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Posts Tagged With: parelli natural horsemanship

Rocky caused his ideas to become my ideas

Posted on August 14, 2014 by horsegirlonajourney

Yesterday, I hitched up the trailer all by myself for the first time! I devised a system to help me position the ball under the tongue. The green masking tape on the trailer marks the tongue position and the green tape on the inside of my tailgate marks the ball. (I later took off the horizontal piece, as I no longer needed it.) When I look in my rear-view mirror when I’m hitched up, the vertical tape pieces align perfectly. When I look over my right shoulder to back up, the tailgate vertical piece is just slightly to the right (my right) of the trailer piece. And the length of the trailer piece tells me how close I am — when the bottom of the tape disappears from my vision, I’m close enough.

Barbara, the trailer’s owner, invented an initialism to use as her hitch-up mnemonic device and taught it to me. It’s pronounced “week” but it looks like this:

W – Wheel

E – Electric

C – Chains

Thusly:

And then I put the ramp down and got Rocky. My plan was to allow him to sniff around the trailer, maybe put his feet on the ramp, nibble some hay off the floor.

His plan, apparently, was to spend two minutes inspecting the accommodations and then load up for a snack.

He has another 18 inches of room in front of him but the way the hay hammock was placed, if he’d gone all the way in, he would have had to bend his nose to his chest to eat. Today, I’ll replace the hammock with one of our hay nets and hang it a little further forward so he can fit his whole body in. And then we’ll put up the tailgate ramp and if he’s fine with that, I might even take him down the driveway. (If he’s not, we’ll practice with the trailer closed a few more times first. So so grateful to Barbara for allowing me to borrow the trailer for 38 days in a row!)

Categories: Clinic Countdown, Trailering | Tags: horseback riding, parelli natural horsemanship, penn valley | Leave a comment

3 Ways That Taking a Centaur Selfie Made Me a Better Rider

Posted on August 9, 2014 by horsegirlonajourney

I learned about the Centaur Selfie yesterday on the Bay Area Equestrian Network Facebook page. It’s harder than it looks to get the effect! You have to really reach up and angle the phone just so, to get enough of your face in the picture while also capturing the haunches and — most importantly, I discovered — the tail.

Without the tail, it just looks like there’s a blob behind you. It’s even better if you can get some of the dorsal stripe or the apple-butt dimple or some other shape and texture that really looks horsey.

I expected to end up with a fun picture, but I did not realize the other positive effects this project would have on my riding until after I put the phone away and continued the ride.

Escaped a Mental Rut

I had been a little nervous on my first loop around the ranch, as I’ve not ridden River outside the arena in a while, and I was only using a bareback pad. What if she shied at the pigs again?

River meets piglets

Not only is this a useless thought, perhaps even giving her the idea that she should shy at the pigs, but last year when she did shy at them and I was riding with the bareback pad, I stayed on just fine and she even turned her nose to ask me “are you sure everything’s okay?” And in fact she wasn’t worried about the piglets in the barn before our ride so as an ongoing anxiety this one was extra silly.

As soon as I started trying to align the camera to get the best centaur effect I could, I forgot to think about any “what-if” dangers. This jolt out of the fearful rumination rut lasted the whole rest of the day.

Improved my Seat

In order to get the full effect, I had to sit on my balance point, deepening my seat and holding up my own head. No clenching, no tension, no slight lean forward at the hips, no eyes looking down or at River’s ears.

Both River and I were instantly more comfortable, and I got my confidence back, reminded how it feels to be balanced and light up there.

Put the Play in Playtime

I can get so concentrated (literally, going dense and tight) about working on myself — my body language, my seat, my feel, my focus, my eyes-shoulders-navel-hips-knees-toes alignment — that I forget to play with my horse.

Centaur Selfies

Posing for the centaur selfie required me to move my body, to open my chest for a full breath by raising my arm, and to smile. All of this flooded my whole being with happy endorphins and the joy of horses was compounded by the silly adorableness of OMG CENTAURS SQUEEEEEE! After that, both River and I were able to enjoy walking around the ranch trail, stopping at various places to graze or get a drink of water, just moseying along together in harmony.