Time is flying by and before I know it it’s time to fill you
all in on the fun and learning that I have been having!
On the Thursday morning I got plenty of opportunity to
practice Pat’s advice to “blow out the carbon” on my little horse as we
practiced the ingredients for freestyle flying changes – getting speed and
responsive turns. We took the horses out to the 160 acre pasture and rode with
two carrot sticks. Accelerating Boaz was a lot of fun but he wasn’t really
going very fast at all and when I asked him to turn he would slow right down to
keep his balance, rather than use more athleticism. Soon he was starting to get
tired of pointlessly running from one part of the field to the other and I felt
I was running out of psychology and just getting on at him. My knee was aching
again and the session was getting a bit long for the both of us. Once again I
found myself unsatisfied with my ability to motivate an introverted horse.
In the afternoon Maurice and Susan began giving the midterm reports,
starting with those externs that would be leaving Friday to go to the Denver
Horse and Soul Tour. It took Boaz for some grazing time together and played
online.
Friday morning more reports were given. I rode Boaz before
lunch and in the afternoon I did a short liberty session, where Boaz actually
gave me a figure eight at the trot and then a zone 5 session before my own
report.
The midterm report was mainly about our professional
aptitude although Maurice and Susan told me I needed to work on getting my toes
to point forward instead of out when I ride and to always remember to start
with a quiet phase one before going up in my phases. I shared with them my
awareness of these faults in my horsemanship and how difficult I found them.
They expressed their understanding and said these things, particularly training
our bodies, takes constant reminding and repetition and time to fix. With
regard to my professional aptitude I scored highly on positivity,
progressiveness, esprit de corps, aptitude for goals and social confidence. As
I expected I got an average score for physical talent and natural athleticism.
I got marked down for my appropriateness and professionalism because of my
clothing, particularly that my tops sometimes rode up whilst I played with my
horse showing some of my tummy. I felt a little embarrassed at this and
listened to the advice that I get some vest tops to ensure no skin was ever on
show. I understand that Parelli
Professionals have a look, an image. You can tell a Parelli Professional from
among a bunch of students from a distance and I explained how it had been my
plan to buy certain things before the externship but I hadn’t been able to find
what I wanted in time. I wasn’t making excuses; I just wanted to reassure them
that I was also not satisfied with my turn out. I haven’t had an income for
over two years, having left my job to do the Fast Track and being in France up
until the start of the externship, so my riding attire has diminished to
whatever pants and tops I could get. Coupled with my short sturdy frame I am
not the most elegant in appearance.
That night I went for a meal with some of the other externs
and we discussed our plans to improve our scores. The purpose of the mid terms
are to let us know in sufficient time where we are in relation to the standards
set by Parelli for how they expect a Parelli Professional to conduct
themselves. By knowing where we measure up we can make a plan to improve in our
weaker areas.
Adency offered me to try her Wintec wide to see if it would
help my riding by having a more secure saddle than the soft moveable treeless
saddle I was riding in. I also arranged to go shopping with Shirley in Durango
the next day so that we could go to Walmart to pick up some shirts and jeans.
I got up early on Saturday so that I could look after Boaz
and also Lena and Amanda’s horses as they were in Denver for the Horse and Soul
Tour. As soon as I was done I headed to Durango with Shirley. Our first stop
was the Boot Barn. IT was full of gorgeous jeans and shirts far outside my
budget range. I spent a long time looking at the hats but didn’t find one my
size that suited me. I wanted a proper western hat to wear in place of the
Parelli baseball cap that I have been wearing. My ears and neck needed more
protection from the sun and baseball caps do not look good on me. On top of
that, my cap is the one I got when we joined the Savvy Club in 2008 so it has
seen better days!
We then headed into Downtown Durango and had lunch together
before walking around a couple of shops. I picked up a couple of $2 pairs of
earrings, one is a dangly pair of turquoise hearts, and the other a pair of
turquoise horses.
The next store had a sale on and soon I saw a hat that just
drew me to it. As soon as I placed it on my head Shirley said “yes, that’s the
one”. I loved how it looked on me and fell in love with it immediately but of
course when I looked at the tag it was not on sale. I tried to see if I could
get a discount, as many places will offer discounts if you ask, but I was out of
luck on this one. I couldn’t walk out of the shop without it so I handed over
the last of the cash I had, feeling irresponsible but knowing the hat would
already bring my score up.
We got to Walmart and I hoped I had enough money on my bank
account as I tried on a few shirts from the limited range. The only shirts that
I could get away with were white so I resigned myself to more laundry washing
and ironing. I found some jeans that I would be able to wear with the shirts to
ride in with my English half chaps.
When we got back to the ranch I cleaned, fed and watered my
four legged friends before quickly returning to the condo to clean up ready for
another dinner with friends, this was a kind treat from Lisa, a lovely woman on
the externship. We went to The Alley House, an upmarket steak house with beautiful
food. The company was great and it was an extremely enjoyable time. After
dinner we decided to go dancing and saw that there was a live band playing
music in the park. We had a dance there before heading to On the Rocks. As we
were about to leave Jeannie, Samantha, Adency, Jeannie’s daughter and her
friend all arrived so I joined them and we headed to Coyote Moon where we had
an awesome time dancing and talking to people.
Sunday morning I headed to the ranch and met Adency who
leant me her saddle. I rode Boaz in it and felt immediately more secure and
comfortable, although I did have a difficult time to get the shimming right.
Monday morning I arrived at the ranch in my new black jeans,
crisp white shirt and favourite new hat. I looked at the week’s schedule and
the first thing was... a lesson with Linda Parelli!
Our lesson was awesome, Linda said we had all made so much
progress that she was really excited and started to teach us the Game of Contact.
I was struggling with Boaz and so Linda called us in and gave me some personal
coaching, helping me to keep him forward and reward him whenever he pushed his
poll forward without me having to use my legs to keep him going.
In the afternoon Maurice gave us a demonstration on zone 5
driving by showing how he introduces a horse to the concept for the first ime
with his two year old Atwood quarter horse, Tarzan.
Tuesday morning we practised our zone five driving. The
afternoon was great fun. We rode out onto the 200 acre pasture and practiced
playing with our trot diagonals in groups and played follow the leader before
setting up a pattern to take turns in pairs to ride leg yields and then practice
ditch jumping. The idea was to get us to start loosening up and really riding
out on varied terrain. Mel rode with a video camera mounted on his helmet and
made a fun video of our morning. We ended the session with a short trail ride
back round to the barn. We spotted three cows in a field they shouldn’t be in
and Maurice co-ordinated us so we could participate in removing the cows from
horseback. Ten riders on horses is a little overkill for three cows but it was
an enjoyable end to a great day and Boaz was very confident walking toward the
cows. I really think he would make a great ranch horse.
Wednesday we began a new exercise to move sideways in both
directions and then to the fence before asking for a canter departure. The idea
is that sideways shortens the horse, getting him to gather up and be more compact
and put his weight back, this helps to engage him so that he can release the
energy forward into a canter. The application was a little more difficult. Boaz
would lift up but as soon as I released the pent up energy it felt like it just
petered out on the floor rather than gushing forward. He did, however, start to
give me much more forward and fast canter when I asked for it. At the end of
our session I practiced an exercise Maurice had me do the day before. Maurice
saw me and gave me a little more coaching as I came to a pole on a forward
counter canter and, with my shoulders above my hips (rather than in front),
changed my focus strongly one stride before the pole and as Boaz went over the
pole he followed my new focus and rearrange his legs in a natural flying
change. I felt like king of the world as I cantered across the arena with my
fists in the air! Little Boaz, my adorable slow poke, could go fast enough to
do flying changes! On Tuesday Maurice has promised I would be doing them by
Friday, we had exceeded expectation by getting them the very next day!
I know one flying change doesn’t make us expert, but it
certainly gives me hope and I know we are going in the right direction!
In the afternoon we had a demonstration on flank roping.
This is a high level concept because if you do it wrong you can create a bronc
rather than cure one. Maurice played with Mel’s RBI arab who gave a perfect
demonstration of violently exploding from seemingly out of nowhere. The rain
came in and as Maurice ended the demonstration thunder and lightning and some
hail joined the show. Feeling inspired I decided to be among the few crazy
people who took their horses out and practiced the flank roping. Boaz was a
little tense about the feel of the coiled lasso just touching his flank so I
took my time, breaking it down and building his confidence. At this moment I
was extremely grateful for the lessons I had had with Gabi in helping Seth. I
also knew that if I had tried this at the beginning of my relationship with
Boaz I would have got at least a few bucks. He can be so quick to go from left
brain to right, and is so introverted with it I would have easily misread him
and also we didn’t have the trust and connection between each other to help him
want to stay with me and stay left brained. By taking the necessary time at the
start I got to where I could have him do walk/trot and trot/walk transitions on
phase one. I decided this was a good place to end our session, where he had
made an big effort. Boaz seemed to actually appreciate doing something
different online and was very connected when I took him back to his pen before
heading up to the Wednesday night barbeque.
Thursday was July 4th, Independence Day.
Unfortunately we missed out on all the day time celebrations as it was business
as usual. We again practised the sideways into canter departs. I still felt
like I was missing something because, while I am not against being effective with
your horse in phase four, I do not think it’s a good sign if you are hitting a
horse hard repeatedly and things are not going better! A good phase four is
supposed to make a good phase one but instead my horse was getting apprehensive
and not finding understanding in the exercise. I spent the night thinking about
it and the next morning I had a plan! We also had an awesome liberty
demonstration by Kristi Smith. First she did a simulation with us to help us
understand and think about swapping leadership and follower roles, then she
displayed the warm up and psychology at work when playing with a RB horse at liberty,
and then a left brained one.
Feeling inspired after Kristi’s show most people went to
play at liberty, which meant the round pens were quickly full. I had a short
online session with Boaz and did my chores, had a spontaneous skype session
with Will and then headed up for dance lessons. I just got the hang of the two
swing rhythms Paul taught us when Jeannie arrived to whisk me away and take me
to Tequila’s where a group of us were gathered to celebrate fourth July. We had
great conversation and I took a walk with Jeannie around the Carnival before
having one last drink together at our regular hang out, Coyote Moon.
I was a little tired Friday morning but somehow, unusually,
found an extra reserve of energy that got me through the day and all pumped up
for a night out.
In the morning it was flash lessons and, as I had already
had mine at the start of the week (Maurice had helped me use timing with the
feet to improve the back-up online), I decided to try out a new little plan
with my riding. I had been thinking about the way I use my phases and decided
to put more of a playful intensity into my phase one, like when you threaten to
tickle someone. I had noticed that he was much more responsive to the thought
of a phase four than an actual phase four, it just seemed like we were missing
the part where he realises he could do something about stopping the phase four
from coming. So I would lift the stick and make circular motions with a “it’s
going to get you!...” energy and if he did nothing I would touch him using the
concept of four phases in four phases. The first phase four being just a touch,
the second a firm hold with the stick, the third a fair thud and the fourth
would be pretty darned big if necessary, but then it would all return to the
original touch being phase four. Doing this helped me to keep my mind and
emotions in the game, to be playful and not get to serious with my phases, and
it really started to make a difference in Boaz’s mind. He didn’t feel like I
was being unfair, there was enough consistency that he could get the pattern
but the sliding scale of phase fours stopped him from just bracing and putting
up with the “pebble in his shoe”. Before I even got to practice my phases I
noticed his enthusiasm and connected attitude shift as soon as I saddled him.
He had a “here we go again” energy about him and wanted to walk off. I took
this feedback seriously. We have been doing a lot in the arena and I knew the
last couple of riding sessions had not been so fun for him. So I surprised him.
I took my time to get on, fiddling with things and taking him all over the
place with me. When I did get on I turned around and headed for the savvy park
and I didn’t ask him to spped up, I just used my four phases in four phases to
remind him to follow my focus as we headed up the hill and around the outer
edge of the field, through the forest. We had never ridden the back trails of
the savvy park. It’s not very big but the terrain is very shrubby and there was
a very steep decent that got him thinking about his feet. HE began asking me
questions “which way will we go at this bush? Should we stop to rest here of go
on up there?” As we headed out of the
forest I felt his walk was much more forward and positive and the energy
flowing forward through him felt so good that I thought “maybe he will trot”
and, as if reading my mind, he tipped up into a trot. Again I still went with
the pace he offered, not asking him to speed up (for a change). I steered him
up another hill with my seat and he offered to canter. I said “thank you” and
we did a few simple changes on the hill before turning down it and opening up
as we headed toward the gate. He did a beautiful job partnering with me as we
opened and closed the gate and then we walked over to the arena and did the
gate there. Once in the arena I asked Boaz to do a simple follow the rail
pattern at the walk. He was expecting me to push him so instead I used my seat
to slow his walk down, add in halt transitions and ask him to walk again. Many
horses will want to start going forward if you hold them back but Boaz seemed
to accept my smaller movements and be happy to walk slowly. What we did
achieve, however, is that he discovered it was more comfortable for him to
match me rather than go against me. When I used my seat more normally and even
had a bigger walk in the life of my riding, he matched it. I used the four
phases in four phases not to speed him up but to correct him on the follow the
rail. Te pattern had become broken because we were constantly having to come
off the rail to get around other riders normally and when we were on the rail I
had been quite demanding of him and so he did not associate being on the rail
with comfort. I wanted to make sure I corrected this because a good follow the
rail is basic foundation and without it your life will be very much more
difficult. When I felt that we had made an improvement, walking a much greater
distance with no corrections, I asked Boaz to trot. It took a long time for
Boaz to make an effort to stay on the rail. The whole time I did not ask him to
speed up unless he broke gait. His trot was becoming more and more forward as
he thought about following the rail straight rather than turning off of it, and
he began moving in a more efficient way, stretching his top line and lifting
his back. It felt great and was real confirmation that if left in a gait for
long enough, horse’s will find the most comfortable way to move, which is
usually more correct.
We did this on both reins. I decided to do it at the canter
also. We would pick up the canter in the bottom right corner and follow the
rail all the way around, for the most part Boaz was good with this only needing
a couple of corrections on the first couple of laps, but when we reached the
bottom left corner h would start cutting in. He wanted to stop at the gate and
when I told him to canter he decided to veer off of the rail. My correction
with the carrot stick was ineffective as he pushed harder and took off faster
than I’ve ever known him to go. I just went with the speed, keeping the same
game in mind and said “you can speed up but we’re going back to the rail” and I
would steer him back out again. On the fourth time I decided to use the reins
to bring him back to the rail at the gate. This was much more effective and
again he tried to stop. The next lap he did it perfectly, following my seat to
stay on the rail at a good forward canter. I stopped him halfway up the long side
and jumped off. He was sweated up, the only time I’ve seen him with so much
sweat was the day he did the flying change. It really felt like he had worked
as hard as me for a change. And I had not asked him to speed up once! He
enjoyed a quick shower and a long drink before settling down to a large pile of
hay. In the afternoon we had a long meeting about how to plan and organise
Savvy Team displays. We were put into groups and assigned individual savvys.
Each team has four or five people doing. Each savvy is represented and we have
3 songs to put on an inspirational show. I picked my savvy out of the bowl...
finesse! My team mates are Shirley, Kari and Aurelie. We had only an hour left
of the day to play with horses so I took Boaz to the round pen for some
liberty. He was so connected that he came with me to the pen at liberty and we
didn’t need to play Susan’s connection game. I did some stick to me with him
and then I started to turn away and run from him as fast as I could. His life
came up and he started trying to head me up and we were almost doing cutting
together. When I asked him to back up he got so excited that he shot off onto
the circle. Again I surprised him by asking him to slow down rather than speed
up. Soon he was offering to canter circles around me. I asked him for a change
of direction at the trot and his life came up and he popped into canter then
changed direction with a flying change. I ran backwards to draw him and he
leapt in the air, bucked out dived left then right and then came to me with an
exuberant trot. I gave him a moment with me before doing yoyos with him. When I
sent him on a circle again I still had some of that playful energy but apparently
he had spent all of his because he went right brain introverted. I brought my
energy down and gave him more time standing at peace with me and went back to
stick to me until he was willing and able to make an effort to trot to stay
with me. We also indulged in a spot of mutual grooming. It would have been nice
to have ended our session on the extroversion but I am happy that I was able to
adjust to meet his needs and we accomplished exuberance and play together.
Saturday, Anne, Lisa and I were going to a Buddhist Retreat
Open Day but when we got there it had been cancelled at the last minute “due to
unforeseen circumstances”. Instead we went back to Pagosa and I picked up a
cheap phone so I will no longer be unable to contact people and bought a nice
belt to finish my professional look (I hope!).
After finishing Boaz’ care in the afternoon I chilled out at
the condo for a few hours waiting for Jeannie and the others to pick me up for
our night at Coyote Moon. When we finally got there it was still dead so we
went to On the Rocks instead, where Tim Sullivan’s band were playing. We had a
lot of fun dancing.
Tom met the next morning and came with me to the ranch and
met Boaz. He liked him and stood by as I rasped Boaz’s front feet. We were
going to round up cattle together but Tom felt too tired and wanted to chill
out. He dropped me home so I could Skype with Will and have lunch and we
planned to hang out later in the afternoon, but he got called out to work on a
big bush fire. So my Sunday has turned into a day of rest after all. I have
finally updated my blog and I watched Unknown with Graham who made me a
delicious treat of strawberries and ice-cream.
Next week the Colt starting course begins and we will be
auditing it and doing our riding in the evenings. It goes over the weekend too
so we will be kept busy! There should be plenty to write about!
