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!

Liberty!

Yeah so I think I mentioned I've been playing with Moose's canter recently. Well, he knows that if he canters, he gets grain, and grain is a HUGE motivator to him. I brought the grain bucket outside today and sat down on the bridge with is so I could shoe him away from it, and he starting doing laps at the walk around us. This is normal behavior for him, since he's an impatient horse, but hey, I had an idea: liberty circles! And Moose was all for it! I got walk, trot, canter to the right and left 2x each. The third time I sent him he kept trying to change direction on me but he was still terrific. That says so much to me that he actually understands the Circling Game now. Without the grain I highly doubt he would have been as motivated to stick close, but it is still an amazing start. :) What a cool guy!

My Grand Adventure

And I thought I should let you know Bella is no longer here. We sold her to a fellow Parelli student in the area and she is doing much better already. After having owned her for about 2 years and not riding much at all, her new owner rode her the 5th day she got her. We're very excited for them.

And I had an incredible horse-filled day today. Started out at 9 this morning playing with Queen. She's a LBE beautiful QH, about 15.2ish hands, 9 years old. I actually found her when I was looking for a place to possibly board Moose for the winter, and they told me she was for sale and I just loved her from looking at her. She's incredibly gorgeous. And Parelli-trained too. :) She was soooooo light it was amazing. You used your legs and the reins to turn her, but the legs were like inside your skin. Like I thought, "let's turn right," and did the motions inside my skin for turning as I wanted and she would follow right along. It was absolutely phenomenal. She blew my mind. The only thing Queen was working on was cantering. I surprised myself, I actually felt confident enough to canter on her, even though they said it needed work. Wasn't terrible though. I now feel an itch to canter on Moose! I haven't had the confidence to canter in a long time.

So I will admit I am now trying to figure out if there is any possible way I could fit another horse into my life. I am planning on going back to Farrah's for the summer but hauling 2 horses would be doubly expensive and leaving Queen here by herself for the summer with no handling would be unfair to both my parents taking care of her and Queen. And I have no money with which to pay them. If they were willing to just give her away, then Moose could stay here and have a buddy but then if she had any vet bills I wouldn't have the money to pay for them because I'd have to buy hay. So as you can see it's all a huge mess but I'm thinking on it. There is another person going to see her tomorrow, so if she sells she sells I guess. I'd be kind of bummed, but I know at this point it's not feasible to take on another horse. Just doesn't help me from wishing I could. :) More to come on her though if I think of something. Because I am thinking. . . believe me.

Also thought I should update everyone, I actually have a job now playing with horses!!!!! I'm very thrilled, getting paid for what you want to make a career out of is certainly fulfilling. So I went over there today and played with 3 of their horses: if you remember Star, from long ago, I actually got to play with her today.

Things went much better than last time, I was able to rub her all over with the carrot stick and throw it over her back a little. She got VERY worried about her friens though. Right when I took her out of the pasture I had to do some major RB pattern interrupts, and then she calmed down. I spent a lot of time on Friendly, and also tried some Porcupine and a little bit of Driving. Star was starting to get really LB and actually more pushy than scared, but then I think the horses in the pasture got too far away or something and she went off the walls again. So it was kind of a bummer. I had her at a good spot, but we lost it. It's ok though. I was actually having a lot of trouble teaching her because all she wants to do is crowd you. And I was trying to get her confidence up with the carrot stick, but while maintaining some semblance of safety and teaching her. And having her so RB was not really helping. But I definitely learned more for next time. Since it rained this morning we couldn't really use the arena so that was a hindrance but also we're going to be playing on a 22 promptly next time. This pony needs the room. She can go have her RB freak-outs over there.

Also, got to play with Lily. She was more of an introvert, but she seemed as inexperienced as Star. The only difference was Lily wanted to do nothing but eat. I was trying to teach her Porcupine and do some Friendly, and it was pretty humorous, she'd bring her head up in time to be worried or move and then dive back down again. So we're going to install a head down cue pretty quick. ;)

Lastly, I played with Dazzle today too. Dazzle was the horse you ride when you're ponying one of the more greener horses, so she kind of knew the deal. Well I was told she was pretty good at Liberty stuff, so I turned her loose in the round pen. I guess they had a different concept of Liberty than I did because she didn't really know any of the games. She knew Stick To Me walk and trot, but that's about it. And that was after playing the Catching Game once or twice.

But the really really neat thing about Dazzle is the way she rides. Oh was it magnificent! It was so incredibly similar to Queen I could've cried! (jk jk) But I felt so spoiled, 2 rides on incredibly amazing horses in one day. . . how lucky am I? Before today, I have never ridden any horses as well-trained in riding as these two were. Queen was actually the favorite because Dazzle didn't stop as lightly and it took a bit to get her to go whereas Queen was very light in everything. But it was just excellent, I felt very safe on her and she didn't worry me one bit.

And then once I got home, I headed to a stable down the road to watch my friend ride her horse for a Pony Club event. I was too late though, I arrived just in time for the last ride, but I got to see her mom ride. It went pretty well, they were going eventing and I've never watched that in person before. The horses were all very very pretty and seemed content with life.

Then I actually returned home and played with Moose. He did so excellent I can't even say. It was quite a nice break to play with an advanced horse, one that is familiar with me. The youngsters can be quite challenging on how to get a communication system set up, so I was doubly thankful for Moose. But it was getting kind of late so rather than ride like I had intended I just played with cantering. We've been practicing cantering on the Circling Game for a little while now as I want to start developing some cantering things on the ground, like Stick to Me and eventually Z5 driving. Well, Moose was very connected to me tonight. He did all his gaits with slack in the rope, his trot seemed really nice and even and not racy. It looked balanced! So I asked him to canter out of it and he did do some playful head shaking and kicking a once or twice but he knew what I was asking for so this time instead of changing direction to help him I wanted to see if he could figure it out. And he did! I got about HALF A LAP of cantering each direction. I was so thrilled!!! Before I had only been asking for 3-5 strides and then I immediately brought him in. He excelled that in leaps and bounds tonight. It was fantastic.

Overall, super cool day today. Seriously horse-filled. And I also realized how much more savvy I have  riding now than I had before I went to Farrah's. The change is astounding. My confidence level has increased quite a lot. When I first arrived at Farrah's, I was afraid to trot on Moose bareback. By the end of my time, it was no problem. I still didn't think (and don't currently) that I'm that good of a rider, but I had enough confidence to ask for the trot. Apparently, that has also translated to other horses which makes me very excited. I'm getting more savvy! Yahoo!

Learning About Myself

Well, I'm obviously home from my trip. Didn't exactly update much, but yeah. Got home last Friday, and it was absolutely terrific. Farrah is looking for more interns, so don't hesitate to contact her if you're interested. I'm planning on going back the summer of 2011, so if you're going then you'll probably see me there.

But, as to the title of this post, anyone who reads this frequently should know that I think a lot. Sometimes too much. And sometimes much to my own peril. But I am learning things about myself I did not really consider before.

1 thing in particular. One is actually due in part to my South Dakota adventures. There was a girl (we'll call her Q) interning with me who I really liked and got along with pretty well. The only problem I had was whenever I would try to explain something, I could never communicate properly with her. She would end up doing whatever I had told her backwards, if at all. And it got me to thinking, as only a Parelli student would, "how can I better communicate with her?" Well, I haven't completely got the answer yet, but I did become more conscious of what I was doing. I was assuming that she knew everything that I knew. Hehe. . . . oops. This is one of my common complaints about teachers, and I was accidentally doing it! She arrived a week after me, so I had a week to acquaint myself with the facilities and the horses and the routine of the place that she did not have. It was neither fair nor realistic to expect her to know the place as well as I did.

I know, I'm Horrible. But I'm still here . . . . Honest!

Been here 3 weeks and still no updates. Very sorry guys. I do check the blog every day, I seriously do, I just don't feel this inkling to write so haven't for a while. I've things written down in my journal, so there are many things to share though, so don't worry you'll still get some information.

So, ok, as far as things I've learned. Moose is a lot more extroverted than I thought. He is very clear, when I say "hey Moose, can we do this?" He goes "no." And he'll tell you VERY clearly, "no." That's more of an extroverted reaction. As a specific example, I'll ask him to turn to the left and he'll go right. It's an obedience issue, and according to Linda's horsenality information, that means he's actually being LBE. Wow, huh? I had him pegged as an introvert.

And so along with him being more extroverted, we had (kind of have) major steering issues. So it is being dominant, he goes no, my idea is better than yours. And so the appropriate strategy with this is "great idea, let's go!" and do more than he wants to do. Well, I realize I've been saying no to him a lot, but our riding has been greatly improving. We've been given the task (since I got here now, think, been here 3 weeks) of riding a circle around an object and this time I got on, we rode 1 circle at the walk without any steerin mishaps or goofing off or anything so I jumped off right away and ended it. That was fantastic. This was yesterday too, so we'll see how today goes.

And hmmm, what else? Well, as I announced before we passed our level 2, so are now officially playing in Level 3 On Line. Also, our freestyle is in Level 2. I'm very impressed because I've dreamed for a long time of the day I'm in Level 3, and now that it's here it's interesting to compare, because I don't feel like I know more. Moose still does things, and I still get frustrated, and I still look at him going "wow, I don't know what to do about that!" so nothing has really really changed in that point. It's just what we can do. We can do all these wonderful things that we couldn't do before, and our relationship has grown. That's the biggest thing. I'm still me and he's still him. We're working towards harmony, we've just moved up a rung on the ladder. Doesn't mean I'm suddenly a horse expert like I thought it would.

Also, gosh, what else to mention? I got to go to the Sioux Empire Fair. Watched my first beauty pageant, and I saw Miss South Dakota. Have eaten out the most in my life: 8x in 2 weeks. Have a lovely farmer's tan going on right now. Used clippers for my first time on a dog. Watched the maintenance guy rope chairs out of a pool ;) (soooo hilarious). Learning to trim feet. Saw what a South Dakota storm can do. Had horses stay here on their way to the Canadian Nationals. Went to a lake house in Minnesota. Ate a $9 burger. Saw the barn's Down's Syndrome daughter win Walk/Trot in honor of her horse that died last year a week before the Sioux Empire Fair. Went swimming a lot. Played with horses a lot. Done stalls a lot. Slept. Met new people. Oh, got my palm read. Had a bull whip cracking party until 11 at night ;). Cleaned the barn. Chased madly after a loose dachshund. Chased after 2 loose horses. Walked a lot of dogs. Attempted to make friends with the barn's dog Lucy who has been abused before she came here and is now not a fan of people.

So lots of new experiences. I've also learned I slouch when riding. I learned the power of passive persistance. I learned more about where the weight is on your horse, and why the change of direction is so powerful. Along with that, I learned the reason dressage has so many lateral maneuvers in it. I learned that every horse is an individual and needs to be treated as such. I learned that Moose is very weak, which is the reason he pulls on the rope when he canters on line. I learned how to fix that. I learned how to make progress basically.

I think that's mainly what it's come down to, is I've learned how to make progress again. I found out from being here that Moose and I are so much further than I thought we were, because we've been pushed to go further. Before I could just play in my comfort zone and do the same thing over and over again and no wonder we never went anywhere! I thought we were. I'd come inside going "guess how many laps we got today!" And it seemed like progress, but then I'd move onto something else and stop counting laps so we'd be right back where we started when I tried counting laps again. So, while here, we've tried new things. We've done the flank rope, we've done Zone 5 driving. Basically, we've really expanded into things I would never have thought of doing. It's kind of been like a 3 week clinic with Farrah, it's really been excellent. I think her forward thinking mind is very interesting.

Got a quick story. We were all outside playing with our horses, and one of the interns picked out a little mini to play with. One of the things Farrah told her was to see if she could sit on him, lay on him, just kind of be over him and things like that. So, I'm here playing with my horse and I hear a thud. Look over, and she's laying on the ground. She got bucked off! Since it was a mini, she was totally fine, but so she thought she couldn't go any further because she couldn't get on. Farrah goes, "well, see if you can put a barrel on him then". It's just contagious, I don't know how to explain it but I love it. She sees forward openings in everything. I told her about Bella and how she's pretty green and complicated and I want to help her riding but I'm not confident enough and she goes "Well, you can sit on her, can't you?" I go "yeah..." "Then go do that." Well, duh! If that's not obvious! I just love the way she thinks like that, because my brain goes "well, plan A failed, I'm stuck" and it doesn't have to be like that. There's always something else that you can do, something you can try, some way forward. Was watching the Savvy Club Circling DVD and in the Finesse portion Lauren Barwick is riding May Lee and talking about her ride on a voice over, and she mentions that her horse felt kind of stiff that day, but she wanted to do a pirouette. Well, she tried it but she didn't work, so instead of getting frustrated or mad or anything she said, "well, I KNOW we can do a walk pirouette" so she did that instead and then they both got what they wanted. It's a compromise.

Farrah had to teach me a concept to help me with Moose. She told me a story. "Ok, so let's say you and me are best friends. Really best friends. And say I want to go watch a movie, and you want to go play volleyball. Well, it's the first day, so you give in and say ok, we can go watch a movie. Then the next day, the same situation arises. You want to play volleyball, but I want to go watch a movie. Well, now we compromise and watch a movie about volleyball. Then, the next day maybe we go play volleyball for 5 minutes, and then go watch a movie. That's kind of the idea. You get to where you're so excited for those 5 minutes of volleyball and so pumped up so that I (AKA your horse) eventually start to like playing volleyball. Even if volleyball happens to be doing circles, or something really boring." And that's what I have to do with Moose is compromise. Because, see, he thinks his ideas are great. He wants to watch a movie, he loves movies, it's his most favorite thing in the world, and why would he think about playing volleyball? That's where we have to compromise, and I have to learn to cause my idea to become his idea.

Another week, possibly 2 actually, and I'll be headed home. It's been such a blast so far. Sometime I hope to bring my journal down here and type up some of the relevant notes i have written in there. Dunno if I'll actually get to it or not though.

Thanks Farrah!