Muriel Update

It just occured to me that I never mentioned the hilarity of what happened to Muriel after the move.

Everything was fine and dandy at first, she was even getting some exercise! Then Zephyr came home. Miss LBI seems to think eating everything was ok. I came home one day to find the little trouble maker gnawing on Muriels SEAT! Like some kind of doggy, Zephyr chewed Muriels seat to bits.

Now I need a new one. I still think its funny.

Its almost like "My dog ate my homework" ... except my horse ate my bike seat.... :D

:)
S

PS: I keep spelling Zephyr wrong [Zephry] and it makes me think of Jeffrey... which makes me think of Fresh Prince... which makes me think of Zephyr speaking in Jeffreys voice.... anyways... moving on...

Odd Experience

I had a very odd experience tonight with the horse that boards at my house today.

I went out to feed, and everything was normal. I have been adding some Flax Appeal to her grain, and using some water to mix it in, which she seems to like. Indy was being a bit of a spaz, so she was trying to pick everyones bowl but her own.

Finally everyone settled down to eat and I went to set out the hay. When I came back from setting the hay out, Roxy was looking at me, and pawed once at her food bowl. I assumed that meant that I hadnt put enough mixing water in, so I grabbed the bowl and added more water. After swooshing it around I brought it back out and was confronted with an interesting sight. She was laying down. My first thought was to be worried. Not a great response, I know, but when a horse suddenly lays down, I think any sane person wonders about colic!

I brought the bowl over to her to see if she wanted any, but she wasnt interested. The thing *I* was most interested in though, was that she actually allowed me to approach her! This mare is EXTREME RBE, usually just approachign her in the pasture requires approach and retreat to get her confident, and there she was, totally confident allowing me to walk right up to her while she was down. 

I offered her the food bowl, but she ignored it, so I rubbed her and asked her to get up, which she did. I moved her food bowl over to where she had walked and she laid down again.I was definately concerned then. I went over to her again, again she was good with me walking right up. I sat with her for a bit, leaned down on her belly to see if I could hear any gut sounds. I could, so then I was a little stumped. I sat with her a little more, resting my weight on her, which again she was good with, surprise.

We hung out for a little, then I got up and she got up, looked at me, like she accomplished what she needed and then walked purposefully over to her bowl and promptly, compeltely finished her dinner.

Huh.

How interesting.

I have no idea what just happened. But it felt very surreal and life we forged a real connection... for no discernible reason that I could find.

Still licking and chewing on that one.

:)
S

The Extrovert Within the Introvert!

Last Sunday was a fun day. It was sunny, if chilly, so I took advantage and went outside. My initial thought had been desire to play with Zephyr and Mo online and maybe ride Mo later on if things went well and the footing was good.  As per usual, things went sideways and I ended up going outside in a peculiar mood. Odd phonecalls can have that effect on me I guess.

I went outside jsut wanting to really hug a pony, soI grabbed a carrot and some other cookies and went out. I got mobbed, what else is new. Everyone got their share and then I went to the fence. Mo and Zephyr came too. I climbed up on the fence and suddenly NEEDED to sit on Mo, so I asked her to come over and she did. Lucky me. I mounted and gave her more cookies, and Zephyr some too, since she was there, looking all hungry and forlorn... right.

We just sat for a while. I rubbed Mo. Played with lateral flexions bridleless, and snuggled with Zephyr, who had her head in my lap. Cutie. Eventually I moseyed off. At first Zephyr came with us, but shortly got distracted by some overturned barrels, which was ok. Mo and I wandered around the untouched feild, making footyprints willy-nilly and playing with our yeilds. Hind quarters, fore quarters.... hows our sideways? Backing was pretty awesome. I am really proud of Mo, especially since I didnt really do anything before mounting and havent done much of anything with her at all lately!

This was all just at a walk, wandering and checking stuff... until I hear this crazy squeal and small thunder. I look over to the barn and here comes this beige little mammoth child that is Zephyr! Galloping, bucking, squealing for all shes worth, down the hill, flying over to where me and Mo are standing. She screeched to a halt in front of us and politely demanded a cookie. Really. Lesson One: Find out what motivates your introvert. Cookies. Got it. Lesson Two: Reward good things, like gallop draws. Good. Stuffing cookies into Zephyr. Done.

I put a neck string on Mo at that point, since Zephyr was pretty energized and I felt like I needed a safety net a bit. I moved Mo around a little and Zephyr would trot with us a little, tear off bucking and squealing and then come back all ears up asking for a cookie. Id give her one, and we would repeat - though her sessions of sticking with us got longer. Pretty cool. Liberty stick to me, compeltely unintentionally!

After a whole bunch of rounds galloping around, she finally seemed to run out of some steam... I thought.... She got down and rolled and rolled.... then got back up and ZOOMED over to me and Mo, all proud of herself, so she got some more cookies. Apparently this was a great pattern! She rolled and raced over to us probably six times in a row, getting cookies each time. She seemed pretty proud of her little mammothy self.

I couldnt stop laughing at her. She was just being beyond ridiculous. It was like she had forgotten the pasture was out there and couldnt help herself from playing. Since Mo was the only one out htere, she was the target! She was so exuberant and playful, I will always keep that image in my mind when its me ASKING her to do something, and trying to motivate the introvert to something fun! This was the most extroverted I have seen her. It was priceless. I am so lucky that D came out to take some pictures and video of her, because now I never have to forget it!

Mo was also a great partner, listening and being where I needed her to be. Also not getting caught up in Zephyrs crazy. She was relaxed, and getting some pretty nice stretches at the trot!

I am so excited for Zephyrs future! She is such a fun little horse! Highly entertaining at the very least!


:)
S

Balance BFO

The other day I had yet another BFO with balance! Similar to my adventure with the lawn tractor this summer, I learned a lot about balance from something innocuous random.

While teaching a lesson, I was wandering around the arena, and there were some poles on the ground, of the hunter variety that are kind of octagonal. I distractedly kept trying to stand and balance on it, not really paying attention, but just fiddling with posture and balance. Then I stopped and thought about it, why is my balance so terrible ont his pole? I can usually walk on the curb fairly easily, so this should be similar, right?

Hmm.. Well. Firstly, pretty much everythign in my body was bracing one way or another to try and stay on the pole.  Given what we know about fluidity, we know brace in singularly ineffective. So I tried relaxing. That was great but I kind of melted right off the pole.

Ok, so fluid is good, but not the only answer. So, once again, I heard Linda in my head, saying tuck your belly button to your spine, Micheal Jackson with your hip, armpits down etc.... and there it was! I found this .... sort of zone I guess, where I could balance there quietly. For a few moments anyways. This one was harder than the lawn mower! So I played with that while I was teaching. It was a fun little exercise and it distracted me from the cold!

I love how Parelli really is way more than riding!

:-)
S

New Year, New Thoughts!

Another new year is upon us! I have very high hopes that this year be as great or greater than this last year.

This past year was pretty full. It started off with me heading to the Parelli Campus in Florida from February to May for an Internship [or part anyways] as my then boyfriend and I put an offer on a 70 acre farm.... quite literally the day before I left. Finagling out the details from florida to close the deal, buying the farm and then coming home engaged to said boyfriend, and with one Level 4 Savvy passed! [freestyle] And that was only MAY!

The summer came, sunny and warm, and full of teaching. Horsey time with Mo was great. Some stresses about closing on the house were worth it in the end when we moved in August. Mass renos began and then finished by the 19th of December. I also got a new job to keep me busy through the winter and a new pony, because two wasnt enough apparently. Fall was long and lovely, warm, though not as full of horsey time because of new jobness, still good though.

Now the renos are mostly done, the shortest day has come and gone, and somehow its that future age of 2012.  What can I do this year to top last year??

Here are some of the things I would like to do!

 - Pass my Level 4, online and liberty. Finesse is a maybe.  [with Mo]
 - Do a gentle colt start/ first ride or two on Zephyr
 - Find Reggie a replacement, so he can retire in grace from my service
 - Host regular play days and fun things at my new home
 - Create pasture and play space for said play days, maybe some pens too...hmmm.. thats a new idea! I will have to percolate on that one!
 - COMPETE! I really really want to take Parelli to the local competitions to show people how a great foundation can serve you - how its way more than wiggling a rope! i plan to compete int he sport of Eventing with Mo and Indy. Eventually Zephyr too, but shes just a kid right now :)


The biggest thing I am trying to do right now is to stay positive about winter. Its dark, snowy, icy, cold and yucky. All the things that are counter intuitive to horseplay. I am trying really hard to be satisfied with the little plays I get around feeding time, and be proud of them for their progressive and lack of AGRESSION surrounding said feeding time since we began. Also, I am carefully supplementing vitamin D to prevent the SADS :)

I will also try to post more this year. I outdid the previous year by five posts, but hopefully there will be substabitally more to report this year.

:)
S

Slow and Right Beats Fast and Wrong, Again.

Once more, Mo reminds me in a very vivid way that slow and right always beats fast and wrong.

Today, I revisited our zone five driving with two reins. This is something that isnt my favorite thing to do. *I* am not good at it, I dont usually enjoy it, Mo usually doesnt enjoy it because of my lack of enjoyment, and also, it usually causes me a lot of pain because of my useless achilles tendonitis. So, generally lacking in good times. Until today!

Ive been sound[er] myself lately, and wanting to progress more with my zone five driving. Inn little ways I have been adding it around just going from point A to point B with just the 12 or 22' and Mo has been getting progressively better with that. I think she just gets claustrophobic within two reins and feels trapped or unable to move her feet when her extroversion needs to take over, and the I dont know how to help her find the proper outlet without just dropping one rein and bringing her back to me. Plus, usually I run out of try in ME, because I am sore and want/need to stop walking/running.

Today was a different day. I have been remarkably pain free for the most part lately, thanks to some great physio, and Mo has practically been begging me to play with her [Zephyr to, but thats just how she is!] Its New Years Day, and as such, my other job is closed and I cleverly didnt book any thing else to do today, so I would have the option to do anything I pleased. Somehow, I struck a deal with Mother Nature, and won a day of plus four degrees celsius, so when I went out to feed this morning, I was happy to putter around and hang out for a while before going in and chanign to more oppurtune clothes and boots and then coming out to play with my Mo!

As soon as she saw me with that halter she came over and was trying to shove her nose in it while I got it ready for her. I already had the two feather lines on it - I had my plan. My goal is online and liberty Level 4 before the end of summer next year. This zone five driving phobia of mine has got to bite the dust! So we started with just some hanging out and working out what means go and turn. Turns are hard for Mo, because she just wants to pretzel around, and thats not really how driving works. She figured it out eventually and we headed off to hay pile number one. It was a slow process, lots of wiggles and stops and starts, but we made it there and chowed down [by we, I mean her]

On to hay pile number two! Slightly better, but still fairly wiggly. And so we went, hay pile to hay pile, each one getting a little less wiggly, a little more confident within the ropes. Our turns were getting more responsive and less pretzely [its a word!] and just everything generally more interesting. Mo was walking faster and getting the point of HAY to HAY was a great thing, so when I asked for a trot the first time, she went really easily! YEY!

So we trotted to a few piles and then moved on to the barrels out in the feild to see how a figure eight went. The first one was a little messy, just at a walk, but it was definately a figure eight! So we got a few good rounds until I felt her release a little and then powered back over to more hay. I think Mo is starting to like driving! Back to the figure eight a few more times and I got brave enough to ask for a trot! And we survived! In a number of ways. Mostly, in that Mo was a star and responsive, maintaining a nice slow trot and not running off or being afraid, and also because I didnt hurt! I jogged behind her without my ankle trying to kill me! Amazing!


A few really good turns and we trotted to hay. Came back again, and trotted some more and called it a day! When I let her go, Mo followed me around, so I got a hiarbrush and some cookies, stuffed her face full and brushed out some tangles :D

Mo is amazing. I am slowly going to learn not to avoid zone five driving, especially if it doesnt hurt me anymore!

:)
S

Dont Allow Them to be Wrong!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

:)
S