he drew to me from the end of the 22' without me lifting the rope off the ground. Just priceless

He had me jumping up and down a couple of times, and I probably could've given him a bucket full of treats for his performance. Just fantastic. And I didn't mention it in there, but our communication was absolutely incredible, too. I had him doing things from 22' away and he was responding like I was right next to him asking. It was SUCH a cool feeling. And he had slack in the line the entire time he circled me. God, I love him. He's so cool. So, I think we're moving on up, ladies and gents. Passing Level 2, here we come!

But, wait, that's not all, in this incredible offer you also receive the NEC Celebration DVD. I know, to top off a perfect day, the DVD came today, and it is really cool. I'm not far enough into it to talk about what it's about and give a mini-review, but there's a quick 5 minute clip with Linda showing video footage of all 4 horsenalities that is really revealing, and I think should've been put into the Horsenality DVD in the Success Series (SS).

Well, if tomorrow is an extension of today's awesomeness (or not), I'll try to let you know. But until then, g'nite!

Fantabulous Day

Well, yesterday was just incredible. I have to gloat for a second. I bought the new Parelli Levels, and they are just INCREDIBLE! I love the way Pat explains things. They are REALLY REALLY good. I highly recommend you take a look at them if you've got the chance. I've just finished the Level 1 and 2 On Line DVDs so far, and am really liking the way this is set up.

SO>>> About my fantabulous day. Well, thanks to these wonderful DVDs, I have been re-naturalized, so to speak, because I remembered to reward the slightest try. I did it before, so that never stopped, but I hadn't been happy about it. Well, for the past 2 days, I've really been satisfied with whatever Moose has offered, and as a result he has been a confident learner. It is just WONDERFUL! These past 2 days were the first times EVER I was able to teach him with him staying engaged. Before he would either be dominant or unconfident. Whenever his confidence would rise up, so would his dominance, so I couldn't juggle that, and would accidentally knock the confidence out of him every time, so he turned unconfident again. No fun, I'll tell ya. But oh, I think these DVDs have been the missing key.

I went out with Moose yesterday, and he was in a pretty good mood to begin with. I probably was too, actually. So, I took Moose outside to play with him, since his pasture is all snowed in. I wanted to play with our Circling Game. Well, about halfway through our play-time, I decided I wanted to teach him to stop when the CS is in front of Zone 1, since we have no downward transitions on line, only upwards ones, I thought "what the heck? Let's give it a shot."

Specifically, his issue with downward transitions is that he thinks that when I put the carrot stick in front of him, that means stop, then turn and face. The stop part is great, but I don't want him to face me. (Oops, guess our HQ driving game is a bit TOO good). So, I kept repeating that to him: whenever he'd stop, if he moved his forehand over to me, I would move it back over so that he was somewhat perpendicular to me. The first few times, I was on the brink of losing his confidence, but this time he realized I was just communicating with him and saying "no, that's not what I want" because I released right away when he did what I asked. So, I re-explained to him what I wanted and made it easy for him. Then, I tried it at a little longer distance, like a 6' circle, then we worked it up to 12'.

Okay, now for the incredible part. I sent Moose out on a circle to the right, and stood in neutral like normal. Moose was at about 1 o'clock on the circle. I thought to myself "when he gets to 10 o'clock, I'm going to ask him to stop." My hand had just grasped the handle of the carrot stick. Moose is now at 12 o'clock. He stopped, PERFECTLY!!!! I was so excited, guess he read my mind :). So, I immediately brought him in and gave him a treat and was just excited about having fun. I can't wait until I have the savvy to cause every day to feel like this one. But the absolutely incredible thing about this is that there was NOOO way Moose this happened by chance. Moose read my body language and responded, and that just makes me so happy. I love my pony!

The Influence of Energy

I found even more articles. I'll create another post for you soon. One of them reminded me of an experience I had while horse-shopping.

I was looking at a Chestnut Arab mare, about 15 hands, and was trying to do some groundwork with her. Playing some of the basic Parelli games, you know. I don't really remember how she did, but it must've been somewhat alright, because I proceeded to do the Circling Game. I couldn't get her to move! In honesty, I probably could have, but I didn't want to really Phase 4 her, since 1) her owner was watching, and 2) I wasn't sure why she was doing it, fear or disrespect or confusion. So, I asked a friend watching if she wanted to play with the horse. She said sure, and hopped in.

Well, she tried the Circling Game with her, and she couldn't get the horse to STOP moving. It was incredible. From the time I had walked out of the pen to the time she had walked in was like 20 seconds, maybe. But yet, the horse had completely changed. "How interesting!" My friend is an extrovert, and I'm an introvert. What a sensitive horse!

As Promised, Articles Galore!

Okay, so there's a bunch of articles:

• Here is some more information about Tom Dorrance.
  
• Here are a TON of articles about Ray Hunt, I just picked my favorite. Press the Next or Previous buttons on the bottom of the page for more. This one has lots of quotes from him.
  
• This one is about Linda Parelli, and about how adults learn. Short, but interesting.
• Another one about Ray Hunt: this article portrays Ray as an American sage. It is about one of his clinics from an observer's perspective. It has lots of quotes from Ray in it. Flows really well, very well-written.
• This article is written more to emphasize martial arts than horsemanship, but it's still interesting. It's about a martial artist's experience with Ray at a clinic.
• Oh, how I WISH I knew the author of this. It's somewhat short, too, but really has a message. It's really eye-opening. CLICK THIS. It's called People Problems.
• Perspective by Linda Parelli. Short.
• This is about Tom Dorrance. It's detailing his last, clinic ever, apparently. Very interesting to hear how he ran his clinics.
• By Tim Hayes, this article is called Know Your Horse, Know Yourself. It was kind of a "thanks, I needed that" kind of thing for me. Very easy to follow.
• This article is an auditor's perspective on Ray Hunt's clinics. I don't know if you'll find it as interesting as I did, but it gave me some little nuggets of information to think about.

Well, think that's all for now. Enjoy!

Programs

Well, the past few days I've actually made a program out of getting Moose confident with Zone 3. It's been going pretty smooth. I can see we have an issue. Still don't know exactly if his problem is the girth, Zone 3 in general, or the saddle slapping, but it doesn't really matter. I'm just going to fix all of them. :)

So, he's been doing really well. Today we had a little glitch, because my neighbor was flying his RC airplane and so Moose was pretty freaked out, so I didn't continue with what we've been working on, since he wans't in a learning frame of mind.

Bella, on the other hand, has got me all confused. I just can't seem to play with her, and get anything good accomplished. I seriously am starting to think she's at least bi-polar. She's playful, bolts when scared, super-sensitive, mouthy, curious, absolutely LOVES people, somewhat over-reactive, forgiving (to a point), food-motivated, dominant, tense, either walks or runs, all these at different times and here's the breakdown of her confidence areas:

1. Environment - SUPER confident in her environment, SUPER unconfident outside her environment
2. In the herd - Pretty confident
3. By herself- Pretty unconfident
4. As a learner - pretty confident
5. With me as a leader - Don't know, but not a whole lot.

So, yeah she's got me all confuzzled. Again. But it's alright. Moose's doing really good. Next post, I'll provide some links to some good articles I found.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

And I had to share a quote by Ray Hunt: “The definition of confidence is knowing that you are prepared for the unthinkable." Hmmm . . .

Zone 3 Confidence

I'm so proud of myself. I temporarily re-invented the Carrot Stick! I have a knock-off CS that I haven't used in a while, so I decided to maybe play with Moose with it and a plastic bag attached to it. Well, I couldn't find a plastic bag, so while doing a quick survey of our tack area, I saw an old lead rope. Hmmm. I threaded it through the CS, and so now had a REALLY long reach. It was pretty cool. I had no idea what I was going to do with it, just that I wanted to do something.

Well, I did a lot today. It was sweet. I used the CS to help Moose gain confidence in Zone 3. I asked him to circle around me, somewhat close, but far enough away that he knew it was a circle and could go somewhere. Well, I had the lead rope part of the CS on his back and he was a little unsure about it. So, when he relaxed a little, I asked him to trot, and he kicked out! "Oh boy!"

Then, I continued playing with our Circling Game with the lead rope over Zone 3. I experimented to see what scared him. I moved it when he was Circling, and that spooked him a little. When he stepped on it, he got scared, too. So, we just played around. Once he was pretty relaxed with it there, I stopped and brought him in. Then, I had the bright idea of using it as a girth. I was in Zone 3 and so we played Stick To Me from there on his right side. He did excellent! He never had an issue with it being on his belly, even when I pulled a little. So, overall it was a really neat day! I'm really pleased with both him and me.

Oh, yeah, and if you haven't seen the new Parelli.com website, check it out! They released the new levels today!!!!!! And Linda has a blog that she updates daily/every other day. It's really cool! Here's the link to the new levels: http://shop.parellinaturalhorsetraining.com/product.jsf?productId=1021.

Poem and 2 Quotes

Endure by Bobi

If I can endure for this moment,
whatever is happening to me.
No matter how heavy my heart,
or how dark the moment may be.
If I can but keep on believing,
what I know in my heart to be true.
Then darkness will fade into morning,
and with this dawn a new day, too.

"True Horsemanship is invisible until one learns to see it." -David Genadeck.

"If you know that all is well, you know all you need to know. And if you know life is supposed to be fun, you know more than almost anybody else knows. And if you know that the way you feel is your indicator of how connected you are to Source, then you know that which only a handful of Deliberate Creators, respective to the total population, really know. The beasts all know it. Your animals know that all is well. Your animals live in the moment. They understand the power of their now. They expect the Universe to yield to them. They don't worry or fret or conjure or make laws or rules or try to regulate. They are Pure Positive Energy. Your beasts vibrate more on the Energy scale of contentment than of passion. Their desire was set forth from Nonphysical, and continues to be set forth by those, like you, who want Energy balance, who want sustenance. The difference between the beast and the human is that the beast is more general in its intent. The human is usually less blended, usually less allowing of the Energy to flow, but is more specific. And that is why the human is seen to be the Creator while the beast is more the balancer of Energy." - Abraham.

Excerpted from the workshop in Philadelphia, PA on Thursday, October 15th, 1998

Off to the Rodeos. . . Again?

Since I made it a goal to buy a Western Theraflex, I decided to actually discuss buying one. And the good news is, I might have found one. That's still a might, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

So, I was thinking about the Theraflex and riding: I've had a lot of good opportunities lately as far as riding goes due to that clinic last weekend, so I've had it on the brain recently. And Moose has done really good recently: we even accidentally did some more liberty stuff 2 days ago. So, our relationship is definitely improving!

Well, I decided to bite the bullet and maybe try to ride today. But the important thing here was I wasn't direct-line about it. I said I want to ride, yes, but I'm not going to be stupid and get myself hurt. So, I went and haltered him, and brought him inside the barn. I tried tacking him up with Bella's saddle this time to see if that one would fit him a little better. It seems like they're both pretty equal to me. But tacking up went smoothly, except for 3 times when I had to take him outside to show Bella that indeed he has not left, and is actually where he was 2 seconds ago when you were looking at him. Silly girl. And he was in a pretty LB mood today, so all was good. There didn't seem to be any cinch issues.

So, I got my helmet and put a 22' on him and back into the pasture we went. We did some Circles. I tightened the cinch. I had him trot, and walk. No cantering today, because he's still got the Scratches on his back leg, but I thought he seemed fit to trot. We changed directions a few times, and he wasn't doing it very well, so I put some pressure on him to change a little better. When I back up for the change, he likes to just pretend I haven't moved at all, so I have to stop him, and then send him the opposite way. He does this a lot. So, this time when I asked for the change, I backed up, and he still was trotting off, of course, so I stopped him and then immediately said "you should be gone!" because we've been doing this for long enough that he should understand there is a pattern. So, he jumped a little when I smacked the ground for him to leave, but I just took a mental note. If I remember quickly, he licked his lips farther on the circle. Next time I asked for the change, I had to stop him again, but when I started to increase my intensity like "you should be. . . GONE!!" he kind of jumped and trotted off, before I got to the "gone" part. It was a little wierd, but I let it go. So, then he was trotting around the circle doing just fine, I brought him in. Tightened up the girth a little more. Backed him up, sent him to the right. He did fine. Then, "all of a sudden for no reason at all" he threw a bucking fit. I interrupted the pattern hard throughout the whole thing. The saddle flew upwards, so the back of it was up in the air, and the pad flew out the back. I'm guessing that scared him even more. He was still bucking, but now he tried to run and buck. I was able to hold on, since he didn't pull hard like Bella does, and still keep Phase 4ing him with the rope. Then, the saddle flipped over and now was under his belly. :-0 Now, his brain kicked in, and he backed up, but there was obviously still a boatload of tension there. I had an extreme RBI at that point. So, I moseyed up to him, and tried to undo the saddle without scaring him more. Well, I couldn't do it alone, so with my mom's help we got the saddle off, and Moose didn't freak out. Needless to say, he was pretty listless after that.

We spent the whole rest of the session just chilling, since I wasn't sure if he was introverted, but I could definitely see that he wasn't the same Moose I had had before. Like I said, he was pretty listless. So, I wanted to see where he was at mentally, so I tried doing some stuff with spins. He looked fine. So, I got down on my knees to see if we could do a figure-8 with me down low and not moving. He did it fine. Seemed alright, but just kind of shocked, maybe. So, we just hung out some more. Bella was giving my mom some issues, being a sassy pants, and trying to swing her butt at mom, so she got a lesson in leadership today. Turns out little miss teddy bear actually does have a 'tude every now and then! But this was great for Moose, so he could just relax without my focus on him. It took him at least 15 minutes to come off adrenaline from the bucking incident.

I'm trying to think what in the world caused it this time. I mean, when he bucked from the bareback pad, that was entirely my fault for being direct-line, but I don't think I really was today. Yes, I wanted to ride, but I wasn't saying I have to ride right now. I wasn't pressuring him. And I know he has an issue with Zone 3 confidence/ the girth but I did approach and retreat with it during saddling and he was fine. After I circled him a little, I even took it off, because I had to move the saddle up further, so that was a big retreat for him. The only thing I can think of is maybe when he wears the saddle, he feels threatened by the pressure I put on him? Like when I got assertive about him doing the changes, he was being a little silly. Maybe he attributes Phase 4's when he's wearing the saddle to being the saddle's fault. So, maybe I'm firmer with him when he's wearing the saddle, because I'm actually thinking of this as preparation for riding instead of just playing. . . . that's a possibility. The other thing is maybe just the saddle noise scares him. This one did bounce a little when he was trotting, so it made some noise.

But I learned from this, there's a reason I'm not riding him (just confirms it, since I doubt myself even now and then). We might need a back-cinch for that saddle. Moose has a somewhat-extreme form of claustrophobia/fear with Zone 3. And I need some help :)

Thoughts about Thinking

I've concluded that I think too much . . . at least recently, anyways. I've been thinking, and I think that thinking is my best friend and worst enemy. It's one of those love-hate things. It helps me in some situations, since it helps me be observant and logical, but it also sometimes makes my progress go out the window, because I over-analyze.

Like you know that little program I did with Moose a while back because he kept putting his head up when I haltered him? It didn't do anything. He still does it. It's just that now I've accepted that I'm not going to fix that right now. It was a complete moment of "can't see the forest for the trees." I'm glad it did it, since I usually don't stick to programs because every day I want to try out something new, and this one actually lasted for a few days, but I still see now that it was pointless.

So, my inability to stick to programs and my tendency to over-analyze has caused me to think some more. (God help me, more thinking!) I need to make a program and just stick to it, so I don't bore my horse, or get stuck on one little task. So, my solution to this is to come up with a program for each session, so I have a focus on what I want to do. Normally, I wouldn't decide to do this, because I get direct-line, but I had a thought a minute ago. If you have 15 minute to play with your horse, that doesn't mean that you have "get 'er done" in that time. It just means you have 15 minutes. Good to know. I'll update again when I decide how exactly I want to proceed with this. . . we're able to do Liberty somewhat consistently now (YIPPEE!!!!!!!), so I might try for my Level 2 Audition and then start making programs, but we'll see. It's a balancing act: Relationship vs. Progress. Take too long in the relationship department, and you'll wind up not making any progress and dealing with a bored horse. Go too far down Progress lane, and your relationship goes out the window.

A tad off topic, but I don't know if any of you have read the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (it's on Parelli's recommended reading list, and is a very interesting book), but one of the things the author mentions is that in order to become an expert at anything, it takes approximately 10,000 hours. I copied the following excerpt from Catherine Nugent's "How to become an Outlier??"

This got me thinking- how many hours have I spend with my horses? No much when you consider that it takes 10,000 to master a skill, according to the book. I spend about three hours on average a week with my horse. Not nearly enough! I've spend about 470 hours since I started Parelli with my horses- give or take a bit. I've spent about 35 with Archie- not much when you look at it like that, hey? That's one weeks worth of working hours to me. One week! That's nothing! If I want to be really good with horses, then I need to get 10,000 hours. That's 3 hours a day, seven days a week for ten years; Or 8 hours a day for 3.5 years. Interesting hey? How good would I be if I spent THAT much time with my horses? How good would my horses think I am?

Very interesting. Especially since I have professional goals, I found that incredible how to become a master horsewoman, I'd need to spend 3 hours a day for 10 years. Lately, I'm getting around 3-5 hours a week, which makes my grand total hours with Moose somewhere near 370 hours. If you're curious how many hours you've played with your horse, there's 2 options for ya:

1. If you play daily, multiply your average hours playing with your horse by 365 days in a year to equal your grand total.
2. If you play a certain amount weekly - let's say 5 hours a week, then multiply that number by 52 weeks in a year to equal your hours per year. In this case, it would be 260 hours per year.

Just something to think about. And Happy Belated Halloween, everyone!

My Reaction to a Dressage Lesson Gone Bad

I attended a dressage clinic this past weekend with a friend of mine, and really learned a lot. It was interesting to see how subtle things are, and how at high levels, the riders are actually quite aware of their horses! I say 'actually' because I'm used to people who don't practice natural horsemanship methods not understanding their horses. So, this was quite a pleasant surprise.

But I wanted to mention what happened with one of the horses/people. We'll call the girl Kayla and the horse Skip. See, Kayla is afraid of Skip. She made that clear from the beginning of this 2 day long clinic. That, and the fact that it took her 2 hours to get him loaded into the trailer made me want to watch her lesson. I wasn't watching the time, so unfortunately I only caught the last 15 minutes of it. But he did superb! The crowd knew Kayla was afraid of him, so everyone was cheering to offer encouragement to her. Kayla is actually a pretty good rider for being afraid, since normally fear literally makes riders "scared stiff." She flowed with Skip pretty well. They did the normal walk, trot, canter. She got off and was all smiles for the next few hours. The lesson was fantastic. The clinician and myself (and probably some of the crowd) were wondering what made her so scared of him. He was a pretty mover, and didn't look too bad. I wondered what dark side of Skip we weren't seeing. I wasn't sure if I was over-analyzing or not at the time, but the only thing I found odd was his head set. It seemed unnaturally forced. He held his head where it was supposed to be, even if she let the reins out. I admit I found that strange.

But we found out the next day. I was cleaning my friend's horse's stall when she came and got me to tell me I should watch this, since I do natural horsemanship. A horse was rearing. I walked into the arena to see the clinician ground-driving Skip in what I thought were side-reins. Something was obviously going on since everyone was huddled together in the observation area. Kayla left, crying. (I later found out that Skip had reared 3 times with her on.) The clinician tried to coax Skip into trotting and he reared up and fell over. I admit my heart was racing, and adrenaline was pumping. I was scared, because I thought I was going to have to take over. It would've been obvious to any natural horsemanship person there that this horse was an extreme RBI (okay, so maybe only Parelli people would classify horsenality, but you get what I mean), and I didn't think the clinician understood that. She did dressage after all, and I mean what the heck? She was driving a rearing horse in SIDE REINS. I actually spoke up and said that that she should take them off. Someone proceeded to explain to me that they weren't actually side-reins, they were sliders. The horse could move his head around if he wanted. Personally, I still don't think that was the best choice, because that enforced his wierd head-set. And then I had an epiphany: the reason Skip's head-set was so wierd was because he was gone mentally. Yeah, his head was tucked and he was going around her on a circle, but he felt like he was going to explode to me. That's part of the reason I got so nervous.

But anyways, that was the last time he reared in that lesson. And I do really like what the clinician recommended to Kayla afterwards. She told her to learn to ground-drive him. She said she had a horse she had raised since a baby that whenever she put any leg on her, the horse would rear. So, she started ground-driving her, and stopped riding her for 6 months. By the end of those 6 months, she could do 3rd level dressage on the ground! And so when she finally started riding her again, she took her to a dressage show and won grand champion! I thought that was great advice, since without a doubt Skip doesn't seem fit to ride right now.

And I really wanted to analyze my reaction to Skip. I got nervous, had adrenaline-pumping. Well, makes sense. I was mentally preparing to take over, like I said. But why? Well, this truth bites: I thought I knew better than the clinician. Dang, that sucks. But my conflict with non-natural horsemanship folks is another topic. I just thought my reaction was pathetic. I mean, I have no where NEAR the skills to play with an extreme RBI in the first place, and to take over from the clinician would be a no-no (since the horse stopped rearing, after all. . . ), and if I did get to play with that horse, how would I help him when I'm nervous to begin with? That was my big thing. How can I help a horse when I get so nervous beforehand? This has happened to me before, so I want to find something to get that non-chalance that Pat Parelli and Dave Ellis have. Obviously, that comes from experience and savvy and skill, so I don't expect to be nearly that good. That'd be nice for the long-term, but I'm thinking short-term right now. I remember hearing that Pat learned it from Tai-Chi. I borrowed a DVD from the library about it, and I really don't think it's for me. It was okay, but just not my kind of thing. Neither is yoga, although yoga is better than Tai Chi. Basically, I'm looking for something to help center my RBI side a little bit.

Worthy of Your Time

Lots to talk about today! I had a great session with Moose 2 days ago I didn't get to talk about yet, and have been reading a great book! So, here goes!

The Book: I've been re-reading Ray Hunt's book Think Harmony with Horses and I don't know why, but I've gotten sooooooo much out of that book by reading it this time. I bought it maybe a year ago, read it, thought it was good, but now I just seem to really grasp what he's talking about. I understand it and can apply it. That's why Moose did so well!

So, my session with Moose: Well, there's quite a few topics that fit under this, but I'll try to sum it up for ya. Since Moose's got Scratches, I decided to take it easy today. Just walking and trotting. No cantering for now, since that's hard for him to do relaxed even on a good day.

Well, I decided to try out some principles from Ray's book. Mostly going back to the foundation. And I was really thinking about one quote from his book: "Horses get to where they'll do anything they can for you, but they know that you will for them too." It really got me thinking. Well, then I wonder how sure Moose is about what I'm asking him to do! I was also thinking about the Phase 1 before Phase 1. How I don't have a "get ready" cue. It's just a "go" and then "you should've gone." By not having a "get ready" cue I wasn't setting him up for success. This was further emphasized by another of Ray's points which was that in general people ask for the horse's attention way too much. I can relate to this, just by watching how some people are with their horses. And I realized that not having a "get ready" cue meant I expected his attention all the time, and that isn't fair.

With these things in mind, I went out to play with Moose. I took everything back to foundation level. I focused a lot on FH yields today, since his HQ moves noticably easier than his FH. And I was astonished! My horse is way smarter than I give him credit for. After 3 repetitions of bringing my energy up (get ready), focusing, phase 1 with stick, followed by 2, 3, 4, he moved off my focus. I was really proud of him. And now I'm making my own program of saying "get ready" before I ask anything, until it becomes an ingrained habit.

I also experimented with non-chalance. I really tried not to move my feet, and having an attitude like that of Dave Ellis. I talked about attitude a lot when I audited a clinic of his, so if you want to know about that check out August's posts. It worked out really well. If I did phase 4, I did it with justice and without raising my energy.

And I fixed one of our super-long-time issues! On accident! One of the things I see Linda do during Circling Game is to stop Remmer and have him back up. Now, logically, this would be smart to develop in a round pen. Well, before this summer, I didn't have a round pen. So, whenever I tried to get him to stop at the Circling Game, he'd face me. And if I tried to get him to back, he'd always back facing me. At first I encouraged it, because he's trying after all. But I didn't know how to get him to realize that when I ask him to back up, I want him to back from where he is, not turn and face me, then back. Well, using our newfound FH moving abilities, I asked him to move his FH without me moving my feet. He did, but then he turned and faced me. I had to move my feet, but then I asked him to move his FH again, since the last thing he did was move his HQ, and that wasn't what I asked for. We kept this up for a little while until he finally stopped perpendicular to me. I about jumped for joy when I realized what I had just done! My horse stopped perpendicular to me!

I realized that I have inadvertently taught him to turn and face me, and then act. So, it was my problem not his. But I'm so excited that I figured it out. This book really is doing wonders to my awareness.

And based on impulse I went to Barnes & Noble the other day and bought a book by Buck Brannaman and one by Bill Dorrance. I'm reading the one by Buck right now, and it's interesting. It's more about his life story than horses, so far, but I'm finding a lot of parallels between his life and Monty Roberts'. It's still interesting to hear, but I think the one by Bill Dorrance is more designed to teach you about the horse. After all, it's like 370 pages! Now, there's a natural horsemanship textbook if I ever saw one! I'll let you know what I think about it once I start reading it.

Pastern Dermatitis

Umbrella term for: Scratches, Dew Poisoning, Greasy Heel, Mud Foot, Mud Fever, Foot Rot, Cracked Heels

Basically, it's what Moose's got. Let me know if you know of anything I can do to help him out. I've looked it up online, and it seems that he has Cracked Heels, specifically. I heard that I have to remove the lumps, crusts, whatever you want to call them, but carefully as they hurt. And I have to keep his foot dry. So, we're going to have to section off part of the pasture, because it's really muddy in one place where they always stand.

Yeah, well I'm getting my emotional fitness developed. Here's some pictures of Moose's foot. They're not that good. Sorry, don't know why they're different sizes, but Photobucket's not letting me re-size them. Just click to look at them.

Busy Day

Bad News: Moose has some kind of funny looking thing on his foot. I don't even know what to call it. It's right below his fetlock on his right hind foot, and it's like a bunch of lumps that looks like mud but they stand apart from his skin. They're attached to his skin, though. I tried removing one and he moved his foot, so he didn't like that idea. My mom's going to look at it tomorrow and see whether we need to call the vet or not. So, I just rented a DVD on Tai Chi and I think I might try that in a few minutes to calm down. I hate unknowns like this, so I'm overreacting a little. Sorry.

I was very proud of myself today, though. I spoke up for a horse! I was putting a horse out in his pasture when I heard someone yell. After the horse was in, I saw Bandero eating grass with a blanket half-on and put the pieces together. :) I haltered him up, and the guy who had tried to put the blanket on him came over. He held him while I disentangled the blanket. Once its off, he tells me to stand back. I move away. He slaps Bandero on the butt with the end of the lead rope. I was astonished, for this guy does Parelli, too. I actually defended the horse, because that wasn't fair. I'm proud of myself for sticking up for him, because normally I wouldn't have the confidence to speak up in front of someone I don't know very well. So, a step in the right direction.

Based on the last post I wrote, I went outside today and got Moose all tacked up. I think he's crooked in his body, because I only have 1 shim and I put it in the same place on each side and his right side was perfect, but his left side was tight near his shoulders no matter where I put the pad. I don't know if I'm being too picky or if I'm blind, because it was tight no matter where I put it. I admit that it frustrated me. Just another reason I can't ride yet. Ah well, great time to use "oh boy!"

The cool thing was that I realized Moose is being dominant. Know his unconfidence in Zone 3? That's still an issue, but I realized to compensate for it I've been letting him boss me around a little bit. I thought he was unconfident with the saddle, so I let him sniff it and whatever, and I think he was a little bit unconfident. But then, he gave me this face today: his ears weren't really back, but it was kind of like a warning face. I ignored it at first. But, then he did it again. I backed him up hard. He licked his lips. Ding! Point for Erica. So I felt cool I found out that the threshold has moved and I noticed.

Then, this translated into our Circling Game. Moose was doing pretty well, until he started coming in when I didn't ask him to. He came in 3 times on one lap. First 2 I let him, it's about the relationship after all, you know? But by the third, I was like "Okay, dude, that's enough." And I Phase 4ed him twice with the stick. He was surprised, but it was definitely a dominant thing, because he tossed his head and ran off. He did 4 laps trotting and then I brought him in. Then, we did a little bit with our downward transitions, because I always focus on upwards instead of downwards, so they're practically non-existent. Funnily enough, Moose performed perfectly, even though he shouldn't've even known what I was asking. Hmm, "how interesting!" So, we ended the session when he was able to canter without pulling on the rope. Oh, forgot to mention: cantering was WAY easier for him today. Don't know why but it was.

And he even offered to do some close-range Circling Game! He was trotting, and I asked him to canter, but instead he circled around me. It wasn't super close, but it was way closer than normal. Very cool. He had his head nicely tucked and his body was curved, too, it seems, so sweet!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to sit on him today (I was hoping to) because he got nervous about the saddle. I don't know what set him off, but he got a little jumpy and didn't seem happy. I didn't think the saddle changed at all, but the pad has a tendency to slip back, so I decided to just take it off. He did good for one day. Besides, it's not about the saddle.

And also, Bella is terrorizing our round pen! Since it's in their pasture, she's learned she can push on the wire and spread it out. Well, she keeps knocking the wire down, and tried to walk through it today. What a sassy! I'm thinking I might need to switch to boards, because if she no longer respects the fence, it isn't going to last long.

Oh, oh! Personal best time: I carried a saddle with girth falling off, pad, shim, 22' line, carrot stick, and 12' line into our barn through the mud at 1 time without getting anything dirty. Sorry, had to brag! I should've got a picture. I could barely see where I was going.

Also, I thought about my personality around the horses, and I think I'm LBE. This is a theory in development, so not going to go into lots of details. But I thought about how when I'm outside by the horses I'm direct-line a lot, and pretty goal-oriented. Well, those aren't exactly LBI characteristics! So, we'll see. . .

Scattered Like the Weather

Well, since the weather's getting chillier and chillier every day, I'm finding my motivation to go out and play is waning: specifically, yesterday and the day before. I had a chance to play for a few hours yesterday, but I walked outside, picked up a halter, and just couldn't do it. My heart wasn't into it. Naturally, I want to justify my action by saying that "it's just the stupid weather's fault. If it wasn't so cold out, I'd play with my horse a lot more!"

But, in all honesty, I might as well suck it up and play now while I can, because there isn't snow on the ground yet, and no negative temperatures, so it can't be that bad.

Another thing I'm finding is that I still wish I was further along with Moose. I've inquired about a few apprenticeships recently, to further my horsey education, and have come short on both checklists for future applicants by a "Time in the Saddle" requirement. So, I thought about how how long I've been riding, and I figured out that I have somewhere between 60-80 hours of riding experience. Okay, so do you think that's enough for me to ride/start young horses? Sorry, but no. 60-80 hours, by my standards, isn't even intermediate level.

Also, apprenticeships seem so easy, but it's so hard to go out and play with Moose recently. I feel like I need someone watching me to tell me if I'm doing things right, because I over-analyze him so much. Apprenticing with someone would be easier to find out if I'm doing things right, because they'd let me know. So, when they say "oh, just ride more and we'll talk some other time" I'm like "yes, ma'am" in theory, but actually going outside and applying that is like "*sigh* here we go again" because I never never really know if I'm right or not. But heck, there's a 50-50 chance, right?

So, I've come up with 4 solutions to get me back in the saddle. New Goals to add to my sidebar.

1. Get my saddle looked over
2. Buy a Western Theraflex Pad
3. Get Moose comfortable with wearing the saddle
   
4. Get better balance
   
5. Take lessons
   

You all know I'm unconfident about riding. That's somewhat obvious. Well, I've saddled up Moose recently, and he's had issues with it. I haven't pinpointed the issue yet, but I think it's some kind of unconfidence with things in Zone 3. Because when I circle him with the saddle on, he always bucks at least once per session. That has to be remedied in order for me to ride him! So, that's 3rd on my list.

The first thing is to make sure the saddle I have will work for Moose. It's a saddle just to get the job done, not to get it done prettily, so I'm not expecting it to be the most perfect saddle for him, but I want to make sure it will suffice. I've thought about sitting on him with the saddle on before, but I'm nervous he's going to buck or something if the saddle doesn't fit right (been there, done that). I admit this is somewhat of a good fear, because it'll help Moose be comfortable, but the sooner I get the fit checked out, the better, so then we can move on. I just hope it gets a thumbs up, though, because I don't like saddle-shopping.

And then, once my saddle gets the okay (being optimistic here), I need a pad. The Western Theraflex Pad has gotten good reviews by quite a few people, so I think that's the way to go. So, selling my old saddle will help with buying this one. . . . Anyone interested in a 16" black Abetta saddle, weighs about 20 lbs, 8" gullet, excellent conditions? Comment with your e-mail and I'll tell you more about it. I haven't bought the pad yet is because I don't have the money for it, so the sooner I sell my saddle the better!

Thirldy, get better balance. This is another thing I've been playing around with and noticed a pattern with myself. (Talk about the pattern first, then what balance)I found out that I learn tasks by individual details, not just by doing the task.

I found this out by atempting to ride a unicycle and shooting a bow and arrow today. I do archery every once and a while. Although I'm still a beginner, I can consistently get the arrow on the target. I am left-eye dominant, so I shoot lefty. Storytime: well, today there were no lefty bows available to use for 1 round, so my choices were to skip or shoot righty. I never tried righty before, so I decided to give it a shot. Um, yeah, I didn't even get NEAR the target! It was pathetic, really. But when I analyzed why I shot so bad, I realized I had forgot all about my stance. I guess the sensation of shooting right-handed was so overwhelming to me that I forgot about my position. If you really want to know how you're supposed to stand, that's what Google's for. I'm not an expert, as I said, but suffice it to say that your supposed to stand with your feet perpendicular to the target, shoulder-width apart. Well, in my confusion, I was standing almost facing the target, which is clearly going to affect my shooting ability.

I thought about this today, and realized that this is a pattern of mine, through Guitar Hero and riding a unicycle. I've experienced the same overwhelmed/confused feeling here as I did when trying to ride a unicycle yesterday. Like I said, my goal is to improve balance. That's one of the ways I'm trying to do that is by riding the unicycle. Well, yesterday was my 3rd day on it, and I noticed my balance was a lot better. It was easier to sit on it without practically tipping the thing. My set-up is in my garage. There's a table on my right for support, and I get up by putting the weight in the right pedal first (which is the same way I pedal a bike and hop on a pogo-stick, "how interesting") and then getting on. For some reason, I tried to get on it by putting my weight on the left pedal. Couldn't do it. I almost fell over: it was hard.

Useless Side Info: The same pattern is in Guitar Hero for PS2. I'm pretty good at it on Hard, but on Expert I'm not so great. I use the controller instead of the guitar (can't switch between the green and orange keys fast enough), so in Expert I can't tap the buttons that fast. My solution to pass a song is to cheat, and whenever scales come up use the controller, and whenever they play the same note over and over, I pause it and switch to guitar. Cheating I know, but hey, whatever works! So, since my preferred way to play is on controller, I use that one most often and am best with it.

Well, my friend has Guitar Hero, but for Wii. On first glance, they look pretty much the same, but if you compared them side-by-side, you'd find a difference between the two. I know so, or I'm going crazy, because I fail at GH on Wii for almost the first 10 songs until I can finally get my act together. So, the difference between the two? Wii uses a remote system, so there is maybe a half-a-second delay between the time you press a button on the guitar and the time that Wii recognizes that. PS2 is instant. You press a button, bam, it's there. So, my timing is completely screwed up just because of that half-second.

So, from this all, I've realized that I think in terms of processes and details instead of concepts. I already knew this, but now it has re-affirmed its place in my mind. In order for me to learn to play Guitar Hero on Wii, I have to almost start all over again, because I learned it differently on PS2. To shoot righty, I have to learn it all over again. I guess what I'm saying is that when I learn things like kinesthetic/body type stuff, it doesn't apply from situation to situation like other things might. It's like a horse and right side, left side stuff. You have to teach both sides, so they both understand it. I guess I'm the same way. "How interesting!"

Wow, that was a long side-trail. But back to balance. I'm trying to pratice every day for like 10 minutes to improve it. Balance helps riding, and I realized I have bad balance. More about that later.

Lastly, taking lessons. I have a few instructors in mind, but haven't picked out quite who I want to use yet. But my tentative plan is to start up soon with someone to learn to ride naturally, and go from there.

More About Liberty

Did you like my little teaser about our Liberty session? It was way cool! I wasn't even in the round pen. We did Stick To Me at walk and trot, and back. He did excellent. He backed 3 steps by the tail. I porcupined and drove him a few steps. Wanted to see if he could do Z3 Driving, and that didn't work super well, but when I was in Zone 2 he understood. I didn't try any of the purpose games, since I didn't think he'd respond as well to those, since they aren't as well ingrained as our games 1-4. But it was a great start for our first ever Liberty session! And funnily enough, it was all on accident! I had no intentions of doing Liberty with him whatsoever. I just was having some problems haltering, because he kept throwing his head up every time I tried, and I didn't know what to do. So, I just moved his hindquarters. Then his forequarters. Then had him back up. . . etc, etc. It developed into the start of a new era! How exciting!

Thinking To Myself - Literally

I wanted to mention the dialogue in my head today. I was thinking about being sure, and the scenario I created was a college professor talking to his students. P for professor, S for student(s). It's a little repetitive in some parts, and I came up with it myself, so it's not going to be super incredible: only positive comments please!

P: Pat Parelli says that the only way to know you're sure is that you're sure. So how do you know you're sure?
S: When you're sure, like you just said.
P: Okay, but how do you know you're sure? What's the difference between being sure and unsure?
S: Your confidence in your beliefs. If you're sure, you'll be confident in what you believe.
P: Okay, so what would make you sure that 2+2=4?
S: You just know. It's always been that way.
P: For you.
S: Yes, for me.
P: So, would a Kindergartener know that 2+2=4?
S: Well, maybe not.
P: Okay, so what about a 6th grader: would they know?
S: Certainly.
P: You're sure?
S: Positive.
P: Why?
S: That's a higher level of education.
P: Meaning?
S: They should already know 2+2 and 2-2 and 2x2 and even 2/2. 2+2 is only the foundation, and they're way past that.
P: Okay, then. So, why would you expect a 6th grader to know 2+2, but not a Kindergartener?
S: They're farther along in their learning. A Kindergartener doesn't know that much yet.
P: Okay, so relating this back to horses. Would you expect a baby horse to know 2+2, figuratively?
S: No.
P: Why?
S: He's not ready for that yet.
P: But you would expect a '6th grade' horse to know 2+2?
S: Yep.
P: So, how could he be sure that 2+2=4?
S: By what we taught him.
P: So, your actions influence what he learns?
S: Yep.
P: Okay, so if a Kindergartener went to a different school, would you expect them to know that 2+2=4?
S: No, because they haven't learned that in the first place.
P: Okay, what about the 6th grader?
S: Yeah, he should know that, but maybe he'd be a little bit confused about the higher up concepts. Maybe he'd learn another way to do 2x2=4, but the basic 2+2 wouldn't change at all.
P: Okay, then, back to the horse scenario again. We've established that we cause horses to be sure based on the feedback we give them. So, what would happen if the '6th grade' horse got sold and went to another owner? Would 2+2 still equal 4?
S: Maybe, but probably not. Every new owner would have different ways of communicating and different cues for things. So, they might learn that 2+2=5.
P: So, then how would the horse be sure?
S: Based on what the human tells them.
P: But do you see how easy it would be for a horse to be unsure, then, if every time he changed homes, the rules of reality changed?
S: Yeah.
P: So, now what about the 12th grade horse? Here's the guy who's graduating in a year and is all set to work the rest of his life. He knows his job, does it well, and can teach new riders by this point. What happens to him?
S: You'd have to re-teach him starting from the basics.
P: Is that fair?
S: Not necessarily, but it can be better if it's better for the horse.
P: Would that ever happen to a human (unless they moved ouside their country)?
S: No.

So, what should you have gotten from all this? For one thing, like Pat said, the only way to know you're sure is that you're sure. And the only way for your horse to be sure is that you're sure and you get him sure, too.

But you can clearly see the benefits of being all on the same page. This doesn't have to be with a different owner. Sometimes it can be the same owner on different days. One day 2+2=4, the next day 2+2=5. So, maybe we can all learn some empathy when our horses aren't sure around us. Maybe we just need to look inward, before we point the finger. Just something to ponder.

Dancing Time

Well, doing a little cha-cha dance inside my skin right now. Moose and I did Liberty today!!!! It was incredible. Our first time ever. I'm so excited for it. We weren't even in the round pen. Go Parelli for teaching me to communicate with my horse!

Knowing The Unknown

Note: Sorry, this post is a little jumbled, but I don't feel like editing it right now. Just try to follow along as best you can.

Starting from the beginning: I went outside to play today after watching the July SC DVD called Riding with Balance (I think). It's an excellent DVD, I have lots to say about it, but that's another post. Anyways, I had riding on the brain, or more specifically, the Pushing Passenger Lesson (PPL). So, I wandered outside to play with the pony thinking about saddling him up and possibly riding with the saddle (which would be my 1st time ever riding him a saddle - not counting when I tried him out).

So, I'm direct-line. . got the saddle out. . . and blanket and grooming kit and shim . . . and a pad. So, I'm missing a horse. I grab the halter and 12'. Moose was in the stall, but wandered out once I let him sniff me. Nothing unusual there, very typical Moose. I walked over to him and Bella and let them sniff me. I pet Moose for a second, then put my arm over his neck to grab the halter. His head flung up. I tried again, same response. Note: I should add that this is a very typical response to haltering, but today he also had a very UNtypical Erica (although untypical is so not a word :) ). Being UNtypical, like I just said, I decided to actually try to fix this. It's been going on for maybe 3 months now, at a guess. I've always just said "Oh, I'll fix it next time. . . " Yeah, right! Moral of the story: I was direct-line about putting the halter on.

And today, I finally consciously acknowledged it. So, I tried backing him up when he threw his head up. No response, so I thought maybe he was out in La-La Land. I waited for him. Funnily enough, Bella came off adrenaline, while Moose just kept looking around. I started to mirror him. Maybe 5 minutes later, he licked his lips. I just kept mirroring him. Eventually, he licked his lips another 2 times and blew once. I was really happy with that, so now to progress to the next step. Touching him. I pretended to rub him, so just rubbed the air around him. Guess what happened? Head flung up. Woah! "How interesting!" I just learned something about Moose. He's really bracey! He flung his head up there because he thought I was playing Driving Game. Well, I wasn't, but that still tells me that his first response to pressure is to fling his head up. Huge BFO!! Whenever you ask him to do something, he braces. Now I have another puzzle piece to add to the puzzle. When backing, Moose always flings his head up before he backs. And when you get more particular about his responses on things, his confidence leaves and he turns RBI (he's usually a RBI learner anyways). Well, if he's bracing to begin with, no wonder! I blew through a threshold.

Back to our Moose scene, I decided to test my theory by purposely going past a boundary, (although Moose was Left Brain at this point because I waited for him). I put my hand on the crest of his withers, and kept it there for all activities following, to keep a connection with him and just to see if I could. His first reaction? Throw his head up, followed by: backing 2 steps, and swishing his tail. I waited for him: more tail swishing, backing, he stomped his foot 5x, and kind of half wrung his head. Then, he licked a few times. And this whole time, I'm keeping in mind that this is still his mostly left-brain response. I haltered up and went this whole few months with a RBI because I didn't take the time it takes for him to lick his lips, meaning I've been blowing through this threshold for a long time!

It was a huge realization for me, because if I was direct-line the whole time, that means that my horse never 'wanted' to be with me. I didn't care about his opinion. It was always "you're going to" instead of "hey, would you like to?" So, now I am creating a haltering program for the next few days until we get it solved.

Must-Watch Videos!

I'm in the process of making a videos page, since I found quite a few cool ones. But there were 2 that stood out that I want to share early, since one's just plain incredible, and the other one has a message to it.



I know, it's about dogs, but WATCH!!!

The Power of Persistence/ Phase 3 X 3 Vs. Phase 4

Moosey and I had an incredible day a few days ago, along with my mom and Bella, too.

I experimented a lot with Phase 3 with rhythm instead of Phase 4. I don't really know what to call it, but it's the difference between Phase 4 and just a hard (in this case) Phase 3.

Because I realized today that when I do Phase 4 with Moose, he usually gets unconfident. So, that means my timing is off and that he was unsure when I got firm on him, not goofing around. So, what I did today was just do a Phase with rhythm, instead of the next phase. For example, Moose has a pretty good Yo-yo game. I do Phase 1 and he backs, but not with a lot of speed or a "Yes, sir!" attitude. So, I got a little more particular and upped to Phase 3 and asked told him to back, and then just kept repeating Phase 3 (which in this case was lightly doing that big move that's taught for yo-yo game in the Levels packs). This way I knew he was being dominant, but didn't take a chance with making him be unconfident either. I just matched his unwillingness to move, and didn't go into Phase 4 "Ka-pow", I just kept doing Phase 3 like I was until he made a change. Basically, I'm still looking for that middle ground of confident, but responsive. It seems to me like he's either unconfident or confident and unresponsive. So, I'm looking for a confident responsive horse! But I need to remember that in Moose's case, confidence comes before responsiveness.

And I've mentioned Bella's issue with trotting before. Yeah, I've been through some really bad days with her before, and came to the conclusion that we're just going to need to take one step at a time, and out-persist her. (That's going to be our biggest arrow here. I say 'our' because I'm trying to help my mom out with Bella.) So, we were first getting established in the walk. Our goal was to get 2 laps at the walk without her stopping. It took maybe 15 minutes, at a guess, but eventually she did it. So, that's great progress for Bella! I was so happy, because normally I can only get her to do 1 lap.

And I had another interesting thought (which I'll elaborate on in the next post): Moose has a Z3 issue. Remember that whole bareback pad incident? If not, it's here. Well, it turns out he doesn't have an issue only with the girth, he doesn't like things in Z3 touching him period.

I got creative today and tried to play with Moose using a broken hula-hoop -so it's like a hula-line now- and I set up a test for him. Once I had rubbed it all over him and done some Porcupine and Driving with it, I set it on his back and jogged off to play Stick To Me. He didn't go until I had used the whole 22' line, so I knew he was unconfident, but then he trotted off and kind of jolted forward and made a wierd sound and looked like he was going to kick. I stopped right away and took the hula-hoop off. Well, test failed, so I've found out a little bit more about him. Now I just have to figure out how to solve that. . . hmm. . .

The only downer about that day was that I pulled a nail back! Oops! My whole life I've had short nails, with an objection to long ones, so this summer I decided to grow them long just to see if I could. Well, I can, and now cutting them back to normal length (on the fingernail that got bent back) feels very awkward. Strange how my comfort zone has changed. But it was my fault anyways that the nail got pulled back: Moose and I were playing Stick To Me with the 22' and we turned, so he stepped on the excess 22' behind me, and I must've been holding it funny, because it bent my middle finger's nail back.

It's Raining Cats and Donkeys

Okay, so. . . The place I clean stalls at has cats that run around the place. 2 of those cats are kittens named Blanket and Pillow. They're adorable, but they've developed a nasty habit of climbing up people's pants legs.

So, the cats have really taught me a lot about focus. I've figured out that the cats tell you what happens before what happens happens. They stare at your knee, and crouch down, before they actually jump on your leg. Soooo. . . as soon as they jump, if I time it correctly, I can push my knee forward and they'll just run into it and fall off (they ran into my knee, I didn't try to hit them). But, that's only if I'm focusing on them. I've learned that in order for it to work, I need to catch it at that split second they're in the air. And . . . what's that saying again. . . something like: "Focus brings feel. Feel brings balance and timing. Feel, balance and timing are the tools of teaching." I realized that when I just tried to ignore the cats and clean the stalls, I'd miss every single time when they'd jump on me, so I now have scratch marks all over my legs to prove it. :) So, there is no focus without feel. But just goes to show you, "if you want to learn as bad as you want air, you'll be easy to teach" so then even cats can teach horsemanship lessons :)

Now, the donkey: Also located at where I clean stalls. There was a horse this past week who colicked severely, and so he's been on stall rest the past few days. To get him a little more comfortable with being stalled all day when his friends get to go outside, they brought donkey inside as a stallmate. Well, this was my first time ever interacting with a donkey, and wow is it different! They have a whole different mentality about them. It's almost like they're selfish, in a strange way. They don't have the willingness that horses have. I feel like I have to convince him to do everything, and even then his attitude is "so what?" It's very different. I'm now curious about how you would teach them, if there are donkey trainers out there. I really don't know much about them, so please excuse my ignorance.

Lastly, I had another revelation, this one not mentioned in the title. I was thinking about a lady's blog I read, and this post, in particular. I'll take you through my thought process. First, I was just thinking about how the way she writes is so foreign to me. To me it feels like she's playing 20 questions, because it's like I kind of know what she's talking about but she never really goes out and says it. But I also got to thinking about a post she wrote a long time ago (that I can no longer find or else I'd link to it) where she described her horse. The description was magnificent, but her horse (Cricket) sounded like a force to be reckoned with. I wish I could find the post, like I said just incredible word choice. So, I was thinking about these two things, and I thought about acceptance into all of that: Acceptance of where everyone's at in their journey. And I don't remember how, but I came to a conclusion. When you don't accept where you are at with your horse, that puts pressure on your relationship. Because if things don't go perfect when you step into the pasture, you're going to be unsatisfied. Because you'll wish you had it all yesterday. It's basically an endless cycle of dissatisfaction and direct-lineness. I've been there, done that, and am praying that I've got out of that house, locked the door and threw away the key. It's not a fun place to be. But heck, it took me a year and a half to realize this (though a friend or two knew all along).

I follow Edie Brogan's blog (an incredible read, just packed to the brim with information, I recommend it to anyone on a rainy day, but start with the oldest post first), and in one post she quoted an instructor and stated it perfectly: "He also talked a little more about how our horsemanship is a never-ending journey - and that if we’re not happy with NOW, we’ll never be happy, because it will never be 'perfect enough'."

I'll leave you with that statement in closing.

--Erica

The Feet

Oh, yeah, I forgot to post about Bella's feet picking-up issue. Turns out it was all dominance-related. The farrier came last week Tuesday, and so Bella said "No, I don't want to hold my foot up" like she normally does and my mom just backed her up hard and fast (the farrier was out of the way of course), and Bella did pretty well after that. It wasn't that she quit being sassy: She took her foot away from the farrier around 7 times total, but she licked her lips every time my mom backed her up, and then quit being sassy for a little bit. That's a LOT better than normal, because normally it's always a constant fight to get her feet done. So, two thumbs up for savvy and prior and proper preparation!

Applying the Principles: and a NEW Guideline

Refer back to my last post if you forgot what it was about, because I have had the most amazing past few days applying the things I wrote about! I've really had fun with Moose and enjoyed playing "Don't Make Me Pick-Up The Stick" and really just had a blast. :) Now, THAT'S the Parelli I've been looking for since May!

And I talked with a friend 2 days ago, and she really opened my eyes. Moose and I aren't in level 1, we're in level 2!!! I'm very excited about it. The conversation started because I felt stuck like I've been normally feeling lately, and she asked why I felt stuck. I said because I don't feel like I'm going anywhere. Well, through three or four questions (the compulsories for Level 2 On Line) she determined that I should go film my level 2 On Line! I was really blown away, but now I feel like a big weight has been lifted from my chest. Being labeled "In Level 1" was just killing me, because I know how to say "see dick run" and so does my horse, but yet just because a few things weren't perfect we were still stuck there. So, "Hi everyone, my name is Erica and I'm a Level 2 Parelli Student on my way to becoming a Parelli Professional." :) How cool!!!


A New Guideline
I have another thing I'm going to play with and that is not being so goal-oriented. So, my new guideline number 4 is going to be to make my primary goal to have fun/enjoy our relationship, because it dawned on me today that if my goal is to canter 1 lap, that doesn't mean I can't do trot/canter transitions and walk/trot transitions. Basically, I don't have to drill him to get what I'm looking for. I'll just set it up and wait for a response. Basically, I just realized that it's not about the goal.

Re-Inspired

This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but Blogger was acting funny so I couldn't post it. Anyways. . .

I played with Moose yesterday. It went pretty well, but I got discouraged, because it dawned on me that I still don't know who to be with him. But after watching some INCREDIBLE Parelli videos (and thus becoming re-inspired) I came up with 3 things that I need to change/do:

• I need to remember it's all a game, and have more fun! Shirley said that your enthusiasm level directly relates to your horse's enthusiasm level.
  

• I need to find out who I need to be around a horse who is used to being micro-managed his whole life.

• I need to take the time it takes. If it takes 2 years before I ride him, so what? If it takes 2 years before we pass Level 2, so what? I just need to remember that it's not about the time line, and to just have fun with where we're at right now. So what if we're not doing flying lead changes or sliding stops or playing at liberty? Accept where I'm at right now, so those things will come when they were meant to. Think how much I'll learn if it takes 2 years to pass Level 2! Think how much I'll learn if I don't ride him for 2 years! It's not about the _____, it's about the relationship.

Very good advice to myself. Now, let's just see how well I use it. :)

Getting a Feel for Blogger

Okay, so in case you didn't get the memo, I just switched my blog over from Wordpress to this site yesterday. Just working on setting everything up right now. Links might not be correct yet, so bear with me while I set everything up.

Moment In History

What happened to Bella while I've been gone? She's got confidence! Woah, who knew!?!? I'd been having issues with her on line for the past few months, because I feel like she's living inside a little bubble, and the bubble is her comfort zone. And if you push her too close to the bubble, she'd bolt and leave you in the dust, although of course she warns you first. :) But I didn't see how we could get anything done with her if she'd always get so worried about things, because when she bolts, she's gone. She's a Percheron, after all.

But, no issues like that whatsoever today! I finally took the initiative to go play with her, because I usually play with her like once a month, maybe that. Moose is really my focus, sorry Bella (or rather, lucky Bella, depending on your perspective :). Anyways, Bella has been a handful for the farrier and last time she was particularly bad about her feet. So, my mom and I've done some research and gained a bunch more savvy arrows, so this time we're prepared!

For starters, the farrier is coming in 2 weeks. So, one of us is going to play with her at least every other day until the farrier arrives. Our issue specifically is that once we get her foot up, she doesn't want to keep it up. So, we're setting up ourselves for success big time. We're getting her prepared for as long as that takes until she's a nice, respectful horse. Also, we're changing the environment around. Normally, we bring the horses out of the pasture to trim their feet into a small area without a whole lot of maneuverability. We've changed our game plan. This time, the horses are going to get trimmed inside the pasture.

And thanks to Dave Ellis, we're going to have a different set of rules with our farrier, too. It's basically going to run so that if the horse is being naughty, our farrier will tell us "take it away" and drop the foot and the moment that foot hits the ground, we're off circling and backing 'for miles' (I use the quotes, because we're not going for miles, but we will go for as long as it takes. I've heard a story about horses who got backed up all the way down a mile driveway for not standing still to mount and I'll tell you he didn't try that again anytime soon.) and going sideways with as much effort as the horse put into being sassy. If Bella gets really bad, even with our preparation, then we're going to have the farrier trim Moose until she settles down, so that still keeps things efficient time-wise for her. Basically, we're going to let Bella choose if she'd rather back up for 'a mile' or hold her foot up for a minute. And we're going to play with her for a little while before the farrier gets here, too.

So, today is the 2nd session since we've started this plan. With her front feet, things went very well. I could hold her foot up for 7 seconds, and it was still my idea to put it down. Marvelous! She wasn't so cooperative with her back feet, though, but she does normally have more trouble with those than the front. So, instead of breaking my back trying to get her to understand, I switched to the carrot stick and tapping her foot to lift it. Her first thought was that I wanted her to yield her HQ. So then every time she'd yield her HQ I'd yield them fast in 2 complete circles. So, then when she started thinking a little, she tried backing, and I had her back 4 steps for her every 1 step back. So, then she started alternating between the 2, because she didn't know what I wanted. After about 10 minutes of this, she stepped back but with the foot I wanted her to pick up, so I released on that. She licked and chewed on that one for a while. Then, I tried tapping once more and it took 3 times, but then she picked up the foot again. I quit on that note, because I wanted to do some other things and then bring her out to graze for a while in case I lost any rapport today.

Today was really a "Moment In History" kind of day, so it was pretty sweet. I was very happy that Bella was left brain, because now we can make some real progress!!! And I am very happy with myself, too. I was an alpha today, that's for sure, and Bella picked up on that right away. On a comical note, Bella's yielding her HQ today was better than Moose's, (but Bella was pretty stiff/tight). And we actually got 1 lap of circing on a 12' at a walk. *Half-hearted "yippee!"* That's still pretty pathetic :), but it's progress all right. My horses are so funny. ;)

How to Fix the Bucking Bronco

I forgot to add in my last post about how I'm going to fix Moose's bucking reaction. The things I learned will definitely come into play, but I found out I am not the sole responsible party for his reaction. Moose does have a legitimate issue with the girth, not so much the bareback pad, though.

I did approach and retreat with the bareback pad to make sure he didn't have any issues with it. After a little bit, he was pretty relaxed with the pad on, so I didn't think the pad was a problem. So, I had a 22' connected to his halter, and I just wrapped part of the rope around his belly. So, I had control of his head in one hand, and his Z3 in another. I rubbed the rope all around him, to see if that irritated him. I tried getting him to yield towards me with the rope, to give him an out if he felt stuck. Then, I simulated the girth by pulling it taught, then loose, then taught, etc. None of this bugged him like it did the other day. So, with my hands on the same position on the ropes, I decided to see if I could get him to yield forward from the rope on his Z3. As soon as the rope pulled taught, Moose's eyes got huge and he got worried. Actually, he scared me, because I thought he was going to jump forward and run through me or something. I was standing in front of him at the time, because I wanted to lead him forward from Z3, so that put me in a bad position. But at least I found out what the issue is!

Now the only problem is that I can't solve it without buying another 22'. :( My idea is to have him on a 22' line in case he gets scared. And then I want a 22' around his girth area to act like a normal girth. So, first I want to see how much pressure he can take from the 'girth', and if he's out on a circle while I do this, that puts me in a safe position. I'm hoping that doing that will get rid of most of his issue. So, then I can leave leading by Z3 to a time when he's more left-brain and more prepared to follow the feel.

So, that's my genius idea, but seeing as I don't have 2 22' lines, I'm just going to have to experiment with having him on a 22' and then a 12' around his Z3. I'll let you know how it goes.

Finding Time for Time

Due to a change in my schedule, I'm not going to be updating as often as I'd like. Things just got a whole lot busier, so free time on computer will be sketchy on most days. I'm not real excited about it, but oh well. :)

Anyways, what have Moose and I been doing lately!? We've just been refreshing from vacation! That's right. Tuesday night was the last night in our longest time without playing ever: 5 days. Oh, I know. . . the horror! I wasn't very happy about it, since I thought that the 5 days off were going to make him forget everything, or something silly like that. :) But surprisingly (to me), when I played with him on Tuesday he was actually the most in tune with me that he's ever been. I wouldn't call it our best day ever, but our communication was definitely subtler than normal. For instance, sometimes when I send him out on a circle, he goes the wrong direction. So, I yo-yo him back to say 'wrong answer.' Then, I kept pointing in the direction I want him to go, and yo-yoing if he went the wrong way. After a few times of going the wrong direction, he would back up from a brisk phase 1. Normally, it's a phase 2 when he makes a mistake, because he obviously thinks that the direction he wants to go is right or he wouldn't be going there, and my suggestion of backing usually takes him by surprise. This time he was paying more attention to me. So, that was kind of cool.

Also, I played yesterday and today, and Moose has actually woken up a little bit. Yesterday, he pinned his ears back a few times when I told him that "no, he cannot come in and needs to circle." And the day before, I sent him and he took off like a lunatic and pulled me off balance. Today, he got a little revved up when I told him that I needed his HQ to yield when I ask, so he was sending with a lot of energy again. There was one other thing he did the other day, but I can't remember what it was. Anyways, I wasn't really sure what to think about all this, because I think my horse has actually found his play drive now! So, now I just have to figure out the line between play and dominance. :0

And right before our little vacation, I got my bareback pad!!! Hip hip horray! It's green and it's Parelli. I sat on it on a barrel and can already feel how the pad gives your seat almost a velcro-like feeling. Since I was so excited to go try it out right when I got it, I went out and got Moose and played some quick Friendly with it and then put it on him. Sent him out for some circles, then brought him in. Tightened up the girth a little. Then, I wanted to play Touch It on some tires we have set up as a pedestal. From there, I wanted him to jump the tires as a pre-flight check. Ready, set, go and we're off to the tires. And only 1 of us ended up getting there, and it wasn't me. Moose blew a gasket, and gallopped off bucking at the same time. He ran around the whole pasture freaking out when he finally stopped near Bella (who, by the way, when she saw Moose freaking out promptly decided the sky was falling and ran around with Moose for all of 8 strides before reaching the decision that running is too much work and stopped on a dime and ate grass like nothing happened) and let me take the bareback pad off. 2 things of note: 1) the bareback pad was in exactly the same position it was in when I did up the cinch the 2nd time. Hmm, how interesting! 2) When I took off the bareback pad the first thing Moose did was yawn about 5 times. To be expected, but I guess that just told me that I need to read my horse better. And so afterwards, I did approach and retreat with the bareback pad and he went back to being my LBI Moose. So, what did I learn from this experience? 1) Don't be direct-line. I was direct-line by going straight to the bareback pad. 2) Don't make assumptions. I assumed Moose would be LBI Moose eand not have an issue with the pad or girth. 3) There is a reason I haven't made a lot of progress with him, so I'm not just being an incompetent human. I was on to something when I pinned him as a LBI with an RBI side, and this means I'm still somewhat right by going slow with him. This proved to me that his RBI side is still in there. I had suspected so, but never proven it until this day. 4) When a RBI's eyes get even a little hard, you just found a threshold. Time for retreat.

And I'm excited now, too, because I might have finally found a saddle! A friend of mine had an old Western saddle in her tack room that was just collecting dust, and said if it fit Moose I could have it. Well, lo and behold, it's black and it's dusty, but it's a Big Horn. :0 So, I tried it on him tonight and it looks a lot better than the other saddle we bought for him. This one is going to need 1 or 2 shims to keep it off his shoulders, because the saddle is tight there, and possibly one in back to keep the weight off the back of the saddle, but it is still a lot nicer. The other saddle I had was an Abetta and it was in better condition, but it just sunk right down on his shoulders, so the saddle would have needed quite a few shims to even be level in the first place. It wouldn't have worked very well. And if this works out, then I even have enough money to buy the Theraflex pad! I love it when a plan come together.

Performing like a Partner

I had another lesson with Shirley on Friday. It went great! My mom taped a video of me this time. I'd put it up, but you can't hear the audio very well, so it'd be kind of pointless.

Shirley was in a very good mood, and I earned another level of respect from Moose. Plus, it was plain as day to me this time that Moose was being disrespectful. And it comfirmed that he and I are still in the teaching phases: although that is depressing news I kind of expected it. Shirley agreed with me when I said that I didn't feel like we were making much progress for the amount I play with him, and apparently it is mostly because of my leadership.

So, I played with him on Saturday and took it a little too far in the leadership category. Interestingly enough, this happened last time I had a lesson with Shirley, too. During the lesson, we focus on gaining more respect from Moose the whole time, so the next day I go out and play and am a dictator, because that is what I thought we did the previous day. Of course, that'd not the case, but the lesson just tilts my love, language and leadership scale off-kilter a little bit, so now I have to rebalance it.

Dave Ellis Day 2

• Help your horse think through trouble


• "Every ying has a yang."


• Horses are horses. It's their job to perceive danger and run.


• Don't knock your horse down to your level, instead improve yourself. Dave gave a very inspiring speech about this. He said that horses will wait a lifetime for you if you keep trying to improve yourself for them. Dave said that if he tries things at too high of a level for his horses even he has days where he puts his mules up and they have that look in their eye like "maybe tomorrow he'll get it."


• Whenever your energy is down, your horse should not go anywhere no matter what you do. That is not probably not going to happen in Level 3, even, but that should be your end result. Dave furthered that by saying that when you play Friendly, make sure your energy is down or you're desensitizing them to the point of danger. Like he said earlier, it's a horse's job to perceive danger and run, and if you desensitize him to your energy being up that is the equivalent of desensitizing him to a mountain lion. He mentioned too that when you watch Pat play extreme Friendly Game with a horse, he always looks at the ground, because he wants the energy to go nowhere.


• When you say "Don't trot too fast!" and so slow your horse down, that's bringing your horse down to your level.


• Your horse perceives comfort will be found in what he does, so use comfort-discomfort to motivate him


• "What pushes my horse's buttons? What really makes him tick?"


• Dave quotes someone when he said this, sorry I can't remember who: "None of us dig in deep enough to find the real horse. Most of us don't have the confidence/maturity to accept the real horse." So, what we end up doing is making the horse we have into our dream horse. On the same note, "Look down that line and if what you see looking down that line doesn't make you feel wonderful, get rid of it."


• What my horse is like while I'm learning is completely different than after you've learned.


• "At any time we should be able to walk up to our horse and ask them to do something."


• The horse who gets in the last word is in charge, so the last word should always be yours


• Match the opposition. Opposition = how much effort she is putting in to being resistant.


• Your horse should quit going to the degree that you quit riding.


• "The best way to fix anything is to be aware." -Linda Parelli


• When your horse moves without you asking, play tit for tat. For example, if your horse walks 2 steps forward without you asking them to, have them back up 4 steps.


• Dave had one clinic participant bring her horse out and play Circling Game. He wanted her to pick a foot on the outside of the circle and move her hand to the rhythm of that foot. To speed her horse up, she picked the outside back foot and just asked it to speed up the tempo a little. To slow down. she picked the outside front foot and just asked it to shorten its stride. All of this was done with just her energy, or ki. The results were incredible to see, because the transitions seemed effortless. Dave furthered this by having her push an outside foot off the circle one step only (but again only using her energy) and having her horse still keep the same rhythm. Dave wanted everyone to think about only moving that one foot, because if you try to move the whole horse that's about 1,200 lbs (give or take), but the hoof only weighs 5 lbs.


• "Don't allow the horse to be wrong for so long they think they're right."


• If your horse doesn't put his/her foot where you want, you don't have his/her respect.


• Ill respect = not disrespect, but clearly didn't do what you want


• "I don't make anything happen, I just don't go away."


• If a point is too small, make a vicinity to put his foot in so it's easier


• Pick a focus and go. If your horse is resistant, then he's saying "hey, we made a deal here that you won't ask much and I'll do just enough to get along."


• Have an attitude of "Can you help me get to that?" or "We need to be over there."


• I can't remember who Dave quoted for this one either: "Don't leave without your horse and don't let your horse leave you."


• When you're moving his foot to a specific place, have an attitude of "I see where I wish this foot would go" not "move your foot."


• If you talk to the HQ, the front feet should do nothing different.


• The reason for focusing on the outside legs is because if you focus on the inside your horse will probably disengage.


• When you keep in time with their feet, you don't necessarily have to be in every single foot fall. For example, if you're trying to keep in time with the feet with a Paso Fino, you might pick every 4 strides or something like that.


• Horses don't like to be out of sync.


• Neutral in the Circling Game is not dead. When you put your car in neutral, is it dead?


• The rhythm you have in your body determines what gait you want. It's our responsibility to put the energy in our body.


• Horses are approximately 100x more sensitive than humans


• In Freestyle, the hand holding the reins should be the direction you're going.


• Freestyle to Finesse shouldn't change your horse's gait at all


• Trotting is the easiest gait for the horse, but the hardest for the human


• If you want to get a good stop, then get a world-class back-up. Get your horse thinking back up not stop. You know you've done it enough when your horse steps back to regain his balance.


• Feel of, for, and with your horse


• Do Step #1 in 9 step back-up. Does your horse do anything? Then do step #2. Feel of him. Then step #3, feel for him. Then #4-7. Step #8 and 9, feel with him. Steps #1-3 are preparatory commands.


• If you're riding your horse through 2 barrels and he purposely knocks one of the barrels over, bump him with the rein on the opposite side of the barrel he knocked over. The reason you bump him it so that he gets a consequence for what he did. The reason you bump on the other side is because if you were a fence post and your horse turned his head to knock the barrel over, he'd run into the rein on the opposite side.


• Linda once said that a level 3 grad should be able to do any transition within a 2 step maximum. So, since this clinic was level 2/3 Dave said to aim for 3-4 steps.


• If you're riding the trot and you bring your energy down to a walk (and your horse doesn't listen right away), sometimes our inner ear gets in the way and causes us to think we're going to fall off because we're bouncing. To counteract this, put your hand on the horn/pommel so you stay secure in your seat.


• When you ride, the more your leading hand is bent, the more tight you've been.


• When you have a backing up energy in your body and your horse doesn't listen, bump 1 rein if you're riding Finesse, or comb the reins underhanded if you're riding Freestyle.


• When your horse changes the game on you, say "let me show you how well I can play this game". (For example, I tried to teach Moose to back by the tail yesterday and after I did it a few times, he started moving his HQ out of the way to get out of doing it. So, instead of saying "don't move your hiney," I just moved it more than he wanted it to move. So, the answer was to just back up when I asked). Another option is to play the game with different criteria, make up rules that he didn't know existed. Just remember that this is not a dictatorship, it's a partnership, so your partner has the right to express him/herself. You don't have the authority to say "no, we're not doing that right now! We're doing this, so quit it!"


• Another thing to try is to quit the game sooner than she/he thought you'd quit. In this case, a girl had a question about her mule, because her mule would do really good for her, but then she always had a point where she would become resistant because she wanted her leadership back. Dave said it was simple, just quit before she gets crabby. And he did a simulation to prove it. Dave held onto one end of the 12' line and a different girl held onto the end of it. Dave said that when he said 'now' he wanted the girl to pull as hard as she could on the end of the rope. He said now, and right as she pulled Dave let go of the rope and walked away, saying "oh, look at the sand" or something like that. He did it with such nonchalance, too, like he couldn't have cared less that the girl just fell over. It was pretty funny (and completely unexpected), but also a very good lesson: It takes 2 to argue.


• And lastly, undemanding time establishes the relationship. It doesn't necessarily improve it.

Dave Ellis Day 1

As I mentioned in my little teaser post about the session I had with Moose Saturday night, I audited Dave Ellis on Saturday and Sunday. Honest to god, I've got to say that was probably the best decision I've made all summer. :) He was such a good instructor, I highly recommend that you go see him if you have the chance.

Anyways, I wanted to post my notes about the clinic. If you have any questions, just leave a comment: when typing them, I assumed that the people reading do Parelli, so some things might confuse anyone who reads who isn't a Parelli person.

• Assertive= "It's going to happen eventually."


• Passive= "I don't know why you're not backing up."


• Aggressive= "I said move!"


• If the horse does something you don't want, do anything to lessen his comfort and then wait. If you always make the right thing easy and wrong thing difficult, your horse will begin to 'hunt for the comfort.'


• Dave stressed this philosophy of "Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult" because it's hard for us humans. It causes us to take the time it takes, and we naturally look for shortcuts.


• Dave had a good point about riding a horse that always drops his shoulder when turning. He said that our horses will train us to use higher phases on them when riding, because we say "well if I just put my leg on him, then he turns well," but the point is not to have to use your leg, so your horse is winning the game. Using the same example, but going back to using comfort and discomfort to motivate them, Dave asked "Would you take 2 days to stop a horse from dropping his shoulder?" *


• Pat is so good with horses because he's the king of lateral thinkers.


• The Circling Game is where your horse shows you how much he respects you, so if you have a broken Circling Game you have broke another game that you have to fix before your Circling will get better.


• You get respect by moving your horse's feet


• The more your horse respects you, the less opposition reflex he'll have


• Make sure your body language is clear and your energy is projecting out to where you want it.


• Friendly Game should not cause a change in your horse. For example, if you stand in your stirrups while trotting (not posting), your horse should not change rhythm, because that is Friendly.


• Step #7 in a 9 Step Back-up does not mean back-up. It means get ready to back-up.


• "Can your horse carry the feel and not make a change?"


• Have something in mind when you change your horse's shape, because then he has a reason to do it. Dave said that when you get out of the teaching and controlling phases, you should have a reason for your horse to do what you want instead of doing it just because you asked for it. For example, if you want your horse to canter, have the attitude of "We need to canter, because we need to get over there really fast."


• Dave had the clinic participants do Extreme Yo-Yo and Extreme Porcupine game on line. To do Extreme Yo-yo, back your horse up until the rope is tight. Hold the rope in both hands. Put one hand on your hip to anchor you, and then just rock your weight back (not leaning back, though and not jerking your horse). You shouldn't have to use your biceps to pull him back, use your whole body. Then, he had them do Extreme Porcupine Game which was basically pulling your horses head down to the ground instead of using phases of pressure. It wasn't a jerk, it was just one big pull.  These exercises cause your horse to respond to more pressure than he thinks he's going to get. For example, if you tie your horse up and he pulls back that's a lot of pressure on the halter all of a sudden, so a practical use of these exercises is to prepare your horse for tying. By the way, you should practice this until your horse is so good at it that he won't let you pull him.


• Another thing Dave had the participants do was see if you can lead your horse different directions with your hands on his nose, but your fingers have to be straight or you're cheating. This was just to see how good your horse is at following a feel. He also had them lead by the tip of the ear. If your horse didn't go, then just support with Driving. He also had them stand in Zone 1 and try to move the horse's nose without touching it by just putting a feel on the lead rope and then supporting with Driving.


• "If we use Driving Game to support Porcupine, when why do we drive?" The answer is to drive when Porcupine doesn't work.


• The four phases of teaching are teach, control, refinforce, refine


• Friendly= Rhythmic motion


• Porcupine= Steady pressure


• Driving= Rhythmic pressure


• You're playing Porcupine Game whenever you have a focus with intent, so that means that when you started out in Level 1 and you played the Driving Game with the HQ, your Phase 1 was to look at the HQ which was actually a Porcupine Game, and then Phases 2,3 and 4 were Driving to support the Porcupine.


• Nose, neck, maybe front feet


• At the teach it and control it phases, take what the horse offers you, but not at reinforce and refine.


• "Once you can do something, do something else."


• "Wait for orders from headquarters." Dave gave a really good analogy about your horse's relationship being equivalent to you owning 51% of the stocks in a company, and your horse owns the other 49%. So, you're the majority voter, but that doesn't mean your horse has no say in the company.


• If you want the belly of the rope on the ground, then your horse should be able to keep it there. But if you want your horse to keep the belly off the ground, he should be able to carry that feel too.


• "Your horse does not want to see Phase 4 twice." It was clear by Dave's tone of voice in this sentence that "does not" means "should not".


• Respect lessens with longer distances away from you


• Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult. If your horse wants to trot when you want a walk, say "great, I love that you want to trot" and then just pick up a circle and keep making it smaller until he changes gait


• "Turn their dream into a nightmare."


• To go sideways while riding, use a direct rein, then indirect rein, and repeat until you achieve your goal.


• If your horse is not mentally 'with you,' you probably haven't done enough with his feet.


• Horses don't like to lean on 1 rein. Because of this, never have your hands at exactly the same level


• When backing-up while riding, lift up the hand that is the next direction you want to go. For example, I'm backing up and I hold my right hand higher than my left. So, when I stop backing I should be going to the right.


• When you do a direct rein, keep a straight elbow


• Practice peripheral vision


• "We need to go over here. . . And here's a reason for you to be going."


• Until level 5, whenever you ride with contact your hands should be level with the ground. This helps sit you back on your balance point.


• Movement with steady pressure is still steady pressure if it's in time with your horse's feet.


• In a correct indirect rein, the HQ do more than the FQ.


• If you're riding your horse with other horses, and your horse keeps putting his ears back at the other horses, first you should rub him to make sure he doesn't feel threatened by them. But then, you have to say "fight on your own time" and keep his/her attention on you. Dave had the rider of a horse who kept putting his ears back hit her horse with her savvy string on the shoulder every time the horse put his ears back. Your attitude should be "I beg your pardon." Dave's theory for why horses start being dominant with others is that when you start winning the 7 games, then the horse takes the #2 position, so some horses start looking for a #3.


• "The line between make and cause is in your heart."


• Don't make anything happen, just start taking away your horse's comfort so he can make the decision.


• "Who's gonna blink first?"

*My personal answer to this was no, but I thought that was a very good question and so included it in the notes. Would you outpersist a horse on something as simple as that? I just thought it was very revealing, because I want to say I would take that time, but I don't think I would. Would you? Just something to think about.