November 2009

Monday 30th November

Today there was a shoot on the estate and usually our horses come down to the small paddock near the house. Unfortunately this paddock was badly saturated with water during the recent downpour of rain for three weeks SO we decided to put them into the top paddock where our playfield is. This is just about away from shooting, they don't use the actual field for shooting but do shoot around it. I was a little worried but then thought actually it would be good to get them used to shooting in any area, so thinking positively we put them up there early this morning.

I went out to be with them all morning until lunch as I know the shoots near this field are usually done in the am rather than the pm. I sat and waited...not long after 10am all the 'beaters' came up and went into the field next to our playfield and got ready to push the pheasants down the hill for the shooters. Whilst this was happening Stormy and Solly rallyed the herd up and started jumping, galloping and generally running a muck around the field...it was fun to watch ;-)

They calmed down again and came near to me and when the shooting started they got a bit worried but really quickly calmed down again. I stayed near them, crouching down and doing lots of breathing out to create calmness, this works really well. I then started singing to them, I do this a lot when I want them to calm down and listen to me as a leader when the shooting starts so they know what I'm doing and respond nicely to it. Standing listening to me the closest shoot was over before we knew it.

I went up and stoked all of them to reassure them that I was there with and for them. When they were calm and eating again I went and played at liberty with Tara to see how she was and to release any tension in her. Here is what I did with her:

1) Tara/Liberty:

Slow nice spins to the L&R, never actually tried this with her but she knows all the moves and did two spins beautifully. Really proud of her ;-) Also did some backing up in Z5 with the tail and also without the tail, just gesturing. Again she did them both very well.

She then stands on the pedastal with two front feet for me with very little phases.


Next I stand on the pedastal and with Tara still at Liberty I ask her to sidle up to the pedastal as if I'm going to mount. She's used to doing this so she does it automatically BUT today I have a new task....I put the CS infront of her Z1 and ask her to back up, she gets this fine and as she's backing she automatically turns her HQ's next to the pedastal at each corner as she is still thinking of sidle to the ped for mounting...she ends up doing a full circle of backup around the pedastal!! I'm totally stunned and so proud of her, our partnership is really great and I often find she does fab things when I play with her less! rather than Solly and Stormy who do better the more I do with them! how interesting...! lol.

We break for a while and then I ask her to back up between two cones, over a pole. She's such a good girl, seems to be enjoying this session ;-) I then take her to the small barrel. I sit on a large barrel and still at liberty I ask her to sidepass over the small barrel (not a problem). I then sit on the small barrel and ask her to sidepass over the larger barrel (xcellent ;-) Really enjoyed our short liberty session, she's such a responsive horse and really listens intently to the smallest of my asks now.



So, as we have guests coming over tomorrow to play with our horses I decide that I should actually play with our big boy Stormy just to make sure he's on the same page as our guests! lol. I really enjoyed our session, he started off a bit bolshy but became that charming 'what do you want mum' horsey very quickly and we had a good session. Here is what I did with him today:


2) Stormy/Online:

First I needed to get some communication and obedience going as he was much more interested in what the herd were doing and not listening to me at all, so our session started with lots of backup, asking him to listen and pay attention to me. Backups work very well with him and in no time at all he was being a partner.

With some obedience in place I ask him to stand on the pedastal, just with his two front feet and he does this with ease. I've never actually asked him to put all four feet on anything, firstly because I don't think much would actually take his weight and secondly because we don't actually have anything at the moment that is big enough...it will be some time before he realises he can put his four feet closer together. lol.


Next I ask him to backup over a pole between two cones. Again this is a good one for him as we've done a lot of backing through narrow spaces and gateways. His backup is very light and I rest him before bringing him back into me. He's one of those curious horses that likes to 'move' all the playfield furniture about with his nose, teeth etc and today was no exception...I had to put all the barrels and cones back in place ready for tomorrow! lol.



Onto something a bit more intricate and I stood on the pedastal and asked him to fig 8 around two cones that aren't that far apart from each other. He missed them a few times but then realised what I was asking of him and manged a few fig's nicely. He's quite light for a big horsey.


Just like Tara I then asked him to sideways over the big barrel with me sitting on the small one. I wasn't sure if we'd ever done this before, I've sidewaysed him a lot with and without fences so it wasn't such a big deal. He's very good about having things underneath Z3 and is not worried about putting his feet on things at all. His sideways was good and much straighter than ever before.

Next he does some circling in w/t/c and does a few jumps which were nicely done. He gets a bit high headed as the shooting has started again across the glen so I ask him to do some stick 2 me w/t/backup and then some back and over game which gets his concentration back on me.

Then I decide to teach him something new...Sideways Towards....it takes only two attempts and he's got it on the L&R...such a quick learner and so eager to try things, which is why as a youngster we've been taking time to teach him good things and making sure not to teach him the wrong things...have to keep our whits about us though as he's a sharp boy for sure ;-)

There was one section of the playfield I'd not tested before tomorrow's guests so I try it out with Stormy. This section has 6 trotting poles, 4 steps apart with an upright polypost at the end of each pole. This section can be used as just trotting poles or could be used to weave with the upright polyposts. What I did with Storm was to back him between two poles, sideways him over the pole and then draw him back to me and rest. Then sideways him infront of the pole, back him up between the next two poles and then sideways over the pole etc. He did it very well considering I think this was his first time doing sideways from Z1 properly ;-) It's amazing what fun you can have with just a couple of poles and an imagination.

Lastly as I still had a bit of time before lunch I ask him to step into a large tractor tyre with one and then both his front feet. He has no problems at all with that at all. Seeing as this was easy for him I challenged us both to see if he could DHQ's 360 degrees without taking his front feet out of the tyre....we went very slowly and did one step at a time but he did a great job of thinking his way through the challenge ;-) Great fun.

Sunday 29th November

Although darn cold, and actually fluttering with snow for a minute there, Mark and I bravely go and check out the playfield task area's again today. This time I go with Solly, who was very happy to come and catch me today ;-)

On the way to the field we played Stick 2 me and we were getting some wonderful halt/backup/trot transitions the whole way up the road. Great stuff, when I get to ride Sol again I will have to check out our communication with those when ridden!

In the field Mark and I went to seperate task area's and here are some piccie's of me and Sol playing...he was quite full of vip and vinegar today (so decided not to ride, it was very windy too! brugghhh!!)

Fig 8's from a pedastal...more difficult that I thought!

Standing on a pedastal with mum ;-)

Jumping on/off the pedastal...I had to move out of the way. lol

Circling with two jumps at 20' away

Sol's on good juming form and after this jump
he did a buck and strike out and was really having
fun playing with the wind under his tail!

Calmer moment with Sol backing up 20' through two cones ;-)

We have some Savvy Friends coming over on Tuesday for a small Playday using our horses (weather permitting! lol) and it was good to see that our horses can do the tasks and are ready to help our guests have some fun.

Sunday 28th November

Well after going to Birminham to see Pat & Linda Parelli at the Celebration I got a bad dose of Flu so between that and the rain that was still falling I've had to take some time off to recouperate.

Today though the sun is shining, my cold is feeling a bit better and I wanted to get out. SO Mark and I walked up to the Playfield to set up some 'task' area's for the Parelli social/playday we're having here on Dec 1st. On the way we picked up two horses so that we could test some of the area's. I called Solly lots, he turned to me and moved forward a few steps but seemed reluctant to leave his dear Tara BUT Stormy trotted up to me SO I took the horse that turned up (lol) and with Mark and Holly we walked up to the playfield.

It didn't take long between the two of us to set up 5 play area's for our friends on Tuesday and so we asked Holly to help us test them all, make sure distances were good and that tasks could be done (albeit we didn't have a carrot stick between us. lol)

Here are some pictures of the fun we had...

Holly helping me play a curved weave game

Holly doing a wonderful sideways over the small barrel whilst I sit still

Holly squeezing over a jump with me sitting on a barrel

Mark backing Holly up through two cones, over a pole

Mark asking Holly to sidepass over the cone ;-)

Holly standing on pedastal w/Mark

Holly doing a great fig 8 around cones,
I'm not allowed off the pedastal and I still have no CS! lol

Holly doing a great jump with me standing in a hoolahoop ;-)

Holly and I having a special moment after playing today ;-))

Monday 23rd November

Have spent the weekend watching Pat and Linda Parelli at their yearly Celebration event in Birmingham and spent today resting and catching up on washing etc. The last few days of last week it was, you guessed it, raining AGAIN! so much of the country is wet and flooded and there just isn't much anyone can do about it but sit patiently and wait for some dry weather. Hopefully things will clear up soon and if not I will hire the indoor arena again ;-)

Wednesday 18th November

Gosh it was chilly today but the sun was trying so hard to warm things up so I rushed out to catch some play/riding with Solly ;-)


1) Stick 2 Me:
I start as normal doing this from the grazing field to the playfield. Today I decide that he's being just a little 'sticky' with his actions/feet so I up the responsibility for him to be a bit more snappy. Snappy off into walk or trot, snappy with his halt and backup, faster with his backup and for his whole attitude to be a little bit more respectful. By the time we get to the playfield he's doing a great job with his responsibilities and is really paying attention to what I'm asking and that I'm I'm asking with nice phase 1's ;-)

2) Friendly:
I spend a lot of time grooming him and just being with him to start with today. He enjoys all the fuss and also grazing. I also do a bit of friendly with the 45' line rope, tossing from Z5 to L&R.

3) Driving:
Again with this game I wanted to see some snappy responses, respect for what I've asked without me getting to Ph4 and a 'nice look' on his face too. He does very well and really learns quickly. His disengagements get very light and snappy and it's great to see his face light up when he gets to stop so quickly when he's done it. lol. His FQ turns too are better and he's not wandering around so much, more pivoting.

4) Z5 Driving:
I want to do some long reining today so I start by doing one rein driving from Z5 to make sure I have turns and friendly game of tossing the rope over his head whilst moving going well. All goes nicely.

5) Sideways:
Just for a test I ask Sol to try to go over an upright cone from 20' away, going to the left. He has a bit of trouble but I really ask in small bite sized bits for him and suddenly he squirts sideways going over it beautifully. I let it rest there as this is a huge deal for him.

Next I up the test again and ask for LOTS of sideways in trot around the arena fence to the L&R. He really goes for the challenge and actually it's his best sideways for along time, his head wasn't rushing off and he rarely put his butt towards me so again we rest on a very good moment.

6) Fig 8's:
We've not done this for a while so I was interested to see how it would go after all the things we've done for snappyness today! Well, it went fantastically so I must have done something right. He did a few fig 8's at trot without me having to do much at all and with slack in the 45' line, I was SO pleased with him. I rest him next to me for a while and then upped the challenge again to see if he'd canter it with SLC's or FLC's....Well he did and I was totally taken by surprise, his energy was up and light, he cantered one fig 8 w/SLC and then two w/FLC's (making three fig 8's) and then I disengage him really quickly and rest and pet him for ages. It was really lovely to see him active, snappy, respectful and willing...fab stuff :-)

7) Long Reining:
We started off with walk and then trot fig 8's with me following behind him. Then we did walk and then trot fig 8's with me standing still and driving him around the fig 8 as normal. These both went very well and Sol remembers the pattern nicely. Then I tro behind him again around some cones and barrels, over a jump (which was fun) and to a halt and nice backup. Then trotted to the pedastal which he got onto and off the other side. I circled and asked him to stand on it with two feet (not a problem) and then all 4 feet, but he was hesitant about doing all 4 feet and when I persisted he got up and walked over it and off the other side again SO this is something I will present to him again at another time.

Sol on the pedastal, looking back at me to see if he did it well ;-)

8) Circling:
Next challenge was to see how our circling was improving. I've been working on trying to get more canter out of Sol in small degrees every time we come out SO, what would it be like today....WELL again he really made me smile. Keeping the same respect going he went out with a superb SNAPPY departure and gave me three laps in canter with moving circles on the 45' line to the L&R. I was SO happy with this, he's really trying hard for me today and it shows. Getting that respect better when we started has really worked well throughout all the games so far ;-)

9) Freestyle:
I saddle up and cinch with some games and then mount up and decide to do some RtR. It's hard to keep persistent with doing 7 days with patterns at the moment. My large arena, where I've been doing the fig 8 canter SLC's, is a bit slippery. During the year when our playfield is in another field the 'game keeper' here drives his 4x4 around the field with no regard for the grass crop or ground SO he's made it a bit yukkish and when it's been raining or is frosty the tyre tracks can be dangerous to ride over especially in canter SO, today I try to keep the focus on canter, SLC's and do what I can with the outside rail of the arena, transitions and lots of changes of direction.

What I was really aiming at were w/c/w transitions. I decided to do this in the hackamore to start with. Our cantering has been getting better but I may have been a little too adventurous today. He really tried hard and by the end of the session he had 'almost' got the upward w/c transition going but couldn't get the downward one at all, trot just had to play a part of coming down. But he tried really hard so I praised him a lot for his effort.

Now what I have to do is figure out the ingredients of the w/c/w transition and figure out how to help him more with it all. He seems to have trouble going up to canter, gets a bit high headed and 'worried' a bit. I'm thinking that I should do more freestyle RtR in canter first. Not done much of this as one of the things he has done in the past, with a totally loose rein in canter, is to buck so that's been something I've tried to avoid. But it may be time now to try it out again, maybe in the 50' pen until we gather more trust in each other. The other thing with the downward transition is to get our STOP brilliant from walk and trot first. It's pretty good but it never hurts to get this fantastic before going up a gait. So, these are things I'll ponder and try again next play session. I was very very pleased with all that we did today and now know more about how to get his respect and attention and understand more how important those are for better results.

I'm off on Friday to the UK PNH Celebration at the LG arena in Birmingham so I'll either see you down there, or see you back on here when I return, inspired to be the best I can be with my beautiful Solly ;-)

Sunday 15th November

Yesterday there was a shoot on here and it was raining and windy too so NO play with horses ;-) Today was crisp and clear so I took Tara and Solly for a play whilst Mark took Holly for a graze and to photograph us which was cool ;-)

Here is our play session today:

Tara: RBint (bottom of our herd of 5)
Solly: LBint (2nd in command of herd)
Lots of dynamics going on and my leadership has to be good for them both for this session!

1) Friendly game with two horses:
This was essential with playing with two horses, both of them needed to know I was there for them and as they've not done a lot of this together they can feed of each others energy (or lack of it. lol). Friendly game went well though and they both look good to play.

2) Yo-Yo:
This went very well but it was hard to keep them together and going back at the same rate, so there was a lot of me testing if I could down my energy on one side and up it on the other with some comical results. Solly was being a bit lazy but Tara knew to go back quickly so she was speeding backwards before he was moving at all! lol. Finally though after persistence and patience we got it together for some good yo-yo's.




3) Sideways:
I tried to do some sideways from Z3 with both of them but if Solly was near me Tara would go forwards (maybe she wanted to see me?) and if Tara was near me Solly would go forwards! lol. SO, I moved myself into Z1 and after a few attempts they went together sideways to the L&R. Yeehaa!



4) Circling:
This was fun, again Solly decided he wanted to go slowly and Tara kept shooting forward (with me making sure she was sensitized rather than worried!). We had a lot of fun doing it though and their DHQ's were really good together.

5) Circling/Jumping:
So we moved on from the circles (with lots of rests inbetween) to circling with squeeze/jumps. This again was quite comical. Sometimes Sol would jump first trailering Tara. Sometimes Tara would jump and Sol jump really close to her, there was one point where they were circling one behind the other for a few laps though and they were jumping nicely one after the other. Cool ;-)




6) Solly solo/Ridden:
I let Tara go to graze, saddled and bridled Solly and played with him before mounting and checking our pre-flight checks. I then did quite a bit of Freestyle Clover Leaf in trot with 2 x CS's over my shoulders and we were really thinking together today.

Next I went into some Finesse, firstly fluid rein to help relax him with the bit, putting in some loose rein serpentines to help him become more flexible and then some trotting Clover Leaf which went very well.

After this we did some Fig 8's in canter with some SLC's at X. He had a bit more whoa than go so I worked on just getting some good trot on each circle and stopping for a rest at X each time. Then I built it up to canter each circle with a rest at X each time. Finally we put the two circles together in canter with the trotting SLC's at X stopping each time we'd done one full fig 8'. This worked very well and he's working better off my leg into canter now but need to do more to make it smoother with quicker transitions.

After all our fun today I got Tara and rode her back to the grazing field whilst ponying Solly from her which I always like doing ;-)

Friday 13th November

Yesterday rained all day again....;-( But today is dry and crisp SO out with Solly while the goings good. Here's what we did today

1) Friendly:
Give him a good old groom after we got to the playfield. He really enjoyed it as his coat was matted from the rain yesterday.

2) 45' line play:
We start with some DHQ and moving FQ's but I'm now asking for snappy turns from him. He gets this very quickly. We then play with 'sniff this' and I ask Sol to go up to a single barrel from 40' away. He does this very well and knows exactly what I'm asking him to do. I let him rest next to it for quite a while, he looks at me with a question a few times but I make sure he knows we're just resting.

Sol 'sniffing' the barrel with me 40' away

Next I ask him to try to jump it, he has trouble with this although I know he can jump it fine...it's usually because a barrel can move and when he touched it with his nose it confirmed that it wasn't held in place with wooden posts at it's base! How clever is he. BUT I try to ask again but have to eventually come in to about 20' away and then he jumps it fine and we do a great squeeze end of turn face and wait whilst he licked and chewed this over.

I then ask, with the 45' line, to circle and incorporate the one barrel jump and 180 degrees away there is a three high tyre jump. I put in some COD's too but he jumps them both going anti-clockwise but skips barrel going clockwise, how interesting. I stop after one more tyre jump and rest him again. Lots of licking and chewing on this.

Lastly I ask him to just circle without jumps but to do more canter. He's a bit lethargic and I really have trouble getting his energy up. Either I asked the question wrong or I asked the wrong question? But eventually he gives me some nice canter and I always stop when he's put some effort in to the task.

3) Liberty:
I decide to do some liberty as here I can ask for more canter with more freedom for him. I start the session with some liberty back and over, to really get him moving quicker and more pivoting. He remembers the online session and he is really starting to give me 'the other eye' with our DHQ's. Cool.

I then try some spins at liberty BUT I don't do many as Sol just thinks it's about turning away and then trotting off...must get this better online and must get my notes out from Stoneleigh to see what they suggest to try to start off good spins. Really want to get these good as it's a really nice test of the partnership.

Next I do lots of circling at liberty. I'm asking specifically for Sol to go out at a canter, with energy, and to do one circle, maybe two, without me having to insist on it. He really is a lazy boy today, he puts no energy in at all until I really do insist he stops being lethargic. Then he gets the message and manages to go off at the canter but it takes quite a time for him to realise I want a lap out of him without me having to exhaust myself helping him with energy. lol. He gives me a few single canter laps with which I'm happy about, we always rest for a long while after he does one and then I stop on a very good note and he licks and chews a lot. I also notice that when he comes into me he's happier when going faster that I turn my back on him so that he can relax, his cue that I won't ask him out again straight away. If I keep facing him it seems he holds his breath until he's happy to relax and blow out! how interesting.

4) Freestyle:
I saddle and bridle him and warm him up to cinch at liberty in the large playpen. I do some playing about with the flag/flagpole that's up there, moving it about, flapping it etc. He only wandered off once but had the courage to come back to me with the flag up still which was cool. I'm hoping one day that I'll be able to ride about with this flying and then riding whilst holding the flagpole which will be very cool. Just taking the steps to get there very slowly as I know this sort of unpredictable thing can worry him.

I mount him and do my pre-flight checks as normal. Then I pick up my two carrot sticks and we do some CS riding and RtR with w/t/backup. He is really understanding my energy of stop/backup more now and so I really make sure all my phases of my body are exagerated so that it's reinforced with him.

We then go onto doing some nice 2 CS riding the clover leaf pattern. It's a great pattern and Sol really knows where X is in the pattern. He was asking questions every time and I took advantage of this, sometimes stopping after a circle, sometimes doing two circles of the pattern, sometimes doing the whole thing. Building it up like this for Sol really helps his confidence.

5) Finesse:
He has the confidence snaffle in so we start with some Fluid Rein in trot to relax him even more. He takes this very well and understands the relaxation concept well which is great. I then take up the reins and ask for some weave pattern around some cones which goes well.

As he's very calm and listening to me I decide to try something new. I've not done moving the FQ's and HQ's seperately before apart from simulations so I wondered how it would go. I found it really hard to seperate my upper body from my lower body which is strange as in the simulations I have been working on this for a while, SO, it's just a matter of me doing it more and more and feeling what I should be doing. I think Sol actually did quite well and everytime he did a manoeuver I stopped and rewarded him. I think also that I'm trying to do TOO much in my body and the manoeuvers are really quite subtle. I'll just have to keep trying and see how it goes. Might even ask Mark to video me so that I can see what I'm doing! ;-)

I then go onto to doing something we've not done for a long while, and that's the 180's. This is where you ride straight along a rail and then stop and do a 180 turn on the haunches and go back in the other direction. I was asking Sol to pop quickly back into trot after each turn which hopefully will get him to learn to put more of his weight on his HQ's. His turns were very good going to the left but a bit harder to the right so I'll keep this pattern in the program and practise it until he's happier with it.

Finally I decide that we needed to progress again with our ridden finesse fig 8's. SO, I set up my pattern area and I ask Sol to trot out from X and go into canter on the correct lead, keeping finesse for him I ask him to circle back to X where we stop and rest. I do this a few times to help him get the pattern and then I ask him to put the two circles together for a fig 8' with some trot at X, making them SLC's (Simple Lead Changes). I get two very nice fig 8's and stop on a very good note. He was more balanced and light than ever and I was balanced and light...must be that because I'm getting better he can be better with me ;-)

I love this program that helps us step-by-step to produce the results we've always been looking for. Cool ;-)) Really enjoyed todays session and our partnership is getting better and better.

Wednesday 11th November

This is the first day that has been empty of something to do or rain interrupting play and I had two really cool PNH friends come up to see us today SO I asked if they would play with our horses. They played with all 4 of the playable ones and it was SO interesting to see how they reacted to other humans. Three went quite introverted but the ladies were very savvy and just waited and hung out with them. I physically saw Holly go very introverted and have a couple of 'jolts' whilst standing there, never seen that before. Also Solly although he was a bit introverted seemed to really relax when he came back to me...ahhh. How interesting. Tara did her 'I won't', 'I can't' routine but was very nice to our guests and I rode her bareback with carrot sticks for a bit too. Good old Stormy behaved as he always does, with a cheeky smile and a willingness that truly shows his love of humans playing with him. All I can say is 'Well done Karen and Bobbie' for the challenge of playing with our herd ;-) Fab stuff

Bobbie backing Tara through a weave pattern, well done ;-)

Karen circling our cheeky youngster Stormy ;-)

Sunday 8th November

So, the mornings have been VERY frosty up here in Perthshire but at least it makes the ground much firmer for playing/riding. Today I am back playing and riding with Solly, he's had three days off and yesterday was definitely in a playful mood as I went off with Tara in the trailer as he was galloping about the paddock kicking up his heels and front legs too...wish I'd got some piccie's. SO, today we'll see if he's in a playful mood or a learning mood ;-)

Firstly I get him to catch me and play stick 2 me in trot all the way to the playfield. He seems a little lazy today, maybe all his vip got used up yesterday! lol. I start the session with a HUGE groom, he is totally muddy both sides, on his face, ears, tail...everywhere. He must have found a huge mud pile and just rolled and rolled in it. Luckily today it is all dry so not too hard to get off but needed grooming with the curry comb and a normal brush too. I was pretty dirty afterwards and was so pleased I'd put on an old jacket to collect him in.

I saddled straight away and cinched as we played, this way I can move onto riding quicker and we'd done a few games out of the grazing field and up the road anyway so I knew he was calm, obedient and happy about being with me. During cinching I popped him over some jumps whilst circling him, yoyo'd him quite a lot and circled him whilst trying to put some sideways in to help him relax. Again he was pretty quick to relax, head down and blow out going clockwise but he had difficulty doing it going the other way. One day this week I will try to remedy this with an intense session of just this, getting the sideways better and clearer for him. We also did some really nice fig 8's in walk and trot, he really kept his responsibilities and I hardly moved or used my CS, really cool.

Anyway, the play went well and so I mounted and checked our flight tests...all well. THEN as I was doing some two carrot stick backup he side stepped rather quickly twice to the right, his whole body tense and his head up in the air...staring at something in the next field. The next field is a pheasant shooting 'game crop' where the pheasants hide out, it has very very long grasses in there, enough to hide a deer so I'm not sure what it was that spooked him from that distance but I just took the reins and backed him up whilst facing whatever it was that worried him. He backed very very lightly for about 60 feet, then I asked him to go sideways to the right and when he had dropped his head a bit I released the reins and waited.

Backing up after spook!


His attention not on me!

He had trouble listening to me, although he was doing as I asked his attention wasn't on what I wanted so I put him into a pattern. First I tried some bow tie, he had very sticky feet and I had trouble getting him going so I took what he gave and changed the game. Next I tried lots of figure 8's but again his attention and ears were on the next field. Finally I put him onto a circle around one of the tyre jumps, I asked for sideways on the circle (just like online) and after a long while using both reins he started to relax. Phew!

SO now I could try out some more 2xCS riding. He was a bit under impulsed so I started to change that, he works much better in trot, walk really bores him and he just gets slower and slower...something I will work on later on, obviously I need to be more provocative when riding in walk. In trot we do some RtR changing the direction with a 3/4 circle back onto our own tracks to save going by the spooky field. This works well, I throw in some transitions w/t/bkup/halt and try to get him focussed on what we're doing.

RtR CS riding, sitting trot

More CS RtR, rising trot

Trot/backup transitions

Once our communication and seat connection were better I decided to put my stirrups up a notch and pop over a couple of jumps so that Mark could photograph us doing it. It was a lot of fun and Sol did very well jumping today and as they were good I decided to stop on a good note.

2xCS riding the barrel jump (about 2' 10")

2xCS jumping the tyre jump (again about 2'10")

Saturday 7th November

Today I had a very lovely offer to go and trek out with fellow Parelli student Dorothy in Braemar. This turned out to be a 4 hour hack along tracks and roads through moorland, past old old Caledonian trees and along sweeping bubbling rivers...fabulous. I took Tara as she is a very calm old hand at hacking along these sorts of tracks and I knew she would help the confidence of Dorothy and her lovely mare Elsie.

Here is a couple of pictures taken along route...

Thursday 5th November

Today I decided I didn't want to do the same thing that I'd done the last couple of times as I didn't want to turn the play sessions into a 'drill session' SO I first went out and just rode Tara bareback around the estate to help her with her fitness. We went into the nice field near the stream and did lots of w/t/c transitions around the field 4 times changing directions regularly and then practised my folded arm freestyle w/t/c transitions up the hill doing mostly walk down the hill. Final part of hack out was to go around the playfield, trot along the top and down the hill and then canter up the hill again and then trot down the road back to the grazing field. She wasn't too bad today, more trot and less puffing ;-)

When we got back to the field I put up their new salt and mineral licks and spent quite a long time grooming Tara whilst she got her mineral fix. Then I went around and groomed all the herd, Solly, Fortune, Stormy and Holly and then sat around with them spending some undemanding time on their grazing hill. It was a lovely day, peaceful and calm and all the horses enjoyed their grooming sessions. I love that they come to be groomed and stand still at liberty for me to do this for them. They all look lovely now....for a while at least! lol. Here's some pictures of them all...

Fortune, Solly and Stormy keeping me company when I took Tara out (at least along the fence line)

Stormy keeping me company on the hill

Tara finds the mineral lick....yummie ;-)

Solly's up next on the lick, he likes to bite it though ;-)

Groomed Fortune whilst she was lying down, Stormy keeping her company

Holly finds the salt lick..more yummie ;-)

Solly following Fortune to the watering hole

Wednesday 4th November

Today I took Solly and Tara out together again. We played Stick 2 Me w/t/backup all the way from the grazing field to the play field with one horse on either side of me and by the end of the track they were working nicely together

In the play field I continued playing with them together, we did some friendly game, yo-yo's, then onto sideways away w/out a fence and then sideways with me in Z1 L&R. The sideways needs more play as I need to get more energy to Solly but this can upset dear Tara, finding a happy medium will be the key with these two.

I next went on to playing around with circles. First I did normal circles (either one followed the other or one went on the outside of the other) and popped them both over a couple of jumps. First time around Tara jumped first and Solly followed, then Solly went first and Tara followed but the third time was perfect and they jumped a jump together, perfect synchronisity too. Cool ;-) I stopped there on such a good note.

After a short rest I decided to play extreme friendly game with one horse and circle the other. This consisted of me firstly standing with Tara and then asking Solly to circle around us both. I had to be dexterous with Sol's rope over Tara's head then HQ's but it was a great friendly game. We did it to the L&R and then I stood with Solly and asked Tara to circle around us. This was a lot of fun as although they're both okay with exreme friendly game on their own it was another matter when I put energy out for the other horse to circle and ask the centre horse to relax!

Riding Tara:
I let Solly loose and took Tara out of the large roundpen and groomed and saddled her. After cinching I mounted and worked today with 2xCS's only (had halter and reins on but never touched them). We did RtR around the outside of the roundpen. Again this is to get her fitter so I did a combination of two laps around the large pen in trot, three laps of the small 50' pen in walk and did that on both reins for about 15 mins.

After this I changed the game and did RtR around the large pen, half a lap brisk trot, half a lap in walk. She managed this well and wasn't huffing and puffing like last time. Whilst we did this I challanged myself too and did 2 beats up, 2 beats down in rising trot. That was a good test of balance. Then I changed the challenge again and did one beat down, 2 beats up. This was fun and it made the time of RtR go much quicker. I found sometimes that she was tempted to veer off the circle of RtR, often near the car where she has had treats before, sometimes near the pedastal, again where she is used to stopping SO to help remiind her to stay on the rail, when she starts to move her nose off the circle I do a very subtle DHQ manoeuver...only one step and then straight again and this helps keep her nose, body and brain on the rail. Worked very well ;-)

To stop Tara (and me) getting bored of RtR I did a couple of RtR around the whole big field (still only using 2xCS's) and popped her over the two small log jumps at the bottom with a nice canter up to the top of the field again. When she'd been away from the top of the field and we went back to RtR Solly walked around the pen a bit with us which was fun ;-) After doing an hour of RtR on/off with Tara I let her rest in her small roundpen.

Riding Solly:
I saddle and cinch Solly using sideways on the circle online to relax him where like last time he quickly lowered his head and blows out with relaxation. He does this much quicker and easier going clockwise but moving his body a little sideways on the circle helps him find where relaxation lives. I also pop him over a couple of jumps to see what sort of mood he was in. All well so I mount and start our ridden session. I do LF, DHQ and backup from my legs to start with to make sure I have a bit of a seat connection and then start on RtR.

We do walk/backup/walk trans, then w/t/w/backup trans and then halt/t/halt transitions. I pop in some small circles for relaxation and to check our communication and then some 3/4 circles to change the direction so that we work both L&R sides. All going well. Going clockwise I notice that he sometimes starts coming off the rail and realise this is me.....so I test all ways of sitting (or rising trot) to see what it is that's causing this. I think I was putting my outside leg too far back which caused him to veer inwards. After realising that I need to just SIT STRAIGHT I really focus on this and he goes much better. All his trotting circles are nice, he lowers his head and blows out calmly with relaxation.

I am doing this the same as with Tara today, 2xCS's and not touching the reins at all. It feels okay and using the 2 CS's really helps me to learn to balance in myself rather than holding onto something attached to Sol's head, our partnership grows each time I play/ride and I'm much more relaxed with him now.

Just to end a great day I pop him over 4 barrel jumps, I line him up with the jump with the CS's but can leave them over my shoulders after that as he knows what to do and doesn't try to dodge them as he loves his jumping now. I'm amazed that I actually did the jumps with just CS's but it felt really good to trust him to just do them ;-)

Taking them both back to the grazing field I rode Tara bareback and pony'd Solly from her and he was as good as gold. Hope the weather lasts so that I can do more of this as it's a lot of fun.

Monday 2nd November

Well I managed to grab just over 2 hours with Solly and Tara today before the showers came. I'm SO glad I went out and made the most of the dry weather. I need to play and ride both of my level horses at the moment. With Solly it's about progressing and with Tara it's really about getting her fit SO with that in mind here is what I did with them.


Firstly I played with both of them together, I love doing this as hopefully one day I will be able to play at liberty with them together. They're both tolerant of each other and they're often trailer mates when I go out and about so I know they won't fight which is a bonus ;-)

I asked them both to play yo-yo's which was nice. Solly is a bit more energetic than Tara so I had to try to keep them together which was challenging. Then I asked them to sideways away from me, this meant that the horse nearest me had to 'porcupine' the horse on the outside which was interesting. I did this both ways so that both horses had the opportunity to play porcupine. Then I upped the challenge and asked for sideways towards me (again with me in Z3) and I was pleasantly surprised when it worked okay ;-) Then I did L&R sideways with me in Z1, they got this easily.

Next I asked for a little circling, now this is challenging as Tara is a quiet slow plod and Solly likes to trot so often he was on the outside with his rope over Tara's Z3 but they did well. I put in a COD which was fun and then just to top it off I asked them to be next to each other and jump. They actually did this very well but I couldn't get a photo of it as it was just too much to handle. I'll try to do this session when Mark is around next to take photo's as I was chuffed they did it ;-))

I then let Solly loose and rode Tara. We did mostly carrot stick riding follow the rail with some changes of direction. We did a bit of walk and canter but stuck mostly to trot as this will get her fittest quickest. I did two laps at a time of our huge roundpen and then stopped with her on the pedastal to get her breath back, and repeated this several times. By the end of the hour her breathing was a lot better SO now I just have to do this everyday (or when I can with the weather being off/on) to help her fitness levels.

Now it was Solly's turn and we did basically the same thing. W/t follow the rail carrot stick riding. I tied his reins to my saddle and didn't use them once. I started with LF, DHQ's and then walk/stop/backups to make sure I had a seat connection. Then I just did FtR in trot with circles to check our communication and half circles to change the direction. It was amazing as when we started trot he just put his head down nice and relaxed and started blowing, very cool, just like the Fluid Rein has taught him. He did very well and our Freestyle is coming along nicely now. To top this off I did two CS riding barrel jumps (no reins) and he was fab, didn't run off and came down with my seat to a walk/stop/turn/wait after each jump. Cool ;-)

Sunday 1st November

I managed to take a hack out on Tara on Saturday before it started raining but since then the rain hasn't stopped so I've not been able to play or ride Solly or any other horse either. The ground is pretty soggy and the playfield is slippery at the moment.

From the weather forecasts, if they're correct, we won't see much other than rain until about Thursday this week ;-( SO, I'm going to have to just sit it out and pray that it brightens up soon. I need to get out with Solly but I also need to ride Tara as she's getting very unfit from not being ridden. Here's hoping that the rain stays light, at least I can ride Tara if it's only drizzling.