Play day with the Parelli girls!

Had a fantastic day with friends and horses from 11:30am until 7pm!

I started off with Gem, just wanting to do some ground work and get him moving. He was excited with all the horses around and even reared a few times during COD on the circle. I thought about riding him and spending the day with him, but I really wanted to be with Z after giving her the week off for her hind leg injury. I really, really want to finish L3 freestyle, so I put Gem back and asked Z to come play.

Jen played with Rio in the beginning, too. She was curious how he'd feel to her and what I thought of him versus how she'd think of him. She did very well with him but could feel the "buzz" he gives off. He's an extrovert for sure and probably a RBE innately. He's a very cute little horse and Kendall is dying to ride him. I'll let her this week.

I realized when I switched horses that everyone was warmed up and ready to go! I was not and I tacked Z up quickly and played on the ground very briefly. She ended up in a "bad mood", pinning her ears a lot. She was listening and doing what I asked, but not happily. I tried to stop and help her get "in the game" several times. She was slowly improving, but I realized I should have warmed up stronger so I could ride softer. She wasn't off, which was good. She was just feeling annoyed and let me know often.

We did patterns first and even Kendall wanted to join us. She rode Rain and tried the patterns a few times. We partnered up and we all took turns going through the patterns mirroring each other and trying to stay in synch. We did some "follow the leader", but that didn't go so great as we didn't do a good job of staying in a line and following what the leader did. At one point, Chrissy was trying to hold Cowboy back and he got insistent and got his head low. I believe he's reaching to get more reins as Chrissy's learning to ride with a casual rein, but sometimes holds pretty tightly. Jen and Amy thought he was ready to buck - I didn't think so, but still, Chrissy needs to be safe.

She asked me to ride him and I did. I checked his flexion, then rode him in some large circles at the trot and canter. He was doing pretty good for me, so eventually Chrissy decided to get back on.

We moved to drill team and tried to synchronize going forward, backward, sideways, and swinging the gate. We didn't look too good, but we were having a great time!

Christy and I went through the 8 bends and Z did a good job of demonstrating for me. She's learning to yield the hind in fore however I ask, with her head in all positions (bent into the turn, straight and bent opposite of the turn). That's pretty cool! Amy and I played with sideways some and I tried to do some sideways on Cowboy. He's pretty bracey, but he was picking up what I was asking. Another couple sessions and he'd be great.

At one point, I grabbed my dragging obstacle (a wood step thingy) and the other horses and riders followed. Cowboy and Lynx showed off their "cowy" nature! They were both ready to herd that obstacle and show it who's boss! That was very cool to watch. Amy took a turn dragging it and helping Molly gain some confidence about this moving wood thing.

Jen practiced trot/canter transitions on Lynx and looked really confident and strong! Jen and Lynx have made great strides this year and they're looking beautiful together. Amy rode the whole day bareback - way to go Amy! Christy showed off her stick riding skills in the patterns and her calm Thoroughbred. Christy and Bently have a very nice relationship - he's a big boy, too! Kendall didn't last too long out there with the horse-crazy big girls. She was pretty bored pretty quickly, so we lost her early on. Chrissy stayed out pretty much the whole time and I imagine she was feeling pretty good after not riding her horse for several weeks while rebuilding her confidence after a horse accident.

About 4:30p, Jen and Amy started to head out and Chrissy, Christy and I decided to hit the trail. Chrissy wanted to ride Rain so she tacked her up and off we went. Before we left, Christy and I played with the teeter totter and the pedestal obstacles. I jumped the barrels with Z a few times, too. I can remember when I was afraid to do that!

Z led the whole way on the trail, which was good for Z - she likes to lead the trail. Chrissy was doing nicely on Rain, too. She's learning to give Rain more freedom with the reins and I imagine it's tough for them both as I ride Rain bridleless for the most part. I ride her in a rope hack, but I rarely use the reins as I'm often ponying 1 or 2 horses and use my hands for the lead ropes. Rain and I have a language and it's probably tough for Rain and a new rider to figure things out together.

At one point, we met another group of riders who had a pretty aggressive German Shepherd. Their dog came at Deuce and the two of them started to fight. Oscar then jumped in so we had a 3 dog scrapple. Of course, our dogs weren't listening to us anymore and I decided to ride Z right into the middle of the dog fight to break it up. Z was so amazing - she ran right in and broke up the dog fight with me! She didn't hesitate or ask a question - she just did it! It was a great moment for us. I was very proud of her.

At one point, there was a short but pretty steep downhill and Rain hustled down. I'm not sure if Chrissy had her head tight or maybe Chrissy's body was tight, but at the bottom Rain crow-hopped on the fore and Chrissy went off. Dang it!! She was ok, a sore elbow, but basically ok. Christy and I tried to make light of it, but I know Chrissy was feeling her confidence falter. I felt so bad for her and tried to remind her, each fall makes up her experience. Experience is what makes us good with horses. We don't want to fall off, but sometimes we do. It teaches us and helps us develop our seat. We keep riding because we love it and we want to conquer our fears and master our horsemanship. I hope Chrissy won't stay off a horse's back for long, but she's going to have to learn to relax in the saddle. I'm thinking PPL in the arena for a month or two could work wonders.

We encountered the people again with the aggressive dog and Z and I took off ahead to get my dogs away from their dogs. We went about 50 yards ahead, not far, but Chrissy was fighting with Rain who wanted to come with Z and I. She hopped off (good girl!) and once things settled got back on. When she got back on, she felt like she and Rain just weren't partnered. They just couldn't get it together - Rain had her own ideas about what to do and Chrissy was struggling to figure out how to take the leadership back. She hopped off and decided to walk. Christy and I headed back - I rode Rain and ponied Z. It wasn't far for Chrissy to walk - maybe 1/2 mile before she could get a ride home the rest of the way. Not a great way to end her day, but she'd had a ton of break-throughs and I hope she sees the good absolutely outweighed the bad on this day.

Christy had a long drive home and so we said our goodbyes. She'd had a great trail ride, maintaining a good partnership with her horse the whole day and feeling confident on the trail. I was just glad to have these great horse women share a gorgeous fall day with me and my horse. I spend a lot of time alone with horses and I love the camaraderie and feedback from a group. It was just fantastic.

4 Hours with Kime

A long lesson, a lot of talking and catching up...

Zarah - backed her out of barn through her thresholds backing her w/o my body - using my tools too much. We started to play stick to me where I ask her to go my speed in a circle. I realized I need to break it into smaller chunks - drive from z3, my speed, soft and clear transitions up and down, then add the circle. A BFO and then some.

Note to self: she got tense as we did ground work and got closer to the 2 horse trailer (from the loading practice we've done). We obviously have to get confidence about the 2 horse trailer.

Then we worked on my bridleless riding. This was probably the high-point of the lesson for me. She helped me with developing much better turn on the haunches and the fore using my seat and my stick. We also worked on bridleless back-up and I really made some important connections between what I'm asking Z and what it means to her. We did a pattern of 1 step back, 1 step of the fore, 1 back, 1 fore... We will practice that with the turn on on the fore (moving the hind) as well. Z will do whatever I ask if I'm clear.

At one point, we talked about the difference between Z and Cowboy. Z is looking for a leader, Cowboy is NOT. Do I find one of them easier? Nope, they are both unique and teach me different things.

Cowboy - studying his displacement behavior and helping me understand how to handle it. I have to be careful about circle game so I don't remind him of lunging. I have to keep things very interesting as he's LBI and easily bored. We played with the figure 8 pattern and Kime helped me figure out where he leaves the game and how to keep him engaged. He has good draw but when I push him away on the figure 8 pattern, he doesn't easily come back. Very interesting!

We practiced a lot of me using more body language and less tools. That was probably the theme of the day.

Bridleless practice with Z

Up until today, most of my bridleless riding and practice has been with the safety net of a rope hack or bridle on my horse. I've tied off the reins, but didn't trust enough to remove all head gear. Today, for the first time I can remember, I walked the rope w/o the safety net. I even had a moment where I thought to myself, "what's the worse thing that can happen?". And that's when I realized, I can ride whatever Z offers. It's possible she could catch me off guard and offer a buck, but I think the odds are very slim. And if she did? I could probably ride it. It was a very liberating and empowering moment.

This is where we needed to go next. So, patterns - figure 8 and corner game the most. She got a little "up" at first, so I cantered her doing PPL, waiting for her to think slower was a better idea. We did the figure 8 at the trot with no head gear. I did some with the neck rope, so with just the carrot stick. I focused very hard on riding her with only my body and she was typically with me. There were times when we circled on the side closer to the barn and her circles were bigger, pulling in the direction she wanted to go. Otherwise it was pretty good!

This is where we need to go to get our Freestyle taping done. I watched a few auditions on youtube and realized we aren't far away at all. I watched one that passed with a 3++ and I felt very confident that Z and I are nearly that good and will be with another month of practice. Whoo-hooo! I have to progress to jumping bridleless - that's next. We've started doing more jumping in general and her confidence over jumps is better all the time. Now we'll practice jumping with reins tied off, then bridleless.

I've also been working on loading her in a 2-horse straight load. She's not an extremely confident trailer traveler and I doubt she's ever been in a 2horse straight. We had our 3rd session of trying to load, each session progressively better than the last. She's going in as far as she can w/o putting her back feet in. It's cool - it's a big challenge for her. I have to keep raising her confidence level with trailers. We may battle that for years to come. I don't know.

I have to find more ways to progress our groundwork. I'll start looking at the L4 stuff and start advancing. I've been watching more Parelli vids on horseanality and I think I might sometimes be mistaking her behavior for right-brained when it's actually left-brained on adrenaline. I might get some video today to watch later so I can analyze easier.

Z and I have gotten to a new high in our relationship. I'm so tickled and I want to keep being a better and better leader for her.

At the end our sesison, I wanted to ride her to the front pasture. Z is very wary about leaving the property and I find that I have to ride her very consistently to have her leave the barn and herd without losing her confidence. I haven't done that with her in months - leaving the barn alone and heading out for a ride - and she was quick to tell me that was a mistake. :-) So we did what I know - I didn't brace against her, asked her to disengage when she pulled back to the barn and then rested. We didn't go far, but she never got emotional, she only showed her opinion on things. And I did not push her - I've known that pushing her doens't work, but it's only recently that I have the insight and patience to break the pattern of pushing her anyway. This is what approaching L3 completion has taught me. I'm slowly realizing what partnership on my part means... truly.

Lesson with Kime

Had another great lesson with Kime. We started out with my saddle and did a saddle fitting. She changed my shim setup and added a 3rd set to the pad. My saddle was then a little higher in the front and Z had more room for her shoulders. We also talked about riding without the wool pad underneath the Theraflex. I use the wool pad because of the rubbing the Therflex was doing on her sides. I'm going to use the wool pad only intermittently for a while so that I can watch for even sweat patterns. After the lesson, we checked out her back closely for signs of tightness in my body while riding. We found that there were some ruffled hairs directly under my seat, meaning my middle back is tight while riding. I'm not surprised.

We focused on freestyle riding. We used the figure 8 pattern and I played with transitioning up and down without reins. Our stop is getting much better and I'm learning how to be truly consistent with Z. We talked a lot about where I look while riding and where I want to look for turning. For now, I'm over-exaggerating where my eyes look because my head needs to be higher and I tend to look down. I've known that I needed to fix that, but it's the first time I've focused on that with an instructor.

Later, I practiced riding with 1 carrot stick only and transitioning through halt, walk and trot on the figure 8 pattern. Our transitions are so much nicer and Z really moves out with a tremendously better attitude. I'm simply bringing my life up to ask her to up transition and bringing my life down to transition down. I learned that pointing my toes up high helps me to bring my life down.

For the next 2 weeks, I'll practice the bridleless riding, turning with my body and good focus, transitioning up and down and transitioning while turning (wow, that's hard!!).

We talked about Cowboy and some things to work on with him to help him improve. She highly recommended passenger riding regularly. That's where we'll go next.