Mav is really progressing

If you have followed my blog, you know that Mav grazed me with his hoof last February in the park when he got spooked as we were headed back to the barn.

Did you know, head wounds bleed...a lot

The top of my head is still numb from that "graze". The scar on my forehead looks a lot better though. Fast forward to October...

Over the last two days I have played with Mav, we are back in the park, but now both on the ground and in the saddle, trotting AND cantering. Mav has become so brave in fact, that even with the wind blowing and a large flock of birds squawking all around us, Mav stayed calm and relaxed. At one point, we rode in the direction of a large flock of birds that in unison flew off in noisy protest to our approach. Mav did not even break stride as we cantered towards and through them. His ears were at attention, but out of curiosity, not fear.

Having done so well two days earlier, I thought it was time to start riding Mav with carrot sticks in the park. This is a huge step, as there are no fences to contain him if he chose to run off or be naughty. Of course, I would have to evaluate his state of mind before trying to ride freestyle with carrot sticks.

After he rode through the birds, I thought we would be OK with the carrot sticks. What is great about this kind of riding is it really gives you excellent feedback about what your horse truly understands without the ability to micromanage him with the reins. And sure enough, Mav was still reacting to my leg as though it meant go faster, at least at first.

So, I pretended to be on Valium, really slowing down my leg cues for the turns, being very particular to turn with my eyes and belly button first, only then with the leg, and finally the carrot stick as needed. He broke into a trot several times. I repeated my instructions slowly and carefully. It took about 5-7 minutes for him to do two soft, walking circles with the carrot sticks, and we quit.

So, we trotted and cantered all over the park first, then walked in calm circles to finish. He was very happy to have grazing time surrounded by the same birds that had flown off just a few minutes earlier. He then very willingly walked back to the barn with me. The sun was beginning to set, very much like the time he got scared, spooked, kicked me and ran off just those few months ago. Now, he is becoming a real partner.

Yes, the photographer is in the saddle :)

Maverick Gets Even Braver

Had a short but very nice session with Mav last night as the sun was going down. There were lots of things going on around the park last night. As the sun set, it was casting rapidly, ever-changing shadows. The birds on the lake were more active and talkative. Since it was rush hour, there was a lot more traffic along the rode that separates the barn from the park. For a horse, there were so many distractions, so many things that could look threatening.  Nonetheless, I know we need to progress with our horsemanship if I want him to be a superlative trail horse, so I decided we would go to the park. 

The left brained extrovert showed up, as he got pretty excited playing on the circle game. It is interesting that he seems to have more energy in the evening than during the day. In fact, at one point he started to buck, bounce and run off, and I had to let go of the rope. I had a momentary panic thought of "We are in the park with no fences anywhere and a road about 100 yards away with lots of traffic, what's he going to do?" I then had another fleeting thought, a much more important one: "He's learning to be a partner, he won't go far, he's a left brained horse, he knows I am where safety is, he's going to stop and re-access. I think my calm transferred to him. He moved about 60 feet away then just stopped and looked at me. I am not sure what he was thinking, except maybe, "Well, that took a lot of energy, was it worth it?" And, maybe he was thinking, "What am I doing? Isabelle is over there."

I slowly and nonchalantly walked in his direction, picked up his rope with my carrot stick and stood in front of him, stroking his face. He took a really deep breath and let it out with a big sigh. But he wasn't blinking. Every now and then, Mav can go a bit catatonic, and this was one of those times. So I massaged his lips to encourage him to lick and chew. It took several moments for him to emerge back into the moment. Finally, he blinked and looked at me, licked and chewed and told me he was OK. 

Three reasons I think he had a crazy moment: one, he really wanted to eat grass instead of play with me, two, he still is not entirely used to the saddle being on his back and three, the park was a bit scary. Thank you again, PNH, for teaching me to access my horse before getting on, as I sure wouldn't have wanted to ride that! But he quickly settled down, doing some lovely figure eights with lots of energy, some very nice sideways without a fence, left and right. and I knew we were ready to ride.

I went over to one of the larger trees to mount as the ground around it is uneven, making it easier for me to get onto my 16+ hand horse. While we were standing under this beautiful live oak tree, several acorns fell from it landing with a thunk onto the ground. One more thing for Mav to possibly be concerned about, but he didn't even flinch. Mav is getting even braver!


Once we started riding, Mav was still a bit distracted by the sights and sounds of the park coming onto night. Even so, he did some really nice figure eights, only reacting to my leg by going faster once. This was a huge improvement over last time when he reacted almost every time to my leg by going faster. Such a smart horse!

Then we did just circles with transitions, and when he gave me one circle, really relaxed and energetic, we quit. I let him eat plenty of that lovely grass, then I took him back to the barn for a well deserved hose down, which he really seemed to enjoy. I am having so much fun with my horses right now. It is so nice to have this level of knowledge and expertise, knowing when to be, where to be and what to do when I get there. 

I have been blessed and am so thankful again to Parelli Natural Horsemanship and my teachers, Kerri April and Grady Carter, both PNH three star instructors, Nancy Cloud, whose encyclopedic knowledge of and experience with horses has been invaluable to me over the years and now Karen Rohlf, who's monthly online video lessons are expanding my knowledge of horses even more. 


Fun, Fun, Fun!

Would you trade...?

After the most amazing play sessions with Walker this weekend, I had brushes with what perseverance can produce. Following literally years of time and effort, often seemingly to little or no affect, I had moments of  pure joy with Walker. Both online and bareback and bridle less, there was such a connection between us that at moments it seemed as though he was in my head reading my thoughts and I was in his head reading his thoughts. 

Our connectedness went beyond the feather lines we played with online, the savvy string hanging around his neck when I was riding or the cookies and scratches I gave Walker by way of saying, "You're right, good job!". There is now a trust he has in me, a trust I have with him, a mental connection I know is not easy for Walker to offer given his tendency to be naughty, contrary and mischievous. I thought "a little faster", he went faster, "a little slower", he went slower. Everything was so soft and light. When Pat talks about how Tom Dorrance wasn't interested in doing anything with his horses with anything more than a string, I really understood that this weekend, because there is such a joy when you are connected in such a fundamental way that you might not even need a string to move together.

Walker followed me around after our play sessions in ways he never has before. Once, when we were done, I opened the arena gate so Walker could mosey over to the water as I gathered some of my tools, and he did walk out of the arena. But instead of going over to the water, he stopped, turned around, and walked back into the arena, nuzzling right up next to me. He then proceeded to grab the feather lines off the hanging hooks and handing them to me. 

Now, he knew we were done, he could have left, I allowed him to do so, but he chose to come back to me and help me out with my tools. He may have realized I would give him cookies as a reward, but there was clearly more in it for him than just that. He wanted me close, I could feel he felt better being close to me. He wanted me to know he did not want our time together to be over just yet. 

And for the first time, he licked my hands, not small licks, but big, wet slobbering licks. He was doing everything he could to show me how much he was enjoying my company. We spent quite a long time just standing together, content. 

As we did finally mosey our way to the water trough, I realized that I would do it all again. For those few moments of that connection and joy, I would trade all the hours, days, weeks and months of struggle to gain those few precious moments. Never again will I doubt the process I have gone through to find those moments I have achieved with Walker. I don't doubt that at some point down the road, Maverick and I will have similar experiences, only faster.  I look forward to many more days like this like weekend.

Walker and I becoming real Partners

Walker and I had the most wonderful online and freestyle play sessions this weekend. Online, Walker is almost jumping barrels with confidence thanks to Karen Rohlf's squares and circles pattern. The pattern consists of going around a rectangle, stopping in each corner, changing gaits and adding circles along either of the lengths of the rectangle. The pattern is designed to get your horse to listen attentively to your body language, keeping your horse from crowding you and to be ready for the next suggestion. I tweaked what she showed us this month in her online video classroom by putting a two barrel jump in the middle of one of the long sides of the rectangle.

What this did for Walker was amazing. It made him focus on the next task that would come right after the jump, to stop at the upcoming corner of the rectangle. It helped Walker not to crowd me after going over the jump, and it helped him maintain an even gait before and after the jump, something we have been struggling with for awhile. Within just three turns around the rectangle, Walker looked 70% smoother going over the barrels and he was much more calm and responsive to my suggestions. Thank you Karen!

The following day, to my chagrin, the barrels had disappeared from the arena, and I looked around, no luck, could not find them. I needed a new plan. So I thought to myself that since Walker had made such big strides with the barrels, maybe it was time to start playing with trotting over a jump and stopping before the back feet followed the front.

I set up a six foot jump first, and Walker was able to trot and stop over it after a few tries. I raised the jump to 12 inches. Now, the RBE came out. He was worried. I stayed calm, smiled and soothed him each time he tried with my voice and my body language. When he did finally stop over the jump, he looked at me, and I smiled even bigger, fed him cookies and stroked his nose.

Time to raise the jump to about 18 inches, a much bigger challenge for Walker. I decided not to push the issue if he lacked confidence, but I wanted to see how he would respond. He stayed left brained, but clearly did not like the idea of hopping over the jump and stopping without clearing it altogether. But since he was calm, I persisted, and after five tries, he got it! He hopped over the jump and stopped. Now I was really grinning and quickly running out of cookies... :-o I asked Walker to go sideways over the jump, which he did well, and that was that! Time for freestyle...

I am not going to describe what we did, I will just download a couple of videos so you can see for yourself. I would, however, like to thank a few people and animals for helping me get to this wonderful place with Walker: bareback, bridle-less and completely relaxed, the both of us. Here I go:

Nancy Cloud, who I think saw something really tenacious in me, even though I was really, really green. Thanks, Nancy, for firmly setting my feet in the right direction. Look at us now, Nancy!

Wendy Carpenter, who convinced me to buy Maverick with her, the horse who in turn convinced me I had to get into shape and lose weight. Wendy also helped me realize where the teacher in me should be focusing. Look at us now, Wendy!

Kerri April who has provided a safe place for me to learn, grow and experiment without judgements. When she sounded surprised that I was totally unconfident about riding Walker bareback and bridle-less, I knew I had a big new goal in front of me. Look at us now, Kerri!

Lei Clay, who provides our horses with a natural place to live. We don't have to get our horses in the right frame of mind when we get to the barn, they are there all the time. Look at us now, Lei!

And to Randy Farmer, my husband, who has lovingly tolerated all the hours away from home so that I could follow my dream and my passion. Randy has quietly watched and supported me all along, when others thought I was just plainly nuts. Look at us now, hon!

Roll the tape...