Liberty Attempt # 1

Sooooo today was day one in my new attempt to improve my Liberty Savvy with Mo. Oh Boy. She is home, round pen is up and we are ready to go! Except my LBE has taken a vaccation and left me with a LBI/RBI because of who knows what, new place, new things all that fun stuff. Thats totally ok, I understand and I made the extra efort to go slow - my recent Indy adventures are teaching me something!

Mo met me at the gate like she actually wanted to play with me! That was a big plus! I brought out lots of treats to give to her to help my draw later, so I gave her some right off for meeting me so nicely. Haltering went easy peasy just like usual, and then I played some friendly with the stick - which proved interesting because she kept trying to folow me when I went to zone 4/5. I played with that until she was ok with me moving around. I think it was more of a "Hey where are you going?" thing than a "Oh no! Not there!" thing.

We moseyed our way over to the pedestal, played on and off that, sideways forwards and backwards. Then into the round pen for some truth seeking.

The truth is a little ... interesting. Mo likes to be with me a lot doing close up things, but out on the rail in the 60' corral she gets lost feeling and then stands by the gate. If I draw her in she comes in looking happy. I dont think I am provocative enough without the confidence of a line on her yet. I will have to work on that. I had the four jumps set up and we played squeeze games over them with me running with her and stopping and backing up to them, that was good, squeeze game send style was good, but iffy. Circle was just sad - my send was totally ineffective. She kept getting confused about direction and heading to the gate - thats not encouraging!

On a really nice up note though, we got a few close range sideways circles really soft and nice. Our yo-yo was really supple to, which was a total surprise! So my far away-cant-hold-your-hand stuff isishy, but close up seems to work well - sideways towards went of without a hitch.

I felt bad for not being creative enough for Mo, so I decided to practice my bareback mounting. There is a little hill in the round pen, so I lined her up to it and to my infinate surprise, on my FIRST try, I swung neatly up onto Mo's back. WHOO! Now that was cool!

I tied my savvy string around her neck and had my carrot stick with me. We went around the round pen a bit but Mo kept avoiding the jumps - probably because she felt my hesitation - so we went over to the gate to leave. I love to jump, but I am not yet 100% confident in Mo's jumping ability enough to try it bareback I guess - although I did later and it was fine - go figure.

We dealt with the gate super easy, sidepassing it open and whatnot, Mo was a star. We walked around passenger style, trotted some figure eights around some trees and then my mom actually came out so I bribed her to take pictures for me. I have none of me and Mo save on show days, so it would be nice to have some just for fun stuff!

So we got some pictures quick, they arnet the greatest because it is overcast, but they are there and I am glad to have them. Mo was a doll and kept making funny faces, but we had a blast.

:-)

S

Mo Came Home!

My darling Mo has come home! The long trek took several minutes, lots of energy put forth and several laughs. I decided that instead of going through all the trouble of hitching up the trailer, driving over there and then coming back and parking the trailer in its tight spot, I would just bike over the four kilometers and bike with Mo back. Should be perfectly easy.

AND IT WAS! It went great! Mo trotted beside me like she did it every day! She is insanely smart. She trotted beside me on a loose lead. It was so amazing. I always wanted to do that, for whatever reason, I have no idea, but I did. And now I have!

Coming up in front of my house Dakota got so happy to see Mo! To get into the pasture I had to protect my herd of two pretty fiercely, but I did it pretty well. I played with Mo on the ground a little until Dakota left us alone. Mo stood on our new pedestal, she tried to stand on the tree, and she jumped our tree from a standstill!

When I let her go there were a few fireworks, not to many.

After everything settled down, Dakota AND Mo made my day by both walking up to me from their separate places. Love it.

:-)

S

They're HERE!

My NEW Parelli Patterns came last night!!! I am so excited to go through and watch them all!!

I obviously already watched the first one :-D The online DVD is really great! I loved seeing Pat play one the ground with Magic - since I dont see that all that often, and seeing Casper is ALWAYS a treat - I adore watching him, and Vanna is always cute to.

So many new ideas! AND a few really nice confidence boosters to! Things I have played with that a Level 4 - which I thought were just snazzy ideas, make me feel like a success-in-progress and that is always a complete plus!

Things in the L4 Section I have done/can do:

- Back the hind feet on to a pedestal

-Back into a trailer! [did this first day with new trailer because I thought it was neat]

Things in the L3 Section I have done/can do:

- travelling circling game

-trailer loading

-four feet on a pedestal

Of course I sneaked a peak ahead to the Freestyle dvd [well all of them actually!] because I love to ride more than almost anything, and I got another really nice you-are-on-the-right-track boost, because bridleless/neck rope riding which Mo and I are currently studying and playing with is a L4 skill! So I thought that was quite neat. An extra bonus for me, since for whatever reasons I usually feel that my riding is subpar. So it was nice to see in black and white that something I am doing is pretty darn cool.

Before I plunked down to watch the Online DVD last night I went out to arrange my roundpen to my satisfaction. Since setting it up I have been pretty enthused to use it, but want to make sure I have THINGS in it so I do just go "well, go in a circle". We are building a new porch, and under the porch a whole new log was found, so I appropriated that, as well as part of the old porch to use as a pedestal. Construction brings so many toys!

I have a bunch of tires as well, so I started carting them into the round pen in twos to make little jumps - two tires on each end + a log = a nice little jump. I set up three of those, since I had three logs, and then made a wider jump with the big truck tires as the spread. My plot involves pseudo hill therapy for Mo to help her carry herself. Since she has some hair rubs where the girth goes right now, I figure its the perfect time to bring her home and practice up on our Liberty!
Dakota was watching me this whole time. Even got in the way as I rolled the tires over - rolled them right between his legs! He just sort of went "OH BOY! a TIRE!" and looked at it roll, it was pretty funny.

When I was finally heading in after dragging my chunk-o-porch into the pasture [HEAVY] I noticed my reels sittting out - which I had FORGOTTEN about!! OH BOY!! I got two reels [from electrical wire] from work and forgotten about them!! They are smaller ones, but would make great toys none the less! AND I remembered about my balance beam that I got my dad to make ages ago and never used since I moved the horses. Really its just two 4x4's bolted together, but its a FOCUS point!

ALL OF A SUDDEN I HAVE SO MANY TOYS!!! And here I was bemoaning the fact that I had nothing at home because I took all my barrels to Aunty's house... DUH!!! Oh, and on the truck tire jump, I pulled a piece of wood out of the scrap pile from when my dad made my tree stand-on-able, wrapped a shower curtain loosley around it and layed it across the tires to make it 'scary'. I am pretty sure Mo will attempt to ingest it, but it should be fun anyways!

I am pretty excited to play with my 'new' toys. I cant believe I didnt think of this sooner...


:-D
S

Flying!

Summer is sadly coming to a close. Last night was only a measley 24 degrees out [celcius] Simply gorgeous riding weather, but in the grand scheme of summer-swimming-weather, its not all that toasty.

When I got to the barn I rounded up my cousin to ride with me. She starts highschool next week [nanner nanner.. butnotreallybecauseIloveschool] and she needs a good sendoff. When we got out to the barn her horse and every other horse except Mo, my darling loner was in the run in shed at the barn. While Chels caught Tripp I let Indy and Ivy in for their dinner. Once they were settled I went out to see about fetching Miss Mo, who was half way out.

The song on my ipod was sort of slow - Low Rider by Queen - so I switched to the next song which was [much to my ever-present amusement] Sexy Back by Justin Timberlake. My history with this song is such that every time I hear it, I giggle a little bit and it puts that extra bounce in my step. So, newly amused and energized I started jiving my way over to Mo, who until then had been ignoring me. Interestingly enough, when my happy attitude came up, my step became springyer and a smile worked its way across my face, Mo looked up and MATCHED my springy happy step to come over to me!!

I was so excited that I waved to Mo and continued on my way to meet her. We met halfway and I gave the obligatory hugs and scatches along with some bug swatting and then - at LIBERTY - we walked our way back to the barn! Mo was so enthused and happy!! I played with my stride on the way back and she mirrored me the whole time, and when we got close to the gate, I got her to put her foot in 'our' tire! It was so neat! We havent played that much with liberty due to lacking proper facilities, so to have that excellent display of relationship like that was a total unexpected JOY!

I finally haltered Mo at the gate, because Tripp was in the barn and I didnt want to risk upsetting him in the crossties. In the barn I brushed and saddled Mo - Chels and I decided on a trail ride. Based on Mo's pre-flight walk to the barn I deemed her ready to go and forwent any other ground play. I forgot my leather short girth at home, but I tried tacking up with Dakota's saddle anyways, with his girth. Ended up having to come back to the barn to change into her regular saddle as it just wasnt stable enough - kept riding up her withers!

Out on our ride Mo was a doll. Casual rein all the way. We played on the trails for a while then crossed the river and played in the long hayfield over there for a while. Then we decided to make our own trail in the forest-ish area .... THAT was fun. It was incredible. Mo had to play total bulldozer at times, with weeds as big as her! We stealthed through the foresty parts and wondered at the beauty in the glades. Eventually the skeeters came out and we had to turn back, but Mo had a blast across the river.

We crossed back to our property and went up the galloping trail where we saw the neighbouring hayfeild was cut and the hay was off. A significant glance in that direction from me was all it took for me and Chels to head that way!! We got to the end of the laneway and saw that the hayfield across the street was also cut, and baled in round bales [which make excellent point-to-points] and that field is actually three feilds all attached and with rolling hills... needless to say we changed tactics and went in that feild!!!

Mo thought that round bales might eat her, so we DID play point to point with four or so of them as we went, canter to each one, grab an [inconspicuous] bite and move on. In no time we were flying around the whole pasture..err... hay field. It was so much fun!

We cantered all the way to the other end and around and up the 'big' hill. On the plateaux we went around some more, weaving in and out of the bales and then got clever and decided to Man-From-Snowy-River it down the hill - which is not all that steep at all. Of course NOW is when I truly fly. Cantering down the hill, Mo sees her shadow and goes *oh no* and does her Mo-spook [patented] shifting to the right by a foot and a half without ever breaking stride. Me on the other hand, totally absorbed in enjoying the flight down the hill, forget to read my horse, missed the momentary *Oh no* and when she shifts [that delightful TEENY tiny spook that I adore about Mo because I CAN ride it] I end up in the dirt, on my ass. Nice!

Thanksfully, nothing broken, just a bruised bum, and I laughed while Chelsea caught Mo for me - who had taken in my WHOOHOO spirit and cantered to the end of the field. Mo came back happy as a clam and I mounted back up, carefull of my tender toushie... Oops. Bet I wont get that distracted again! ONE mistride to land in the dirt - ONE!

Of course none of that stopped me from continuing my canter journey all around and back to the starting point, back to the hill and all the way back again before cooling out. Mo was a TOTAL PRO at maintaing gait to!!! Something that I had HUGE problems with at the start of summer!! How cool!! I love having journals because then I can recognize PROGRESS rather than a vague "Oh this seems better?" kind of thing.

So, we flew together, I flew solo, and we flew together some more. I loved it, it was spectacular, and I was super high on happy endorphins all night and all day today :-)
Even though I had a really creepy vampire dream that I got turned and went against one of my best friends who was on the enemy Pirate team *sigh*


:-)
S

OH! AND MY PARELLI PATTERNS ARE SCHEDULED TO SHOW UP TOMORROW SAYS MY FEDEX TRACKING NUMBER! WHOOOO

How Interesting! Productive Saturdays!

It was SUCH a gorgeous day on Saturday. Hot and sunny, but with that nice breeze that makes everything perfect. All day long I just felt like I was radiating inner peace and gratitude for the day. I adore that feeling.

I slept late, needing to catch up after being up til midnight on Thursday from seeing Wicked and then having to work at 7 the next morning! Wicked was definately worth the lost sleep though!! So I slept in, then I got up, still lazed in bed with perfect kitty Cairo. When I finally got up, I ate breakfast then sat down to finish reading my Savvy Times magazine, which I have been putting off due to being absorbed in two really great books back to back. Really good Savvy Times though!

When I finally finished that, I got ready to go over to see Mo, and I brought Dakota's Wintec Wide saddle, just to test. I feel like Mo's regular Wintec with the white gullet fits her, but something is missing. I feel so disconnected at the canter, and I cant help but wonder if it is the saddle. The way the Wide is built, to me its closer to a Close Contact seat style, being more open, compared to the more cradled closed style of the regular Wintec. I like both, I think both are ultra comfortable. But the key is which does Mo like better.

So I brought Mo in, brushed her down, fly soaked her and tested the saddle. Hmm How Interesting! In the last year [I used to have a Wide for her to, but she just wasnt.. well... wide enough!] she has filled out enough to be able to 'support' the Wide decently well, without the theraflex. When I added the saddle pad, things actually looked doable! Some digging in the tack room produced an old cob-webby dressage girth [ that is leather and I have now drenched in neatsfoot oil and its super pretty] that actually fit Mo, so that was a plus.

Saddled up, I brought her out into the back yard to graze and watch what her back looked like in the saddle. I hadnt decided that I was going to ride yet. I just wanted to hang out with Mo, just to be with her. I let her graze while I soaked up some sun, lying in the grass. Then, me being the rider addict I am, got up and tightened the girth a little to test. Cob-webby girth has no elastics, so tightening is ... fun? I have top wonder though, is wearing a girth with no elastics like a person wearing a corset? Is it still comfortable for the horse? I will have to think on that.

Mo kept grazing this whole time, until I asked her to move around - which she did with astounding enthusiam [not] When I got the girth as tight as I thought I needed it - saddle wasnt moving when I pulled on it - I asked Mo to keep her head up and attempted to mount. I say attempted here because as soon as I put weight to jump up in the stirrup, the saddle slipped sideways. Doh! Mo had let out a big sigh because I wouldnt let her graze anymore, subsequently loosening the saddle! No big deal, I just reset it and tightened it again before trying again.

Success!! This time the saddle didnt shift an inch! Which is interesting, because when I used to have it on her it ALWAYS moved. Yet on Dakota [whose saddle this is] it never moves, its like its glued to his back. How interesting! So, I settled in and let some more air out of the pad since I felt perched still. It felt a little odd, being back in the wide saddle after so long in the 'skinny' saddle - not really all that skinny on Mo, but comaratively, in the twist its a big difference between ones legs...

I like this saddle, I really do. In the beginning, I found it sooo much more comfy than the regualr Wintec. Now I dont notice so much since I ride in the regular all the time. I remember now that I liked it a lot, a wide flat seat is super comfy! I shifted around for a while , just adjusting to the new feel, and letting Mo feel me before tying my 12' in reins and heading off down the trail.

I know, I know, I didnt do any ground play, but Mo was in a fabulous mood, and we played in the barn while I played with the saddle, and she just felt ready to ride. And I was right. We went off at a nice slow trot down the trail. We meandered around the trail at a trot, going up the hill and trotting down the galloping trail and back before trying the big test - the canter! This was a really interesting experience for me - and the whole basis for the title of this entry - the canter, that I usually have trouble being fluid with was gone... I was completely able to keep my butt in the saddle and be fluid and comfortable and have no issues with losing stirrups [newest delveopment] or gripping with my knees [which causes the stirrup losing] What a different experience!

Me, being me, I just had to test this out more. So Mo and I proceded to canter, gallop and trot everywhere, doing transitions to every gait and within gait to see if everything still worked. We even went halfway across the river for kicks. Everything felt great. Mo seemed happy, but nothing spectacularly more so than usual for her ' out on the trail' self. So I decided I would have to play with it some more. So the plan is to use that saddle in my next few rides to see how it goes.

While I was walking Mo out from our beautiful sunny ride - for which she behaved IMPECCABLY!- we ended up walking down the galloping trial and coming back down the laneway and passed the gate to the pasture. I dont usually use that gate, but I was feeling cramped on the trails [ crazy right?] so I jumped off Mo after ascertaining we couldnt possibly reach the rope tying the gate shut without my being on the ground, and let us into the pasture and remounted. We continued our walk around, doing the whole tour of the pasture, visiting the other horses and whatnot until we came to my tree... well not mine, but A tree. A fallen tree that online Mo loves to jump, and undersaddle I have always wanted to jump.

I thought why not, Mo is super confident today, and why not try jumping in the 'new' saddle. So we tried. We trotted up to it...and stopped. Hmm... the mind wasnt on the other side, so I backeed her up slowly and softly [phase two tops, and she was backing so steadily and straight!!] and we reapprached at a trot. Hmm... she stopped again, but her mind was considering going over this time. We repeated the exercise a few more times until her mind was DEFIANTLEY going over and she was leaning her head and neck over before stopping. On the last one she started to put a foot over so I just sent her a little more energy and she clambered over the tree, stopped and licked and chewed a TON! Hey, cool!

We just walked around some more after that, me trying to put the idea in her mind to pick up her head a little. On the trail her head is up - not UP right-brain-up, just up looking around, and she feels so much better to ride! So I am going to try to convince her that its a comfyer way to travel.. I hope. We shall see.

When I brought Mo up to the barn to dismount, I played with our new routine of put-your-foot-in-or-on-the-tire, which went well. When I jumped off and gave her a big hug Mo was licking and chewing a lot, which was neat. In the barn I just untacked pretty quick and brought her back to the yard to graze while I absorbed some more sun and thought about everything that just happened. Also, for whatever reason, I just felt amazing. Totally complete and happy and content with everything. Mo was perfect, the day was perfect, the weather was perfect, I was happy. It was such a wonderful feeling.

About forty sleepy minutes later the right ear bud in my headphones gave out [tear] so I went to my [messy] truck to try and locate the spare pair I got when I thought they died before - but revived! No dice, couldnt find them, but I DID clean out my truck - which needed it AND found my CAMERA CASE that I lost almost a year ago now when I went to pick up Indy! It was jammed under the passenger seat, between the centre console, chair and floor. Yea. Go figure. No headphones, but I was tickled pick to have finally found that case, so it doesnt really matter. I grabbed some new three dollar headphones at WallyWorld yesterday, so all is well.

After cleaning out my truck I put Mo back in the pasture and ran back to giver her more treats twice. Its really good practice for her!! She gets all excited and happy instead of afraid now when I run at her - I am just hurrying up to bring her tasty things!!!

At home I had decided to put my round pen back up. Last fall I moved it in an effore to make what would be a spring paddock to keep the horses off of the pasture come spring, but it ended up falling down and being knocked over by a rogue hayshed caught in a breeze. My horses all went to my aunts for the winter anyways, so no big deal. Since then all the panels have just been laying up against the fallen tree. So I set to lugging the panels over to the place where the round pen was last year. At least the circle was still in the ground, so I could guesstimate pretty well as to panel placement!

It was quite the endeavour to drag all the panels out - since they arent light! My dad made the pen home made from steel because he is a mechanic, so its extra tough. When I finally got all the panels over - even the HEAVY gate - I got to figure out how to put them up... with just me... The first panel has two 'feet' so it technically can stand on its own, but where I put it was bumpy so it kept falling down.... enter jumps standard - another dad special!- to hold it up by standing in the middle. So, by some small miracle I was able to get the first two panels up and together!

Of course that was when I realized I had layed the panels down all backwards and needed to flip them all before continuing... DOH! So I did that, by litteraly flipping them and somehow got the whole thing put up save the gate [got help with that later] The best thing about this whole shananagin though was Dakota. By panel #3 he was there, sniffling the ground in the 'ghostpen' and following me around, wanting his nose in everything. I just.. I couldnt stop hugging him! I am so beyond relieved that he is finally ok, finally back to normal that I cant even adequately express it. When he lost all that weight so fast in spring it scared the bejesus out of me, and it took him alllllll summer on tons of grain and pasture ornament status to get back to normal. I rode him bareback on Friday for ten minutes when I got home from riding Mo because I was so energized by her awesomeness and I almost cried because his back is all filled in at the appropriate couchy locations again finally. He doesnt look all wasted away anymore! Even though the weight loss wasnt anything I did via lack of feed - he basically wouldnt stop running and chasing horses, exhausting himself - I felt horrible and I am beyond relieved that he is better.

So me and my panel buddy put up the rest of the pen, Dakota didnt even leave when the panels were being flipped end over [12'] end and clanging on each other - which is a big deal for my big yellow chicken horse. I was so proud of him, and he was so happy and curious!! It was just... such a great addition to my perfect day.

When I was done outside I went in to get supper, watch Pirates of the Caribbean and upload music to my laptop. When I went out later to give Kota his supper he came running over to say hi. What a great great GREAT day!!

:-)
S

Fabulous Friday

Last night was simply amazing. It is finally warm and sunny out side and I am taking full advantage!!

Mo was in a fine mood last night. All the horses were in the run in shed so I crawled through the fence to go visit her. When I got there I wasnt sure if I was going to play with her or Indy, but she looked so happy to see me that I decided to pick Mo. I loved on her a bit [ok a lot] and practiced a little bareback mounting [almost made it!] and then led her at liberty into the barn. We had to wade through all the other horses, but I got to protect my herd of two and shoo them all a way. Mo was a trooper and just let me do my job.

In the barn Mo moseyed around cleaning up spare grain and whatnot before I haltered her. I brushed her down - shes so shiny right now! - and basically drenched her in bug spray. Just because the rain stopped, doesnt mean all the little bugs brought on by the mosture are gone yet!

Saddled and accoutred with a savvy string around her neck, we set out to our snazzy little [large] arena in the pasture. I played with some little games on the ground while we moseyed over. Moving circling game, falling leaf, sideways. Just little things. When we got to the barrels we practiced going over them, then one foot over the pole on the ground, sending over... and then, in a pure moment of brilliance for Mo, I asked her to step back over the pole by her tail and she DID IT!!!!! I litteraly squeeled and jumped for joy. I havent been working hardcore on that, but a little here and there because its not Mo's favorite thing to do. BUT SHE DID IT!!!!

When I mounted Mo she was in a really good mood so I took her halter off. I was left with a carrot stick, a string around her neck and the truth. The truth tunred out to be something I adore very very much. Mo was an angel!!!

We went around at a very slow sedate walk at first. Then I asked for a million walk/trot transitions to help get her impulsion up and that worked brilliantly. We proced to spend the rest of our session walking trotting and cantering at will around the entire pasture, completely bridleless. AND! everytime we came near them jumps Mo offered to take them. OFFERED!! She would alter her course and AIM for them!! What a great horse :-)

We did lots of figure eights around when she got TOO impulsive, and them cantered comfortably otherwise. It was such a wonderful feeling.

One of the boarders came out to catch their horse and when I went over to say hi I got called crazy and asked where my bridle was [to which I replied In the barn] It was sort of annoying, but whatever... I had an amazing ride. It is a really big boost to my confidence when I KNOW I am fenced in [even in twenty five acres]. I dont know why, but it helps me be confident, and do things. So it works :)

It was delightful! :-)
S

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

... or will eventually win the race. Same difference!

Last night I played with Indy because I 'missed' her. Seems silly, I see her every day, I bring her in with Ivy every day for dinner, but I still felt like I hadnt seen her in an eon! It was the most bizarre thing. So, my intention for the evening set, I was pleased to see every one in and around the shed.

When I went out the back gate I was confronted with Mo's bum, Tripp, Tucker and Crystal all looking at my from their tail swishy congregation. I was amused by the "OH HAI!" looks from all of them. Mo even turned around to come say hi when I got close enough to rub her bum. I could see Indy was just five steps past this little group so I waved at her and she looked at me all bright. Mo, in the mean time, moseyed herself over to the gate and looked at me like "Ok, Im ready!" I felt sort of bad that I wasnt there to play with her, so I gave her extra hugs and a treat later.

Indy sort of bodily shoved her way through the little herd blocking her path to come say hi. That was nice. Ivy came to of course. I used my body blocks to keep curious Ivy's out of my space [and out of the nibble zone!] and focused on Indy. She looked pleased with that as I rubbed her all over and said my hellos.

When I brought the halter up and grabbed the head piece over her neck she braced. Not huge, but enough that I felt it and saw it. And then when I tried to bring her head down and around to halter she just sort of went "Cant do it" and got all tense. How interesting. I just waited with her, doing little bits of head down, head over etc until she could move it. Last night was all about takng the time it takes with her. She flits so fast between introvert and extrovert that sometimes I miss it, but last night was DEFINATLEY an introverted day. And I made that extra super effort to g o s l o w l y for her. It was SUPER hard for me [used to Mo's demonic brain] to slow down and not push her. Great practice though!

About ten minutes passed before I had permission to halter her. For a while when I asked her head to move over she was like "Ok, I will move my whole front end over to you" but that was ok, because Dakota used to do that to, so I was able to refine my request to just tipping her nose my way. When she did finally understand that, or just acknowledge that she knew what I was asking - since we do this EVERY time and sometimes she 'plays dumb' and sometimes she doesnt - it still took more time for her to keep her nose there when I brought the halter up. Interesting! Mo went through a phase of that to - "Ok my nose is over here" "Thanks, heres the halter" "Oh no, I changed my mind, I dont want it" and turn the nose away, just a little.

I am not 100% sure what it was, if it was confidence or just playing with me, but I went even slower and just waited for her, and lo and behold, when she finally acceded my request to halter her, she licked and chewed!!! This, from a horse who I have been concerned that I never see her licking - even secretly! So it boded well for our session I think :-)

After haltering her I rubbed her a lot, letting her know that was an awesome thing for her and then bent down to check on some new scrapes on her leg. Indy is quite the klutz, new scrapes pretty often. I read today that emotional coordination = physical coordination, so it makes me wonder whats going on in her head.

Even getting from our spot outside the run in shed, 20 feet from the gate into the barn was a learning experience. I am discovering that Indy has very little self confidence. No, let me rephrase that, because some times she DOES have lots of confidence. Last night she had very little self confidence at the start. It was really interesting! Standing at her zone two ish, where I had been scratching her, I upped my life and asked her to move forwards [towards the barn gate] She turned and looked at me and then shifted her weight forwards and then looked at me again with a "thats as much as I can do" look.

I took that moment to do a big HOW INTERESTING in my head. I was asking her to go first, away from the herd and she could give me only a weight shift! WHOA! It wasnt a 'nanner nanner make me' type of thing either, it was an 'I cant go more than this without you in front' type of thing. So we played with that. It took us ten minutes for her to work up and over to the gate. She went from weight shifts to one step forwards [and then two back to come back to me] to finally trying three steps forwards and sufficing with me scratching and rubbing her backside. And then in one brilliant flash of self confidence, she walked herself over to the gate, lined up to go in, looked at me and licked and chewed, looking positively shining. She looked so PROUD of herself for figuring out the puzzle, and grateful that I hadnt pushed her. Whoo hoo for both of us!!

By that time I was sure that I was doing the right thing by going slow with her. She just looked so happy and thankful. I opened the gate and invited her into the barn and waited for Ivy to tag along. Ivy trotted along into their stall. I tried backing Indy down the aisle a bit to see what would happen and she went back on phase ONE! Yey! We backed down to their stall, where she tried to go in, so I had to gently dissuade her from that course. I tied her to the stall rails then ansd sort of just hoped she knew how to tie... I havent really tried tying her before now! But she was a star and I went into the stall to 'catch' Ivy - which realistically just involves me walking through the stall door - and halter her for HER first tying lesson. I tied her beside Indy, but far enough away that I would have room to groom that side of her without Ivy nibbling on me. VERY LBE that baby...

Ivy was a star and Indy looked thrilled that I was going to primp her. She loves being pretty. Such a diva. She relaxed right into the combing, while I detangled her mane, and when I brought out the body brush she was totally enthused with it when I let her check it out. She kept wuffleing her nose across it and nuzzling it, it was super cute that she was so interested in the brush! When she was all shiny clean I brought out the saddle and pad, just in case we got to riding and were waaay out in the new arena.

When I got ten feet from her she went from happy excited to dead. Umm... ??? So I stoped and backed up slowly until she looked at me. When she did she was all happy excited again and licking like crazy. HOW INTERESTING! This time when I approached she kept her happy look AND investigated everything [a first] up to and including taste testing the girth! Cool!!

When I saddled her she was a rock star, and when I tightened the girth she looked at me like "what do you need that for?" So I gave her a treat. Boy she liked that!! All finished up in the barn I switched to a 22', grabbed my carrot stick and we all trooped to the gate. I squeezed Ivy out first and let her go, shooing her away a bit so she wouldnt just barrel back into the barn, and then I squeezed Indy out, who was a total pro. I disengaged her super softly, and she looked at me with that bright eyed happy look again. I love that look. I would do anything to gget that look from her. Its just total trust and belief that I am doing right by her. [The whole time I was grooming Indy, Mo was sulking at the gate so I gave her some treats before asking her to move so I could get out]

Once outside I backed Indy away from the gate and through the minor mud puddle that collects there after rain. She got a little stuck at one point, so I did a loooooooooooooooooooooooong phase one and got to 3 before she was unstuck, but stayed at one for the rest of the backing. Insteresting! Once on dry ground I asked her to come in to me but she drifted towards the horses in the shed. Hmm.... I softly asked her to sideways back the other way but she got offended and sort of said NO and started a minor flight back and forth between where I wanted her to be and where she wanted to go.... how interesting. I finally changed tactics [was trying to interrupt] and backed up, trying to draw her in. WELL NOW!! If I didnt get that "You rang?" look that Casper give Pat and have her walk energetically right up to me...... HUH! So that left me standing there jaw hanging open for a while while I re-collected my thoughts and game plan.

I still dont know exactly what happened. Whatever it was, it was good! We just hung there a bit, Indy licked a lot, until I felt ready enough to continue. This time, when I backed her out and offered her forwards [out to the feild forwards, not to the shed] she walked off confidently and licking while she walked. How interesting! As she walked, I thought. I changed the game into a falling leaf game at the trot, keeping to phase one and two gently until she picked up the trot. When she had a fast walk and forward intention to trot I relaxed my ask and she picked up the most wonderful swinging trot!! OOooooOOHHHHH!!!! How interesting!!! My brain was on overload, and we hadnt even reached the play area yet!

I changed the game back to driving as we came up to the obstacles and asked Indy to go over the little pole on the ground between the barrels. Hmm... well, Ms. Klutz took out the barrel, nearly tripping and falling flat on her face instead. I retreated, and asked her to try again, and this time she tripped over the OTHER barrel... huh?!?! So I changed the game. I made it a figure eight around and between the barrels. WELL! That was even worse!!! She tripped, she ran into barrels, she got confused. So I stopped and thought. I thought I was going slow. I really was trying. But I stopped, and when I started again I went even slower. If thats possible. And THATS when we got two passably good, non life threatening figure eights. I was ecstatic. Indy was pleased with herself, and we chose that moment to hoof it back to the barn to dredge out the one thing I had forgotten - BUG SPRAY!! All the little black flies were swarming and driving me nuts.

I left Ivy outside while I rubbed Indy down with bug repellent - and myself - and then we were back 'on the road again' as it were. We played around in the dirt area just in front of the barn, past the muck a bit, the flies were less there. Indy offered me some amazing and soft sideways without a fence. When we both felt ready, I changed my 22' reins into a hackamore style and mounted up [from the ground! whoo me!] I just sat still for the longest time, waiting for a question from Indy. I must say, it is seriously the hardest thing for me to just hurry up and wait. I am 'used' to Mo, whose wait time is about thirty seconds on a bad day. Mo is always so ready for the next thing, that is a challenge to slow it way down for Indy. I have to remember that all through the winter I was doing little blurbs with Mo, nothing big and major like now, just little bits to help her grow to where she is now - thats what I need to do with Indy. So we sat.

She finally asked me a question, she turned her head and looked at me like 'Well? Arent you going to do anything?" So I gave her a treat. OH BOY! She liked that a LOT!! When she finished munching I upped my life and squeezed a little and we set off.... towards to shed... I had my carrot stick this time. Last time I rode, I found some brace when I directed her in the halter, so I brought the carrot stick this time to direct. MY oh my... if she didnt try to push right through that to! She nearly ran us into a pole before relenting and accepting that I might have a clue what I am asking for. Of course I was using my legs to turn to, but that seems to mean nothing to her yet, but no worries, it will. I still remember when Mo had no clue either... wasnt that long ago! [ I apologize for all the Mo references, but Mo is the only other young horse I have started... so shes my launch point]

When we finally got turned around in the right direction, I picked on of the paths the horses had worn in the yard to head out to the 'arena'. Really, I was aiming for the telephone pole that, to me, denotes the start of my play ground. Point to point style. I remember Linda saying one time it took Allure 200 some odd corrections to walk a straight line the first time, and I must say, I now know some of what she felt. Indy was just everywhere. I didnt pick up my reins to micromanage her, I just directed her with the carrot stick when my legs didnt work. You should have seen the crazy serpentine we had going. When we FINALLY got to the pole though she stopped on energy down, so that was fairly cool! I was pretty surprised about that.

Again more waiting. .... and waiting.... until she finally asked me a question and I gave her a treat again. When she was finished with that I picked a new point as the black barrel [there are three plastic blue ones and one black metal one] More winding paths, but we got there! More waiting and more treats. Her questions were coming quicker this time. Ivy was somewhere behind us, so instead of risking her getting worried about her, I turned her this time and picked Ivy as our point. That went great because Ivy was 'on the way to the barn'. I had to pick up my reins a little to stop at Ivy, so we worked on our 9-step backup at the same time.

And so my point to point went. We aimed back to the telephone pole, question came faster, as did the treat, and then I aimed for the other telephone pole which she *almost* trotted to. Even better time on questions for that one. And then, in a crowning Indy-moment, when we returned to our original telephone pole, she LICKED AND CHEWED right away! YEY! She was getting it!! we ran our course [and by ran, I mean walked] one more time, with lots more licking and thinking, before heading back to the barn. There is one random tire somehow in the front of the gate, off to the side, about fifteen feet from the gate.

Of course Indy wanted to charge right up to the gate, so I decided we needed to put a foot in the tire. What a challenge that was!! Indy finally got it, stomped on the tire proudly [close enough to in it] and I jumped of and have her a big hug while she thoughtfully licked and chewed while I ran up my stirrups.

When I got them both back into the barn, I tied Indy to the stall rail of her stall, but in the aisle and put Ivy inside the stall with the door closed. Last time I did this Ivy freaked out, but this time she was a trooper and was really good while I untacked Indy! Indy was awesome for untacking. I was surprised to see sweat under the girth on such a cool day when all we did was walk ... but that makes me think that maybe her emotions get up when she rides, and thats why it took so long to think about the point to point pattern. How interesting!!

After she was all untacked I put her in her stall to get her dinner and that was that. Leading her out after she ate went really well, and really softly, even for Ivy, so I was really happy with that.

Reading this you might think " well she didnt do anything? Just walked around" but you would be wrong. I DID SO MUCH!! Indy is such a challenge for me, in that I need to control ME more and s-l-o-w waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down for her. IF I can ever get it right for her, I can guarentee she will give me 150% of her heart. The onus is on me now to figure it out for her... I feel like I am on the right track for her after this session though.

:-)
S

Amazing Saturday and Sunday

Saturday:
Saturday was a really good day in the sense of the whole day, and an even better one in the sense of what me and Mo did. I ended up going out shopping with my cousins aunt and mom in the morning to mid afternoon portion of the day before coming home to play with Mo.

Lately I have been feeling bored and restricted in the riding ring, which while its a good size, its not huge, or as big as my old one in Russell led me to be spoiled by [120' x 200'] Needless to say I have been feeling cramped. There is a place, well, two places actually, but the other place is waaaay out there, in the horses pasture that would be a perfect place for a ring. Big, flat, mostly eaten grass. The only problem is that its in the middle of a twenty five acre pasture, so carting toys out there has not been on my high priority list! Until now!

I got to the barn Saturday afternoon about 4:30 and immediately set to moving toys and poles out to where I wanted them. Finally sick of feeling cramped and ready to progress, I dragged out two 4x4's that were 12' long [thank you 45' rope for helping out lol] four barrels, and two jump rails. I wanted three, to make a vertical and a crossrail, but I settled for just half the X beacause by then I was just tired! It was a long walk each time! But I got it set up, between two telephone poles as the end marks to my ring [mostly, I sort of usually go on the outside of them, but they are really good for point to point!] So it was big, spacious and the way I set up the barrels for jumps was already larger than the current ring. I put each of the 4x4's end to end about ten feet apart as a start of a windmill when I get the energy to bring two more out. Then at the end of each 4x4, about 5 feet from there I set up my barrel jumps on either side. So it went two barrels for a jump, rail on the ground space rail space and the last two barrels for a jump.

Seemed pretty cool to me, and I can add to it over time as I accumulate more things. Maybe I will bring out my jump standars from home.. or some tires... or... YEY IDEAS! Anways, I am proud to finally sucked it up and put things out there because frankly, my first ride in my new 'arena' was GOLD. Pure and absolute GOLD!

I had my ipod on when I went to catch Mo and she was ignoring me looking over the fence, but with the sun in my eyes I couldnt see why until I was close. Well apparently some creepy people where petting her over the fence. Mo gave me a guilty look when I got closer to apologize. I just sort of smiled curtly at the creepy people and haltered and mounted Mo for the ride back to the barn. On the way we stopped by the 'arena' to dissuade Crystal and Delilah from trashing my barrels. It was cute to see their curiosity up though! Mo even sort of went "HEY! Why are there BARRELS in my pasture!"

In the barn I saddled her up and bridled her over the halter with her reins disconnected and tied around her neck [finesse reins are SO convienant!] and out we went. We played with stick to me and falling leaf and sideways on the way over to the ring. It was fun to watch Mo thinking really hard to stay with me when I changed from falling leaf to sideways. She was trying sooooo hard.

Once over by my obstacles I asked her over the ground rails, which she jumped like a goober, so we squeezed over them until she could just trot over them regularly. I had forgotten to grab my 22' line so I felt a little limited anyways, even in the big space, but I ran around with Mo a nuch, testing out the new jumps to see if I could ride her over them [first few I definatley would have eaten dirt] and then mounted up. I still had the 12' line attached to her halter, but I tied it to the handle on the theraflex pad so I would be simulating bridleless with a carrot stick - IN THE 25 ACRE PASTURE!

This was a total first for Mo. I havent played with bridless anywhere except in the ring and small paddock that is attached to it. But I felt the need to progress and grow and push Mo a little bit to step up to what I asked her - to be a little more particular and you know what? It paid off! BIG time! Mo was 100% with me, we did walk, trot, canter AND back up all around our new ring, we took jumps, we sidepassed over the ground poles, we did figure eights and point to point on the telephone poles and anything else I could think of. It was AMAZING!!!! At some point I ditched the halter and 12' because it was swinging annoyingly, and it was STILL GREAT!

I was totally floored. I have to admit, I wasnt expecting our session to be THAT great - our first session out in the pasture brideless? I guess its a good thing my horse is a loner! Hah! Everything about the session was just amazing. I was so thrilled that after half an hour I didnt want to push it, to push away the floaty feeling that we walked out and went back to the barn.

I still really cant get over how GREAT Mo was. She is such a great horse! She really gives her all for me and I appreciate it so much!

Sunday:

Yesterday was the last show for our local club this season. We eneded up being a little late because they were ahead of schedule, but it worked out. I didnt really get anywarm up time, for which I apologized to Mo profusely, but we DID take third in Command class! Which was super cool highpoint :-)

Of course that was our only class before lunch so after that Mo and I took the oppurtunity with my cousins to warm up in the jumper ring since the obstacles were set up already. I took off Mo's bridle and opted for a halter tied to the theraflex handle again and grabbed my carrot stick. This was the first time I tried my brideless in public. At least there was no one over in the ring when I started!

Mo and I cruised around the ring, doing random patterns and transitions between and around the jumps before finally trying some of them. Mo was amazing, she is turning into this point and follow my focus type of horse. She is looking where I am looking and just popping over any jumps that might be in her way! It is SUCH a cool feeling!!! We trotted around popping over all the jumps in random orders, doing the four on the outside line like we did it everyday. I was soooo happy and proud!!!

In keeping with our 'try new things theme' I handed my carrot stick to Colleen, tied myself some reins and attempted a total first for Mo and Me [as a team]... We CANTERED jumps!!! For the first time in Mo's history, she CANTERED jumps under saddle with a rider! How cool is that?!?! She was comepletely AWESOME! I am SO PROUD of her!!!

We cooled out shortly after that because our classes were not for another hour or so, and I untacked Mo and brought her to graze by the trailer. Our next class didnt go so well, it was Junior Horse and apparently people with young horses have no idea how to space themselves in the ring. I made sure I had lots of room, and then all of the sudden at the canter I was boxed in by FOUR people [yes FOUR, there were three of us wide along the rail, one in fron and one behind] which caused poor [angry] Mo to break the canter and then be annoyed enough not to want to pick it back up [ I wouldnt want to either] This happened going both directions, it was super annoying. Mo did great with what she was given though, and didnt try to kill anyone - which is a plus.

Since we were done until the western games later in the afternoon [waaaaay later] I moseyed back over the the jumper ring to work on transitions some more, since in the last class Mo wasnt as snappy as I wanted - even if there are other horses around, she still needs to listen. On the way we paused at the trailer to grab my carrot stick and tie my reins to the string I keep on the handle for my pad. So we were going around, playing follow the rail - which Mo had a hard time with! She kept wanting to JUMP! Which was cute, but I kept up follow the rail at a walk until she got it.

We did walk/halt/backup transitions until she figured out that we were following the rail and then we picked up the trot. We did trot walk transtitions and they were super crisp now to, so I was really pleased. We were just starting to play with canter walk transitions when another rider came in to use to the jumps, so I asked her if she wanted me to leave. She said no, that it was ok, AND complimented me on my riding! How cool is that?? I got a compliment! Whoo! We walked together talking for a while and then Mo and I played with more transitions and jumping before cooling out again.

I walked around the rings on the outside, stopping at one point to pull of Mo's bridle, since she doesnt really like it all that much and she kept grazing anyways, and we walked around some more. We wandered into the vaccant driving ring and sidepassed over the poled set up [bridless!!!] we even 'checked the mail' lol. It was really fun. I noticed that Chelsea was in a class so Mo and I went over the the main ring to watch.

Mo stood and grazed while I sat and watched. It wasnt until after that class that the judges 'runner' or whatever came out to snarl at me to put a halter on my horse. Oh, Im sorry, my obviously wild horse is getting away from me.... grazing.... It honestly hadnt even occured to me that I would get in trouble for neglecting to have head gear on my horse. Of course I had ditched my own helmet when I left the show ring, so if anything I was expecting a snarl about that.. but no... 'Put a halter on your horse' . *sigh* Note to Self: If playing with super awesome exciting and SUCCESSFULL bridleless, do it out of sight of the judge.

It doesnt matter that the judge snarled at me via her runner, it doesnt matter that I had to put Mo's bridle back on her [which she accepted with good grace] what matters is that I was RIDING Mo around SHOW GROUNDS bridless WITH NO PROBLEMS AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, I just cant get over that! She was ASTOUNDING!!!!! And, if I havent expressed my excitment enough, here are some more exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

During the break between jumping and games, Chelsea nad I practiced our newfound tradition of visiting the Bakery via double riding Mo over. That is always fun, and provides tasty results!

So western games eventually came, I put a halter on Mo and went to warm back up in the sand ring since there is a huge long break because of all the jumping classes. I did more transitions, playing more with bridless, doing circles in the corners and figure eights across the ring while it was mostly empty - just me and one other person [who to me looked like he was disciplining his horse, who was drenched, but not my business] Mo was a doll. She did everything I asked.

I have no idea how our games times were. A couple of girls showed up just for the games on their professionaly trained gaming horses and won everything. I dont think thats all that fair, to have a gaming horse and show up to a little club show and show off to everyone. Everyone has their own perogative of course, thats just my opinon. After games was Sit a Buck. Not our best class, but easily the most fun. We all do our openening canter laps to 'warm up' [reads: get some extra sweat and stick factor] and get our bucks. Of course the first command is trot, so Mo and I set off at this amazingly slow trot, which I am surprised she even did! And then.... Extend your trot please. DOH! Oh well, that didnt last long before they called a canter, and all was well until they said trot or walk or something, slow down in whatever capacity and my buck went flying. I was third or fourth out or something. It went pretty fast after that anyways.

When everyone lost their buck we did the traditional closing gallop laps. Except this time we were closing the season, not just the show. Always fun. And then we loaded up to go home. Great day, great weekend, and only a little bit of sunburn :-) Mo was a Star

:-)
S

Bridleless Part Deux!!!

Last night, due to Mo's poor nose, I was feeling guilty about putting things with nosebands over her nose, so I used only the halter around her neck again. The coolest thing was that last night when I got there, Mo was waiting for me at the back gate all excited!!

I let her into the barn at liberty, and she moseyed down into one of the stalls to explore. When she was in, I closed the door so I could let Indy and Ivy in, who were also waiting at the gate! They both went happily into their stall for dinner. Then I got Mo's halter and we set out on our adventure. I brought the trailer over again, so we went to play with that some more. Mo was more than willing to stand on the ramp, bu going inside was a little iffy so we played lots of approach and retreat and squeeze over the ramp until she asked me if she could go in!

I got to play with putting the butt bar up and down, since Mo has never had one before, and she was awesome. She tried to push on it a few times, but moved right off when I asked her to, without freaking out, which was really nice. She didnt even try to rush out when I opened it! She waited for the request from me, and backed out by the tail super lightly!

We played with backing in and out some more to, which was really go. I left hte divider in, so it was a good test of how specific our communication is. Turns out we needed some work, but we got it and I felt like we made good progress - Mo was licking the whole time and I only went to phase three once when she made a dive for grass pushing on me.

After getting all the way into the trailer backwards and getting a nice grass break, I lined up Mo along the ramp and practiced bareback mounting! I managed to get up three or four times before moving on because Mo was getting bored. So I just need to find a ditch to put Mo in, and I should be able to mount with that since the end of the ramp where I was standing was MAYBE three inches high?

We went over to the tack room then, to douse ourselves in fly spray since the little black flies are murderous, and grab the saddle and pad. I also put Mo's bridle on her, just for her to carry around. Its easier to use that if I need to than slip something over her nose. Her poor nose! I put aloe cream on it though, and that seemed to help some.

In the ring we played with softness on the circle with our new little set up - apparently pushing into the halter on the neck is fun, so I kept trying different things to keep Mo's draw into me instead of away. I got one and a half really light circles and was really proud of that. I changed the game then to a squeeze over the big jump. She kept wanting to keep going off but eventually clued into the SQUEEZE TURN FACE WAIT part, which was nice. She is starting to take the jumps better - smaller, more in relation to the actual size of the jump *gigglesnort* Although her first atempt over the big one today was... obnoxious.

Around we went, in a moving circling and falling leaf style game, around some barrels and over the three jumps set up. It was lots of fun. I found out that in sideways, putting the stick out to block zone one drifting forwards is more effective that trying to block it by wiggling the rope! I got really straight sideways without a fence for about twenty feet [on a 12' line, me traveling with her at the end] using this technique - what a treat! Mo is good at sideways, but usually has forwards drifting problems no matter how many times I try to remind her 'dont go forwards'.

I think about then we went over to the fence rail for the saddle and saddled up. Mo was thinking hard about that again, which was interesting. I grabbed the reins for the bridle to, just in case, and wound them around her neck. A few more jumps and sidewayses [?] for girth tightening and I mounted up. I have been mounting from the ground lately for practice because I usually use a fence or barrel or something sneaky like that. By sneaky, I obviously mean lazy... Mo isnt the biggest horse ever, I just am not the most coordinated, so I am now dedicating myself to finding my coordination via ground mounting, both with and without a saddle :-)

As we walked around the rail I played with transitions, walk stop back. Our back is a little sticky on body language, so I have been meaning to play more with that. I only need to go to phase one on the neck rope, but since that is already phase three in the big picture, I would rather get it off just my body like everything else! I also played with isolating front end vs hind end without dictating with the reins [had none, so it was easy! ok, not easy, but easy to not use the reins..]
Mo was confused at first, and kept offering different things, and when she finally isolated the one thing I asked for and offered it, she licked and chewed BIG TIME. It was really interesting to see the gamut of things she ran through to offer. AWwww! She tried so hard!

We picked up the trot and did more transitions and circles and then aimed for the jumps! The first few times she ducked out of the little cavelleti one were interesting. I then changed to using my carrot stick to reinforce my focus, and changed my focus to be on, and just a little passed the jump. When I used to learn jumping they always told us to focus on the horizon way beyond the jump, but that seems to encourage Mo to just get there as easily as possible, vs taking the obstacle in the straight line path. How interesting!

This little focus change affected everything though and we sailed over easily! I still cant get over the neat feeling of jumping bridleless. It is really good for both of us, because I can concentrate on me, and Mo can concentrate on Mo. Both of us need fluidity help with jumping. We continued on our way, weaving around the ring doing different things, picking up the canter on occasion, but mostly sticking to the trot because we arent cantering jumps yet.

Around we went, taking all the jumps over and over EVEN THE BIG ONE!!! It was amazing. We knocked the big one once, and I had to dismount to fix it, but Mo stuck to me like glue while I fixed it, and I got more mounting practice. I played with jumping squeeze game under saddle, jumping it then stopping turning and jumping it again. That was neat. It was a really neat experience that after I changed my focus all I had to do was point Mo at the jump and she would jump it, instead of trying to find a way out of it. Very cool.

After getting my fill of leaping and cavorting around the now-feeling-confining ring, I snapped on my reins and headed out to the trails. Mo is getting REALLY good at opening gates... er... tolerating me while I open the gate from her back. Same difference? Anyways, WE are getting good at gates. On a casual rein we took off cantering down the trail. The world looked a little spooky, so it turned into a trot for a while, but Mo picked the canter back up all on her own when her confidence was high enough! What a clever girl!

I was on a euphoria high and Mo was happy to be out of the ring so we cantered and galloped the whole length of the trail, up the hill and onto the galloping trail and back maybe six times... its quite the course and always fun. Good songs ringing in your ipod always help nicely to! There is not much in the world that is more fun than galloping down the trails, good tunes, and a happy horse on a loose rein. Swimming comes to mind... but I dont think anything can beat that. This is up there though!

We finally cooled out, walking the trail circuit twice to relax, well not relax, but let the body relax, if the mind already was. When Mo was ready we walked back to the trailer, put two feet on the ramp while I was still riding, and then went to the tack room and untacked. I took off the bridle from her back just for fun... that was neat. When she was unencumbered by tack I let her graze in the back yard while I put Indy and Ivy back outside. Mo was happy to come with me when I came back and I gave her a goot treat before leaving her standing at the gate watching me, trying her puppy dog eyes out for more snacks!

I had SO much fun, and I really hope Mo did to!! Jumping is something I love, and I want Mo to enjoy it as much as I do.

:-)
S

Bridleless!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was a fairly spectacular session! To start things off on the right foot, I stopped at the post office and mailed away my order for the NEW Parelli Patterns!! I had to mail it because I have gift certificates left from volunteering at the Harrisburg tour stop. Or had. They are used now... same difference?

MY order is gone out either way. Then I went over to my aunts and Chelsea was there with one of the boarders so I got to share my trailer excitement with them! Then my aunt came home and I got to oooh and aahh with her to! It was lots of fun... you know you are a horse person when you stand and stare at a trailer!

All the horses were close ish so I went to get Indy and Ivy in for supper and put Mo in a stall while I got invited in for supper. I figured my luck would put Mo in the farthest corner [again] if I ate and then caught her! Her poor nose is all sun burt/crispy from all the water beadingand reflecting sun so I didnt put the halter over her nose, just around her neck. This started a BEAUTIFUL theme for us!

We played walk/trot stick to me on the way back to the barn, and a really soft disengage through the gate inside! Mo went great in the stall with me driving from zone three/four to. I gave her a bit of hay and went off to eat. When I came back she looked so happy and excited to see me, it was so cute! We [Chelsea and I] had convinced my aunt to ride to, so she had to go out and catch Tucker - Tripp was already in the barn because Chelsea had just been getting back from a trail ride when I got there.

While they tacked up, I brushed Mo and re-haltered her neck and set out to visit with the trailer again. She walked right in again, after squeezing across the ramp a few times. I think she thinks its fun, which is perfect! After that we moseyed into the ring to play a few ground games. I put her hind end in the hula hoop and played with bringing it all the way over her body, down over her neck to get it off, and that went really well. Really good head-down practice! We also played with getting a really soft figure eight around two barrels at a walk. It was an extra challenge because she kept wanting to brace against the rope so A) I know our porcupine in that area needs help and B) I got to work on my draw!

We also played with some falling leaf that 'accidentally' had her jumping the 'big' jump - which is just to barrels on their side with a rail across. It was really cute though, because every time she did it, she would look back at me like "Was that good??" and ask to come in.

When I saddled her she licked and chewed. Actually, on our way TO saddling, the mounting block was in the way and Mo walzted up to it and thunked one giant Mo-foot on it and pronounced it hers. I have to laugh at her.. QUITE the sense of humour on that one.... took some convincing to assure her that it COULD NOT hold her weight! She kept offering her foot back up there. Really funny!

So saddling went great, she stood still like she always does, but she was licking and chewing this time.... for reasons unknown? Either way it was good stuff. So off we went to do some girth tightening moving around. When she was ready mount I just mounted, with the halter around her neck. Of course after I mounted I had concerns about her legs tangling in the halter should we choose to jump so I went over to the rail, SIDEWAYSED [!!!] closer and dropped the halter on the top rail, leaving me with just the 12' around her neck and tied to my theraflex 'handle' so the snap wouldnt slip to the front. Oh, and my carrot stick, I was still carrying that to.

We walked around, doing little zig zags and patterns, and Chelsea was working on canter leads with Tripp and things and Aunty was doing things with Tucker, when Chelsea ACTUALLY asked me for help, which she never does so I was pretty surprised! So I explained to her about needing the hind end to come in and things and helped her get Tripp to relax a bit, and played with that some. She actually paid me a really nice compliment, saying that at the trot my legs never move and how do I do that? I thought that was pretty neat, because sometimes I feel so all over the place and she says I am not so WHOO! Although when she asked how I sort of just laughed and said HOURS in the saddle and when I was a kid Aunty gave me lessons and it was LOTS of two point HEELS DOWN practice so I guess it stuck LOL!! Gotta love a good foundation! So no quick fixes, but she did ride around in two point for a bit :-)

Mo was awesome while I was paying attention to Chelsea and Tripp, I am really proud of her. We were sort of just pivoting around the middle of the ring, doing little circles and small diversions so I could keep her attention. It made me laugh that only halfway through the ride did anybody notice there was nothing on Mo's head. I explained my reasoning [burnt nose] and they just sort of shrugged it off. Chelsea asked if it was a Parelli thing [but no nasty undertone!] and I said for me it was, but lots of people do it [Stacy Westfall was an example] She thought it was really cool how I could do things without a bridle, which was really neat to me, and I just assured her we worked hard to be able to do it! LONG and hard!

It made me laugh to when she asked if I was controlling Mo with my legs and I said yes and she sorta went.. oh.. well.. because she is self confessed weak in the legs. Love her to pieces, but you have to use more than a bit to turn! I still have to remind myself of that to, so its not a big deal. It was so much fun being able to DO that though, in a ring with three horses doing their own thing!

Mo and I eventually started trotting around, doing transitions, and going on to canter-stop and ...get ready for it.... TAKING JUMPS! We started on the little cavelleti, that was awesome, and then went to the crossrail, which Mo was unsure about, so I got her to stop in front of it, back up and reapproach. When we did that she took it like a pro!!!! I was soooo proud of her!! We did the little ones for a while before trying the big one. The first few times she ducked out before I could arrange myself to stop her, but then I did get to stop her right in front of it. I backed her off of it, picked up our trot again and we SAILED OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!! ABSOLUTELY PERFECT! Mo was so proud of herself! Tripp finished off the feeling by taking it right after us, so it was a great finale to our ride. We walked out side by side after that, which in and of itself is an accomplishment because our horses hate each other. NO mean faces! Mo was super happy and pleased and so was Tripp.

When we finished cooling off, we untacked [not before Mo claimed the mounting block again though] and then went on to trailer loading. With there being a show this Sunday, we need to be sure Tripp and Candy will load into the new trailer. Original trailer loading with Tripp had been... eventful... in the old trialer because he went extreme LBI MAKE ME and calmly proceded to rear his protest. Apparently some good headway was made with those sessions because he was more curious than afraid of this one! Backing out was still a little wobbly at first, but he still tried his heart out.

It took no time to get him going in and out happily. I was really proud of him for trying so hard. Next came the pony... usually, Candy will skitter around the trailer, one phase four smack on the bum and she walks right in, but EVERY time she has her skitter routine. Because its Candy and we know as we do, we never really put time into trailer loading training. She gets in, but it isnt always pretty kind of thing. Not my horse, so wasnt my business to fix, but last night Aunty commented that it would be nice if Candy would load like Tripp and Mo [ie send into trailer]

Well if Candy didnt up her skitter routine!! It was bordering hysterical. She kept jumping over until she FINALLY figured out that she ran into my windmilling string everytime she went there and finally tried to head towards the trailer. She offered two feet on the ramp pretty much as soon as she realized she wouldnt be in trouble for staying in behind the trailer. *insert grass break here* Then two feet inside the trailer *insert more grass here* And then, like it was nothing, she walked right into the trailer, like shes been doing it every day and we all gae her handfulls of grass inside the trailer. Three more loads and unloads like that, no force, just send and we called it a day. In my head I am thinking' Now THATS how you motivate an LBI with extreme food concerns!' It went beatifully, and my aunt called me a genius which makes me smile. It is still cool to me that she thinks what I can do with what I know is cool, even if its not something she wants to do for herself.

So now that we were sure everyone would load, for tonight at least, Chelsea and I somehow got into a bareback mounting... not contest, but maybe frenzy? I dont know... we took turns running and leaping trying to get on Candy, who is the shortest present. Chels is taller than me, like 5'5 or 6 so she got it pretty quick. I got it twice I think. It was funny though because she would run from the left I would run from the right because thats my stronger side.

When we were both tried and drenched in sweat, with our sides hurting because we were laughing so hard, we finally put all the horses away. Nobody had wandered far - grass is to green in the backyard! Mo actually looked up at me and stepped to me when I came to get her, so that was a total plus!

All in all, a spectacular evening!!!

:-)
S

Trailer Toys

Its here! Its finally here!!! I was finally able to sell my trailer to buy the new one!!!!!!!!!!! Well, new to me anyways!

Last night I went to pick up my shiny new toy in Russell at the Garage. My dad was all excited, telling me how awesome it was and how well it pulled and everything. He is proud of it to! Which is funny. It is SUCH a fancy trailer to me though! Its a 1995 Sundowner, two horse, extra wide, extra tall, gooseneck ramp load. In short, completely amazing. It used to be red... but now it is a pinkish colour due to fading, but my dad thinks we can buff it back up to the shiny red the interior still has.

So I hauled my precious new toy home, it was great, easy to pull, my truck had NO problems! Have I mentioned I LOVE my truck??? I got to poke fun at my dad a little last night, because before finding my truck he tried to foist a little Ford Ranger on me - I declined on premise of it being a Ford [Dad is a big NO FORDS guy, so it was odd that he wanted me to get this one anyways] and that it was a standard anyways [which I couldnt drive and was scared to learn].... well... a week later he calls me up and says I found you a Dakota! Lists all the everything thats perfect about it [power everything, black, sport, V8, can pull any trailer ever] and then drops the bomb of... But its a standard... I never missed a beat and said I would LEARN! I am SO glad today that I did. My truck is one of the best things I own now. I always wanted a Dakota, since I was small - even named my horse after the truck - and now I have one, one with burly enough engine to pull my fairly kick ass awesome trailer to boot!! Whoo! Karma definatley loves me!

Back to the trailer!! Obviously the first thing I did was haul it to Aunty's to show her! They werent home though, so I just got to be excited alone and fetch Mo. Instead of getting Mo first then Indy, which had been my plan, Indy came cantering up all happy and friendly, so I was mighty pleased at that. Since she moved to the big feild she has been... evasive... and that is just no fun. So I brought Indy and Ivy in for their dinner and went back out to get Mo, who I couldnt see but then found in the very farthest corner away, bordering the road.

She looked up at me when I got close, but essentially gave me the "screw you" look and went back to eating. I dont blame her, our last session wasnt the best. When I was right at her though she looked up and asked for hugs a la usual Mo, so that was a good sign. Being the lazy me that I am, I didnt want to walk alllllll the way back across the substantial pasture to get back to the barn, so I sidled Mo up to the fence, and in Chelseas rubber boots [had come straight from the garage which I went to from work] and my previously clean work pants I rode Mo bareback to the barn. We practiced some nice butt-sticking trot, so that was cool.

When we got out to the trailer Mo didnt even really look at it. She wanted GRASS!!! So I had to be more interesting that the inanimate green stuff and cause her to sniff the trailer. We played put-your-nose-on-it for a bit until she gave me the "my nose is on it, I am not afriad... can I eat now?!?!?" look and I took that as a good time to open the doors! All my clambering on fenders to latch the top doors open [extra tall trailer + extra small me = needing things to stand on often ] didnt phase Mo at all. She just grazed and snickered at me while I scrambled around. Even letting down the ramp didnt bother her! WHoo!!!!

And then the test... I opened one of the butt bars for a space for her, and asked her to put a foot on the ramp. Annnnd... Mo looks at me like I am daft and stands on the ramp, no problem what so ever. HA! Goodness I love that horse. ANYTHING I throw at her shes like " Well, its probably fun?" And then her "can I eat it?" self came out and she put her head down to the flat ramp and tried to take a big bite out of it. I had to laugh at that. It was quite slow and deliberate, a taste testing if you will. After that we did some squeezing across the ramp, and Mo just thought it was a fun bridge or pedestal thing like we had at Stella's. We played with going on and off the ramp for a while, then I turned it around and we played with BACKING on and off the ramp!

THAT WAS COOL!! I always wanted to try that, but its a little difficult with a step up, which is what my old trailer was. So we backed up and down the ramp, every good try rewarded with a grass break. I moved the divider to is layed to one side and we played with backing into and out of the trailer! HOLY COW THAT WAS COOL!!! Mo was super good, really thinking hard and she did great!! She would lift one foot up and ask me where to put it! How neat it that?!?!

When she got her zone four and five into the trailer backwards, I let her come out and asked her in forwards and she walked right in like she did it every day. She did her snuffle around being curious routine and then just stood there. She backed out by her tail compeltely calm and wonderful. [!!!!!!!!! is whats going through my head at that time, smiling like a fool]

After she went all the way in forwards we went back to backing in and WENT ALL THE WAY IN BACKWARDS! On the first DAY! I was just beyond thrilled. And Mo seemed thrilled to because it was a new toy! She likes new things, just as much as I do! When she went in all the way backwards once I called it a day. I hadnt actually intended to get her on the trailer [hadnt expected her to want to go on!] in our first session, but I am THRILLED that she just thought it was a new toy and had no fear about it!

I let Mo graze while I put Indy and Ivy out [who had both taken a nap] and then put all the doors back up and closed, all the while Mo not being afraid or anything and then put Mo back in the feild with a big hug and a big handful of crunch. She seemed really happy!

And thats how it was *in my best newscaster voice* our first trailer loading session on the new trailer went better than I ever could have imagined! Now heres hoping Tripp will be as accomodating!!

:-)
S

Ramblings...

So, twleve days and at least four sessions later I am back.... I didnt go anywhere but I just havent posted. Things have been complicated in my head lately and I havent been able to find enough coherent thought to post it all. I am going to try harder now.



First and foremost, I accomplished one of my lifelong dreams two weekends ago. I got to go swimming with Mo. It was totally awesome and amazing and just crazy fun. You Tube video [my first ever!] can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S47_VzGCQLU I got to indulge my Piratey addiction, so bear with me.



So that was fun. Went to Russell, rode with my dad and his horse Rocky. Went down the Russell trails I always wanted to as a kid [killer bike trails] and visited some of dad's friends [you know you are country folk when you ride your horse a-visitin] Cantering through corn feilds and whatnot. Very good times. Mo was supreme the whole day. Right from the morning, she loaded perfectly, rode great, she was a little hyper when we got there but I played with her on the ground until she calmed down and then the trail ride was great. She had a nap in a stall [literally, flat out] while I went to lunch and then we went swimming in the pond. I got to dive off of her back, which was awesome. So good day.

Then the next day fell apart! It wasnt horrible, but it was bad... I have no idea what happened. Mo was just ultra fly-a-kite-run-like-a-lunatic. I eventually got her to relax by putting a zillion obstacles in her way so she would have to think, but it just wasnt pretty or fun, and I hate to say it, but I was really frustrated! We just had the best day of our lives the day before, and now its all gone??? I didnt get, and still dont. I left her alone for a lot of days after that, not completely by choice, but it rained solid... so there was nothing I could do anyways.

I had a couple of more flying-a-kite like sessions each time I played. I cant understand WHY she is suddenly so... crazy? Then on Saturday I went out to play and I had Mo back. My Mo. The Mo I know and love and can understand. We did awesome things on Saturday. We played over jumps - two barrels with a vertical rail, a barrel cross rail and a pretend cavelleti. We played with super soft sideways and yo-yo. We even played with liberty. Coolest thing had to be squeezing her through a hula hoop though. That I will have to get a picture of. I started at her hind end, put her bum in the hoop and then brought it up her legs, over her middle, lowered her head and brought it down over her neck and feet. To cool.

We also played with yeilding from the hula hoop in every direction, sideways towards, hind towards, front towards, backing by the hoop on the hind legs or front legs, that kind of thing. It was very cool. I rode in the bridle to try it, but when I mounted the reins were still just detached and wound on her neck, so I mounted and rode warm up essentially bridless. THAT was a cool feeling. And Mo was GREAT. Spot on! Everything was perfect and snappy and great.

We ran through simple changes, figure eights, maintain gait and direction, little jumps, everything, even going on and off of contact without changing pace. Everything went so great that I even went out on the trails to cool out alone, which isnt something we usually do because Mo isnt confident enough, but that day she was, and we ended up cantering and galloping freestyle all around the trails! I did eventually cool her off, but only after that....

Then the next day brought disaster! Mo was CRAZY once I got on her. She was an angel on the ground, absolutely perfect. I couldnt have asked for more, but then after I was in the saddle, after two laps in the ring, the far left corner became the DEATH ZONE. Nothing changed, but Mo started freaking out ALL along that side of the fence and into the corner and generally just going insane. I felt like I could ride it so I didnt get off yet. I tried to put her into some strong patterns to distract her and get her thinking again, but that didnt help.

The only plus is that using her adrenaline, we cleared the big barrel/rail vertical jump. AND on adrenaline, she is a better jumper [snort] But she was still NUTS. So I went over to the corner and dismounted, changed my reins to be hooked onto the curb strap on the bit [seemed better that the bit itself, but I am not sure if this is ok or not?] and went into a BIG yo-yo game trying to get her attention. I made the 'scary' spot a comfy spot where I would leave her alone if she stopped moving there. Lots and lots and lots of backing up later she finally stood and I left her alone for a while before moving in to rub her and things.

She looked rideable again. She looked normal again, so I rearranged my reins and then went to mount... and as soon as I lifted that one boot her head went back up and I had to start all over again... *sigh* I did, and finally got her to STAY with me and allow me to mount. We just walked around, she was drenched in emotional sweat, my mind was going a mile a minute trying to figure out what the hell was going on, and so after a lap and a half when she started to 'notice' the corner again I just had enough and let myself out of the ring and we went on the trails.

I changed to a halter and 12' converted to a hackamore first though. Which was cool. Unbridling/rehaltering from Mo's back. And so out on the trails we went. We walked at first, then trotted, and I practiced my fluidity and pedaling to try and sit her trot. I, at least in this, was mildly successful. The we cantered around and I hit a good song on my ipod and we galloped laps and up the hill and down the galloping track and back around again. That was good fun. It was a good way to get Mo's energy out to. For a usually lazy horse, she had no problems maintaining that gait!

When she was finally cooled out and I dismounted she got all jittery by the barn again. Damned if I know why... I am just SO confused about her right now! I dont understand how we can go from lots of awesome days in a row to one awesome one horrible. Maybe its boredom. So much rain, so much restriction in the ring.... Maybe I should set up a play ground in the pasture. Maybe I will bring Mo home for a while so we can play in my pasture at home. Autny's is so nice and freshly bush hogged though.... I just need it to stop raining so I can make use of it!!

So thats me... and Mo... and I dont know whatever demon spawn has her possessed every other day. I know shes wierd and quirky, but she seems different than shes ever been before. I dont know how to deal with it. I normally try and shut it down, but I think maybe next time I will just grab the longest rope I have and play "You want to move? ME TOO!" see how that goes....
I think I will also try to set up some things in the pasture to.. its 25 acres or so, so that should be fun...?

Maybe I will just spend some hang time with Indy instead.? Its just so hard with Ivy being annoying all the time! Cant wait for weaning time!!! Mind you, by then I will be departing this fair country for the States headed to Florida.... Oh well.

So basically I dont know whats going on... Ive got to think some more on this with her. I also want to invest in the new Parelli Patterns to see how I should be developing her [and Indy] and hopefully that will help me out of this interesting rise/fall rut.

:-)
S

Darling Indy...

*This actually happened on Tuesday, but I have been remiss in posting!*

It finally stopped raining long enough for me to be able to play on Tuesday, so you can bet I booked it out to the barn.

My original intent had been to play with Mo to be honest. I got there, I whistled for her - which ironically, is the same whistle for all three horses - but instead of Mo running over, INDY ran over! She was so happy and excited, neighing to me and trotting over! Well!! If you can resist such a sweet blatant invitation, you are a stronger person than me!

I got Indy's halter and 22' line, and put the saddle and hackamore on the fence. Indy caught me like a pro and was all set to play. She tested me a bit in the beginning - "Are you REALLY sure you want me to move away?" and one or two quick phase fours and I had a phase one-two horse the rest of the day! It was SO nice to be able to be light with her!!! AND! Total credit to Indy, on the phase fours she didnt go RBE OMG, she went LBE "Oh you DO mean go!" It was really nice to not have her fly off the handle!

We played around on the ground, Indy offered me some of the softest sideways without a fence she ahs ever done! It was beautiful! We played with Falling leaf, to help her pick up her front end and move it over, and that was GREAT phase one stuff only! We played with squeeze game over a line of barrels, which coincidently was a threshold for her! So I took some time, let her play with them, and think her way over. I want to set up a "course" for her to do, preferably in a round corral, with two lines of barrels so she can get into the jump-and-keep-going mentality, because right now she goes over and as soon as her hind feet touch the ground she comes to a dead halt... and its just not pretty ! Mo needs this to, shes is SO not a jumper!

Indy and I had a fantastic time. Attempting to sideways over a barrel one time her confidence just all of a sudden flew out the door and she got a little bit RBE, but only a little. I just smiled and relaxed and helped her reapproach it. What made me sad was that one of the boarders saw it and sort of laughingly said "Oh, is she misbehaving? Is she being bad?" I just sort of sighed inwardly and said no and went back to rebuilding Indy's confidence. When she finally took just ONE step across the barrel I relaxed and Indy licked a million times. Her brain was going a mile a minute. I was so proud of her. I offered her phase one across the rest of the barrel and she went and we walked away from the barrel. It was spectacular.

At this point I hadnt seen Ivy for some time and when I looked for her I found her over by my saddle... chewing on my girth *sigh* So I went to chase her away and ended up saddling Indy while I was there. BIG 'how interesting' moment for Indy then! This was the first time she actually emphatically sniffled the saddle pad AND licked and chewed afterwards! Saddling was great. I changed to the hackamore, reminding Indy to yeild her head over when we do this. And off we went again!

We played a few more ground games to check the girth and things and then I mounted... FROM THE GROUND! May sound silly, but A) Indy is 16h and I am 5'2, so BIG deal! and B) This was the first time I mounted her from the ground and she stood stock still, so I am uber proud of her.

Walking off I rearranged my savvy string onto my wrist. My mild LBE on the ground goes mild LBI undersaddle, so a little persistance and belief that I will be able to up my phases is my new tactic. Not squeezing harder, or kicking her, just making 'noise' with the savvy string. We went off to play follow the rail.... and what a sad example of that game it was! I had to laugh as she weaved in and out of the path I picked. I could tell that if I picked up two reins I could keep her on the rail, but that isnt the point, is it? I wanted her to step up to her own responsibility. Eventually she did, and I was really happy with her.

When we moved up into a trot I had to up my phases. I got to taping her flanks lightly before she moved off. Not that she took off at the speed of light, she more or less ambled at a slow trot. Oh well, it WAS faster than a walk! I will get particular later... We continued our follow the rail game, now instigating transitions often. Walk, trot, stop back up. Our backup is her most difficult thing, whichis interesting, but by the end of the session it was one hundred times lighter! As was her forward momentum, I only needed to energy up and squeeze at the end!

It was really just a short session, but it was SO productive and I was so proud of Indy! She was amazing. I cant wait to see where our journey together goes.

Mo, on the other hand, was JEALOUS! Halfway through our ground play she came up to the fence and started watching and looking forlorn that I hadnt picked her. The the next day and yesterday she came running when I called her. I didnt play with her, just haltered her and took her to the yard to graze while I worked with Ivy. I thought it was most amusing though that she WANTS to be caught now that she missed her chance that day!

:-)
S