parelli natural horsemanship | Horsegirl on a Journey

Posts Tagged With: parelli natural horsemanship

A month of milestones

Posted on January 13, 2012 by horsegirlonajourney

12 January 2012

Rocky and I joined up at liberty and walked around the outside of the covered arena for several laps. He started out with a good trot and gallop around the ranch with the minidonks but after that was definitely asking for direction, so I tried this. Each lap, he was more relaxed than the previous, and we even got half a lap in the other direction. After that he walked over toward his pen and didn’t want to join up again, although he kept giving me two eyes and friendly ears. I opened his gate and he went in on his own. He did his water meditation — he curls his tongue, fills it with water, sticks out the tip, and lowers his eyelids to three-quarter closed — and stood hip-shot, obviously pleased with his afternoon.

11 January 2012

River and I ate lunch together on the lawn. She walked with me at liberty from her pen to the lawn. (I used a halter to take her home, though. Didn’t want to push my luck!)

10 January 2012

River accepted me as a passenger and I practiced climbing on, relaxing bareback, and doing an emergency/flying dismount at the walk from both the left and the right. The first time I hopped on I overbalanced and ended up vaulting over her, sort of, landing on my feet and flinging my arms up like an Olympic gymnast after a good performance.

28 December 2011 – 3 January 2012

Rocky gave pony rides to three different sets of children on three different days and adjusted his spirit level to suit each one. That means he took extra special care of the little ones (ages 5 and 7), and, er, “offered” a big trot and teensy hop-into-canter for one of the bigger ones (age 11), who stayed on through the offering and the sudden stop at the electric fence.

December 2011

I rode Rocky around the ranch in the same pad and surcingle in the picture with Caitlin. He seems comfortable in it and we did well together. In this photo, he’s finishing up his water before we head back to the barn.

I’m getting out with the horses four times a week or so, but blogging has taken a lower priority than getting my day job work done and, it must be admitted, frolicking with the new boyfriend. Ahem.

Still, it is nice to be able to look back over the years and see the progress. The new boyfriend has offered to take pictures of horseplay so perhaps I’ll have more proof of what I blog. I’m looking forward to a year of mental, emotional, and physical fitness — for and through my horsemanship. 🙂

Don’t just do something, stand there!

Posted on December 18, 2011 by horsegirlonajourney

River gets sticky and tends to lag on-line, not just walking 12 feet behind but kind of dragging on the halter at times. To instill a new pattern of cooperation — walk with me, not against me — Erin taught me how to teach Stick to Me on-line, with an eye toward future Liberty.

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Rocky sorta kinda always wanted to stick to me, and in fact looking back, I can see that Rocky taught me how to play Stick to Me game — at Liberty, no less. I didn’t teach him nuthin’.

With River, I’ve had to learn how to be particular about her finding the sweet spot, able to flick behind instantly when she lags or to use the stick in front if she surges forward. The stick, not the lead line, as at Liberty I wouldn’t have the lead line.

We did well the first two sessions but on the third, I felt like I was getting after her constantly, and that every walk turned into several flicks or a turn to the inside hindquarter yield. I didn’t want her to think that being with me means being flicked all the time. Embiggening my phases just made her less willing, so I had to think about what else I could do. I thought … well, she’s lagging, so what if we walk v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. Not just step and pause, but actually moving our feet in slow motion.

She loved it. Her ears came forward, she looked at me, she matched her steps to mine, and I slowed us down even more. Then we rested and licked and chewed. After that, I could alternate among stealth walk, normal walk, jog, and trot, and she would stick to me.

We had varying success in the fourth session yesterday. We are taking today off. In the next session, I want to combine Stick to Me with Point to Point. I’ll hide cookies, apple slices, and other goodies around the ranch — guess I better put the donkeys away first — and we’ll practice all our gaits and find treats everywhere we go.

That should work on two levels. One, she won’t get so obsessed about the idea that I might have cookies on my person that she can only think about mugging me and not about anything else. Two, she will find new interest in Stick to Me because we’ll put the principle to a purpose.