All about my horses!

Parelli

Focus Fun Fail

Today was a “Liberty” day.  I decided there was not enough afternoon time to do both liberty and ride. I do have the challenge of the Parelli audition for Level 4 Liberty.  Time to get serious. Fancy is in a short time training period with the great Erin Patterson.  There happens to be a wonderful round pen at the stable which is the perfect size for our Liberty required tasks.  All four Level 4 Parelli auditions require flying lead changes.  Fancy can do the liberty flying lead changes with her gorgeous eyes closed.  We did get a few.

There was a lot going on at the Patterson property today, much for Fancy to look at.  We have fence post installation and neighbor crop harvesting.

Fancy and I did some stuff and occasionally, I was ignored while Fancy tried to ascertain if anyone needed her help with installing fence poles or harvesting beans.  Fancy had to play the circle game and her focus left me.  Fancy’s head was turned to the outside of the arena instead of looking at me for direction.  I’m supposed to fix her attention deficit before advancing to the required tasks.  Did I?….Nope.  It’s too exciting to think about Fancy doing the flying lead changes at liberty.  The horse’s body has to be in a certain bend to get a lead change.  A head fixated to the outside of the arena is not the proper body position for a flying change.  This was proved to be over and over again and before we went into exhausted, out of breath, not going to stay at the caner when changing direction mode.

I was forced to put her halter back on and try for lead changes online.  She can do them with the 12′ rope, but it was difficult today.  I really needed the 22 foot or even more horrific, the 45 foot rope.  I have neither with me.  All the great tack was at my house, not the stable.  “Be Prepared” is not my motto!

Fancy and I ended up doing half circles, changing directions while staying in the same gait, canter.  We call this the Flying Leaf exercise.  Fancy did it good enough and the clock ticked to a meaningful ending point. It was a good place to stop without Fancy realizing I had failed the liberty flying changes.  Fancy did great during the the exercises, just ask her!

Once again, the self-named “Great Susan Horse Trainer’, was beaten by the self-named “Fancy, the Winner”.  Occasionally Fancy takes pity on me and lets me win because she enjoys the athletic go moves. Her focus outside the arena instead of on me proved fatal to my flying change dream today!  Horse life is like this quite often.

Prior and Proper Performance Prevents Piss Poor Performance


This is a Pat Parelli sentence.  Understanding this very well, I prepared for Sweetie’s trailer loading to get to vet for her dentistry appt.  Fancy and Sweetie will be riding together, but Fancy is in training with Erin.  I took the first “prior and proper step.  I haltered Sweetie and led her out of her pasture.  Sweetie has one eye.  She lost one eye to cancer and also had an operation on her rear end to remove cancer

Both were successful.  I do nothing with Sweetie except feed her.  I water her in freezing weather and when it’s very hot.  Otherwise. the horses drink out of a lake.

I have not “handled” Sweetie for years.  I remember she was easily led into the trailer many years ago when we went to vet for operations.  Hmmm.

I haltered Sweetie two days ago.  She is suspicious of a human in the stall with her.  I’ve learned to put feed in the three stalls and then halter her.  I have noticed this month that she is loosing weight.  Usually when she eats, she doesn’t lift her head.  She eats while her head is in the feed.  hmmm.  Now she eats and food falls out of her mouth.  Teeth!

I “captured’ her and put the halter on.  I led her out of the barn to the trailer parked close to the barn.  I had a bucket of feed in the trailer.  I led her to trailer and walked in.  She followed me.  I stood with her while she ate the feed.  It was perfect.  Yesterday was the day before the appt.  Hmmm,  How am I going to get two horses in the trailer.  Should Sweetie go in first so she won’t be scared of Fancy…2nd in the herd command.  Yes!  I led Sweetie in with the food ready for her. Hmmm, the trailer metal ties are way too high for me to get the rope around them.  Hmmm.  I do have the escape trailer door with a clothe tie.  I tied Sweetie to the tie and tried to shut her in with the two horse trailer divide.  Well, that did not work.  Sweetie tried to escape.  Her head came around.  Her body was not in position.  I could not get her head back where it belongs in order to shut the divide bar.  Also she was tied and I could not reach the place to untie her.  I could net get her head back where I could easily untie the rope.  And, if I did untie the rope, she could easily run over me to escape from the trailer.

Oh lord.  I decided to get out of the trailer and go to the “escape door”.  Thank goodness for the escape door.  I thought she might panic when I left her tied in the trailer and she could break a leg, neck etc.  Thank goodness, she did not panic that much.  I made it to the escape door, opened it and untied her.

At this moment, she poked her head of of the escape door.  I remember the new trailer instruction stating that a horse can exit thru the escape door.  Her head was under the vertical tie.  Her head was out of the trailer.  There was no way I could get her head back into the trailer.  Sweetie escaped through the door.  Good Lord!

Thankfully, She had a 22′ rope on her.  She sort of ran off, right to the trailer regular door where a horse is to go in and out.  There is still feed in the bucket.  The rope asked to her to load back into the trailer. She loaded,  ate a few mouthfuls of feed, turned around and ran of the the correct exit trailer door.  We did this until the feed was gone, one mouthful at a time.  I tied her to the outside of the trailer and went to get another small amount of feed in the bucket.  Repeat, repeat and repeat.  I got a phone call, had to speak and put her back into her pasture.

Today, I traveled to get Fancy from her training home.  OMG, the vet assistant called and said, come early, the appts are going fast.  I said sure, but didn’t know how trailer loading will go.  I decided to put Fancy in the trailer and close the trailer divider.  I would go home and try to get Sweetie in the trailer, by directing her in from the entrance.  I’m not going to lead her in.  There is no way I can close the trailer door before she runs out.

I stood on the ground and directed her in.  I had the trailer door where I could get it closed somewhat quickly.

Hells Bells.  Sweetie went right in…there was a feed bucket.  She went right in the first try and I got the door shut.  Praise God.  Praise the Horse World.  Praise whoever taught this horse to load.  She has been only a brood mare all her life.  She has never had a human of her own.  Before she and Delta came to my world, she never had a horse friend.  Delta and Sweetie are close friends. Fancy has managed to be dominate over  Sweetie, but there is no love, just herd behavior.

Sweetie went to her dental appt.  Molars on both sides of her mouth were removed.  It didn’t take long.  They were ready to exit her mouth.  She is now on antibiotics.  She will still bleed for about 5 days, but she will be able to eat now.  Her life will extend.  She and Delta are both in their 20’s.

 

Swan Lake with Susan and Fancy

The evil witch hates the royal family. She searches for the young woman whose destiny is to marry the Cowboy Prince. The witch finds the princess and casts an evil spell on her.  The future princess is turned into a SWAN!  The future princess wanders around and finds her lake (a blue tarp).

Is the future princess destined to remain a swan, dragging her lake everywhere?

The Cowboy Prince, future king, cares nothing about royal bloodlines.  He wants true love.  He decides to search for his future beloved in the countryside. He gallops across the county landscape searching for his true love!

The Cowboy Prince finds his true love, even though she is a swan in her own lake.

He kisses her, the swan disappears and falls in forever love with his beloved, wearing a princess crown.  The future Cowboy and Cowgirl King and Queen embrace!

https://youtu.be/_Luz9CkYjO4 Swan Lake

Note:  I had to resubmit the simple lead changes because my arms started “flapping”. I finally was told that I passed the Parelli Level 4 Finesse audition/test which is a very big deal!

 

Fancy is a Star Mishmash of Dave Ellis Clinic

HI’m starting to write notes of all the devious, tricky difficult evil maneuvers, plus horse history: Dave meeting Pat amazing story; difference between English and Western riding is war; difference between Texas cowboys and California cowboys; riding offense or defense sidepass or leg yield or turn the hindquarters; ride halfway across arena with feel, turn reins loose and canter the rest of the way; hindquarter turn, back up alternating steps; lead change exercise- California roll rein feel, one rein shorter, leg yield and canter; three strides to get canter, give up; change hands, leg yield the other direction and canter; Hindquarter turn on defense change to offense…can you feel the hind leg move, the direction the head is turned is which hind foot steps first and offensive move is more powerful; Walk or trot (and I mean trot) on rail with loose reins, slowly reach one hand down on rein, close fingers-one at a time until head flex and I can see the eye, anchor hand on thigh, and do a hindquarter to forequarter turn. ; anchor you hand on your thigh to make that rein short enough to see the eye, then we were to do an S turn


Fancy entertained the crowd. She was the only gaited horse so she traveled at least 3 times further than any other horse. Amazing story of new owner of Hidden Hollow. Riding Fancy with loose reins, one handed…trot for two days and how miserable sore I was with no pain pills in car. Eating Quick Trip and McDonalds food for four days. Dave playing Nathan’s guitar on Saturday night dinner and entertainment from Dave. change of direction-hindquarters walk around forequarters and feet never stop moving evil maneuver and my new Kids carrot stick is best thing since sliced bread.

Dave Ellis four day clinic October 2019 pushed many buttons, sort of like the game of “a thousand transitions”. Plus we did play the game of a thousand transitions, every day in some manner.

Interesting Facts:

What is the difference between English riding and Western riding? War. English riding is charge forth into battle, hands down… Charge of the Light Brigade… Canter Seat is controlled and seat goes from front to back. They aren’t concerned about cows changing direction. They go forward. Dressage was also invented as war moves. Dressage means advanced training.

Western riding is relaxed, going to mosey out and get the cows. The posture and hands are different for the two purposes. The Western lope or gallop is rode differently from an English canter. Cowboy slouch down in saddle and ride front to back with their seat. This will keep them in saddle better when the cow does the speedy turns.

We started out riding one hand with loose reins. This is my bewitching spot. My slow down is iffy at best with light contact and two hands. We rode around the arena at a trot and turned a large circle and then a small circle, small enough to get them to

Earn Cisco’s Heart

If you are a Parelli person, many unParelli people think you are certifiable. If you follow the quest, you are still OK to be with other people. We are not dangerous. The Levels program in Parelli is like the black belt kind of thing in Judo. You don’t get the black belt unless you live the black belt. It becomes your life.

I need Cisco to worship me and want to do what I ask of him. I want his heart. If I have his heart, I will have everything he has to offer.

I was going to explain what I did “right” the last time I interacted with and rode him. I was going to explain what I did wrong. But it really isn’t wrong, it just a detour in earning his heart.

As you know, I have this one obsession. Cisco and I worked on my obsession. Worked is an illegal word. I did not play. I did not reward. We worked. We practiced. That is not going to win me his heart. I finally understand what linear (straight line) thinking is. Finally!

I made the goal an athletic task instead of thanking Cisco every time he figured out just what my confusing signals are. For every try, there should be a thank you, not a constant repetition demand.

If anyone can actually figure out what I said, welcome to the journey!

Author page for Cisco’s pathetic human

Saddling Rules

In the Parelli world, a people training program, we learn many rules that keep us safe with horses; rules that might save our lives or from injury. There are many safety basic rules for saddling a horse and mounting a horse.. In the original Level 1 test, saddling and mounting were tasks included in the test. In my first book, Susan FoxTrotter, I told the story about my sad, unsuccessful mounting task. There I lie in the dirt looking up at a very concerned David Lichman. I said, “Did I pass?” I had followed all the rules except that Sage was not accustomed to the huge effort I made, and fell down when I tried the leap from the ground into the saddle.

I ran across a web site that tells the story and rules and give pictures of the proper way to saddle a horse. Reading the rules felt like I had come home. No wonder, the author is a former Parelli student and has become a master of horsemanship. His name is Glen Stewart. I remember that he competed against Pat Parelli in the 2012 Road to the Horse.

Here are the rules of saddling. If you saddle your horse and you are near me where you I can see you, please do it like this. I have to restrain my instructor personality if you don’t and that causes me an iota of stress.

Please read this article and learn the saddling rules. There are a more safety rules to follow before it is safe to mount and how to mount. I won’t harass you in this blog about them.

Here are some free articles, many help articles to read from the Parelli world. They address a wide range of issues. Sadly, the mounting rules are not included, only mounting problems. You do not have to be a Parelli member to access all these wonderful articles and problem solving solutions.

Cisco Journey Musing

I have written lately about Cisco and I because I’ve been pondering the meaning of life with a horse.  That sounds cool doesn’t it?  Believe it or not, the Level 4 Parelli journey with Cisco is not the same as the Level 3 journey with Velvet.  All I really remembered was the intense focus on flying lead changes.  Yes, I still have that fierce focus, but things are very different.

Things are very different as I don’t have job.  I have few time constraints.  When I play with Cisco it isn’t after an 8-10 hour day at work.  It isn’t at night in the dark.  Another huge difference is that I understand tons and tons more about the principles of love, language and leadership.  I can talk much better non-verbally to my horse now. I understand physical and non-physical feel of connection with my non-verbal partner.  Slowing down has never been easy for me, but Cisco is teaching me how much he appreciates my toning down my body language so I don’t scare him to death. Yes, I can scare him to death and cause him to go right brain with just a higher level of gestures or being in the wrong place and making an gesture with my arm. He is that sensitive.

So I’m thinking that only the deep kind of people that are involved with a deep level of horsemanship will understand the garble of the first two paragraphs. If you want to understand this kind of stuff, come to a clinic/lessons with Tony and Jenny Vaught or Nichole Copple!

Now I’ll talk in regular English. Maybe. Maybe I can make this clear and maybe not. What you will get out of this is the passion.

I having fun playing with Cisco where he and I are face-to-face. I ask him to do tasks and he tells me immediately that he doesn’t understand. It takes me a while to understand that. Then I ask him to do the task in a different way or I might break down the task into parts. I love to play with Cisco when he has no rope or no halter on his head. But now I can see when my asking isn’t working and I go to the rope. The rope gives me physical feel so I can tell him better what I want. When he is relaxed and doing what I want while using the rope, I can then switch to liberty.

People who don’t know how incredible is the horse in a face-to-face basis are missing an immense part of their horse. Many of the times I go to play with Cisco, I’m thinking about those flying lead changes or leg yield at the flat foot walk or canter. I say to Cisco, let’s just make certain your saddle is tight and then I will ride. After that, the magic happens and I get caught up in the deeply satisfying happiness of getting Cisco to understand my cues while we are playing online or at liberty. When Cisco understands what I want, he is thrilled to do it. Cisco wants very much to please his human. He overtries. He struggles to figure out what I want. If I want him to move a step, he thinks five steps will be better. Is that right! Is that right!

I’ve watched thousands of liberty acts. I grew up with Dr. Paul in Osceola who had a liberty act with six white horses. I’ve watched circus acts. I’ve watched it all. I could never figure out how Dr. Paul and all those other people could get horses to do all those things, much less six horses. I still can’t figure out how Dr. Paul and the circus people can do it. I can’t understand how David Lichman does it. I can’t understand how Double Dan James can do it! What I can do is figure out how to ask Cisco to do tasks, I can spend enough time with Cisco that eventually, we click and he discovers what I’m asking. Then I glow with happiness and my life is extended for five to ten minutes. Yep, this horse stuff will make you live forever!

Cisco-that amazing little wretch

Yesterday – Cisco and I are now stuck together. I take off the halter and run around the arena and he stays with me. I turn. I stop. I back up. I turn and run the other way. His head stays right even with my body or he runs to catch up. That’s how good we are doing while we are playing in the arena. Alone in the arena.

So, there are other people in the arena yesterday. I decide it is time to do a little Susan and Cisco show off. Riding is done. I take off his saddle and his bridle. I do not put on his halter. This is it, “show off time!” He follows me. He is too close to me when we stop. I tell him to back up with my really cool hand signals. He ignores me. The carrot stick tells him to back up. He ignores it. Inside, I’m screaming at him. Cisco!
Then he looks at the two women in the arena over in the corner. He walks over to them. What! Cisco! I’m using my body signal, come join back up with me, Cisco. I am ignored. Cisco panders to the two women. Good Lordy. I have to go over and put a rope around his neck to lead him away. I’m been humiliated. Erin Patterson and Susan Breau….Cisco wants you to pet him. Sigh…

Today, our riding session is done. I leave him in arena and clean up his stall. He has been in there all last night and day. There is smell. I put new shavings in and dig out that smelly stuff. I clean his water bucket. I put up his hay bag. Then as I’m dragging 1000 pounds of manure thru the other barn aisle, the news of his treachery was shared. Cisco opened the sliding barn door, pushed the little table out of the way and gained entry to a barn aisle that has a tub of grain…tub has a cover. But Cisco also loosed the cover on th grain and started having his own grain festival. He was caught in the act. Good Lordy. I don’t think his grain festival was long enough to cause damage. Only humiliation of his owner. Good Lordy.

On the positive side… I played with Cisco at Liberty today. We were trotting along, side by side. I ran besides the barrels and Cisco jumped the barrels…at Liberty. I’m so proud of him. He jumped the barrels going both ways. Oh Yes!

I’ve been riding him pretend bridleless. I had the bridle on him and pretended it wasn’t there. But there is a big big difference when you really take off the bridle and really ride bridleless. We did that today! I rode bridleless. What do you get when you ride bridleless? You get the truth. Cisco isn’t perfectly tuned into my legs aid signals yet. The carrot stick did a lot of steering today.

Cisco and I have started playing the 4 corner game and the point to point game!

We are coming along, improvement and humiliation! It doesn’t get any better than this journey!

First Day Live in the Barn

First day in the barn

Cisco's Winter Home


Cisco spent the night in his new stall. He screamed at me this morning when I came into the barn aisle.

This living in a stall thing is going to be really good for my life. I have to get up in the morning as I must clean his stall. Cisco gets out of his stall and spends some time in the arena while I pick up the little brown “apples” littering his stall. When done, Cisco and I played some games in the arena. I get to take my time and just spend time with him, working on our invisible “feel”. “Feel” is a word used by all kinds of horse people. It is the communication bond between a verbal and non-verbal species…preditor human and prey animal horse.

When we were done playing, I had got Cisco to trot four circles around me. He was at Liberty which means the only connection between us was invisible “feel”. I got him to trot around me four times without running off. He did this both directions.

I got a chair and took it out to the center of the arena. When Cisco did something marvelous, I told him to come to me and I sat in the chair and did nothing. If he came close enough, I petted him. What are you doing in the chair, Susan? Why are you doing nothing? The reply is, “I’m training Cisco.” Doing nothing is a big reward.

We also spent time walking together around the arena. Cisco’s head was to be next to my shoulder. Again, he wore nothing, he chose to walk with me instead of running off or finding more interesting things to do. I jogged around the arena and he stayed right by my shoulder. I stopped and backed up, so did Cisco. I turned and ran off and lost him a few times. It took so some doing to get him connected back with me. This is a great physical training program for me and I was wearing my sneakers for comfort.

In the afternoon after feeding the spouse at the local cafe, I returned and rode Cisco. I rode with the reins and without using the reins. It’s called “feel”.

I would go on for a while about getting the correct leads at the canter. Let’s just say, “It’s a journey.” Once, I got my body in the proper position to ask him for the canter. I ask with a slight squeeze of my calf muscles. But, Cisco cantered off before the squeeze. He cantered when I got into the position. It made me laugh out loud with surprise and delight.

Cisco makes me laugh and he brings me great joy!

What! A Self Assessment Task Checklist? NOoooooooo!

In a smug tone, I tell Jenny all I have to do to pass the Level 4 Free Style is bridleless flying lead changes which Cisco and I will be able to do because we can do them while jumping over a barrel. Jenny tells me that Cisco and I won’t need to use a barrel by the time we develop this skill. “You’ll not need to jump that high,” she sez.

Note: I was thinking that you, the reader, might believe barrel jumping means success at flying lead changes. Barrel jumping provides the horse with an opportunity to rearrange their leg footfall sequence. The rider’s focus, body position and knowledge are other requirements. I was obsessed with flying changes during the Parelli journey with Velvet and Sage. I bought one day old JR because he had the talent potential to do flying changes. Now I get to be obsessed all over again with the journey that Cisco and I are on.

Then she mentions the other tasks. There are no other tasks, I explain. I’ve been watching the level 4 auditions on You Tube. All we have to do is a pattern, flying changes and simple changes.

Jenny says, “There is a two page sheet where you have to check off tasks you’ve completed and you have to sign it.”

I’ve seen that sheet. It has the compulsory tasks. After watching the video submissions on You Tube, all I care about is the compulsory tasks. I examine the audition sheet that night. Hmmmm. It does say to do the self assessment chcklist. It does say to sign it. There is even a place for a signature. There are a bunch of tasks.

Oh cry! I check with my inner self. Inner self tells me that I cannot check the tasks as completed unless Cisco and I successfully perform the tasks. What if someone asks Cisco and I to do one of those tasks and we can’t do it? Also, my inner self tells me I can’t lie on the check list.

Well drat!

I’m now keeping a list of the tasks we successfully completed.

Jenny also stated that doing these tasks will help in our development towards flying lead changes.

Sigh… Oh the suffering on the best journey ever!

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