Finally: Some Play Time!

I finally got to play with Sonny today. I think it has been at least two weeks since the last time we did anything. I could definitely tell, but I don't think he minded.

It's been really muddy lately but we still were able to use the outdoor. We splashed through the puddles had a good time making a mess. I got on bareback and bridleless, and actually savvystringless because it was covered in wet sand from playing online. His warm up was pretty good online and he was being super responsive when I was on him. I didn't feel the need to push for anything and there wasn't anything specific I wanted to work on so we headed out to the big open field.

I think that was my first time riding him outside in the field without at least a savvy string around his neck. He was perfect. We cantered and trotted and did figure 8's and quick stops. Anything I wanted it was there.

My favorite thing from today was after my ride. Out in the field I got off and walked him back to the arena to get my things I left there. All the way back to the arena we had to go through grass. I played spot to spot, which I normally do. But the weird thing was: he didn't put up a fight. Every time I walked off he walked with me, no questions asked. Which is so strange for my food obsessed LBI. I am pretty sure he has never stopped eating to walk with me without there being any motivation on my part. Normally I have to use my carrot stick (or leadrope when I am not at liberty). S it completely blew my mind that he just stopped eating and walked with me. It was so relaxing to not have to worry about asking him to walk with me; he just did it. It was definitely the most enjoyable walk we have ever had together :).

Galloping through the field bareback and halterless :).

Pump the Breaks

I haven't been posting much lately because...I really haven't done anything to post about. I have had plenty of horses to ride and play with, but this blog is about Parelli and Sonny and I am not sure how I feel about posting things other than that.

Long story short, Sonny and I have been disconnect the past few weeks. I am not sure how to make this flow, so I am going to use bullets to describe what has been going on:

• I want my green string. I know we can easily get it, I just have to tape it. In order to tape it, there were a few things I wanted to improve on. Perfect opportunity for direct line thinking :(
• I don't have much free time, therefore the time I do spend with Sonny I think should be productive
• Im tired. Very tired. All of the time. 
• Sonny hasn't given me a happy face in weeks. Which makes me frustrated and upset like nothing else. 

I hope that gives you a glimpse into the way our relationship has been feeling lately. When it is put into that kind of list, it looks pretty obvious that we have problems. Ugh. Last week I finally realized that I have to change something (if you always do what you have always done...). I took a step back and looked at the situation. I mentally made the above list. After a minor meltdown and a lot of "Why do I do this", I decided to put myself in time out until I got my attitude together. Sonny is always going to mirror me, and if I am feeling tired, out of time, pressured, goal oriented, frustrated, and upset, well... I am not going to want to even see my mirror. 

Thursday we had PERFECT weather and I was feeling great. I was really looking forward to playing with Sonny so I finally let myself out of time out since I had a fresh, positive perspective. I set up a few things: a small jump, three cones, and a single barrel. I immediately put my LBI hat on, snugger than normal. I often try to slow things down for him, but I am not being 'true' about it. I may slow down physically, but I am still going 100 mph inside. I know LBIs are mentally quick so that sounds right, except my mentally quick feels a lot more like anxiety. I get so worked up over slowing down that my energy isn't slowing down, I am just physically slow. Therefore, I haven't been truly matching his energy lately. Tuesday I was just happy to be with him tried to make that show. I spent lots of time playing the friendly game and actually being relaxed for once.

Along with making an effort to match his energy, I did a few other things that I don't normally do. One was to not push him. We have had a lot of trouble with sideways over the barrel in the past and normally when I want to practice it I just make him go over it. That is so unsavvy of me that I am almost embarrassed to say it. So Thursday I trotted him up next to it, lined him up, then walked him away. He gave me the WHAAAAAT? face and I loved it :). That was the first time in a long time he has asked me a good question like that :).

I didn't play for too long when I did something that is very, very hard for me: I stopped early. The LBE in me wants to go and play and play and play until I accomplish everything that I want to. Of course Sonny hates it and I push him through it. Why would I ever think that was okay? So after a happy 20 minutes I asked him to lay down, he stayed laying until I asked him to get up, then we got up and went and ate grass. It was such a fun day. There wasn't any pressure, there wasn't any expectations, we actually just played.

I am not sure when I crossed the line of the 7 games to the 7 jobs, but I am pretty sure Sonny would say that I definitely crossed it. I feel so bad and embarrassed about it, but I guess it's a good thing to move from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence. If I can start applying everything I know to be true, rather than just storing it in my head, I bet I could make a pretty good partner.

Grinning Ear to Ear

Another fabulous day to add to the "Horsenality Movement"!

Yesterday I started to pay close attention to his faces with everything I do. For instance, I haven't been allowing him to come into my space until he has at least one ear forward. Although I would prefer two eyes and two ears, anything is better than both ears back. Usually he doesn't have them back in a super ugly face, but it isn't anything pretty, either. If at least one ear isn't forward, he doesn't get to come within a few feet of me. Guess what doesn't happen a few feet away from me? Treats. I don't get mad and only back him up if his ears are back and ugly, but he doesn't get scratches or treats unless he has a better face.

Along with that, I have been much more conscious about his face's during the games. For instance, I never realized just how many times he asks me questions out on a circle. I always am so neutral (in fact, too neutral!) that I pretend like he isn't there. Without putting pressure on him or changing my energy, I tried to really recognize all the times he either a) keeps an ear on me b) gives me two eyes and two ears or c) does anything except have both ears back. This was really eye opening to me. I get discouraged very often when it comes to his faces (especially when I see my friend's horses lock on with their eyes and ears constantly). But, I fail to take into account all the great things my LBI offers me. Today, especially.

My goal was to work on my slow hand transitions, from all gaits. Interestingly, he loves to come down from a walk to a trot from my slow hand, but not to a halt, back up, or even trot from a canter. My theory is that when I was first playing with the slow hand, it was easiest for him to go from a trot to a walk so that's when he was reward the most. So today I worked on all sorts of different, and snappy, transitions from my slow hand. I asked in the same spot, but not every time. Within about 3 circles he came to that spot, basically half halted himself, and then shot two eyes and two ears at me "Stop or keep going?". Bam, game over :). Not only was he rocking the questions today, he even continued into my space with two eyes and two ears. That makes me all smiles :).

Ignoring my big, fat, finger, doesn't
that face just melt your heart?

After a few good changes of direction and coming into me with a happy face, I moved on to the bridle. We haven't played with it in a while, which is my fault. I need to make it more of a habit to help him overcome his confidence issues with the bit. Today I put it on him and was standing there playing with instagram (just got it for my droid) when I noticed him yawning. Not one yawn, not two, maybe not even three, but more like four yawns later, I was totally in shock! I have been pressuring him to sigh or lick and chew for months now, and the minute I turn away he lets out the biggest release. Huh, imagine that ;). Maybe he isn't the one that is so tense anymore? Definitely food for thought! (That is Sonnys least favorite kind of food). 

Love this little booger so, so, so very much.

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!

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!

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!

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. 

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.

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!

Let the Good Times Roll

Last night was the first time I have ever seen Sonny be LBE! Man, oh, man did I love it! He was playing, doing flying changes, and even put effort into backing up! It was so exciting for him to be playful without being dominate.

Towards the end of the session he did go back to his LBI self, which was fine with me. I was just happy enough to experience LBE with him, no matter how long it lasted. It was pretty interesting to me that even though my match report says I am LBE, I had a hard time keeping up with his energy. I really enjoyed the 'go, go, go' part, but felt much more connected to him once he went back to being LBI. Considering I am on the cusp of an LBI, I guess that is where my true LBI traits show through.

Once things calmed down I played with the spanish walk for the first time in a while. I don't ask him to do it much because he can get really frustrated with it and that defeats the purpose. Last night was great though, he even did two steps in a row for the first time! Hopefully the next time we play with it he can do the same again.

I also wanted to bring up that, after my lesson with Juli, I have been giving him much more time to think. When he thinks he does this thing where he hangs his head to the right and stays there for a really long time. Once he licked and chewed (which normally comes pretty fast) I used to just move on to the next thing. Juli had me wait there until he looked at me before I moved on. I have been keeping up with that and have seen some HUGE changes. Even though it can be like watching paint dry, I am really seeing the benefits of waiting for him to give me two eyes and two ears. He is now giving more good faces than bad, which is amazing. He is almost always walking into me with good faces and I couldn't be happier about it.

Yesterday was just amazing; I hope to see more days like that in our future!

The 'watching paint dry' thinking face. 

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!]

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!

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!