The celebration!!!!!

Ok, now I'm going to tell all about it. I'm really bummed that my pictures didn't turn out(I was really looking forward to sharing pics with everyone), still I'm going to tell all about it.

On Friday we got to see all of the online and liberty spotlights along with one group spotlight. As I've said before I really enjoyed watching all of them and then getting to learn from the suggestions Pat gave them. Then there was Jedi the rescue horse. Jedi proved to be a total LBE despite his intitial nervousness. Sometimes I get to wishing I had a LBE and now I see how they can be challenging...guess I didn't see that before LOL. I thought it was really cool to see how Pat allowed Jedi to move his feet and he still was assertive with him. If it had of been me I think I might of become agressive or wimpy LOL. Also to note, Pat was always giving Jedi really good puzzles and subtly rewarding him when he moved in the right direction. Over the course of the three days we all saw Jedi become a better partner.

Saturday: We got to start the day off with some more savvy spotlights! I can't remember if they were the freeform ones or the freeystyle-finesse ones, all I know is that they did nothing less than bring the house down! Again lots of entertainment and great savvy tips at the same time, it really made me want to quick go back to CO and play with my ponies. Next up Pat doing the introvert/extrovert demo(since Linda couldn't be there in person), I really liked it because he did the RBs this time. I always learn something new from watching Linda explain Remmer and Allure, yet watching Pat with Vanna and Magic revealed a lot of new things as well. That whole day I thought a lot about how easy it is to start thinking that your RBI is just being obedient, when they are actually trying to escape. I'm going to be watching Marsan more carefully to make sure she isn't just giving me the plastic smile LOL. Then the dance we didn't stay for very long because we were all really tired, one of the other volunteers took the time to teach me one of the group dances and that was really fun.

On to Sunday...
Wow, talk about a grand finale! We all missed Linda a lot, none the less getting to watch Pat have a lesson with Walter Zettle was a real treat! To top it off not only did Pat ride Magic, he also rode West Point(Lauren's new star in training). I think what I really got out of the lesson with Walter was how each little movement needs to be very precise because every movement meant to follow that one will be affected. I can see why making sure your horse is really connected and willing is so important for dressage, every time you make a small mistake it will be harder for your horse to stay balanced so they have to be extremely extremely forgiving. It was just so beautiful to watch Pat and Magic coming into harmony with each other. Beside the lesson there were more savvy spotlights and they were really awesome too! It's so inspiring to watch other people just like yourself out there performing with their horses. Finally, the icing on the cake, Lauren Barwick's gold winning ride. I think the thing that touched me the most about her story and ride was that from the day they first met Maile has tried so hard to take care of Lauren. When you watch Lauren interact with Maile you realise just how much a horse can care about a human. Lauren really inspired me to have a better attitude, the attitude of "why not me".

Being able to be at the celebration was such a blessing, I learned so much from it all, from entertaining an audience to the finer points of dressage. At the parelli events there is just a feeling of enthusiasm and joy. It really is a celebration of the bond between horses and humans.

Still licking and chewing...

I'm now home and still processing all that I've learned. There was an amazing amount of information displayed in the whole KC celebration and I hope that I absorbed most of it.

I didn't write the second two days because I was a bit more concerned about getting into bed so that I would have enough energy to get up at 5:40!

It was nice to see my ponies again. I a nice little conversation with each of them. With Gingo I had a lot of fun because he would scoot his hoof about a centimeter and then I would back him up twenty and be like "yes, I did see you do that". It felt really good just talking to him and being able to be assertive, that's one thing that became clearer to me while I was at the celebration. With Marsan it was nice because I was able still have assertiveness with her and at the same time be gentle. I felt like I had that assertive-gentle balance with both of my ponies, however it was more noticable with Marsan. I think that's because with Marsan if you are unbalanced the effects are more noticable(at least to me).

I think the coolest part of the being at the celebration was that I met Fran and Olivia! *waves hi to Fran and Olivia* I've kinda known them through the forum, so meeting them in person was really cool!

I'll be posting more about my experiences at the celebration as I process it all LOL.

Yep, pretty tired last night..

I was so tired from everything yesterday, in a good way, however since I was so tired I couldn't really process it all. Now I've kinda got it processed, naturally there is still a lot to think about though.

Here are the big things that I learned on Friday:
How to find an effective phase four. We all got to watch Pat doing this with the spotlight horses and the rescue horses. As I kept watching him doing this I started to really understand how it doesn't need to be big. I think the more you can have an assertive feel in yourself, a kind of soft confidence, then the promising part of the phases makes more sense.

Circles with rthym, relaxation, and Contact. I knew about the rthym and relaxation and yesterday I got to learn about contact on the circle! Basically with most of the liberty spotlight horses they needed to be more connected on the circle. It was really interesting and meaningful to watch how Pat asked the spotlighters to use different approaches to get that contact and connection on the circle. I'm still working on getting the rthym and relaxation, so contact is something out in the future for me, still it could be just around the corner :D

Teaching respect by waiting. When Pat was playing with the rescue horse there was a lot of times when he just waited and caused the horse to respect him more. The horse really started to want to be connected to Pat, sometimes when Pat was waiting there was would be a time when he subtly restated his position as alpha. It was amazing how smart the rescue horse got because Pat didn't just drag him around!

So those were my big learning highlights for yesterday.

I've been taking pictures so I'll try and post those as soon as I get home :)

a brief segment...

Today we set up the stuff for the celebration. We actually managed to set up the fasted they've ever been able to set up, EVER!

Now my legs are really sore! I can't wait for tomorrow and all the spotlights! We watched some of the spotlight particapants playing with their horses and that was kinda fun.

Savvy out,

I already miss my horsies!

Today we left for Kansas City and now we are at the hotel, thanks to my friend I will be able to about the KC celebration as it develops!

Even as I'm excited to start working with the parelli team tomorrow I miss my horses! And my family, I mean in the other order, family then horses...and cats LOL.

The drive here was pretty good, I crashed in the back for awhile(yesterday, stayed up 'til eleven PM, today, got up at at five). I've kinda had a cold though, so I've been really stuffed up and the change in altitude killed my ears. They finally popped about twenty minutes ago!

Can't wait to write about the celebration! Warning: I might be so tired though that I won't be about to tell all until I've rested up. I'll try and post pics when I get home...if I can figure it out...

we finally made it through the pre-ride checks =)

Yep, just like it says in the title Marsan and I passed all of our pre-ride checks. It's taken us three weeks to get to this point and boy was it worth it! I thought Marsan was being fairly responsive before(when I kept skipping out on pre-ride checks!), well this time she was so connected. When I got on she just stood there, and just standing there is not the norm for her. Her lateral flexion was wonderfully soft, and she was so relaxed through the whole process. I only got to be on her for about fifteen minutes, it was just nice sitting up there on my relaxed pony!

For anyone wondering, Gingo is doing fine too. I had a nice session with him awhile back and I'm hoping to do that again tomorrow :)

"oh boy"

"oh boy is right!"

I had a really frustrating session today with Gingy. I kinda made myself go out and play with him because I feel bad for him since he has to stay by himself all day. That was the first bad decision I made LOL. So we dabbled along, I tried to get him to do the weave...he did, yet he wasn't getting connected to me. So I tried the figure eight to see if we could make any progress there, well not really. Then I got pretty mad at him, I back him up real fast for no reason at all, and then I just felt terrible. He stood out there for awhile and then I got to see and be a part of the amazing forgiveness and understanding horses have. He came in slowly and hesitantly and then he touched my face, touched my arm, sighed, and licked his lips, like "are you okay?". He stood right over me(I was sitting on the ground), almost always he will start nibbling and pushing me, but not this time. I think I will always be in awe of horses and their willingness. When I felt more confident and I was thinking about putting the relationship first, I started asking him to maintain the trot for one lap on the circle, he did eventually, but before that happened I did get mad again(note to self: need to be more patient!) and again I said sorry and we made up. The way I got him to trot was by using reverse psychology, every time he would slow down I would back him up and ask again. In other words "you'll have to do more if you slow down". Next I took him out in the pasture, I was actually nicely surprised. I used the same strategy as when we were in the corral and it worked to an extent, he actually trotted and cantered four laps!!!!!!! Well, I think I should of stopped there, but I decided I wanted to him to walk, well he could never quite make it 'cause at the walk it was just to easy to drop for grass. That really frustrated me and finally I decided I needed to do more thinking about that problem, so we moved on to touch it. Now when I think about it did go pretty well, he offered a couple of times to do more than I asked or something else for me :) The thing I kept focusing on though was all the times he would come to the objected to be touched and just start eating grass, so then I would have to ask again. I kept thinking to myself, "akk, I'm not being clear, my phases aren't effective, he isn't connected at all, etc". A lot of those things are were true, however in a good way if I had chosen to see it that way, just more room to have fun and improve, after all what would it be like if we didn't face any challenges!

Guess what even though this session didn't go very well and I didn't do what I set out to do yesterday("go with the flow and flow with the go"), it was still very educational. I learned a lot from having things not all go wrong and not all go right. One big thing I learned of course is how amazingly unconditional a horse's forgiveness, I know right now that next time I play with Gingy I will be totally forgiven. I also learned a lot about how right I was when I wrote yesterday that trying to make myself understand does not work. I could keep going on and on about all the things I learned from this frustration session, but I would be up all night and before that my fingers would fall off LOL.

I do have to say though that this morning I had a really enjoyable session with Marsan. We played with weave, touch it, circling, yoyo. It was fun =).

Nice day to play :)

It was really nice out today. It was hot, but there was a nice Colorado wind blowing so that kept the weather balanced LOL.

I decided to play with Marsan first since Gingo is in all day and she isn't. First we did a figure eight and then some other activities just to see which side of the corral she woke up on that day. Her figure eight was really nice, this time she didn't have a problem giving me both eyes on her hard side and her overall demeanor has softened considerably since we last asked her to do this pattern. Then I saddled her in record time, also I think I actually got everything attached correctly this time! After she was a saddle she got to graze for awhile and that was nice, just sittin there with her. Then guess what, we went on a walk out of sight of the other horses and she was totally LB and pretty connected. We just did friendly and moseyed on the way there to make a good experience and on the way back I asked for some simple things(walk, stop, back-up from z3, yoyo, etc). The whole reason we went on our walk was because was had to shut a gate, well when we got to it she went right up to it and gave it a good bump. I've been starting to look for how connected she is in every moment instead of overall and it's helping me to have a more positive progress attitude. I gotta share this quote "there is nothing you can't do when the horse becomes a part of you"(Pat Parelli). Because I'm looking at every moment and not trying to decide whether she was connected or she was NOT, when I'm in the moment it means sometimes all the sudden she is looking to me and then all the sudden she looks away. I think in every session I will ever have there will probably be some connection and disconnection to various degrees.

Gingy and his interesting personality will never cease to fascinate me(I hope it will cease to frustrate me LOL). I've learned the hard way that I kinda just have to play along and learn what I can, otherwise it gets to frustrating for me. In other words trying to "make" myself understand never works, "go with the flow and flow the go"(Pat Parelli). When I played with him today I saw a lot more connection and try using what I learned through Marsan. We started with touch it, we are starting to play with longer distances and he is really enjoying it. I kinda had him on a circle while playing touch it and he actually offered me some trot! We are working on our sideways at longer distances as well...and that is going slowly, but we are having fun with it. I took him in the RP and we played with our circling quality, it went really well and I think we both actually had fun with it. I tried to be very provocative by using lots of transitions, an obstacle, and a few change of directions. It went sorta like this "trot, oh and stop, now back up, walk, but SLOWLY". I had to smile as he tried to figure me out =). When he was really trying to understand then I gave him a little pattern and a purpose. I wanted him to stop then trot, jump the obstacle, and keep trotting. Once he figured it out he I could tell he really was trying. HE DID IT! I brought him in right away and we dwelled. I think what works for him is when I use this saying "cause your idea to become your horse's idea, understand your horse's idea first"

Well, as always more thinking to do, so I can do my feeling tomorrow LOL.

Goodness I'm tired

This weekend has been so busy! On Friday we went into town, went swimming with friends, then we found out that someone was coming to look at our house(it's on the market currently) so we had to clean really really hard. The next day we had to clean a little more, then we were off to our friends wedding, and after the wedding we had bible study(which went until 9:30). Yesterday, I had pwss with Marsan and then my parents decided to throw a big bar-bq party which was fun and now I'm extremely tired!

I haven't really been down to the horse yet today since Mom graciously took them out to pasture for me and I'm not sure I'll be able to play today because there is a big storm headed our way.

I had a lot fun a pwss with Marsan. Cynthia pampered us with Einstien and Bros bagels and cream cheese, she even brought a toaster! It was so sweet of her :D Marsan got really connected on the ground which was nice, since I did see the change in her. After she was all saddled and everything and I asked her for circles with rthym and relaxation then she did get a little RB, but we still had fun. Since she couldn't pass the pre-ride checks I didn't get to ride which I was kinda bummed about at first, however it's way more than riding LOL. I'm still working on feeling how it feels to just play for the fun of it and not necessarily have my horse doing everything perfect, I can actually say that this is kinda fun to experiment. If my last statement isn't amazing I guess I don't really know the definition LOL.

Savvy out for now.

I'm back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know I've been really bad :( I haven't written in ages, but there is a reason.

Lately I've just felt really down about my skills as a horseman(woman LOL), it is still really hard for me to relax about my goals and just have fun! So for about two weeks I've just been spending UDT and it's actually helped a lot. Knowing that I can just be there and not worry about whether Gingo and Marsan do it all right is so wonderful. So very slowly I've been easing back into playing...very....very....sloooooooooowllllyyyyyyy. Now I'm BACK!!!!!!!!

This week I've gone on two trail rides with Marsan, we only walked and trotted, but it was a lot of fun. Marsan saddled like a dream, which is a very good thing since I have so much trouble getting the saddle to sit right on her. I felt so stylish walking along with Marsan in her black hackamore and on a loose rein. The first time we went riding this week she would stop to eat grass then all the sudden start trotting to catch up to the other horses, now she can walk back the others and she stops because I ask her. Her lateral flexion was awesome and she was very LB the whole time!

Today I hung out with Gingy, we did the weave, touch it, and the figure eight. Then I tried to get him to maintain the trot on the circle, but I'm still trying to figure that one out LOL. Next up a little bit of liberty! I actually got him to lead by his forelock...at p2. Then we went on a long hike, back between the trees here, drive in z3 to this patch of grass, stand on this tree stump, traveling circle up the road, etc. Yep, we had fun :D

Well, that's all for now.