Actually, We Went For A Hike Instead....

Beth and Louie, Kip and Nigel, Lil and I needed a break from the treadmill and the arena. So we met at the BLM land just down the street from our house (about 20min from Beth's) for a hike. Just Three Horses, Three Humans, Three Parelli Halters, Three 12 Foot Lines, Three Carrot Sticks, Three Savvy Strings marching along the logging roads singing a merry tune.

It was deliciously quiet. The gunmen had packed up from the morning target practice and the motorbikes showed up as we were leaving. A couple cyclists rode by as we started out but that was it. My cell phone didn't even ring once. That is seriously a miracle by itself.

Louie and Beth strolled along peacefully.....quite the handsome couple. Nigel led Kip from grass clump to clover patch....Nigel shining in the filtering sunlight like Shadowfax. Just watching the four of them was a pleasure.

Lil started out walking faster than normal and tended to get ahead of me. We did a little sideways and falling leaf. No fuss...she was walking without a problem....just faster than I could. She was very looky for a good hour but not spooky. Walking back she was my favorite Lil. Soft everything. Ears, Neck, Tail, Eyes. Head low. Blowing softly and moving with that musical gait of the relaxed quadruped.

I put her sheet back on before I turned her out when we got home....she nuzzled me and then started yawning. Doesn't get much better than that.

... I can't believe that Lil is letting me lay her flat out.

Lil and I are a stronger partnership...for sure. Of late, I am frequently in awe of the bond that we have been able to forge despite our differences.

Lil trusts me.... she's been laying down at my feet for several years now. The new development is that she will let me gently porcupine her neck to lay her flat out. It is truly unbelievable to me that this formerly distrustful prey animal that I have made soooooo many mistakes with, will put herself in such a compromised position at my request.

Now its my turn to trust her.

I had a chance to talk with a wonderful Parelli Faculty member yesterday. She was helping me with a Nigel trailer question but also, I had sent in Lil and I's Level 4 liberty audition. It was great to discuss strategies for advancement. We were awarded all Level 3++'s except four Level 4 scores. One on rapport and one on relationship! (those are the best ones I think) But. Pat wants to see more refinement.

I hadn't really been thinking of Refinement...even though its all over the level 4 self assessment sheets. What it boils down to is allowing another layer to come off the onion. Instead of continuing to do what we've been doing for months now.....learning some very high level maneuvers but using phase 2 and 3 to execute them....I need to be ready to correct...but trust that she'll respond. Not more one than the other.

..........what a privilege! It is a dream come true to even be thinking about these intricacies.

and dang it! I lost our weave with flying changes.

But it looked so cool! I needed to see it again. darn darn darn.

She had already done it brilliantly twice. I had used single barrels laying down as our markers. The third time I asked her...she offered to jump the barrel after the first change .... what am I going to do? She came to me and gave me two beautiful eyes and ears...we tried again...then of course I had rewarded her for jumping. I tried to be more specific but she just got confused. So I had to move more out to the side and just fix my draw.

I think I'll probably just go back to the good old figure eight because I can be more effective (understood) when sending zone 1* around. Then just gradually move back to being able to draw all the way through the weave.

The coolest part of the day was that she was WITH me. After we played in the arena at Liberty* (our usual warm up) we went out into the big playground. I got a super cool yoyo down the steeper part of the hill and pretty straight too...about 25feet or so.,.. and an enthusiastic draw at canter.

We got the stick to me at trot kinda half circles with change of direction...squeeze over the log etc...all with no thought that I could see of leaving. Into the round pen to get dressed...up to the arena...to the mounting block. All at Liberty. This is definitely a new level for us.

We practiced our Freestyle* with the savvy string and one carrot stick. I need to figure out a way to deal with the reins. I just want to use the string but I end up with reins eventually sliding over to one side or down her neck if I don't at least hold "the buckle". Hmmm. I might try to tie at knot maybe? And use my mecate holder on my saddle. Perhaps I should call the golden hotline.

We did trotting cloverleaf, canter figure 8 with a stop in the question box, sideways over the cavaletti. Had trouble opening that gait up there. Ended up needing to use the bridle. Interesting. We usually can do the one to the roundpen just fine.

It took me a few canters to realize that I wasn't using my new found fluid position at the canter that I had discovered last time. (As per the latest Savvy Club* DVD...pulling my inside armpit back a little bit and stretching a little more into my inside stirrup) Geeze, put a carrot stick in my hand and a hand on the string and I'm all discombobulated. Lil was getting cranky because I was having to used my stick so much. Once I fixed my position I was able to much more effectively just use my body to turn. She was so rolling her eyes at me.

Getting undressed and giving scratches I felt satisfied. I learned a bunch and have stuff to think about and trouble shoot...my horse didn't get actually angry with me for bumbling about.....and I feel like our relationship is getting stronger all the time.

When the weather changes we will have big Right Brained* Challenges. The stronger our relationship is going into that the better off we'll be. I'll take all the prior and proper preparation I can get.

*see glossary at the bottom of the page

(bummer no picts in this post. i'll work on it)

. . .and Yay! Yay! Yay!

Lil gave me THE BEST cantering weave with flying changes from zone 1*! Just switched my carrot stick from one hand to the other and ran backwards!!!!!

The few tips Linda was giving Amy in this last savvy club DVD helped me a ton. Really put my weight more in the inside stirrup and pulled my inside armpit back. Lil seemed to really like it.

Also revisiting the suspension rein. I found that I usually end up doing more of an indirect rein by not paying attention. Today I really focused on lifting it straight up. That helped a bunch too.

I've been doing this pattern of a 20m circle at trot and then a 10m circle and then a 20m circle and so on. . (like big bulls eye little bulls eye with a barrel for the small one) Well, I kept in mind Pat's demo this month of the minute indirect rein and then direct rein. Seemed to make a huge difference for the 10m circle.

I had to laugh at myself, it seemed Lil was like..."finally! geeze! I've been waiting for you to get this."

And look at me up on the horse trailer. Amazing.

Lil gets big big ups for this.

With Lil

I finally got my 45ft line out again. That thing is so not my favorite. It really tears up my hands. But now that we've officially past our Online Level3+ it is time to move on.

I think its so funny that on occasion it takes me a while to listen to Linda's * advice. (she told me about feeding sunflower seeds and it took me like 2.5 years to try it. ... works like a magic pill) And she was completely convinced that tracking progress on an assessment sheet was key. Turns out she was right. Usually I'm pretty good about taking someone else's experience and learning from it...interesting.

Before I put Lil online I checked out connection by sending her off on the circling game at liberty. At the very start she tried to head off in the opposite direction than I had asked...its just amazing how getting her to maintain gait and maintain direction works like a charm to get her connected. And it's very quick when she's left brained right away. And if she's right brained .. much better to have her far far away.

It was kinda nifty that she is doing flying changes on her own so much now that we've been working on those for a few months. Cantering around the arena and maneuvering around obstacles she uses them a ton instead of dropping to trot.

After just a few canter laps without needing to correct her, ( I wonder if I should have gotten her to do more...not sure if I'm not asking enough there) I asked for a flying change right to left. . then left to right. Yahoo! Two in a row and maintain gait. First time that was really solid. Had to give her a hug for that.

Then I clipped on the 45. I was actually surprised at how out of practice we were. duh. Haven't played with longlines for like a year and a half. (see sometimes I can follow directions) Anyway...I thought point to point might be a good idea. Wow! We couldn't even walk straight! Eeeek. Poor Lil got a little starey at the lack of clarity on my part. But she did stay present and gave me a little leeway.

After a few minutes I finally got the clue to use follow the rail to fix the straightness issue. I had to slap my forehead on that one. Geeze. Worked perfectly. Helpful that she already knew the pattern. So I swiftly made it my goal to do two laps each way with a change of direction across the diagonal and then stop by getting on the pedestal. (happened to be very conveniently located at the end of the last diagonal)

I unclipped her on the pedestal because at first she was assuming that because I was in zone 5 I wanted her to back up.

What a good girl. It makes me feel so good when she tries for me even though I am messing it up in the beginning. I was just reading in the Mastery Manual* this month that your level of savvy is directly related to how good your body language is. Makes sense. Gotta keep that in mind always.

Ok so one of the big critiques that I got on my most recent audition is the same one that I got on the last one and the same on Pat gave me in Reno. "Your driving game needs improvement."
"You need to balance respect with rapport." (Rachel's* been on me for that since the beginning too) So on the way down to the round pen I was thinking of this and worked on stick to me a little bit. Stop back up..lets go forward! It was not the best. So I got a little firmer with my stick in front and behind. And tried to make it a game.."don't make me pick up the stick". Of course it worked very nicely and in a minute we were backing responsively up the hill. (decent hill too)

Into the round pen and hopped on bareback. (really just too lazy to get her dressed and also I thought it would keep me from getting too greedy and doing too much after she had already given me a lot) Worked on Don's checklist just with the carrot stick. (I'm so proud of myself for working on that. So resistant for many years. Just interested in other things. But again I am now following the list more) Our backup straight and go forward straight without having a shorter rein was not at all very good. Intersting because from a standstill we can back up just using my legs pretty well. It was really the stopping part that was an issue.

Kip was sitting just outside the roundpen to hang out with me. (which I love) He had the Leadership Mastery Manual out and was reading aloud. Brilliant. What a special hubby. And as he said: "These are bloody fabulous."

After a few tries we got it though. So I thought perhaps I would work on the checklist using the Porcupine Game* with the savvy string around her neck. It took a few tries and a little bit of working on my driving game...to get it. But we got a beautiful yield the forequarters 360 degrees each way. Excellent.

Just did follow the rail a tiny bit. (thank god because I had forgotten to take my Bodybugg www.bodybogg.com off again. It totally thinks the horses steps are my steps so it screws up my tally for the day). Worked on walk- trot- walk transitions, bending with the carrot stick to the outside for the downward transitions.

I wonder about using the carrot stick bending to the outside with Lil because we have worked so much and been recently so successful on our straightness on the circle.... don't want to have her getting bent to the outside thinking that's what I want.....Pat was mentioning in Reno (and has many times before) that we don't want to teach our horses unintentionally to be a bad banana.

Anyway I thought it was a great session, the greed prevention strategy was very effective because she has such a bony Thoroughbred back. Ouch! It hurts my bum!

My heart felt good when I went into the house and I was smiling as I fell asleep.....grateful.