2011 in Review

This past year was one of the greatest years I have had with horses. Sonny and I got to do amazing things and meet a lot of wonderful people!

Jesse and I playing the circling game with Sonny.

2011 had a slow start. Winter and Spring quarter of school were awful; I was taking really hard science classes that left very little time for anything else.

I decided to take the summer off school, which turned out to be an excellent idea! It was really time to focus on my horsemanship and start progressing, rather than being stuck doing the same things over and over. With Sonny being an LBI, he really needed me to set up my game.

June flew by. It was my first quarter not in school since the summer before my senior year, so I was trying to do as much as possible! I spent a lot of June playing with Sonny, trying to improve our freestyle and of course our relationship.

June 23rd

July 6th was the first time I heard from Melissa. Little did I know that she would be the greatest thing of 2011!

Melissa and her horse, Rydel.

In the middle of July I went to see my past horse, LaBelle for a week. What a great time that was! It was so fun to be able to play with dressage again.

The horse that started it all, LaBelle.

August 5th I moved Sonny to a new barn. It is so close to my house and they are okay with all of my parelli stuff, so it has worked out great!

Sonny's first time at the new barn. He loves
his privilege of a stall guard! 

A few days later, on August 9th, I put the bridle on Sonny for the first time since October of 2009!  Almost two years! He has some issues with bits, so this was the beginning of lots of friendly game.

This video was made on August 21st. Sonny's first time loading at liberty!

One of the greatest days in 2011 was on August 28th; Jesse Peter's playday. This day ranks way above others for a multitude of reasons, but mainly because of the effect it had on Sonny and I. After our lesson with Jesse that day, Sonny and I completely changed the way we view each other. I finally understood the meaning of being a leader, and he finally started accepting me as one. What a HUGE accomplishment! Along with that, Melissa and I had a great time overall and met so many people and did some many amazing things!

Rydel, Melissa, Me, and Sonny at the playday!

September 20th was another amazing day. This was our first lesson with 2* instructor Juli Piovesan! Juli is truly an amazingly lady and has done so much for the four of us! So thankful to have her in our lives!

First lesson with Juli.

My Parelli saddle came on September 26th! Oh how lucky I am to own such an amazing saddle!

Although it may not seem substantial enough to bookmark as an important date to an outsider, November 8th really sticks out to me. On this day I really felt a change in my relationship with Sonny. I was finally understanding how to let him have his own opinions and use his ideas to my advantage. 

Finally, on Christmas Sonny and I got a whole bunch of new parelli things that are sure to make 2012 even more interesting!

It has been such an amazing year for Sonny and I. I can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for us; it is sure to please! 

What's New?

First of all, have you noticed I updated the header of my blog? I have been meaning to put a picture by the title (which is why there was a huge blank space), but never got around to it. Finally I did. I like it, but I think I want to change it. I am thinking I want to change my blog colors to purple. But, it has to be simple! So look for a new design in the near future?

Here is what Son and I have been up to:

Emily Rodgers with Sonny, (Freestyle, 30 mins) Rode Sonny in a bridle for the first time in over two years today! Since I got the cradle bridle for Christmas, I figured I should start getting him more comfortable with the bit. I am not sure what happened in his past with the bit, but it must have been traumatic since nothing bothers him and he shuts down when you put a bit in his mouth. Lately I have been putting the bridle on him and doing easy things, like leading him to the pasture, so that he doesn't associate the bit with negative things. Today I put molasses on the bit (which was super messy) and rode around for a little while. I didn't do anything challenging and I never touched the reins. He let out a few big signs and seemed to realize it might not be so bad! I am very pleased with how it went and can't wait for him to experience the C3 bit!                                                                                                                             Tue 27 Dec 2011 at 08:49PM

Emily Rodgers with Sonny, (Liberty, 30 mins) Had a simple but fun day! Didn't have time to do much so just played at liberty. had some really great stick to me and he out a ton of effort into trying the Spanish walk! He also gave me some really happy faces :).

Wed 28 Dec 2011 at 06:41PM

I seem to be catching a cold, which has put a damper on my horsey time. Hopefully I will get out there today, but I doubt I will do anything. Sounds like a perfect day for some undemanding time!

My blue-eyed beauty. <3

Christmas in July

Yesterday was so beautiful, I could have sworn we just had Christmas in July.

It is hard to believe that yesterday, being the day after Christmas, was SO sunny and 45 degrees. Who would have ever imagined that? Sonny and I played on line for a while. I really focused on rewarding the slightest try. I talked to Juli over the weekend and she mentioned that is going to be the key to making him motivated. Makes perfect sense, I just don't think I had put the effort in myself to reward him for the slightest try no matter what. When we play with something new, I always stick with 'expect a lot, accept a little, reward the slightest try'. BUT...I don't think I always reward the slightest try on things I believe he knows how to do. I I guess in my mind if he knew what to do he should, but that is balanced out by expect a lot...I still need to reward the slightest try!

After some sidways game, I got on and played with a lot of carrot stick riding. Then we went on a  trail ride down the driveway and along the road. The grass is still super wet so we couldn't ride through it, but the driveway/road walk was fun enough. It was my first time using my carrot stick out on a trail ride. It went so well!  He still listened to my eyes, bellybutton and legs, making the steering part easy. He was also very in tune to my body for transitions, both up and down. Considering that was a challenge just a week or so ago, I would say yesterday was a huge success! I can't wait to be able to go on trail rides with only my carrot stick and savvy string! 

A Very Parelli Christmas

Not only was my Christmas merry, it was filled with Parelli!

My dad got me:

-the cradle bridle! 
-a purple carrot stick!
-black featherlines!
-a parelli headband
-True Unity by Tom Durrance
-Think Harmony with Horses by Ray Hunt

Does it get any better than that? Don't think so!  :) I am a very happy girl!

Merry Christmas!

Is your horse Naughty or Nice this year?

Through Parelli, Sonny is always on the nice list! Your horse can be, too!

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Winter Blues

Its official: we have set a record for the most rain in one year. That's one record I am not happy about. The fields are flooded, the horses haven't been out in weeks, and its starting to take its toll.

The fields today.

Yesterday I went out with intentions of riding, only to find out Sonny was not having it. He pinned his ears and wrinkled his nose at me all night. This was not a grumpy face, this was an extremely unhappy face. I could not for the life of me even get him to unglue his ears from his head, let alone make a happy face. I am not sure if it is just the fact that he is tired of being stuck inside, or maybe it had something to do with his buddy Rydel being in season. Whatever it was, that was by far the nastiest I have seen him in the two years that I have owned him.

Today was much better. I didn't have any plans and we spent a lot of time not doing anything. Right away he came up to me with both ears forward, which made me so happy! We played with sideways towards me on his bad side and it was going really well. He made a couple nasty faces when we were walking together, but he always had a happy face when he was walking towards me!

I really hope the ground freezes soon so he can go back out, which I believe will get him out of the winter blues.

Updates

Although it may not seem like it from my lack of posts on here, I have been really busy lately!

Tuesday was my birthday so I was pretty busy for that. I got my first massage, which was so much better than I could have ever imagined. I also got a Keurig coffee maker! AND...Melissa got me the Parelli Celebration DVD! Can't wait to watch it!!!

Last night Sonny and I had a great time:

Emily Rodgers with Sonny, (On Line, 60 mins) I was plesantly surprised last night to find a little play area already set up! Someone had put three poles down in a row, then enclosed the open ends with two more poles. This was obviously designed to just trot over the three ... more(On Line, 60 mins) I was plesantly surprised last night to find a little play area already set up! Someone had put three poles down in a row, then enclosed the open ends with two more poles. This was obviously designed to just trot over the three main ones, but opened up so many more oppertunities for us! We were doing all sorts of fun things like walk over the first pole, sidepass around the corner, then go touch a cone! He was asking all kinds of questions! It also pointed out that even though he was backing onto the pedestal a few days ago, he is lacking some confidence in zone 5. Along with playing with the set up, we focused on sideways. I applied the same attitude to sideways as we did with the back up: I want to get to phase 4, but if you don't want me to you should move on phase 1. He got it really quickly! I would really like for oursideays game to be much more snappy than it has been. Lots of fun things to play with!

With Christmas just around the corner I am sure things will only get busier, but back to play time after the holiday!

The First Key To Success

If you know Parelli’s keys to success (which can be found on my Parelli Principles page), you’ll know that the first one is attitude. I have always believed that I have a good attitude with Sonny because I love him and enjoy being with him. I usually just left it at that and didn’t pay much more attention to it.  

I played with Sonny for a little bit last night and it was okay. He gave me ugly faces, didn’t want to do anything I wanted to do, and overall the relationship just wasn’t great. I ended it on a good note and decided it would be best to try again tomorrow.

Today was outstanding! Sonny was happy and willing; he kept coming in to me with happy faces and even gave me two eyes and two ears while backing up. I was blown away! What a difference from the night before! I proceeded to hop on bareback even though I didn’t have a 12’ line with me and didn’t want to mess with using my 22’ line while riding. He was the best he has ever been and I only had my carrot stick (which I barely needed to use!). We have been having minor difficulties with turning his forehand without him moving his hind end. I played with it a little bit Wednesday night, but had to keep resorting to my rope instead of being able to do it with just my carrot stick. When I got on today and it was like everything just clicked! He was moving his forehand around his haunches without taking a step forward and I BARELY had to use my stick!! I couldn’t believe how well he was paying attention to my body. I could even do indirect to direct rein (I am not sure if they are still called that if you don’t have reins?) turns on the rail with just my carrot stick! What a HUGE improvement from just a few days ago when we couldn’t do them with reins! WOW!

I am so very thrilled at what a great day we had today! I couldn’t stop thinking about it and wondering how so much had changed overnight. The more I thought about it the more it made sense. I had an awful day yesterday…one of those days where you can’t get anything to go your way. Even though my night had gotten better before I went to see Sonny, I was still filled with the remnants of a bad attitude. I took all that negative energy with me into the arena with him. How could I expect him to look at me with a happy face when I am radiating negativity? This makes me think of the movie Buck, when he says:

Your horse is a mirror to your soul.  Sometimes you might not like what you see… sometimes you will.” ~ Buck Brannaman

Last night Sonny was just mirroring what he saw in me. Therefore, the lesson of the day is the reminder that attitude is the first key to success. There is no way I can expect Sonny to have a great attitude about things if I don't myself. The bad things that happend yesterday morning were done and overwith and there is no reason to carry them around with me. I needed to move on! Sonny sure wasn't going to dwell on the past and feel sorry for me, so I shouldn't either. He is the best teacher I could ever ask for!

Updates

Emily Rodgers with Sonny, (Freestyle, 60 mins) Last night I re-watched some of the level 2 freestyle DVD. This really refreshed some things in my mind...like playing with indirect to direct rein turns. So Sonny and I played with some foundation things and it went so well! We had wonderful transitions today, including walk to trot and trot to walk transitions from phase 1! Then we worked on indirect to direct rein turns. He is great at indirect, but tends to just round his whole body and walk in a circle rather than do a direct rein turn after an indirect. I made a few mental notes about Pat's turns: really watch where your weight is bend your elbow for the indirect then straighten it for direct. I played with that then really broke down the turns. I went slow and paused after the indirect, straightened him out, then asked for direct. WOW what a difference! They might not be as fast and spiffy as Pat and Vision's, but they were a million times better today! Going back to the foundations for a refresher always helps us get our good better and our better best!


Emily Rodgers with Sonny, (On Line, 30 mins) Didn't do a whole lot with Son today since we have been doing so much riding lately...wanted to make sure he had a chance to breathe! We played with the spanish walk for a while. He knows my command to bring his leg up, now I am focusing on the walking part. It is a slow process for both of just who are just learning!


Well the wedding is over, so one less thing to worry about! Our riding has been going MUCH, much better! But, I don't want to push it. I would love to play with carrot stick riding everyday, but right now I don't think we know enough to play with it everyday and him not get bored. So, yesterday we mixed it up with some spanish walk! Considering tricks are one of Sonny's favorite things, I am hoping to teach him lots of fun stuff in the future!  

He looks so dashing in our Parelli saddle.

Parelli - Ohio!

Are you from Ohio? Are you interested in attending clinics, lessons, or playdays? Would you ike to share ideas and interests with other people from Ohio? Join the Parelli - Ohio! facebook group!

Parelli - Ohio! on Facebook

What Happened Before What Happened Happened

Yesterday was my first time focusing on carrot stick riding. I have played around with it before, but mostly just experimenting and nothing major. Last night was one of our first times trotting with the carrot stick and it went so well! He really listened to my body, and if he didn't he responded nicely to the carrot stick. We played with the question box and even did some trot figure 8s. I might have moved a little to fast though, so I will be sure to slow it down in the future. Anyways, he did great!

When I got home from riding I saw that Samantha had commented on one of my old videos, asking whom the horse was. The horse was Icon, my last dressage horse. He was very talented and was supposed to be my Junior/Young rider horse. He was trained to Prix St. George, so he knew a ton and was very obedient, but he had no desire to be with me or me with him. We didn't have a relationship at all. Every time I rode him it was like training someone else's horse, not my own. We were just coworkers.

The video she commented on was this one:

I had actually forgot that it existed! This was back in June of '08, and I didn't start parelli until Sonny in October of '09. Here I am riding bridless without a carrot stick, savvy string, or any foundation. Last night I was thinking "Well that doesn't make sense. I am playing in level 3 with my parelli horse and we are just starting carrot stick riding and I could get my old horse that I didn't get along with to do figure eights without anything!?" But the more I thought about the more it started making sense. I know I have heard Pat talk about obedience, but what came to mind is one of Linda's recent blog posts: "Yes, they are safe and obedient, but they are not necessarily exuberant". That is what I had with Icon. I could ride him bridless because he had been micromanaged and was taught that he had to listen to everything I did with my body. He did not care about me, about being with me, or anything like that. He only did what he did because he knew he was supposed to.

Considering I want to start dressage naturally more than anything in the world, I would give my left arm to have my dressage horses back. Never ever would I regret Sonny or trade him for the fanciest dressage horse. After watching that video, I have never felt so good about my decision to sell them. Icon was a great horse, but we didn't have any sort of relationship and neither of us cared to. It would be hard to put the relationship first when I didn't care to have a relationship with him. And even if we managed to get past that point, bridless riding would have been cake. But probably not because our solid foundation and excellent relationship, it would have came easy because that is what he was trained to do.

I miss my dressage horses all the time. But, I am so grateful to have a fresh start with a horse that hasn't been micromanaged to obedience. I may have breezed through bridless riding with Icon, but how would I ever teach it to another horse if I didn't teach it to my first levels horse? At the same time, I am also grateful for my outstanding dressage horses! They taught me so much about using my body first, then my legs, and then my hands. They had already made me sensitized to everything that I need to excel at now in order to teach Sonny bridless riding. I am so lucky to have the background that I have, and the horse that I have now!

Icon and me at a show in 2007.

Busy as a Bee

This week I have finals, a doctors appointment, work, and a wedding to go to. I probably won't get to see much of Sonny...which means I probably won't have much of anything to post on here. 

But, after this week is winter break and I will have plenty of parelli time!

While I am gone, here is a little something to keep you entertained! 

Making It A Game

Our lesson yesterday with Juli Piovesan was so wonderful (as always!). Going into the lesson I was pretty disappointed with myself because I hadn't played with freestyle as much as I should have. I have been very LBI about it and thought I wouldn't have any improvements to show Juli. From the time of our last lesson, I knew our relationship has improved drastically. Although that is of course my biggest goal, I was worried that I wouldn't have anything to physically show her.

We started with playing online. She asked if there was anything I wanted to focus on and I knew I wanted to ask her about backing. Sonny backs so slow and puts little effort into it. Although that 'little effort' is a lot more than what it was before our lesson with Jesse, he is no where near where I would like him to be. This task turned into an idea for our whole lesson: making it snappy! In order to make our yo-yo snappy, we made it into a game. Very, very subtle phase 1... almost as subtle phase two... more apparent phase three... then QUICK PHASE FOUR! I have already heard long phase one, quick two, three, four. But Juli gave me a whole new perspective on this. I need to turn it into a game. I want to get to phase four, but if Sonny doesn't he needs to move before then! I have always had the thought that I don't want to get to phase four, but having the intentions of going there makes it a game for Sonny not to let me go there! I would have never thought of that on my own, but it makes perfect sense!

We applied the same theory to our circling game. Almost invisible phase one... a little bit more phase two... almost visible phase three... QUICK PHASE FOUR! Within two or three times Sonny was doing upward transitions with the very slightest effort on my part!

We played with a few more things, like how to get on a barrel (:P) and I showed Juli how much better Sonny is about going over the ball! Then she let me try her cradle bridle. I knew Sonny has never liked the bit, which is why I haven't rode him in one in the two years I have owned him. I have been trying to use my bridle more lately to do things like walking him out the the field, so he doesn't associate the bit with riding and whatever horrible things he has experienced. When we put the cradle bridle on him he got really stressed out. He was tossing his head, wouldn't let us touch his nose, and when we took it off he yawned so much. I hope to get a cradle bridle for Christmas, then lots of friendly game with it!

Then I got on and started with some direct/indirect rein. Apparently our turning has improved! Yay! Then we applied the same 'make it a game' concept to riding. Sonny caught on so quick, and before I knew it we were doing phase 1 transitions! Awesome! I feel felt a change in the way he was responding to me, and that gives me so much motivation to start riding more!

Then Juli introduced me to the question box. Of course Sonny loved it! After a few transitions he put effort into getting there. How cool! That also gives me something to look forward to playing with :). She also mentioned that I should do more carrot stick riding. I have always felt that I wasn't 'good enough' for it yet, so it was reassuring to hear that I can start playing with it!

We had such a great lesson! So much accomplished and so much to play with! She has 'rekindled' my desire to ride; maybe the next lesson we will really have great progress to show her!

I am so looking forward to the future!

Lost

If you asked how I felt with Sonny last night, I would reply lost.

Last night I didn't have much time to play, but Sonny has been inside so much I knew I had to go down to at least let him out of his stall! I didn't plan on doing anything, so I didn't even bother putting a halter on to go out to the arena. On our way to the arena a fellow boarder was walking by with a fresh off the track thoroughbred. Needless to say, I wanted Sonny as close to the wall of the isle as I could get him. It was just a simple sideways game...even at liberty he easily followed my phase 1 to step over. After walking by the owner of the thoroughbred asked how I get him to do what I want without touching him. Immediately I blurted out that is just our connection. Obviously knowing what I am suggesting plays a big role in it, but our connection has been so intense lately. Relating back to this post, it is like we are thinking together. In people terms, I feel like we can finish each other's sentences.

Whatever the feeling is, it completely absorbs me. It is like sipping on hot chocolate under a big blanket by the fire and completely forgetting that there is a blizzard going on outside. Lately school has been hectic; finals are next week, I have a midterm tomorrow, have to work tonight, had a paper due Monday, and I just can't catch a break. I have a lesson with Juli Thursday and haven't even had a chance to ride lately!

As Sonny and I entered the arena I had a lot on my mind. Atop it all was the conversation I just had with the thoroughbred owner. As I closed the gate behind us I figure he would walk off and roll and be excited to be out of his stall. Instead he patiently waited for me to latch the gate. I started walking to the other end of the arena where the dirt is deeper and where he usually likes to roll. But, he wouldn't leave me. So I started playing with him! We played with a little STM and went sideways over the ball and I even sent him out on a circle at the trot and he still wouldn't roll! He just plodded around on the circle waiting for me to do something. Finally I went over and sat on the mounting block, thinking that would be so boring he would want to wonder off. Of course he didn't. He moved his haunches over and asked if I wanted to get on. Might as well!  So I got on bareback and halterless with only my stick in hand. But I didn't even need it. He was so responsive he was turning when I moved my eyes and bellybutton. He stopped when I let my life out and he walked when I squeezed all four cheeks.

We played around for a little bit and had such a relaxing, good time. I had completely forgotten about school and everything I had to do. I forgot that I was upset and stressed out and actually felt great. Nothing else mattered anymore. I was lost in our time together. I am so thankful for this horse that I just love so damn much.

What A Woman Wants

Any man of mine better walk the line

Better show me a teasin' 

squeezin'

pleasin' kinda time

I need a man who knows, how the story goes

He's gotta be a heartbeatin', fine treatin'

Breathtakin', earthquakin' kind 

Any man of mine <3

My Only Sonshine

Sonny came with his name. When I first bought him, I had intentions of changing it. There are about a billion horses named Sonny in the world and I can't stand overly common names. Someone suggested I call him Phantom because of the way his face is half white (from Phantom of the Opera). I really liked the idea, but once I got to know him I realized Sonny fit well. Phantom was just too serious...Sonny (being a typical LBI) is so comical and mischievous, his name fits great.

He has acquired many nicknames over the two years that I have owned him, but Sonshine is by far my favorite. It always makes me think of the song "You Are My Sunshine", which makes me so glad that I never changed his name.

He truly makes me happy when skies are grey, more so than anything else. I had such a terrible day today, but ended it by spending some time reading in his stall. I threw him some hay and listening to him munch (one of my most favorite sounds) while I read. It is the most relaxing thing ever, even on a chilly night. He would take pauses from eating and come say Hi. He would rub his snot all over me or lick the pages or try to eat the cover of the book, but it's okay with me (as long as the owner of the book doesn't notice the hay in the binding!).

Whenever I have a bad day, just seeing him always puts a smile on my face. No matter what has happened, I can always count on him to make me happy again. It's funny how an animal without words can do more for me than a conversation with a person. Maybe it's his innocents, or maybe it's his silly little gestures that always ignite happiness within me. Or maybe it's his ability to forgive and forget that makes me so willing to let things go. Or maybe it's just the snot in my chewed up hair or the dirt on my cheek or those big old lips, always searching for a kiss, that remind me of the never-ending affecting that I will always have and how truly lucky I am to be a part of it.

He'll never know how much I love him, or how grateful I am to have him in my life.

Horsenality Statistics

I often find myself wondering about horsenality statistics. Considering a good part of the horse people population probably doesn’t even know what a horsenality is, it would probably be next to impossible to figure these out (some more than others), but it is still fun to think about.

-What is the most common horsenality in the world today? Least common?

-Are people attracted to horses with a horsenality that matches their humanality?

-Obliviously right brain horses survive the best in the wild, but to RB horses that also have LB tendencies

survive better or worse than horses with only RB qualities?

-Do different styles of riding favor certain horsenalities? (Racing vs. dressage vs. jumping, etc.)

-Is there a certain horsenality associated with different breeds? For instance, I know of multiple arabians that are RBI and a few draft horses that are LBI; does that mean certain breeds commonly have a specific horsenality? 

Feel free to comment or e-mail me your horsenality statistic questions or what you believe might be the answer!! :) (labelle012@yahoo.com)

You Get Out What You Put In

The past few days Sonny and I have been doing a whole lot of nothing. But... everything means something and nothing means nothing. I really felt the affects of that today when we had a short play session at liberty.

Liberty is by far my favorite savvy; there is something special about not having anything but a bond connecting you and your horse. Especially an LBI, who would much rather be rolling, eating, or not moving at all. To think that Sonny would rather stick with me and do things together rather than stand over by the gate is extremely rewarding and a huge compliment...especially when the arena you are playing in is bigger than a dressage arena which provides a huge amount of area to get away from me if he wanted. Sonny and I never 'officially' started liberty like we did online and freestyle. Since I have never had a round pen, what liberty I do is very minimal and mostly just small things. But, today was definitely very special.

Rather than go off and roll when we first got to the arena, he stuck right with me even though he was at liberty. We started with small things like sideways over a cone or played with our new 'Up' trick. We were really connected today, like he was reading my mind but not in the way that he was assuming things.

There was a small jump set up, only like 6 inches high. Sonny is an expert at getting out of doing things that require energy, so I haven't asked him to jump at liberty since we haven't mastered him offering to jump online. So I started to walk him up to it and was going to go sideways in front of it, but we were so in tune! I just leaned my body and he went sideways so he would be in front of the jump. It was like we were completely in sync. I pointed to the jump, he trotted right over it then came back to me with BOTH ears forward! I was blown away! Not only did he happily go over the jump when he could have so easily went around it, he came back to me respectfully and happy! WOW!

I really believe that today was a direct result of all the time we have spent together just grazing recently. Not only did it give him (and me!) a break physically and mentally, it strengthened our bond and helped him put more effort in the time we spend playing together. Now I will put more effort into making it easier for him to put more effort in. I see a lot of undemanding time in our future!

Long Walks on the Beach

Okay so maybe we don't have a beach in our backyard, but Sonny and I both enjoyed a long walk today!

Lately is has been rainy and cold so the horses haven't gone outside in a while. Today it was fairly warm and sunny so I thought it would be a perfect time to spend some undemanding time with Sonny, like I promised here. We were going to walk across the hay field and down the lane, but he ended up doing a lot more eating that walking. I don't think he cared ;).

We spent over an hour an a half out there and I definitely felt the difference. On our way back to his stall, he was very connected to me and moved when I did, even though there was food everywhere. It is disappointing that it is now getting cold and will soon be snowy, but I am going to try to make more days like this before the weather stops us!

Walking and eating.

Fun Figure Eights

Last night Melissa was working on her figure 8 with Rydel in order to start videoing her level 2 online audition. While watching her play, I realized I hadn't done a lot with the figure 8 since our level 2 audition. I did play with it a bit after watching the savvy club dvd The Project, but I didn't do a lot with it even then.

So last night she rekindled my interest in it. I have always heard that LBI's should love patterns, but Sonny doesn't seem to be that fond of them. He finds them boring and pointless. The Project gave them more of a purpose and made them more interesting, but I still didn't want to drill anything.

At work today I was trying to be creative and come up with a new twist to the figure 8. The other day Melissa had two barrels set up at both 10 and 2 o'clock on the circle and I thought I could do something interesting with that. I thought if I seperated the barrels, we could do so much with them: figure 8, squeeze, yo-yo, sideways, and much more.

Starting out tonight I just played with yo-yo and sideways until Sonny and I got warmed up. Then we started playing with the figure 8 and holy cow was it fun! With the 4 barrels, there were so many figure 8 possibilities! It was so much fun playing with in and out and around! It was a pretty big challenge for Sonny, not only mentally but physically as well; it kept him very involved and interested. He was listening so well and putting a really good effort into keeping up with the complicated patterns. We were having a blast! We had such a good time, he even came into me with both ears forward multiple times! I have been looking for those ears for SO long, I couldn't have been more happy and excited :). He was so very respectful tonight, I just couldn't believe it. I really feel like tonight he realized that I actually can be a good leader! Yippee!



[Thanks to Melissa and Rydel for doing such a great job videoing us! It is much appreciated!]

Playing With the Horse That Shows Up

This post connects to yesterdays, but I thought it would become a chapter book if I wrote it all in one day...

Just this morning I was telling my godmother how happy I am to have my best friend Melissa board at the same barn I do. It is beyond helpful to have another parelli student so close; we bounce ideas off each other, talk about problems and solutions, and of course inspire one another. It didn't really hit me how connected we are until I tried to figure out what I wanted to title my post today. The only thing I could come up with is exactly what Melissa titled her post yesterday. I didn't want to be a 'copy-cat', but it actually sparked my interest.

Melissa and I have two very different horses, very different backgrounds, come from totally different places, and here we are titling out blog post the same thing in two consecutive days. How interesting! It seems like we tend to be discovering the same things, we are just taking different journeys to get there. I think this is just too cool!

Monday night I met Melissa at the barn and she was having such a great time with Rydel! She had this fun little course set up and I was so eager to play with it with Sonny. But, if you read this post, you know that Sonny was not in any kind of mood to be doing any playing. Putting the relationship first, we did nothing but spend some undemanding time together that night.

When I went out yesterday he was in a great mood and eager to get going! Interesting...a completely 180 from just the night before. Immediately it made me think of reading Melissa's blog on Monday night...Play with the horse that shows up. I had planned on doing nothing but undemanding time with Sonny yesterday, but he was in such a playful mood that undemanding time would have been so boarding. I felt a little guilty when I started setting up a course, thinking that I should still be not doing anything with him after the depressing last two days he has had. But, I kept thinking about Melissa's blog and decided to go for it. This is the horse that showed up today so who cares what horse showed up yesterday!

Boy, am I glad I did! We had one of the most fabulous days ever. I recently watched the savvy club dvd from May 2006, Issue 17, where Pat plays the circling game with Magic then doesn't let her stop until she puts all 4 feet on the tarp which is set in 3 poles (if you login in, you can click here to watch the video). He talks about really making it a 'game' so that Magic puts effort into getting to the tarp. I thought it would be an awesome game for Sonny since there is so much incentive.

I started out Tuesday playing with that. He caught on so quick! I didn't want him to get bored with it so we moved on. He went sideways towards me by only just raising my hands and backing up. He has never went sideways towards me from phase 1 before (he usually waits for me to put my carrot stick on the other side of his body), so I was super excited about that. Also, my 'Up' command has really been improving...he lifts his leg up even with the pedestal isn't around! How fun! We moved on to playing with the barrels Melissa had set up. At first he tried getting out of it and would madly dash around the barrels at the last second rather than jumping. I knew that our friendly game must be broken, he wasn't connected to me enough because he wasn't thinking, and he didn't see the incentive to jump.

I played some friendly game for a while, then moved onto the connection and the thinking. Disregarding the barrels, we played with some transitions online from only my energy. Once he was with me there, I started making him think about the barrels by doing things like trot up to the stop and back up or side pass around them. Once I felt that everything was improved, I asked him to jump and he said "No problem!". I wasn't expecting him to be that willing, but I sure did love it! After lots of carrots and scratches, he went on the jumping the barrels without a problem from the walk. One of our biggest improvements in such a short time!!!

After that we were so connected I decided that it would be a perfect time to practice our phase 1 transitions freestyle. I didn't have my 12 foot line around, so I just tied my savvy string around his neck since I didn't plan on doing a ton since we played online all day already. Since the barrels were out, I thought it would be fun to see if I could get on him from one since I think that is a level 3 freestyle task. Getting on a barrel when you are 5'1" is a LOT tricker that it looks. In the meantime while I struggled to get up there Sonny had wandered a few steps away. Oh crap...I don't have a lead rope on him and now he isn't close enough for me to get on and I just used all my energy to get up here. As soon as I stood up, Sonny looked at me and came sideways right over to me..."Wanna ride?".Being the emotional person I am, this gave me goosebumps and almost brought tears to my eyes. Then after that we were just walking around and I aimed him at the pedestal. Not only did he offer to stand on it, he offed to put all four feet on it without me asking! He has NEVER put all four feet on it when I am on him...I couldn't believe he offered it! He melts my heart :).

Practicing our new trick...'Up'!

How Interesting

Sonny and I had some...strange past few days. Last Wednesday everything was normal, then I didn't get to see him much Thursday through Saturday because of my sister's birthday and work. I finally got a chance to go over Sunday night. He started out pretty grumpy, as I mentioned here.

Normally I let Sonny out in the arena while I clean his stall before we play. He likes to investigate and roll and all that good stuff. By the time I go out there he greets me with a little nicker and walks over to me. Sunday night I found him standing in the far in of the arena with his head low and his ears back. He didn't even notice of me. After trying to be interesting by doing everything but hanging from the rafters, he finally walked over to me when I got close enough. As you can see in my other post, he eventually came around and started acting more normal.

Monday at lunch time I went down to say hi and clean his stall before I went to school. Again, I found him at the far end of the arena with his ears back. This time he wouldn't come to me no matter what I did. Even when I drove him away and disengaged him, he still wouldn't come near me. The whole time he kept his ears back and not like focused back, back more than normal. I returned after school to deal with the same thing. I planned on spending some undemanding time with him since obviously something was wrong. We walked around the arena and he put in a tiny bit of effort to be with me, but his ears were still way back.

After some good time of doing nothing I took him back into his stall where his dinner was waiting for him. Normally I make him wait until he asks if he can eat. When I made him wait last night, he actually pinned his ears at me in an aggressive way. I was really shocked!

Although Sonny's ears are pointed backwards a lot, they
are normally a 'relaxed, focused' backwards. I have
really only seen them 'pinned' back when he is around
other horses. 

What would be causing this sudden mood swing? Melissa even mentioned that he just looked depressed. I worried about it all day today. Lately I have been handling more horses than normal; I don't intend on applying human characteristics to horses by saying he was jealous, but maybe he didn't approve of their scent on me? Maybe it had to do with the fact he hasn't been outside to eat grass lately because of the weather? Maybe I have been pushing him too much lately? Every day we go, go, go, play, play, play...maybe he just needed a break?

Today I went down with the idea of spending more undemanding time together. When I went out into the arena there he was giving me two eyes and two eyes and happily walked towards me :). He followed me around while I sent up some things and seemed like we never missed a beat.

I have no idea why the past two days were so unusual. I doubt I will ever truly know, but I can try to keep it from happening again. No longer is our 'day off' going to be on a day when I can't make it over. Undemanding time is still crucial, and I think that is especially true for an LBI. Since I dropped chemistry, I now have a ton of time so I have been playing with him every day. Before I would take days that I didn't have much time and spend them hanging out in his stall. Now that I have more time, I use it to my advantage but maybe not to his. From now on, we will have one undemanding day a week. I think it would be great to take him for a walk down the driveway or through the hay field. Very relaxing, quality time together. I think it will be great for the both of us!



Fascinated, Not Frustrated

Sonny definitely woke up on the wrong side of the stall yesterday. He had his ears glued backwards and did not want to do anything! I started out the night with just some simple porcupine and things like that and he was grumpy, grumpy, grumpy. I was about to get frustrated that he was in such a bad mood when I realized I should be fascinated instead!

I took a step back and broke down the situation. He is LBI, so the more I try to get him to do anything the more he is going to 'rebel'. Obviously I was not being provocative enough to gain his interest. So I changed the plan in order to engage his brain and interest.

Trick training is perfect for LBIs. A lot of the stuff requires minimal energy, there is a ton of incentive, and it makes them use that smart brain of theirs and helps them feel smart. Sonny knows how to give kisses, but that is about it. Time to expand!

If you remember this post, Sonny LOVES the pedestal (along with probably the majority of the LBI population). He loves it so much he puts effort into standing on it because he knows either a rest or treat follows. In order to not only engage his brain but also to expand the things we can do with different objects, I decided it would be a fun idea to teach him to just put one foot on the pedestal when I say 'up'.

I wasn't really sure how this was going to work out considering the only trick I have ever taught a horse was to give kisses! I started out with him really close and would direct him the same way I would to get him to stand on the pedestal and said 'Up' at the same time. The first two or three times he put two feet on and I backed him off so only one foot was on, then rubbed and let him rest. About the 4th time he put only one foot on! Then, about the 6th or 7th time, all I had to do was say Up and he put his foot on! WOW! Not only did he catch on, he immediately was giving me two eyes and two ears, asking "Do you want me to put my foot on here?". I can't believe how fast his whole mood/attitude changed!

I know Sonny is incredibly smart, but it still blew me away at how fast he caught on! I was beyond fascinated. This kind of reminds me of when you watch animal planet and Caesar talks about giving dogs a job. Not only does it make them feel important and smart, but it gives them something to set their mind to. This is what I need to do with Sonny. I know I probably mention this in every post, but every day I constantly gain more knowledge of how important this is and how to put practice to purpose.

Lesson of the day: No longer can I go out there and expect to warm up in the most mundane way ever. I can't start out with a little bit of circling game, oh jump the jump now, lets yo-yo a little bit,  now we can push that ball and so on. That just isn't going to cut it anymore. Not only do I need to have interesting things in mind for the whole play session, but our warm up is just as important. Linda recently posted about this on her blog, but now I truly understand it. I always used the excuse 'well he is LBI, so we warm up slow'. Yes, our warm up is going to be different than with an LBE, but 'slow' does not mean boring! Putting a foot on the pedestal is slow, but it is obviously not boring! I need to engage his brain and get him with me from the very start to improve everything else for the day.

One of Sonny's first few times on the pedestal at the old barn!

This Is How We Do It

My boyfriend and I bought a trailer over the summer. It was very inexpensive, but still very solid. Since it is older, it is really small...which means there was no way any horse wanted to go in it.

I moved Sonny to a new barn the beginning of August. Before then, he hadn't been trailered in two years. The first day I worked with him was a slow process. I was taking the time it takes, which was a lot! After a while he managed to get his front feet in and we stopped at that.

The next day (which was the day before the move), Linda posted this on her blog. I can't even begin to say how much that helped! I had his front feet in the trailer within a couple of minutes because of reverse psychology! The day of the move came and I was able to get him in confidently. It took a long while though; lots of in and out and in and out. I knew we were missing something, the trailer just wasn't a 'sweet spot' for him, yet.

Once he was settled in his new home, we brought the trailer back. I knew I had to make it not about the trailer, but to make it about the incentive. He didn't want to get on not because he was scared, but why should he? To make it a sweet spot, I knew I had to make the right option easy and the wrong option hard. So, what does an LBI love? Treats of course! And lots of rest. We started out our first day with the trailer at the new place by suggesting he go on. If he declined my suggestion, that was fine. I would just take him back into the arena and we did lots of trotting, cantering, jumping, and things that required energy. Then I would take him back to the trailer and ask again. If he even touched the ramp he got to sit there for a bit, then I would kindly pull him out and go back to things that required energy. Every time he went further into the trailer he got to rest longer. Eventually we went in far enough to reach the place where you put hay and guess what? There were lots of treats! What a great surprise!

This video was from the 3rd day at the new barn, or his 6th time playing with the new trailer. It was such a sweet spot by that 6th day, he wanted to get on.

 

This was my lesson as to how important reverse psychology is, especially with LBIs! Now I apply that with everything. If I want him to go faster, I first slow him down. It is hard to always think about things that way, but the more you do it the easier it gets. And as always, be sure to take the time it takes so it will take less time!

Putting Playing to Purpose

If you have ever had an LBI (or perhaps you are one, yourself!), you already know how challenging it can be to bring up his (or your!) playdrive. We call them the 7 games, but my LBI doesn't always think of them like that. There are some days where he looks at anything that involves moving as the dreaded w word...work!

Yesterday started out like every other day. I let him loose in the arena to roll and investigate if any sources of food have shown up since the day before. He always has to fix the playground I set up for the day; yesterday he threw cones, rolled the barrels and moved the balls to where he thought they should go. Normally I move them back to be able to accomplish what I had in mind for the day, but since I have been focused on hearing out his opinion lately, I left them where he had put them and decided to work with that.

Our day started out slow with lots of incentive. Things like 'touch it' come into play when he lacks motivation and are a great way to get him going somewhere with a 'rest' at the end. After some playing with the cones and a pole he started to look a little more alive. We moved down to the other end of the arena where he had placed the barrel and balls. He had them set up like this:

As always, I was trying to be creative in order to engage that smart brain of his. He had actually choosen a very interesting way to set things up and made it out to be a perfect playground! He could figure 8 around the red ball and green ball, around the red ball and barrel, squeeze or yo-yo between the barrel and green ball, change direction around the red ball or between the barrel and green ball, touch it, and so on...the possibilities were endless!

As we started the first thing I noticed were the questions! No longer did he just go up to the red ball and push it, he asked "What should we do now with the ball?". Coming from an LBI who always wants to do things his way, this was astonishing! Not only was he asking questions, he was having a great time! We were playing. He started out at a walk with a grumpy face and before I knew it he was so focused, listening to me, and trotting!!! I couldn't help but to find myself laughing and having such a great time as we maneuvered through the obstacles.

Lesson of the Day: My LBI will never be like my dog; I can't just get out a toy and have him be excited about playing. In order to get him to want to play, I first have to get his mind playing. He absolutely has to be engaged mentally in order for him to be engaged physically.

Our relationship has been improving so much lately, but this is going to take it to a whole new level. I hope that this influences him to want to be (and play) with me not only because there is a potential for treats and rests, but because of the fun we have together! This is a big challenge for me to become creative as ever in order to influence his mind into playing. Considering he was so creative yesterday, who knows what we will come up with next!