Interesting Things Pt 2

As promised, here is Mo's story over the last few days.

I would have written it sooner, but I really needed some time to digest and think/feel on it, before sharing it. Hopefully, I can do the story justice, because it has been very powerful to me at this point in time.

Mo and I have come a long way together. Loooonnngggggggg....gggggggg. When I got her, she was just two weeks old, and I was 16. I knew nothing about Parelli [or very very little] and I was about to embark on a gigantic learning curve.

Most of my first Parelli greenhorn mistakes were made with Dakota, but I have had to do my fair share of apologizing to my sacrificial lamb of learning, Mo, as well. As we rise up the levels together, I see more and more how much she has filled in for me and I appreciate her ever-more. Lately, with my focus being on passing my L4 Finesse, I have been trying to shift my thoughts towards really having her WANT to be doing this with me - WANT to be there, holding my hand, not *just doing it* because I said so. She is very obedient by this point. Mo, for sure, has a billion opinions, and frequently voices them, but she is also very obedient, in that if I say "Hey, lets focus for a bit and play later", she generally replies in the affirmative and ceases whatever goofballness she was pursuing.

This week has been a realy eye opener for me, in seeing what Mo REALLY wants, and listening to her. I recently was FINALLY, after literal YEARS of wanting one, able to wrangle myself up my very own Photonic Red Light [and if I was tech savvy, I would know how to make their name a fancy link-y thing, but instead, you will just have to google them] A friend of mine has been really starting to look into the therapy and practicing on Mo a few times, as well as getting her treated by Brian [company founder] twice in London - really opened my eyes to the positive effects this kind of therapy can really have. Mo would be a different horse each time after treatments. Much more free moving forwards, and happier to go sideways and that kind of thing. Listening to her, it really showed me that she enjoyed that. So now, with my own, I have really tried hard to listen to her in respect to WHERE she would like me to place the light. The last two times I used it on her, she was quite obviously trying to put it in certain places for longer, or making sure I hit a particular spot I might have otherwise glossed over.

So step one in listening to Mo came from treating her with the Red Light. Step two really came the other day after the Zen Ride. So Tuesday I guess, if that was Monday? I went out, really trying to chanel my energy into re-creating that amazing ride. we warmed up in a very similar way, and then headed over to use a tree as a mounting block. Thats when things got educational!

Quite often when I snap my reins on and head to the mounting block, I will ask my horse to follow me at Liberty, hop up on my perch and then they sidle over to pick me up, of their own volution. Things were going as they usually do, reins snapped on, we were walking over to the tree, I stepped up onto the tree, Mo sidled up about halfway.... and then went "Actually, not ready for that yet" And walked away! She just turned hard right, and walked just to the outside of the gate for the bottom field, and stood there.

Well dang. I could totally feel in the moment that it wasnt an attitude thing. It wasnt a play - I dont want to - thing. It was a total I cant. I KNEw I could go get her, bring her back and get her to stand, just by picking up the rein - not even holding her there, but just by having contact with her - but I truly want it to be her idea to hang out with me, and do the things *I* love to do, because she loves them too. This might be a stretch, but it is my focus right now.

So I waited. She wasnt going any further. She was maybe 60-70 feet away from me. She was standing with her tail towards me, head low, really introverted and processing. Hmmm.... So I waited some more, and she finally did turn to face me. But she placed herself in a such a way that there was a t-post directly in front of her, between her and I. Like she was trying [unseccessfully] to hide behind the t-post. Her focus was still kind of soft and dreamy and introverted, but she was trying to connect. It was like she was kind of daring me "what are you going to do? Will you come get me and MAKE me? " So I waited some more. I really wanted to see if she would eventually just come back to me on the mounting block.

I feel like she would have. At one point though, she put her head down to rub and her reins fell up her neck into a dangerous position, so I had to go save her. I didnt just march up to her though. I still felt out her bubble, I got her to turn towards me, I just fixed her reins and stepped back. She was willing to turn towards me [I like to think that she knew why I was coming in] but not to move her feet with me. So I backed off some more and waited some more. She was doing a TON of processing on this.

So was I. Lets be honest. This was HARD for me. It was SO hard, just to NOT get emotional [upset, frustrated, confused] when she walked away in the first place, and just go "how Interesting" and try to see what would happen. If I wasnt trying so hard to listen to her, to see if she is feeling ok, if there is anything ouchy, or if she is feeling like a partner today, I could have easily just caught the rein and mounted anyways and avoided this whole kerfuffle. Instead I let me horse dictate the timeline, and tell me where she needed me to be - which was not on her back yet.

So we played with waiting game, a little approach and retreat, a little bit of friendly game when something made a big banging noise in the sad barn and spooked Mo. Interestingly, she wanted to go over and check it out, instead of leave. She went about half way over, then decided it was kosher and came back to her original spot.  She looked fascinated that I wasnt just coming to get her. I was just as fascinated with her thought process and feeling for her emotions.

Finally I felt her really connect to me. She felt like she really wanted to draw into me, but she kept looking concerned at the electric fence that makes that gate. I know she is nervous about that kind of thing, so I backed off, to allow her lots of space to make it through without feeling like she would get trapped in the squeeze with the shock-y stuff. Just like that, she walked all the way up to me and blew out with a big lick and chew and started yawning.

Well holy cow. We just stood and I rubbed on her a whole bunch for a while. I snuggled her while she sorted out her thoughts. Then we went TOGETHER, to the mounting tree, she came to me perfectly, and I mounted and off we went. Our ride was really basic - we just went out in the hayfield on apple tree point to point. Mostly inconsequential after that ground session.

All told, that liberty plot line ran about 35 minutes from the time she walked away to the time I stepped back in the saddle. Thats a lot of waiting! I kind of wish she hadnt gotten tangled with her reins, and I could have stayed on my block to see what would happen, but I think what happened anyways was a fairly clear vision of her emotions.

So that brings us to yesterdays Liberty session.The day I rode Zephyr, Mo was all over me, but I didnt have time to play with both, so I just hugged her, gave her some cookies and promised I would see her later. The next day I went out with the intention to play with Mo, but after a quick friendly game she squealed and left! Oky doky then....! I caught Zephyrs attention and we played [see previous post] and the whole time Mo was watching us. grazing, yes, but sneakily keeping an eye on what we were doing and ever so softly coming in closer.

I didnt even notice when suddenly she was behind me as I was asking Zephyr to do something, until I accidently bumped her nose with my elbow! Poor Mo! She stayed though, just long enough to get a cookie, before spinning and trotting about 20 feet away. Goof. She did that twice more, staying closer each time until she was basically my shadow while I did stuff with Zephyr. I didnt ask anything of her though. When I finished with Zephyr, Mo walked with me back out of the gate and then trotted off to the barn when I asked her to turn, and she looked funny at the trot. ONLY because she looked funny at the trot, I caught up with her at the barn and tossed my string around her neck to bring her to the round pen. She didnt protest or try to escape or anything - but it wasnt her idea totally, or she would have stayed with me in the first place. If I hadnt thought she looked off, I would have left her to keep figuring out her own thoughts.

In the round pen I had her trot for me so I could see. She looked fine in there, so I have no clue what she looked funny about before. BUT !! Once in the round pen, she have me amazing close circles AND change of direction softly. We did that for maybe five minutes [just enough for me to check out her gait, go WOW and remember to get out before it gets bad] and then she stuck with me on her own plan as I walked back to pick up something and back to the barn. Even when I did transitions, she was right there. How interesting!

Which brings us to today! I was very curious to see what yesterday's liberty escapades would brew for me this morning. Apparently really good stuff! I fed the girls their breakfasts, and then haltered Mo. She was ALL about getting her face in the halter!  I brushed her and saddled her and off we went. Our little ground warm up consisted of playing with drawing the forehand to me. Mo was a little confused [rightly so] but got it really quickly. From there I went over to the mounting tree, and just thought "today, I would like to try mounting from the right" Guess which side Mo presented for me? I DIDNT EVEN HAVE TO ASK! She just read my mind! I was flabberghasted!

The amount of times I get on from the left, or just clamber up onto something and hope Mo comes over, I get the left side automatically. Today, by some magic, I got her right side. Wow. It was so easy! Here I was, thinking that we would be playing with our sideways towards on the right today. Boy was I wrong! It was just all right there! How cool is that? I went to mount, and the saddle slipped, but Mo didnt even move. She let me fix her up and try again, successfully this time - but the pad had tried to escape when I fixed the saddle and I didnt notice, so I had to get off anyways to fix it. This time, remounting, I thought, "Well, I will just get on the left this time" and POOF, again, like magic, over came the left side. Scary, no? My pony the psychic.

I mounted once again, and off we went. Something still felt different though. I couldnt put my finger on it. She was calm, connected and responsive as we walked out, but her body just felt different. The saddle was right, though, so I attributed it to the fact that I was wearing rubber boots and jeans, and just got new stirrup leathers. Off we went. Practiced our HQ yields from the walk and used them to direct our path instead of direct rein. Out into the bottom field where they are turned out right now, we started trotting. At first she was a little tight and looky [it was cold and windy] but then she relaxed and started stretching on her own. I was riding her in just a halter and finesse reins.

I eventually asked for her to come up to me, to collect her body and give softly to the halter and she did, soooo easily! This was only the second or third time I have really asked her this question in this way, so I was pretty surprised with how easily she answered positively.

And then we cantered. And I thought she was going to buck. But she didnt.

I was so confused that I bent her to a stop. Her canter hadnt felt like her normal canter. It felt much more UP, and suspendy. I didnt know what it was. So I thought she was going to buck! My general response to a bucking horse is bend to a stop, so thats what I did! Mo looked confused though, so we went again, and again she like this great suspendy upitty dolphin! Instead of beding her, I just checked in with her, asked for a touch of flexion [got it on phase one] and kept going.

And then I figured it out!

Mo was USING HER BACK! She was ENGAGING! She was LIFTING from her abs through her back! She was CARRYING herself! When I checked in with her, she was in beautiful vertical flexion! She was still soft, and responsive and super connected. As soon as I thought walk, it was there. I didnt know what she was doing, because I have NEVER felt her do it before!!!

NOW I know what people mean when they talk about suspension in the canter, and the 'up jump'! Riding Mo this morning was like riding a collected dolphin! It was amazing! I didnt push her much more than to confirm that she wasnt bucking, because I didnt want to ruin it. Even as I was rewarding it, I was wondering if I just rewarded her for bucking, until I figured out what she actually did!

My theory in-progress is that with all the nice red light treatments Mo has been getting, combined with the new supplement she is on that makes her muscles feel good, plus me finally getting smart and really being aware of her wants and desires has caused Mo to feel good, and really reach for the next level when I ask for it, even if I dont really know what I am asking for, preciseley! Really, exactly what she offered me today, is what I have been asking for when I ask for her to use her body playing with finnesse, and when I ask for suspension in her canter to make those flying changes. It really is the very COOLEST thing that she just decided to try it out this morning and see how it went!

Thats where we are at for now. Pretty cool stuff happening this week. I will have to post again later on MY take aways from it all!

:)
S