on Saturday night Elvira got a call from her best fries, Bas, from home. He told her he was planning to visit for the week as a surprise for her birthday and wanted to come on Monday! Cindy's boyfriend, Robin, and her sister, Jorina, were also coming for the week.
On Sunday we played with our horses as usual and me and Elvira had a talk with Marie-Claire about the possibility of attending Church. Marie-Claire told us that this week she would have a friend and her daughter to stay for three days, the vet was visiting, so was the osteopath and on Wednesday a TV crew were truning up to do a piece on du Plessis for the regional news!
Paris has been on top form this week - he has been so cool with being ridden bridleless in the arena that i felt confident enough to ask him to jump and he did! he didn't get emotional about it or lose his rythm or anything! on wednesday when the film crew came Marie-Claire asked me to ride Paris bridleless for them and after he had shown how amazing he is i felt happy enough to stand up on his back! we then went for a "trail ride" with the camera crew telling us to trot here and there and go through the densest thickets of trees. Paris was amazing just following the slightest change in my focus. i was riding him with a thraflex under the bareback pad and he was so comfortable that when i asked for trot he went into a real trot and i was having to work hard on myself to be able to sit it. i could tell he would like to have cantered but i was able to use my seat and occasionally the neck string to remind him to keep attention on me and stay in trot, even when Elvira cantered passed bridleless on Indy as the horses headed in the direction of home!
yesterday when i went to play with Paris he was somewhat emotional. he was sweating up where he stood and had runny poop. he was having trouble focusing and was extremely tense. i took him in the arena and decided to use the falling leaf pattern to get his mind back and give him something to focus on. Marie-Claire came in and asked me what was going on and i told her. we were both surprised at how emotional he was being. Marie-Claire asked me to use transitions instead of change of direction and at first i started playing the transition game where i invite him to make a downward transition and if he misses it i speed him up. Marie-Claire said that was too much for him at the moment and that he wanted to make the transition from trot to walk but felt unable. i held the stick out and shook the rope until he reached the line of the stick and i would stop if he passed it and try again. he was showing a lot of tension and several times he made i into a walk but then popped back up into trot again. finally he relaxed enough to maintain the walk and marie asked me to do travelling circles with him in the walk where i would alternately ask him to move his shoulders and flank over. this exercise gently invited him to engage his mind without applying to much pressure or adding to the factors he was already emotional about. whilst we were doing this a massive thunder and lightening storm hit. suddenly it all made sense. i've noticed before that Paris gets ver stressed before thunder storms. he got tense when the thunder roared and the lightning forked through the sky lighting everything up. the dark clouds rolled across the sky and it got dak in the arena so we turned the lights on and he flinched at first thinking it was a giant lightening strike. i carried on the exercise on both reins, occasionally bringing the travelling circle to a wall where we would flow into a few steps of sideways and soon he was blinking, licking and chewing and moving in a more relaxed manner. i gave him a break and he yawned and yawned. we repeated the exercise and i added a little bit of yeilding him around objects in a weave like pattern. Marie-Claire told me this is a better strategy for horses that lose balance when they go right brained than changes of direction. Paris' emotions affect his physical performance. i have noticed before that he looks unlevel and sometimes almost lame when he is tight and anxious but the next day he can be so relaxed and left brained and he moves like a dream! changes of direction when he is right brain basically mean him throwing his weight over from one shoulder to the other which does not help him physically and does not encourage him to feel less emotional. the walking exercise really helped because he found that he had the option to move more or less as he needed but constantly had something to think about. i spent some undemanding time in the stall with him afterward and the evening took him in the arena where i put the bridle, with mollasses on the bit, on him, hung out and then took it off. i want to do this a few times and then start riding him without using the bridle but with him wearing it with mollasses. i am planning to start the game of contact simulations and in the mean time want him as comfortable with the bit as possible.
Riva has been interesting this week. i took her on a couple of trail rides with Elvira and Indy and she is doing great out. in the arena i haven't had a chance to ride her but i have played more with her confidence to maintain her responsibilities. she is really improving with the trot, with inly token moments of attitude but the canter is proving trickier. last play session she did manage to take the correct lead on the left which i immediately rewarded but i'm still not convinced she really understands it is the leading leg that i'm looking for.
Touria is doing great. i have just been quite relaxed with her this week. i played with her and Riva simultaneously the other day. it was tricky at first to get them both to do the circling game together at the same time but they got the ida, especially if i kept Touria in front of Riva. in the end i had them both backing, circling, draw to me change direction, circle, jump the jump, come back to me and do sideway from zone one all simultaneously. it was a lot of fun and got me looking forward to what i can build for MarieClaire's demo in a couple of weeks!
Seth was showing unconfidence with his backfeet on the pedastal last week but this week he was able to stand with four feet on it! we still have room for improvement before he will just walk over and put all four feet on but he is about level with Paris on that task now! i stood on a block above him and did friendly game and he wasn't bothered at all. in fact i think Gabi has done such a good job that his friendly game is better than any of the other horses i play with. i started doing some stick to me and i want him to synchronise with Paris so i can do friendly game above him in motion and take him out on trail rides without riding him.
it has been very funny and noisy in our house this week. Elvira's friend, Bas was very funny and me and him had more than one good old Queen sing-along session. we watched silence of the lambs together because no one else here watches horror movies. almost every night we had a wresting match before bed because he kept stealing mine and Elvira's blankets. i think it was good that we did because it was much harder to resist the cakes and icecream ths week, especially as it was Elvira's birthday.
Yesterday we had our final visitor of the week arrive. Anna found a dog sitting alone on the bales of alfalfa outside the youngster stables. she came to me and said she thought the dog had been abandoned. when i got there i saw what looked like a jack russel with long legs. she is so skinny you can see every bone and she is as light as a feather. she has a large tumour hanging beneath her belly, slighlty bigger than a tennis ball. her eyes were runny with sleep and she was covered in big fat blood sucking ticks. i managed to remove them without losing any of their heads and we took her to Marie-Claire. we fed her a little dog food and gave her some water and put her in a stable whilst we worked. Marie-Claire reported her to the lost dog authorities and took her to the vet to check her health and see if she had a microchip. when she returned the dog, who i have named Katie, was still with her. she said the vet had estimated the dog will last another couple of months or so before the tumour is so bad she needs to be put to sleep. the vet said for such an old dog (about 10), in such poor condition, with such an extensive tumour, surgery was not advisable. we were surprised that the vet had not trimmed her claws because they were very overgrown. one claw on the back paw had actually curled around completely and look on first glance like a fifth claw on her paw! i found the sharpest nail scissors we had in the house and trimmed her claws as best i could. luckily the extra long claw had a weak spot in the middle and i could cut it almost to the same length as the others. the claws are all still too long but the blood vessels had grown down into them and i need them to shrink up more before i can shorten them again. also i want to get some proper nail clippers for her. we bathed her in betidine to disinfect the numerous tick bites she had and applied some anti tick and flea liquid to the back of her neck. she is now living in the student house with us and sleeps in my room. me, Elvira and Rianne all argue over who gets to walk her, feed her and everything. she certainly is getting lots of love. she is sleeping a lot but when she is awake she is surprisingly active and moves well for such an emaciated dog. she is the gentlest dog with such a sweet nature and she is starting to learn to sit and stay on english commands. she would like to sit on the sofa but we have agreed that is not allowed and she is not to beg for food or hve scraps. everyone is taking turns to feed her (three small meals a day) so that she does not accidently end up overloading her digestive system. we are all doing our best to practice our ceasar millan energy and rules. it is hard to be firm with her because she has perfected the ability to look at everyone as if they are the most amazing person on the planet. it was sad for Katie to end up, cold, hungry and alone, covered in ticks but now i think she is very lucky having been taken in to be loved for the rest of her life.
