Ugh. It's been WAY too long!

I need to restart this blog. So much to write down. New horse. Month in Colorado at the Parelli Center. Life has been very busy.

Spring, where are you?

Ack, it's been forever since I've posted. I've been trying to get out to the barn every chance I get, life and weather permitting. Speaking of weather, where the heck is spring? It goes from a comfortable 50 degrees to snow flurries. What the heck? The horses starting shedding last month, spring is supposed to be here! Grrr.. I know soon enough though, I'll be complaining about it being too hot. Hahaha... thats Wisconsin weather for you though.

Updates on all my semi-furry beasties:

Jade: Been practicing a lot on cantering under saddle. This has been a problem for YEARS, and now I finally see light at the end of the tunnel. I worked on getting her confident online and maintaining the canter, the asking little by little for canter undersaddle. Little by little has turned into lovely almost walk-canter departs, now being able to do several laps around the arena, steering is coming along nicely as well, and beautiful halts from the canter. She feels quite collected a lot of the time, and I feel lead changes will start to fall into place as well. I plan on taping my L2 audition soon, though our Liberty is nearly 3+. All in good time. My very unconfident, somewhat scary mare (at times) is turning into the perfect partner. I can't wait to see what the future holds for us.

Apollo: He's pretty much had the winter off. With the weather being so horrendous most of the winter, I felt I couldn't give him the consistancy he deserved, and badly needed. I've picked back up and I really want to focus on getting him solid online, atleast through L2 by this summer, and get him safe and out of the super-green riding stage. He seems to have moved on from that wild 3 year old stage and is in a better, more focused place to learn. I have big plans for him and I'm sure I will learn A LOT, whether I like it or not!

Tequilla: Fat Horse Boot Camp! She's mostly had the winter off as well and she is FAT FAT FAT and completely out of shape. I'm almost ashamed at how out of shape she is. I plan on doing 6 weeks of improvised Hill Therapy. I don't have a decent hill that would really work, especially now at the wet time of the year, so I'll be playing with a lot of things to get her in shape and build her topline as well as keep her interested. She's very LBE and if I drilled her on circles for 6 weeks she'd hate me and become very sour. I'll use this non-riding time to really focus on building her and our relationship from the ground up. I'll try and keep this updated.


Thats all for now!

Everything just fell together...

I had the most amazing ride on Jade today. I'm still breathless from it. Everything just fell together. After years struggling with the canter, things finally clicked. I almost don't know what to say.

Jade has had major unconfidence issues. She is confident in me as a leader, but unconfident as a learner, and in the enviroment. She is easily frazzled, and quite a complicated girl. But she tries so hard and gives me her heart everytime she can. And a big heart she has. Cantering has always been difficult for her, without getting overly emotional. And that makes it dangerous. So I've been doing my best to preserver her confidence and make progress at the same time. Today, I've reaped the benefits.

I was able to canter her around on the rail in the indoor a few laps each way. She was able to maintain canter, be emotionally collected, and connected to me. I was able to ask her to canter at any spot in the arena. I was able to cross through the middle and ask for a simple lead change. I feel like if I had asked, I could have gotten a flying lead change. It was amazing. My seemily uphill climb with this complex mare has reached a beautiful peak. I've been having a bit of a rough time lately in life. Winter has been drawn out and I've been feeling a bit down and discouraged. This is really what I needed. Thank you Jaders...

40 Below Zero!!!

Welcome to the great state of Wisconsin, where temperatures can easily go from 40 degrees to -40 degrees within a few days. As of right now, the temperature is around -20, and at night it will be around -45 with wind chill. How aweful is that? That means no playing, nothing but business. I've been giving them TONS of hay, all they can eat, so they stay warm through these brutal days and nights. They don't seem to mind too much though. They look like big, furry, frost covered yaks in the morning waiting for their breakfast.

I can't wait till this weather breaks and I can get out there more regularly. I feel like such a slacker, but it's just not safe for me or the horses to play. I can't wait till spring... Even 30 degrees seems warm right now!

Ugh. I haven't posted in forever!

Oops. I haven't posted in FOREVER. I've been super duper busy lately. With Thanksgiving, Christmas, work and the atrocious weather we've been having, I've barely had any time to do a whole lot with the horses. I've managed to play with Jaders a few times, but not nearly as much as I'd like. I did have one highlight though, I had a really great liberty session then hopped up on her and rode with just a string on her neck. I've played with this a couple times in the round pen but never in the indoor. It was exhilarating, even just at the walk!

I've also found Boozer a great home with a Parelli family. I'm so thrilled. I know he'll have a great home with people who will be able to give him more time and attention than I can, and that's all I wanted for him.

We've come a long way, baby.

I didn't have time to write about this yesterday, but I really need to post about last nights' session so now is as good of time as any.

It was raining but the temperature wasn't too bad. Very tolerable for November. I had another wonderful session with Captain. We're still working on the crabby attitude, and his general distaste for turning or lateral flexion but with each session I see improvement. Improvement in each of the horses, and also myself. My timing is getting better, my requests clearer, and my teaching better. We had a bit of trouble by the big scary door but I hopped off and did some squeeze and friendly by it and then it was pretty much a non-issue. We trotted around some and even cantered a few times. I'm sure in a few sessions he'll be a pro at it. His backup is getting awesome too. I barely have to pick up on the reins.

Then I got my Jaders out. I planned on doing some online work and maybe some zone 5 driving because my cooler was soaked and I had no way to dry her off for the saddle but instead we just played at liberty. I had so much fun, and I could tell she was totally riveted. We really, truly played together. Liberty is her forte. Stick to me at the trot and canter, put your foot on, and a little bit of the cutting game. She was so fiesty! I had a jump set up and sent her over at a little over 2 feet and she cleared it like nothing, with a little head toss upon landing, then back over the other way. COOKIE! She loves her cookies! I decided to raise the jump to the next notch, which was 3 feet, maybe a little over, and atleast as high as the upright barrels. It looked HUGE! But she's a big girl, and I knew she could do it. I asked her to go over it the first time and with no hesitation she jumped. Not high enough, and the pole and standards fell right over, but didn't faze her at all. She looked at me like "huh, I thought this thing was a little smaller the last time I went over it." I reset it up then did a little more stick to me before attempting to ask her again, then when I did, she was like "whoooah I don't think I can, thats too high!" We retreated then circled it a few times then I asked her again and 'she popped right over it with her front legs, and knocked the pole off with her back. Getting better! I gave her a cookie, reset it up, then went to play with a few more things like sideways and figure 8. Finally I went back to it and figured it was the last time, she's really tried already and I asked her over it and she hesitated for a minute, then jumped it from a standstill and cleared it beautifully. My big little girl, I was so proud of her. She tried her heart out. I couldn't help but think back to when she was so unconfident just going over little jumps and the barrels online and here she was, jumping this (what seemed like huge!) 3 foot jump at LIBERTY. Looking back, it's hard to believe how far we've come. I never thought I'd ever feel safe on her, and I'm a confident rider, and now I feel totally at ease. I never thought I'd ever get her confident, and now we passed that and have exhuberance, and FUN. I never thought I'd ever canter her, and now, it's really coming along, and I can see lead changes on the horizon. I never thought I'd be able to ever take her on a trail ride, and last summer in Colorado, I rode her in the mountains, then this summer I hauled her up to a trailhead myself and rode with friends and had a ball! I never thought we'd ever get to where we are, but we have, and I have Parelli to thank for that. Our relationship has soared to levels I thought I'd only be able to dream about. And for that, I thank Parelli. I owe to to my horse and myself to constantly be in the pursuit of excellence, and I won't stop till I achieve nothing short of it. But for right now where I'm at, I can truly say we've come a long way, baby.

I'm walking on air

I just had the best session with Diego I've ever had. He's such an incredibly smart, sensitive little horse. Just awesome. The weather today is just gross. It's sort of raining, sort of snowing, and it's cold and damp. Yuck. I brought Diego in the barn and proceeded to play a little bit of friendly with the cooler, which he's never had on, so that I could dry him off some before I put a saddle on him. He was a little like "what the heck is that?!?" but got over it quick. It was huge on him, about a foot off the ground on each side and less than that in the back. I had to laugh, he just looked at me like "you people sure have some crazy ideas." I think he actually got to like it. It was warm, and he was drying off. The prissy paso likes comfort. He likes to live like a king.
Moving on, I saddle him up in the barn, then walked him to the arena to play some ground games and see where he was at, mentally. Wonderful. He was calm, responsive, and willing to try anything I asked. Back up? Sure. Sideways? Sure. Out on the circle? Sure. Change directions and speeds of gait? Sure. It was awesome. I couldn't help but be excited to ride. I mounted up on him, checked lateral flexion and making sure he was not jumpy about my legs (he used to be a bit and required a lot of friendly and moving around while I was up there), which he wasn't, then off we went. I let him walk around the arena, played with stopping, turning, backing, while trying to stay on a very casual rein. He was great. He'd get a little confused backing up, but he's still learning that. I then let him move out into a gait. I wanted to let him go till he was really comfortable with me on him while he was moving around at the gait. I think that was a big problem I had. Like Pat says, you can't say "GO...a little bit", it's confusing to the horse. And my relaxing and going with it has helped SOOO much. We cruised around the arena in total control. I even played with sideways while riding, something I haven't played with with him yet, and he picked it up so quick. It was amazing. It seemed like all the pieces just fell into place. He got an extra apple tonite :) I can't wait to tell my mom how awesome her little horse was. I'm walking on air!