Just Smashing!

Tuesday, Dove got her feet trimmed. I had managed to pick them up a few times, and our trimmer, John Graves does a nice job with less-than-confident horses, so things went great. I decided that having passed this milestone, and now being pretty easy to catch, I'd introduce her to the herd and if all went well, turn her out. I put Bruce in the arena and took Dove in and led her around the perimeter to show her the fence. (We put a training wire, that looks just like the stuff on the track in Dove and Journey's pen a few days ago.) 

Once I let her go, Bruce tried to sniff her rear end, she made to kick him with one of those long hind legs, and he whirled around and squealed and double barreled her to let her know that's not advisable. With that out of the way, they totally lost interest in each other. I put two piles of hay on a tarp for them and they ate pretty well in close proximity until the hay ran low. Then Bruce started nipping her shoulder to move her off. 

While they had their lunch date I played a bit with Iona in the round pen. (I've missed using the round pen. It's been a calf hospital for ages, however, the calf is finally better and  been moved in with some buddies.) We worked on our Porcupine stuff, did a few successful changes of direction and transitions, and I hopped on for a brief bridleless session. It all went well, especially the circles and riding. I can pretty well fake having the stick in my right hand now, if I use it two handed or just drag it along. However, she was pretty light and I didn't need it much. I'm afraid that I still don't have much of a program about progressing with Bruce and Iona these days, other than getting better responses with the Porcupine Game, especially where their heads are concerned. I just mess around and do what I can. Liberty is the easiest, although Iona is not bad to ride. I try to keep the sessions short and not show them too much about what I can't do.


I then put Iona in the arena with the other two. She wasn't interested in Dove at all. Just wanted to stand by the gate with Bruce. Okay then! I spent just a couple minutes catching Dove, haltered her, and we all started down the track. I encouraged the Fells to walk in front and Dove and I followed. We stopped for a drink and then headed on out to the pasture. I let Dove graze on line for a little while then took the halter off. I hung out for a bit, then made sure that I could still catch her. That took maybe five minutes of persistence. She looked pretty relieved when I let her go again!

I had left Hunter in the pen next door to Journey for company. However, he didn't have to stay there long, as Mark arrived home with yet another new horse! This is a gelding that belongs to a workmate of Mark's. Mark has him on trial. He's a sort of "been there, done that" horse, and we've heard good things about him. However. I wasn't prepared for the great big guy who stepped off the trailer. Especially as Mark had forgotten to take a halter with him when he picked him up, so I said, "Oh, don't worry. Just open the trailer door a bit and I'll throw a rope over his neck." Well, here was this big bay, about 16hh, and about 12hh wide! Talk about stocky! He's actually built a little like Iona. Short legs and a really, really deep body. How kids barrel raced him I'll never know, but it must have been something to see. This fellow currently rejoices under the name of "Smash" (part of his registered name). I'm thinking something like "Ranger" might be nice. We'll let you know.

Journey
Most of Wednesday was taken up with picking up a load of hay, but with the round pen clear, I decided it was time to try and make some more progress with Journey. I'd love to be able to turn her out, but I'd also love to be able to catch her again, get her feet  trimmed, be able to deal with her (and maybe a foal) if she's pregnant, etc. On the way home we figured out how to create a corridor from her pen to the round pen, where we could open a gap in the panels to drive her in. That went smoothly and I started playing the Catching Game. I'm not surprised that she's proving a tough customer with this. and I wish I had some more Savvy Arrows. I ended up sending her around for ages. She would start to lock on to me, and would face me when I took the pressure off, but I couldn't get any forward steps. In the end I played things a little different and approached her. If she let me make a little progress (first, touch me, then let me touch her and make some progress through the zones) I'd back off. Not all these things at once, of course, but progressively. If she chose to leave, I'd send her out again. If not. we'd do a slow dance where I'd casually try to get back to Zone 5, then send her out. We had quite a long session, and she was a bit sweaty but I managed to get a little further past her withers than we had been so far. I didn't want to push her any harder as it was getting late and cold and I didn't want to stress her too much.


Today we had another session. I tried a few new things. One was backing into her space just as her Zone 5 went behind me on the circle. I watched Pat do that on the old Catching Game DVD. However, I think that scared her, so I quit. We also had a period when the whole thing took on a more playful feeling. I think that was great, but somewhere it dribbled away and I didn't really find it again. I also tried using a telescoping rod to touch her. It was a bit cumbersome and not quite long enough for the size of the pen, but I'll try it again in a smaller space. Toward the end of the session I'm pretty sure I approached too much and retreated too little. Darn!  I felt that I'd taught her to keep facing me but we weren't progressing much past that. I also discovered that she really doesn't want me on her left side, so I worked on that, and when she let me touch her a little there, we called it a day. Later, when I was doing chores in her pen, I noticed that she was obsessively facing me. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing.....


I also had short sessions with Bruce and Smash/Ranger today. Bruce and I mainly worked on Game 2 at Liberty. I could tell he would like to do more, but I didn't have a plan. At least the little bit we did went pretty well.


I managed to play the first four Games with the big guy. He's been a little pushy and disrespectful so far, so we defined my space. He went along with this, but I can tell he doesn't really believe me yet.  Surprisingly, his Porcupine and Driving was pretty good in all Zones. It's possible he's been played with a little in the past. I think his owners have flirted with PNH. Yo-yo was harder. He couldn't believe that Phase 1 or 2 meant anything. Perhaps my energy could have been clearer? Having given him a couple of BIG Phase 4s, I settled for some good steps at Phase 3.


It's amusing to have all these things that I can do with horses I hardly know. The first four Games one handed are pretty easy. So is most of the work with Journey. But at the same time, I can do so little with my "advanced" horses. At least the new guys are keeping me occupied. 


Snowstorm
A bit of a blizzard hit this afternoon, and they say we will have some really low temperatures for awhile. Because Bruce was in, the others hung around the yard area all day and didn't go get their hay. By the time Bruce was out the storm was coming, and he was not sure whether to take them out to the pasture or stay near the shed. I knew they were hungry and needed something in their bellies for the cold night. They got halfway up the drive and stood around eating weeds with the snow sticking to them. By dusk they were still there. I decided to put a bale in their shed and walked them to it. Dove isn't well integrated yet. She hangs back and Hunter bullies her a bit. I was worried that she wouldn't get into the shed or get any hay, so I offered to catch her, and would have let her wait the storm out with Journey, but she wasn't having it, and it was getting dark and I was frozen. I felt bad, as she's a bit thin. but she's lived out all her life and I know she'll be fine. If she's looking unhappy in the morning I'll catch her and give her some TLC.

Bruce is Back - First Session

Livia returned Bruce to me, safe and sound, a couple of weeks ago. She and I spent an enjoyable few days together, playing with him, riding, and talking about some of the things she learned during her time as an extern at the Parelli ranch in Pagosa Springs. During one session, I watched her ride Bruce in the Cradle Bridle. I think both Livia and Bruce were tired, and the session wasn't great. It really got me thinking, yet again, about where I stand on bits, on so-called collection, etc.



Like a lot of Parelli students, I would prefer to ride without a bit. I'm not vehemently against them, but they aren't my ideal, either. However, I'm curions, and recently experimented a little with Iona in the Cradle, and found it pretty easy to get a "soft feel" that might just develop into something we could both enjoy. The conclusion that I've come to is that most of us don't have our Porcupine Game in Zone 1 anywhere near good enough to be messing around with contact with a bit. For sure, Bruce's Zone 1 stuff has never been very good at all. When I first started riding him, I couldn't steer him at all in a hackamore. Of course, I thought that just because we could play the 7 Games fairly well that it was time to get on and start riding him. And when that was difficult, I just fought with him as best I could.

I haven't ridden him in the hackamore since he came back from the ISC, so I don't know yet what may have changed. It is a testament to Livia that she managed some good sessions with him in the Cradle. However, I've made up my mind to make a big effort to get all our horses soft, soft, soft in all their Zone 1 yields, and to explore whether we can even make some steps into contact and collection in the hackamore before we use bits for these things.

All this is really just a prelude to telling you about my session with Brucie today, as I didn't want to interrup the flow of the description explaining all this.

The first things I played with today was yielding the forehand with finger pressure just in front of the girth. Bruce was doing well with this previously, but found it trick to keep his feet still for a complete 360 degree turn. He can do that now, and is lighter and more confident with it than before. Yay!! I also played with lowering his head, backing him up with my fingers on his nose, lateral flexion with my hand on his muzzle, etc. These things felt really good. He need a little more friendly game in his mouth, I think, and then I might try some lead by the lip.

I am still working my way through the tasks I planned with the trailer (see I Have a Plan) so I thought we'd go do that next. My plan was to play the games On Line inside the trailer. We headed to the trailer, which I keep in a roped off area. However, I didn't think I'd need to close the gate! Well, it seems that Bruce has a few concerns about the trailer. Whether he doesn't want to take a six hour trip only to find himself away from home for three months, or just didn't like the hunks of bark and stuff that were decorating the trailer floor (Mark hauled some firewood) I really don't know. I got him in on the first couple of sends, did something he didn't like, so he came out. No big deal. I re-sent him and he just left. Went to talk to the cows about borrowing some alfalfa. Okay, so he still knows how to leave. Not surprised!

Back at the trailer again, I shut the gate this time and tried a few hard sends on a circle, but of course he's too smart for that. Back to trailer loading, then. He wasn't enthusiastic, but it didn't take much to get him going in the trailer easily. He was more sceptical about me coming in, though, so we played with that, and with me playing a bit of Friendly Game with the back door of the trailer, too. In the end, we did manage to play the games inside, although I'd say there were some reactions amongst the responses. It wasn't easy enough to get him to lower his head, for one thing. However, I decided to keep things light and not make the session too long, so I wound things up, and will come back to it later. 

Our last task today was circles. My goal was 5 laps of trot on the 22' line. We did this in the arena, in the corner nearest to the loafing shed. I fully expected to have trouble hanging onto him, but he never left. When we started the session my plan was to get first one lap, then three, and then five. He started off constantly breaking gait and leaning on the rope. I decided to fix the leaning first, so I asked for walk. The moment he put slack in the rope I brought him in for a rest. The next time I waited about 12 strides, after he put the slack in, and the next time he managed a full circle. It doesn't take him long to figure things out! (I was proud of myself for remembering my goal of lightness in Zone 1.)

We moved on to trot, and it really didn't take much to reach my goal of 1, 3 and 5 laps. He didn't have a lot of impulsion, and on the five laps, he leaned on the rope sometimes. But I never stopped while he was leaning! We will sort those things out, but at least he maintained gait in this simple task, and understood that slack in the rope is important.

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
                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Learning Frame of Mind

Had a session with Iona yesterday. Even though we started fairly early in the morning, it was very hot! Think it got up to 101F or something yesteday. However, I was determined, and thankfully a breeze and a few clouds made it possible for awhile! We played with canter circles, which ended up taking some time. She's in season, and was making a fuss about being away from Bruce. There was a bit of running off, but we weren't in a very big space, so I just persevered. I was trying for six laps. Got three easily each way, but when I went for six, she would get almost to six and then break gait. This happens so often that I wonder whether there is a change in my energy when we get close. I do my best to control it, but I still wonder...

We got six on the left rein with either a minor correction from me or self correction. Then on the right she decided to run around and leave me because Bruce and Hunter were on the move on the track. We went into a roundpen and finished pretty easily there. We were both hot and sweaty, so we called it a day and I hosed her off.

I got up nice and early this morning to beat the heat, and it worked out really well. We headed out to the playground where I had set out some half barrels for a Weave and cones for a Figure 8. I wanted to work on Weave on the 45' line. This hasn't been going well. We warmed up with some Traveling Circles. Iona is still Iona, and has her opinions, but I was left feeling like "When did we get to the place where I can move you through time and space on a longer line, and you do maintain gait? Wow! This is new and cool!" (I had much the same feeling playing with Bruce the other night. Gee - maybe I'm changing...) So we did that for awhile, and she was great! Then I realised that I needed to go shut a gate out in the pasture, so I left her happily eating grass or a few minutes.

Okay, time for the dreaded Weave!! The first thing I noticed was that she had lots of go. Excellent! The next thing I noticed was that I wasn't doing a great job of directing her. She was actually trying, but when I was unclear she just made up her own stuff, like jump the half barrel, go around two, stop and eat... I bagan to sort out my timing, and in the process I realised that the further away I am the less I have to move and the easier it is to be clear, too, I think. Again, Iona did a pretty good job of maintaining gait, and really tried for me. That, in turn, made it a lot easier to be able to work on my end of the deal. It's a completely different game than when a horse is just stopping and goofing off all the time. Then it's very hard for the human to make progress. I was really pleased with Iona and I felt we made a lot of progress on this!

After a suitable break, we moved on to Freestyle Figure 8 at trot. Or tried to. Again, Iona got really distracted by Bruce and Hunter out on the track. She was actually going around with her head in the air calling to them. If she could get that big tail in the air she'd have been doing a pretty good imitation of an Arab. I thought we'd start with a little point to point just to see where we were. Did I mention we were bareback? I was gonna use tack, but discovered a HUGE welt from a bug bite just where the girth goes.... Boy am I out of shape! Haven't been riding enough, so I'm up there slipping around on her nice shiny summer coat. Yikes!

Point to point was do-able, so I decided to just go for it. Then I remembered I was supposed to be riding with my stick. Doh! Got that, and Iona took off in her punchiest, most jarring fast trot, with a big loop on the side where the boys were and completely missing X, also in favour of going toward males, then trying to just go straight and run around at the other end of the pattern. Great. I was all over the place - trying to resist te urge to use my reins for balance, frustrated by the stick and must have left my balance point at the breakfast table. Wonderful.

This whole crazy trot thing seems to surface at times when I am bareback and/or riding with the stick. I've wondered why. I'm not always that unbalanced, but have wondered if there's a lack of confidence with the stick, a discomfort with the bareback trot, or what. Still don't know the answer, However, what I learned today was that it is okay to do something about it. I think I have been sort of like a rabbit in the headlights with it. Just gamely riding it and waiting and hoping for a change. Sometimes it does come eventually.... So after 5 or 10 minutes (felt much longer!) of awful, during which I managed to stay on, stay roughly on the pattern and saw no improvement - I had a brainstorm........I sinply asked her to slow down. Not walk. We could do that. Just trot slower and relax. And then we did it. Problem solved.

I also discovered some of the same problems with my timing on asking for a change of bend, that I found earlier on the Weave. I'm really happy with what I learned today. Sometimes I feel like I'm not progressing, because I can't figure out what I need to learn. I love breakthrough days!

Oh, yes - she never bucked.

More fun with Bruce!

My Beautiful Brucie

(taken in Scotland)

Denise and I have had a few sessions with Bruce since I last posted. Their partnership is improving. Denise has stepped up to take on the things I am asking her to do with him, and he is having a lot of fun playing and enjoying the extra attention. Yesterday evening was really fun, though!

We started by looking at playing Games 4-7 in a flow, and I suggested that Brucie should really be trotting 90% of the time. I played first, and I have to say I was surprised at just how well he did. I didn't need to ask him to pick up the pace much at all - he just went. Denise also had a good little session, although she needed to remember to "expect a lot" as she just didn't realise he could easily do much more for her at first.

We then had a look at tacking him up with a bareback pad. Typically, he was trying to undo the latigos and "help" her put it on. He is always impatient with tacking up. He thinks it take too long.

In the interest of continuing with the Impulsion Programs, I had to think of a way to play the Trotting Game dismounted. I decided we could try Liberty. We were in the small arena, so Denise and I each took a half and I sent him off - really to go where he liked as long as he trotted! And if he went over to Denise's side, then it was up to her to keep him trotting. Naturally, he had no idea what we were asking him to do. However, that just seemed to make it more fun for him and he was pretty expressive. Only one or two little moments of "uh-oh, I guess I'm wrong!" He mostly offered to do big circles around us, and we ended up having to sort of discuss how to get him to go to the other person's side. We all had a blast, and ended up asking him not to canter more than not to walk, by far. It would be very easy to get him to do a big Figure 8 around the two of us, I think.

Denise then mounted up to work on her lateral flexion, friendly game and a bit of Passenger Lesson. I'm not sure that too much Passenger Lesson will be a good thing for Bruce, so this may be a bit of a compromise. Hopefully, Denise can sort of get that just riding him around with me and Iona before too long.

Because of Bruce's impending trip, I thought I'd better work on his trailer loading. We haven't done much with it since the Trailer Woes thing this autumn. However, after a little initial scepticism he went on and off several times easily. I then experimented with how he felt about me coming in. No problem, so we played a little Yo-yo game and stuff in there, and I also experimented with running the lead rope through the bars to simulate tying him up. That also went just fine. I think that's where we had problems the last time - or at the next step, where I dallied the rope to something and left him - and then he panicked a little. No problem this time. I didn't dally the rope, but did get out of the trailer and go around and give him a treat through the bars from the outside. A pattern he knows from our old trailer in Scotland. I was really happy with that session, and with how the whole evening went.

Fun with Bruce

Had a fun sesion with Denise and Bruce on Saturday. Denise just passed L1 with Dakota, but is currently horseless, so she's filling in with Bruce until he goes to Pagosa with and extern in July. Of course, Bruce graduated L2 a couple of years ago with my friend Hazel. My feeling is that he is not a pony who really wants to do L2 again, so the challenge is to find ways to help Denise progress and help Brucie progress, too with the time that we have.

Denise needs to learn the L2 material, I have things I want to do with Bruce, and I also feel that the three of us would benefit from having a look at the Impulsion Programs from the original L2 pack. Denise would also like to begin riding, but is pretty rusty and a little unfit. This is nothing two enthusiastic women and a Fell pony can't handle! Today we made a start!

And it really started when we went out to bring the horses in. We decided to lead them in by taking a shortcut through some pretty lush grass. However, we made sure that we owned that grass! They got to stop and enjoy eating some, but we gave well defined signals for "yes you may eat" and "now we are walking and not eating", This went really well and set us up for the day, I think.

Before we started we also talked about how Bruce switches between Left Brained Introvert and Extrovert, and that we need to see the changes and deal with him accordingly. When you get his energy UP then it's good to go fast with things and keep him engaged with lots of little changes and plenty to do. And also to be as firm as he is with other horses. Treats would just be a distraction. However, when he's quiet, unmotivated, "stubborn" treats may help to get him going again and we may need to slow down.

It was windy, so we used the small arena behind the visitors shed. It's currently full of tasty kochia weed, so I was glad we'd already had the grass discussion. We started by letting them eat while we tried some simulations from the latest L2 DVDs. Handling the 22' line in the Yo-Yo game - where to put all that extra rope, Denise did really well with this. I made some discoveries about keeping my hands more still and creating less "noise" with the rope, which was useful. Then we worked on power positions which led us to trying other things that help when a horse tries to run off, as well as those that just lean on the rope and say "NO!"

We had a little look at the backwards test from Backwards and Sideways in the Impulsion Programs. For this you try to back your horse about 30' between a lane of poles or other markers. It needs to be straight, willing, etc and you need to do it in 30 seconds. This is meant to be a ridden exercise but we adapted it and started off Yo-Yo style. I tried this first with Iona. She was pretty willing but very crooked. I improved it after a couple of tries. Bruce was really slow, so I stepped in and showed Denise what I thought an effective phase 4 would be for Bruce. I reminded her that although she is learning this, Bruce knows it well, so she doesn't need to act as though she is in the teaching phase. We had already talked earlier about Bruce's leadership style in the herd and how we might try to mirror that when playing with him. Subtle phase one ... VERYFAST!!! phase 4. We both got more interesting in his eyes, it seemed. I then hopped on Iona and demonstrated the ridden version of this with one rein, and then Denise tried it from zone three.

Denise did some bareback mounting and dismounting, and then I played with Bruce a little while she watched. We did just a little backing and drawing on the 45' line. But I didn't want to wear this out after what we had already done. I finished up by riding the Figure 8 Pattern. Bruce and I are only on the Level 1 Freestyle version of this as a partnership. It did start off a little sticky, but we were soon pretty good in walk after a few rewards at X. When I got a couple of rounds in trot I was very pleased. However, I was still using my reins more than I would have liked. So I tried again in walk and was able to use them much less. Yay!! I was pretty sure that doing the trot again in this session would result in me using the reins more once again, so I decided to trot the rail a couple of time aound the arena, then I turned him in and finished at the X we had been using in the Figure 8.

As so often happens, I felt that I did a much better job because I had someone watching me to whom I was explaining things as I went along. I don't quite understand why that improves the quality of what I do so much, but I'm sure it does. I must think about that! The other thing that I'm noticing is that when I watch Bruce objectively when Denise plays with him, I seem to see his tries much more easily and read him better than when I play with him myself.

Denise and I had another session on Sunday, which I might find time to write up later. It also went really well, and I'm sure that this can be a successful recipe for all three of us.

Auditions!

On April 25th, Petra helped Denise Hosea, Kathy Eddy and Sara Williamson film their On Line auditions.
I thought I would share them here.

 Denise and Dakota, Level 1


Kathy and Sierra, Level 2 On Line


Newsflash! Congratulations, Sara, on your L1++ pass!
Sara and Sis, Level 1/Level 2 On Line

Congratulations are already due to Kathy, who has received word that she passed!

Looking Back at Petra's Lesson Series

The graduating class! Congratulations, everybody!

Gail, Sara C, Denise, Petra, Sara W, Jacque and Kathy

Petra's lesson series ended on Sunday with a great playday. I have not been writing reports as we went along. For some strange reason, I always seem to be tired after a lesson Sunday. So I thought I would write a little report now, and mostly let the photos tell the story.

The first lesson day was in February and it was c-c-c-cold! Petra sensibly decided to break everyone in easy with a horseless day of classroom work and learning games indoors, and just a few quick simulations outside for as long as people could cope! It really set the following weeks up for success. 

The following weeks saw things gradually warm up, and everyone made clear progress toward their goals, having a lot of fun in the process.

   

By week four everybody was looking great, and so was the weather! We all enjoyed that magical combination of increasing Savvy and wearing less layers! For me it was a really special day, seeing everyone playing so successfully. It's been an amazing journey to get Springvalley Farm to this point, and I admit that I'm feeling quite pleased to have achieved this in just a year!  

I had some pretty nice icing on my cake that particular Sunday, too, as we had severel extra visitors. Linda and her dad, Barney came with their horses for the afternoon play session, and we had 2* instructor Kime Conkright and her dad Ray, visiting for the weekend, too. I have known Ray through some Parelli forums like Parellinaturally for many years, but it's only recently that we got to meet in person. Plus, another friend whom I had only met through her writing about Fell ponies, also mostly through the internet, visited us for a little while on Sunday. Her name is Jenifer Morrissey. She is also a Parelli student, but I admit that she and her husband Don, and I mostly talked Fells for a couple of happy hours. I'm really pleased that they have decided to visit us again during the Jerry Williams clinic next week, and Jenifer is bringing her mare, Lily.  

 The pot luck lunches were a lot of fun, too!

The weekends brought a few other nice milestones, too. Mark made his first "public appearance" with Hunter, and Sara began riding Sis at home, recently. Luckily, Denise was there to snap a photo! The planets must have been in alignment, as the very same day, I finally got on Hunter and had a litte ride. Unfortunately, no photos, though.

And on the subject of photos, I would like to say thanks to Denise whose photographic skills are better than mine. She is now taking the majority of the photos on this blog. As a consequence, there are not so many photos of the "Get Started" class, because Denise had her hands rather busy during that one! I do apologise to the members of that group for leaving them out a little!

Here are some photos from our final playday on Sunday. Not only did we have a blast, but Petra helped Sara and Kathy film their L2 On Line auditions, and Denise her L1 audition! Watch this space for links to their YouTube videos, and announcements of their passes, of course!

 It's Linda and Ducky!

 Mark with Sara's daughter Summer

Barney and Scooter 

Me and Iona 

Denise and Dakota 

Sara and Sis 

Mark and Hunter 

My carrot stick experiment 

Who is that cowboy? 

Petra with her camera 

Lunchtime in the pens 

Kathy and Sierra

Coaching with David Lichman

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to take advantage of David Lichman's "Hitching Post" long distance coaching. I got Mark to film me and Iona playing the Circling Game and doing some ridden Point to Point. Right on cue, she pulled lots of grumpy faces when circling and did her little bucky kicking out thing during the riding. So I figured out how to put it on a DVD and sent it off to David for help.

Watching the DVD, and particularly thinking what to write to send with the DVD got me thinking about where I'm at in my own head as far as me and Iona go. I will share with you, with David's permission, what I wrote to him, and his replies. My email and later questions are in blue, David's replies in brown.

Hi David-

Thanks so much for offering this service. I am looking forward to your input!

I am about to send you a 12-13 minute DVD of my impulsion problems with my Fell pony, Iona.

We passed L2 in 2006. Have been rather busy, and a change of location has meant less opportunity to ride her out (she's bored with my 160 acre property already!). As you can see, she is quite short, although we have enjoyed many long canters and gallops in our time. These have been mostly, but not all, in company. The impulsion problems come and go over the years to some extent, but I never really solve them.

I am struggling with the eternal question for the LBI owner - when to go to a big phase 4 and when to wait-wait-wait. No big phase 4s on the video, but I am more of a stick person than a carrot one, so there have been plenty. Also, I guess a big part of my interest in PNH has been to improve my horsemanship, not just to progress with this particular pony. Although I am not a perfectionist, I think I have tended to be too thoroughin covering all facets of the many tasks I have been presented with in the ever-changing Parelli Levels program! The result may be that my very smart pony now feels like a child genius who has been asked to repeat the 3rd grade a couple of times...

I would like to have progressive fun with Iona, but am losing confidence in my ability to reach an agreement with her these days. Help me get the handbrake off without destroying her spirit!

I will include this link to a description of a recent session where we concentrated on circles, so that you can understand how I'm thinking, in case that is useful. If you feel it's not important, that's fine.http://pingalley.blogspot.com/2010/03/flying-changes.html

Kris Hughes

It didn't take David long to get back to me. I'm sure that it would have been even quicker if I had uploaded the video to the internet, but I found it easier to mail a DVD. Here's what he wrote -

 

Hi Kris,

First of all, this should be a lot of fun. Mainly because you are so close!!! You already have cantering, and with a good expression at that!!

Ok, so here are my suggestions. I'd love to have seen the running off, because I think I can help you with that also. It looked like in the early circles she made some half-hearted attempts at leaving... tossing her head as if to pull the line from your hands. I'll save that for another session; I have a suspicion it's related, and the information I'm giving you now may eliminate it, or it may be that you must address it first. I won't know until you try.

1) Try not to use the big wave down the rope as a correction on the circle. It's to much against the forward you are looking for.

2) I don't think the change of direction on breaking gait is working. Disengage and try again. Same thing for snotty look on departure. Disengage and try again. Remember #1 in there, don't put impediments to forward in any of this... meaning the wave down the rope.

3) Need to fix this NOT on the circle. Go point to point on the ground, and have a TON of food waiting at the target point. I'm expecting she will drag you there. The whole thing seems pointless to her; let's give her a big point that she'll appreciate. If Iona is not so food motivated, then do this before her regular meal, when she's hungriest. Point to point with a treat on the fence or barrel. Every time to start, and then vary the reinforcement schedule. Use "encouraging energy" as you run along side to the second point. Build up to a trot to the barrel.

4) Add in an obstacle... a pole or a tiny X jump. So that you can initiate a send... go along for the allow, negotiate the obstacle in the way and arrive at the destination point together. At a trot, same as without the obstacle.

5) Next - in your mind - substitute the obstacle with a new one... a little turn. Turn and run to the barrel. Build up to an arc to the point... then half circle to the point, etc. No stopping at the point unless she's trotting. Build up the entire exercise, over time, to a canter.

6) Fix this strong before riding. Then ride the same exercises starting at #1. If you get any resistance to forward - hop off and send and re-establish leadership on the ground. Then hop back on and try again. Also, check to make sure you aren't bracing with your legs in the stirrups.

Also... I'll throw this out there... is there a high speed internet connection anywhere you can play? I can watch live via web cam, for free on Skype, while we converse via cell phone (if you have a hands free earpiece...).

Hope this helps, and please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you further...

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to help!

dml

Whoa! A webcam and a cellphone!?! Too high tech for me at the moment, but I'm sure it could be good...

Well, when I got this we were in the middle of a big wind storm. Tumbleweeds just about pushing the fences over and there was no way I was going out to play. As soon as I read the email, I noticed that I had a lot of "yeah, but" spots. "I've done this before" "I don't want to go back to NOT doing circles" I didn't really want to think about it. However, after a couple of days in the house with the wind howling, and chatting to Mark about it, which really helped me understand that I had more questions, I sent David another email in preparation for actually giving his ideas a try. David interspersed his replies into my text this time, so I will just copy and paste it like that.

Hi David,

Thanks for your input! We are now having a spell of bad weather here, so I haven't been able to try things out yet. However, in the meantime, a couple of questions/thoughts -

1) "the forward wave" I have had my doubts about this one, as I feel it causes confusion. However, it sometimes appears to result in some very positive exuberance and play. I think this happens more when I am really assertive with it and have good timing. Perhaps it has turned into a form of nagging now.

I don't believe you need to shut down zone 1, when you are trying to bring life up. It's a mixed message.

2) Dinsegage and try again - any thought on same direction vs new direction? I am also interested in why this might have a different effect than changing direction.

It's more polite. "Nice try - let's try again." should be in your mind. The change is more punishing.

3-4) I believe I understand these instructions. Treats/piles of hay are fairly effective with Iona, and I think I do pretty well with "varying the reinforcement schedule". I think where I get stuck is how to be progressive over the medium and long term. We do pretty well building something up over the first few sessions.....it's a week, month, year down the line where I'm clueless.

You can always go back and rebuild. That's what I am seeing. Not enough positive reinforcement. The horse always asks, "What's in it for me, NOW?" The variable reinforcement schedule helps get you through the gaps when there is no primary reinforcer, but it doesn't last forever. It's the chance there might be one that keeps them motivated. And when there is an occasional jackpot - large amounts, or special treat (i.e. sugar cubes) that just elevates the desire more... like a lottery or slot machine.

5) Am I right in thinking that after the half circles we move to a full circle, then eventually laps?

Yes, exactly. You can fix it it up with a moving circle, so she doesn't have to pass the barrel on a circle very close. Move the circle so the second lap ends her there. Or if you are clever... move the circle so you are on the barrel for the second lap. Bonus = improving draw.

6) Will check on the bracing thing. Not doing longer rides for the past year, and mostly bareback, seems to have caused me to have really bad leg position/control.

I'm pretty confident on the saddle fit - it's a really wide Balance Felix fitted by their person back in the UK. We tried a bunch - this is the one Iona liked. Theraflex pad shimmed to the best of my ability. Possibly a little short for me. Ponies are always a slight compromise. However, I was a bit bigger for awhile and she wasn't bucking then - and does the same sometimes bareback. Jerry Williams will be staying with us in May, doing a clinic, I will ask his opinion...

I would like to stick to email/video for now. In order to be fair in what I pay you I will need to keep the time we spend down, anyway. I'm looking forward to going out and trying your suggestions. I'm sure the first session or two will be fun, just not sure where to take it from there!

Thanks for your time!

Be happy to have a look either way. Sometimes it's faster if I can see what you need, and offer it right away, with any corrections needed. Today I spent 5 minutes on your email. I'm reading and typing as fast as I can!

Thanks

dml

Today I finally managed to play with Iona. Not surprisingly she loved doing Point to Point on line, from one pile of hay and carrots to another. Even so, as we played I thought of a whole bunch of new questions. I will post them here, along with our progress and David's replies when I receive them.