Dont Allow Them to be Wrong!

Today I learned a fun lesson from a right brain extrovert I played with for a student of mine, since she couldnt make it out to our lesson. This mare is just lovely, expressive, inquisitive and, I think, very very damaged from her previous dealings with people. She has a lot of base fear and goes very internal as a defense. She is naturally tense and hyper aware of every move you make and is almost completely shut off to curiosity.

The first time we played was last week, and all we did was spend an hour and a half on the catching game. Luckily it was warmish and sunshiney, because canadian winters dont tend to lend themselves well to extended outdoor excursions. I think the lookers-on were chilly, but I remember being so absorbed in this mare that I wasnt cold at all [which is a lot coming from me!] At first she was so reactive. Just run away, escape escape escape. She could run fast, because there was no snow and frozen mud creating pock marked ground, but she definately trotted with intention. And extension! This pony is one fancy nice to look at girly! I will have to get some pictures of her... watching her go is sure no chore!

At first she just went and went and then would just stop dead, blank in the face, staring, not breathing, head up and neck tight, hiding inside herself. It was sad. So the first game was, dont stay stopped if you are just going to freeze. That got the first licking from her. In motion. Thinking with her feet still wasnt happening yet, but as an RBE, thinking in motion was easy for her. So a little lick there. Less and less she stopped freezing when stopping, but she still wasnt asking any questions. So then the game was dont stop your feet unless you have a question! I think it was eight or ten laps around her little self made round corral [about fifty feet] before she just ever so slighty tipped her ear and nose in to me and I released. I think that blew her mind a little, because she stopped and licked. She didnt look at me full on, not yet, but she tipped that dainty little nose my way, just the tiniest bit!

When she started heading to freezing up again, I sent her on her way again, and so we continued. Tiny little yeilds, release, stop, go. Repeat. UNTIL! FINALLY! She just had a lightbulb moment and swung right around to me! No feet, but the nose and neck were mine! It was such an exhillarating feeling. Once she had the idea that looking at me was the right answer she had a million questions. Very cool. The only thing was that she wasnt thinking forward at all. She was curious, she had caught the release came from looking at me, but she wasnt willing to come to me.

So we played with just yeilding her hind end. It was so hard at first. She was so locked down, so committed to her escape, that her back feet just wouldnt budge. I was on her left I think, and her right hind foot just would not even think about moving. The left hind would shuffle a tiny inch or two, but that right hind was not giving up its chance to flee. The first time she finally actually yeilded that hind foot I had to work SO so hard not to squeal in excitement! You can ask the student - we were both so excited and sucked into this little mares progress!

Where I left it for the day was when she was yeilding steadily and keeping two eyes on me, curious and with way more confidence than we began with. It was some of the coolest behavious changes I have seen in one session. She went from bolting aroumd, tight, high headed and staring to trotting with her nose on the ground, blowing out, licking, and getting soft in her eyes. Very cool.

The student was able to go out and play with her on the weekend and said she was yeilding well but still not approaching. Enter me today. Right as soon as I entered her paddock [she has one alone, which makes things a little easier] she faced me and was, I think, on the cusp of asking a question and being afraid. She knew it was the right answer, but didnt really know what else. Her next answer, when I asked her to yeild a little more was to trot off. This trot off, face up pattern continued for a little until one time when she faced, I kept walking and she yeilded all the way around and then ended up walking beside me some how. I am not really sure what happened, but somehow I ended up with enough draw to take her along with me. It felt like magic. She was walking beside me, maybe three feet away, calm and collected ...wow. I stopped, and so did she. I offered her the horsemans handshake like a dufus and broke the spell. It was like she really didnt understand how she ended up so close to me. I should have just walked away. Silly me. You live and learn right? I will forever remember that moment of magic and measure everything else against it though. It was perfect. And I ruined it! DOH!

After I broke the spell, she trotted off and kept trotting for quite a while. Every now and again she would try and snatch hay and I would have to send her again. For a while I felt like I had broken what we had, so I started different tactics, like seeing what happened if I mirrored her [she went faster or stayed the same, but no thought of stopping] followed waaaay behind her [slowed down and thought about turning but the right when she was about to, would speed up faster] I stood just still in the middle [she went and went and went and then tried for some hay and went some more. Go neutral?]  She eventually reverted to trying to yeild, but it wasnt the same as before. She was much more flighty.

Then I got to thinking about  not letting her be wrong to long. She had moved a lot, she was relaxing, stretching and blowing, - her circle was shrinking to that of about a 12' line, she just was not thinking about me in any way. Hmm. I tried to think how I could make my point obvious. The answer is to come near me silly sweet pony! I tried to tell her, but the language barrier was obvious. My human to horse translation is lacking. So I shrunk the size of our run around area with some slight driving game - have I mentioned how sensitive this girly is?! Unreal.

In our shrunken area, her first answer was escape - try and get back to the big area. She made it a few times, so I just caused her to come back [ our place was where the hay was, so there was a little incentive!] We ended up near the gate, so it defaulted like there was something kind of blocking zone one. I was torn about this. I didnt want it to be a make, so I didnt do anything if she tried to move forwards, though her answer was usually backwards. I played with coming into and out of her bubble until she asked a question. So, step in, she looked, step back. Repeat, until I could get more steps and keep a positive expression. She went stary a few times, so I would retreat more and she would look at me like "WHAT?! you arent just going to come over and grab my halter?" Which was cute.

Eventually I was an inch away from her, the hay I had picked up in my pockets while mirroring her tickling her sides - which she flinched to - how interesting. I offered her the horsemans handshake again. Brace. Zone one turned away. Tensions. No breathing, or very very shallow. I can only guess she was assuming I would just grab her halter. It was very curious to me. So I retreated any time she softened even a tiny tiny fraction. And repeated. Offer, soften retreat. The first time she actually turned to me when I offered was amazing. I thought she would touch me, but she was ever so careful not to. She just asked a question, maybe it was "Are you going to grab me or not?" who knows? Either way it was a breakthrough for her. She licked and breathed! Lots more retreat! Then when I approached she started to put her head down to my hand. Not her nose, but her head. She would place herself so that her halter noseband was below my hand... kind of felt like an invite to rub her forehead, so I did, and the world didnt end! Wow!

About five times in a row I got that same invite, relaxed and as confident  as I have seen her. I wouldnt call her confident, but definately a step up. unfortunately by that point I had to check back into my human timeline and be on my way, but not before sharing the hay in my pockets with her and giving her a final rub. As I walked away from her paddock I heard loads of blowing out and licking and more blowing.

Sometimes it is so hard for the answer to be obvious in a less than ideal situation - ie: her long recatangle paddock with hay in one end! I had to get creative. I feel like it worked out to everyones benefit. She realized that I could approach her, not just grab her, and respect her bubble - which is giant. The biggest thing will be obviously the test of the tomorrows, but I feel good about today.  I am really excited to see her next tuesday. She has so much potential to be everything .... I hope we can collectively help her realize that people will help her and not hinder her in her progress to reach it!

:)
S

Changes!

They always say that the only constant thing in life in change... whoever 'they' are, and they're right. Change happens whether we want it to or not, so its best to be ready to welcome it with open arms! In the last month alone, my life has taken a MAJOR over haul, and its been incredibly positive!

One month ago this Friday, my fiance and I moved into our very own 70 acre gorgeous wonderful perfect fixer upper of a farm. It has pasture, it has hayfields, it has a barn, it has apple trees galore and of course a little house that I love and that we are fixing up currently to make it more accomodating. Given the order of my list of exciting things, you can see what I am most excited for. SPACE! For my ponies! For the first time in about four months, my two ponies were finally re-united with zero fireworks or any kind of great photo-op. They just said "oh hey, its you' and promptly tackled the chores of mowing the paddock that had been empty for two months. It was pretty spectacular. For the most part Mo and Indy being put together in confined space creates .... drama. Not on that day! Oh well. At least they were happy.

Moving was an event. It always is. I sincerely, severely, dislike packing. Its right up there with wall painting and spiders. I just dont like putting my life away in a box! Especially when I know it may be a few months until that box gets opened, due to reno's ongoing in the house. I try to label the boxes in a detailed fashion. I try to remember where I put things. Alas, I have failed. I have no idea where my passport is, no way to find it without unpacking everything, and all I want to do is jump across the border [a whole 28km away] and get some poptarts. Phooey.

To be fair, I did not misplace a single thing belonging to Mo and Indy. In fact, their things have likely never been more organized! Upon arrival, one of the first things I did in the following days was re-vamp and organize my - yes MINE, you have no idea the excitement - tackroom. It went from an un-used semi-shop area to a clean, bright, well organized horsey central. I know exactly where everything is, its all clean, visable, or stored nicely. All of my ropes are hung properly, all of my saddles and pads and on racks, sticks and strings stored nicely in a corner until I come up with something better, its just perfect. I even managed to clean the grime encrusted counter from its 'natural' brownish greyish blackish color back to its original white, pre-stains-that-have-been-there-for-years. Let me tell you... that took some elbow grease.... and bleach. Some of that too!

My barn is perfect. It has four stalls. Two are clean and useable currently, one is currently housing our soon to be installed dishwasher and one holds some old hay and straw I need to get rid of. Bonfire anyone? The aisle and footing in the barn is sand, so when I got there and the rubber mats down the centre were roiling and overlapping I pulled them off and raked the ground level before replacing them. Now I wont twist any ankles. Yey. There is a space I will turn into my feed room. There is a space for my winters worth of hay. There are LIGHTS. There are two big doors at each end, painted black with white high stepping horses on them. I am pondering perhaps painting over those horses and applying the Parelli Logo. I think it would look nice.

Mo and Indy are extremely happy in their new home. They also have a new ami! Her name is Zephyr and she is a dun yearling quarter horse! I 'desperately' needed a new buddy to keep whoever gets played with company! She is quite the little LBI, and I am really enjoying her and figuring out what motivates her - so far scratches and apples.

My house is pretty awesome in its own right. Cairo loves it. He is its king. He presides over all that goes on and sleeps a lot. Jax is loving having a house to guard. He has his happy ears on all the time. Much perkier nowadays. Which is very good. He was pretty depressed when I first came back from florida. He is now all slim and athletic again and a very happy camper.

Today I spent my late morning to mid afternoon on a lawn tractor, making my home look gorgeous. Its been over run in the pasture with weeds, so I am slowly taking it back. Should be an interesting battle. So far I am winning.

Thats my little life update :)

S

It's ALIVEEEE!!!

... my bicycle that is. Impressive, really, considering the mild [reads: months and months..and months] of neglect my poor bike has suffered. Despite said horrendous injustice to its cyclistic lifestyle, my excellent bike still ... bikes... cycles... locomotes? Still does what a bike does. :D

Yes, its rusted on all the chains and brakes, yes the front tire is slightly flat and the back tire has a wobble, but HEY! Thats not bad for suffering through life in a barn, life in Canadian winter and THEN life in canadian summer! My bike likes to live naturally you know, in the great outdoors. *snort* Right. Poor thing. I really should take better care of it. Her. My bike is too pretty to be a boy. She doesnt have a name, but I picture it something feminine but strong. Ill work on it.

Her paint is fading, her chains rusty, her wheels wobbly, but still, when I broke out old [insert name here] today, out of sheer boredom, she was ready to roll! Well, not litterally, as she required LIBERAL application of some WD40 before such actions could be completed, but you get my drift. As I backed her out of her notatomb, digging her out of the weedy vines grown over her once-beautiful purple paint, her chains stuck and gears cruched slightly, but its all better now.

I *tried* to rescue my dearest back in January, determined to take her to Florida with me. Such rescue attempts failed though, as she was stuck fast within her icy bonds. MURIEL! Ive got it! I shall name her MURIEL. Dearest bike, I hearby dub thee Muriel. A wonderful name, betokening your wisdom and years of service, but still alluding to your youthful spirit and once-known beauty. Excellent. Perhaps, one day, I shall gallavant to Ye Olde Hardware Store and away with some new paint to restore your former glory.

Moral of the story here : Dont leave you bike out in the elements for months on end. They dont like it. By some miracle Muriel survived. I am eternally grateful to her manufacturer for making her so hardy so as to withstand my obviously cruel [and non-deliberate] treatment. To celebrate the reincarnation of my lovely old friend, we took a ride through the country side that is my current home [for another week or so] It was pretty. It was dicey. I didnt realize the wobble was there until I was halfway up the street. It was scenic. The company at the end was the best - I found Ajax and made him come with me. He was *thrilled* to say the least [onlynotreallybecausehewantedtosleepontheporch]

Muriel and I had a fabulous re-connection, which promises to bring more joy to both of us daily. I might have to get that tire straightened out first though... She got a new home today too - a little cushier than the last, moving up in the world by moving under the gooseneck of my trailer. Youre in the big leagues now, Muriel. The big leagues!

:-D

S

PS: No this doesnt have anything to do with ponies... sorry

PPS: Yes, I googled Old Lady Names to find a name. It worked. There are sites called Old Lady names.. how awesome is that?

What I Learned from Mowing the Lawn....

Thats right. I said mowing the lawn. Well, not really the lawn, but the area where I ride. So here is my story...

Yesterday, around noon or so I decided I should re-mow my riding arena. It was becoming rather over populated with those really tall white flowery looking weedy things. Also, the area that I hadnt cut before because it was freshly bush-hoged was becoming slighty unruly. Out comes Mr Mower!

Now! Even just getting out to the area to mow was a challenge. Not only had the weeds and things grown up in my space, but in the entire feild that was bush hogged not long ago, making the trail out slightly treacherous for poor Mr Mower. A few false starts, a few run ins with stumps I couldnt see and tangles with fallen weedy things and we were finally in the clear! On to mowing. Straight lines around the edges now, you want it to look nice. Off we went. Nearly off I bounced!

This is basically just a grass field. A soft grass field, as in the spring, most of it is a swamp! So under all those weeds is a delightfully strange cushion of mossy looking stuff, which means Mo puts a lot of foot holes in the ground. Which means that riding around on it, on a vehicle with wheels, is not particularly comfortable! Bounce bounce boingy bounce.... it is jaring to say the least. UNTIL!

Im riding my little mower along, bouncing, my back is starting to become sore, its starting to annoy me, when I start to think, what does Linda always say about pain in your body while riding? It represents a BRACE! Well now... since Mr Mower cant exactly move his body in a way to show me I am bracing, I just start experimenting with pushing more through my lower back like I would in a pushing passenger lesson. OOOHH ! Better! Better but not perfect. Hmmm.

More experimenting. Then I start thinking about dressage riders sitting those huge magnificent trots, which leads me to thinking about contact, which makes me think about Finesse, which sends me to the Game of Contact and what Linda was telling us about engaging our core, pulling your belly button to your spine and doing the "Michael Jackson" with your hips. Why not? I was trying other fluidity techniques on my metal horsey, why not some finesse riding? So I did. And! Miracle of all miracles, all my pain went away! I could move with the mower seat and not bang on it at all! Whooo!

At first I would get it and then lose it and have to find it again, but as it went on [over an hour of mowing the arena] I got to where I could hold it and not have to be so concious about holding it. Really cool. Now if only I could be as successful on my REAL pony, Id be pretty excited!

Either way, I was pretty amused. Finesse a la lawn mower, Go figure. Independant hands, feet and seat. Egage your core!

Such are the bizzarities I come up with while frying in the sun on the lawn mower...

:-)
S

Sometimes, you just dont know.

In addition to the actual reason for this blog, I was sitting here, thinking "I wish I knew what is making that funny noise"... my room is making strange noises that are vaguely reminiscent of Star Wars, but thats beside the point.

The last few days have been spent in a slightly melancholy haze. The reason or cause is unknown. I wish I DID know, for then I could alleviate the issue! But alas, the culprit to my strange mood eludes me. I thought yesterday the answer would be playing with my darling Mo. That turned out to be a bad plan. Well. Not bad. Just not as well thought out as I had anticipated.

I got her out of the feild, we went over to the trailer, where she was a little snotty with her tail, even though there was a fly and a half bothering her. But this story isnt really about *her*. I am certain now that I was imagining things. *sigh* Let me reinforce here, that my mood was not where I wanted it to be, and all I wanted out of the session was therapy. Fix me, Mo. Thats all I want. I cant figure out how to fix myself. I asked for it.

We moseyed out, doing some little hill therapy on our way, Mo poking along at the worlds smallest trot, out into the space I have set aside to ride in. We get out there and suddenly everything means GO! Disengage is broken, friendly is broken, yo-yo is broken, simply yeilding off the halter is broken. *sigh*  In my fuzzy head I am so perplexed. What happened? I feel like I have ZERO energy and yet my mostly somewhat kinda introverted horse is a kite. Huh?? I attribute it to her not having been played with lately because I was waiting ona farrier opinion on some cracks. We got the go ahead on Monday though, so this is day two of playing. Though honestly day one Liberty was dicey at best and.. oh hey!... very similar to this. Everything meant go, no friendly etc... how interesting.

So I bring her back, re-visit my friendly game, fix the porcupine off the halter and reinforce that yo-yo out doesnt always mean galavant off in a circle. Once that gets ok, we get some pretty nice things going. Circles are looking good, she is seeking the obstacles around her to the point of darting out on a straight line to get it, and then looking at me to see if she was good or not. Normally this would crack me up and I would say she was awesome. Yesterday, I was wondering why she couldnt just circle nicely... this is when warning bells should have gone off for me. But I played through it.

I rearranged a jump, and started playing with her over the gymnastics and she was just pro. That finally lifted me a little. She really knows her job and just goes for it beautifully. At that point I went and saddled her up at the trailer. I tried rearranging her shim pattern, because her back has been changing, but after walking out to the feild again, it felt terrible so I came back and added back in the one shim I took out. I put it in a slightly different location though, I am really trying to focus on freeing her shoulders... without the adverse effect of saddle sliding forwards.

I bridled her too, though didnt put any reins on. She bridled herself perfectly. I couldnt ask for more. I put my savvy string around her neck and grabbed two carrot sticks and off we went. Im not sure why I didnt use reins, or a hackamore, I think it was in part because I knew I needed to not be able to micro manage her. Because, if I could have, I would have. So I forced myself to not have that chance [unconciously] and I think it was best. We started on our circle pattern, relaxing at the trot, then picking up the canter, and she was great. Both directions, then on into the 'arena' . I played with canter/walk transitions along the rail in both directions. with the focus of backing on the downward transition, using two sticks for support.Then we aimed at the gymnastic set. She totally blew by it the first time I set her up at a canter. Interesting. I didnt have reins to micro manage her through it so I allowed it to happen, guiding her gently where I could without causing catastrope through the jumps. The next time, we approached at a trot and had much more success.

We did it a few times at the trot, and then when I tried to rub her with the sticks, she went a little crazy. [surprise, surprise... friendly issues on the ground, did I really think it wouldnt be there under saddle?] I thought my energy was gone [remember earlier?] as I tried to rub her with both sticks at the same time. Mo obviously thought otherwise and started dancing sideways, first one way then the other with her head UP and acting fractious.

For whatever reason, my brain chose that moment to overload, so I jumped off, let Mo graze while I sat on a barrel and tried to figure myself out. Figuring myself out generally involves a spontaneous, ridiculous amount of crying, and voila, right on cue, there it was. I have no idea why. Sunny day, lovely horse, riding, playing, seeing a good friend later, no idea. Tears. Yuck. It is the worst thing, to be sitting there, crying your eyes out with absolutely NO idea why you are doing so. Obviously something is eating at me, but gods know I cant figure out the cause! I will, I am sure, eventually, I just havent yet. Still. Ergh.

So Mo is grazing a few feet away, I can hear the bit clanking on her teeth, so I took it off, and she continued to graze while I continued my little internal meltdown for no reason. I thought I had myself under control, mostly, and I was about to come off my barrel and get Mo, when Ajax shows up. Oh my goodness. My dog, the best dog in the whole entire world, walks over, very purposefully, gives me that "Youre not ok, let me help you" look that just sparks a whole new set of waterworks. Ridiculous, but true. Man I love that doggy. Jax just sat there, for what must have been twenty minutes, letting me hug him and scratch him and cry on his shoulder - again, for no discernable reason. Heart of gold in that one.

About the time I started gathering my peices again, thunder started rolling in the sky. Somewhere during my meltdown, very big, very black clouds had drifted across the sky. Thunder started and not long behind were some very large obnoxious rain drops that herded my little herd back to the trailer. Jaxie came into the trailer with me, and Mo stood ever-faithfully outside while the rain poured down and the thunder rolled. I played a little game with Mo, getting her to put one foot on the trailer so I could get her boots off, which was fun. The pourdown didnt last very long, as pourdowns generally dont, so when it tapered off, I took the oppurtunity to return Mo from whence she came, with an apology and a face full of cookies.

More rain came, and Ajax was glued to me as we hid out in the trailer once more. It was nice though. Him and me, watching the storm pass from the safe and dry in my beloved trailer. Its been a while since I have just hung out while Jaxie like that. It was really nice. I do so adore my puppy dog.

Theres not really a moral to the story yet. I still dont know what caused that mood. Im still not sure I am through it. But that was my day, odd, off and interesting though it was. Im glad I got off. Poor Mo. She forgave me as she always does, when I went out later in the evening to sit on her tree, she moseyed over and asked for scratches in all the silly ways she always does. That horse is everything to me.. . I will have to work harder to get myself better for her.

S

Liberty Fun

The last few days have been interesting with Mo. She has this whole in her foot that the farrier thinks might be a little bit of white line disease [ so my brain is in overdrive YIKES mode] but to check her out, I have been taking Mo out to the trailer to pick out her foot and soak it a little.

In addition to this I had mom watch her move to see if she was lame or not - conclusion being she is just the tiniest bit off but nothing hugely noticeable. The whole best part of this was that to check her lameness I just had my mom watch me play a circling game with her... except we were at liberty! Somewhere in our recent history, our liberty has taken a dramatic turn for the BETTER!

Our circles have all of a sudden shown up gorgeously... I am so proud of Mo. She sets herself up on about a 15' circle and maintains it just beautifully! Trot and canter to! I am still in awe. She is trying so so so hard. The other day she also even offered me some falling leaf at liberty! WOW! It is really shining through how much setting her up for success online really sets her up for success at liberty!

I am really proud of her and really excited to see her progress! I am also really anxious to get my farrier out to check on her foot to make sure she is ok to play!

:-)
S

Life..

Such a sad sorry state of neglect I have left my blog in... terrible! I shall try to rectify that post-haste!

Summer has finally come to the great northland that is my home. Sunshine and warm temperatures make S a happy camper. Mo too. I think. Maybe not. The flies bug her a lot. Mo has moved into a quaint paddock created from step in posts in my back yard so that I can have her close, as her being forty five minutes away was causing me to struggle with sanity. Its not fun partaking in your primary addiction in life only once in two entire weeks!

Needless to say, that situation has been remedied nicely and now I can see Mo any time I want, simply by looking out a window. Her Royal Higness, Miss Indy is still enjoying the pleasure of Rocky's company out at Dad's. Mostly because I dont think she would respect a little fence that would hardly come past her tall knees. Although, my dearling left brain ami finally [after three weeks] figured out the wire wasnt hot and decided walking through it was the best answer she could come up with to get the grass on the other side. Oh, and also, that the gravel on the road is the most curiously entertaining thing in the world, that she just MUST explore! *sigh* After three near heart attacks and a newly charged fence, m'dear Mo has stayed safely behind bars... er... fence. Thank goodness!

Since being at Dad's, Indy seems to have started a war with the trees. To tell the truth, I am really not sure why, they seem to be aimiable towards her, providing shade and relief from the bugs, but nonetheless, she seemed to feel the need to provoke their ire. Twice. I went to visit my spotty ami one day a few weeks ago, only to find her entire upper leg and knee swollen pretty extremely. Part and parcel with a twig sticking out of a tidy puncture wound. I tried to pull it out, but most was broken off, so I did what I could with the limited [aka none] supplies I had and headed home to re-stock. When I came the next day, it had mostly scabbed over but was still swollen. The teeny tiny wound looked to be nothing, but I still re-opened it to pull out the rest of the debris and disinfect it. Indy was a total pro for this, I must admit, I was VERY pleased and proud of her. She stood stock still, inspected my work and approved. She was a rock star.

To battle the swelling I cold hosed the leg for about 15 twice a day when I could, once when that was all I could manage for three or four days. I called the vet office to find out if there was anything I could or should be doing and they said I already was [which was a relief] other than getting her a tetanus shot. So off to the clinic I galavanted to fetch my pony a needle. Thank goodness for great ponies, because I just walked up to her at liberty in the pasture, poked her, rubbed her, gave her a cookie, and voila, sans drama, my pony was safe from the threat of tetanus for another year. Did I mention she was a rock star?

Slowly the swelling was going down, and I was getting quite pleased with my veterinary efforts until the fourth day. On the fourth day everything back slid. Silly pony. I walk over to check her out and all the swelling had moved down the leg to her knee and cannon bone.... huh? Running my hand down her leg, I found out why. My dearling had once again fought with the foliage, and this time had a thorn in her knee. Really now, can we yeild on the tree-wars please? Luckily this thorn plucked out easily, unlike the twig, but once again, I was back at square one dealing with swelling. Back on the bute my lovely went [she is pro at taking that to, even dad can do it! ] and mucho more cold hosing. Silly pony. At least she seemed to enjoy the hosing. There was a time, when I first got her, that the hose was the debil in disguise. She cut herself on the trailer ride home [OH so RBE that day] and I tried to hose it off... didnt work. At least now she stood rock solid, even trying to play with the hose and drink the water, and even give me a shower!

Finally [so far] a truce has been reached with our so-called enemies the trees. Its been two weeks, and there have been no further attacks. Hopefully, the truce holds, and further injury can be avoided. There is another Hunter Pace on the 10th of July that I would like to take Indy to, and as such, I'd very much like her to stay sans swollen limbs. At least she never got sore or lame.

Back to Mo. Mo has been a super pro here at home. We have been playing a lot, lots of online on the 45', getting our maintain gait at a canter better and better, playing with finding clean flying lead changes, and giving a focus on jumping lately, seeking the obstacle and jumping in a confident and rideable fashion. We had a great little liberty session a week ago too, complete with many canter laps and a few flying changes of direction! I was really proud! We have been playing with lots of finessey things while riding, getting back to stretching and using both of our bodies. Its so easy for me to get stuck in freestyle because its my favorite savvy. Bareback and bridless has always been my dream and what makes things fun and challenging for me. Finesse is fun to, and challenging in a different way, I just need to find the right motivation for it - other than just getting my L4 Audition taped. I dont have the excuse with freestyle anymore... since its already passed.

Either way, I have been playing much more with contact now, at all gaits, and Mo is getting better and better every day. Our latest focus has been jumping a course at a balanced rhythmical canter. Its going great. Maybe I will take her to the hunter pace... We have been playing a lot with patterns. I mowed a whole bunch into the grass where I ride so I have a follow the rail, a clover leaf, a circle [10m and 20m] a figure eight and a question box. I should make a weave... that would be nifty. Maybe next time. We are playing with breaking down the flying change, really building the pattern into the question box to change leads with a drop-to-trot change through the centre, and yesterday she offered me the first clean flying change in a while, which was fabulous.  Patterns patterns patterns!!! They work!

A few weeks ago now, me and Mo participated in the first Games and Demo day here. We had a big demo with seven local instructors and horses, and some tournament style games for students as well. It was a fabulous day, and a great way to see a lot of friends I hadnt seen in a while. Overall a great success and a pretty fabulous sum raised for the Parelli Horsemanship Foundation!  Mo was very tolerant during the demo. I hadnt been able to do much of anything with her for the two weeks previous, having just got back from Florida, and she still loaded up like a pro, got to the new place and helped me put on a great show for Parelli students of the area. What a great partner she is!

In other news, I will be moving to my new farm/house/home in just about a month now. I cant wait. I am terrified. I am excited beyond all reasoning. Seventy whole acres to turn into Parelli Paradise all to myself [well, I have to share with D, but same difference] I can finally have Indy and Mo at the same place again, I can leave stuff out to play with anywhere I want, I can make silly paddocks and mow patterns anywhere I want. I can have Play Days! Its going to be a great home and I really cant wait to live in it.

I think that about catches up things since my last less than timely post. I shall endeavor to post more often. Parelli Connect is sort of stealing blog-thunder at the moment, as I am keeping up with that instead of blogging here. Ill work on it. Try and be more exciting and all, so I have things to post.

:-)
S

Home Again

Well, here I am, home once more. In my own room and [YEY] in my own BED! I do so miss my delightful bed when I am away from it... so fluffly and comfortable... Anyways!

The horses travelled like rockstars. Our trip was mostly uneventful. The trailer brakes tried to pretend they didnt work, but D fixed that up right quick and our lives were saved. Goliath performed admirably, and is settling into a comfortable semi-retirement, carting me around the area to teach for now, until I re-aquire Reggie from El Popsy.

Mo and Indy are pleased with their new pasture mate, Rocky. He and Indy are having quite the little Battle Royale, to determine who indeed is truly in charge. It is pretty entertaining to watch. Indy has decided that Mo is her personal property, and to be protected at all costs from the Usurper [Rocky] Every time Rocky comes over she herds Mo away and protects her 'herd of two' from the intruder.

She is getting better now, more pal-y with Rocky. He is completly smitten with her. I brought them out some grain the other day and he wouldnt let me put his more than a foot away from her, and since she was ok with that I did. He just politely stood next to her, munching on his lunch. Looking wistfully at Indy while she ate, hoping she might like him. Too funny.

Mo has come into heat now, so thats complicating Indy's attempts to keep her and Rocky apart, but for the most part she is still accomplishing her chosen duty. A few nicks on Mo betray that she hasnt stayed away compeltely though, and thats ok. All three of them are VERY dominant horses, so it has been very interesting to see how they play together. Indy will pin her ears and threaten to kick Rocky and he will keep a happy expression and not even flinch, while he just turns his rump to her and looks back and her and she moves now.

I think Indy and Rocky are still checking each other out, but he may come out on top, or at least tie with Indy. Mo is out of the race, she doesnt seem to be bothered anymore by not being in charge, Silly pony.

Now all I need is some sunshine and some warmer temperatures and I will be all set!!

:-)
S

WHEEHOOOOO!!!

I PASSED MY FIRST LEVEL FOUR SAVVY!!!!   - FREESTYLE!!!!!

We interns tested out with the Externs that just left, and I just got my results back today during my exit review and I passed my L4 freestyle!!!!!! *This* close to liberty, just would have needed a flying change of direction. 3++ in the other two savvys.. well, technically pre-L4 in finesse, as there is no 3, but same difference!

WHOOO HOOOOO!!!!

Here is what I put on Parelli Connec the day of the test :-)

Freestyle testing today. It went well-ish. I was pleased, but not satisfied I guess you could say. Mo was in a GO mood, so our stopping wasnt great, and it was slippy in the round corral in parts, so I felt out of balance when she moved… more bareback riding time! YEY!


The test was to start in a round pen, mount bareback [I am not talented enough to jump up from the ground so we used the fence] Once we were mounted we had to back up, walk a lap, trot a lap and canter four laps in both directions. That went pretty well, though it took Mo a few tries to get her balance on the right lead – which I found interesting, since she has been getting really good. From there we jumped off, saddled, remounted and headed out of the round pen to jump a log [which Mo WAY WAY overjumped!!! But we lived!] from there we were to go open and close a gate [went well] push a ball [Mo is great at that] and then pick up and move a bucket from one barrel to another. Things got dicey here! I had a halter with a savvy string on Mo, since I found out about the carrying things task, and it was a REALLY GOOD thing! I picked it up and things were ok, but when we started walking Mo got really tight and was going to super spook and bronc [its happened before] so I opted to drop the bucket and bend to a stop. Turned out well, I just dismounted and put the bucket back on the barrel and tried again. This time it worked out :-) We made it to the other barrel. Yey Mo! Its funny she has this reaction with buckets and cones, because I can take off coats and put them on the fence, or pick them up and carry them in a similar way no problem… more friendly game needed with this kind of thing obviously! After the bucket there was a weave pattern to do, which required drop to trot canter lead changes, which I think Mo actually did a good job at. She was go-ey, but she tried really hard for me, which I apreciate! Then it was off to the question box! Right canter depart [got the left lead, but fixed it on the first try] for two laps, simple change to the left for two laps, flying change to the right was called for [did a simple change] for a lap and then flying change to the left which we GOT and then stumbled, but still it was cool :-) for one more lap, then stop in the centre for 7 seconds. No problem! The goal was to do this with arms folded. I dont remember folding my arms because I had a carrot stick, but I didnt use the stick, and I had no reins to use, so YEY! I felt great about that part. We then had to show walk, trot, canter, halt, backup transitions down the center of the arena. Mo was go-ey on her stops, but we managed. Then sideways for twenty feet both ways, which was good, if a little forwards leaky. Overall, I felt pretty good about it. I know there was things we could have done better, but I was mostly really pleased! Afterward we trotted and cantered the whole way to the lodge to find the next person and then played around a little in the playground before going back to untack. Super fun day!
 
Cant believe we did it!!!!
 
 - S

Goals

Goals are such interesting things. You can have big ones. You can have small ones. Long term ones, short term ones. Acheivable ones and ones that are a little more far fetched. I have a lot of goals, of all kinds of types.

One of those goal has actually been met in the last week! Well, more than one but the one I am thinking of while writing this blog is the one I will share. There is a story behind it, as I am sure there is behind most goals, and mine starts more than a little while ago.

Waaayyyy back in 2007 I went to my very first [and only, to date] Savvy Conference in Colorado. It was my first adventure to a Parelli Centre, though not by any means my first Parelli event. While I was there, the atmosphere was just phenomenol. I wanted nothing more than to park myself there and not go home. Obviously, I had to return myself to my native Canadia, and wait until 2008 when I could attend my first course in Florida.

When I got home from this wonderfull life changing adventure - this being the adventure that really pushed me into wanting to get to the centres and do more - I composed a loverly email to Parelli HQ, telling them how wonderful my experience there was, how welcoming and friendly everyone was, and asking about how to get myself onto Faculty one day. I knew I wasnt ready then, but some day, I wanted to be that person who inspired the old me into wanting to more.

Flash forward to today! This week has been the start of a course called the Flex Track at the Florida Parelli Centre. Here I am, being an intern on campus ....  when all of a sudden [not really, I volunteered!] I get to be on FACULTY!

For this past week, and next week, I have and will be assisting Jerry Williams in coaching this wonderful group of students! So far it has been such a great experience! I love being able to help empower all these students, and seeing their successes each day and their growth is just such a treat.

So thats my joy du jour. Goal Achieved. Made it onto teaching faculty, for at least two weeks! How cool is that? AND I get Mo here to help me, and shes been a total rockstar, being exactly the partner I need her to be.

:-D
S

GREAT DAY!!

Mo and I had an AMAZING session this afternoon!! I was kind of thinking that because it was really warm out she might be sluggish and not want to play but as soon as were out of the intern cube she was all squeals and offering canter. It was adorable.

I am trying to force myself to play on my 45' more now. Having done abismally in Online testing two or three times... I figured its time to suck it up and git'ur done. We can play on a 22' and do amazing things, or even on 30' of a 45. Its just using the whole thing .. getting her out there, motivating her to keep moving and being effective from that much of a distance without nagging - and THEN dealing with my achy ankle while I walk and try and keep up with her on something like a trotting weave pattern. Ouchy for me. Espcially in the sand.

But anyways! We set up and played with a weave pattern, and Mo was a super pro - she really understood her responsibility to stay on it, and I managed to be effective from a further distance away, though not at the end end of my rope yet. It was definate progress though! I was really proud of her.

Doing auditions here, checking them out and sending out results has been interesting, because I can see the comments diferent instructors are making on different things and one thing that has hit me today and I have been soaking on it for a few days was "make your phase 1 your phase 4" so I was really trying to play with that in mind today - lightness without sacrificing effectiveness or justice and I really think it was working! Mo was all for it and trying her heart out!

When I felt good about the weave [which ended on some excelletn happy enthusiastic trot draw] I changed tactics to the circling game, playing with maintain gait, then transitions [which blew Mo's mind, becuse she was all in the maintain gait zone] and then finally some change of direction. Our change of direction has been semi cracked and broken for the last few weeks so I wanted to see if I could start to patch it up today. Our changes from left to right are decent, I got even a few flying changes, but our right to left ones are still dicey and more often than not result in just a stop or an almost change and then canter off in the same direction.

At the start I was just playing with changing direction but when that wasnt really helping I switched to some backwads S pattern and that seemed to make the difference once she got it. After a really good flying change to the left I called it quits and went to saddle up [ after stuffing copious amounts of cookies into her waiting face, of course!]

After saddling up and bridling [which is getting really great with Mo seeking the bit!] I mounted and headed back to the arena. I started with just some trotting follow the rail and playing with some Game of Contact, which Mo is getting super pro at! I feel like we are starting to play in Stage 3, which feels AMAZING! Mo can have a crazy huge trot that feels more like a warmblood than her little clyde hackney self! It was a cool ride!

When our trot was feeling really good, I picked up the reins some more and went into the most lovely canter! The best thing was how LIGHT Mo was on the bridle! When Pat talks about an ounce on the bit...this is what he must mean! It was solid happy contact, but it was light! I just asked her to carry herself and she said 'yes mam, I will' and carried her own body the way I asked without using me as support to hold her up. What a cool feeling.

We played with canter circles in both directions through a question box pattern and then I got brave... and asked for a flying lead change.... and got HALF! SWEET! The front changed but the back didnt, so we dropped to trot and picked it back up again. She tried so hard! She was on the right track! It was a great feeling! We went through about four of those. We would circle a few times, then think about a flying change and get the front end to change but the back would be crossfiring, so drop to trot and pick it properly again.

AND THEN!

Mo went LIGHTBULB and GOT IT! She gave me two perfect flying changes - one in each direction, back to back and thats when I stopped and jumped off! What a superstar!!! I fed her all the cookies in my pockets, unbridled her and brought her back to the cube tackroom to untack, get a shower and go graze on the fast growing Florida grass for a while!

Thats my excitement for the day :-D My Mo is a SUPER ROCK STAR! Gotta love her!

:-)
S

Our First Demo!!!

Today there was a small demo for Parelli at the Ocala Equestrian Centre and seven of us got to go be part of the Savvy Team!! I was really excited about the chance to actually be part of a real live Savvy Team, that there wasnt much sleep last night. Between last minute scrambling to try and keep Mo's white *white* and trying to find me a white shirt, since I dont own one [thanks B!] and getting tack clean and in the right spot.. and everything else that happened, it was just one happy excited blur!

The morning started out early, which reminded me of my horse show days, but it had a compeletely different feel. Mo was full of herself this morning, prancing about and running around the intern tack room. When she was all cleaned up I packed up some last brushes and my very favorite Green Spot Remover [cowboy magic is GOD] I brushed up Hank since the every popular daylight saving messed with everyones alarms and M was running behind. He was a super star and didnt roll last night [grey/white horsey!] so it was pretty easy. M showed up and we started on the ever popular hike up the Secret Hill to Pat's Barn, where we were meeting the trailer.

We had a quick meeting and set about the last minute tasks before getting all the horses set up with their shiny 'show' 12' leads. It was pretty fun to play with a new rope. Even if it was only for a day. When it came time to load into the huge 8 horse trailer, pulled by the big sport chassis truck Mo was a really super tropper. She was the first one to load and she went right on! It was her first time ever in a slant load trailer, and she was perfect.... Once, I head this saying.... something about prior and proper preparation... I think that guy was on to something!

When we got to the venue we had some good yo-yo game practice with the trailer since the parking guys didnt really know where to send us. P did a great job navigating some interesting squeezes though. We finally got parked by the door to unload all the toys and M and I took off with our table goods and some giveaways to get to the organizer while the others unloaded the horses and got the first team ready for their demo. We had to two time slots - 11:15 and 1pm. Me and Mo were in the 1pm go.


For the first go-round I got to play sound-girl up in the sound booth, changing songs as needed, since the sound had a malfunction and our ipod was a failure. It worked out ok. For the second demo we had our music, which was much better. Though I dont really recall all of the songs....

The first demo went great, all the people in it did a fantastic job, and so did their horses! We broke for lunch, and after that it was our turn! It was time for me and Mo to head into the arena with our friends a co-savvy-teamers... is that a word? It is now...

There were six of us in this part, and R got us to go through all seven games to show them to the crowd. We all went through them, showing them as we could at what level we were at. I was proud of my porcupine game - I showed lead by the ear, and Mo was perfect, forwards and backwards! YEY! Our circle still needs some help, but she wasnt very motivated yet inside the arena, we had had some cool stuff going on in the practice ring though. Our sideways went awesome. Away and towards from zone one! Our squeeze went super well to, started off over the tarp and then R 'can you'd' me into squeezing her under it, so Mo got to go under the tarp like a little super star.

We had then a few songs in each savvy of online, liberty and freestyle then, so we went to play around. Online was great, we played on a 22', roaming around the arena doing little things like follow the rail and back by the tail from zone five, get on the pedestal all four feet, figure eight, weave and jumping over the barrels then stopping halfway.

When it came time for Liberty, I was a little nervous, because I had no idea what kind of things Mo would do! I took the halter off while she was halfway over the barrels and started with a sideways towards and walked over to drop off our halter. Mo was right with me! It was a pretty great feeling. We did some litle walk trot halt backup transitions running around the arena. Mo was still right with me! I sent her sideways around me in a circle, and she was a pro. I sent her sideways away from me about 20' and she came right back! Then the coolest thing happened, I went over to the weave, intending just to ask for a little figure eight, but Mo saw it, picked up the trot and completely trotted a whole weave pattern for me! WOW!!!

It was finally time to ride, and Mo felt really good to me, so I jumped on bridless with a string around her neck and carrot stick at hand. By jumped on, I mean I got on the pedestal and Mo came to me sideways and I mounted how I usually do. Ill leave the fancy run-from-behind mounting to P and J! I dont think Im that athletic. I started off our ride with some trotting follow the rail, to help Mo get a feel for the arena with me above Zone three. She was a star. We went around once, came back over the barrel jump, did some circles and then when I was thinking that I should turn to the left so I could canter [ since our right leads are dicey, I didnt want to show anything bad] she got this lovely bend to the right and went into the nicest right lead canter ever! All slow and collected and thinking with me, it was wonderful.

We cantered around on that lead a little, then dropped to a trot and picked up the left lead on a figure eight pattern. We cantered around just a little on the left before R said it was time to leave, so we stopped and all backed out of the arena! It was a total success, and I couldnt be more proud of Mo!!

She re-loaded on the big rig like a super pro and made it home happily.

Our first Savvy Team experience went amazingly. I couldnt be happier with Mo, she is a total rock star!!!!

:-D
S

What a Great Day!!

Today was a lot of fun!

We got to have a bareback lesson with Berin, riding in the halter with one rein - which is something I am really confident about, so I was primed to have loads of fun.

Me and Mo warmed up online in a 50' round pen, playing with our new maintain gait program and fixing our broken change of direction - which wasnt broken today! She was a superstar, really getting into the game and playing around with her posture and things while maintaining her cantering. From there we went into our lesson, which turned out to be a great time.

We were playing with throwing the rope over our horses heads [which was challengingly fun due to some high winds!] at a walk and a trot, and then doing so on a weave pattern! Cool! It was really fun, and Mo was great at allowing me to occasionally bonk her or catch her ears when the wind took the rope or I just threw awkwardly... Poor Mo, she is such a trooper, she just kept on keeping on for me. She sure spoils me sometimes!

When we finished weaving through cones, it was time to weave through each other! That was sure a fun challenge! I wish I had 20 people to play that with at home! Mo did great, and she is really getting good at allowing other horses in to her personal bubble without trying to eat them, I am really proud of her for that, since it makes pre and post lesson horse shoes oh so much less eventful!

After weaving around we lined up two by two at the cones, and played with crossing our arms and going sideways to the next cone, about fifty feet away! Mo did really well and tried really hard for this. The really cool thing was that she really allowed me to direct her - when something was lagging I could isolate it and say 'hey, hindquarters, you should catch up' and she wouldnt take offense, just move that part and keep going. When we would get to the next cone, you would back up to the fence line, about 150 feet away. Mo was really solid in her backup, again allowing me to direct her when she drifted from straight, but it was a little slow, so we are going to play with speeding it up a bit in the future.

When the lesson was done we had our own personal horsemanship time until lunch time, so Mo and I headed out into her pasture area, since it is a big-ish open area that ISNT sand! Since the footing is more solid, that means Mo has more go! To be fair, I am not a fan of slogging through sand either, and the arena at the Foundation Station is DEEP, so it makes Mo more introverted feeling than usual. Anyways, out in her pasture she was happy to move about, so we started with some nice follow the rail at a trot, just to get used to the new situation. Even though she lives there, I didnt want to make assumptions that she would be calm there. Ive been wrong that way before!

She was a superstar, and relaxed at the trot almost imediately. When we started to pick up the canter she offered me the left lead, as usual, even though I asked for the right. The transitions were really nice and easy though, so she gets credit for that! Each time she would pick up the wrong lead I would softly bend her to the rail back to a trot and ask again. It took a few times, but eventually she got the right answer and I let her canter off on a casual rein for a little bit around the rail. We continued this pattern for a bit, until my brain couldnt *not* jump the log sitting there anymore!

There is a log in Mo's pasture, and I have wanted to jump it since I got here, so do dee doo, off on our right lead we aimed and popped over... waaay over jumping because Mo missed a stride somewhere, but it was awesome and we stopped right after! GO EVEN IMPULSION!

We played on a circle after that, on a bit more of a concentrated rein. I was trying to help Mo find the right bend in her body to get the right lead, it seemed to help. The number of left lead departs before finding a right lead depart went down. So yey! We jumped a few more times, which was super fun, and Mo started finding her distances, which was delightful!

When our circles got pretty good I turned it into a figure eight, so she could pick up the left lead without feeling wrong. That went pretty well, and on the last round she got the right lead from a halt!

It was a really fun session because I could feel her collection herself, sitting on her hind end, and the lightness in the bridle was just unbelievable! She was actually carrying herself properly and not asking me to hold her up! So cool! YEY canter -walk/halt transitions!!!!

After finishing up with that, after lots of cantering and STILL finishing with motivation and an effective gas pedal still in place, we moseyed around, I took her bridle off and we rode back to the tack room. Mo got a drink and I unsaddled her. She got a well needed bath and we went to hang out in the sunshine to dry [both of us... Mo tends to share baths] and eat some grass [just Mo]

The best part was, when I went to feed Mo her dinner tonight, they already had their hay and she left her hay to come hang out with me - AGAIN! All I did was brush her and feed her, but still, thats such a nice feeling, and it tells me that I didnt cross the line into a bad place today. I didnt feel like I did at all, but it was a lot of cantering for Mo!

I am actually really proud of how things went today. I was so calm and relaxed and having fun, that a situation that could have been in the past, really frustrating, was just a fun puzzle to solve. Maybe I should have POTC 3 music in my head everyday! I dont know why, but it was running through my head over and over.... Like Pat always says, I would have been proud to have Mo's and my mom watching! I kind of wish my mom *had* been watching... then I might have some pictures of Mo looking all amazing!  Oh well... I will just have to live with FEELING the amazing that she was today!

:-)
S

My Mo is a little Superstar!

Or a BIG one. Depends on if we are talking about size or awesomeness. Big on awesome, little on size. Gotta love her either way.

Today was a really good day for Mo. We played with some awesome lightness things and then at the end, after grazing and chilling out for a while she decided to tell me we needed to do some more. So off we went, with intensity and attention! Sideways, sends, stops turns, load into the trailer at a trot-almost-a-canter ...
AND THEN!!!

When we first got here Mo was a little hesitant about the car wash. She would touch it, push it out her way, walk through it, but had a pretty big opposition reflex to backing through... now when I say big, I dont mean rearing plunging terror big. I just mean big for Mo, which is pretty much sto her feet and look at me saying "I am not ready for this, please allow me to retreat" so we did.

Since that first day we have played on and off with Mr Carwash, and lots with backing through things confidently.

SO!

Today on our little play rampage I sent Mo through the car wash as a squeeze, brought her back to me and then backed her until her zone 5 touched it - all with lightness and respect and no hesitation! It was EASY after that to just suggest she continue back and she did! She stopped with her head on my side on the waving plastic, looking at me all "Im awesome, right??' and then trotted to me when I drew her in.

Perfect!

I love my horsie!
:-)
S

Fun Times at the Intern Barn!

Week two as an Intern is coming to a close. Life has been pretty exciting this week. We had a lot of focus on driving, with Nate Bowers teaching us the fundamentals of harnessing and the systems that are involved in driving teams and singles. We mostly finished with our testing now, and are all eagerly awaiting our results! I feel like things mostly went well so far. It has been fun learning about driving, even if it isnt where I want my main focus to be.

During our horsemanship time we have played with a lot of different things, like bridless yeilds, fluid rein and cloverleaf patterns. During personal horsemanship time today I lost a bit of focus [oops] and wandered into the round pen to see what I could come up with. Well now! What my idle brain ended up coming up with was this... backwards riding! Waaaay back, years ago, when I first started Parelli, or shortly thereafter, I had a goal of backing my horse by the tail while riding. I decided that since I had addressed this quite a bit from the ground lately, now would be a fabulous time to readdress it under saddle. Well, bareback.

SO! I went around-the-world as it were and was sitting backwards on my ever wonderful and loving Mo. She really does make this whole being away from home at such important times thing bearable. Id be crazy[er] without her. Sitting backwards I lean down and gently tug a few hairs like I would on the ground and VOILA ! Insta backwards steps! How cool is that? To fun.

Of course, being me, I couldnt stop there. Nope. Then I started doing walk/stop/backup transitions while sitting backwards. SO much fun. I think I smiled and laughed the whole time. Im sure I got some silly looks, but I was to focused on my entertainment to notice. Then I got really brave.... I tried some trot steps! It felt so odd! But it was so fun! Mo was a complete rockstar super trooper and just toodled on, behaving perfectly. We even got some awesome direct/indirect rein once I figured out where I needed to arrange myself since I was backwards!

Hows that for a fluidity lesson?
Pretty fun I think. Maybe Ill do it again tomorrow.....

:-)
S

Intern Life!!

So! Life is pretty awesome right now. Week one as an Intern is almost complete - tomorrow is Sunday, our day off. Today was pretty much a day off too, there were Parelli Games on campus this morning that I wanted to take Mo to, but since there were so many incoming students we opted out.

Instead we saddled up and moseyed around taking it easy and eating grass. This week has been fabulous. Check in was on Monday, which I was MAJORLY right brain about. I didnt even really realize just *how* right brain I was going, but it was pretty extreme, because the let down after I got here was huge. Giant adrenaline release to go with my extreme tension! Good thing I could recognize it for what it was, yey Parelli.

We got checkin in all great, Mo got her pen, next to Hank and Spalshy. She has turnout now, but was in a pen for the first few days. She has been a total rockstar, I am really proud of her. Coming from J's she loaded up perfectly. I couldnt have asked for better. Brought her out of the pasture and over to the trailer, intending to play a little but she opted right onto it, and looked at me all proud of herself, telling me to shut the door and hit the road already! Go Mo :-D


Monday was a settle in day, we just got our pen assignments and room locations and unpacked and such. I did some groceries and got myself fed and crashed pretty early! Day one started bright and shiny, we had horsemanship all morning after starting with a name game and a pretty fun game of soccer. Do keep in mind though that I have never in my life played team sports. Not a one. I even skipped out in gym class if in any way possible because my coordination is .... completely lacking in every way! Goodness only knows how I ride a horse... but I do. SO! Day one and team sports. I tried really hard, failed miserably, but had fun. We have played every day since then, and I think I have improved, I feel like I have anyways. I am definately more confident to go after the ball, and have the bruises to prove it. I try to remind people that soccer isnt a contact sport, but I am not sure they all believe me.... either way, its a lot of fun, and a great way to ramp up our energy in the mornings.

Generally we have morning meetings at 8:30, soccer time after that, then horsemanship with our ponies til lunch time. After lunch we have either done hay, auditions, or had horse development time with Kalley so far. Its been really great. Lots of learning and fun. We combine [or have so far] our horsemanship time with the Extern lessons, so that has been really good for Mo - learning how to be in a GIANT arena with about 25 other horses. She was quite emotional the first day, speeding around and glaring at everyone who dared come into her bubble. She is a bit more controlled now in her glaring, and her gait has evened out almost completely, depending on where we are. For the most part she has returned to her introverted self, though I had a few days of FUN extroversion!!

I have been having a blast being able to be here at Parelli Land, meeting new people, seeing old friends and learning new things. Its only the first week, so I cant wait to see what will come! ...Apparently we are going to be having a soccer game of Intern/Extern VS Apprentices/Protogees.... so that should be super fun!!

:-)
S

Made it to Ocala

The journey began on a dark and frigid morning, one blustery Tuesday in February. The sun hadnt woken yet, but Jack Frost was having far to much fun harassing us. I woke up warm in my bed, though at an insanely early hour.... only to be thrust out into the icy icy breeze whipping the snowfall around. -20something with the wind said the radio. Eep!

Saying goodbye is the hardest part of leaving, even though I know I am coming back. Snuggling one last time with Cario, as he squirms in protest, not really sure why I am squeezing him quite so tightly. I miss the little bugger already. He did make a valiant effort as a stow away, but I have confirmation that he remains at home. Goodbye hugs with Mom are so regular these days with all my travels, its almost routine. Yes Mom, Ill drive carefully, text you often and be good. Love you *hug*.  Generally how that rolls out. It works for us.

Figuring out how to say goodbye to D was a little harder and more stressful. Thats a whole new situation and leaving with the whole house-buying-thing going on really doesnt feel like the cleverest plan, but what else can I do? Just going to have to trust the people at home working on it. I know it will all work out fabulously, and then when I go home I get to pack some more because we will be moving to our very own house in July! Seventy acres to do anything I want with... hello HEAVEN!

I managed a high spirited goodbye to Aunty, C and C. My goodbye to Jax was a little more solemn. I always hate leaving him because he gets so depressed. I really hope he will be ok with Teddy around for company. My little/giant old-man-puppy isnt as young as he used to be, and I still need him around for many more years...

So then came the loading. Indy was pretty much her usual RBE self, determined that the wind was turning the trailer into a shadowy horse eating monster, and to be fair, it kinda looked like that anyways. She hopped about for five to ten minutes and then remembered, 'Oh, right, trailer, adventure time' and got on. Mo was her usual rockstar self and marched right on. Do I ever love that pony. SO reliable!

It wasnt snowing, no, but it was crazy windy. We decided to leave anyways. If it had been snowing at home, I likely would have waited out another day - but apparently it snowstormed the next day, so that would have been a bad plan to. Anyways. We left, and it was SLIPPERY. I was white-knuckling it the whole time. It is one thing to slip around when its just you and your lonely vehicle. But I had VERY precious cargo in the back - and I really dont think E would have appreciated a visit to the ditch either. As we wiggled our way down to the border things got a little better.

Crossing went extra smooth and off we went onto Highway 37. Now, let me advise you, if its blustery and winter, you likely dont want to take this road with a horse trailer. I didnt know this, but lesson learned. We lived through it, but we went veerrryyyy slowly. It wasnt great times. Several grey hairs from that experience Im sure. When we finally made it to I-81 this funny thing happened... we couldnt go. We had no speed pressure. Bugger. Call dad. He says he thinks the fuel lines are frozen so we limped to a truck stop and got some 911 stuff thats supposed to unfreeze things. We also were able to have the very nice lady at the truck stop call a little garage  down the road to have a look at our fuel filter. So we limped there.

That little event was an adventure in and of itself. Inside the garage bay was a firetruck. Inside the garage bay was also my truck and trailer wedged against a side, that we had to take a running start to get into because their lot wasnt plowed and it was on a little uphill that Goliath kept spinning out on going slow. Good times. Now, Mr Garage Man was very very nice, but I will say he had no idea what he was looking at because he couldnt even find our fuel filter and sent us off on our way again. Poop.

Back limping on I-81 for a little longer, going a grand total of 70km/hr. Whooooo we were flying! *sigh* It was so stressful not knowing what was wrong with the truck. AND not being more than three hours from home yet ! We got off at another little sketchy exit and found a whole bunch of garages. We went from one to the other to the other, all of them busy and unable to help until we got one call referal to the EVER SO WONDERFUL Skips Pit Stop. The one garage we were at called them, they said they would order the filter, it was there five minutes after we got there and changed and ready to roll out in less than half an hour. Talk about service! Now, could I find the place again if I had to ? No. I doub it. We were so re-routed by then, I was lost, and it was a blizzard. So bonus points. AND, AND, for a gold star, our GPS connection was dead, and we were trying to run it off our laptop powers and so trying to conserve it as much as possible. Joy.

But! All was once again well in the world, as Skippy had our truck healthy and hale once more, and ready for the open road. So we set off. Our goal was the North/South Carolina border, at a wonderful layover spot called Sallys Ark [this place I CAN find again, and have several times, I love it] We did get a back up plan to stop over in Virgina though, because it was about 12:30-1pm by the time we got on the road for real and we werent even to Syracuse yet.

The drive was on and off blizzards pretty much the whole way. We eventually decided to just haul tail for Sallys, because other wise day two would just be another crazy long day, and I would rather do one uber day and one short day. So uber day commence.

Around 7 or 8pm both E and I were getting to the point of boredom. Just the whole stuck-in-a-car forever thing, and so we both broke out our little 5-hour energy drinks and downed the powerful energizing brew.... WELL! When they say powerful energy kick... THEY MEAN IT! We were buzzing and bouncing for HOURS. At fuel stops we were literally running in and out of the stations and jumping around, chatting and generally being insanely hyper. Anyone who has seen me buzzed on Easter Cream Eggs, this was 20x that. Imagine. Now run and hide.

It was crazy, it was fun, I dont particularly want to do it again, but it got us there. 2:30am we pulled in, unloaded ponies, fed them, unblanketed, and went to bed. Oh, but not before trying for a good while to text the moms that we got there safe. Backwoods North Carlolina has zero cell reception though, so that didnt fly very well. We tried though! Tucked into bed with an alarm set for 8, we were dead to the world.

Morning came with sunshine at least. We passed through a mini blizzard in north North Carolina, so the sunshine was welcome. I played with both girls at liberty in the round pen before loading them up and that was super fun. They are both such great fun to be with, and its such a challenge to play with both at the same time, accomodating Mo and her left brainedness and Indy and her right brainedness... its fun. I love them.

Indy loaded like a total trooper and Mo her usual self and we were off once more. Luckily, this day ran MUCH more smoothly and we made it to Ocala to J's for about 4:30 I think. We unloaded the girls and they both ran about for 15 minutes or so, rolled, blessed the ground they stood on for being solid and then got to grazing. When I came back a little later, Mo was sound asleep, and yesterday morning bother were out like lights. Poor kids, they get tired too!

E and I had another adventure trying to get into the house we were staying at, we got locked out and such, but eventually got it sorted.

I got to play with the ponies yesterday a little, when it stopped raining for a while. That was nice. I groomed them both up shiny, clipped Mo's chin hairs and cleaned up her front legs a little. Played with clipped approach and retreat for Indy's chin and legs and then played with my still-shiny-new feather lines that I got for Christmas with Mo.

WOW! What a star she is, and how much FUN are feather lines?? Such a cool way to feel for lightness! Also played with some zone five driving with walk/trot/backup transitions and the figure eight. Mo is a star. I couldnt have been happier with her. I turned one of the lines into a hackamore style rein set and 12' line and moseyed over to the pedestal. As soon as Mo saw me getting up on there she started to come to me sideways. She was quite a ways away to, because she had been lollygagging a bit. Silly Mo. Still, it was really nice to have that obvious invite of 'Lets go for a ride'. We didnt do to much, because I was still getting the feeling of Mo being travel-tired. Just some bends and haunches/shoulders in and backing practice from my seat. Also did one walk canter transition, just to see how little I could do and still get it. The answer is next to nothing :-D I was pretty excited. I only did it once, because I didnt want to push it when she was obviously trying so hard even though she was tired.

Funny side bar about clipping - Mo fell asleep while I was doing under her jaw and I had to hold her head up at times... silly horse.

Pretty much the whole time I was doing stuff with Mo, Indy was stalking us, trying to get in on the action, or rumaging around in the things I left on the bridge - brushes, showsheen, clipper box open... she messed up all the things with her curiosity. Which.. I am glad she curious, but I am also glad she didnt break my camera that was sitting there to!

It was raining here when I was finishing up playing yesterday, so on went their rainsheets. They looked pretty miserable in the morning time all wet and with their long hair, so since it was chilly anyways, I thought they would be ok with their things on. They seemed happy this morning when I went out to feed them.

So, thats my adventure thus far, I will endevor to keep the world updated as much as I can
:-)
S

Its My Life

Not only is it my semi-motto de jour but it is also a fairly catchy tune by Bon Jovi, circa 2004/2005. Interesting side fact: This song was the first song I really really liked and bought an album for. It really touched on something important to me - the desire to live and grow and be my own person. Sure I went through the whole BSB/Spice Girls thing when I was younger, but right about the time I really started to figure myself out, this song came out and caught my attention.

Before Parelli, in a hunter world full of perfect brown TB, appendix or lean quarter horses, I had a BIG CHUNKY PALOMINO Belgain x QH. I also loved and still love purple. So when I went to little shows, everyone else was there in their perfectly shined boots and boring jackets and white pads on their spectacularly uninteresting brown horses. Nothing against brown horses, it just cracked me up that every single [or nearly] hunter horse in the arena was brown. Chestnut. Boring. No or little white. They all looked the same. Perfectly braided, looking totally bored, cookie cutter little show horses. And then I walk in on my light palomino beefcake, decked out in purple. Purple saddle pad, purple polos, purple helmet, gloves, the whole she-bang. Obviously I stood out. Whether it was good or not, I dont know, but I was there to have FUN. Everyone else seemed to have forgotten that simple fact. The shows were even titled FUN Shows, there were no rules on attire - other than obvious safety guidelines - there was nothing stopping them from showing off a little fun personality other than their own lack of imagination.

I never really showed a lot, I can count on two hands how many shows I have been to, but each time I go, I try to add a little bit of uniqueness. My helmet is purple, so that's a given, but I also try to add other things, a purple saddle pad, purple ribbon in the braids, *something* that shows who *I* am, as ME, not as a drone who goes along with the crowd.

To be honest, my whole drive to be unique is part of why Indy's name is what it is - Individuality. To remind me to always be myself, not fit into some cutout pre-determined version of what someone thinks I should be.

Mostly I think that suits, there are times when it suits to conform somewhat, to keep peace and because I want to, to be able to grow and be better at being me. Being an individual doesn't mean I cant do things other people do, I just get to do them with my own flair. Live outside the box as it were. My life seems to generally lead down the outside-the-box path. Out of high school, University wasn't on my menu because I was to introverted to be confident enough to go.  I went to a small trade college instead, and also found Parelli around that time.

Even growing up, I never had the same sort of life plan that everyone else seemed to have - go to school, get a desk job, get married, have kids, live happily ever after. No, while other girls my age were planning their weddings and naming their not-even-yet-conceived children, I was planning my farm layout and picking out future horse names. Funny how life works out, isn't it?

In school I usually felt out of sorts. During Careers class the pressure was on to pick a career/job path that you would then study towards the rest of your high school career.   The only thing I ever wanted to do was be with horses. Other things weren't an option. Maybe that makes me narrow minded, but I prefer to think of it as having a goal and striving to reach it.

Post trade school [ten month program] I 'lucked' into an office job. I wasn't looking for it, I didn't particularly care to have it, but it was money, which I sorely needed at the time. Two years I spent in that office. Most of which time was just spent counting the minutes until I could get home to my horses to put the wind back in the sails of my passion. The up side of the office job was that it allowed me to save enough money to get myself to Florida and undertake the journey that has FINALLY brought me to the portion of my life that sees me sharing my passion with horsey people and Parelli students all around me.

I guess all this rambling could really be condensed down to a simple fact or two. Don't be afraid to make something of your passion. Hold onto your dreams and make them your reality. Anything can happen when you act your own person and break the mold.


When I started this post I wasn't really sure where it was going. I didn't think it would end up as a diatribe about my life... it was supposed to be a re-cap on my Florida planning - which is well underway, for those curious. I leave in three weeks. Horsey paperwork is on its way, blood drawn and just awaiting results. My trailer is living at my dad's - he is getting it all road worthy and such, and Goliath is getting an extra inspection or two before being asked to undertake a 1200km journey hauling such precious cargo.

Also, I have found two extremely nice people who will be leasing Indy for the Fast Track 1 and 2. I am thrilled about that. I was a bit worried about her sitting bored in a pasture for twelve weeks.I think she will have a blast, and certainly the people who get to play with her will as well, she is such a treat to be with.

Otherwise not to much has been happening here. We have and continue to have some very deep freezes. Temperatures haven't been above -15C in at least a week. Projections are more in the -20 range for the next while, with a delightful breeze making it feel much more frigid. I am not sure I can adequately express my excitement for warmth and sunshine, and the lacking need for seventeen layers, while still feeling cold.

So far, I am very proud of how I have lived my life. It is mine to live, and I refuse to live it to anyone's standards but my own - which are high, let me assure you. There are those around me who wonder and wish for me to just 'let go of this horsey thing' and 'get a real job' and settle down, but that would be a betrayal to myself and who I am, so I plan to continue on this journey, keep on keeping on with my horses, and getting my good better and my better best!

 :-)
S