Sonny ran away from me on Sunday. I had been asking him to jump a log. He was moving with exuberance and jumping with a lot of elevation. and I was really excited by the change in him from our first day at the Parelli Center when I could hardly get him to step over a log. I wondered if I could incorporate jumping the log into a circling game so I asked him to circle me at a trot and them moved the circle so he had to jump the log. He did it twice and then looked over at me. I probably should have stopped but I was so pleased with the way he was going that I got greet and asked him to continue. But Sonny had had enough and he said, "I'm out of here" in the only way he could. He took off.. It happened so quickly that I couldn't hold onto the lead line and the next thing I knew, he was galloping toward the hills.
Trudging across the playground after him, I knew that I had pushed him too hard and caused the run away. Sonny is a pretty confident horse but he can get unconfident when he is learning something new and for the past two weeks, a lot of what we had been doing was new. At home we work on one new thing at a time until we have mastered it, but here at Fast Track, we see something new almost every day. As a result, I had been pushing Sonny pretty hard and it was beginning to show in our relationship.
When I finally caught up to Sonny, he looked at me as if to say, "Oh, are you here too?" and then he came right over to me. Horses live in the moment and they can be very forgiving but I knew that if I wanted to maintain our relationship, I was going to have to be careful about how much pressure I was putting on Sonny during our sessions.
So this morning, I was determined to put our relationship first when I got Sonny ready for our time together. Things started our reasonably well. I took Sonny over to the trailer and loaded him from the fender. This elicited a "nice job" from one of the coaches and I was feeling pretty good when I took Sonny to one of the round pens to play. I wanted to try playing a circling game with an object to see if I could be a little more provocative for Sonny. The idea I had was to put a barrel about three feet from the rail and see if I could teach Sonny how to stop at the barrel when I asked. He seemed to be getting the idea, so I decided to add a second barrel but while I was positioning the barrel, he took off again. Of course, he couldn't really go far but he clearly didn't want to stay with me. Was I putting too much pressure on him? I'm not really sure but I did think that I need to put still more effort into maintaining our relationship.
To prepare for our afternoon session of precision riding, our coaches had the class create and chalk out a 20 meter by 40 meter precision pen and then led us through a series of walking simulations without horses. The session ran long and our lunch time was cut short so that we could get our horses out to the arena. Because we didn't have much time to get our horses ready, I was late getting Sonny out to the arena and when I did get there, he was upset by some new equipment that was in the area. I actually had to get off of him and walk him around so he could look at things. By the time I was able to remount, we had missed most of the first of the four focus groups and I could tell that I was feeling a little frustrated. Knowing that Sonny would be able to feel my frustration, I took a deep breath and tried to concentrate on maintaining my connection with him.
All in all the past two days have been enlightening for me. As much as I want to learn all I can while I am here at the Parelli Center, the most important thing to me is to make sure that my relationship with Sonny remains solid. For then rest of our time here, I am going to work hard at putting our relationship first. If I do that, I'm sure the rest
Monday, November 22, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Day Twelve - Rainy Days and Tuesdays
After falling at the end of Monday's afternoon lesson, I figured that I was going to be sore on Tuesday. I took two Advil before going to bed and two more in the middle of the night but when I work up Tuesday morning, I was sore all over and my shoulders, which had absorbed the brunt of the fall were really hurting. I also discovered that I had a pretty spectacular, dark purple bruise where I had hit my chin on the fence. So as I got ready for the day, I wasn't really looking forward to another long riding lesson.
During orientation, John Barr had told us that during the third week of Fast Track we were going to focus on playing with our horses at liberty. So far, I hadn't had much of an opportunity to play with Sonny at liberty and as I drove over to the Parelli Center, I was thinking that today might be a good day to start. So after feeding Sonny and taking him to get a drink, I attached the 22' line to his halter, picked up my carrot stick and headed off to the playground.
Playing at liberty with your horse is a real test of the strength of your relationship because once the halter is off the horse, all that is left is the truth. I've only been playing with Sonny at liberty for a few months so I always warm him up on-line before turning him loose in a round pen. With his dominant personality, he sometimes doesn't want to follow my leadership and a good warm up is essential to make sure I have the proper respect from him before I turn him loose.
Because of the issue we had with trailer loading the first week, every time I brought Sonny out to the playground, I asked him to get in the trailer. Today I wanted to see if I could get him to load while I was sitting on the fender of the trailer. Sonny never even hesitated, he hopped right in and stood there, while I sat on the fender holding onto the lead line. This was a good start to our session and from the trailer, we went on to play some circling games before going into one of the small round pens in the honeycomb.
I wasn't as successful at liberty as I had been with the trailer loading. Sonny would stick with me for a little while but if I tried to put any pressure on him at all, he would run off. Of course, he couldn't go far in the round pen but he clearly didn't want to stay with me and rather than aggravate the situation, I put him back on line. I had been pushing Sonny pretty hard here at Fast Track. At home, I seldom spend more that two hours a day with Sonny but here we are spending 6 to 8 hours every day and after our liberty session, I was thinking that perhaps I hadn't been putting our relationship first in my efforts to complete the myriad of tasks we had been faced with at Fast Track. I decided that I needed to spend a little more friendly, undemanding time with Sonny for the rest of our time at the center.
After lunch, we all went out to the honeycomb area to see a demonstration on riding with fluidity. The skies had been threatening all day and just as John Barr started explaining what we were going to see, the downpour began. I've never been so glad to see rain in my entire life. Besides giving the ground a much needed soaking to reduce the level of dust, I knew the rain was going to keep us from riding for the rest of the afternoon. We retreated to the classroom to cover the theory of fluidity in riding and I was able to rest my aching shoulders. I knew that a couple more Advil and a good night's sleep was what I needed so I could be ready for a full day of riding on Wednesday.
During orientation, John Barr had told us that during the third week of Fast Track we were going to focus on playing with our horses at liberty. So far, I hadn't had much of an opportunity to play with Sonny at liberty and as I drove over to the Parelli Center, I was thinking that today might be a good day to start. So after feeding Sonny and taking him to get a drink, I attached the 22' line to his halter, picked up my carrot stick and headed off to the playground.
Playing at liberty with your horse is a real test of the strength of your relationship because once the halter is off the horse, all that is left is the truth. I've only been playing with Sonny at liberty for a few months so I always warm him up on-line before turning him loose in a round pen. With his dominant personality, he sometimes doesn't want to follow my leadership and a good warm up is essential to make sure I have the proper respect from him before I turn him loose.
Because of the issue we had with trailer loading the first week, every time I brought Sonny out to the playground, I asked him to get in the trailer. Today I wanted to see if I could get him to load while I was sitting on the fender of the trailer. Sonny never even hesitated, he hopped right in and stood there, while I sat on the fender holding onto the lead line. This was a good start to our session and from the trailer, we went on to play some circling games before going into one of the small round pens in the honeycomb.
I wasn't as successful at liberty as I had been with the trailer loading. Sonny would stick with me for a little while but if I tried to put any pressure on him at all, he would run off. Of course, he couldn't go far in the round pen but he clearly didn't want to stay with me and rather than aggravate the situation, I put him back on line. I had been pushing Sonny pretty hard here at Fast Track. At home, I seldom spend more that two hours a day with Sonny but here we are spending 6 to 8 hours every day and after our liberty session, I was thinking that perhaps I hadn't been putting our relationship first in my efforts to complete the myriad of tasks we had been faced with at Fast Track. I decided that I needed to spend a little more friendly, undemanding time with Sonny for the rest of our time at the center.
After lunch, we all went out to the honeycomb area to see a demonstration on riding with fluidity. The skies had been threatening all day and just as John Barr started explaining what we were going to see, the downpour began. I've never been so glad to see rain in my entire life. Besides giving the ground a much needed soaking to reduce the level of dust, I knew the rain was going to keep us from riding for the rest of the afternoon. We retreated to the classroom to cover the theory of fluidity in riding and I was able to rest my aching shoulders. I knew that a couple more Advil and a good night's sleep was what I needed so I could be ready for a full day of riding on Wednesday.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Day Eleven - Mid-term Day
When I was accepted into the Fast Track program, one of my biggest fears was that I would be the oldest and least accomplished person at the course. I've been studying Parelli Natural Horsemanshipä for three years and I'm reasonably confident working on-line with my horse but I am not the most confident rider and I am just working on level 3 skills. So I was happy when John Barr told us during orientation that he and the other instructors expected to see a wide range of skill levels among the Fast Track participants and that each of our journeys would be unique. He also told us that the instructors would be watching us throughout the course, that our progress would be measured and that we would receive two evaluations, a mid-term after 2 weeks and a final at the end of the course.
During the first week we took a theory test and then were asked to perform a series of tasks at level four in each of the four savvys: on-line, freestyle, liberty and finesse. Since I was only studying at level three and hadn't even begun to work on finesse tasks, I was able to go through the testing without worrying too much. Trying to perform the tasks really helped me see the holes in my current skill level. Overall, my on-line and riding skills were a solid level 2 during testing so I knew that if I was going to achieve my goal of level 3, I would have to use my time at fast track to really push myself and for the past 2 weeks, I felt I had been doing that for my on-line skills. But I had not felt confident with my riding and I didn't think I was making as much progress there.
On Friday, I had a very good coaching session with Ryan and Monday morning I saddled Sonny, anxious to put his suggestions to the test. I wanted to see if I could get Sonny to back up using no reins and only my seat and I wanted to see if I could get better rhythm and relaxation when asking Sonny to canter. I also wanted to work on my confidence riding, so I wanted to take Sonny all over the property to challenge myself to be more confident no matter where we were. During the morning session, I was able to make progress on all three of these goals so I was really feeling pretty good by the time we gathered for our morning demonstration..
Day 11 was designated as mid-term day, and our mid-term growth and progress report measured our progress in ten categories: attitude, horsemanship on the ground, horsemanship riding, theory, emotional fitness, physical fitness, horse husbandry and care, social skills, team-man-ship and overall savvy. John Barr told us that we would be getting our reports from our coaches and he emphasized to us that because these were only mid-term reports, we should not be disappointed if our scores were not as high as we might have wished. So I was quite pleased when I received my mid-term report from Ryan and it was actually better than I had expected. I had done very well on the knowledge test and my lowest scores were in riding horsemanship and physical fitness.
Based on the day so far, I went into the afternoon riding session feeling pretty good. We were separated into three groups, one working on circling games, one working on sideways games and one working on the bowtie pattern. The bowtie pattern is a pattern designed to help the rider and the horse develop the correct body positions in order accomplish lead changes in the canter. In order to help us perform the pattern, our instructors had placed two barrels at a distance from one another along a fence in the arena. To perform the pattern, you ride along the fence until you reach a barrel, then you bend the horse around the barrel until he is headed toward the fence. If you have done that correctly, the horse will have his weight back over his hind feet and on the correct leg so that he can easily depart on the correct lead for the canter. You then canter down the line of the fence until reaching the other barrel, when you bring the horse down to a trot as you bend him around the barrel, changing directions and ready to pick up the other lead.
Sonny and I were still performing this pattern at a trot, where I was looking for rhythm and relaxation before trying to get the correct canter leads. I was being helped by Beran, who was coaching me on proper technique. After a number of cycles in the pattern. I had already had one opportunity to practice the pattern and because I wanted to feel more comfortable with the patterns, I wanted to practice it one more time. I was tired but I could feel Sonny beginning to relax and I wanted to reinforce the feeling so I went out to practice again. Beran had just called to me, "Looking good Noreen." when I let Sonny get a little to close to the fence line and I hooked my foot on a pole. The next thing I knew, I was jerked off balance and falling toward the fence. On the way down, I banged my lip against the fence before landing on my shoulder in the dirt. Sonny, being the terrific partner that he is, stopped dead in his tracks. I was more surprised than hurt and after catching my breath, I dusted myself off and got up.
In reflection on what happened, I think that I was trying to push myself even though I was tired. I momentarily lost my focus, allowing Sonny to get a little too close to the fence and when my foot caught, it was so quick and unexpected, I wasn't able to maintain my balance. The entire experience just reinforced to me how important it is to maintain focus every minute that I am riding.
During the first week we took a theory test and then were asked to perform a series of tasks at level four in each of the four savvys: on-line, freestyle, liberty and finesse. Since I was only studying at level three and hadn't even begun to work on finesse tasks, I was able to go through the testing without worrying too much. Trying to perform the tasks really helped me see the holes in my current skill level. Overall, my on-line and riding skills were a solid level 2 during testing so I knew that if I was going to achieve my goal of level 3, I would have to use my time at fast track to really push myself and for the past 2 weeks, I felt I had been doing that for my on-line skills. But I had not felt confident with my riding and I didn't think I was making as much progress there.
On Friday, I had a very good coaching session with Ryan and Monday morning I saddled Sonny, anxious to put his suggestions to the test. I wanted to see if I could get Sonny to back up using no reins and only my seat and I wanted to see if I could get better rhythm and relaxation when asking Sonny to canter. I also wanted to work on my confidence riding, so I wanted to take Sonny all over the property to challenge myself to be more confident no matter where we were. During the morning session, I was able to make progress on all three of these goals so I was really feeling pretty good by the time we gathered for our morning demonstration..
Day 11 was designated as mid-term day, and our mid-term growth and progress report measured our progress in ten categories: attitude, horsemanship on the ground, horsemanship riding, theory, emotional fitness, physical fitness, horse husbandry and care, social skills, team-man-ship and overall savvy. John Barr told us that we would be getting our reports from our coaches and he emphasized to us that because these were only mid-term reports, we should not be disappointed if our scores were not as high as we might have wished. So I was quite pleased when I received my mid-term report from Ryan and it was actually better than I had expected. I had done very well on the knowledge test and my lowest scores were in riding horsemanship and physical fitness.
Based on the day so far, I went into the afternoon riding session feeling pretty good. We were separated into three groups, one working on circling games, one working on sideways games and one working on the bowtie pattern. The bowtie pattern is a pattern designed to help the rider and the horse develop the correct body positions in order accomplish lead changes in the canter. In order to help us perform the pattern, our instructors had placed two barrels at a distance from one another along a fence in the arena. To perform the pattern, you ride along the fence until you reach a barrel, then you bend the horse around the barrel until he is headed toward the fence. If you have done that correctly, the horse will have his weight back over his hind feet and on the correct leg so that he can easily depart on the correct lead for the canter. You then canter down the line of the fence until reaching the other barrel, when you bring the horse down to a trot as you bend him around the barrel, changing directions and ready to pick up the other lead.
Sonny and I were still performing this pattern at a trot, where I was looking for rhythm and relaxation before trying to get the correct canter leads. I was being helped by Beran, who was coaching me on proper technique. After a number of cycles in the pattern. I had already had one opportunity to practice the pattern and because I wanted to feel more comfortable with the patterns, I wanted to practice it one more time. I was tired but I could feel Sonny beginning to relax and I wanted to reinforce the feeling so I went out to practice again. Beran had just called to me, "Looking good Noreen." when I let Sonny get a little to close to the fence line and I hooked my foot on a pole. The next thing I knew, I was jerked off balance and falling toward the fence. On the way down, I banged my lip against the fence before landing on my shoulder in the dirt. Sonny, being the terrific partner that he is, stopped dead in his tracks. I was more surprised than hurt and after catching my breath, I dusted myself off and got up.
In reflection on what happened, I think that I was trying to push myself even though I was tired. I momentarily lost my focus, allowing Sonny to get a little too close to the fence and when my foot caught, it was so quick and unexpected, I wasn't able to maintain my balance. The entire experience just reinforced to me how important it is to maintain focus every minute that I am riding.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Day Ten - Getting Physical
I have bad knees. They are not your usual, 60 year old, wear and tear bad knees. They are seriously, critically bad knees. My knee problems date back to college days when I jumped down from a bale of straw and landed awkwardly tearing both cartilage and the anterior, cruciate ligament in my left knee. This injury predated arthroscopic surgery, so the torn cartilage was removed and I have been walking bone on bone on that knee ever since. As a result, I have a slight limp, which has placed stress on my “good” knee and it now has its own problems. I see my current orthopedic surgeon each year for a series of injections of artificial synovial fluid to help keep my knees lubricated and I overheard him a couple of years ago telling a medical student who was shadowing him that he wasn’t sure why I was still walking.
I know my knees are a bit of a ticking time bomb and that I am heading for knee replacement surgery at some point so when I was accepted into the Parelli Center fast track program, I was concerned about how well they would hold up but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from coming. With the agreement of my orthopedic surgeon, I doubled my arthritis medicine and I brought cold packs to throw in the freezer so I could apply them in the evening.
The first day at fast track, I had to walk Sonny almost a mile from where I was staying to the Parelli Center and I was a bit concerned when I realized that the pen Sonny has been assigned was about as far away from the classroom and dining hall as it could be. I thought briefly about asking for him to be reassigned to a closer pen, but decided that perhaps the walking would actually be good for me. Besides, I though, fast track is supposed to be a challenge, mentally, emotionally and physically, and the extra walking certainly would be a challenge. For the first few days, my legs were pretty sore and spent a lot of time stretching out my calf muscles but by the first weekend, the soreness had worked itself out.
For the first week, my knees were surprisingly good, but I only rode Sonny during the evaluations on Tuesday and Wednesday of the first week and the rest of the time I played with him on the ground. The second week, we began riding in earnest, and riding can be hard on the knees. On Wednesday we were in the saddle for 3 1/2 hours in the afternoon so by Friday morning, my knees were pretty sore but I decided that my on-line skills were progressing so well, it was time to begin focusing on my freestyle riding.
Because Friday afternoons are taken up by coaching meetings, I knew there wouldn’t be a riding lesson in the afternoon to stress my knees. So I saddled Sonny up and took him out to the playground to warm up. After some good circling game, I mounted up and walked Sonny all over the playground area. Then I took Sonny into the honeycomb to practice walk, trot, canter transitions. He gave me some nice canter departures, not getting too excited. I also took him into the large arena to practice the bowtie pattern at a trot. We were both tired when we finished, but it was a good tired.
The demonstration on Friday was presented by Beran and was focused on helping us understand the mutual responsibilities between horse and human. He told us that the best game for understanding these responsibilities was the circling game. The circling game has three parts, the send, the allow and the bring back. In the “send” we can see the respect that exists between the horse and human and in the “bring back” we can see their rapport. Bearn’s black mare is a high energy horse and he was able to demonstrate to us how changing his energy could impact her response. After working with his mare on line, he then put her in a round pen and showed us how working with her at liberty could refine and enhance their relationship.
My coaching session this week was with Ryan and he helped me identify strategies for the three freestyle riding focus areas I had chosen for the week. He helped me identify the connection between several issues with my riding and gave me good, constructive guidance for working on the issues. Overall, I finished the week on a positive note with Ryan’s coaching
I know the state of my knees creates some physical limitations for me but the first two weeks of fast track have shown me that I am able to do a lot more than I though I could. Perhaps, some of the physical limits I have placed on myself in the past, were more in my mind than in my knees and perhaps the biggest accomplishment I will have here in fast track will simply be getting more physical than I though I ever could.
I know my knees are a bit of a ticking time bomb and that I am heading for knee replacement surgery at some point so when I was accepted into the Parelli Center fast track program, I was concerned about how well they would hold up but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from coming. With the agreement of my orthopedic surgeon, I doubled my arthritis medicine and I brought cold packs to throw in the freezer so I could apply them in the evening.
The first day at fast track, I had to walk Sonny almost a mile from where I was staying to the Parelli Center and I was a bit concerned when I realized that the pen Sonny has been assigned was about as far away from the classroom and dining hall as it could be. I thought briefly about asking for him to be reassigned to a closer pen, but decided that perhaps the walking would actually be good for me. Besides, I though, fast track is supposed to be a challenge, mentally, emotionally and physically, and the extra walking certainly would be a challenge. For the first few days, my legs were pretty sore and spent a lot of time stretching out my calf muscles but by the first weekend, the soreness had worked itself out.
For the first week, my knees were surprisingly good, but I only rode Sonny during the evaluations on Tuesday and Wednesday of the first week and the rest of the time I played with him on the ground. The second week, we began riding in earnest, and riding can be hard on the knees. On Wednesday we were in the saddle for 3 1/2 hours in the afternoon so by Friday morning, my knees were pretty sore but I decided that my on-line skills were progressing so well, it was time to begin focusing on my freestyle riding.
Because Friday afternoons are taken up by coaching meetings, I knew there wouldn’t be a riding lesson in the afternoon to stress my knees. So I saddled Sonny up and took him out to the playground to warm up. After some good circling game, I mounted up and walked Sonny all over the playground area. Then I took Sonny into the honeycomb to practice walk, trot, canter transitions. He gave me some nice canter departures, not getting too excited. I also took him into the large arena to practice the bowtie pattern at a trot. We were both tired when we finished, but it was a good tired.
The demonstration on Friday was presented by Beran and was focused on helping us understand the mutual responsibilities between horse and human. He told us that the best game for understanding these responsibilities was the circling game. The circling game has three parts, the send, the allow and the bring back. In the “send” we can see the respect that exists between the horse and human and in the “bring back” we can see their rapport. Bearn’s black mare is a high energy horse and he was able to demonstrate to us how changing his energy could impact her response. After working with his mare on line, he then put her in a round pen and showed us how working with her at liberty could refine and enhance their relationship.
My coaching session this week was with Ryan and he helped me identify strategies for the three freestyle riding focus areas I had chosen for the week. He helped me identify the connection between several issues with my riding and gave me good, constructive guidance for working on the issues. Overall, I finished the week on a positive note with Ryan’s coaching
I know the state of my knees creates some physical limitations for me but the first two weeks of fast track have shown me that I am able to do a lot more than I though I could. Perhaps, some of the physical limits I have placed on myself in the past, were more in my mind than in my knees and perhaps the biggest accomplishment I will have here in fast track will simply be getting more physical than I though I ever could.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Day Nine - It's Not About theTrailer
My horse, Sonny, is a pretty confident horse. Nothing much bothers him and I have never had a problem loading him in a trailer. Coming down here to Florida, he didn't hesitate a moment before climbing up the steep, woodened walled ramp to get on to the Brook Ledge trailer. This was despite the fact that he had never seen such a rig before and there was a crazed thoroughbred already loaded who was making a hellacious racket while trying to dismantle the stall he was occupying. So when Sonny wouldn't load in the small green Parelli trailer during our on-line testing, he stuck his head in and looked around but declined to climb aboard, I knew it was not about the trailer.
Trailer loading can be a problem for many horses. Being prey animals, horses are naturally claustrophobic and climbing into a trailer would not be the first choice of a safe haven for most horses. Trailers are, as Pat Parelli often says, metal caves on wheels. In nature, you might find a mountain lion living in a cave but you probably wouldn't find a horse. I've seen horses so terrified of the idea of getting into a trailer that they have thrown themselves over backwards in order to escape.
The trailer on the Parelli Center playground is an old fashion, small two horse trailer that has been put up on blocks to make it stable. It has no doors and because it has no ramp, a horse has to take a step up enter. Sonny is a pretty big horse and the first time I saw the trailer I wondered if he would even fit in it. But John Barr had assured us during one of our earliest classes that he had seen two draft horses loaded simultaneously at a trot into this little trailer and he was sure that no horse in our class was too big for the trailer.
I had been taking Sonny to the trailer every day and he had progressed to putting both front feet and most of his body into the trailer but he still hadn't stepped into the trailer with his hind feet. I had been very patient with him because we had been told never to ask a horse for more effort when he was already trying but after a week, I wasn't sure Sonny was trying. He would get most of himself into the trailer and then just stand there looking bored. I wasn't sure if I should encourage him or not. So Wednesday morning, while Sonny appeared to be napping in the trailer, I flagged down Ryan, one of Parelli coaches and asked for help.
Ryan told me that if I thought Sonny wasn't being unconfident, I should go ahead and encourage him to try a little harder so I tapped Sonny on his butt with my carrot stick. This caused him to back right out of the trailer. Ryan said that now that I had started, I needed to keep asking until Sonny gave me a positive response so I kept tapping him on the butt until he climbed back in the trailer with his front feet. He didn't step up in the trailer with his back feet but he moved them much closer so I stopped tapping. I thought that was a pretty good try from him so I moved on to other challenges.
First thing Thursday morning, I took Sonny out to the trailer and asked him to load. Just like every other day, he climbed on with his front feet and moved most of the way in but didn't step on with his back feet. I waited a moment to make sure he wasn't still trying and then tapped him on the butt with my carrot stick. With out any hesitation, Sonny stepped on with his back feet and stood comfortably in the trailer while I walked around to the front and fed him a treat through the window. With Sonny, it wasn't about the trailer, I think it was about how good a leader I could be for him. I think he had been waiting for me to tell him clearly, it's OK to be inside that trailer.
Fresh off my success loading Sonny in the trailer, I went to the day's demonstration which turned out to be about trailer loading. The entire class gathered at bleachers that had been placed behind the green trailer and John Barr asked the class if anyone wanted to volunteer a horse for the demonstration. Several students jumped up and after some conversation, John chose two horses for the demonstration.
The first horse, a cute little Arabian, was nervous about being away from his buddies and fearful about getting on the trailer. He was a high energy horse who needed to move his feet and he was looking for a leader. John took him through a number of exercises around the trailer, working first to focus the horse's attention and then to gain his trust. At first the horse wouldn't even look at the trailer. After each exercise, John returned with the horse to the trailer. First the head went in and John retreated, asking the horse to do something else before returning to the trailer. Each time John asked the horse to make a little more effort and slowly but surely, as the horse became less fearful and more focused, he put more of his body in the trailer. Finally, after about 50 minutes, the horse loaded completely on the trailer.
The second horse had a completely different personality. He was more dominant than fearful and it was clear from the start that he wasn't afraid of going in the trailer. According to his owner, every time she tried to load him into the trailer, he would turn sideways to the door and refuse to straighten out his body. John told the group that the horse was probably not thinking about going into the trailer. He said that once a horse was thinking into the trailer, his body would line up so it could go into the trailer.
With this horse, John worked primarily to establish himself as the leader. The horse kept bracing against the halter. It was as if he was arguing with John about who was actually in charge. John worked to overcome each brace. Every trick the horse tried, John countered. John wasn't even asking the horse to get in the trailer. After about fifteen minutes of "non-verbal dialogue" the horse just hopped up on the trailer. John dropped the lead line and came over to finish talking with the class about trailer loading. While John finished up, the horse stood on the trailer. He made no attempt to back off, he just stood there. The whole class just laughed in agreement when John pointed out that this horse's issue was "not about the trailer".
Trailer loading can be a problem for many horses. Being prey animals, horses are naturally claustrophobic and climbing into a trailer would not be the first choice of a safe haven for most horses. Trailers are, as Pat Parelli often says, metal caves on wheels. In nature, you might find a mountain lion living in a cave but you probably wouldn't find a horse. I've seen horses so terrified of the idea of getting into a trailer that they have thrown themselves over backwards in order to escape.
The trailer on the Parelli Center playground is an old fashion, small two horse trailer that has been put up on blocks to make it stable. It has no doors and because it has no ramp, a horse has to take a step up enter. Sonny is a pretty big horse and the first time I saw the trailer I wondered if he would even fit in it. But John Barr had assured us during one of our earliest classes that he had seen two draft horses loaded simultaneously at a trot into this little trailer and he was sure that no horse in our class was too big for the trailer.
I had been taking Sonny to the trailer every day and he had progressed to putting both front feet and most of his body into the trailer but he still hadn't stepped into the trailer with his hind feet. I had been very patient with him because we had been told never to ask a horse for more effort when he was already trying but after a week, I wasn't sure Sonny was trying. He would get most of himself into the trailer and then just stand there looking bored. I wasn't sure if I should encourage him or not. So Wednesday morning, while Sonny appeared to be napping in the trailer, I flagged down Ryan, one of Parelli coaches and asked for help.
Ryan told me that if I thought Sonny wasn't being unconfident, I should go ahead and encourage him to try a little harder so I tapped Sonny on his butt with my carrot stick. This caused him to back right out of the trailer. Ryan said that now that I had started, I needed to keep asking until Sonny gave me a positive response so I kept tapping him on the butt until he climbed back in the trailer with his front feet. He didn't step up in the trailer with his back feet but he moved them much closer so I stopped tapping. I thought that was a pretty good try from him so I moved on to other challenges.
First thing Thursday morning, I took Sonny out to the trailer and asked him to load. Just like every other day, he climbed on with his front feet and moved most of the way in but didn't step on with his back feet. I waited a moment to make sure he wasn't still trying and then tapped him on the butt with my carrot stick. With out any hesitation, Sonny stepped on with his back feet and stood comfortably in the trailer while I walked around to the front and fed him a treat through the window. With Sonny, it wasn't about the trailer, I think it was about how good a leader I could be for him. I think he had been waiting for me to tell him clearly, it's OK to be inside that trailer.
Fresh off my success loading Sonny in the trailer, I went to the day's demonstration which turned out to be about trailer loading. The entire class gathered at bleachers that had been placed behind the green trailer and John Barr asked the class if anyone wanted to volunteer a horse for the demonstration. Several students jumped up and after some conversation, John chose two horses for the demonstration.
The first horse, a cute little Arabian, was nervous about being away from his buddies and fearful about getting on the trailer. He was a high energy horse who needed to move his feet and he was looking for a leader. John took him through a number of exercises around the trailer, working first to focus the horse's attention and then to gain his trust. At first the horse wouldn't even look at the trailer. After each exercise, John returned with the horse to the trailer. First the head went in and John retreated, asking the horse to do something else before returning to the trailer. Each time John asked the horse to make a little more effort and slowly but surely, as the horse became less fearful and more focused, he put more of his body in the trailer. Finally, after about 50 minutes, the horse loaded completely on the trailer.
The second horse had a completely different personality. He was more dominant than fearful and it was clear from the start that he wasn't afraid of going in the trailer. According to his owner, every time she tried to load him into the trailer, he would turn sideways to the door and refuse to straighten out his body. John told the group that the horse was probably not thinking about going into the trailer. He said that once a horse was thinking into the trailer, his body would line up so it could go into the trailer.
With this horse, John worked primarily to establish himself as the leader. The horse kept bracing against the halter. It was as if he was arguing with John about who was actually in charge. John worked to overcome each brace. Every trick the horse tried, John countered. John wasn't even asking the horse to get in the trailer. After about fifteen minutes of "non-verbal dialogue" the horse just hopped up on the trailer. John dropped the lead line and came over to finish talking with the class about trailer loading. While John finished up, the horse stood on the trailer. He made no attempt to back off, he just stood there. The whole class just laughed in agreement when John pointed out that this horse's issue was "not about the trailer".
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Day 8 - Conquering the Green Ball
One of the neat things about taking a course at the Parelli Center is access to the playgrounds and the toys that most people don't have at home. Among the more interesting of the toys is a gigantic green ball. One of the tasks we had to perform during on-line testing was to put the ball on our horse's back for seven seconds and then to bounce it on his back seven times. We had two minutes to perform this task.
At home, Sonny and I have played with the kind of exercise ball you would fine in most gyms. Our ball is about 36 inches in diameter and Sonny is fine with it on his back. I have bounced it off most parts of his body and he is pretty blasé about it. But the green Parelli ball has to be at least 72" in diameter and I couldn't figure out how to pick it up to get it on Sonny's back. After a few attempts, I finally started bouncing it up high enough to get it in my arms but I wasn't successful in the time allowed. Sonny stood there looking pretty disinterested while I was grappling with the ball. I was pretty sure if I could have gotten it up, he would have let me put it on his back.
I wanted another crack at the green ball but I didn't see it anywhere so I was excited today when I spotted one of our instructors bringing it out to the playground this morning. I got Sonny on his lead line and walked him over to the ball. He sniffed out it and then looked away. I started bouncing it, which caused no reaction in Sonny. It took me about a dozen tries but I finally was able to balance the ball between my arms and my head. The key, I learned, was take off my hat (the bill was causing a problem) and to tilt my head to the side to form a tripod with my arms. I carried the ball over to Sonny, but he scooted a few steps sideways before I was able to lift the ball to his back. Once I did, he stood there like a champ with this giant green ball sitting on his back. I know it is just a simple thing but I felt really good when I finally figured out how to pick up that ball.
The classroom session on day eight was devoted to the idea of leadership and what we needed to do in order to be a leader for our horses. John Barr gave a very interesting and entertaining presentation. He told us that our horse will give us instant feedback when we do something they find annoying and he encouraged us to make sure we give our horses feedback. Horses live in the moment and for us to be effective, we need to live in the moment with them. John finished his talk on leadership by asking us to consider three questions. 1. What caused us to be interested in horses to begin with. 2. What kept us in horses. 3. What kind of a leader did we want to be for our horses.
Wednesday's afternoon riding lesson was a marathon session that lasted almost until dark. We rode for 3 1/2 hours, rotating among stations where we worked on a number of different freestyle riding tasks including the “follow the rail pattern“, the sideways game, the bow tie pattern and the circling game. Our instructors are working hard to make sure that we understand how to use our seat and legs to communicate with our horses so that when we get to finesse riding, or reins can be used to shape the horse’s body. I am still working on this concept and while Sonny is getting more responsive to my seat and leg, I know I have not yet mastered the independent seat that is required for the communication I need with Sonny. More than once during the lesson, I found myself lifting the reins top quickly to stop or turn Sonny. The concept is fairly simple to understand but difficult to execute, especially after years of depending on the reins for control.
But the time we had rotated through all of the groups, the sun was setting and there was a definite chill in the air. It was a tired group of students that unsaddled and cared for our horses in the dark and after a dinner of Cajun style fish that was, like all of the meals we have been served, incredibly tasty, I dragged myself home, took a shower and crawled into bed still thinking about what kind of a leader I wanted to be for my horse.
At home, Sonny and I have played with the kind of exercise ball you would fine in most gyms. Our ball is about 36 inches in diameter and Sonny is fine with it on his back. I have bounced it off most parts of his body and he is pretty blasé about it. But the green Parelli ball has to be at least 72" in diameter and I couldn't figure out how to pick it up to get it on Sonny's back. After a few attempts, I finally started bouncing it up high enough to get it in my arms but I wasn't successful in the time allowed. Sonny stood there looking pretty disinterested while I was grappling with the ball. I was pretty sure if I could have gotten it up, he would have let me put it on his back.
I wanted another crack at the green ball but I didn't see it anywhere so I was excited today when I spotted one of our instructors bringing it out to the playground this morning. I got Sonny on his lead line and walked him over to the ball. He sniffed out it and then looked away. I started bouncing it, which caused no reaction in Sonny. It took me about a dozen tries but I finally was able to balance the ball between my arms and my head. The key, I learned, was take off my hat (the bill was causing a problem) and to tilt my head to the side to form a tripod with my arms. I carried the ball over to Sonny, but he scooted a few steps sideways before I was able to lift the ball to his back. Once I did, he stood there like a champ with this giant green ball sitting on his back. I know it is just a simple thing but I felt really good when I finally figured out how to pick up that ball.
The classroom session on day eight was devoted to the idea of leadership and what we needed to do in order to be a leader for our horses. John Barr gave a very interesting and entertaining presentation. He told us that our horse will give us instant feedback when we do something they find annoying and he encouraged us to make sure we give our horses feedback. Horses live in the moment and for us to be effective, we need to live in the moment with them. John finished his talk on leadership by asking us to consider three questions. 1. What caused us to be interested in horses to begin with. 2. What kept us in horses. 3. What kind of a leader did we want to be for our horses.
Wednesday's afternoon riding lesson was a marathon session that lasted almost until dark. We rode for 3 1/2 hours, rotating among stations where we worked on a number of different freestyle riding tasks including the “follow the rail pattern“, the sideways game, the bow tie pattern and the circling game. Our instructors are working hard to make sure that we understand how to use our seat and legs to communicate with our horses so that when we get to finesse riding, or reins can be used to shape the horse’s body. I am still working on this concept and while Sonny is getting more responsive to my seat and leg, I know I have not yet mastered the independent seat that is required for the communication I need with Sonny. More than once during the lesson, I found myself lifting the reins top quickly to stop or turn Sonny. The concept is fairly simple to understand but difficult to execute, especially after years of depending on the reins for control.
But the time we had rotated through all of the groups, the sun was setting and there was a definite chill in the air. It was a tired group of students that unsaddled and cared for our horses in the dark and after a dinner of Cajun style fish that was, like all of the meals we have been served, incredibly tasty, I dragged myself home, took a shower and crawled into bed still thinking about what kind of a leader I wanted to be for my horse.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Day Seven - The Confidence Game
Yesterday's emotional meltdown had at least one benefit. It brought into sharper focus the fact that I seem to be having a significant crisis in confidence concerning my riding. In general, I am a pretty confident person. I enjoy learning, like being in new situations and meeting new people and love traveling. I was thrilled when I was accepted into the Parelli Fast Track, so you would think that being down here in Florida with all of these like minded people would be a dream come true. But the fact of the matter is that lately, I have not been the most confident rider and for some reason, being here at fast track has really amplified my angst.
Several months ago, after Carol Coppinger suggested that my saddle might be hindering the way Sonny was moving by pinching him in the shoulders, I purchased a Theraflex® pad. It turns out that Carol was right. The first time I rode Sonny with the new pad, his stride was so much longer it kind of freaked me out. The pad also caused my saddle to be sitting in a new position and despite several attempts to add shims in various configurations, I still haven't got the saddle, pad, shim combination exactly right. Some of the early attempts really had Sonny on his forehand at a canter, which had affected my confidence at that gait but I pretty much had worked that mostly out while I was at home in familiar surroundings.
But now I find myself in new surroundings, with a much more open riding environment, full of obstacles Sonny has never seen before, with many more horse and riders that I am used to. I still feel pretty confident when I am working with Sonny on-line but when I'm riding or even when I am thinking about riding, my confidence is shaken. And during the first six days here at fast track, I've recognized that when I rush to get ready or feel rushed, it has affected my emotional fitness which also affects my confidence.
After reflecting last night on my experience yesterday, I decided that when I came in this morning, what I needed to do to help bolster my confidence was to take my time getting ready and then just get on Sonny and ride. I wanted to experience riding all around the property in a "no pressure" situation, where I could pick my spots to walk, trot and hopefully canter and not have to worry about doing things "on command" or who might be watching. And that is just what I did.
I saddled Sonny up and then walked him over to where Jen was conducting a shimming focus session. When that was finished, I led him over to the wooden bridge to climb on. Mounting is an issue for me. I have bad knees, can't get on Sonny from the ground and need to mount from the right, "Indian style". At home, we have two high mounting blocks and Sonny stands quietly while I get on but here we have been having some trouble. There aren't many mounting blocks and the ones that are available are fairly short. I worry about getting on and that hasn't been helping my confidence.
Once mounted, I took the opportunity to ride all around the property. I walked around most of the obstacles so Sonny could get a good look at them. I took Sonny into a round pen and trotted him. I walked him up to the arena, through the honeycomb and over the bridge. I trotted him down lines and in circles. I asked him to canter several times so I could feel confident in getting the transition from walk or trot to canter. Because I was nervous, Sonny and I weren't really in harmony at the beginning but as I rode, I was able to get synchronized a bit better with him. I rode for over an hour and by the time I was ready to take him back to his pen, I was feeling much more comfortable about the afternoon's upcoming lesson.
At the 11:30 demonstration, Ryan worked on line and at liberty with a little bay mare whose Horsenality™ is very similar to Sonny's. He was trying to show us how to "ask a lot, accept a little and reward often" in order to motivate this horse. He demonstrated all seven of the Parelli games and tried to point out to us how he was trying to be particular while still encouraging the horse to offer more. He made a specific point of trying to reward the horse when it was giving evidence of "thinking about" doing what he was asking for. He encouraged us to begin to recognize the subtle signs that horses give before doing the right thing.
I was feeling pretty good by the end of the demonstration, when John Barr gave us instructions for the afternoon. He told us that we were going to take our first riding lesson at 3 PM an that we needed to warm our horses up so that we would be ready for anything. He mentioned that he could ask us to walk, trot or canter or horses, to walk them through the pond or jump them over a log. The minute he mentioned jump, I felt myself starting to panic and to lose any confidence I had developed during my morning ride. I knew I had to nip this feeling in the bud so when he dismissed the group for lunch, I approached him and explained that I had never jumped Sonny and that I didn't think that I was prepared to take on jumping right now. He told me that I didn't need to jump if I didn't feel ready but that I should warm Sonny up as if we were going to jump. That made me feel much better and I went into the afternoon riding session with only a minimum of butterflies.
It turns out that I didn't need to worry. During the lesson, we only walked and trotted. We rode several familiar patterns. Our instructors were looking more for how we were maintaining our focus and giving directions to our horses. Their corrections to us were focused and too the point. As the lesson went on, I felt more and more confident.
I know I still have a way to go in order to feel completely confident riding in this environment but I feel good that I was able to get through this first riding lesson. Tomorrow I am going to try to build on what I did today and I am going to think about steady progress as a way to win this confidence game.
Several months ago, after Carol Coppinger suggested that my saddle might be hindering the way Sonny was moving by pinching him in the shoulders, I purchased a Theraflex® pad. It turns out that Carol was right. The first time I rode Sonny with the new pad, his stride was so much longer it kind of freaked me out. The pad also caused my saddle to be sitting in a new position and despite several attempts to add shims in various configurations, I still haven't got the saddle, pad, shim combination exactly right. Some of the early attempts really had Sonny on his forehand at a canter, which had affected my confidence at that gait but I pretty much had worked that mostly out while I was at home in familiar surroundings.
But now I find myself in new surroundings, with a much more open riding environment, full of obstacles Sonny has never seen before, with many more horse and riders that I am used to. I still feel pretty confident when I am working with Sonny on-line but when I'm riding or even when I am thinking about riding, my confidence is shaken. And during the first six days here at fast track, I've recognized that when I rush to get ready or feel rushed, it has affected my emotional fitness which also affects my confidence.
After reflecting last night on my experience yesterday, I decided that when I came in this morning, what I needed to do to help bolster my confidence was to take my time getting ready and then just get on Sonny and ride. I wanted to experience riding all around the property in a "no pressure" situation, where I could pick my spots to walk, trot and hopefully canter and not have to worry about doing things "on command" or who might be watching. And that is just what I did.
I saddled Sonny up and then walked him over to where Jen was conducting a shimming focus session. When that was finished, I led him over to the wooden bridge to climb on. Mounting is an issue for me. I have bad knees, can't get on Sonny from the ground and need to mount from the right, "Indian style". At home, we have two high mounting blocks and Sonny stands quietly while I get on but here we have been having some trouble. There aren't many mounting blocks and the ones that are available are fairly short. I worry about getting on and that hasn't been helping my confidence.
Once mounted, I took the opportunity to ride all around the property. I walked around most of the obstacles so Sonny could get a good look at them. I took Sonny into a round pen and trotted him. I walked him up to the arena, through the honeycomb and over the bridge. I trotted him down lines and in circles. I asked him to canter several times so I could feel confident in getting the transition from walk or trot to canter. Because I was nervous, Sonny and I weren't really in harmony at the beginning but as I rode, I was able to get synchronized a bit better with him. I rode for over an hour and by the time I was ready to take him back to his pen, I was feeling much more comfortable about the afternoon's upcoming lesson.
At the 11:30 demonstration, Ryan worked on line and at liberty with a little bay mare whose Horsenality™ is very similar to Sonny's. He was trying to show us how to "ask a lot, accept a little and reward often" in order to motivate this horse. He demonstrated all seven of the Parelli games and tried to point out to us how he was trying to be particular while still encouraging the horse to offer more. He made a specific point of trying to reward the horse when it was giving evidence of "thinking about" doing what he was asking for. He encouraged us to begin to recognize the subtle signs that horses give before doing the right thing.
I was feeling pretty good by the end of the demonstration, when John Barr gave us instructions for the afternoon. He told us that we were going to take our first riding lesson at 3 PM an that we needed to warm our horses up so that we would be ready for anything. He mentioned that he could ask us to walk, trot or canter or horses, to walk them through the pond or jump them over a log. The minute he mentioned jump, I felt myself starting to panic and to lose any confidence I had developed during my morning ride. I knew I had to nip this feeling in the bud so when he dismissed the group for lunch, I approached him and explained that I had never jumped Sonny and that I didn't think that I was prepared to take on jumping right now. He told me that I didn't need to jump if I didn't feel ready but that I should warm Sonny up as if we were going to jump. That made me feel much better and I went into the afternoon riding session with only a minimum of butterflies.
It turns out that I didn't need to worry. During the lesson, we only walked and trotted. We rode several familiar patterns. Our instructors were looking more for how we were maintaining our focus and giving directions to our horses. Their corrections to us were focused and too the point. As the lesson went on, I felt more and more confident.
I know I still have a way to go in order to feel completely confident riding in this environment but I feel good that I was able to get through this first riding lesson. Tomorrow I am going to try to build on what I did today and I am going to think about steady progress as a way to win this confidence game.
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