New States Crossed off the List!

Officially, I crossed two more states off of my To-Travel-To list yesterday and the day before :D I am excited about that. What I am MORE excited about is GAMBLER!!

Here is his story :)

Tuesday morning I got up early and loaded up the truck and trailer with... well... not much really. My pillow, some tomorrow clothes, a toothbrush and some hay. I felt really.... empty? I felt like I was forgetting everything!  Usually when I load up to go anywhere, A] its not just over night and B] I am pulling OUT of the driveway with a horse. Needless to say, I felt extremely under-packed. I headed out anyways.

Off through New York I went, and then into new state #1 - Massachusetts [and yes, I had to google how to spell that] It was MOUNTAINY! My oh my Goliath was not impressed. Up down up down.... sometimes I thought we should be heading down, but nope, up again. Holy moly.... My ears popped again and again. At least the roads were easy. All interstate all the way. It was nice like the 401 with the rest stops right on the road, so gas stops and bathroom breaks were no brainers.

And then I passed a sign that said Belcherville. I kid you not. It made my drive. Oh town names, how you are the best part of road trips. Suddenly I was in new state #2 - Rhode Island!  After a little excursion in what seemed like a suburb, we somehow magically ended up at the beautiful farm where Avery and her horses were. I MADE IT! The drive felt short, which was nice. Much easier than the drive to the NC/SC border enroute to Florida!

Safely arrived at my destination, I finally got to meet Gambler in person! I had seen pictures and some videos, but nothing really came close to doing him justice. He is HUGE and WONDERFUL and GORGEOUS! I got to play with him, and learn about him and his history and decide to bring him home with me.

The next morning we loaded up and hit the road. Avery had told me that he might not travel so well in a straight load trailer, which is what my trailer is, so I was ready for the worst. Mostly though, I was just glad that he fit in the trailer at all!

We set off, and true to his history he was shifty in the trailer. Not kicking or anything, just restless and unconfident. This went on for about 45 minutes and then he quieted down. I stopped at the first rest stop to check on him and he was pretty right brain, although he had found a standstill. Onward bound. The best thing I could do for him would just to be keep moving. The longer the trailer was still, the more worried he got. Off we went again!

By the second time I stopped, he had been quiet in the trailer, and when I opened it he was all left brain, even pushing on the door as I opened it and not letting me close it on him again! He was sticking his head out, he was blowing, he was eating his hay and engaging with me. It made me feel so much better to see him relaxing!

The rest of the ride was uneventful. We made it across the border without to much to-do and then finally home safely. Gambler walked off the trailer like a star and we explored his new home together and then got him some friends to meet. Everything went easily enough and he settled happily with his new herd after taking a couple of victory laps around the big pasture. He even jumped the tree that is down. Fancy!

This morning we played and he was great, and when I went to bring Zephyr in so I could take care of her leg, he was right with us, making sure I didnt do anything untoward to his new love. They have been grazing side by side all day :) Adorable :) Little Phyr-Phyr has a boyfriend! Hopefully she wants to grow up all big and strong just like him!

The journey with Gambler is going to be a great one! I cant wait to see where it goes :D

:D
S

Liberty is FUN AGAIN!

After my little [reads: ginormous life-altering]  breakthrough courtsey of my momsy I have been finally having fun with Liberty. And mostly with Mo again. And horses in general. Part of that being now I actually have TIME, since I let go of the one extra job that was causing me so much un-needed stress. So I have been playing with Mo in a whole different mind set and its been AMAZING!

My attitude is so much happier and joyful and light that hers is too. My LBE is BACK and better than EVER!!!! The funniest things have been happening in the past few sessions - one of them being that EVERYTHING ends up in Mo's mouth. Thats HUGE for her to show off her confidence again. She's all "Oh, halter? Is that like a bridle?"[into mouth it goes] "Or reins? Yum!" "ROPE! On the ground and otherwise unattended! MMMM" And then she looks at me all innocent and slowly spits out whatever is in her mouth. [At least she isnt like Zephyr, who has been munching on rocks she thinks might be dropped cookies.... yea. Shes a bright crayon]

So today I went out to say hi to Mo and she was all excited and power walked over to me from the other side of the pond and stuffed her face into her halter [after trying to eat it....]We wandered over to the barn playing with some stick to me transitions on the way to the land of bug sprays. Mo was right with me and STRAIGHT! I was playing with a technique Pat showed in a Mastery Lesson with Merlin the other day and it really helped her think in straight lines, very cool!

After getting sufficiently moistened with fly spray we went out on one featherline and played with stick to me some more, on a bigger circle and at a trot and canter and changes of direction and then headed into the roundpen to have some FUN at liberty. Its my new thing. Liberty is FUN. Dont DRILL. I dont feel like I was, but my attitude was. "Its got to be good, we HAVE to audition!" Its always better when its fun though! And Mo always plays harder!

One thing I have really noticed is that I can play harder... ask more with more intention when she is confident than before when there was so much worry. Which makes sense, but I tagged her once, playfully, and she just went "Oh DANG! You got me!" and caught up to me whereas before she would have been really worried and left.... I love it! There was lots of playful/dominant head shaking, which while something I will keep an eye on, made me really happy to see her feeling that way!

We started out mirroring what we did online, some stick to me circles, walk and trot, changes of direction and Mo was just BEAUTIFUL! All long and stretchy and flowy and close to me! She never even offered to leave to the rail. It was about a 15 foot circle, and it was wonderful. As soon as I thought canter it was there, up and down transitions, changes of directions [slowly though] but all soooo connected! Even flowing in and out of a figure eight! She even offered me some cantering through the figure eight!

I love my pony!!

And then we rode :D And it was super! She was still flowy and stretchy and wonderful at the trot. We started with a follow the rail around the round corral and transitions and then moved to playing with some canter transitions. She was so light off my leg that at first when I brought my leg back to ask for the canter she just abruptly turned that direction. It was a great lesson on cantering in my body first! My legs have a tendency to get ahead of me :) We figured it out though. It was really good for Mo I think, because I had bridled her, but just had the reins looped around her neck without being attaached to the bit. So she got to be more confident with the bit andnot have me fuss with it.

We played on a sort of skewed question box pattern, just because I had to many things in the arena :) She tried really hard, and we got lots of tries on the front end then drop to a trot stride and pick it up - Which I have to say is a HUGE improvement from her just ignoring that her back end was on the wrong lead, so ROCK ON MO! :D

So that was our ride. I went out planning to warm up freestyle and play with the Game of Contact, but I got to distracted by super fun freestyle instead :D I love my Mo!

:D

S

My Horse = My Mirror....

As you can tell by the previous bunches of posts, each having in some small part to do with Auditions and filming and FREAKING OUT, my latest emotional trend has not been that very solid, or left brain, or calm really.

The other day, I was having lunchy with my momsy and we were talking about this crazy roller coaster I have been on, called the Audition Train. Its not so much fun as Mary Murphys Hot Tamale Train, but it sure has been a ride. Continues to be. Anyways. I was telling her of my adventures, and how Mo has seemed really frazzled and amped and slightly disconnected/right brain compared to her usual left brain super calm self. Some how, in her eons of being trapped around me, and being forced to hear endless Parelli DVDs in the background, she has picked up a whole lot on horsey things. Whether or not she is [isnt] putting them to use with an actual horse, she makes a surprisingly great horsey problem sounding board.

So there I am, pattering on about Mo, and how things seem strained between us, and how I just really want to be done filming for a while so I can just play and have fun .... really now though, this IS supposed to be fun. I just need to make it that way. But thats how I was feeling that day. Yucky, frustrated, sad... and then my mom looks me right in the eye and says "Isnt your horse just a mirror for what your feeling?"

Really?

Wait.

What?

DUH

I cant even begin to explain the BFO this produced for me. Ive been stressed with work. Stressed with lack of pony time. Stressed about auditions BECAUSE of lack of pony time and all of a sudden, for no reason at all, my very LB pony goes very RB and I cant figure it out? Sheesh.... *smacks forehead* Sometimes.... Im just to close to the situation to figure it out.

So that was on... Friday. So I went home very contemplative, thinking about how things have been going and how to change them, and in an infinately better mood. Ice Age 4 helped. That movie is hysterical. Friday afternoon, there was a lesson and then I rode a horse here for riding time while the owner is busy and decided to zig while he zagged and ended up in the dirt. Yey. [<-- reads ouch] A hospital visit and to many x-rays later, I found out nothing was broken but lots of muscle pulls in my left arm, which pretty much has had my left arm out of commission since then. Joy.

All this get up and go happiness I got from my talk with Mom was sumarily shut down when I had no left arm basically for two days. Luckily, it was the weekend, and a trillion degrees, so D kept me busy in town and away from the "need to play with ponies' drive, so it was good. Fast forward to today. I am much much better, my arm can move again, but pushing/pulling things is not so great yet. The door to my tack room has a self closing hinge-thing on it which I keep trying to open with my bad arm... it doesnt go well. Yesterday I went out to see the ponies, make sure everyone was happy and healthy, did the doctoring work that needed to be done and that was mostly it. Gave everyone some cookies and left.

Today when I went out, I was in a really good mood. I had really just gone out again to check wounds, but Mo came over all super enthused so I haltered her and threw the rope over her back to pretend we were at liberty. We played some stick to me and she offered to go over a log but then she did her usual run-away-back-to-the-barn act. I kinda just went with her, and kept my attitude really in the 'game' of playing tag/catching game and she actually turned and trotted back to me. Huh. She also grabbed her cookie and ran off again to the shelter. Hello Left Brain pony. So good to see you again. This time when I caught up with her, I untangled her from her rope and we went into the round pen.

My goal was to PLAY. To have fun and to give her a million cookies. We did a figure eight for about three seconds, some sideways circles, some circle circles, some more figure eight, some stomp on the cone murder style touch its, some other circles with canter transitions, I think three changes of direction, a few up close spins and then that was it. I gave her tons of cookies throughout, and then I walked with her back to the barn to give her a BIG cookie, that I keep for after things. And she stuck to me like glue. Even after when I was petering around picking up some of their bowls and ropes and things, she was just moseying along with me.

She had stayed left brain the whole time in the round pen [for once] and that was reallly cool. I didnt push anything, we just played with what we knew and had fun. I told her she was beautiful and pretty and wonderful and how much I loved her over and over and over. I realised I hadnt been lately. Regardless of the fact that she cant understand me, she can feel the energy and intent in those words as positive and hopefully, loving. I think it makes a difference. Compared to just silence, or just the occaisional Good Mo.

I just really really made that effort to go out there and have fun. Take it easy [because I have to... carrot stick is still a little iffy in my left hand] and just enjoy spending time with Mo. I think that is the worst outcome of pressure and lack of time combined. Always feeling like I need to get something done meant I was losing out on seeing the joy and pleasure of getting to spend time with my favorite pony on this planet. It was still 'fun' to play, but to that kind of fun where I think of Pat telling people "Well if you are having fun, TELL YOUR FACE' because I was getting all tight and unn-fun feeling. 

So voila. Life isnt always perfect, even when you think you have this horsey thing down pat. Sometimes, it takes your mom to slap you upside the head [proverbially] and show you what you are missing. My horse is my mirror... seriously. HOW could I miss that one??! Especially from MO! But. It doesnt matter. Ive got it figured out now, and thats what matters. PROGRESS AHOY!

:D
S

UPDATE!

Got my results for said video [see below] AND WE PASSED!!!! FREAKING RIGHT!

GO MO!!!

We PASSED!!!

LEVEL 4 ONLINE!!

OFFICIALLY!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Liberty here we come!

Then we can breathe for a little while before conquering Finesse.

WE PASSEDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


:D :D :D :D :D :D :D

S

:D :D :D :D

One Down... One to Go!

I did it! I bit the proverbial bullet, and I finally got my Level 4 Online Audition filmed! Of course, I picked one of the hottest and buggiest days out there in which to do it, but thats not the point. I still managed to do it. I think it took about four takes, because I am a spazz [ and Mo is infinately patient] but we somewhat accomplished our goal.

I forgot some things in the actual one I sent in, because I thought they were there... but upon re-watching the final product, they were in fact in the previous takes... whoops. Go brain! Either way, I was somewhat pleased by the final cut, though by no means satisfied. I *know* we can do better, and I am just hoping that the audition re-viewers know it too.... It is such a challenge to cram all of Mo's awesomeness into ten minutes! Realistically... it is more of a challenge for me to organize my brain coherently into audition material for ten minutes... But hey, we did it. Pass or not pass [ there is no fail, right?] we still did it.

Beside the whole point is the fact that I nearly passed out when we finished. I am going to go with "because of the adrenaline rush" as my official reason, but closer to the truth may be Mother Nature kicking my butt with some mild heat strokey-ness. I did a terrible job of hydrating that day. Plus it was a trillion degress plus humidity. Adrenaline Rush. Thanks.

While I sat off my 'adrenaline rush' I reviewed my video and put some kind-of-somewhat-badly-suited music to it. Usually I am much more thoughtfull with music. This was such a just GETITDONEANDSENTINBEFOREYOUCHANGEYOURMIND effort, that I just plooped on whatever I felt sounded good at the moment and fit the time frame. I believe I ended up with some Finger Eleven [Living in a dream - relavant] some POTC [Bootstraps bootstraps- irrelevant, but fit the time-ish, and token piratey] and some Lipps Inc [ because everybody needs a little Funky Town every now and again...me more often than most]

Now onto Liberty... that one is going to take some more thinking. Mo did really well today at our figure eight, but got lost on the circle... so we are going to keep playing with it :)

:)
S