Happy new year!

The tempature here got up to around 0 yesterday so I took the cover off Nalle, and now he really lives up to his name! (Nalle = teddybear). When the first snow came he got really cold but now it seams like he have acclimatized.
Today we didnt do anything more than feeding and hanging, due to all the fireworks I knew I wouldn't get 100% of his focus if I asked for it, it would really have been "playing the 7 games with pressure". 

Let's hope 2011 will be a better year for horses and humans than any other year before it, happy new year!

and a humble thank you

thank you for reading my blog! I would rather have 30 people reading my blog that share the same dream and idea than 1000 people who think Im a circus-clown, so thank you it warms my heart.

What can I do for you today

Had an hour before work today to spend with Nalle so I took him to the arena to see what side of the round-pen he woke up on... and it turned out to be the fun side!
I gave Nalle his food and took off his cover, after eating up he went to find a nice place to roll.
Or at least that's what I thought... he found a the place, layed down... and waited for his treats!
I gave it to him and then he got up again without rolling, he's starting to figure out that I want something from him that got to do with laying down and that "something" results in treats. I still cant ask him to lay down, he's starting to get his weight back when I lift his front leg but he dont know what I want and he get's abit frustrated.
He's knows he gets treats for doing something good, but what!
I dont want to over-do this so I will keep using when he wants to lay down and roll abit more. It's a very intimate thing and I dont want to mis-use  any trust, he's ok with me doing so much already with him when he's laying down and I dont want to put any pressure or "work"-thoughts on those situations.

Tomorrow after work I'll go see him to give him some new years-eve-apples and see what he wants to do, instead of taking a long break due to all the snow we're doing alot of "what can I do for you today".
That's a quote I carry with me since the clinic with Kristi S Smith this year, a very nice way to approach your horse.
Putting in alot on our trust-account that I hope to be able to use when the conditions for learing and improving things are better, it also give us time melt all the things we've learned during the year.
At the beginning of this year my goal was to be able to go trail-riding alone without problems and canter without Nalle bucking like a rodeo-horse, this summer we spent hours alone finding new paths and some months later it felt good cantering without reins or even bareback. After managing that we got some homework to do to prepare for the flying lead changes, but that can wait for a little while.
As long as there is snow we will do what Nalle likes best, canter like the "breath of the desert wind" that he is on snowy forest tracks or just hang around playing games in the snow that need more brain than legs... ;)

Nothing means nothing

If someone was watching us play tonight it might have looked like we were doing nothing, I took Nalle to the arena, took his cover off, gave him food, gave him a carrot while rolling around, let him run around like a crazy person for a while, put the cover back on, got up and rode back to the pasture.
But there's something I always keep at the back of my head, nothing means nothing. Therefor I think it's very important to always be aware of what you are doing, even if you just spend 5 min with your horse feeding it. In our world I did this: we went to the arena with the goal to have no pressure just fun and the thought "what can I do for you today", I knew he would love to roll in the snow to scratch his back after wearing his cover for some time while I was away, I always knew that he probably would like to run around for a while since they dont really can do that in their pasture.

Nalle got some problems with arenas, they're boooooring, or to be honest, I made them boring this spring when we were trailerloading, the first weeks he didnt like that at all. Now he got no problem with the trailer and we can make trailerloading fun, but arenas are still abit tricky.
I know I change how I think when we're playing in an arena compared to playing in a field or in the forest, I dont want to but I do think abit in terms of "work" in arenas. So we've been eating alot in the arena and doing fun things lately, he's learned so much this year so we dont have to "work" on anything for a very long time... So I gave his food, took the cover of, scratched him with the stick while eating and slaped the ground making him more insensitive to the stick (I've been feeding him around other horses so much chasing them around with the stick slaping mother earth so he dont really care about that anymore... nothing means nothing!).
After eating up he ran away to find a got spot to roll on, I followed him with a carrot ready, after he had done his scratching and was still laying down I gave him the carrot making him wonder "what can I do to get another one, hm... ".
Last week we started testing if I could lay him down, he was almost down on his knees so hopefully it's not that far away. He got no problem with me walking up do him, sitting down beside him or even sitting/laying on him if I find him resting in the pasture, he also allows me to sit on him while he's getting up so I would like to be able to lay him down to complete the circle ;) or in correct terms, be allowed to lay him down.
After the carrot and some thinking Nalle got up and started to canter, oh my he can canter!
It's interesting to watch them run on their own, Nalle can turn and canter the other way as good as any "cow-chaser", he looks like he's flying and everything is so easy for him. He ran around for about 10 min with his "arab-tail" up, pointy ears and a smile on his face. When he was done he came to hang with me for a while before putting the cover back on.
After that I got up on a barrel asking him to come sideways to me so I could get up. Im trying to save the things he's not yet doing willingly and easy to last to make them sort of a treat, "if you do this for me it's game over". I got up and then we rode of to open the gate and get back to the pasture, we're starting to hang of the opening part but we still cant close it behind us, it's a good thing we're arent cowboys driving cattle...
Today he got to the gate and stoped at a good spot, he knew what was coming, but then he changes his mind and turned around so he had his other side to the fence, perhaps it's easier for him passing that way, made a mental-note about it.

All this text to describe "nothing", makes you realise that nothing really do means nothing!

Savvy xmas!

Spending xmas on one of the big island on the eastcoast of Sweden. They've got a phenomenon here called "fåk", which is more or less a snowstorm but it snows sideways and it comes enormous amounts of snow. Apparently they have closed the roads on the south part of the island now and everywhere you look it's white. Wonder how we're gonna get back home on monday...
My horse-xmas-gift to myself this year is to try and take pressure of training. It's good to be ambitious and it's important to have goals but when you put to much energy on that you tend to miss all the things you learn on the way and all those little things your horse does for you and if you've got a horse like mine, all the things they learn themself. Sometimes I find myself on the wrong track going that way, not very often and I dont get very far until I notice and stop myself but it's not a nice place to be in. If I take the pressure off and I appreciate all the little things the risk off getting wrong will decrease. One way of doing that is that im always trying to see the positive things when we play and remember the things not going so well as something we will have to get back to later but I dont let it "get to me", it's much more fun to play the next time if you have positive memories from last time. One way to do that is to blog about it :) To my horse this year im giving a promise of trying to "be the best me I can be", a very used phrase but I've finally found out how. During these two years we've been playing I've learned alot about who to be for my horse, what to do and how to do it and I'ld like to say that we're doing pretty good. Being the best me is working even more on those things and trust myself, im doing right and im doing good, if I do it even more I'll get even better and I will finally be the best me I can be.

Savvy x-mas!

Time for some rest

Had this years last lesson some days ago and the day after we had a great trailride. During the lesson everything worked like a dream and he had 100% focus on me with an happy relaxed attitude, felt like a great last lesson! The trailride wasnt supposed to be a trailride... the plan was to do some zone 5 driving build confidence with all the new snow-monsters out there, but he relaxed after a short while and I got tons of snow in my shoes so I got up on a big stone asking him to carry me, he said "what's taking you so long, get up so we can get going again!". Rode bareback in warm cozy pants not made for riding, more like ski-pants, so when we were going downhill I bounced around. A few months ago that would have made him uncomfortable and before that he would have bucked me off, but not now. Didnt even get a dissatisfied look, not even when he got "ants in his pants" and started to trot down.... He really shows his emotions with every inch of his body and that day he only showed happiness, the day after I got fever so we havent done anything more than hanging sharing some undemanding time and protect your herd of two. Going away for xmas and the plan was to keep playing with him until I went but now I think his xmas-break will start abit earlier instead.

Playing in the snow

What I've learned from my horse

I've always found it hard to describe someone, even myself even thou I know myself inside out. But I finally found a way to describe my horse, he got a strong integrity and he always got a fox behind his ear. If he think you're trying to take his dignity away he will do everything he can to get you emotional and take over the leadership, since you dont deserve to be his leader and you cant be if you cant control your emotions. But, when you've got his trust and respect he will try to do everything for you. He's one of those horses with very high demands on you as a leader, I've learned so much from him and we've only been playing together for two years. Horses really are the best teachers, I've been forced to take control of my emotions, to stay calm in all situations so I can be a strong safe friend to hold hands with when it gets scary, to be creative and use my imagination so he can use his brain and we can build our language and to reward the smallest step to get to the big goals.

Magic moment

Had one of those magic moments tonight. The ground was white from snow, the air was crispy, the sky was clear with lots of sparkling stars and Nalle was just brilliant. He was really with me, with a nice gaspedal, a perfect five. He did sideways from me, towards me, around me moving with pressure, around me moving away from pressure. I can definatly agree with my trainer today, Nalle is going to be an amasing horse!

Not very savvy with the snow yet....

Today I was supposed to have a lesson but the snow got in the way, it was hard to travel safely with the trailer so we decided to wait for the weather to get abit better. And just when we were about to hang up it started to snow again. Got some homework to do instead, today we were supposed to test some of the things from old level 1-2 so we can leave that behind and go all in on the next levels. We've been doing a few things from the higher levels but now my trainer think we're done with level 1-2 and that feels really nice! He's from the old school and been doing Parelli since the very begining, so he's teaching us after the very first level-system. The homework I got was to check of my list with level 1-2 things and see if I've got my phases right. If I've got that my horse will answer in phases 1-2, it's not about what we do it's how we do it. Like he said, everyone can make their horse go sideways, the difference is how they do it. So until next time im gonna work on "getting my good better and my better best", im really looking forward on moving on! But it's not the moving on part that makes me happy, it's the fact that my trainer thinks we're ready to do it! Apparently I've got a "good" horse that's gonna be "unbelivable good", that warmed me standing outside in -7'C with the snow blowing!

Another trailride in the snow

Had another nice trailride in the snow today. Nalle is abit scared of stones and now when everything is covered in snow it looks alot different than it usually do, so there was alot of "oh what's that"-moments. But, and this makes me really happy, we have moved on in our relationship. Today when he saw something weird/scary/monster he stopped, looked for abit, turned is head and looked at me and asked if it was safe, then he relaxed and moved on. That feels like a giant step for a leftbrain horse, instead of turning to mother nature when it gets scary he turned to me. It feels like he's really starting to accept me as his leader and someone he can trust.

You get the horse you deserve

I really do belive that you get the horse you deserve, everything comes back to you one way or the other. If you use all the right tools we get in PNH and invest time in our horses we get awesome horses in return.
And I must do something right bcoz everything works like a dream, today Nalle was really awesome when we played. We did some online to check the gaspedal and work on the things we learned yesterday, I didnt have to go further than phase 1 and he looked happy doing the games. Did some finesse and freestyle after that, he's starting to really get what we're doing during finesse and the freestyle is finally back to where it was before he got injured. Oh gosh, I love my horse!

Oh btw

The reason I havent written any blogposts for a while is that my horse has been injured, havent had the energy to write anything and when I have I've been doing it in swedish so I dont have to think that hard ;) But now he's back on track as so am I!

Dressage Naturally

Today I had a preparing miniclinic on the topic Dressage Naturally. It's the first time I've had a lesson with focus on dressage since I started doing PNH and my brain is overloaded! So much new things to take in and new ways to look at old things. We had most of the lesson online to get the gaspedal right and to get the horse to relax and get "long and low". Did a great exercise where we moved the shoulders sideways one step while walking, Nalle got it after a while and started to lick and chew. When we moved up into the saddle I had no idea how to do it, my body didnt know "the Parelli-way" to do it and I felt like a newbie. I've noticed before that as soon as I pick the reins up for connection I tend to use my legs, bad! Today I learned how do it in a way that I already knew but didnt think of, typical PNH-student-behavior I guess ;) "Aaaah ofc that's how I should do it! It's exactly the way I would do it on the ground!". I set my mind on what energy I wanned in the walk and when he got under it I asked him to trot and then relax and slow down do that energy. Instead of nagging about get the energy up to that level I got way over it and the energylevel I wanned from the beining became the treat. Did that with long reins until he could keep the energy for a while, then I shorted my reins and asked for connection. The connection I got was everything I could ask for and more, he transformed his body in the right way and after doing the same thing as I did on long reins he could keep a good energylevel and the connection. He's brilliant! The gaspedal online worked as a dream aswell, we agreed on skipping phase 2-3, I give him a loooooong phase 1 and a short snappy phase 4. My instructor made me aware of that my very clever horse got 100% focus on me so just grabbing the stick the way to lift it is his phase 3. I have to start see for real how good he has become, he's really awesome. A LBI with explosive snappy departures and a will do do things with me as long as he gets to think and use his brain, the harder the better.

Igångsättning

Började sätta igång Nalle i måndags, han verkar väldigt nöjd över det men han tycker att skritt är en helt onödig gångart, han vill springa! Har äntligen fått testa min nya barbackapadd jag beställde från Parelli och min nya Espaniola, har en väldigt ambitiös häst så Espaniolan var lite skönare att sitta i än padden ;)
Nalle tycker vi kan hoppa över skritt och bara köra på för fullt, tyvärr håller inte veterinären med.
Har klarat av 4 av 6 penicillin-sprutor med bravur, bara hoppas de sista två går lika bra. 

Besök hos tandläkaren

Det har varit en spännande helg. I söndags var vi på kurs för att Nalle skulle få använda sin hjärna efter 3 veckors vila inför tandläkarbesöket idag. Det visade sig att han inte är halt längre och det är väldigt skönt, han rörde sig riktigt fint i alla gångarter i båda varv. Besöket hos tdl idag gick lite sämre, Nalle har foderfickor pga att han har felställda tänder. Men eftersom han är så ung är prognosen god att tänderna ska bli helt återställda, bara att hålla tummarna. Har inte varit hos tdl innan så det var intressant, men inte gratis direkt! Nu förstår jag varför Nalles immunförsvar har varit nedsatt, han har ju varit inflammerad i munnen!

Sjukhage

Nalle har vrickat sig och har fått ordinerad vila, nu har mer än halva tiden gått och han sköter sig exemplariskt. Undrar om det är för att han inte har några problem med att vara i sitt släp länge som han inte tycker det är jobbigt att stå i box länge eller om det är tvärtom.
Men ändå är det så att jag avundas dem som aldrig har behövt hålla sin häst sysselsatt mentalt när den inte får röra sig allt för mycket, väldigt stor risk att de stänger av och blir introverta eller visar sin stress utåt.
Hoppas verkligen att Nalle är bra till nästa vecka så han kan börja få göra saker igen, han är varken stressad inåt eller utåt nu men jag vet inte hur länge han tycker det är ok att stå i box och sjukhage.
Idag ville han inte vara ute speciellt länge i regnet eftersom det inte finns något skydd i hagen så då satt jag i boxen med honom och läste bok, något han verkligen uppskattade.
All den här undemanding time vi spenderar hoppas jag visar sig på ett bra sätt när vi kan börja leka igen :)

Nalle i sitt släp sist vi var på träning.

 

 

 

 

 

Nalle inspekterar publiken, har de morötter tro...

Trailride in the sun

Today I got off work early so I took the opportunity to go for a trailride in the lovely weather we had. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and you could almost forgot for a moment that the summer is gone. We've been doing alot of "stick-riding" lately and that works really well now so I took the stick with me on the trailride and challanged myself to only use the reins if I really had to in emergency-situations. How it went? I love my horse!

Passenger lesson in the dark

Did the ultimate test of trust today, passenger lesson in the woods in the dark with nothing but the stick. Worked out really well, now I understand that I can trust my horse. He had 100% focus on me (well at least those moments when the moon let me see his ears, it was really dark!) and stoped when I got stuck in a low hanging branch. He moved around some but most of the time he was standing still resting on 3 legs and I closed my eyes trying to just as relaxed as he. Spent about 45 min that way, then the others horses got scared by something and took of. Nalle can be abit more insecure in the dark so he followed them in canter. I didnt really wanted to join him in a canter in the dark with branches everywhere so I jumped of in the speed like a ninja... When I got back on my feet I realised that I was further into the woods then I thought and it took some time to find out how to get out of there... After stepping into some deep waterholes I got out again, it's a good thing that im a positive person ;)

Protect your herd of two

The past 2,5 weeks has been very busy, been working for 11-12h a day and I've been really tired. I've spent around 2h with my horse every night doing... well not much. At least that's what it looks like but nothing means nothing. Last night we played passenger lesson and protect your herd of two in the dark with the other horses, doing that made it possible for Nalle to eat without having the other horses chasing him. He had someone on the back "watching his back". Today I was able to get off work earlier and had time to ride some before the dark. I had the freestyle-session I've been dreaming of since I first put the saddle on him, now I can die happy. He even gave me a simple lead change as extra bonus. "What can I do for you today" is a really good question to ask your horse, it comes back to you.

First ride in over a week

Kept myself busy today, started with playing with and riding my horse and then I did some freestyle riding with my "bonus"-horse. I haven't been riding my horse for over a week since his friends bit him on the back... nice! I have been able to ride bareback, that way  I was in the middle of the wounds, but my comfort zone riding bareback isnt big enough to do the simple lead changes that way... and that's what I've got to do to prepare us for our lesson next sunday. I've done some passanger lesson at walk bareback and I've been ridden into the trailer when trailerloading but today was first time with a saddle doing lead changes in a while. He did an awesome job and had a calm nice canter. Started with riding him bareback from the field to the arena, we're working on him helping me mount by using his neck and that's something we have to do play with more!
After checking the canter and the lead changes I decided to take the saddle of and increase my comfort zone by cantering bareback. That's something that I feel ok with trailriding but not in the arena, before today I had only done that once and just a few steps. It felt suprisingly well! It was abit awkward for him at first since I was really tense and couldnt relax in my legs but after doing some corners game with it (the corners was for me to rest in haha) it felt alot better, think we did at least 2-3 laps. It felt so good that I decided to ride back to the field, but ofc something had to happen so after a few steps cantering I did a spontaneous dismount... But at least my day was 99 % good! ;)

I've been working 12h today so I didnt really had the time to do alot of things with the horses today. Brought the food and went the join them in the field, we spent some lovely undemanding time just standing beside eachother breathing. I also did some friendly game with the stick, noticed yesterday that I haven't been doing the helicopter for a while. I try to have quality in the things we do even those days when I dont have alot of time, even if I just feed Nalle in the field we're still spending time together and he's noticing everything Im doing. Days like this are just as important to me as the ones when we're playing in the arena or go for a trailride.
My "bonus"-horse came when I called his name in the dark, didnt see him until he was right beside me. I think he likes what we have been doing so far coz he came sniffing on me with a happy face. Did the same things with him as I did with Nalle, needed to spent some more undemanding time with him and today was a perfect day for that.

Worked for 10 hours today and then had two horses to play with, was very tired on the way home but horses got a way of filling you with energy. Began with my "bonus"-horse and played with him online and freestyle, he's introvert so we did some cornersgame with canter to get more power in the canter. Nalle and me havent been doing liberty lately as much as we use to do so we played for an hour in the sunset, he stay connected during the whole time and it looked like he had as much fun as me :) After that I spent some undemanding time together with the horses in the field, Nalle and me ended up playing stick to me in the dark, that made me forgot that Im afraid of the dark. Or, at least I forgot that until I got out from the field and had to get back to the house...it's really dark here, there's no streetlights on the countryside...

I've been without access to internet the last 2 days, it's funny how hard that is... I read the news online, keep connected to friends and if I dont know the answer to something I google. So when I cant get online I feel isolated, funny when you think about how depended you get.

Yesterday we brought a camera and recorded some when we played with our horses, it was the first time I've done that so it felt abit awkward at first. I noticed that when I was thinking about doing the good better and better best for the camera everything went bad so I had to keep my mind of that and just try to have fun with it. That worked suprisingly well and it felt good, havent seen the film yet thou so I might be wrong... ;)

I've also got a new friend to play with, a welsh cob who is the opposite of my arabian in many ways but similar in some. Just getting to know him, been trailer loading him abit before but now I've playing with him more focused and riding him.

Me and Nalle this summer.

Clinic with Parelli Instructor Kristi Smith 28-29/8-2010

Me and Nalle were on a clinic last weekend with the wonderful Kristi Smith. I had never been to a clinic before so the concept was all new to me. It's was nice to meet new like-minded people and learn about their experiences and the horsenality of their horses. I learned some new things but most important to me was that I really learned that I can trust my horse cantering. I trust him with my life when we're out trail-riding alone but I've had a hard time trusting him cantering in arenas...
Here's some pictures from the clinic:

Group-photo with Kristi, all the riders and the horses.

Doing indirect rein without the reins.

Outside testing the grass....

and the water...

and the jumps!

"Yes Sir!"

Just got back from a wonderful play-evening with Nalle, he's sucha lovely horse!
Trying to keep the pace down abit since I've got a cold and I dont want it to get worse, so I have to come up with games where I dont have to move alot.... or use high phases since my energy is abit low.
Yesterday I put the bridle on and went for a trail-/eat grass-ride and today I decided to do some games we haven't done in a while.
We started out with some weave-pattern at walk, we havent done that since... well I cant even remember.
My horse is like this "ok show me what to do...ok ok...can you please show me one more time?...ok got it!"
so I tried the weave at walk and trot online and at liberty, "weave, yes sir!".
Between the weaves we worked abit on jumping barrels, jumping them is not in his comfort zone but he did it really nice today. He's slowly buildning his jumping-confidence.
We also worked abit on backing up using the tail and today he got it, "oh was it just that you wanted me to do!".

Nalle is preparing to jump at the clinic with Parelli Instructor  Kristi Smith last weekend.

 

Tasks for next lesson

Just got off phone with my trainer, got a few tasks for next lesson.
Next time we're gonna work on the simple lead changes, havent been able to do that alot since my horse used to buck like a rodeo-star.

To make sure he really can separate the indirect rein from the controller rein Im gonna use the controller rein and when he's standing still and I've got no energy im gonna turn my hand so that the nails are pointing up in the indirect rein instead of to the side in the controller rein. Im also gonna increase my energy while Im doing this and see if he get's the indirect rein. Im also gonna work on the simple lead changes to make sure he really gets them, he has done them really well before between the bucking-sessions...

"Put the relationship first"

Found a good blog post on the subject "put the relationship first", that's not always an easy thing to know how to do... "What the heck does 'put the relationship first' mean?"
I really liked her definition:
We travel together: We don't leave without the other.
We ask questions: Neither of us acts unilaterally.
We always answer: Neither of us is left in the dark.
We listen respectfully: Every response is valued. If one of us says no, the other makes a change.
We act consistently: We communicate clearly when an expectation changes.

Got me thinking of my definition but I think I have to get back on that later...
"It's simple, but not easy".

I should make a blog instead...

I think everyone in my surrounding will be happy about this step in my horse-man-ship,
instead of telling every and anybody what me and my horse did today I decided to make a blog.
That way noone that dont wanna know have to... Hurray!
And to make it abit more challening for myself I decided to write on the blog in english,
so have patience with the language... Im not known to spell correctly even in swedish.

My travel along this road started when my horse turned 4 and was about to get started under the saddle,
pretty soon I realised I couldnt do that alone coz I didnt have the tools to communicate with my horse.
I've had Nalle since he was 15 months so giving up, as normal people tend to do and get a new horse, wasnt an opption. Instead I found a lovely trainer, who I at that point didnt know anything about, who helped me and my horse to find a way to connect and also helped me start him.
I think everything in life happens for a reason, without the challanges me and my horse had Im not sure when or if I would have opened my eyes and found the natural way of training horses.
My trainer told me about PNH and Pat Parelli and I had nooooo idea who that was, I tried to find something about him and found his book that I ordered. And found out that all material about him was in english... Woho!

At this point of our journey we're working on old level 2, the fun level! And oh yeah, we're having fun!