Lucky

Yesterday was amazing! The weather was beautiful: around 75 degrees, sunny, and a breeze. We got the shirts for Parelli - Ohio! figured out and found out they would be on time for Equine Affaire! Great news! On top of all that, Sonny and I had a wonderful ride, and it was outside for the first time this year!

I warmed up inside and he was a little slow going. I practiced what I learned from Laura and set higher expectations of him. His sideways was much quicker and more responsive today! He gave me a lot of good faces online, which always makes me happy!

We moved on to riding outside. The good thing about the outdoor is that the railing is smooth, contrary to the big posts that jut out in the indoor. This gave us a steady track to follow rather than weaving around in the indoor while trying to follow the rail. I was actually really shocked by how well Sonny did follow the rail. He is so bad about it inside and was so great outside. Occasionally he would fall into the inside but didn't take much to get him back on track. That makes me think that I am more of the problem when following the rail in the indoor than him. Oops!

That is what we call 'Bareback Butt'!! ;)

Understandably, he was a bit distracted being outside with the wind blowing and a stallion hanging out on the fence line. To get him focused I decided to play with the cloverleaf pattern for the first time. Because of the way the indoor is set up (the size and the posts along the side), I have always been too nervous to try the pattern. It actually ended up going much better than I thought it would! Starting the pattern was a bit rough; we were all over the arena going fast then slow and everything in-between. I remember Pat (in a savvy club DVD) mentioning that you want to make X (the very center of the arena) the sweet spot. Therefore every time we hit X I let him rest. My clever little LBI caught on so quick! Before I knew it, not only was he following the rail and staying pretty straight, he was listening to my aids and putting in effort to get to the center! He definitely understood the pattern because he would stay in the rail until I turned him off towards the center. Awesome!

After our lesson Tuesday and our ride yesterday, I am definitely becoming more confident with freestyle! I am excited to continue to play with it outside and to be moving towards my green sting! It is not just the four leaf clover [pattern] that is lucky, I am pretty darn lucky to have such a wonderful partner!

My lucky charm. 

Arrows in My Quiver

We had a great lesson with Parelli Professional Laura Beaver yesterday! Laura is on her way to become a 2* instructor and I feel very lucky to be a part of her journey!

As we warmed up, she made a really good comment to not use horsenalities as an excuse. When thinking about canter circles and such, I don't play the "He is an LBI, he can't do it" card, but I did find myself using that as an excuse to go slow. I know its okay to warm up slow and match his energy, but she made me realize that if he knows something and has had enough time to wake up, there isn't any reason why he can't do it as a normal pace. Our sideways game has always been inch by inch; responsive, but very slow. He has been doing the sideways game for over 2 years now, time to step it up a notch!

Slow going. I love that we are resting the same leg! 

Once I got on, she really brought 'focus' to my attention. From my previous dressage lessons, I am pretty good with the concept, but Laura did help me clarify a lot of things! We played with circling around a cone. WAY harder than it sounds! I kept losing my focus and either looking down at him when I used my carrot stick or looking sideways at the wall if he fell to the inside. Rather than change my focus to the wall, I need to keep my focus on the circle while asking him to move back to the correct track. Interesting!!

Blurry, but a great picture of our focus on the circle!

I know this probably sounds silly since I am LBE/LBI, but freestyle lessons are always such big confidence boosters for me. Freestyle is definitely my most challenging savvy and sometimes I am too intimidated to get out there and try things for fear of failure (which relates back to this post). Every freestyle lesson I have had (4 now) puts more and more arrows in my quiver and the more comfortable I am starting to feel with it. With summer just around the corner, I hope to continue to add to my quiver and thank everyone (especially Juli and Laura) for helping me get all those arrows!

Thanks, Laura!

Thanks to Evan for taking the pictures :).

Perfect Practice

I am definitely a perfectionist, and as Pat would say “Only perfect practice makes perfect”. Although I am always striving for never ending self improvement, there are a few times when I can get a little LBI/LBE about things and either a) not put as much effort into them as I should or b) want them to be perfect without the practice and give up when it [obviously] doesn’t happen like that.

A few of these little ‘issues’ I have mentioned before, such as mounting and stick-to-me from his right side, bridling (well, the bit) and the weave. Now that I am back from vacation and summer is just around the corner, I really want to put effort into practicing everything perfectly because nothing means nothing and everything means something.

I started out today by trying to do everything with excellence. Expect a lot, accept a little, and reward often. I had let Sonny out into the little grass area outside the barn while I cleaned his stall. Instead of just going up, slapping the halter on and dragging him back into the barn, I played with ‘how little does it take me to ___’. I guess I should rephrase that to ‘how much’ by the way things were going! He hadn’t been outside lately and the catching game wasn’t on his list of things to do. After some looooong phase 1s and quick 2, 3, and 4s, he started focusing on me and paying attention. After I got his attention and got him to walk over to me, I aimed to halter with excellence rather than shove the halter between his nose and the grass. After picking up his head a few times by pressing my fingers into his cheeks, he politely waited for me to halter him with savvy. After getting him focused on me and haltering with excellence, I played the stick to me back into the barn instead of just dragging him along. MUCH better than the usual events we plow through!

Once inside the barn I played with one of our biggest downfalls: standing while I groom. I have gotten into a horrible habit lately of letting him move around and eat and doing everything he wants while I follow him around with my brush. While on vacation, he had an entire week to do whatever he wanted, so I thought today would be a good day to practice perfectly and step up and be a leader. I kept the savvy DVD about grooming in mind and got to it. I pictured a square that just encompassed his feet. Every time he moved a hoof out of the square, I moved it back in (whether it be backwards, forwards, sideways, etc.). Then if he stood in that square for a good amount of time, he got a treat. My smarty-pants LBI didn’t take long to catch on. Occasionally he thought the hay on the ground sounded better than standing for a treat, but I stuck to it and that was the best he has ever stood for me since moving to the new barn last August!

We warmed up sooo slowly online today. I got him to perk up a little bit, but I must have interrupted his nap time today because he was out of it! I forgot my theraflex pad at home so I ended up borrowing Melissa’s bareback pad for our ride today. As I have mentioned before, I have such a hard time with freestyle because I go totally LBE and want everything to be perfect right now! Today I had the attitude that things can’t be perfect if I don’t practice them perfectly, so I aimed to really play with things I normally avoid. That includes trotting for longer periods of time, following the rail consistantly, and making my carrot stick phase 4 mean something so he responds to phase 1.

I am not sure why but it blew me away when I realized how great of a ride we had today. We were happy, relaxed, and everything was so much better than normal! He followed the rail, his carrot stick responses moved from non-existent to phase 2, we did multiple figure 8s through the question box maintaining and trot, and his downward transitions were awesome! To top it all off, he reached for the bit today and did the best he has ever done with bridling!

So my lesson of the day is: you can’t get perfection without perfect practice. I know that is common sense, but in order to live a lifestyle of never ending self improvement, you consistently have to be conscience of aiming to do everything with excellence. Although it was easier to drag him into the barn, let him run around while I groomed, or pretended our follow the rail issues didn’t exist, if I take the time it takes it is definitely going to take less time. Before I know it, he will be standing still while I groom and it won’t take long at all. Or things like finesse or going to come so much easier because he holds up his responsibilities in freestyle. In the end, the only way to move towards perfection is to practice perfectly.

Crusin'

Carnival Freedom

I am not sure if I mentioned it or not, but for the last week I have been on a cruise!! I went with my boyfriend, Stephen, his whole family, and my best friends, Melissa and Evan!

It was such a great time. We left out of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and went to Key West, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica!! I will probably post more about it later, but this is my horsie blog so I don't want to go too off topic.

I went and saw Sonny on my way home last night. Thankfully, he is still in one piece! He looked much bigger last night that I remember (he probably said the same about me after all the cruise food I ate!).

For now I am trying to catch up. Classes start tomorrow, I have to go back to work tomorrow, and Melissa and I have a lot of parelli things to do this week! Guess vacation is over....

Stephen, Me, Evan, and Melissa in Key West, FL.

Friday Favorite #5

This week's Friday Favorite is:

Homemade treats! Being an LBI, Sonny loves any and all things edible. He especially loves these homemade treats! Unfortunately, I don't get a chance to make them as often as I would like. But, they are quick and easy and taste pretty good...even to humans!

Here is the recipe if you would like to try them:

• 1 cup dry oatmeal
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup shredded carrots or apples (I use both)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup molasses

Mix ingreditents in bowl as listed. Make littles balls and placed on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown. 

They turn out to be a gooey texture, which some horses don't like. But, I prefer it for him rather than the hard, break your tooth ones. 

I encourage you to try this recipe, or send me one of your own! I would love to get a little binder going of fun treats to make! 

Fast Track Preparations

I am really, really, really, hoping to attend a fast track course next year. I was going to go this year, but didn't think it was a good idea to miss a whole semester of classes and if the dates are similar to last year, I shouldn't have to miss any school next year. Although it really bummed me out that I would have to push it back, I am starting to think that taking the time it takes is going to pay off. I have so much I want to accomplish before then! I am going to start keeping track of things on here to help me stay motivated and on top of things. So starting out, here is my 'to-do' list:

• Pass level 3
• Online
• Freestyle
• Liberty
• Start playing with finesse
• Purchase all of the following:
• GOC
• Mastery DVDs
• Liberty and Horse Behavior
• Slant horse trailer 
• Possibly a western saddle, if I find one for the right price 
• Save, save, save, lots and lots of money! 
• Current savings: $1,000.00

I plan on adding to/marking off the list as I go on. If you have any suggestions, or have anything on my purchase list for sale, let me know! 

Sleepy Head

I have two finals today then it is Spring Break! Wahoo!

And guess who just rolled out of bed? ;)

Back That Thing Up

Last week I posted about having issues with backing, mainly due to respect. Well, backing has improved tremendously since then!

Tonight I played a bit at liberty. To start off, his sideways was amazing. That was definitely the furthest he had gone sideways at liberty from phase 1 without moving forward. Awesome!

From the sideways we moved on to two trot circles. He happily trotted along around me (even though his buddies were standing at the far end of the arena and he could have gone to hang out with them!). When I disengaged, he gave me two eyes and two ears and politely waited for me to ask him to come in. Is this really the same horse as last week? Wow! Love those happy faces!

I wanted to test our back up, because once you take the halter off nothing is left but the truth. The truth is: our back up really did improve as much as I thought! I got him to back up more than 22 feet from phase 1/2, then he waited so nicely to come back into me.

Success! Super happy with tonight!

On a side note, we had a really great time yesterday, too. It was 65 degrees and beautiful outside so we went for a trail ride! There really isn't anywhere to ride but the road we just walked a little over a mile up the road. He was so great! We went down a lane to get to the road and he trotted over nicely when I asked and came to a halt without using my reins! It is so wonderful to have a horse than you can ride anywhere on a loose rein! What a fabulous few days we have had!

Lesson with Juli

We had our fifth lesson with Juli yesterday. As always, it was a huge success! All I really wanted to focus on was the bit and improving our freestyle. 

We made some good progress with the bit! I actually put the headstall on him. He chewed and chewed and chewed but there wasn’t any freak out! And I was able to take it off once he left it alone. I can’t wait to play with some bit isolation stuff. My only concern is which bit to use. I wish it was possible to let him sample a ton and pick out the one he likes best…

Playing with one of Juli's bits. 

He had a surprisingly great attitude today. I was really, really, really happy with his faces. He cantered four laps then when I stopped him, he gave me two eyes and two ears until I asked him to come in. Awesome. Then we did play with some figure 8s. I have been way to direct-line about them. Instead of just figure 8 after figure 8 Juli told me to switch it up more to keep him asking questions. Duh, I should have known that. Within a few minute his faces were looking much better and best of all when I went to bring him in to me, he started to turn back towards the cones so he definitely had the pattern on his mind! Can’t wait to play more with that!

Look at that ear on me! 

Once I got on Juli showed me how to disengage his hind end while riding. I am not really sure why but this blew my mind. I don’t think it is a hard concept to understand, but feel like I might be a little more confident/comfortable with it if I saw someone do it. I might look up some savvy club DVDs to see what I can find. I may need to just play with it more…maybe it will just click?

She gave me some great tools for when he pulls his snotty, LBI tricks to get out of things. She also pointed out that I go right to phase 4 with my carrot stick and keep it there when riding. As much as I would like to think I don’t do this, I know it is true. I don’t think he realizes what phase 4 means. I need to make phase 4 mean something to him in order to get a response from phase 1. Maybe this brings me back to my ‘snappy’ lesson? I think so!

So my things to keep in mind: Make cantering circles a game, don't be a direct line thinker when playing with figure 8s (or anything else!), practice partial disengagement from a walk and trot, and make my carrot stick phase 4 mean something! Being LBE, I want to go play with all of that right now! But, I think we might just enjoy the sunshine today :).

A special thanks to my boyfriend, Stephen, for spending the day at the barn with me and taking so many wonderful photos! 

Time Out

I mentioned in a recent post that I started playing with the Corners Game (which you can find out more about it in the freestyle patterns or in the new level 3 freestyle DVDs) with great success. I rode last night and warmed up with the corners game and again it worked out great! Even though the corners in my arena are dark and filled with toys, Sonny definitely gets the idea. I feel like I am putting him in time out sitting in the dingy corners, but I find it relaxing and I think he does, too. He is putting so much effort into getting to the corners, he was even trotting when I didn't ask him to. An LBI trotting when you only ask for walk is huge progress! It also is greatly improving our follow the rail. He used to constantly dive into the middle of the area or hunt down the question box, but now is happy to stay along the rail to make it to the next corner. 

We played with more canter last night and it is going better! He is making really ugly faces, but canters from phase 2 so I am hoping the faces will improve with his stamina. 

A big step for us was last night before I got on. After playing online a bit I took off the lead and played with figure 8's at liberty for the first time ever. We had been working so much on the weave that our figure 8's have been improving a lot. At first they were a little sticky and he was hesitate to move forward, but it didn't take him long to realize that the pattern was still the same even at liberty and he made a perfect walk figure 8! WOW! So impressed! Of course I stopped after that :). 

Kisses from my lovebug. 

Wam Walks

Sonny and I love going for walks. Last night it was warm and calm and the perfect night for a walk. Unfortunately, there isn't any neat/interesting/pretty scenery around. So we just walked up and down the road.

In the beginning he was a little worked up and so focused on grass. It was understandable, he hasn't been outside in a few days. After some eating I disengaged his hind end until he connected with my elbow and played some stick to me and that really god him more focused on my. All the way back to the barn he checked in with me :). Love nights like that.

Updates

The past two nights with Sonny were great! First and foremost, his ears have been much, much better. Not as good as I would like, but a huge improvement from the past few weeks.

He is now backing up like I have never seen him. I am trying to change up the amount of steps I want but to always have a goal in mind to help myself focus. He is putting so much more effort into it! I have also started putting it to purpose more often, such as backing over a pole, between cones, or out the gate. So happy with the progress!

The weave is making slow strides. It has gotten a little better in the sense we both don't go so right brained anymore. Which I guess is pretty big, but then I stay LBE and want it to be perfect right now! Of course is doesn't work like that. But perfect practice makes perfect!

Thinking about the weave. 

I rode a bit last night. I started out with playing with corners and that really, really helped him follow the rail. Too bad the corners in our arena are filled with stuff or else I think it would have been even more beneficial. I think using corners to warm up is going to be a great motivator when working with an LBI. I also cantered a bit, but nothing much. I am not exactly sure where I should go with the canter to improve it so I think that I something I am going to ask Juli about.

I am so excited about our recent progress! I won't be able to play tonight or tomorrow night but I am dying to get back out there Thursday!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Sonny has been really, really, nippy lately. He wants to bite/put his mouth on everything. He hasn't been aggresive at all, so I figured he has just been bored from being inside 24/7. Well, he went outside almost every day this week and Thursday he was still biting as much as ever. I didn't do a whole lot Thursday because there were so many people in the arena, but we we did do felt...blah.

Not only was he biting, he had his ears back all night. I have been thinking hard about it these past few days and I realize it all comes down to respect. He has lost a lot of respect for me lately and I don't do anything about it. I don't blame him. For some reason I have been letting him do things. I make up excuses for him, such as he is bored from being inside all day, and make up excuses for me, well I will allow him to do it. There is a big difference between let and allow, and I have been letting him do whatever he wants.

After thinking about it, we have had the most boring past few weeks. It's hard enough to not be boring with an LBI when I try, but I haven't even been trying which means he is probably ready to just eat me and get it over with. If I ask him to jump something and he doesn't, my response is "Well why don't we just touch it instead?". I ask him to canter and he trots, my response is "Well, okay lets just go do something else". I ask him to back 5 steps, "Oh, you only want to back 3? Okay, then". No wonder he has lost all respect for me, I have been the worst leader in the world!

So today I went out and actually acted alive. For the first time in a while I set up a playground. I set up four cones in a rectangle to work on backing...goodbye threee steps only!! I set up a weave, since we haven't done anything with that pattern since out last lesson with Juli in Janurary! And I set up two barrels for jumping.

After playing some touch it (which is getting really good with the bridle/bit!), I slowly worked him up to energy. I don't think boot camp would be fair after having weeks of spa days. We moved over to the cones and after circling through them I halted him in front of the first two and asked him to back behind the last two (so through the rectangle). After backing three steps (Linda is right, horses can count. Not a joke!), he stopped. I continued to ask him to back and he just stood there for a minute, so I moved to phase two and his head shot up and his ears pricked forward. "WHAAAAT?! More than three steps?" Haha, he definitely wasn't expecting it. But a few yo-yos later his backs were REALLY improving!

We circled down to the barrels and from a trot I asked him to go up to the barrels then stop. Not jump. Then the next time, I really focused on the jump and had the mindset "He will jump", not just corssing my fingers that he would. From the walk, he plopped right over the barrels. Who would have thought my horse could jump? ;)

The weave was a bit more challanging. Unforunately, my hypothesis that 'even if I didn't practice the pattern it will still get better' turned out to be false. It was just as sticky as it was when I left off. Our figure eights were a lot better, so I need to just keep applying them to more and more cones.

Along with playing with the weave, I am finally getting the motivation to do things that are hard for us and that I normall avoid. I asked him for a lot of sideways on his bad side and didn't just let him get to phase 4 for up and down transitions.

Overall we had a really great day! I hope that I was finally challenging him enough to make things interesting without feeling like work. Hopefully, we can keep with with the respect now!