..at One With Horses Natural Horsemanship Center.

It is so indescribably wonderful to be with like minded horse people. I just can't even say. To have a whole Center of them springing up so close is like Christmas.

Wendy and Marc have used the old "if you build it, they will come" plan with startling success. In just over two years they have created a hive of positive activity at their center. They have hosted Parelli* Clinics, have many young students and have enabled study buddies from all over the Portland area to get together.

I had a particularly great time this weekend playing with my new friend Jen's 9 year old quarter horse Chrome and Wendy's darling 4 year old curly Dan. It is AMAZING to me how much I learn from other horses. How it highlights and reminds me about certain aspects of my and my own horse's development.

With Chrome, I was reminded about response and adjustablility. For me, Chrome was not very responsive particularly in the Online* driving game. It was so fun to try to read when he was ignoring me because I wasn't respectable enough and when he was worried about some obstacle and I needed to wait for him to build confidence. Weaving the rapport and respect games together artfully tested me plenty.

With my little (ok ok Wendy's) Dan ... omgosh... I just have fun. He's a bloody blast to ride for me because he feels very safe and very surefooted. Plus he's a hilarious Left Brained Introvert*. The other side of the sword with this horsenality* is that the "go" button always needs to be cultivated. Which again is an art and plenty of a challenge for me. I was so so so impressed with how much he had improved with the game of contact in the last month.

Today, I was a better horseman with Nigel because the girls let me play with their horses. What a privilege.

Thank you Marc and Wendy! Can't wait to visit again. www.onewithhorses.org

Nigel and The Trailer and The Game of Standing Still.

Probably the biggest thing I've learned from Linda Parelli* this year is "make it a game". Make it a game!!! How simple right?

Nigel is so amazing I very much want to take him places. As a result I am highly motivated to solve this bloody trailer issue. Thank heavens because my brain has been smoking for over a year.

To recap...issue number one is that he is not a fan of standing still when it is not his idea. Particularly in the trailer or in his stall. He can throw an absolute Left Brained* temper tantrum. Not a drip of sweat after piaffing, levading, kicking and pounding for hours and hours.

Issue number two: (which we just yesterday got to start working on) is that he is Right Brained* afraid of driving away and leaving the herd. He breaks into a full body sweat as soon as we leave the driveway. Literally dripping with fear. The Right Brained issue just needs approach and retreat. I already knew how to do that. The Left Brained issue was the one giving me fits.

About the second week in July I figured out that I could use the clicker to mark the standing still and reward him for it. So we've built up from less than a moment...to 5 seconds..to 1 minute...to 7 minutes. Then I decided I'd see about the trailer.

Let me just say that not only am I working on Nigel standing still...I'm working on myself. It is not easy to be still for a Right Brained Extrovert like me. I gathered a few tools to help. Blackberry for emailing and texting, hands free for talking on the phone, Dick and Felix Francis' new book Crossfire on the Ipod, the stopwatch for visible progress and the magic clicker. LOL. Pretty funny but painfully true! Well, the pain has been worth it. We have made real progress. Over the last week Nigel made the leap from standing in the trailer with the back door closed, tied with the front door open. At first I had to sit with him. Now I can push wheel barrows around and pick blackberries. Perhaps I should get the weedwhacker out. He easily can now do 20 minutes.

Over the last few days I've been starting to close the front door. With the door closed, we're starting from the beginning building from one moment. But it is going much faster. He starts to paw when I close it but then obviously remembers that the answer is standing still. He's up to still for over a whole minute.

I figure once he can tolerate that, I'll start rattling things and tapping the trailer.

Yesterday is the first day since we started the clicker that I moved the trailer with him in it. I think it went superbly. I can say without a doubt....that if I can solve this...if he and I can solve this...and become confident enough to travel around town calmly...it will be my biggest horsemanship success.

Here's where we started:
Yesterday Part One:

Yesterday Part Two:


*see glossary at the bottom of the page.

.........learning by teaching....my beloved Game of Contact*.

It sure was a riveting day teaching my fearless subjects Kim and her quarter horse Tunes, Shannon and her Iberian warmblood Desi and Lisa and her quarter horse Minnie.

This whole Game of Contact thing is FASCINATING to me. I want more people and horses to play with!





Kim and Tunes have been doing a lot of cool fun stuff (like extreme trail courses!) but not really any arena stuff. So we just played around with the concepts of free forward movement.

Shannon and Desi have been together since Desi was just a few months old. Shannon has done quite a bit of Parelli with her and takes dressage lessons once a week. I feel like Desi came "through" about 80% of what she is capable of. I can't wait to see her in a few months!Lisa and Minnie were on their 8th session with the game of contact. Even I can't believe how differently she moves!!! wow!

All three girls had such upbeat happy attitudes and made the whole day fun. They were sweet to their horses and didn't once (at least not that they let on) get frustrated. The horses were troupers too. Even when they got a little emotional with the new information, they hung in there and tried their hardest. It was a pleasure.
I want to say thank you to Jim and Lisa for hosting the clinic. Beth for her support and Kip for being my assistant scientist and recording the data via video camera.

ONWARDS!...or should I say: FORWARDS!



*I must add that this is actually my understanding of Linda Parelli's Game of Contact. Its her brain child. See the glossary at the bottom of the page for the Parelli links.

....Getting Unconscious.

A few months have gone by since my lesson with Linda Parelli*. Thankfully I have had quite a bit of time with Lil.

Its funny how such a big learning event can be so packed that it takes months of practical application to sift through all the information. Its like little bits of savvy dust that have been swirling around suspended are now settling down to form a visible layer of gold. Lil and I have been continuing to develop our foundation in Four Savvys* to level 4 with delicate attention to the details of cause and effect.

Tiny Tiny details. Tiny changes and little adjustments. Reading Lil just a little bit better. Reading her a little bit faster. Speaking to her a little more softly. Being a horse, Lil notices everything. Because she is a Right Brained* horse she has intense emotional reactions to it all. Because she is usually an Introverted horse* I have to look very carefully to see what she needs from me moment to moment. To be subtle enough...to be quick enough...to be gentle enough...to be right on...requires unconsciousness.

I noticed something interesting in the year after my lesson with Pat in Reno in 2009. Because of physically being there with he and Lil I could think back to how he was with her. Not just what he did. I could think back to how he felt... what it was like to be with him and somehow in doing that I was able to emulate his state not just his actions.

My Linda lesson had another dimension to it. For the first part she was playing with Lil through me. I tuned in not only to her words and directions but purposefully opened my unconscious to the tone of her voice, her timing, her observations and her split second decisions about what Lil needed. The results of being able to recall and apply Linda's example have been very special.

Its not that Lil is suddenly void of emotions....or that I am suddenly a zen master. (not at all. I am still a Right Brained Extrovert) She still is who she is and so am I. Innate characteristics and all. Its just that we are more centered as individuals. And I think it is a result of our partnership.

Wanting to be in partnership with Lil and be better for her has caused me to shift in myself and to notice and effect the most minuscule changes. Because she is a horse, and inherently so forgiving...she has allowed me the latitude to grow as a leader. Because I have grown as a leader she has been able more and more to feel her feelings and yet trust me to acknowledge them and take care of the situation.

Our recent level of trust has enabled us to do some flying changes, pure bridless riding, connected and joyful liberty*, a soft and quiet game of contact and I have even trusted her enough to do some jumping! (which is a deep seeded childhood fear issue for me)

It pretty much goes without saying that the chances of all of this magically coming to me and my horse at this time without the generous mentoring hands on of Pat and Linda Parelli is remote. I suppose the only payback I can give is to USE IT. Don't waste it. Grow everyday and play with my horse.

Thank you Linda and Pat.

My Blog a few days after my lesson.
Linda's Blog on my lesson.
*see glossary at the bottom of the page