horsegirlonajourney

He chose me in the pasture

Posted on March 28, 2009 by horsegirlonajourney

I went into the gelding pasture with Rocky’s halter on my shoulder, not because I needed to get him, but to have something to whirl about should I get mobbed. Mainly I wanted to check him over to make sure he still had all of his limbs, his eyes were clear of snot, and he wasn’t bleeding.

This IS Rocky we’re talking about, y’know.

I walked well into the enclosure to give everyone room. Rocky immediately perked his ears, gave me two eyes, and walked over to me with enthusiasm and energy. He left the herd of five and a pile of hay to come stand by me.

Wow.

I am still trying to figure out how to describe the joy I felt. It welled up and spilled over and I could almost see it with my regular eyes. A rainbow of pleasure, well-being, gratitude, approval, emanating from my body in concentric rings. I think Pursuit felt it because he perked up and asked permission to approach as well, and then Paco, and then Nakota….

I stroked Rocky a bit and then left, feeling him watching me (but not following me) all the way through the gate and back into my house.

Wow.

Categories: Love | Tags: mind games, non-demanding time, progressive, provocative | 1 Comment

Exercising the catching game

Posted on March 25, 2009 by horsegirlonajourney

I figured since Linda and Norma (the Daily Parelli blogger) are both hounding me personally about getting in better shape, I would try the catching game in our nice sandy arena even though it’s bigger than a round pen — it’s 70 by 80 feet. It meant a lot of walking on my part, which was, of course, the point.

I haven’t seen any official “how to play the catching game” material but the problem-solving DVD of Liberty & Horse Behavior has some good examples, so I tried to model my actions and read my horse based on what I saw there.

We played for about 45 minutes after our normal on-line session, and Rocky responded very much like the mare on the DVD. At one point he was standing still in the middle of the arena, ears and eyes glued to me but feet still, pivoting beautifully on his hindquarters to keep his hiney hid.

I made some mistakes, of course. Once I reacted too late and ended up tagging him just as he was starting to pivot to give me two eyes. Another time I had my bullhorn pointing at Zone 1/2 instead of Zone 5, thus blocking him from moving out of my way or looking at me.

But overall, it worked out well. He followed me some, watched me some, took his eyes off some too. by the end, he followed me willingly and I walked to the pedestal and sat down and gave him a cookie.

Not surprisingly, the more immediate I got with my release (turn and walk away when I get two eyes), the better everything went.