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!

Being a Better Partner

After the realization that I have a tendence to be a direct line thinker, I have been working really hard to be a better human for Sonny. If I except him to hold up his responsibilites as a parter, I should, too.

I have been trying to be more creative to give him things that are more fun for him to do. My creativity levels aren't very high, but so far things like sideways over the ball on top of the tarp are new and interesting enough for him to be more willing and excited about things. On the savvy forum I saw an audition where the weave cones were on a circle. I thought that was a great idea...so did Sonny!

Not only did I ask him to weave the cones, sometimes he would have to stay on the inside or the outside, skip a cone, sidepass over one, or do transitions in between them. This really got him thinking! Thinking enough for him to come into me with two ears forward! Woo hoo!!

 

The more fun something is, the more effort he is willing to put into it and the better our relationship is going to be. I really need to work on expanding my creativity and to always keep incentive in mind. Things can only get better from here!

Look at his inside ear focused on me :). 

Fast Track News

Well, it looks like my Fast Track plans might be pushed back until spring of 2013. I am pretty bummed out about it, but would rather everything fall in place better.

I originally was going to have spring of 2012 off school and wanted to go then, but then switched my major and have to go spring quarter. In 2012 Ohio State is switching to semesters, meaning school will start in August, so the fall fast track of 2012 is out, too. But, semesters should be out of school early May, which means a late May/June fast track seems reasonable!

Parelli is what I want to do, there is no doubt about that. But without coming from a wealthy family, I have to have some decent career to support my education and be able to afford things like Sonny, a car, a house, and everything else. Without a college education, it would be a lot more difficult to be able to pursue my career with Parelli. So my goal is to balance them together: work on my career in veterinary technology at the same time as working on my career with Parelli. Idealy, I would have liked to gone to the fast track sooner so I could get my 1* sooner, but maybe waiting won't be such a bad thing? By then I will be much more advanced, know so much more, and have a better chance at passing the fast track and the 1* course.

It is disappointing that I will have to wait, but l am sure that taking the time it takes will pay off...as always!

My Mirror

Our Stick to Me game has had its ups and downs. In the beginning, the walk, halt and back up were excellent. Everyone at my old barn was always impressed. But, our trot was horrific. He would never trot when I did, then once the rope ran out he would trot really fast, come up behind me, then try to drive me with his head or a bite!

Juli told me in our first lesson that he needs motivation to keep me in zone 3, rather than me just dragging him around. With that in mind, things improved a ton! But, with him being LBI, he still wanted to drive me all the time instead of stick to me.

As always, Linda pulled through! She posted a video on Parellitube about the stick to me game. Her suggestion of driving him away during the stick to me game worked great and solved our trot.

After we had the trot solid for a while, I thought it would be fun to try the canter. When I first tried, he would only speed up his trot and get really playful. After a few unsuccessful days, I decided to give it a rest and come back to it at another time.

Yesterday we were playing online before I got on and I was having him mirror me. Sideways, forward, backwards, and every which way. He was so in tune with me, as he has been a lot lately, so I thought I would give the canter a try. It worked great! Within a couple times, he would noticed the change in my gait and change his! How awesome!

This little horse amazes me every day <3.

Visible Progress

Sonny and I have been progressing at a rapid pace lately. Our lesson with Jesse got it started, and every lesson with Juli keeps on improving us.

Not only are our games better, but our relationship has reached a whole new level. When we first started progressing, I was amazing. Sonny can canter 4 or 5 circles with me in neutral, he jumps higher, he now can go sideways towards me, and much, much more. But, within the last few days it has kind of hit me how much our relationship improved. He can go from trot to walk to trot on a circle just by my body language now. He doens't do it all the time, but for him to respond so such a subtle phase on a 22 foot line...that is a connection! During our first lesson with Juli, September 20th, he was in his own little world out there on the circle, wouldn't flex towards me and I had to go to phase 3 or 4 to get him to go from a trot to a walk. Just in a months time our relationship has grown so much.

Also, his whole attitude towards me can change. I noticed last night during our yo-yo game, he back up with his ears forward, asking "Can I come back in yet, can I, can I?". For the past two years, he has always come back in with his ears back, pushes me out of the way and demands treats. Last night I felt like he chose me over the treats; he valued coming in to be with me rather than for a scatch or a treat. What a huge accomplishment and an amazing compliment! I was elated!

I am thrilled with the present, but am so excited about the future. If our relatationship can grow that much in one month, just think what we could be doing next summer!


Rydel, Melissa, Me, & Sonny
We like to be matchy, matchy :).



Taking the Time It Takes

I realize I am very fortunate to have the education that I do. OSU is a great school, it's so close to home, and I have plenty of people supporting me through my time at college.

That doesn't mean I enjoy it. There is no worse feeling than being stuck inside a library studying molecular bio chemistry when the sun is shining in through the window, teasing you about the beautiful day outside. Of course my thoughts never leave Sonny as I mindlessly scribble notes on a page. I guess that is why I have always looked at college with the idea of 'Get in and get out!'.

In that fashion, I started college in the summer after my senior year of high school, I chose a major within a single quarter, and applied and was accepted a year early. I thought this was want I wanted. It was an allied medicine profession, paid well, and all of my family thought it was a great idea. I did, too....until I saw people living their dream.

Why can't I be a parelli professional? Why can't I make horses my full time job? Horses are my (only) passion. Having a job that involves horses seemed so...fantasy like. It never seemed possible to me because it would be too good to be true. With the help of my aunt I have realized that I can do this! I can make it happen. I can live my dream.

So today I went and changed my major from Medical Technology to Animal Science. I plan on graduating with a 2 year degree in Veterinary Technology and a 4 year degree in Animal Science with Emphasis on Equine Science. How awesome this that? My hopes are to work at the equine center near my house and give parelli lessons. Sounds perfect to me!

If I would have takent the time to takes to figure out what I want my life to be, I might not be in the position I am. At the same time, I am so thankful to have realized this before spending $30,000+ on a career I don't want and that doesn't make me happy. It is going to be a lot easier changing my life plan half way through my sophomore year in college rather than when I am 30 or 40 years old.

Lesson of the day: It is so easy to take Pat's lessons and apply them around your horse. He teaches so much horse psychology that the things he says 'click'. The key is to take that knowledge and use it in everything in your life. True savvy isn't just with horses, its a lifestyle.

A Goal Properly Set is Halfway Reached

I am really working towards getting to the August-September 2012 Fast Track in Colorado. As if that isn't a big enough goal in itself, I have a few other things that I would like to accomplish by then.

• An obvious goal would to be solid level 3, to the point if I wanted to I could easily pass all three savvys officially. With that in mind, here are my goals within the three savvys:
• Online: Be very comfortable with the 45' line, be able to check off everything from the self assessment list, confidently go sideways over a barrel, and jump around 3'. 
• Freestyle: Only need to use phase 1 or 2, check off a majority of the self assessment list, jump bareback, improve out riding with a carrot stick, and improve our sideways.
• Liberty: Work in a round pen, stick to me at the canter, jumping, transitions and sideways without a fence at a distance. 
• As always, I would love for him to havea majority of happy faces by then. That means I need to keep working hard to make my idea his idea, try not to ever offend him, and make sure he always feels like he is able to voice his own opinion.
• Send in our Level 2 Freestyle Audition and pass 2++.
• Be able to confidently go through water. 

Those might not be all of my goals, and they may not all be attainable in less than a year, but at least I have something to work towards!