Back to liberty, without my carrot stick...

     Gingy and I did a little liberty this morning and it gave me a chance to assess where we're at since we've been playing online.  My savvy string is frozen so I couldn't really use it this morning, thus, I just used my hands.  Linda once said that it's good to play without your cs* at liberty because it helps you be more subtle. 

     Even without an extension of my arm liberty went really well.  We tested the FE* pattern and played with porcupine a bit.  Those are just the things that I thought up LOL.  Gingy came up with a few other things to do as well.  So we also got to do squeeze game over the pole and sideways over the cones.

     The only thing that we definitely need to keep tweaking is the leadership balance(49% vs 51%).  Any time I let Gingy come and stand with me, he would start nudging my hands and offering to nip.  I handled it as best I could at liberty.  Perhaps I should of simply stopped playing when I noticed dominance, but he was doing well at a distance and that's where I kept him most of the time.  I know Linda has talked a lot about dominance and stuff, however I'm still in the dark about how to be polite in telling him he can simply stand quietly and not nip me.  I guess I'll be doing some more research on LB dominance again LOL.

A little bit of everything.

     Gingy and I did all kinds of things today!  We did traveling circle between the cones, trotting over the cavelettis, touch it with treats(his favorite game LOL), zone 4/5 driving, and backing his hind feet into the bucket from 20 feet away!

     Today I remembered to go slow and do lots of friendly.  For a little bit he was showing tremendous energy, but after awhile it died off.  I think I might of pushed him too hard so then he lost his energy, but I almost made the mistake of continuing to push him after he slowed down.  So hooray for me!  I got slow and friendly instead of fast and ferious LOL

     I think my favorite thing about this session was when we did z4/5* driving.  Gingy was sooooooo connected!  When I just randomly stopped on the spot he stopped right with me and he didn't try to get back in z1* like he sometimes does.  Even when we neared the hay pile in front of the shed and stopped he stopped too, of course it to a little wiggle to maintain that stop LOL.  I guess actually I had two favorite things about this session.  My other favorite moment was when we got out in the pasture and I set him up to back into the bucket.  We were, like I said, 20 feet away.  He knew exactly what I wanted and back all of the way there.  When he hit the bucket he wasn't quite sure how to get both feet in, but he tried really hard for me.  

Get slower, get friendly. This is difficult!!!!!!

     This post is really about two session that I've had, but one led to another so to speak.  First I had another liberty session, in which Gingy was very dominant.  And yesterday I had an online session to work on that dominance a little.

     In the liberty session we did I noticed about two really dominant instances.  One was when I asked him to do stick to me in a circle.  He responded by switching his tail and pinning his ears.  He did that exact same thing when I asked him to walk with me from distance.  These were the problems that I wanted to play with when I got a chance to do online with him. 

     When I did get that chance however things went far from smoothly.  It didn't help that I had another reason for doing the online that morning.  I was red-hot and angry with my brother, so I went down to the horses.  That is probably why I blew up at Gingy, I was really mad about some other things and he happened to be the victem of my rath.  Now I understand all of this, but when I was out there it seemed like everything that could go wrong did go wrong.  I found other challenges besides the things I'd already seen.  In fact the gratest challenge was keeping Gingy focused!  He exhibited mostly LBE traits in that online session and some of those included, lack of focus, mouthiness, and high energy.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but the truth is that Gingy would not stand still.   

     I sure learned a lot from that online session.  I learned that I still need a lot of work on my own emotional break LOL.  I also learned that you can't start trying to work through your horses problems when your own are still unsolved and unsettled.  I sure love Gingy for putting up with me!  I'm going out today hopefully, which will give me a chance to get slower and get friendly.

Super short liberty session with Gingy!

     Sadly I haven't gotten much time with the horses lately due to several different things.  But last night I was able to play with Gingy for about ten minutes at least.  He was kind of in a "lets run around, 'cause it's cold" mood, so I didn't even try to persuade him to stand still.  We were at liberty and at liberty you....test things!  We did some stick to me which is okay at the walk now.  Then I tried to get him to the jump the cones, but we couldn't quite get the trot going long enough for him to go over the jump LOL.  His backing was nice and he had a good draw as far as I could see.  I back him out, then sent him intending for him to walk about 12' away from me to the manure pile and stand on it, so touch it.  But, we had a to spend a little time at the cones before he went to the manure pile because he really wanted to show me how he could touch them LOL.  I just kept asking him to do something over the cones until he came back.  Then he was willing to go stand on the manure pile LOL.

     There was one aspect of our little session that was really wonderfull.  He was so soft and responsive and I was calm and patient!  Wahooooooooo!!!!!!!

Marsy the sniffer!

     I got Marsan out today and my, we had a great time!  At first things went slow, but going slow paid off.  As always I did some friendly with her, rubbing her legs and swinging the cs* over her head without touching her(she doesn't like that very much).  After friendly we did circles which seem to be very hard for Marsy.  For quite a time I was completely stumped over how to get her to go a whole circle.  Again and again I let her come, in or waited long periods of time for her to blow out or chew(she did a couple of times, but she could never complete one lap.  I was near frustration when I a last had the common sense to just ask her to continue one whenever she stopped.  I know this is a rather abnormal thing to do, but when I brought her back to me, she licked and was quite LB.  I think that is how she really was for the whole circling thing, she knew she could just come in or stand still and she prefered it.  Hmmmmmmmm, I guess I shall see the affects this had next time we revisit circling.


     After all of the circling we had a pleasant little break.  Then I got my helmet, checked her lateral flexion on both sides, and mounted.  This is the point at which I was most astonished.  Once I had determined that she should head toward the road and had directed her that way with the reins she went without a hitch.  This is rather hard for me to believe because normally she resist stubbornly about going onto the road.  Once we were out there I decided to throw a treat so we could go find it and she could eat it LOL.  I do this with her on the ground all of the time and she loves it, so why not from on top of her.  We went to the treat and stood there with her not knowing that it was on the ground.  Just as a whim, I reached up to her pole(between her ears) and pressed gently.  She dropped  her head obediently and of course found the treat.  After that she could not be convinced to stop sniffing everywhere.  I could feel her sides heaving much the way a dog's does when it's panting.  I played the passenger and let her wander at will and she did wander.  First to one side of the road, then to the other, and back the way we came.  I did at last take control and ask her to go as far as she dared up toward the house, but a gust of wind blew up behind her and she spooked a little, so we both thought it best to go back toward the barn.  I never quite got her to give me her full attention, but it was fun to sit on her and follow all of her silly paths.

Our vid!

     Note, I had this vid on setting that made it unviewable, but not it's reset so everyone can watch it!  Well, here's my first vid of Gingo and me!  Gingy is a little grumpy, but he did so well!

     Yay it worked!  

So wonderfully peaceful.

     It nice down at the horses today, there was a gentle breeze and the sun was out.  Besides being a nice day in terms of weather, it was nice because everything was so calm. 

     I did some stuff with Gingy first, but I found myself not wanting to do anything at all.  We just piddled around LOL.  He was quite disrespectful last time so we worked on that and I think things are back in balance.  I did some porcupine stuff with him, which was fun.  A lot of times he started to get to dominant again and lose focus on what I was asking him to do.  However, most of the time I was with him he was very attentive even when I just pointed my finger or dropped my energy.  

     Next, I got Marsy out.  I decided to just let her out of the pen since it's hard to keep the other horses from chasing her away when I'm trying to halter her.  She's gotten out before so I knew she wouldn't go anywhere.  She went and started grazing on the hay by the fence.  It took a little to get her to come to me, but she halter nicely.  I can't say as we did much besides friendly.  Her friendly is a lot better and we are both so much more relaxed.  

     Today was....well, peaceful.  After I'd kinda done all I wanted to do with Marsan I sat down against hay barn while Marsan grazed.  A cat found my lap so I petted her.  I felt so comfortable and relaxed that I didn't want to do anything, I only wanted to stay there with a warm cat on my lap, my calm horse nearby, and the last rays of sun. 

How does your horse make you feel?

     This is the question that was on my mind today as I played with my horses.  When I come down to see them how do I feel, and as I play does my feeling change?  I hung out with Marsy today.  As I began playing with her, a sense of peace washed over me.  From there on out I felt two things, 1) I didn't have much energy to contribute, and 2) I was totally relaxed.  So what kind of feelings do you think your horses cause in you?  Please comment.

     Needless to say, Marsy and I had a wonderful, relaxing playtime together.  She is doing a lot better with all of her friendly games and I think she is beginning to trust me more.  It was kinda funny because we were both quite lethargic today, I found that it was difficult to even ask her to trot!  She definitely responded to this by slowing way down too.  I have felt this once before when we did a massage clinic together, toward the end of it we were both practically asleep!  Does this "sleepy" feeling mean I am going to my "happy place"?

     I tried to play with Gingy after Marsan and I were done, but I found that I didn't have any energy what so ever left.  I tried doing a few things with him, but he seemed to sense I wasn't all there LOL.  He kept wandering off for food, but I see why.  It's quite interesting how my sleepiness affect Gingy and Marsan differently.  Marsan seemed to really appreciate the slow pace and Gingy took it to mean he could go do something else.

A little walk and some circles.

     Wow, Gingy sure had a lot of energy today!  When I got him out we went over to grasshopper valley(right behind the barn) for a change of scenery.  It's pretty snow over there, but that was actually good.  When we did circling in the valley you could see Gingo's druthers quite clearly LOL.  On our way there we did stick to me which is coming along superbly!  Especially at the trot.  When I would lift my energy and start jogging I Gingy would be right there beside me :)  Our transitions doing stick to me were good too.

     While we were in the valley I played friendly game on Gingy's legs.  Until today, whenever I touched his left front leg he would have a treat panic attack!  I guess that's from when I was trying to get him to bow, well I sure learned my lesson.  I had to spend about ten minutes backing him and approaching and retreating before he could just stand calmly while I rubbed and lifted his leg.  I felt quite accomplished when he could stand calmly and respectfully while I messed with his leg.

     After playing in the valley we went to the pasture to work on jumping the cones.  I found out that we have a few prerequisits to get through first.  Before actually going to the jump, I asked Gingy for walk trot transitions on the circle.  As we did those I gradually increased the time he spent trotting.  He actually didn't really seem to notice that I was asking for more because had so much energy!  When I finally did ask him to do the jump, he slowed down like he wasn't sure(at least he was more sure that he could stand on for me hehe).  So we ended up playing with him continuing on over the jump instead of stopping to stand on it.  Eventually, he did a very nice circle over the jump, change direction, circle over the jump going the oposite way :D

     Today was great because I was connecting to Gingy and he was doing that for me too.  I listened to what he had to say and he rewarded me by being more willing and motivated.  It was really hard to give him the rests that he needed during the circling, but I managed to put aside my goals and it was great!  I now see him asking to come in, in a different light.  Now I realize that sometimes he is just saying can I come check in with you or, I just need a little break.

Best liberty session yet!

This morning I got up early to go feed the horses because I was hoping Kayla would be able to come play. Well, the weather didn't coroporate and I could see that as soon as I stepped outside. "Oh well" I thought, I'll go feed 'em anyway. I couldn't help myself, I ended up playing at liberty with Gingy...for an hour!


Initially I just wanted to try some extreme friendly game. I wanted to find out for sure whether he was bothered by it or not. It's just to easy to ignore the subtle signs of RBness when you have a line! Turns out Gingy didn't really care much about friendly game, in fact he became pretty bored with it! However, when I wanted to go back to z4 he kept tryin to follow me with his nose because he wanted a treat. It was actually a great opportunity to do some serious FQ yields! I would play driving game or porcupine on his FQs every time he moved his HQs away from me. Eventually he realized that it was easier to just let me pet him back there LOL.

We did some other stuff to0. We did stick to me which is sorta coming along. It was cool because I started trotting and Gingy actually trotted with me!!! So that marks great progress! I say it's "sorta" coming along because I'm not sure whether he understands that he is supposed to keep me in z3.

Like the z4 friendly game, we had to spend a long time playing with his sideways. I set us a hard challenge I'll admit; I wanted Gingy to sideways away over a pole then come back to me sideways. He finally got it, but it was far from what I had pictured in my mind. I did have the savvy not to push his try any further, so I rewarded him with a treat. I'm so glad I did that because his response was to started trying again! I helped him along and he managed to do it better than the first time, but I didn't have a treat. Oh well, he wasn't to bothered by that.

It was definitely a great session, we had such great communication and connection going on. The funny thing is that it all just sorta fell into place without my worrying about it! Yesterday I prayed that God would open my mind to what Gingy has to tell me, because I haven't been listening very well lately. Today I did listen and the change from previous sessions this week was amazing. Another big thing that I tried to do more of today, was wait. I forget to do this a lot and our connection suffers as a result. Linda says that as you progress with a horse you have to keep taking care of his emotions; I think waiting is a big part of that.

A little pony adventure!

This morning my mom came in my room around seven to tell me that she thought the horses had gotten out! She new this because you see their little tracks all over the ground in the snow that we got last night. I was pretty tired when I fed them last night so I must have left the gate open when I went to attend to their water.

As we were getting dressed to go look for them, the animal control lady came to our door to let us know that they were at our neihbore's. At least we knew right were to go!

So 7:30 am found us trekking out the half mile to our neighbor's house to retrive those rascals. When we arrived we saw old Sug out in their yard trying to get at the alfalfa that they had stacked next to their horse pen LOL. Pretty soon Marsan, Gingy, and Cherroke filed out of the trees. The animal control people were very amazed at how well manner all of our horses were. They got their halters right on, which was awesome!

Gingy was so funny because as I was getting his halter on he kept trying to follow my mom because she was giving Cherroke treats LOL. Once I got Marsy and Gingy's leads sorted out, we got on the move. The animal control car was parked right on the side of the road. I had to back Marsan between car and a big clump of snow. She wasn't really happy about it and eventually she ended up going sideways, but again everyone was so amazed at how well Marsan handled that!

From there the journy home was easy. Suprisingly, Gingy and Marsy were very attentive to me all the way back. Sometimes I would stop to ajust something and they would both stop instantly. Once just to see I stop and started backing up and they perfectly mirrored me!

I'm glad we were able to find them and none of them got run over or anything! All and all it was a nice little excursion in snow :)

Stick to me and scratches!

When I went down to the horses today, they were all hanging out at the water tank. Marsan has been in heat for the past few days and Cherroke was doing what he would do if he was a stallion still. He mounted Marsan by our large rubber tank which is against the fence. Marsan moved and he fell of her! Right into the tank! So there he was laying on his side stuck in the tank. I could only stand and watch while he thrashed his way out of the tub. He made it, licked his lips and tried to approach the RB Marsan. While all of this had been going on, Marsan was squealing shrilly, and Gingy squeaked. Well, now when I think of it I can't hardly keep from laughing, but at the time I was just as tense as my two ponies.

I scratched Gingy for awhile and he really enjoyed it. He's getting quite itchy now that he's shedding(in Feberary!). He really likes the back of his hind legs itched. It's great because he really needs a lot of friendly game in that zone.

After scratching I went and got Marsy's halter and a 12' line. I put it on Gingy because right now my 22' mecate and Gingo's halter are in the wash.

We played with stick to me for awhile. I'm working on helping Gingy understand how to maintain his responsibilities in that game, because he has a hard time keeping up sometimes. Today he seemed to savvy what I was asking him and he kept by my side pretty well. We'll keep working on this a little every day and see how it goes.

To top off our session, we did traveling circle between the cones. Gingy didn't do very well at this today, he just wasn't very connected. He paid just enough attention to note when we were coming to the cone; when he did see the cone he forgot all about the circle and dragged me to it! Oh well this session was kind cutting it close asking him for so much circling and energy. I assembled cone jump for Gingy, so we worked on that a little too. He eventually tried to jump it and that's about where we stopped.

A nice little session with Marsy :)

The weather was really nice today, so I decided play with Marsy a little when I was done with Gingy. We started slow, but we actually made a lot of progress. Best of all we had fun.

When I got Gingy she was trying to follow me around, thus, she was only too happy when I singled her out. Gingy was like, "What?!" I got her out intending to just let her graze while I worked the snarls out of her mane, but I got bored. I did some extreme friendly games with her, which she did really good with. After that, we played a little treat game on the road. I would throw the treat, then we would do transitions in z3 so Marsy could go eat it. She really enjoyed getting the treats. That's pretty much all we did, but it was a really nice and I really enjoyed it. I noticed that Marsan was very LBE this play session and that's great!

I did do some stuff with Gingy before I played with Marsan. We did traveling circle, lead by the tail, sideways over cones, z4 driving, and lots of friendly game! Zone 4 driving is progressing very well, I think all of the friendly game I've been doing in that area has helped a lot(thanks for the tip Lea!). It never really occurred to me that the problem was his discomfort with me in z4/z5, he is very good at covering up his feelings. He did well with his traveling circle too. He offered a little trot once he understood what we were doing, but I pressed him a little too hard(I'll just have to be careful to ask less next time). Lastly Gingy did a very nice lead by the tail. He is actually responding to the porcupine now instead of me being behind him. At one point he started to resist the pressure when I was asking him to back toward the left, but then he rethought it and followed the feel.

We sure had a good time today :D