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

Little Bits

It was actually finally sunny today, so after work I was brave and went out to visit my wonderful fuffly friends.

Mo met me at the gate, and Indy was around to, which was nice. I went out to visit and say my hellos and slip my savvy string around Mo's neck. Today was one of those silly winter days where it feels like its been ever since I actually sat on a horse, so I just needed to sit on my pony. Either, I wasnt being picky, but Mo already had the string on.

I hopped up onto the water trough to use it as a mounting block, and Mo came over and then changed her mind and walked five steps away. A little sad, but not terribly surprised, I happily watched my other pony go "Oh boy, free human!" and mosey on over. The best part was that as she got closer she started coming in sideways to meet up with me on the mounting block. I layed on her and loved on her, but the way I was precariously perched on the edge of the water trough and the packed snow making her taller, I couldnt get the right angle to swing up. To tall!

When I jumped down, Mo came right back over and I was able to line things up right and squirm my way onto her back. Armed with my savvy string and carrot stick we moseyed on out into the  pasture. We didnt do to much, just some follow the trail on the path the ponies have dug in the snow, walking and trotting. I really just needed to feel my horsey and see her for more than just a quick hello and maybe a good grooming. I know I just rode last week, but it already feels like forever ago. January is like that.

When we got back to the gate in the ring, Indy was there waiting so I decided to perform an experiment. Indy and Mo hate each other with something bordering on passion, so I thought why not see if I can step up the leadership and work towards being able to play with the two together, and one from the other. Mo and I moseyed up to Indy and, as I thought, she pins her ears, but all four stay on the ground.  I protected our space [Mine and Mo's] with the stick and then *poof* ears up! How interesting... !

So we played with that, until the two of my girlies were standing an inch apart, side on, and HAPPILY. We did a few little stick to me forwards and backwards things and then Mo and I walked away. Leaving things on a good note! We wandered for a few more minutes before I jumped off and fetched some cookies for my rockstars. How I adore them!

:-)
S

Why?

I would like to know why playin with leads and lead changes WORKS when I ride bareback.. with nothing between me and pony but a savvy string and carrot stick, but not when I have a saddle and bridle or hackamore. More experimenting to be had, but I am thinking that is not a good sign for my saddle? I dont really know. Orr maybe I am just on a massive learning cuve and it will transfer to when I can ride in a saddle again? Who knows!

Obviously Mo and I played again today. We were playing with freestyle because I want to be able to do a re-shoot for my L3 Audition and lead changes were the only thing I wasnt super pleased with in the last attempt. So we have been playing with that. Oh and jumping to. Mo doesnt like jumping, and doesnt do it well, so that makes me minorly hesitant to jump her over things like barrels because she spazzes and I get a little concerned about flying solo... Luckily, Mo seems to have figured herself out finally, and today we jumped the barrels from a walk and trot bareback :-) WHOO! [irony being I have no problem galloping Indy over jumps bareback or otherwise]

It was really interesting playing with leads with Mo. I was able to tell pretty easily when she was on the correct lead because the size of her circles would decrease dramatically [because she was on the right bend!] so that was pretty fun - ALSO! Every time she got the correct lead her head went down, she started blowing, she was just relaxing and balanced and flowy and wonderful!

So we were able to do some loverly flowy simple changes plus one accidental flying change for kicks because I forgot to wait for her to trot... how interesting! GO MO!

On an odd note, it was so surreal to be able to sort of finesse stuff and work on things that werent perfect while at the same time riding bareback and bridless... really really really cool!!

:-)
S

Dun Da Da DUNNNNN SUPERRRR MO!!!!!

Today was a great day.
A] It was sunny
B] It was warm
C] I got to play with Mo!

Not all day like I would have wanted, but after work, which is better than not at all!! Any is always better than none at all :-)

Lately C and I have been riding together in an attempt to get the ever pudgy pony back into some form of rideable shape. Candy is just ridiculousy overweight right now, to the point that two laps of the ring at a trot put her into a full sweat!  This summer wasnt exactly a riding summer for C & C so their ponies are all out of shape, Candy especially because she is always really prone to ... chunkiness... on a regular basis.

Today when I got there I found out I only had a half hour with C before they were leaving so with a mild timeline, we went out to fetch our ponies - all of who were refusing to come over to the barn, even with much pleading and grain shaking. Oh well. C had to go change for boots, but I started hiking out to get Mo, so that hopefully I could jump on and then go round up ze pony.

Luckily as I started walking Mo did to - she really has a fairness complex! We met at the fallen tree and I jumped on [with help from the tree... not literal jumping] and off we went to round up Candy, who had made it all the way to the back fenceline! Mo and I trotted and cantered our way back there and poor Candy saw us coming! We kind of played cow with her all summer so when she saw us heading her direction she opted to head for C who was calling her name  and offering cookies as a reward.  Candy happily trotted over and was summarily caught.

On our mosey back to the barn C and I talked and she opted to go bareback today, since we had a time limit, and tacking up takes to long. I thought that was really cool ! I took Mo out to the ring while Candy got bridled and played a little at liberty. Wasnt really that long before Candy came out and we both mounted up.

We played with the weave pattern I had set up, walking through it, doing transitions, and doing little bits of trot and helping C stay balanced. It really wasnt long though until she had to go :-( So I lost my riding buddy to there perils of Pork Tenderloin Dinner a La Grammie and Grampie. Cant really compete with that I guess!

Just because she left though didnt mean I was done! I kind of lost my train of thought for a while, and just moseyed around at a walk, but it didnt take long before I was back at the weave pattern trotting it and trying to refine our communication and then finally cantering little parts of it and then cantering the whoel length of it only slowing down on the one end because it was slippery mud.

I had to jump off to lengthen one section a bit though, but that was ok, Mo liked that. The last section was a little smaller than the rest and instead of arguing with Mo when she missed it, I just made it match the others. Easy peasy right? Silly logic.

Once that was done Mo had no problem cantering the whole line. We still had to stop at the end, because now the last one was really in the slippery part, but it was cool. Mo wasnt doing flying changes or anything, but she was cantering really nicely, smoothly and calmly!

Finally we got to the point where we could canter the whole thing, including the one dry turn, and slow down only at the wet end. That was really good for Mo because every time we turn Mo like to slow down. After a couple of really valient tries by Mo, and one slip that turned semi flying change [ and there was much rejoicing] I jumped off again to re-arrange my pattern. I moved it across the ring to the scary side and set it up there instead. Now I had dry turns at both ends!!

 We practiced at the trot again, and Mo was really good, not really thinking about the [non-existent] scary things.  When she started doing the whole pattern with her nose on the ground all flowy and calm I asked her for the canter again. She picked up a lovely slow almost collected canter and wove through the barrels like a pro, went around the turn like a superstar and came back up the line. On the last turn around guess what Mo did?? I asked her to turn around the last barrel and POOF  FLYING CHANGE!!! *squeee!!* Now THAT was a cool feeling! I let her go on a few strides before stopping her and giving her a cookie and letting her think. AND BOY DID SHE THINK! For something like six minutes, she just licked and chewed and yawned and blew out! WHOA!

When she finally came back to earth, we trotted the pattern again and cantered some more, and this time I actually thought about what leads I was getting. It is weird, but I am getting to where I can hear which lead she is on - her feet are oh so ..tiny.. so its easy that way once I figured out what to listen for! I found out we were pretty much always on the left lead. Thats pretty normal for Mo-sy, so I thought about really trying for the right lead instead. I picked up a cirle around the last barrel going to the right and did canter trot transitions until she picked up the right lead then we stopped and she got a cookie. It took a few transitions for her to try the other lead, but she got it and cantered a whole circle without changing back - thats one of her favorites, pick it up and then slip back. Silly girl. We did that a couple times before she got it really feelng good and I jumped off to hug her. She did amazing!

Funny thing I have been wondering for the last week - I hurt my knee somehow [and am relegated to bareback riding as such] and I am finding that I compensate more with my left leg when I am doing things day to day, that I wonder if it will help me get my body aligned for a right lead. Usually it is the oposite, I am compensating for my left foot [born with a clubbed foot, fixed now but still compensate somewhat for no reason] so I naturally get set up for a left lead. I am hoping that this 'injury' of sorts will help me be more balanced. At least thats what I am telling myself to make the best out of a ridiculous knee ouch that I just wish was GONE! 

But anyways, Mo was a superstar and when we went out the gate she was a true lady and waited for me to ask her to go graze please. I got all my grooming things and went out to shiny up my awesome pony. She was perfect about that to. Everytime I asked to see her nose to bush her hair or face she came right up and waited for me to say she could graze again. I love that about Mo!

Mostly, I love everything about Mo :-) She is my superstar! She is filling out all nicely to, getting her topline back [lost on holiday the last month of my externship] and looking super black with her [uhg] winter fluff coming in!

I just hope I can get my L3 auditions filmed before it snows or drowns me in rain... *coughiknowyoureadthismomwhereisyourcrazycamerathingercough*
I did film some earlier this summer, but I feel like we have come so far since then that I want to re-try, just to see what happens :-)

OH! The second best thing that happend today was done by Indy :-) She was standing at the fence watching us play so I rode over and gave her a cookie and went on with Mo. About five minutes later when we were on the other end of the ring she nickered at me, it was so cute! She keeps standing at the fence when me and Mo play, but Mo is always the first to come up, so Indy has to be quicker! She gets jealous, but only to late! HA! Silly pony :-)

:-)
S

Mo Makes Me Smile

Plain and simple, there it is. Mo just makes me smile. She makes me so happy pretty much all the time. Just watching her graze, munching away happily rarely fails to produce a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. Today was no different. In fact, today was rather exactly what I needed.

I wasnt having the greatest morning, for other reasons [although I DID find out I could get my most favorite riding boots re-sewn for incredibly cheap!] and I just wanted to have some nice horsey time. Mo time actually. I love Indy just as much but today I wanted to have Mo. Dont ask, it just happens. Luckily for me, when I pulled up to the barn Mo was in the shed AND [adorably] watching my truck very intently, as if she was waiting for me. It could have been curiosity about the rather loud music emanating from said truck, but I like to think she knows its my vehicle.

I went into the barn, got my halter, filled up my pocket with a couple cookies and then crawled through the fence to go see my horsey. And then I promptly, irritatingly, burst into tears. Go figure. Good thing Mo is the perfect shoulder to cry on. Once that was out of the way, Mo was looking at me pretty concerned. She hadnt moved and inch while I hugged her, and I love that about her. After apologizing for my outburst I went on with scratching Mo, doing my usual check over for new cuts or bruises, sadly noting the amount of winter fur already growing in, and finally putting the halter on my wonderful ami.

Lately I have been playing with mounting bareback. It is one of those things I see people do and really really want to be able to do. I am not [and have never been] the most nimble athletic person. I am an active person, I am just not one of those people who can do any sport they try the first time out. Sports and I dont like each other very much. Coordination isnt my best friend either, so trying to finagle myself into being able to swing up onto my horse is an interesting experiment. The other day, I positioned Mo on the down slant of the run in shelter and during the process of my various attempts she moved a couple inches around so that her shoulder was near one of the beams holding the roof up. On that particular try I swung up high enough, but needed a little more leverage to get all the way up. Conviently there was a beam to grab! Success achieved! 

Noting my previous methods, I tried that again today and voila, mounting accomplished. I figure once I get the muscle memory I can A] leave out the beam and B] work towards flat ground without a downslant!

For a while I just sat on Mo, just enjoying the feeling of sitting on a horse. It is my favorite thing in the whole entire world. I go into withdrawl if I cant just SIT on a horse on a regular basis. If you see me in the dead of winter, you will see me just sitting on my horse because, lets face it, in four feet of snow and ice, you cant do much more! But I just cant give up riding for the whole winter! So I just modify it :-) Its more sitting than riding when the snow flies, but its enough until spring.

Anyways, after sitting for a while I saw Trixie looking mischevious and harassing Crystal who was just innocently trying to lick the salt lick. Mo and I moseyed over and I started using what I know of moving-cow-psychology on Trixie. AND IT WORKED! I thought that was cool. I was able to move Trixie without moving Crystal. Last summer we had this grand Trixie-Tag game day, and I tried to re-create it, but she just got annoyed and hid in the shed. Oh well! It works better when you have a partner, but C was still at school.

After that I brought Mo into the barn to detangle her many, many hairs. Luckily she hasnt gotten into the burrs or devil things yet. Everyone else seems to have! Once she was all shiny we got our 22' line and went to play in the ring. Last night I was watching this lovely L3 liberty audition, so I was all inspired to practice my liberty. The problem with that is we dont have a roundpen where Mo lives, and also, there are other horses who have access to the ring when we play because it doubles as a paddock. Sometimes Mo likes to ditch me to go play with them, and thats not the best because of fights ensuing and whatnot. So I took a precaution. I had my 22' line on her, but I wrapped it around her neck so it was out of the way, but easily within reach if I needed it. It seemed like a viable plan to me :-)

And so our play began. We started just walking around, checking out our stick to me, and feeling out the mood. Mo was in SUCH a good mood! We did a few transitions, walk to halt to back up, for which I gave Mo cookies when she got it right. That REALLY perked her up. It was an introvert day today. She started to offer me little trots to keep up and even jumped the barrels in a squeeze game without even thinking about leaving! I am so proud of her! We played around with the barrels, went over to the mini barrels I have set up laying down and a wider jump and Mo popped over those to, just like a pro and stopped with me on the other side. I adore that feeling. You know the one where you stop and your horse is just so in sync with you that they stop right with you, right beside you and then turn their head and look at you to ask whats next... that one.. I live for that as much as riding.

After playing with the jumping thing we tried some sideways away and towards and that was pretty solid. Away needs so refinement, she drifts a little in front, but towards was spot on! With things going so well I decided to be brave and try things at higher gaits. Usually this is when Mo says SEE YA and goes to visit the others. NOT TODAY! OH BOY! I cant even express what this means to me. Mo stuck to me and did little circles at the trot, doing rollbacks when I changed direction, allowed me to direct her with the stick WITHOUT taking offense or getting snotty. AND THEN. Let me be 10 for a second.. OMGOMG.... AND THEN WE DID CANTER STICK TO ME ALL OVER!! For the first time in my life and Mo's we did GORGEOUS canter stick to me, with change of direction and transitions and just ... wow... I love Mo.

And then I ran into a barrel. I have to say, I really did laugh at myself. Just so we are clear, I can definately laugh at myself. I was so into watching my gorgeous pony canter around with me I completely forgot to look where I was going and ran smack into one of the metal barrels I had set up as a jump standard. I went barrel surfing for a second before hitting the dirt laughing. It was like slow motion! It was the funniest fall I ever had, for sure. On the up side, Mo didnt even spook, she came right over to ask what I was doing on the ground laughing. HA.

Back to play time! We played and played, even got some spins and some wonderfully soft backing by the tail! Mo never even tried to leave once. That is a new record. Did I mention I love Mo?

After playing with that for a while, I decided to ride again and got on bareback [I cheated and used the water trough as a mounting block though] and went out the gate and onto the trails. We rode the trails a couple o times, splashed in the water and then came back. I let Mo graze in the back yard while I layed in the grass just enjoying looking at her. She is so pretty... but perhaps I am biased..

Such are the events of my day today. Mo the awesome Liberty Star has arrived. And I loves her.

:-)
S

Guess What!

Soooooo,..... Today! I rode a racehorse! I thought that was pretty cool! We only trotted, but it was full out in a racing saddle and everything! I found that pretty exciting anyways. One of the regular riders had a doctors appointment for the last set today, so I got to fill in.

In other news, have you hugged your horse today?
I have! I was away all weekend since Friday and missed my ponies terribly [and yes, I called to check up on them on Saturday night.. because I may just be that lame] Hugging them is just the best cure for missing my furry amis. When I got to Aunty's everyone was in the farthest far corner away from the barn and I was so pooped from the weekend and from work that I couldnt garner the energy to go *all* the way out there. Lazy right? Well.. its a big field, and I worked hard today. After hanging out with my cousins and aunty for a while I looked out the window to be delighted by the sight of my loverly ponies.

I promptly ran out to the barn calling out to all ponies belonging to me and lo and behold Mo was happily marching to the gate to say hi and Indy was hot on her heels. I had just enough time to give Mo some tasty treats before Indy came up behind her with nasty looks. Indy got her yummy things as well, plus her hugs. Then I ran out to give Mo hugs to.

Lots of hugs later, I do the typical me thing. I brought Mo into the barn to love on her some more and see if  I could come up with a way to turn her wonderful bowing into lying down. All at liberty :-)

I havent quite figured out the laying down part yet, but our bowing progressed to being easily accomplished on both sides by just tapping her leg a little bit so that was awesome! During that session I was really thinking about Linda's article about motivating a left brain introvert with food, because Mo was REALLY motivated! She kept offering me things in order to win a treat instead of just mobbing me for food, so that was interesting!

After playing with that for a while I grabbed the bridle and played with getting her to put her own head in the bridle by motivating with more cookies around the bit. That was fairly successful! One of the most simple, but amazing things I saw during my course time in Florida was Avery bridling Akiss, she held out the bridle in front of him and her just basically put his own bridle on. He went and got the bit, put it in his mouth and put his head in the proper position to have the headstall slipped over his ears. Simple, but fabulous. I would like to work towards that!

When everything was all set I hopped up bareback and Mo and I set off for a little trail ride. We played with some contact things, sideways and transitions within the trot on the trails. I got SO close to passage!!! Mo gave me this fabulous floating slow collected trot. It felt so amazing! I think we have been spending to much time in the ring and need to get out more! Oops, my bad! Of course, its pouring rain now and I have no clue if the trails will be useable any more! Mo and I had a lovely dash through the rain back to the barn.

Overall, great day I would say!

:-)
S

Mo the Lansdscape Aritist!

I forgot to blog yesterday, but Mo and I had a great session. The best since I have been home - undersaddle at least. It wasnt terribly elaborate, but given Mo's recent proclivity for discontent while being ridden, I am particularly happy :-) We played with the cloverleaf pattern bridless at a walk trot and canter and were incredibly successful! YEY MO!

Then today! This morning I was feeling pretty ambitious. The riding ring has needed mowing for a while I keep ignoring it, hoping Candy will eat it all, but she doesnt and hasnt so I finally caved and got motivated enough to ask Aunty to show me how to operate the mower so I could. Mowing went great, and the ring looks fabulous now [except for the minor detail of me forgetting the mud in one corner and getting the tractor stuck... good thing we have a big tractor to unstick it later!]

Onto the weed eating! My least favorite part, the part with the most work to it, and also the part that really makes it look good when its done. I started pulling weeds by hand, then switched to a mixture of weed-eating and pulling and that worked fairly well until the charge died on the weed-eater. It was a good bunch of hours later anyways and the mosquitoes were coming out by then, and I had finished mostly one solid line of the fence, so I felt good about stopping.

The only other thing I really wanted to accomplish was trimming the trees that smack you every time you try to ride the rail on one side of the ring. For this I gathered some scissors, and my trusty Mo. Honestly, I was to lazy to halter her, so I just led her by the chin in to the arena and over to the mounting block. She was a doll and siddled right up for me to mount. The interesting part of this adventure was that the area where I needed to trim branches is actually the part of the ring that scares Mo. I am not sure why, I have done LOADS of approach and retreat with it, all kinds of squeeze game and she never relaxes all the way. I *think* its because last summer Legend [dog] would always jump out of the bushes over there and run at us.

Cleverly, I didnt realize this until we were already on our way walking over there, and I already had my mission in mind : Trim Branches. I dont know exactly how it happened or why, but maybe because my focus was elsewhere, Mo was perfect. She was my equine ladder and acted her part perfectly. She sidewaysed when I needed her to, back up when I needed her to, moved forwards, stood still, you name it, she did it! All in the name of good landscaping! HA!

Bareback and bridless to boot, so GO MO! I let her graze some after that, as the newly mown grass was EVER so much more enticing than the regular grass. Silly horsey.

:-)
S

Mounting Fun With Mo

In the onslaught of crap-tastic weather up here in the great white north, I really havent had much oppurtunity to do anything for the last little while. It feels like it has been raining non stop! Everything is under water or so muddy/moist its dangerous, so doing anything big is RIGHT OUT! [obviously, intoned with the tone of Mr. Counts to Three for the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch a la Monty Python..]

Today, there was a little break in the near-constant waterfall, so I took the chance to go out to visit my poor Mo, who, when I pulled up was in the shed and looked happily at my truck when it pulled in. By the time I went out to the barn though, after seeing my cousins and Aunty, she was, of course, out in the middle of the pasture. I called her name and she looked at me at least, but didnt come over, of course. Lazy lazy pony :-)

As I walked over to her though she started to come over, so that was a nice thing. Trixie came over to, so I got to play with protecting my little herd of two, which was nice. I mostly just loved on Mo, scratching her, rubbing her, just hanging out with her. Some how I got the great idea to play with leading by the lip.. I cant remember why it came up, but it did, and it worked out rather fabulously. I am pretty proud of the way Mo plays her porcupine games! I even tried spontaneously leading her backwards by the tail and she responded perfectly! I was surprised by that a bit, because usually I really have to get her thinking 'backwards' before that comes to easily. We must be making progress!

After playing around a little bit with all these things and little other things to like leading by the mane and holding her tongue and such, I thought it would be a fabulous idea to see if I could teach Mo how to help me mount bareback. I am honestly not sure if this was the most clever idea, seeing as we were at liberty in a 25 acre pasture, but it worked out ok, so ... thats just how it went.

I started asking Mo to put her head down and keep it there. Our head down is usually really soft, but the 'keep it there' is not awesome, so we played with that a lot. It got pretty ok, so I started playing a friendly game with my foot and leg coming up around her head. My goal is to be able to swing my leg over her neck and then have her boost me up onto her back, then to sit proper I would have to turn around, but thats ok.

Mo was having a hard time with the friendly with my leg because when it was coming up I think I had my energy wrong or something, and I wasnt athletic enough to make it smooth and be able to follow with her right until she relaxed. It also looked a lot like a block to keep her head up. So I changed tactics. I went over to a fallen tree that I could stand on that puts me at a height where I could play friendly games without having to worry about her keeping her head down. Isolate, Separate, Recombine, right?

That helped things A LOT! Once she figured out it was just another crazy friendly thing I was doing she relaxed right away. Since she figured that out I went to a lower tree, about six inches off the ground and attempted to combine the head down with me swinging my leg over. It went beautifully! Our friendly game paid off. I started asking her to bring her head up a little at a time until she felt my leg over her neck. The first time or two she thought it was a porcupine thing and put her head back down but then figured out I was asking and would just sort of hold and push a little into me. That was cool.

I finally got my courage up to just try it. I felt like Mo was confident enough and I was going to survive in case I was misreading her and I swung my leg over her neck, grabbed mane and asked her head up. And just like that I was sitting on Mo!!! WHOO!! Without a single issue I was sitting on Mo [backwards, mind you] it was perfect! And, with no further issues, I just put all that friendly game on her back to good use and turned myself around. Voila! All done!

I jumped off and tried again, with the same result! How cool! Go prior and proper preparation!! Now I just have to take it to the next level and do it from the ground... will work on that! I thought that was pretty cool, doing it all at liberty, no halter, rope or string or anything. Pretty proud of my pony! I brought Mo back to the barn after that, backed her into the gate and gave her some treats in the barn before backing her out once more and giving her even more cookies :-)

Gotta Love Mo!

:-)
S

The Perfect Summer Day!

Today, as my title indicates, was my perfect summer day. The sun finally made a re-appearance after what seems like a month long hiatus. It was warm, sunny, and generally fabulous.

The morning started things off right, by being able to wake up on my own time. That is always a good thing. I went over to Aunty's to play with Crystal. I had meant to play with her yesterday night, but I ended up getting home way to late and was exhausted. Especially with Crystal right now I want to make sure I am there 100% for her mentally, so I didnt think it would be fair to her last night.

Out in the pasture she walked over to me which was really nice. She haltered nicely and came right with me to the gate to the barn. Mo was also at the gate asking very politely to get in. Things havent been so hot with Mo lately [more later] so I let her into the barn and put her in her stall to nap until I was done with Crystal. Yes, she litterally naps, flat out and all.

Crystal and I proceded out to the ring to change to the 22', grab the saddle and pad and carrot stick. Things went fabulously. She was right on. We played some really nice yo-yo and she finally offered me some ultra soft beautiful relaxed squeeze game over a jump! That was a first! I am really proud of her for that. I asked for a little feet-moving in a circle game before bringing her over to the saddle set up on the mounting block for investigation. She did a good job investigating to. Our Touch It is pretty great! 22' away ... put your nose on the saddle... OKY! Done and done. What a cool horse.

After thoroughly nibbling, sniffing and otherwise curiosing her way about the saddle I walked over and offered to lift the pad for her to check out further. She was thrilled with that! Ears all perked and happy, she sniffed it all over both sides and moved on to the saddle while I threw the pad all over her. This is old news to her, I do this with the bareback pad each time we play. PERFECT!

Next came the saddle. She was pretty interested in that. I dont think she could figure it out. Its synthetic and smells like other ponies but it jingles and is shaped funny... Hmmm! I swung it around a couple times, letting her check it out completely and threw it on and off of her back before finally just leaving it up there. She didnt even flinch. Blinking, licking, and thinking, she was right with me.

I let the girth down and did it up enough so that if she chose to go nuts it would stick with her without being dangerous. Again, perfect. As I stepped back to pick up the stick and ask her something she kinda of tensed and looked a teensy bit tight and concerned. On a 50/50 chance of either letting her wait it out, or explode on the spot, I gave her something to think about [based on previous experience last time she got that look] and asked her for a fast backup NOW.

That did the trick! She tuned right back into me and stepped back nicely and when she relaxed I allowed her to stop. From there we went into a nice soft circling game at all three gaits with transitions and some relaly great disengages and draw. We played some more with the squeeze over the jump, which interestingly, was harder now, so I waited for the relaxation.

When I felt like she was ready I brought her over to the mounting block and did my run-through of pre-riding checks and then.... mounted! TADA. Just like every other time, she just stood still, and offered me lateral flexion. What a doll.

The ride went like a dream, everything I asked, she did. Without hesitation and to the best of her understanding. She tries so hard! Our last ride was out first trotting ride, so we played more with the go button and transitions, doing walkl halt and trot transitions all over the place. She was fabulous. What a clever horse!!!

So Crystals ride went perfectly. YEY! I am so happy with how she is coming along. Aunty is to, and thats my basic goal. Really, owner of horse = second priority after making sure pony is happy. Much happiness all around, on to Mo.

In between Crystal and Mo I went into the house to get a beverage because it was le warm and beautiful out. It would be a shame to waste such a nice day sick due to dehydration!

When I left the barn Mo was covered in shavings, having actually had her nap, but she was up. When I got back, she was snoozing again! Gotta love Mo. She is so cute! The best part about the napping-ness is that she lets me come over to her when shes sleeping and clobber her. Ok, clobber isnt the right word, but I hug her and sit on her and generally adore her.

Such is exactly what I did. Quietly walk over to visit my snoozing Mo and say hi, hug her giant cranium and start rubbing her. Eventually I somehow end up sitting on her..[oops] ... We hang out like that for a while, shes dozing and I am sitting on her hugging her neck, relaxing myself. Now that is NICE. I love that relaxing feeling. It just makes you feel super close to your horse when they let you do that.

After hanging out that way for a bit I went back to kneeling by her head and rubbing her face and such. She then proceded to let out this huge sigh and relax even more. I decided to see what would happen if I tried to suggest lying flat out to her.... MUCH to my surprise Mo promptly groans happily and lies flat out. Like a giant doggie I go and scratch her belly and she luxuriously stretches out her legs and neck like an actual puppy, loving every minute of it. To conclude this lovely session, EXACTLY like I would with my *actual* doggie, I got up and said "Ok, lets go" and *poof* up she gets. HA! My goodness I love my pony.

I walked out of the stall and Mo followed me over to where I usually brush and such. I got my brushes and cowboy magic and started tackling *all* Mo's hairs... and she has many. I promise. Stock in Cowboy Magic, I should buy.

When she was all shiny and beautiful I took a few pictures of my efforts while she harassed the bin she knows the grain lives in. Then I braided her hair up so it would be out of the way and mounted bareback for a brief trail ride. We had played some little games on the lawn and in the barn [Mo bows now! Total accident, she dove for a dropped cookie once so I took it and shaped it!] and off we went on a mini trail ride. We rode through the trails, in the river some and back to the barn. Mo was in a weird mood, but handle-able.

She has kind of been off the last little while and I havent figured out why, so I wasnt going to push her, I wanted this to be a really good session for her, so I got off and snapped on my 22' and started playing on the ground in the ring. We played some really cool sideways from long distances with sideways towards and then played with some rather awesome transitions on the circle. I was *this* close to getting passage!! My focus was transitions within the trot, so slow, medium and fast and then as slow as you can to as fast as you can. Her as-slow-you-can was SO close to passage! I couldnt believe it. I was so proud. We played lots with energy up and down and how little could I do to get a response, send off at a slow trot or send off at a gallop... VERY cool stuff!

We stopped there and I took Mo to graze in the yard while I put things away. She was pretty impressed with that I think. Its only her favorite thing ever :-)

I had originally planned to also play with Indy, but I was super toasty and wanting to swim, so I just took some treats out to her instead - good for the relationship points. Before turning Mo out I also rasped her feet a little and she was a star! I dont have a stand so I had to use a bucket over turned and she was peachy with that. She was actually better today than ever before with letting me do her feet, held them up all on her own and everything. *duh... play with her FIRST!* Why dont I understand that yet?!?!

Either way, Mo had a fabulous session and I am so so proud of her. She was even collecting herself on the circle, tucking her head and stretching alternately. Beautiful! Transitions really do work... !

To complete the perfect summer day, I went to my "cottage" [aka grandparents in suburbia who have a pool] swam for several consecutive hours, had Dairy Queen ice cream, swam some more, then had pizza with the Grammie and cousins. Awesome day. Super worn out now, but awesome day. I love my life :-)

:-)
S

Just Ride As Fast As They Run!

That is really what riding is, is it not? Just riding as fast as they go, and not falling off....

Anyways. I got a nice lesson in just that today from my delightful pony Indy. Also earlier this week, but I cant go into that because it wasnt my horse. The point was reinforced this evening though with Indy.

She is an interesting combination of Right Brain Extrover and Left Brain Introvert. Yes. Seriously. It is really difficult to play appropriately and effectively with her because strategies for both horsenalities are so different. B and I took our ponies over the the clover leaf arena to let them run around. Chance ran around like his usual Arab-y self and Indy gave a good account of herself, but pretty quickly turned to grazing. We played some catching game for a while. She kind of didnt want to hang out with me but eventually came in and we walked and grazed for a while.

We played around with a little bit of liberty for a while but I haltered after she left me once or twice because she was nervous that she couldnt see Chance anymore. We played around some more online outside the arena. Circling was the game, no matter where I moved, I wanted her to circle me at a trot. It took her a while, she thought the game was falling leaf, but she finally got it so we paused over a jump and I had her jump the tree a bunch of times until she relaxed with it.

We ran around playing a little more until my addiction kicked in and I just *had* to get on...

I tied up our 12' into reins and mounted her bareback. We trotted around for a bit, point to point and over some small logs. She kind of just takes an extra big step over small ones because shes tall. Around this point I am realizing an interesting phenomenon. On Indy, bareback, I am super ultra confident to point her at jumps. On the other hand, I am as yet a smidge leery to let her run. Or at least I was. Hence todays title. We trotted around for ages, over things, point to point and she was very go-ey so finally I just let her canter places. We did more point to points and I pointed her over more jumps and she kept wanting to go faster and faster. At first I interrupted a bit, and she owuld slow down to a respectable canter, so I knew at least she was listening to me. So I let her go. And we blasted around point to point galloping and jumping, bareback in the Enchanted forrest - the only people out there by that point because all the students have left and B was elsewhere with Chance.

We had an amazing time just going around. I was humming different tunes for different gaits and generally just giving her her head as long as she was going where I wanted to go and stopping when I wanted to stop - her stops are getting really good to!! But as we are galloping around I realized that I could just relax, since I knew she could stop. She is really actually quite smooth so it got really fun when I got confident.

Today was a really good learning experience. Just go with her instead of trying to hold her back. Funny that I could do it on a horse not my own earlier this week, but then with Indy I was reluctant... Well not anymore!! We busted around and it was wonderful and happy and smooth and FAST. So jumping AND galloping are now on the OK list with her bareback.

Funny side note though - because of her dual horsenality, canter circle are basically non existant, but straight lines are a go... I am still working on figuring that one out... she flips so fast!

:-)
S

My Crazy Awesome Pony...

On my first official entire weekend off, I am taking my time getting around to doing things. I took my time this morning with Mo and reaped huge benefits. WhenI got to the ranch this morning, I got her morning hay, and dawdled about brushing her while she ate. I used the shedding blade forever and she is finally looking like her excellent summer self instead of the wooly mamoth I brought down here with me.

After she finished eating i put on a halter and my 45' and we went to water with me in zone five. From there we drove around behind the mercantile and passed her old pen [she tried to stop there, it was cute] and finally into the Enchanted Forrest and into the 50' round pen. I let her go at liberty right away, just to see what would happen, and to see how much energy I had to work with. I got some pretty enthusiastic trots right off the bat, but no AHHHHH CANTERRRRR circles, so that was a good sign.

After some miserable failure at maintain gait at a canter, I changed my game plan and did a gazillion transitions instead. That worked wonders! Suddenly I was being offered lovely canter departs and graceful halts and attention and connection HMMMMM. *headdesk* DUH I will get this eventually, I promise.

Mo was super cute and tried really uber hard. My draw was all at a trot, and even when I was aiming for sideways and she went off at a circle, she would trot back over all "oops, my bad, I thought you meant something else" and try again. So cute!

After a whole lot of transitions we went on to change of direction where something interesting happened. When I would ask for the change, Mo would go ultra introverted and just stand there... I am still thinking on that one, but ideas are welcome. She eventually came out of it and we got some good ones and I called it quits on that for now.

One thing that was really cute and funny and great was that there was a barrel in the middle of the pen, and it kept getting in my way so I eventually decided to move it and put it in line with the other barrel on the fenceline [not my setup, previously existing] The funny part is that when I went to move it, Mo was on one side of the barrel and I was on the other and when I started dragging it away Mo came with me... SIDEWAYS! It was to cute!!! I am dragging this barrel across the sand and shes keeping in line with it like "Is this what you want?" ... WHOA and I didnt even ask her or anything! Totally her idea!!! Completely won her a cookie! :-)

Eventually I ran out of ground ideas [I am working on that though] and I mounted Miss Mo. She had her halter on, but no line because I had only my 45', and bareback because I hadnt wanted to influence my ground play with my "lets ride" drive, because I am terrible like that. So I am bareback and bridless in the 50' pen, pretty normal for me and Mo on a good day. The COOL part came when we went over to the gate and opened it and walked through the playground a little ways to go hang out in the 100' pen. Confidently. ! I wasnt worried about her running off or anything! In the 100' pen we did a bunch of transitions and stood on the pedestal and did figure eight around some cones AND THEN [in my infinate tiny attention span] we went out INTO THE PLAYGROUND!

Bareback and bridless, there we were, moseying through the enitre enchanted forrest, moss point to moss point! COOL BEANS! And Mo was perfect. We alternated between passenger and my idea, and it was wonderful! On one of the passenger parts she started aiming for her pen so I said hey cool and we crossed the creek and went out the gate and walked all the way across the lower part of the hill playground to the water trough and then right into Mo's pen! It was perfect!!! Mo was a STAR!!!!

Later I went and brushed up Indy to get her ready for her ISC stint, and she was great to. She REALLY need to be brushed! I feel so bad ... but she looks shiny and happy and FAT! I hope Mo will enjoy her time off!!!

J invited me to bring Indy to a playday with her tomorrow, so that should be uber fun!!!

:-)
S

[better, T?]
PS: It was 80 something degrees today, so gorgeous and warm - not a cloud in the sky!!!

Good Fridays

Yesterday was a good day to. It rained and we played a little in the rain, but nothing serious. Just little liberty things.

Today was a really good day though. It was cloudyish this morning, but it cleared up really nice. It has been a long sleeve day, and I think Mo was glad for the reprieve from the clasting warm weather we have had. I have no complaints either way. If it is above zero, I am good with it!!

Mo was in a good mood. She walked up to me happily. And stuck with me for the whole walk to the trailer across the pasture. She ended up running away from me later though because I was talking to someone without keeping her entertained. It wasnt hard to go get her though. We played a little on the 45' and in the round pen at liberty, working on our liberty figure eights at a trot. Our draw is getting pretty good! I can get her to trot to me most times even!

I practiced a little bit of trying to mount from the neck but it didnt go so well so I am not sure how I am going to procede with that. Mo acts like I am to much weight for her to move around, which I very well may be. I really dont know. I am going to experiment some more with it another day.

I took Mo out on the 45 again, trying to break it in and we had some adrenaline which was fun to deal with. I like it when Mo has days like this because it is hard to motivate her when she is hot! I saddled her up and took out to play some more online, we worked on our changes of direction and maintaing gait.

I decided to ride in the Cradle bridle today to do some more exprimenting, and I think it went prett well. Me and Mo played around with changes within gait and our freestyle in my made up 'arena' around the logs. Mo is finally figuring out that she cant go faster under saddle. I am happy for that because her cute little hunter canter isnt good for everything! We did some trotting over the logs, the single ones and the medium pile. We *almost* went over the big pile, but then I had a threshold because I wasnt sure if she was going to do a deer jump and throw me off, so I dismounted. I attached my rein to her throatlatch and sent her over the big jump by herself. She did it three times and each time I was thinking to myself "Yea, I could ride that" so I remounted and came around at it again. This time WE JUMPED IT!!! YEY!!!

B told me later that it was three feet high! GO MO!!! That was REALLY cool! The jumping day session in ..Fluidity 1? really helped Mo figure out her jumping ability! We went around some more, not over the big one, but the other ones, cantering over them and helping Mo find her distance. That was really cool.

Mo had some more adrenaline after a rest break so we did some canter laps around the lower pasture. When we came back over to the round pen we experimented with the exercise Linda demo'ed in a recent Savvy Club dvd about moving the haunches in a disengage vs engagement exercises. Our disengage is pretty goo dso we tried working on the engagemnt exercise which involves bending the head in the direction of travel and moving just the hindquarters over. Mo was pretty confused about it, and I am sure it was because of me not knowing quite where to be, but we got a few steps in both directions eventually and I left it at that.

After walking around some more I brought Mo over to the trailer to untack. B had vaccated the round pen so I put Mo back on the 45 and went in the to practice our change of direction and change of gait in simulating liberty. That went really well so after a bit I ditched the halter and went to sit on the fence just to relax for a minute, but Mo offered her back so I mounted her backwards and used her bum as my pillow and afterwards practiced our backing by the tail while riding. That cracks me up. I love it.

Eventually I let us out of the round pen and we rode around bareback and bridless around the pasture at all gaits. THAT was really fun. Really confidence inspiring! After bombing around for a while we went to stand by the round pen and I took a mini nap lying on Mo's back. She was a doll and just stood there.

B and I did a little mini cool off 'trail' ride around the pasture to finish and then called it a day.

Four and a half hours later, that seems like a fair enough assessment! I LOVE having nothing better to do for a day than to play with my horses!!! Mo is doing great!

It's WARM! We Got Hay and PLAYED!

Today dawned bright and WARM! 80 degrees by lunch time. I LOVE it! I 'slept in' til 8:15 then got up for breakfast [mmmmm omlette!] and then went to feed Indy and Crystal down the street. When B got back from her feeding job we went on adventure to get hay. We were considering how many bales to get, 10 or 15 but then the lady said you can get a bundle of twenty one bales that is all tied together with metal tie straps. We opted for that since that much hay should keep us for the whole three months here!

It was loaded into Goliath with a fork lift and it even fit all the way in so I could close the tailgate! From there we went to the farm where Chance and Mo live to go play and get some metal snippers.

Mo was in an interesting mood today. I think she was still the tiniest bit right brain from moving and being with a new herd and things. She was responsive, but sluggish, both because she was warm and because she was distracted. She did come around eventually and we got some neat things done.

We played in the round pen and over some logs, practicing our liberty a bit. Change of direction was good, and draw was good to most of the time, though usually just at a walk. I can get trot draw online, but at liberty not so much! We are playing with it though. I got some carrots to cut up for incentive to have tomorrow.

After playing around with some liberty I stood on the pedestal and Mo sidepassed over so I jumped on and we played with some bridless around the cones I had set up in a square around the pedestal. That was fun. Really good focus task. We started by weaving around through them like we did online and then I started getting her to do circles around each one. Both at a walk and a trot. We cantered a little bit, doing canter halt transitions, and then Mo was really sweaty and warm so we just walked around. I attached a savvy string to her halter for one rein and then we went out over to where B and Chance were getting a log to put under the trailer tailgate so we can practice loading.

Mo and I just stood in some shade and waited, and then B mounted up and we went on a 'trail ride' around the fence line of the pasture to cool out. We had a following from the other horses in the pasture and that was fun, being able to protect our space without scaring our own horses. We found out that if B protects her space more, Chance wont be making ugly faces at Mo! That was pretty interesting.

Trail ride completed we called it a day and went home to find food. We need to be better prepared tomorrow and bring food and water with us!

:-)
S

New Day, New Friends

This, my first official day back in Florida started in an excellent manner - with bacon and pancakes. YEY. Todays mission, should we choose to accept it, and we did, was to move my ponies from their location at J's to their respective places for the next three months/9 days. Indy was moving down the street two houses to a pasture board and Mo was moving to another J' s about fifteen minutes away. Also, B's second horse needed to be moved to the pasture with Indy.

So, I walked Indy over to her new digs, she thought that was pretty cool. Mo actually surprised me and worried a little when I took Indy away. It was cute, and over in the 10 minutes between me leaving the house and B driving by with her horse in the trailer. Brief, but cute separation anxiety. Thankfully brief.

Putting Indy and Crystal together should have been fun. There should have been fireworks. I should have been able to get some really pretty and gorgeous awesome running and playing pictures because their pasture is beautiful! Camera at hand, we let them go... and what do they do? they sniff noses and GRAZE. Nothing exciting. Not a single squeal. Sheesh!

Those two taken care of went home to switch B's truck and trailer for Goliath and my trailer. We are leaving my trailer at the pasture because we can keep B's with Mo and Chance for slant load practice. Four ponies, two trailers, it works out perfect. After the trailer was unhitched we went back home to load Mo. Her first time in a slant load! She did really really well! I am really proud of her! Having never loaded a horse into a slant, B helped me figure it out, and Mo was a real trooper. She tries so hard!

When we got to the other J's Mo unloaded great, and then we took her into the roundpen to meet Chance over the fence. Neither did anything. No snortyness, no squeals. So we opened the gate and B brought Chance in and let him go... which turned into a liberty session because he had NO interest in attacking Mo at all! Which is really ironic since it was his prime objective on the beach! I let Mo go to, and we played at liberty a bit and then we tried to get some action out of them by sending them both out to the rail, but they both just ran together like "We have leaders, we dont need to squable with each other" IT WAS SO COOL!

Both horses are usually tackle-newbies types so it was really interesting that by being a leader and being present we could keep things under control - and it wasnt even an issue! B and I both jumped on for a quick bareback/bridless ride around the pen for a bit before taking Mo and Chance back to the rest of the herd. Mo had some fun with the herd, I protected her space for a bit then let her do her own bubble protecting.

She would sniff noses with the other horses, then turn to walk away and they would nsiff her bum so she would lift a leg and say clearly I AM GOING TO KICK YOU and then take a step backwards. She would do this three or four times beffore actually throwing a kick. It was hysterical! She would be high step marching backwards and the horse behind her would just be backing in his own line. And then she would kick. Slowly and deliberately. To cute! Left brain all the way!

Nothing major even happened with the rest of the herd either. I am glad but I still a little tiny bit dissapointed! I like first meeting running pictures. Some of the best stuff I have of Indy and Mo is from Indy's first day!

Everything is still awesome in Florida!

:-)
S

*Happy Birthday To Me*

Its my birthday today and its been a total rollercoaster week! In a really awesomely good way!

NEWS #1: CANADIAN BORDER BAN ON FLORIDA HORSES IS LIFTED!!! MO IS GOING TO FLORIDA WITH ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now the rush is on to get all paperwork accomplished before next thursdays departure day!

NEWS # 2: My Cradle came last night! Perfect timing for my birthday present to me! And, in a delightful true LOL moment, when I tried it on Mo I realized just how LARGE her cuddley cranium is.... I had punched an extra hole in her headstall to prepare for the high cheek peices even though she was on the second hole from the top - from all accounts extra holes have been needed..... Well not for MO! Miss I Have A Giant Head fits the Cradle PERFECTLY on the top hole that was already there. New holes for nothing. Oh well! At least I did a good job on centreing them and they look good :) I only got to ride in it for twenty seconds bareback because I was late but Mo thought it was really cool and I got forehand isolation which never happens! Needless to say, I am ultra uber excited to play with this in the next WEEK [omg] before I leave and then again down in Ocala!

So that was my thirty second last night, the night before was awesome to! I played with Mo on the ground, trying to maintain high engery without going to the right-brain place and was pretty successfull! I tried to look at my obstacles in new ways, and be as soft as possible and try new things... it all went really well! When I mounted, I was just sitting on her bareback because I had been circling her from standing on a barrel and she offered to sidepass over. I decided to see how my bridless was going and unclipped my 22' and we proceded to wander all over the ring!

I tried to emulate what I did last weekend at Shirley's weaving around and through and over everything to keep Mo interested and it really worked! We even cantered around, which is something we have been having trouble with only at home in the front ring because of scary trees. So that was a big deal!

Even cooler, it was the first time I could tell my aunt about being able to take Mo afterall, so when she got home and I was riding, me and Mo went over to the gate, opened the gate [still bridless!] closed the gate and TROTTED over to the house, onto the patio and up to my aunt so I could tackle her with the great news! AND Mo was totally with me when I dismounted and stuck right by me the whole time at liberty!! YEYYYY

That was the first time we were outside of a fenced area bridless. Unless you count being in the 25 acre pasture, which I dont since thats Mo's home turf as it were, and is not potentially scary. The whole escapade felt completely safe and controlled and was wonderful! I was so proud!!!

SO! RECAP!

1. Mo IS going to Florida
2. My Cradle came in! [C3 for m'dear Mo if you are curious]
3. Bridless gate opening!
4. Its my birthday and Im watching Greys with my sister T and cousin C tonight! Yey!
5. Mo and I are going to another playday at Shirley's on Sunday with Suzie and Blue! And hopefully Shirley and Jeanette to!
6. Hopefully going to tape some of my Level 2 on Sunday!
7. I am NOT panicing to get everything ready for leacing in a week... NOT....promise
8. Stay tuned for Mo's adventures in Florida! I can guarantee she will ham it up!

Cant wait to be there!!!! Our Liberty needs serious help, thank goodness for LIBERTY & Horse Behaviour!

:-D
S

New Friends and Great Adventures!

Saturday was an absolutely PERFECT day. It reall couldnt have been any better. The sun was shining, it was warm, not a cloud in the sky, and Mo and I headed off to meet some new friends we met on the Savvy Club!

Turns out there are some more local Parelli students!! I LOVE finding out about other students!! There are three wonderful girls playing at a famr a half hour from me and they invited me over to play! Given Mo's proclivity to mischief in the recent past, I wasnt to sure how she would act, but I really didnt have to worry even a little bit.

She loaded up like an angel on the first try, and unloaded just as easy when we got there. We hung out and talked with our new friends and when we started to play Mo was just... right there. We played on the ground with everything I could think of, running and cavorting and weaving and figure eighting and standing on the pedestal and jumping barrels until I somehow ended up on her back. I really dont know what happened. One minute I was standing on a stump with her circling me and the next I was sitting on her... go figure?

So there we were, I was sitting on Mo, she had her halter on but her 22' was dragging in the ground. I had my carrot stick, and Mo was in a GREAT mood and we were in a good sized arena so I thought 'Hey why not?' and unclipped the 22' line - leaving me and Mo essentially bareback and bridless! Mo and I then proceded to have the best ride ever!! We walk trotted and cantered all around, completely in control and doing canter halt departs like we did it everyday... which we haent been since Mo has been on her crazy rampage.

I was BEYOND thrilled. Beyond coherent emotion, I was just so so very overwhelmed by Mo's awesomeness.

Then we had a little break for a drink and bathroom while the horses grazed and we talked. When we caught our ponies from their grazing heaven in the yard again, we saddled up and went to ride in another part of the property that had the coolest rock ledges that can be used for jumps! We played around in there for a while until it was pizza time and then broke for food!

For part three of our adventure I saddled up again, but ended up jumping off and unsaddling again to play bareback - I was feeling really in balance with Mo!! It felt wonderful to be so in tune with her.

Mo and I were bombing around doing all kinds of things essentially naked - her not me! We eventually went out again on a 'cool' down trail ride out in the pasture where the rocks were. I put Mo's hackamore back on for that, just in case.

Over all, it was SUCH a fantastic day. And what a WHOLE day to! We didnt go inside once [other than to answer natures call of course] and I was there from about 9:40am to 6:20 pm!! I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!!!!

FABULOUS!

:-)
S

Kota!!

After my depression yesterday of finding out that Mo wont be accompanying me on my galavanting adventure to Florida, I went home to find some peace with the ponies. I brought out Mo's C1 style Myler bit to put on a bridle for Dakota. He really liked it last time he wore it, and I wanted to find out if it still applied.

I pulled up to the barn, whistled and headed into the tackroom to make up my bridle. When I came out armed with said bridle and some apple snacks I had two very enthused ponies awating me. How delightful! I went into the ring and pieced out my apple snacks, making sure Dakota shared with Mo [Indy is still in the big feild post gate-jumping incident] and then asked Dakota how he would feel about a little ride, because I had a fierce and unyeilding need to just sit on a horse. He said nifty, so I bridled him no problem and off we went ot the barrel so I could climb up.

We walked and trotted around a little until we passed the killer barrel at the end of the ring, and Dakota did an itty bitty spook. I kid you not. He just jumped sideways three inches. BUT. *sigh* I was not paying attention to him, but thinking and rethinking trip things, and so I slipped. Guh. How embarassing. So there I am, hanging off my horse like a monkey, with my one leg still hooked over his withers, and Dakota looking at me the way a parent looks at a child who did something foolish. Nice. At least he stood still. I just slipped to the ground - landing on my feet at least - and went over to make nice with the barrel before climbing back on.

We went around some more, played some sideways over some poles and trotted a figure eight through the barrels. Then we went over to Mo to visit. We mirrored her a bit until it lined up right and then I hopped over to Mo. I unbridled Dakota and bridled Mo and we just sat for a while, Dakota resting his head in my lap, it was so sweet. Then Miss Energy and I went and power walked around before trotting the figure eight so she would focus and calm down. Well, no, not calm down, just focus. Mo is just energetic apparently now. Go figure.

Just short little blurbs of riding, but you know what? They were so positive and fun, that I dont really care that it only lasted a half hour. As a side bonus, I got to christen my new jeans to bareback riding. Thats always *such* an integral part of breaking in new jeans ya know....

:-)
S

Bareback Balance

I worked on my balance bareback with Mo yesterday. Interestingly enough, it was Indy who met me at the gate though. That was a nice treat so I just gave her a hug and some scratches and left her on her way. Mo was in the shed so I went over to say hi. She looked happy and walked over to me. After I haltered her I did a few little porcupine games including asking her to 'park out' like a hackney to lower her back for my less than profiecient bareback mounting attempts. I didnt actually get all the way on today, just swung up and managed to hook my leg on her hip. Thank you Mo for just standing there gawking at me.

When I brought her over to a post for me to stand on she siddled right up to me, so I took that as a good sign. When I sat down she walked off. Ugh. I should have gotten off right then, becuase that is a Mo telltale bad sign, but I didnt, I just thought.. I dont know what. So we walked off and Mo was either super impulsive or super trying to get back to the barn. Joy. Bareback on her when she is impulsive and all over the place is not a confidence inspiring thing so I got off [ finally] and went into a big focus debate with her.

She was thinking all towards the barn to I said let me help you, think about the barn, and back in that direction as fast as you can. Her speedy backing really has no sense of direction [we are working on that generally, when focused more] so she went wiggley and got turned around and headed over to the barrels I have in the feild. At the barrels I turned our game into a fast squeeze over, back and forth, back and forth, until she *finally* checked in with me and went "What?! Why am I so energetic??" When she could think I changed the game to circle over the barrels, which was actually pretty successful.

When we were both happy I remounted and we went after Legend who was patrolling the frog population near the road. Mo locked her target on him and when he started racing back to the barn I had to remind her to listen to me, not just follow blindly. We started some trotting circles around the telephone pole for balance and maintain gait, that went well. Both directions. Then what seemed like forever later we played with transitions within gait, fast trot slow trot, which was surprisingly good. I was surprised anyways.

Finally I asked for a canter and got a lovely slow collected UPHILL canter, which I stopped after half a circle before it could degrade [and Im PROUD of that] So we continued our pattern of half circles then trot and then canter transitions. Even some sideways trotting, which was really neat. Our cicles eventually moved from the semi weedy telephone pole area to a flat grassy spot near there. We proceded with more canter transitions and stopping until we changed directions and I realized I wasnt getting my right lead.

I tried a zillion and one different things from all the new things I have seen to try and help her, even a few things from 'normal' books once or twice just to see. In the end, of course, [srsly it makes me ache inside that this is what worked.. ache from laughing I mean] what worked was the very first thing I should have tried. You know in the old Level 2 when Pat asks for canter leads, he sticks on hand out and one hand back? Yeah, that. THAT is what helped Mo get it right. I tapped her bum on the outside to get her to think back there at the trot and then when I asked for a canter, she counter bent her body [ to the outside] in a gigantic effort[it was really REALLY weird] and launched herself into the right lead canter. Hmmm. Ok. I let her canter out to the telephone pole before stopping her.

We got it three times before I called it quits. When we got to the barn I let Mo go in the backyard to graze, a treat for her efforts...

So another weird ride. Interesting and prodictive for sure, but weird. I think Mo has spring fever, except its fall...?

:-)
S

Mo's Five Minutes of Awesome

Hahha.. in my excitement about Indy I forgot to gush about Mo. I love Mo. Seriously, so much its ridiculous. Last night when I got home from seeing Indy, I went out to feed Kota and of course Mo looks put out that she doesnt get [or need] any. The neighbours were making noise with some machinery and I wanted to see what, and I needed to distract Mo.

So the obvious course of action is take Mo over to see.... but I dont want to walk six acres away, so I should definately hop on Mo and go over to see whats going on. Except I didnt bring out so much as a savvy string. Hmm. Didnt stop me or even slow me down. As per previous post, I only thought about it later, and realized what I'd done and squeed about it then. At the time I just brought Mo over to the tree, sidewaysed her over to it and hopped on.

Yep. Hopped on. Mo. Bareback. Bridleless. Totally as if it were an everyday occurance. WHOA. If you had asked me two years ago if bb/bl would ever be common place in my life I would have said only in my dreams. Funny how that works isnt it?

Mo and I took a nice little walk/trot jaunt around the pasture - turns out neighbours were getting hay and it was their hay elevator making all the noise - cool, since I have never actually seen one in action.

We made our way around the pasture a little bit, waiting for Kota to finish eating. Some little figure eights and circles - a tap on the neck for Mo is she forgot to turn. How cool...

To get off I sidepassed her back to the tree and got down onto the tree... pretty nifty if I do say so myself. GO MO!!! Lots of hugs for Mo.

I am just beyond thrilled with how my horses are progressing. Sometimes that perspective just clicks into place and I go WOW look where we are now compared to where we were. I am so PROUD of all of their growth!

:-)
S

Finding Fluidity....

Saturday dawned bright and shiny. Or at least I am sure dawn was fairly pretty, as I was asleep at the time. Personally didnt crawl out of bed until ten thirty or something. Even that late Cairo was sprawled ignomiously across the bed, enjoying his sleep. I love that cat.... sleep as much as I want and he's like "Hey cool.. SLEEP!" Not like Jones - aka the Demon Spawn, who got up at six and ran around "Are you up yet?...how bout now...*poke* Now?" *headdeskrepeat* So glad Davey Jones is a happy barn cat now.

Anyways! Saturday-day was a non event. Weddinged with mom, played the ever faithful photographers assstant, carrying things to and fro, holding flowers, picking up trains, etc.... was a short one at least - and there was NO first corintians!!! YAYAY! Srlsy, C, if/when you get married, if you put the First Corinthians speech [you know, the love is patient, love is kind BS] in your cermony, I will smack you upside the head. Instead there was a reading about marrying your best friend, which was the nicest thing I have heard at the forty some odd weddings I have been to!

So boringness aside, when we got home it was late-ish - 7 I think - so I didnt know what to do. I knew I wanted to play, but more than that I knew I wanted to work on ME. The evidence is in the pictures, two posts down - knees gripping and coming up making my seat unstable! OH NOES! Bless Mo forever more, she allowed me to just walk over, play some very minimal games and hop on bareback [..fourth try this time] My fluidity issue with her is at the trot. That sounds wrong, like its her fault somehow, but its all me, and I know it, so now you know it!

We set of at a trot, and of course Mo is Miss Energy going "OH BOY! Whats that over there? Oh AND THAT!" And so on. In addition to mastering [attempting] fluidity, my independant seat got a work out to boot. [Wii Fit says my balance is decent, so that was a surprise, I thought I was waaay off.... I credit Mo entirely with her wiggleyness for making me be balanced just to survive!]

I rode with just a halter and one rein and did a basica passenger lesson, messing with different things in my body, trying to move in harmony with her trot. I focused on keeping my weight back, but stretching my legs DOWN. There is an SC DVD somewhere with that on it... Yvonne and her balance point... I should find and watch that. Around and Around the pasture we went on our snaky trail. Mo played the extrovert being long and wanting to speed up - I had to remind her we were trotting a few times, but nothing major.

I found that if I have my hands in front of me, even if they arent on the reins, I have better balance, so I practiced with them up by my chest and back leaning on Mo's bum and everywhere else. I was really concious of MOVING my lower back and shoulders, because I think I tend to "get in the position' to ride, and then stay there trying not to move, even if it is subconcious because I sure dont do it on purpose!

Finally I felt something resembling fluidness and going in harmony. I wasnt bouncing like a maniac and my bum wasnt catching air at every stride [total plus!] and Mo was starting to stretch down and blow out [whoo!] So since I had things working fairly well at the trot I decided to move things up into a canter. WELL NOW! Mo thought it would be SUPER FUN to gallop around instead. Hang onto your hats ladies and gents because apparently when Mo wants to go Mo can GO!!!

I have to admit I sort of played daredevil teenager and just hung on for the wild ride for a bit before asking her back to a more respectable canter. It wasnt dangerous or out of control, just FAST, which for me, equals FUN. Plus it was SMOOTH. At the canter I found an interesting dilemma. When I stayed sitting where I was at the trot I ended up 'waxing the saddle' as it were, even though there was no saddle. For any one who has done that bareback, its not comfy... going the wrong way against the hair, so I knew something was wrong. I proceded to repeat my trotty exercises with substantialy faster success. The canter isnt really that hard with Mo, especially when she is willing to keep going forwards. I just thought it was interesting that where it worked for the trot, it was wrong for the canter. It makes sense of course because of the weight shift from 50/50 to 40/60, it was just fun to put it into practical experience.

Mo was being pretty go-y so I started doing some big canter circles using my focus. That was pretty cool. I had to support zone one a bit with my rein, but all the other zones followed my focus and the feel off of my legs - which was a weird experience, with her nose going the opposite way of the rest of her! We did that both ways for quite a while until she settled down into a nice easy cadenced canter. It was pretty much dark by now so we walked out then.

Pretty interesting stuff! Apparently I have been using a saddle to much and need to brush up on my bareback on more than just comfy Kota!

:-)
S