Creativity

I have been struggling with a very herd bound RBE. She has been getting herself so worked up it feels like our relationship is non-existent. Today I did the circle game last since that is our hardest game when she wants to go fast unconfidently. Everything checked out, I was confident it was going to be good - and I was on my 45ft. I started her on a small circle to start and it was almost an immediate blow up. Then any little noise made her jumpy and sprinting forward (I haven't experienced this with her until today). Keeping myself calm and collected is always the hardest thing. Because I take it as a reflection on myself and since I am natural unconfident - that makes it harder for me to stay a confident leader. I was able to calm her down using touch it and approach and retreat. I saddled her and started the warm up in our indoor arena since there is less distractions. This is where the creativity comes in - I had a hula hoop that was given to me (thanks Mrs. Mary) so I wanted to try it riding around her neck like a savvy string and see if it could help me with my shoulder placement. It didn't really help too much so I was able to use it as a point to point. I held it with my arm out next to her while I was riding and kept my focus on the hula hoop and until she touched it with her nose I kept it there and kept my pressure there. Trying to help her understand 'put your nose where my focus is hoping the next and feet will follow' giving her a reason to focus with me and making it a game. I was (and still am) so proud of myself for coming up with this little game! I was also able to backup into a gate so that Annabelle's but was actually pushing the gate open - HUGE trust improvement especially with gates! When I was done riding and let her back out with her friends she opened the gate with her nose and closed it! It was so adorable :) here's the video

http://youtu.be/BZfBkeZyO0U

I do know what I'm doing?

I added a question mark to the beginning of this post because I have learned this week that I do have the confidence in what I am doing (most of the time). The past couple of days have been huge learning experiences for me. From mainly only working with Annabelle I don't notice how much my skill level with horses has gone up. Yesterday Annabelle was extremely RBE she had to move her feet and her head was up and she continued to snort out into the field. I was able to get some connection on the ground but not much responsiveness. I decided to ride because she does very well at the game of contact on days she is more right brained. At first she automatically offered collection without me asking but she was fast and had no rhythm. I allowed her to trot quickly but continued to stroke my reins to keep her head lower and help her release the adrenaline. Then I was able to walk and then she could stand still as I talked with Taylor for a while. I started walking back towards the gate because I was very pleased with this transformation and she took off trotting and bucking I disengaged her got off and put my 22ft line on. She immediately started cantering and bucking so I asked her to go a little faster, knowing this was LBE behavior. She was flinging her head up and down. After about 2 mins of my attitude being calm but playful she decided she just wanted to stand still (being more introverted at heart) and started playing with the ropes. I got back on and asked for a small trotting circle, and slowly got bigger, then we walked towards the gate and away multiple times before I got off at the opposite end of the arena. I have always struggled when she becomes RBE because she is unfocused and it makes me become unfocused and unconfident. I walked away from it feeling positive about myself and what I have learned.
Now Today: It was a completely different story. Majorly RBI, you can see the changes in the pictures below. She wouldn't take a treat from me she was so into herself and her emotions were running high. I was at liberty (with my telescoping pole tried it for the first time today and it was awesome!) and she had no blow ups she stayed connected, but I took things extremely slow and gave her plenty of down time and comfort and she was slowly able to lick and chew and shake her head. I was waiting for the yawn but she didn't. At the very end she took one treat for me very slowly and sucked on it a little bit before chewing. However, I noticed the horseanality and by doing the right thing for her in that moment I was able to still progress and not get frustrated with myself, which is my weakest quality. The horseanalities are so important from me and the thing I am really passionate about, I can't wait until I know a lot more about the horseanalities so I can pin point and help horses become calm, smart, brave, and athletic.



How we started

You can tell in her eye and face, so amazing to me now.

A little bit softer, she was able to lick and chew

Still had an amazing liberty session, very connected and she stayed calm . Even got a liberty spin:
http://youtu.be/TiWicuK1knw

Harmony <3

I had an amazing day with Annabelle. I tried all the things Linda suggested on the DVD and it was like magic! Best ride of my life, Annabelle listened to my legs I hardly had to use my reins. It will take some time to ride this way and make it a habit, but really I wasn't steering anyways. I didn't have a good way of riding. I mostly just wanted to gain confidence. However, having steering gained my confidence! We worked on the figure 8, at the walk and trot. I don't (that I know of) have any bad riding habits that I need to change so this is a great start to my L3 freestyle! One of the things Linda talked about over and over again was harmony, and I thought 'yeah I have harmony, not all the time but I have it' my ride tonight proved me so wrong! We both had the same idea in mind when I thought slow down she would slow down. When we cantered at the very end it was our only time cantering today. I didn't want to do the whole figure 8 just one circle. Usually it's nervous and fast to start, but today it started out ok, and I could feel her ready for the trot so I slowed the canter down in my mind and in my body and instead of her trotting she cantered slowly with me in harmony! I stopped at X, this was my plan anyways. I hopped off hugged her and almost cried! I was so proud of her. I can't even put how happy I am into words, but I know everyone has felt this happy at some point in their life. I wanted to share this with everyone because this was an amazing moment! And hopefully it will remind you of a time you were this happy and make you smile! :)

Improving my learning skills

I have spent the past couple hours watching some DVDs that I got at my course. It's so true that the student is only ready to listen and learn when they are ready. I felt as if there was a lot of things I was doing wrong. I watched mostly the freestyle videos since that is our weakest savvy. I took a ton of notes but here are some things that really stuck out. ALLOW ALLOW ALLOW!! Allow my horse to make a mistake, let her think that breaking gait is okay, don't make her feel wrong. Be in harmony with her ideas, then we have harmony and I can still lead her in the right direction. But then the pattern is positive. We have then created a positive conversation. Ask them to break gait when you feel they want to, again keeping the harmony going. I find myself more task oriented in the saddle, and I realize that I don't have as much fun. I have too much consistency. One thing Linda said was to not let them get bored with the pattern. This was directly from my notes on Linda's teaching 'Horses that trip easily are bored with the pattern and don't want to continue forward. Usually they have their head down. The horses aren't concentrated. On you or what you're doing/asking.' Annabelle will lower her head almost to the ground, like she's going through the motions and I'm boring her to death. I need my patterns to be consistent, but more variety in them. It was a great evening of learning and I can't wait to try it! Oh and Linda is awesome!!

Applying what I know to do it better

After going through the instructor course and going through levels 1-2 a lot for review, it was like reading a really good book again. There were some new things I learned and applying them with Annabelle (especially in riding) has made a huge difference in just 2 days! Yesterday I had a more extroverted horse, and today I had a more introverted one and I used that to my advantage! I'm 95% sure I saddled correctly today and she didn't try to walk away from it! I think she was congratulating me for doing it the way I am supposed to. Funny how they do that. Still getting a lot of emotion in the trot but I stuck to it and asked for the canter after she would give me multiple relaxed walk-trot and trot-walk transitions. I also found that when I wasn't being fluid in the canter it made her worse, it took a great deal of focus, but I thought of Carol's flute. I had an amazing connection today.

Day five: instructor course

Pat Parelli Proudly Presents his Provocative and Progressive Program and the proclamation that Prior and Proper Preparation Prevents P-Poor Performance, Particularly if Polite and Passive Persistence is Practiced in the proper position. This Perspective takes Patience from Process to Product, from Principle to Purpose. The Promise that Pat Plans to Prove is that Practice does not make Perfect, only Perfect Practice makes Perfect and, isn’t it Peculiar how these poor Prey animals Perceive People as predators prior to practicing the Parelli Program! Whoo! I did mess up one of them on the test, and there was one saying that I wasn't sure of and had no idea what it was. But other then that I feel good on the written tests. As far as the presentation, thats another story. I couldn't believe that my brained jumped out of my head and ran out the door and down the hall the second I got up in front of everyone. Before I got up there I had everything clear in my head and was excited of my idea. I presented why playing online is important. And from prior experience telling a story is the easiest. So I told the story of  how I really needed to start online with my horse first to get experience with horses since I had none when I got my horse and how it gave me confidence with her and she could build confidence with me. I figured it would be a really easy topic to talk about since when people ask me about my horse stuff it is the most talked about story...however my brain ran away from me. I hope it was long enough and good enough. FINGERS CROSSED. We will find out sometime next week if we passed or not. It will be such a long wait! 

I am excited to see Heather tomorrow!! :-) Overall this has been an awesome trip.  



After all of our testing we went outside and did some more simulations and learning which was great all the instructors were amazing, it was hard to say goodbye to all of them. 

Day four: instructor course

Today was very good, we went over all the things we will need to know on the tests for tomorrow. I am a little nervous but feel confident! Again-I am just as excited to be a part of such a wonderful family and group of people. I just can't get over how awesome everybody is! I have lots of studying to do so I will keep this short. Have to make sure I have the 45 P's memorized :-)