The process of learning.

I often think, if only I could do everything that Pat or Linda Parelli suggest in their DVDs I would be a great horseman! So what is stopping me?

As a school teacher, I understand the process of learning: You have to be ready! It doesn't matter how great the teacher, if the student is not ready to work with that concept, he just can't learn it. It is very obvious when teaching young children. If you try to teach a child to read the time on a clock before they have assimilate the time concept, it doesn't matter how bright the child, it doesn't matter that they can already read numbers, they just can't learn to read the time.

Trigger

I am discovering, as an adult that it is pretty similar. It is very interesting because now I am on the learner's side of the fence and I consider myself a super learner, always got High Distinction at uni... but with horsemanship, which is quite new for me, I cannot assimilate all the teaching of the Parelli Program by an act of will.
To be a good horseman we have to take the time it takes, just as we do with our horses.

Today I finally got the concept of doing the same program for 7 days in a row. I have heard Pat saying this a hundred times but I just didn't actually properly get it. As a LBE, it doesn't come naturally to me. I want to do too many things at once. For the sake of my horse, I had to make myself do it!
The results have been awesome! Things we have struggled with for months have just got better and I have discovered that in actual fact, I do enjoy the consistency because the reward is in seeing your horse getting better so much quicker.
My horse is so ready to learn that it is hard to keep up! I am looking forward to my next breakthrough.
I just love it when suddenly something you have been hearing for a while becomes part of you!

This is such a fun, exciting journey!

Cisco

writter's block

It's amazing how many time during the week I think of things to write on my blog and then when I finally get the time I go blank! Is that what they call the writer's block?

The last few weeks have been a bit frantic so I should have lots to say. I finished a 6 weeks training block with my 3yo. I try to do 6 weeks then give him at least a couple of weeks off. It's been a great time to reflect on what we have achieved and where we are going. I wrote a new plan for the next 6 weeks. Everything is getting better, softer and more established. Our big break through was with Liberty which is now developing nicely.
While Cisco was having his little horsey holiday, I started playing with Trigger again. I've really enjoyed the change of horsenality. It's quite different playing with a damaged horse. Everyday I have to prove to him that human are not all bad. We start most of our sessions with a horse that has gone so deep within, that he is almost catatonic. We mostly finish with a LBE and often have gone through all the horsenalities in between. Keep me on my toes!
The big new challenge has been my new volunteer position on Parelli Social Media team. It's been a great learning curve in many respects. The most difficult so far has been to try to porcupine myself away from the computer and to keep some form of balance in my life. In my attempt to drag myself away from Parelli Connect, I have started reading again. I am reading Temple Grandin. My mother had given me the book years ago. It's one of her favourite books. When I saw that it was on Pat Parelli reading list, I thought I would give it a go. It is a fascinating insight in the mind of an autistic woman who because of her illness developed a deep understanding of the psychology of prey animals. I am trying to understand what it is like to perceive the world in pictures. What a challenge!
It's been really funny because, in my initial efforts to dissociate my private life to my Parelli life, I've set up a new FB page and a new email address, except that they are both almost identical in their content. I came to realise that there were no longer boundaries between my "normal" life and my "horsey" life, and that the Parelli ethos and philosophy had become my way of life. I can't think of a situation where I do not apply some of my Parelli principles to solve the puzzle.

Well, maybe I did not have writer's block after all!

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!

Moonlit ride

Geraldton has experienced the oddest weather this summer. Hot and muggy for weeks and weeks while it is normally very dry and windy in the summer. Feeling like I've moved to Asia! It's been a bit tough as far as playing with the horses so I took the opportunity of a free night during the full moon to experiment with night time playing.
I am writing this a few days later and since this magic night both my big kids have left for college and my horse is cut off from me due to severe flooding! Not sure what is most painful. Well in all honesty I was prepared for my kids leaving home but psychologically not ready for being cut off from my horse. This is the week where I was going to spend heaps of time at the farm with the horses. Life rarely goes as planned and one of my challenges is to learn to go with the flow (the river flow as it is) and embrace changes. So rather than feeling sorry for myself I am using the free time to do lots of other useful things such as buying a good camera to video my level 3 auditions and reviewing my training program.
Back to the magic of the moonlit night. Got to the farm in time to feed the horses. Some time later as the full moon was rising I went to see if Cisco was ready for a play but he definitely was not. He hardly came to say hi and quickly returned to his hay. So I sat down to enjoy the night. The peace and silence was surreal. After a few minute Trigger came softly to nuzzle me. He was the one wanting to play. So we did some soft yo-yo and HQ disengagements. Everything felt so much softer and slower than during the day. I really loved that! Trigger is my beginner horse who has confidence issues and I felt really privileged that he offered to play at liberty in his paddock while the other horses ate.
Finally Cisco was ready to be haltered so we set off along the tracks playing online as we went. It was the first time ever that we played at night and I just wanted to make sure I didn't barge through any threshold. I found it so much easier to be in tune with my horse and listen to him during the night. Maybe because I had to listen to his breathing a lot more to check on his mental/emotional state. I felt that we were having a proper conversation, lovely.
All was well so I saddled up and we just walked and trotted not too far. I was so pleased that Cisco stayed left brain and never got worried about shadows or anything.
I took Cisco back to his pasture riding him bareback and he was really relaxed with lots of blowing. When we got to the pasture the other horses came cantering towards us. It was a magnificent sight with the moon glowing on their coats and the dust rising behind them looking like smoke. Cisco stayed quietly beside me in no hurry to go back to his pasture buddy.
I am going to try to renew this experience as often as possible. I think I am better at being soft and attentive to my horse in the dark. I love the silence and peace of the night. It was a bit like being under water, in a bubble just Cisco and me.

What I don't understand

Well, really there is lots I don't understand but right now I just don't get why people choose not to do Parelli. I have a bunch of friends who know about Parelli, partly because they hear me talking about it constantly, they see how good my horse is and yet they choose to struggle on with their problem horses. They go over the same problems day after day, they get disillusioned, their children fall off their horses and yet they still make excuse why they can't do Parelli. They seem to think I am just lucky with my horse. Occasionally, I am called to help with theirs.
The last time I tried to help, I was not told the whole story and ended up getting hurt. To cut a long story short, the pony was mistreated when young. The only person he trusts is the young girl who owns it, but she is only 12. He won't let anyone near him and even season local Natural Horsemanship people (non Parelli) have given up on him. Of course I didn't know that and ended being dragged at the end of the 12 feet rope when he took off with me, till I thought of letting go. I was too surprised to react! He is only a 14 hand pony so I didn't expect such extreme RBE. I must have misread him as I only have Left Brain horses. The result of this misadventure is my ego and my behind being bruised! I found out afterward that he does that to everyone except his little girl. Great!
So, I have decided that I am not going to put myself at risk trying to help people unless they want to help themselves. I will kindly direct them to the Parelli website, lend them my videos and it will be up to them.
I have to add to this that after seeing a number of horses who have done a bit of Natural Horsemanship under various trainer, I am not impressed. There is not one program around which is as comprehensive as Parelli.
It's just like Pat says, "People say they don't have the time to do Parelli, but they have the time to do the wrong thing, time and time again"

New Year Resolution

I usually avoid New Year Resolution because they make me feel trapped but this year I feel really clear about my goals. Parelli has given me a much clearer picture of who I am and where I am going and it is with confidence that I can write those lines.
My short term goals are: to become proficient at driving, reversing and hitching my new horse trailer and to start doing some filming in preparation for my level 3.
My long term goal is to save enough money to attend the fast track course in Australia in 2012.
My overarching goal is to become better at applying my horsemanship principle to the human in my life. This, I know is going to be the hardest one for me. My husband watch me playing with my horse and ask me why I couldn't be as patient with my family as I am with my horses. It was a fair comment so I'm taking it on board. So I will strive to translate my horse savvy into human savvy this year.
2010 as been a fantastic year, the start of my Parelli journey, my first horse...I am looking forward to 2011 with an open heart and mind.