With a lot of help and support from Gabi, Thomas and Marie-Claire, I managed to film and submit my online, freestyle and liberty auditions. I got a level 3++ for my online, and am still waiting for the rest of my results. Here are the links:
online - http://www.youtube.com/watch?
freestyle - http://www.youtube.com/watch?
liberty - http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Paris has been absolutely awesome! I have been very wary about getting too ambitious with him. I didn't want our relationship to be damaged for the sake of a few videos, but on the other hand I do want to show the best we can do. The hardest part was not getting too direct line once the camera was on. Paris is very good at giving me immediate feedback if I am getting too direct line, and a few times I really had to do some undemanding time to keep our relationship in balance. The funny thing is that all this really seems to have helped our relationship! He's coming to me and wanting to be with me more than ever, we're making so much progress and he really seems to be enjoying it! I guess we've had a purpose to our principles and it's proof that the program works!
Having gotten the auditions under control I have been able to pay more attention to my other horses. Touria is really going slow at the moment, in everything. She is becoming the ultimate introvert! I have been trying to make the most of trail riding whilst we can still do it because I'm not looking forward to a winter of arena work with my LBI. her isolations are doing really well, and she comes alive for things like jumping a line, where she gets to rest for 5 minutes after until our next turn. ultimate point to point! And now she's getting so good about not bucking that I felt confident enough to have my first bareback canter on her the other day. It was so smooth and comfortable! But today we went on a trail ride and were cantering in the old field, where the bucking first started and.. she was bucking! i could bend her (just) so it's given me food for thought - how do i get her to have enough respect in the field. She really seems to associate fields with all the fun and games she plays with her herd mates!
Riva is really happy to be coming back into action. I took her for a few trail ridse and she was really well behaved, especially considering how long it's been since we've done anything. It feels so good to have her back in my hands again. In the arena we're getting correct canter leads and even maintain canter. And I tried her out on the bow tie pattern the otherday. we had spent weeks on that pattern until my brain was about to bleed but it was so difficult to get it right. Now we could just do it, with canter and correct leads and everything!
Gabi gave me a lesson on Quimrahil. I learned so much and was amazed to find myself doing canter through walk lead changes on the wall bridleless with a horse the first time i rode it. Gabi asked me to ride or play with Quimrahil whilst she's been away on holiday so that he stays mobile. He's a great teacher and I really enjoy playing with him. I think he finds me amusing in a weird kind of way! The other day he pulled the cover off my helmet shook it and threw it in the floor. I laughed so hard. I've ridden him a few times whilst Gabi was away. Mostly I just did freestyle in the arena, bridleless practicing my leads but I also did one bareback session and we still did our simple lead changes! I ponied Touria from him on one trail ride but we were behind a lot of other horses most of the time and that doesn't suit him. He got cranky and actually did a couple of really massive bucks. Luckily after having Touria as a project horse it really was nothing to stay on and ride him through. Seriously, if a career in Parelli doesn't work out I will consider doing rodeo!!
I am hoping we'll be able to get going with a program with Seth again. He's such a special boy.
At the moment Marie-Claire is away so I am helping to keep Quivala mobile by ponying her. She's so much fun, a little bit dominant but willing too. I ponied her in the arena from Paris today and we did yoyos, sideways, jumping, pedestal, bridge, canter circles with Quivala on the outside and on the inside, both ways. it wasn't the tidiest prettiest ponying in the world but it was a lot of fun and i felt really inspired! i can really see why Pat loves playing with horses from horseback - it is such an intense way to work on your horsemanship!
During my audition fever I had the oppertunity to go home for three days. My Mum was planning a massive garden party to celebrate her anniversary, housewarming, my sister's 19th birthday, my other sister's wedding and now my engagement. I really wanted to go but it was during the August boot vamp so I was sure the answer would be no. But as it got closer i decided i had nothing to lose by asking. So i spoke to Marie-Claire and then with Thomas and Gabi. They said I could go so I immediately tried to book my plane ticket - but I had insufficient funds! Luckily for me, my knight in shining armour came to the rescue! Will bought my tickets and arranged to pick me up from the airport. I flew to the UK on the Friday afternoon and by 7pm I was in the car with Will heading to his brother Ben's fancy dress 21st birthday party. My parents were also going but they didn't know I would be there and I was really looking forward to seeing the surprise on their faces. Usually Will and I are both really bad at surprises so we were feeling very pleased with ourselves that we had managed this and I was glad that I had ended up with such a short amount of time between knowing i was going and actually going! I changed into my fancy dress costume. The theme of the party was "TV and Film" and Will had managed to get my police woman costume from my mum without her knowing it was for me. he told her i said his friend could borrow it. So I pretended to be a character from The Bill. Will changed once we were at the party. He went as Robby Rotten from the kids show Lazy Town. All his sisters and their partners had made a real effort with their costumes, it was great to be at a fancy dress party where the majority of people were actually dressed up!
I spotted my Mum's car coming into the car park and Will and I headed to the doors and then I hid behind him. He greeted mum, Dave and Tammy as they walked through the door and then I stepped out from behind him. Their faces we a picture. Mum just ran at me so fast my police woman's hat flew off and Tammy screamed "Cheryl!!" and then ran over and joined the massive hug. Dave stood there in shock looking at us and I gave him a big hug too. We spent the night dancing, eating, chatting and ust having a great time. Mum asked if I was coming home with them, but I siad I was staying at Will's. Will has his daughter Summer and it was my first chance to meet her and I wanted to make the most of it. Will had Summer when he was previously married. When he divorced Summer's mum he had to fight hard for custody of Summer. She was just a baby and he didn't get to see her at all for 6 months, and then her would only be allowed to see her for a couple of hours every second Saturday. Finally, just a month before, he had won the right to have overnight access to Summer. And now his ex was going on holiday and he had Summer for 11 days! so this was a really big deal for Will too. At Ben's party, Summer was busy playing with her cousins. She was in a funny mood with Will and I didn't know how to be, I didn't want to force myself on her so I just decided to wait. After the party Will took Summer home, I sat in the back of the car. Will put Summer to bed and then we both fell asleep, exhausted after a long, fun, marvelous day.
On the Saturday morning, I got up and checked on Summer and told Will when she was up. He got her dressed and made up both breakfast. I was trying to talk to Summer but she was very quiet, that is until I asked her if she could show me her pet rat! Suddenly she was happy for me to be with her and she was showing me not just cute Snuffles but all her favourite toys. She showed me how she can play her recorder and how she can use it wake people up, including poor little Snuffles! The rest, as they say, is history! Me and Summer got on like a house on fire! We went to my mum's to help prepare for the big garden party then back to Will's to change before we went back to the party. I spent almost the whole party playing with Summer, showing her my tortoise, having pillow fights and watching disney mvies. Will was at the back of mum's garden entertaining all the guys with his slack line. When Summer was happily watching her movie i took five minutes to join in on the slack line. toward the end of the night me and Summer joined Will sitting arounf the cirtonella candles, chatting with everyone. It was very cosy sitting beside Will with Summer in my lap. Summer got bored though so the three of us moved inside and we put Spirit, Stallion of the Cimmeron on. Hayley joined us and showed me her you tube movies and watched my online audition. I know I didn't spend much time with anyone other than Summer, but that was fine with me! Finally we took a sleep Summer home and both out her to bed. Sunday morning when I checked on Summer she was already awake and she looked so happy to see me and I took her to the toilet and helped her get dressed whislt Will got up. Will made us breakfast whilst I played with Summer and her dolls. We eventually headed back to my mum's for a fried breakfast and to help with the clean up operation! When we left I gave my mum a hug and she was getting all teary eyed. It was really hard knowing that we had had so little time and now I would be heading back to France the next day. After a couple of relaxing hours at Will's we headed to my Dad's. He didn't know I was even in the UK so he got a surprise too, although my Dad is much more introverted with his surprise! I think it was very strange for him, me turning up out of the blue with my fiance and a three year old little girl. They had a paddling pool in the garden and a bbq so everyone chilled in the garden whilst I played with Summer in the paddling pool, slowly soaking all of her clothing. So it wasn't long before I was sitting in a garden chair with a naked little Summer wrapped in a towel on my lap, singing all the little rhymes my Nan had sung to me when I was her age. We headed home to Will's and as the sun set we played in the garden, Summer showing me her skills on her Dad's trapeze. Summer was tired and it wasn't so hard to put her to bed. Then I hung out with Will in the living room, watching TV and talking and feeling so so happy. I just wanted to stay like this, and found myself looking forward to when I get home.
Monday Morning the three of us played with lego. It was a strange atmosphere, we were all having such a good time but knew that soon I would be on a plane back to France. As we said goodbye at the airport I told Will not to cry in front of Summer. I hate goodbyes so much.
For a while after my return to France I was rather subdued, focused soley on my auditions. I was homesick like I've never been in my life and I struggled to shake my feeling of apathy.
I emailed Parelli about my applying for the externship and about my auditions. The response I got was that I had until 2 months before the course to reach the necessary requirements, so I had until March! Instantly I felt the pressure lift and just a little annoyance that all the stress I had been feeling was so unnecessary! I have sent in my application for the externship now and am waiting for the result of that along with the results of my freestyle and liberty auditions.
We had a one week Alexander Technique course. It was fascinating to see how through visualisation and relaxation we could undo negative boy tension patterns and enable our bodies to function correctly, as nature intended. The change in everyone's posture was remarkable! It certainly gave a new way of thinking about my body and how I use it.
The weekend after the course we had over 100 guest of the Mayor come for a demonstration. Having been busy with auditions and the Alexander Technique course I didn't have much prepared in way of a pecific demo. At the last minute we decided that I was doing a liberty demonstartion with Gabi first, then MC and Mirjam did a freestyle pas de deux and finally Gabi and I would return to do some bridleless riding.
I went into the arena with a few of the other working students and we warmed up and played online as people arrived and went by on their tour of the Plessis. Soon enough the tribune was full of spectators, with the less able to walk sitting in chairs in the corner of the arena itself. Paris was awesome in the warm up. He was a bit spooked at the people sitting in the chairs so we hung out with them until her was loving the old ladies, licking their hands and giving them kisses. I then took him and contined to prepare him for our liberty demonstration. As the final spectators settled down the other girls left the arena and then Gabi joined me online. She went to one end of the arena, i was at the other, and, with the music from Amelie playing, we began to play with our horses. I did some extreme friendly and zone 5 driving before slipping Paris' halter off. We did some stick to me, lead by the tail, backward circles, more extreme friendly with me also crawling underneath him and between his front legs. then we did stick to me over a pretty big jump and Paris loaded into the trailer. he was amazing, playful and cheeky enough to get the audience laughing but connected enough to give some real wow moments too. We left the arena and saddled up for the freestyle demo and when I got on I realised I had a problem. He was in a very forward mood! This happens sometimes! I tried to reinforce mu halt and back up but I could feel that we were not going to be showing our best today! He had been doing so well with this after all that we had practiced for the auditions. Gabi asked me if I was ready to begin and I said "ready as I can be" knowing I wasn't ready at all! We headed into the arena and positioned ourselves facing the audience and did a dressage style nod before beginning doing figure eights with simple changes passing each other. we did some sideways and clover leaf with a jump and then split. Gabi did stuff on the pedestal and around it. I removed my saddle whislt still mounted. The idea had occured to me after I had seen Karen do it on the Alexander Technique course and I had been thinking how did i show the super cool bareback and bridleless stuff whislt also having a saddle for the bits i needed. I had never tried unsaddling from on board before. I undid the girth and then popped my self back over the cantel and sa ob Paris' loins as I lifted the saddle up onto his neck so I could move back into position on his back and then I lifted the saddle and balanced it on my hip and rode Paris to the edge of the arena where i carefully passed it to Thomas. I then trotted around bareback and bridleless and asked for canter but Paris was too tense and worried to canter. I persisted and soon he was flying around the arena, exactly what the audience were wanting to see. I halted in the question box and looked over at Gabi who was heading for the trailer for the grand finale, she put Quimrahil into the trailer and took the trapauline and cantered around the arena bridleless with the tarp billowing behind her. i was worried about Paris' reaction but he just looked at it. Gabi knelt on Quimrahil's saddle before jumping off and I had so much adrenaline that I found the corouge to stand up completely stright on Paris' back. then i jumped off and headed out of the arena. Paris and I were mobbed abd men were even asking me if he was for sale! in my best french I explained that Paris would never be fore sale.
Marie-Claire had a level one Parelli course the next weekend. Two of the girls, Gess and Helene, that came for it are staying for two months. They have moved into the student house and are working as part of the team. Just before the demo our latest long term working student joined the team - welcome Hanne!
Laura moved out of the student house into a beautiful French cottage just 10 minutes drive from here. It's great for her to have more privacy and space for herself. And the stdent house is still full!
Marie-Claire is away on a much needed short vacation in Belgium to recover from a crazy summer. As Gabi and Thomas were also on holiday Mirjam and I took on teaching Gess and Helene. It's been a fun and interesting experience, and real confirmation for me that I enjoy teaching and have chosen the right career for me. I hope I still get to do some teaching when Marie-Claire is back.
Monday week ago we had a real disaster here. Poor Hanne went to do the late night feeding tour which invoved releasing the youngsters into their field at 10 pm. As she was on her way through the paddock paradise to do this the herd came running at her. She jumped from the mule and was jumping up and down screaming to defend herself. Amazingly she wasn't hurt but the mule behind her was smashed to peices. Two horses were injured, Smigus and Sirius. Fortunately Smigus just had some bad scratches and bashed up knees. He's virtually fully recovered and is back with his herd. Sirius got a deep long cut in his armpit and we were debating whether it should be stitched. Personally I had the feeling that it was so deep that if it was stithed there was a high potential for infection to be trapped inside and cause complications. Marie-Claire said he had had a similar wound as a foal and it had swollen and burst the stitches and ended up healing without stitches. I took the injured horses in to the stables and cleaned their wounds. I have been looking after their wounds ever since. Isabelle, the vet, came to visit on the Friday and game me orders to continue treating Sirius as we were and to hose Smigus' knees three times a day. We also showed her Romeo. He got an injury in his armpit in early August. He went to the vet and was cared for by Jo France until she went home. His wound closed but then swelled up with an abcess the size of a lemon. He was taken to the vet and the abcess was burst and the puss drawn out. He then came home with a baggy peice of skin, like an empty balloon. His lump swelled back up again and we discovered that he was meant to be on an antibiotic feed supplement but the message had not been passed to the work team. We put him on it about a week before Isabelle came to visit. Unfortunately the lump was still the size of a lemon, so she decided to cut it open. She told me it needed to be rubbed vigorously everyday with iodine. I began doing this but was not happy with the wound when I saw that it had foamy white puss bubbling out of it all the time and that a new lump was forming beside it. We took Romeo to the vet again and the hole was made bigger and we were given orders to hose it out 3 times a day on full pressure for 15 minutes a time. I was a bit worried how I would do this because he was already starting to rear up when I was rubbing, before the wound was so big. Fortunately i think the cold water numbs the pain so after a while he would stand very nicely for me. I have been working on it, singing to him and giving him carrots as i sit on a chair virtually underneath this 18hh (180cm) gentle giant. He's so adorable and is so brave even when I am reaching in and exploring his entire wound with my fingers and then squirting iodine in. I am learning so much about horse care and applying horsemanship principles to help the horses cope mentally and emotionally with their treatments.
At the moment I am finding myself happily exhausted. It's good to have my motivation back in full and to actually be tired at night because I'm doing so much. I hope things will ease up a little in time for Will's visit in October half term because by then I really will need a few days off!
