How Interesting!

Doesn't it feel fantastic to make progress? To have a hunch on something, and give it your best go, and to come out the other side?!

I was happy to find Sante at the front of the paddock today, not right out hte back like he normally is, and when he saw me, he busied himself with trying to impress me.. by picking up sticks and hiding behind trees... it was a very funny catching game this morning.

Anway, we started with lots of extreme friendly, I was wondering whether the carrot stick in Z5 was freaking him out when he is on adrenaline, and spent a good 10-15 minutes standing in all his zones and playing friendly, mixing it with a little bit of extreme friendly here and there.

He didn't even blink!

I have decided that for the time being, all circling game involving the canter will be done in the round yard... to save me rope burn, its not the ideal, but I have a feeling that Sante isn't so much afraid of the roundyard... more.. doesn't want to do anything involving using adrenaline, because he doesn't know how to act on it.

So - Forward into the fray! We did some sideways, and lead by the tail, lead by the leg, hind quarter disengage towards, lots of "other stuff" so it wasn't about the circling game.

When I did start circling, he was mildly RB, not sure what put him off, it was a bit breezy, and he was a bit jumpy, so I just sent him on the circle and did change of directions until he calmed down, bought him in, and he was completely LB again.

So, we did lots of transitions, got him thinking - walk to trot, trot to walk to stop, all of that, with lots of rests and friendly inbetween. I am trying really hard to not stress the canter, I don't want him to see the round yard as "the place where i go crazy because mum makes me canter".

When I did ask for the canter I was AMAZED at the results. My phase one, was lift my leading arm, he IMMEDIATELY picked up speed, so I gave him half a lap of that, then I flicked WAAAY out behind him with the carrot stick and - canter!

He didn't maintain it, so I had to ask again, but WOW what a difference, it wasn't a "climbing the walls trying to get out" canter, it was much more controlled, fast.. but controlled. The first few times I asked for the canter he had a LOT of trouble maintaining it, so I found myself following him around the circle and "clucking" him on to maintain gait.. .not something i really want to do.

I ended up with the carrot stick in Z5 and half "lunged" him round, but also found that I could take it away, and THEN ask for a downwards transition and he would respond. It only took a few goes, and he was able to maintain gait..

Once I started asking for the canter, we were only in the roundyard for another 10 minutes... I was able to firmly establish the canter cue, I then gently put pressure on his nose, encouraging him to keep his nose tipped to me, pushing his shoulder out to put him on the correct bend, then, my next goal was to ask for a downward transition before he broke gait - Which I did! We managed a trot to canter, canter to trot, trot to canter, and then canter to trot, all using nothing more than a phase 2, and with that, I bought him in, heaped the friendly on him, and left the round yard.

The roaring success of our session today, gives more credence to my beleif, that I really don't think Sante knew how to canter on a 22 ft circle.

When I asked, his body was all wrong, bent completely the wrong way, nose out, shoulder in and practically climbing the wall. My problem was I was misreading it as a RB fear response 'to much pressure" "can't handle it" and to be perfectly honest, in the early days that may well have been the case! But on Sunday, each time I asked for the canter, and then bought him in, he was Left Brained! I spent 10 minutes TEACHING him how to bend on the circle, nose tipped towards me, pushing the shoulder out with my carrot stick. He then had three days to think about it, and I got the fantastic results today.

I only had to remind him today, to tip his nose in.

I am so proud of my boy, for what he has taught me.

RBI is now a LBI

I am about to do my head in~

Does anyone else find that you you don't have a problem reading horses, until it comes to you own?

*sigh*

My horse has been a RBI since I got him. So I've always done the "slowly slowly" approach with him...

I have been able to notice when he is obviously LB and such, have been able to give a little more pressure when necessary, and correct minor dominance issues that pop up, all without damaging his confidence, and keeping the relationship in tact.

As stated elsewhere in my blog, we've never had much success cantering online. I have tried in the roundyard, and freaked him out, I have tried in a grass arena, and nearly got rope burn. The only time I have success with cantering online, is when he offers it! (twice in two years), so after watching Pat & Linda at Equitana, Pat working with a RBE and Linda with a RBE, I decided to turn things up a notch between Sante and I. They can do in an hour and a half, what has taken me two years to do, So I figured that I might try applying a little more pressure here and there to see what happened (ensuring that i read the horse correctly - See, I've been having problems identifying when Sante is being completely LB, when he has been RBI for soooo long)

I have noticed that Sante can't handle his adrenaline. Once he starts doing something that involves high energy, he throws his popcorn in the air, he just CAN'T think on adrenaline, but I watched how Pat & Linda have been able to work with RB's that have the same issues as Sante, and with Savvy, have come out the other side.

So, I've been playing lots of extreme friendly, and doing things like playing stick to me, and putting a little more pressure on him when he falls behind (usually when he's on my outside shoulder going into a turn), as long as I carefully balance this with the friendly game, he's been OK. Yesterday I gave frequent rests when he "got it" and caught up to my shoulder, and today, I tested what we did yesterday, and he had retained it, which was great.

So, after getting a nice case of rope burn last week, when testing whether he was able to canter online (something i haven't done in quite a few months) I decided that I was going to have to go back to the round yard.

I haven't wanted to work him in the round yard because its:

• only a 22ft yard
• high walled
• to claustrophobic for him

But I feel like I don't have a choice. I'm bordering on teaching him to shoudler out, chuck a spastic and run off everytime i try the canter... Not a good outcome.

So today, we went into the roundyard! Having been laid up all week with a torn neck muscle, I've been watching LHB over and over. So I made the resolution to be clinical and unbiased in reading my horse and not giving him the benefit of the doubt, and wanting to upset my "little angel"

Some surprising results!

I put him in there, did some other games, like lead by the tail, spanish walk, and LOTS and LOTS of friendly, then moved onto the circle game.

I raised my leading hand and waited " he looked at me like "hmmmmm i think i know whats coming" So I lifted my stick and he dawdled off on the circle. Now, a RB horse would be like "I think your asking for a send, right? Where as a Left Brained horse would be like "Oh...... I suppose so..... * sigh*" The only difference was , He had his ears locked on me...

So off he went.. at a dawdle, and then turned away from me, into the wall and showed his backside...

How Interesting! This is the part where I assume he's not confident, but I decided to read the horse: Head low (not intro) relaxed tail swish, lick and a chew, and thought "got a 50/50 chance here" So I tagged him!

He faced up and locked two ears on me, So I politely asked him to go again.... Half a circle later he stopped, so I did it again, he continued to circle without incident, doing two full laps until i bought him in.

I played around with walk to trot transitions, and change of direction, taking note of the playful dominance he was exhibiting in the change of direction, reading this as all good signs that I could ask for the canter, and expect him to stay confident.

So, after a few difference cicle games, (giving lots of rest and reward between, and also changing it up with different games so he didn't get bored) , I decided to ask for the canter.

As soon as I put more pressure on in the trot, he fell into a running trot, I let one lap of this before i shortened the rope, and brought the cue in quarter of a lap behind his z5. He stopped, faced away from me, with his bum in my face.

...... How interesting?

I tried to get him to turn and face, but he thew his head in the air, and the rope rose over his back, and i lost the ability to turn him, he turned and faced of his own accord, with ears locked on me - I was even able to swing the rope ( from 22 feet away) in a big arc, so that it flew over his head, and off his neck, thus giving me back my control, and he did NOTHING.

No right brain explosion, no miscommunication, ears locked onto me "What now?"

So I bought him in, and literally said out loud "Ok, now, what have I got"

I check his ears, all soft and "floppy"
Mouth loose, he was actually licking and chewing on his way to me
Gentle swish of the tail
No miscommunication when i played the friendly

Hang on a tic!!! Thats Left Brained!

So, after a little while, I asked again, and got the exact same reaction, and when I bought him in, Left Brained.

So this time, I changed direction and asked again, he tried to do the same thing but I felt it and shortened his rope, I was giving him to much rope, he was doing this ridiculous spastic canter on the wrong bend, and was able to throw his shoulder at me, and "check out", So I got the canter, and he tried to break gait..

I ended up having to follow him around the circle, and everytime he broke gate I corrected him, flicking pressure in his zone 5, I then experimented with keeping the rope short enough so that his nose was tipped towards me, but I held my carrot stick horizontal to his shoulder pushing his shoulder out.

This worked! He cantered a whole lap until i disengaged him, and he came into me without hesitation!

Just incase he was a little RB I walked away from him, gradually drawing him in.

Did all my checks - checked ears, mouth, tail, and decided that YES, I still had a LB horse

What the hey?

So We went onto other stuff, and next time I played the circle game, I asked for walk and trot transitions only. I don't want him to think that its all about the canter...

After a few minutes of that, I asked for the canter again. I still found that I had to assist him in keeping his nose tipped towards me, Now, I don't read this as a Right brained "facing out because its to much pressure", more like a complete and total inability to hold himself correctly!, I judged this because each time i finished the game, he came to me, no worries and licked and chewed on the way in! He was a little blowy, but he was left brained!

I actually found that I had success if I kept the carrot stick in zone 5 and kind of "nagged him" somewhat around the circle. Once I have the fact that "this is a canter cue" ingrained, I will be able to stand still, in neutral, and just let him go.

I then tried a couple of transitions, trying to encourage him to go down to trot from canter from the cue, rather than letting him brake gait. This worked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was actually able to get him to do the full range of transitions, albeit, I did have to apply a LOT of pressure asking for the canter.

But I am totally confident that I was dealing with a Left Brained horse, and not a right brained, as previously thought.

I still beleive that innately, Sante is a right brained intro when it comes to new learning experience, but we've been doing circling game for two years.... I just don't think he's previously had the ability to canter, or he's had bad experiences in his younger years, either way, He HAS been Right brained about it, but has come to the realization that he gets away with it, and has therefore gained confidence in the fact that I won't force him into it.

now that he has confidence, I can apply a little more pressure.

WOW.

My savvy Journey just got so much more interesting

Because! Thats the way its always been done!

I'm nursing a very sore neck, so I'll try to keep this short.

I started a new job on Friday, working at a Quarantine facility that imports / exports horses. Basically I am employed as a groom, who looks after a set number of horses for the quarantine period (normally three weeks)

I was so excited about getting this job, It was such a great opportunity for me to work with different horsenalities, and to sharpen my horse handling skills, I was sooooo looking forward to it!

So I arrived on Friday, well aware that I lacked hands on experience as a groom, but able to make up for it with my horse handling skills and my willign to learn.

What a shock I got!!!!!! - I learnt that apparently I don't know a THING about horsemanship.

I saw Pat Parelli every day at Equitana Australia last month, and it really started to hit home, when he spoke about traditional horsemanship being a mixture of miliary tradition, ego and bullshit, in equal doses!

My first day on the job, I am assigned 10 horses including 5 warmbloods, a thoroughbred colt, a peruvian colt, a filly weanling, and a mare and foal (which should have been weaned already).

I discovered that I was expected to lead around these monstrous warmbloods using a 4ft leadrope. A FOUR FOOT LEADROPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You know the ones, the shitty plaitted ones that you get from Horselands for 5 dollars! The ones that are so light weight there is no feel in them, the ones that stretch! In this day and age, where "Occupational Health & Safety" is the catch cry of most companies, I cannot fathom why you would consider it safe to lead a 1 tonne creature around on a 4ft lead rope!

God forbid they horses actually throw their heads in the air, because I am 162cm tall (thats just over 5ft for the Americans), and would have found myself launched off the ground.

I tried as best I could, to be as natural as possible, however was criticized for the following: (reasons in brackets)

Using rhythmic pressure to keep a horse out of my space (That will make the horse headshy! and also cause him to rear)
Clapping to interrupt the RB behaviour of the filly that was about to run me down (Don't make loud noises around young horses!!!!)
Talking to the horses (Its unprofessional)
Leading on the RHS (You'll get killed!)
Rubbing a colt on the face (He'll bite your face off)
Waving my rope to drive the horses front end as leading by the snap left me no options to direct the horse (Waste of time)

I had to use what is called a shiftney to bring in the warmbloods, the ridiculous amounts of grain and corn that they were on (being confined in a stable at night and a dirt yard by day) cause them to be jumpy, therefore a shiftney was prescribed to stop them jumping or rearing.

I was leading one of the warmbloods on the LHS, when he started shying at something out of his right eye, picture me, standing under this warmblood, holding him by the snap, elbow in his neck (which is doing nothing because he is MONSTROUS!) , so I decided to do the savvy thing and stand on his RHS, so if he decided to jump to the left (away from the fright) I wouldn't get trampled. I got yelled at by the head groom saying "Don't stand on the right! You'll get jumped on"

Jumped on????????? Um, Standing under a warmblood on the end of a 4ft leadrope, while hes going spastic is gonna get me jumped on!

The colt that was going to "bite my face off"? I went into his stall to take his temperature and pick his feet out, didn't put the leadrop on him, I draped it over his back, and let him chew on the end of it. When i turned my back to pick his feet up, he spun around to give me a nip, I "accidently" waved my elbow whilst asking him to pick his foot up, he straightened up and had a bit of a lick and chew. As I picked his foot up, he tried again, so i waved my elbow, again, he straightened up. I was in the process of picking his foot out, and he tried again, I saw it coming and decided to pick my foot up randomly, impacting with his incoming nose - The cold swung around, picked up the lead rope and continued to chew it for the duration, allowing me to pick up all four feet without argument or any more "grooming sessions". I was passively persistant - he got the message.

I tell you what, I was CONCERNED for my safety every time i led a horse from their stable to their yard and vica versa.

I would have preferred a 12ft line, a rope halter and a carrot stick, but the chances of that happening were buckleys and none! They use standard PVC halters, and combined with the fact that we basically had to wrestle the horse from point A to B, we were teachign them to push against us!

What I don't understand is how can people still be living in the dark ages? How can you call this common sense? Honestly? I don't get it! Get a longer line, get the horse out of your space, its not difficult! I was having a massive rant to my mother about all this, and she said to me "You just have to realize that not everyone has the TIME to do it your way, professional horse people have a job to do, they don't have TIME to do Parelli"

I replied that that statement was so untrue, all it was was a change in tools, a change in mentality, a change in thinking, there was no extra TIME involved in leading a horse at a safe distance, all you required were the correct tools, the leadrope, the halter and the carrot stick. These people treated horses the way they did because its how THEY were taught, they never actually thought about WHY they were doing it that way, its just the way its always been done! God forbid you ask them why they do it that way, because I don't think they could tell you.. their answer would be "Because!"

Its all bovine Faecal matter as Pat likes to say.

Military Tradition, Ego and Bovine Faecal Matter.

And I hate it.

Equitana Australia 2008

Alrighty!! I'm back!! Having survived my first plane trip, i have returned to write my review of equitana.

The plan trip scared the shit out of me. Our flight got cancelled, then moved forward an hour, we then got that flight cancelled, and eventually were put on a flight leaving 3 hours later than the original flight. Not a good start for a first time flyer. Turbulance was BAAAAAAD. The travel sick tablets helped *a bit*...

Anyway. Day one of equitana, We saw Pat!!!! He entered the arena on two miniature ponies, and proceeded to give a talk to people about WHY we do the things we do to horses, and how we got this way. He talked about military traditions, ego, and "bovine fecal matter" It was a really good talk, and i was really looking forward to the clinic that he was holding the following day.

We also managed to see a few other Natural Horsemen over the 4 day, Guy Maclean, Greg Powell, and Wrangler Jane to name a few. Guy & Greg spoke highly of Pat, and praised the students that were studying under his program.

I thoroughly enjoyed their clinics, Guy did some FANTASTIC liberty work with his buckskins, If you haven't seen him, get onto youtube and google him. It will blow your mind.

When greg first held his clinic on the first day, he told us that his best horse, his favourite horse would not be performing, as two days before equitana he had suffered a puncture wound to the fetlock. He had bought the horse along, but was on strict stall rest. On the final day however, the vets cleared him to bring his horse out. Greg dropped the bombshell that this equitana would probably be his last equitana. I couldn't beleive it, I'd only just met the guy, and already he was moving on! he went on to say, that when his best horse hurt himself, he was seriously worried, he was worried about what he was going to do at equitana, and how the show would go, how the clinic would go, and whether his other horses would be able to "step up to the plate" so to speak. he went on to say that, he had taken his horse for a leasurely trail ride, instead of training to let him relax before the big trip, when he hurt himself. So when it happened he was pretty shocked.

He then went onto say, that it wasn't till a while after that he realized what he was saying. He realized that when his horse hurt himself, his FIRST thought was "Aw shit, what am I going to do for equitana" When it should have been "Aw shit, is my mate going to be alright", and that that realization had caused him to take a step back and re-evaluate his priorities.

Very powerful words. Very powerful words indeed. He went onto say that it had been a long 4 days, he was tired, his horses were tired, they had performed SO WELL over the equitana long weekend, and that he had to take responsibility for the fact that they were tired, and deal with the horses that showed up.

He managed to put on a spectacular show that never once encroached on the dignity of the horses. We laughed our heads off at the different horsenalities of his horses, and how they interacted, the relationship they all had was just fantastic! I found both Greg and Guy (who are incidently good mates) to be very honest and decent horsemen who put their horses needs and feelings first.

Pat Parelli held his main clinic on the second day of equitana. Both Linda and Pat were presented with two "trouble" horses. Both shyed a lot, and were generally tricky horses. The audience voted, Pat got the RBE and linda got the RBI. It was a brilliant 2.5 hours. By the end of it, BOTH managed to get their horses to jump a jump, walk over a tarp, stand with the big green ball on their backs and trailer load. The changes in the horses were amazing just in that short amount of time. There was a very very very funny moment where Pats horse saw himself on the bigscreen. he started calling out to himself, and was totally engrossed in this "other horse" it was very funny and had the audience in stitches.

Pat suggested that his next two talks would include the horse he was working on, the RBE. The next day, he told the audience, the horse met him at the stall entry and couldn't wait to come out. The change in the horse was alarming. He was so much calmer. Just in that short amount of time, he asked very little of the horse, just ensured that the lessons that were learnt yesterday had stuck (which they had). The horse, who nearly left the planet the previous day every time someone applauded, seemed a lot calmer every time we applauded.

On the final day, he bought the horse out again. He was practically left brained the entire time. It was amazing. I also noted the progression in Pats talk he was having with the audience. Over the previous 3 days his message was all sugar coated, all about what Parelli was about, and the how and why of horse tradition, he spoke about reading horses, and the horses dignity, and made everything all happy happy joy joy.

On the final day, he got down to business. He mentioned that after his clinic on Day two, he had seen a seven year old girl, on a small gray pony, complete with bridle, martingale and drop nose band, kicking the SHIT out of this horse and SCREAMING at it because it wouldn't go forward.

Pat said his heart broke. That such bad habits and "tradition" were being taught so young.

He went onto say that he had seen more hardware per horse head than he could imagin. Horses in double bridles with martingales, tied downs, drop nose bands, tieing the horse down, tieing his mouth shut, shutting him up in a tiny little box. I can't remember the exact word he used, but he said that it was something like revolting .. but stronger. At this point a few people left, there were a few infront of me that turned their nose in the air and wandered off. The person behind me filled in for Pat, and muttered the phrase "its like watching rape". I turned to her and said "you're damn right"

Pat went onto say that the first person had been jailed recently for cutting his horses tongue off, all in the name of winning. The people behind me gasped. I told them that it was the truth, and that they needed to watch the Liberty & Horse Behaviour set. Pat basically put it out there, that this behaviour was unacceptable and needed to stop. He challenged people to use the following filters from now on until forever when looking at the things we do to horses:

1/ Would the trainers / riders mother be proud of them watching their son / daughter
2/ Would the HORSES mother be proud watching his son / daughter being trained?

Very poweful words.

I might also add that I was exposed completely to the things that Pat spoke about over the weekend. I have watched the LHB set, and heard Linda talking about displaced behaviour, frothing mouth, tongue sticking out of the mouth, swishing tail etc etc.

I saw it everywhere i looked. Everywhere, except the natural horsemen horses. It was very disturbing.

At the showjumping displays, horses rushed jumps. Horses with their tongues sticking out. Tails swishing in time with their strides. EVERY SINGLE HORSE FROTHING AT THE MOUTH.

It was sickening.

One night they held a rodeo, it was falsely advertised as a "Western Spectacular" We thought we were going to see reining and the like. But no such luck. Horses going down in their chutes, steers and bulls going down in their chutes, Horses being chased by the bulls, and the horrific results that had on the horses mentality.

The total and utter lack of respect for the horse, and the lack of ability to read the horse.

My friend and I couldn't bear it, and left by 10pm.

Overall, I was impressed with equitana, I bought some great deals, and I was able to meet two fantastic natural horsemen, BOTH from Australia.

I got to see Pat & Linda, and was able to meet Pat. I'm glad I went, and I'm glad for the experience. I just hope that more people were exposed to the Natural Horsemanship message and are considering making the change.

No Manners!

Well,

Today started very badly.

I got there at 8am to help set up the cross country course, and after asking a friend to catch my horse for me, got to work setting up the course, I asked her to simply put Sante in the paddock that the gymkana was being held in and I would look after him.

The paddock is HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE. When Sante was put into the paddock, it contained myself, my friend, and my horse. No other humans or horses.

When Sante was being caught, i was watching through the trees, and i could see sante, trying desperately to stick his nose in in the rope halter, I had a chuckle and kept on with what I was doing.

Anyway, when sante was put in, he wandered over to me, and i was able to see that he was having a MAJOR halter malfunction. The nose strap had become a cheek strap, his nose was in the chin strap, and somehow they had got the neck strap done up correctly. The look on his face was like: "FIX ME NOW!"

So I took the halter off and let him wander around, he busied himself with obstacles, and i left him to it.

Not to long afterwards, the agistment manager came into the paddock, I said to my friend " I wonder what he wants" She replied "I bet he chats you about your horse being loose" I replied "No way, he's in the paddock"

He came up to offer his assistance to set up the cross country course. When he saw Sante (who by this stage was hiding in the trees trying to escape from the flies, He said

"We can start by tying up the loose horse, For Gods sake, why do you make me say it? Just follow the rules and keep your horse tied up!"

My friend replied out lout "Told you" And he replied "Well, why do you make me say it! You know the rules"

I didn't even comment. I just walked a few steps and whistled to Sante while slapping the ground with his lead rope. He faced up to me from about 30 metres away, I just gently called out and told him to come here, so he wandered over. As I haltered him and wandered off, I was thinking to myself. "Hope you saw that, moron"

It made me soooo angry!! Seriously! We are being picked on because we are different. I am seriously considering moving my horse because of this crap.

We ended up having another fantastic day. I was helping my friend (who was scoring) check all the scores, we were set up in a horse truck, and I had kept Sante hard tied to the outside of the truck.

I spent the majority of the day, sitting on the tail of the truck, with Sante' s head on my shoulder checking scoring sheets.

He did so well! I was so proud of him, again!!

Also, as promised a fe weeks ago, I now have updated photo's of his feet.

Ignore the slight wall flare! I can't trim it properly until next week as I am buying a hoof stand this week (waiting for the bargains at equitana),

I cannot beleive the improvement! The crack on his left fore is starting to grow out completely, while the crack on his right fore still looks a little messy, but is actually starting to grow out, there is still a minor crack there, but it has started to grow "together", I think a few more weeks and it will turn into a hairline crack, and then it will be like the other one, completely sealed up and healed.

You can see the top centimetre of growth is all since i have been trimming him.

No Bit. No Stop!

You know, when I started Parelli, I read on the forums about fellow parelli students having "altercations" or "run ins" with non parelli people, be they horse owners, yard managers etc etc.

And I always thought "Sheesh, I'm pretty lucky, I don't cop any of that".

Well.. I've joined the ranks of the persecuted.

It all started with the going barefoot thing a few weeks ago, my previous two posts go into detail about the wonderful conversations I've had with my Agistment manager, but today really took the cake.

Today, we held a gymkana at our agistment facility. 40 odd horses with riders of various ages and experience levels all competing in a set number of events over two days.

Sante & I were not competing, having been lame over previous weeks, and only just being considered sound I didn't think it was fair to force him to tear around a course, so we decided that we would assist in course marshalling and running duties, and I thought it would be a fantastic opportunity for us to work on one rein riding, single carrot stick riding, and encouraging sante to respond to me seat first, before having to use my legs or reins, I was really looking forward to it! Sante's feet are starting to look fantastic, and the cracks are really starting to grow out nicely.

Well, the gymkana started with the usual welcome meeting, the rules and all the formalities were done, and people started to get into their age / experience groups for hte coming events.

While all this was going on, the agistment manager came over to me and infront of 10-15 other people came out with the following:

"Just so you realize, the first horse that goes nuts here and bolts off will set your horse off, and if your horse goes, there will be no stoppign him, you should be riding in a bridle, you won't be able to pull him up, no bit, no stop"

I couldn't beleive it!!!!!! In front of all these people! I just smiled and said "Na, thats Ok, no worries" He replied "Its your safety"

He then came up to me a few minutes later and added "Look, I'm not picking on you, but its safety first you know, its your safety" I replied very nicely with "Its ok, I get it, you do what you've got to do, you're the yard manager and there are certain guidelines you have to go by, its ok".

A few people came up to me afterwards and asked what the hell that was all about. When I told them it was because i was riding in a rope halter they couldn't beleive it!.

I just want to state here and now, that I have NEVER been so proud of my horse.

We had a huuuuuuuuge electrical storm here last night, thunder, lightening, driving rain, you name it, it was INTENSE. The weather today was very overcast, with scattered showers forcast. It rained until about 9am, and then was very cloudy and threatening.

The horses are kept on spring pastures that are in really good condition, and as you can imagine are a little full of themselves.

It was BEDLAM. Three people came off before lunch. Horses were bucking, rearing, pigrooting (cow kicking), bolting and just generally misbehaving.

I was getting to the point where i was considering riding back to the yards and playing with my horse, because i couldn't stand watching the disgusting displays of horsemanship. People screaming at their horses, swearing at their horses, kicking the living crap out of their horses all because they are refusing jumps, shying at obstacles they have never seen before and just generally having issues.

There were horses trotting sideways, there were people who's reins were so short, they shouldn't have bothered putting any one, cause they were holding them by the bridle. It was disgusting. Just disgusting. I could not beleive it, sitting on horseback watching these horses silently screaming and no one gave a shit.

And you know what Sante did? Stood their and watched. Occasionally he would swing his head around to "check in", to which i would give him a huuge rub on the neck and an "its ok buddy" But other than that, i rode a completely relaxed rein the entire day, he acted like a partner the entire day, and we had a beautiful day. There were three occasions that out of control horses BOLTED past sante with owners literally hanging on for dear life, faces screwed up in blind panic, and sante, didn't even bat an eye lid. In fact, he yawned, blew out, and went back to eating grass.

I sat there thinking "And I'm the one who gets the "Safety first" lecture.

Yeah Right.

What is wrong with shoeing horses? An Update

Well! Sticking to my guns has certainly paid off!

Sante is NO LONGER LAME!! I pulled him out of the paddock today, and he was fine! trotted him out, and he was perfect!! I am fairly certain that i was right, the lameness was not caused by the crack / infection in the hoof, I think he was either kicked, or strained a muscle a fortnight ago in the run in.

I am absolutely astounded at the hoofs ability to heal itself! On Thursday i went to the valley to check on him, and treated him with another dose of peroxide. When nothing happened to the hoof, i thought I'd stuffed up the dilution, so I did it again with a stronger dose, and STILL nothing happened no bubbling at all!

Today when i checked on the foot, it didn't even LOOK like Sante's foot. The crack has kind of, contracted on itself. I will have to get photo's tomorrow and post them on the blog, but its increadible, you can see the new growth is growing straight, and narrow, and the entire hoof wall has kind of "pulled itself together". Thats another thing. His feet are growing SO QUICKLY. Its increadible, its like the feet are making up for lost time or something.

I felt so much better today. Like as though I had stuck to my guns and been vindicated, i could breathe easy knowing that I'd made a call and it had worked out.

Its interesting watching peoples reactions last week though. Everyone is so quick to offer their advice as "fact" when in reality, they admit they haven't got a clue what they're talking about, its what their farrier told them, or a friends farrier who told their friend who told them. Noone questions WHY.

WHY would you put a shoe on a horse, when you are trying to get the load off the outer wall?
WHY can't the horse fix himself?
WHY don't wild horses need shoes?
WHY will a brace fix my horses foot?
How come I'm putting a shoe AND a brace on my horse, but his toe is so long? Isn't all the force on the outer wall coming from the fact that his toe is so long? Aren't we bandaiding a problem at not actually fixing the root cause? Wouldn't the solution be to shorten the toe?

No. We put a shoe on it!
Horse is lame? Put a shoe on it!
Horse has wall seperation? Put a shoe on it!
Horse is tender on the rocks? Put a shoe on it!
Horse has hoof wall cracks? Put a shoe on it!

NO, NO and NO!

People need to start thinking about how the hell horses did this stuff in the wild. Quite frankly, horses didn't sit in half acre paddocks munching on green grass all day. They moved over rocky, sandy hard terrain in search of food and water, and all their movement caused them to trim their own feet. If people actually researched wild horse hoofs and saw how DIFFERENT they look compared to our domestic horses, they'd start to get the drift.

Surely to goodness the horse has the ability to heal itself. If we just set them up for success! Keep them trimmed correctly and reguarly. Feed them correctly a balanced diet with all the minerals they need in order to grow strong healthy feet, and get them out of their paddocks and on the trails!

The Cardinal Sin of Going Barefoot

I've been meaning to write this blog all week. But, my life this week has been nothing short of hectic to say the least. I resigned from my job on Tuesday, and finished up on Wednesday, but thats another story....

As some of you know, about 6 weeks ago, I decided to take Sante barefoot. I knew that he would be very tender and ouchy, and those flatfooted thoroughbred feet of his would have to be booted in order to ride, but with all the reading i've been doing about shoing, I decided that I was prepared to make the change.

So! Six weeks ago the shoes came off!

A little background on my horse: came to me as a 16.2h malnourished thoroughbred with bad feet featuring two full length vertical cracks running from coronet to toe on both front feet.

After four months, I decided to put shoes on him "to take the load of the outer wall" 18 months later, the cracks look deeper, and there is absolutely no sign of them growing out.

A friend of mine organised a trimming clinic, and although i wasn't overly excited when it was first organised (I think i was freaking out about not having enough money, and it got in the way of what the course was all about) It wasn't until about a fortnight before the course that I REALLY started to look forward to it. By the time the course came, you couldn't shut me up, I spent the entire weekend asking questions and trimming Cadava legs.

I have since bought Pete Rameys book and Jaime Jacksons books, and am even considering doing a Diploma of Equine Podio next year.

But - back to the problem at hand. About a fortnight ago, I noticed that Sante was lame. i pulled him out on the Saturday morning and he was sore, stepping short in his front offside. So, i did a small maintenance trim on him, and measured him up for the ezyboots. On Sunday when I pulled him out, he was still lame, so we had a day of undemanding time and that was that!

Well. Last weekend when I arrived at the valley, I could hardly contain my excitement, as Sante's boots had arrived and I was planning on going for a ride. .. Until my agistment manager pointed out that "there was no way i was riding my horse as he was lame" it took me a while to realize that he wasn't joking, and I replied that I had noticed he was lame the previous week and beleived it to be from the run in. He also commented that the cracks on Sante's feet looked terrible, and htat I should be really worried about them. He told me to see Larry (the "traditional" farrier) and get him to put a shoe & brace on him. Although i didn't need an explaination, he went on to explain the shoe was to 'support the outer wall" and the brace was to force the outer wall together so it would begin to grow out.

I replied that I had just taken Sante's shoes off, and that they had actually got worse over the 18 months. He got shirty at me, and said "Look, I'm just telling you what I would do... now you know, its your call"

It really threw me. I was so confident that I knew what I was doing, and shortly after he gave me "his" advice, everyone else started giving me theirs "Oh definately put a shoe on it, Oh definately the brace, you just can't be to careful, you can't guess with things like this"

It made me sooo angry. By the time another friend of mine arrived (a certified barefoot trimmer) i spoke to her and she made me feel a lot better.. .told me to tell them to get f*&ked..

I checked Sante for an abscess, nothing. My friend attacked his sole & frogs with the hoof pick and he did not flinch at all.. So I poured peroxide all over the crack, which bubbled like crazy, waited for it to dry out and then stuffed copper sulphate in it, (sealing it in with blue tac).

On Sunday I nearly had a heart attack, I thought he had abscessed, but he hadn't, the growth closest to the corinet band had 'collapsed", the outer wall had 'dipped a bit'. So I poured more Peroxide into it, and stuffed it with copper sulphate again.

So yesterday, I was able to check on him (what with being newly unemployed and everything) I poured peroxide all over it again, and nothing happened (woot!) and I can just see the beginnings of new growth, the crack is just starting to grow straight and close.. so there is a strong chance that now the infection is gone, it will begin to grow normally.

I wish people would stop putting their faith in "tradition" and start questioning why they do things!!

A most wonderful day

I have been on such a high since yesterday! On Saturday i was helping a friend move house, and didn't get to visit Sante, so I made sure I got to the valley early, to take advantage of the entire day.

I turned up and Sante was in the middle of a huddle of horses - a tight huddle. He looked at me when i called out to him, but he didn't come... I walked into the paddock and he was staring intently at me, head up ears both forward, but still he didn't come... So we stood... for about 5 minutes, just looking at each other... neither one of us moving, but neither one of us looking away... ?

I started to walk towards zone 5, to help the message get through, and he tentatively took a step forward before a few horses that were surrounding him pinned their ears and went to bite him, he pinned his ears at them and ran for me, just missing them. He ran straight past me and hid, I grabbed my lead rope and ran at the other horses, bopping which ever ones were within reach.

I was really chuffed that Sante would make an effort to come to me, even though he probably knew that if he moved the other horses would try to get him, so I gave him 2 carrotts, a rub on the face and we walked out of the paddock at liberty.

His feet are starting to look good.. Well. I should say one of his feet is starting to look really good, the other.. I'm not quite sure about yet.. The crack in one hoof is practically a hair line crack, its really thin and i'm confident it will start growing out. The other one I'm not to sure about... I want to get down to the valley this weekend, and attack his feet with a hoof knife.. I THINK he might have seedy toe... not sure.. its just this crack has kind of moved -- its was cracking vertically up the wall nearly all the way to the coronet, but then he's had a few weeks growth and for some reason its cracked horizontally a few millimetres, then continued cracking vertically. It doesn't appear to be getting any shallower. But I'm determined not to panic, I will have a close look this weekend and go from there.

I was so excited to be asked to trim a fellow agisters horse yesterday!!! I did my trimming course nearly 2 months ago, and I've trimmed Sante once, and yesterday I was asked to look at a friends horse! Unfortunately with work / family etc he hadn't been to the valley in a long time, and the horse was WELL overdue for a trim, the hoof wall had started cracking in two places, and was growing horizontally. I explained to my friend that one trimming clinic does not make me a professional but i was more than happy to have a look at him.

It was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I must have cut 3cm off his toe!!!!! I felt really good, like i was doing something realy good for this horse. It took me just under an hour to trim 2 feet ( I didn't bother with the back ones, because the front ones were the ones that really needed help, and he did have a farrier coming later in the week) I gave him plenty of rests, and only had to play with him once to remind him why standing still was fun.

At the end of it, you wouldn't have recognised the horses feet. The cracks will grow out, and after the trim I trotted him down the dirt lane and he was completely sound.

I am so excited!!

I asked my friend to get some feedback from the farrier, as to what I could have done differently.

Sante and I then got to carry on with our original plan, which was to go for a swim. I decided to ride bare back, as I haven't done it in a while, and didn't want to loose the knack.

We headed into the "Waterhole" paddock, which has a big dam in it. Sante did really well, we wandered around just moseying, him grazing as much as he wanted, until we ended up at the dam, it was a really really hot day, so I figured he'd be more interested in the water today. He wandered in and started drinking. After he'd gorged himself he turned to look at me as if to say "Now what?" I gently nudged him forward, he walked in until all four feet were in the water, and he had water up to his knees.

Thats when it started. He started pawing at the water, at first it was tentative, and then he really got into it. He went nuts!! Pawing at the water, and then thing that cracked me up was the way he held his head, looking at his foot pawing at the water, as if it was disconnected from his body, or he didn't have control.. After a little while of one leg, he swapped feet and started again. I just sat there completely relaxed and rubbed him on the neck. After a while he wandered out of the water and started grazing. so i just sat there and let him do what he wanted. Eventually i got lazy and he accidently stepped over his lead rope (I was riding with one rein) So I jumped off to fix it. After a few more minutes of grazing, I thought we'd get tricky and try the circling game in the water. I waded in up to my knees and sent him around me. He got upto his knees and started playing with teh water again, this time sticking his entire head in it, he was having so much fun!!

It was brilliant because Sante has never acted like this around water. I ended wading in up to my bum, and was seriously contemplating swimming across the dam, but decided to take things easy, there are plenty of hot summer days ahead of us. I started to splash water on him, at first he was confused, not sure what I was doing, but then he figured that i was relaxed and laughing so took it as the friendly game.

And then he did the most fantastic thing - He laid down in the water and partially rolled!!!!!!!!!!!! Bloody awesome!! WOW WOW WOW!!! He's never done this! He's never shown interest in water, let alone the want to play in it.

We eventually wandered out and sat on the grass again to dry out. I half expected him to roll in the grass but he didn't. Eventually i put his bareback pad back on, and decided to walk at liberty out of the paddock.

Even that turned into a game. He would stop to eat grass, so i would playfully tag him, and he'd run forward to catch up, and so the game went, until i broke into a run and flicking him with the carrot stick, he ran after me, and then quick as a flash, tossed his head bucked and ran off up to the gate... which was open! I was laughing and laughing at him, he never would have done a thing like that a few months ago. When he got to the gate, he stopped and started eating grass again. As I approached him, he stood up straight, ears & eyes locked on me as if to say "What are we doing now? Whats next? What are we playing?"

I rubbed him and told him he was a dork, and we wandered down to the yards again.

The HIGHLITE of the day was yet again.... going back to the paddock.. I had 5 huuge carrots stuck in my jeans, and decided that i was going to see what i could get from him.

We did lots of stick to me and he did really well! So when we got into the paddock I decided to spice things up a bit. I was still in a completely playful mood, and was quite happy just to see what happened, so I decided to try circling game at liberty.

Our liberty in general is very good. He comes to me, does all the driving & porccupine games at liberty.. Yo yo needs improvement.. he doesn't see the point of me sending him out and then asking him to come back. I send him out and he kind of says "Why? I just got here?" And gets stuck.

But our liberty circling game has been crap. I can't play in the round yard because he loses confidence (is a traditional yard, high walls, and a bit to small for my big boy) and every time i play in a paddock. we get as far as the send, in the allow he just... keeps going... He will walk off.. walk to the gate, and every time i disengage the HQ, he does it and faces up with a look on his face as if to say "Well.. what now?"

Its just been a disaster, so I haven't played it. Until today.

I asked for the send and he wandered off, so i flicked with the CS and he faced up, I again pointed with my arm, then supported with the CS, I also had a smirk on my face and said to him "You want the carrot... you know the game"

At first he did an entire circle with his body bent in to me, kind of going diagonally around the circle. At first I accepted that and gave him part of the carrot. After he'd finished i asked again, and this time I didn't let him come in until he'd gone around looking where he was going, doing a true send. That got another reward. So we did a bit of backup, and then tried a circle again, out he went, two laps then back again. WOW!!

After more carrots, out again and this time i pushed the shoulder out, because he had been doing tiny little circles around me. So out he went, I asked for a trot and he ran off.

during this entire session I had been laughing LIKE AN IDIOT. I could NOT beleive that we were doing this, so when he ran off, I casually yelled after him. 'Don't be a donkey!" And asked for the HQ disengage. He spun around and looked at me. He was SOOOO intent the look was like "What can I do now?"

I stepped back and asked him to come in. He started to walk. I flicked my stick behind me and took a few jogging steps back.

HE RAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HE RAN TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That got an entire carrot!!!!!!!!!! I was practically hyperventilating i was so excited!! He was just being so playful, and so confident and we were honestly just having so much fun!!!

After he finished the carrot, I asked for the circle again, he went out about 15 feet from me, and circled, I lifted my leading hand and said "trot". Into the trot he went, whilst maintaining the circle (My brainn was SCREAMING with excitement) Then he pinned his ears (playful dominance not agressive) so i thought what the heck, perfect opportunity to try change of direction. I turned towards him, and ran back, making sure to push my shoulder over to support the new direction.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!! He FLEW around thew his head and ran past me back onto the circle!!!!!!!!! I immediately disengaged him and bought him in. He was looking at me asking questions, so i gave more treats.

We tried again, and he accepted the trot on the circle this time with no ears pinned, So I decided to try change of direction. He did it again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this time though he looked at me, ears locked on me, did the change and ran through, all the while maintaining the trot.

I was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was just giggling like an idiot, I spent 15 minutes just rubbing him all over and telling him he was just brilliant, and we left on a really big high.

I cannot beleive we have arrived where we are! I simply cannot beleive it! Who would have thought that my horse could have got to this place.

WOW.

We are barefoot

I finally did it!!! Sante is now barefoot!!!

I did a trimming course about a month ago, which was the best thing I could have done for my horse! I had to wait for his current shoes to grow out, and i also had to compete the MS Ride before taking his shoes off.

It was 5 weeks today since he was last shod, I could have waited a few more weeks, but to be honest, the nails had started to tear, and i was risking losing a major part of his outter wall.

I think we did really well today.

When i was doing the trimming course i was kind of worried, I made sure i asked lots of questions, but even after the course i had this thought in the back of my mind "Do i REALLY know enough to do this myself?" And deep down I was a bit nervous about doing it myself.

So, I bribed one of my friends (who did the course with me) to oversee.

Its amazing, how when you think about something you have to do, you can run a million scenarios through your head and scare yourself to death.. Well, today, I just got into it.

There was a farrier there who kindly took the shoes off for me, When i told him I was trimming myself, he gave me the good advice "Less is more, If you're not sure, take less off! Simple rule of thumb"

Good advice!

Once I had him barefoot, i just picked up the first foot and started to analyze, cleaned it out, cleaned up the frog a little, cut back the toe (as best i could with a rasp) and put a bloody big bevel on his toe.

Being thoroughbred and having massive big cracks in his outer wall, I decided to keep the toe fairly short. I also filed out the splays that were starting to form.

I have taken "before" pictures, which i will post tomorrow. I didn't get to complete all 4 feet today, I got 2 and a half done, but Sante started to get a little fidgety (quite obviously he's not used to farriers taking more than half an hour, and i'd been going for about 2 hours?)

So tomorrow I'll complete the trim and take "after photos".

I plan on taking progress shots at each trimming, I'm really hoping that the cracks begin to grow out...

Its also really good for us, I fear that amid all our preperation for the MS Ride and the concentration on riding, Sante has ... lost interest.. our catching game has been a little lack luster in recent weeks.. He doesn't run away from me... but he doesn't come up to me either. So, i won't be riding him for the next few weeks, (he needs a little more growth, and also i need to give him time to adjust to the new posture etc), it is a perfect opportunity for us to fix our relationship.

Anyhoo... thats all from me!

2008 MS Horseride -

OK!

Sorry this is late, but I spent a whole day unpacking & washing, then another day recovering from that, plus a day with Sante, to make sure he had recovered.

Shall I start at the beginning?

Ok. On Friday the 19th September, I loaded Sante onto a horse transport destined for a wee little town called Gobarralong. I had done a lot of work with him in the preceeding weeks, putting him on a float, or getting him to put himself on a float rather...

So when the truck turned up, everything went, well! He walked straight on like a champion.
That didn't stop me from fretting for the next 24 hours, having this horrible fear that he might have thought I'd sold him.

Anyway, after a 7 hour journey myself, I arrived at Gobarralong, and was told by some friends that had already arrived "Good luck catching your horse, we've been trying for 45 minutes, they're running around like loonies.

The paddock was massive.. massive as in about 10 football fields put together massive...

I couldn't see all 4 fences to know where abouts he was, so i just headed for the middle, up the hill and started calling out..

He found me! the look on his face was priceless. He was soooo happy to see me! I of course was happier to see him!!

He dawdled up to me, and we walked out of the paddock without an issue.

The following day was the start of the ride - 16km to base camp.

I decided to ride in a bridle with a drop nose band. I did this for a number of reasons, namely safety. This was my first trip away from our agistment facility with sante, and it was his first trip away from the valley in 4 years. He has a habit of avoiding the bit (hence all the natural hackamore work i've been doing) so I used the drop to remind him to listen to me.

He was a saint! He was a bit excited on the first ride (to be expected!! The scenery was breathtaking), he kept looking around, checking where the other horses were, and being extremely alert, but he wasn't really tense or anything like that. I made sure that I kept him on a casual rein when possible, only getting a contact when he started to jig jog, or rush, then immediately back to a casual rein.

After lunch on the first day, i took the drop noseband off.. he didn't need it, and I trusted him.

the next day, the ride was 22km! He did SOOOOO well!! We were advised of a severe weather warning, of extremely strong winds, hail & heavy rain. I was seriously considering not riding. But decided that if at any time i felt unsafe, I would simply get off and lead him.

We missed the brunt of the winds, they still picked up, and constant rain bucketted down, there was thunder & lightening, and Sante.. .was a gem. I didn't have to get off once. I didn't use the drop, he was just fantastic. A true partner.

The third day, we were vetted out, that is, Sante had a sore back, I decided it wasn't fair to ride him, so we spent the day chilling. To be honest, i preferred the day in the paddock to the ride.

Sante let me approach him lying down again!! Not only that, but he actually let me lie him down! he was in the sitting up position, and lightly applying pressure to his neck & shoulder, he actually followed the feel and lay down flat out.

It was so awesome. I lay down on the grass with him, scratching his nose, face, ears, neck everything! We seriously must have been lying down for at leats an hour I reckon. It was just the best best day!!

the next day was a rest day, so we didn't do a heck of a lot, but i had one person point out to me that the injuries on his whithers look like a classic case of injury from a racing pad!! The news that Sante might have been trained for racing didn't come as a surprise, considering how he switches off in the canter some times, and it so very head high.

The next day, we shouldn't have ridden! Sante was soooooo bad. I didn't realize that he had been off for two days, and not only was he getting full feed (which doesn't make him fizzy) but he was getting 3 biscuitts of hay a day. (Due to the high number of kilometres we were riding).

He was off the charts!! Trying to gallop everywhere, I ended up putting the drop noseband on him, and it didn't help, head in the air, he was a sweating dripping mess. In an attempt to direct his energy, at one stage we were trotting sideways uphill!! I have never managed to get more than 4 steps at a walk sideways (undersaddle). So it was a bit freaky. I looked for the positive, and realized that this was the first time I'd actually been able to stay WITH my horse when he's being fizzy. The last couple of times he'd thown major tantrums, I'd fallen straight off, I'd never managed to sit through the initial reaction, to control him, or cause him to go left brain again, so in that respect, thursday was a great day for us, each time, i managed to get him to go left brained so we could actually go back to a casual rein.

the following day, he was just defiant. Plain and simple! He argued with me the whole time. "No i won't go forward, no i wont trot, No I wont stop, I will not stand still, i will not sideways to the gate, I will not not not!!"

I realized that i was getting very very very angry with him, and was starting to pull on his mouth, out of pure anger for the fact that he was being such a shit, so I did the savvy thing and hooked my reins back to my rope halter, so as not to damage the mouth I have spent so long making responsive. I was able to be a little firmer using hte rope halter and we managedto ride the last 5km home in relative harmony.

The final day of the ride, we were both to tired to care, I didn't even put the bridle on him, we just rode the ride (only 10km) in the rope halter and dawdled the whole way home.

All in all the experience was awesome! My confiedence is soaring! I managed to raise $770 for Multiple Sclerosis research, I pushed thorugh the fear boundary with my horse, and I accomplished something i never thought i would have the confidence to do!

We're back

We both just arrived back from Gobarralong (near Gundagai), having survived our 7 day charity ride.

Lots to say, lots of pictures, Sante did very very well, I'm very proud of him.

Will update you all when I've finished my 5 bags of washing

:)

Progress

Hmm...

Its been a while since I posted, I've forgotten where we're up to... ..

I bought the new Patterns program, haven't managed to look very closely at it yet, but from what I've seen, I think its going to be a fantastic tool.

Sante and I are busy preparing for the 7 day charity horseride we've got coming up. I feel slightly under prepared ... I haven't done as much trailer loading as I'd like, the last few times i've put sante on, he's walked straight on, but i haven't shut the door & taken him for a short drive yet.. so, I really have to start working on that.

The last few weekends (except the one just gone) every time I've walked into the paddock, Sante has been lying down. He's let me come up to him and give him treats / hugs / scratches. We are just having so much time hanging out.

The weekend just gone by, was lots of fun. It poured down raining, the whole time, the weather was ROTTEN! It gave us a chance to work on simple stuff - bridling with his head down, bowing, and simple liberty stuff in a small enclosure.

Over the last few weeks I've been playing around with Spanish Walk - getting sante to extend his foot forward when I tap him on the front of the leg. Well, last weekend I got tricky! before I tapped him on the leg, I lifted my own leg - As for a "Stick to me" task - It only took him a couple of goes, and wouldn't you know it - every time I lifted my left leg, he lifted his left foreleg, and so on... it was so cool, to think we are getting so subtle in our communication.

For the first time since I've owned Sante, he ran up to me in the paddock. When I first got him, I always had to come to him, he never ran way, but I had to come to him, over the months, he would always walk towards me when I got a certain distance away from me, and then more recently, he has started approaching me from the other side of the paddock, and on Saturday - He ran to me.

It was awesome - trotted up to me, said hello, got a treat, and then took off with the rest of the mob (the weather was just rotten and the mob were all stirred up, running around etc). I laughed and casually walked after him, when i got within a certain distance, he saw me, and the look on his face was like "Oh! Its you! HI!" And he came up to me again!! He's such a character!

But the highlight of our weekend was on Sunday. Due to the rotten weather on Saturday, i was concerned that his Zilco defender rug wasn't enough, it had been raining for 3 days straight, and when i got him out, he was wet. SO on Saturday evening, i put an old fleece rug on him, one of the front chest straps was broken, and one of the leg straps was busted as well, but I figured for one night,it would be ok, and i just wanted a little extra insulation.

When i walked into the paddock on Sunday, he saw me, but didn't come up to me. I thought it was odd, considering we'd had such a lovely lazy Saturday - but stayed way from him and just watched him, he was moving slowly and carefully, and it wasn't until he took a few full steps that i realized something was wrong.

There was something caught up in his zilco rug, dragging behind him.

I was very careful not to panic or get alarmed. I figured that if i stressed out about it, he would as well. So i casually walked up to him, talking to him as I did - He watched me as I approached, and I made sure i had his permission the whole time. I got to him, and realized his fleece rug had broken completely, I don't know how or what but it had come off, from UNDER his zilco, and become tangled in the leg straps, and was now dragging in the mud behind him.

And my boy, couldn't have cared less. He was so chilled out about it, I couldn't beleive it! I spent a few minutes saying Hi and giving him rubs, and THEN i went to his HQ and untangled the rug. It took all my strength not to march up to him and head straight for the rug, but I'm so glad I waited, he turned around, looked at me, sniffed the rug, gave me a look that said "FINALLY!!!" and ran off!!!!!!!!

Thats gratitude!!!!!!

He ran around like a chook without a head, before finally coming back with his "I'm ready to leave the paddock" look on his face, and we left at liberty!

All of this from the horse who nearly 12 months ago, got a branch caught in his tail, and in his RB reaction, collided with another horse, threw me off, and bolted for home. A horse who has had trouble with anything in zone 5.

Its times like these, I'm so freaking glad I do Parelli.

Trust

Well, every day offers new surprises.

Lately, it seems that every time I see Sante, we have "the best day ever".

Its like as though a few weeks ago, he had a major "lick & chew". Something changed in him... 18 months of friendly game, 18 months of confidence building, rewarding the slighest try, and not reacting when he accidently trod on my feet has paid off.

Today, he let me approach him while he lay down.

I was contemplating going into the padock with a camera "just in case", but decided not to, because i wanted him to trust me, and I didn't want to be preoccupied with the camera, so i left it in the car.

I found Sante lying down (not flat out, but "sitting up"), and was quick to try to get out of his line of vision. About 20 metres out, I had a very serious talk to myself - In that I should NOT be sneaking up on my horse, he should be trust me enough to allow me to approach while he is lying down, and I should not resort to sneaking up on him. After giving myself an upper cut, I called out to him. (he already had his ears pricked, he knew SOMEONE was back there), I walked over to him (not sneaking but not direct line either). And i was just praying "Stay down, please oh please oh please stay down"

And, well.. he did!!!!! I was beside myself - I was giggling like a kid in a candy store. He didn't even try to get up, he just... let me approach! I just continued talking to him, about mindless rubbish but i was laughing and couldn't beleive that he had finally let go of that insecurity.

I knelt down in the mud (it has been raining) and scratched him behind the ears, on the neck, down his nose, everywhere, rubbing him and telling him how happy I was to see him. I was careful to move consideratly around him, he let me move around him, rubbing him on the back, on the side, I fished treats out of my pockets, and he thought that all his christmas' had come at once.

After about 5-10 minutes he was still down, and i was quite happy to sit like this all day! But he shifted his weight, and i got the impression he wanted to lie flat out.. so I moved around to where his legs were - and to my absolute wonderful shock, he lay down completely - with a long deep groan. I crouched down in between his outstretched legs and rubbed his feet, up his legs, just laughing (trying so hard to contain my excitement), and talking to him.

All the while he was groaning, every time he exhaled he groaned, imagine you've worked a 12 hour shift on your feet all day, and your sitting down for the first time, beer in hand - it was that kind of groan! He rubbed his face on the ground, and contemplated dozing off. He let me rub him on the stomach, and then decided that it was time to get up. He got up slow enough to enable me to get out of his way, and after some time, we left the paddock at liberty, not before he had found a stick to pick up and show me that he was clever!

I was gobsmacked - floored - so freaking happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had such a great day after that! We did a little "stick to me" in the grass arena, and then I decided to see whether he really understood the "pick it up" command. I walked him over to a stick and asked him to "pick it up" At first, he did nothing, so I gently smooched at him, and tapped my CS near the stick asking him again to "pick it up".

He did!! He did!!!

He has changed in the last few weeks. Our bond has deepened, he trusts me with so much - He has just offered me everything in the last few weeks - What we had in the paddock today has always been my dream of horsemanship. Everytime I thought about owning a horse, I imagined myself sitting in a paddock next to my horse, by my side - complete trust. And today, we began to acheive it.

This journey rocks :)

Confidence

What a day!!!

For the first time in weeks, it wasn't blowing the dog off the chain, it wasn't raining, there was no threat of thunder. The sun was out, it was a bloody nice day!

So - What better way to spend a Sunday, than - sitting in the sun drinking tea all day, er, I mean, riding!!

As it happens, I did both. Sante, being the sporting type that he is, met me at the gate this morning. I was planning on sneaking into the paddock, hoping to catch him lying down and get some sleeping shots of him, but he decided to meet me at the gate. God love him :)

After getting his feed done, I decided I had earned myself a nice cup of tea. So I sat, in the glorious sun, watching Sante eat, while i drank tea..

This took two hours. (Hard work i tell you!)

At 11:00am My friend and I decided it was about time we accomplished something with the day, so we saddled up.

Yesterday, while riding, Sante was tossing his head a little when i asked for the trot. I figured I'd put his saddle to far forward. I'm still getting used ot this new saddle position. The right position just looks to far back!

But today, i remeasured his scapula at rest & extended, and put the saddle back. Yikes theres a lot of horse in front of me!

Anyway, we headed out for a nice ride, at the cracking pace of a dawdle.

Confession time: I'm not a very confident rider. I used to be.. well.. mostly, but now I'm not. After the first fall on Sante, I was ok. Then the second, i was a bit shattered, but thought I got over it, well, the third & fourth knocked off whatever confidence I had left.

See -- the problem isn't that Sante is spooky or crazy or anything like that, he just lacks confidence.

When i bought him, he was a super quiet horse with no issues. He was also a super introverted horse with no spirit.

Parelli has enabled me to give him confidence, and as such, I have awoken his spirit. He is not afraid to act like a horse, and he is not afraid to tell me what he is thinking.

He is not confident under saddle. Now, I know that your saying green on green makes black on blue, but its not quite like that.

See, I have tremendous confidence on hte ground - We are accomplishing sooo much, He offers me everything. But my problem is - I'm far to nice, and under saddle, I "don't want to pull on his mouth" "don't want to upset him" ... I... well.. don't show any leadership.

I rarely use my one rein stop - Something that I only really discovered on the trip down the freeway as I was thinking about the upcoming ride.

See, my fear issues are as follows:

I'm afraid of Sante spooking at things & me falling off
I'm afraid of Sante avoiding the bit and running off
I'm afraid of Sante doing his little western spin thing & throwing me off
I'm afraid of yanking on the mouth I've spent so much time making sensative.

Through all these fears, I realized I wasn't getting terribly pro-active about solving the problem.

Sante's lateral flexion is fantastic, but lateral flexion when he's on adrenaline - not so good. Stopping from a canter to a stop in an arena? perfect. Stopping from a canter out on the open trail when the horse in front of him is still cantering -- Not so good.

And, these have been my issues - Fear of a lack of control.

Today - I decided to confront these issues.

I did a lot of transition work, walk to trot, trot to walk, all the time asking politely for the stop:

Phase 1 - Stop riding with my body & breath
Phase 2 - life the rein
Phase 3 - Slide my hand down the rein
Phase 4 - Lateral flexion

All went well. Our next challenge was when he was getting on adrenaline. See, he's ok when he's walking, but if he's trotting and the horse infront is trotting, If I ask for the stop, and the horse in front doesn't stop, he gets upset, and throws his head in the air, avoiding the bit.

We got to practise this so much today, and i could not beleive the results. it was like the act of lateral flexion was hitting " reset " switch.

Horse in front would trot off, after about 20 metres, I'd ask for the trot, and shortly afterward cue the stop. He would throw his head up, get bracey and try to jig jog or break into a canter. My USUAL reaction is to brace and try to continue to ride the stop - BIG MISTAKE - and this is where I have come off in the past. Today i rode the jig jog, got myself into the correct position to get the stop (shortened reins etc) asked for the stop, and not releasing hte lateral flexion until he was soft in the flex. As soon as I asked for the walk again, he would drop his head, lick & chew and wander off as if nothing had happened. He was with me, listening. Even though we had to repeat this over & over and over again, every time i did the one rein stop, he "came back to me" A few times he got spooky - I did the one rein stop, he came back to me.

Today's ride has done wonders for my confidence. I feel like I can control him, no matter what he does. As long as i continue to interrupt his pattern before he has a Right Brained reaction under saddle, I can encourage him to modify his behaviour.

Our journey just got a lot more interesting.

We can canter!!

We had a lovely day today!!

When i walked into the paddock, he was chewing on the rug of the same horse that I left him with last Sunday.

I sat down and waited for him to finish his game, and after about 10 minutes he wandered over. A few treats later & we left the paddock together.

I was hoping to go for a ride, but thought i should start with some ground work. Following a promise i made to us both that I would never ever do the seven games without an obstacle ever again, We wandered down to the sand arena to cause some trouble ;)

We worked on our bow. He's getting very very good at shifting his weight now. He just needs to learn to keep position, but we'll get there.

Back up by the tail is doing really well. He's very good at it. And it cerainly makes grooming & saddling at liberty a lot easier. when he walks off, i take his tail, and ask him to back right up again!!

Anyhoo, after a little bit of sideways work, we started the travelling circling game. My idea was to wander a little bit, and then get him to jump a jump (something that he has discovered that he can actually accomplish). Anyway - sent him on the circle, and after gently asking for a trot, he pinned his ears at me. So I asked for a change of direction. He was spectacular, the change of direction cue was a P1- he spun around and went straight past my shoulder, as he continued on the circle, i realized that i didn't recognise the rhythm of his stride, I turned around the see what he was doing, and he was cantering.

My pony was cantering on the circle!! - We're talking about a horse who has had major issues with cantering & circles - All due to bad saddle fitting causing a wasted topline, and wasted hind quarters). He did a full circle before i disengaged him & bought him in.

WOW WOW WOW!!!!

It was awesome! He did so well!!

I let him stay with me for about 3-4 minutes and then asked for the circle again. Same result, after a few changes in direction, he offered the canter.

We went away and did other stuff, like sideways over a trot poll & knocking over drums & things like that, and then I decided to ask for the canter & see what would happen.

It didn't go to well, he freaked agian & ran off, after he ran off, he kind of stopped, turned around, looked at me, and gave me his "what happened?" look.

I could only laugh and yo-yo him in. Little darling.. at least he tried.

So now I have to find out how to get him to continaully offer me the canter ;)

I'm also in the process of teaching him to pick things up. After his antics of last week, Every time he goes to pick up a stick, I say to him "pick it up", so that he associates the command with the act.

We did end up going on a ride, and it was very exciting - we encountered motorbikes & speeding cars, and a big storm that never was, but we made it home in one peice.

the big change i love, is that he now LOVES his face scratches. Sante was so so head shy when i got him, but using my "never release on a brace" technique, he now trusts that I will never do his face any harm, and loves nothing more than resting his chin on my shoulder & getting a face rub.

Its the best part of our day!.

When i put Sante in the paddock today, he found a nice patch of grass to lie down in and have a big roll - managing to roll all the way over!

He's gettin' fit!!

Savvy on!

Introductions Part II

OK,

So I finished off a brand new horse owner, a brand new Parelli L1 pack owner with absolutely NO IDEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, i started with pocket guide 1! On the FIRST day of horseownership, there i was, flicking a carrot stick & savvy string over my RBI (and at that stage still catatonic) horse. I thought "Gee he's really good at the friendly game" when i first started, but in all honesty, I don't think he was present. Being a riding school horse, his method of "dealing" was to just "find a happy place".

I had no idea. I could leave Sante tied at the railing for hours on end, and he would stand there quite happily, purely because he was asleep, or "out of his mind". It took a fair few months for him to snap out of that behaviou, but not before some serious lesson learnt for me!

After about 2-3 months of doing Games 1,2,3, - Friendly Porcuppine & Driving, I started to get "riders itch" I wanted to be riding dammit!!!! Things were going well on the ground. Friendly was great! I could touch him all over, including the ears (real headshy when i got him) and belly etc. Porccupine - I was no longer using P4! Thank God for that - i was literally knuckle deep before he would yield the hind quarters - All was progressing! So I started riding with the others.

Riding was fun! I was having fun! Here i was with my RBI (at this stage i had NO IDEA about horsenality) riding through the great Australian Bush with my mates - it was everything i had dreamed of. Until i started falling off!

My first fall - I was out with a small group of people, who had decided to break into a canter, so wel followed - When all of a sudden we weren't cantering anymore?! I was flying. Huh? Flying?

Sante, my dear darling trusty stead, had broken into a gallop! I had no idea how to sit a gallop, and neither did I have a chance to try, because all of a sudden, he made a 90º change of direction, and I was looking at the sky as I skidded across the ground.

Ouch. Dammit. Ouch.

So --- didn't tell the parents about that one! waited 15 minutes for the stars to clear & got back on, rode home.

For some unknown reason - don't ask me what I was thinking at this point - over the next few weeks, I started concentrating more on the riding and .. ... less... on.. the... groundwork..

I know! Looking back now, that was the most stupid thing I could have done. But everyone was out riding having fun in the Australian summer and i was... flicking ropes at my horse.

So! A few months later, on a long ride out with a group of 3 other people. My dear wonderful beautiful boy, took me on a slight detour through the Aussie underbrush, and GOD love him, got a branch caught in his tail.

Bugger me if he didn't think he was being attacked by a dingo. He FREAKED OUT!!!!!!!!!!! Bolted before I knew what was happening. Colided with one of my friends, catapaulting me out of the saddle & onto his rump, causing him to buck. Meanwhile, he is still running forward, my forward momentum has been stopped in its tracks due to the collision, and i fall off his butt, still holding my split western reins. I hit the ground on my stomach still holding the reins, which were wrenched out of my hands as he ran off. My last image of Sante was a 16.2hand freight train running off with a 4ft long branch lodged firmly in his tail.

I rolled over & started ordering myself to breath again. The guy that I had collided with, rode over & asked if i was ok" My response -- "Don't let him die!! Please". My wonderful knight in shining armour galloped off after my horse.

I stayed on the ground, in a puddle of water, on my back for 15 minutes as the pain set in. Right shoulder, completely useless.

15 minutes later my wonderful knight came back with my horse. Apparently he was still running when he was caught. Branch still in his tail. Poor baby.

I walked out with him for 15 minutes before I was assisted back in the saddle. Right shoulder screaming in agony completely useless. My 3 fantastic awesome friends rode in front of me, preventing Sante running out if i lost control.

It was a 2 hour ride back home. It took 4 people to get me out of the saddle. The diagnosis: Torn Rotator Cuff Muscle.

I was out for 8 weeks. It was that final accident that forced the decision. Get serious about Parelli. DO the program. There is something WRONG with your horse, he is seriously lacking in confidence. Lift your game.

So I did just that. I didn't ride for about 6 months. I worked with Sante on the ground. Though Level 1, bought level 2, and started working through level 2 before I started riding again.

The difference - I had a horse who now thought before he freaked out. I did so much work desensatising him to noise & pressure around his hind quarters / tail etc, I worked on his confidence, driving game, going for long walks, anything I could think of on the ground we did.

All the time thinking - exposure is key. Approach & retreat, gotta keep his confidence in tact.

the release of the horsenality model turbo charged our progress. Discovering he was a Right Brained Introvert, gave me the strategies I needed to encourage him, to build his confidence, all the while helping him to realize that i was his leader and I "meant him no harm"

I've now owned Sante for 20 months, we've had our ups & downs, but every weekend we progress. Every weeknd he teaches me something. This journey is awesome. Its what Iv'e always wanted, and to be honest, 2 days a week, isn't enough. I get to work on Monday wishing it were Saturday. I finish work on Friday praying for Saturday morning to hurry up.

Parelli has given me the information & the method to communicate with my horse. Me, a wannabe horse person with no experience and no idea, finally living my dream, thanks to Parelli.

Find your own stick

Well, it looks like I will have to put off the second part of my Parelli beginning till tomorrow, because today was another fantastic day.

We didn't do a heck of a lot, but about 2 months ago, I began teaching him to bow. Then i put my back out, and decided not to do it until he could coordinate himself properly :)

We tried again today, and he went all the way down! WOOHOO!! Mind you, i was still holding his leg, but you know - we got there!

The most exciting part of our day was actually again - when i put him back in the paddock.

He went and found another stick, or branch i should say, this thing was huuuuge, only fit in his mouth if he opened wide. I mean huge!

He picked it up and looked at me again as if to say "Whaddaya think of them apples?"

I of course, broke into laughter, which made him drop it and pick it up again to see if he could get me to do anything else (darned horse is training me)

After a few minutes of this, another horse came over to see what was going on. He wanted to play with the stick as well, but Sante wasn't giving up on his prized possession. So he stood there. still as a statue, for at LEAST five minutes. I mean, there was drool coming out of his mouth because his mouth had been open so long, and still he refused to drop the stick.

The other horse bit his rug, pulled the buckles on the neck, pulled his main, tried to bite his neck and even though Sante moved his head around to avoid some of it, he still did NOT drop the stick.

He actually resorted to hitting the horse with the stick! I'm not joking. I am serious, I stood there watching my horse "Phase 4" the other horse with this "branch" firmly lodged in his teeth.

I was roaring with laughter, Sante thought this was great - it was the best game he's played I bet.

Eventually he lost interest, and thought surely mum has treats for me now, dropped the stick and wandered over.

I was amazed. Sante has shown the most increadible increased play drive over the last few weeks. Its just awesome! It might have somethign to do with the spring grasses -- I don't know, all I know, is he is having the time of his life!

The most absolutely perfect day

I had planned to give a brief summary of our progress from "day one of our parelli Journey" to now. But i "have to interrupt this broadcast for an important news flash"

I had the best Pony day ever ever ever.

I walked into the paddock and this is the scene that greeted me. I keep Sante in a paddock with approximately 70 other horses. They have just been introduced to the spring pastures - This photo was taken about 2 hours after they were taken off the spring pastures. It was quicker to count the horses standing up, rather than lying down. They were so contented - I can imagine their bellies were full, and they were quite happy to sun themselves.

A quick inspection lead me to find my boy. He had been competely flat out, but by the time i got the camera on him, I think he figured something was happening and sat up. He was quite happy to just sit there are enjoy the sunshine, which i thought was lovely, and I took my time in approaching him, because although we have an absolutely fantastic relationship, he still loses confidence when I approach if he is lying down. So I slowly walked in a wide arc around him, until i was standing in front of him, and I tell you what, He was as pleased as punch to see me. Never in my life have I had such a fantastic welcome! Normally he nickers at me and then wanders over - which is awesome anyway! We normally leave the paddock at liberty and mosey on out to get breakfast.

But this morning, even though he was sitting down - this is the lovely sight that greated me. And you can't tell in the picture (obviously) but he was nickering at me, I'm not just talking about a quiet gentle nicker, he nickered softly at me for about 30-40 seconds. I of course went goo-gah and sat down taking pictures, he continued to nicker. It was the most wonderful welcome. I was aboslutely floored.

After about a minute, he still had not got up, so I slowly stood up, and began to walk towards him. I was able to get to within about 3 metres, and he turned away, So i retreated a few steps - He was instantly able to look at me again. I waited, and then slowly began approaching again, i progressed 5 steps, and then he turned away, so I retreated again. I was able to get to within 2 metres I'd say, and then he decided to stand up.

I couldn't have asked for a better start to the day!!!!!

During our play session, we worked on sideways at liberty, sideways in general, figure eights around two tree stumps, but the two most important "tasks" were

1/ The bulldozer is not really a scarey horse eating machine & 2
2/ Send horse to pedestal from 22 feet away

Both were a raging success!!

We spent 20 minutes mozeying up to the big scarey bull dozer, until all of a sudden, Sante just waltzed up and put his nose on it. A few cookies later, and he was practically ready to jump in the bucket.. Ok.. well not really, I settled for squeeze game between the cabin & the bucket, and then we wandered off to the Pedestal.

I really turned the challenge up this week, by standing a full 22ft away from the pedestal. And sending him to it from that far away. It ony took a few attempts before he got it, and jumped on quite happily. Once we'd done that a few times, we moved on.

We went for a short ride - which was - eventful, My predominately RBI horse (tending LBI) on the ground, is borderline RBE when it comes to riding. He isn't confident by himself.

The ride could have gone worse -- I could have fallen off! But, i think we handled the day pretty well. We had to get past the equine killing blue motorbike, which took 5 minutes convincing and a lot of approach & retreat, which he appreciated.

And then there were the horse attacking shadows & the haunted rocks which Sante was convinced were following him. I must say, all the bareback riding I've been doing has made my seat a lot better, because my poor little angel was a teensy bit worried, and did a lot of jumping on the spot before remembering he was trying to be brave.

All in all, the ride back was great, he finds unheard of confidence when heading back home, and he even offered to trot all the way. Even though he was happy to settle for a brisque walk.

But the absolute best part of the whole entire day, was actually when i put him back!

I'd done about 15 minutes in the round yard before i put him back, and there was a small tree branch in there, leaves & all. So I stood on one side of the round yard (its a 22ft yard) and backed him to the opposite side, I then drove his forquarters to the branch.

He thought this was fantastic! He pawed the branch, picked it up, shook it, dropped it, picked it up, ate the leaves, shook it and kept going & going until i was laughing so hard i couldn't stand up.

I walked over there and decided to do a bit of extreme friendly with the branch. His care factor? Zero.

I even put the branch above his head and shook it really hard - His response was to reach up, and chew the leaves on the branch. I was beside myself with laughter, and i think the fact that he was getting such a response caused him to carry on.

So when i put him back into the paddock with the other horses, he set himself to task. Admittedly, there isn't a heck of a lot to do in that paddock, being a sacrifice paddock, it doesn't have any grass in it at the moment, so they get bored.

Sante set himself to playing two games.

1/ Pick on the new horse &
2/ Pick up the stick and see what mum does.

These were the fruits of his labour:

Yes, thats right. There was a random stick lying on the ground, so he picked it up and noisily dropped it, to see what I would do. As he kept doing this, other horses were gathering round to see what all the fuss was. I, in the meantime was howling with laughter, causing him to just keep doing it, because he liked my reaction.

I also discovered how his rug got ripped! He followed this horse around for about 20 minutes, grabbing him by the tail part of the rug to stop him walking off, and then following him around. Sante doesn't normally do this (around me anyway) So i was thrilled to see him interacting with other horses, and playing (he's a bit of a loner and doesn't really hang in a particular group).

I have just had the best day!!