What if everything was meant to be.

When I started my Parelli journey I was full of regrets for the years lived in ignorance and for having lost my way and drifted away from horses for a while. A year later I view things very differently.
It now seems that everything in life has prepared me for what I am doing now.
The years of riding in France under classical masters taught me to have an independent seat and to feel at home with horses. The years studying doing my PhD taught me to be a good learner. The years of child rearing taught me love and patience. A bad fall lead me to do some Palates and use core muscles in everything I do. A few years of crewing on a tall ship taught me to be handy with line, very useful when working with the 45 feet line!
The childhood dream of being a professional in the world of horses has been rekindled and with Parelli to guide my way, I have everything I need to be successful plus a few grey hair for wisdom!
So perhaps everything was meant to be just the way it is. There are no regrets to have, things come in life when we are ready for them.

My horse teaches me

Ok, so yesterday was not a "good" horsemanship day. I get one of those every few weeks. What I mean by this is, that by the time I was walking back Cisco to his paddock, I didn't have the warm fuzzy feeling in my belly that I get after a good session. I hadn't been at my best and it is OK because those "bad" days often teach me more than the good ones. 2 hours of food shopping in a crowded super market obviously didn't put me in the right space to be a good leader for my horse. The funny thing is that I had this little bit of anxiety in me when I went to get him, like a feeling that we should probably just hang out but being a human, my brain overrode this feeling plus I had a plan: I was really eager to try my new 45 feet line. Nothing went really wrong because Cisco is a forgiving horse who just puts up with my inadequacy. In actual fact if only I had only done a third of what we did, it would have been super day! The problem tend to arise when I teach something new, it's knowing when to quit. There are occasions where Cisco is simply not quite ready for what I have in mind, others where I probably go about it the wrong way and yet other time where he just doesn't want to do it because he has his own opinions. Being able to judge which is which and what to do when, is the tricky part of the whole equation and no matter how many hours of Parelli DVDs I watch, I have come to the conclusion mistakes have to be made along the way.
Luckily Cisco is very good at telling me when I am in the wrong. It's just the way he goes a bit introvert and looks at me with an air of long suffering martyr. It makes me feel like a child abuser!

So what do I learn from this: Listen to my inner horse! Didn't I write a blog about this only a few weeks ago? Well obviously I need to learn that lesson a few times. I must be a slower learner than my horse! I like the way Pat says:"learners can't make mistakes". It makes me feel a little better when I lack savvy.

Pat and Linda

This is a post I've been meaning to write for a while and it is dedicated to Pat and Linda Parelli, who have inspired me and guided me on a day to day basis in the last 12 months.
First of all, I want to say that at the age of 46, I have never before been inclined to follow someone else program. When I home-schooled my 3 children, I wrote my own curriculum and now that I have become a high school teacher, I still write a lot of my own material. In brief, I am not a follower and Parelli is not my latest fad.
As I said in a previous blog I discovered Parelli by chance and got to play with some Parelli horses last year in the UK. It is a day I will never forget and from then on I wanted the horses in my life to have that look in their face.
Back in Australia, I started buying the home study program and studying in earnest.
By day, I play with my horse and by night I watch Parelli DVDs. Obsessed? yes, absolutely! I have a lot of things on my side, but time is not one of them and I want to become a Parelli professional before I come of retirement age!

Education has been my passion for nearly two decades and never before I have come across teaching material of such high standard. I have acquired quite an extensive collection of Parelli videos, from the old VHS and to the latest pattern series with everything in between. It gets better and better, thanks to the relentless efforts of Linda, my favorite teacher!
Not only the teaching material is brilliant but the customer service through the Savvy Club and now through Parelli Connect is unequal.
So, I spend a couple of hours with Pat and Linda on a daily basis and they have become part of my life. They have given me so much that I don't even know where to start.

Pat has given me the courage to live my dreams and to believe in myself. He gives me my daily dose of Pat wisdom. When I face a problem with a horse, I can play in my head a number of scenario from the demos horses that Pat has shared with us over the years and think, OK what would Pat do now? I don't say I always get it right but now I can forgive myself my mistakes and learn from them rather than beating myself up.
Linda is a gifted teacher. I can watch a DVD one day with one of her task and if my horse is ready we can be doing it the next day. I love the way she gets all teary at times because I am like that. I love her enthusiasm when her students succeed. I love how when things don't quite work out she can laugh. I can deny that she has become a role model.

What is so special about Pat and Linda is that they can share with us their humanity. Even now that they have become stars, it is not all glamor and Hollywood. Pat can talk about Caton, his son, and share his grand daughter's first canter or the loss of a special horse. Linda blogs about her successes and set back. This has given me so much faith and courage in what could be achieved by "normal' people.
So I wanted to say thank you to those two beautiful people for the huge amount of work they put into helping us becoming better human for our horses. Thank you for never loosing hope that we can make the world a better place. I truly believe we are! The only place to start changing the world is in our everyday life and this is what we, students of Parelli are doing, thanks to Pat and Linda and their fantastic team.

Listening to your inner horse

Reflecting on yesterday's blog I realised that long before I discovered Parelli I always had an intuitive feeling of what horses needed. It's like I had a little horse voice in my head, telling me what I should do. Unfortunately, I mostly ignore the horse part of my brain and listened to the human part.
I remember a horse a long time ago who was very RBE. I kept thinking, I need to get out of this horse's mouth, she would be better off without a bit. When I suggested this to my instructor, he just laughed at me! Rosie was a stunning chestnut mare but unfortunately I didn't know what I know now and it was only my intuition guiding me. So the bit stayed in her mouth and she stayed unmanageable and out of control. She was not my horse either but she remains in my mind as a horse I have failed!
Thanks to Parelli, I have learn to listen to my inner horse. There are still time where I think like a human and try to push through thresholds and I get too direct line but overall those times become less and less.
And when I let my horses guide me and set the pace, the results are amazing!

My horse is talking to me, will I listen?

What I really want to write about is Pat and Linda Parelli, but there is so much to say that it will have to wait for another blog. My next favourite topic is my horse Cisco. So here we go: I don't know if any of you remember in one of the Savvytime magazine the article by Linda titled; "The Ambassador of Yes". It came back to me a couple of days ago because Cisco and I have those lovely conversations going on. This is how it goes:
Cisco" Mum can I go to this paddock for a graze?"
Me:"Sure honey, Why not?"
Cisco:"Mum, I need a drink, Can we stop the the water trough?"
Me:"Of course babe, let's do that, I'll have a drink too"
Cisco: "Mum, I'm tired, can we stop now?"
Me:"No, we've still got work to do, I haven't ticked all the boxes for today"

Well, this did not end well. We had a bit of an argument, and Cisco was right, he had worked well, he was tired and it was wrong for me to ask for that one more thing, and when I realised, it made me feel mean spirited.
So, I now make a very conscious effort to listen to Cisco when he talks to me. He always asks so nicely and when I say "yes" we end up going back to the barn feeling both great and happy in each others company. It is hard to bit the old school out of me. "You vill do vhat I say, Now!" but I'm getting there and I have such a willing loving little horse that if anything I owe it to him to be the best human I can.

PS: For those none Parelli people who might stumble on this blog, Cisco as amazing as he is, does not really talk, and I am not his real Mum either!!!

A lesson in humility

Nothing like horses to bring you back to Earth with a thump!
Yesterday I had a great play with Trigger! This horse is so LBE and his RBE behaviour, which I am convinced comes from his racing days is becoming less and less pronounced every day. For instance yesterday, he self loaded in the trailer, cantered on a 22 feet line with the line loose and did not have to move his feet all the time. Even in our Free style ride he was able to stand still and calm. So here I was thinking that I am getting pretty good with horses...Ah!Ah!!!
The reverse side of the coin is that as his RBE traits disappear, his LBE are becoming stronger and today he really tested my leadership. He would not let me catch him in the paddock! How Interesting! Cisco, my other horse came to me and we went and hang around and grazed for a while. Then when Trigger's turn came, he allowed me to give him a rub but instead of putting his halter on he walked off. His paddock (pasture) is about 30 acres so the catching game was not going to work. They were 3 horses in the paddock that day and Trigger is the alpha. I tried sitting down with my back turned to see if they would come. They did for a while but as soon as I stood up, Trigger had them on the move again. So I did what an alpha would do:"Called the shots and moved their feet" With a paddock this size, no need to tell that it was pretty hard work for me but after about 30 min of this game, I could tell that there were not so keen on running around so I then used reversed psychology and herded the other two horses to the bale of hay but kept Trigger out of the herd. He kept wanting to come in but I did the alpha mare look and managed to keep him away. By that stage I had decided that I was not even going to try to halter him that day.
It was getting late so I went to get the feeds ready. At feeding time, I made Trigger wait last for his feed. When I finally put his feed in his bucket I waited till he asked me if he could come in with a positive look on his face.
Well, I did chose Trigger because I knew he was going to be a challenge and I can't expect to become a good horseman just with easy horses. So this was one of these OH BOY moment that made me questions myself. Clearly, a reality check was just what I needed!

Trigger's first freestyle ride

Today was pretty cool as I got to ride Trigger for the first time. We fist spent a good hour at the playground on line making sure we were both left brain and understood each other. I then took him in a fenced arena. I was a bit unsure on how he would react to the flapping windbreakers that line the fence but he didn't even bat an eyelid so off we went to saddle. Again, Trigger was 100% good. He stayed by the tack shed untied and waited for me to saddle him.
It was his first ride in over 2 years and as an ex race horse Trigger goes from left to right brain really fast so I was not going to go hooning. After checking that he would flex on a soft feel and disengaged his hindquarters, we played follow the rail and figures of 8 at the walk, stop back up, a few circles and change of direction.
Then I tried the trot. His head went up instantly and I could feel the tension building up. This boy gets on adrenaline really quickly!!!! Anyway, I persisted as I didn't feel he was unsafe. A few steps of trot, back at the walk...till he could trot calmly. I stayed at sitting trot for today, not wanting to encourage too much speed!
The hardest thing for him is to stop moving his feet but again with "passive and polite persistence in the proper position", we did manage to stand still for 10 seconds. I was pleased with that, and decided we would stop for today in order to ride for tomorrow!!!!
Now I know a little more what I am in for and clearly, we are going to have to work on impulsion as at the moment we have a lot of go and not so much woa!
What I like best about starting a new horse is how quickly they respond. It was only my 4th session with Trigger and he has already achieve so much. The first time he could go over a ground pole without taking a huge leap, today he stood on the tarp, cool and collected!
Even that I know all the theory behind why Parelli works it still feels to me like a miracle each day. I love the look on a horse face the first time they realise that they have found a human who speak their language.

Frustration!!!!

What is it that Pat says again:"Horses are like computers, they never do what you want, they do what you tell them"
Well I can honestly say that I hardly gets frustrated with horses but I do with computers!!! I can't link my blog to the shareparelli site for the life of me, but I accidentally did it earlier on!!! GRRRR

How it all started

This should have been my first blog but hey, can't always bee super orgarnised. Learners don't make mistake and I've never had a blog before.
My love of horses go back to as long as I can remember. I begged my parents for riding lesson as owning a horse was out of question for a kid who lived in a flat in Paris. My mother convinced that it would wreck my back made me wait till I was 12 years old. From 12 till around 20, horses were what I lived for, well of course there were boys and party that came into the equation but there were never as important as horses. I distinctly remember that for years my routine for falling asleep was to pretend I was holding reins! I wanted to work as an instructor in the horse industry and my dream was to compete in the Olympics but I came from an academic family and it was out of question. I did what was expected and ended up with a PhD in Molecular Biology.
Fast forward a couple of decades and I've ended on the remote coast of Western Australia working as a science teacher, with 3 kids, a few rescue dogs... Somehow horses never completely dropped out of my life, I made sure that all my kids could ride but I didn't get back into it myself till an opportunity arouse to help a friend set up a riding stable. I started riding in earnest but something was missing. The horses were very well treated but never seemed that enthusiastic about doing their job.
Last Chritmas, I went back to the UK and rented a little cottage. The owner had horses and when I showed interest, she said: " Come and have a play". This struck me as strange, playing with horses? What on earth could she mean? I spent one of the most memorable afternoon of my life, playing with her horses in the snow and....What can I say? I have never recovered! That night she lent me some Parelli DVDs. I cried and cried for the beauty of it, for all the horses that will never know it, for all the years that I had lost.
Since then I have been a woman possessed! The riding stable where I rode has turned Natural, I have my own horse and I have never been so happy!
Keep on reading to find out what we get up to!

Australian Horses are in good hands!

Australian Horses are in good hands!

New play ground

New play groundToday I spent most of the afternoon setting up a new playground which I will use for the next few weeks. I went to the hardware store and got some bollards and witches hat (orange cones). Only spent $100 which is not too bad. I made a neat squeeze using cones topped by those soft foam noodles that kids use at the pool. The playground now includes a weave pattern, a figure of 8 pattern which I can do standing on a pedestal, a ground pole, a tarp on the ground, a tarp strung between trees for the horses to go under, a float, a row of cones to play the yoyo game and a couple of jumps. I also have a few hoola hoops and other bits and pieces I can use.
It was with some trepidation that I took my "just started horse" trigger for a play. It's my third play session with him and as I have said before he is a very big 10 yo TB who has done nothing for years and raced in his early life. I must say I rehearsed in my head what I would do if he freaked out when he saw all the bright colors. He is a LBE who goes RBE when unconfident. I dont' think the RBE is his real horsenality but has been learnt from racing and I can't wait to discover the real Trigger.
Anyway, I channel Pat, as Linda would say, and much to my delight it went really well. We played for about 1 hour with no drama. Did the figure of 8, the weave the jumps... Even managed to walk calmly over the tarp at the end. As long as I interrupt the pattern when he starts going RBE and do plenty of hindquaters disengament I manage to keep him with me. I went home a bit on a high and feeling much more confident that I could deal with big horses. I also realised that size didn't really matter, even a smaller horse is still going to be way bigger and stronger than me. It's all about savvy!!!

My first blog

I've been blogging on ShareParelli.com but I really wanted my own blog to recount my journey of discovery on the path of harmony with my beautiful horse partners.

I need to experiment a bit on how to make my blog look pretty but I'll get there, I just need a little more technology savvy!