To Infinity... and Beyond!

I don't normally go to the barn on the weekend. Since I work right across the street, and it's otherwise a very long drive from the house, I tend to stay home on the weekends and visit Gwen Mon-Fri after work. Since this past week was so terrible in terms of weather, and I only got to see her on Monday, I drove down yesterday to spend some quality time with Gwen, and play a few games.

After watching a few Savvy Club episodes (in particular, one on the figure 8) I decided it was high time we got good at that one. It's the only thing standing between us, and our first audition video.  Until yesterday, I didn't really play with the figure eight, mostly because I wasn't sure how to approach it. After watching the video, I had a much better idea of how to teach Gwen the pattern.

Since she's an RBI, I knew I would need to take it slow. Thankfully, Linda talked about what to do with an RBI + figure 8, what some common hang-ups might be, and how to move past them. I felt pretty informed and confident. Gwen and I had been having a few relationship issues which, after some deep thinking about it last Friday, I realized was all my fault (no surprise there!). I'd kinda forgotten the most important aspect of Parelli: Put the relationship first! So yesterday, I went to the barn with that in mind, with the idea that we would try out the figure 8, if everything else went well. 

To my surprise, she offered to talk back to the gate with me! Ever since the Neck Bite incident, she hasn't offered to meet me half way, or walk back without the halter (relationship issues). But, she offered to talk back with me on Saturday, which surprised and humbled me. So far so good!

We had our customary groom/graze session, and I noticed a couple other riders grooming and tacking up not far away. I didn't really want to try and play with Gwen when there were other horses in the ring, but after a quick inquiry, they told me they were going down the trails. Awesome! Ring to myself :) However, they took their sweet time mounting up and getting going. As a result, Gwen and I spent quite a bit of time just standing in the ring, as we waited for the trio to mount up (using the mounting block inside the riding ring, as it were) and get comfortable walking around. I didn't mind waiting at all, and used the time to love on Gwen, rubbing her neck/head/ears, and just being with her. In return, after about five minutes, Gwen gave me a huge sigh and just completely relaxed. From now on, I'm going to make it a point to make sure she gives me a sign of relaxation before we actually start playing.

After the other riders left, we played a little driving game, and then I set up the barrels under a shady tree so that we could start the figure eight. She happily followed me around as I set things up, and showed so much curiosity at the barrels (she even offered to push and roll one with her nose!) that I just played around with that for a while.

I decided not to use my stick/string, because sometimes she shows tension when I have it. We started slow, just backing between the barrels and then playing a circle game around them and me. After a turn or two, we tried a figure eight. I got one whole pattern before she started getting tense and anxious, and then shut down. I waited, and then put her back on a circle before trying again. She did really well for her first time, though she's not exactly sure what I want, and tends to start getting anxious about all the direction changes after about one/two figure 8's., but I think for our first day, it was a big success.

Hi pretty girl!

At the end of the day, I took her for a walk down the street to a patch of grass/trees on the side of the road. It's the same place I tried to take her a few months ago (back when I first started playing with her) where she got so upset and nervous about being away from her buddies, that she wouldn't even nibble. This time, though she had a few "What's that!?" moments, she walked along with me very easily (no tension in the rope, never needed to stop or wait) and got right down to the business of grazing. Yay! Happy horse :)

Our new grazing spot.

"What's that!?"

Tomorrow we'll try our figure 8 again.



J