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"If my particular passion ever kills me, it won't be because I was on my horse's back... It will be because I was gaping out of my car window at some horse standing innocently in a field when I was supposed to be paying attention to the road."

Monday, April 30, 2012

Game of Contact Clinic!!!!

Reader beware : This is three days of blogging all thrown into one... it will be long and hopefully not very arduous of a read...good luck....

Day One, Game of Contact with Amy Bowers


 This morning we started with theory in the lovely classroom at the 17 Ranch. Amy had an incredibly comprehensive power point to try and get it through my thick skull what this thing of contact really is to us and our horses. It started with some definitions, what the USDF says contact is and then some good banana/ bad banana pictures, lots about posture, and how to tell if the horse is using his body. I really took away from it to read the WHOLE picture. Not just focus on “oh, my, that horse has his ears kind of back, he must be unhappy” if also, the eyes, nose and mouth are soft, the tail is soft, the neck is long and stretched and the hind leg is tracking up to a stretched back.

There were lots of photo demos on how to see each piece – Nose, Neck, maybe the Feet. That was really helpful to see, and then also to read the stride length. A horse should track true – have the hind foot fall in the front foot hoof print – otherwise there is a pushing leg vs a carrying leg, which was news to me! I love learning! I am really really LOVING this whole experience because I get to be the learner. 

Sure, I learn every time I play with my horses at home, but it is way different to be presented a mostly new concept, in company with all new friends and just get to spend three whole days with my pony LEARNING! I am such an OCD student, I just adore learning. If I could be in school all the time, I totally would be.

Anyways. Relevance. Power Point.  We did tons of simulations. How to have a following hand on the reins, sitting on the edge of your chair and engaging your core, sucking back your belly button and knitting your ribs [don’t forget to breathe] We also learned about having resting hands on the reins, engaging your triceps not your biceps, how to have jelly fingers, and how to have strong L-bows and not straight-bows.  Oh, and how to play with taking the contact while giving micro-releases! AND [can you tell I am coming back and adding these as I remember them? It was a long day, go easy on me] AND how to have hinged shoulders.

There was a great section on the stages of the Game of Contact. Stage 1 being Confidence – can your horse accept contact while maintaining gait and direction, so not slowing down when you pick up the reins. Stage 2 being Stretch – can you ask your horse to stretch into that feel on the reins. Stage 3 is Frame, where you ask your horse to hold your hand, and Stage 4 is Collection where all the fancy stuff happens!

After uber loads of amazing information we got to go out to the arena and play with more simulations on some barrels. Man oh man I am grateful to simulations! Imagine if we HAD to learn this all while riding a moving, emotionally sensitive, living, breathing horse.... HA! Once on the barrels we tried to get our bodies in the correct power positions, doing the Michael Jackson with your hips, sucking your belly button back and knitting your ribs. Once you were strong, we had a set of reins to pick up and remember to keep resting hands on and then you get to try and rise, posting THROUGH your elbows, while leaving them behind to hold that steady contact for your ‘horse’. Oh, and breathing is good too.


Personally, I am stiff through my upper body/shoulders kind of area, so figuring out that I wasn’t hinging my shoulders enough was a great eye opener for me, so I can really focus on that. I really need to leave my elbow behind and come between them to post. Also, by leaving them behind, it causes you to not over-post, which is a tendency of mine so YEY!

I was really lucky today, for my simulations because I got to pair up with Genevieve, who is an instructor and assisting Amy this weekend, so I got lots of instant feedback and lots of it was positive!  I was pretty excited about that. With something as sensitive to ME as contact, I really want to make sure I am doing it right. Me and Mo both get RBI about bits and contact and reins. There is a reason Freestyle is my passed L4 savvy you know....

After the barrel simulations came some walking around ones with learning how to pick up the reins and what to do if our ‘horse’ [reads human, holding reins] stops. The idea was to take to contact a little, and turn using your whole upper body/shoulders/both hands and release so that they then take a step forward. Surprise, I had trouble with this at the start! Turn my shoulders... huh??? I didn’t even realise I was stiff there until today. Amy really broke it down for me and showed me how to not do more than my ‘horse’ and I was finally able to understand and make my body do what I needed it to do. YEY!

When we had our ‘horses’ and ourselves feeling good about what to do if they stopped, they were told to keep going so we could play with asking for stretch. That whole micro release thing was all new to me, so building that feel is still a working in progress. With the feedback of my ‘horse’ though, I was able to make some changes and learn lots.

Then came demo time. Amy asked for a demo horse and since I have been kind of stuck with stuff, and figured who better to help Mo be unstuck than a super-teacher like Amy, I practically jumped up and down when she asked. So Mo got to be a demo horse! I can think of how many people besides me have ever played with or ridden Mo, and list them on one hand. It isn’t many. I am very honored that Amy chose to play with my Mo. And very excited! And very very very [!] full of learning from watching that experience!

Enter Mo. I somehow spazzed and forgot my saddle pad. Seriously me, Really? How do you do that? Anyways, I got lucky because Don Halladay, who is probably my favorite Canadian instructor, was also riding in this clinic [ somehow I get to be around and ride with the only 5* instructor in Canada....??? I think I must be the luckiest person around?] and he happened to have a spare theraflex [though western, so Mo is all cross-dressy now] I can borrow for the weekend! PHEW!!!! Crisis averted.


So I got Mo, I got her tack, plus a 22’ and stick/string. Mo herself looked kind of crummy., I have to say. Not out of shape or anything, but just skuzzy dirty. It was too cold to give her a bath and her fur is in that in-between summer/winter length so it just gets dustier when I brush her.... alas....  Into the arena we go, by herself, to be stared at by 8 riders and ... X amount of auditors... Not many, I think there are 13 of us all together.  Awesome small group! She got tight pretty quick, but she is Mo, and so she was still really obedient and waited for Amy to come take over. She was REALLY RBI. Probably the most I have seen her be that way is a while.

It was so so so so so soooooooooooooooooooooo amazing to watch Amy play with Mo on the ground. Her goal was Calm, Connected, Responsive. Right away she said she had connection and responsiveness, but not calm. It was awesome to see the tiny ways she pointed it out, just little tensions around her ears, eyes and nose. Her lead was mostly level, her tail was free swinging and her gait was... normalish. She was a little looky and a little jumpy, but it was also crazy windy and the indoor was making lots of noise. Amy started with just little things like checking out the rail, point to points across the arena, just little things that all flowed together to help Mo get calmer. Then she put her on a circle, and at first Mo was really unconfident and kept asking to come in, so it became a game of maintain gait and direction, and wait for relaxation. I kept expecting Mo to drop her head and blow out any second, because that’s what usually happens, but somehow, each time she almost did that [or I thought she was about to] she instead nickered for the other horses! That is the first time I have EVER seen her do something like that! She is *usually* the least herd bound horse I know!  How interesting!

It took a really really long time for Mo to give any sign of relaxing. When she licked and chewed, Amy brought her in. And then off they went again, and finally she blew a little, and then Amy saddled her. Mo was a star for that; she knows that job pretty well. Some more moving about for the girth tightening and a little more calmness, but still not my usual super calm Mo. It was so... almost surreal.... to see her like that. The weather I think, and the new space, and the being alone in front of a whole bunch of predators plus a new person handling her, I guess was a lot when she was already kind of hanging out in that right brain place.

Mo rocked bridling. I have to say. I love that. It’s my favorite. Right up there with sideways over for mounting, the fact that I have to be careful to keep the bit OUT of her mouth when I bring the bridle over because she tries to take it when I carry it, just makes my heart happy.  After being bridled, Amy did some bit isolations with her. This is where it got SO INTERESTING!!! I knew Mo was fairly RBI about the bit/bridle/contact. What she showed us today was RBI to almost CATATONIC!

The idea of the bit isolations is to teach the horse how to follow the feel of the bit by stretching down. You lift the bit into the corners of the horse’s mouth and then when they try and seek downwards you release.  Generally this isn’t to challenging of a concept for most horses, and they get it pretty quickly. I KNOW Mo gets this under saddle, because we are kinda stuck in Stretch right now. BUT! On the ground, she just checked out, completely blank, zero try, just gone. Wow.

The biggest thing about contact that Amy was explaining to us today is how it is way more of an emotionally sensitive area than physically sensitive. As long as the pressure is applied sloooowly, it depends on the horse how much they wish to take. That was supremely  expressed to me this afternoon via Mo. Amy said that that was the most pressure she has put on a horse before achieving a response! Mo was just so ... gone? ... that she wasn’t even trying or looking for an answer for a very long time. A very very long time. Amy was amazing, she just took the time with her, just kept asking for any kind of try and when Mo dipped her head a fraction of an inch, there was release. FINALLY she started to come out of it and try. A few really good tries and thats when Amy got on. She was just looking for Mo to try something – ANYTHING. Just to look for an answer. So once she did, she had that connection and so they moved on.

Once she mounted and walked off, Mo blew and blew and blew. That was really cool. She was letting go of all that tension she had been holding on the ground. To warm up to be ready to ride play the Game, Amy used the follow the rail pattern with Steady Rein and transitions to gain connection. Mo was pretty mellow during that, at first not very responsive to body/leg, but getting lighter with each transition. When she was ready, Amy picked up the reins at the walk to check stage 1 – confidence, and got right into a great stretch [stage 2] so they went off at a trot and Mo stretched some more and that was it! Amy got off and explained how keeping things short, sweet and successful was VERY important to developing great contact.

And so, it came to be, that I got my Mo back, with LOADS to lick and chew over for myself while we waited for the other riders to go and get their horses. One of the super interesting things that happened was that each time Amy offered a horsemans handshake to Mo, she wouldn’t touch her. Now, normally, Mo is a pretty touchy feely horse. She snuffles you, tries to raid your pockets and generally licks every square inch of you.  I found it really interesting that she didn’t even want to really be touched on her face at all during that time. Though, on the flip side, she absolutely sidled up to Amy and begged her to scratch the itchies between her hind legs. Several times. Silly goober. Shedding season is great for relationship building! Everything is itchy!


While we waited for the others to come back, I allowed Mo to decompress, loved on her, scratched her, and then played with some more bit isolations while everyone else came in and warmed up. She was way more engaged, had way more try and more thoughts about the whole thing, which was amazing! It took mostly very little to cause her to think down. She really understood the idea now. YEY!!

When it was time, I got back on and we warmed up until we were connected, doing loads of transitions because she was pretty impulsion low.  When I went to ask for the stretch she offered it right away at the walk, so I trotted and got maybe two rounds of the arena getting some nice stretch and then she gave me a great one with some power and I quit there. I didn’t want to overkill the nice things Amy had done for her! Short, sweet and successful, right!

I watched everyone else finish riding, and it was really interesting to see other people with their horses, and how they responded, and see every one else’s look of supreme concentration and feel ok that I wasn’t the only one having to try so hard to keep my  dots together!


Finally everyone found a positive note to end on and we called it a day. Mo got to go back out to her paddock and get her dinner and a big hug, and I went to find myself dinner, and return to this lovely place where I am staying, with amazing people. Parelli people are some of the nicest people I know ! I even forgot my lunch here today, and since she noticed, and was bringing the catered lunch to the Ranch, my host brought my lunch to the ranch for me! How does it get nicer than that? I am so lucky to be here! Last time I came to the 17, it was August and I slept in my trailer! The forecast says -6 tonight, boy am I glad I don’t have to sleep in my trailer!

And so day one ends, some 2600 ish words later, and its just the beginning, plus I am sure I forgot some parts. The same way I fogot my saddle pad, I also forgot my note pad. *sigh* Oh well. Its a good brain work out to try and remember!


I cant wait for tomorrow! There is so much more to learn!


:D


S






Day Two, Game of Contact with Amy Bowers


 Day two was just as informative and amazing as day one! My brain is on overload, so hopefully I can make some coherent sense out of what I learned, in hopes of future-me re-reading this and remembering what I will have forgotten by then!

It was COLD this morning! Many layers were worn, complete with mittens! Mo was happy to come trotting over this morning and get her brekky. She likes food, my Mo. She likes it a lot! She managed to be cleaner this morning too, somehow. Yesterday she was a mess. Sooooo dusty! Something must have gone well in grass-bed, because she was much more manageably clean-ish. Yey. Made me feel better anyways, about not presenting a dirty horse I could do nothing about!

After Mo’s breakfast was inhaled, we went out and played a little. Mo seemed to be sticking in RB land a little more than usual since we arrived, so I wanted to take the time to really reconnect with her on our own terms without the pressure of a learning environment. It went really really well. We were just out in the herd paddock where they have been turned out, and on a 12’ rope.  We played with lots of stick to me transitions and some circles and a little sideways. Just little flowy things that connected us and made Mo feel good. It must have worked, because she was a star and right with me for the rest of the day!

At 9am we met Amy in the arena for more simulations. THANK GOODNESS for simulations! I just can’t get enough of them! They are so great for helping prepare us for what we will feel with the horses so that we are ready for them!  We started on a barrel on the ground, like yesterday. The goal was to remember everything from yesterday, and add resting hands to the simulation.  SO: Crunch your dots[ MJ move, suck back belly button, knit ribs] push your knee DOWN, heels out and rest your hands.... now POST!  Excellent.

We also did some more with our people partners being the horse, where we learned about turning. Slow down, engage your core then turn with both hands and shoulders – it takes so much less that I thought it would ! WOW! I revisited my jelly fingers asking for a stretch too, and I think my fingers were frozen because I seemed to have lost it completely. I did manage to get it back by then end of the simulation though, so that was ok. We also played with weighting the stirrups but weighting out partners shoulders.  There was also a hand-holding simulation where the two people hold hands with a really light feel, a hard feel and then resting hands. It was so cool to feel how light felt so tentative and almost creepy, that you didn’t want to follow the person, hard felt rude and you wanted to object and refuse, and then resting hands felt natural and great and you actually ended up falling into step with the other person! How interesting!

After the simulations in the arena, Amy brought us out to the lovely Steady Eddie that Don had built for us! OH BOY! Let the torture begin! :D Everyone got their turn on Mr. Eddie, and since we went by descending height, I was last. Surprise! When I got to go, I played with turning my heels out, I have a big tendency to tuck them in. Amy showed us how having turned out toes can cause instability by having us stand that way, and pushing the leg and the person falling over, and then pushing the leg when the heel was out, with the person being completely stable in that position.  I really have to play with connecting my dots. I tend to leave behind my bottom dot, but I made some progress  on Steady Eddie, really focusing on more crunch going up. I also got to practice my hinging elbows and resting hands. Great learning experience! I can’t wait to do it at home!

After a short break Amy played with Randee Halladay’s horse Rio. He was very very tight through his body and neck, and from previous training, just had a ‘headset’ when the reins were picked up and Randee was having a hard time helping him find the open door in the bit, since he saw only a barrier. Amy played with him on the ground, where he started off very tense. All his neck muscles were bulging with tension, his neck was short and his stride was tiny.

I learned a HUGE thing in this demo. The horse was RBI, and with an RBI we know we need to wait, wait and wait some more. Often this looks like the horse standing beside us doing nothing. Amy made a point today of saying that having him out on the circle, using consistency on said circle as a pattern was ALSO waiting. She was waiting for his connection to his job out on the circle! That just hit me like a ton of bricks. It made so much sense. Obviously, you and your horse need a fair level of competency before pushing it to that kind of wait, but still! Brain explosion.

Once Amy got the calm, connected and responsive horse she was looking for on the ground, she put the bridle on and played with bit isolations. Those went fairly smoothly and he got the point. With such a great set up, it wasn’t long before he was really trying under saddle too. It took a bit, but not long at all. Rewarding the tiniest tries and then he kept offering more and more! What a cool transformation – he looked like a completely different horse when they finished. His neck was stretched and he was RELAXED!  Very very cool demonstration.

After lunch time we were split into two groups to ride, so there would be more one-on-one esque time. I opted to ride in the second group, so I got to watch the first group. Lots of really cool, really nice changes from yesterday. Lots of stretching, everyone was in stage 2 I think. Even the super adorable mule! There was one horse having some trouble so Amy decided to get on him. It was a Rocky Mountain Horse, and he was gaited. The interesting this was that in the beginning, he was doing everything crazy with his feet. He would walk, gait some, gait different, trot, and then oscillate through all them all over again while being asked to stretch. Amy stuck it out with him, rewarding any kind of try for down. The horse kind of just ran away with himself for a little while. AND THEN! Then he got it! And just like that, he was stretching and consistently TROTTING! How cool is that? He sorted out his emotions about the bit and it sorted out his emotions about his feet.

Finally it was our turn to go get our horses, while the auditors got a turn on Steady Eddie. When I whistled for Mo, she lifted her head, which was awesome, and then when I climbed over the fence, she came over, which was even better! She was looking very happy, very positive. I must have done something right in the morning! We went to the trailer to grab a bush for her mane and body and headed into the arena. We were the first ones there which was kind of nice. Mo took herself right in, all with me in zone five, so I was really proud of her confidence. I brushed her up real quick and somehow managed not to stir up the dust lurking beneath those furs. She was looking great and we started to play, again with little stick to me’s, and then a little bit of point to points and some circles. She was connected but not 100% when the other horses came in, so I made an imaginary figure eight on the ground, and thats when I really got her focus and attention. I really played with my draw, and getting that thought to me before re-sending her. When the trot was good we played with simple changes through the turns, which is really the first time I had thought about it like that, and it went GREAT.

Mo tried so hard! She was a real star! We wandered over to get saddled, again thanking my lucky stars that Don had a spare pad I could use! And then back to our pretend figure eight for a little, and then to the bridle. In Harrisburg, Avery was there with her horse Ahug. When I was in Florida for my first six week course, she was on faculty with her other horse Akiss, and she totally inspired me to want great bridling with him and his enthusiasm to come over and take that bridle! In Harrisburg, Avery was holding the bridle to Ahug while RUNNING away and he came after her to get it and pick up that bit! That was in my mind today, as I picked up the bridle and walked away from Mo, holding it out for her to take. Mo was a superstar and came with and picked it right up while I was walking! Pretty cool if you ask me :D Maybe someday we will be as good as Avery and Ahug, because that was pretty amazing to see!


We played with more bit isolations, and Mo was right on today. She really understood from yesterday and really was thinking down when there was any pressure on the bit. When we got the go-ahead from Amy, I mounted and we warmed up with a follow the rail using steady rein.  Mo was pretty mellow, stretchy on her own, and doing her thing. So instead of going ahead and asking for stretch in the trot right away, Amy had me take some time to work on my body. OH! Did I mention that when I asked Amy to check my stirrup length, they went UP two more holes?! Yikes! I felt like a jockey! Time to stretch those hip flexors and get those toes up! To help me do this, I was to stand in my stirrups, sink and centre my weight and then walk around... It is HARD to stand in your stirrups while your horse walks! AND you cant just stand and hollow.... nooooooo, it has to be standing, core engaged, POWER. So that was fun. I played a lot in my body to see what worked and what didn’t to keep my balance and not get hollow. We also did some trotting like that too. It was a little easier at the trot somehow.... the momentum maybe? Either way, still a challenge. The goal is for a more straight upright stand, but for the time being, I am pretty forward in my upper body because I just don’t have the strength I need yet. YET!


After that I asked for some stretch and it came easy! YEY MO! She went right away into a great stretch so we only did a little before quitting for the day. Short, sweet and successful! Mo rocked it.

Then we got to watch a great demo with Todd’s horse who was also having trouble seeing the open door down through the bit. She was being so great and obedient by yielding to pressure, she wasn’t pushing through it to stretch.  Once again, an amazing transformation in the whole look of the horse. Before, her stride was short and quick and  her neck was contracted and tight. After Amy finished with her, she was long through her stride and neck and stretched over her back! It took a really long time though, for her to even try and look for the open door. A really big lesson on using pressure appropriately, and applying it slowly, but effectively until you get a response. Amy tried being light at first, with no response and so then just upped the ante until there was any kind of try with her. Each teensy tiny try, there was a release. Eventually the tries got bigger and then so did the stretch.  It was really cool to see.

And such was the end of day two. We all hung out chatting for a while after, nobody wanted to leave! I also got to watch Don ride his other horse after the ‘official’ end of the day, and see how that went with asking for stage 1 and 2.  I am really truly lucky to be able to be here this weekend and be able to surround myself with such top caliber horse people!


So, another 2100 words later, day two has concluded. Tomorrow we get to play with stage three and I cant wait!!!!! Mo is going to rock it :D


:D


S






Day Three, Game of Contact with Amy Bowers


I have decided I am the luckiest person in the whole world. Today, my horse was a rockstar, I got to hang out with an amazing horsewoman in Amy, and I also somehow managed to get myself invited to dinner with  Genevieve [3 Star instructor] and Don and Randee Halladay [ 5 and 2 star instructors!]! 

I learned so much today. I learned so much this whole adventure. Also, I saw three amish buggies on my way home tonight. So that was super cool. I also got to finish my day with an after dinner bareback and bridles ride with Mo. The interesting thing about this ride was that usually when I haven’t ridden bareback in a long time, riding in a saddle makes me a bad bareback rider.... but after thinking about our biomechanics all weekend, somehow I had such a great bareback ride, like I have been riding bareback all along! So yey :D Mo was happy and so was I!


So, happy me, happy horse. Though, sad me a little, because we now all have to go home and the learning doesn’t keep going – well it does, but not in the same way. I wont have Amy’s expert eye watching everything, nor will I be able to pick her brain and get amazing and thorough answers to every question I come up with – and there are many! I was blown away with how knowledgeable she is on this topic – and with any other question to really. Every question we had, Amy had a spectacular answer for. A thorough, why we do it this way and how we accomplish to what end. It was great! I think we all felt very confident and comfortable in Amy’s capable hands, to take us through this potentially intimidating subject matter!

Today we started out on Steady Eddie again, for more torture! It was GREAT! Bet you don’t hear that very often..... only from crazy obsessive learners I guess. I learned so much about my posture. We really played with keeping our backs on the pole today, resting hands and pushing that knee down. Also turning through the shoulders, pivoting around the pole. My shoulders are very stiff, I learned, and so Mr. Eddie helped me figure it out, and I also played with it on Mo too, especially later on my bareback ride. Very cool stuff. I learned how to tip [your shoulders to gain momentum] tuck [you bottom to keep your dots together] and push [from your seat to rise, not from your ankles]. With my shoulders, yesterday Genevieve gave me a great analogy to think about – use your shoulders to channel the horse. Make a trail between your shoulders and hands for the horse to follow.  It makes sense in my head anyways... it helped me.

After everyone got their turn for learning posture, we did some simulations about hand position and body stability. If you stand on the ground and set yourself up like you were riding, and really focus on your core, and having strong elbows in the right position, with even your wrists right, you are virtually immovable!  Take away just one of those, say turn your wrists so the flat of your hands is up, and poof, instability. Or turn your heels in, knocked over. Lean to far back, out of alignment with your hips, over. To far forward, over. It was amazing how positively STABLE this one position is. I cant wait until it comes naturally to me!

After our simulations Amy did a demo on starting Stage 3, Frame, with a LBE/RBE cusp horse, which was really cool. The ground warm up, as always, was really important, looking for calm, connected and responsive.  It was really interesting because this was the first really extroverted horse that Amy got to play with on the ground, and it was so cool to see her change tact compared to the introvert horses. She really got his attention, changed the games often and proved her leadership. It wasn’t long at all before he was with her. Through riding he was very stretchy, so then she introduced the pattern for moving into  Frame which was walk, ask for the stretch, through the stretch as for the trot, once in the trot, gather the reins and ask for frame for two seconds, when they find the calm spot [if they are fighting or pushing, say] ask for the walk and stretch again. Really great, really simple pattern, that really makes sense to horses. And me! Thats the best part I think! I can understand and apply this pattern, hopefully, to success!

We broke for lunch after the demo and I was in the first set to ride. When I went out and whistled for Mo, she made my heart very happy by coming right on over. We had had a little play session this morning again, just at liberty after I put her away from breakfast. She was in a great mood, and we moseyed our way into the arena. During our warm up, we played with a very few point to points, some little stick to me’s, some great canter maintain gait circles, and she made me so happy when I imagined up my figure eight again because she offered out some great simple changes, and tried so hard to get a couple flying ones! She missed them, but fixed herself within a stride or two instead of her regular ... never.  :D

We saddled and did a little more, and then bridled with me walking away from her again, which was rocking awesome! I love Mo! She tries so hard! I really must make her her molasses cookies again, she loves them so much and offers soooooo much for them! We checked our bit isolations again as well. They seemed intact, and waaay better than day one! She was trying so hard. When I got on, we didn’t have much impulsion, so I just played around with me and my body. Standing in the stirrups again was my task, so walking the rail was peachy keen for me. We did a few transitions too, just getting some impulsion balanced.

We started the stage 3 pattern, and it seemed to go ok, but then I lost my go and a little bit of stretch, so Amy suggested we break it back down to stretch in the walk. I went back to that, and when Mo felt good, I tried picking her up again, and it went much better. Her tendency is still to come behind the bit, but its just her unconfidence I think. Amy said just to ignore it for now, so I will. Just play with lots of little asks, build her confidence and the rest will follow. I just have to trust that for now! I completely believe it will. Everything else has come along so well, I just need to dedicate the time to it, and we will rock stage 3 shortly!

On a really good try, I called it quits and that was that! Our group finished almost all at the same time, so then I got to put Mo away and watch group two ride.  TONS of improvement in everyone’s horses! It was so amazing to see the changes in the previously TIGHT horses, turn into relaxed stretching flowing horses. I love it!

After those rides, everyone headed out pretty quickly. Mo was a little sad that she was left all alone, but she has Don and Randees horses for company, so she isn’t totally alone. We will head home tomorrow morning. I got to finish my day by watching Don ride his super cow horse, and having a great conversation with two other instructors, Genevieve and Randee, so that was a real treat for me. We mulled over auditions and pressure and tons of other things. I have so many ideas to play with now :D I know I will get my auditions filmed and sent in SOON.  Then the four of us went out to a fabulous dinner. Just very low key, lovely to just be together, LUCKY for me to be in such high company. I just keep feeling so grateful for this entire adventure. I hope I can embark on more! This time around, I got to be part of a student group with a 5 star instructor [!] not to mention two other 2 stars, PLUS learn from Amy, PLUS meet amazing wonderful people who welcomed me into their home, PLUS get to hang out and learn more with my super horse. There are so many more wonderful things about this trip, I cant even express. I almost don’t even want to go home .  Although I do... because I cant wait to try this out with Indy, now that I have learned so much more!

Less words today, I must be tired.... homeward bound tomorrow :D Cant wait to get home and hug my [other] ponies!


:D


S

Monday, April 16, 2012

It's not Panic.... It's Adrenaline... Riiiight....

Summer is here! Twenty something degrees today, celcius of course. That wouldnt be very summery in Farenheight land. Windy as all get out though. Thought I would be blown off my feet a few times!

Now that summer/spring/better weather/ what have you is here, I am out of excuses to procrastinate filming and playing with my Level 4 Auditions. *sigh* I dont know why this has to be so stressful. It is supposed to be fun! It ... is fun... when things go well, when they work, when my crazy brain isnt to busy worrying about what will happen come September if I dont pass.

Like so so so so sooooo many other Parelli students, and horse people in general, my plague of choice is Flying Lead Changes.... dun dun dunnnnnnnn. Exactly. Dreaded. Incomprehensible. Competely do-able, and yet so not. My poor Mo doesnt even do them by herself in the feild. Sometimes she doesnt even pick up a true lead by herself in the field! She cross fires all on her own! How am I to teach this crazy klutzy pony how to fancy up and get a clean flying change? [These are all the excuses my brain tries to give me when I want to play with this, do you see what I am dealing with here?]

So, all of that to say, I am fighting with myself at the moment. I keep seeing all the LOVELY beautiful PASSING auditions. In every savvy! OH how I want that black string! I can TASTE it! Well, maybe not, but FEEL it in my hands and hanging from my belt. I WANT to pass. I HAVE to pass, really, and thats the kicker. Thats where the line gets blurry between panic and adrenaline if I think about it to much. We are all in the same boat, no matter the level, auditions test you.... Just the deadline issue is new.

So. Flying changes. Bane of my existance. Conviently still my fascination though. I cant get enough of them. I want so badly to be able to talk Mo through how to do it. I love watching them, I loved feeling the ones I have ridden, I love the concept and coordination of the whole endeavour. I am totally in awe of the grace of it all. I am just slightly stymied by them. Thats all.

I had a minor break through today online though, and I am really excited about that. Me and Mo were playing on the figure eight and she was getting really exuberant but still missing her leads behind. So, at each turn on the figure eight I put a LOT of energy behind her, which caused her to SPRING forward, giving her the suspension she needed behind to make the change!! AHA! Three or four good solid clean changes later, we stopped and I pondered. 

Truth be told I am still pondering. I know flying changes need suspension. I also know that Mo is rather flat through her canter. Not very uppy downy, more forwardy flaty, despite her hackney action in her legs. HMMM. SO! How can I cause her to be more uppy downy under saddle without causing her to curl up like a little pretzel - which she does. I dont know yet. Im working with speed/balance under saddle right now. Today we got some cool stuff in the longest hand gallop/gallop Mo ever gave me, and that was really good. We were also playing over poles, but I dont think I set it up very well, so I might have to try it elsewhere.

I think my online will be ok. If I can coach Mo through a few more clean changes, I am hoping that her body will start telling her that it is way more comfortable than cross firing, and that she will just remember and do it automatically, without the energy boost from me. Thats the plan anyways. Patterns, right? Whoda thunk it....

My zone five driving is slowly getting better, as I am less sore and can physically actually play with it now. Joy. Poor Mo. She was so unconfident when I first tried to just GO DRIVE. I figured out eventually it might be good to actually teach her about this first..... Dont know how I missed that boat. Oh well. We have got the walk/trot/canter and change of direction at a trot in the round pen so far. I feel good about that. Mo isnt worried anymore. Poor girly. She gets so RBI sometimes with learning. She tries so hard though. Now we just need to take it out of the pen, get confident with speeds out of the pen, and play with some patterns out of the pen. And I need to not break again. Silly feet, you wouldnt think you need functioning achilles tedons... until you do. Dang.

I am hoping Online will be ready to film soonish. I have no clue about Liberty. I have possibly been avoiding it until I figure out how to make it more fun for Mo. Likely there will be cookies involved. Mo likes cookies. So do I ... not the same kind obviously... but still. Yumm.  Freestyle, at least, is done. So realistically, if all I accomplish this summer is my online, and liberty, I am still ok, but the goal-getter in me wants to finish the level.

I am REALLY hoping that the Game of Contact clinic will help me a lot in two weeks. I am hoping I can pick Amy's brain a little, and ask her about Mo's cross fireyness, and hopefully get some tips on where I need to be and when, to help her get things straight. Poor Mo, I really should be more competent for her! She is such a forgiving sacrificial lamb!

Thats my stress vent for the day. I feel better. What will happen will happen. I can do this!

:D
S