Pattern Positivity!

With the way things have been going with work recently, my weekday horse time has been more abbreviated than i would normally prefer. Tonight we had an appointment with the farrier for both Rydel and Lilah and I was determined to maximize my time. Rydel got her pedicure first, and while Lilah was getting her tootsies worked on, I decided to take Rydel into the arena to have some fun.

I hadn't planned on riding, but Rydel was quite calm and connected so I decided to hop on bareback and instantly, I had a plan- we were going to play with responsiveness using the corners game. Now, before you start piling on the praise for my ability to quickly assess the situation and make a plan for how to fix it, I must admit that the idea was not mine. A few months ago I submitted my level 2 freestyle audition (viewable here) and when I received my results (level 2++ pass!), the assessor suggested using the corners game to work up to cantering consistent laps.

Anyhow, with this plan in mind, I intentionally did not tie my rope into reins. With only one rein for emergencies, I was forced to focus on how I was using my body to cue my horse. Once I was able to ride the rail at the walk without having to use many corrections, I introduced the corners game. To reinforce the pattern, we started at the walk and stopped at every corner. Each time, I tried to be very conscious of my energy and body language, and overly exaggerated my stops by exhaling deeply and trying to release all the energy from my body. As I did this, Parelli Professional, Don Jessop's words were ringing in my head...  Your energy should be like a light switch, either on or off, there should be no in-between. Alternatively, when I would ask her to go again, I tried to increase my energy and bring my life up in my body so that Rydel could clearly feel the difference. I kept stopping at every corner for three or four laps until she really understood the pattern, making sure that the corners provided a lot of reward in the form of rest and scratches. Next, rather than changing the pattern up (ie: alternating the corner at which we stop to keep my horse interested an guessing) I decided to keep the pattern consistent for my right brain horse, but alternate the gait instead.

Using the consistency of the pattern for reinforcement- every corner means stop - I asked Rydel to pick up a trot on the short sides of the arena and maintain a walk on the long sides. Pretty soon, she was putting more and more effort into getting to each corner and she was offering to trot on the long sides as well. Hmmm, how interesting! What was even cooler, was that I was able to use her putting effort into staying on the pattern (her responsibility) to focus on my responsibility of keeping my focus and managing my energy to affect her responsiveness. By the end of our session, all I had to do was exhale to get her to stop which was reinforced by the pattern of stopping in the corner, and bring my energy up in my body to get her to go again!

Many lights went off in my head tonight, and I am really seeing the value in patterns. Previously, I had been so preoccupied with perfecting the patterns that I missed their true potential. Now I see that I can use patterns to reinforce something that I am teaching, such as increased responsiveness off my body language and energy alone! I can't wait to start using the patterns to teach and reinforce even more concepts!

Whirlwind Weekend!

Guess what I did this weekend....

That's right! I officially have my Bachelor's of Arts in Public Affairs and a minor in Political Science! After three years of undergrad I am finally done and in the real world. Ending school was bittersweet but as they say, I am a student today and a Buckeye forever! 

I also started a new job today at a pet hotel called Petsuites of America. It's honestly the nicest facility I have ever seen and the level of care offered is unparalleled. I encourage you to check it out!

Last but not least, I FINALLY got to spend some time with my sweet Rydel. Spent some much needed undemanding time together, then played on line and freestyle with the emphasis on consistency. In other words, whatever we practiced on the ground we would practice in the saddle. I believe a lack of consistency in the past was causing confusion for my RBI, so I'm making consistency my motto of the week. We had a much better freestyle session as a result and not only was she putting more effort into the patterns but she was actually relaxing and blowing out a lot today which made me feel so good! We ended the day with a cool bath and some more undemanding time. Despite not getting to see her that often this past week, we are still making visible progress every time we play! :D

Love those faces!

Pattern Savvy!

This weekend we participated in a Parelli clinic put on by 2* Juli Piovesan with the intent of introducing people to Parelli, the games, and Horsenality! Emily did a great job of explaining the event and taking photos which you can view here. It was so much fun and a learning experience for everyone! Not only did I learn that Rydel and I can have success away from home, I also learned that we are going to need to do a lot more pattern work (both in the saddle and on the ground) if I ever want to help build Rydel's confidence with maintaing her own responsibility. You see, it was extremely obvious at the clinic that my little RBI needs to likes to have her hand held during tasks, and I have been inclined to do that for her. This weekend really helped open my eyes to the fact that I am not doing her any favors by not helping her develop confidence and ability to maintain gait and direction without constant interference. In fact, as I stopped micro-managing her with the reins, I eventually got a horse who was much more connected to me and was listening to my focus, seat, and legs a lot more which allowed me to use my carrot stick and reins a lot less! 

So this week I have been playing with the follow the rail pattern adding transitions such as neutral lateral flexion to stop, hindquarter disengagement to stop, fore and hindquarter turns, and walk trot transitions. After playing with this for a few days we had a GREAT ride last night. Rydel was really catching on to the pattern and was even acting particularly left brain and food motivated so I introduced her to the corners game and it was a total hit!

Someone wanted to tag along. 

Not only did she really understand the pattern and was moving off of my focus and seat most of the time and my legs all of the time, but the motivation of getting to stop and eat the clover in a corner of my choice kept her putting effort into getting there! She actually offered to trot and gave me happy ears while doing so which rarely happens! I could tell that the guessing game of figuring out which corner I was going to let her stop in was confusing her a bit because she would put a lot of effort into getting to the corner and then be upset when I wouldn't let her eat. Knowing that she is innately RBI and needs structure, I think I will develop a pattern with the corners game rather than having her guess. For example, I will let her eat every 3rd corner.

Love my arab! <3

 Despite not having my comfort zone of riding in a saddle, I had a lot of fun with this ride and it helped build my confidence riding bareback. I'm excited because I know the more patterns she learns, the more responsibility I can hand her, leaving me with less to micromanage on my ride!

Glued to the rail- look at those ears!

All in all, it's been a very Parelli-filled week and I hope to keep up the momentum! Practice leads to savvy! :)

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

Confidence.

Today was a good great day with the horses! The sun was shining in our normally cloudy Ohio home this afternoon and it was a perfect day to be at the barn! The horses went out to play in nearly 70 degree weather while Evan and I did barn chores in our t-shirts! Crazy weather for February. After a few hours the threat of rain prompted me to bring the gang indoors. Despite being plucked from her pasture, Rydel stood happily next to me waiting for me to do something with her. So, I decided to try tying her using one of the cross ties near her stall door. This was the first time she had ever been tied since we moved to the new barn and I was worried she would dance around. Much to my surprise, Rydel stood like an angel letting me brush the dirt from her coat and pick her feet! She never put any tension on the cross tie and never tried to turn around even though the door was wide open looking straight into the pasture! Our porcupine game definitely played a huge role in our success today.

Later I decided to take her into the arena and play with a few concepts I wanted to practice in preparation for advancing into level 3. We worked on backing from the tail, leading from the ears (which she is not too fond of), and leading from the savvy string on her front feet. In preparation for liberty we worked on HQ yields that flow into the stick to me game- it was then that I noticed Rydel cannot yield her hind quarters all the way through to look at me with her right eye. She will do it with her left eye no problem but that right eye is really telling of her confidence issues with that side. Something we will definitely be working on in the next few weeks!

Lastly we worked on confidence with the mounting block- one of our biggest road blocks lately. Rydel's sideways to the mounting block is getting almost effortless as she comes to me with only phase one or two prompting. Then I did the usual regimen of friendly game using my stick and my body to get her comfortable with the idea of standing still for mounting. Usually the slightest hint that I'm about to get on will cause her to walk off, but today after swinging my leg up multiple times and lying over her back, she didn't move! After a while I decided she was giving me enough green lights to get on. We had a nice walk around the arena which gave me the chance to play follow the rail and try out the steady rein technique. Rydel did sigh a few times but never fully blew out like I would have liked to see, but after about ten minutes or so I got off. Baby steps today will turn into giant leaps in the future and I am so happy she is finally gaining back some confidence accepting a rider! Just in time for warm weather riding :)

Sometimes you have to take a step backward in order to move forward.

This past week I have learned that looking at things with a fresh prospective can allow for immense improvement. Of course, sometimes gaining a new prospective means borrowing someone else's. One day, I was trying to figure out how to improve our "Stick to Me" game. I had worked on the friendly game in zones 2 and 3 so that Rydel would be comfortable with me walking next to her instead of leading her from the front, but for some reason we would always revert back to that position, with her behind me. After watching this for a few minutes, Emily suggested that I give Rydel a consequence for not sticking to me. So, the next time we tried it and Rydel fell behind me I waved my carrot stick behind me to cue her to catch up. It didn't take very long for her to catch on and soon we were completely connected. It was a simple fix but something that would have taken me much longer to figure out on my own.

Also, as I previously mentioned, I have been trying to video more of my play sessions in order to become more comfortable with the camera. What I've found is that watching my videos helps me see what I cant always see during sessions. Of course, it's sometimes difficult to critique oneself, which is why I was thrilled when one of the Savvy Club members watched my video and offered some practical advice. I won't bore you with all the details of the conversation but I am so grateful for the advice and information I received. The next time I played, a few parts of her advice crept into my consciousness. One of the things she helped me become more aware of is the fact the cues I give with my rope hand are often misleading. (For example, holding my hand up and out while asking for the sideways game is confusing because typically holding my hand out like that means go forward). The other piece of advice that stuck in my mind that day was that I should view our driving game as my bubble trying to move her bubble. Thinking about these two things I decided to take off the 22 foot lead and play at liberty as I was afraid of accidentally confusing my horse with my rope hand. As soon as we were at liberty I was absolutely ecstatic to find that our stick to me game was fantastic! Im so happy to have such a strong bond with my horse that Rydel actually wanted to be with me! She stuck to me for over an hour! Even at rest while I was talking with another horse owner at the barn (the perfect opportunity for her to walk off and distract herself with other things) she stayed right next to me, leg cocked, patiently waiting for my next cue! :D I couldn't have been happier to see the effects of a bond I had worked so long to build.

Here is some video from that night. Of course, I got kinda emotional once the camera went on so my focus is a little off and the video DOES NOT do the whole experience justice. As always comments are welcome and in an effort to critique myself I noticed the strange expression on my face, the fact that my headband is falling off, the fact that some of my cues/phases are way too strong than what would have been necessary, and my directions are not always clear. Rydel needs a strong leader and I don't always offer that. Lucky for me, she is understanding that I am learning too and I am so excited to keep improving for her!

Sometimes taking a step back means viewing yourself from the other side of the video camera.

Taking The Time It Takes

I decided to video again today and things went much better this time! I kept reminding myself that my video did not have to be perfect and it would give me a good indication of the things I need to work on and change for my actual audition video. Im pleased to note that our figure 8 is so much better these days! At the walk, i really only have to use phase one and rarely phase two, at the trot, it is much more phase two and she is still learning how to maintain gait but at least she recognizes the pattern. I wish you could have seen our first attempt at this video because this one is loads better!

Things we do well:

• Friendly Game- as a means of retreat
• Friendly Game- Helicopter
• Obstacles- two feet on pedestal, walk over tarp, jumps (not seen in video)

Things to work on:

• Stick to Me- walk, trot, backup
• Sideways Game- without a fence
• Figure 8 Pattern- at the trot

The video is to music I am considering using for my audition... Here's to progress!

"You've Turned Into A Mom From Toddlers and Tiaras"

One of Pat Parelli's many sayings resonates in my head as I write this, "Horses are like computers, they don't always do what you want but they always do what you tell them to do." Well, this blog post is about surrendering myself to humility as I explain how last night I indeed "turned into a mom from Toddlers and Tiaras" and how my horse definitely did what I told her to.

As always, I started my night at the barn with good intentions. I was planning on taking a practice level 2 audition video. I mostly wanted to document my progress and was planning on sending in a real audition later. But for some reason, I went completely direct line and felt the need to have the video be exactly as it would in a real audition. I had planned out my tasks but spent nearly 40 minutes obsessing over the very first one- the figure eight! I was so aware of the fact that I was on camera that I felt determined to make it perfect, almost as if it were a performance. I understand now that this was the absolute wrong way of looking at it, but the worst thing is I didn't even realize I was doing it! Before long, it became a vicious cycle of me getting uptight causing Rydel to be uptight. I was completely emotional and the exact opposite of a good horsewoman. As the session went on, I rarely took time for retreat, I didn't always set myself up for success by slowing things down or going back to the friendly game when it was broken. I am totally and completely ashamed of how handled (or didn't handle) things. It was like my horse knew her responsibility, do the routine (pattern) to the best of her ability, and I knew my responsibility, reward the slightest try and don't worry about perfection. And yet, there I was, a crazed pageant mom jumping around the audience dancing the routine and urging my child to not forget to smile. Talk about embarrassing. 

When I finally decided to call it a night, put Rydel back in her stall so she could eat her dinner, I could feel my blood pressure slowly starting to go back down. I apologetically groomed and loved on Rydel but I still left the barn feeling like I completely let her down. 

Im going back tonight without an agenda this time. I plan to be a much better partner for her and am going to focus on our relationship. In time, I know all other things will fall into place. :)