A Family Affair

Wednesday night the whole 'crew' came out to help with Sonny's stall! With all the help, it went so smooth. If you remember from my last post, the final part to Sonny's stall was to put up the wall between is stall and the tack room.

Between Stephen, my dad, and my godfather, it was up in no time.

Plastic up to protect my tack room.

Stephen starting the boards.

Stephen and Dad measuring the next board. 

Putting it up! 

My god father, boyfriend, and dad :).

Done for the day!

I am sure you are wondering why we left that gap in the middle. We decided to get fancy and match up this boards with the boards on the right wall. Looks good, doesn't it? 

So we still need to fill in that hole and put another board on the very top, then the wall will be done! I am going to Jesse's 3/4 clinic this weekend and Sonny is moving in when we get back. So while I am going Stephen is going to finish that up and hang his buckets and get it all ready. I am so excited to see it when I get back!

Game of Contact Update

It has been two and a half weeks since I started playing with the Game of Contact. In that time, I have been focusing on confidence: getting Sonny to be confident with the bit in his mouth and figure out what to do with it. We have done plenty of bit isolations, he now takes the bridle without a treat, and I have been riding him in it (but without reins).

Yesterday was my first day attaching reins to the bridle since October of 2009. Since Sonny has had bad experiences with bits in the past (the same probably goes for almost all 'pleasure' horses), I wanted this to be such an awesome experience. I was nervous that he would get worried once he felt pressure on the reins, so I tried to use them as little as possible. At the same time, I needed to start using them some or else I would never be able to use a bridle. I started using my reins along the rail, playing with "light and late". I barely touched them, just enough for him to recognize something changed. He responded beautifully! I did a few cloverleaf patterns and used my reins as light as possible as my phase 4 to keep him on track. Again, he responded appropriately to the lightest touch. I am guessing Parelli people might be the only ones to understand this, but it really made me so emotional. Here is a horse that used to go completely inside himself if you even brought the bridle out, and now he is riding around confidently like its nothing. I am so thankful to have such a wonderful partner, who has taught me the importance of patience and taking the time it takes. No one could have showed me better than he did!

Today I started playing with stage one in the saddle, which is "reins mean go". He almost knocked me out of the saddle; he caught on so fast! In the DVDs, Linda has a really challenging time with Aspen (which is great, because that really prepared me for the worst!). After warming up freestyle today, I put the reins on, played with fluid rein and then stage one. After about 10 minutes or less, I was picking up the reins and he would power forward!!!! How cool is that, especially since he is LBI? Never, ever would I have guessed my 'lazy' LBI would so quickly learn that when I pick up my reins he needs to go forward. Awesome! He isn't stretching as much as Aspen and Bobbie Sox did in the DVDs, but stretching is stage two. So the fact that we went from no reins, to reins mean go in two days, well I can't be anything but happy with that :). I am so, incredible proud of Sonny, and so thankful for a horse that tries his heart out for me.

Day 1 of reins attached

Snappy

Today was lesson six with Parelli Professional Juli Piovesan. She is leaving soon for the externship, so I am really glad we got to squeeze in one last lesson before she goes. I bet she will have a wonderful time, but we sure will miss her!

We started out on the 45' today; my first time playing with it in front of someone. She said we were off to a good start, but pointed out a few areas that would be good to work on. One was bringing him in to me; we have been trying to focus on it lately but he is still having trouble following the feel. She noted that I am not able to run up to him in any zone to play the friend'y game; in order to have him be more confident trotting towards me, I should practice the running friendly game. Makes sense!

Another point she brought up is that if I can't get responsiveness on a 12' line or 22', then it won't come on the 45'. Duh. Just like how we test everything online before we ride, I should test responsiveness at a shorter distance before trying it on the 45'. Lightbulb! We played with the 'snappy game' that she showed me a few lessons ago. Although this time it wasn't so much about the back as it was about the response. Again, I need to make things a game! Although Sonny was backing from phase 1, he wasn't putting very much effort in at all. So I did a really subtle phase 1, 2, 3, don't make me move my feet, phase 4! After a few of those, he stood at attention and gave me a really great face. Huh, how interesting!

Along with that, she encouraged me to start playing more with his faces. Again with backing, back him up until he asks a question or has a better face, then reward. I need to make backing seem like something other than a punishment, which I feel like might be how he interperates it.

Finally we played with some sideways. After the snappy game, he was really focused on me. We went sideways his bad direction and it was beautiful! He went so far and barely went forward. Definitely out best sideways that way. So exciting!

After that I got on and we played with all of the same concepts. Being snappy and responsive. He was totally focused on eating, zero attention on me as we followed the rail. We transitioned to sideways game along the rail. Juli wanted me to focus on seeing how he responded to each of my phases. In the beginning he was just "nom nom nom" grass!! After a few minutes, we had him thinking sideways after I only shifted my weight, and he stopped eating. Huh, how interesting!

From there we played with a figure 8 to help improve his transitions. It really helped me figure out our strengths and our weaknesses. Perfect timing to be able to address those weaknesses before our clinic this weekend!

Now I am itching to go ride and play with all the things we covered today!

Two Peas in a... Stall?

Sonny has to be moved to his new barn by July 1st. That has been putting some pressure on the 'stall building committee', but I believe that we can pull it off!

Stephen and I had some time to work on it this weekend and we are definitely making progress! Saturday we bought a board for the bottom of the wall the separates his stall from the tack room. With that board up, we could make everything on the ground level. We needed to get the ground done to get the pile of gravel out of the way for them to build the driveway. But, now all that's left is the wall :).

So we cut the board and put it up and realized that our original sandings were flat, but sloping. So we had to re-build the one side to make the sandings level so the matts wouldn't slope. Once those were level we put two mats in to make sure everything was going according to plan. So far so good!

Board up, sandings level, mat #1 down.

Pounding the sandings down and level.

Mat #2 in.

Next in line was to get the board up the separates the sandings/mats from the pea gravel. I wanted a board there so that he couldn't drag wets shavings into the pea gravel or pea gravel into his shavings. The board had to stick up a bit so that he is forced to pick his feet up over it rather than drag them across it. We put the board 8 feet away from the wall because his mats are 4 feet wide, so two would fit perfectly. Along with that, it gives us plenty of space for pea gravel.

 Making sure the board is 8 feet away from the wall.

Secured at one end.

We cut the sandings back so that we could use rebar to
keep the board from moving if he would step on it.

Rebar in!  

Screwing the rebar to the board so that it was super secure.

Once we got the board in, it definitely wasn't going anywhere! We could then fill in the rest of the sandings up to the board and level it out again. 

Once everything was filled in and level, we could finish putting the mats in. Mat #3, the one towards the wall, went in quite easily. Mat #4 was a little trouble maker. We ended up having to pull it out, re-work the sandings, and put it back in. But, we finally got it to work!

There is still a triangle area that isn't covered by a mat. I have one mat left over, so I might cut it up and put it there, Regardless, it won't hurt anything for that area to be bare now. The important thing is to get the stall functional so he can move in! 

The very last, and most exciting, step was to add the pea gravel. For those of you who don't know, pea gravel is supposed to be one of the best things for a horse's feet. Sonny has had feet problems since I got him so I have really, really been looking forward to him having an area big enough for pea gravel. Not only should it help his feet, but word on the block is that it is like a foot massage for them. I bet he will love it :). 

Stephen with our first load of pea gravel! 

It's in! 

I am so excited that things are really coming together. I guess they almost have to be for him to move, but it still makes me happy to see all the progress. I am just thrilled that he finally has a place that I am 100% happy with. I hope he loves the pea gravel as much as I do! 

Smart is the New Black

I received two packages in the mail this week: both item's were black in color. When you put together the whole picture, black and purple look so good together ;).

The first item to arrive was my Smart pad! Next was new, black stirrups. These were the kind I used to have with my dressage horses, but I just went with cheap ones when I got my wintec. Now that I have a great saddle, a really nice pad, and am riding more, I thought better stirrups would be a good investment.

My phone is on its death beg, which is why the photo
is so awful. But you can see my pad and new stirrups!

Turns out I was right! Yesterday I rode with both my smart pad and new stirrups. The stirrups are a lot nicer than the old ones because the bend, allowing you to really stretch your heals down. I had no idea how much they helped until I rode in them after using non-bendy ones for so long. They were so nice; really made me whole lower leg so much more comfortable.

The pad was great, too! I am not sure if it has to do with his feet, the red light, or just the saddle pad in general, but my saddle felt so secure today. Yesterday was my first day riding since Jesse helped me with all of the above, so I can't tell what the variable is. Regardless, the smart pad is a keeper!

I forgot my shims, but not a huge deal with the same pad! Had I forgotten them with my theraflex, the dry spots would have been atrocious. But, even without shims, and a very light sweat, he only had a minor dry spot behind his withers. How cool is that? I am going to try to play with shim patterns next week and will post my findings here.

Sonny must have been pretty happy about the pad and stirrups (okay, maybe not he stirrups), too, because he was fantastic! One of the best rides we have had. I was planning on trail riding down the lane to the road that my new farm is on, but that didn't work out. As we road down the lane, Sonny was calm, responsive, and forward. He wasn't trying to eat grass, he followed the trail (the road) better than ever before (maybe is has to do with all the follow the rail we have been doing lately?), and was overall just a joy to ride. On the one side at the end of the lane is a mess of trees; in those trees is a bunch of garbage, mostly old tree trunks, branches, tires, etc. Needless to say, Sonny usually get's a little on edge as we go by there because everyone knows mountain lions hide in tree piles in Ohio. Yesterday, he barely looked twice. We walked all the way to almost the end of the road without even a flinch; he just followed the trail! I was ecstatic! Towards the end of the lane I saw a Doberman, who in-turn saw us. He was barking madly and I wasn't sure the fence around him was sturdy so we headed back; I wasn't going to risk ruining all of the great things Sonny was offering me to get chased by a huge dog. So we headed back and rode around the front yard.

He was being so good; he was oddly relaxed and maintaining this beautiful gait, at the trot and canter. He loves to blast around when we are outside but he was being so great yesterday! I played with circles and figure 8's around the trees and he really put effort into the patterns. I used the lines in the lawn to practice straightness and overally just tried to keep him interested and guessing what was coming next.

I ended the day with some canter serpentines. I used to do them all the time with my dressage horses, but never with Sonny. My intention was to just practice a combination of a) picking up the correct leads based on my body position and b) to practice turns without using my reins. The turns were a bit of a challenge, but when we made big, wide ones I didn't have to use my reins. But, the transitions were fabulous! We were going canter-walk-canter, picking up what ever lead I wanted, without using reins or barely any leg. Awesome! So excited about how our freestyle is coming along. Most importantly, I am completely enjoying it. I have never loved riding so much. I hope Sonny feel's the same!

Summer breeze.

Dust Bunny

Hot, hot, hot! It was so hot today we didn't do much. Took him outside in the breeze and ate some grass. Played with a few small things, like sideways towards me his bad direction. I am not sure why, but the one way he will go sideways towards me from 22+ feet away, but the other side he can barely manage a step. Probably 99% of it is my fault, so I need to put effort into improving that way. 

We came back in and played with the laying down in the arena. I haven't asked him to do it in a while and I think he partially forgot what it means. He actually rolled pretty quickly after I asked him, the only issue was that he didn't shake! Ahhh! 

Can you guess what side he
rolled on? ;)

My little dust bunny! 

That is a dust line, to show how dirty he is. 

Hahahaha. Look at his neck
where he didn't get dust. 

After getting the dustiest I have ever seen him, I had to wash him off. He got a liberty bath today. He actually stood really, really well. Never moved a step! :)

Bad picture, but you get the idea.

Updates

Lots of time spent with Sonny lately. Great progress with the bit; he is much more willing to take the bit and is much more quiet with it in. I have noticed that the past few days he hasn't given me very many happy faces. Nothing worse than normal, but there for a minute I was totally blown away by them and now they are gone. Hmmm, I am going to have to look into that.

Yay, yawning.

Emily Rodgers with Sonny, (Liberty, 15 mins) can you say short, sweet, and successful? had to take grain down to Sonny tonight and just played around for a second. I put his bridle on and he took with bit all the way into his mouth without a treat for the first time ever! not only that, he didn't chomp! success! took the bridle off after a minute or two. plays for a second ay liberty. tested to see if he still recognizes lifting the same leg as me. he definitely did :). will have to expand on that...

Mon 18 Jun 2012 at 12:00AM

Emily Rodgers with Sonny, (Freestyle, 60 mins) Another great time with Sonny, today! Playing online a bit in the indoor. It was hot and buggy so I kept it short and sweet with lots of sideways and some really great backing (the better your horse goes sideways and backwards the better he does everything else!). Put on my bareback pad and rode outside since the wind was blowing and it was actually nicer than inside. Sonny followed the rail like a superstar today. Had some really great trot AND canter without blasting around the arena. Our downward transitions are definitely improving but still need a lot of work. Today, for the first time ever, we did canter-back up-canter transitions with arms crossed. Woo hoo! Fast track here we come!!

Mon 18 Jun 2012 at 06:35PM

I have about 2 billion projects going on right now, which is leaving me pretty scattered. For one, I am getting really serious about studying/preparing for the fast track, but more on that later. Not only have I been doing physical labor on the farm, I am also responsible for social media, including designing the website. That has been my latest endeavor, keeping me pretty busy.

Sonny's 'poor me' face :(.

I guess my point is, if you see a lot of random posts in the next few weeks, you'll know that it's just what my brain happens to be set on at the time. Now, back to Head First HTML...

My little girl laying by me while I sort through this
huge book! The perfect company. 

Build Me Up, Buttercup

Sonny's stall is starting to look like something! SO exciting!

Stephen and I were able to do some work on Wednesday. First we put up insulation, in attempts to make Sonny's area (I hate calling it a stall) as nice as possible. After that, we lined the outer walls in plastic in order to keep wind and rain out. Next we started putting boards up, but I was too short to help him get the one's on the top up (if you can't tell from my photos, I am a whopping 5'1"). By the time we got done, around 10 at night, it was too dark to take any photos of the boards.

Insulation: check. 

Plastic: check.

Saturday, while I was with Sonny getting his feet trimmed, Stephen, his dad, and my godfather (Harry) worked on his place some more. When I showed up, they already had a good bit done. They almost finished the walls that Stephen and I started.

Stephen putting the last few
boards up. 

Done! Except we need to buy a 2x6 for the top. 

They were just finishing up the wall that separates the tack room from Sonny's area.

While I was there they built and put up the other tack room wall.

Another wall finished. 

Putting it up.

Both walls done! 

Now that the frames of the walls are finished, Stephen, my dad, and I can go back and easily put the boards up. That should be soon to come. So happy it is now starting to look like something! AND, so thankfully that all these men are putting in so much work for Sonny and I. Very lucky!

It's Rides Like These

Today I had a really, really good ride with Sonny. We have always had trouble with freestyle, but I feel like something really 'clicked' today. 

It started yesterday, when I rode in my new bareback pad for the first time. Love it. I don't know how i lived without it? Anyways, when I first got on Sonny yesterday he was slightly obnoxious; he was pulling the leadrope out of my hands, diving down to eat grass, blasting around as fast as he could, and overall just not being a very good partner. Like usual, I put my hands of my ears and "la la la la" pretended that it was okay. After a little bit I thought to myself 'would an alpha mare allow this?' Of course not! So why was I? I then made it a point to be a good leader and the change was immediate. 

Purple! 

I was more particular about every single thing I did. When I wanted to him walk (even if he was eating grass), he needed to start listening to phase 1 or else he got a quick 2, 3, and an actual 4, not just a 3.25. Before I knew it, he was walking off when I smiled with all four cheeks. He doesn't even do that in the arena, let alone while he is eating grass. Huh, how interesting! 

So today I started off online with the bridle on. He is getting really good about seeking the bit; even after I take it off he tries to grab it again :). But there is still some unconfidence with it on. He knows how to respond to pressure on it, but chops every once in a while. So today I just left it on him while I did everything: grooming, while he ate grass, while I played online, and for the first time in a long time, while I rode. I am still not 100% positive this was a good idea; I could have easily blew his trust/confidence. But, I thought back to level 1. When you first introduce the carrot stick, you take it everywhere until it becomes a part of you and your horse. You do the same with the 45' line in level 3. So I thought I might as well apply the same theory to the bridle. I won't use reins with it until he is confident, but until that point I want it to be just like a second halter. 

Grooming while the bridle is on.

Once I got on, he walked off when I smiled with all four cheeks, even though he was eating grass (insert huge grin here). I had set up four cones as a question box in the middle of the arena. I started my ride off with that to get him interested. The first thing I did was move his hindend around to face a different direction in the box. I realized when I put my leg on, he marched his big butt right around without moving an inch forward and I didn't use reins or have to use my carrot stick. Whaaaaaat? (insert shocked face here). Since when is my horse so responsive? Of course I went on to test the other direction, his bad way. Again, he marched right around without even thinking a hair forward. Now I was really blown away. He always associates leg with some kind of forward and I always have to use my stick to remind him that it doesn't. So today it finally clicked that leg does not mean go. Win :). 

I went on to play with the question box, the clover leaf pattern, and follow the rail. All of the above were better than ever before. It obviously stems from our new found knowledge of left not meaning go. For the first time ever, I could guide him at a trot and canter with my leg without going faster. Before, he would be fine at the walk, but in the trot and canter he would just blast forward whenever I put let on. Today he put effort into the question box without being rude and diving towards it. The clover leaf pattern was next to perfect; I could use just my eyes, belly button, and leg to do an entire clover leaf at the walk, and only minimal carrot stick at the trot. Then, for the first time ever, he actually put effort into following the rail today. For some reason that has been a huge problem for us. Today I could do entire laps at the trot in the huge outdoor with only 1 correction per lap. Wow! We even started follow the rail at the canter and made it down one long side without any corrections. That is HUGE for us (since normally he just blasts around and pretends to be a race horse/cutter/reiner/bronco). 

It's rides like these that reassure me that we our on the right track and our freestyle will be exactly where I want it to be if I keep up the perfect practice. It is really easy to see someone riding (um, Kalley Krickeberg, anyone? Her spotlight at the Tour was truly unbelievable) and be discouraged about where you are with your own riding. But, the last two days made me feel confident that we are on our way! Before you know it, we will be exactly where I envision us, it just takes time and perfect practice. 

Sorry for the book, but I was just thrilled with everything tonight. I am so excited with where we are and where we are going. Good, better, best, never let it rest! 

 Oh, how I love him. 

Wordless Wednesday

My sweet, summer, love.

Game of Contact: Day 1

After watching the Game of Contact all weekend, I was eager to get started.

Yay!

I didn't have a whole lot of time today so I planned to spend it just hanging out with Sonny. That made it a perfect time to just put the bridle on and relax.

I have played with the bridle before, but haven't even touched it in over a month. Just to catch up the new readers, Sonny has a lot of emotional baggage attached to bits. So a few months ago I started out very, very, slowly with things like 'Touch-it' with the bridle. Eventually we built up enough confidence over the weeks to put it on. But, I still felt like we were missing something so I decided to hold off until I had enough funds to buy the Game of Contact.

After watching the DVDs, it finally clicked that Sonny needs to be the one to seek the bit. I understood that I shouldn't have to pry his open his mouth, but I always held the bit right in front of his muzzle. Linda clearly shows that the horse needs to seek the bit.

So today I dusted the bridle off and just held it up. Sonny immediately went after it. Huh, how interesting! Although he kept grabbing the side of the bridle, I was so happy that he was still putting effort into figuring out the answer. It didn't take him long to grab the bit and I rewarded with one of his favorite apple treats. After that, he kept searching for the bit. How cool!

After a few times I put the bridle on and continued to groom and hang out with him. He was chewing more than I would have liked; I want to have a PP double check that it is fitting correctly, but I think he is still just unconfident. I played with some bit isolations and was so surprised by how well he did. With the lightest pressure he would stretch. What a good sign! Even after a month he still retained that concept, which thrills me!

I plan on just bridling for 4 to 7 days. I hope by the end he is more quiet with the bit. Then I plan on starting to play with him online (with his halter on under the bridle), then slowing working to playing freestyle (without reins). Finally, I hope to start at least stage 1 or 2 before the end of June. With all the of the farm stuff going on, I don't have a whole lot of time so I am not sure how well my plan is going to work but we'll see!

So cute :)

When the Walls, Come Tumblin' Down

As John Mellencamp would have put it, the walls came crumblin', crumblin' today.

Stephen and I went over this afternoon and started tearing [almost] everything out. To give you a general idea of what's going on, Sonny's "stall" is 15x16 in a corner of the barn. One of the interior walls of his stall adjoins another, smaller, stall. We are going to completely inclose the smaller one and make it a tack room so that I have a room right next to his stall. Perfect, eh? Well, the barn is ancient, so most of the wood on the stall was nasty and rotted. We could have dealt with that, but the issue was how they had put it up. Pardon my language, but most of the barn was just half-assed.  Therefore, in order to build a tack room where the walls weren't completely slanted and hanging by the hair on their chiny, chin, chin, most of it had to be taken down.

The first project was getting the wall that separates the stall and the tack room out. This wall was by far the worst; it was incredibly slanted and rigged up there.

If you look at the right side, you can see how slanted it is.

The first step was to take the plywood off so we wouldn't have to worry about that once it was on the ground. 

Once the plywood was off, the wood came off [fairly] easily. After that we took the wood off the outer wall in the tack room. 

Bye, bye wall!

You can see the that the whole wall needs pushed
back onto the cement blocks. 

We then moved on to the inner-most wall of the tack room. The wall itself wasn't awful, but we needed to take most of the wood off in order to slide it down so there wouldn't be huge gaps. 

Gaps at the top, solid at the bottom.

Almost there!

You can see we also took the half-door off the tack room. We will be replacing it with a sliding door. 

Three walls done, one to go! 

Our final project of the day was to take the wood off one last wall. Just like the inner-most wall, it was gapped at the top and solid at the bottom. Again, we took all the wood off that had gaps between boards.

Along with taking down all the wood, we went around and took nails out so we have a "clean surface". Now when we have time, we will be ready to start building the walls back up. Stay tuned!

To see more on Sonny's Sanctuary and the construction process, click here. 

Thanks so much to my boyfriend Stephen, for doing most of the work. Maybe in return, I can buy him a belt.