I was reading over all my past blogs and I stumbled accross this old checklist of all the things I wanted to be able to do with Lady and all of the things I needed.

I just read this checklist for the first time in two + years and everything on it has been accomplished. Funny how things work out, right?

Seeing this has inspired me to make a new checklist so, here we go!
Short term goals first:

1. Film a Level 1 audition with Lady and send it in sometime within the next three days.
2. Start trying to accomplish some of the self-assessment tasks for Online Level 2.
3. Take a week to focus on and work towards a solid Level 2 Figure 8 with Lady.
4. Focus on our sideways game for a few sessions.
5. Film a solid Level 2 Online audition with Lady and send it in before October, 2010.
6. Keep trying to find a good home for Bailey.
7. Become more fit for my horses.

And then some of my long term goals:

1. Find a way to start riding! I'm ready to start exploring that savvy... with a sane and willing partner, that is.
2. Make enough money for a Parelli Saddle & all the fittings.
3. I'd also reaaally love a 45' line!
4. *STAY* fit for my horses.
5. Pass Level 2 and get my blue string.
6. Start playing in Level 3 Online and Liberty. (Need roundpen!)
7. Spend some time at Cardinal Ranch
8. Spend some time in Wisconsin with Fran again.
9. Find a way to get some Private Lesson time with a Parelli Instructor!
10. Acquire a truck and trailer.
11. Attend a course at the Colorado ISC.
12. Go to college for either Equine Sciences or Zoology.
13. Find a way to make money EXCLUDING Retail & Fast Food industries. (Never doing that again if I can help it.)
14. Have a successful career with horses! Training/Breeding/Raising/Teaching/Vetting/Massaging/Riding/ANYTHING!
15. BE HAPPY.
16. BREATHE WHILE I DO IT!

Haha. It's a long list but, I want it all. Now... in this situation the only element I can't control is time. So now that I've written this all down, I'm going to forget about it and keep moving forward.

Wish me luck!

Katie.

Pat Parelli is a genius, a horseman and.. a total goober.

Well, some of you might know the horror stories about both of my horses and trailer loading. For those of you who don't, I'll summarize it for ya.

The first day the previous owners tried to load Lady onto the trailer to get her to me, she was to the point that they went through 6 full doses of bute and she was STILL rearing, running backwards and pulling back hard enough to pull the guys off their feet. Day 2, they had no problems.

When Bailey got to me he was frozen, shaking and literally dripping with sweat from everywhere. Like he had been hosed down and it was chilly on that day, as well so I read it as seriously emotional.

So I haven't even thought about a trailer until I felt we had a pretty stable relationship. Here are some pictures of our old, rusty open trailer that I'm introducing first as a toy [Not for hauling them, just for playing.] And you might notice some photos of my assistant teacher who I can proudly load into ANYTHING from 20 feet away. After seeing that, they just couldn't resist coming over to inspect! [; Hope you enjoy!







And just when they thought things couldn't get weirder... *I* loaded *myself* into the trailer!







Isn't that the sweetest face you've ever seen? And of course my wonderful assistant!



Thanks for looking, hope you enjoyed it! Also, I'd like to share that Lady actually put her foot on the trailer for a few seconds. The big goober... but, that might have had something to do with the random treat she found lurking on the little ramp. Hmmm... wonder how that got there? ;D

K.

"Somebody said to [Stephenie Burns] "Is there ever going to be a day when I can just get on my horse?"
"Because this horse tests me all the time and although I've come a long way she's really challenging and is that ever going to change?"

To which Stephenie replied "Isn't that the meaning of horsemanship? That's the journey. If you don't want to do that then get a motorbike."
Because if you want to make progress you've got to have something to do it with. You can pick an easy horse, and some of you have and you're probably really smart. And some of you have picked challenging horses and some very challenging horses. And some of you have decided that's what you wanna do and you don't care what it takes, you're going to learn to savvy it and you're prepared for what it takes. that's a real student.
Now, if you give up and go 'i can't do that anymore i need something easier' there's no love lost in that; there's no shame in that. you've gotta go 'who do i have to be to play with this horse?' and I want to be what it takes to play with this horse. I want to be good enough for this horse. He's a superb animal, he's got so much potential. But, he can only be as good as I am. And so I'll work on myself. Every day. Every day in every way. But, I'm weird. I am not normal. "

- Linda Parelli on challenging horses & Allure.


I found this video in the Savvy Club vault of Linda playing with Allure from '06. She was showing a group of students what she had to do to get Allure ready to ride and she talked about how far she had come with him and how far she had yet to go.. The quote up there is from the very end of the video and it really struck home with me.
I think it might possibly be one of the best things that has ever come from that wonderful woman's mouth. It really made me think about my journey.

I am guilty of comparing my journey to other people's journies.
I am guilty of underestimating my horse and myself. (Sometimes grossly underestimating.)
I am guilty of being an 'avoidaholic'.
I also have become a person who is so afraid of failure that I stopped trying.

Coming face to face with these facts about myself has been a four year long process. I kept us back because I was afraid. I'm still afraid... of so many things. But, I'm not going to use that as a crutch anymore.
I've made a decision. A real decision, mind you. To march forward and trust that everything will work itself out.

I'm done underestimating my horse because it's not fair to her. She's brilliant and she's not the same 'crazy, scary, psycho' horse that I bought a few years back.. She's changed and we've grown together.
There is so much learning to be done. She can do it! I'm the one who's having the most trouble. I remember that horse.. I haven't seen that horse in a long time, but I remember and I am afraid. I know that I need to at least give her a chance to try the tasks we've been avoiding. So, that's our new plan. We're going to stop avoiding the things I was positive would 'blow her up' because I can deal with it with savvy. That's where the underestimating myself comes in...

We can do anything and everything with time. I've acquired my stick-with-it-ness. I'll continue to acquire information, God knows I've got enough sources available to me!

So it's time to use them and progress.

It's time to let go of 'that horse' and 'that Katie' because they're not here any longer. Now it's me and her and we're growing every day.

On a side note, I hope everyone had a great, safe Holiday and thanks so much for reading.

K.

As promised, here's some more info on the big Horsenality breakthrough I had with Ladybug which has proven to be one of the most important realizations I've ever had..

Yesterday; the same day I had that huge breakthrough with Bailey, I played with 'Bug for the first time in a few weeks since I'd become frustrated with her and our serious lack of communication which I now understand was because I was misreading my horse!

One of the first things she did was throw a tantrum. Now, this girl is wonderfully athletic! She was pulling back, rearing, bucking and trying her hardest to get away from me and back to her herd. But, because I did so much studying during our time apart I noticed something I wouldn't usually have noticed and I responded in a totally different way.. There's a fifty-fifty chance, right?!

Well, this time I was right. (FINALLY!)

She was throwing a left-brain tantrum, of course. I already knew that.. but when I said "You want to move? OKAY! Let me help you!" and proceeded to send her into a lot of crazy patterns and then starting running with her myself.. she stopped and gave me the most attention I've ever got out of this horse and she didn't want to move anymore. In fact, she didn't want to move at all. This is when a theory appeared:

What if.. this ridiculously smart horse has figured out that if she moves her feet and throws these tantrums that I'll leave her alone? What if my horse is a total Left-Brain Introvert who has used her thinking power to wiggle her way out of another thing she didn't want to do? That thing of course being play with me.

I took that theory, applied some techniques that went hand in hand with it and the rest of the lesson went really well, ending on a decent note and I vowed to give it some thought and play with this idea again today.

SO, today I went out there super early and set things up.. I hid treats around randomly in/on/under certain objects and then I hid some more in my back pockets. (This horse is seriously food oriented and I feel like I'm just now starting to grasp how to use this for my advantage.)
By then, both horses were just dying to know what I was doing and I noticed that today as opposed to yesterday, Lady stayed to be haltered first. Usually it's the "You'll have to chase me!" "Oh, what horse?" game.

Not today. I think she wanted to know what else I had up my sleeve. Using more LBI-friendly techniques throughout our playtime earned me the most lovely, sweet, curious, ENTHRALLED look I have ever got out of her. CONSISTENTLY! I was interesting! I made it worth her attention AND I challenged her brain with a few patterns and she tried so hard for me. We also started fixing the issue we had been having with a crooked yo-yo and ineffective phases. (THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP, FRAN!) I now have more awareness of my body and a totally different 'creepy uncle that tickles you' mindframe. "I'm gonna get you!" with my phase one and it has really made a huge difference. Not to mention the changes in my sense of humor! She's such a funny horse!

Our ending note was the greatest bit; she had two feet on the tire and I fed her the two treats that I saved for her in my pockets and it blew her mind. Looots of friendly on the tire and that's where I took her halter off. I was so happy with how the session went that I was ready for it to end. I backed away from the tire and she followed me and STUCK to me like glue. I tested it a little by walking forward, stopping and backing up and she was right there with me with no halter, mirroring me.
She wanted to be with me! I feel so accomplished and tuned into my horse. It rocked!

I also spent a lot of time just hanging out with the two of them today.. my little cousin tagged along and we brushed Bailey down until he fell asleep. It was some good bonding time and I feel like the whole day has just been great. I'm considering filming my Audition junk tomorrow and then Sunday, the 4th is my mom's birthday! So we're headed to the beach for the day and I can't wait. Yay, good stuff! Boo, allergies!

*So this is the copy and pasted entry I posted on the Savvy Club Forum earlier today about the big breakthrough with Bailey. I will add onto it since this is my blog and I'm allowed to be a little long-winded. ;D


*Hey guys! Some of you might know about the little paint horse my mom bought a few months back.. You also might have heard about how much trouble I was having with him when I first started playing with him!

Well, along the way these past few months I have found out some very interesting things about this little guy and today we had a big breakthrough I just had to share.. (I'd really like to know if any of you can relate!)

My main Level's partner Lady is a very LBI/E dominant kinda gal who loves to make me work harder than she does and knows EXACTLY how to get out of doin' stuff she doesn't want to do and so of course she had me Phase4ing so much that my arm near 'bout fell off every time I went out to play. That's what I was used to! I was so frustrated and she'd always PUSH my buttons and win all the time.. But, thanks to this little paint horse, everything about me is changing.

At first he was so dull (or so I thought.) I thought he was exactly like her, I thought he needed me to work for respect and show him who the leader was and why I was worthy of that position like I had to do with her..

So, when I threw a few little tests his way to see how he responded to me being his leader.. He exploded.

Here I had this giant pushy, pully, dominant mare and she had never pulled a 22 ft rope out of my hands and then this little guy comes along and before I even know what's happened he's GONE and so is my longest rope.(Thanks, Parelli for giving me hands that open quickly!)

Major shock on my part so, I let it go. I spent weeks learning about him and just spending time with him. He turned into this horse who was ALWAYS in my pocket, liked to nibble and bite just to see what I'd do and some days he had the cutest, most curious expression on his face and other days his cribbing is incredibly similar to my granddaddy's chain-smoking and he's got that hardness in his eyes and mouth. On a side note, this horse came here with an bad-banana to the extreme posture and horrible muscle atrophies all along the underside of his neck, a serious don't-touch-me-there spot right under his jawline and a very sore and weak back. So, I'm taking these to be key clues as to how he was treated in the past considering I know NOTHING as far as that goes.. While this horse was revealing himself to me, I figured out I needed his trust. Judging from his physical state and mental/emotional reactions to certain things I am guessing that trust is something he hasn't really known and that he's been forced. Quite a bit. I knew he was an introvert. I thought he was Left brain, turns out he's right brain.. That was the first big shocker

By taking the time to get to know him and figuring out his horsenality, I found out that he's incredibly sensitive when asked. This revelation blew my mind.

I never gave this horse the chance to respond. I assumed he wouldn't so I piled the pressure on and within seconds he was gone.

When I tested this theory and tried my techniques today..I found out if I put a TEASPOON too much pressure on him, he'll sull up, brace against me, pull back, lose all faith in me and I have to work really hard to get it back.

And I do mean a teaspoon. I've never met a horse this sensitive with such drastic changes from light, responsive, beautifully curious, trusting, WILLING to hard, braced, biting, kicking, disrespectful, FEARFUL, tight and DEFENSIVE in two seconds flat.

Today, after I grasped this concept and learned where his phase 1 was... we started AND learned all the basic games except sideways and circle.. all with a phase 1.. His phase 1. He's AMAZING and I feel so accomplished because after the session he was so relaxed I took his halter off from my knees and he kept his head down there with me until he was nearly asleep.

I gained his trust; I spoke his language and I found the curious, light horse just dying to be played with.

This is a huge step forward for us and I'm so excited for our future.

Bailey isn't the only one who has given me startling BFO's today. (BFO: Blinding Flashes Of The Obvious.)
Next post is going to be focused on Lady and our Horsenality breakthrough.
But, I think this is going to be it for tonight. I need some rest!

Night, folks!

K.

Well, helloooo! I hope you enjoy the new layout and music.. not to mention the picture of my shaggy ponies from this past Winter. They thought their newest toy was very interesting.. especially now that it's filled with dirt and they can stand on it! I also swear they're looking tons cleaner and super-shiny now that summer is in full swing.

So much has happened since I shut down this blog. From colic scares to roadtrips to new boots and jobs all around. I can say that everything is stable right now and where my horses are concerned; things are AWESOME. We've come a long way and I've got so much to write about but for right now we'll start with this introduction. My next post is going to be a pre-written entry concerning Bailey (the little painted guy) and how much he's taught me on the subject of lightness. Then I'm going to fill you in on the big Horsenality updates concerning 'Bug and THEEEEEN.. -deep breath.- my plans and ideas for my next play sessions. I'm so excited to have this blog back up and running now that I FEEL like writing again.

That's it for the intro. Onto entry numero dos... What, did you think I was going to do it later?! It's only 10:23 pm. ;)

Oh, by the way... THANKS FOR HANGING IN THERE, FOLLOWERS AND FRIENDS. (:
K.