Soaring With Eagles (Part 1)

This past weekend was a major boost to my confidence and I'm so excited to share my experience at the Level 3/4 Clinic with Parelli Professional, Jesse Peters. As Jesse so adequately described it, sometimes you have to soar with eagles in order to bring out the best in yourself. That's exactly what this weekend was about, challenging myself, my horsemanship, and my expectations! I've decided to write this as a series of posts because it would be a book if I didn't. So, without further adieu, I give you Part 1: Set Up For Success.

Rydel and I taking a break from the heat

Leading up to the clinic I had mixed emotions about whether or not we should even be going. I was worried we would be too far behind the other participants and that perhaps because of my lack of confidence and practice with freestyle that we should just wait and do the level 1/2 clinic. However, my lesson with Juli was a turning point for my confidence and she really helped me see that we do have what it takes to hold our own against other level 3 students. In the days after our lesson I started playing a lot with our upward transitions and was thrilled to see major improvement! Suddenly, we were able to go from the trot to canter on the circle using only phase 1. Even better, she would stay completely calm and ask a lot of questions rather than feeling the need to go right brain. We also rode a lot more and I paid a lot of attention to my keeping my focus. The day before the clinic we had the best ride yet, during which time I didn't have to pick up my reins once! :D

The day of the clinic, we arrived feeling ready to go and spent some time warming up online. The focus for me was on staying at the end of my 22 as much as possible, getting good upward transitions, and waiting for Rydel to ask a question or make a change before moving on to the next game. Because there is so much to do at the playground, it is really easy to become task oriented and move too quickly for an RBI, so I tried to incorporate a lot of moseying and undemanding time. One thing I noticed is that Rydel seemed to be having a lot of trouble moving her HQ around to give me her right eye, something we had trouble with in the past. Jesse came over to help and told me our hide your hinny game is broken and that I need to be really making it a game to get her to give me the other eye. Working on this would be key to our liberty sessions later. Jesse took over for a bit and played "if I were you...I would be embarrassed to show my tail." Pretty soon she was offering her other eye every time I asked for a hind quarter yield!

Parelli Professional, Jesse Peters with Rydel

Throughout the day Rydel and I both became more comfortable and confident. Things that were major challenges for us just a year ago at the playday we now a breeze and Rydel was offering more and more!

This looks familiar ;)

I am so proud of how hard she tries for me. Arthritic hocks? No problem!

Look mom, two feet! 

By the time we took a break for lunch, I felt like this clinic was a pretty good idea after all... :)

You'll Never Fall Off the Cliff If You Always Remember To Retreat

Whew! I had one last lesson monday with Juli Piovesan before she heads to Colorado and my head is still spinning! Juli has always had a knack for observing me and then pulling out things to work on I would have never recognized as problems. And as it turns out, the things she chooses for us to work out are much easier to deal with and usually are the root causes of the things I identify as problems.

Juli and me at one of her workshops :)

At the beginning of the lesson Juli mentioned that I even though Rydel is an introvert, I need to be asking more of Rydel and that I shouldn't be afraid to push her a little bit in order to keep progressing. Rydel is ready for this and I need to stop avoiding the things that give us trouble. She then said something that I will never forget. She said,

If you keep asking for more, you will make progress, just remember to approach and retreat. You'll never fall off the cliff if you always remember to retreat.

This is so powerful and really speaks to how I need to approach building a relationship with Rydel. We have come so far, and have so much potential. This was a huge wake up call to me because I had been too afraid to deal with our problem areas and too worried about hurting or scaring my RBI to get to the next level. I had spent so long convincing myself that she was going to be too arthritic to ever be a level 3/4 horse that I had allowed myself to be stuck in level limbo. Well, no more! During our lesson Juli helped me realize that I had been avoiding upward transitions online because that's where things fall apart. She helped me face my fears and deal with the situation head on which yes, involved some obstinance and BBE freak-outs from Rydel, but Juli gave me the savvy quivers in my arrow necessary to deal with these and before I knew it, I had a happy, confident horse cantering along on the circle and squeezing between myself and the wall. We practiced upward transitions during the circling game and figure 8 remembering to make it a game and give her time to think. The goal is to help her learn that she can be left brained while going fast and that going fast is not only for escaping. This will definitely help with our upward transitions during riding (why didn't I think of this before!?)

Last but not least we played around with fitting my Theraflex and Juli had me cup the back of Rydel's scapula while she moved her forward to determine which shim pattern and placement allowed for the best possible movement of Rydel's shoulder. Got on and did a lot of friendly game playing with changes in my weight, bending down to touch my legs, and using my stick to rub her all over. Finally we played with keeping my focus while riding and learning how to not over-correct. I'm definitely going to need a lot of practice with this! However, this lesson could not have come at a better time. With the level 3/4 clinic less than a week away, I'm feeling very confident! 

Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Today I had a revelation that I think will certainly better my relationship with my horse in the future. I've mentioned that lately I have not had a whole lot of time to spend with Rydel due to my new work schedule. Since today was only the second time this week that I have been able to see my horse, I was in an extremely good mood when I got to the barn. Walking in, seeing her face, and getting to scratch all her itchy spots was so refreshing and instantly motivated me to make the most of my time with Rydel. We spent some time outside grazing together while I asked for various tasks here and there after she circled and paid attention to where she was going I would let her stop to eat. It was the same for the touch it and porcupine games. I didn't have much of an agenda during all this, i was just testing things here and there. After a while we went into the indoor where I recieved the best connection we have had in a long time online! We were playing at the end of our 22 foot rope and Rydel was asking all kinds of questions and putting lots of effort into the patterns. I was thrilled at how well she did today despite all our time apart.

So all this got me thinking...It's not necessary the distance that makes our relationship better than ever when we return to one another, but it is the fact that the distance causes me to be in a good mood when I do get to spend time with my horse. Furthermore, the key is to not come in feeling rushed, but to appreciate the time you have and focus on enriching the quality of the time together. This attitude adjustment on my part has my horse instantly more relaxed and connected to me and allows me to breathe and brush off any issues we do have which in turn helps those issues to slowly become less and less. Since I've started work and limited my horse time, I've actually noticed my horse is quicker to start thinking and become LB, quicker to respond to me, and more willing to be with and stay with me as opposed to being with her barn buddies. This is all not because of the time we spend apart, but because the time we spend together is that much more precious. Horses are so smart and sensitive, they know when you're being direct line (which is me almost all the time for me when I focus too much on passing levels rather than building a relationship). Well today I appreciate this valuable lesson my horse taught me, because if I've learned anything these past two weeks its that a horse doesn't care how much you know until they know how much you care!- Pat Parelli