Play, play, play, progress!

Playing a little with porcupine each time I see Maya – and the understanding is coming slowly… mainly because I don’t think I’m sticking with it long enough to get a big enough change… but it will come. When we start riding again I’m going to bring more awareness and intention to the basic yields at the halt before we progress to trying anything else in motion aside from passenger and follow the rail.

Solly was brilliant and fun last night. I concentrated on friendly and ensuring that he was reading me and not just the rhythmic motion of my tools. He was really getting it by the end of the night – calm and confident stepping his front feet on the pedestal and even accepting friendly in motion at the walk from zone 3. We started on “lead by the front leg” lat the end of the session, just as something calm and quiet to do, and he really caught on quick (after the first five minute “hold”….) I think this will really help his confidence and his dominance – as will the friendly in Zone 4 on his hind legs. He’s between “tolerating” and “accepting” at the moment… maybe next time it will be “accepting”! We’ll see. I have two more sessions with Solly. Thursday and Sunday. We’ll see how far we go together.

I’ve noticed that his tail swishing and head tossing have decreased over the last five sessions, his yields are getting lighter and he’s putting effort into relaxing into what I ask of him… It’s very cool to watch him progress.

Thanks for coming out last night Sarah and Paula. =-)

Good horseplay gives my soul a lift like no other.

Tonight.

I went to play with Maya and I was reluctant, feeling shut down, overwhelmed by the coming holidays, I suppose, and also doubting myself with how focused I’ve become on bridling and cantering.

Within a few minutes of being with Maya, I had begun to relax. The arena was free of jumps, so we put a few barrels out to give us something to do. After a good roll, Maya and I played at liberty for the first half hour. It was during that half hour that I realized I was doing something different, but still with a plan and a goal and “observe, remember and compare” in mind. She offered me things I hadn’t taught her, drawing backward towards me without my hand on her… and we played with more feel at liberty getting her draw and stick-to-me better than its’ ever been – without causing her to have to leave. She still had to leave a few times, but I was able to “observe, remember and compare” and do a little less to help her to stay with me but still advance our communication and positioning in turns away from her. She had much more trouble on her right side than her left but we eventually evened that up quite a bit. How rewarding!

Filmed Freestyle

So. We filmed freestyle today. Maya and I and our trusty videographer Jai.

That rhymes.

Sorry.

Anyway… I’m my own worst critic, I’ve never seen myself on video ON my horse before and thus far I’ve only seen myself on the tiny screen on the back of Jai’s camera but on that screen I liked what I saw. It looked better than it felt, which seems odd. On the ground it always feels better than it looks on video.

My brain freezes up when I know I’m filming and I lose all creative ability. Isn’t that funny? I did manage to get in all the Level 2 compulsories, though, so that’s good. I feel confident that it will be a L2 pass – and I know that this winter will bring us more time to play and improve in the saddle. I just have to remember not to judge myself based on people who are Level 4 and above. I’m not there YET. I’m on my way there. This one I won’t re-film. I promise.

Now on to filming liberty and see how we do at that. Online is that much better since April’s filming, so I think it’s a good time to film our Level 3 liberty.

Jai will be beautifying and uploading our video and I promise I’ll post a link when it’s there. You can just check the WillingHorses youtube channel (link at right) if you can’t hardly wait for me to post about it. I’m sure you can wait.

First Day of Advanced Level 1 – awesome.

I was only able to attend the morning of the Advanced Level 1 today, due to Murrin needing to nap and Maya having her back adjusted by the chiropractor in the afternoon!

It went very smoothly and I was glad of that. The morning session was partly without horses in discussion and simulation with Fawn, and partly with horses on the ground in the arena. Everyone learning about herd roles and what it feels like to be a horse in those roles and what it feels like when you are a horse and your human takes on each of those roles. Powerful stuff.

What did we learn? We want to be the lead horse – not dominant, but LEAD. There is a profound difference in attitude and action.

The clinic continues tomorrow, followed by a free demo by Fawn at 6:30pm (followed by a free hot dog roast at the fire pit!) Bring your best weenie roasting stick!

Maya’s chiropractic visit went very well. After the lubmar spine adjustment I noticed an amazing difference right away in how she was tracking up at the walk. She’s a bit tenderfooted right now so her trot was tentative, but I’ve NEVER seen my horse overtrack like that. Ever. And I’ve been watching. Carefully. She also backed more freely than I’ve ever seen her do – a big, reaching step backwards. I’m looking forward to seeing how this helps my already atheltic horse become more athletic and able to use her back. I’ll find out how it helps under saddle tomorrow when we go for a ride. We took a night off tonight after her adjustment.

Looking forward to the clinic I’ll be participating in on MONDAY!

Another wet ride – but progress!

Another wet ride to and from the grounds for the Perfect Practice Playgroup. The rains let up just long enough for the ride there and  to allow us some time to play in the sodden arena and round pen. Liberty sideways towards!! Wheee! Fun was had, and then Kathleen and I rode home in the rain. Thanks for the company, Kathleen!

The ride out went better than any so far – it keeps improving so that’s a good thing. I decided not to have the driveway battle tonight and ground drove Maya up the road a-ways before mounting. That went quite well. We’ve started a bit of driving fom Zone 4/5. I didn’t have to get off tonight. The spooky spot was pretty easy – less than five minutes all told and the grassy field… she went for it, wouldn’t come out towards the road, so we rode towards the driveway that leads back to the road! That worked. Heheh. Watch out lateral thinking, here I come. When she got “sticky” and didn’t want to continue down 49 creek road at one junction, I started to ask her to go and then whoa right away. A little mini-million transistions LBI style. Go…. now STOP! (before she wanted to stop) it made her want to keep going!! =-)

Today I started working on teaching Maya an “it’s okay to graze now” head-down cue when riding. I think I’ll work on it when there isn’t any grass for a bit, like in the arena! She just dives for it at this point and I want to get our communication around it better. She was ouchy with her front feet on the way there, so I put her boots on for the ride home. They made quite a difference, though she stumbled a bit at the steep part of Kays road near our driveway, so I got off and let her walk home. Sharon Edgar is coming out on Thursday to see her back… hope she can help and give me some advice around it. I wonder if it’s bugging her.

After leaving Kathleen on Turner road, we rode quietly through the woods, grazed a bit at the end of Verigin and then did lots of HQ disengagment to FQ turns all the way home both sides.  We also did lots of transitions to whoa – with lots of backups. Funny how she whoas soooo easily on the way out and not very easily at all on the way home. We’ll get that evened up with time, I’m sure of it.

My one complaint… could we get a little sunny summer kootenay weather, please?

Last night’s ride – wet and wonderful.

I rode last night. In the wet. In the downpour.  I did some friendly at first, just hanging out and grazing to try to wait out the rain (ulterior motive: trim the grass down the path to the horses so when it rains I don’t get wet pants!) I pulled some napweed at the same time. The weather seemed to have broken… we saddled up and headed out. About five minutes into our end of the driveway “discussion” it started to rain hard again. Oh well. Can’t quit now!

Had an interesting discussion – I just asked her to go as far as she was willing to go – and then let her graze. From that point I went back and forth accross the driveway, allowing her to graze for longer when it was harder to get her to the other side, a little less when it was easy. Then we zig-zagged up the driveway like that and accross the road when that became easy. Then we walked/trotted up the road. The corner of Verigin and Kays was the best, yet. We went straight up the “quad trail” – last time she veered to the right into the grass and subsequently into the bushes & trees. She stopped very nicely in the middle of the road. We saw the CUTEST fawn with her mother. TINY hoofprints! It took about 2 minutes and she sighed, we walked to the point level with the big cedar tree, stopped another 2 minutes, sighed, walked on! We’re definitely making progress!! I’m getting better at reading when it’s lack of confidence and when it’s “No I want to eat NOW!!” and reacting appropriately (friendly or firm). Got my three used Success Series DVDs (Seven Games – already loaned to Naomi & Korynn, Safe Ride and Ride Out) yesterday and watched “Ride Out” when I got home. Going to watch it a bunch more. Some great stuff in there.

I rode home with Korynn and her friend Emily (to the black gate and down a bit). By then I was freezing from being so wet.

Off to Kaslo this weekend to finish some mugs and other things that I made in my former life as a potter. They need signing, decorating and glazing. Those mugs = some money for hay when they’re done. Let’s get to it! I’ll be back Monday for our Perfect Practice Playgroup.

Almost rainy playgroup and freestyle progress.. or regress??

So Monday night playgroup was attended by four horses and six people. I rode Maya to the grounds on the tail of a thundershower – getting soaked from the waist down by all the wet trees and bushes along the way. I really need a slicker!

I had patience, even though we left later than I wanted to I was able to just be with her through the spooky spots – and they weren’t much of a big deal. The big grassy field, however, was another story. She would NOT leave it with me on her back. I got off, she got moved around, a LOT and we went on our way. A few other brief “No way!” spots and we made it to he grounds. I played with her a little online in the arena, getting some nice sideways trot along the fence and some nice slow sideways towards me on the fence and then went to the round pen for some liberty.

She gave me sideways towards at liberty and a flying change of direction at canter! We need to revisit change of direction from left to right – I had to back all the way to the fence to get her to look at me so I could send her in the new direction. Right to let was about five steps back… We’ll play with both of those online at the walk and trot for a while.

Our ride home went well – home is usually easier at this point. Stopped and talked with Phil on Marrello Road about collection and working off the hind end. I don’t really know enough about it, yet – I think I’ll tell him to come audit Fawn’s clinic and ask her about it! I didn’t have to get off at all on the way home, we got some nice forward, soft trot and some easy canters along Turner road. Stopped to talk lawnmowers with Naomi and Rovven and then continued home past the spooky spot. It’s much less of a big deal on the way home – and went fairly smoothly if I recall correctly.

I thought we’d had a big breakthrough and Tuesday would be easier. Boy was I wrong.

Tuesday we spent one and a half hours trying to get out of our DRIVEWAY. She backs into bushes, she goes sideways towards the ponds and ditches. Anything to NOT go forward. Matthew and Murrin were outside and I was feeling like a failure, putting pressure on myself to be “better” than we were – not to mention putting pressure on Maya to be “better”. I wasn’t taking into account her feelings about going for a ride AT ALL. I got off numerous times, frustrated to tears that we weren’t past that (that *I* wasn’t past that), sat down in the driveway and had a good cry. I realized during my cry that I wasn’t at all being there for my horse. She was unconfident – she goes RBI when unconfident and then RBE. So I mounted up again and just sat. Until she could sigh and lower her head. She was still blinking, but her head was up, she wasn’t relaxed. I waited for relaxed and asked her to go forward. I also realized that I wasn’t asking her with the same body energy as I used on the ground. I consciously pointed my hand and raised my energy like I would ask on the ground and she took a few steps! Hmmmm… how interesting.

We made it to Joe’s, and I let her eat to relax while I talked with Joe. I was almost ready to go home, but I knew we hadn’t really had a breakthrough, yet.  Down to the bottom of Joe’s driveway. More “NO!” when I asked her to go up the hill away from home. Backed into ditches, bumped into the pile of tires, went round and round in disengagement until she could stand still facing up the hill. Wait for relaxation. Wait. 5 minutes. She sighs, I ask with my core intention, she walks forward, I keep asking and go to phase three (spank the air) and she begins to trot up the hill and starts blowing and snorting. This is more like a breakthrough. We stop at Jai’s to deliver her laundry soap and chat about the frustrations, tears and time that it took to get to her house as well as get a much needed impromptu massage.

Continuing on, we head towards the “spooky spot” and make it there with little resistance. Then the backing into trees begins. The good part is, I remember my energy and it only lasts about 2 minutes. We are then in the middle of the road for maybe 2 more minutes and we continue on our way. Through the path that cuts the corner on Verigin and we head with intention towards the end of the road. Detour up to the right and stop to graze for 10 minutes. A destination!

On Verigin, I realized that her feet were tender from the ride the day before, so we walk gently home, stopping at Morgan’s to chat with Morgan and Cathy, then at Sean & Jenn’s to chat with Sean, Jen, Matt & Ross. We went right through the “spooky spot” with complete releaxation, even asking for a stop on the other side (we did have to bend and wait for stillness – then we walked on).

Thank goodness for realizations, for soldiering through when my attitude got better (and more natural), and for husbands who say just the right thing at the right time. I love you, Matthew. I love you, Murrin. I love you, Maya. Thank you.

Maya is home again, home again, jiggity-jig.

On Sunday Maya and I made the long trek from Krestova to Blewett. I figured it would take us five hours and it took nearly that. I realized that we hadn’t been on enough trail rides before we went this year, but all in all, it went quite well. My balance has definitely improved – it helps having a saddle that helps me stay on my balance point rather than shooting me forward onto her shoulders. We had some “discussions” – okay “arguments” about whether or not to turn around or to keep going. One that really frustrated me was just after the Dam Inn Pub. I was so tired and I started to really push when Maya stopped and wanted to go back the way we’d come. Thankfully I realized the error of my ways, and backed off, waiting until she was ready to keep going. The more we trail ride with savvy, the less that will happen.

If you DON’T push a brace into Maya, there usually isn’t one. Occasionally she’ll challenge your leadership, but gentle insistence or interrupting the pattern of trying to push on you will usually clear that right up.

I was tired. I was hungry. It had already been challenging just coming down the hill from Pass Creek to Krestova – I got off my dancing horse in fear of the cliffs. Going UP that hill, she had been too tired to protest and we were going away from all the noise and bustle of the valley, rather than down into it.

Aside from that incidence where I pushed (I apologized to my horse and learned from it) I realized that trotting helps her to stay more focused than walking and she doesn’t blast through thresholds the way I thought she might – she barely has thresholds unless I let her THINK too much. LBE/I

At any rate, she was feeling uncomfortable last night, her abdominal muscles tensing a lot and she didn’t want to be touched. You know when you go out to see your horses and right away you can just tell that something is “off”. She was eating and had gut noises, so I was more relaxed than I was when it happened with Bailey, but it still made me BUZZ with worry. She’s all better this morning, but the worry last night caused me to clean my house up in an hour and then go check on her again. It’s amazing what the stress of not knowing if she’s okay can do to motivate me to action of SOME kind. It certainly is nice to have a clean house again.

That worry brought all kinds of non-constructive thoughts into my head about my horsemanship, my decision to ride her home on Sunday, the poo filled state of the paddock… at least that last one I can do something constructive about.

Happily, the strong winds that have plagued us for the past two days has eased and it looks like I might get to go play with Maya tonight. Here’s hoping.