New video!

Randy & I recently attended this year's Parelli tour, "Horse & Soul" at Conyers, GA. We were only there for the 1st day. The video here was created by Randy to submit for their social media contest. A winner was chosen for best video & best photo. The winner would receive one of their new video courses. He certainly deserved to win in my not so humble opinion! Thanks to Randy for winning me the new Game of Contact course, which I've been thoroughly enjoying & hopefully Kisia will feel the same way soon!

Spring has arrived early here & we're taking full advantage of it! We recently completed a big fencing project to allow my Thoroughbred, Miles, a larger & grassier area to enjoy his retirement. This also means a smaller & less grassy area for the mares. This too is wonderful & may allow Kisia to spend more time with her friends this spring/summer rather than be relegated to the dry lot. My mares are all easy keepers with Kisia being an exceptionally easy keeper, so less is more for them when it comes to grass.

Kisia & I are playing with some of the concepts in Linda Parelli's Game of Contact. We also made a trip over to Cedar Winds for a lesson & came home with some more "Classical" training tips to add to our riding. Next month we will make the trip to our Repro vet to start watching for Kisia to be ready to breed. Hoping she'll prove easy to get in foal & handle the process with ease.

Winter Update

Horsey life has been quiet here this winter. While it's not been so cold this year, it's been rainy leaving things too muddy to do much with the horses. Late fall we made some improvements to the foundation of our riding arena & had sand placed. When things dry up enough this spring, the sand will be graded to about 2 inches deep, then will start looking into placing some fencing around the area for a real place to ride & play finally! The horses have lost access to our front pasture & pond for the next few years. We're unfortunately losing some land & lots of trees due to road construction. In anticipation of this, we've planted a little over 100 Pines, a hand full of Oaks & have some flowering trees coming to add to the mix. Will be re-routing our driveway & moving some plumbing soon then just wait till it's over & allow our new little forest to grow. Kisia (our 5 year old PRE) & Foxy (Randy's Tennessee Walker) have both slimmed down nicely this winter despite giving me the big starving horsey eyes every possible opportunity! I've ridden Fox a few times just walking out for a trail ride. Kisia has learned to put her head down for me to jump on then pop up so I can get on her bareback....not graceful but gets me up there! Zorra (our Andalusian cross filly), who is now our tallest mare, seems to have slowed down growing somewhat. I've taught her the Spanish Walk & spent some time in the barn getting her used to saddles & tack. She'll be two in April so we'll start some prep for riding. Miles, at almost 21, remains a challenge to keep weight on. Although, he's held what he had this winter so far. Always the quintessential Thoroughbred, he just can't be still for long....you'd never know he has arthritis & growing melanomas. At this point my goal is to keep him happy & comfortable in retirement. I've chosen the PRE stallion Klickitat AK to breed Kisia to this spring. I've literally taken years to choose him & believe he's quite complimentary to Kisia. Hoping all is easy with her first attempts at breeding. To learn more about him, check out http://vrdressage.com/. Picture above of our beautiful Kisia.

Pics by Coco

Slideshow of photos taken while Kisia & I were in Ocala, FL attending the Flex-track course at the Parelli Center. The Parelli Center in Ocala is a magical place. I was lucky to get to attend one of the last courses held there as it is now for sale. I'm not always comfortable with pictures of myself which is why one typically only sees horse pics here. But, these are more about the relationship &, I think, Coco did a great job of capturing that on film.

Deliberant, consistent & persistent

Florida was another wonderful experience at the Parelli campus. Kisia & I are both glad to be home enjoying getting back to our routine & a bit of rest to digest some of what we've brought back. My personal focus during the Flex Track was on Freestyle riding. It's been a challenge for me as I'm used to riding with contact as is my mare. What I realised during our course was just what I was missing. I was not being clear or consistent enough with my phases. I also was giving up way too soon when things weren't working & going back to what I knew worked.....riding with contact. After getting some clear instruction on just what my phases should be....not nagging with one too long before going to the next...& staying with it until Kisia was able to understand what I wanted....we put it to test. My big break through was while trying to walk around a tree in a circle. I kept having to go to phase 4 with the reins & put her back on the circle. I knew that all I had to do to ride a lovely circle around that tree was pick up the contact! But it was not about the circle, it was about allowing Kisia the time to understand what my intention & body were asking her to do. As these things go, she "all of the sudden" got it & turned at phase 3 with just my outside leg. That was it! We still had moments of needing to go to the reins for a correction but she knew what that leg meant from that moment on & even began to turn from my eyes/belly & focus later. This also translated to other areas for me as to the importance of being very deliberate & consistent with the four phases as well as staying with it as long as needed for the horse to understand what your trying to communicate. We stayed so busy that I didn't get many pictures but did have a photo session with Coco. Should get those photos in about a month & will share here.

What we've learned so far....

Kisia & I enjoyed watching "Parelli Games" this morning & spending some undemanding time together today. After a very full week, it's nice to have a day to relax & think on some of what we've learned. One area where I got some great suggestions was on Kisia's desire to dive down to eat grass about anytime I'm not actively asking her to do something. One instructor suggested using a voice cue "head-up", then kiss, then a bump on her rope. This helped but wasn't effective enough as a bump on the rope doesn't bother her too much. I questioned another instructor who suggested to "try to beat her to the punch" giving her a tap on her hiney as soon as she would start to dive for a bite. We made a game of this, moving around to different grassy areas. It worked like a charm. Took about 3 times for her to get it so I then added the voice cue "head up" & the tap if needed. Again about 3 times & she was able to understand that "head up" meant a tap to the toosh would soon follow if she went for grass. Next step was to get some communication going as to a cue that meant...."yes this is a good place to eat grass, go ahead!". So I began asking her to lower her head....she was pretty skeptical that it was OK so I very quietly took a few steps away from her physically & directed any energy well away from her. Didn't take long for her to get this part either. This has been an annoyance for me for some time with Kisia with things like grooming, tacking up & bathing in grassy areas. For me this is a priceless bit of learning & goes back to the saying to make the wrong thing uncomfortable & the right thing easy. We're had some great break throughs with our freestyle ride as well that I'll share here later!

Update from FL

Kisia & I are nearing the end of week one here in Florida of the Flex Track course offered at the Parelli Center. The first two days were testing. A theory test, knot tying, online, freestyle & liberty skills. Since I'm here more to develop my horsemanship skills rather than progress through the instructor track, I feel comfortable saying I might prefer no testing in a future course. That said, testing skills in front of an instructor is a challenge for me so good to step up from time to time & give it a go! Day three consisted of a rope handling, knot tying, personal goal setting for the rest of the course & reviewing our test scores (if we wanted them). Disappointing online score as Kisia & I have passed our level 2 online but surprising scores on both liberty (which we've done next to nothing with) & Freestyle. Kisia, having endured a really long trip, got several days off before the course started as we arrived a week before. I'm glad we did that as I feel it helped her to have some time to recover a bit before asking her to start moving & thinking so soon after that stress. She is a young mare, just four & a half, so much is new to her about traveling. She of course draws admirers & charms people who pass her pen. Such is her charisma & beauty. She's proving herself to be true to her breed displaying spirit when she moves, super sensibility in the face of unending new stimuli & ease of training. The new obstacles like the car wash, a nice long isle of blue tarps hanging with cut outs blowing in the wind, tires, jumps & ponds are, for her, curiosities rather than something to fear. She does get quite exuberant at times when riding. But as long as she's connected & listening that's something I personally enjoy. Will get some pics this weekend of this magical campus to post here later & share more of what we're learned as we go along.

Heading to Florida!

Kisia & I are soon to be on our way to FL to attend a 2 week course at the Parelli Center. I'm obviously excited to get to do this but especially pleased to get the attend one of the last courses that will be held at that beautiful horse heaven. It's my understanding that the FL campus has been sold meaning that future offerings will only be at the CO campus. I'll post some blogs along the way about what we're up to down there. In prep for our trip, rather than worry about what Kisia & I can do as far as our skills....of late I've been focusing on helping her to build confidence for the long trailer ride. Kisia is always more than happy to load up & down but has trouble staying in the trailer & gets worried when all the doors are shut. We've only taken short day trips (outside her long trip here from TX as a weanling). Each time we arrived at our destination, she would get off the trailer sweaty, apparently having worried that whole trip. I've tried spending longer periods of time in the trailer which wasn't making a difference. As soon as the butt bar or back gait went up, her stress was clear. As these things go, I had a moment of brilliance walking by the trailer one day & thought....wonder how she'd do if I left her in there with a buddy. Foxy is quiet & experienced in the trailer so loaded her up....loaded Kisia up who immediately started much hay (a first in the trailer)...butt bars up....back gait closed....two mares hanging out munching hay....YES! I made a program of this, leaving them on together about 30 minutes several mornings, then just Kisia. The 1st time she went on by herself, she had a few moments of tension (biting the chest bar & little pawing). Then she settled in & started eating. 2nd round of this no tension, just hanging out eating. I believe that she was unable to find relaxation at all in the trailer & having her lead mare be relaxed allowed her to chill. She was then able to go there on her own. Long trip ahead of us & hoping for as relaxed a ride for her as possible.