5/23
Beginning of getting Liberty filmed with Z.  We have some things to address, but it was a great learning session for me as her human partner.  Jen was over and did some filming for us.

5/20

Trimmed Ruby and Zari

Trimmed Z and played a short liberty session.  Very nice connection and great responsiveness.

Working on either connection, responsiveness or relaxation.  We had it all today.

5/18

Amazing day.  Connecting with Z, more ears forward than I've EVER seen.

Connecting with Gem and then jumping him for the first time over some of the higher jumps on my property.  I've always lacked the confidence to do it.  Big day for sure.

5/17

Lots of time with Z.  Building a connection!

Session with connection game, but modified from what I learned from Molly.  She's starting to consider asking questions.

5/14

2 sessions with Z

Connection game

Riding with contact and some posture

Prepping for Liberty filming

5/

Played with Z in the round pen.  Looking for lightness and a connection.  Focusing on the shoulder and not letting it fall in.  Also practicing the draw... a LOT!

Trimmed Sky earlier this week.  He needed a good amount of rehab due to the time between trims.  He grows a lot of toe and had flared walls and laminae separation.

Home from vacation

No one really wanted to be caught at first. It made me giggle to see them choose to stay out as a herd rather than be caught. But, as I always do, I wanted for my horse to make the decision to be with me before we got started.

Rode Gem just a little, amazingly light backup. Some sideways, isolated ends. Then some liberty to see about the left lead canter. He can canter left now - phew! It's not consistent and we'll need to build it back up. Time to get back to work.

Great day!

7.5 with kk at Hidden Mesa with all 3 horses. Gem running alongside us off lead. KK had a fantastic time, and so did I. trimmed Rain, touched up Z and Gem. Then some liberty with all 3 in the round pen. Rain is the weaker link - need to work on some liberty with her.

Hosed them off and Z and Gem went down to roll in the round pen, but not surprisingly, Rain didn't. She's never been much for a roll. not sure why.

Another "best"!

Wow!! Such huge improvements! We went back to the 45' today and Gem was a rock star. Loose line, no bee-lining for the barn, soft transitions up and down and some nice COD's. Nice sideways on the 45', also. Picked KK up from the bus stop with him and he was rock solid and confident. Kendall rode him home bareback and I wasn't worried about a thing. My trust in him continues to build.

I also took him into the round pen to work on the spin. He's getting the idea and he can do it! The circle he makes is kind of large, so we'll keep refining. He has great draw and liberty won't be very tough for us. Still determined to focus on perfecting online before I do much liberty. Had a great time with him today.

Got Rio trimmed and for the first time in as long as I can remember, all the horses are trimmed and I have a few weeks off of even thinking about trimming. Ahhh... feels good.

Liberty with Rain

I really, really wanted to ride today. The wind was just ridiculous though, so I tried to make the best of it. I decided to play with Rain. What a hoot!! I haven't played with her like that in a long time. Typically, with Rain, I do a minute or two or prep and then I hop on and we go. Today, I decided it was just too windy to "go", so we played near the barn.

We focused on stick to me and draw in the round pen at liberty. Her expressions are so lively and she seemed to have a good time. She showed lots of exhuberance and she was working hard to do the right thing. I can tell that my horsemanship is so much better than when Rain was my primary horse several years ago. I can fix things up with her so easily.

Level 4, Rain. It's on the roadmap! :-)

Liberty with Gem

Great liberty session just before the sun went down. Got amazing exhuberance from my LBI. The promise of pressure is so motivating. Worked on the spin some more, a little spanish walk and COD prep for the FLC at liberty. Also backing from zone 5 and sideways from zone 1 and 3. Nice responsiveness and a happy face on my boy. Good day!

Quick liberty session with Gem

Had a little bit of time before the sun went down and took Gem to the round pen. Played with the spin, spanish walk, the rear a bit, and some circling. My gorgeous Z mare was standing outside the round pen, waiting to come in. Honestly, I was shocked. She could have been anywhere on our 35 acres and she stood outside the liberty pen gate. So I asked her in and she stuck to me while I played with Gem. I had them both sticking to me after a minute or so and Z and I played with close circling. I miss playing with her - she's such a fantastic mare. She must have liked liberty work more than I realized. I hope she's enjoying her time off to just be a horse, but sometimes I feel like she wants to be taken out for some play. I planned to ride her once a week during her mini-retirement, but I haven't done that. I hope to get good riding time over the Christmas holiday.

M and Liberty with 4 horses!

I wanted to try playing with multiple horses at liberty today. I've only ever played with 2 at one time and after Cavalia, I've been wondering what I'd get if I played with more. I started with Rain in the roundpen. This is kind of tough because I haven't done liberty with Rain in literally years. She did ok - very intensely listening and also unsure of what she was supposed to be doing. I decided to add Gem and thought maybe she'd follow him a bit. He was so "ears forward"! I was shocked! He was listening with great focus, but as I added horses, I lost him. I then added Z, who was really having fun. She bucked and kicked and showed a ton of exhuberance. She really made me giggle. Then, I added Cowboy. Cowboy was not so interested in moving his feet and I'm quite sure he didn't like being at liberty in a small space with his leader Gemini. However, I was able to get a few nice trot/canter circles and a couple changes of direction with all 4 in sync! I realized right away why someone would love circus performing. Wow, what a rush playing with all 4 brains at one time. Z quickly decided to stick to me and I had to keep sending her back out with the herd. Is that because she felt safer with me or because she knew she could rest with me? Hmmm... What a fun session!

Then, ground time with M. He did super! Softer all the time and more willing and obedient! More energetic tonight than usual. The air is crisp he's got lots of energy. His figure 8's look great and he understands the pattern very well. I played with giving him more responsibility by allowing him to do the pattern and only correcting vs leading him through the pattern. He's a cool, cool horse. He's maybe the most confident horse I've ever played with.

Cantering bareback and more Spinning

Today I had some time for 1 horse and I chose Z. I decided to do some more bareback riding. I also put a bareback pad on with a saddle pad underneath, thinking that I could ride her longer and help her stay comfortable. We warmed up and then I started to ride in the round pen. The pads definitely made it easier! Her withers hit my pubic bone sometimes and the pad stops that discomfort. She cantered off my ask easily and we were flying around with ease. I worked on canter/trot transitions and found them easily and fluidly. We'll continue to practice and improve.

I got a little video that I'll post thanks to my supportive husband.

We also did some ground work and progressed with the spin. Z seems to have some fun with that! She shoots out from the spin with gusto then comes straight back to me. I don't necessarily want her coming straight back to me, but for now I'll reward that because the spin is so good! Proud of my mare and had a great session.

More Mounting with Calmness, Bareback and the Draw

Started with Tina tonight and was trying hard to beat the sun. I tacked her up, gave her a trim, and warmed her up with some groundwork. For the first day in 4 days, the wind wasn't insane. So nice to be outside w/o the crazy wind. Tina was doing great with groundwork. I'm doing a lot of the same things, so it's time to step it up and get more progressive on the ground. We pushed the ball - she pushes it for several strides now. We went over the teeter totter with calm confidence. We practiced the figure 8, falling leaf and jumping the barrels. In the round pen, we played with sideways/sidepassing, pushing the ball more and change of direction. Her head is low, she's not flinchy, things are good.

We practiced sidling over to the mounting block. She is starting to understand this one. I think put my foot in the stirrup and fidgeted around vigorously until the flinching stopped. It was much better tonight! She stopped flinching in 30 seconds and it was done. I reached over her back with my weight and rubbed the off-side, especially the flank area. This is an area where she get's very reactive and tonight she didn't flinch at all. So great. Then, I had Chrissy come support me by holding the lead while I mounted. We started on the left and surprisingly, Tina was unable to stand still for mounting. I drove the hind around quickly multiple times, then asked again. Again, she moved so I drove the hind around and tried again. It took 4-5 times of this before she realized it was easier to stand still for mounting. I mounted and waited for her to release any tension. It didn't take long at all, maybe 30 seconds. By now, the sun was setting and we had to quit. Darn, because we were making progress. Tomorrow...

With a few minutes of daylight left, I wanted to be sure Chrissy hopped on her horse bareback. We quickly sidled him over to the mounting block (he's figuring this out) and Chrissy hopped on. Kris, her fiancee took a turn too.

It's was pretty dark by now, but I grabbed Z and just worked on increasing her draw. I need strong draw from her for the spin, so I'm going to focus on that for a few sessions. She improved quickly. We pushed the ball a few times and did a few strides of the Spanish Walk. Then, it was time to call it - too dark to see. It was a productive 10 mins.

Breaking through and THE SPIN!

I spent 3 hours with Tina today. With the relatives in town and graduation, birthday, anniversary festivities, I had to put horses on hold for 4-5 days. So, today I had big plans to play catchup - specifically with Tina. I committed to 7 days of JUST ground work and confidence building. We did our 7th session last weekend and today I wanted to get back to working on mounted sessions. Tina has come back around so beautifully. She's regained the confidence she had and then some. She's calmer and braver. She's learning so well (she can only do that if she's not afraid). She's trying new things and showing curiosity. She's ready for mounted work.

We started tacked and ready to go. We played for quite a while first. I started teaching her to sidle over to a mounting block - a great skill for any horse to have. Today, I built on that and also desensitived her to my foot in the stirrup with a ton of stimulation. I wiggled, poked, prodded, etc with my foot in the stirrup until the flinching was gone and she relaxed. I layed over her and made sure she wasn't flinchy on the off-side, the flank, etc... She was quite relaxed - like she was when I first started her.

I decided to have Chrissy help by holding the lead line of my rope hack while I mounted and rode. This way I have reins and Chrissy can help disengage the hind if things get rough. I mounted repeatedly and she was calm and relaxed. She actually started to nap a little! This pleased me tremendously. I swung a leg over and sat on her back and sat for minutes at a time. She didn't do a ton of blowing, which shows me that she wasn't holding back or showing right-brained introversion. She was truly calm and ok. I must admit that I have to learn to trust her and this was a positive step. It was insanely windy and in the past I wouldn't have bothered even trying to mount on her on a windy day. All things considered, we've made huge progress together.

Chrissy and Cowboy had a great day too. Chrissy is starting to work on her bareback riding so she hopped on and we talked about her seat and how to achieve balance. I believe this was really her first time focusing on this and there's so much to learn from riding bareback! Good for her. She said she liked it better than riding in the saddle. I agree!

I spent a little time near the end of the day on Z bareback. We rode around the property and I tried to make it enjoyable for her by letting her stop and graze often and for long durations. I just wanted to hang out on her back. Afterwards, I hopped off and we did a short liberty session in the round pen. For the first time, I asked for the spin at liberty and wow!!! I got several beautiful spins in both directions! I've been building this maneuver online and just whimsically decided to test it. How impressive that she was willing and able! Her Spanish Walk is beautiful too. We really need to film! I'm excited to see where we are and how far we've come.

Helping a friend and playing with horses at home

I trailered over to a friends today with Rain so that we could hit the trail together. She's having some fear issues with her mare and the idea was that I would ride her horse and she'd ride Rain. Her mare is LBI with some LBE tendencies. She's a dominant confident horse and she's caused a lack of confidence in her rider. I warmed her up on the ground and she quickly got with the program. She's a nice horse, very nice, but she needs a confident leader or she takes charge. I established up front that there was no reason to doubt that I would be the leader.

She actually did quite well on the trail! She wanted to move out, so I trotted and cantered circles around Rain so that my friend could go at her pace and Lynx and I could move out. I'm sure we looked funny to anyone that saw us. :-) I was very specific with her. I wanted her to know that I was in charge of her feet, so I often asked for a single step at a time. It took her about 15 minutes to realize it was much easier to follow my lead than have a lot of her own ideas. I moved her out whenever I could to help her have some fun and brought her back down if my friend became unnerved.

When we got back, she was in such a great place - calm, soft, no emotional brace in her mind. I was pleased (I've always liked this horse). So my friend rode her at all gaits and enjoyed herself for about 20 mins while Rain relaxed and grazed and I watched. I love helping horses and I really love helping people with their horses.

When I got home, I brought Tina in for another ground session. I put a new, heavy western saddle on her that I'm trialing for colt-starting. Tina could tell the difference between this new saddle and the other saddles I've used. She bucked quite a bit the first 10 mins. I was surprised that she bucked but she's just telling me she still hasn't accepted the saddle. That's good to know, we'll keep working on it. She's calm and easy for the act of saddling, but wearing it on her back while she moves is still quite a challenge. She's extremely sensitive!

We played in the round pen with disengaging, nice circle game at the trot and canter, and some sideways. I just wanted her feet moving so I could help her relax. When she started to blow and the adrenalin was waning, we got to work with the ball. She did very well! She pushed it multiple times in a row (vs just one push) with her legs and nosed it a lot. She was showing a bit of interest in it. I was very glad to see that behavior! She would once in a while get startled (the cinch? something else she sensed?) and I decided to stop the ball work and go back to getting her relaxed and blowing. Change of direction works very well for this as she draws in to me when I step back and fluidly moves back out in the opposite direction. She can do wonderful lead changes at the canter with this maneuver (this is COD). Her draw was quite nice, which means she's feeling safe with me, not thinking to avoid me.

It started to rain, so we did a little teeter-totter until the rain got hard and then went into the barn. I wanted to get some hoof trimming done on her and decided to keep the saddle on so she could wear it longer. Her feet have come along so nicely - I'm proud of where she is with her hoof shape. She tends to flare so she needs frequent trimming to keep her hoof wall intact.

My sister walked in with a plastic bag full of apples for the horses and Tina became so unnerved by the bag! That's our next feat - the plastic bag on her body everywhere. This will be a big challenge for her but it will also help her get to the end of that extreme fear. I've got bags hanging and blowing in the wind around the barn now and in the round pen. She's still got a special reaction when a bag is in a humans hand versus hanging around attached to an object.

We'll keep building! This was Tina's 4th session of 7 for confidence-building.

After the weather passed, I pulled Gem out and did some liberty with him. He was cute. He's so playful! We had some fun working on his cutting pattern (moving left/right fast when I do), flc at liberty, stick to me. I taught him to rear and he enjoys getting his hooves in the air. Now I will refine it so he can do it w/o a buildup to it and only when I ask specifically.

Everybody plays!!

Nina and Loma - spent time getting Nina ready to go to her new home with Loma at the training barn. I played with Nina and we did some filming for her sale vid, then we did a lunge line lesson with Loma riding. Nina did great and Loma got to feel her wonderful gaits. I was proud of Nina! She's been a great student and partner. I trimmed Nina too, so she'd be ready to wait a few weeks for her new trimmer to get to her.

Z and Rain, KK and me - we hit an 8 mile trail ride first thing in the morning. It was a great ride until about mile 6 when Kendall's jeans started to chafe. I think she's finally convinced that jeans are not good long-rider's gear. :-) We went later to a shop for 3 new pairs of riding pants. She's a happy camper.

Gem at liberty - had an amazing session with Gem at liberty! Very cool! We started in the big arena with him showing off and running around. He would then come trotting into me (marvelous!). Then, in the 60ft round pen, we played with COD, cantering until asked to do otherwise, stick to me and other cool stuff. He loves liberty!

Tina - flagging and flinching - I had intended to hop on Tina, but she was not ready for mounting. She was flinchy, even during grooming. I kept thinking it must be the wind. The wind was blowing and gusting up to 40mph at times. I played with her and started to mount her for a ride. When I put my foot in the stirrup, my boot hit her under belly near the girth and she jumped sideways a few feet. So, I decided I wasn't going to hop on, but work on building more bravery. I got her used to my foot going into the stirrup various ways - to help her get used to sloppy mounting. That went well. Then I decided to use the flag to build up some more confidence. For a horse that I've taught to wear a tarp, she did not want a single thing to do with that flag. Although, I doubt she would manage a tarp in that wind either. We spent a good hour getting better at understanding that the flag would not be her demise. She got better and better until she could trot around with the flag in the saddle. Good girl! It was a great way to end it. The next calm day should be the day for riding.

Cowboy and Chrissy - hind feet: Chrissy was having some trouble with Cowboy's hinds. He was making her nervous when she asked him to pick up the hinds for picking. I gave her some tips and she was on her way. She played with her horse for a while, too. He wasn't interested in kicking up his hills in the arena like she thought he would, and I think they had a good session.

A little liberty

A great liberty session with Z! Played with transitions down with the laser beam, got some amazing trotting circles very close in, a few great flying lead changes, some nice spanish walk (tough at liberty!).

Kendall jumped in with me and I taught her how Z will transition up and/or down when we do (we jog in place, Z trots... we canter, Z canters). She thought that was pretty cool.

Had a fun time.

Breezy and cool horse day

Gem - great ground and liberty work. Ride for 10 mins, felt tense and tried to walk off the tension. Decided to hop off since I'm home alone. It was interesting to feel him tense. I haven't ridden him in weeks and I'm sure that's why. We just recently got back to groundwork as well. I realize I'm not quite as brave as I was before my accident. I would say I'm 85% back. A few more months and I'm sure the accident will be far behind me.

Z- more rail. She was much better to the right this time. The CSI pad slipped forward again, tried a thick and thin shim and obviously that's no good. I'm going back to just a thick. I find that when I ask for a canter depart with the lead, she interprets my leg on the outside to mean to move sideways. I'm not getting just a hind yield. We need to practice that to get the leads more crisp and correct.

Tina - We worked in the round pen with the flank rope - no bucking going left, still a good amount going right. Then we played the catching game. She so easily gets wary so I'm working hard to preserve whatever confidence I can in me and in herself. I'm trying to move her forward more slowly lately, doing things long enough for her to feel confidence in the task. The extreme friendly is much better. I'll also continue to build more draw - that will help her with confidence in me, her human.