Up and down, round and round! or a year with Cisco.

I have become very aware that my moods are a mirror of how happy I am with my horsemanship. The days I don't get to see the horses are a little miserable, the days where we have a wonderful connection, I am flying with eagles and the days where things don't gel, I am down!
It's not so much about what we achieve, it's about how we achieve it. How good is our relationship? how strong is our bond,? Am I the best leader I can be for them. The days we walk back to the paddock and they still want to hang around with me when I take their halter off, are the good days!
I remember reading John Baar's blog on Parelli Central: "Are you happy with your horsemanship? " and I guess it's a blog I need to read again and again and remind myself to be a little more gentle on myself.
I often ask myself what do I really want out this Parelli journey? The truth is that I am extremely ambitious: To become as good as Linda! To become a world class horseman! Stephanie Westall or someone like this.
The reason: Not the fame and not money! I want to be able to develop amazing relationship with horses. That connection is totally addictive. Do I want to become a Parelli Professional? Yes, of course.

Yet, I do enjoy the journey immensely. This is new to me. Usually, when I am driven by a goal, I totally forget to enjoy myself. Now it's the opposite. The goal is there but the little steps along the way bring me happiness.
Today, I bought a Lotto ticket. I only do this once a year. Then I thought what would I do if I won? I would do 3 things: I would invest the money and have a big long think. I love my life and I wouldn't want to turn it upside down overnight.  I would give a generous amount to the Parelli foundation. I would definitely aim to get myself to the Parelli Campus for as long as they would have me!
I got my first horse a year ago so it's a good time to do a little summary. I keep thinking I started Parelli in 2008 but I checked today and it was Christmas 2009. I played with a rescue horse for 6 months till she was a relax happy mare and the friend who had rescued her could find her a permanent home. This gave me the confidence to buy a horse. Cisco arrived in my life as a 2 and a half years old, green started, a real baby, on the 14th of July 2010! It was love at first sight. We did our first clinic, a level 2 clinic, with Louise Atkinson in September 2010. Since then, we have progressed to level 3 in the 3 savvys and are pretty much ready to audition. I have also started playing with yet another abused OTTB, Trigger and he has made dramatic changes. From being a tense sweaty mess, he has become a relax confident horse, nearly all the time, who can be ridden out on the trail safely.
So I guess, I should really feel proud of my achievements but the thing is, I'm not!
So what do I have to be unhappy about? When I watch myself on video, whether riding or online, I am nearly always disappointed! They are a few seconds here and there where it's perfect and then it's gone. Perhaps, it's normal, maybe there is no other way to become excellent than to be highly critical. I guess it's hard to remain objective on oneself. I live in Parelli land, at least virtually, thanks to social medias and Parelli Connect so it's seems normal to me to stand up on your horse or ride bridle less. As soon as Cisco and I achieve a new level of understanding and connection, I am ready to move on the next one.
Conclusion: The journey of never ending self improvement is not for the wimps or  the self-indulgent! The search for excellence is fun, exhilarating, rewarding and will take you up and down and round and round!

Dreams do come true!

It's seems only yesterday since I wrote my new year resolutions! One of them was to write at least one blog a month. I didn't get to write a blog for June but I wrote one for Parelli Central about the Game of Contact so I guess I did write! So I have defaulted a tiny bit but yet, it's been good to revisit my new year resolutions and find out that they have already all been fulfilled and that I have set new bigger better goals in the meantime.
Driving the float has been mastered with much more ease if not grace than expected. I have done a lot of filming to psyche myself for my level 3, some of which is now on my channel on Youtube
and the money for the fast track or whatever other course I will choose is safely in the bank. Wow! I never thought I would achieve all that by July!

The horses love Charlie!

Now being slightly (read: madly) driven I have moved the goal post by another few miles and started looking for land to move in with my horses. This has been very much in the fore front of my consciousness for sometimes but they have been some hurdles. First, my husband wasn't on board, second, we live at the edge of the desert and I want land with trees, vistas, good soil, water and tons of charms! Fussy, me? just a little, but I can't bear taking my horses to a sand pit. Yet, not living with them has been harder and harder to the point that I had to be honest with my husband and tell him that I would make it happen with or without him. I guess, he didn't have much choice, but I know him well enough to be sure that once we are on the land, he will love it and thanks me for "making him". This has been the story of our life! So now, we are looking and waiting for something special to come up and it will!
Something else has been nagging me! I really wanted Charlie to start getting interested in horses. I love spending time with my husband and with my horses and really wanted more than anything to be able to merge the two. It wasn't a nice feeling to be with the horses, while feeling guilty that I should be at home and to be at home, wishing I was with the horses. Well, Charlie had a minor professional disaster which left him for a few months without much to do. After doing lots and lots of cooking and gardening, he finally decided that he would give horsemanship a go, and he loves it! I can't even describe how happy it makes me to be able to go to the horses with my husband! I am already dreaming of going to the Parelli Campus in Pagosa Spring together and perhaps doing some joint demos! The poor man has hardly ever sat in a saddle, but let's not get small details like this stop me! As for my own horsemanship journey? Just wait for the next blog and have a guess.

On top of the world!

When I first started on this wonderful journey, I really never thought I would be where I am now so quickly! Dreams do come true! And then you can start dreaming bigger dreams! I guess I'll never be the content type!!!

Cisco's flying changes!

Cisco is officially a genius! Here, he is doing flying change while being ridden bridle less by is loving but totally ignorant partner (me) : http://www.youtube.com/user/izagreenfield?feature=mhee#p/a/u/0/ulG7rR5q8Qs
OMG! Last night at 5am I could sleep because it was very stormy and I was playing the video we had filmed at the week end,  in my mind and I had BFO: Cisco has been doing flying changes and I hadn't even realised! What on Earth is wrong with me! You'll see in the video at one stage he is disunited in his canter and I was aware of that but he is so well balance that I hadn't even realised that we were doing counter canter and I had missed the flying changes! And there I was wondering how I was going to start teaching him flying changes! LOL. I just would like to crawl in hole right now!
Now why is he doing counter canter is another question that I can't answer. I am pretty sure that we ride in hackamore he canters in the right foot. I really need to get a lot better very quickly with this little horse of mine. He is so talented and amazing and I feel like a complete moron! 

Another BFO!

My brain must be hyper active at the moment, all those BFOs happening!
When I meet people, before I get to know them, I usually have a pretty fair assessment of them and my instinct is often right, but then as I get to know them and develop relationships, emotions often cloud my judgment.  I am a LBE cusp RBE so it must be the RBE side of me!
What I have just realised is that I do the same with horses! How funny is that!
When I first got Cisco I immediately assessed him as a LBE but as we got to know each other and I fell in love with him, he became my little LBI so I spoiled him with treats and incentive! He had me running around at the end of the 22 feet line while he was standing at the middle! LOL
The reality is somewhere in between of course, just as it is with human. He is indeed a LBE as I had thought but cusp LBI!

Is my horse a LBE cusp LBI or a LBI cusp LBE and what does it matter?

I got Cisco nearly a year ago and I feel I know him pretty well. He loves food, doesn't like running very far and when he licks his lips his tongue stays in his mouth. So he must be a LBI. But wait a minute, he also loves putting everything in his mouth and can be quite wilful. Okay, so he is cusp LBE.
Well anyway, that was my diagnostic and I stuck with it and decided that I would treat Cisco like a Left Brain Introvert. Lots of incentive, go as slow or slower than your horse wants, don't push him...This worked more or less well while Cisco was in his 3rd year but then things started being not as good. Nothing dreadful, but I felt that he was loosing respect for me. He didn't come and meet me at the gate as willingly. He was doing less and less and I was doing more and more. Very much like having a teenager in the house, sleeping in till midday and spending every day light hour eating not cleaning up after himself. Horses are such good human trainers! and Cisco had trained me perfectly!

Rather than waiting for things to get worse, I ordered my horsenality report. The computer said:
"Cisco is a LBE cusp LBI" Surely, I know my horse better than a computer program and I must be right! This was my initial reaction. Well, I am a LBE cusp RBE so I know better!
Fast forward a couple of weeks. After reading and re-reading the report, I started seeing a pattern emerging. Actually, yes Cisco was perhaps more LBE than LBI! Maybe I was wrong!
So I started treating him like a LBE. I paid a lot more attention to what he was doing and realised that he had been challenging my leadership in very subtle ways time and time again and I had done nothing about it because I didn't want to upset my 500 Kg baby! In horse world, everything means something but I had been too blind with love for my horse to see it! And the results? We have so much more fun! and Cisco is now offering to do things that we have struggled with for months such as figure of 8 or canter circles.
As for my humanility match report? I am not going to reveal all my secrets right now, but let's say that it was amazing and a little spooky to read about myself in such details!

From Natural Horsemanship to Natural Bee Keeping!

I have a couple of hives at the bottom of the garden. I've kind of inherited them but the thing is: I'm dead scared of bees!

Today I had to rob my hives and had a few "Oh Boys!" moments. First of all, the Queen had decided to move in "upstairs"in the boxes where normally there is only honey. This meant that the whole hive had to be taken apart and reassembled. So, rather than the fairly straight forward process, which although still a bit scary, I have learn to deal with, I ended up with a whole hive of bees flying around and wondering what on Earth was happening to them. I started feeling more and more anxious and bees like most wild animals react to fear and not in a positive way! I normally sing gently to soothe them as much as me but this afternoon, my throat was dry with fear.

My first thought was: "What would I do if it was a horse?" Approach and Retreat, of course. So I moved back and retreated to the safety of the bushes till I felt calm enough. Each time my fear crept back, I walked backward. It was very much like playing the yoyo game except that I was the horse! By the time I had finished with both hives I was calm and composed and actually in the moment enjoying the peaceful hum of my little workers who had settled down by then. This is the first time in 3 years of bee keeping that I got to that level of peace and serenity working the hive!
My point is that I have reached the place where; whenever something unsettling comes my way, my instant reaction is to turn back to my horsemanship. The question is simple: "What if it was a horse?" and the answer always comes straight to my mind.

Pat Parelli Proudly Presents "Colt Starting Naturally"

I thought I would type my notes from the colt starting event and share them with you:

Day 1 Session: Colts are 2 backyard Colts and Colts from Atwood Ranch, plus another colt that has been handled a bit.  
Pat explain the process of education for a horse: Taming, Starting, Foundation, Specialisation. 
Taming may happen at Birth during imprinting. It must happen before Starting. The horse has to be convinced beyond the Shadow of a doubt that you are not going to kill him.  

As Pat kept saying, horses are not scared of predators they are scared of predatory behaviour!
That is why, you can see on different occasion the colt starters kneeling down in front or on the side of their colt.


5 things you shouln't do:

1. Catch them anyway you can
2. Saddle and get on
3. Kick them to start
4. Pull them to stop
5. Pull on their mouth to turn

The skeleton of Starting a horse is the same for every horse:

1. Accept the Human
2. Accept the Saddle     
3. Accept the Rider
4. Accept the bit 

The preschool program at Atwood Ranch involve the 7 games,  bare back pad and saddle, colts have been already sat on once of twice. They are happy to have they fit trimmed. By the time they get started they are ready to ride.

Basically, the colt starting process is very similar to level 1.

• Lots of friendly using the tools: Carrot stick and line.
• Rubbing horse legs, pick feet
• Disengaging HQ. 
• Whenever your horse turn and face you, walk away

Pat set the colt starters 5 tasks for this session:

• Green ball on back  
• Stand and walk on tarp
• Jump barrels
• Front feet on pedestal
• Load in trailer.

Once the colts have accepted the human on the ground then the colt starters jump across their backs. They have to lift the hand that holds the line to stop the drift. With their other hand they rub the colt other flank where they leg will be once they sit astride. That looked really hard! The next steps are to swing legs, then lie down with knees together, kneel or stand on colt, then sit astride. Walk bend stop relax! How do you keep your energy down and stay relax? This, I really don't know. I think my heart would be racing and I would be full of adrenaline by this stage!

A similar process is repeated first with the bare back pad then the saddle. The cinch is progressively tightened. First no cinched at all till the horse can relax then move to the next step.



By the end of this session, most colts had accepted the rider!