What-A-Week!

First off, my post title is kind of a joke ;) We have a burger place down here called Whataburger, so I thought I'd be silly and use 'Whataweek' ;)

Secondly, WOW. What a week! And not in the good kind of way :/

I only got to see Gwen twice last week. I got down there last Monday, but we didn't do anything besides get a bath, and graze.  Sometimes at the same time.

Wet Gwen!

 Then we did a whole lotta grazing while she dried out. But of course, despite her being almost 100% dry, the first thing she did outside was... Roll!

Rolling...rolling...rolling...

But, thankfully, I had already loaded her up with conditioner, in anticipation of JUST such a thing, in hopes that it would help the dirt just slide right off rather than stick to her. Once she was finished rolling, she came back to say hi.

Hi Gwen!  That's Cool's tail...

And then... I wasn't able to get back to the barn until Saturday! :( Several things contributed to this, most significantly work. I had two days at work where I simply could not leave early enough to get there on time. And then there were errands and doctor appointments (btw, Tetanus shots HURT!!) and boyfriends who needed to be picked up from the airport... phew.  So it was Saturday before I actually got to see Gwen again.

And Saturday was a BIG day!  The people I lease Gwen from own a ranch (a real working cattle ranch) and Saturday was a big huge barn party. So Star, Cool, and Gwen all got loaded up, and I tagged along to be with Gwen and to help out with things. We spent the Whole. Day. There. From about 9am until 7:30 pm. Crazy. And we all worked our butts off, but the ranch owners were thrilled, and I think the party was a huge success, and I had a lot of fun with Gwen.  And.. Star and Cool did not come back with us. They stayed "home" at the Ranch.

I didn't get to see Gwen again until today, and I'd been a little concerned about how she was handling the loss of her two buddies. She seems to be OK. I think she's made friends with one of the mules.  Unfortunately, when I pulled her out of the turn-out, she had a boo-boo!

It looks like one of the other horses kicked her.  It's not bad, but it's definitely swollen and sensitive, and there was a bit of a puncture (a little blood, but nothing scary).  Barn owner said she should be just fine. I hosed her leg for ten minutes, then slathered the area with Swat to help keep the flies away, and then spent a TON of undemanding time just letting her graze.

Ouch! (the white stuff is Swat)

It was clearly tender, but she wasn't limping. I'm hoping by tomorrow it will look a lot better.

Nom nom nom. What boo-boo?

Boo-boo's and barn-parties aside... Something happened that weakened my relationship with Gwen. Not in a big way, and nothing that is irreparable, but she was regarding me a bit differently towards the end of our time together. I think I just pushed her a little too far today, asking for things a bit more firmly than usual. While we did spend a lot of undemanding time today, toward the end I played a little yo-yo and circle-game (well, I asked her for one circle, but that's it). I think I was a bit too aggressive with her. She takes things so calmly, and she catches on SO fast that I sometimes forget she's an RBI - it just hardly ever comes out! But today I saw a bit more of her RBI side.

While asking for Circle, she did a lot of stopping, tensing, looking unsure and unconfident, which is not how our circling usually goes. I abandoned the circle game after half a circle because I could tell her hesitation was not her asking 'what do I do now' but more of a 'I don't like this...' So I stopped, and did a lot of trying to entice her toward me. She was very resistant. She didn't want to move forward, and she had such a sullen expression it broke my heart! I crouched all the way down to the ground and just let my gaze go unfocused toward her feet/ground, and combed the lead until I got a step or two.

Her whole attitude was one of unconfidence and sadness. She just looked miserable. I did everything I could think of to try to repair the damage, mostly by just using the finger-comb method to bring her toward me a step at a time, and then spending a lot of time gently/slowly stroking her face and nose once she got there. Then I would ease back up, move off a bit, and see if she would come/follow me. If she didn't want to follow, I'd go back to the finger-comb/petting of before. After a few minutes, she would follow me willingly, and seemed to be a LOT happier (much happier expression, much more interested in what was going on around her, much more willing to move/follow me) so I did a bit more friendly-game/massaging her legs, touching her gently everywhere but around her injury, and then I turned her back out.

I think we're back on good terms, but I'm definitely using this as a reminder that she IS an RBI, and I need to remember not to push her just because she seems to catch on super fast.

J

Seven Games

Yesterday, for the first time, Gwen and I played all seven games online. It was amazing! I was so pleased to find out that our successful rope-wiggle yo-yo was, in fact, a real thing and not just a fluke or something I'd dreamed up. It might seem silly, but watching her back away from me as I wiggle my finger/rope is something I will never get tired of. From the beginning it was our "hardest" game, and for a few days I was absolutely convinced we wouldn't get it. I know that our success is due to the fact that I made sure to slow down and practice the very basic games, like Porcupine.

We're even doing really good forehand yielding, and she's getting better each time. She definitely has a preference for her left-side. When I'm standing on her left, she just seems to do better. It doesn't surprise me, because I feel more comfortable and manipulating the rope and carrot-stick are much easier for me from that side. It's something I've definitely got to work on, because I know if I don't make an effort to practice from the right, my tendency will be to work from the left, simply because working on the right is "hard" for me. And I'm a bit LBI when it comes to that sort of thing. I don't like to work ;)

Our Touch-it is getting really good. Things that are "tall", like upright barrels and jump-standards, are easy for her. She kinda gets lost when I direct her to things on the ground (like cones, or "fallen over" barrels) and she has a tendency to step over/around rather than clue in to the fact that I want her to touch it. We'll definitely work on it though.

We did the circling game at a trot yesterday, both ways. She really wants to move away from me when she's on the half-circle closest to the pasture (no surprise there), and she has a habit of hesitating/stopping when she's in front of me. I think it's anticipation, or uncertainty about what I want her to do, and I have a habit of looking up at her when she comes around, so I think I'm going to experiment with keeping my eyes on the ground as she circles and see if that helps her.

Yesterday was the first time we played the Sideways game, for two reasons. 1) We can't play this one in the round pen. And 2) I was kinda dreading it, because I thought it might be one of the more difficult games for us. Boy was I wrong about that! Her sideways just might be her best game yet! I was very impressed. She caught on extremely quickly. I decided to use her herd-bound buddies to help me out, and made sure our first attempt was a sideways toward the pasture. We had a bit of a wobble in the beginning, as she tried to figure out if I wanted her to lead the way, or back up, but she caught on pretty quickly that she was supposed to move shoulders/hind at the same time. And then we flew! Down the rail to the pasture, then a quick "squeeze" and a hindquarter yield to get her nose on the rail to go back the other direction (which was just as good) and then a bit of yo-yo for good measure.

She was fantastic! Only had two or three moments when she got a bit tense and concerned. For the most part, she's really listening and watching me, trying to figure out what I want and then doing it. What a fantastic horse! I feel so lucky :) I love my girl!

J

AWESOME Day!!

I had an absolutely amazing day with Gwen today!! The arena was empty, so we got to play out there under the big tree instead of in the round pen. A definitely plus, since the weather has been getting so hot lately! For the first time in forever, I brought out my carrot stick to play with. I'd been watching some old Savvy Site videos, especially the stuff where Linda and Pat are doing clinics, and working with lots of different horses, and it really got me thinking and inspired. We played the friendly game to reintroduce the carrot stick and savvy string, and then I used it to play some "porcupine from afar", and then start getting her to yield her hindquarters on intent rather than touch. We even got some really good forehand yields, in which she really turned on her haunches rather than just backing up.  We also practiced backing-up from the chest off the carrot stick/rhythmic pressure and then... we did a true Yo-Yo game!! For the first time, she backed off of the rope-wiggle! I never had to go to phase four, and once I only had to get to phase two for her to back! I didn't want to over do it so we soon moved on, but I was absolutely thrilled!

We played some circle-game, and then we tried Touch-It again. It was a total flop the first time I tried (a few weeks ago, I believe) but after some inspiration and instruction from the savvy-sight, I really had a plan. We started off with a plastic green barrel.  I just used the same concept from circle-game to direct her toward the barrel, changing direction each time she went past it, and slowly shortening the line so that she understood we weren't circling anymore. She wasn't too sure what was going on, but eventually she leaned over to give it a sniff. Lots of friendly game and a little rest, and then we went off to the "mail box" jump to try touch-it on that. Same concept of circle-direction change, and this time it took much less time. Last we tried the blue plastic barrel, and she really figured it out. Sniff-sniff, and then a HUGE sigh out. I was so happy!  We ended after some more friendly-game.

Over-all this has to be one of the best nights I've had with Gwen. We were totally in the zone, and she was really listening to me despite all the distraction that comes with being in the arena. Tomorrow, I'd like to work on more yo-yo, and then try some circle-game at the trot while in the arena. I've really lucked. There's a district show this weekend that one of the other riders is going too, and the barn-owner/riding instructor is going with him as a coach, which means there are no formal lessons the rest of the week/weekend, so chances are the arena will be EMPTY again!!  I'm even willing to try and play with her if it's not empty, so long as it's only one or two people (any more and it would be too crowded).

On a side note, I've gotten two fantastic compliments this week! Two different people, on two separate occasions, have remarked that Gwen really seems to like me, and that she's so calm and happy when we're together. I think that's the best compliment anyone can give me. Forget blue ribbons, I just want my horse to like me! XD

And now, a truly terrible picture of me, but Gwen looks pretty darn cute! She wanted to play touch-it with my camera, so only half her face got in the picture!

Adorable Gwen!

J

Month Two!

Monday marked the first day of my second month with Gwen. I can't believe it's already been a whole month! I think we're doing really well. I'm getting down to the barn between five and six times per week, which is right where I wanted to be. Though we started really slow, mostly due to my own laziness, we've really picked up speed now that I have more focus and more "plans" for what to do each day.

The past two days I've begun riding her, and it's something I'd like to keep up. I ride her bareback for now, as I like to feel the way she moves beneath  me, to see if she's tense or relaxed. In the saddle, she tends to be tense all the time, and I'm not sure if it is because of me, or because of the saddle (leaning toward the saddle idea, since she's been mostly relaxed when I ride bareback). I've stopped using a bridle with her, however. For the past two days, I've simply knotted my leadrope around to create a "parelli hackamore", or training bridle, for her instead. In the past, I've noted a bit of opposition to the bridle/bit. It's not outright fear or hate or anything like that, but I've noticed that she kinda shuts-down when I saddle and bridle her. I think the only thing going on is that she associates it with the "old way" of things, back when people just got on, rode, and then got off without really playing with her or engaging her in some way. Since I know exactly who trained her, I know for certain she was never abused or hurt with any of the equipment, but I do notice a signification attitude change between halter/online, and when I saddle her. So, in an effort to disconnect those things from me, I've chosen to do the bareback/halter thing for now :)

The first time I got on her (i.e. Monday) she had a small "shut down" moment where she kinda went robotic on me, rather than being her perky, happy self that she is when we're online. All I did was have her walk around, and I let her chose the direction we went so long as we were moving forward. We were alone in the ring, so I didn't mind if she did donuts or cut corners, since there was no one else to run into/cut off. Before I got on her, we did some on-line stuff in the round pen, which involved us doing the circle-game at a trot for the first time (and she did fabulous!) so the walk around the arena was our cool-down chill-out time before she went back outside.

Yesterday, I was very short on time, so I abbreviated our online time to some simple friendly-game and porcupine/back up. Then, I knotted my rope and hopped back up bareback. This time, we were not alone in the arena, so I had to have some say in the direction we went so that I didn't cut off the other girls. I'm happy to say that she did a lot better, attitude-wise, than she had on Monday. Yesterday she was interested, looking around, checking things out, and had a little pep in her walk. Again, we kept it to an easy walk, and I only guided her to keep her on the rail and out of everyone's way.

I'd like to keep up with riding her almost daily, even if all we do is walk around. On evenings when I've got enough time (which is usually the case) I'll try to do our online stuff for a bit first, and then hop up after.

J

Observations and Parelli-Lessons

I'm kind of... sad right now.

Between the show on Saturday, and how crazy the barn was yesterday, I was really debating about whether or not to even go today. But I decided to make the trip tonight, and give myself Friday off as a rest-day before the show.

The riding ring was even crazier than it was yesterday, unbelievably, but I had come to the barn with the intentions of doing some barn chores, and then just hanging out and watching the lessons. Due to technical issues (flat tire) the barn owner/riding instructor was unable to be there, as she had to go pick up a delayed hay delivery. So rather than a structured lesson, it ended up being "free time" for all the students (only two of which had actually had a /scheduled/ lesson today that had to be cancelled. Like I said, shows bring kids out of the woodwork around here!) There were 12 kids in the ring, ranging from ages 11 to 15 (mostly girls, one boy), and one adult riding, and their skills ranged from beginner, to intermediate/advanced. By "beginner" I simply mean someone who has not been riding very long, but their actual skill set allowed them to walk, trot and canter comfortably (if not beautifully) and hop confidently over small fences (about 1'5" or so). By intermediate/advanced, I mean that one rider (a 15 year old boy who regularly shows his quarter horse in western-type shows, and occasionally hunter-hack) knew enough to confidently direct and teach his horse, and the others could comfortably walk/trot/canter/jump and could do it with some style.

This is important for my observations, to note that none of these riders were professional by any means, but they also weren't flat-out beginners who don't know what they're doing.

So, as they rode, I watched. I also watched them interact with their horses on the ground, as they groomed, etc. I didn't mean for this to become a study of horsemanship behavior (I was really just hanging out killing time) but that's what it turned into. And honestly, the results both worried and saddened me. No one did anything that would be considered abusive by any means, but it was the small things that I saw that kinda broke my heart. Like the girl that swatted her horse on the shoulder (with her girth no less) to move him out of the way. She didn't hit him hard, and she didn't hit him angrily, but I have to wonder what the horse was thinking when she did it. Couldn't have been nice thoughts. Or the boy who yanked on the reins to backed his horse five steps, simply because when he'd "ground tied" him, the horse had dropped his head to snuffle at a stray piece of hay and the boy had mistakenly thought he was about to wander off. (seriously, I nearly cried at this).

I want to take a moment and remind: the barn owner is NOT here for this. She definitely doesn't teach this sort of "horsemanship" behavior, and probably would have had strong words for both situations. However, I was not in a position to give instruction or discipline, though I did speak on behalf of the ground-tied horse to point out he hadn't actually done something wrong.

There were a myriad of little things that I saw, none of them brutal, or harsh, or mean in intention, but all of them were things that impressed upon my mind how little these riders really understood their horses. And I know they are all horse-crazy as heck, and they all absolutely love their horses (lesson ponies and "private" ponies both) and would never dream of intentionally hurting them. I'm also sure they all think they know the horses they ride, but it just hasn't dawned on them that the horse might see things a bit differently than intended.

And what really, REALLY  broke my heart, is that I used to be one of them. I'm actually tearing up a bit as I write this, thinking about it. I loved my horse. I would have died for my horse, I loved her that much. But did I understand my horse? I thought I did. I thought I knew why she behaved the way she did, but I know now that I had the completely wrong idea about why Missy wouldn't jump when I wanted her to. About why she would get argumentative when I asked her to do things she didn't want to do. I used to say it was her "boss mare" attitude. Her stubbornness. Her bitchyness. That she was just mean, and wanted to fight with me. Maybe some of this was true, but I was clueless as to the motivation behind the behavior. It never dawned on me that I was the cause of her problems, because I couldn't be bothered to think from her point of view.

I will be forever in debt to Missy. She put up with me, and she taught me some very valuable lessons about being patient. She was no push over, and she wouldn't let me micro-manage or boss her around. If I was being a slave-master, she'd dump my butt on the ground. Eventually, after about a year, I finally got it. I learned to be patient, sit relaxed, and politely ask her to do things. I learned that I had to stop demanding she do everything /right now/, and to let her do things her way. I will never, ever, forget the last show we went to. It was a hunter schooling show. In the three years I owned her, I had never jumped a clean round without a refusal... until that day. I went into the ring knowing it would be our last show together, and wanting only to have fun... and she gave me the most beautiful performance I had gotten with her yet. We didn't win anything, but I didn't care. I cried into her neck and thanked her for being there for me.

Nine years later, I have the privilege of working with her daughter Gwen. I can't believe how much I love her already. And I am so, so unbelievably thankful for finding Natural Horsemanship, which has given me the chance to form an actually relationship with her, one built on mutual respect, trust, and love.

Interacting with a couple other horses today really opened my eyes to how much Gwen already trusts me, and responds to me. I knew she was getting better and more responsive to things like yielding, but it wasn't until I actually worked with two other horses today that I realized how she pays attention to ME. The other horses were dead in my hands, their attention only on me when I was asking for something, and I only got a response after I remained persistent. It's hard to explain, but I could just tell that they weren't used to being "talked" to.

Now, I feel the need to say a few Thank You's.  Thank you Emily, for introducing me to Parelli through writing your blog. You have no idea how it's changed my relationship with horses. Thank you to Missy, for putting up with my crap all those years ago. Thank you to Pat Parelli for making natural horsemanship so accessible and easy to follow. Thank you Gwen, for giving me the benefit of the doubt and letting me be your human.

Today it really clicked in me how much Parelli is teaching me to understand Gwen. It's not just me making myself understood, it's about being able to understand HER, and to anticipate her needs and wants, and then to fulfill them.

J

Those Darn "Best Laid Plans"...

I'm exhausted! This is day 4 of 6 in my work week, and I'm used to having every third day off, so I'm definitely feeling the strain. Spending time with Gwen has been a HUGE help in managing the stress, and I'm so grateful for my time with her. The reason for the intense work-week is simple: I've asked for both Sat and Sun off so that I could accompany my barn to a horse show this Saturday. I am going as a spectator/indentured servant for the day, but I don't mind! I love being able to give back to my barn and, especially, my barn owner/riding instructor, who has been more than awesome through the years.

Anyways, because there's a horse show coming up on Saturday, the barn has gotten progressively busier as the week has progressed, as students seem to come out of the woodwork to practice! Though I had the idea in my head of going on a nice, relaxing bare-back walk with Gwen, one look at the ring and I knew that was out. There were at least ten kids in the ring. And our ring is tiny! 

Cool and Star were using the "second" riding ring (which is usually a turn-out for the more rough and tumble geldings, who were subsequently relocated to the round-pen for the duration of the wagon-pulling lesson...) which left me with no where to practice. I wasn't upset though. Not at all actually! I was happy to turn my evening into nothing more than a grooming/grazing session with Gwen. We practiced standing still while grooming, and I got a nice good rub on her coat (I thought I'd gotten all that winter hair, but a huge cloud of it came off her butt today.)

We're still pretty terrible at the yo-yo game, because she hasn't quite gotten the idea of backing up off the rope-wiggle (still tends to walk toward me rather than away) but, the only time she does back off the wiggling rope is when I'm coming down from the tack room and asking her to back away from the door so I can get out. And today, I think I figured out why she gets it here, but not when I'm on the ground! Gwen is not a very tall horse, but I'm not a very tall girl, either. When I'm on the ground and I wiggle the rope, I usually have to get to phase four before she responds at all. At this point, with the rope swinging, it tends to really get wild and a couple times the buckle has popped her in the chin (and I feel just terrible about this!) which tends to ruin everything because a) I'll stop wiggling, and b) she'll just toss her head in the air to avoid it.  However, when I'm up three steps in the tack room, and she is "below" me, wiggling the rope seems to produce much more vibration than when I'm on the ground. It's hard to explain, but I'm going to experiment with keeping my hand lower when I try to yo-yo her from the ground. Otherwise, I see a lot of 'tack-room yo-yo' sessions in our future!

So basically, all we did today was some grooming, and then a lot of grazing, which I think she appreciated. I'm anticipating a "full" arena again tomorrow, and probably Friday as well, so it's unlikely I'll be able to really play with her until next week (unless I break my "Sunday is a rest day" rule, which is VERY tempting since I will be off work and the barn is likely to be empty...)

Everything else is going great, tho! :)

J

Quills and Wills (Willpower, that is!)

Today was all about the Porcupine game! Hence the "quills" part of the title. I've been a bit of a slacker lately, working on the things that are easy (like hindquarter yields) rather than the things we need to improve on. A lot of this was lack of planning on my part, and as of Saturday I've been going to the barn with a game-play, and a general outline of what I want to do/accomplish when I get there. These plans are meant to be a guideline and starting point, and are more to get me motivated than anything else. All plans are, of course, subject to change based on Gwen's attitude once I have her.

Before I get into the play session, a little highlight of my day: when I went to get Gwen, both Star and Cool were dragging the arena again. I ducked into the turn-out, and headed her way. When I got close, I called out my traditional greeting ("hey pretty girl!"). Usually this gets an ear twitch, or a quick glance, which is OK with me. I don't want to surprise her, or make her feel like I'm sneaking up. TODAY, however, I not only got an ear-twitch, I got a whole body-turn and even two steps forward! As soon as she turned toward me, I stopped and leaned against the fence all casual-like (like I had the day before when we just hung out and watched the arena dragging). She stood where she was for a few seconds, and then started heading my way. A couple super-friendly(and kinda nosy!) horses came up behind me to say hello, and totally spoiled it by making Gwen back away (I've come to realize that Gwen is really low on the barn totem pole) but I stuck it out and after they moved on, I continued to Gwen. Did a little rubbing, and then turned away. She followed me a few steps, and it was then that I decided to finally halter her, and off we went. :)

Yesterday I started leaving Gwen "loose" when grooming. I'll either loop the lead-rope over my arm, or over her neck, as I brush her. Today, I did the same thing and she did even better than yesterday! Not only did she stand where I put her, she didn't even try to eat the hay off the ground, and she let me pick her feet no-problem!  (on a side note: if you recall one of my earliest posts about Gwen and her feet, I mentioned that she didn't really want to let me pick them up. Well, I am happy to report that this is no longer a problem, and has not been a problem for over a week now. I've followed the pattern I laid out "left front-hind/right-front/hind, and she now shifts her weight in anticipation and lifts up her foot when I run my hand down her leg. Such a good girl!)

Since the arena was occupied, we used the round pen. There were really scary monsters in the woods behind the pen (or so Gwen tried to convince me), so her attention was a little split for the first five minutes or so. Once she was sure there were no boogie-men, we got down to business. I really wanted to work on forequarter yields and backing today. We ran through the Friendly-game real quick, and then got down to the porcupine.  She made some real progress with her forequarter yields, and I'm going to make it a point to practice them every day until they are as good as her hindquarter yields.

Backing was great, too. We did porcupine on her chest and nose, and I even got her to really back-up without hesitation at one point. I'm using every excuse to back her up (down the aisle of the barn, on the way out to the turn-out) so that she will confidently do this no matter where we're located.

Our circles are getting good as well! This time, I got two complete circles both clock-wise and counterclock-wise without hesitation/stopping. Yay!

Something I noticed/need to work on: Body posture.  Several times, while I was playing with Porcupine on her chest, I caught myself standing kind of lazily. My focus was on her chest, and my fingers, and I realized that I wasn't projecting the kind of energy I should be. She did remarkably better when I was aware of my energy/body posture, and it was focused on "back up" rather than just on what my fingers were doing. It's something I'm going to have to really work at, as I tend to zero-in on the details and forget the bigger picture. Gwen is definitely reading more than my finger-placement.

All in all, I'm super happy, and very excited to keep practicing tomorrow!!

And here's a picture of Gwen that I took from inside the tack room! Aww, so cute!

 

 

"Can I come in?"

J