Putting Principles to Purpose- Freestyle

It's time for some much needed updates!

Now that Rydel is becoming a pro at stepping towards me for mounting, I have been playing around with freestyle riding a lot more. Saturday I had another fantastic lesson with Juli Piovesan during which time I  had some major "aha! moments"on the ground that I think will help decode some of our problems in the saddle. However, it's freestyle that I want to talk about today, and during the lesson we also worked on riding the follow the rail pattern with a lot of transitions, direct and indirect rein turns, and neutral lateral flexion to stop. Our focus was on helping Rydel really understand the pattern we were asking her to maintain (i.e. her responsibility). We also focused on teaching me to really use my phases starting with the most subtle in order to be the most effective teacher possible and to not constantly rely on the reins (i.e. my responsibility).

Practicing the "pattern" of the squeeze game during our lesson. 

A few weeks ago I wrote about putting principles to purpose online (you can read about it here). Well, the same concepts are true about freestyle; putting a purpose to the ride helps to give your horse a reason to play the seven games in the saddle. Making it a game, such as "don't make me have to correct you on this pattern," or "don't make me close one more finger on my rein," or "you don't want to stand still? Ok, let's trot" uses reverse psychology to achieve your desired outcome and keeps it interesting for your horse. Likewise, playing with the same patterns and games during freestyle riding as you would online allows the horse to link what they learned on the ground to the saddle, making your rides more effective teaching tools for the horse. Especially for right brain horses, giving them a job or a purpose, "go from point a to point b at the trot and stop in the corner," helps to teach them responsibility and how to learn to act like a partner instead of a prey animal.

Viewing my rides this way has really helped fill in the missing link for how to transition from the ground to the saddle. It has helped me be able to have a plan for my rides rather than to just get on and mindlessly travel around the arena, without giving my horse much to think about in terms of maintaining her own responsibility. I believe this is going to set us up for success for riding in bigger and unfamiliar places and for transitioning to finesse in the future!!

Happy ears after a great ride! :D

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!)