New Year was a strange international affair! Rianne and Cindy went home for New Year and so Elvira, Anna and I spent the evening with Gabi, Thmas and Marie-Claire eating raqulette and oilliballen (absolutely not how it's spelt i'm sure!). i had never had either before but it was a very pleasant experience! i ended up eating so much i almost had to roll back to our house. Elvira, Anna and I left the main house and came back to ours where i found Auld Lang Syne on You Tube and played it in true British tradition and Anna had us watch an old 10 minute movie called "Dinner for One" which is apparantly a German new years tradition! we then headed down to our horses with a bottle of sparkling grape juice, toasted the New Year, and did the count down together - I'm sure the horses thought we had lost the plot as we shouted and hugged at midnight - but they are used to their crazy parelli humans! lol
Horses!
Seth was doing great, I was even beginning to ride him, with Gabi playing with him on the 22 ft line. we were at the point where she was just a safety net but he was actually responding to my signals but then he got another hoof abscess. He has been on box rest and off work for a long time now. i have been spending undemanding time grooming him, playing with his mouth, playing at liberty in the arena with him and just generally messing around with him. he is such a fun playful horse when he feels safe! He copies me when i run around in the arena and i was leaping in the air and he did too! it was hilarious and so much fun for both of us. After all the trouble with his feet which no one can explain, we had some questions sent to an animal communicator who got a very long response from Seth. it turns out he is extremely sensitive andxieties manifest themselves physically. it was very interesting to read what he said and has certainly made me a lot more open minded about this animal communicator stuff - to the point that i am sending some questions about Paris!
Riva is as amazing as always! We have made a real breakthrough with our ground work. i had been taking it soft and gentle with her with the circling game because she easily got uptight about it. i have realised that even when something seems simple to us, the horse might see it as a big effort and this needs to be recognised. For Riva, she needs lots of reassurance that she is doing the right thing because if she gets the wrong idea in her head she really loses her mind over it! now we get left lead canter quite often and if we don't get it she does a flying change to correct the lead! we were doing canter cavalletis and i found out just how unconfident Riva is about being able to sort her legs out! it certainly explains her unpredictable jumping style! with riding Marie-Claire has been really helping me to focus on my fluidity and use of my aids. I'm sure i am a tough project for her but she seems to enjoy the challenge! i have a lot of natural bad habits! we were doing the bow tie pattern for what felt like forever! then figure eights and follow the rail, a bit of corners and a real "forward" programe! it was so cold last week the arenas froze and i didn't play with Riva. I rode her today to the Canter Departure Field and she got very excited at being out with her friends. i got her to focus on a figure of eight in the snow and Marie-Claire gave me some brilliant tips to get precision. she started to relax and really got the pattern and then we followed Marie-Claire at a canter around the field. Our forward program has been working! she took the left lead straight away and cantered quite happily behind Quivella. Gabi said it was such a funny slow motion canter - she can really put a lot of effort into not going anywhere! the right rain was more forward but still, compared to cantering Paris, Riva is much more "up" than forward!
Touria was doing great. Marie-Claire had me riding her in a snaffle so that we have an effective phase four to bend her if she goes into bronk mode. it has been weird getting used to riding with a bit and i have had to learn a few different techniques, including using kids carrot sticks! we has progressed to turning, walk trot and fast trot transitions, haunches in and counter shoulder in! she is starting to become light and more respectful, although at times she still expresses her strong opinion! although i was not afraid to ride her i had lost some confidence in taking leadership for fear she would start bucking. i have got that confidence back now and have successfully interupted her evil thoughts a few times now! mostly her expression has completely changed - she has softened and is a joy to play with. she really makes an effort on line, and as te freestyle is starting to make more sense to her she is beginning to make more effort there too. Unfortunatley last week she managed to step on her near fore and the wound has needed to be bandaged meaning she has been on box rest. i took the oppertunity to play with her at building her confidence in the shower. she was extremely sceptical of it and if allowed and opinion she wouldn't even go near the shower area. as well as playing freindly game in the shower, i began using it as a place to give her water. she is now much more comfortable but i feel there is plenty of room for improvment. Also, she is too afraid to use the automatic watering device in the stable. i worked out that this stems from a fear of noices and so i am building on it slowly, having her begin to associate noise with water. it's an ongoing process but i'm very pleased with how it's going so far! we have also played with trailer loading and she showed what a smart little horse she is again. i have to be careful with her because she is actually quite easily pushed and can look like she is understanding when she is not fully confident and then she hits crisis point and we have a battle on our hands. so i have been using lots of phychology and ensuring i use minimum pressure and allow her to make choices at all times and it is really making a massive difference. she now puts effort into coming to me when i go to the youngsters and she seems to really enjoy our play time together!
Paris is intriguing me! Since the freestyle riding was going well and i had been doing lots of zone 5 driving online (we even got canter from zone 5 and over jumps) i decided to focus on liberty and preparations for finesse (with a view to the game of contact). We had a day where he came to the arena pretty right brained and because i had to get some things i decided it was better to set him lose in the arena than shut him in a stable. so when i got to the arena he was running around on adrenaline. normally this would have spelt disaster but as soon as he saw me he ran to me and was happy to do stick to me, even at a canter which normally loses him when he is emotional. as i did lots of transitions he settled down. when he did head off without me i urged him on more just enough that he realised it was not a good idea after all. i then went into neutral and he began to circle me. soon i had walk trot and canter circles at liberty in a large arena and i even got a figure eight at the walk at liberty! since i wanted to start the game of contact i began to put the bridle on Paris to prepare him for contact. He was NOT happy to be bridled and ran backward from under my arm to avoid the bridle. I realised there was a serious problem and so I played friendly game with the bridle and porcupined his head down and just played with it, using approach and retreat to build his confidence. He was extremely introverted, not blinking or anything. After an hour I managed to get him to take the bridle. I removed the bridle and sat down and waited for him to lick and chew. Marie-Claire had told me the bigger a deal something was the longer you need to wait and so I was prepared for it to be anything up to another hour before he licked and chewed, although it was a freezing cold evening so i secretly hoped it would not be THAT long. After 20 minutes he let out a breath and finally after exactly an hour he licked and chewed and licked and licked and licked and chewed! It really was such a big deal for him. So for the rest of the week I carried on playing with the bridling and soon had it to where I could bridle him in 30 minutes without standing on anything and with his neck under my arm. On the fourth day he started biting at my hand and was displaying so much displaced behaviour I decided to ask someone to film my next session so I could study it in more detail and maybe get some suggestions. Elvira filmed us for 30 minutes and he demonstrated just how shut down he was about the whole thing. When I watched the video with Marie-Claire and Gabi they commented on his prisoner demeanor. They suggested I release more and retreat further which i agreed i needed to do. after watching it i cried for ages. To see just how much i was pushing my horse against his will, even if it was well intentioned, was very painful and i felt little better than any other human that uses fear, intimidaton and mechanical means to achieve their goals. I had become too goal orientated and NOT given Paris the timeline and I had NOT put the relationship first. It came as a real blow to me.
I decided to change my predatory ways and embark on what I now call our "Partnership Program". I spent the whole next afternoon playing me and my shadow with Paris. At first he was highly suspicious of me visiting him and I had to sit and read for a while before he would relax and come over to me. When I looked at him he would begin his displaced behaviour. Gabi had suggested it could be a problem with his teeth. I did confirm that his teeth are well overdue for being checked and asked when the vet was next coming. I stuck with just spending undemanding time with Paris and playing me and my shadow for a week. By the end of the week I had also added haltering because I wanted to play me and my shadow all over the property and go exploring with Paris. Haltering showed another massive threshold and so I played with it and would visit him, halter him, take the halter off and leave. visit him, halter him, give him his feed bucket, take his later off and leave. I still think we are a long way from resolving the deeper issue but he got less skeptical and would allow me to stand at his shoulder and put my arms around his neck without the displaced behaviour, which is a massive acheivement. He even "kind of"cantered to me twice in one day! both times he was looking at me and cantering but about 22 ft from me he would stop and look around as if he had just happened to accidentally canter in my direction. i might have believed him once...! This last week we have had a lot of snow so I have haltered him and we have gone for walks in hand around the forest. it is absolutely beautiful and was very enjoyable, especially with all the deer with their massive antlers just a few metres from us! I allowed Paris to decide where we went and it was so fun to see how curious and explorative he was. He also enjoyed just standing there, staring into space for minutes at a time. Although I already knew him pretty well, I definately feel that our relationship has improved and that I can see things more from his perspective. I certainly have come to understand the value of undemanting time!
Tonight Paris was very playful, and i decided to teach him to lift his leg when i tapped it. he got it straight away and then showed off how clever he was by playing target practice with my hand, even when i raised it as high as i could. Once upon a time my hand in the air would have been scarey and he would have hid from it, now he was reaching up and pushing it with his nose. I really love this horse! tomorrow i will dare to bring him to an open space and see if he wants to play!
I was preparing for my return home and my parents visited me to run a reconnaisance journey before bringing the horsebox here. It was so great having them here. Mum had lessons and Dave chilled out in the student house and we watch 24 together. It was a real slice of home. They even brought real gravey granuals and beanie (anyone who knows me will know about my favourite drink)!
After my parents had gone home I had a conversation with Marie-Claire. I'm still in shock but it has become possible for me to stay here as a long term student! So I'll probably be here for a couple of years - it's my goal to do the externship and qualify as a 2* PP!
Sorry I haven't been good at keeping my blog up to date, and i am sure i have missed out loads of stuff! I'll try to be better with my blogging!
