News from Sonny

Here is a note from Sonny's new partner, Audrey, describing what they have been doing since Sonny went to live with her earlier this year: 

Hi My Name is Audrey Bjerke and I am 11 years old.  I am SOOOOOOOOO thankful to have Sonny as my horse, partner and very best friend!!  He is incredibly amazing and I have learned so much from him.  I just turned in my level 2 online and freestyle auditions to Parelli and CAN'T wait to earn my blue savvy string with Sonny.  

Emily has been so generous and helpful to Sonny and I by helping us get to know each other better quickly and by teaching me the cool tricks that Sonny knows.  One of my favorite things he does is when he gives me kisses on cue.  Whenever I go out to play with or just to love on him he just starts giving me kisses.  It makes me feel so loved!!!  Right now I am teaching him to hug me on cue.  He is so smart.

Sonny is the best partner ever for Parelli Natural Horsemanship.  He plays all 7 games like a rock star.  He jumps really well. He is just soooooo perfect and wonderful I love him so much.

I was able to go to a level 1/2 clinic in June with 4 * instructor Jesse Peters and Sonny and I had a blast.  I played the yo-yo game from Jesse's hay loft, I cantered in Jesse's honeycomb, threw tarps on his back, and many more wonderful things!!

My mom and I have been going trail riding with Sonny as many weekends as we can.  Sonny and I lead.  He is so confident and loves trail riding.  As a matter of fact aside from cantering in our big field at home I think trail riding is my favorite thing to do with Sonny. It is so peaceful and relaxing.

I also love my lessons with 2* Parelli instructor Juli Piovesan.  I learn so much from Juli and my dream is to earn my level 4 black string on Sonny before I graduate from high school. 

Like I said, Sonny is the perfect horse for me.  We are both LBI's.  I could not be more thankful for two of my amazing friends, Sonny and Emily.  THANK YOU EMILY for SONNY!!!!!!

Leave it to Sonny

So I have made the difficult discussion to leave this blog to Sonny. Maybe it sounds obvious, after all it is called Savvy with Sonny. Even excluding that, this has been about our journey and everything we went through together. I think that is really special and would never want to override it with any other experiences. So other than the occasional Sonny update (which may happen more often than not), I am retiring this blog.

So I have started a new blog that's more about my life in general. I would love for you to follow me there :).

www.fromthehorsesmouth.me

Savvy on!

My Anchor

“Change is not pleasant, but change is constant. Only when we change and grow, we’ll see a world we never know.” ~From Wisdom of The Orange Woodpecker

If life has taught me anything lately its that change is inevitable. It's no longer winter, my hair is growing longer and everyday I grow older. Although we are all constantly changing, most of it is unrecognizable. But when I sit back and think about it, it feels like everything has changed within this last year. My job has changed, my house has changed, my relationships have changed, my goals have changed, and I, personally, have changed. To look back to last summer and not even recognize the person I used to be... that's a scary thought. But, here I am. Alive. Breathing. And happy as ever.

The biggest change of all has been that Sonny has found a new forever home. Although I never would have imagined selling him, sometimes things just fall into place. 

When Heather first asked if I would ever think about selling Sonny, of course my first reaction was "Psht, no way!". Heather is a great friend who does Parelli with her daughter, Audrey. They recently had to sell Audrey's horse due to health issues and were on the hunt for a new one. Even though I was quick to say no, the more I thought about it the more I felt like it might be the perfect opportunity for everyone.

If you know me at all or have followed my blog, you know that Sonny is the absolute love of my life. He is my best friend, the best partner I could ask for, my teacher, my love, and my anchor. He has taught me so many life lessons and more about myself than anyone ever could. He has always been there for me, and most importantly he has always kept me calm, centered, and positive. Sonny has been the best thing that has ever happened to me and I will be forever grateful for his contributions in developing me as a person. 

With that being said, it is probably hard to believe I would sell him. But after a lot of thinking and some great advice (thanks for all of your input, Melissa. Even though the distance between us has changed it's so great to know I can still count on you), I decided that it really would be great for Sonny to go live with Heather and Audrey. There are so many positives we all get out of this opportunity. Audrey now has a super safe, reliable, knowledgable partner who is going to take care of her just as much as he took care of me. He is going to teach her so much about Parelli, and more importantly about herself, just like he did for me. In return, I know Audrey and Heather are going to take fantastic care of him. He will always be treated with respect and kindness in a natural way that I have always done. I now have the opportunity to acquire a younger horse that I can do more with, like jumping and dressage. On top of all of that, Sonny will have a similar living arrangement as he did with me, except he will be in their backyard (which makes for easy access for extra treats ;)). Sonny's diet will still be balanced like I did for him and he will still have the same barefoot trimmer. Audrey will train with the same instructors as me and he will even still have the same trailer. Best of all: he will only be half an hour away and I can visit whenever I want. Does it get any better than that? I know that Heather and Audrey will take just as good of care of Sonny as I did, if not better. They will give him the love and attention he deserves, that I haven't had time for  these last few months. 

Sonny & Audrey.

So my decision to sell Sonny isn't because of money, or because I don't love him anymore. I decided it would be the perfect opportunity for Audrey to have a new lifelong partner to learn from and for Sonny to have a cute little girl in his life to forever love and adore him. In the end, I couldn't ask for a better situation. I will obviously miss him, but I know he is in good hands and I know he is giving someone else the incredible opportunities he once gave me. I will forever love him and of course, forever consider him my anchor. 

"All you need is one safe anchor to keep you grounded
if the rest of your life spins out of control" 

Enjoying the Moment

If you haven't noticed, I haven't posted in the last three months. Ooops! (To find out why, you can go here). In that time a lot has changed and I am finally at a point where I am ready to start playing with Sonny again. And boy, does it feel great! Although, April might be my busiest month yet, but at least I got a good 5 sessions in with him towards the end of March.

It was interesting to me how fabulous Sonny was for those few sessions. I go three months without playing with him and I come back and he is better than ever. How interesting! Of course he was a little out of shape and couldn't hold more than 3 canter laps on the 22', but his mental/emotional state were so much better than before. What really blew my mind was that he kept giving me two eyes and two ears. Even backing up, he kept his ears on me. He has never, and I literally mean never, been so willing and respectful. I still can't believe it.

Not only was he giving me awesome faces, he was just all around being totally awesome. Sonny has always been afraid to go sideways over barrels after he sliced his leg on one. The other day while playing at liberty, I asked him to touch the barrel and he knocked it down. I drove him a bit more and he offered to go sideways over it. Again, he blew my mind.

Cutest horse in the world :).

One day it was beautiful out so we went and played in the big 130' x 300' outdoor. I was going to play a littler liberty before getting on. I asked for a trot circle, not expecting much. If anything I expected him to run back to the gate. There, right in the middle of that giant arena he trotted the tightest, most perfect liberty circles around me. Never has he ever trotted small liberty circles around me. It wasn't too long ago that he wouldn't circle me, let alone trot a small circle. Where did this horse come from?!

After playing at liberty, I took off running for the fence. Not only did he canter behind me (whoa, lots of effort from an LBI!), while I was getting on the fence he positioned himself perfectly for me to get on. That definitely gave me goosebumps.

My little liberty star.

I am not sure what those few months off did for us, but it was definitely something great. I do miss the time I used to get to spend with him and I miss actively pursing never ending self improvement, but right now I am just ending the moment. In this crazy world, I guess you never know when the next one might be...

A Long Over-due Update

Wow, it's been a while. Three months, to be exact. The Christmas decorations are still up (does that make me a redneck?). I guess that means it's time for an update. Where to begin?

These past few months have been crazy. So busy! Classes started in January and this semester may be my busiest to date. I am taking two equine classes; that sounds fabulous, but they are so much work. Not only am I on campus all day, I have so much work to do out of class. On top of that, work is as busy as ever. So I have been getting plenty of horse time, but zero of it has been with Sonny.

Since I haven't done anything with Sonny until recently (and I will save that for another post), here is the last three months of my life in photos.

January snow. 

Sheldon and me in January. 

My sister got married in February! Snowshoe, WV.

My pretty roses for Valentines :). 

Sonny love! 

London and me at the beginning of March. 

Our first trail ride of the year. 

Tilly, a filly I work with at school.

Spring break with my boyfriend! 

New York City! 

NYC :) 

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone has a safe, beautiful holiday! 

[Almost] Wordless Wednesday

Unrelated to Sonny and parelli, this is Sheldon (a.k.a. The Big Bang :)).

He is a dutch/thoroughbred cross that I am currently riding. He is an LBE and so much fun! I adore him!!

Liberty Video

I don't think I have ever videoed us playing at liberty before, so here goes:

 

I do realize that it looks slightly slow motion. Oh, my LBI. Maybe next time we will look a little more...alive ;).

Lessons in Liberty

I love liberty and so does Sonny. But lately we have been a little....stuck. Since I moved to the new barn I haven't done much liberty. We didn't have fencing for a while, the outdoor is ginormous, and the indoor usually has someone else in it. I don't want to risk Sonny running away while sometime is trying to ride so I normally stick to online or freestyle.

The past week or so I have been really trying to get back into the swing of things. That is when this happened. He got away from me which isn't a big deal, but he was doing it so much I got frustrated. I put him back online and started over and the next time we played he got away from me again, and again, and again. 

So finally two nights ago I was playing online and thought that maybe I would just take the rope off and see what happened. He was fabulous! We played a little stick to me, sideways, driving, and ran through the games. Circling game at liberty has been our archnemesis. That's usually when things go haywire. So that night I tried to break down the problem. I have been circling him close to the wall (about 10/15ish feet away) so that I could use that to help me keep him on a circle rather making it more difficult on myself and circling him in the middle. Last night I really focused on what he was telling me. When I started the circle, just at the walk he was fine, but when he got to the wall he turned and burned. DUH. Lightbulb. How is my squeeze game? I am not sure why it just occurred to me to check that before my circling game but better late than never. Rather than chasing after him trying to play the catching game, like I usually do, I just stood where I was and waited. He walked right back to me. Huh, how interesting! The game wasn't so fun when I didn't feed into it.

So I moved on to squeeze game. He didn't have the confidence to go through where I was when I asked for the circle. I backed up again and he went right through. I did it a few more times and tightened the gap and his squeezes were beautiful. So then I asked for the circle again. Voila! Perfect walk circle at liberty :). I was so happy I ended there. After a few weeks of trying with no success all it took was for me to listen to what my horse was telling me.

So last night I played at liberty again, just for the fun of it. Which I think is a really important concept for me to grasp. A lot of times I go out to play at liberty with an intention of accomplishing something, or anything. But, he feeds off that mind set and it does that the fun out of it for him. So tonight I just took the halter off and played around. We started with some zone 3 driving which was going so well I played with zone 4 and 5. I know, I know I barely have any experience with Z4&5 driving online, so I shouldn't be doing it at liberty but what the heck. It went so well and I think we both actually really enjoyed it. He followed the rail with me in zone 4 and 5 which I think was interested because we have never played follow the rail online just freestyle.

He was showing great interest in putting effort into things and acting like he was really enjoying it. So I asked for another walk circle and it was perfect! So I asked for a trot circle and it was really great, too! He got a little bigger than I expected, but he a) was so focused on me he didn't care that all of the other horses were getting grain except him b) maintained gait c) maintained direction and d) had a beautiful bend in his body. It was excellent! I am definitely one to quit while I am ahead, but because if my play frame of mind I just started walking to see what would happen. He did a traveling trot circle at liberty to where he was circling me perfectly in the middle of the arena. Wow! That blew my mind! I stopped there and played some more games, but I wanted to end on a really good circling game. I asked for the trot circle again and when he got in front of me he started to come in, but I senesced a direction change in his mind so in order to encourage his own ideas I asked for the direction change. My first one at liberty on a circle in the middle of the arena and it was perfect! The best part was after he changed direction, he maintained a perfect close range trot circle around me. He is so fabulous! He definitely knows how to put a huge smile on my face!

I tried to get a picture, but the indoor arena lights, plus night time, plus close range trot circles do not equal good pictures. You can't even see him in half of them. Maybe I will have someone get a video soon? 

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 :).

Wordless Wednesday

DONE

I am done with school for the year! It feels so great. Semesters were long and drawn out as opposed to quarters, but overall I do think it went faster than usual. I am so glad that it is over with.

Now hopefully onto horsey time. Looks like someone needs a little TLC....

Poor guy was put on the backburner all week...

Pretty Impressive

First of all, if you aren't my facebook friend you have to watch this. This is Take 1 of my liberty jumping from the other day.

As funny as it is and as many times as I have laughed uncontrollably over it, there really is something interesting about it.

Stop the video at 0:16. Then watch Sonny closely for the next two or three seconds. If you notice at about 0:17/0:18, he looks over at me. The second my leg his the jump, he is already flexing his body towards me. Wether he heard/saw/felt me, he knew something was going to happen and was already thinking of turning and facing me while he was still in the air. I think that is so cool! I may be wrong, but I think this shows just how connected to me he is.

Unfortunately my phone only takes 20 still shots in a row. I would have love to have caught some of what happened after what you can see. He turned around and put his nose to my face. I am not sure if he was checking me out, confused, or just flat out laughing at me. It's fun to think what he might be thinking.

"Oh, you are so embarrassing!"

 "Your squeeze game sucks" 

"Human training is harder than it sounds"

"So THAT is why you need me to jump for you"

What do you think he is saying? 

Tis the Season

If you haven't noticed (unless this is your first time viewing my blog, I really hope you did notice) that I changed the layout to a Christmas theme. I am having a really hard time getting it exactly the way I want it, mostly because I don't think blogger is saving my changes. Grrr. But on that note: if anyone knows someone who designs blogs for fairly cheap (>$100) I would be super interested!

I think it's too late for Christmas photos (how do I always seem to miss it? Procastinator, procrastinator...) so I guess I will settle this year for just decorating his stall. Which is slightly disappointing because no one every sees his stall. I am starting to feel a little scroogey! Yuck!

Although we did get a Christmas tree yesterday! Pretty sure we bought the biggest one they had ;).  We didn't buy enough lights because we weren't expecting to get a mammoth so it isn't finished, but it's a start!

A two man kind of tree...

I have finals this week, so there probably won't be much horsey time. But after that is Christmas break and hopefully lots of horsey time!

Imagine That

Sonny and I had an absolutely fabulous time today! He was such a super star and I couldn't be any more proud.

Background: The first time I ever played with barrels Sonny he cut his leg pretty badly on one when going sideways over it and has been pretty afraid of them since. I have done lots of friendly game and over the year since the accident he would do everything but go sideways over them. It has been a huge challenge for me and I get so frustrated with it.

Back to today: I had intentions of wrapping his legs and trying sideways. I was in a hurry to get to the arena to help a friend so I didn't have time to wrap his legs. I had the barrels set up so I just played figure 8 with them instead since I didn't want to mess with sideways and risk his legs again.

I was spicing up the figure 8 with transitions when I happened to halt him at the side of a barrel. With me standing in figure 8 position, he took it upon himself to go sideways over it. As you can imagine, my jaw hit the floor. I didn't ask for a single step and it went as perfect as could be. He kind of paused over top of it, but I didn't want him to think I was pushing him so I let him figure it out. After a few seconds, he continued sideways over it like an old pro. Of course my LBI would do it when I didn't ask! I can't believe all the arguments we have been in over this simple task and he completes it with flying colors when I didn't ask him to. Go figure...

Needless to say, I was quite ecstatic about it. That definitely made my life complete! I am just thrilled. As if that wasn't enough, he jumped with me three times at liberty. This wasn't like any other time we have ever experienced. He put effort into the jump. He didn't try to run out. I didn't have to ask him to do it. My LBI willingly exerted energy to stick to me. Wow! By this point I was just blown away. I was so shocked, surprised, excited, happy...just on cloud 9. He has never jumped with me at liberty over a jump in the middle of the arena without trying to get out of it. He even cantered a stride before! I don't have words to express how happy he made me today :).

Yes, I have the cutest horse in the world.

Funny Sonny

When Sonny was at liberty the other day he got away from me. He normally goes to the other end and comes back. As he came back to me, he did something I would never expect my LBI to do: he went sideways over a pole on his own!

Okay, so I know that he likes to think he knows what I am going to ask of him and he will do anything if he thinks a rest or treat might be in store, but for him to walk up to a pole that we hadn't been going sideways over and just decide to stop half way over it and sidepass down the entire thing....that's pretty funny!

I was NOT expecting him to do anything of the sort, so by the time I realized what was happening he was almost done but I caught the very end of it on tape.

I love the face he gives me at the end. "That's what you wanted, right mom?". He's so stinkin' cute!

I Promise

Although I always make an effort to put our relationship first, it is easy for me to put my needs over Sonny's. I often lose sight of what's important and get caught up in materialistic things (my way of grouping things that most 'traditional' riders look for, such as a on the bit, collected, good distances to a jump, etc.).

It seems like every time I get done with a night that I look for things that benefit me and not him, I feel completely dissatisfied with myself. I have brought it up over and over again, but it never seems to click. No matter what I know, I continue to do the same things in different ways. So I am really going to make a conscious effort to not only be aware of myself and actions, but to then apply what I know. It is easy for me to say I know that is right, but then to put it into action is a whole different challenge.

This is my promise to my horse and myself to work for never ending self improvement and to not only continue to educate myself, but to apply what I know 100% of the time.

I hope to one day be able to be the centered person that my horse expects me to be. I am so grateful that he constantly challenges and influences me to be a better person not only with my horsemanship, but as a whole.

It's Official

The pony search has begun! 

Jase Carter

Auntie Em 

Happy Thanksgiving

It isn't what you have in your pocket that makes you thankful, but what you have in your heart. 

Guilt.

When it comes to Sonny, and especially his health, I give him my all. And when I work so hard to make everything as perfect as possible for him and it doesn't work out, it makes me feel nothing but guilt.

How could I be so ignorant? I am so embarrassed and ashamed. I feel like such a horrible mom.

Mistakes are proof that you are trying. I guess I will just try harder next time...