SUCCESS

I am not one for capital letters, but holy cow today was a fabulous day!!

Yesterday I got a mild break from work, so I got a chance to watch my DVD that had just came in the mail. I found a used 'Jumping with Confidence' DVD by Linda for $5. STEAL. Cheapest Parelli education material I have ever bought. Ever. And worth every single penny!

Not to go into too much detail, but most of the DVD was more about respect than jumping. Turns out that is exactly what I needed. I am going to a hunter pace this weekend and that was why I watched the DVD, but there definitely was a greater lesson to be learned.

So I made it a point today to not be a boring, predictable human. I made it a point to be a good leader every second I could. I got fabulous results! Sonny's faces improved a lot (he hadn't looked at me with two eyes and two ears for a few weeks before today), he did lots of licking and chewing, became interested, and consequently, he jumped!!!!

He jumped everything I asked him to, even the barrels that he loves to run out on. He put so much effort into going over them not only online, but also freestyle :). That had been a HUGE problem for us, but today he didn't think twice about jumping them every time I pointed him at them. Awesome!

So fabulous day riding. Once I was done he was all hot and sweaty so I thought it would be a good time to ask him to lay down. Once he started rolling, I played porcupine game on his halter and gently asked him to lay flat. Without even thinking about it, he laid down and stayed there until I asked him to get up. I may have had a mini heart attack I was so elated. I have been wishing and hoping for this moment for SUCH a long time and today it finally happened :). YAHOO!!! Our relationship must really be improving; I feel like he trusts me so much more now.

Tomorrow I plan to play with a little game of contact and ask for the laying down again! Hope it goes just as well as it did today!

Love this Kid. 

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.

Unconditional Love

By definition, Unconditional Love is a term that means to love someone regardless of the loved one's qualities or actions. The term never made sense to me until I got Sonny.

Thursday night we hit a rough patch. Sonny has issues with bits that date back to his old owners (and who knows how far back it started before that), so I have never ridden him with one. Now that we are moving towards finesse, I want to start getting him to like the bit. We were making progress, but I pushed him past his threshold Thursday and felt so bad about it. He was tense and unhappy and I thought for sure that was going to negatively affect our relationship.

But last night was so perfect and I couldn't have been any happier. The weather was nasty and I had homework to do so I didn't plan on spending much time at the barn, but wanted to have a good night to make up for my mistakes Thursday night.

Right off the bat he blew me away. As you know we have been playing with laying down, but he has been moving around a lot before he will lay. Usually I walk him to the end of the arena and ask, then he walks around a couple of circles then finally lays down. Last night I thought I would try it as soon as we got into the arena. Right in front of the gate I asked him to lay down, then kept a light rhythmic motion on the line (I just had my featherline attached). Since he is such a superstar of course he laid down right beside me!! I was ecstatic. He is so stinkin' smart I can't even keep up!

On top of that, he was totally LBE last night and I loved it. He was so playful and wanted to go, go, go. I brought out the big green ball and he was cantering it around the arena! He has mastered moving it on the go, but has never cantered with it before! Then the ball got stuck and he fell up on top of it and his front legs were smashed into it and I thought for sure he was going to break a leg. Then he popped up and continued chasing it haha! Along with that, he was bucking, rearing, jumping straight up in the air and being all sorts of energetic (definitely not LBI! ;)). Another boarder was in the arena working her show horse...I am sure she and her dad think I own some crazy beast now!

I wanted to get on and just walk around to, again, make up for the bad ride on Thursday. I didn't have anything but a featherline, so I just tied my savvy string around his neck. I did a few turns and he was amazing. Without even my carrot stick, he was doing turns on the forehand...just based on my weight and leg position! His turns were so good forehand and hindend, for the heck of it I asked for a step sideways without reins, carrotstick or a wall. Of course he went perfectly sideways :). Considering I have only played with sideways without reins a handful of times, I was extremely pleased!

I got off after that since I wanted to end on a good note. I had him stand there while I fetched my featherline. As I was walking back up to him, I stopped at his butt. Sonny knows that if I raise my hand, he moves his butt towards me (like sideways towards me), so just playing around, I stopped behind him and raised my hand. It was so funny because I could tell he was watching me get the rope because as soon as I raised my hand, his head shot up and his ears were moving...trying to figure out what I wanted. He thought about it for a while, but I remained still letting him figure it out. After a minute or so he took a step backwards! How awesome!

So my lesson of the day is: It doesn't matter what we accomplish. If he never wants to wear a bit, fine with me. That is so far from importance that there was no need at all for me to be upset about it or for me to push him in any kind of way. All that matters is the relationship; as long as we always have that, the love will be unconditional.

How Much You Care

I haven’t been posting a lot lately, but I have spent a lot of time thinking. Sonny and I have been progressing so much these past couple of weeks and I couldn’t figure out why, until today.

A few nights ago we had a really good ride. Of course we played with carrot stick riding but also really focused on forehand, hindend, then sideways. I haven’t asked much for sideways without reins and it went SO well! We got a lot of good steps and some licking and chewing.

Tonight was fantastic. He was all ears; more happy faces than ugly faces is always an amazing night. His sideways is improving, slow hand carrot stick transitions were awesome, and even his upward transitions were right on the money. He was responsive and happy about it! On top of that, I got him to roll three times, which means he totally gets what I am asking. The best part is that the last roll didn’t require much wandering around! I am blown away by how fast he caught on to laying down and how amazing it was for him to do it without a ton of steps tonight! I couldn’t be happier!

Blurry, but cute :)

When I first read Kristi Smiths’s blog, Your Needs are My Needs, I thought I understood it. LBI’s need incentive and rest and I really didn't apply it much more than that. Tonight it finally clicked. Lately Sonny and I have been doing a whole lot of nothing. We have been taking walks down the road, soaking up the sunshine, eating grass, rolling, and not much else. This is not because I think we need undemanding time, but mainly because the weather has been so nice that I want him to have the chance to get out as much as possible. Before I have talked about spending undemanding time with him because he needs a break and we need that relationship building time, but this undemanding time has been completely different. We didn’t need to, but I wanted to do it for him. We have been going on walks, sunbathing, and spending a lot of time grazing because I care about him…and he notices. The more I put effort into doing things for him, the more effort he puts into doing things for me. And when I say doing things for him, I don’t mean what I used to think: things like giving him time to think because that means a better face. When I think about it, I am doing that for me; I want the better face so giving him time to think benefits me. I am starting to believe that all this checking in with me stuff and all the happy faces is a reflection of him realizing I am putting effort into doing things just for him, so he is asking what can he do for me in return. Kristi didn’t title her blog My Needs are Your Needs, but Your Needs Are My Needs. Because in the end, you’re horse doesn’t care how much you know until he knows how much you care.

Stop, Drop, and Roll

I have finally taught Sonny to lay down! I have been wanting to do this for a long time, but only recently got the motivation to really play with it. It has only been about a week or so and I am so happy with the results! I hope to keep improving it, especially to where he doesn't have to walk around so much. I have a few more ideas to add to it, so stay turned for updates!



(I am not sure why the video is so blurry. Maybe it has to do with the layers of dust on my camera lens? That's what happens when you live in a barn!)