Motivation

Today, here I am. I am trapped at my dad's garage. Waiting for one little lightbulb to get changed on my truck so my license plate once again illuminates itself come dark - which does come obcenely early these days! Sitting here, killing time moseying around the world wide web, shivering everytime someone opened a door I started to ponder about motivvation.

It is a grand total of -13 out today, celcius, not including windchill. Once you factor that in, it becomes somewhat like -20 or so. Even for Canadia that is rather extreme for this time of year. Feels like not even two weeks ago it was +10 out and I was riding in a sweater.... oh wait,... I WAS! Sheesh.

So motivation. When it is this cold and this breezy, my motivation is distinctly lacking in getting myself out to the barn. The ground is froze, the footing is non existant, I have to wear eight hundred layers resembling the Michelin Man with ineffective mitten claws for hands. How can you have feel and timing with those kinds of barriers?? Sure wants to knock all the try out me.... I dont even try to get out there! Well, strictly speaking thats not true. I do go out and do chores regularly, so I get out there, just not always out for actual pony interaction time.

I feel like winter is good for building some rapport though. Its cold, its miserable and almost everytime they see a human we are bringing them some kind of something good - be it hay, grain, treats, warm blankets, letting them into their warm stall.... the list goes on. Seems like a good way to make some good 'bank account deposits', no? A lot of days I feel like I am getting nowhere, doing nothing productive, and then this morning when I went to adjust blankets, my usually aloof Indy made an effort to walk over to me. With a happy face no less. Hmmm.

Now what does that tell me. Maybe in the summer there is just to much going on? To much OH BOY LETS GO..... do whatever. Not enough 'Hi, how are you? Heres a cookie, see you later'. Maybe. Or maybe I am just more interesting than snow but not more interesting than grass. Joy.

Back to motivation. How do I get motivated in the winter. Im tempted to just say I dont. But thats not true. With my florida trip coming up, I am very motivated to at least THINK of things to do. So Ive got my MIND on the job at least. I do a lot of planning this time of year. I watch lots of dvds and make plans for what to do on the days its nice out or when the snow finally melts. Last year, I got really clever and brought a barrel into my basement, tied it to a footstool and then saddled it so I could practice engaging my core and body the way Linda talks about us needing for our Finesse. Get it right before adding the horse and it *should* come easier once the horse is in the equation, right? That was my theory. I think it worked out nicely. At the very least it got me saddle time through the winter, even sans a pony.

A month and a half ish until I get to head to the warmth. Just need to keep motivated until then. Try to keep some form of pony time going on so I dont hit that withdrawl wall. Horses are like my addiction.... withdrawl definatley hits in these dark cold months. I cant wait to get exclusive horsey time come February!

Not to sure if this was a coherent post or not.... My truck still isnt even in the garage... *sigh* Oh well. Maybe Ill head over to Savvy Club and poke around the vault.....

:-)
S

Classy Ponies!

In my seemingly never ending mission to be ready to head to the wonderful and warm South, I got my ponies some excellent outerwear to *hopefully* curb their Canadian Woolies.

Courtesy of my friend and fellow Parelli student S, who co-owns Manely Horses, I found some very awesome purpley and stripey fleecey coolers, and a lovely black and almost lavender rain sheet for Mo, and a wonderful tealy blue one for Indy. They both look so classy and mega-rock-star like in their new swanky gear!

Heres hoping they leave them on and dont let the others rip them to shreds..... !

:-)
S

PS: How nice is it that when I opened the back door BOTH of my ponies came over. Not just Mo, who has formed a nice habit of coming over when I call her, but her darling Aloof Highness herself came over too, and waltzed right into the barn. How excellent is that? Loverly!

Planning!!

WELL! Lots has been going on! Planning is going into overdrive as I am getting ready to go back down to Florida again! My program at the Florida Parelli Ranch starts on February 14th, so I have *some* time to plot and plan, but for the most part I want to get things squared away as soon as I can.

If all goes well, I will be taking both Mo and Indy with me, to keep Mo at the ranch with me and lease out Indy or board her off property.

Currently both ponies are doing excellently. We have been doing some playing in the soy bean field as the weather allows [which isnt often] and visited my friends new indoor for the first time yesterday. Mo was a trooper, shes been indoors before, Indy was a little right brain, but came down very nicely.

Let the plots commence!

:-)
S

My Face Hurts!

.... from smiling to much of course!!

Today was a fantastic day with Mo!

I went out to the barn and walked out the back to call Mo and she looked up and came right over! She was halfway to the far corner, so it was a pretty excellent feeling! I love that Mo is so enthusiastic these days! It really makes me feel good about what we are playing with.

We cleaned up and got ready in the barn before heading into the round pen. Once there I unclipped the reins and started with a little hindquarter yeild and sideways. Mo was in a really good mood, and I remembered some little cookies to help motivate her.  Things were going really great! She was very in tune to me, and really sticking with me. She offered me an incredibly soft trotting figure eight that made me squee out loud.... and then she decided that wasnt enough.

I half heartedly asked her to go off on a circle, which she usually squeals off to the fenceline of the round pen and does her laps there, BUT NOT TODAY!

Today, not only did she not squeal off, she left calmly at a trot, and stayed close to me, about a 12' circle and trotted TWO laps that close like she did it every day! HOLY WOW! Thats a first for Mo! I was SO excited, I brought her in before she lost interest and stuffed her face with all the cookies in my pockets while hugging her and scratching all her itchy spots and telling her she was awesome.

After allowing her to soak on that for a bit, I mounted and off we went on our adventure. I usually mount inside the round pen, since then we have to gates to open before we can be free, and today Mo was really soft and clever about the gates. It was such a treat! She is regularly pretty good, just sometimes gets a little ahead of herself, but today she was spot on and SUPER light!

Once we were on the laneway things were going really well. We passed the place where we had thresholds the other day and made it almost to the big tree before having one. It probably took ten minutes and a whole bunch of thresholds to make it to the 3/4 mark of the laneway, but once we were past it was smooth sailing. We made it all the way to the fresh cut field where the combine was the other day, before having another threshold.

After that one was addressed we trotted off and moseyed around the feild. I didnt really have a plan or a focus, and I think Mo felt that. I was still just flying high from the liberty wowness. Mo was a bit wishy washy at first, wandering this way and that, and feeling like she was getting tighter, so I finally clicked back into the present and did something about it. I put her on a circle, though it was pretty big to navigate in and around the moguls and hills the field was made up of.

She picked up the canter on her own, but I didnt slow her down, just directed her energy to maintain the circle. She got faster in the beginning but then started to level out in speed, and then miraculously her head went down, she started stretching and blowing, moving off my leg without speeding up.... WHOOHOO!!!

By the time we finished, we were bombing around the field doing flying lead changes freestyle and stopping without me even picking up the reins! Overall, pretty successful I think! I was smiling the whole time, and now my face is sore... Completely worth it though! I love Mo!

:-)
S

Mo, Meet Combine, Play Nice.

Yesterday was a nice day, one of the few we have had lately. Seems like its always raining! Everything is saturated and mud is just... prevalent. The ring isnt really use-able, and neither is the round pen for more than a trot. We dont have sand, so its just slick ground and mud!

I went to go fetch my dearling Mo from the pasture. Well, I went to see what would happen. I thought it would be nice to hang with Mo, but if Indy decided to show up, I wasnt going to say no. El Princess deigned to look at me, but didnt come forward, so Mo took the chance and moseyed herself over. She won herself some cookies and scratches and we wandered our way over to what has become dubbed 'the mounting tree'. Its really just a fallen tree in the pasture, but we tend to use it as a mounting block more often than not, hence the name!

When I go out into the pasture to see the ponies, I have taken to just bringing myself, no halter, to see what I can see. I havent caught Mo with a halter in.... I dont know how long! She just comes on over, and walks with me back to the barn, or the tree, or wherever. Its such a nice feeling. She *actually* wants to hang out with me more than the herd! And not just because there is some rope on her head dictating her course of action!

We got to the tree and I sat on it and Mo sidled over so I could use her as leverage to stand up balanced, and swing a leg over. Talk about team work :-) What a rockstar. From there we wandered our way to the barn. I checked in with her on our way, doing circles and things to make sure she wasnt just making assumptions about our pattern, but she was right with me.

Once we got to the barn and crossed all the mud I jumped down and let us into the barn itself. Mo was a complete .. [was going to say gentleman? whoops] lady and waited her turn, turned faced and waited while I fingaled the gate and asked her to come with me to the grooming area. She patiently waited while I prettied her up and de-tangled her obscene amounts of hair. When I got the bridle, she was nosing around for the bit before I even got set up with her cookies! PROGRESS! She is getting super pro at putting her own bridle on, and now I have added that she has to put her own reins over her head first, she is really becoming a puzzle solver about the entire scenario.

Next came the saddle and off we wandered in to the round pen. Its not really in the optimal place, but it served its function earlier in the year as a weaning pen, and has yet to be relocated. I unlcipped Mo's reins in the pen and we played some at liberty. She was pretty with me, which was really nice. We played with some little stick to me, some figure eight and attempted some close circles. She left a few times, but usually trotted back, which was really nice!

After our little baby warm up, I hopped on, let us out the two gates and headed off down the laneway, since the ring was unfriendly. There were Cows of Terror along the fenceline of the galloping trail, and Mo was pretty unsure about them. At each threshold she had I just stopped and waited, rubbing her until her head went back down, telling me she was ok to continue. We made it passed the Cows of Terror!! Stalking Teddy up the lane was fun. He catches onto the game pretty quickly and plays along, darting this way or that.

We made it to the road without further thresholds, and Mo was really responsive on the way, moving just off a suggestion when we were going to run into a branch or somesuch, or even to traipse through puddles. At the end of the laneway we turned right and then right again to turn into the hayfield that borders on the Cows of Terror's pasture. Its high and dry and such a nice place to ride when everything else is slippery!

Mo was pretty adrenalized once we got moving around the field. New place, windy day, brisk temperature. All makes for an excitable pony! I put her on a trotting circle pattern, riding with some contact, if not really asking for collection. It didnt take her long at all to blow and snort and relax. I was really proud. There have been times when I take Mo out there and shes a mess, but yesterday she was a real trooper!

When she relaxed and started to flow, I started asking her to think about carrying herself correctly, bending on the circle and accepting the bit. Both of which she did admirably, even on her stiff side! I changed the pattern to a figure eight and picked up a canter and played with that for a bit, when the combine mowin the feilds across the street moved into the field directly across from where we were!

Lo and behold, Mo didnt even seem to notice! I am sure she DID notice, but she just stayed on her pattern, remained responsive and present and generally just rocked my socks!

When we finished, the combine was just finishing the field, in the end closest to the road, right where we would have to walk by to get home. I brought Mo out onto the road, walking home, right by this giant piece of machinery like she did it every day. It was turning and making some new sounds, so we stopped and looked at it, and waited for it to retreat. Mo just watched it, with some interest, but not concern. It was great! I knew I played all that friendly game with a tractor and four wheeler for a reason...!

Back down the laneway we went, untacked in the barn and Mo got to hang out on the back lawn for a while. I think she was pretty proud of herself. I know I was and am proud of her!

:-)
S

Happy Birthday To Me

What a nice birthday present I got yesterday....

While waiting for a friend to show up at my house so we could go see Secretariat [which was FANTABULOUS, for any so inclined to go see it] I got bored... and as usually happens when I get bored, I jumped in my car and went to visit Mo. 

Its rained a lot lately, so I was slightly dissapointed when driving down the road I saw the majority of the herd in a far corner of the pasture, across a vast expanse of mud and water... with me supposed to be staying clean for my birthday outing. Dissapointment did a lightning speed 180 when I saw Mo nosing about the barn, picking up hay wispys! What an excellent spot for her to be! Its like she was waiting for me!

I parked and ran into the barn.. and heres the best part.... When I got to the gate and called her name Mo called back to me!! She was happy to see me to!! And not just happy-enough-to-walk-over, but happy enough to nicker to me!! What a cool birthday present that was :-) Totally made my day!

I brought her in to shiny her up, since she was all covered in mud, and then let her graze in the backyard while I checked on poor C, who is sick with mono [sucky] Eventually I had to go back out and put Mo away, so I could go home to meet E, but it was a nice little visit to sate my need to see Mo all the time.

:-)
S

Whoops!

So I seem to have forgotten about my lonely blog over here... terribly sorry! Life has been busy!

While life has been hectic, its been the good kind, with lots of ponies and teaching.

I just wanted to generally comment and squee about my last ride with Mo. She is making improvements in leaps and bounds!

I played with her on Monday, and it started off really great as she power walked to me from the other side of the muddy spot when I opened the door in the barn. I tidied her up, trying to get the most of her shedding coat out.. but its still there. She looks almost summery though! The fact that it snowed yesterday probably isnt helping my cause very much...

After getting Mo as sparkly as a shedding pony gets, we went out to play in the ring. It has been graced with some ... poop... via our borrowed [I think?] manure spreader so all my obstacles were put away.  Mo and I set about resetting at least some of them - a clover leaf and one line of three barrels in a jump.  It was fun to drag the three barrels, because I threaded my savvy string through all three handles to drag them all at once and Mo was quite surprised with that! By the time we reached their destination though, she was quite pleased with herself and helping me push/pull them along.

We played some small things online. Our circling game is really coming along in terms of maintain gait, which I am proud of. Mo has lately been offering me two or three canter laps without breaking! Impressive for dear sometime-introvert! We have also been playing with Zone 5 driving, with stopping and backing by the tail for brakes. That has been fantastic so far. It just feels like everything is adding up right these days!

It really wasnt long before Mo felt good to get on, so I did, bareback and just left the halter on but unclipped the 22' and put my savvy string around her neck. Armed with a carrot stick, we set off on our cloverleaf. Im not sure if it was me that was off or just the two of us werent meshing right, but after a few minutes of trying different things, it just wasnt feeling right. So what do we do when it doesnt work at liberty? We go back online! I grabbed my finesse reins and clipped them on the halter to see if a little extra support would help.

I didnt really end up using the reins, they were just there, but it helps Mo and me to I suppose. Still something wasnt quite right, although this time I KNEW it was me! Why, you ask? Well! Mo was giving me this LOVELY round collected through canter that was so powerful through her back, that I couldnt be fluid enough to ride it bareback without getting in her way!

So I jumped off and made another change. We saddled up! I re-mounted and played with some transtitions and had a lot of saddle-slipping-forward syndrome... so I jumped off AGAIN! This time I altered my shim pattern down to just one thick shim [it was two thick and a thin] to test that and it was PERFECT!

So perfect in fact, that Mo decided today was the day she would grant me my wildest dream - FLYING LEAD CHANGES! She just did them like nothing, on a figure eight around the ring... *poof* change *poof* change... like it was that easy the whole time...! WOW! I was so so so happy and excited and proud of Mo that I littlerally jumped off of her to hug her and tell her how amazing she was.

I have always had some trouble determining what lead I was on, or asking for a specific lead since I never really studied that in my youthful trail-bombing experiences, and then my first horse was a one lead wonder for any rider, so that didnt help. For a long time Mo was too, until I figured it out in my body and now look where we are! I really didnt know if I would ever get to this point. Flying changes have always been on my dream list, but felt slightly unobtainable. I cant even express my joy about getting them!!!!

So thats my story.... 

I will try to post more often!

:-)
S