Questions and Answers

Today went well. We got a huge storm the other day, so our ground is sadly covered with snow again. I've been struggling with interpreting some horsemanship advice I got from a friend regarding picking up Moose's feet, so I haven't played with that since early last week.

Here is a snippet of the e-mail I received:

When I look at your situation, there are a few Parelli-isms that come to mind that I think would be useful for you to ponder.

#1) "If your horse says 'no', you either asked the wrong question, or you asked the question wrong."

#2) "Do your thinking at night, and your feeling during the day."

#3) "It's not about the_______"

#4) Pat's definition of Respect: The Appropriate response to the appropriate application of pressure.

#5) Isolate, Separate, and Recombine

What I'd be looking to is what am I doing to cause this? What is it in ME that is causing my horse to react the way he is? Remember that the horse is perfect, it's up to us to help him understand what we want.

That being said, I think you're right on, in that it's a respect thing. But looking through that filter, what is it that you're doing to cause the disrespectful response?

Another filter to look through is that of the 8 Principles.  Have you ever actually sat down and read them and taken into account what they mean? Massively deep stuff. And usually, if there's something amiss in the partnership, it's rooted in one of the 8 Principles. That's why this program is so genius. It's categorically put into a system (Pat's an LBI, can ya tell? Ha!) that you can use to filter your results (or lack thereof).

Yet another way to look at it is through the 7 games. Which game is broken? How can I help that game become better while remaining in a leadership position and putting the relationship first?
So I've had this congregating in the back of my mind for about a week now, with not a lot of luck.

I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with Moose today.We ended up playing a lot of touch it. It went really well. I revved up my leadership skills a little bit, and got some nice ears forward from Moose and a very lovely responsive horse as well. But then it got wierd, because as things were really nice, ALL OF A SUDDEN FOR NO REASON AT ALL he decided to canter around like a mad man. Now I had had a thought in my head to have him circle at a trot, and see if he would canter right before he started doing this. So, I am not sure if he s reading my mind or this was a form of freak out. Because my options are either A) RB panic attack or B) LB temper tantrum. He didn't look RB, so that's not it. So, either he was reading my mind, or it was a temper tantrum. But, it's funny, because I broke down for a minute there. "My poor horse, what have I done to you? Now you probably hate me!" So I started to get all sad and was thinking I would probably have to stop playing with him, because I was becoming helpless. But, Parelli came to my rescue. I remembered a quote I had been reminded to think about in the e-mail above: "Do you feeling during the day, your thinking at night." Oops. I was thinking. (Haha bad Erica bad). I then just chalked his behavior up to "how interesting!" and moved on.

Anyways, it was the reminder I needed. I perked right back up and realized I was making a big fuss out of nothing. I backed him up, and he was the lightest he's EVER been with his ears forward. I have got to be doing something right. So we did sideways along the fence and I had a realization. One of the things that might help our freestyle is getting our sideways better. If he can maintain the bend in his body where I ask, it's much more likely I'll be able to direct him where I want him to go. So I figure I should start being more particular about that and see where that takes us.

And then the farrier came and did Moose's feet. I found out it wouldn't be a good idea to get Moose shod, instead it'd be best just to buy him boots. And I asked her about a crack in his foot that had made him lame before (it was a cut growing out) and she said not to worry about it. So I'm happy to hear that. Also, I asked her about a lump he has on his throat that's concerned me for some time, and she said not to worry about it as well. Probably just ask the vet. And I looked up some information about it and it doesn't seem very serious. Which is definitely good news.

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.

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.

The Definition of Leadership

I just audited a level 2/3 clinic by Dave Ellis today - details about the clinic in another post - but I had to talk about my play session with Moose when I got home. He did INCREDIBLE!!!!!!! :-) Like I seriously think that was the best I've ever (so consequently, the best HE's) played.

I was a leader. I didn't think my way through it. I made it simple just like Dave kept repeating: "Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult. That's all it is." And I did just that. I said Moose, let's do this. Moose, let's do that. And I tried doing lots of stuff with the same attitude. "Hey, I didn't ask you to do that." "Honey, I need you to try it." "Thanks for offering, but I want you to do ______ instead." And he woke up like I had slapped him in the face.

I didn't worry about things like I normally do. For instance, whenever I got particular in the past, Moose would start running off in the Circling Game. So, I would say "Well, I must've been too particular with him, and I just need to go slower." This time, I didn't conclude that I'd been too particular. I just said "Don't run off! Don't walk! Don't canter! Just trot." And after 2 laps of gallopping off, then stopping and looking at me, then cantering, then looking at me, then cantering, he got it and gave me a lap of trotting, so I stopped and rewarded him. I just made the wrong thing difficult. "You want to canter? That's great, but right now we're trotting." His Circling got a lot better, too, with the go - woah exercise Dave played with the mule. I just sent Moose off, then immediately looked at his HQ to disengage. Of course, he had going on the brain, so I said "Don't run off, just stop." And so he stopped, and then I sent him and he took off again, and we repeated the same thing over again. Took him like 3 sends before he figured out that just-getting-the-heck-outta-there when I send made it really hard to yield his hindquarters.

But the biggest breakthrough is yet to come. Moose has trouble putting his foot on/in things. If I ask him to put it inside a tire, he won't do it. He always puts it around, and I've gotten him to put it in/on, but he's never offered anything and it took a while. Well, I mentioned this in an older post that we have 2 tractor tires full of dirt right next to each other which can serve as a pedestal/jump/mounting block. Well, he's had issues jumping it, so I wanted to give it a try today. He jumped it fine one way after a few re-sends. Then, I tried the other way, and after a few re-sends, he started pawing the dirt in the tire. So, I let him, since that's progress. Then, I sent him again, and he actually stood on the dirt!!!! That's HUGE!!!!!!!!! Like I was crying tears of joy good, and doing cartwheels good and running-out-of-treats-to-feed-him good. I was so impressed. . . I even unhaltered him standing up there (after I knew that he wasn't going to jump down on me, though). A very ecstatic moment . . . I just had to share!  Savvy on! :P

Zap In The Face

I went out today to go apologize to Moose yesterday, and so wanted to have a little fun day today. I hid treats around the pasture on various items so we could play with our Touch It becoming a little better, and get him interested at the same time.

So, we started out, and he wouldn't put his nose on anything. Being in a better mood today than in our session yesterday (and stopping my leadership experiment, BTW), I just noticed this and kept on trucking instead of getting emotional. Well, after he discovered a treat inside a tractor tire I had him touch, he started investigating the objects a little more. Score! So, I took him to another tractor tire where the treat was balanced precariously - in retrospect, this was stupidity on my part - on the tire (it's at a funny angle). He noticed it was there after a second, and knocked it on the grass. Upon trying to retrieve it, he got stung by a bee on his nose!!! Then, he gets into a mad rush to itch his nose on anything within walking distance. And by pure chance, Bella is close by. So, he rubs himself all over her and Bella of course retaliates with a kick, but she missed him.

So, first time I've ever had a horse get stung and hopefully the last. I've got to say that I wasn't really sure what to do in that situation: I just let him go itch, because I'm sure it didn't feel good, but should I have become more of a leader and said "I'm more important than your itch?" Just something to ponder.

After that, things went alright, but the bee ruined his good mood. He no longer investigated anything, so I felt bad that just when he started to become brave it got knocked out of him. And he got extremely bugged-out after that, too. Every time I asked him to go touch the next obstacle, he'd start tossing his head. And if any bug came on him, he stopped thinking for a second, and then had to itch.

And to top things off, Bella was feeling  a little RBE because of how windy it was today, so after Moose got stung he tuned right into her mood. So, a very strange day, but not necessarily bad in my opinion. We'll see what he thinks about me tomorrow.

A Day of Mistakes

Had a very average day today, meaning that it wasn't good. At the beginning of the session, my plan was to be a better leader, because in case I haven't mentioned it, I'm experimenting with leadership this week due to an e-mail with Shirley.

So, I see Moose. He looks at me. I circle around to yield his HQ so he'll turn and face so I can halter up. He trots off! I whack my carrot stick on the ground hard and walk after him. After a few times of making the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult, he let me walk up to him and so I haltered up and started playing, completely ignoring the fact that he was hard to catch. *Possible Mistake #1. How to fix if I could've done it all over again: skip the play session entirely, and take the halter off after giving him a treat.*

Then, I tried some Porcupine and Driving Game. I was just doing the basic Porcupine the Forehand in a circle, then Porcupine the back end, then do Driving on the forehand and then on the back end, then switch sides and repeat. He did okay, but he won't pivot! It was really bugging me that he wouldn't, but I just went back to doing 1 or 2 steps, for the goal of building off that in the future. *Possible mistake #2. How to fix if I could've done it all over again: taking a break while I was frustrated, because I find that once my emotions come up, retreating helps them go back down.* But I did notice a staggering difference between his right side and left. Left was a lot easier and had more flow, right was really jerky and just plain more difficult.

After that, we did some Touch It. We haven't done that in a while and he was very rusty. We did Touch It all over the pasture, and he really didn't have touching things on his mind. And it bothered me again that he won't go straight at the things I point him at (I go straight to the item, but is kind of bent around me). This's been going on for forever, but it had to pop up today. Luckily, I didn't act on that thought, but just stored it for later. *Good choice.*

Then, I tried getting him to touch the chicken coop with me being about 12' away. I had to move closer to him before he would move his forehand and thus put his nose on it, but he did it. So, then with me standing in the same spot, I sent him to a tree (so I'm still about 12' away ), and he touched it again. Cheers for Moose! So, I sent him back to my first destination and he wanted to put his Zone 2 next to it, not his Zone 1 facing it. I had to get firm with him that I wanted his Zone 1 near the coop, so then he was too focused on me to think about touching it. *Possible mistake #3. How to fix if I could've done it all over again: Stopped when he touched the tree, that was good enough for one day.*

Then, we did Falling Leaf and he did okay for a little big, but then he started running around behind me and not yielding his hind end. I just passively persisted for a little bit, but then I got angry and said "I want those HQ now!" and he faced up fast but very wide-eyed. So, I apologized for getting firm, then yielded his HQ at close range to make sure he understood. I was still a little annoyed at this point, but decided I could be fair.

So, then I started playing with our change of direction, because in all honesty you would think we never practice it. *Mistake. How to fix if I could've done it all over again: Not even attempt this when I'm annoyed. I remember thinking: "do I want to quit here or get all worked up again?" Unfortunately, I made this decision off of feelings, not logic, because if my brain would've been working I would've just called it quits beforehand, and not have put my horse through torture from my own lack of emotional fitness.* He didn't do very good, and that was to be expected. I backed up as far as I could, he ran forward and completely ignored my looking at his hinder, so my angry predator came to life again and started whacking with that stick at his butt vigorously, and Moose obviously kept running. But after doing that twice, my brain kicked in and I decided I didn't want Moose to hate me for life.

Now, the good part about all this is that I thought of a way to fix our change of direction! Use a fence. *Good choice.* I stand a ways off the fence, so I have room to back up. I send Moose out, and then back up to the fence and if he runs forward, he just runs into the fence, and I just re-direct and then ta-da! A change of direction! Did that 3x and he changed without the fence for support. :)

So, I'm guessing tomorrow's going to be a bad day, so I'm going to get proactive and play with him with a bag of carrots tonight instead. Hopefully, that'll change his mind that I'm not so bad after all.

Honey, I need you to do this

My lesson with Shirley on Wednesday went great! I learned SOO much, it was completely worth it.

Anyways, my lesson was the first one (of 3 total). I decided that I wanted to work on our Circling Game, because Moose can't even make it around half a lap at the WALK before calling it quits. So, Shirley had me show her our HQ driving game first off. I moved his HQ around, and it moved fine, but she pointed out that his feet don't cross over like they should. So, our goal was to get him to cross over 3x in a row. He would do 2x just fine, but he'd cheat on the 3rd, so we ended up going round and round and round for whoever knows how many circles. We did it from both sides, so I'm sure Moose was dizzy by the time we were done.

Afterwards, I showed her our circles. And interestingly enough, Moose took off like a shot when I sent him the first time (he isn't used to having so particular of a leader, so I think it was too much pressure for him), and ran around like a nut  for a little while. (I don't remember the exact order of things after this, just an fyi). I also wanted to play with having Moose jump some barrels, because I could never get him to jump anything. So, while he's running around and not really thinking, he eventually encounters the barrels. At first, he'd swerve around them, then he'd jump them unconfidently, then he'd stop in front of them and ask me a question, so it was a process.

Shirley played with him for a little bit when he was in this  mode (it's not RBE like "I'm gonna die!!", it's more like "can't think, gotta move!"), but I ran in to get some fly spray at that time. When I saw him again, she was playing with yielding his hindquarters.

Then, we did sideways. I'm just starting sideways, so he did pretty well. Then, I showed her my squeeze and we combined the two. I did sideways, and then backed up and did squeeze. Once I got the feel down, Moose did really well. Shirley commented that this exercise is great for horses to learn where their feet are, and to be a little more nimble. I could see his progress, too, because when we started with the HQ driving game, he kept tripping on himself.

Now, I think we did our circling game again along with jumping the barrels. He was circling at the trot without breaking gait, and even jumping the barrels without hesitation! It was wonderful. And he was pulling on me less than the first time, too.

Then, we did Stick to Me, and once Shirley had him go between me and our round pen fence, it got WAY better. He understood to go when I go, and stop when I stop. It was so cool to see him mirror me like that!

And I was pretty surprised by this, but Shirley told me that Moose is not an RBI. She thinks he's actually an LBI, just a pretty mild one. She said half-way through my lesson that she hadn't seen him go Right Brain once during this whole thing! So, I guess I do have to more forward more. I was always going slow for him, because I wante to keep his confidence.

Here's what I learned:

• The title was the theme of all the lessons today


• It's okay to have expectations for Moose


• I need to be a better leader and get Moose through his can't think phase, instead of avoiding it


• Every horse needs a leader, even the self-confident/dominant ones


• It's not rocket science!


• Your horse will show the same amount of enthusiasm that you put in.

Afterwards, 2 other friends had their lessons. Dancer's owner Lisa went first and it was nice to see what Shirley had them do. They started out with Circling Game, too, and then spent the remainder of their time working on Sideways game. Dancer is very dominant, and Shirley had Lisa assert her leadership, but it was a gradual thing versus just fight through it. So, from that session I learned that passive persistence pays off and the importance of defending your space.

Then, another friend named Lisa had a lesson. But in this one, Shirley played with the horse the whole time, but that's because the horse was an untrained 2 year old. The theme of this lesson was that you can't keep babying these horses (see link). Yes, they're untrained. Yes, some of them are untouched. But you have to move past that and treat them like normal horses. Of course, you have to be cautious, but you still have to act like the calm, confident, competent leader that they need.

And a friend took some pictures of Moose and I, so they will be added to this post as soon as I get them!

Reality Check

Couple of things to talk about. First, I thought everyone should know that Horse.com is currently holding a contest for pictures of your horse and/or you to go on the cover of their magazine. The prize is a $2500 gift card, and pictures are due on May 31, 09. For more information, click here.

Okay, so secondly I wanted to talk about the past few days. Well, I think it was on Friday that I watched the newest Parelli DVD called Solving the Extrovert/Introvert Mismatch (or something similar). Well, I have to say I am VERY impressed. Personally, I think these are the kinds of DVDs that Parelli should have in the Success Series, because this is the kind of stuff I'm looking for/need help with. This really helped answer my questions about how to act around our horses, and how to manage my energy better. I had no idea how different your energy had to be for each horsenality. Slow reactions for Introverts, fast reactions for Extroverts. . . who knew? I was never told that energy changed that much. Also, I learned some more huge pieces of information.

For one thing, RBE's and LBE's have totally different strategies. I have been using some RBE strategies with Dancer, which is actually a very BAD idea. I'm just lucky Dancer isn't as agressive with me as she could have been. See, most Parelli people know that with RBE's you need to use "thanks, I needed that" type things once and while. But I was doing that to Dancer. I would say "Don't do this, don't do that." But with LBE's you dominate them through "You want to ____. Let me help you!" until they run out of ideas. So, it shouldn't be a fight at all! I wish I would've known this months ago!

Thirdly, the DVD showed a very interesting tip for aggressive horses. Linda said when you have an aggressive horse, give them a treat (while they're being dominant), because it'll blow their mind! I have to admit, though, that when I heard her say that it blew my mind too. I was thinking "But, wouldn't that teach them to be aggressive?" I actually had to pause the segment for a moment and think about it. I couldn't reach a conclusion. Well, on it went again. Linda answered my question about a minute later :). She said that horses don't think like that - they can't think that far into the future to plan out that 'being aggressive = treats'. Personally, I'm still a little confused as to how that could be, because horses are very quick to notice that when they ______(insert action), they receive a treat. Oh, well that's another topic.

Fourthly (if that is a word), I had a BFO about our relationship. Unfortunately, I had been being direct-line for the past couple of MONTHS (which is what was causing me to be frustrated and Moosey to be RBI, as I mentioned in previous posts). Poor Moose!! I didn't care about the relationship (albeit I thought I did), and had instead been focusing on making him do the task. Hey, I REALLY REALLY want to reach level 4, you know. :) Well, at least the good news is that I noticed what I was doing and I fixed it. See, I had broken my expectations and attitude. Now, my expectations are nada and my attitude is positively great. Moosey likes it a lot better, too. I took him out yesterday and he was really interested in me and left brain. He even walked to me!

It is still going to take a little while to fully change my timing and be positive, but I'm ready for the change. It's a LOT better than being frustrated. I still am tempted to make him pay attention to me and get after him for things I consider 'disrespectful', but I am determined not to be like that anymore. I should be his sanctuary, his safehouse! Plus, I just have to remember that the people in Level 3 + didn't get there by forcing their horse. They got their by putting the relationship first, and then everything else fell into place.

What Happened to the Horses?

Oh man, it was an AMAZING day today. For me. :)

Moosey was in a SUPER good mood, so I even tried playing games while having the 22' around his neck and no halter. I decided that we weren't quite ready for that yet, but he gave a nice effort!

And to put things in perspective for you, I even sat on Moosey today for the first time since we bought him. That's how good he was! And I don't even know what made him so good. . . unless changing the obstacles in our pasture really had that much of an impact on him, lol. It just seemed that he was happy being with me today! And LB, too!

But yeah, I guess that sums up what he thought of yesterday. I would grade myself a big A+, which is quite a relief.

On the contrary (and quite to my amazement), Bella was being a little (big) BRAT today! I mean, calm, loving, friendly, "pet me pet me" Bella tried to bite Mom! We were astonished!

Personally, I still like my theory that someone switched Bella and Moose's brains for a day. Because seriously, that was what happened: Moose was EXTREMELY friendly, loving, cuddly, LB, just a lovely character to be around. I mean, he even had TOO MUCH draw!!! I thought I'd never see the day. . . today, I could barely get him to do a circle, because he kept coming in -normally, me and 3 elephants can't make him come in.

Now, Bella was being the opposite! She had NO draw (for her, that's like saying the sun doesn't shine in Hawaii), was throwing tantrums, and was over-reactive! Well, Mom is usually passive and today she acted like a leader, so "how interesting" that today is the day Bella is sassy! I guess she isn't such an angel after all, silly girl.

Overall, I had a very nice day, I hung out/played with Moose for a long time today. We'll just have to see if today was a freak of nature or if I'm actually more savvy than I thought. And it'll be interesting to know how Bella acts tomorrow.

The Adventures of Mr. And Mrs. Brain

To say the least, the horses and I have had some interesting experiences this week.

For starters, on either Monday or Tuesday Moosey cut himself on his face. So, I haven't been playing with him on line due to the cut being close to where the halter would sit. I probably could play with him if I wanted, but I'd prefer to take the safe route and let it heal for a little while. Because of this, I am trying to play with either Dancer or Bella instead.

Yesterday, I picked Dancer. Suprisingly enough, she actually let me halter her without walking away. Though, she had her ears back the whole time. Since I didn't want to push my luck ( she hasn't let me halter her in FOREVER) once I had the halter on I just let her sit there and think about it. I brushed Moosey while I let her think. He was being extremely LB, which was just my luck, right? The day I can't/won't play with him is the day when he's the most confident. :) How ironic! Anyways, Dancer licked her lips twice so I took the halter off and called it a day.

Today, Moosey was the same: very very LB. He was in an even better mood, though. He was actually interested in me today, and followed me around a little bit. I admit I had a few bad feelings toward that cut, lol. But I decided to leave him and took out Mrs. Bella instead.

Now, here's the plot of the adventure: Bella was RB today!! And I'm positive she was this time. It was really windy out today and on windy days, Bella is usually on adrenaline. At first, I was just behind the barn with the horses, so I didn't know it was so windy. But after I haltered her up and walked over to our little obstacle area, she started staring at somewhere out of the pasture. And staring. And staring. And staring. . . and then I had a lightbulb moment: "Hey, she's not paying any attention to me . . . Omg, she's RB!" And as soon as I realized that her staring and not looking away was RB, I started interrupting the pattern. It went alright, I had to really pump up the volume a few times, but each time she would lick her lips afterwards and stare at me, so I took that as a good sign. (Besides, normally she takes forever to lick her lips. How interesting!) After she seemed reasonably left-brain again, I took her back behind the barn to take her halter off. She FINALLY started releasing adrenaline. It seemed like she must have been really keyed up.

On a considerably random ending note, I can't WAIT for Spring!!

If my horse is my mirror . . .

What the HECK do I look like?!?!?

Oh, how I wish I could have someone videotape me during sessions! That would be SOOO beneficial! Especially today . . .

I had lessons today, so I couldn't play with the ponies for very long. I decided to just take one of them out and just let him/her graze. Well, Moose volunteered to be haltered (yippee!), so I attempted to take him out. We didn't make it past the gate. I hadn't noticed beforehand, but Moose has a threshold practically ON the gate to go outside (which basically shows how herd-bound he is). Therefore, I suspended all plans for outside activity and just went back inside the pasture. I can't deal with thresholds under pressure when I only had a limited time.

So, we went back in and just messed around for a little while. I checked out our Friendly, did a little Porcupine. Mostly, I just was trying to read him correctly, so we didn't get a whole lot done. But we really had a "HOW INTERESTING!!!!!!!!!!" moment. Moose tried to rub on me, and I immediately took it as dominance. So, I reacted with a strong Forehand driving game. I automatically regretted that: what if it ruined his confidence? But, then I tried a Friendly toss of the string over his back and he didn't care! And I mean really didn't care! He was too busy licking and chewing! He seriously was licking and chewing for at least 3 minutes straight! His head was down, and he kept licking over and over again. If he wasn't licking, his head was down and he was blowing. He blew for a long time, about every 45 seconds. He even moaned, hehe! Then, he started itching! *Lightbulb clicks on* I realized that Moose never itches on line. And so, that made me wonder if he was actually trying to be dominant in the first place!

So, I thought about the whole thing, and came up with the phrase "My horse is my mirror." Then, was Moose trying to tell me that I was hyped up, too? Because I know there have been times that I've been on more adrenaline that that! So, maybe he finally finished settling in or something, because he was really digesting a thought there! Or . . . he could've just been plain itchy!

A Horseman's Secret

I found a nice story on the Parelli forum:

Once there was a young cowboy working with horses and running into problems.
An old horseman came by and saw him struggling.
He asked the young man:
"Would you like to know the secrets of being a good horseman?"
"I would love to" the young man said.
The horseman held out a closed hand and said:
"If you can open this fist you will know the secret."
So...the young man pulled and pushed...and poked and struggled, then finally he gave up.
"I give up, I cant open it. What is the secret to open your fist?"
"You could have just asked me to" the horseman responded!

So, a nice message there. For another story, I played with Dancer yesterday and she was really RBE in the beginning. So, we flew sideways and backwards and I matched her energy the whole time! I also set up a little course for her to keep her interested in me.

And I found out that I don't know how to be the alpha with Dancer very well. Whenever I play with her, it always feels like we're both fighting for that #1 spot. So, Dancer never really has a ton of respect for me, because I don't know how to earn it yet!

But at least I'm not doing that badly! Dancer decided to roll while on line! There was a bunch of mud in her pasture, and since she was sweaty she took a couple of rolls. So, I can't be that bad or else she wouldn't feel safe enough to roll! Well, it was quite cute!

And the next prospect is . . .

My mom and I made a 2 hour trip out to go see a Thoroughbred named Stella yesterday. She's about 15.2 and was SOOO calm 4 a Thoroughbred. That made me happy, lol. Anyways, the ride there was uneventful. Once we got out of the car, her owner Maggie said hi. And then, I saw her. Oh, boy! The poor pony, Stella was sooo thin!! I mean, it wasn't like neglected thin, but she was too thin! My mom guessed that she could use about 150 pounds. But then again, we're used to seeing fat horses, so that might have been WAY off!

Well, I took out my 12' and played with her for a while. She was sleepy at the beginning. Once I woke her up, she was acting kind of RBI. So, I went slow and made sure that she understood things (she had done some Parelli before). Then, she flipped to LBI and really started thinking. Well, Friendly game is great; Porcupine needed some more work, she usually got around phase 2/3; Driving HQ phase 2, FQ phase 3; Yo-yo phase 2/3; Circling was in need of improvement; Sideways was good, but her HQ lagged behind; Squeeze was alright, but she didn't really understand it.

After she was deemed ridable, Maggie got on and showed us Ms. Stella. They looked quite impressive together, I must admit. But Stella didn't want to go, that's for sure! Actually, it was interesting, because it was hard to make her go, but once she was going she didn't want to stop! So, I'm not sure what I'd rate her on the Impulsion scale: she'd need straight lines and circles!

After Maggie was done showing her off, it was my turn to give her a try! I got on and realized really quickly that Stella moved predominantly from leg cues. Now, I tend to use my hands more than my legs so that was an interesting experience for me. And she was a bit testy, like going in a different direction (duh, tit for tat. . . blanked on that one) and such. She was interesting, though because sometimes she was RBI about it. Like there was a corner that she avoided, and I'm pretty sure she was scared of it, for whatever reason. Though, I'm happy that I got to change her impulsion a little bit. I was having trouble getting her to trot so I did some straight lines. She trotted much easier, then!

So, I've been thinking and I've decided that Stella might work for me. She has a lot going for her, that's for sure (knows Parelli, a CALM Thoroughbred, tall, etc), but she also has some major faults. She's never been on trails before! And I'm looking for a trail horse, but I'm prepared to take the time it takes to get her to do well on trails, so I think I can handle that. The two/three things that really have my parents worried are that she's thin (and a hard keeper), and that she cribs. The cribbing wouldn't that bad, she'd be outside 24/7 anyway. The only thing is that her front teeth are really worn down from it. The thin part would be bad, though, because in my parents' opinions thin means health issues (and money spent). Did I mention that Stella had a cold, too? So, she'd definitely have to pass a vet check before any concrete plans are going to happen.

Well, I guess we'll just have to see. At the moment, I don't really think I'm going to get her, because we just didn't have that chemistry. . . Ahh, well another learning experience. I'll update if I change my mind.

Sweet Success

I played with Dancer last night. She actually ran to me, too. I was shocked, because I thought she'd hate me (our session 2 days ago didn't go very well)! So that's exciting.

Let's see, we started out doing some jumping. I actually got her to jump over a barrel twice! Though, she went a little RBE, but that was over quick. I arranged the barrels in a 'L' pattern and we played with that a little bit. And I realized how sensitive Dancer is to the Yo-yo game. She was consistently backing off of Phase 1 which is pretty good for her!

Then, I decided to try some trailer loading, since Dancer needs a tiny bit more help with that. She did really good!! After a while, I got it so that she was actually confident to load all the way in and come out. So, that was really good! Plus, she was offering to go in when I hadn't asked. Eventually, I had to ask her to circle, because she wouldn't let me close the trailer up!! Lol.

After that I took her outside to eat some grass. She had a RBE episode. Since I only had a 12' rope on her, I had her run back and forth in a half-circle while I had my back to a fence. I tried to back her up a little after and she reared up. Interesting, because I thought when horses go RBE, you're supposed to back them up to something (or put their nose/foot on something)?

Next, I took her back in the pasture and tried some porcupine on FQ and Sideways. She still doesn't really understand Sideways: she'll move her HQ, but she doesn't move her FQ yet. But she'll get there! Also, I got her to pivot on her FQ turn. I took her halter off at that, because her FQ are like a chair that weighs 2 tons!

To be, or not to be RBE. . .

I guess that's the question. Do I or do I not want a RBE? Hmmm. Tough choice. Their pros and cons are numerous, that's for sure. Hmmph. . .

Once upon a time at Ot's Sunrise Farms *drool* there was but a slight chill in the air as two women stepped out of their car. The younger lady had thin blonde hair, twirling at every breeze. Her ordinary blue eyes assessed the grand stable before her. As recognition settled in, she spoke loudly "Yep, we're here alright!" The other woman, her mother, nodded.

Yep, so my mom and I were at Ot's. Looking at a horse. Tada! So . . . details: The horse is named Vittorion.

[caption id="attachment_163" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Looks mostly Morgan to me. What a great confirmation shot, though!"][/caption]

He's an Akhal-Teke/ Morgan cross. And he was pretty RBE. So, now we'll get into the story.

Alrighty, so the lady gets Vittorion and asks where I want him: in the arena or roundpen. I decide roundpen. All the better for groundwork, right? So, the lady opens the door and leads Vittorion in. And takes his halter off. And he starts running. Obviously, she thought I wanted to lunge him.

So, I get my 22' rope and halter and go stand in the middle of the pen. Boy, was I in an interesting situation: I mean, how do I catch a galloping RBE horse with no halter? I asked his owner what she usually did to catch him. She's like "Oh, he'll usually come to me sometimes, but I haven't lunged him in a while," which got me thinking "Oh, boy!" I thought for a couple minutes and then just decided that I'd try and act as non-threatening as possible. So, I just kind of walked around and tried to give him as much space as possible. After a couple of minutes, he decided to come to me. I petted him with the halter all over, but he wasn't paying me any attention now, because he could see his buddies. I tried to get the halter on, but he wanted to run again, so I said "let me help you!" Then, I went back to being non-threatening and after walking around a little bit, I went over to the other side of the pen and turned my back to him. He came up to me again. This time he let me put the halter on. :)

Now, I'm going to allow myself a little room to ramble. The reason being that this horse was AMAZING!! Granted, I haven't seen many RBEs, but this one was incredible!!! SOOOOO sensitive! I played with him for only an hour, and it was like he already knew Parelli (and I know for a fact he didn't)!! I wish I could've gotten a video, he was SOOO incredible. Okay, achievements: Friendly went good, but in the beginning he was distracted so that didn't really count; Porcupine HQ phase 1, FQ phase 2ish; Driving he totally aced, HQ phase .5 (lol), FQ phase 2ish; Yo-yo was incredible, I got him backing off Phase 1 simply because of my body language; Circling I didn't have time for; Sideways I skipped; Squeeze game wasn't the best. Also, another big thing (in my mind at least) is that Vittorion didn't need the carrot stick. His phase 4 was (usually) barely touching him. It was incredible. I mean, when I got home, I was giggling, I was so happy!

But I was trying to think if I could see myself riding that horse (after we'd prepared properly, of course), and the answer I've come to is I really don't know. I think I'll go see him again

and have the lady ride him first. Then, we'll see how I feel about it.

See, what I'm really unhappy about is that Vittorion's temperament is a 6.

I don't think I want a horse that spirited, (though it's certainly something I'll eventually need to be able to handle) yet I have no interest in buying a peanut-pusher either. Oohhh, but Vittorion was so amazing! Ahh, I hate decisions. Lol.

Lastly, I have to mention that the barn Vittorion was stalled

in (omg) was ALL studs. So, as I'm walking back to the barn all the studs nicker to Vittorion and about half of them get aggressive. Interesting. Anyways, we got a GORGEOUS picture of a Friesian stud.

Problem solved!!

I don't think I mentioned it on the posts (it's in Dancer's information, though), but I was having problems catching Dancer recently. Well, I'm excited to say that after spending some undemanding time with her - lots of scratches and brushing her - she's letting herself be caught!! I went outside to pet her today, and I took the halter. She walked away, I threw it at her once, but she barely went anywhere. Then, I went up to her and petted her and walked inside her stall. She followed, and I kept petting her. I decided try a game I found online called Matching and Mirroring where you position yourself in Zone 3

and basically do what your horse does. Dancer assumed I was going to try and catch her since I had the halter, so I decided to try this game for fun! She walked around in circles a bit, but it was still really interesting. Anyways, when I decided I was done I opened up the gate, Dancer acted like she wanted to go out. So, I'm like hmm, "how interesting!!" I got the halter and offered it to her and she let me put it on easy as pie!!! So, I let her go outside the pasture and wander around a bit. I tried to be really provocative without making her work. I let her go over tarps, rubbed her with swings, sniff things, eat a little grass. Jeez, she is difficult to entertain!! It's like practically nothing bothers her! Even the tarp I was expecting something from her, but she just sniffed it and walked over it like, 'that's it??' But after I entertained her a bit, I took her back to the pasture (yada, yada) and so I'm hoping that she'll let me catch her next time, too. I mean, what other excuses can she come up with? Lol.

SMART smart smart . . .

I had another session with Arruba yesterday. I'm very excited. Things went really well this time!! At the beginning she was a tad RB, but I backed her up a bit and she got loads better! She never got away from me either!!! Actually, I just prevented it in the first place. I never did circling game, I only worked on games 1-4. Also, I realized that in order for her to run away, she had to take her head way over to the other side and then start going. So, I never allowed her to turn her head where she needed it to be!!!

And I never realized just how smart that horse is!!! Holy cow!! Friendly game she aced, it's kind of funny actually, because I can slap the ground with the rope while she just stands harder than I can with Dancer! I also worked on porcupine game a lot. She usually gets around phase 2/3 still, but she's getting better!! Driving game was nice on the hindquarters, I actually had to up the pressure on phase 4, because I realized that my pressure was more like phase 3. Once I did that, she learned very quickly what I wanted. Her yo-yo game is fantastic (in my opinion) from just 2 sessions. Like the title says, she learns amazingly quick! It'll be interesting to keep her entertained.

Undermined by a YEARLING!!!

I decided to play with Ruby for a little while yesterday. "Oh boy," was that interesting!! Ruby was in the pasture with the other horses at the same time I played with her (for lack of a round pen, man I need one of those!!!). She aces Level 1 friendly game, so that's not a big deal. Porcupine with the hindquarters was pretty good for the first session, but the forehand was kind of difficult. I didn't do the driving game, because the porcupine game needs work first. Mainly I focused on the yo-yo game, because Ruby likes to run people over. I had to go to phase 4 a couple of times and she just stood there (tells you something, huh?!? lol) even as I created a ton of commotion. I considered switching to a different strategy for phase 4, but she started to get it. So, she backs up pretty nice now.

But now, here's my dilemma. Ruby kept wanting to walk away, so I decided I'd send her out on a circle. It took phase 4, and she started trotting around. She didn't circle around me, though. Either she would take a couple steps and stop, which is alright (just resend!) or she'll decide to start trotting away (the normal one). So eventually, she reaches the end of the rope (22'), and I start walking after her. I can't yo-yo, because the rope is taut; I didn't work on driving game (oops); and I can't bend her neck towards me, because the rope will either be between her 2 front legs or on the other side of her neck. So, she got away from me twice (and got the other horses all worked up, it took me at least 5 minutes to catch her once), because those things happened.

I realize now that I set us up for disaster by not preparing properly (WAY smaller pen, better games 1-4), so I think I'll chalk up this session to a learning experience. Though, I still anticipate trouble with the circling game, because she gets the rope caught between her legs a lot which really reduces how much I can control her. I also don't really know how to get her to actually circle and not run away. All in all, I suppose Ruby has a lot to teach me.