Getting bored.. Onward and Upward!

So I've been getting really bored with the same ol', same ol', and frankly so has Cheyenne. So after watching some L3 liberty videos, I realized there are a couple things we haven't even tried that look like fun! One is to challenge her to jump only one barrel (on its side, not standing up just yet) and the other is to sidepass to me. I drug a barrel into the round pen, and to my surprise, pleasure and disappointment she got it EVERY time, both ways. It's cool that she is so willing, but I'm disappointing because there was no challenge in it. But I can be okay with that knowing it's because of such a positive reason! 

My Baby Chey <3

So the next task I knew was going to be a little bit harder. We sidepassed over the barrel like normal a few times, just to get in the "sideways" frame of mind. Then we went into the open, I put the carrot stick on the opposite side of me, and asked her to move towards me. I got sideways away from me, forward, backwards, but never towards me. Hmm.. how interesting! After about a minute of her flipping through her little card file trying to figure it out, I realized we needed to back it up one more step. I rubbed her to a stop, then tapped her on my side, asking her to go away from me. Began going forward, then backward again, but on her third attempt she crossed her front feet :) Success #1!  She got her scratchins, and we did it a few more times, confirming it in her mind that when the carrot stick taps her side, she is to move away from the rhythmic pressure. So now to try it towards me again. I put the side opposite myself up against the fence, then tapped the opposite side again. Like every time before, she tried moving forward, then backwards, trying to figure it out. This went on for another 30 seconds or so, and she was trying SO hard to figure it out... the determination was so obvious in her facial expressions. I think she just thought she didn't want to run me over, and she has always been taught to stay out of my space unless invited in, but you could see her thinking "well nothing else is working, I'm getting frustrated, and towards mom is the only way I haven't tried... well, here we go!" and BAM! Her outside front foot crossed over inside front, and she got all kinds of scratches and praises. OUR VERY FIRST STEP OF SIDEWAYS TO ME! I am SO excited!! I've always wanted to be able to do it, it looks so fancy on everyone's videos, but I never knew the proper way to teach it to her, and I didn't want to mess things up. This process seemed logical enough to me.. haha.. and I couldn't be happier!! We got about two more steps towards me, one at a time, and she was showered with "atta girls" and we called that good :) I am SO thrilled!!

A while back you might remember I was trying to teach Cheyenne how to lay down. And, over my past blogs, you may have noticed the re-occurring pattern of mine to push too hard. Well that's exactly what happened.. she was making quick progress, and I kept trying for a little more.. and a little more... and an iiitttyy bit more... and then all of the sudden she refused to pick up her foot :( I knew I should have stopped, and I knew it was all my fault. I was so bummed, and I knew I had to lay off for a while so she would hopefully forget and we could start with a clean slate again. That was a few months back, I believe mid spring or so, and figured it was time to try again. I picked up her front left foot, and slowly brought it backwards. She shifted her body weight backwards a bit, and I gently put her foot down and loved on her a bit. I had been fighting her from eating all night, and I figured now would be the time to embrace her love of food and use it as a reward. So I picked up the foot again, bringing it back a bit further this time, and when she put her head down to sneak in a bite, I didn't stop her. I put her foot down and gave her some rubs, and when she brought her head up I asked her to put it right back down, which she happily did. We did it about 5 times total, each time getting her a bit lower to the ground, and right when I got the urge to push for her knee to touch the ground, I called it good. Humans really can learn! lol. Anyways, at that point we called it good for the night. I introduced a few new things, and she was a champ at them all :) I am so, so proud. She is really turning into such a wonderful, TRUE partner, and I can't remember the last night she went RB that I didn't notice (it was my doing) and correct, bringing her right back down to LB and relaxed. Hard work and patience (a big learning step for me) is really paying off... they always say you end up with the horse that will teach you the most, and I believe it with all my heart :)

Chunky McChunkerson at her finest :)

Our dusty desert sunset at the end of the night :)

Dreams Do Come True :)

Yesterday Cheyenne and I had a groundbreaking moment...! With riding at liberty in mind, we did a quick warm up on the ground with the driving game, and did a quick mounted warm up of figure 8, stop/back up without the reins, etc. She was feeling great.. light, responsive, willing, and left brained. So the halter came off! F8 and point to point were fabulous, so we tried trotting for the first time ever without any tack... it was fluid and amazing!! I called my mom over to watch, and little did I know, she brought her camera with her :) I showed her our latest achievement, and when I was done, I just so happened to look over at a jump I had set up. Then I thought.. why not? Chey is being the perfect partner, so well connected, and she loves to jump... what better time than now?! With that decided, I had my mom (aka minion ;p) grab my fancy jump of cones and a pole and set it up in the pasture. I put the hackamore back on, and we jumped about 4 times before I decided we were good to go. It was so cool, I must be more balanced on her bareback than in the saddle, because she was REALLY able to bring her front end up!! It was such a dramatic arch! It felt great, and my mom said her leg tuck was incredible. It only lasted for the first two 'warm up' jumps, but I love that I now know what she is capable of!! Eeek! I get excited just thinking about it! So anyways, the halter came off. I didn't think I was coordinated enough to focus on the jump, my position/balance, and the carrot stick all at once, so it was just my trusty steed, the savvy string around her neck, and me. She was perfect :) I focused on our perimeter fence out in the distance, asked for a trot, and she sailed right over, no hesitation :) I WAS SO ECSTATIC!!! I can't help but get giddy every time I think about it now, this was a dream I've had with her for YEARS, and we finally achieved it!! One more goal checked off my list for 2012 :) I am SO blessed to have this mare in my life... she may not be some easy push button levels horse, but oh man have I learned so much from her!!! I'm fighting back tears as I write this.. she really has brought me through an emotional journey of my own. I couldn't be more proud of this amazing, amazing girl :)

Anyways! Past the mushy stuff and onto the video! I am really excited to share this with everyone, please feel free to give me feedback or commentary!! The link is below =]

http://youtu.be/ayRDr5hEg5A

Figure 8 at Liberty video is up! :D

Yesterday I was able to sucker someone into video taping Cheyenne and I for our second session on the figure 8 at liberty!! I learned I'm not as assertive and clear as I thought I was, and especially when Cheyenne turns from RB to LB, I really need to get my energy up to motivate her and for once try to get her a little more extroverted to play the game. But over all I feel really great about it! And for my little RBE, it is HUGE that she is so LB about this new task, especially at liberty! She was much more connected to the grass yesterday than to me, but again I think bringing my energy up would have helped that as well. Any comments/feedback are welcome!! Click right here to see the video of awesomeness ;)

The perfect day :)

AH-MAZING DAY WITH THE GIRLS!!! After watching the SC DVD last night on F8 @ Liberty, I was itching to give it a try!! I threw the barrels in the round pen, and warmed Cheyenne up in the pasture OL with transitions on the circle, backing through the gate from 22' away, and some STM. Then we moved into the round pen and did a little more STM, remembering what Linda was telling Elli about just go where you're going with confidence, and holding the horse responsible for staying with me, instead of me having to slow down to make sure Chey is still with me. That went great! We finally moved to F8 OL, and I played with my timing and making sure I ran STRAIGHT back. All felt good, so off came the halter! She sent out well with just a finger and a slight lift of the stick 2 seconds later, and when she went around one of the barrels, I brought her in for an "atta girl". First barrel, came in and snorted about 10 times with a lick-and-chew thrown in there! I couldn't believe it! So I sent her back out, and she blew past me when I asked for a change of direction around the barrel. I let her finish her circle, let her life come down a bit, and asked again. I think I might have been asking her for a COD too soon because she ended up stopping, spinning an 180 and heading the other way. I kept my cool, slapped the ground where she turned around, and went back to the center. This happened three times, and then she went around a barrel doing half of the F8 :) Brought her in for more praise, and the next time I sent her out she felt SO connected!! Instead of cantering around (it was still a nice LB canter, but a canter) like she had been doing, she was giving me a nice trot with an ear and an eye on me, like "ok, where do you want me?". She did one barrel well, I brought her in to let her think, and went I sent her out (with just my finger) she went straight to a barrel, put her nose on it, and looked at me with ears up with an amazing expression asking "is this where you want me??!" SO COOL! I supported her with a little direction, and it was beautiful! She was so LB and in tune with me, and putting 110% into the task. We did two full F8, another partial, and called it good. What an incredible feeling! I wanted so badly to hop on with just the carrot stick and savvy string and practice it more FS, but I stopped myself there. I have a tendency of pushing, pushing, pushing, and all it does is hurt our progress. So we called it quits there! I couldn't be more excited!! One thing Linda talked about in the DVD was the conversations that Elli and the bay mare (I can't remember her name) were having, and I realized I never really allowed my horses to have a conversation with me, I was sucked into my direct line thinking, and my focus was 100% on what I was asking the horse to do, and not paying near as much attention to her feedback as I should have been. Well, today that changed! I felt very "in the moment", relaxed, and was actually LOVING the conversations Chey and I were having!! I've been working on slowing down and allowing Cheyenne to try instead of rushing her, and tonight adding the reminder of letting a conversation happen pulled it all together for me, and I just feel amazing on so many levels, and it really helped Chey to be a champ tonight!! Ah.. oh man.. great, great session!!! I would have video taped and (and wish I could have!!!) but the wind was in full force today and would have just knocked it over. But I will try to video tape our next liberty F8 session and post it on YouTube to share our progress! :)

Ok, so with Gwen tonight I decided I wanted to ride since I didn't want to push things with Cheyenne and hop on. Gwen and I warmed up OL with learning transitions OL, yo-yo, driving game on her front quarters, and sideways. She did great, but was a classic LBI tonight not wanting to put too much effort into anything. I hopped on, remembering how during our last ride I pushed too much (geez, are you seeing a pattern here?! lol) and kept asking Gweny to do point-to-points, trot, and play FTR. Wellllll she still doesn't have too many rides under her belt, and wants to go where SHE wants to go! I started letting her pick the direction half the time, and I picked the other half, and she became a lot more willing. Well, again on the SC DVD last night, Linda talked about how she never really knew how to play with Allure until she did what he wanted to do and just play and make a game out of everything, and only then would he become connected and willing. With that in mind, I decided to have our first true passenter/mirroring ride :) It was great for both of us!I I just supported whatever she wanted to do, and every time she offered to walk to the other end of the pasture, she got a cookie. When she just wanted to stand there, I scratched her, played with her neck, scooted to her butt and back, messed with her tail, etc, just getting her used to everything. She brought her head back every once in a while looking for a cookie, and I mirrored her head and turned my head and body just like hers. She paused for the longest time, stretched her neck further back (which I did as well), she paused again, brought her head back to almost straight, felt me do the same thing, then put her head straight again. It was too funny! The expression on her face was like "what is this girl doing?!". I don't know how many times we did this tonight, but it was hilarious to watch her play with her head position trying to figure out why I was mirroring her, and to see if I would keep doing it. Once or twice I got bored just sitting there and asked her to walk, or even trot, and she began to brace and since I was bareback I could really feel that hump emerge in her back - you know, that hump that happens right before a horse bucks. She's never bucked with me on her back, but her brace was her way of telling me she was definitely not okay with being bossed around. I reminded myself I needed patience, and to show her she wasn't going to be forced into anything. I want her to know she is my partner, not my vehicle. So I stopped, and let her do what she wanted until I ran out of cookies :) At first I was kind of bored just sitting around when she just wanted to hang out in a corner, but by the end of the ride both of us were having a great time! She realized whenever she moved forward and offered a walk she got a cookie and really started offering more by the end of the ride, and I learned a good lesson in patience and horsemanship :) Kalley Krickenburg said once that all the magic happens in the quiet moments, and tonight I really learned the truth behind that :) Aaahhhhh... can every day be like this, please? :)

Z5 Driving

I had so much fun trying to do the weave from Z5 last night with Cheyenne, I decided to make that the focus of our play session today! This time, armed with TWO 22' lines (feather lines are looking like a good addition to my tack room right about now! :p) we headed out! At first Cheyenne was seriously confused. All she wanted to do was back up or turn, desperately trying to figure out why I was behind her and not beside her! I was getting a little frustrated, but eventually figured out that just holding my arms straight out and clucking helped her think forward. Whatever direction she walked in I took, and after a good twenty strides or so I stopped her and gave her a good scratch. We did this a few times, and I slowly started asking her to turn. It was like driving a sports car with extremely sensitive steering at first, getting dramatically sharp turns left and right (literally!).  However soon her head dropped, she got a little more relaxed and we began fine-tuning our communication :) We went over a log, did a little point-to-point, and then finally the weave!! The first one was a little all over the place, but three or four laps later she was pro! I love this mare, I can't stress enough how much "try" she offers! I get frustrated easily and instantly want to blame her when things get rocky, then I remember that I'm the leader, and whatever is happening is a reflection of myself, not her. I take a deep breath, give her a chance to try, and wha-la! Things are instantly better :) We kept it short tonight, but she made so much progress from start to finish I wanted to end on a good note before I pushed her too far and overwhelmed her, especially on day one. I am so grateful for this girl being a part of my life <3 She really has taught me so much, and especially about myself. If you truly want to make yourself a better person, get a horse; they will show you all your faults, and Parelli will show you how to make them better :)

A great night with muh girls :)

Had a great night with both girls! I've been getting really bored with the same old stuff, and yesterday I saw a L3 video of a woman doing Z5 driving at liberty doing the weave with just the carrot stick, and thought it was something Chey and I definitely had to try!!! We did our first attempt at it tonight OL, and it was pretty hilarious. Cheyenne wasn't sure what I was doing back there, and kept trying to circle around or side pass over the cones! But once she got it she did great, and I was really proud of her :) Also to make things more interesting, I tried asking her to side pass over objects from 10 feet away, back through the gate with me 10 feet away from it but having her back all the way to the end of the 22, putting her back feet on the pedestal, and things of that nature :) She was very LB tonight, in a great learning frame of mind (when she wasn't sneaking grass) and put 110% into everything we did :) I hopped on and we played with transitions during FTR for the first time in a few weeks, and she did really well, and we had lots of exhales and breakthrough moments :) Such a good girl!


I did a quick OL warm up with Gwen and hopped on. She did okay, had a few good moments of impulsion but I feel the ride could have maybe gone better.The trick with her little LBI mind is to make things her idea, and get over my direct line thinking of "JUST GO TO THE CORNER! THAT SPECIFIC CORNER!". We had to kind of regress a bit and not focus so much on where we were going, but just the gait itself. Once she got a little better at maintaining gait, we played FTR for the first time, and she began to get the hang of it. We had a few distractions (my nephew came out again, and another horse was being played with in the pasture) but overall I'd rate the ride as a 5. Not bad, but not great either. Always something to improve though, right?! 


I finally wrangled someone into being my photographer for five minutes and got a few pictures on Gweny at sunset :) Enjoy!

Summer nights and four legged friends :)

Had a short and simple night with my girls tonight. Started out with Cheyenne, did a quick warm up OL with the weave, pedestal, and a little circle game. She was more focused on grass than anything, but was pretty LB, so I decided it was time to bridle up! We practiced stage 1 and 2 of the GOC, played FTR and I worked on my sitting trot with her since I was riding bareback. Let me tell you what, that mare is not your prime candidate for trotting fluidity! Lol! Her speed and direction are very inconsistent, especially when we track to the right for some reason. I have to lean way back and have a slight arch in my back for her to not be irritated with me and really start moving forward and relaxed. I found I have a tendency to lean forwards at the trot, which in turn makes her slow down, so I really had to make a point to lean back (to an extreme angle, at least it felt to me, but if she's happy, I'm happy!).  It's been really hot, so we called that good once I got a relaxed walk and trot both directions :) She did so well! More whoa than go tonight which was interesting, but possibly heat related? She didn't seem laggy, just almost unmotivated, which is unusual for her. However still somehow responsive.. well maybe that's just an RBE's version of being LB... yeah.. we will call it that ;)

Gwen had a quick warm up OL as well, and I hopped on her bareback with the natural hackamore. We didn't get very far into our ride at all before my sister came strolling down the back yard, and trailing behind her was a red radio flyer wagon holding my four year old nephew! Weeeelllll... this was apparently a horse eating wagon, and my normally chill LBI had a visual lock on the foreign object. I had my sister play approach and retreat with the wagon until finally my nephew got impatient and decided to just jump out and walk the rest of the way to the horses. It was a nice surprise to be able to expose the horses to new things!