Soaring With Eagles (Part 2)

(This is Part 2 in the series of blog posts written about the Level 3/4 Clinic with Jesse Peters, if you have not yet read Part 1, please go here now.)

Part 2: Expect A Lot, Accept A Little...

Learning to expect a lot of my horse had become a theme for the weekend.

After we all had a wonderful lunch prepared by Stacy Peters, we each had the opportunity to take a 20 minute private lesson with Jesse to work on something specific to our individual needs. I was a little nervous because I was the only one who ended up choosing to ride for my lesson, but I knew it was what we must work on if the rest of the clinic were to go smoothly. Hesitantly I saddled up and quickly had Jesse advise on saddle fit with my new Equipedic pad. Then, Jesse had me get on and start doing the figure 8 pattern around two cones at the walk. My responsibilities were to have a strong focus on where I wanted to go, use my whole body and energy, support with my legs and finally my stick. Amazingly, Rydel did great and we were doing perfect figure 8's in no time! Next he has us alternate which cones in the arena we were doing the pattern around so that we could use more space and work our way up to a trot. During this time, Jesse instructed me to focus on the downward part of my posting trot so as to not drive her forward and ride more in a more extroverted manner than she needed. He also had me wait to correct her until she had made a full downward transition. In other words, I was not to correct her when I simply anticipated she was about to walk. Pretty soon we were both gaining confidence and relaxing and as we did, Jesse had us use more and more of the arena until we were riding follow the rail around the entire arena at a trot. Rydel even offered to canter which was a BIG deal, because she typically hates doing it.

Rydel still has a negative opinion about moving forward.

Slowly we both became more comfortable!

Rydel offers to canter with a nasty face- probably because I was so stiff and surprised!

Slowly we both became more comfortable with the idea of moving forward at the trot and canter and Jesse helped me loosen up and learn to ride like an extrovert as Rydel started wanting to move forward more and more. After our lesson I felt like a new person, I had much more confidence in my ability to be a leader while in the saddle, and it felt great that Rydel was able to relax and not get right brained during our ride. (Major points for Jesse here!) Later that evening we all rode in the honeycomb (series of round pens within a big round pen). Here we practiced carrot stick riding with out much aid from the reins. We played with a million transitions including indirect turns to change direction. Jesse also taught us the helicopter game which helps us exaggerate our body movement to help the horse find our focus. It was a great tool for me and Rydel caught on really quickly!

Moving forward a lot more willingly now

Practicing the helicopter- look how relaxed Rydel is!

We ended our evening of riding playing "can you" with a partner and then going on a group trail ride which was so much fun!! The final challenge was some more cantering practice in the round pen using the question box. I was so proud of how well we both did. I never expected our riding to be that good, and while there were plenty of people in the clinic who did better than us, Rydel definitely deserved a blue ribbon for how quickly she was able to pick things up and how much she was offering me at the end. I truly cannot wait to start riding more and more. Freestyle was a major highlight of this clinic and I'm so glad I pushed myself to do it! :D

Wet And Wild? No, Just Wet.

A couple days ago we gave "the girls" (as Evan calls them) a bath and much to my surprise they both did great! Getting used to water was something I had specifically gone to Parelli Professional, Jesse Peters for help. We practiced it extensively last summer but once cold weather started I hadn't done anything more to prepare my horse for bathing. Because of her previous abhorrence to water I was worried that our lack of practice would cause her first bath of the season to be less than ideal. However I was pleased to find a horse who barely cared about the water and was happy to stand and eat while I washed her! Amazing! My horse who normally would go RBE around water was disinterested and actually relaxed and willing to put her head down to eat!

My mind was totally blown. I guess that's what they mean by "make no assumptions". Here I was assuming that I would end up with a wild horse who didn't want to get wet, when I actually had a horse who wasn't wild at all....just wet!

It was Lilah's first bath ever! What a great foundation she's getting!!

Play With the Horse That Shows Up.

"Make no assumptions," is one of the key tenants of Parelli Natural Horsemanship, and adherence to this principle requires responsibility on the part of both the human and the horse.

After the Play Day, Rydel had made so much progress, it was necessary to stay on track. To keep focus, I started taking lessons from two star instructor, Juli Piovesan. Juli helped me see exactly what I could not, my horse was not tuned into me, she would blow past me without giving two eyes when I would ask her to come in, and she was blowing over obstacles unconfidently, without asking questions. Well, hearing that seemed to do the trick because within a few weeks Rydel had completely changed! Once I changed the way I was asking her to do things by slowing it down and encouraging her ideas, Rydel gained so much confidence and even started to bring up her play drive during sessions! This was something I had never seen from her before and I was loving it! However, after so many fantastic play sessions, I started to forget that at the core of it all, I still have a right brained horse. Slowly, I began to expect that Rydel would be confident and playful all the time...Make No Assumptions.


About a week ago Rydel and I went into the outdoor arena to play- the first time we had both been out there together at our new barn. Assuming that she would be calm and confident as she had been for the past month or so, I began playing with her without really getting warmed up to our surroundings. I see now that everything was far too fast paced. We started playing the circling game and as she was cantering along one lap, two laps, thre-- BAM! She totally blew up, ripping the rope from my hands and galloping around the arena. After being jolted from my neutral position I realized two things. 1) A noise that sounded very much like consecutive gun shots (why hadn't I noticed that before?) and 2) While I was letting her canter she was getting more and more tense and thinking less and less. She must have gone inside herself without time for me to notice before it was too late. Even two laps can be mindless circling for an RBI. Lesson learned, make no assumptions.

So, today I played with the horse that showed up. The wind and rain pelting the metal walls of our indoor arena posed a threat, but I didn't let it bother me and made sure to keep Rydel busy. I decided I wanted to try getting her on a schedule for Hill Therapy and set up some barrel jumps at my 9 and 3 o'clock positions. Rydel was to circle me and jump the jumps for five minutes in each direction. Now, I should tell you I have not forgotten about my previous lesson in circling, but Hill Therapy requires a constant flow of motion, not a lot of stopping and starting to be effective. Not to mention, the obstacles would at least keep things a little interesting. After a few attempts at skirting around the barrels, Rydel finally learned I wanted her to jump them, and jump them she did! Before long she was flying over the jumps without asking questions or doing a lot of thinking. Taking a tip from Emily who had just dealt with her LBI plowing over jumps, I quickly disengaged Rydel and asked her to put her nose on the barrel, not to jump it. I swear her mind was blown! This time, it was my horse who was making assumptions. She thought seeing a barrel meant jump, no matter what, and this was not the case! The reverse psychology really worked and she suddenly had her ears fixed on me and was asking so many more questions- SCORE!

(My Teacher <3)

My horse is not predictable, and what I ask of her shouldn't be either. Consistency has its place, no doubt, but keeping her asking questions helps us both slow down and think things through. (Not to mention, it keeps me in charge!)