Playday #2! Yay :)

My friend, Kayla, and I had such a good time two Sundays ago, that we had to do it again! We made vids of each other, but we haven't figured out how to upload them to youtube yet. I'll post the videos once we get them figured out so stay tuned.

When Kayla got here her horse, Sweet Pea was kind of RBE, so she played with her in the rp for awhile. Meanwhile, I took Gingy over to their trailer and loaded him from the fender. Then we played with shutting him in because this sometime scares him. He did really well. I was able to have him enclosed and he stayed relaxed. After that we went into the pasture and played with putting his back feet into the bucket from 22' and jumping the cone jump. The whole time I was doing these things with Gingy I didn't have a ss on my cs and it really helped me get lighter.

Once Sweet Pea was more LB filmed the vids. I went first and I must admit that I was a little nervous, but after awhile I relaxed. We were able to do some pretty amazing things. I won't tell, you'll just have to wait and see. After Gingy and I, then came Kayla and Sweet Pea! They did great and I am so proud of them!

When we were done filming, we decided to take a short break. During the break Kayla had SP in the round pen by herself and this time she didn't go RBE! Hooray!

Kayla and Sweet Pea started playing with Sweet Pea wearing the bare-back pad. Gingy and I went back to the pasture and worked on our level 2 figure eight. We haven't worked on that for about a month, because we kinda were stumped, but now we're back. I've been watching a lot of level 2 online auditions, particularly how they did their figure eight. I guess I picked up a few things and today I put them to use. Gingy actually came pretty near maintaining the trot for the whole pattern and his draw was probably the smoothest it's ever been! I think doing that pattern was the best part and that's where we ended a wonderful playday =)

Marsan and I....

You've probably noticed that I don't write much about Marsy and me anymore. Here's some of my musings over this. Please leave me comments if you have any thoughts or ideas!

I got Marsy in 2008 and it's only been in the last three months or so that I've really seen her click into place with my family and with the herd. Previously, she just wasn't quite like the quirky, sweet, little mare we all know now.

But now I'm starting to question our relationship. I really have come to love Gingy, at first I couldn't be sure whether we had something between us. Now I know that we have a special bond! Well, that's great, but now I really don't want to get to know Marsan. She and I have clashed in the past because neither of us was strong enough for the other, if I went RBI Marsan would already be there! So we just got really frustrated and hurt by each other a lot.

Maybe I am strong enough now, but now I'm so used to being with Gingy that being with Marsan is confusing and uncomfortable. Most people tell me that it's easier if you put all your focus into one horse until you are advanced enough to really offer something to the other. In fact that's why Marsy is here, she was supposed to be that first horse and Gingo sorta beat her to it. I guess I'd be willing to take Marsan on full time except that I don't have time for both Gingy and Marsan this winter.

My biggest concern is how she looks at me with those big brown eyes and tries to approach me all the time. However, when I'm with Gingy the best I can do is say a quick hello. Actually all of our horses are always trying to get my attention, but I just can't seem to divide my time between all of them. It hurt most not to give much to Marsan because she is considered to be my responsibility.

My plan for right now(and I hope I have the fortitude to follow through with it!) is to start playing intensely with Marsy after Gingy and I audition and just spend undemanding time with Gingy. Maybe Gingy and I will be able to have short sessions here and there, but I do want to shift my main focus to Marsan. Hopefully then I can work with her through the summer. Is anyone else in my shoes? Any ideas?

Little bit a' liberty!

Today that's what we did, we went in the rp and did some fun little tasks. We actually did all seven games in one way or another.

For awhile I just sat and observed Gingy playing with Cherroke across the fence. I was really interesting to watch. Cherroke would stick his head all the way over the fence and try to mouth on Gingy's ear LOL. Then Gingy would lazily reach up and grab Cherrokes lip! I was just cracking up with laughter! After playing for a little Gingy would start nosing his way down the fence line and Cherroke would follow. They actually played the mirroring game for awhile, which was really cool to watch.

Eventually Gingy came back to me and that's when I started playing with him in earnest. At first he wasn't that interested in what I was asking him to do, but when he got a treat for putting effort into the first task, he was hooked.

Here are some of the tasks we did:
-sideways over a pole from a distance
-back over a pole(driving game)
-squeeze over a pole
-half circle sideways down the fence
-back feet in the bucket on the circle
And he did all of these things so beautifully! We both felt really savvy I think :D

Gingy was in this strange LBI-LBE mood. He didn't want to stand still, but he didn't want to move either. I guess mostly he was just mouthy. Actually it wasn't a strange mood at all and I should recongnize if from yesterday! I haven't really worked through his recent treat snatching tricks and now he's just getting more dominant. Okay, note to self: play dominance games with Gingy tomorrow(e.g. back him up every time he tries to nip me!). It sure is easy to forget to be assertive!

Growing pains....

~Jan. 26~

I went down to fill the tank again and decided to play with Gingy as well. He was so funny while I was attending to the tank because he kept following me around. His draw has obviously improved, because last week he just went back to sleep when I didn't come halter him LOL.

When I was done with the tank we kinda just hung out for awhile at liberty. I would give him a little scratch and he'd explore my face with his nose from time to time. He has this thing about being touched on the head or the nose and he detests being backed up by means of his nose! Some people have said that this could be a domiance thing and I would tend to agree because of the way Gingo acts. I did some friendly with his head and nose anyway and he was definitely more dominant than scared about it. I think that, because he tended to not move his feet away from me, instead he would dodge my fingers with his head and then try to butt me with his nose.....

He was so funny! Every now and again, he would leave me and go to the corral gate, give me a pleading look and come back. I took it mean, that he wanted to go out of the corral LOL. Later I haltered him and started attempting to do that.

I say attempting because I was trying a new creative way for him to go through the gate and he was trying to just go through the gate! What I wanted was pretty complicated, but that wasn't really the problem. He wasn't exactly trusting my intentions, that was the problem. I wanted him to face away from the gate and then back through it, but he kept moving out of that position to try and walk headfirst through the gate. He seemed to say, "you simply can't tell me not to face the gate when you obviously opened it so I could go through it!". After awhile he didn't try to go through the gate anymore, he reverted to offering different things(like touch it and sideways).

He did eventually understand and do it the way I had planned, but not before I lost my temper :( I shouted at him and back him rather furiously, then I suddenly realized what I was doing! That the was very thing I have been striving not to do for as long as I've own Gingy! I imediately went to him and repented. When I came to him after my outburst his eyes softened and he nudged me. After that it was as if he didn't even remember the incident, but for me it has been a different story. I think this is probably part of growing and the fact that remorse quickly took over when I let some of my anger loose is a sign of growth. It still stung me that I hadn't seen it coming and stopped. All is well now I guess in way Gingy and I are experiencing growing pains in our relationship.

Bringing things back into balance.

Yes, it was rather slippery out in the pasture today, so we were confined to the walk. Actually not a big dissapointment since Gingy wasn't actious to go faster LOL.

On our way to the pasture Gingy was having a little attitude about z3 driving which I traced to his dominant need for treats! I backed him all the way to the end of my 22'(which is more like 19') with the purpose 0f getting him to touch the ledge with his back foot. Eventually he did an licked his lips so then he got to come in. I had to use this strategy of turning his games into my games a lot more in this session.

Once we were in the pasture I had him go to the bucket and get his back feet in it. The communication between us we a lot clearer this time and he had no trouble with this task. Then I backed him into the bucket from a good distance, he had no trouble with that either. He got treats for both of these tasks and he was very happy.

We did traveling circle between the two cones that are set up in the pasture. One thing I noticed on his circles is that they don't really resemble the thing we call a circle in that they are not round! Gingy would drift out to the end of the line and come so close I could touch him. I didn't worry about it this time because I only wanted him to maintain gait, which he did well. This is where the ice comes in, it was so icey I didn't dare work on a gait any faster than the walk because we would probably both brake something!

All in all it was a nice session although the weather wasn't great. Gingy did all of the things I asked him fairly well. The one thing I noticed was that we lost a little balance with the treat incentive thing. He was on the dominant side and I was not consistently asserting myself the alpha. The upset of the 51-49 relationship used to really bother me. I would blame dominance problems on the treats and therefore stop using them. I think I've finally realized that Gingy's domimant behavior is just feedback requiring a slight ajustment.

What can we do in fifteen minutes...

That's what I was thinking when I was walking down to the barn. I knew I only had fifteen minutes because we had to leave for town in an hour and I still had horses and cats to feed for the night. I thought back to flipping through my friends coffee table pattern book and the suggestion for timelines therein. The suggest halter on-off and friendly games. That's kinda what we did...

Gingo was in a very good mood again today and he was anxious to meet me at the gate, he even nickered. He was trying to thrust his head into the halter nose band before I was able to get it in position.

I massaged his neck for awhile as the top part is quite tight on both sides. He was kinda iffy about that, he would lean into my hands sometimes and he also kept trying to back up. I think he might of been a little distracted with the hope that I had treats and he is used to having to get out of my space before recieving food. I did some other friendly game around his head and tail, he still wasn't very interested or concerned.

Then I asked him to put his head down, at first he had us both backing all over the corral, but I was patient and persistent. He finally yielded slightly and I rewarded him with a release. We did this several more times until he finally put his head all the way down to the ground and kept it there a bit(he was a rather preoccupied looking for the treat he expected to find on the ground after all, "thats why I have to put my head down right?" haha).

We tried to do lead by the leg, but he got a little confused. He was trying to do spanish paw(LOL) and he wouldn't put his foot down. It was funny because he lifted his foot right at p1 he just didn't want to put it down! I kept dropping the rope while he was paw vigoursly so he kept thinking that was what I wanted! Finally when he happened to put his foot where I wanted it I dropped that rope and I understood. I used the rope to hold each of his front legs up for a little while and he was fine with that.

I asked him for a couple of 360 degree forehand turns. One side is about as near perfect as you can get, the other...well I'm thinking I might need to bring a key maybe he would pay a little more attention to that.

That is where I ended our session, although when he followed me to the gate I jump at him and rubbed him rubbed him. This time he only flinched a little. I waited and he licked.

Now for the back feet!

Yay, I am soooo happy! Today Gingy and I had a wonderfully session! He is soooooo smart and we are learning so much together! Gingy may be rather slow on the circle, but he sure understands percision and particulars.

I had to fill the tank, but I haltered him anyway. He was in a very good mood today and he met me at the gate. Even while I was busying myself with the water he kept trying to follow me everywhere! He managed to drag the 12' rope through the mud in the process of , oh well, I just got another one out instead.

After I finished the water we took ourselves down the road and through the pasture gait. I had my hands full because I was trying to carry the fold-up chair and the 22' line! Gingy was still good and obedient even though I kept fumbling and accidently pulling on his head.

I settled down in my chair and played some friendly game, I even jumped out at him to see what he would do. He acted like I was about to kill him, so we kept doing that throughout the session LOL. At the end he was much better when jumped out to rub him.

I tried backing him all the way out to the end of my 22' and it proved rather challenging for him. So I got out of the chair and played with him on my feet instead. I sent him to the feed-bucket which was sort of against the fence, but it took a couple tries before he saw what I was getting at. Silly Gingy is always picking every obstacle besides the one I wanted him to do something with LOL.

When he did realize what I wanted he did it imediatetly. He walked right up to the bucket and "through" it so he could get his feet in. The amazing thing was that at first he only got one back foot in the bucket, but then he seemed to realize it. He was able to ajust his position in order to get his other foot in. I gave him a cookie for that wonderfull performance

The next thing I tried was getting him to back fifteen feet and touch the feed-bucket with his back foot. I don't know why, but Gingy persisted in trying to go to this little stump of a log. I had to keep correcting him and I still don't know why he did that exactly. Anyways we did a lot of approach and retreat and that was what got the message across. Again I was astounded because Gingy did finally touch the bucket with his back foot then he started working on getting his back foot into the bucket! I guess he noticed how I started, he gave me a sort of questioning look I sort of wiggled my finger and that was enough. Pretty soon there he was with both back feet in the bucket fifteen feet away. I gave him another cookie and we were both very proud of our accomplishment LOL.

We hung out for a little then we did some z3 driving and stick to me to finish off a wonderful session. We had so much fun with all of that at least I know I did and I'm pretty sure Gingy enjoyed it to. This is one of those few times when I could see Gingy getting really mentally engaged, that was the best part.

Playday with friends!

Last Sunday my friend and I got together for a little playday with Gingy and her young horse Sweet Pea! We had tons of fun!

When my friend first got to our horse Gingy and I were walking down the road toward the barn. Gingy was in a frenzy as soon as he realized a new horse had come over, so when they unloaded SP we both spent some time with our horses getting their focus centered on us.

We also had a little competition in which the object was to toss the hoola-hoop onto your horse's head five times. Gingy and I won, but that was mostly because my friend's horse's head is too big for the hoola-hoop!

We went on a walk after the competition and that was probably the most fun. We went down our driveway and kind a moseyed along for awhile. We have a ledge running all along one side of our drive, it's a great obstacle because some parts are low and some are higher. I sent Gingy up one high part and he was like, "wow that was crazy!."

My friend took Sweet Pea off the other side of the road and they were doing some interesting circling game in the deep snow(Sweet Pea was trying to do the circles with her head submerged under the snow!).

I took Gingy over to where the ledge was fairly low, so see if he would circle down one side and up the other. At first he yanked a lot on the rope as he descended down ledge, but eventually after several tries I got two nice laps and he started calculating so that he wouldn't yank on the rope. It was awesome!

After that we kind a just hung out with our ponies doing a little stick to me here, some lateral flexion, lead by the tail, etc. Our horses were feeling quite comfortable and it was nice just talking for awhile.

We eventually made our way back to the barn. When we got back I loaded Gingy into my friend's trailer from the tires, that was really cool!

When we were trying to get the horses all settled so we could go eat lunch we decided to put SP out in the pasture. She ran up and down the corral fence for awhile, but then she went up and into the hills. She was coming back down a hill and realized there was a fence in front of her 2' before she hit it. She tried to jump it and kinda got stuck! The great thing was that she just sat down and waited while we struggle up the hill to help her. We got her out of the fence safely! So it was a natural horsemanship triumph! But our fence is broken now :(

It was just a super awesome savvy playday to say of the least! I can wait until we can get together for another one. Hopefully next Sunday we'll be able to. I'm hoping to take videos of us next time and maybe some pics so I'll keep you posted!

Hanging out and lots of licking :)

Every day all of the horse "migrate" far end of the pasture and that's where I found them today. At first I didn't see them, but they were being sneaky by hiding in the trees! I called once I saw them and Gingy let out joyful whinny, always a good sign. All of them except for Sug, came and they all got treats for catching me so quickly!

I played with Gingy on the porcupine some more. The friendly game problem that we were having yesterday is now pretty much a non issue. He did a near-perfect 360 degree yield going to the right. Going left however turned out to be quite difficult for him, he kept trying to move his hq instead of yielding his fq. Part of this could be that we were on a hill, but it didn't seem to affect his other side at all. I'm wondering if this could be a slight physical problem. I've been told that foot is trimmed incorrectly it can result in unbalanced forehand yields. Gingy recently had his feet trimmed, maybe the farrier made mistake. I guess I'll look at it again, tomorrow.

Besides working the porcupine stuff, we did some z3 driving. Gingy didn't really seem very interested in doing this, in fact we both get bored with z3 driving. I don't really know what I could so with z3 driving to make it more interesting....

I also worked on getting Gingy's back feet in the feed bucket some more. Today I used a hoola-hoop and had him put his back feet inside that several times. Then we went back to the feed bucket and he was able to get both back feet in that too! I gave him several treats in the course of helping understand just what it was I wanted, the treats worked so well that when we just hung out he went over and tried to do it again.

For the last few sessions I've been spending quiet time with Gingo after our session. We've been doing this online so that I can deal with the respect issues that always come up. There sure are a lot of respect issues to settle, but Gingo is showing good improvement in this area. Now he seems to know that pushing me or invading my space will result in getting back up because when he does this and I lift my finger he throws his head up and starts backing LOL. This hang time seems to be one of the most meaningful parts of our session together because it gives us both time to think and observe each other's body language more clearly.

Porcupine game! Yay!

Gingo and I worked on our porcupine game today. I found a few holes in our basic 360 degree turns so that's what we played with. The challenge turned out to be more of a friendly game issue. Gingy yielded okay, but when I rubbed him to let him know we were done he just kept going.

I had to try several different things in the process of getting him to STOP! I can't believe I said that LOL, a LBI needing help stopping? So anyway... The first thing I tried was just being persistent and waiting until he offered to stop, but he just kept going and going. I also tried doing a lot of rubbing and that seemed to irritate him a little...hmmmmmm... After awhile he wasn't bothered with me rubbing him on the neck at a standstill but as soon as I asked him to yield he wouldn't stop. He didn't ever get faster or more tense he just wouldn't stop. Finally I decided to use the cs in order to get him to yield, don't really know why I did this(call it a gut instinct), but it work quite well. He finally got to the point where he would eventually stop after I did with me still rubbing him, so maybe it was the distance the cs gave me that helped.

As we played with this little challenge, we had another semi challenge going on. Gingy would come in and start nosing me then he'd see if he could give me a little push with his nose. That's where I stepped in by backing him up severely. I would wait after I'd backed him up and eventually he'd lick and chew. After that I would ask him in and we could continue. A couple of times he licked like he was coming off of adrenaline....

After he had stopped successfully several time with the cs, I reverted to using my hand. It took a little while with my hands then he understood and that's where we left it. I'm going to keep working on this a little every session until it isn't an issue anymore.

Wow, I guess this is what I get for only focusing on circling, it never occurred to me that there might be improvement needed in other games! We are now officially going through the self-assessment looking for holes, so maybe this will help us broaden our horizon a little. I'm rather excited about working through the self-assessment because I think it will help me find new things to challenge Gingy with. Now I'm sitting here wondering why I never thought of working through the tasks on the self-assessment before, but I think I know why. I wasn't really emotionally strong enough before this to keep from getting direct lined about being able to check off all of the tasks. I guess I will find out whether I am prepared for this adventure in the near future LOL. Think going through the self-assessment will help me get over my circling addiction, it will bring our play time back into balance.

What is the purpose? More respect needed!

My session with Gingy today was quite nice although I wouldn't say it was perfect in every way or a breakthrough. We played with sideways for quite some time. I has several cones lined up all the way down the pasture and he would get to stop at each one(and there were even treats on a couple of them!). He seemed to get that so we moved on.

Next we worked on getting him to put his back foot/feet into the feed bucket. This went pretty well. First I had the bucket just out in the open, so I would use my rope around his back foot to move it into the bucket. Then I took the bucket to a fence and had him circle to it. Once he got to the bucket I would sorta ask him to put his back foot/feet in, this worked okay since eventually he did. I need to work on communicating more clearly that he should or shouldn't stop and do something with the bucket while on the circle. I guess I obviously came out of neutral when he approached the bucket so that was one cue, but then I kinda used the rope to porcupine him until his back feet got in the bucket. Hmmmmm....

I was about to work on traveling circle, but he had done his best with the whole bucket buisness so I decided to call it good at that point. This was my decision partly because I'm trying to stay away from intense circling, must say it's very hard for me!

During this particular session with Gingy I did some serious thinking concerning whether I'm giving Gingy a good rationale for doing what I ask. Is it enough that by trying the tasks I set before him we can try to attain better communication and leadership within our relationship? Or does he really need a material reason such as scratches, rests, or treats? I know for sure that it helps my focus and mental/emotional/physical will to look for the improvement of connection, leadership, communication, etc, but does that help Gingy? That is what I am trying to figure out.

On the note of respect, the time before this that I played with Gingy he was very disrespectful and I let him get away with it :( Today I focused a little more I causing phase 1 to mean more then I have two minutes worth of nagging before I need to think about moving LOL. So today his respect was much better, he was not afraid but he realized the importance of doing what I said.

Hmmmmmmm... I see an interesting play time coming tomorrow....

A quick word on the past year.

I know I know we are already in 2010! Oh well, I wanted to write this anyway LOL.

Here are some of the horse things I did this year:
-attended a focus group with 2* PP Kime Conkright.
-participated in several playdays/get-togethers with the local parelli group.
-took both my partners to the gymkhana.
-took several clinics to learn how to massage, stretch, and exercise my ponies.

2009 was a great year for me in many ways. For one thing my emotional fitness has improved tremendously! Not only my emotion fitness, but also my physical fitness(I learned how to do a back flip this wahoo!!!) and mental fitness(sure am lot better at puzzle-solving LOL). At the start of last year I was terribly emotionally unstable, I tended have "extreme" emotions I couldn't find the middle of the road no matter what; I would always be either very depressed, sad, angry, etc or very happy, exuberant, positive, etc. Through the course of the year my horses have helped me to find a way to deal with these intense feelings. I have learned to prioritize and set some feelings aside so that I can stay positive, progressive, and natural.

Another big step that my partners and I took last year was a step towards a deeper connection with each other. I no longer see Gingy and Marsy as LBI and RBI. Now I know that no other horse/pony is just like them, they are both special in so many ways. This has lead me to become closer to them and I hope they feel the same way. Now it really feels like a "two sided" conversation! Gingy has taught me to know when he is past trying any more or when he is totally in tune. Marsan is teaching to see through her impassive facade to the beautiful horse inside.

Part of the reason my partners and I became closer is because of a couple of tough challenges that we faced last year. For Marsan and I it was saddling and riding. She could never seem to quite make it all the way through the labyrinth of pre-ride-checks! We finally started making some progress with that this year by taking it slow improving our emotional fitness. For Gingy this year's big challenge was and is still in finding the energy button LOL. Last year's big accomplishment with Gingy was realizing that he did have a play drive he just didn't play like a LBE! So now that I know he has a play drive we can start making progress with the energy this year, yay!

Here are some of the things we accomplished together in 2009:
-Marsan and I successfully did all of the pre-ride-checks.
-Marsan and I went trail riding after doing the pre-ride-checks.
-Gingy and I self assessed a level 1.
-Gingy learned a circle pattern.
-I learned how to play like a LBI!
-Marsan is now confident in the trailer.
-I can now calmly deal with my frustration!

Last year was truly a great year of much improvement in every way. Can't wait to see where we go from here!

Here's what we've been doing :)

Oh my goodness you guys, I haven't posted in forever. Guess I've just been really busy with the holidays and I've been a little frustrated with the journey lately. I think maybe I just have a cycle and maybe this is how it goes: 1) things going okay 2) find a problem 3) get pretty frustrated with the new challenge 4) have a break through! Then I'm back to the first part of the cycle LOL.



Okay well guess I should tell a little about all of the sessions I've been having of late. I haven't played with Marsan that much because I still don't really know what to do with her LOL. I have had the opportunity to hang out with her a little bit and that's been nice.



Gingy and I have been playing a lot together. I trying to get over my circling addiction but it's pretty hard and I've simply had to come to a compromise. My solution is to keep working on different aspects of the circle that way when we are ready we can come back to it and hopefully it'll be better.



Lately I've been really interested in liberty and I've kind of been playing with it. We did a little liberty the other day and I have to say it was a lot of fun. I think what I'm enjoying most about liberty right now is 1) the challenge of getting Gingy to understand and do what I want with the convenience of dragging him around on a line! 2) I really like it when Gingy offers to do something, then I have to find a way to turn it into what I want him to do. I guess there's one other thing that I really and that is getting to test things we've done online, the holes in every task sure show when your at liberty.



In my last session with Gingy we toyed with some of the things we're going to need for a level two figure eight. I feel like this is where we need to go next at least with this pattern because Gingy is so bored with level 1 FE that he simply won't do it LOL. What have we been doing to prepare for this more difficult pattern? Well, we've been working on simply drawing at the trot and a little bit of redirection. I want to eventually get back circling because the thing we need most for our lvl 2 FE is a steady trot. Back in the fall of 2008, I did a lot of point to point traveling circle with Gingy and had started to do really well with it. But I had to give it because unmanagable weather set in. Since then I haven't worked consistently with that pattern and I honestly don't know why since it work well last time! So I want to get back to doing that in a little while, maybe if I have any luck the weather will improve too.



That's pretty much what we've been doing lately. Hopefully I'll have more time for quick posts now that the holidays are out of the way for a little bit.