Learning Lots

Well, you can kind of ignore that last post, because today I had a few epiphanies that totally kicked my feelings yesterday to the curb.

I learned that having a focus is incredible. Like I said yesterday, I felt lost. Things just weren't working so well. Well, I learned today that part of the reason I felt we don't go anywhere is because I have forgotten to make programs. If Moose has a problem with something, I stop and attempt to fix it, but I have the attitude of fixing it today, instead of just rewarding the slightest try and making a program out of it.

Also, today I learned that in order to to lead by the leg, it really helps if he knows that when you put pressure on his leg, that means lift it. I taught Moose that today on accident, and then leading by the leg was almost flawless. Also, I learned to make the right thing easy and wrong things uncomfortable, but then KEEP THE CONFIDENCE. I made the wrong things too uncomfortable, it seemed, and then Moose couldn't come to me. So, I sat down and waited for him instead of making him come to me.

And I learned to be fascinated with lightness. Moose was distracted by something off in the distance and along with bumping his head back to me, I asked him to lower his head. Normally, I am way too rough with this, and I can never time it right. It's just resistance on resistance. Well, today I decided to do something else about that. (I was sitting on a barrel at the time, btw.) I put the rope between my pointer and thumb, then started adding fingers one by one. When I got my whole hand on the rope, instead of making a fist and pulling down -this inhibiting my ability to open my hand fast- I just held my fingers like they were, and added some downward pressure. If he didn't respond, I started moving my hand back and forth, because even if I can't get his head to go down, I bet I can move it. So, then my release was a lot faster, and it was very interesting. Eventually I went to touch the rope, and his head came down, and went all the way to the ground. Talk about cool! So, I'm learning that it is a game of how little can you do and get the response. Pretty neat stuff.

On the personal development side, I was reading an article yesterday out of the Savvy Times (think it was from '05?) that said that one of the things people do at the centers is play volleyball, and the only rule is that the ball has to keep moving. You can use whatever limbs you'd like to accomplish that. When I read it, my first thought was when I played that at the neighbor's house. I was in volleyball the year before, and so knew all the rules and such, and everyone else was 'cheating' by not hitting the ball right. I got annoyed with them. And so I went "how interesting!" I learned that I like playing by the rules! It's like I need some kind of a focus, it doesn't necessarily need to be step by step, but at least so that I have a few "oh, well if this happens, do ___" type things. Like I remember playing badminton in gym class, and that worked well for me, because you have an in and an out. The line was in. If there's a dispute as to if it's in or out, then re-do it. It was fairly black and white: not that there wasn't a gray area, but if you found one, just re-do it. That was really something to lick and chew on. I don't consider myself a very black and white person, or else I'd be doing Clinton Anderson's stuff instead of Parelli, but I guess I was getting a little sick of having so much gray area and not knowing what to do. Then, I start over-analyzing, and getting stuck again, and the whole big charade. So, how interesting!

And, I found out that the bareback pad I have for Moose slips backwards on him. The pad did that to him before whenever I would saddle him, and now the pad does the same thing. But the interesting thing is that today we only did walk and back-up as our gaits. No Circling Game at all. So, I guess we're going to have to find some other pad to keep the bareback pad in place, because the only reason it slips is because it wants to lay behind Moose's withers, not over them a little bit like I want it (Moose's got big, longish withers). I want to have it placed so I'm sitting in the middle of the pad, and not the very front of it.

So, for the past week or so, I have been putting the bareback pad on every day. I haven't ridden him since Monday, but that's alright. It's good for him to wear it, is my philosophy. And now, I just had another epiphany. The thing that caused all this lead by the leg stuff today was that Moose kept backing up when I wiggled the rope around his leg. I was just trying to do Friendly, and he kept backing. Talk about connect the dots. I just realized that THAT is why he won't back up for me at Liberty. He thinks backing up is wiggling a rope, not my energy moving him back/finger wiggling (even though that's what I do on line, is just wiggle my finger and he moves back. . . have to look into that one more. . .). So, now I think I'm going to try to play with this some more and see if we can get it to where I can wiggle all kinds of ropes and he doesn't back up unless my energy is up. This will be good for me, too, because I need to start distinguishing that within myself, because my energy is usually down, and I'm starting to think I don't raise it often enough.

But yeah, I'm sure you can tell by reading my blog posts that I tend to be a kind of sporadic thinker. I get most of my epiphanies from talking to my mom and recounting to her how the play with Moose went that day. It's like I need to talk to think, sometimes. I've thought about getting a tape recorder and just recording myself talk, but I'm not sure if that will feel the same. Yeah, just got side-tracked. Well, my point is that if this is how I think, imagine how Moose feels when this sporadic person walks outside to try to teach him. I was explaining to my mom yesterday how I feel like I'm trying to teach him Science, Reading, Writing, Math, Social Studies, Spanish, and Music (the 7 games) all at once, instead of isolating, separating and recombining like I should be. I should be dedicating time to one task, then to another, then to another, instead of just trying to fit every single game into one 2 hour play session. This came about by me hearing that some girl was just filming her Level 3 on line, and she only plays with her horse like 10-20 minutes per week. She's had him for somewhere between 3-5 years, can't exactly remember. But if you do that math, that adds up to around 9 hours of play time per year. PER YEAR. Moose and I have a grand total of around 500 hours. And we're in Level 2. And I owned him for 1 year. So, my question was how in the world did this girl do it? Quality of time spent, not quantity. I've got plenty of time, I just don't use it well. I do whatever random thing pops into my head at that moment. I usually don't play off of what we did yesterday, so there is never a continuation of learning. It's like everything is its own entity, nothing is connected to anything else. Then, in essence, I am not creating a foundation, since there is no purpose, and without purpose I'm sure Moose lacks understanding.

Jeez, how much horses have to teach us! I look forward to more lessons from Moose tomorrow.

Savvy up!

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.