I'm Back!

Yes, so I took a mini-vacation from horses. Maybe the past 2 weeks or so, I got really into soccer and started playing and thinking to myself that I wanted to be a soccer star. Well, after this amount of time practicing, my determination ebbed and I realized I have mostly abandoned my poor horse. :(  So it's about time to get back to him. Found out I can't handle 2 passions at once. But that's ok, I was just kidding myself with the soccer thing, it's alright.

So, anyways, went out with Moose today, and things went pretty well. Haltered him up and tried to get him to go over the bridge with me sending him on, and he got really wired up and NOT on the bridge. So I had to convince him to get on, and then we left to go practice our sideways over an obstacle. He still doesn't quite know where his feet are here so this was useful. We mostly focused on these 2 obstacles. Eventually, he went right over the bridge like a champ and I rewarded him heavily when he stepped over the log. He was very extroverted today, but I think we really connected nicely.

The reason I wanted to mention this session is because, other than the fact it's our first play time in a while, I had a realization. When I play with Moose, I'm torn between taking what he tells me deeply and simply as behavior. It's like a stitch in my side, I never quite know what to do wiht it. One day, if he does something silly, I'll for sure say "oh, well my energy must be off" or something but then the next day, I would react with, I dunno, say shutting him down or something. My perspective changes too often, I never know what to think. My head is filled with ideas of horses as sensitive intelligent beings (thanks to Linda Kohanov's book mostly), so I try to remain very aware of that sort of thing. But then that clashes with my Parelli side, which says "if this behavior, then this is how I respond." Now, obviously not in that mechanical of terms, but do you get what I mean? Do I take everything at face value, or assume everything has some deeper meaning? I've been struggling with this question for some time now. It just dawned on me today how confusing that must be for Moose.

Also, I have to admit I feel a bit stuck. Like I'm not sure quite what the next thing I should be doing in our journey with him is. He knows his ABCs but I don't know what else to teach him, really. Not sure how to refine what we've got into something more. Think I've got me some DVDs to watch. :)

But other than that, all's well. I'm still trying to find a job. Only 6 months to save up for this summer! So hopefully I will find one soon.

My Plea to God

"They say bad things happen in threes. . . .


So, please, let my horse have his one good leg!!!"

Not so Super October

The month really hasn't been that bad, I've had a few disappointments and a few very happy moments but today wasn't so great.

On the happy side, yesterday, for the first time ever I rode Moose out of the pasture. And GOD I am not doing that again!!! Haha, I was riding completely bareback and yeoww does his back hurt. He did pretty good though. If he would've walked slower, and at the end he started arguing, then it would've been better, but overall very successful.

I also have impressed myself with my lateral thinking skills recently. I realized why Moose always wants to take me into the stalls while riding(which for safety's sake, he can't, I don't fit under the doorway). I always just attributed it to him being sassy, but as Jessie put this summer, "I've realized he's not arguing. It's just communication!" Funny enough, I never took her seriously at that time. I understood the power of that revelation, but for whatever reason thought it didn't apply to me and Moose! How's that for ego, eh? But yeah, this made me understand it and really apply that. Moose wasn't going into the stalls just because they're comfortable for him, he was going there because I've programmed him to go there. Whenever the session ends, I let him go, and walk to the stalls to put our equipment away. So to him, stalls = end of session. He was just trying to get me off his back. Though, I would much rather he liked me on his back, it is good feedback to know he has a point.

The other lateral thinking thing I've realized is that part of our dominance issues are present on the ground. They are WAY more subtler on the ground, which is why I have trouble, but they're still there. For example, when I let him graze, he walks around wherever he wants and and gets me out of Z2. So when I'm leading him out of the pasture, he thinks he can do the same thing and wlak with me in Z5. Well, confidence is not an issue, so while this is wonderful, it throws his respect for me out the window. So something else to think about.

But yes, so today, we played for quite a while. I played with Bella's saddle as it seems to fit him much better, but unfortunately found out today that wasn't quite what it was made out to be. It slides around horribly, and tips me way forwards. Wasn't quite the nice ride I had intended. But I did get after him about backing up when I go to get on him. 4x I was very firm with him about it, and he licked his lips after every time, so that was definitely a LB issue.

And we did a lot of walk/trot transitions with the saddle on. It went ok. But then I was going to ride so I wanted to know if he could handle a lot of energy so I sent him hard and he bucked in the canter as usual. :( This's going to require some long-term work to fix for sure.

But then when I was riding in the horrible saddle as I said above, I asked him to move his HQ and he just braces against me and doesn't move. So I tapped him on the HQ with the CS, and he leaped forward. I got into the fetal position (which doesn't make me happy to recount), but continued tapping him so we went in a circle. Then I kept ahold of his head so he did lateral flexion. I tried going sideways next (we were against a fence, btw) and asked him to move his HQ again and this time he stuck his head out and made no move to give at all so again I tapped him on the butt, but this time he just ignored it and continued walking so we were out of control basically. I stopped him, but I forget how. Then I just had him sit there as I was being a scared predator so I got off. A scared predator is as bad as an angry predator and I was feeling both at this point.

So, in essence, besides the little things I learned today, I learned 3 main points.

1. I need to be a better leader under saddle. Now, I normally do my little "eek I'm scared, get off!" thing but that isn't working anymore. (Now if it was an emergency, sure, that's an excellent strategy don't get me wrong, but I'm not gaining his respect by taking the easy way out. I'm losing respect. ) So, instead of just quitting, or fighting with him, my other normal response, I have to take the third option. Be the better man. I have to get above him. Basically, I have to not fight with him. If he wants to act like a crazy idiot, I have to allow that and say "great idea! Now let's go!" Because plain and simple, when I ride him, I am not in control. And until he is willing to be a good little obedient horse, I have to go with his idea. That's how I gain the respect. I don't fight but I don't give up either. 
2. The following 2 are really emotional puzzle pieces about me. I found out I don't like rules. I already knew this, but Moose showed me in no uncertain terms with his under saddle behavior. I don't set rules for him. Some horse people out there are very firm, they run things their way, and the horses know that and respect that. They may not like it, but these people aren't always concerned about them liking it. Now, I have a person I'm thinking of that does this, and by the sound of it she's a wonderful horsewoman, don't get me wrong, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. But I don't set rules like that. I don't raise my expectations and then hold him to those. I look out for my horse too much. It's seriously to the point where I'm having to babysit him through riding. I ask him a geometry question. He doesn't understand. So I go back to algebra. He still doesn't understand. So I go back to pre-algebra and am having to re-explain something to him that he should know. And this happens way too frequently. Moose, you already know how to yield your HQ, now I should NOT have to keep reminding you this way. And the fighting too but that will come with the above strategy.

I rarely ever get mad at him. Reading this, you're probably like "huh? Isn't that a good thing?" But I don't mean mad as in hate, or spite. I mean good anger. Like if someone steps over your personal boundaries, you need to assert your space. Ok, not anger then, blame. I don't blame him. I never do. It's never Moose's fault. And this makes everything my fault, so he can get away with anything. While this is a good trait in a way, it hasn't been working towards me recently.

Goin with the Flow

Moose and I made huge strides the past few days. Yesterday I tried Bella's saddle on him and when I cinched it up he blew out. That was incredible. And he normally bucks whenever I cinch him up and I ask him to canter, and today he did like normal, but he didn't pull me, just bucked around in a circle and then stopped to eat. I was super impressed. And then when I sent him the other direction, he cantered perfectly. And we rode for probably an hour today. We went all over our property, across the street, and just around part of the neighborhood really. It was excellent. No brace in me indeed.

Holistic Horse Fair

First off, on a side note, I'd like to mention I no longer have a job playing with horses. End of story. So I am once again looking for a  new job.

But secondly, onto the Horse Fair! It was fabulous, I had a great time. It was in Madison at the Horse First Farm this Saturday and Sunday and was all about alternative therapies or ideas for horses and was very nice. I went to a seminar by Wendy Wolfe about animal communication, one by Beth Peterson on equine guided coaching, and a Parelli demonstration. We had to leave early, but I still had a great time.

It was so refreshing to see everything Parelli. I never thought about it before, but it was just very peaceful and everything felt relaxed and easy. The atmosphere was one entirely "for the horse." It was very neat. Made me want to go there more often.

And I met Michelle Manshardt, a 2* PP. I was very impressed with both her and Linda, the other 2* there, but Michelle's easy manner of being made the most impact. I really got a positive vibe off both of them. And they are desperately looking for people to work there right now, so maybe I could arrange to spend some time there or something of the like. It would be a lot closer than Farrah's, that's for sure. Only downside is I don't know if they offer a working student position right now, that's why I've got to talk to Michelle!

But overall, a great time was had by all. I learned quite a bit new tips, and met some very nice people. Can't wait to go back!

2nd Day on the Job

So I got to play at Folkman's for 2.5 hours today. It went spectacular.

Played with Star first. Oh goodness she's a complicated horse. But rather than get stuck just thinking about her, which would so be something I would do, I'm going to attempt to stay in the moment. Star seems so complicated because as soon as you think she's LB and finally calmed down she goes RB again. But, that being said, I'm just going to ignore it for now and teach her like I normally would. So, I started off playing with the figure-8. Star is a RBE, so I thought this would help her focus. Well, I figured out she really understands the HQ disengagement, but her go cue is quite sticky. And she still doesn't really trust the CS. This made things a bit difficult, because I really can't start making demands of her until she believes the stick won't hurt her. Neither Lily nor Star will tolerate the Savvy String being thrown over them more than once.

But anyways, so we did the figure-8 and she looked pretty calm so I brought her in. Then, I thought of more patterns to do with her, and settled on the simplest, the game of Touch It. Star is a pro at this game. She understands it, she gets it, and it calms her down. She can be confident at this, after all, it's easy! So this was really nice to see, and it really helped her focus and relax. One thing I tried to be particular about was that she stand a little ways away from me while we moved. This would eventually lead to me in Z3 playing Z3 driving, and Star's going to need a lot of this to build confidence, so the sooner we start the better. After I was done playing with Star, she got to stand tied for a while to help her not be worried about being away from her buddies.

Then it was the lovely Lily's turn. I didn't really do much with her last time I played because my brain was going to mush by that point from playing with so many horses lol. Too much thinking! But it is quite obvious Lily is a much calmer horse than Star. Actually, it was funny, I realized Lily was doing one of the things Farrah talked about before, she was choosing to be RB. She'd go snort at things and go "I'm really nervous!" but it was all an act. We also started out with the figure-8 and got one nice half lap and quit. Then we went to Touch It, too, but it didn't help Lily near as much as Star because she didn't need the help. She wasn't as interested in the obstacles, but she did stand on the pedestal, so I think she's done that before. Then, I went to playing with our Circling Game. We had a 22 to work with, so Lily had lots of room, and I was being particular about the direction that I sent her in. Once she got the direction down, my goal was 2 laps of walk/trot. Her pattern was to stop about every half/quarter of a lap, and she probably did that at least 20 times before I got a full lap out of her. Very funny horse. I'm like "yeah, you're SOOO RB." :) She really is a sweetie though. Then I sent her the other direction and she did a whole lap, no questions asked. What a good pony!

So then I decided to do some mounting practice. I've no idea if she's ever been ridden bareback before, so I played it safe and did a lot of approach and retreat. I slid all over her and made sure she could tolerate me up there ok. She didn't mind. Once I corrected her for moving off on me, she was fine. I tried asking her to move forward to see what she'd think about that and she walked over to some grass to eat lol. She really just wanted to spin around though. She didn't know what to do really with a person up on her back. I was riding one rein and in a halter though, too, so I imagine that was kind of new. I think we're going to focus on following the rail as our pattern, I just have to get that good on the ground first. Because I'm really learning with these guys exactly how much ground skills relate to riding skills. They're essential with these guys. Great day though!

And we're into the Odd Digits . . . Oh Ignore me, I'm tired.

Yes, so our sessions have been brilliant. With the methods I've been talking about, using grain and such, Moose gave me a lap and a half of circling tonight. It was pretty nice too. And I took him for a walk down the road today. . . Think we're gonna start trail riding pretty soon. . . Very exciting!