Vacation

Took a little time off from the barn last week with knee injury. Frustrating at first then realized it was a good mental break, time to catch up on stuff. Hosted play day group at my house on Saturday with topic of patterns--study, discussion, simulations, time to visit and great eats. Now I am stoked to get back to the barn to see Try and hopefully Keystone--surely he will be well enough for at least a little On Line play.

Rode my first real buck!

Monday--started slow with some nice liberty, stick to me, fig 8, circling transitions etc. Followed by standard workout in close contact saddle for my strength--i.e. 2 point, posting trot, no stirrups posting trot laps. Then canter but Try was feeling super exuberant and was cantering very fast (hand gallop??) and ignoring rein aids, sooo I went to the western saddle so I could encourage her to explore her need to move.  I think the change of saddles ticked her off--that she thought she was done--so when we cantered again she gave me my first real buck--cantered a couple more laps before going to the round corral. We played with the circling game/stopped asking Bethanna if I should go back and ride again--she said yes--so we played some more liberty circling until Try let me know she had the p--- and vinegar out of her system. We went back to canter in western saddle in the ring and it was lovely--turns largely from eyes bellybutton etc.  Big day!!

I think we are renegotiating our relationship. I just feel the desire to be more assertive, energetic and want Try to come along with me. If its not her idea, she would like to try some intimidation to maintain the status quo. I think anyway......

canter bareback cloverleaf

Highpoint of the day: I cantered the cloverleaf pattern bareback. Part of the developing self confidence goals for July.

Liberty: was a bit lacking in particularity as I was tired and low energy--Try was really laid back also. I had set out a group of strongid buckets--Try immediately went to them and started weaving--2nd day--we are really close. stick to me turn pretty good--low energy. pedestal--Try offered so we played with walking across--stepped off the the side again.

Freestyle bare back pad: Try was awesome. So much is happening from body weight--eyes belly button and lightly leg. Including sideways over some cones, and turn on the haunches. We did passenger walk for awhile, then posting trot on the rail with stops in the shade, serpentines and clover leaf.

patterns

Try and I have been using cloverleaf and question box patterns to help find a nice relaxed, positive canter gait (no pinned ears). Today I had the idea of a reverse on the rail/circle in the corners pattern--Bethanna helped us with it and it blew Try's mind at first--was good because it took mental energy from us both and Try was relaxed and had a positive attitude and quickly settled into a relaxed trot after cantering.

The pattern: trot/canter on the inside track along one side of the ring--posting or picking up the canter lead opposite from the one you would use on the rail--then go back to the rail to circle and repeat on the remaining three sides. It is good also because it mixes circles and straight lines equalize go and whoa.

  

A Little Liberty

Still catching up with myself and low energy so Try and I played together with a little liberty in the round play pen.

We played stick to me with lots of transitions especially my turning and asking Try to speed up to stay at my shoulder--for future reference, this was way better on her left side. We went back on line occasionally so Try would understand the game.

Try offered the pedestal (and other touch its) so we played with the idea of walking across. She did move her back feet to touch the pedestal and step down in front with front feet then walked off sideways rather than walk across with her back feet.

We played circling game: downward transitions once Try was cantering took a little time tho--downward using draw to me or game over HQ look were great.

We finished with a lovely bath on the hot day to get rid of the salty dried sweat that I think makes her cranky. Certainly a cool bath on a hot day is very relaxing for Try.

Stuff to chew on

Monday we played a little On Line in the shady parts of the ring and then did no stirrups in close contact saddle and then Try was so lovely and exuberant I switched to the western saddle so I would not be holding her back from expressing her LBE self.

Things I considered as we played:
1. Try makes assumptions as a basic tenet of our play--she learned something new then plays the game without asking ?s as much as she could--this is an expression of dominance. I can help with this without making either of us unhappy by changing things up more i.e. varying the sideways/squeeze or fig8/weave.
2. As we up the ante physically in our play, the dominance may become more active as well and it will be good to watch for this for safety reasons.
3. I had not realized it but Try has subtle and not so subtle ways to intimidate a human to seek dominance in a relationship. Good to ID these: i.e. little bucks or going fast at the canter, ear pinning, little nips at the rope or whatever.
4. Another way to assert dominance is the little passive aggressive stuff i.e. being less particular about how we do things such as HQ lagging on the sideways game. I can begin to watch for these.

Yesterday we checked out friendly--pretty good but not fully relaxed. We did change Try's cranky state of mind when I arrived in the pasture to much more relaxed. Porcupine--just a little and great response to phase 1. yoyo--really getting it from just the finger. driving z3--good response--carrot/stick at zone3 and Try ready to go. Did sideways--just a touch off the quality of last time--mixed it up with squeeze and Try was confused. Some traveling circles, turns, change of direction w/me being sure to back up.  Then no stirrups and canter.

Played with concepts from May mastery dvd

Pat: Balance & Counterbalance On Line and Liberty


Unhalter bringing head to you/hip moves HQ into drive HQ with rope and halter leading right into stick to me to maintain the relationship--this was good. Keep walking on rail in stick to me and throw string over horses back--this is new for us--a little awkward.

Change of sides from HQ yield and just change the stick from one hand to the other:{Change of direction: I back and redirect} Play w/this some more.

This horse gets sticky feet and doesn’t follow: Run backwards as counter exercise for the fact that this horse doesn’t want to come forward from a standstill. This worked really well--good to use this a lot.

Sideways game: Same as online, walk like a monster, use appropr pressure Z1/Z4, stick Ze UNDER the belly, chg sides by diseng HQ and bring around. Went great--did not need to correct a lagging HQ after Berin comment--tag then stop and wait so she can consider.

Squeeze   Squeeze through, turn face wait. If horse tips his nose too soon—use little finger flicks at the nose to cut him--Try didn't give me the chance to try the flicks but great to build into repertoire. Easier w/log at the rail--easy cross/turn face/ and offered sideways towards.