Striving for conscious competence...

I have started learning Karate, and I am loving it!

The most interesting thing is that learning Karate is giving me heaps of BFO's about my horsemanship!!!  I thought I was just signing up to get a bit of exercise, and let out some frustrations by kicking the hijibees out of a bag, and since the kids are doing it anyway why not.  But I am getting so much more out of it.

For starters, a whole new awareness about learning a new skill, from a learners perspective, and how to be mindful of that when teaching.  I am going through the process of

Unconscious incompetence
Conscious incompetence
Conscious competence
Unconscious competence

all over again.

I have been back to unconscious incompetence, learning where to put my feet, and forgetting what my hands are doing.  Thinking about where my hands are, and forgetting where my head is, and getting a clip across the ear!  My instructor was amazed on monday night when I exclaimed, 'Wow, I have got to a whole new level of conscious incompetence!'.  For me that was one big step up from not knowing what the hell I was doing!  At least I was starting to get an idea of what I should be doing!

My horsemanship has helped my Kyokushin with focus, and also an awareness of having the left and right sides of my body equal, or at least being aware when they are not equal!

Tonight I was sparring with one of the really experienced students.  She told me to stop crossing my legs over as I was moving around, because it took away my power... Well, where have I heard that, a million times before...  Take away the hindquarters and you have control of the horse...

Hmmm, there is a lot too this Karate...

Finding the answers...

Wow, is it really that long since I have written on my blog! Oops. I have had lots of blogs rattling around in my head. I just haven't sat down and put them down on paper.

I think my play with Split yesterday is a good place to start. Background - Split is a 3 year old QHxTB who I bred. He has had minimum handling, only the essentials to get him through thus far. A few weeks ago I brought him home from agistment to start his development, and I'm having a blast!!!

Split has had a few 'got to' situations where he has had to be transported with little preparation. (see http://genquinn.blogspot.com/2010/08/what-day.html ) He has coped well, and it hasn't been all bad, but one of the things I really wanted to address with him once I got him home is trailer loading, and travelling, with confidence. The way I went about this was parking the float in the paddock, and basically ignoring it. I incorporated it into our play sessions only to the extent of asking him to touch it. I made a deal with myself that for now I would not ask him to go in it.

The first couple of times we went past it even he said 'oh, no, we are NOT going in that thing'. My reply was 'you bet, can you sniff the spare tyre? Great, let's go do something else'. He started getting pretty curious about it, and after a couple of days he voluntarily put his nose and neck right in, and had a good look around in there. I quietly walked up, gave him a rub, and slipped his head collar off and left, that was just the response I was hoping for from him.

I went and opened the gate into the big paddock because as far as I was concerned, we were finished for the day. I walked back up and Split was still at the float! He was sniffing it, and walking around it and back to the tailgate again, thinking 'jeez, what did I do right?'. He stayed there for a good five minutes, I sat with him, then we both walked together out into the big paddock with the other horses.

I was pretty happy with that response. Until yesterday when it got even better! I took him out to the smaller paddock and Pete was out there playing with Ripley. They were cantering around online and Split was finding this all a bit overwhelming and exciting. I was letting him move his feet, and directing him to a few obstacles as he moved, then I felt him pull towards the float. I ran with him at the end of the 22, taking a punt, and not wanting to shut him down, and he cantered straight in to the float!!!! This is the kind of horse that when we had 'had to' get him in, he planted his feet and said 'you and who's army?'. I was so so excited I was yelling out to Pete to see if he had seen it, and ran up and gave Split a hug!

He must have know he'd done something right, he stood there for a minute, then came out, and we went off and did something else for a few minutes. Once he was circling around me again, I could see him look at the float again, so I did the same thing, started running toward it and he cantered to it and straight on!

I had to check that he wasn't just falling in, so let him rest and bought him out another time or two. Then put him on, got in with him, and slipped the head collar off again. I was happy for him to come out whenever he was ready, game over, and went and sat and watched Pete and Ripley for 10 minutes.

Splitty stood as quite as a mouse on that float, leg cocked, and showed no inclination to hop out. Pete bought Ripley over and loaded him in beside Split, who was still standing in there un-haltered. He put Ripley on and off a couple of times, and Split stayed put. I thought that was a pretty good test for a young horse. I went in, put his headcollar back on, and backed him out. He didn't rush out, got off as cool as a cucumber.

I have had a few really big 'light bulb' moments the last couple of weeks with letting the horses find the answers themselves, as apposed to us trying to 'teach' them something. It is so much more powerful a lesson, and they really get it, and I think now I really get it too...

Harmonious Honey.

Honey modelling for a hat band photo shoot for Harmonious Horse...

Big lessons...

Little Fly had a huge day today!!!  Her new owner, Ann, came out for the day and we played with float loading.  Fly, as always, was hilarious!  She had no clostraphobia issues at all, she just couldn't co-ordinate picking up all four feet in the right order to step them up in to the float!!  The front ones weren't a problem, they would walk straight in, then she would pick up the back ones and do a big step, but if she missed, she then couldn't work out what to do!

She was very willing, and tried so hard.  Once she had the right idea I helped her out by picking a back foot up and putting it in, then asking her to put her weight on it.  The other one would then just automatically hop in.

After a long float loading session, ending in Fly being able to stand in on her own, pick at the hay, open and shut the back door, and pick up all four feet while calmly standing in there, she was then brushed, and had her feet trimmed!  So by the end of all that she was exhausted!!!  She thinks that being a big girl is darn hard work!!

Fly's first, rather unco-ordinated, attempt at putting her back feet in!

Take away the brace!!!!

I had breakthroughs with two horses yesterday!  And both in relatively short sessions.

The first was Ruby.  Since she hasn't been getting ridden much, and is spending a whole lot of time hanging around getting fed carrots, I've noticed that Ruby makes herself 'unavailable', when she sees the saddle come out.  Hmmm.  I don't want that.  So today I restarted my program of making wearing the saddle a pleasant experience.  I saddled her at liberty while she was eating her breakfast, then let her carry the saddle around the paddock for several hours while she grazed and I did other jobs.

After a while she was back at the house following me around while I picked up poo etc, not hiding in case I was going to ride her.  So then it was time to ride, when she invited me too.

I had a plan for what I wanted to achieve in my session.  Ruby's confidence with riding has improved tremendously with me 'holding her hand'.  But she still has a lot of brace when I ask her up a gait.  (See the photo of Angela riding her below).  Going from a walk to trot, as soon as I think about trotting, she gets stiff in her body and the ears go back.  It can take her several strides (like half a lap of the round yard!) to finally make it up to the trot, then once she is moving forward, she relaxes and the ears come forward again.  She is getting stuck in the transition.  She will also push out sideways, through my leg, instead of moving forward.  I know asking her 'harder' by going up my phases just confuses her more, anything that she sees as more pressure fries her.  I had tried to help her by asking her up, and not worrying about direction, just let her go where she wants and reward the try.  It hasn't worked. Precision has helped her so far with her confidence, so I have been thinking that maybe that will help her trot transition...

Being me, I haven't ridden her, I have stewed over this until I came up with a plan!  I decided it was time to tackle this brace.  My first thoughts were that I need to keep working on our precision.  Straight lines are going really well.  I can maintain a strong focus on a distant object, hold a soft feel on the reins, and feel Ruby move a hair off my focus and put her back.  She gains confidence in my leadership and relaxes.  Circles are another matter... she pushes out, then rushes in, and it is a mess.  So I needed a circle I could 'see', so I could be more precise for her, I think my circles out in the open are round - she thinks I'm on drugs!  So out came a bag of flour and a 22 foot line, and I 'drew' a perfect 44 foot circle on the ground!  At first Ruby followed me around eating the flour as I sprinkled it out, thinking this might be interesting after all...

It was perfect!  I could feel her pushing me around, and help her stay perfectly on that circle.  If she drifted an inch, I would pick her up, put her back, then go again.  Without criticising, just saying 'Hey, I noticed that!'.  She was starting to relax, so I decided it was finally time to tackle that bracey transition, and played a game with it.  I had a very clear picture in my mind.  It was that she could gently go up in to a trot, and maintain her direction on the circle.  

If I asked her up to a trot, she would push in to, or out of the circle through my leg. When she pushed out either way, I would stop her, put her back on the circle, and ask again.  Previously she would push on my leg, I would try and push her back over, she would feel it as more pressure and brace harder.  This time she had nothing to brace against!  I didn't push her back over.  Instead of getting in to an argument with her, I would stop, back her up, put her back on the circle and gently start again.

I rewarded every effort she made to stay on the circle, and trot softly.  She even offered a trot I could sit to!  Unheard of!  It wouldn't have taken 10 minutes before she was able to do this!!!  Another thing that has been holding us back for years addressed!!!  What a good feeling!!!  And it is all about me trusting that I have the skills to fix the problems, being confident that she could do it, and changing the plan to suit the situation.   Hmm, how interesting...

I asked Angela to ride Ruby so I could get a good look at what was going on.  Here Angela asks Ruby in to a trot, and gets her typical reaction - notice the tight lips, eye, tense neck and body.

Flying Fly

Check out the draw on my 3 year old filly, Fly!

I drove up the driveway, then stood on the back of the bike and called her. I think this answers the question I am often asked, why we called such a nice little girl a name like "Fly", this is why!!!

I sold her last week and she goes to her new home tomorrow, so I am really happy to have got this video before she goes...

Please excuse me rousing on the dog...

Sarah & Woody: Parelli Level 4 Liberty Audition

I just wanted to share this level 4 liberty audition I found on youtube. The zone 5 driving is cool. And a great trailer load at the end!

Energy...

It a pretty wild and windy weekend here, so we didn't get any horse play in. But I did go up and watch the horses in the bush for a while before I fed them last night. I have Ruby and Ripley, Pete and my horses, in 'babysitting' the 2 year olds. And boy are those 'youngens' giving ours a run for their money!

Last night they played and played! Ruby voluntarily raised a sweat! I was impressed.

And most impressive to me was Ruby's go button. If you watch the very start, she is standing quietly with me watching the others fool around. Then she decides to join in...

"Savvy Horse Transport"

I had a nice afternoon this afternoon.  I helped Anne move two of her young horses home to the mountains after their stay on the coast.

I have posted a blog previously about how I get so confused about my horsemanship goals.  I put so much time and effort into caring for my horses, and increasing my knowledge, and to what end?

Having a couple of hours in the car to ponder this afternoon, I thought maybe I should become a horse transporter!!!  I enjoy carting horses around.  Long drives don't worry me.  And after recently watching a few episodes of Parelli's "The Horsemans Apprentice", www.thehorsemansapprentice.com the thing that got me the most excited was the impressive horse trucks, goose necks and pick ups!!

Surely there is a market for personalised horse transport!

Pete and I already have a reputation for moving donkeys around here.  Some people contacted us once and asked if we could move a donkey for them.  After that the word got around and we had several requests to move donkeys.  It seems to be something that poses quite a challenge.

We went to one place to move two donkeys and the owners were amazed that we calmly had them on our stock trailer in next to no time.  Apparently the previous time they had to move them they had contacted a horse transporter who had come out with their truck, they couldn't get them on after several hours, so they went and got another truck or trailer of some sort.  After several more hours they still wouldn't budge, so in desperation, after spending the whole day trying to get two donkeys to go on a truck, they called on a neighbour with a tractor and they lifted them in with the front end loader!!!  So I understand why they were so surprised when, with a little Natural Donkeymanship, we were able to get the donkeys moved stress free!!

So maybe their is a niche there for me.  Teaching horses to load on floats is one of my favourite things.    How can I get this to work for me?

Seeing results!

I am still really enjoying trimming our own feet.  Well, our horses that is.  It took me so long to have a go at it.  In fact I avidly avoided it!  Partly because I thought it would be 'hard' physically, but also because I wasn't confident to attempt it.  Having a masters degree in Analysis Paralysis with honours in procrastination, I just didn't think I had the knowledge to do it, and thought I might do damage to my horses.

But there were things I could see weren't right with their feet, and bodies, even to my 'uneducated' eye.  So I finally took the plunge and decided to get educated.  Now I am obsessed!  I pick up every foot on every unsuspecting horse I come across!

Their is still so much to learn.   I am only on my second round of trimming our horses (there are a lot of feet in my paddock!), and already I can see changes!  It is very satisfying to see frogs spreading and walls growing down.

I have Pete Ramey's Under The Horse Dvd series.  http://www.hoofrehab.com/  It is 16 hours long, and most of it theory, and I am watching it through for the second time.  Something to keep me entertained when I go to bed with my cup of tea at night...

School bus run.

I don't get to ride my horses nearly as much as I would like to. Naturally enough with the life I lead! So I try and get creative with spending time with them. I have found all sorts of ways of making sure they get exercise, and attention.

One way I get them to walk each day is by separating their food from their water. I feed them here at the house, but can turn off the water, so they have to walk a couple of kilometres over fairly rugged terrain to get to the dam for a drink. It also optimises the grazing. If they didn't have to go find water, they tend not to go find grass either, and just hang around the house waiting for the bucket lady to turn up!

All of our horses are completely relaxed with being led off the motor bike too. So if I have to go and do a job around the place, I will take a couple of horses with me, so they get to go do something.

Another opportunity to take them for a jog is getting the boys off the school bus in the afternoon. This is usually Ruby's time with me. We trot up to the bus, get there a bit early so she can graze, then trot home again. Because we live at the end of a quiet road, I often take her head collar off, and we mosey home, playing mare and foal game with the bike. When we get through the last gate, we race up the driveway! It is lots of fun. She enjoys it. She usually canters up to the piece of rubber that sits outside our shed that she has claimed as her own, and waits for all the apple cores to arrive out of the kids bags!

Yesterday I tried to video this, but Ruby is very camera shy, she feels pressure from me when I am focusing on her with a camera, and her right brain introvert nature comes out! She is such a hard horse to get a nice photo of because she just can't look at me when I am pointing a camera at her! So she isn't sticking with me as well as she normally does at the walk. But it gives you a bit of an idea of what we get up to!

What a day!

I had the busiest day today!  Nothing dramatic, just really busy, and the rest of the week is going to be much of the same.  I was looking forward to getting home, and getting to relax.  But not so...

When I was mixing up the horse feeds I received a phone call to say that my 3 year old Quarter horse gelding had finally found his inner cow herder and was chasing new born calves on the agistment property he lives on.  This horse has lived with these same cattle on and off all his life!  Why, today, did he decide it would be fun to give them a run for their money, and apparently he was really chasing them, and knocking them over, then trying to get them up so he could do it again.  I think he mistook them for fluffy green balls!  Understandably the owner of the cattle was not happy!!!

So I got the float on, and the kids back in the car, and off we went to do some impromptu horsemanship in the dark!  They are running on a 900 acre dairy farm, and have had minimal handling in a long time.  So for starters I was going to have to catch them!  When I arrived, it was a peaceful scene.  Three horses grazing calmly amongst a mob of cows in the full moon light.  I was expecting carnage after the phone call I had!

To my delight it only took a couple of minutes to catch them.  Getting them on the float took quite a bit longer.  Silky, our old mare, was hesitant, and a little confused about the interruption to her settled life, she was pretty worried about being whisked away under the cover of darkness!  But it didn't take long to reassure her that all was well, and she hopped on the float.  Split has barely been taught to lead, and is a left brain thug, who was a left brain thug on right brain adrenalin, so therein lay our challenge!  Silky was amazingly calm, nervous, but obedient, and stood patiently on the float while I spent an hour taking the time it took to convince Split it was ok.

This all sounds reasonably calm.  I am leaving out the fact that their was a third horse involved, a thoroughbred, not mine, that spent the whole time galloping around the car and float and screaming out.  I had two unconfident horses on line, in pitch dark with three small children to help.  And help they did.   They were amazing.  Ciaran helped by sitting in the car for the whole time.  Justin and Jack were awesome and I am so proud of them.  I was just as happy having an 8 and 10 year old team of assistants as I would have with most adults I know.  They were very patient, their skills were wonderful, and we all stayed calm!  They had to keep themselves safe from the loose horse, calm the nervous horse standing in the float waiting, hold the young horse when I was putting the older on.  They were in charge of the carrot stick outside, and their timing was immaculate.  Every time that horse made an effort to think about the float, they stopped.

I was so proud of how they handled the pressure.  They listened carefully, and did everything they were asked, when they were asked.  It was a dangerous situation, and I trusted them completely.

We took the horses to town and got pizza for dinner as a reward for working as a great team!  I am also proud of the horses.  I was saying to the boys that it was a huge achievement to have done what we did in the dark in only an hour.  It could have been a very different picture!  In a different world we could have been chasing the horses around the huge paddock trying to catch them for an hour!  My boys know no other type of horsemanship, they take it for granted that this is how things are, that you can drive out in to the middle of a couple of hundred acre paddock, catch an unstarted three year old, float load him, and be on your way!  I love it!

My wild cow chasing horse, Split.

Ansur Excel

Ruby blowing and releasing after her first ride in the Ansur...

Well, today I FINALLY got to have a quick ride in the Ansur Excel saddle.  (http://www.ansursaddle.com/excel.html)

I have to say, I was impressed!  By the time I got to ride, it was nearly dark, and blowing a gail.  Ruby hasn't been ridden for months, it seems.  I put the saddle on, only asked for a circle each way online, and hopped on.  Ruby was on her toes, and I didn't want to push things, so opted for familiar territory instead of an argument and went up to the round yard.

She was a little distracted and oversensitive, so I asked her to follow the rail, then I asked her to bend a little, do a partial disengagement along the rail, and bring her hind leg under her.  This is something Ruby has a LOT of trouble with.  She is usually very resistant, stiff, confused, and generally really troubled when I ask her to do this.  I have tried different saddles, all with the same results.  I thought a lot of it was the saddles, but a lot I also put down to her defensive attitude.  So what a surprise I got when she was doing whole laps stepping under with her hind feet!  Both ways! With her ears forward!!!!  Unheard of!

Then we just trotted some nice gentle serpentines, and she was dropping her head, rounding her back, and relaxing.  Since it was getting late anyway, I called it quits with that.

When I hopped off she dropped her head and blew and licked and chewed for quite a while.  It was lovely to hear those long, relaxing, loose, blows.

I found the Ansur very comfortable for me too.  It puts me in a slightly different position than I am used to, and I need to play with it a lot more, but I didn't feel like I was struggling to find my seat.  It is lovely.

So I can't wait to have another ride!!

Lucy...

Here is a short video of Lara having a ride on Lucy. Lucy has had maybe half a dozen rides...

I am still playing with Lucy in my 'spare time', which there never seems to be enough of! She is such a cutie, and quick! Last week I had her out on a 22' rope and she was galloping, bucking and kicking and having a great old time, then she screeched to a slide stop, picked up a hula hoop in her mouth, and stood there and looked at me and asked what I thought... I thought, 'Oh, man. This play is really cool on the ground, but how is our obedience going to go when I am riding her?'.
I had a little play with her this afternoon, and she was lovely and calm and soft, so I took her in to the round yard and hopped on and had a little ride. At first she was surprised, and kept turning around and looking at me, no bareback pad or saddle, but she soon relaxed.
I quickly found out that Lucy is really confident with me up there! She has had a few rides, but hasn't really had to do anything yet, just accept the rider. Since she is confident now, it is time to ask a little of her. If we sat there too long without doing anything, she would reach around and grab the fringe of my chaps, so we got busy really quickly!
We didn't do much, she offered to put her nose on or pick up everything she could find in the round yard. I asked her to stick on the rail for a while, she obliged, but thought that was pretty boring and much prefered her idea of checking stuff out. We started doing some disengaging hindquarters and bringing her front end through which she found really easy.
She is soooo soft! When I go to disengage her I just have to barely think about it, turn my toe out and she floats around! When I ask her back on to the rail it is a mere tightening of my little finger.
We only had a short session, since she is so keen to play, and is confident and eager, I want to keep it that way!!

Hempfling - Horse Dream - Klaus with his horse at liberty in wilderness

I love this video of Klaus Hempfling. Plenty to aspire to in this one!!!

Al the Nearly Loadable

I haven't been on my youtube account for ages, and I logged in this morning and was going through some of my old videos and came across this one of me playing with Al, and it brought back lots of memories, and brought up lots of emotions! This horse is an off the track thoroughbred who had severe float loading trauma, and had also bowed a tendon, so he was headed to the slaughterhouse. I asked the owners if, since he was probably going to be put down anyway, could I please have him. After some consideration they said if we could get him home we could have him...and there the fun began. He was 8 hours away from our place. The kids and I travelled to him and I spent a week playing with him every day to get him in a position where he would load on a horse truck to travel to our place.

The first time we went to see him, I led him past a float, and he hit the end of the 22 foot rope before I could even turn around to see what was happening. I mean this horse had MAJOR float issues. But he was a successful racehorse, how did they get him to the track? I heard later that they had parked the trailer and the end of a cattle loading ramp and chased him on with a stock whip until he ran up the race and fell in the trailer. Otherwise they conditioned him to get on one of their floats, it was a big, open, four horse angle load. He would run on to it full pelt, and then you snapped him in real quick. As soon it was time to unload you made sure you were out of the way, unsnapped him, and he would scramble out of there blindly. Absolutely terrified. But he had been beaten so many times he decided the fear of that trailer was the better of two evils. The first thing I made clear to him in the first few minutes of our time together away from that place was that that would never happen to him again.

Once I got him home we played with him for 18 months rehabilitating his injured leg, and his faith in the human race. He spent most of his time running in the bush with our herd, as he was well bred and 'valuable' and I doubt ever allowed to take the risk of being allowed to behave like a horse! It was not easy. This horse has been my greatest teacher yet. It was sooooo frustrating!!! But so valuable, and so rewarding and I am a better person for having had him in my life! Ask Chris Corbidge, one of my instructors, she got many an email along the lines of "Oh, my goodness, Chris, what on earth am I going to do!?! This horse is going to be the death of me!!" But I never gave up on him. I put him back in the paddock a few times when I was out of answers, but I never gave up.

When I look back at this video, which was somewhere along his journey, not the end product, I have a sense of pride at giving this guy a chance, and I also smile at the memories I have of our time together, it is a wry smile, he was a hard teacher, but a good one!

Al did eventually accept the float as a safe place, and his 'unhealable' bowed tendon healed beautifully. He now has the perfect relationship in a new home with a lady who loves him to bits, and has bought him a new car, a new float, and now a new farm! And he will never experience fear like that again, and he will never be forgotten around here either, as frustrating as he was for me, our whole family, as well as many others who become involved in his journey, completely fell in love with him. I don't think any animal should have to be put in the situations that this trusting, gentle, noble horse was exposed to. He was destined for the slaughterhouse, his 'usable' life was over, and he was only five years old when I got him.

Big Al, you're a legend!

Jack and Honey

Jack having fun with Honey today!

Angela and Alfie...

Here is a short clip of Angela and Alfie playing with their freestyle.  What a cute couple!!

Bella...

I had a fun play with Bella today!  Lara has left Bella here for the school holidays, and is coming over most days to play with her.  They have just passed their online level 3, and she is starting to work on liberty.

Liberty is very challenging for Bella, well, no that's not true, it is easy for Bella, it is very challenging for Lara with Bella!!!  When Lara first got Bella, she could be very dominant, and as soon as she had had enough, she would leave.  Not just wander off, or tune out, she would leave with the force of a freight train!!  Lara become the master of the power position.

It is so lovely to see how their relationship has developed.  Bella is so much more positive now, and has a much nicer expression on her face.  She is also soooo soft in Lara's hands.  It is beautiful to see! 

But it is also great to stretch Lara!  So today when she was playing, I suggested she focus on Bella asking questions.  Bella is doing everything Lara asks, and nice and softly, but I could see she was just going through the process a little, and could engage more.  So Lara got a pocket full of sunflower seeds and started really rewarding when Bella asked a question.  They started to break things riiiiiigggghhhhtttt down.  Like send her out on a figure 8, if she got to the cone and stopped, Lara didn't ask her on, even softly, she waited, and waited, and even waited some more, until Bella would finally look at her and ask her what was going on.  To start with Lara would bring her in and give her a few seeds and tell her how clever she was.  Of course, this blew Bella's mind!  She gradually asked more questions, and they came a lot quicker, and Lara was able to ask more and more.

Then came my opportunity to play with her!!  Bella very rarely storms off like a steam train now, but I notice that she still 'leaves' or checks out.  Sometimes it is really subtle, she will just sidle sideways a little and put herself out of position.  Lara then has to go after her to put her back, so Bella has quietly changed her focus.  Other times you see her whole body language change, like today, I was asking her to do a weave pattern.  She would stay connected, and then her whole posture would change, she would straighten up, and look to leave.  If you corrected her, she would keep doing the weave, but I felt she is at a level where she needs to be held accountable more, and not micromanaged so much.  This horse knows the weave pattern inside out, but still makes Lara work hard, even if ever so softly, and when she was doing this to me I was trying to think how to make her decide it was a better option to put effort in to what I wanted...

Sooooo, I would ask Bella to do a nice gentle, slow weave, and when she zoned out and thought about leaving I went 'here, let me help you!!' and away she went!  We were on a 45' rope, and that girl can really get some pace up, so I let her run up hill and down dale, kept putting jumps in front of her, and ditches, and piles of dirt.  As soon as she looked like she was looking to me, we went back over to the logs and I invited her to walk calmly around the pattern again.  If she started to leave again, away she would go!!  I can't remember how many times it took, or how long, but she made the connection!  She realised she could take responsibilty, stay on the pattern, and stop trying to intimidate me, and life would be easy for her!!  Or, she could try and take over, and find out that her idea might not be all she thought it was cracked up to be!  I didn't force her to canter, she would take off at a canter, I just kept wandering around and putting as many obtacles as I could in front of her.

It was one of those moments that I didn't have a plan, I just did what came to me, stuck at it, and came through the other side.  Dave Ellis told us us that when the horse comes up with it's own idea, don't try and make them feel wrong, he used to say "go ahead, try it, let me know how it works out for you!"  This is what I was doing with Bella, letting her have her idea, then she had to decide if it was a good one or not!

Thanks Lara, I love playing with Bella!

Just get out and do it!!!

I'm getting as much horsey play in as I can this week.  As always, it is short sessions, but I'm TRYING to make sure I get at least a little bit of time each day.  Even if it is just at feeding time in the dark on really busy days.

I have been a bit lost in the darkness for the last little while.  Since completing my level 3 I didn't have that to focus on.  I am so far off filming level four I wouldn't even know where to start, and it was a big relief not to have to think about levels stuff for a while anyway.  I have started looking at all the Karen Rohlf DVD's and I'm working my way through the book.  It is all making sense, and I have played with it a little bit, but I just still hadn't quite known where to start.

Yesterday I was riding Ruby home from the bus stop and since she is getting much more confident with me riding her, I thought I would start to ask her to release even more brace, and I started to ask her to bend her ribs.  (Like the partial disengagement that Linda does).  We went up and down the driveway (I find anything I can use in the absence of an arena).  Ruby was getting bracier and bracier.  She was starting to get really frustrated, and I was starting to doubt that I was doing it right, and thinking that I should quit, do some more research, and try again another day.  But just as I was thinking that, Ruby went "I CAN'T BRACE LIKE THIS ANY LONGER!!!", dropped her head, and started blowing! 

I hopped off, pulled the saddle and bridle off, and we walked home and had dinner!

Tonight I wanted to start playing with Karens preparations.  In her first dvd she shows at liberty that your horse needs to understand your intention.  That you can have the horse circling at liberty and

1) Can you be an invisible human, walk with it, up to it, and away from it, and it continues as if you aren't even there, in other words an active neutral.
2) Can you use your energy to project to the horse to speed up.
3) Can you walk to the horse with the intention of game over, you did great!

And the horse can understand the difference in your body language between all three.

It was fun playing with this.  Karen also emphasises that you really need to project how wonderful the horse is doing, and mean it!!  It is lovely how excited she gets when her horse tries, and I have been really trying this with Ruby.  Imagine her surprise when we first started and I sent her out on a circle, she went at a walk, tentatively walked quarter of a circle in stiff right brain introvert slow motion, looked at me with two eyes to check she was doing ok, and I ran over to her and gave her a big hug and told her how good she had done!!!

The rest of the session was then fantastic, Ruby couldn't do enough for me!  She had no trouble understanding my intentions as above, as we were already going down that path.

Luckily for me, Jack had ridden her home from the school bus so she was already warmed up and ready to go. :)