Wonderful Weekend at Trails End

It may not be possible to have a bad weekend at Kerri April's place, Trails End in Leander, Texas near Austin. I always feel challenged to be progressive with my Parelli Natural Horsemanship and supported to do so. And as relaxed and comfortable as Walker feels there, I wish he could be there all the time! It reminds me a lot of how the horses feel and are treated at Starfire barn in Weston, Tx. Anyway, it was a wonderful two days of playing with my horse. And we had some pretty exciting firsts this weekend. Keep in mind as you read this that Walker is a right-brained extrovert, originally ultra spook prone and disdainful of all humans.
First, Walker allowed me to crawl under him at Liberty for the first time ever, and he was perfectly OK with it, did not move or shift his weight, lift up his back feet, nothing. He did not quite know what to make of it, but he had no problem with me under there, and for a horse with big zone 3 issues, this was fun stuff!

Next, Walker got up to his barrel in Kerri's creek. Now, he did bolt out when he got that far, but the fact that he got that far is pretty amazing. Hey, Nancy C., remember Walker's bolt?! We then followed that with walking through a more shallow area that he had had trouble with earlier, and he walked through that area of water with great confidence, so we had another breakthrough there. I love Kerri's Creek, it glistens under the influence of limestone rocks, and the trees surrounding the creek give relief from the Texas heat. It is perfectly situated along Kerri's challenging and varied playground.
Walker followed that with putting all four feet on the horse teeter totter. Thanks to my iPhone, I got a nice picture of that! Now he did not go over it, it still upsets him when it starts to move, but four feet on it is much further than he has ever gone, so happiness was followed by lots of cookies, of course!
Then we started a new task of flank rope circle game. It is done with two 22 foot lines, one attached to the halter, one surrounding the barrel. The idea is to at some point be able to lead the horse with the barrel rope only. Initially, the first rope is shorter, and I used it to lead Walker on the circle, which he did very well. In fact, he actually seemed to like it. It went so well, in fact, that we were able to move to the next step, which is to make the flank rope shorter, so that Walker was being led by that rope, with the halter rope for support. We even made transitions by raising the flank rope to slow for downward transitions. Walker did it all like a champ!
Finally, Walker and I rode bridle-less and bareback (with a bareback pad) at the walk, trot and canter! The upward canter transition was not very smooth, but that had more to do with my lack of confidence bareback riding than anything Walker did or did not do. That is why I have committed to doing a lot more bareback riding to get me passed my fears. 
But perhaps the best part of the weekend was Walker and I demonstrating how to do the circle game at Liberty in the middle of all the other clinic participants and their horses in Kerri's arena. Walker is well on his way to being a Liberty super star.
I have become more aware of how amazing this weekend was thinking about it and writing about it. At one point, Kerri asked us if any of us would sell our horses for $10,000. I love my horse so much, we have had so many wonderful moments together, we have traveled such a difficult road together at times, that I can't imagine selling Walker ever.

Two great days, trail riding and naked riding (the horse is naked!)

Wendy and I had a great weekend starting with a lovely trail ride along the levies surrounding the Riverstone subdivision in Missouri City. There are miles of wide open grass to ride along where these levies exist! It is just fabulous. Walker and Bingo both trailer loaded beautifully, thank you, Nancy C. It was a very hot day, with a hot wind, so the horses were happy to get home and hosed down. The shower when I got home felt like heaven on earth.
Then yesterday, Wendy had her first naked riding experience with Bingo. She voiced aloud that Bingo felt calm and happy enough to ride without his bridle, and I encouraged her to try. The worst thing that could happen is she might have to hop off, and he did appear very calm. It's great to have an iPhone so I could tape her experience. What fun, as Walker was also "naked" so this was my first experience as videographer while riding my horse naked. They did great, and now I have a record of it! I still remember the thrill of taking Walker's bridle off for the first time, walking, trotting and cantering. There is no feeling quite like it, that combination of trust and connection with your horse. I told Wendy that she was now part of a very small number of horse owners/riders who have ridden their horses in such an intimate way. She could not get the grin off her face!

Horsenality challenge and breakthrough

So, I decided I needed to ride Walker yesterday, as I have had a terrible cold, and it had been about a week since Walker and I had ridden together. Haven't had a cold like this in so long, it has been no fun. Anyway, wow, was Walker relaxed yesterday. As time goes by, Walker displays more the traits of a left brained horse, and yesterday was a good example of that. We have been playing with his trot and canter departs on the ground to get them to be snappier. Walker is really starting to much more balanced whoa vs. go. Some days he is definitely got more whoa than go, and my friends at Starfire barn north of Dallas would be amazed by that development! They were witness to the crazy Walker, the horse who ran over my Parelli instructor Grady attempting to get him to jump barrels and my friend Nancy in a marathon trailer loading session. On both counts, Walker just lept over them in a right-brained demonstration of pure fear and athletic ability. Not fun.
We played with the question box until he calmly did some simple lead changes, then we played follow the rail. One area of the arena he consistently does not like is the judging stand. Today, as we passed by it, he moved sideways away from it. You have to understand that for Walker, this is a mild response to what he might see as a danger to him. At times, I have been surprised by Walker spooking at something, most often something I don't ever see, feel or hear, with a sideways four footed leap of 4 feet. I have to admit, I have not always stayed in the saddle when he's done that! So a small sideways move is nothing for Walker. Based on his mild response to something fearful, I decided to handle the scary judging stand differently today. I asked him to go sideways back towards the judging stand, all the way to the fence. He was obviously not comfortable as his nose was in the air and he got bracey, but he did not move away either. I stroked the fence for about 20 seconds, then asked Walker forward, which he did happily, anything to get away from the vicious, mouth breathing, claws extended judging stand. The next time by, he was much calmer standing there, even putting his head down as I stroked the fence again. The third time we went by, he offered to go sideways to the judging stand and then he stopped there all by himself! What a breakthrough for Walker and me! I fed him cookies, hopped off and gave a nice hosing down. Then I hopped back on bareback and we had a very slow, relaxed walk out to the turnouts.
Who would have thought seven years ago that my crazed right brained extrovert would ever have been able to walk relaxed bareback with me anywhere?

Online Zone 5 driving

This is an area that Walker and I have not played with much, and it is a little confusing for him and me, mostly I think because I am still figuring out how to use my tools properly to get things done. I never thought I would be leading my horse from behind his tail with one rein, but here we are now doing a weave pattern, going over cavalletties (at a trot) and over a false bridge, all with one rein with me as the cart! Much of the time lately, Walker has been behaving more like a left brained introvert than a right brained extrovert, so I have had to change how I play with him, even slowing down to get things done with lots of breaks in between. He gets nervous when he has to stop on the bridge, but after playing with it over and over, he is getting better about it. The more he has time to think about it and realize it is not going to kill him, the better he gets.
We have been playing with the trailer more lately also, getting him more used to going deep into the trailer, and that is getting better as well though he does not like to stay in long when he is deep in there. I am confident that as we play more with it, he will get better with that as well. I have to remember to get my energy up when he gets nervous like this, as trying to slow him down or get in his way just make him more nervous. The total opposite of how I have to deal with people when they are nervous about seeing me, the dentist, although the confidence and leadership is important in both situations.