A Parelli Convert!

Since I have been taking lessons with Jennifer at Iron Star Farm in Aledo, I have slowly become a convert to the training ways of Pat and Linda Parelli. I used to think this was the dumbest horse training method known to man until I started seeing that the real heart was in the relationship. Over the last couple lessons, all the bits and pieces Jennifer has given me have begun to make sense and fall into place.

This weekend the Parelli's were in FT. Worth for part of their 2008 tour. While I agree that their merchandise is extraordinarily expensive, I do also think the quality is very high. I'm salivating over the new Parelli Patterns to give me stuff to practice at home when I can't get out to work. They demonstrated how every exercise is a pattern that builds on an old pattern and works with the personality of the horse.

I experimented with some of my learning on Liberty this evening. Linda has a horse who is very left brained extrovert. He runs and plays and runs and runs and isn't ready to be ridden every time. She joked about him being bipolar, which I often feel with Liberty. He also isn't as touchy feely as her other horse and isn't as eager to hang out with her. This is how Liberty is with me. I feel a standoffishness from him, but a desire to be up close and personal...but only if it's really all about him. I think I do some damage early on when I "made" him "behave" I don't think it's irreversible, but I do think that he is less trusting of me in some ways than he used to be. So, I'm trying to speak his language.

Linda said a couple things today that made me think. She said that horses often become a tool and the relationship gets lost (this is definitely a possibility for me) and that you need to place the relationship first. In my lesson last week, we realized that you couldn't draw him in very easily. Tonight, when I turned him loose to work out the kinks, he turned away from me some, but also was way more willing to turn toward me than in the past. I think that I have lowered my energy and he feels more comfortable standing with me now. While I couldn't draw him in completely at Liberty, once he quit moving he wasn't reactive and trying to run away as usual. I noticed his breathing and sweating a lot, even though we hadn't worked very hard and I started to notice the release of adrenaline and the licking and chewing which indicated thinking.

I then had time to play the first four games with him and we had a great time. He did the friendly game, but still flinches on the first sounds/contact of the string, the porcupine game--better on the right than the left, the yoyo game (he's getting good at this) and the circle game. Tonight was the first night I ever got him to circle without always stopping behind me. Oh, he stopped behind me a few times, but then figured out that if he just kept trotting he would be praised and given many treats. He didn't work too hard and when I left I was feeding supper...since their supper consists of low starch feed and timothy cubes, I figured he was "too" hot.

I noticed that he had a lot of trouble ignoring the horses outside the pen tonight. Especially Toots! He was really working with me and focusing and acting like a left brained introvert until I started moving him a little and then he just exploded into a fireball of energy. Toots was running around and he was running around. They were both highly amusing!

Friday camp photos

These aren't by any means all the photos, but these are the ones I thought was best. When the girls are on the ground, they are playing the Circle Game. Sometimes it went well and sometimes it didn't. Mostly, I had fun taking pictures.

Then they had fun in the round pen, and then they rode bareback in the afternoon. I missed a ton of photos in between b/c I was supposed to go see clients, who then stood me up without a phone call, for the 2nd week in a row. I have called that agency and said I can't see that client anymore...it's 30 miles away for them to just not be there when they are supposed to be. I'm trying to consolidate to closer, and I missed a great day with my daughter.

The palomino my daughter is riding is named Doc. He was graciously loaned by a boarder of Jennifer's who is injured. I'm so grateful to her. Maggie just fell in love with him. He's so much like Deli in personality. They got along so well.

No more LIttle Toot

Maggie says our baby is getting to be too sweet to call Little Toot anymore. She should be called Tout Suite...or is that Toot Sweet (like the sweets in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) We haven't turned her paperwork in...I suppose the name Fiera might not stick, though I really like it. I have been calling her Tootie...which makes me think of the Facts of Life. The last two days have shown a lot of progress. Yesterday I put a halter on her and today she walked right up to Maggie to be handled. This is good, good news!

I start working at my new job for Lifetime Wellness tomorrow. I'm a little nervous, but I think it will be fun!

I had a riding lesson today with an instructor who does Parelli work and dressage. We have been working on managing Liberty's emotions in new situations. Today we started him on lateral work, haunches in, shoulder in, leg yielding. It was hard work, but alot of fun. I got to have lunch at The Rock House again...she promises me that there will be a website soon so I can link to it!.