Extroverted, Introverted, and Everything In-Between

Our natural trimmer, Rodger, came down on Saturday to do the horses' feet. It was raining and Sonny had been outside, but at least he was smart enough to stay in the shelter. He was cold and wet so I brought him in and dried him off. I had no idea what was in store for me.

Poor guy :(.

After getting him dry I took him out into the area to hang out until Rodger got there. To say the least, he was wild! Running, bucking, rearing, hopping, flipping his head, shaking his neck, and overall just full of energy. I am not sure what caused it, but it was too funny! I hadn't planned on doing anything, but he didn't want to stand still at all so I figured I would help get his feet moving. We played lots of stick to me and driving game at liberty (I didn't want to be at the other end of his rope!). It is also so interesting when my normally extreme LBI doesn't want to keep his feet still. I was being a little introvert that day, so it was hard for me to match his energy. Here is a short clip of it:

When he is extroverted is the only time I ask him to rear. When he is his usual, introverted self, my rear command is met with a lift of his nose and a grunt, without his feet ever moving haha. 

Once Rodger got there he calmed down and was good. His feet are really looking great! Which is a huge improvement from last fall when Rodger first started doing them.

Today Sonny was back to his normal self. Very introverted and not wanting to move very much. I set up some trot poles and did some different things with those. He backed right over them without trying to get out of it, so I was really happy with that. I also had him circle all the poles, then go between them, then over them, the stop in front of them, and everything I could think of. This got him interested enough to give me so good faces so I kept it short and sweet and ended on that. 

Before I took him out of the arena I wanted to work on one more thing (this is where the "in-between" part of the title comes into play). A few days ago I thought it would be interesting to see if he would go sideways over me. I have always, always wanted to do it, but never tried it. After seeing a PP do it at Equine Affaire, I knew we could do it. I played with it for a bit but did more friendly game under him than sideways. Well today I played with having him go sideways over me and I think it was a huge success. For this being only our second day, I was really happy with it! 

More to come, soon!

Friday Favorite #6

This week's Friday Favorite is:


The color purple! (And not the book. The actual color ;)) If you haven't noticed, I happen to like purple. A lot. 


I have a purple tack box:

Purple halter, lead, and sport boots:

Purple Carrot stick (and outfit; a little overdone that day!):

A purple cooler:

And now....A purple blog!!

What do you think? I tried to add a touch of purple without being too intense. So far, I like it! Let me know what you think :). 

Weekend Warriors

Last weekend I decided to take Sonny over to my boyfriend's house for a few days. I had been planning on it for a while, but it was supposed to rain all weekend so I gave up on the idea. Last minute, I decided to tough it out and make it work. It was my last chance to ride in the fields before they planted crops and I had the weekend off anyways so I figured, why not?

My view from Stephen's window.

We didn't plan it out very well; I'll know better next time. We got there late Friday night and it had just started raining, so I kept him in the "stall" Stephen set up. Stephen has a 3 sided barn where he gated off an area about 30x15. In the back he piled straw and we kept his buckets in the front. Sonny didn't seem to mind the stall, but I think he was worried about being alone.

I got up Saturday really early and let him out in the field. He seemed to do better then, but was still looking around a lot and not very relaxed. Around noon I went out to play with him even though it was raining; I figured the more I got his mind working the better off he would be. The rain had made everything slightly muddy and very, very chilly. Within 20 minutes we were wet, dirty, and cold. This had turned out to be such an awful idea! What was I thinking?

Munching on grass and looking around.

I took him back in the stall to dry him off. I didn't want to leave him by himself, so Stephen put together 4 bales of straw for us to lay on beside him. We all took a nap for maybe an hour or so. By the time we got up it was warmer, a bit sunnier, and at least not raining. He seemed so much calmer and happier that I let him out in the field. He was so relaxed and happy. We went back in the house to dry off ourselves. I checked on him every few minutes through Stephen's window. To my surprise, he kept going from eating grass to back in the barn to relax. Huh. How interesting!

Hanging out in the barn.

I rode later that day once it dried out a bit. We had a great ride through the fields. It was a bit windy, but he was motived and moving! I felt really 'in tune' with him, rather than him being faster or slower and me.

The weather was still nasty on Sunday. But, it cleared up enough for us to set some jumps out and have fun with that!

Giant jumps ;).

Overall, I wouldn't brave another weekend in bad weather. But, we sure did have lots of fun and I think it strengthened our relationship. Can't wait to play at Stephen's again...in better weather!

Liberty, and Justice for All

If you have ever been around an LBI, they definitely don't like to be told what to do. In fact, I believe that Sonny spends his nights in his stall strategizing on how to do the exact opposite of what I want. Okay, not really, but sometimes it does seem like that. Linda always talks about how much reverse psychology works; I believed it after the first time I told Sonny to not get on the trailer and he did.

I tend to be a very controlling person; I am a perfectionist and what everything exactly the way I want it right now. If you keep up with my blog, you will know that lately I have been on a serious "horsenality movement", trying to understand my LBI to the best of my ability. A major part of my "horsenality movement" is to be able to be the best partner I possible can for Sonny.

We had a great time playing yesterday online. He gave me some really happy faces and I kept it short and sweet. I went back down last night to load him up and take him over to Stephen's. Stephen was running late so I had about 20/30 minutes to kill. I wanted to take him out for a walk around the barn, but I changed it up. Linda said to change things up, do something unexpected. So, I took him at liberty.

I didn't do a whole lot. We walked around the barn, through the grass, out to the front, then back in. He never left my side. Even through the grass and past multiple other horses. When we got back in, there were a bunch of horses in the aisle, so we had to stand and wait for such a long time. He was still at liberty (I had my savvy string around his neck for my safety net) and stood right with me. He never tried to move and was happy to just stand there with me. Which totally blew my mind, because even when I have the halter on I have to remind him every two seconds to stand still. And that's when he isn't dragging me around the aisle vacuuming up all the hay on the ground. The feeling that you get as you weave in and out of people and horses and go through arenas and grass and gates and your horse stays at your side, well that's one of the greatest feelings I have ever had. Without a halter and rope, its like we had something tying us together so much stronger than my 12 foot line. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

I've always had an idea that Sonny loves liberty. It is definitely his favorite savvy, and not because he thinks he can get away or get more food that way. It's because there's justice for all. Justice is defined as "the quality of being fair and reasonable". Not saying that I am not fair online or while riding, but what better way for him to voice his opinion to me than by what he can say at liberty. There have been times when he has shouted at me online and I was oblivious. He doesn't even have to raise his voice for me to hear him at liberty. Liberty requires us both to do our part, and recognize each other's needs. At liberty, we are equals.

Therefore, I am going to try to start applying that same concept to all other savvys. I want there to always to be mutual respect, great communication both aways, and most importantly, the partnership. The more I trust him (and vice versa), give him a bigger responsibility, and don't make assumptions, the happier he will be and that will build an even better partnership for us.

When you take the halter or bridle off, you are left with one thing. The truth. And the truth is, I am so lucky to have such a great partner.

The love of my life <3

Visible Progress

After learning so much about LBI's at Equine Affaire, Sonny and I have made so much progress. Looking back at my play session on Friday, I knew I was still missing something. The intensity was a huge factor, but I just wasn't all the way there.

Sunday I went out with the intentions of really making him happy and having him want to be with me. What makes an LBI happy? Food and rest. So we took it out of the arena and out to hay field. I let him eat for a while, then slowly started playing with intensity. I made sure I had my LBI face on, and got to it! Again, I went back to the basics: yielding the forehand and hindend, simple sideways and easy circling game. I didn't want to bore him, but at the same time I was trying to observe the way he reacted rather than push, push, push him to do things. Like with Friday, I saw huge results with my slow motions but intense mind. I was very impressed with the circling game. After only a short time playing, he really got interested when I made things a game. I made my send on the circling game a game: don't make me pick up my stick or else I'm going to tag you! Right away he caught on and I had a forward, happy, trot without him even trying to stop and eat until I asked him to. Win!

I let him loose for a while and played lots of friendly game while he ate. Rather than be boring and just clip my lead on and walk him back to the barn, I played the catching game. The first few times he would come up to me and walk for a bit, then get distracted with all the grass and fall behind. Normally I would push him to stay with me. Instead, I moved slower and become more intense. I played stick-to-me backing up rather than pushing him to walk with me. Before I knew it, he was right there beside me back to the barn.

We had to go through a gate to get from the hay field to the "holding area" outside the barn. The area is small and grassy and basically just an area that is fenced in so if a horse gets loose in the barn there isn't anywhere for it to go. Since Sonny was at liberty, I expected him to go eat grass while I shut the gate. To my surprise, he has turned around to face me as I closed the gait and waited. I walked away from the gate and he followed me, and again stood there with me rather than eating grass. I rubbed his face and his neck while he preceded to sniff me up and down and up and down. It was like he was meeting me for the first time all over again. After a few minutes of standing there and rubbing his head and neck, he shook his head, let out a big blow and licked and chewed. After he had finished I walked him back into the barn, where he stood at liberty while I cleaned him up.

I was so thrilled with the day that it gave me goosebumps. I feel like I am slowly but surly making progress in the LBI department. I hope to continue to fulfill his wants and needs and become the perfect partner for him!

Wordless Wednesday

Some final pictures from Equine Affaire!

Helping W be more confident out on a circle. 

Such a cutie :).

The extrovert!

I think her name was Grace, and she was over 18 hands!

While Guy road one horse, his other just stood there!!!

Weeeeee

All the goodies I bought!

That's all, folks! 

Light Bulb

At Equine Affaire on Thursday I had a few major "ah ha!" moments. They went something like this:

(One of my favorite movies!)

They came to me in Linda's first demonstration on horsenalities. Of course I focused on the LBI, Christine's mare, Z. I have always felt like I understand LBIs because I can be one, too. But after Thursday, I feel like I have a whole new outlook towards them.

One of Linda's ways to show the different horsenalitlies was through the circling game. When she got to the LBI, I knew she would slow her down in order to have to speed up. She did, in fact, do that, but she did a few other things that really caught me off guard. She started with the yo-yo game. Z was looking pretty out of it, so when Linda asked her to back she didn't respond (a real shocker). So after going through her phases, Linda popped her on the nose with the end of the 12 foot line. That woke her up and got her attention! I was fairly familiar with the act, tagging an LBI isn't uncommon. I have heard Linda say many times to tag an LBI around the flank. Even though it was great to see it in person, the way she did it was what made me have my "light bulb" moment.

When I play with Sonny, I always try to match his energy. Being an LBI, I go really slow. But that's not all there is to it! Linda explained that not only do you have to match them physically, you need to match a horse mentally as well. "Light Bulb!" Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! It made so much sense to me I wanted to run down to the area and give her a hug right then. When you mirror a horse, you aren't only mirroring the outside of them, you have to mirror the inside. Although Sonny is really slow on the outside, his brain is constantly moving full speed. When I go play with him, I go so slow mentally that I am just boring him to death! As Linda put it, I need to be physically slow, but mentally intense.

You can see how mentally intense she is! 

I was so excited I had to go play with him right away. I made it out Friday night and it went so well! When ever I used my phases, I tried to imitate how Linda projected her energy. She moved so slow, but had this smirky/half-evil/I'm-gonna-getcha look on her face. You could tell, even from the stands, how she projected her energy to make her phases a game.

One of her milder faces ;).

Sonny caught on immediately. I just did simple things like moving his forehand, but I played around with my energy and my intensity. I started off with my old and boring/mindless way, then increased my intensity without increasing my speed. It is more difficult than it sounds, but man did it work!

I wanted to keep things short and sweet. Another thing I took away from her demonstrations is that I need to be more aware of what makes him happy. Being in an arena is not one of those things. So I just played the basic games and tested them with my intensity. After only a few minutes he perked up, become responsive and interested! After moving his forehand around with almost only my intensity, he licked and chewed like made then let out at least 5 or 6 yawns. I took that as a "Oh thank god you finally understand me!" and ended on that :). 

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Linda for opening up my eyes!

Equine Affaire

WOW! What a weekend! If you didn't know, Equine Affaire ran from Thursday to Sunday and for the first time in years, LINDA PARELLI WAS THERE! It was such an amazing time!

We Are Parelli Ohio!

I went with Melissa and Evan for the entire day on Thursday and Friday. Parelli had a huge booth, stocked with goodies, equipment, and local Parelli Professionals. We were able to hand out our Parelli Ohio shirts and meet so many people! 

Linda had two demonstrations on Thursday: the first about horsenality and the second about humanality. The stars were our local Parelli Professionals, Jesse Peters and Christine Madoni, as well as Mollie Vacco from New York. They were all fabulous, of course, and excellent representations of their horsenalities/humanalities. There were also two demos on Friday, Horsenality/Humanality Match and the Game of Contact! Woo hoo!

Jesse and W! They sure had a fan section :)

Christine and Z, both LBI's, if you couldn't tell ;). 

The extroverts: Mollie and Reese!

When we weren't handing out shirts, drooling over Linda, or spending all of our money, we got to play around a little bit!

I learned how to ride like a jockey.

Guy Mclean!!

With all the demonstrations, fabulous horses and riders, and being star-stuck by Linda, it was a bit of information overload! What a phenomenal few days full of great (like-minded) people, education, and helping make the world a better place for horses and humans!

Me, Linda, and Melissa <3

More pictures and stories from Equine Affaire to come, so stay tuned! 

Beyond Busy

I have been so busy that I am not going to be able to go play with Sonny today. Tomorrow doesn't look so good either. Or the next day. Or the next.

For school tomorrow I have an exam, two quizzes discussion posts due. Then I have to work. Thursday and Friday I will be at Equine Affaire all day long. Saturday and Sunday look a little more promising, but I work both days. It's days like this that make me wish I was back on the cruise ship!

So, if you don't hear from me in a few days, you know what I'll be doing. Hopefully over the weekend I will be able to post about all the great things at Equine Affaire! If you aren't aware, Linda will be giving demos on horsenality and GOC! I couldn't be more excited :).

Have a great week, everyone!

Surreal

Yesterday was just one of those days that you wish would never end.

The weather was so beautiful, high 50s and sunny!  SInce it was so nice I threw a  few barrels in the outdoor (usually everything is in the indoor) and set them up for big figure 8s.

I started out online with my featherline and Sonny was so great! I played a little with Mikey's "project" with the barrels: we did a lot of things that ended with a rest at one of the barrels. After playing some touch it, I played with sideways towards a barrel and stayed at the very end of my 22.     His sideways so straight and snappy, I was thrilled! 

After he was warmed up enough, I got on and started with some passenger lessons. Once we started to follow the rail I focused on disengaging his hindquarters to bring him to a stop. At first he wanted to trot when I put my leg on, but I reinforced with my carrot stick then let him eat the grass along the rail once he did stop. He caught on so quick! Pretty soon we were disengaging to a stop with very minimal effort! I am so thankful for that clarification at Juli's workshop! 

I then played with circling and doing figure 8s around the barrels. It went so well at the walk! I could totally tell he was focused and bending around the barrels. I made sure to let him rest, or take him into the barrel and stop him when I felt like he was really understanding the circle. The trot was okay, he was very sluffish. He had been outside for a few days straight and I think he was just so worn out. After a really good circle I stopped and called it a day.

Walking around the barrel.

Throughout my riding I made sure that I kept my hand in neutral. Maybe it is from my dressage background, but even when I am not using my reins I like to stay bent at the elbow and hold my hand above his withers. Yesterday I played a game with myself and made sure I kept my index finger  touching my therflex pad (the part that connects the two sides over the withers). This was so surprisingly hard for me! I would find myself all tense because I was dying to lift my hand up! This really brought to my attention what a bad habit I have, but I feel like now that I am more aware of it I will have an easier time fixing it!

After riding I walked him down past the pastures to let him graze on really great grass. Even though we were out in the middle of an open field, I felt confident enough to take his halter off and let him eat while I tried to get as much hair as possible off him. He wandered from spot to spot, but never moved too much. After a bit I decided that we should go back so I went back about 10 feet away from him to pick up the halter where I had dropped it. I turned around and he had followed me! Once I stopped, he stopped and ate. So I tried it again: I started walking and before I knew it he was right there with me! Wow, did that make me feel warm in fuzzy inside or what? For my food obsessed LBI to walk with me out in the middle of a field full of lush, green, grass at liberty was one of those moments where you just feel complete.

Following me at liberty in the
big, open field :).

Yesterday was such a wonderful day and I look forward to many more over the summer! 

At the End of My Rope

Literally.

During my last lesson with Laura, she brought up that in order to pass level 3 online, I need to get Sonny out at the end of my rope. Common misconception: Just because I am holding my popper doesn't mean that I am at the end of the rope! Having most of the rope on the ground and only 3 feet between Sonny and I isn't what they are looking for ;). Although slack in the rope is good, I still need him out and away from me more!

At the end of my rope, but with lots of slack.

So last night I took ahold of that idea and it went so well! I started out the day with my normal touch-it games but this time I challenged Sonny to see how far away I could stand and still get him to touch it! It was a little difficult at first, then we both realized its the same game no matter where I stand.

I applied the distance to everything we did. I brought out the tarp for the first time in a while. Not only did he walk across it from 22 feet away, he backed onto it from 22 feet away!

One of the best parts of the night was our sideways game. I combined what I learned from both Juli and Laura in the past few weeks and man, oh, man was it great! He marched sideways right out to the end of my 22, then marched right back in sideways towards me when I asked. WOW! I was extremely impressed with the speed he used on his way out and how easily he came back in. Best sideways we have had so far!

Now I feel like I have a much better understanding of what level 3 quality is and am dying to get my audition sent in!

Wordless Wednesday

Sonny likes chicken! 

Tired after a long weekend! 

Nom nom nom!

Parelli Workshop

On Saturday, Melissa and I had the privilege to participate in an online/freestyle workshop held by 2* instructor Juli Piovesan. It was an introductory workshop to teach people about not only the levels, but horsenalities as well. Juli brought her horse, Ames (RBE), Melissa brought Rydel (RBI), Debbie brought her Sonny (RBE), and I brought my Sonny (LBI).

We started out online and went through the seven games as Juli explained them a touched on how horsenalities affect how you approach the games.

Porcupine from the chest. 

Debbie showing some sideways on the rail. 

Melissa using the 'triangle' to improve her squeeze game.

I was particularly proud of the circling game Sonny and I had. Right off the bat he maintained a trot for multiple circles! Usually he stops during our first circle and I have to reminded him that it is his responsibility to maintain gait and then he trots multiple circles. But yesterday he was a superstar and held up his end of the responsibilities perfectly!

So his head may be cut off, but you get the point!

Melissa and I with walk circles.

After showing what all the games were, she set up some challenges for us, which were so much fun! Our first challenge was to yo-yo between the barrels without going over phase two. Melissa and Rydel did FANTASTIC with this challenge! Sonny backed really straight, but very sluggish. After doing a few 'snappy' back ups, his yo-yo was much better.

Love this picture!

Here is a picture of the sideways challenge on the rail: go sideways away from you and back without going over phase two. 

After we were confident our horses were ready for freestyle, we saddled up! We then went through all the seven games in the saddle. Juli pointed out to me that the same long phase 1 quick 2,3,4 still is affective in the saddle, just like it is online. This goes back to the point that if there isn't a good phase 4, then there is no reason to be responsive to phase 1. Light bulb!

Sonny was great following the rail!

Juli also had us move the forehand then the hindend to bring it down to a halt from a walk. In our last lesson, we practiced moving the hind end until he halted but it was a bit unclear to me. Having Juli there to show us what it looked like helped tremendously! Now that it has clicked, I can't wait to play with this!!

Juli then had two people sit in the middle as cones, then the other two of us figure 8 and circle them. This went perfectly with my lesson with Laura the other day! Sonny walked around them in a figure 8 or circle without me using my carrot stick or reins and with minimal leg. Very impressed! Trotting was a bit more complicated, but definitely improvement!

This is an excellent picture of Juli and Rydel in the middle! 

The absolute best part about the day was the relationship between Sonny and I. Throughout the day he gave me such wonderful, happy faces! Even through the yo-yo between the barrels, he had two eyes and two ears locked on me! And he never is happy about backing up. He was so happy to do things for me and to be with me that I couldn't have been happier myself. It was definitely one of those moments when everything you have been working for is suddenly right in front of you and you get all warm and fuzzy inside. :)

I would like to thank Juli for holding the workshop and giving us the opportunity to share Parelli with other people and for the wonderful experience! Also, for all of her help in general; Saturday would have not have been as great as it was without all of her help over the winter! I would also like to thank my boyfriend, for all the long nights and hard work he put into getting our trailer ready at the last minute to use. As well as for driving us there, and being such a huge help throughout the day without even complaining :).