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.

News Alert!!!!

Okay, I have 3 new things. Super excited right now, but I might as well go in order!

First order of business: Okay, so I found a horse online the other day, I think she was a Quarter Horse. Well, this horse had never been around other horses before. And I was thinking that the foundation of Parelli is to communicate with horses like their mothers. Well, what if she had been orphaned and was never taught the horse language (because this horse grew up around cattle, it says she's never been around horses before)? Would she still instinctively know the 'horse language?' Because I thought it was something that has to be taught to them from their mothers. . . I mean, what if she was orphaned and raised by people, would Parelli still work with her? What do you think?

Second thing: Went to see a horse today (details in next post, ahhh!!!), and the people who owned him also had Friesians. They have about 8 or 9 Friesians that they're trying to sell and the cheapest one is $8,900 and the most expensive is $14,000 (prices are negotiable, they need to sell ASAP: they're moving to TN). If you know of anyone that does Parelli and wants a Friesian, then please contact godfollower on the Parelli Savvy Club. They want Parelli homes ONLY for all of the Friesians but two! So, please, spread the word!!

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!