Parelli time with Deb

Played with Gem and Rain today. Deb came over in the afternoon and we played with sideways over obstacles, change of direction, and then trailer loading. Gem and I need to build the draw on the circle before we can get good changes as he wants to stop and turn to go the other way. I need him to maintain gait in the change. He had no trouble going sideways over the barrel both away from and towards me. We also worked on trailer loading from the fender. That was a breeze. I asked him to trot in and then canter into the trailer. Again, a breeze for Gem. Good! One more step closer to filming our L4 Online audition.

I then pulled Rain out. We did about 10 minutes of interesting ground work (interesting because I haven't done this with Rain in probably over a year), and then we tacked up and rode around the front pasture. I'd really like to get Rain in better shape and also build flexion in her neck. She's quite bracey and I want to minimize that. She was quite extroverted! I wanted her to be more responsive to me and not simply extroverted. She had her own ideas about where she wanted to go and at which speed. We have some work to do.

Dawson Butte

Z and I met friends at Dawson Butte today. Rode 10 really fast miles! Z is such an awesome horse and she's just built for endurance. We did 10 miles in 1 hour 35 minutes, with walking and stopping on occasion. I had a great time with my girl. She loaded in the trailer with zero anxiety and unloaded the same way at the trail head. Her trailer nervousness seems to be settling. The practice we've done at home must be helping, as well.

I also brought home the first training horse I've had in a while. I decided to focus on my horses this summer and an opportunity came along for a 30 day training commitment. Kholo is a very nice Arab gelding that just needs some softness and bridle time. His owner will be riding with me once a week while her horse is here so they can develop some new skills together. This will be a very fun project and this is a really great partnership (Kholo and Melissa).

Melissa and I will be riding 30 miles together at the Happy Jack endurance ride in Wyoming next month. Really, really looking forward to that!

Kris came over and trimmed Rain and Starlet. Rain is shedding frog and had some thrush going on. I will soak her this week. We did not have time to play with Rio, unfortunately.

Conditioning in the heat!

Covered a cool 14 miles in not so cool weather. It was high 80's, but with nearly still air it felt super hot. There's an interesting haze over the area due to multiple fires (over 20 at this point) in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. The sky isn't the normal pretty blue color and from Sharptail where we rode, Denver was in a fog.

Anyway, it was super fun riding with Christy and her friend Melissa. Z did great and there was plenty of horse left at the end of the 14 miles. I wonder if she could do a 50 soon. She's also having no back issues - which is great! Using my green gel pad and it's working beautifully. I had her wear boots on all 4 today (bares in front, gloves in back). I was glad as she seemed to move out with no reservations. We joked about her "engine" a lot of the ride.

Z did great loading in the trailer. I was prepped to spend 10 or 15 mins helping her feel ok in the trailer, but she loaded right up! Yesterday's prep work was well served.

I would have ridden other horses, but D and I had a date with the tennis court. I did a BFL run in the morning, rode the 14 miles, then played an hour of tennis. Feeling energetic and great.

Fun!

Light day

Cowboy and Chrissy - she got on a little but she was feeling nervous today.

Light riding on Gem in english saddle - he was lethargic! Practiced our new dressage a little bit.

Some trailer loading with Z. Big progress.

Too tired to do much. Big conditioning ride tomorrow.

Short but sweet

Gem, mounted sideways improving! Just sort of rode around and played with isolation of the ends. Had a nice and short warmup on the ground and got some very responsive actions from him. Worked on bridleless riding and only picked up the reins for phase 4. He was quite soft and willing.

Z and I started with the trailer and building her confidence standing in the stall. I did not close the panel but asked her to be where she would need to be for the panel. She's very concerned about getting trapped in the trailer so I've got to help her understand that I appreciate her worries and she can trust me.

Then, I tried a new pad and just did passenger lesson around the barn and playground. She started off wanting to canter, but she quickly settled into a nice trot and we rode around for about 25 minutes. Not the conditioning ride I wanted, but better than nothing. The new pad seemed to do well, so I'll be spending some more time with it to see how it goes.

A Mother's Day Ride!

Deb and I headed to Greenland early in the morning. I woke up at 6:30am to get to Deb by 7:30-8am. I decided I really wanted to take Z alone so I was going to just load her into the trailer w/o the use of the panels. She loaded with ease and I played with it a little before closing the trailer door. She did not like me closing the trailer door, but I made the decision to get going. I thought about that decision the rest of the day. I hope I didn't do damage to our relationship.

The ride was fantastic!! I rode her in the rope hack and realized that she's not respectful enough of it when she wants to move out. She was more spirited than I've ridden in a while!! She wanted to gallop the first 4 miles, so I worked with bending her, but she was rigid and determined. I had to laugh, but I didn't like the disconnected feeling. I found a spot to just let her go. We cantered until she just needed to slow down.

It was a fantastic ride and I love my Anglo-Arab mare! She's so fun, so fast, she just wants to move long and hard. We rode about 13 miles and the last 3 miles or so, she still wanted to gallop! I hopped off and walked the last 1/2 mile, just to reward her and move my body a bit.

Deb and I decided to do the Mountain Mettle, a 30 mile endurance ride in June. I'll need to get a few more long rides on her to build her up, but she felt great today. If we're controlled, she should be fine for that ride.

She's still showing signs of frequent urination upon exertion. Today, it didn't happen until much later in the ride, but it did still happen. I have a feeling I need to keep building her endurance and try different saddle pads for her comfort. Her back did not seem sore, though. It's so bizarre.

An easy ride with my mares

Wanted to meet at Hidden Mesa, but Z couldn't handle the solo trailering. I planned to then bring Rain and help Z with her trailering concerns and decided to load Z first, then Rain. I futzed with that for another 20 minutes and finally loaded Rain first and Z second.

I wasn't pushing too hard, but the bottom line is that Z wasn't ready to do what I thought we'd do. She couldn't trailer alone or load first. It's just something we need to work on. Meanwhile, time got so short that we weren't going to make it.

Canceled on Deb and rode around the neighborhood instead. Walked the whole way. Z wanted to move but I insisted she stay calm and walk. We went about 4 miles, nothing big, but it was nice to be out.

Did some frog maintenance and White Lightening gel on both mares after the ride.

Rain and Z on the trail

I was ready to meet Deb at Hidden Mesa. Z however, was not.

She'll always load for me into the trailer because she's obedient. However, she's not confident and she worries enough sometimes that I just have to abandon mission. Today, i really wanted to get a training ride done so she'd be ready for the upcoming endurance ride. However, once in the trailer she told me she just couldn't really handle it. Now, I was late! The human in me tried to emerge, but luckily the horsewoman in me triumphed. I knew what the remedy was - get Rain and pony her on the trail. Z gets a trailer buddy, Rain gets some exercise.

Luckily, Rain is happy to go so she loads right up and Z immediately sighed. Poor Z.

The ride was good - fast and Z was a true trail warrior like always. Rain however, was not into the whole "fast moving on the trail" thing and I had a tight lead line some of the time. That's one of the things that makes Rain amazing - she's in no hurry. That's also one of the reasons I added an Anglo-Arab to my herd. :-)

At the end of the ride, Z was showing some odd signs of trouble with urination. This didn't seem like estrus. I'll have the vet out to check on her. We went about 7.5 miles and she started acting funny right around the 7 mile mark.

Lexy wouldn't load at the trail head after the ride, so I dropped her off for Deb. She'd had a rough ride over, so Lexy and Deb will have to continue developing Lexy's trailer confidence. I know that story well.

Fun day!

Gem and Tina at a friends house in the country

The weather was amazing today and I had planned to spend it with a friend at her place. I loaded up Tina and Gem, Kendall and her bike and headed out. I spent the majority of my time with Tina. She had a large open pasture with obstacles and an arena with no fencing. Tina was amazing today! She was not tense or nervous about this new place at all! Wow. We had a nice easy ground warm-up and I was ready to get on. I started her in the round pen and waited for her to blow and show that she was ready. Then, Jess watched us and helped me to get her lighter on the front by working her more from behind. Jess is an amazing horsewoman who's trained for years. I felt some nice hind power from Tina and it gave me a good idea of what to ask for/look for during our sessions at home. Then I rode Tina in the big open area and she just did so great. The wind had turned on and it was blowing like crazy by now, but Tina was solid.

I then switched for Gem and just did some ground work with him. He definitely didn't get a lot of my time today, but it was good for him to take the drive and stand at the trailer for patience practice.

Jess is working with rehabbing an OTTB and we worked together on making some changes with him. He's a huge LBI who quickly goes RBI if asked for too much. He might appear confident, but he's sucking his thumb on the inside so I told Jess how it looked to me and what I'd do with him. Then, she and I took him into the round pen so she could mount him. This was his first mount since racing. He was somewhat RBI, but mostly seemed ok with things.

Jess and I helped eachother tremendously today! Thankful for my close horse friends. Just a great time with horses.

Advancing M

Wow - he did so well today! He was light on the line and barely got oppositional the entire session. Sideways, squeeze, circle and back.

Z - trailer loading. She loads fine, so we worked on her staying in there calmly. I'm going to try using a closer stall to the door so she's not so far into the deep trailer next. She was LB the whole time - soft lips, no pooping, slow movement...

Rain - worked on lateral flexion, backing, going over the bridge. Don't know why that's hard for her, but it is. I really enjoy getting back on that horse. I don't know what the future holds for developing Rain. She'll make a great demo horse with her flash and maybe she could really be a great mount for CTC's and CTR's.

Trimming and Playing

Tonight Kris was over to get some trimming done for me. She got 5 horses trimmed in the same time that I probably would have done 1-2. Ha! And my back wasn't tired when she was done either! Not a bad deal. She trimmed Gem, Rain, Z, Cowboy and Starlet. She'll come back in a few days to do the others.

While she did that, I played with M, Reka and Gem. M and I just developed more friendly game and started working with moving the fore. I wanted to keep him calmer tonight as our last session was challenging for him. He was much more compliant tonight and I'm sure he's starting to understand that I mean business. His disengagement looks much better, and he can send away. We'll continue games 4-7 next session too.

I took the halter off Reka and just played with getting her haltered back up. She was a good girl and stood nicely for haltering. I always ask the horses to partner some by bringing their head around for halter on/off. She's learning to bend towards me when I halter her and getting more confident all the time. I rubbed her all over as I've been doing every day to help her accept me as friendly. KK even went in her stall today and played a quick catch game. It took Reka only moments to turn to KK and be caught. That was a good sign that she's ready to progress.

Gem and I only had a few minutes before pitch-dark was setting in, so I decided to work on sending him into the trailer from a distance. I got a few trots into the trailer from about 20'. I'll continue to build the trot into the trailer from farther distances and then from the trailer fender. That and the zone 5 driving will put us at a filming spot for L4 online.

Gem online and riding Tina out

The weather is gorgeous and the air is breezy and I got a few hours with horses tonight. I started with Tina. I've been meaning to video tape our progress and I've done a terrible job of it. Today, Chrissy was willing to help me out by playing camera man and I wanted to start riding Tina in my english saddle. Perfect - time to get it done.

So, I tacked her up and started on the ground. I got video footage of the ground work and the riding. I'll post asap - need to edit and upload. Our riding session went well. She felt great in my english saddle and it fits her nicely. Her back is so muscled and level that no adjustments to the fit were needed. She looks so handsome in english tack, too. I decided to stay in the rope halter today as we were trying a new saddle and she's more accustomed to the rope hack than the bit still. It made sense to me to have her feel the new saddle and not add more bit training in this session.

After riding in the arena, Tina and I went out of the arena and played with the obstacles mounted. This was a 2nd time doing the playground mounted. I was curious how she would feel if I pointed her out towards the trail. Tina was so forward and ready to go on an adventure!!

I really would have loved to take her out because she wanted to, but I just felt like doing that alone the first time would be a mistake. So I turned her around and went back to the barn. Surprisingly, she was pulling to go back "out". We went again, a ways down the driveway and then again I convinced myself that her first mounted trail ride needs a buddy. When I ride her again tomorrow, if she's willing to go further, then we'll go. Amazing.

I had about 30 mins left before date night with my sons, so I decided to build some ground work with Gem. He's been doing great and our groundwork is progessing nicely on the 45'. He's more and more engaged and I'm trying to do things faster and be more interesting for him. We worked a little on trailer loading and sideways. I wish I'd had time to ride - our partnership was at a great place and I bet we would have had a great riding session.

A fun night with 2 awesome horses.

Greenland - and finding time to relax and enjoy

I made a new trail riding friend a couple weeks ago and we decided to meet for an adventure. I've been working very hard, motivated to progress, working long hours with my day job and I decided to take a day off from progression and just relax with my horse on the trail. My husband says I don't do that enough - I'm always reaching some goal. That's just how I'm wired. I'm always progressing and motivated to be better or get better results. It was tough to let everything else go and just ride a trail, but I did it.

Z doesn't appreciate trailering alone and I was a little concerned that I'd be asking too much of her. She loaded fine though, but coming and going. She was eating in the trailer and she seemed ok. She unloaded calmly as well. So, I'm assuming it was a challenge she could handle.

We went about 6 miles at Greenland and we walked basically the whole way. We talked a lot and our horses got to relax and eat grass often. Z has an amazing fast walk and the Thoroughbred we were with could not keep up at all. Actually, I don't think she cared to either. :-) Z just likes to cover ground and I love that about her. She's got the need for speed and so do I. So walking for 6 miles was good for both of us. She was relaxed, easy going (usually) and was happy to lead or follow. We had a great time talking about our horse experiences and our plans for the future. I enjoyed it immensely!

This coming week is all about relatives flying in from out of town for Kyle's graduation and making sure the house is ready, we are ready, the food is bought, the plans are made... Kendall also has her birthday party Thursday night, so it's just an action-packed week. I expect to get very little horse time this week, but that's ok. I miss the horses when I don't have time with them, but I could probably use some thinking time too.

Trailering a horse

Today was Nina's day to move out. We did another riding session before loading her up to haul her to her new home. She loaded beautifully and we made sure Loma could do everything herself. She hauled quietly and moved into her pen with ease. The horses she was supposed to live with turned out to be quite aggressive so we brought Nina back until something else could be arranged. It was wonderful to see how how well-adjusted Nina has become and how easily she handled everything.

I was glad to have her come back. She's such a part of my barn and my herd. I'm going to miss her terribly.

Day 4 with David Lichman

Today was just a great day. We started with questions and discussion for about 90 minutes. We covered lots of topics and Dave showed some great video of a circus trainer doing liberty in a round circle with 6 - 7 horses at a time! Then, we went out and we each got 2 carrot sticks to practice doing the horses gaits ourselves. We hold the carrot sticks as front legs and our own legs are the hinds. We then go through all the gaits of a horse (besides galloping), including gaiting horses gaits like running walk, fox trot, pace, etc... We also did flying lead changes, which was really hard! My legs and arms kept getting out of synch and it helped me realize how easy it must be for horses to feel the same way. I didn't have someone on my back adding "noise" either. What if I had a rider too, who kept telling me what to do and telling my wrong? Oh, what we put these horses through...

This was a fun session and there was lots of laughing and smiling. I enjoyed the group and really feeling 4 legs. I found trotting to be quite easy, but the canter was tough for me to simulate. We did half-passing, shoulders in, haunches in, renvers and traverse. We also did some shoulders in and haunches in with a partner - helping our partner get their body correct to ride those maneuvers.

During lunch, I grabbed a little food and then took Z out for some long line playing on the hills. She was full of exuberance and gave me quite a few playful rears!! I'd like to develop the rear - it's time. She's so cute up on her hind, too. I also want to go back to spanish walk and get that going again. I just have to be more particular about her doing only when asked. I tacked her up then and played some more while the others finished the lunch break.

I started asking Z to bring her head below the withers on my tapping cue to her shoulder. She understand fairly quickly and was dropping her head to my subtle cue. Then, I tried to start playing the games and asking her to maintain her low head. We didn't do much, just a little circle game. We'll play with that more at home. After that, I hopped on and we played on the playground. Sandy has a great mailbox setup with a pink flag inside. Z was bothered by the mailbox, so I asked an auditor to open and close the mailbox while I worked on Z's confidence. We got some nice relaxation going, especially when I put a treat on the opened mailbox door. I need a mailbox in my playground.

After the lunch break, we went out and he worked with the other group on yielding the hind and rocking the horse back to glide into yielding the fore. When they had that going, we went out and played bullfighting with them. The advanced students had a carrot stick and would "charge" the hind or shoulder of a horse, helping the rider yield the hind or fore. If the horse was sticky, we'd tap the horse for the rider to help them get a better yield.

Then, Dave wanted to focus on the advanced students. He took us into the indoor arena since the rain was coming down good and we worked on the 8 bends. We started with just disengaging the hind, rocking back and then yielding the fore. Z and I can do this well and he used us as the demo, always a great compliment. We can do this with a lot of seat and very little reins, so he complimented us on barely being able to tell how I was cueing Z. We'd had a rough couple days, not on our best and so it was nice for me to feel like we were really great at something. The 8 bends were a little tougher, but Z and I got it done. She got a little tight, but she relaxed fairly quickly and Dave reminded me to not walk out of the bending until her poll was at or below the withers.

I had 4 different students come to me asking the breed of my horse and commenting on her beauty and stature. I had one woman ask that I please let her know if I ever decide not to use her for whatever reason. She wanted to add Z to her breeding program!! It's unusual for Z to get that kind of attention, but really we don't ride in front of people often. Still, it was intriguing to get that much attention from the crowd for my bay Anglo-Arab. Was it because we had gotten our act together and Z was looking so great? Or would they have thought that if they saw her just standing in the pen? I guess I don't think so. I think her nice collected movement and extended leg movement won her the attention. Proud of her!!

I'd brought Gemini in the morning thinking to give him more time away from home, but especially to give Z a trailer buddy to ease her worries. I commit to not trailer her alone until we fix her trailering issue. She's just fine with a buddy. Z never likes to be alone - but especially not alone in the trailer. We've got some work to do.

Side note: Tina is actually getting too fat! She's very settled into the herd and has her hay eating buddies. She's happy to find her own pile of hay off to the side as well. Whatever, she's put weight on here!

More Trailer Confidence with Z

Another long day at work and I was feeling very tired. I didn't ride today but I wanted to spend a little time building more trailer confidence with Z. Z is great about the trailer - great for loading, great and calm unloading. With another horse on the ride, she's just fine. However, she's never been very confident about trailering alone. She'll load because I've asked her to, but she's obviously wary and I want her to have more confidence about surviving the ride.

This coming weekend I'll be in a clinic for 4 days and Z will have to load and unload every day. Maybe this weekend will be great for getting her more confident about riding alone, but I decided to also spend these days prior to the clinic helping her along. So, I decided to feed her grain in the trailer and some alfalfa. She loaded up fine, I closed the trailer door and then I put her grain and alfalfa in through the window. I did my chores while she feasted in the trailer. Once she was done eating, I could hear her pacing. I decided to go in the trailer through my tack room and sit with her. I wanted to see just how nervous she looked. She was thinking, definitely not panicked, not sweating, not even pawing. But she wanted out. Of course, what horse wouldn't want out.

I decided to sit with her until she decided to stop moving her feet. She kept coming to me and then to the trailer door and then back to me. I had a bucket to sit on and I just watched and waited. She would eat some hay and then go back to the trailer door. Finally, after about 45 minutes, she cocked a leg. Ahhhh! That was when I decided it was time to come out. We'll do that every night this week with her grain and some alfalfa. I want to see an improvement in her attitude about being in the trailer alone. I want her more comfortable when we travel.

Building Gemini and Riding Nina

Today, I took Gem to Hidden Mesa, a local trailhead to see how he'd do by himself. I've actually never taken Gem by himself for a trail ride so this was quite the test. I was perfectly prepared for whatever he might offer and very willing to simply lead him down the trail and play on the ground if that's what he needed.

He started out pretty calm and I was suprised. We walked a bit, I did a little feet-moving with him, asked him to go sideways down the trail some. But he was really just fine. Steve was with me so we walked and talked and I paid attention to how Gem was doing. We came upon a bridge over a creek and he crossed the bridge w/o a single worry. I was trying to decide if I should mount and decided to wait a little longer.

Another 1/4 mile of the trail and he all of a sudden got very worried. A couple of trailriders were coming behind us and he started to frantically call for them and seek comfort from them. I was actually just starting to mount when they came in view. He moved his hips away and started to get emotional just as I was putting my foot in the stirrup. Now, he wasn't crazy or anything, he just didn't want me to mount and he wanted those horses to call back and make him feel more comfortable.

Steve went on down the trail to do his run and I stayed with Gem in that spot to work with his state of mind. Tons of sideways, falling leaf, backing, and when he started to look calmer we'd stop to rest. He'd munch grass for a moment and then lift his head, call and we go back at it. He was slowly getting calmer and finding more comfort with me in our quiet moments. He finally found a reason to feel ok - after about 20 minutes, and we slowly started to walk back. He was fine from then on. We crossed the water - he stood in it and splashed a little. We did transitions, we stopped to eat grass. I just wanted him to realize I wasn't going to let the boogieman eat him, I was going to keep him safe and comfortable. We found a picnic table and stopped while he ate grass. Ahhhh...

At that point, I thought very hard that I should mount. He seemed ready to handle it. I decided not to, though. I decided it was enough for his first trail experience alone with me. I kept my desire for MORE under control so we could hit this trail another day and pick up from this nice quiet spot. His trailer loading was pretty good, but loading up to go home had him more hesitant. We just took our time and he was blowing and loaded after about 5 mins. I refuse to push him - that's what people have done to him in the past. I want to give him reasons to be trustful of me forever more.

When we got back, I rode Nina. She's ready for the next step in her training. We started with ground work and she was calm and respectful and just a joy. Then, we went to the round pen for mounted work on walk/trot transitions, more soft feel to me on her back and beginning to apply some good communication with my body. She did so well! Next, patterns!

I helped Chrissy next with her porky and her personal space (trot to back up on the ground). She'll be filming in the next day or two, I hope! And Kendall rode Rain for a while. She worked on weaving in and out of trees, go and whoa, and then finished with standing on tires with Rain.

It was a great day! I didn't get to Tina today, I plan tomorrow to start backing her.

Making the right thing easy...

I had a good chunk of time to dedicate to horses after work today (love those days!) and I wanted to start with Z. It's getting to be the time to focus on my application for the instructor class with Parelli and I have to put a 30 min video together showing my horsemanship. I want to show all the things we can do, with multiple horses, but I also want to finish L3. I've decided to focus on this application video and worry about my Freestyle vid for L3 later. I could probably do it now, but priority should be on the app video.

Anyway, I just love riding Z. She has tons of go, tons of try, and a pure heart. She simply wants to do what's easiest and most comfortable. We did a little groundwork to warm up and she was light and responsive. Then, I wanted to ride her in the pastures and practice transitions. Down transitions are tough for us at the faster gaits. Z was not comfortable with leaving the barn/herd, however. There was a time when I would have made her leave. I'm happy to see I've progressed far beyond that point in my horsemanship and I was happy to work on transitions right by the barn. When she seemed tired, I'd ask her to slowly walk away from the barn - making the right thing easy (walking) and the wrong thing hard (staying by the barn and working).

Sometimes we can leave the barn and hit the trail alone without a single problem. Sometimes she thinks going on the trail alone is just too much for her to handle. I really wonder if it's directly related to the trail ride before. See, our last trail ride was in a thunderstorm and I tried to hustle her home and she got very emotional. She remembers every time she gets even a little emotional and she works to avoid it the next time. She's a very interesting horse - sensitive and emotional.

For our work near the barn, we did canter yo-yos, circles (really practicing keeping her on the circle and riding her straight on the circle!), transitions on the circle, sideways (always towards the barn), disengaging the hind and riding into the trailer (mounted into the trailer!). My trailer isn't very high so I'm trying hard to keep my self safe.

Finally, after about 45 mins, I rode her into the front pasture in an s-pattern and we stopped at a jump. I hopped off, she ate grass and relaxed. I stroked her and helped her feel safe and comfortable. It was a win and a positive session for sure. After about 10 mins (the mosquitos are just stupid today), I hopped on and we walked the long way back to the barn. She was relaxed and left-brained.

Then, Chrissy and Cowboy were ready to have groundwork session #2. So far we've covered games 1-3 and it was time to talk about #4 and #5. Circle and yo-yo. A new student feels very clumsy with the tools in the beginning, but Chrissy's doing a great job of fumbling through it and having some great moments! We covered haltering properly and driving game to keep him out of her space. Proud of her. Cowboy is doing a good job of being her lesson horse and though he gets bored, he still tries to give the right answer. We have squeeze and sideways left. Then, she can start practicing on her own. I think she's ready to ride him, so in the next day or so I'll teach her pushing passenger lesson so she can practice getting her seat more independent. She's on her way!

Steve took some quick, short video of Chrissy playing the yo-yo game with Cowboy and me playing with Z.

Soft and quick with Z

I'm just not getting much time in lately and it's super frustrating. My job is kicking my butt and my parenting guilt is hard core. I'm trying to exercise daily and that takes time, too. Just a challenging period in my life.

Anyway, I'm getting such a nice, softer eye from Z and the time off is obviously good for us. I'm much less intense and she's appreciating it. We played with driving from Z3 and transitions - amazingly nice trot/walk transitions!! She's so watching me and doing what I do! Then, a little hindquarters disengagement, a little loading into the 2 horse - she's nearly in and not emotional! She didn't poop once in the trailer loading session. She tried to brace against me a couple times and I managed to go with her and ask her to move her hind so we never braced against each other. I'm really, really getting much better about managing the brace!

Then, I hopped on bareback with the 12' and tied the string around her neck for some neck rope riding. We worked on 1 step over, 1 back, 1 over, 1 back - moving the fore. She doesn't do too many of those before she needs to go forward, pawing the ground. As soon as I sense that, we move forward and do something else. Our down transition and backup bridleless are really coming along nicely. I'm very pleased!!

I hopped off, asked her into the trailer a few more times, stood in there with her and scratched and rubbed, watched her get even more relaxed, then took her back to the barn. It was a nice, relaxing and calm session. I loved it.

Oh, and I'm always backing her out of the barn now. It's a good thing.

Advancing Cowboy and riding bridleless

Tacked up and rode Cowboy today. I was very interesting in studying his displacement behavior where he works his jaw and fiddles with his lips. He looks as though he's trying to work a piece of grain out of his back teeth, but it's actually a perversion he developed as a coping mechanism somewhere before Jen bought him. He does it when he's stressed or feeling unconfident and impatient. He actually does it while he waits for his grain at feed time. He does it the most in the arena, though.

Today, I started by riding him outside the arena. Well, first we warmed up on the ground and I got some great, great canter-trot transitions on the circle. Very pleased with his progression there! I also loaded him into the 2 horse straight load. He was a little worried at first, but settled nicely and stood quietly in the trailer. He wasn't relaxed, but it's a great start. I then rode him up my driveway (1/4 mile) at the canter. When we got near the gate, we stood. I wanted to see if he would work his mouth. He didn't! He was calm and ready to move out. We walked back and worked on sideways and half-passing. He's quite bracey when I ask for lateral movement so we're doing a lot of that to get him more supple.

I then took him into the arena for some PPL at the trot. His perversion went into full drive once we walked into the arena. How interesting. I rode him at the trot until he seemed to relax. It was a mild change, but a change nonetheless. Poor guy - someone really worked him hard in an arena and he stresses out immediately upon entering the sandy fenced off area.

We finished with a little liberty time in the round pen. This was our first liberty session! He got so playful and I had to laugh! How neat! Obviously, no one did that with him and he has no preconceived notions about what liberty time will mean. He was comfortable and playful and tuned in. We'll build on that with ease.

It was a great, progressive time and I tied him and put a halter on Z. Z and I worked on a very quiet, easy bridleless session where we weaved in and out of trees and around obstacles. Our bridleless sideways needs some more practice but otherwise, she was quite amenable to my asks and stayed very calm. It was windy as heck and she was unaffected. We were slow, I rubbed her often and tried to make it an easy session. We had started off with some nice, nice ground work and some more practice loading into the 2-horse.

It was a great time with Cowboy and Z!