No Reins

Takin' It One Year At A Time.

2011-01-01T16:58:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year, everyone!

I hope you all had a good holiday season.

I'm going to be starting a new blog as sort of a personal journal for 2011.

I'll be updating this one whenever I have anything new going on with my horses but as for regular updates, I'm not planning on having any.

Feel free to follow my new blog and check back here every now and then for updates.

Happy 2011, I hope it's your best year yet.

KatieA.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T10:13:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas!!!

From the herd, myself, my family and Bear (pictured above with the cute little Christmas tree beside my barn.) Hope you all have a wonderful, safe holiday season and a Happy New Year!

Ice

2010-12-16T23:28:00.011-05:00

It was a beautiful crystalline day here at home. The horses are blanketed and warm in their stalls and all the dogs are inside enjoying the heat. I was able to take a few of pictures with my camera during a break in the freezing sleet. Hope you enjoy them!

Tis' The Season To Be Jolly!

2010-12-08T16:46:00.008-05:00

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving here at home with lots of family, friends, food and fun. It was a great day to celebrate and be thankful for everything we have. Now, Christmas is right around the corner and soon we'll be in a brand new year. I'm so excited for the future and what tomorrow will bring.

News:
My plans for being a working student have been put on hold as they don't have a position for me as of now. But, the awesome folks down in Florida did give me some good ideas as to what I can do here to better myself and continue to learn and grow until I find another way to make it to Parelliland.

Firstly, I'm going to try to contact some instructors and advanced Parelli students in the area to see if there's anyone who I could learn from nearby. Doing this would definitely help me progress with my horse because the closer someone is, the easier it would be to get some real one-on-one hands-on help. I realized that I really miss school which lead to the decision to take this time to go back to college. When I had my Lap-Band surgery in September, I had to drop my classes due to some complications which slowed down my healing process. Now that my plans have opened up for the time being, I'm looking into online courses through Phoenix University. I'm really very interested in the Associates in Psychology they offer so come January, I'll be on it!
I'm also going to renew my gym membership and get back in there. I've already transformed my eating habits, but now it's time for the hard work. Being healthy and happy is a life-long goal of mine not only for my horses but for me. Besides, I really do miss my cardio! And as always, I plan to continue to sing and write as often as possible. If I find myself with any spare time after all this dust settles, I'm toying with the idea of starting on the Parelli's recommended reading list.
Things are progressing. Even if it's not what I planned, wanted or expected; it's okay. I know things are headed where they should and I'll get to where I want to be eventually. The only thing I can do is have faith and determination and keep moving forward.

Positive, Progressive and Natural: I'm trying to allow these three principles to soak into every area of my life.
On an ending note, here are a few snapshots I got of my herd in their winter-time pajamas today. They're adorable, right?

K.

Roaaaadtrip!

2010-11-08T13:37:00.000-05:00

This feeling of moving forward is addictive and I'm really enjoying my new, active lifestyle.

Combining my new lifestyle with horses is the current goal and a close friend of mine told me about the working student program at the Parelli centers. I made up my mind to go for it, so off I went.

Literally!

I went down to the Parelli center in Florida for the Open House on October 30th and it was a blast! I got to reconnect with some old friends and make a few new ones. I had a chat with Lee Palmer and Ann Kiser and I filled out an application for the working student program. Ann said I should hear back from them within a few weeks, so I'm totally biting my nails until that fateful e-mail... or phone call. Wish me luck!
If luck truly is spelled W-O-R-K and defined as when preparation meets opportunity then I have one thing to say: I feel as if I am super-prepared for this opportunity to W-O-R-K!

K.

Never-ending Self Improvement.

2010-10-19T21:15:00.005-04:00

This title truly summarizes how my life has been during these past few months. One big change right after another, nonstop. Most of these changes are positive, all are challenging and I'm so excited for what's to come!

First of all, Bailey came back home to stay with us because things didn't work out quite as well as we had hoped with the potential new owners. But that's alright. We're glad to have our sweet boy back. (:
I passed Level 1 with Lady sometime in July and we're currently progressing through L2 Online.
I got my red string in late September. It was such an exciting moment!

I'm still planning on going through to L3 Online and Liberty before thinking about approaching riding with her. This horse is my mirror and I love her to bits, but I'm still hoping to find a nice, safe, ride-able horse to ease me into riding between now and then.

On October 10th I rang in my 19th Birthday! It was on 10/10/2010 which was pretty neat. My mom and grandma got together and cooked a big Birthday supper and I had a great time relaxing with my family.

In a parallel area of my life, on September 22 I had Lap-Band surgery. If you're not familiar with Lap-Band then check this out.*<--click*

One of my big goals is to become an athlete for my horses and myself and this surgery is the path that was laid at my feet. I just went with it and I haven't looked back. Having this surgery has been a real blessing and at times a test of my will and strength. It was more than worth it and every day I am a new, healthier version of myself with more confidence and more passion for life than before.
The changes in my digestive system have brought on new cravings and another change in me. I cut out junk food, fast food, most fried foods and sodas or any kind of drink that's high in sugar. I've also decided to go vegetarian for a little while. So far this decision has been a good one as I'm feeling worlds lighter and more energized than before. I'm living off of Kashi cereals and granola, hummus, Planter's NUT-rition health mixes, (my favourites being the Digestive Health mix with dried cranberries and cherries, almonds, granola clusters and pistachios and the Omega 3 mix which includes walnuts, dried cherries and dark chocolate-covered soy nuts. A really healthy and yummy snack!) a lot of salads, fresh veggies and fruits and Morning Star vegetarian alternatives to meat. (I love the Garden Patties.)

Now that I've made all the changes for a healthier lifestyle, it's time to focus on my other goals/dreams. I want to be a Parelli Instructor really badly. This has been my dream for years and I've made the decision that I am going to do whatever it takes to realize this dream. (:

Now that we're all up to date again, I promise to try to blog more often. I'm really excited about sharing my journey.
Thanks for reading! More soon.

K.

Changes

2010-07-20T16:03:00.004-04:00

Changes all around..

The picture to the left of Baileyboy was sent to me from what could quite possibly be his new home!

He'll be there for a month long trial to see if he'll fit in with the herd and fit the needs of the people.

It was bittersweet to see him leave but, from watching these folks work with him, I know that they'll understand him and take care of his needs first. I trust that they will take the time it takes for him to become confident and let those defensive walls drop. I can honestly say I feel good about it. So send positive energy our way, friends! Things are looking up.

Since Bailey's gone, we've put the mini-horse out in the pasture with Lady.. Their developing relationship is very... interesting. The mini horse is a very dominant LBE with a huuuge food orientation and he's quite the little character. Lady spends half of her time fighting with him for dominance.

Here's a quick picture for you to kind of show you the size difference.. Lady looks like a giraffe next to him!

Lady didn't take to this transition too well and I'm kind of worried about her. She seems sort of sad and subdued but, hopefully she'll take to the little one better in the coming days.

My horse is my mirror...

I've been quite sick the past three weeks and now I'm on an intense medication regimen to make me better and KEEP me better.. hopefully.

Right now I'm going to focus on getting better and getting enrolled in school.

It's a difficult stage for me but I feel like we could be coming out of a steep learning curve. I'm ready to move on to a place where things flow.

More soon!

Katie.

Checklist.

2010-07-15T00:34:00.003-04:00

I was reading over all my past blogs and I stumbled accross this old checklist of all the things I wanted to be able to do with Lady and all of the things I needed.

I just read this checklist for the first time in two + years and everything on it has been accomplished. Funny how things work out, right?

Seeing this has inspired me to make a new checklist so, here we go!
Short term goals first:

Film a Level 1 audition with Lady and send it in sometime within the next three days.
Start trying to accomplish some of the self-assessment tasks for Online Level 2.
Take a week to focus on and work towards a solid Level 2 Figure 8 with Lady.
Focus on our sideways game for a few sessions.
Film a solid Level 2 Online audition with Lady and send it in before October, 2010.
Keep trying to find a good home for Bailey.
Become more fit for my horses.

And then some of my long term goals:

Find a way to start riding! I'm ready to start exploring that savvy... with a sane and willing partner, that is.
Make enough money for a Parelli Saddle & all the fittings.
I'd also reaaally love a 45' line!
*STAY* fit for my horses.
Pass Level 2 and get my blue string.
Start playing in Level 3 Online and Liberty. (Need roundpen!)
Spend some time at Cardinal Ranch
Spend some time in Wisconsin with Fran again.
Find a way to get some Private Lesson time with a Parelli Instructor!
Acquire a truck and trailer.
Attend a course at the Colorado ISC.
Go to college for either Equine Sciences or Zoology.
Find a way to make money EXCLUDING Retail & Fast Food industries. (Never doing that again if I can help it.)
Have a successful career with horses! Training/Breeding/Raising/Teaching/Vetting/Massaging/Riding/ANYTHING!
BE HAPPY.
BREATHE WHILE I DO IT!

Haha. It's a long list but, I want it all. Now... in this situation the only element I can't control is time. So now that I've written this all down, I'm going to forget about it and keep moving forward.

Wish me luck!

Katie.

I love this crazy guy.

2010-07-07T23:24:00.002-04:00

Pat Parelli is a genius, a horseman and.. a total goober.

Trailer fun pictures galore!

2010-07-07T22:17:00.002-04:00

Well, some of you might know the horror stories about both of my horses and trailer loading. For those of you who don't, I'll summarize it for ya.

The first day the previous owners tried to load Lady onto the trailer to get her to me, she was to the point that they went through 6 full doses of bute and she was STILL rearing, running backwards and pulling back hard enough to pull the guys off their feet. Day 2, they had no problems.

When Bailey got to me he was frozen, shaking and literally dripping with sweat from everywhere. Like he had been hosed down and it was chilly on that day, as well so I read it as seriously emotional.

So I haven't even thought about a trailer until I felt we had a pretty stable relationship. Here are some pictures of our old, rusty open trailer that I'm introducing first as a toy [Not for hauling them, just for playing.] And you might notice some photos of my assistant teacher who I can proudly load into ANYTHING from 20 feet away. After seeing that, they just couldn't resist coming over to inspect! [; Hope you enjoy!

And just when they thought things couldn't get weirder... *I* loaded *myself* into the trailer!

Isn't that the sweetest face you've ever seen? And of course my wonderful assistant!

Thanks for looking, hope you enjoyed it! Also, I'd like to share that Lady actually put her foot on the trailer for a few seconds. The big goober... but, that might have had something to do with the random treat she found lurking on the little ramp. Hmmm... wonder how that got there? ;D

K.

Letting Go

2010-07-06T22:34:00.005-04:00

"Somebody said to [Stephenie Burns] "Is there ever going to be a day when I can just get on my horse?"
"Because this horse tests me all the time and although I've come a long way she's really challenging and is that ever going to change?"

To which Stephenie replied "Isn't that the meaning of horsemanship? That's the journey. If you don't want to do that then get a motorbike."
Because if you want to make progress you've got to have something to do it with. You can pick an easy horse, and some of you have and you're probably really smart. And some of you have picked challenging horses and some very challenging horses. And some of you have decided that's what you wanna do and you don't care what it takes, you're going to learn to savvy it and you're prepared for what it takes. that's a real student.
Now, if you give up and go 'i can't do that anymore i need something easier' there's no love lost in that; there's no shame in that. you've gotta go 'who do i have to be to play with this horse?' and I want to be what it takes to play with this horse. I want to be good enough for this horse. He's a superb animal, he's got so much potential. But, he can only be as good as I am. And so I'll work on myself. Every day. Every day in every way. But, I'm weird. I am not normal. "

- Linda Parelli on challenging horses & Allure.

I found this video in the Savvy Club vault of Linda playing with Allure from '06. She was showing a group of students what she had to do to get Allure ready to ride and she talked about how far she had come with him and how far she had yet to go.. The quote up there is from the very end of the video and it really struck home with me.
I think it might possibly be one of the best things that has ever come from that wonderful woman's mouth. It really made me think about my journey.

I am guilty of comparing my journey to other people's journies.
I am guilty of underestimating my horse and myself. (Sometimes grossly underestimating.)
I am guilty of being an 'avoidaholic'.
I also have become a person who is so afraid of failure that I stopped trying.

Coming face to face with these facts about myself has been a four year long process. I kept us back because I was afraid. I'm still afraid... of so many things. But, I'm not going to use that as a crutch anymore.
I've made a decision. A real decision, mind you. To march forward and trust that everything will work itself out.

I'm done underestimating my horse because it's not fair to her. She's brilliant and she's not the same 'crazy, scary, psycho' horse that I bought a few years back.. She's changed and we've grown together.
There is so much learning to be done. She can do it! I'm the one who's having the most trouble. I remember that horse.. I haven't seen that horse in a long time, but I remember and I am afraid. I know that I need to at least give her a chance to try the tasks we've been avoiding. So, that's our new plan. We're going to stop avoiding the things I was positive would 'blow her up' because I can deal with it with savvy. That's where the underestimating myself comes in...

We can do anything and everything with time. I've acquired my stick-with-it-ness. I'll continue to acquire information, God knows I've got enough sources available to me!

So it's time to use them and progress.

It's time to let go of 'that horse' and 'that Katie' because they're not here any longer. Now it's me and her and we're growing every day.

On a side note, I hope everyone had a great, safe Holiday and thanks so much for reading.

K.

Yaaay, Breakthroughs!

2010-07-02T17:07:00.003-04:00

As promised, here's some more info on the big Horsenality breakthrough I had with Ladybug which has proven to be one of the most important realizations I've ever had..

Yesterday; the same day I had that huge breakthrough with Bailey, I played with 'Bug for the first time in a few weeks since I'd become frustrated with her and our serious lack of communication which I now understand was because I was misreading my horse!

One of the first things she did was throw a tantrum. Now, this girl is wonderfully athletic! She was pulling back, rearing, bucking and trying her hardest to get away from me and back to her herd. But, because I did so much studying during our time apart I noticed something I wouldn't usually have noticed and I responded in a totally different way.. There's a fifty-fifty chance, right?!

Well, this time I was right. (FINALLY!)

She was throwing a left-brain tantrum, of course. I already knew that.. but when I said "You want to move? OKAY! Let me help you!" and proceeded to send her into a lot of crazy patterns and then starting running with her myself.. she stopped and gave me the most attention I've ever got out of this horse and she didn't want to move anymore. In fact, she didn't want to move at all. This is when a theory appeared:

What if.. this ridiculously smart horse has figured out that if she moves her feet and throws these tantrums that I'll leave her alone? What if my horse is a total Left-Brain Introvert who has used her thinking power to wiggle her way out of another thing she didn't want to do? That thing of course being play with me.

I took that theory, applied some techniques that went hand in hand with it and the rest of the lesson went really well, ending on a decent note and I vowed to give it some thought and play with this idea again today.

SO, today I went out there super early and set things up.. I hid treats around randomly in/on/under certain objects and then I hid some more in my back pockets. (This horse is seriously food oriented and I feel like I'm just now starting to grasp how to use this for my advantage.)
By then, both horses were just dying to know what I was doing and I noticed that today as opposed to yesterday, Lady stayed to be haltered first. Usually it's the "You'll have to chase me!" "Oh, what horse?" game.

Not today. I think she wanted to know what else I had up my sleeve. Using more LBI-friendly techniques throughout our playtime earned me the most lovely, sweet, curious, ENTHRALLED look I have ever got out of her. CONSISTENTLY! I was interesting! I made it worth her attention AND I challenged her brain with a few patterns and she tried so hard for me. We also started fixing the issue we had been having with a crooked yo-yo and ineffective phases. (THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP, FRAN!) I now have more awareness of my body and a totally different 'creepy uncle that tickles you' mindframe. "I'm gonna get you!" with my phase one and it has really made a huge difference. Not to mention the changes in my sense of humor! She's such a funny horse!

Our ending note was the greatest bit; she had two feet on the tire and I fed her the two treats that I saved for her in my pockets and it blew her mind. Looots of friendly on the tire and that's where I took her halter off. I was so happy with how the session went that I was ready for it to end. I backed away from the tire and she followed me and STUCK to me like glue. I tested it a little by walking forward, stopping and backing up and she was right there with me with no halter, mirroring me.
She wanted to be with me! I feel so accomplished and tuned into my horse. It rocked!

I also spent a lot of time just hanging out with the two of them today.. my little cousin tagged along and we brushed Bailey down until he fell asleep. It was some good bonding time and I feel like the whole day has just been great. I'm considering filming my Audition junk tomorrow and then Sunday, the 4th is my mom's birthday! So we're headed to the beach for the day and I can't wait. Yay, good stuff! Boo, allergies!

Lesson in Lightness

2010-07-01T22:47:00.004-04:00

*So this is the copy and pasted entry I posted on the Savvy Club Forum earlier today about the big breakthrough with Bailey. I will add onto it since this is my blog and I'm allowed to be a little long-winded. ;D

*Hey guys! Some of you might know about the little paint horse my mom bought a few months back.. You also might have heard about how much trouble I was having with him when I first started playing with him!

Well, along the way these past few months I have found out some very interesting things about this little guy and today we had a big breakthrough I just had to share.. (I'd really like to know if any of you can relate!)

My main Level's partner Lady is a very LBI/E dominant kinda gal who loves to make me work harder than she does and knows EXACTLY how to get out of doin' stuff she doesn't want to do and so of course she had me Phase4ing so much that my arm near 'bout fell off every time I went out to play. That's what I was used to! I was so frustrated and she'd always PUSH my buttons and win all the time.. But, thanks to this little paint horse, everything about me is changing.

At first he was so dull (or so I thought.) I thought he was exactly like her, I thought he needed me to work for respect and show him who the leader was and why I was worthy of that position like I had to do with her..

So, when I threw a few little tests his way to see how he responded to me being his leader.. He exploded.

Here I had this giant pushy, pully, dominant mare and she had never pulled a 22 ft rope out of my hands and then this little guy comes along and before I even know what's happened he's GONE and so is my longest rope.(Thanks, Parelli for giving me hands that open quickly!)

Major shock on my part so, I let it go. I spent weeks learning about him and just spending time with him. He turned into this horse who was ALWAYS in my pocket, liked to nibble and bite just to see what I'd do and some days he had the cutest, most curious expression on his face and other days his cribbing is incredibly similar to my granddaddy's chain-smoking and he's got that hardness in his eyes and mouth. On a side note, this horse came here with an bad-banana to the extreme posture and horrible muscle atrophies all along the underside of his neck, a serious don't-touch-me-there spot right under his jawline and a very sore and weak back. So, I'm taking these to be key clues as to how he was treated in the past considering I know NOTHING as far as that goes.. While this horse was revealing himself to me, I figured out I needed his trust. Judging from his physical state and mental/emotional reactions to certain things I am guessing that trust is something he hasn't really known and that he's been forced. Quite a bit. I knew he was an introvert. I thought he was Left brain, turns out he's right brain.. That was the first big shocker

By taking the time to get to know him and figuring out his horsenality, I found out that he's incredibly sensitive when asked. This revelation blew my mind.

I never gave this horse the chance to respond. I assumed he wouldn't so I piled the pressure on and within seconds he was gone.

When I tested this theory and tried my techniques today..I found out if I put a TEASPOON too much pressure on him, he'll sull up, brace against me, pull back, lose all faith in me and I have to work really hard to get it back.

And I do mean a teaspoon. I've never met a horse this sensitive with such drastic changes from light, responsive, beautifully curious, trusting, WILLING to hard, braced, biting, kicking, disrespectful, FEARFUL, tight and DEFENSIVE in two seconds flat.

Today, after I grasped this concept and learned where his phase 1 was... we started AND learned all the basic games except sideways and circle.. all with a phase 1.. His phase 1. He's AMAZING and I feel so accomplished because after the session he was so relaxed I took his halter off from my knees and he kept his head down there with me until he was nearly asleep.

I gained his trust; I spoke his language and I found the curious, light horse just dying to be played with.

This is a huge step forward for us and I'm so excited for our future.

Bailey isn't the only one who has given me startling BFO's today. (BFO: Blinding Flashes Of The Obvious.)
Next post is going to be focused on Lady and our Horsenality breakthrough.
But, I think this is going to be it for tonight. I need some rest!

Night, folks!

K.

We're Back!

2010-07-01T22:11:00.003-04:00

Well, helloooo! I hope you enjoy the new layout and music.. not to mention the picture of my shaggy ponies from this past Winter. They thought their newest toy was very interesting.. especially now that it's filled with dirt and they can stand on it! I also swear they're looking tons cleaner and super-shiny now that summer is in full swing.

So much has happened since I shut down this blog. From colic scares to roadtrips to new boots and jobs all around. I can say that everything is stable right now and where my horses are concerned; things are AWESOME. We've come a long way and I've got so much to write about but for right now we'll start with this introduction. My next post is going to be a pre-written entry concerning Bailey (the little painted guy) and how much he's taught me on the subject of lightness. Then I'm going to fill you in on the big Horsenality updates concerning 'Bug and THEEEEEN.. -deep breath.- my plans and ideas for my next play sessions. I'm so excited to have this blog back up and running now that I FEEL like writing again.

That's it for the intro. Onto entry numero dos... What, did you think I was going to do it later?! It's only 10:23 pm. ;)

Oh, by the way... THANKS FOR HANGING IN THERE, FOLLOWERS AND FRIENDS. (:
K.

Abandoning Ship!

2009-11-28T13:34:00.001-05:00

This blog is pretty much abandoned. I don't have time or the wish to continue with it, but for those of you who are curious about how our Journey is coming along, feel free to ask. (:

Happy Holidays!

Katie.

Point To Point Experiment.

2009-08-01T04:37:00.002-04:00

Yes, it is quite early but it's okay. We all know that my hours tend to vary so I figure my being awake at 4:30 in the morning shouldn't shock you too much!

I had an.. interesting session with my horse yesterday morning which ended with her FLYING away from me when I took the halter off. I realized quite a few things last night/this morning which has led to some theories..

1. My horse is no longer spooky, jumpy, or nervous.
2. *I* am all of those things.
3. I am treating my TOTALLY in control Introvert like an out of control Extravert because of how extraverted her movement becomes. But her state of mind and reasoning is totally different which is why we're not making any progress and I'm not connecting with her.

At one point yesterday she was refusing to move and I read her as LBI ("Oh darn, it would appear that my rope has caught on one of these unfortunately placed barrels. It seems I'll have to break this pattern and go the other way....What a pity.") So, I pulled out an arrow.. and what I assumed happened "for no reason" became clear to me today..
I automatically labeled it as one of her random, out of nowhere.. LBE fits of "I HAVE TO MOVE!" but I now see it was a total. "Take your pattern and shove it. I'm not doing this anymore and you can't make me."
I thought she wanted to move mostly because she used to switch from Introvert to Extravert all. the. time.
So I tried "Alright, you want to move? Then move!" Which to her was "Well, I'm going to make you do it anyway." hence the huge explosion that followed.

Now that I feel like I've figured this out, I'm not sure how to continue. To make things worse, the fact that I'm so overreactive, jumpy and nervous.. she steps right in as leader and takes complete control.

So, I've decided to experiment with my energy and body movement when I'm not with my horse. I'm going to play point to point 'in my skin' as Linda would say, while I'm walking around doing things during the day. I'll bring up my energy and focus on the point I'm going and how I'm moving and when I arrive at my destination I'll relax everything. I figure it'd be good to help me towards becoming conciously competant with my energy and body.. Maybe even a little in my leadership.

I'll update more when I figure out a game plan for approaching the next session with 'Bug.
For now I have a few things to play with!

Feedback is welcome, readers! Let me know what you think.

Katieanne.

I am GOING to do it!

2009-07-24T02:18:00.002-04:00

I am going to film a passing Level 1 audition before August 3rd 2009.
I am sick and tired of my irrational fears. I am simply going to do it.
It's two am and I am smack dab in the middle of a determination attack... But, I figure if I put it in writing I'll have to stick to it!

Wish me luck... if I don't survive this, I love you all! (;
Hahaha.

Katieanne.

My blog apparently only shows up in Firefox

2009-07-18T14:01:00.002-04:00

hey guys! just to let you IE users know, the left hand side of my blog is apparently all fudged up in IE. Viewable only in Firefox!!

Thanks,

Katie.

OH, today was super cool.

2009-07-02T19:03:00.002-04:00

Today I played with my horse!

My mother and I decided to take our little herd out of their pasture to graze online in our back yard... Something we've never done before with both horses there and it went really well. I am so happy with how things turned out.

For those of you who don't know, I've been having problems with 'Bug lately.. She's become super dominant and had been refusing to pay any attention to me whatsoever.. Her herd was more important. She wouldn't even come see me unless it was feeding time and then it was only for her food! I was stuck and incredibly unsure of myself for a little while there but, today has really lifted my spirits!

When we first went out everything went smoothly, I had mom take the lead with Bailey and we followed grazing for a little bit... Then I let 'Bug explore wherever she wanted to.
I was walking in zone 3/4 with my neutral c-stick on her back letting her lead the way and it was wonderful! She was so curious.. We went exploring all around the back yard with her out in front because I wanted to be able to watch and learn her reaction to thresholds. We finally found some thresholds and she became really adrenalized (new word, perhaps?) her eyes got a little stary.. and she got to where she needed to move. And what did I do?
I drew some new arrows from my quiver! I am so proud of myself for not giving in and letting her have control over me and not letting her lose her self-control.
I interrupted her pattern, demanded her attention and then gave her something to do. An intricate pattern (For us, that is) involving a stump, squeezing and circling with transitions and lots of changes of direction as well as figure 8 with the stump and a barrel later on. There was a lot of licking and chewing going on during this time.. on both ends of the line!
One thing I noticed during the pattern is that I was constantly having to relax my center. My stomach gets so tight when I'm circling and I found out that neutral was hard for me to find.. Hmmm, how interesting!
Anyway, after many changes, physical and mental, 'Bug was relaxed and blowing and I was calm and in control, so we ended the session and went to graze. How exciting, right?!

After that, 'Bug was grazing and as I was sitting on a bucket, rope in my hand when I taught my mom how to figure 8 with Bailey! It was radical to see her start out like I did; all tangled rope and limbs and end up with nice fluid movements. It was beautiful and both sessions ended on amazing notes.. we grazed for about 20 more minutes and then took them back to the barn for dinner.

WONDERFUL DAY!

Now I am going to enjoy some homecooked fries and then take my happy bumbum to bed. (:

Goodnight, folks and thanks for reading!

Katieanne.

Self-Assessment results!

2009-06-22T09:12:00.002-04:00

Mornin'!

This morning Lady and I played with the Self-Assessment sheet for L1 Online and all in all I think we did excellently! Our sideways isn't very strong but, we did it! (Even though she was looking at me like I was insane. "That fence is ELECTRIC, you know...") and when we trot, stop and back up.... she doesn't move until I'm in Zone 2 and I wiggle the rope a little. I don't think it's a communication issue. I think it's a me-looking-back-and-walking-back-with-no-confidence issue. Instead of focusing my energy and asking her to move. So, we can fix that! (:

I'm so excited because we completed the self-assessment! I should be filming sometime this weekend.

I'll let you know how the trot-stop-backup troubleshooting goes soon.

Katieanne.

Studytime!

2009-06-19T23:16:00.003-04:00

Well, the printer I was planning on using to print out my self assessment is broken, so I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow to go to the library and print everything out.
I decided to do two things today to help pass the time.. I've started to dig through the SC vault and I've watched nearly six months of Parelli TV segments. I've been taking tons of notes and realized that there's always something new to learn, no matter how many times you've seen or read this particular bit. (:

The second thing I did was go out and spent about 20 minutes just sitting with them, unfocused and just relaxing out in the lot just to see how they responded to me.

WELL, first things first... Bailey was the one to come to me and when I thought things couldn't get any weirder.. Lady comes up and chases him away from me... Huh.. okay, I thought. I guess she just wanted to come see me... Bad assumption.
She herds him away and follows him to the other side of the lot. He tried again and again to come see me and we'd hang out for a few minutes and she'd come and chase him away from me to be with her. Not once did she offer to say hi to me.
It was quite interesting and I found myself giggling at the situation! I've decided not to over analyze this. I'm just taking note of it and tomorrow I'll do the same thing and see if anything changes.

But for now! I'm off to watch more video footage and take notes! Here are a few cool things I've been chewing over today:

Confidence -- Curiosity -- Sensitivity.

Make vs. Want to.

Read the horse, know how to respond (When to be firm -- When to be friendly and how?)
Psychology is key!

"You don't have to react straight away to get a horse to stop doing what he's doing. You have to react appropriately. That means you have to stop and read the situation first." -LP.

Night! (:

Katieanne.

Checklist

2009-06-18T21:12:00.002-04:00

I've decided to officially audition for my Level 1. So, tomorrow I am going to print out the self assessment and then I'm going to go over the things I'm not sure about.. that list right now would be:

Sideways - We haven't done this in a while, so we're gonna have a little refresher tomorrow.

Back from the nose - We back mostly from the chest or using Yoyo. It should be just another little refresher for us.

Run forward, stop & back up - I've tried this a few times... and it didn't turn out well. So this is the only thing we'll have to really work on during this session.

After I troubleshoot, so to speak.. I'm going to go over everything else just to double check and be sure that we're ready. Then the day after (Weather permitting!) I'll film and send it off.

Wish me luck! (:

Katieanne

Blissful Summer Day- 06/14/09

2009-06-15T07:33:00.002-04:00

Good Morning, guys!

I would have posted this yesterday but when I got back in I was BEAT. Yesterday was amazing.. I got to blog in the morning, then I went outside to spend some time with the horsies, who are amaaaazing, by the way. Soo cute in their little fly masks. When I came back in, mom cooked a big breakfast and then we all went to the lake for the day.. it was perfect! Not too hot or too chilly and I got just enough sun.. didn't get cooked, haha. We took a volleyball and had a blast in the water.. it was just a great day. We wore ourselves out at the lake. Then when we got home, my little cousins were here so I taught them how to play volleyball and we played for a few hours until they had to go home... -sigh.- One of those amazing blissful summer days, I love it! (:

Off to enjoy my morning!

Katieanne.

Flashback: 6/14/08

2009-06-14T07:23:00.003-04:00

Good morning, guys.
I was just editing my blog template and I realized that as of the ninth of this month, I have had this blog for exactly one year!
I thought it would be a cool idea to revisit a post from this time last year and think about just how far we've come. I bought Ladybug on May 12th, 2008 and at the time of this post, we were still figuring out respect and exactly what it meant for the both of us.
(WARNING: Super sentimental stuff ahead!)
Here we go! :

Success!
06/14/08
I have had a very interesting morning! I went out to spend some Undemanding Time [UDT] with Lady before her breakfast and she was just totally all in my space, nosing me around or paying no attention to me whatsoever. Just total LBI snottiness! So we were out in the pasture and I felt like it was time for some good ole' Hide your Hiney. When she decided I wasn't interesting enough and mosied off, I made my way around towards her zone 5 with my carrot stick in hand and my best Schwiegermutter look.. I slowly crept up and started making noise with the stick, soft at first which she ignored [of course] then progressively harder.. and then came phase four.. *SWISH, SMACK!* Right in her zone 5 and off she went, tossing that head like you wouldn't believe! She trotted in a circle and then came back to me, ears forward, blinking and licking her lips. I walked backwards with my stick held out in front of me, she followed, gave the tip of the stick a nice sniff and that's when I stopped walking, gave her rubs and scratches. I think I did it twice more and by the third time, all I had to do was change my look and move towards her rump and she'd whip right around and look at me, ears forward like.. " I know what you're up to, missy!" The best part is neither of us lost our confidence. Not ONCE. I was assertive and she understood me. Afterward when she approached me and started getting pushy with her head, I'd lift my stick just a bit, wiggle it and give her that look and off she went, head tossing all the way. She is such a SNOT. I love her so much! Ha ha. Today was a perfect example of: "Do as I say, but don't be afraid."

Wow... What a post! It really brings back memories of sitting out there in the pasture full of dandelions with my horse, trying my best not to pay attention to her and looking back now, I know she was trying her hardest to ignore me as well, haha! We're both innately curious so this stage was excruciating but necessary for the two of us.. My horse really was my mirror and I don't think I could have picked a better partner. She's taught me so much about respect.. about myself. We were drawn together and we've come a really long way. I'm so proud of her and I'm so proud of myself for being the person who chose to take this journey with 'Bug. It's certainly not always easy but it's always worth it.. Even when I have my doubts and my bad days.. weeks.. months! I will always be able to say that it's worth it.

Right now I'm gonna go out and feed, snuggle my horse and enjoy the day.. We're probably going to be going swimming, too. What's not to love about swimming?! Thanks for sticking with me for a whole year, guys! (:

Love,
Katieanne & co.

Progress, maybe?

2009-06-13T14:02:00.002-04:00

Goodness... time really does seem to drag by until you turn around and then suddenly you're wondering where it all went. I just came in from spending a few hours out in the heat with the ponies... and they're doing really well! I frequently have these moments of pure balance when I'm with them and it's quiet yet I can feel them there with me...quiet awareness, I guess you'd call it. I have few words to describe it.. it's pure equilibrium .. and isn't that what it's all about? Being balanced.. Being centered? These few moments make it worth all the tears, sweat and sunburn.

Right now I am in a spot where I need to make decisions. I keep jumping back and forth between college focus and equine focus and it seems like things are coming together. Driver's ED starts June 17th and I won't be able to try out for my vocal scholarship until next year so in between now and then.. I'll have all of this free time to focus on my horsemanship! I need to find some motivation and finally tape my Level One. (Bless you, Fran Latane for focusing me and pushing me in the right direction. Also, CONGRATULATIONS TO YOUR ON YOUR SOLID LEVEL 3!)
Congratulations go out to Mariah Helms as well on her green string, both of these girls are incredibly ambitious and I admire them for their amazing talent and skill.

Alright, I'm gonna go smother myself in aloe vera and down as much water as I possibly can.

More soon,

Katieanne.

The New Plan - Exciting news!

2009-05-23T08:06:00.004-04:00

Hey, guys! I've been enjoying Spring as I hope you've all been doing as well. This post is mostly going to be about my future plans and where exactly I'm going with my horsemanship as of right now.
I've really been struggling with having to choose between giving my horsemanship my full attention by attempting to make it my lifestyle and career or going to college and working. I am the kind of person who needs to focus on whatever I'm doing so attempting both at the same time isn't an option right now.

This is where the exciting news comes into play... As of 5/14/09 I am an Official GED Graduate. (:

I am very excited to have this completed and out of the way so that now I can proceed with my short-term plan by going to driver's ed, acquiring my learner's permit and going on to college.

My plan for now is to put my horsemanship on the back burner, take all of my undergraduate courses at Wake Tech Community College while I really focus on voice and singing. Just to let you know a little more on that.. Horses and singing are pretty much my life and they have always been the two things that just really bring out the life in me. I am in voice lessons and my amazing voice coach was honored with a scholarship to Meredith college in Raleigh, NC.
We've discussed my chances of receiving a scholarship for voice and she thinks I have a good shot, so I've decided to go for it!

I know that there is a lot of work involved, especially trying to balance singing, horses, school and you know, being a normal teenager. But I feel like once I've gone to college and worked and saved that when I come back to my horsemanship with everything under my belt, I'll be able to give it my full focus and everything that I have.

I've prayed and prayed and asked everyone close to me for their thoughts on this and I really feel that this is the right thing to do, the right path for me to take. I will try to keep my horses and just be with them and play with them as much as possible during all of these changes but, it depends on finances at this point. It's just a wait and see kind of issue.

I would love all of my reader's support and thoughts concerning my decision, especially those horsemen/women who know me. So, please shoot me an e-mail with some feedback; whether it be advice, support or anything that comes to your mind. (:

Thanks for reading!

Katieanne.

Spring has sprung!

2009-04-21T17:00:00.012-04:00

It is so BEAUTIFUL HERE! All the flowers are in full bloom and everything is just so green and alive.. You guys know I just had to get some more pictures..

It's a time for spring cleaning and refreshing!
So in honor of that I've decided to clue you wonderous readers in on what's going on.. and not just in the horsey aspect of my life.. I have a job at Zaxby's Chicken and I am also only one test away from getting my GED. (: Everything is going well in that area of my life and I appreciate all the prayers and thoughts being sent my way.

As far as my life with horses, everything is brightening. It's always very difficult for me to stay motivated in Winter months so, now that Spring has arrived things are picking up and I'm having fun with my herd on a daily basis!

Bailey, as you can see is turning out to be quite the handsome little dude! We went for a ride yesterday, him and I, and he has shown himself to be really easy going and oh so patient. He's growing on me, what can I say.

He's also looking very slick with the most amazing mane of hair since Fabio himself! Teehee, I think these two LBI's would enjoy some time together.

While on the subject of looks, the 'Bug got herself a spring trim as well! She's had her mane squared up and she's looking super snazzy with a taste of English. (even though she's still a little fuzzy.)

The two of them make a dashing couple and the sweetest herd a girl could ask for. (:

Enjoy the rest of these pictures and I'll update soon!

Love, Katieanne. xoxoxox.

I'm baaack... with a few new friends.

2009-04-14T16:09:00.005-04:00

Yes, well... I know I vanished for months with no explanation and there really is none. I've just been living life!

As far as updates go, I am happy to report that Bailey has settled in amazingly and Bug&Bailers is the newest adorable duo to hit the blogger scene! To your left you'll see them making faces at me on one of the many rainy days of April.
I went to tell my mini-herd goodbye yesterday before we left for the beach (I'm at Myrtle Beach until Thursday!) & they didn't hear me until I entered their pasture. When I did I spread my arms out and went "GUYS, HELLOOO?!" And their heads came up and they looked at me all "HAI!!" and then they ran to me and nickered. I was pretty much a puddle o' katieanne. Still am, thinking about it now! -Sigh.- I'm so in love with my darlings.

ON ANOTHER NOTE. My grandparents saw fit to buy a mini horse stallion. They named him Elvis. He's quite the cool little dude. Here are some pictures of my little cousin (Future bronc rider, for sure.) Mandi, riding him around.

Mandi and Elvis with Uncle Colon holding the lead..

This is a favourite of mine!

& last but not least.. my Coco-esque shot (: I'm in love with this picture. I'm pretty sure I want it framed.

Well, guys. I am going to go spend some time down by the pool with my family. I hope everyone is doing well and there will be more soon. 'Tis the season to be blogging. (I'm so inspired in spring/summer... it does seem to be a pattern.)

Love,
katieanne.

February 08, 2009 - New Addition!

2009-02-22T20:06:00.003-05:00

It's been ages since I've posted anything decent on this blog of mine so this should be enough to hold you guys over..

As of the eighth, we have a new herd member! My momma fell in love with a chubby little paint horse named Bailey.. He's eight years old and quite an interesting little introvert!

Here are some pictures from the day he arrived. Poor little dude was dripping with sweat and shaking but he's really settled in now and I'll have some more pictures soon! (:

Proud Mom and her adorable Bailey-boo.

Bailey and Lady - Their first meeting!

More soon, I promise. (;

I love snow...

2009-01-21T08:35:00.006-05:00

Hey guys, I went outside with my camera this morning to get some pictures of all the fluffy stuff! Unfortunately the camera died before I got to let the 'Bug out but I'll hopefully charge up and get back out there for more later today (: Have a good day and I hope you enjoy!

Isn't it cute? I love this one..

The barn..

Sunrise :)

Katieanne

General Updates

2009-01-15T13:55:00.002-05:00

Hey guys!

Updates for you with love:
Firstly, I just picked up voice lessons again! I had my first one yesterday and it was a lot of fun.. I realized just how much I missed singing.
I will be joining a gym by the end of the month with plans to go at least three times a week.
This Saturday I am going to see a man about a horse (Calm, even tempered Paint- so he said.)... and a donkey. Wow, right?
Don't know if I informed you guys but I bought Patterns and I haven't even had time to look at them, much less combine L1 and Patterns into some session plans, haha!
Plus I'll be testing for my GED at the end of this month.
Whew.. Staying busy!
Just wanted to drop a few words about the big things going on here.. I'll have more details and updates by next week plus a few sessions to detail for ya.
I promise to try and update as much as possible even though things are hectic so keep checking back!
Toodles for now,
Katieanne.

01.06.2009 - Amazing session!

2009-01-14T06:53:00.002-05:00

Okay so, I ended up posting about this particular session on the SCF and never blogged it. I decided today that I want to go ahead and add it here as well:

Yesterday late in the afternoon I was watching a video on the SC and it inspired me beyond belief to go out and try some new things with my OTTB mare, Ladybug. (The video starring the black horse Flag and the Arab(?) with the really long tail.. Can't think of the name of that horse.)

Anyway, Linda was riding Flag and he was going RB and her attitude is what inspired me the most. Reminded me of how I needed to be in order to be the leader for my spazzy girl.
I went out there around four pm and it was wonderful! Best session hands-down.
I had decided to work on transitions with her.. I hadn't trotted her (on purpose) since Fran was here in October! It generally makes me nervous because anything over a walk makes her lose focus and spaz. But yesterday I was inspired to face the very thing that I was avoiding. I needed to work on being able to keep focused and in control and CALM.
So, we started out on the 12 foot line.. (I didn't have a stick for this session, I forgot all about it and left it on the fence) and we started a zone 3 driving/ put your nose on it game in a triangle pattern. barrel to cone to barrel and repeat. She got it VERY quickly and I stayed in zone three. It went really well and we both became focused.
Then, we did a few circles around the barrels, staying in the triangle pattern and putting her nose on the cone in between the circles, everything staying at a walk. It was all going really well so we switched to the 22 ft line and began our pattern! I had two barrels set up, one at each end of my medium sized pasture, diagonally across from each other. I asked her to circle one barrel at a walk and then I'd walk slowly over towards the other barrel. In between barrels she'd have enough time to continue about 2 circles around me and then I'd ask her to circle the other barrel and then go back (sometimes I'd throw in a change of direction).
After doing the pattern about two times, I asked her to trot during one of the traveling circles. She tossed her head, jerked into a trot which I could tell was going to only get faster and out of control so I shut it down and asked her to continue at a walk. She went back down and finished the circle at a walk. I asked for another transition in the second traveling circle and it was a little smoother and she came back down to a walk quite a bit easier, licking her lips. We continued this pattern about four times..
The fact that I went out there and DID all of this was huge for me.. But that's not all that amazed me about this session.. By the end of our session her transitions were SEAMLESS. She has this beautiful floaty trot. She'd just relax into the rhythm of it, just as I did and then sometimes she'd transition to a walk all on her own, just as I was about to ask for it. (Her offering a downward transition makes my heart flip!) We were both relaxed and flowing and it was amazing.. She was blowing out, dropping her head and had her inside ear focused on me..

We ended the session with a little friendly game of me sitting on a barrel and her nipping at my boot. It was one of those sessions that made me fall in love with horses and Parelli all over again! I want this every day of my life.

Oh, and if you're interested pop on over to http://www.fransparellicourse.blogspot.com/ and follow my friend Fran as she attends a 4 week L3/L4 "masterclass" at the Parelli center in Reddick, FL. They just arrived down there on the 12th so it's just started. But, I get the feeling that Fran & Prin's adventures are going to be a blasty blast to read! (: Stay tuned! (DUN DUN DUUUUN.)

Katieanne<3

Ech, Crazy schedule.

2009-01-05T09:31:00.005-05:00

Morning, guys!

It's around 9:30 am and I'm sitting here watching a video of Linda and Allure playing at Liberty from August '04. WOWZUH! I do love those two. (:

It's been hectic around here with Christmas n' then before I knew it, it was 2009!
So belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Bug and I! I have a feeling that this year will be an interesting one.

So what to update you guys on... oh, I know! How about..

New Goodies?
Yes, yes. Mwaha!
First of all, my dad bought me Patterns! So they'll be here soon and I'll have a few new ideas to play around with. Wewt!
I think that the next thing on my list will be a round pen. I just don't know what size I want, any suggestions?
I'll post again when I get the Patterns and give them a runthrough. Also, I'm still working on sending out Christmas presents. FRAN: Haven't gotten yours yet. LUCY: I GOT IT! I'm just working on sending it, ILOVEYOUBOTH.

Now, I haven't been to sleep yet and I do believe it is time for a nap!

Have a good day, guys!

K.

Love your cow-flavoured barrels!

2008-12-15T09:55:00.004-05:00

Well. It's been a while since my last post but, I promise I'm not dead!
There has been steady progression with the patterns (figure 8 and touch it).
My horse is amazing, as always...
Jumping has been a bit of an issue, though... She'd jump over the barrels and then have a freak out if I didn't disengage her immediately. So I brought it up with my lovely Mini-LP (Fran,darling) and asked for some advice on how to set it up for success. She suggested that I play Friendly with my cow-flavoured barrels to rid my own body of any tension/expectations/fear I had about jumping so that Bug would look at me all "Oh..no we're jumping?! I do-... Oh.. Okay, no big deal. You seem to be cool with it so.. I CAN FLY." .. Well the last part was an total anthropomorphism but I can do that because my horse really is a kite. Mwaha!
Anyway, when I got the suggestion.. I knew it was coming so all I could do was face-palm and make 100% sure that I was about to act really silly.
"What exactly do you mean by Friendly, Fran?"
"You know exactly what I mean by Friendly, Katie. Touch your barrels, throw a string over your barrels and show those barrels how much you love them!"
....-snort.-
So! Katieanne walks out to her pasture all excited and dragging mother in tow for this particular session. (I knew it was going to be amazing.)
We get out there, I hook the Bug up on my 22 and suddenly..
"Barrels!"
I skip merrily over to my beloved barrels.--
..Keep in mind my mother has *no* idea what I'm doing..
-- proceed to sit down and love all on my cow flavoured barrels.
I rubbed them! I laughed! I told them how amazing they were!
I did everything to those barrels short of buying them dinner and putting the moves on them.
By the end of this session my mother and I had dissolved into gigglefits and my horse was looking at me as if I was in need of some serious special help.
"..Oh not those barrels again I just don't thi--...... Uh... Woman, have you lost your marbles? What're you doing?! I'm over HERE. ...Why aren't you petting ME like that?"
She kept getting closer and closer and her expression was the funniest thing I do believe I have seen all week.
She sniffed the barrel I was leaning on and nudged it away before promptly sticking her nose into my tummy for a few cuddles. Goood times.

Ended it there, sitting on the ground and cuddling.
When we jumped next session, both of us were more relaxed and she jumped quicker, without as much hesitation and afterward proceeded to scoot the barrels into her own little formation. Then we played some sort of weaving game of my own design which was a good laugh.
She learns so quickly, it never ceases to amaze me.
Other than that.. We've been hanging out a lot lately rather than having active sessions. Mostly for my benefit.
Christmas is quickly approaching and the weather is insanely mild around here as of late (61 F right now!) so maybe I'll get more playtime in soon.

But for now, I have to leave for class in about thirty minutes and I haven't eaten anything yet.
Keep it natural,

Katie

The adventures of Katie and her silly bay kite.

2008-11-03T07:46:00.008-05:00

I am the worst blog owner in history! It's been a really long time since my last post and I apologize profusely.
There is a lot to update you guys on and I know I've been procrastinating like mad.
But, I feel like I've eased back into a good routine and now that I'm not ridiculously sleep deprived I am sane enough to recall and record. Bear with me!

I'll start where I left off.
The Jax tour stop was amazing! I feel like I saw everything in a new light and I really got the most from it.
I'm getting anxious for the '09 Celebrations! My mom and I are planning on going to the one in Lakeland (of course.) Mostly because the Parellis are almost always in Florida right around my birthday. In '09 the Celebration will take place on my actual birthday! Talk about a great present, right?
Moving right along..
The trip back up from Jacksonville was long and tiring but we had some fun along the way (with my intense family, how could you not?!)
Fran stayed at my house until the evening of the 24th and the time she spent here with 'Bug (or should I say Farrah?*) and I was extremely valuable.
*Fran said that my darling is actually Farrah Green in horse form, haha! Hence the new nickname. I'll take it, Farrah is an awesome person and somehow the name fits my 'Bug.*
One of the biggest problems I think I had was transferring all that I had learned in WI, into working with my own horse.
"Affection changes your ability to view situations (and in my case, my horse) objectively."
I believe that's a twisted Fran-ism.
But we figured most of it out.. I'm getting better and better at reading 'Bug now and knowing what kind of a leader to be and when to change it up..

I'll post some quotes from Fran and then elaborate on each one.

Speaking of Lady "Well innately, she's very much an LBE and she's got tendencies as a very stressed, emotional, explosive RBI. She grinds her teeth and launches herself in the air..."

It turns out that BF (Before Fran, haha) I had been reading far too much into Lady's behaviors. I was also trying to stick her into one quadrant with this "DON'T COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES!" mentality that really wasn't helping the relationship.
I've now changed from that mentality to this:
"Hmm.. Okay, so I know my horse is a playful, snotty, mouthy LBE innately. So I'll treat her as such until she shows me differently. Change yourself when she changes."
The difficult revelation for me was:
I know how to read a horse and I already know what I can do. I need to just do it, whatever it is!
When I think this way it allows me to be more fluid and 'in the moment' when I'm out there playing. I've noticed a change in her response to me since I've started treating her this way. There is a lot less stress, anxiety and fear on my part and because of this I feel like I'm coming off as a stronger, more confident leader. Someone worth coming to see! When I'm out there.. Sometimes I shock myself by changing up my game plan without thinking when she starts to lose confidence or become stressed and the potential disaster is over before it has begun.
Speaking of stressful RBI flips,
I'm learning how to spot what happens before what happens, happens.
Usually she'll start moving around and doing what I ask.. and then she'll become braced and her eyes seem unfocused, she may even strain against the halter a bit. I've been stopping it there. (I'm really proud of that!)
Then comes the displaced behaviors. Which for her is the teeth grinding and launching herself into the air. This is how she earned her 'silly bay kite' title! :)

Speaking of me "She needs to get her own emotions under control, and then redirect the high level of energy to something constructive that'll keep (Lady's) mind from getting stressed/RBI."

If you've seen L+HB, you've heard Linda mention how some students pull an arrow out of their 'quiver of knowledge', look at it, throw it on the ground and stomp on it without even using it. Rinse and repeat.
I was doing this! I'd panic and my brain would freeze. The real irony here is that my brain would freeze because I was trying to use it in the wrong way at the wrong time. I need to have access to my quiver without taking it off of my back and sorting through it to find a specific arrow and then thinking it over and then comparing it to other arrows and then sorting through the 'what if's' and then.. blah blah blah! Meanwhile my horse is standing there looking at me like I'm a loon.
"There's no way I'm listening to you. You don't even have your stuff together!"

I've changed from that to "I know what to do. What do you think about this?!" -Flings arrow.-
When I run out of arrows.. I bring her in and play Friendly Game!
It's just not a big deal anymore. (How cool is that?!)

The first time Fran watched me play with Lady was a very raw session for me. Fran saw everything. My fears, my insecurities, my doubts.. I was borderline hysterical for the first half of the session because I couldn't use my knowledge and the worst part was that I couldn't explain it. All I could do was use my brain in the wrong way by over analyzing and setting myself up for failure. Fran finally got me to turn and talk to her while circling Lady and within a few minutes my mind was open and guess what happened next?

Lady started blowing out. She began releasing adrenaline and tension like crazy and Fran turned to me, smiled and said "You're coming off of adrenaline. Know how I know? Because your horse is coming off of adrenaline."
It really sent me for a loop. In that second I realized that.. I knew that. I also knew that horses mirror their people. The information was flowing from my mind like wine and for once I could use it in the right way. I had access to my knowledge again and I had a horse on the end of my line. (Imagine that!) After that.. things became steadily easier.

I focused more on my techniques and added numerous arrows into my quiver.
One of my personal favorites would have to be learning how my emotions directly correlate to the energy I'm sending out to Lady.
There are two kinds of high energy.

There is this kind:
"Oh my goodness, GET AWAY FROM ME, PLEASE. Don't jump on me! AAACK!"
and then there's..
"No, no!! Don't run through my space, go that way.. Let's go do something! YES, that's it. We gotta play!"

I learned that when I LAUGH and remind myself that we're PLAYING. My emotions are under my control. I don't panic and I'm not scared. I'm playing and having a blast.

Fran also rode Lady, which was amazing to watch. I was soo proud of my girl and I was so glad that Fran was the one who rode her. My horse is a great bender when she wants to be for instance; when there are toes to gnaw on. -Snort.-
So much more happened in that short week but, I've covered the large, important things. I'm still gathering my thoughts and there is no way I'll be able to record all of it.

My next goal is to continue playing with Lady with the few patterns that I know.
We're becoming better at the figure eight pattern and I'm figuring out new ways to make it interesting for her.
We're also working on driving from zone 3 (put your nose on it) and yielding her forequarters.
Sideways and squeezing over barrels, oh my!
We're also constantly working on friendly game with her legs. She had a farrier visit the other day and she did amazingly! Getting better all the time. :)

Anyway, I'm off to clean a little bit and unpack the boxes that were shipped from WI.
(I knoow... I've really been slacking off!)

Thanks for reading and I promise to blog again soon.

Katie

Jax '08 "These boots are made for.. riding!"

2008-10-19T17:06:00.005-04:00

Well, we're here in Jacksonville, FL.
The two flights down here were amazingly fun! I was really nervous but all went well.
The tour stop was the best one I've been to (okay, so this is only the second one I've ever been to..) But, so what! It was great! I think my favorite parts were Amy's lesson on Remmer and watching the changes in the communication with the demo horse (BEAUTIFUL Friesian!)

Fran, Mariah and I had a blast hanging out together and it was really great to have them in the same place for once! 2 of my best Parelli friends. (My third is stuck in England! If I could have shipped her here, I would've!) ;)

So tonight we're all going to relax. My dad and brother showed up as well as my mother so we're all going out tonight for a belated birthday dinner. Soo excited!

I took a picture during the demo and I thought it was adorable so here you go.

Boots! Ain't it cute?! ;)
Hopefully we'll make boot pictures a tradition and take one at every stop we're able to meet up at!
Alrighty, that's it for now. Later, guys!

Katie

Karen Rohlf Clinic '08.... YEA RIGHT!

2008-10-11T19:15:00.004-04:00

*SNORT*

We never made it to the clinic. We were about 30 miles away from our destination when Fran's car got sick of hauling us around and decided to take a little 'break'. Luckily we weren't on the highway when all of this occurred. We had stopped for lunch at this amazing Citgo/Subway combo (Gasoline & subs; what could be better, right? I mean you have to stop for food, piddle-time *and* gasoline and some smarty put it all in one place. So, what would under normal circumstances take multiple stops only takes one! Pure genius, folks.)
ANYWAY!
Subs.
Gasoline.
Left Brain Introvert vehicles.
Back to the story..
This unfortunate turn of events left Katieanne, Fran, Jessica and Anne in Fran's car in the middle of the Citgo parking lot for hours while waiting for Anne's (amazing!) husband came to pick us up.
End result:
I haven't giggled that much in a really long time. I think Jess filled her entire notebook with all of the random, silly and EXTREMELY deep quotes that were shared throughout the day. (Which I will most likely be posting later..)

If you're ever stuck at a gas station in the middle of nowhere; this is the group of women you would want to be stuck with:
A leggy Greek, an English professor, the faux Lawrence and a snarky Carolinian. It was the most fun I have ever had at a gas station. Hands down.

Who knew you could learn so much on the way to a clinic?! ;)

I'd like to take this moment to thank everyone who made this day possible:

Karen Rohlf: Who gave us an excuse for a good road trip.

The U.G.A.P: Thanks for stopping the show! It's because of you that we didn't miss anything.
Also, I heard it through the grapevine that your automatic weaponry is no match for a certain some one's c. stick skillz. Better luck next time. ;)

"This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the white stick - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the orange stick - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes."

And finally...

A big thanks to Fran's car! Thanks for being awesome and not dumping us in the middle of a highway. It is because of you and your various belts that we had such a wonderful UDT-filled day. May your gas tank be overflowing (not literally because that would be quite dangerous) and your windsheild always be clean.

Cheers to a wonderful day in good company.

Ka.

So, there's two blondes and a redhead in a truck..

2008-10-10T21:55:00.004-04:00

Lol! how's that for an opening line? ;) No, you don't get the back story on that one!

I know it has been a really long time (for me, at least) since I last updated so this post is going to be especially long as I will try to smush in all the details of my days up here in Wisconsin!

Well, we left North Carolina on the 24th of September and arrived in Pepin the evening of the 25th. We were exhausted but meeting Franny in the flesh will of course knock one's energy level up many, many notches! ;)
My mother and grandmother stayed in town for the weekend and then headed back down on the 27th, I believe. Ever since then Fran and I have been zooming around like the busy bees that we are! Fran has such a hectic schedule and I tried my best to adjust to the drastic changes to my pretty LBI lifestyle. I am not exaggerating at all when I say I slept like the dead every night. (the snoring dead, perhaps-haha!) We spent 4 days straight in Pepin going all over WI and MN for various lessons. I met some really amazing people and horses during those days and I got some cool pictures of one horse&rider combo which I will post at a later time (hoping against hope that my camera makes it back from Aberdeen, South Dakota in one functioning piece and no, you don't get that back story either.)

Early on the 1st of October Fran, Prin and I were on our way to meet up with Farrah Green in Eyota, MN. She hosted a clinic in Madison, WI and we were invited to tag along..

The clinic.. -sigh- was exhausting. I learned so much and worked so hard.. I'm not going into details here. Just know that I was happy to get back to non-muddy, non-wet, non-freezing Pepin on the 8th. We got to sleep late yesterday and today and then we left Pepin AGAIN around 1:00 to head to another student's house for a weekend full of lessons and general joy!

If all goes according to plan, we will be attending a Karen Rohlf clinic tomorrow afternoon. I'm so excited! :)

I'll close with some personal experiences/discoveries. Prin is so patient and fun yet so frustrating for me to play with and I found out the reason she frustrates me is because I don't do well with Introverts. I LOVE riding Amigo. He is amazingly comfy and we meshed really well when we played together. :) He's an awesome little guy.

Crest. Is. Awe inspiring and I am so excited to get back to Pepin and see the herd again. :)

That's all for now!
I'm going to enjoy the remaining hours of my BIRTHDAY. Yes, today. October, 10th is my 17th birthday. :)
Wonderful Jessica (whom I met today for the first time. She is wicked cool) has loaned me a really thick book. I have my best friend on MSN and a hot cup of tea. I'm getting a shower and crashing in a little bit.

I love you all, thanks for reading and I'll post again soon. I swear on Franny's half-chaps. ;)

Katieanne

ATM Machines Are Cannibals...

2008-09-27T23:29:00.002-04:00

Well, we hit the ground running, so to speak. We've been sprinting around like madwomen for the past two days and I am sure I will have no trouble sleeping while I'm here.
My mom left tonight and we had quite the tearjerker moment. I'm very nervous about being away from my family for so long. Being outside my comfort zone is where I will no doubt do my best learning.. But of course it isn't going to be easy. There are a lot of things here with me that offer me comfort like my mom's blanket..my brother's shirt and my familiar music. I predict many long nights of texting!
-sigh.-Circus music.
On the great side of things..
Fran and I are having a blasty blast! I am already learning so much and asking sooo many questions. We've shared quite a few funny looks and giggles. Not the mention the LP stories. (yes, I so did just do that, Franny.) ;D

In other news: I have limited access to the internet here because my laptop does not pick up wireless. Therefore, I have made the decision to write every night on MS Word and when I return to NC, I will post it all in 2-3 day chunks including pictures. Just wanted to give you guys a heads up on that and also, I won't be checking my e-mail *as* often. So if you would really like to contact me, don't be a stranger. I have unlimited text on my wonderful Verizon phone and you are welcome to give me a ring to chat, ask questions or say hello.

919 830 8706

Love,

Katie

... Wabasha?

2008-09-25T23:15:00.005-04:00

Hey, guys!

I'm here in our hotel room (Wabasha, MN) and we just got back from Fran's house (Pepin, WI) Haha, yes it's that close to the border.

I'm totally exhausted but I was in a writing mood so I decided to come on and give you guys an idea of what the trip has been like.

We left North Carolina at 2:15 pm, Wednesday.
We arrived here in Wabasha around 7:00 pm tonight.
It was pretty much a drive-a-thon I think we stopped a total of four times, the longest stop being an hour.

It was a really awesome drive up here and at first the scenery was very nice. My ingenious comment when I first woke up from my nap and noticed we were out of the mountain range was:
" It's flat."
The fields of IL and IN were so different from anything in my state. But after a while it tends to drive one BATTY.
Corn, corn, corn, soybeans, corn, corn, insanely huge windmills & corn.
Such a variety, right?
I got to the point where I thought if I ever saw another corn stalk, I'd have an aneurysm and die.

Anyway, I met Fran's 'rentals, her boyfriend and one of her friends tonight and I must say everyone was really great. I was seriously stressing over whether her parents would like me or not but, everything went well and they seemed okay with me. :) WHEW! Huge weight off of my shoulders.
I'm going to meet up with Franny at around 8:30 in the morning and I get to watch her teach a lesson for the first time (yay!) so I need my beauty rest. I'll make sure to take lots of notes!
I'll leave you guys with a few random pictures and a promise for more later.

Side note here: I really loved the movie Grumpy Old Men. I had no idea it was filmed here but it is an excellent movie. Go watch it.
Also,I loved all the pumpkins on the sign; as we were taking pictures one of them just started rolling away. Like it up and decided " You know what, screw this. I've got better things to do." Pretty funny.

And this of course is my familia and wonderful compadres for this journey. Gramma, Muffin and my awesome momma. This is the part where we were waiting for Fran to come meet us at the hotel and so we passed the time by taking a bunch of random pictures.

Alrighty, that's all for now. I'm exhausted and I have sort of an early start.

More soon!

Katie.

Another chapter..

2008-09-24T08:00:00.000-04:00

Congratulations! You’ve survived all the teasing and here are the goodies as promised.
-Hands out gold stars and Winnie’s cookies-
*flashback*
Hint: I’m going on a trip. :)
*end flashback”*
Where?
Pepin, Wisconsin
When?
Today! We leave this afternoon.
Who?
Franny! (http://www.savvyup.blogspot.com)
What for?
A lot of hands-on training and a wonderful learning experience.
How long?
We’ll get there either the 25th or the 26th and we’re leaving Wisconsin on the 17th of October, I believe.
Specifics:
Okay so here is the whole story.
The other night (not sure which night this was) Fran and I were chatting on Yahoo and my mother came in to talk to me about cancelling the trip to Mariah’s.
I had already been thinking about having to cancel the trip because Lady is nowhere near ready to be hauled anywhere and I felt like I wasn’t savvy enough to get her there on my own.
I had been preparing for a month and when there were two weeks left, I realized that if I kept going I was going to get rushed, turn into a predator and ruin everything we had worked on so far. So, I told Fran about it and asked for advice on whom to go to for help in my area.
I honestly didn’t think I was going to be able to stay dedicated and focused on my horsemanship without some help.
After saying she’d keep her eyes open for me, she was generous enough to offer to come over and help me out whenever she was in the area and mentioned me coming to visit her. That flipped a switch in my brain and the planning began. I think we had the plan totally concocted within two days. It was very quick and everything just clicked into place!
My mom had already taken the 25th and 26th off of work to take me to Mariah’s. We had already been saving up money for a trip and I know that if I had not been preparing for the trip to Mariah’s I never would have had this opportunity. I feel like I’m prepared to make the most out of this. A quote comes to mind:
“Luck is spelled W O R K and is defined as when preparation meets opportunity.”
Anyway, that’s how the plan came to be.
I’m going to Fran’s place this week, staying until the 17th of October and then Fran and I are flying down to Jacksonville, FL for the Parelli Tour stop 18th-19th. My mom is going to meet us down there and then bring us back up to my house where Fran is planning on staying for a while to work with Lady and I together and visit her friends in the area. :)
I’m a person who fully believes that everything happens for a reason; that past successes and failures help to mold and prepare you for your future.
I feel like this is the turn my journey is supposed to take and I want to take this moment (Yes, I’m getting all sentimental) to thank Lucy and Mariah, my closest savvy sisters. They have been essential in everything I have done with Parelli so far. They are two of the huge pillars that hold up my support system and without them, I doubt I would have ever gotten this far. It’s because of Lucy that I never give up when I really feel the stress of working with a complex horse. It’s because of Mariah that I am able to make the most of this opportunity because without her drive, I wouldn’t have been prepared for it. Both of these girls lend me their strength and they always listen to me complain and I’m so lucky that I know them. :)
Don’t even get me started on what a gift Franny is! Haha! I’m really looking forward to this trip and I am practically giddy on the amount of knowledge I am going to be exposed to there.
I think one of the best parts of the whole trip is going to be watching Fran work with Crest and just learning about their relationship and journey. Crest is one of those fabulous complex horses and I plan on walking away with a million different things that I can apply to my relationship with Lady.
I will continue blogging. I’m just contemplating on how I’ll do it.
I’ll either blog as usual or I’ll journal about every day and then post it all at once or in big chunks. I’m leaning towards the latter.
As you can see, there are a few details to be worked out but most of my questions will be answered when I get there. :)
That’s all for now, folks! Wish me luck and I’ll update soon.

Love,

Katie.

Teaserific - one more day!

2008-09-23T06:30:00.004-04:00

Teehee. I know you guys want to maim me for being such a tease as of late.

I've gotten a few
" What are you up to?!"
" Prior and proper preperation for what?!"
" What's going on?"
comments so here is an update.. In the form of another teaser. -Evil laugh.-
Mwahahahha >;D

Tomorrow morning at eight o' clockish, I am going to spill all the details.
Everything. I'm going to let you guys in on this amazing fantabulisorific opportunity that has set itself up for me (although I'm not the only one to benefit from this, which is wicked cool). Just to let you know, I am mucho excited. It really does seem like everything is coming together in my life. Perfect timing. Setting me up for success, if you will.

Since you guys have been so patient this week, I'll toss you a line.

Want a Hint?
I'm taking a trip. :) The where, when, who, what for and how long are all coming tomorrow.

OKAY! That's it for now. If you guys can hang on until tomorrow morning, you'll get a gold star and a Winnie's cookie. ;)

Love,

Katie.

New Camera! New Helmet!

2008-09-22T12:27:00.006-04:00

My grandaddy and my dad bought me that digital camera I wanted yesterday here's what it looks like:

And here is the very first picture that I took with it, The praying mantis was a very agreeable subject. ;) :

I also went with my grandaddy shopping this morning and he bought me an awesome helmet! It fits amazingly and it's very handsome. :) Doesn't make my head look that big. It's just like the one pictured below but it's a forest green.

That's it for now!

Love,

Katie

Prior and proper preperation..

2008-09-21T10:43:00.003-04:00

Well, I haven't been playing with Lady much at all because I haven't had time!
I have been soo busy with other stuff that all I have time for is some quick Principle Game sessions before or after feeding time. A little porcupine here.. a little driving game there.. Ya know.

But that's no reason why I can't keep blogging, right?
SO! I'll clue you guys in on what I've been up to.

Last night after mom and I went to the guitar shop, (I didn't sell my guitar to them because I'll get more money if I pawn it) went shopping and went out to eat, we went to see The Women. It was a really funny movie but about 3/4 the way through I just couldn't keep my eyes open! I had to lay down and take a catnap. I woke up long enough to get to the car and I slept the whole way home.
I have no idea why I am so tired lately. Usually I have trouble falling asleep and now as soon as it gets dark out, I'm out like a light. So weird!

I bought a sleeping bag yesterday. The last time I had one I was 6 and it had Barbie all over it. I'm excited for my first 'big kid' sleeping bag! It'sall orange and pretty.

I also went window shopping for a digital camera yesterday. I've never had one and I figure it's about time for me to take the plunge, so to speak.
I stumbled across a Canon that I really like and it takes regular AA batteries! I like that.
Plus it's pretty inexpensive as far as digitals go and it's simplistic.
Great for me! :)

Not so sure what my mom has in store for me today but she told me to wake her up at 11:30 and that we were going to do something. I know that we're going to see my brother later tonight but I didn't think we had anything planned for this morning!
Hmm...
Well I'm gonna go grab a shower real quick and if I get bored waiting I'll probably come back on here and move things around on my sidebar. Keep your eyes open! :)

Love,

Katie

Yay, monies!

2008-09-20T14:12:00.006-04:00

We had a yardsale today so that I could make some money for my Parelli fund.

$115! Look at that handsome wad of cash!

Also i'm going to take my electric guitar to a guitar shop this afternoon and see how much they can give me for it. That's another easy 100 right there. :) I'm really excited!

Tomorrow I'll be spending the day with my brother, maybe go see a movie with him or something.
Later, guys!

Katie

Jax Flashback

2008-09-19T18:17:00.005-04:00

I was recently chatting with a friend of mine who was on her way to the Kansas City, MO tour stop that's being held this weekend.. It got me so ANTSY.
I'm ready for it to be October, already!
(I lack patience somethin' furious, can you tell?)
I was looking back in my archives and found the post from the day I got my tour stop tickets for Jacksonville. I took this picture with my cell phone and posted it immediately.

That seems like ages ago when in reality it was just June 14th! I am soo ready for this tour stop. Williamston '08 was amazing and that was just the first one of the season! I have some pretty high expectations for Jax but, I know I won't be dissapointed.

Next time this month, I'll be down there enjoying a weekend of like-minded people, horses and pure knowledge. I can't WAIT!

Going out to eat with mom.
Love,

Katie

Talk about sowing one's wild oats..

2008-09-19T09:54:00.003-04:00

I've been hand sowing oats out in Lady's pasture since 6:30 this morning with my grandaddy. I'm very glad we got it done, even if I am sweaty and itchy. :)

A quick update about my mom:
The procedure on Wednesday went well.
Her kidneys are working normally and there are no tumors or masses.
They found a minor problem and the doctor is going to meet with her again on the 30th of October to schedule another procedure to correct whatever it was that they found.

In other news, can you believe that they're shutting down Parelli Collection?! I'm so sad! I'll miss the clothing sooo much. It was really amazing quality stuff.. Hopefully they'll bring it back out one day. :(

Remember on Wednesday when I said there were some big ideas and plans floating around?
Well, an amazing opportunity has come along and with a little planning it seems as if everything is really falling into place. I don't want to reveal too much at the moment because I don't want to jinx it. But, if everything goes through as planned then I'll be updating with full details by the end of the month. :) Please keep me in your thoughts!

Katie

New thoughts and goals - Send me your positive thoughts!

2008-09-17T07:51:00.004-04:00

Hey guys.
This is just a quick update to let you guys know how things are..

There is a lot going on right now and unfortunately I won't be making it to Mariah's on the 25th.
There are a lot of factors that play into my decision to skip out on this trip, one of the biggest is that I don't think Lady will be ready for the trailering.
I want to spend more time playing with her before trying to take her anywhere because I don't want it to be rushed. I want her to be confident.

But there is still hope! There are some big ideas and plans floating around to get me the learning help that I need and I haven't given up by any means.
So please be sending me your positive thoughts for everything to work out. :)

I'm leaving with my mom at 12 to go to the hospital. She has to have a minor procedure done so please keep her in your thoughts as well!

Love,
Katie.

Screw goals.. Let's have some fun!

2008-09-16T12:55:00.004-04:00

After our episode on the 10th, I had been trying to be more assertive and it really did take it's toll on Lady's confidence in me. She wouldn't come near me for the entire weekend!

I did the bare minimum and kept my distance. I didn't attempt a session until this morning and I am very glad I made that decision.
This morning I was feeling pretty down and then I decided I was going to play today! I made up my tiny Game Plan and marched out to my pasture with some serious conviction.

Game Plan: Just see where she's at. Lots of approach & retreat, tricks and treats to keep her interested yet, keeping everything as slow and low energy as possible. Soft is the keyword here.

Results: So I got out there, grabbed my Halter attached to my 12 ft line, 22 ft line, CS&SS and a bag full of peppermint goodies and I walked into her corral, straight past her out to the barrels.
I had some games to set up! I placed peppermints on every barrel, dropped a few down the center of her traffic cone and then looked up.

Lady was rooted to the spot, staring at me like I had grown another head. Her ears were forward in this permanent curious expression. Basically; " What in John Wayne are you doing, woman? I tried so hard to stay away from you all weekend and now you come out here and ignore me an-- What is in that bag?! What're you putting on those barrels?!"
So many questions, but she just wasn't confident enough to come to me.
*BRAIN BLAST!*
I walked slowly over to her, keeping my energy down and watching her body language very carefully. In this session it was most important that everything was very soft. She was unconfident and if I was loud and boisterous, I never would have gotten close to her.
Anyway, she never once moved as I approached and she kept that questioning face on until I got about 15 feet away and suddenly she whipped her head around, away from me.
" I can't look at you."
I was in her space and it made her uncomfortable so, I retreated.
I took 5 steps backwards and then her head came back around and I continued slowly forward.
I noticed some hesitation every now and then and I'd immediately retreat backwards, wait and then continue forwards.
When I came to about eight feet out from her, she began to walk forwards. I saw her weight shift and I started walking backwards, drawing her into me.
She reached me, sniffed my hand and ate a treat.
We stayed like that for a minute, just relaxing in each other's company. We both needed it, that's for sure!
Then we had a slow exploration of the barrels and cone at Liberty before I latched her on the 12 ft and kept everything slow and soft.
The session was a BLAST after that.
She kicked barrels, rolled them with her nose, gave me kisses, curled her lip up, knocked over a cone set it back up, knocked over barrels, set them back up!
We just had FUN and there was a LOT of treats and scratches and she was licking her lips a lot and it was really big.
I *saw* her confidence in me coming back.
It was a step in the right direction! :)

I've been outside twice since that wonderful play session.

Mom and I went to see my brother around 10, so I jogged out to give her an apple as mom was starting the car. Just a quick visit.

When we got back, I let Bear out and took a seat on one of my barrels for about an hour and a half of UDT. Just relaxing with my two lovely darlings..

They're getting better and better with at coexisting. They even took a nap together while I was out there (Not side by side or anything but in the same pasture. This was a huge deal!)
I got some short narrated video clips of it and I'll post those eventually.
Lady laid down and everything, it was clear she was her old confident self around me again.

Today has really been excellent and we're steadily coming out of our 'little rut.'

I'd like to take this moment to thank everyone who has given me support and encouragement this past week while I was feeling very hopeless and alone.

Thanks, Savvy Clubbers. You guys really are marvelous. :)

Love,

Lady, Katie & Bear. :)

Dominance Games

2008-09-12T22:02:00.003-04:00

We decided to stay home for the weekend since the gas prices are going up and we're pretty low on cash.

I've been trying to rest and de-compress as much as possible and most of my confidence is back and I'm feeling determined as ever to live my dream with horses.

I went out to feed Lady this morning with quiet confidence (I wasn't nearly as nervous as I thought I would be) and when I entered her corral with my carrot stick at my side, she approached me with a very soft look. I was semi-shocked but I offered her my hand and then walked away to continue my business.
She circled around and tried to cut me off with a snotty look and I brought out some energy and popped her on the chest with the leather popper on the end of my Savvy string.

She backed up quite quickly, looked at me with a shocked expression and then licked her lips.

Every other time she tried to approach me, she had a soft and curious expression and I would offer her my hand and move away.
If I was doing something, she respected my space and she waited until I was out of her stall to go in.

I'm very satisfied with the results! I feel more in control and safer now that I know it's okay to protect my space and that it works. Thanks, Mariah!

In other news: I am on Lesson 8 in Level 1 and the next tasks are to teach Lady to lower her head from pressure and release. (Porcupine Game) and to pick up all four feet from one side.
We are already learning how to lower her head and so we shouldn't spend too much more time on that. The feet though.... oh goodness I think I'm going to skip that one and go to the next games! It's going to take a while and it's something I want to work on with Mariah.

That's it for tonight!

Katie

Wow.. overwhelming, much?

2008-09-12T16:22:00.003-04:00

On an interesting note, as of today I have been a Savvy Club member for one year! :))

I'd like to make a small shout out to Miss Fran Latane! Her Birthday was on the 11th!
She rocks. 'Nuff said.

Now onto the 'good stuff '.

Night before last, I watched the “Right Brained Behavior Requires Savvy!” segment on one of my L1 DVD’s and took notes on the extreme Yoyo Technique used to get RB horses to stop moving their feet and focus on you.

Then we skip to yesterday... I made up a Game Plan for a session I had planned out for that evening:

Driving Game: Assess Driving Game; Goal: get a backwards yield, forequarter yield and hindquarter yield without touching your horse.
Yoyo Game: Tweak Yoyo Game; Goal: Lower phases and more steps!

What happened: I got out there and at first the session was AMAZING.
Driving Game: I got all three yields! I can now check off my final checkboxes for Driving Game.
Yoyo Game: WOW. She backed to the end of the 12 ft line with a Phase 2!

I got a spur of the moment idea to try circling and the results were insane. Keep in mind I had only worked on circling twice before. Very little practice.
I lead her zone 1 and waited. All I had to do was pick up the stick and she was walking! She walked three whole (LB!) circles around me before she asked to come in. Beautiful soft, curious expression, too!

And then.. BOOM!
She shied at something, spooked and ran towards me. So, I yoyo’d her back to the end of the line with a big phase 4 and waited. She snorted and took off running.
Totally RBE, totally frightened and totally freaking out.
I remembered the chapter from my L1 DVD on RB Behavior and so I thought over my options. I could bring up my energy to match her and mirror her until she calmed down, I could make her run faster than she really wanted to go and in smaller circles until she calmed down OR I could yoyo her until she stopped moving her feet and focused on me.
I opted for choice 3 because I’m not confident enough for choice 1 and choice 2 would have made it worse since she doesn’t trust the stick fully and also, she’s an OTTB. She’d run forever!
So I snapped that rope around in a big phase 4, my whole arm locked and moving hugely while I was in my power stance. The snap swung around and popped her nose and she reared, ran backwards and then started running again.
We had multiple repeats until she had stopped running and she was standing still. She blew out and had her head low, ears loosened and her body was no longer braced.
Here is where I made a mistake:
I approached her. I walked in an arc to her shoulder and when I got there and went to take off her halter, she came at me teeth barred and ears back while trying to spin around and kick me in the same moment. I acted out of instinct and did a body block for zone 1 and yielded her HQ away from me. I quickly undid her halter and backed off. She took off bucking, rearing and galloping around at an insane speed.
So I walked off to the barn, sat down and cried. Feeling like a total failure! After I regained my composure a bit, I mixed her feed and walked out of the barn to take it to her and guess who’s there, hanging all over the fence and nickering at me quite loudly?
You guessed it. Ladybug, resident loon!

I couldn’t bring myself to take her hay back in her pen so I just came back inside, cried some more and e-mailed my wonderful friend and resident genius, Mariah! (BLESS YOU, WOMAN!)

I have a huge history of fear and unconfidence pre-Parelli. Parelli has brought my confidence way up for the most part but, today... all of my fear came rushing back tenfold and I was really self-doubting and second-guessing being a horse owner.
Mariah called me, listened to me explain quite hysterically, calmed me down and gave me some very good advice on how to handle this and how to view this.
So, I’m taking it in and I am going to view this session as a success. Yes, you heard right!
Before the scare, we got AMAZING results like never before and my response to her spooking was great for me! I feel like I really retained that information in L1. It’s reflex now. I need to sit back, relax and take it all in. Then I need to refocus and keep going! This weekend I’m going with mom up to Maryland and D.C. to visit a friend of hers.
I’ll spend this time relaxing and de-compressing and when I come back Monday I’ll be ready to try again. Up until we leave I’ll be spending a minimal amount of time with Lady, feeding and UDT only. No sessions until next week!

Whew!

Katieanne

UDT + Session tomorrow.

2008-09-10T22:31:00.005-04:00

When I went out to feed Lady tonight, she confirmed that my decision to ditch the lesson and spend some UDT with her was the best choice. She ran up from the pasture and called to me.
All because of some UDT.

The reason I know it was me and not the food she was calling to is because lately she wouldn't come up to the barn until I had her food in her bucket. She would pretend not to notice me at all and she'd have this grumpy expression on her face.

I feel like more UDT is the right choice and since I've had such a drastic change in behavior in a few hours, I'm thinking if we repeat this tomorrow and things are as great as they were tonight, I could think up a Game Plan and then have a session in the afternoon!

I'm already forming a Blueprint in my head of what I want to work on tomorrow. I still have some boxes I need to check off for The Driving Game and then we're going to focus on The Yo yo Game.

Checklist Progress

The only items left to do on my checklist are:

2. Get some barrels, a tarp and something that we could use as a pedestal, and do some work with desensitization.

Progress with this task:
I've got my barrels and my tarp, I still need to find a pedestal.

3. Continue work on teaching Lady to lower her head from pressure. Instead of freaking out and pushing against it I want her to give to it.

Progress with this task:
Beginning sessions again tomorrow.

4. Work on thresholds and new environments by taking her out for walks/ grazing trips.

Progress with this task:
I want to complete the rest of my tasks before I try this one.

6. Really firm up our Principle Games so that our Purpose Games are better.

Progress with this task:
Beginning sessions again tomorrow.

7. Advance the squeeze games, circling game and yo yo game as they’re the most useful when trailer loading.

Progress with this task:
Beginning sessions again tomorrow.

Newly Completed Tasks:

10. Get back to studying my Level 1 materials to help me form Game Plans.

Progress with this task:
I completed this task tonight by watching/studying my L1 materials, taking notes and catching up to where I should be. My next few sessions will revolve around the Yo yo Game and Driving Game.

That's all for now, folks!

Katie

UDT in the rain.

2008-09-10T17:39:00.002-04:00

Yes, I know it's Wednesday and I'm scheduled for a session. But, it's rainy and disgustingly muddy, plus Lady has been having a lot of closeness issues with me.
Every little move I make causes her to shy. She's very sensitive and spooky and there is a chunk missing from her right hip. I'm not sure what happened but I decided we needed a UDT session today.

When it's raining, Lady stays under the shelter. So, when I went out there I walked out into the field and she followed. We ran around for a little while and she seemed friendly enough, very playful! She stuck with me while grazing and I worked on mirroring her as she shifted her weight and walked around. I walked beside her on both sides and she didn't show any issues like she did during out last session (Issues: not comfortable with me standing on her right side) and overall it went really well. Tomorrow I'll do it again and if she seems calmer and more trusting we'll have a session on Friday.

I'll work on 10. tonight.

Katie

More tasks completed!

2008-09-09T19:33:00.005-04:00

2: Obstacles
I now have a tarp and three cow flavored barrels and I talked with my grandfather about making me a pedestal out of a tire and some dirt or a pallet and some plywood.

Either way, I should have this checked off soon!

11: Game Plan Process
Blueprint - Firstly, think about the tasks/games that we need to work on and pick three per session. Also, decide on how long I want the session to last. (My goal here is to keep the sessions short but meaningful, always keeping in mind to take the time it takes.)
Research - Research the chosen tasks/games on the SC website and forum, Level 1 kit and Success Series.
Goals - Decide what level of response I am looking for and stick to that so I have purpose and I have a great stopping point. (End on a good note and all that jazz)
Play - Go out and play! Don't put it off. As soon as I have a plan and all the researched information fresh on my mind, I need to go out and do it.

12: Schedule
Monday, Wednesday, Friday - Play Sessions. (weather permitting)
Tuesday, Thursday - Undemanding Time sessions. (weather permitting)

14: Study Horsenality Do's and Don't's article in the Savvy Times by Linda Parelli.
Tips:
LBE: He is obsessed with learning and needs variety and new things to keep it fun. Lots of praise; room to move.
RBE: Do what he wants, only faster and smaller - "and then some!" Consistency is key. Circles, long lines (more drift) and a fast pace.
RBI: Use tiny, small suggestions and then wait. Confidence is everything; focus on this. Consistency; time and low energy.
LBI: Variety, rewards and food! Also responds to going slow, relaxing, eating and doing things that are new and interesting. Straight lines, obstacles, tricks, learning something new.

Expect the unexpected..

2008-09-08T22:21:00.006-04:00

Check out my checklist (to the right) I have 1, 8 and 9 checked off!
I was planning to work on checklist numbers 10,11,12 and 14 today and while I was focused on those tasks, who should call but the one person I needed to talk to!
The very person I had in mind to ask about borrowing a trailer called to talk to my mom and she agreed to let me rent her trailer to put it in my field to use with Lady and to haul Lady down to Charlotte and back for me!
My mom is excited that she gets to spend time with her childhood friend whom she hasn't seen in a while and I get the most important tasks taken care of.

It seems like everything is setting itself up for success. I still have time tonight to work on 10,11,12 and 14.

I'll post again when I complete them. :)

Katie

Good morning, guys!

2008-09-08T11:14:00.003-04:00

Here's a picture of my completed inspiration board (yes, my thumbtacks are ladybugs!)
I apologize for the terrible lighting!
I have the Eight Principles, Seven Keys, Ten Qualites, Savvy Club # and a card with the date of Lady's arrival - forever on it ;) on the cork board side. Some good Panda quotes on the other.

I plan to work on checklist numbers 10,11,12 and 14 today and also if I have the time, I'll think up a Game Plan and get out there to work on some number 6!

I'll be posting quite frequently today if things go the way I intend them to and I complete the chosen tasks from my checklist.
"My little charge" didn't come today because she's sick and mom took a day off of work because she had a rough night last night so I'll be hanging out around the house with her mostly today. Perfect time to work on this stuff!

Post again soon,

Katie

Checklist!

2008-09-08T01:01:00.022-04:00

CHECKLIST

1. Find a trailer to borrow to stick in the pasture to use for desensitization and sessions for the remainder of the month.

2. Get some barrels, a tarp and something that we could use as a pedestal, and do some work with desensitization.

3. Continue work on teaching Lady to lower her head from pressure. Instead of freaking out and pushing against it I want her to give to it.

4. Work on thresholds and new environments by taking her out for walks/ grazing trips.

5. Read all Q&A’s and Articles on the SC website about trailer loading.

6. Really firm up our Principle Games so that our Purpose Games are better.

7. Advance the squeeze games, circling game and yo yo game as they’re the most useful when trailer loading.

8. Look for truck and trailer rentals/figure out a way to transport Lady to Mariah’s.

9. Start saving up money to go towards truck/trailer rental and gas.

10. Get back to studying my Level 1 materials to help me form Game Plans.

11. Stop procrastinating and create a process that will help me set everything up for success.

12. Create a schedule for lessons between now and the 25th, alternating UDT and sessions to keep and better our rapport.

13. Create an inspiration board, with quotes and euphemisms to help keep me motivated and dedicated!

14. Study the “What to do (and not do!) with your horse.” Article from the February ’08 Savvy Times Magazine to gain some knowledge on how to play and teach different Horsenalities so that I will be prepared when Lady loses confidence and “flips the chart” on me during sessions. (This chart is also in a brochure that is being handed out at the ’08Parelli Tour Stops)

15. Fill out the Leadership chart on the other side of the brochure from the ’08 Parelli Tour Stop and pin it up.

Gettin' stuff done

2008-09-07T23:43:00.005-04:00

A few hours ago I was sitting on my bed, watching tour stop highlights on the SC when a huge burst of motivation hit me.
I created my checklist and even completed a few items listed on it. Here ya go!
I'll post it in a blog and I'll also post it on the side bar to the right so that you guys can keep checking back and see how things are coming along. :)
I'll have it up before I head off to bed.
Katie.

Franklin '09 & Lakeland '09!!

2008-09-07T00:32:00.003-04:00

YES! I get to go to the first and last Parelli Celebrations of 2009!
Me and my mom have worked out a system.

I'm going to pay for the tickets for Franklin and she's going to pay for the tickets to Lakeland.
And we'll save up money for both of them! It's perfect. I'm so excited!

Ah we just got home and we've had a long, AWESOME day. I'm tired so goodnight, folks!

Katie

No more tour stops! Hoorah for Lakeland '09!

2008-09-06T13:33:00.006-04:00

I was reading the SC forum earlier today and some of the people who are currently at the conference posted the new confirmed tour stop schedule for '09. Except, they are no longer tour stops.. They're basically mini-conferences! They're called Parelli Celebrations and here's the scoop:

"Pat said that so many people WANT to come to CO but cannot afford it so they are taking the savvy conference to you. So really, we still have a savvy conference, we really don't have any more tour stops.
Pat also said that for the last 26 years he and Linda have been introducing Parelli to people and now is the time to just bring in the people that WANT to be there. They aren't going to be the "what is parelli" these are supposed to be the premiere events for Parelli students. "

Wow! I'm very excited. I'm also worried about how Parelli is supposed to reach out to newbies!
No more levels, no more free tour stops.
(tickets for the new stops are going on sale October 1, 2008 and are $99 during early bird special.)
I trust the Parellis and I'm sure they have a plan. So I refuse to worry about that for the moment.
I'm just going to be excited and look forward to going to Florida next October 10-11, '09. The tenth will be my 18th birthday! It will be an exellent trip for me and my mom! ;) Here is the schedule:

Franklin , TN - Jan 31- Feb 1
Sydney, Austr Mar 14-15
Harrisburg PA April 18-19
Reno NV May 16-17
Madison WI June 6-7
Kansas City, MO July 25-26
Fort Worth TX Sept 26-27
Lakeland, FL Oct 10-11
Birmingham, England Nov 21-22

In other news: I got some new shirts from Parelli collection with my first paycheck! I got their new polo 3/4 sleeve shirts in black and navy with the horsehead logo on the breast.
I'm wicked excited because their clothes wear so good!

Now I'm going to get a hair cut, pedicure and all that wonderful girly stuff. <3 Later!

Katie

Eeek, Hanna post numero uno

2008-09-05T18:51:00.003-04:00

Just a quick blog about my day.

I didn't even get to see Lady this afternoon because my little friend's mom was late in picking her up and my grandparents took it upon themselves to feed Lady and put her up for me.
I do appreciate it since it was so rainy out and getting steadily worse along with tornado warnings and all that good stuff.

I really had a great day with my little friend though. It's getting easier and easier to look after her and more fun every day.
I got paid today!! So I'll be setting my budget in effect soon. (Thanks, Katie O. for the ideas!)

Anyway, I'll work on my checklist tonight. Study L1 materials, create lesson plans and probably blog again.

Keep it natural!

Katie

Bring your life up!

2008-09-04T19:27:00.005-04:00

I went with my little friend to the Doctor today at 1:30 pm.
She has an ear infection and so she went home with her gramma for the rest of the afternoon and I stayed at the doctor's office ( it was the one where I used to volunteer) and helped them out for the rest of the afternoon.
Because I did, I got home earlier than usual and surprise; there was no two year old too look after and no cleaning to do.

So guess what I got to do..

PLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!

Yeah! I went out there and made myself sit down on my barn step and think up a plan. I ended up with this:

5:30 pm - Game Plan:

Yo Yo Game: Work on our yo yo from zone 1. Goal: two steps at nothing higher than a low phase 3 and I wanted to be able to draw her back into me without stepping backwards.
Driving Game1: Lady is really great at HQ driving but we had not done it in a while so, I decided a refresher wouldn't hurt. Goal: Half circle both ways without touching my horse.
Driving Game2: Work on our backwards driving as well. This is a pretty hard task for us. Goal: four steps backwards without having to touch my horse.
Carrot Stretches: I like to get her to stretch her neck out before we play sometimes by using treats. I feel like it makes her a little bit more relaxed going into a session.
Friendly: It had been a good but long day and I mostly just wanted to spend some time with my partner on a 12 ft line, walking and grazing.

It seemed like a short and sweet session and more time just being close and relaxing. But what I actually got was this:

6:00 pm - Results:

Driving Game1: Success! She gave me a full circle HQ yield both ways without me having to touch her at all. I just needed to guide her zone 1 a little. She's still amazing at this task.
Driving Game2: Not so great.. Driving backwards: It was icky. At the time I didn't realise why she wasn't moving. It hit me when I was browsing through the videos on the SC website using the new search box (which is wicked-great, by the way) and stumbled across the video titled:

" Video: Level 1 Online Driving Game How To Bring Your Life Up"

I watched the short clip of a slightly younger Pat and a demo horse and then BAM. BFO* hit me like a ton of bricks. I was driving her with my body, but I wasn't driving her with my ENERGY.

I was like a wet noodle, energy-wise! I needed to bring my life up, push her backwards and really mean it! It hit me so hard I wanted to go outside and do it all over again right that very minute. But I decided to let it rest for now, bank this piece of knowledge and use it in my next session. Mostly because I'm TIRED. Haha!

*BFO - Blinding Flash of the Obvious

Yo yo Game: Hmm.. How interesting.. Well, I did get three steps at a medium phase three.. but they weren't exactly backwards.
She backs and then curves her neck around to get me out of her zone 1 and puts her left zone 2 in front, hiding her right side from me.

My strategy: I decided she needed some Friendly attention to her right side. I really wanted to know what the deal was so I went to stand on her right.

Firstly, it was very difficult for me to get over there, she kept trying to head me off with her zone 1 and keep me on her left. But I did get over there and I just stood there, not touching her, no pressure on her from my energy at all and there was slack in the rope. She suddenly became very antsy, picking up her back legs and kicking out, stomping, etc. She honestly didn't want me over there! I'm just brainstorming on what to do now. I'm thinking a lot of Friendly game on her right side with the CS&SS before every session, really prepare her well for playing. Anyway, she and a great draw forward. She always loves to come to me. So I let it rest.

Also, when we were first heading out into the medium sized pasture to play, we were going through the gate side by side and I was in her zone 2. I made a spur of the moment decision to yo yo her from there to see if she would respond and she backed right up. Much better than she ever had when I was in zone 1. This was very interesting to me..

I. HATE. Horseflies.

I was still standing on her right side and thinking when this demonic (not so) little horsefly decides it's time to attack Lady. She walks a ways off, starts bucking, kicking back both feet at the same time and rearing and the horsefly kept coming back over and over and over to bite her. I gave her a lot of slack ( about 10 ft.) and waited for her to jerk it out of my hand and take off. But, she never did. She never once jerked the line. She just worked on getting that horsefly away. I stood there, extremely calm and gave her slack when she needed it, helped her move in order to get the fly off. She didn't relate her discomfort to me. She didn't try to run from me. So when the bucking and kicking didn't work and the horsefly started coming after me, I ran off and Lady was right behind me, trotting. (not RBE) We ran and when I stopped she turned looked at me with ears forward and worried eyes, came to me stuck her head against my stomach and started coughing. (Do you guys think the coughing was because she was coming down off of adrenaline?) AGH! My poor baby! I was rubbing her until she was calm enough to graze. We did that for a little while and then I fed her supper and came inside for a shower. While doing this I was thinking. Before Parelli it never would have happened like that.

I never would have been that calm. I would have probably screamed at her, dropped the rope and run off crying! But today I was totally unaffected and I understood. Not once did I feel fear of the rearing horse on the other end of my line. This in itself is huge for me!

Lady never would have hung around. She would have been gone, 12 ft. and all to the barn or out in the big pasture in true RBE form. She stayed right there with me.

She would have never have come back to me for comfort like she did today. She trusts me. We have an amazing relationship and it's all thanks to Parelli!

I consider today a pretty good day. A pretty decent session. I learned a lot and the ending really made me think about how far we've come and how grateful I am for Parelli.

THANKS, PAT AND LINDA!

Keep it natural!

Katie

It doesn't matter how long it takes as long as we're getting a little bit closer every day...

2008-09-03T21:52:00.005-04:00

Well, keeping a two year old is keeping me super busy from 7 am to 5 pm, five days a week.
That's a pretty big hunk out of my schedule right there.
On top of that, any extra minute I stumble upon is devoted to cleaning out my house.
The kitchen, living room, dining room, utility room, my bedroom and bathroom are clean.
The den, other two bedrooms and the last bathroom are next.
I cleaned out my closet, went through all my clothes and I had no idea just how many clothes I owned! I set aside at least half of my entire wardrobe to go to our upcoming yard sale.
My house feels hollow without all the clutter!

My point is that I have had no (literally; none at all!) time to play with Ladybug so far this week. AND the hurricanes are supposed to hit us just in time for the weekend!
So it looks like there will be no lessons until next week sometime.
That is if I get up extra early one weekday or run out and play precisely after my little friend leaves at 5 pm.
Weather permitting!

So today while my little friend was napping I put away some clothes, washed dishes, swept the kitchen and then! I filled out a new Horsenality Profile for Bug!
Here it is:

I'm in awe at the amount of change! If you look in my blog archives over here. -->
And find my first ever blog post then you will see her profiles from May and June and notice the differences.
First of all, the new profile is only on one chart.
When I charted her in June, I had to use three different charts because she displayed traits from multiple quadrants at the same time.
She's only in one at a time now!
LBI usually.
RBI when unconfident during our sessions.. If I ask too much too fast etc.
LBE when confident during our sessions.. and when she runs in the mornings.. She loves to play!
RBE when in a new environment or around new people she'll do her warning snort. SUPER alert, and totally all over me.
P.S: HARDLY ANYMORE CATATONIA!

I'm very excited about this new profile and I'll put it to good use. Here's how:

I'll research the Horsenalities she displays during play and acquire some new strategies on how to work with them. I need to research RBI mostly. LBE and LBI also.
Since I know what to expect, I can start looking for the smaller signs that she's becoming unconfident instead of waiting for her to go introverted or explode.
I'll research some confidence building exercises and use a lot of retreat and praise.

When the weather takes a turn for the worse this weekend, I'll begin work on my lesson plans and study up on my Level 1 material to help me set good goals.

**I still have no checklist!**

I am an extreme procrastinator and I keep putting off making one. Even when I had the time, I never got it done. Maybe I'll get off my bum and figure out what I need to put on there.

I also need to talk with Mariah again before I make that checklist, just to refresh on some of the things she told me.

Alrighty, I'm exhausted and I have another day with my little friend tomorrow! Off to bed with me.

Love,

Katie

LtheL

2008-09-02T18:36:00.007-04:00

These are Lady's LtheL cups* that I made to help assess where she needs the most help in building her confidence.

*Confidence cups were briefly talked about in an article Linda wrote for the Savvy Times. I was then told that charting your horse using LtheL is a really good idea but I thought that it'd be much simpler to chart my horse's confidence using the cups and LtheL combined.This is the LtheL concept for those who are scratching their heads and thinking "what?":

“ LtheL” is the acronym for the 5 Confidence Cups or Areas of Confidence.

Leader (confidence in you as the Leader)
Themselves (self confidence)
Herd (how confident the horse is in a Herd environment)
Environment (how changes in Environment changes the behaviour of the horse)
Learner (how confident is the horse as a Learner - in a situation where he has to figure something new out).

(Thanks so much to Lucy for sharing all of this with me!)

Lady has gained a lot of confidence in herself and in me as a leader since our journey began.

When she first came here she was all nerves but, now she really trusts me and is letting her true self shine! Relaxed LBI that she is.

The small amount of time she has spent meeting new animals (herd) she's dominant, pushy and downright mean! So I've pegged her as a super confident wanna-be alpha.

When she came here and the few times I have walked around with her outside of the fence, she turns into a massive RBE. Bracy, reactive and walking all over me. So her environment really has an effect on her confidence.

As a learner she goes RBI mostly. Needs lots of time, repetition and comfort.

So the areas that need the most work are environment and as a learner. I want the good areas to become the great areas! You know what Pat says:

"Good, better, best, never let it rest, get your good better and your better best."

Horseplay! update

2008-09-01T14:27:00.002-04:00

1:20 pm - The Results:

Overall Friendly Check: Perfect! She enjoys the rubs and scratches from the CS & SS.
Porcupine FQ: Wow! We got four whole steps! That is double my original goal and half of a circle.

Driving Zone 1 Backwards: It started out with her giving me a " Just what are you doing?" kind of look. Then I tapped her nose and she stepped backwards out of shock. I smiled, relaxed and waited. It took her about ten seconds to start licking her lips. With a little repetition I got four steps backwards.

Another issue popped up unexpectedly and I decided it was time to deal with it.

Lady stepped on the 12 ft line and it pulled her head down, causing her to totally freak out.
When she had calmed down, I started working on lowering her head using pressure on the lead.
She was okay with it until I asked her to bring her head down past her knees.
She started to jerk her head back up. But I held tight and she licked her lips, brought her head down and pretty soon a pinky's amount of pressure had her bringing her head all the way down and then she'd start eating grass.
There was a lot of lip licking and sighing today from both parties! Really brought my spirits up.

I'm off to the lake with my friend Amy and her Lab, Charlie. Beautiful day for it! ;)

Katie

Horseplay!

2008-09-01T12:47:00.003-04:00

12:50 pm - Game Plan:

Overall Friendly Check: Our last session featured extreme Friendly game so I want to make sure she's 100% okay with the Carrot Stick(CS) and Savvy String(SS) touching her in a Friendly way.
Porcupine FQ: Porcupine both sides of the FQ with one hand on the "magic button" located at the juncture of the neck and jaw and the other on her girth line/shoulder. Goal: two steps from each side.
Driving Zone 1 Backwards: Drive Lady backwards from Zone 1 using rhythmic pressure without touching her. Goal: two steps backwards.

I'm going to try to keep the entire session short, preferably under twenty minutes.
I want to do a series of short sessions until we're steady on the three Principle games.

I'll update when I get back in,

Katie

Dogplay

2008-09-01T08:55:00.002-04:00

Hi guys!
Just got in from morning feeding. Yes it is almost nine.
I changed Lady's feeding times to 8&8 for the cooler months and man was it nice outside this morning!
So, I gave Lady her food and usually Bear ( My German Shepard) is everywhere jumping and begging for Lady's attention and it makes Lady nervous/annoyed and really who wouldn't be?

Anyway!

I saw Bear doing what she always did and suddenly I had an idea!
Time for a little Dogmanship.
I picked out a spot in the shade beside her kennel when I wanted her to be. A threshold, if you will and suddenly I told her " No ma'am. Go back." and I pointed to that spot.

She retreated to the edge of the fence and I repeated it and she retreated some more back near the spot I wanted her so I let it rest. Then she'd try to come back forward and I repeated.

Within a few minutes I had her retreating to the exact spot I wanted and then had her lay down and watch me do whatever I was doing ( I went in the barn, I gave Lady some attention, rattled the gate, walked the fence line and played with some buckets.) and wait there until I bent forward and called her.

So then I gave the command from a few places which were closer to the "go-back spot". And that's when it became a game for her.
She got really excited and hyper and so when I called her she'd FLY forward and collapse on my feet, in pounce position and her tail was flying. Then I'd say " Go back!" And she'd tear off back to her spot, turn and wait. She was practically wiggling by the time I finally ended it and gave her tons of lovin's and cuddles. Then I let her in her kennel for breakfast.

I think everything went great and with some repetition she'll have it down pat. This particular trick is going to be very useful when I'm working with Lady. Teaching Bear to be quiet and lay still no matter what until I give the right command is tricky but def. worth it.

S'all for now,

Katie

Green markers of lurve.

2008-08-30T12:41:00.004-04:00

Awh, I miss my friends at work. They were so sweet!
Yes, I really took a picture of it! I'm such a sap. ;3

YAY!

2008-08-28T18:55:00.003-04:00

I didn't play today but, the relationship is great.

Playing.. Is really hard for me now. Her body language and Horsenality changes really quickly and it just leaves me confused, frustrated and discouraged and I can never explain it. Garh..
I do have other news!

Other News:

I start babysitting this Tuesday! I'm really excited because I love kids and I can now start saving up money!

Tomorrow is my last day volunteering at the Health Clinic and it's hard because I love the people there and I really did have fun working there as long as I did. I learned a lot and I promised to go visit them often. I'm so grateful for the experience.

The move is still on, people! We're looking for a place to rent and I am so excited!
So please keep us in your prayers and thoughts. We really want this to work out.

Okay, so.. Momma is cooking spaghetti and I am so distracted by the heavenly aromas drifting in from the kitchen that I can't even concentrate on blogging. Ha ha!

Off to eat!

Love,

Katie

Rain, rain go away..

2008-08-27T07:59:00.006-04:00

Just got back in from morning feeding!

7:30 am - Game Plan: To work on our driving game, at Liberty first and using my hands for signals since that is the savvy we excel in. Then I want to switch over to the 12ft line and work on it some more, slowly integrating the use of my Carrot Stick in place of my hands. Also; carrot stretches!

8:00 am - Results: It was sprinkling rain when I first got out there at 7:30-ish. We had just finished with our carrot stretches and began on the driving game when the rain started really coming down. I know we need it but goodness! Couldn't it wait until after I was done playing? Ha ha. **One thing I did notice during the small amount of driving game that we actually did is when I ask her to move backwards with my hands or the carrot stick, she thinks it means " Just go away." And so that's how she responds instead of backing she'll just walk off. Uh oh, looks like I've got some reprogramming to do!**

I fed her and then Mom called me in for breakfast, so I'm stuck indoors for a while.

While I am here, I need to work on getting my checklist up. I've got it halfway done but I need to finish it and post it on that lovely sidebar of mine.

I'll post later and let you know if I ever end up outside again today. :)

Love,

Katie

Well...

2008-08-26T16:42:00.004-04:00

Hey guys.

I spent my day fixing up my blog and making it all spiffy. Thanks, Lucy for all your help!! :)

Cool news: Mariah has come up with two logos that represent her stable: Little Patch of Heaven Stables and the other representing the SCSC or South Charlotte Savvy Club. They rock!
Here they are:

Today has been a gloomy, rainy day with loads of drama and I didn't go out to play at all.
I feel super bad and lazy, but it's probably for the best. I need a hot cup of tea and some rest.
Have a good night, guys.

Love,

Katie

Monday, August 25, 2008, 8:00 am

2008-08-26T07:57:00.003-04:00

I know, I know!
Right after I committed to blogging twice a day, I don't blog.. at all.
and I haven't had time to make out my checklist. (It will get done TODAY! I promise.)
In my defense, I was only here until noon and then I spent the day with my dad in Greenville and we got back around 10:00 at night. I was totally exhausted!
But, before we left I did get in some playtime with Ladybug.
I did remember to make a plan before going out there.

8:00 am - Game Plan:

Assess driving game. "Get a backwards yield, FQ yield and HQ yield without touching your horse."
Work on yo yo game. " Stand in a hula hoop and try to get at least two steps backwards without moving your feet." *remember to use phases, giving each phase a full three seconds before moving to the next one.*

11:00 am - Results:

Yo yo game: We got our two steps! I remembered my phases and I stayed in the hula hoop!

When I back Lady away from me she goes RBI and she'll drop her head, go totally introverted and then try to come back to me.

Today for the first time, I made her stay there and work through the introversion on her own. I noticed that she is very quick going in and out of it and when she comes out she would start eating grass. I let her nibble for a little bit as a treat for staying there and then I reeled her in and rested/snuggled.

Then began again. About the fourth time she didn't go introverted when I backed her (also we used a phase 2/3 rather than a 3/4 as usual) she licked her lips and sighed instead and stood there looking at me with her ears forward as if she understood and she was waiting for me to reel her in. It went really well!

That was our stopping point. End on a good note and all that jazz.

I pretty much threw the rest of the plan out the window because of how Introverted she was. She wasn't pushy, dominant or... confident at all and no nudging me for treats. She was worried, quiet and very clingy. So I spent the rest of our time just being there with her and I think it was time well spent.

Now to work on my checklist! I'll post again in a while, talking about my game plan for today.

Yours naturally,

Katie

New Goal!

2008-08-24T10:42:00.004-04:00

Hey guys!

I spent my morning gabbing with Mariah and sharing ideas and experiences from the past few days and all the brainstorming gave us an idea!
I have been wanting to introduce Lady and her mother-in-law (ha ha! - Mariah) for a while now.
SO!
We have hatched a plan.
The Goal:
To bring Lady with mom and I down to Mariah's place on September 25th to spend four days. Four whole days of LEARNING and TEACHING and general JOY.
Just Lady, Katie and Mariah.
It would be beneficial to all three of us!
Mariah would get to play with a new horse and work on her teaching. (horse and student!)
Lady would get to play with a very Savvy person and experience a new environment with new horses.
I would get to learn from a Savvy person, watch her playing with Lady and she could watch me play with Lady.

For us to be ready to go to Mariah's place on the 25th, we are going to have to do a lot of preparation in between now and then.
Therefore some big changes are going to be made.
I am very determined to do this so I'll be working hard to meet all my goals.

Here are some changes for you to be looking out for on my blog:

From now until the 25th I will be blogging religiously twice a day; once before playing to state my lesson plan and once after with results good and bad. On the days I find that I can't play, I'll blog at least once.
I will make a checklist and post it somewhere on my blog or at least have a link to it somewhere. You'll be able to see what I'm working on, what I've accomplished and what I still need to do.
Also, you'll probably notice my blog layout changing a lot and I apologize. I'm just looking for one that allows me to put everything I want to show on there.

That's all on this subject for now but as for other news:

My gramma's biopsy was negative for cancer!

I'm letting my fingernails grow out.

I've got a paying job! Babysitting; I start next Monday.

I'm incredibly sunburned and I finally got some new flip flops.

We're.. probably not moving.

I'll make out my checklist later tonight and I'll begin with the doubledaily updates tomorrow :)

Lunch time!

Yours naturally,

Katie

Well, we did it!

2008-08-19T20:39:00.002-04:00

I promised an update.
We started the same way I did last session, walking away and tapping the ground lightly with the stick & string. She took off around me in circles and nearly pulled the 12 ft from my hands. So, I changed to the 22 ft, took her over to the side of the wooden corral ( it was enough fence to do this with!) and I began again, with my back to the fence and she tried to run and I let her.
Within five minutes she'd learned to stand still and just watch me "act crazy".
So then I walked from the fence and kept up the movements and asked her to follow, she did.
Very slow and cautious but she did.
I'm very pleased with how the session went and we ended on a note of some cone-knocking and carrot stretches! ;D
Was a good day.
Naturally,

Katie Hufton

It's been a while..

2008-08-19T07:27:00.002-04:00

Sorry for not posting for so long, guys! Things have been hectic lately.
My parents have been playing around with the idea of moving to another place with more land and a house that my mom actually likes and we have found what appears to be a perfect place..
But now my grandma is having health issues and the decision to move or not all depends on her test results that will be coming in this week.
So, please keep us in your thoughts!

As for Lady and I here's the 411.
She's super reactive to friendly game in the form of smacking the ground with the stick&string.
She responds almost exactly like Allure responds in the "Welcome To the Savvy Club" DVD.
Except for leaping and cantering around like he did, She gallops around full speed.
So my plan is to get out there, first start off soft with it, retreat, retreat, RETREAT.
Then if that doesn't work, attempt the fence bit like Pat did with Allure.
And to be PERSISTENT!
My only problem is that I may not have enough solid wood fence to do that with as most of our fencing is electric. But I will try ( TODAY!) and let you guys know how it turns out.

Naturally,

Katie Hufton

Something else to chew on..

2008-08-02T21:28:00.011-04:00

I am not sure why July was such a difficult month but I am positive that I am glad it is over.

The Q&A section of the Parelli e-news 7/31 reminded me of something I had forgotten about dominant behavior in horses. Here is the article:

( for my readers from the SC who have already read this particular E-news Q&A; feel free to skip to the highlighted sections. They are the parts that really apply to Ladybug and I. )
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
QUESTION
My husband and I started with Level 1 during February 2007. Instantly, it was as if our three Missouri Foxtrotters (Baron, Cotton, and Hustler) had arrived home to find the lights ON! We were finally speaking their language and they knew it. It was exciting and still is exciting today.
You have said that the goal for us as horsemen and women is to not only have Savvy, but also to be an icon of safety, security, leadership, and fun to our horses. My husband and I have always wanted my horses to think at the end of each day that there is nothing that compares to time spent with us.

Question#1: Should I reprimand them for aggressive behavior displayed to each other while they are in my presence? While I am playing games with one horse, the herd leader Baron (Left-Brain Extrovert), will come and butt in and want to play, but his way — aggressive, biting, kicking. What I have done is this — I put the two horses that are lower in the pecking order in the barn where they can watch, but remain separated. I circle Baron, quite aggressively, and I try to match his energy. I do this until I get him to face me, and give me two eyes. It doesn't take much time. After that, he's compliant and willing. Then I move on to other games. He doesn't like the Friendly Game with a lot of touching and stuff. He wants to by pass the Friendly Game altogether. He loves all the "move those feet" games though. Is this normal?

Question#2: How do you suggest I get him to play in a group? Is this something I should wait until later phases for? I know I have seen your horses play in groups. Is this an advanced form of play?

Question#3: Am I perceiving his violent and aggressive behavior wrongly? I do not like seeing this behavior, but if it serves some equine purpose I am open minded enough to hear it. He usually goes after "my" horse, Cotton (Left-Brain Introvert).

Question#4: Do horses display jealously as a behavior and or emotion?

—Barb and Dave

ANSWER
ANSWER #1: Yes, you are right on. When you are with your horses you need to be the herd leader and not allow Baron to take over. Remember the concept of "protect your herd of two?" The horse you are playing with needs you to be in control of the situation. Running Baron around is the way to do it too... drive him away, matching his energy, until he acknowledges your leadership. One suggestion I have is to think of being assertive rather than aggressive. And finally, dominant horses don't allow friendly touching unless they initiate it. This should tell you about who thinks he is boss most of the time!

ANSWER #2: Yes, I would wait until you have consistent leadership with Baron. Until then it can be dangerous to play in a group. As soon as anyone thinks about playing with more than one horse at a time, you need to have a great thing going with each individual horse first.

ANSWER #3: It's just dominance. That's how horses play it in their world and although it seems violent and aggressive to us, it's just another day at the office for horses. As Pat so often points out, horses vote for their leaders every day. That's why they are always playing dominance games, some more subtle than others. Once again, when you are there the pecking order needs to clearly have you at the top and disallow nonsense between them.

ANSWER #4: A definition of 'jealous' is 'protective', so yes horses are very much involved in that behavior. They are protective of their herd, their young. If your horse is protective over you, it feels like a compliment but it also tells you that they see themselves as number 1. It is not safe for your horse to be number 1, you have to have that spot in the 51:49 balance of the relationship.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How interesting!
The highlighted areas show what really caught my attention.
Lady will always come to me with ease, most times she'll even run and neigh/nicker at me.
But I noticed the second I try to rub her, she usually walks off. This article has given me some real insight as to why she does this. Now I'm one step closer to doing something about it.

Lady and I are not doing anything provocative these days. Just perfecting what we already know and lots of UDT!
Here are some new pictures of my baby:

Naturally,

Katie Hufton

Teachings at Twilight

2008-07-24T21:57:00.011-04:00

I got home from work at eight and went out to see my darling.
We haven't had a Liberty session in quite a while so I decided that it was time to play!
When I greeted her, she came up to me " Do you have food?" Nudged and shoved me around and then when she found nothing, stalked off.
How dominant can she be?!
And then the games began. I trotted off into her pasture with huge presence and super high energy. She was right on my heels from the first step. Here is a short list of things we accomplished in our hour and a half in the twilight.

We began with our little knock-over-the-cone game. Every time I set it up and trotted off, she'd knock it over, roll it around and then come to me to collect her cookie.

Then I asked her to bend her head around to her stomach ( think girth line) on both sides.

Then she had to move her HQ away from me in a very quick circle while keeping her FQ relatively still. ( both directions) with only my schwiegermutter look and snapping my fingers to guide her. :) She is amazing at this task.

We then brought out my hula hoop and played loads of approach and retreat before laying it down and at the end of the session, I could get her to place all four feet in the hula hoop and then back out of it and then come back in without touching her.

Then! I ran around with her, we chased each other a little and then went back to the cone and worked on our yo yo at Liberty. We seem to have pretty good draw! Not too shabby.

After running around some more, I brought out my Tiger and my Ladybug chased her very first Tiger.

She picked it up very quickly after she got over her RB Introversion and knew that she had to figure it out. She came out of it and yawned a lot, blinking and then she got to it.

Chase the Tiger went a little something like this..

- Mommy whips out the Tiger-

- Lady : -Sniff, snort, sniffsniffsniff cautious nudge.- "What in good heavens is tha--"..-

-Mommy stuffs a cookie into Lady's mouth.-

-Lady: .... O.O; "WHAT?!"-

This repeated about five times and then she realized what she was getting cookies for and that was THAT!

At the end of the session she was standing in a hoola hoop and eating the tiger.

She'd grab it by the stick and shake the bag. I was so shocked and I am so proud!

Now I really need some sleep. Lol! I am pooped and I have to work tomorrow as well.

See ya later!

Naturally,

Katie Hufton

SCSC2

2008-07-19T18:17:00.012-04:00

Today was the second official play day of the South Charlotte Savvy Club.
We had a great turnout and it was quite the diverse crowd. I think we had at least one person from each Level and one horse from each quadrant of the Horsenality chart.

The weather was perfect, it was a beautiful, hot day but the clouds always seemed to be in the right place to give us the right amount of shade and at the hottest point of the day, we were blessed with a little cold sprinkling of rain.

Everybody got there around 1 and the ones who brought horses unloaded and then we had lunch down at the boat house, everyone was talking and I really enjoyed the conversation. The sandwiches were great, too!

After lunch everyone warmed up with games and then we all jumped in the lake.
Doc really loved the water and he was splashing and having a great time!
It was wonderful watching Stef work with him. She is so savvy!
Johnny was pulling Sue around with his tail.. Kind of like water skiing.. but with a horse! I think people in Alaska could hear her laughing.
Liz was riding Starsky in the Cradle bridle and they were cantering circles around everyone.
They really do look like the perfect match, very in sync with each other.
Sarah was on Bebe and Mariah was on Sundance.
It was Sarah's first ride in about two years and she really had a blast with the Beebsters.
And of course our wonderful hostess, Mariah Helms on Sundance. ( Affectionately called Fabio)
having all kinds of fun.
Stef even helped Mariah out with her Level 3 games on a 45 ft. line with Sundance and gave her what Mariah refers to as her new secret formula.
And of course Christian Helms was swimming around everywhere and riding Breeze, making sure everyone was having a great time.
Unfortunately, we only got to hear Taco serenade to us one time today. But once is better than nothing!

Thanks to Mariah Helms for planning and hosting such a wonderful "mini-vacation" and thanks for everyone who showed up! It was really a perfect day. :)
Can't wait until next time.

Yours naturally,

Katie Hufton

Off to Charlotte!

2008-07-18T11:14:00.003-04:00

I'm going to spend the weekend with my friend, Mariah!
I'm so excited to see Fabio and the Beebsters.
I think we're going to leave soon. I just need to remember to stop and get some Lance crackers!
And possibly a camera...
Tomorrow, she is hosting the second meeting of the South Charlotte Savvy Club and I know it's going to be just as wicked-awesome as the first one!
I predict that I will learn lots and have a blast. :) See you guys when I get back!

Naturally,

Katie Hufton

My take on Horsenality

2008-07-16T23:44:00.005-04:00

Earlier tonight I posted on AND's forum regarding Parelli's Horsenality and how I used the chart.
Before writing this post, I had never really put a voice to my beliefs and when I finally did, I really liked it and so I'm sharing with you guys.
Check it out! :)

"My personal view of the horsenality chart is that it's not a complete, detailed set of step-by-step instructions and it isn't going to explain every horse, every day.
On it's own, that is.
( Which is where the Parellis and their instructors *AND* [big and!] personal experience come into play.)
It is more of a general guideline meant to introduce people to the idea that there is more to the horse that meets the eye.
A key to unlock the door of horse psychology.
If a person has this key to refer to, it makes the the subject of eq. psych. notably easier to comprehend. It gives people something to look for when reading body language and it makes this vast and difficult subject a little more approachable. In other words; I see it as a starting place; a 3D explanation to add on to, develop inside your mind and add more and more details to as you progress and learn as a horse(wo)man.
That is how I have seen it and it really did help me understand Lady and open my mind up to take note of when her behaviors changed.
When I first got her, I wasn't overwhelmed. The horsenality chart helped me to not overreact.
Stephanie Burns says something in a Parelli Level 1 DVD along the lines of
" When you have an experience that you don't know how to respond to because you haven't been exposed to the particular situation before, or have never been taught what to think, feel or do when said situation occurs, you usually feel tense, scared, upset, angry, frustrated. etc."

The chart helped me mentally prepare myself and so when we ( Lady and I) had our first "incident", I automatically went to the chart in my mind, Classified it as what I thought it was and I knew to respond in a calm, cool and collected manner.
It wasn't just an act either! I was calm and I felt comfort.
Because I was prepared for that experience!

Now of course, my understanding has deepened and I don't look to the chart as much anymore and hardly use labels.
It's all just learning what she as a unique being responds to at any given moment.
But the chart itself and the theory of horsenality taught me how to take the time to LOOK for how she was seeing the world at that point in time.

I am no longer just going out there and assuming that she's 'the usual'.

Pat Parelli says that the Horsenality is made of four things: Innate characteristics, Learned behaviors, Environment and spirit.

I look for that in Lady every time I see her.

I am constantly gaining a deeper understanding of her innate characteristics as she shows me more and more of her 'true self', if you will.

I'm also gaining a deeper understanding of her learned behaviors, deducing where they came from to as best I can and how to tell them apart from her innate chars.

I watch her to see how she's reacting to her environment, if anything is spooking her or has caught her interest, if there is anything around that might explain for how she's acting ( For ex. sometimes there are people in the corn-field beside her pasture and when they are, she'll trot beside the fence line back and forth and just tree them until they leave, or until I come out there.)

And lastly I look to see if she's feeling good! (spirit) And if she's in a "let's go" kind of mood I go back to environment and look for something there that might be causing her spirit level to be up or down from her "normal".
If nothing is worrying her then I move on to other factors like health, weather, socialization, etc. Or maybe she just feels good! Or some days she's just lazy as all get-out.

My point: I know what I'm looking for now and I know how to respond accordingly. And it all started with that simple chart. Did I make any sense at all? Sometimes it is difficult to explain what's going on inside my head! I hope I did an okay job of it. Hahaha! Thanks for reading my NOVEL. Sorry! "

What do you guys think? Well explained? Makes sense? Agree or disagree? Feedback, lovies!

Thanks!

Naturally,

Katie Hufton

Art of Natural Dressage

2008-07-14T02:16:00.005-04:00

A friend of mine from the Parelli Savvy forum introduced me to a website and forum a few weeks ago called the Art of Natural Dressage forum.
Today I signed up, posted a good sized introduction and proceeded to wade through their sea of knowledge.
I learned quite a bit about their philosophy and methods and I have decided to try a few things with Lady.

I really love Parelli and the amazing things the system does for humans and horses everywhere.
But my theory as far as Horsemanship goes has always been this:
Look around, hear lots of different theories, opinions and ideas. Set your own goals depending on what you want to do, what your horse's natural talents are and what the pair of you enjoy (which are the facts). Combine the theories, ideas and facts to make tasks remembering to use the philosophy of keeping it natural. Do what you love and take it as far as it'll go!
Keep your eyes and your mind open. Just because something is not advertised as Natural do not turn it away. If you're truly interested in it and want to do it, find a way to make it Natural and respectful of the horse. I know it is possible and if you are determined enough you can do anything.

Now I am going to share an excerpt from the forum on one of the games I am going to try with Lady. It sounds like such a blast! (Mariah, I so thought you would be interested in this to try with your babies or at least I know you'll find this very intriguing.)

Playing: chase the tiger
'Chase the Tiger' is one of the most popular games to play with horses on this forum and is developed by several forum members, so it deserves a spot of honour in the groundwork section indeed! See for wonderful examples the movies of HelenMai and Esprit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe5CwweChzM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qtZFqAVssQ

Here is also a great video I found on YouTube of Chasing the Tiger through a maze! How creative and awesome! This one is of Lucy the Spotted Draft. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZl49Z9Fr-k&feature=related

Chasing the tiger
Chasing the tiger is nothing more or less than letting your horse chase a plastic bag/piece of clothing or something else that you hold in your hand or have tied to a stick/whip/pole. A lot of traditional trainers also use sticks/whips with plastic tied to it, but then in order to let the horse flee away from it in order to make them run. You can compare it to the rope that is flung to the horse in a join-up, or even a lungeing-whip that is cracked in the air in order to 'scare' the horse so that he becomes faster. These training methods reinforce the horse that the human is the hunter and the horse is the prey, and therefore subordinate to the human.

Training
We do it the other way round. First you teach your horse through rewards that he can put his nose against a plastic bag that you're holding in front of him - and reward a lot for that! Then you just walk a step away from your horse and ask your horse if he wants to follow you and touch the bag again. Then slowly take longer distances, or let your horse touch the bag longer while walking, before you reward. If that's all okay, you can tie the bag on to the end of a whip and start running away from your horse, animating him into a trot or canter while holding the bag in front of him. When you tie the bag to a longer driving/lungeing whip, you can lunge your horse around you like this, let him do the more energetic moving while you're in a safe distance (and a bit less tired ).

Why
The most important reason to do this, is that most horses just love it. They love the fact that they're the hunter instead of the hunted and that they can chase instead of be chased. Because for horses, chasing each other is very natural too, only a lot of horses never chase others because the others always chase them. So giving them the opportunity to change place really can give them a boost of self-confidence. Chasing the tiger is also a very good way to conquer fears. Clickertrainers already know that targeting a scary object with the nose easily convinces horses that that object isn't that scary after all. Chasing is makes it even more harmless, as obviously the previous scary object is now running away, and therefore scared of the horse. So let the horse be as wild as he wants to be with the bag (or other object) and reward him for that behavior. Touching the bag with the nose is very good, but stamping on it with a front foot is even better, as it means that your horse dares to come closer to it with his body. Another reason why Chasing the Tiger is a great game, is that it teaches horses to move freely and at higher speeds eventually, even the more timid horses. It also offers a wonderful opportunity to 'make' horses more independent of you, especially those horses who don't play wild games on their own because they don't like to leave you. The last reason is that lungeing in Chasing the Tiger-style, with the horse following the bag with his nose stretched out down and forwards, is a very good way to loosen the back. With horses who tend to lean a bit too much on the front legs when moving, you can also hold the whip with your targetbag more at knee-or breast-height. Essentially you can play Chase the Tiger with anything: with wooden planks that you drag through the sand, or a jacket tied to a rope so that you can drag it behind you, or a tennis ball or piece of cotton tied to the end of the whip. Start easy, with an object that isn't that scary according to your horse, and gradually you can make the game more interesting by taking more scary materials (plastic, wild colors) and by asking your horse to follow it at higher speed. Experiment! And everybody with new ideas for this game, place them in this topic!

Follow a Tiger towards collection
For the Tiger-experienced horses, Chase the Tiger is also a very good way of introducing them to good self-carriage and collection, as Marleen shows in her video amongst others. For stretching the neck/back, you can keep the Tiger really low on the ground so that the horse follows it in a forwards-downwards posture. However, when he gets better at that, you can also start lifting the tiger a bit at knee/breast height of your horse and instead of just pulling it away from him (which would stretch the neck out again), move it away and then a bit towards him and then away again in for example walk or trot. Most horses will respond to that by raising the front, lifting the neck while looking down (the ramener-pose) in order to kick the heck out of the tiger with the front feet - using natural collection exactly for what it was originally meant for in the wild. That way you not only can let your horse experience that collection is fun (and useful ) too, but you can also get more jumpy, upwards movement that you can put on a cue during the CtT game, and then develop and refine further as haute ecole movements (Spanish trot, passage) and jumps (terre a terre, rear, courbette...? ). That way your horse introduces himself to higher collection that you can use in the focused work again, while even more important, he also learns that moving in such an extravagant, flashy, impressive way is fun.

How interesting!
I seriously can't wait to apply some of this knowledge to my sessions with Lady!
If any of you would like to check out the AND forum, visit this site: http://www.artofnaturaldressage.com/ It is free and easy to join and start reading.

Naturally,

Katie Hufton

My giant bunny rabbit

2008-07-09T17:18:00.010-04:00

WHOAH.

I went out into the pasture today to find my lovely Ladybug laying down in her new flymask, sleeping like a log. And so I decided to walk into the pasture and see what she'd do. She woke up but she didn't get up.. I walked closer.. Still no movement. I walked right up to her, sat down and she went right back to sleep. I was all.. WHOAH! It was awesome. We sat, I rubbed her neck and we just hung out. I started worrying because she hadn't gotten up yet and I was thinking maybe she had hurt something. So I got up and walked off to get her a carrot and about halfway to the barn, here she came trotting after me all: " Where are you going? I was comfortable!" I got a few pictures. Her fly mask makes her look like a giant bunny rabbit. Check it out! :))

Having a wonderful time!

Naturally,

Katie Hufton

New level of trust

2008-07-03T20:14:00.002-04:00

If you have been keeping up with this blog then you probably know by now what a big deal getting up close and personal with Ladybug is.

In short, my darlin' isn't exactly what one would call 'touchy-feely'.

But it's all changing so quickly! We have reached a new level in our relationship.
Here are some short and sweet updates on how she responds to my touch as of today:

She enjoys it when I sit beside her while she grazes and rub her legs and tummy.
She comes to me for scratches and rubs and general attention.
Her reaction to scratches are HUGE. She'll stretch out her entire body, spread her legs and lean into me or sway back and forth and her little lips twitch.
She lets me stand behind her and scratch her rump and her tail with my PREDATOR CLAWS.
Instead of going Right Brained when I do the above, she leans back into me and enjoys the feeling.

These things show me that not only does she enjoy my company, but she trusts me to scratch her in a place of weakness. A place where predators in the wild would dig their claws in and never release, equaling death. Yet, she trusts me to be different. She trusts that I wouldn't hurt her. That I'll do anything I can to make her feel good. I am her leader, her companion and her herd. I am her safety. This means the WORLD to me. I am on cloud nine right now!! Thanks for reading and sharing in my extreme happiness. :)

Naturally,

Katie Hufton

How interesting!

2008-07-01T16:52:00.005-04:00

Lately I have been questioning my ability to correctly decipher and chart my Ladybug's Horsenality.
After reading a recent question and answer segment with Linda Parelli in an e-newsletter; I got the inspiration to do another chart and really take my time with it.
I came out with similar results as before (first blog entry).. Lady just seems to be bi-polar with Introverted and Extroverted tendencies.

She had equal marks in LBE and LBI (six).
Two marks in RBI and three in RBE.
*note* She does not exhibit these behaviours all at once, but they seem to occur in a pattern depending on the day, the situation, my actions/ emotions/ intentions etc.

I am wondering if as we progress she'll move more into LBI or LBE or if she'll stay the way she is.

This has been a very interesting subject for me to chew over!

Here is the aforementioned Q&A with Linda Parelli in the Savvy Times e-news (06/05/08)

QUESTION:
I have a six-year-old Quarter Horse mare who is a Right-Brain Extrovert. When I play with her on the ground, she has a lot of "go", is very sensitive and is very willing to move around, play, jump, run, etc. She is playful and mouthy with toys, but very respectful with me. When I get on her, her Horsenality™ changes. She has very little "go" and will often stop dead from the walk or trot for no apparent reason. If I put pressure with my legs, she will swing her tail and pin her ears back. I would like to get her going at a good pace at the trot and eventually the canter, but I am not sure how to get the message to her feet! Hope you can give me strategies to do to help us both through this. I am currently working through my Level 3 with another horse. -Chantal

ANSWER:
Hmmmmm. This does not sound like a Right-Brain Extrovert to me, but more of a Left-Brain Introvert with some Extrovert tendencies. Perhaps she has shown you a lot of unconfidence and even fear which puts her on the right side of the chart, but at the core she is really a Left-Brain Extrovert. So maybe you have gotten her to reveal her true self on the ground, but not under saddle.
So my question is... can you do a Horsenality Profile on her just when you ride her? That might reveal a totally different Horsenality, behaviorally speaking. And say it does reveal more Left-Brain Introvert tendencies; are you then approaching her in the right way? The most important thing that the Horsenalilty concept will teach you is how to flex your approach according to the different behaviors that horses present, at any given moment. As Pat says, there are four moments in every second, which makes most of us way too slow for our horses! But that's what mastery is all about. When you see someone who is so good with horses that even horses think they are good... that's what they are doing
So... I've not given you a step-by-step answer, but you should discover way more by thinking about her Horsenality and behavior in a specific situation.

I highlighted the things that really stood out to me and applied them to our situation.
In my first blog post I had taken the initiaitive to chart her when her behaviours changed and pinpointed what I thought caused the changes. I'm looking back on that now and realizing I had it then! I think she has made progress even since then because she is no longer going severely RBI when I touch her legs, she seems to enjoy any rubbing/ itching I have to offer.
I will continue to chart frequently.

Thanks for reading!

Naturally,

Katie Hufton

June 28, 2008 - SCSC review

2008-06-30T22:10:00.009-04:00

Saturday, June 28, 2008 was the first official meeting of the South Charlotte Savvy Club.
With our wonderful hostess Mariah Helms and family providing their beautiful Patch of Heaven for us to play and relax on, It truly was heavenly.
There was even music provided for the attendees to listen to as they played; the oh-so-soothing sounds of the one and only Taco Sinatra(pictured above).

There was swimming, fruit salad, trail riding, and the day even included a fascinating game of "Spot Spike the lizard!" Held by the highly talented Christian Helms.
All in all it was a wonderful day with great fun, food and delightful company and I can not wait for the next play day which is set for July 18th.
Thanks 'Riah!

Naturally,

Katie Hufton

Hmph!

2008-06-22T22:15:00.003-04:00

Well, this morning my alarm didn't go off and I woke up an hour late for feeding time so I rushed out to the barn and there she stood; TOTALLY mad at me and insulted. So I gave her breakfast, tried to rub her and it went a little something like this:

" Don't touch me. Just give me my food and go."

" But I looooove you!"

" Fine. But give me my food and get out!"

It was pretty funny and I'm beginning to notice how well I can pick up on her body language and I am *so* glad that I viewed the L+HB before starting L1.
I probably won't be posting again for a bit since I'm keeping my little cousins for a few days then going to stay at my Aunt and Uncles for a while. But I will try.
Nighty night!

Naturally,

Katie Hufton

June 21, 2008 - Just another lazy day afternoon

2008-06-22T22:14:00.003-04:00

Things are starting to really progress with Lady. Our session today was a good one and I think it was because we were both relaxed and feeling good! We played lots of Friendly game at first and we were both so relaxed she actually fell asleep.(!)
When I stopped she woke up and looked at me all " Huuuh?" and I asked her to move backwards by using Porcupine on zone 1 and she responded with a few sleepy steps which was good. And when we finished yielding the FQ and the HQ using Porcupine with the same great results, We continued on to Driving game. I started with step 1 [moving her backwards by tapping the lead line with the CS] and she backed up each time! This was big for us! :] Then we went back to Friendly and I let her sleep some more in the sunshine. Wonderful session.

Naturally,

Katie Hufton

There's a 50/50 chance

2008-06-19T09:15:00.007-04:00

Mornin' guys! I'm sorry that I haven't posted anything lately; I've been sick and I wasn't up to doing anything other than resting. But I'm feeling better now so here is an update on how things have progressed in the past five days. :)
Since Lady and I did something really provocative and new on the fourteenth, we spent the next two days hanging out and making sure the relationship was still great, if not better and I am *very* glad I took that time.

June 15, 2008
To start our morning, I gave Lady breakfast in her stall and stayed in there with her while she ate. She was tense and stand-offish and didn't want me to touch her at all so, I gave her some space.
When she was done eating she came straight to where I was standing in the pasture, sniffed at me and walked a few feet away to graze.
Yesterday when she walked away from me and ignored me, I read her body language as dominant since she was relaxed, casually swishing flies, blowing and generally tension-free. But today when she did the same thing, I read her as unconfident because of how tense, bracy and nervous she was.
I focused on being calm, confident and relaxed without any tension in my body. Within the next five minutes she had edged back to my side. She lifted her head to sniff me and I offered her my hand, palm up, which she sniffed then she rested her nose in my palm and sighed really big. We stayed that way for a few seconds(felt like hours!) and then, I tested to see if she was okay with my touch on her withers/back and she seemed to accept and enjoy it. She went back to grazing but she didn't leave my side for the remainder of our time together.

I think that in our relationship, the time I spend with her just doing nothing is key. Especially after a session when we're doing something that may cause her to lose confidence in me or herself. I realize that after our session yesterday, I may not have spent enough UDT with her. I don't feel like I failed, I feel like I experimented and I'm one step closer to finding the right combination of teaching and comfort for her.

June 16, 2008
On the sixteenth, Lady and I started the day the same way as we did on the fifteenth but with a big difference in how she responded to me.
While she was eating, I rubbed her neck and back and she was totally relaxed with no tension and sporting that beautiful soft look that I love so much. We walked together out to the pasture with no lead rope, and she kept with my pace.
The gate that separates the pastures is only big enough to allow one of us through at a time and she being the Lady she is, stopped and waited for me to go through. Our rapport was amazing so I decided to try a little something with her.
When I got through the gate, I turned and invited her through by walking backwards slowly. When she was about halfway through, I lifted my hands, changed my posture and used rhythmic pressure with the intention to back her through the gate. Her ears were flicking back and fourth and I could tell all her attention was on me, once I got to phase 2, she understood what I wanted and responded by backing through the gate. Then I relaxed, she stood there licked her lips and then I invited her to me, rubbed her and walked off into the pasture with her following behind me.
I knew it was something we could do because she is confident with Driving and Porcupine games when I use my hands. It was a little something to keep us both interested and I was very pleased with how it went.
We spent the rest of the time just being close, grazing and scratching each other. :) WONDERFUL session.

June 17-18, 2008
I was really sick on these two days and only went outside to do the daily barn chores. She nickered when she saw me which made me feel tons better!

Now that I am feeling better I'll be updating regularly (hopefully).
See ya later!

Naturally,

Katie Hufton

Success!

2008-06-14T08:53:00.008-04:00

I have had a very interesting morning!
I went out to spend some Undemanding Time [UDT] with Lady before her breakfast and she was just totally all in my space, nosing me around or paying no attention to me whatsoever. Just total LBI snottiness! So we were out in the pasture and I felt like it was time for some good ole' Hide your Hiney.
When she decided I wasn't interesting enough and mosied off, I made my way around towards her zone 5** with my carrot stick in hand and my best Schwiegermutter look.. I slowly creeped up and started making noise with the stick, soft at first which she ignored [of course] then progressively harder.. and then came phase four.. *SWISH, SMACK!* Right in her zone 5 and off she went, tossing that head like you wouldn't believe! She trotted in a circle and then came back to me, ears forward, blinking and licking her lips. I walked backwards with my stick held out in front of me, she followed, gave the tip of the stick a nice sniff and that's when I stopped walking, gave her rubs and scratches. I think I did it twice more and by the third time, all I had to do was change my look and move towards her rump and she'd whip right around and look at me, ears forward like.. " I know what you're up to, missy!" The best part is neither of us lost our confidence. Not ONCE. I was assertive and she understood me. Afterwards when she approached me and started getting pushy with her head, I'd lift my stick just a bit, wiggle it and give her that look and off she went, head tossing all the way. She is such a SNOT. I love her so much! Ha ha.
Today was a perfect example of:
"Do as I say, but don't be afraid."

In other great news; I got my Tickets for the Parelli Tour Stop in Jacksonville, FL in the mail today. I'm going down on October 18 and staying a while for my birthday and I am so excited! I also found out that a friend and fellow Parelli enthusiast might be coming with me! :) What could be better?

More cool news! I ordered my Parelli DVD binder last night so soon, I'll have a place to keep my Savvy Club DVDs and keep them nice and organized! I also ordered some cow-flavored barrel covers ( am getting barrels this weekend!) and Pat Parelli's book, Raise Your Hand If You Love Horses. I'm very excited about my purchases and my session with Lady today. :) Looks like I've got a wonderful Father's Day weekend coming up! Maybe I'll have some time to post in between the motorcycle riding and the horseplay!
See ya later!
** For more information on the zones of a horse, click here

Naturally,

Katie Hufton

Mmm.. Winnie's cookies!

2008-06-11T11:31:00.015-04:00

Today was thankfully cooler than the past few have been. Lady was pretty disinterested in me.. that is, until I started ignoring her.
- Grin.- She was following me around everywhere within five minutes! It was then that my beloved had her very first Winnie's Cookie. And while she was busy frisking me for more of those tasty treats, I snapped a few pictures. Tricky, tricky! :]] Hopefully I'll get a 'real' camera soon. My cellphone doesn't take the best pictures.

Anywho! Since it's so wonderful outside, I'm heading back to the barn to play. Later!

Naturally,

Katie Hufton

Pat's Challenge

2008-06-10T21:16:00.009-04:00

In the May issue of Savvy Times magazine, Pat Parelli issued a challenge to his students. The challenge was to memorize the Eight Principles of Natural Horsemanship. What are the Eight Principles? Katie Drake offers a pretty good explanation in the article:

" Pat considers the Eight Principles to be the founding philosophy of the Parelli Program...."

"... Truly knowing and understanding the Eight Principles gives you a blue-print to follow. Now you can hold everything you do up to this ideal and know where you need to improve as a horseman."

To take it one step further, Pat suggests you score yourself on each principle on a regular basis. This helps you to keep track of which principles you truly 'get' and which ones need more work.

I have decided to accept this challenge! I am going to memorize these Eight Principles and work hard to understand them and let them be my guide in hopes that one day I can think with the same process as Pat Parelli, a true horseman.

The Eight Principles
1. Horsemanship is natural.
2. Don't make or teach assumptions
3. Communication is two or more individuals sharing and understanding an idea.
4. Horses and humans have mutual responsibilities.
5. The attitude of justice is effective.
6. Body language is a universal language.
7. Horses teach humans and humans teach horses.
8. Principles, purpose and time are the tools of teaching.
© PARELLI NATURAL HORSEMANSHIP, INC

Wish me luck!

Naturally,

Katie Hufton

Good morning!

2008-06-10T08:48:00.017-04:00

Just got back in from the barn. It has been a lovely, foggy morning! Lady and I had a great time just hanging out, grooming each other and grazing. I always carry my carrot stick with me now, to help her get used to it and view it as an extension of my body. She loves it when I scratch her itchy spot with it or randomly help flick flies off of her front legs and tummy. :] We also played small amounts of the Porcupine game with my hands to keep her out of my personal space. She is still responding well, with phase 1 or 2.

Just making sure that I remember: Slow and right beats fast and wrong; slow and right builds fast and right..

My biggest challenge at this time is my predatory "gottagetitdone", but I am conscious of it now and that is making a huge difference.
Going to post more later today!

Naturally,

Katie Hufton

First things first..

2008-06-09T15:08:00.008-04:00

Introductions! This is where you get to meet my beautiful partner, Lady. She is a retired racing Thoroughbred, who turned nine on April 27, 2008. She is very intelligent, sensitive, playful and curious. She loves peppermint treats and rolling around in the dirt is one of her favorite activities..

Her Horsenality profile has changed dramatically since I bought her. Here is what it looked like at first:

(click the thumbnails for full size)

In the month she has been here; she has gone from that to this:

The tricky thing about her Horsenality is that when she gets upset, she flips sides of the chart and goes to this. The green dots are when I am teaching her new things and going too quickly for her. She loses confidence very quickly and goes introverted. The orange, when she is forced into a situation or she feels trapped ex; trailer loading, holding her too close/ too tight, new people handling her without respect or handling her legs. etc. She is very claustrophobic. But she will develop more confidence over time. :]

That's it for now! Off to get some schoolwork done and hopefully some lunch!

Naturally,

Katie Hufton

No Reins

Takin' It One Year At A Time.

Merry Christmas!

Ice

Tis' The Season To Be Jolly!

Roaaaadtrip!

Never-ending Self Improvement.

Changes

Checklist.

I love this crazy guy.

Trailer fun *pictures galore!*

Letting Go

Yaaay, Breakthroughs!

Lesson in Lightness

We're Back!

Abandoning Ship!

Point To Point Experiment.

I am GOING to do it!

My blog apparently only shows up in Firefox

OH, today was super cool.

Self-Assessment results!

Studytime!

Checklist

Blissful Summer Day- 06/14/09

Flashback: 6/14/08

Progress, maybe?

The New Plan - Exciting news!

Spring has sprung!

I'm baaack... with a few new friends.

February 08, 2009 - New Addition!

I love snow...

General Updates

01.06.2009 - Amazing session!

Ech, Crazy schedule.

*Love* your cow-flavoured barrels!

The adventures of Katie and her silly bay kite.

Jax '08 "These boots are made for.. riding!"

Karen Rohlf Clinic '08.... YEA RIGHT!

So, there's two blondes and a redhead in a truck..

ATM Machines Are Cannibals...

... Wabasha?

Another chapter..

Teaserific - one more day!

New Camera! New Helmet!

Prior and proper preperation..

Yay, monies!

Jax Flashback

Talk about sowing one's wild oats..

New thoughts and goals - Send me your positive thoughts!

Screw goals.. Let's have some fun!

Dominance Games

Wow.. overwhelming, much?

UDT + Session tomorrow.

UDT in the rain.

More tasks completed!

Expect the unexpected..

Good morning, guys!

Checklist!

Gettin' stuff done

Franklin '09 & Lakeland '09!!

No more tour stops! Hoorah for Lakeland '09!

Eeek, Hanna post numero uno

Bring your life up!

It doesn't matter how long it takes as long as we're getting a little bit closer every day...

LtheL

Horseplay! *update*

Horseplay!

Dogplay

Green markers of lurve.

YAY!

Rain, rain go away..

Well...

Monday, August 25, 2008, 8:00 am

New Goal!

Well, we did it!

It's been a while..

Something else to chew on..

Teachings at Twilight

SCSC2

Off to Charlotte!

Trailer fun pictures galore!

Love your cow-flavoured barrels!

Horseplay! update