Winston Churchill

"There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man"

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Update on New year Resolutions

As much as I have needed to slow down to address the emotional and mental needs of my horse, I have not slowed down in other areas.
I am pleased to say that I have taken quite a few trips with my trailer, on my own and manage to reverse park, hitch and unhitch without too much trouble. I am no way proficient yet but slowly my confidence is building up. I have now to learn how to change the tires and apparently I have to grease the nipples??? because the trailer is a bit noisy. No idea what that means, didn't know that trailers had nipples but I'm sure I'll find out.
Although I haven't start videoing yet, I have just purchase a super duper camera that does video as well and I am now in the process to learning how to use it. There is a whole CD of instructions to read! Not my favorite thing to do, I usually get my son to do it and explain it all to me but now that he is at College I have no choice.
The saving money part of my new year resolution has been a total fiasco so far, tax bills, kids at college...
Finally, I am slowly translating my horse savvy into human savvy. My husband and I were chatting the other day and I caught myself saying:"Don't make assumptions"
I am also getting better at reading people horsenality and treating them accordingly. For intance my husband is a LBI who becomes RBI under pressure and then you can be sure there will be an explosion! My daughter is also LBI but she becomes even more introverted under pressure but when things are just right she can be LBE!
It's been super hot here weather wise so I have been spending a lot of time hiding away in front of my computer on Parelli Connect as well as reading people's blog on Parelli Central. I have also been watching the horseman apprentice series 1 which I got as a Christmas present. A great way to learn more savvy!

Doing everything on Valium!

I am just only starting to appreciate what "doing things on Valium" means for a LBI.
As a LBE myself, I'm finding it hard to slow down enough for my horse. It's a bit like trying to do meditation when doing yoga! Yet, it is probably exactly what I need to do if I am to become a better centered person. How interesting!
I had designed a training schedule which suited me perfectly, we were doing slightly different things everyday while working on the same principles but one day we would play in the playground, the next day in the arena...It was not a problem till I started wanting to do more liberty. LBI loose their confidence quickly at liberty and I had to go really slowly, reward the slightest try, listen to my horse properly and do the same thing everyday, 7 days in row to build his confidence.
This lead to some massive WOW moments for me: First of all, I hadn't truly understood how powerful the pattern were if you really did them 7 days in row. Second of all, I always thought I was pretty good a listening to my horse. Well, let me tell you, the truth comes out at liberty and he told it to me by leaving me, time and time again! I realized that ever so nicely, I was making him do stuff rather than causing him to want to do them. I have had to really change to look after him emotionally. This means that some days, when he is ready at the gate and want to do lots we just go for it while other days it might take 10 min before he wants to be haltered, then another 20 just playing close to the gates, having massages and scratches till we can move on.
The good news is that in our last liberty session, when I took the time it takes and waited for Cisco to be ready to connect with me mentally, emotionally and physically, for the first time ever, he never left me at Liberty and even manage to do a very slow figure of 8 and a couple of yoyos!!!
I still have a long way to go but this is the journey, the road to never ending self improvement towards true harmony!