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

The Right Brain Extrovert goes BRIDELESS for the FIRST TIME!!

Today is a total first for Indy!!!!!!!!

I have been having some impulsion issues with Indy. Everytime we trot freestyle, she had been running away at the trot a little bit. Very strange, but not really unexpected due to her nature. We have been playing with it, while working on fluid rein and transitions with contact. I feel like she felt a little lost with no contact in zone one.

With that in mind I have been playing with riding with contact and loosening it and picking it up again etc.

Today when I went to play with Indy we warmed up extra strong online. My initial plan had been to play with more contact riding, so I wanted her uber ready to ride. We played with maintain gait at the canter, figure eight - with some real enthusiasm, stick to me at the walk and trot, and getting her to stop over the barrels coming at them at a trot. She was a little go-ey today, really ready to move and I had a hard time stopping or interrupting her patterns, but when she finally got balanced she was my little hovercraft on hooves!

With that nicely acheived, I bridled her with the confidence snaffle, grabbed my dressage whip [was planning on playing with getting lighter sideways] and mounted up. After some friendly and lateral flexion checks we walked off on the rail, with the reins on her neck.

We walked circles and a little bit of cloverleaf as a warm up - with the reins on her neck. Then I got brave and asked for a trot... and we did the same - with the reins on her neck. I only had to use the stick a handfull of times when she leaked out a little on the turns. Then I got braver and asked for a canter, and we cantered the rail, balanced, and confidently - with the reins on her neck!!! HOLY WOW!!!

This is the horse I have been wondering if I would ever advance to bridless riding with... and look what we just accomplished!! I cant believe it!! Her stops and downward transitions were seamless!!! I even got a little bit of transition within gait at the trot!

Lesson of the day : WARM UP STRONG!! I learned that in Florida... why havent I been applying it consistently?!?!?

I am SO proud of Indy!!!!! Even though my plan went right out the window, I cant be happier with what we DID accomplish!!! I even was able to lead her at liberty from the ring to the barn and out to the pasture - another first for her! *squees happily*

:-)
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

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!

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

Random Things

This weekend was the Russell Fair and as usual it was spectacular in all its mildly boring glory. Fair Factor went amazingly, went out with a bang, since as far as I know this is the last year my dad is doing it.

The only cool thing I really wanted to note was that on the Sunday Cutting Competition, there was a guy who competed Bridless! I thought that was rather amazing in Russell, the cowboy un-natural town. So I was proud of that. I have no clue if he won or anything, I only saw half of his ride on my errands for Fair factor, but what I saw was brilliant - even the announcer commented favourably.

SO! Coolenss of natural horsemanship permeating the impermeable town fair!

:-)
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

Liberty Attempt # 1

Sooooo today was day one in my new attempt to improve my Liberty Savvy with Mo. Oh Boy. She is home, round pen is up and we are ready to go! Except my LBE has taken a vaccation and left me with a LBI/RBI because of who knows what, new place, new things all that fun stuff. Thats totally ok, I understand and I made the extra efort to go slow - my recent Indy adventures are teaching me something!

Mo met me at the gate like she actually wanted to play with me! That was a big plus! I brought out lots of treats to give to her to help my draw later, so I gave her some right off for meeting me so nicely. Haltering went easy peasy just like usual, and then I played some friendly with the stick - which proved interesting because she kept trying to folow me when I went to zone 4/5. I played with that until she was ok with me moving around. I think it was more of a "Hey where are you going?" thing than a "Oh no! Not there!" thing.

We moseyed our way over to the pedestal, played on and off that, sideways forwards and backwards. Then into the round pen for some truth seeking.

The truth is a little ... interesting. Mo likes to be with me a lot doing close up things, but out on the rail in the 60' corral she gets lost feeling and then stands by the gate. If I draw her in she comes in looking happy. I dont think I am provocative enough without the confidence of a line on her yet. I will have to work on that. I had the four jumps set up and we played squeeze games over them with me running with her and stopping and backing up to them, that was good, squeeze game send style was good, but iffy. Circle was just sad - my send was totally ineffective. She kept getting confused about direction and heading to the gate - thats not encouraging!

On a really nice up note though, we got a few close range sideways circles really soft and nice. Our yo-yo was really supple to, which was a total surprise! So my far away-cant-hold-your-hand stuff isishy, but close up seems to work well - sideways towards went of without a hitch.

I felt bad for not being creative enough for Mo, so I decided to practice my bareback mounting. There is a little hill in the round pen, so I lined her up to it and to my infinate surprise, on my FIRST try, I swung neatly up onto Mo's back. WHOO! Now that was cool!

I tied my savvy string around her neck and had my carrot stick with me. We went around the round pen a bit but Mo kept avoiding the jumps - probably because she felt my hesitation - so we went over to the gate to leave. I love to jump, but I am not yet 100% confident in Mo's jumping ability enough to try it bareback I guess - although I did later and it was fine - go figure.

We dealt with the gate super easy, sidepassing it open and whatnot, Mo was a star. We walked around passenger style, trotted some figure eights around some trees and then my mom actually came out so I bribed her to take pictures for me. I have none of me and Mo save on show days, so it would be nice to have some just for fun stuff!

So we got some pictures quick, they arnet the greatest because it is overcast, but they are there and I am glad to have them. Mo was a doll and kept making funny faces, but we had a blast.

:-)

S

Amazing Saturday and Sunday

Saturday:
Saturday was a really good day in the sense of the whole day, and an even better one in the sense of what me and Mo did. I ended up going out shopping with my cousins aunt and mom in the morning to mid afternoon portion of the day before coming home to play with Mo.

Lately I have been feeling bored and restricted in the riding ring, which while its a good size, its not huge, or as big as my old one in Russell led me to be spoiled by [120' x 200'] Needless to say I have been feeling cramped. There is a place, well, two places actually, but the other place is waaaay out there, in the horses pasture that would be a perfect place for a ring. Big, flat, mostly eaten grass. The only problem is that its in the middle of a twenty five acre pasture, so carting toys out there has not been on my high priority list! Until now!

I got to the barn Saturday afternoon about 4:30 and immediately set to moving toys and poles out to where I wanted them. Finally sick of feeling cramped and ready to progress, I dragged out two 4x4's that were 12' long [thank you 45' rope for helping out lol] four barrels, and two jump rails. I wanted three, to make a vertical and a crossrail, but I settled for just half the X beacause by then I was just tired! It was a long walk each time! But I got it set up, between two telephone poles as the end marks to my ring [mostly, I sort of usually go on the outside of them, but they are really good for point to point!] So it was big, spacious and the way I set up the barrels for jumps was already larger than the current ring. I put each of the 4x4's end to end about ten feet apart as a start of a windmill when I get the energy to bring two more out. Then at the end of each 4x4, about 5 feet from there I set up my barrel jumps on either side. So it went two barrels for a jump, rail on the ground space rail space and the last two barrels for a jump.

Seemed pretty cool to me, and I can add to it over time as I accumulate more things. Maybe I will bring out my jump standars from home.. or some tires... or... YEY IDEAS! Anways, I am proud to finally sucked it up and put things out there because frankly, my first ride in my new 'arena' was GOLD. Pure and absolute GOLD!

I had my ipod on when I went to catch Mo and she was ignoring me looking over the fence, but with the sun in my eyes I couldnt see why until I was close. Well apparently some creepy people where petting her over the fence. Mo gave me a guilty look when I got closer to apologize. I just sort of smiled curtly at the creepy people and haltered and mounted Mo for the ride back to the barn. On the way we stopped by the 'arena' to dissuade Crystal and Delilah from trashing my barrels. It was cute to see their curiosity up though! Mo even sort of went "HEY! Why are there BARRELS in my pasture!"

In the barn I saddled her up and bridled her over the halter with her reins disconnected and tied around her neck [finesse reins are SO convienant!] and out we went. We played with stick to me and falling leaf and sideways on the way over to the ring. It was fun to watch Mo thinking really hard to stay with me when I changed from falling leaf to sideways. She was trying sooooo hard.

Once over by my obstacles I asked her over the ground rails, which she jumped like a goober, so we squeezed over them until she could just trot over them regularly. I had forgotten to grab my 22' line so I felt a little limited anyways, even in the big space, but I ran around with Mo a nuch, testing out the new jumps to see if I could ride her over them [first few I definatley would have eaten dirt] and then mounted up. I still had the 12' line attached to her halter, but I tied it to the handle on the theraflex pad so I would be simulating bridleless with a carrot stick - IN THE 25 ACRE PASTURE!

This was a total first for Mo. I havent played with bridless anywhere except in the ring and small paddock that is attached to it. But I felt the need to progress and grow and push Mo a little bit to step up to what I asked her - to be a little more particular and you know what? It paid off! BIG time! Mo was 100% with me, we did walk, trot, canter AND back up all around our new ring, we took jumps, we sidepassed over the ground poles, we did figure eights and point to point on the telephone poles and anything else I could think of. It was AMAZING!!!! At some point I ditched the halter and 12' because it was swinging annoyingly, and it was STILL GREAT!

I was totally floored. I have to admit, I wasnt expecting our session to be THAT great - our first session out in the pasture brideless? I guess its a good thing my horse is a loner! Hah! Everything about the session was just amazing. I was so thrilled that after half an hour I didnt want to push it, to push away the floaty feeling that we walked out and went back to the barn.

I still really cant get over how GREAT Mo was. She is such a great horse! She really gives her all for me and I appreciate it so much!

Sunday:

Yesterday was the last show for our local club this season. We eneded up being a little late because they were ahead of schedule, but it worked out. I didnt really get anywarm up time, for which I apologized to Mo profusely, but we DID take third in Command class! Which was super cool highpoint :-)

Of course that was our only class before lunch so after that Mo and I took the oppurtunity with my cousins to warm up in the jumper ring since the obstacles were set up already. I took off Mo's bridle and opted for a halter tied to the theraflex handle again and grabbed my carrot stick. This was the first time I tried my brideless in public. At least there was no one over in the ring when I started!

Mo and I cruised around the ring, doing random patterns and transitions between and around the jumps before finally trying some of them. Mo was amazing, she is turning into this point and follow my focus type of horse. She is looking where I am looking and just popping over any jumps that might be in her way! It is SUCH a cool feeling!!! We trotted around popping over all the jumps in random orders, doing the four on the outside line like we did it everyday. I was soooo happy and proud!!!

In keeping with our 'try new things theme' I handed my carrot stick to Colleen, tied myself some reins and attempted a total first for Mo and Me [as a team]... We CANTERED jumps!!! For the first time in Mo's history, she CANTERED jumps under saddle with a rider! How cool is that?!?! She was comepletely AWESOME! I am SO PROUD of her!!!

We cooled out shortly after that because our classes were not for another hour or so, and I untacked Mo and brought her to graze by the trailer. Our next class didnt go so well, it was Junior Horse and apparently people with young horses have no idea how to space themselves in the ring. I made sure I had lots of room, and then all of the sudden at the canter I was boxed in by FOUR people [yes FOUR, there were three of us wide along the rail, one in fron and one behind] which caused poor [angry] Mo to break the canter and then be annoyed enough not to want to pick it back up [ I wouldnt want to either] This happened going both directions, it was super annoying. Mo did great with what she was given though, and didnt try to kill anyone - which is a plus.

Since we were done until the western games later in the afternoon [waaaaay later] I moseyed back over the the jumper ring to work on transitions some more, since in the last class Mo wasnt as snappy as I wanted - even if there are other horses around, she still needs to listen. On the way we paused at the trailer to grab my carrot stick and tie my reins to the string I keep on the handle for my pad. So we were going around, playing follow the rail - which Mo had a hard time with! She kept wanting to JUMP! Which was cute, but I kept up follow the rail at a walk until she got it.

We did walk/halt/backup transitions until she figured out that we were following the rail and then we picked up the trot. We did trot walk transtitions and they were super crisp now to, so I was really pleased. We were just starting to play with canter walk transitions when another rider came in to use to the jumps, so I asked her if she wanted me to leave. She said no, that it was ok, AND complimented me on my riding! How cool is that?? I got a compliment! Whoo! We walked together talking for a while and then Mo and I played with more transitions and jumping before cooling out again.

I walked around the rings on the outside, stopping at one point to pull of Mo's bridle, since she doesnt really like it all that much and she kept grazing anyways, and we walked around some more. We wandered into the vaccant driving ring and sidepassed over the poled set up [bridless!!!] we even 'checked the mail' lol. It was really fun. I noticed that Chelsea was in a class so Mo and I went over the the main ring to watch.

Mo stood and grazed while I sat and watched. It wasnt until after that class that the judges 'runner' or whatever came out to snarl at me to put a halter on my horse. Oh, Im sorry, my obviously wild horse is getting away from me.... grazing.... It honestly hadnt even occured to me that I would get in trouble for neglecting to have head gear on my horse. Of course I had ditched my own helmet when I left the show ring, so if anything I was expecting a snarl about that.. but no... 'Put a halter on your horse' . *sigh* Note to Self: If playing with super awesome exciting and SUCCESSFULL bridleless, do it out of sight of the judge.

It doesnt matter that the judge snarled at me via her runner, it doesnt matter that I had to put Mo's bridle back on her [which she accepted with good grace] what matters is that I was RIDING Mo around SHOW GROUNDS bridless WITH NO PROBLEMS AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, I just cant get over that! She was ASTOUNDING!!!!! And, if I havent expressed my excitment enough, here are some more exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

During the break between jumping and games, Chelsea nad I practiced our newfound tradition of visiting the Bakery via double riding Mo over. That is always fun, and provides tasty results!

So western games eventually came, I put a halter on Mo and went to warm back up in the sand ring since there is a huge long break because of all the jumping classes. I did more transitions, playing more with bridless, doing circles in the corners and figure eights across the ring while it was mostly empty - just me and one other person [who to me looked like he was disciplining his horse, who was drenched, but not my business] Mo was a doll. She did everything I asked.

I have no idea how our games times were. A couple of girls showed up just for the games on their professionaly trained gaming horses and won everything. I dont think thats all that fair, to have a gaming horse and show up to a little club show and show off to everyone. Everyone has their own perogative of course, thats just my opinon. After games was Sit a Buck. Not our best class, but easily the most fun. We all do our openening canter laps to 'warm up' [reads: get some extra sweat and stick factor] and get our bucks. Of course the first command is trot, so Mo and I set off at this amazingly slow trot, which I am surprised she even did! And then.... Extend your trot please. DOH! Oh well, that didnt last long before they called a canter, and all was well until they said trot or walk or something, slow down in whatever capacity and my buck went flying. I was third or fourth out or something. It went pretty fast after that anyways.

When everyone lost their buck we did the traditional closing gallop laps. Except this time we were closing the season, not just the show. Always fun. And then we loaded up to go home. Great day, great weekend, and only a little bit of sunburn :-) Mo was a Star

:-)
S