Fancy is not a RUNAWAY

A runaway horse suddenly takes off and accelerates into a gallop with the victim human riding.  The victim human will probably end up tossed off and getting badly hurt.

A horses who refuses to go the direction the rider cued is not a runaway.  A horse who is not accelerating faster up into the gallop is not a runaway.  A horse who refuses to stop, but doesn’t accelerate is not a runaway.  Fancy is not a runaway horse.

So, what happened today in the group lesson?

My goal now is passing the Parelli Level 4 Freestyle.  Freestyle in Level 4 is bridleless.  My Erin directive is to start riding Fancy in her bridle to control her head set to achieve the flat foot walk and fox trot.  I use feel on the bridle to get her head in the position that helps “the gait”.  Letting Fancy be ridden bridleless, makes her “forget” her proper head position which occasionally results in the hated pace.  We hate the pace, the gait of camels.

Fancy and I had done our first stage group lesson wearing the bridle and both Erin and I were thrilled at both her flat foot walk and fox trot.  My body sang with joy as we rounded the arena.

Now it’s time to do a pattern and it’s bridleless time.  Taking off the bridle makes riding Freestyle real!  I have the option of keeping the bridle on, but ignoring it.  I use the Parelli neck rope, my body position, legs and horsemanship stick for guiding.

The neck rope was ignored.  While using the horsemanship stick to guide Fancy, I leaned forward to use the stick to direct her head when she argued about the 360 turn.  Leaning is a sin.  my cues to Fancy include my seat position.

Next we are to fox trot into the corner and make the turn.  My body balance leaning backwards is the cue to slow down.  My leg cues didn’t work.  Fancy and I completed the “go away from the good end of the arena pattern”.  The problem was the returning to the good end of the pattern.  I had places to go.  Fancy chose to head directly to the end of the arena and merge with the other horses.  We failed three times.

Erin decided it was time for her to ride, but wanted the bridle in case Fancy decided to ignore Erin.  Fancy did decide to ignore Erin and they had a discussion.  Fancy lost. Three times and Fancy did the pattern perfectly with Erin not touching the bridle.  Erin then did two flying lead changes, just holding the neck rope.

I screamed in awe and joy.  I got back on Erin at the end of the lesson and we did some walk to halt trips as we traveled around the arena.

As I have mentioned a time or two before in these million blogs, Fancy is perfect for me.  I’ll never be bored riding Fancy.  My time in the arena will be spent on riding at all gaits with frequent stops.  Gait transitions and stops while bridleless is the goal.  Leg cues and neck rope directions to Fancy will be gladly given by the beautiful left brain horse.

Passenger Riding:  Last week I practiced riding Fancy in the arena and letting her make the decisions on where to go and how fast.  My only intervention was to “speak up” when she wanted to stop. This was excellent for me to increase my riding confidence and trust that I could stay on top of Fancy no matter if she stopped, turned or went faster or slower in all her gaits.  I’ll be doing more Passenger Riding also to keep my confidence at 100%

One of the group asked me if I was scared when Fancy had decided to canter when illegally returning to the “good end”.  No, I was not scared and that is a marvelous feat!

Another repeat:  Fancy is Perfect for Me!