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!