Fun and Games!

We had a fun time on Sunday. I decided to invite everyone over for a day of mad games that I thought up, based on the 7 Games and Parelli Patterns, but with a few evil twists! We weren't seriously keeping score, but Barney and Kathy Eddy's team won, just in case anybody asks!!

These were the rules - which we bent a little from time to time, along with a few photos.

ON LINE

1.Round Pen Mirror   Time 3 minutes
"Leading" pair stand inside the pen, near the gateway. The "mirroring" pair stand outside the pen, at the same point. Follow the rail for one lap, doing a movement at each of the four marked posts. These movements are called out by the leader, and must be mirrored exactly by the other pair. Use HQ and FQ yields, back-up, sideways, squeeze, Driving Game, Porcupine Game, zone 3 driving or Stick to Me creatively. Do not use the same move twice in the same lap. After completing the first lap, riders pass through the open gate and trade leadership for the next lap.

Failure to mirror -1 per task   Successful mirror +2 per task

2. Cloverleaf    Time 5 minutes

Start with humans side by side, facing carport, one on either side of the yellow cone (X). Horses in zone 3 driving position. Humans are joined together by each holding one end of a Savvy string. Play Friendly Game (neutral, relax, reward, scratch) at X for 10 seconds. Walk one complete Cloverleaf pattern to the right. Stop at X for a 10 second Friendly Game. Do one complete Cloverleaf to the left. The second (and third if you have time!) can be done at trot, if you wish.

+20 for each full Cloverleaf    +20 for good rhythm

-20 for getting lost!    -10 for dropping the string

3. Pedestal Send    Time 3 minutes

With horses on 22' lines, each human sits in a chair, with horse backed up and facing them. On the signal to go, send your horse to the pedestal on your right. When team members are ready, they trade ropes, and send the next horse to their pedestal, always moving to the right.

Nose touch +1    1 foot (or pawing) +2

2 feet +4    4 feet +8

Predatory behavior -10 

4. Carrot Stick Hat Weave    Time 3 Minutes

Team members stand at one end of the Weave pattern. At the signal to go one human picks up the hat using their carrot stick and directs their horse through the Weave pattern. The human must not pass through the cones.

When the first pair has completed the pattern, they pass the hat to their partner's stick, who does the pattern next. Neither team member is allowed to touch the hat at any time!


Each pattern completed +8

Dropping hat -3

Coming off pattern (missing a cone, etc) -6

5. Yo-yo toss    Time 2 minutes
Stand in the lane of poles, beside your horse, facing your partner's horse, 4' (length of a carrot stick) apart, with the center cone between you. One human has a carrot stick (string removed). On the signal to go, the stickless person asks their horse to back up, encouraged by the person with the stick, who moves forward with their horse to maintain the original distance. Move until the backing pair are just behind the end cone.


The stick is now tossed to the other person, distance adjusted if needed, and the other pair back down the lane to their end cone. Toss stick and repeat.


Each end cone reached +7    Dropping stick -4

Stepping out of lane -6    Not maintaining distance -3

6. Washing Line Point to Point    Time 4 minutes

Move the 4 rags from one line to the other, one at a time, as many times as you can. Remember to play a little Friendly Game each time you stop at a washing line. One line must be completely emptied before you start to move the rags back again. Each person can only move one rag at a time. Team members may divide the work any way they wish, or work independently.

Each item moved +5    Dropped item - 10

Failure to play friendly game - 10    Breaking gait during a trip - 5

FREESTYLE

1.Round Pen Mirror    Time 3 minutes

"Leading" pair stand inside the pen, near the gateway. The "mirroring" pair stand outside the pen, at the same point. Follow the rail for one lap, doing a movement at each of the four marked posts. These movements may be called out by the leader, and must be mirrored exactly by the other pair. Use direct and indirect reins, halts, back-up, sideways, half or full turns, etc. creatively. Do not use the same move twice in the same lap. After completing the first lap, riders pass through the open gate and trade leadership for the next lap.

Failure to mirror -1 per task    Successful mirror +2 per task
Completing a lap silently +10


2. Cloverleaf    Time 4 minutes
Riding side by side, start facing carport, one on either side of the yellow cone (X). Humans are joined together by each holding one end of a Savvy string. Play Friendly Game (neutral, relax, reward, scratch) at X for 10 seconds. Walk one complete Cloverleaf pattern to the right. Stop at X for a 10 second Friendly Game. Do one complete Cloverleaf to the left. The second can be done at trot, the third at canter, if you wish.


+20 for each full Cloverleaf    +20 for good rhythm
-20 for getting lost!    -10 for dropping the string


3. Pedestal Send    Time 3 minutes per person
One human rides as a passenger, the other sits in a chair, with teammates on 22' line, backed up and facing them. On the signal to go, send your teammates to the small pedestal. With their permission, continue to the large pedestal.


Please use the pedestal for mounting, NOT the chair!


Nose touch +1    1 foot (or pawing) +2
2 feet +4    4 feet +8

Scaring your passenger -10

Passenger uses reins (non-emergency) - 10


4. Carrot Stick Hat Weave    Time 3 Minutes
Team members stand at one end of the Weave pattern. At the signal to go one human picks up the hat using their carrot stick and rides the Weave pattern. When the first pair has completed the pattern, they pass the hat to their partner's stick, who does the pattern next. Neither team member is allowed to touch the hat at any time!


Each pattern completed +8
Dropping hat -3

Coming off pattern (missing a cone, etc) -6


5. Yo-yo toss   Time 2 minutes

Riders face one another, 4' apart, with the center cone between you. One human has a carrot stick (string removed). On the signal to go, the stickless person asks their horse to back up, encouraged by the person with the stick, who moves forward with their horse to maintain the original distance. Move until the backing pair are just behind the end cone.

The stick is now tossed to the other person, distance adjusted if needed, and the other pair back down the lane to their end cone. Toss stick and repeat.


Each end cone reached +7    Dropping stick -4
Stepping out of lane -6    Not maintaining distance -3


6. Washing Line Point to Point    Time 3 minutes
Move the 4 rags from one line to the other, one at a time, as many times as you can. Remember to play a little Friendly Game each time you stop at a washing line. One line must be completely emptied before you start to move the rags back again. Each person can only move one rag at a time. Team members may divide the work any way they wish, or work independently.


Each item moved +5    Dropped item - 10
Failure to play friendly game - 10    Breaking gait during a trip - 5

The News from Springvalley

It's been another amazing summer. Fun, challenging, hot and busy. We've made new friends and spent time with familiar ones, run some  successful events and made quite a few improvements to the place. I'm afraid it didn't leave me enough energy for blogging, which I often regretted, but hopefully I will do better now! So much has happened since that last time I posted that I think a catch up is in order.  

Coming Events
Playday!
We need to have some fun in this cooler weather, so I'm organising a playday on Sunday, the 26th of September. I plan to organise some challenges for us, which will involve a look at some of the Patterns and 7 Games as you've probably never imagined them! Just purely for Savvy fun for our regulars and their horses. I can't wait!


More Fun!
This time with Petra Christensen (who is now a 2* Instructor), 2* Kime Conkright and 3* Instructor Jena Cody. On October 17th, they are offering a morning of free (yes, it did say "free") lessons, followed by an afternoon of Parelli Games. We hope to see lots of new local faces and make new friends at this event. We are hoping that Livia will also be around for this. More information coming soon!


And Cooler Weather

This summer was a challenge for me, and others, too. However, we are lucky to have  nice autumn weather here, which often stretches into the early winter. September, October and December are usually pretty dry. (Statistically, November is a little wetter, here.) It's a great time to visit us. Why not hook a few extra days onto one of our events, like the Playday or Funday? Staying on after an event is particularly useful, as it gives you the opportunity to play with your horse and consolidate what you learned before returning to the distractions of "real life".

Of course we can't promise that any week of the year will have a particular type of weather, but there is a good chance of dry days which are mild to crisp in temperature. We are keeping our prices the same for now, with short breaks to suit even the tightest budget, money saving working holiday options or easy-going bed and board options that are still great value. For lots more information, and a complete price list click here. We look forward to seeing you!

Bruce on the Loose!

In July, Livia Meneau, from Switzerland, arrived to spend a week with us before taking Bruce to the Colorado ISC (Parelli ranch in Pagosa Springs) for 3 months while she does her externship. We were very impressed with her attitude and I feel she has potential to become a great Parelli Professional. She and I spent an enjoyable week together - playing, riding and preparing. We even managed to fit in a trail ride one day. That may sound like no big deal, but it had been almost two years since I had ridden off the property! The opportunity has been there for awhile, as our neighbor to the east has generously allowed us to ride on his 800 acres. There is a lot of great riding over there, which I'm having fun exploring.

Livia and Bruce checking out our neighbor's water hole

Livia and Bruce are doing well at the ISC, and of course Brucie is a bit of a celebrity, as I would expect. I get little snippets of news from Livia. Being and extern is not an easy road, and she doesn't have much time to write. I also hear a little about them from Petra, as she is working at the ranch and keeping her horses near Bruce. Livia will be back in October for another visit. I am looking forward to spending time and sharing Savvy with her. And I will be thrilled to have Mr Bruce home again!

Partners at the ISC

Holidaymakers

Petra spent a week with us near the end of July. She had the brilliant idea to offer lessons to anyone who wanted to stay here at Springvalley that week, and she also was a very dedicated horseman, herself, spending all the moments she could grab riding and playing with Cash and JB. It was nice to have her around, and to see "The Browns" again. Cash made some nice changes during their week here.

Toward the end of the week we were joined by Harlene and JoAnna and their two horses. They travelled up from the Walsenburg/Gardner area, a couple of hours to the southwest of us.  Linda came and stayed and took lessons, too, so we were quite a party. They all had daily lessons, played with their horses and we watched Parelli DVDs together in our spare time. It was a very hot week, in a very hot summer, so a little challenging for all of us, at times. I hope we might see them again when things cool off!

The week was rounded off by the second lesson in the Summer Series with Petra and Kime. It was great to see the group progressing. I felt a little sorry for our spectators, who had to sit in the heat all day, however, Mark had a plan, and it was just a question on time...

Our Auditors Now Have it Made in the Shade!

We became aware in the spring that our clinic and lesson auditors were struggling in the summer heat. We considered various solutions, then Mark had a brainstorm. A carport! So he ordered one of those super-duper pre-fab metal ones (in green, of course!). It provides plenty of sun (or rain) shelter for auditors, and we can park things under it the rest of the time. Unfortunately it took it's time arriving, but we were finally able to use it at the last summer lesson, and what a difference it made! Just as well, too, as the temperature was 105F. 

Our Big Arena

Barney and Ducky enjoy the acres of sand!

Somehow, over the summer, my "playground" has morphed into an arena. My idea of having some semi-permanant obstacles on a natural/native surface was gradually defeated by our climate and weeds. The only thing to do was turn it into a sand arena. Mark has put in a lot of time and effort to make this happen. Luckily, we are sitting on pretty good sand, so it's been a matter or hoeing out the weeds (with a tractor) then using a revolving arena harrow to fluff it up. We bought in some sand to top things up around the obstacles and near the front, where it had hardpanned over the winter, but now we wonder whether that was actually necessary. The result is great. We have an almost 300' x 300' arena. The only problem is the semi-permanent obstacles, which have to be moved every time we harrow. Well, that's the next challenge, I guess.

We have another area earmarked for a playground with permanent obstacles, but this time we will have to do some serious thinking about the surface before we start.

Grass + Cows = Beef
Up until the last four or five weeks, we've been blessed with generous rainfall again this year. The pastures are responding well to this and I have managed to do a lot of mowing for weed control. As a result, the grass is coming back surprisingly well. We still have years of pasture improvement ahead of us, but it's nice to see it paying off already. The calves are looking fantastic. They have grown and fattened up really well. So we are now taking orders for grass fed beef for local customers. We put no chemicals whatsoever on our pastures, and of course we don't give our cattle growth hormones, routine antibiotics or other nasties.

But you won't be eating Bonnie here.

We hope this heifer is going places in our breeding program!

To email me about upcoming events, holidays or beef click here