Clinic update

So now that the holidays are over, it's time for a clinic update. Walker was just fabulous this time around. He was much calmer in the group and yet he still had lots of energy. Kerri pointed out a flaw in my cantering, I was scooping instead of flowing back and up with the canter. Now that my surgery foot has healed adequately, I rode twice this week, and what a difference it made! Walker has had huge energy at the canter, but with exuberance, no craziness. I laughed out loud each time we stopped for a break, fed him cookies as a thank you. And I know I was riding differently, because I had sore muscles. We also worked on our circling game at Liberty, and Walker was able to do a flying lead change at Liberty. What I did find out was that I still needed to play with my draw at Liberty, and we have made excellent strides with that over the last couple of days.
It has been raining quite a bit where we are, and we don't have a large indoor arena. However, we have a large park across the street with big open fields. I go out and mark an arena with cones and it works really well, plus Walker now likes being out in the open. It gives me an "arena" to play in and it helps me focus on the patterns we are playing with. My favorite right now is the clover leaf. I also ride a dressage test to mix it up a little bit so Walker doesn't get bored or stale.
It is wonderful to now be having FUN with my horse. And although I know Walker doesn't think of it as "fun" the way I do, I can tell he feels good about our sessions together. It feels like this is what he was born to do, canter big and beautiful in the middle of a park!
Maverick, the horse Wendy and I own together, is making big strides fast. We play with him in the small indoor arena, where he can now play almost all the seven games online as well as at Liberty. His Liberty stick to me game is really getting good. I love Liberty! It is so much fun, but especially with my extroverted horses.

Back from the wilderness

OK, so it has been for ever since I have visited my own blog! Shame on me!

Quick update:
I now own another horse, well half a horse, with my friend Wendy. He is a hunk of a quarter horse named Maverick (his registered name is Allergic Reaction in case anyone wants to look him up at http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/allergic+reaction . We wanted a project horse, and he is a keeper. 4 years old, LBE, lots of energy at the ready, smart, brave and athletic, but green, so we have a long way to go with him.

Walker is doing very well. At our last clinic, it was obvious that he still had lots of emotional issues, so I have been intentionally pushing his emotional buttons. That way he can get more used to being asked to do more. Lately, he has been giving me the loveliest elevated, collected canter. It feels like he really enjoys it.

I am having a neuroma removed in my right foot on December 22. It has really limited my ability to exercise, so I am looking forward to having it gone. Six weeks, no jogging on it, but I only have to be in a boot for a week or two, so that isn't too bad.

Going to another clinic with Kerri April next weekend, looking forward to it! It will be interesting to see if Walker's emotions are a little more calm this time with all the playtime we have spent shaping how he feels about what I am asking of him.

Reflecting on my Parelli Journey: From Green as Grass to Green String

On the road to New Mexico with Ben and Randy with little to look at out the window but mesquite trees, telephone lines and barbed wire, we are listening to Louis Lamour's Sackett. Gives me time to think about how far I have come since I started with Parelli Natural Horsemanship. I remember Ellie, the horse I leased and then bought seven years ago. She was a flea-bitten grey, a left-brained introvert/extrovert who would go anywhere I asked. She rekindled my passion for horses. She was only with me for less than a year before she died of colic, a terrible day. Would I have felt the need to know more about the soul of the horse if I still had Ellie? Our bond had developed quickly and was very strong. I might not have needed more than that then, so that question I really cannot answer without thinking it has more than one answer. Either way, my path took a turn when I lost Ellie.
I knew I would get another horse, sooner rather than later. Ellie had been such a wonderful horse, I thought another Quarab would suit me. If wasn't long before Walker and I crossed paths. One look at his beautiful face and I was hooked. I had no idea then that anyone who met Walker for the first often would remark that, "He's beautiful!" I would be thinking wryly in contrast, "Pretty is as pretty does." There were many moments when I would have traded pretty for calm and brave. Ellie would climb down any hill, no matter how steep. Walker couldn't walk up an incline without breaking into a trot or even a canter. Ellie had no problems with trailers, even a tiny little two horse divided straight load that was parked at the barn. Walker was so disturbed by trailers that he ran over my friend Nancy when she graciously agreed to help me with his trailer loading skills. I will never forget my heart go in my throat when in a quarter second Walker went from going in her trailer to spinning and jumping right over the top of her. Nancy, unharmed, thank God, got up, and as she dusted herself off, exclaimed, "Well, that didn't work!" Despite my shock over seeing what happened, I was amazed by her equanimity. Perhaps the fact that Nancy had trailer loaded hundreds of horses gave her a calm certainty that one way or another, she would find a way to convince Walker to get in her trailer (now my trailer). After four hours she did. Walker looked like he had run a 100 mile endurance course. It is about time to stop for lunch, so more reflections later.

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.