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!
