I am the worst blog owner in history! It's been a really long time since my last post and I apologize profusely.
There is a lot to update you guys on and I know I've been procrastinating like mad.
But, I feel like I've eased back into a good routine and now that I'm not ridiculously sleep deprived I am sane enough to recall and record. Bear with me!

I'll start where I left off.
The Jax tour stop was amazing! I feel like I saw everything in a new light and I really got the most from it.
I'm getting anxious for the '09 Celebrations! My mom and I are planning on going to the one in Lakeland (of course.) Mostly because the Parellis are almost always in Florida right around my birthday. In '09 the Celebration will take place on my actual birthday! Talk about a great present, right?
Moving right along..
The trip back up from Jacksonville was long and tiring but we had some fun along the way (with my intense family, how could you not?!)
Fran stayed at my house until the evening of the 24th and the time she spent here with 'Bug (or should I say Farrah?*) and I was extremely valuable.
*Fran said that my darling is actually Farrah Green in horse form, haha! Hence the new nickname. I'll take it, Farrah is an awesome person and somehow the name fits my 'Bug.*
One of the biggest problems I think I had was transferring all that I had learned in WI, into working with my own horse.
"Affection changes your ability to view situations (and in my case, my horse) objectively."
I believe that's a twisted Fran-ism.
But we figured most of it out.. I'm getting better and better at reading 'Bug now and knowing what kind of a leader to be and when to change it up..

I'll post some quotes from Fran and then elaborate on each one.

Speaking of Lady "Well innately, she's very much an LBE and she's got tendencies as a very stressed, emotional, explosive RBI. She grinds her teeth and launches herself in the air..."

It turns out that BF (Before Fran, haha) I had been reading far too much into Lady's behaviors. I was also trying to stick her into one quadrant with this "DON'T COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES!" mentality that really wasn't helping the relationship.
I've now changed from that mentality to this:
"Hmm.. Okay, so I know my horse is a playful, snotty, mouthy LBE innately. So I'll treat her as such until she shows me differently. Change yourself when she changes."
The difficult revelation for me was:
I know how to read a horse and I already know what I can do. I need to just do it, whatever it is!
When I think this way it allows me to be more fluid and 'in the moment' when I'm out there playing. I've noticed a change in her response to me since I've started treating her this way. There is a lot less stress, anxiety and fear on my part and because of this I feel like I'm coming off as a stronger, more confident leader. Someone worth coming to see! When I'm out there.. Sometimes I shock myself by changing up my game plan without thinking when she starts to lose confidence or become stressed and the potential disaster is over before it has begun.
Speaking of stressful RBI flips,
I'm learning how to spot what happens before what happens, happens.
Usually she'll start moving around and doing what I ask.. and then she'll become braced and her eyes seem unfocused, she may even strain against the halter a bit. I've been stopping it there. (I'm really proud of that!)
Then comes the displaced behaviors. Which for her is the teeth grinding and launching herself into the air. This is how she earned her 'silly bay kite' title! :)

Speaking of me "She needs to get her own emotions under control, and then redirect the high level of energy to something constructive that'll keep (Lady's) mind from getting stressed/RBI."

If you've seen L+HB, you've heard Linda mention how some students pull an arrow out of their 'quiver of knowledge', look at it, throw it on the ground and stomp on it without even using it. Rinse and repeat.
I was doing this! I'd panic and my brain would freeze. The real irony here is that my brain would freeze because I was trying to use it in the wrong way at the wrong time. I need to have access to my quiver without taking it off of my back and sorting through it to find a specific arrow and then thinking it over and then comparing it to other arrows and then sorting through the 'what if's' and then.. blah blah blah! Meanwhile my horse is standing there looking at me like I'm a loon.
"There's no way I'm listening to you. You don't even have your stuff together!"

I've changed from that to "I know what to do. What do you think about this?!" -Flings arrow.-
When I run out of arrows.. I bring her in and play Friendly Game!
It's just not a big deal anymore. (How cool is that?!)

The first time Fran watched me play with Lady was a very raw session for me. Fran saw everything. My fears, my insecurities, my doubts.. I was borderline hysterical for the first half of the session because I couldn't use my knowledge and the worst part was that I couldn't explain it. All I could do was use my brain in the wrong way by over analyzing and setting myself up for failure. Fran finally got me to turn and talk to her while circling Lady and within a few minutes my mind was open and guess what happened next?

Lady started blowing out. She began releasing adrenaline and tension like crazy and Fran turned to me, smiled and said "You're coming off of adrenaline. Know how I know? Because your horse is coming off of adrenaline."
It really sent me for a loop. In that second I realized that.. I knew that. I also knew that horses mirror their people. The information was flowing from my mind like wine and for once I could use it in the right way. I had access to my knowledge again and I had a horse on the end of my line. (Imagine that!) After that.. things became steadily easier.

I focused more on my techniques and added numerous arrows into my quiver.
One of my personal favorites would have to be learning how my emotions directly correlate to the energy I'm sending out to Lady.
There are two kinds of high energy.

There is this kind:
"Oh my goodness, GET AWAY FROM ME, PLEASE. Don't jump on me! AAACK!"
and then there's..
"No, no!! Don't run through my space, go that way.. Let's go do something! YES, that's it. We gotta play!"

I learned that when I LAUGH and remind myself that we're PLAYING. My emotions are under my control. I don't panic and I'm not scared. I'm playing and having a blast.

Fran also rode Lady, which was amazing to watch. I was soo proud of my girl and I was so glad that Fran was the one who rode her. My horse is a great bender when she wants to be for instance; when there are toes to gnaw on. -Snort.-
So much more happened in that short week but, I've covered the large, important things. I'm still gathering my thoughts and there is no way I'll be able to record all of it.

My next goal is to continue playing with Lady with the few patterns that I know.
We're becoming better at the figure eight pattern and I'm figuring out new ways to make it interesting for her.
We're also working on driving from zone 3 (put your nose on it) and yielding her forequarters.
Sideways and squeezing over barrels, oh my!
We're also constantly working on friendly game with her legs. She had a farrier visit the other day and she did amazingly! Getting better all the time. :)

Anyway, I'm off to clean a little bit and unpack the boxes that were shipped from WI.
(I knoow... I've really been slacking off!)

Thanks for reading and I promise to blog again soon.

Katie