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!