BA lunged Try and I in lotsa saddles

BA and I had watched some Walter Zettl footage and saw someone lunging a horse/rider as an independant seat exercise. I said that looked like fun sooooooo for today's lesson BA lunged Try and I (i.e. bridleless) in various saddles to compare.

1. dressage saddle: walk, jog, trot felt good--canter did not feel secure--sitting on balance point and relaxing legs down.

2. next close contact saddle: canter at 2 point felt solid--not as much sitting. Then I lunged Try and BA and she said my saddle is too slippery--I MOST definately agree.

3. Got baretek--but BA said no--get parelli bareback pad. The best canter of the day--used muscles from above the knee to inner thigh lightly, sat the canter, forward posture.

Did not do western saddle.

Consider: IF I am not in western saddle, how do I canter on my balance point--do I use leg muscles or just let them relax completely????????

I vote for more days in the week.

Lovely day with Try--beautiful weather. Round pen--catch me game--she is still stopping and looking at me--I need to film and ask Dan. Riding: standard warmup + 6 laps no stirrups--harder today than last week. After Try said ok thats it--session over as other horses leaving ring. I didn't feel I could leave it like that nor was I up to canter laps so went to the 2 circle pattern and played with bending on the circle and drop to walk canter lead changes--Try was up at first then settled in and concentrated nicely. I love this Try girl.

Fun Riding Lesson

Last week BA and I watched 1/2 of L4 freestyle dvd. So today BA taught lesson on the yoyo game. Western saddle but bridleless: phases seat, leg, leg, string around the neck. walk halt walk transitions, walk halt back, then walk trot halt, trot halt back etc.

I am reminded to take my time and think--keep my basics clean. Also not to get emotional as Try's life comes up.

after the non hurricane

Friday: L4 circling game variations and non hurricane aftermath. Returned all the many Parelli toys to the play area. Horses came in Thur about 11 am spent the night in--got back out about 7 and back in about 8am.

Try was hungry and unhappy so it took a little while to help her relax. We went into the paddock beside the ring and played games slowly at first, then building intention--circling, sideways, yoyo--until she began to change gears mentally.

Then went to the ring and walked around passenger--check out the jump standards that were all down, the lack of grass and nasty old hay bales.

I studied the L4 freestyle dvd chapter on circling in the am so had something new for us to play with. Set out two cones and drew intersecting circles to form a figure 8. According to plan we walked the circles for a bit until Try figured out the pattern and I did not need to cue except an occasional bit of leg--had intended to use 2 carrot sticks but did not get to it. We walked and trotted circles and figure 8's with the change from one circle to another coming with my shoulder/seat as the cue--Try was just LOVELY at this and my bend in my body helped her bend on the circle as well. Would be good to film some soon. Anyway, what a smart girl. Also cantered both--felt the circles were a bit small but remembered smaller circles are part of L4--did drop to walk changes as Pat showed in the video but probably could have done flying (limping) changes just as well.

Did not get to the bullseye in and out--I want to play with this in all gaits from leg alone.
Also did not play with weight back on HQ to move FQ

Lateral flexion and indirect rein lighter.
Canter stop back relax was great.
bowtie in the figure 8
7 step soft feel--Try did not react

Lovely Day with Try in anticipation of hurricane

I was nervous about hurricane--you never know--so went to barn and had lovely ride with Try that made me feel so much better. I thought she might be a bit up about coming storm but nope. We walked around for while, then trot, then played with the canter a bunch of ways, including stop/back/relax, lead changes. Also 7 step soft feel was nice I think. The indirect rein ?? I don't know exactly--she wasn't leaning on rein exactly nor really soft but went from one to another so it made the concept of phases confusing.

Love vs. Fear

So much of horsemanship is about me—my fitness mentally, emotionally and physically and being a “better” self for my horse. Thus, the benefits are obvious of preparing my frame of mind: such as relaxation and visualization before heading out to the barn, using touching and loving Try as a means to be relaxed and centered, focused and self assessment when I get home—how did it go today?

This brings together learning from past experiences such as the concept of Fear vs. Love. When all I feel is love—that lovely warm, cozy “buzz.”, the session at the barn with Try is guaranteed to be wonderful. Conversely, any negativity on my part is fear driven and going to affect my relationship with Try. Love promotes awareness on a greater level of what both of us are thinking and feeling. Love promotes the freedom of joy, improvisation and my confidence. Negativity or fear: examples are feeling adversarial toward Try—that I must win, or direct line—I must win now. Another example is negative self talk –i.e. that I have failed by not achieving whatever goal.

Some strategies that may help include constant conscious awareness of where I am on the love/fear scale. The same depth of awareness of what Try is feeling. Relaxation and friendly for us both, dwell time, grazing, passenger time, grooming and bathing, doing the opposite of the expected. Also acting class repetition game to help me be aware of both of us on a deeper level, watching my facial expression—does it say “You are so beautiful, I just want to give you a big hug”? Another is focus on light cueing, how light is light, make vs. want and ambassador of yes. Also what is fun for Try?—eating, showing off, new learning, new places and sometimes exuberant movement or just hanging out and being rubbed. Or, what are we going to do today that is new?

Big project completed!

Kudos to me--printed two books of blogger and clinic notes. Went thru each and pulled out stuff to consider and todos--sorted them into categories and added them to study file on my hard drive.

yesterday watched 1/2 of L4 freestyle with BA for some ideas for Thursday's lesson. Dwell time with Try in round pen area--grazing, grooming, 2 soft asks for draw--good, then wet wash rug to cool, relax both of us.

tomorrow--depending on how soon we get rain from hurricane--lesson bridleless with western saddle and sticks--have not done that per say in some time. Should be fun!