I realize I haven't paid as much attention to this blog as I should have over the past few months.  On the other hand, an incredible amount of events have happened over the past seven months.  I ended up not attending the Fast Track this year due to financial troubles.  I've met a couple of new horses, Lakota and Icy, and had to say a heart wrenching goodbye to the mare who taught me to ride and whom I've known for the past decade.  I made the decision to start college-normal college, and am going for my bachelor's degree in business administration with an emphasis on team organizational skills.  I quit my five year long job at Mcdonalds and started working at Cub instead.  My family and I had a big kaboom in November which ended up with me moving out of my parents' house.  To be honest, so many life-changing events in such a short amount of time has left me exhausted and aching for some security.  I'm still sore from the loss of my beautiful Blue Water Lilly (she actually had a different owner, but her owner referred to her as mine).
 

The sweet old girl had a bowed tendon, and while I have peace in knowing that it was both hers and her owner's decision, I'm definitely still missing her, and will be for a while.

That being said, Chase has helped me get on my feet in ways that only a horse could.  He's been my steadfast equine friend, offering me his down-to-earth strength and making sure I stay focused on the present, and my journey with him at this point.  Chase's energy has been very soothing and steady through the roughest parts of recent events.  

The people who have been around me in current times have been a tremendous source of support and ease as well, and I'm very thankful for that.  I'm hoping that life settles soon into a routine that I can find more security in, and that I will soon be able to find reliable transportation.  Thank you all for your patience and support.  

  

Threee Strikes, We're Out This Year

Hi all.  Sorry for the lack of recent photos in this update, my camera is not compatible with this computer and my laptop is still out of action.

Some sad news to carry.  Chase and I are not going to the Colorado trip this year.  The odds were stacked against us, my own health being the first obstacle that came up.  As I've mentioned before, I'm severely allergic to everything I love, including horses, dogs, cats, hay, grass, flowers, well you get the idea.  My asthma mixes with that and makes it dangerous.  Knowing this, last year I went on an immunotherapy plan where I'd get three shots a week for a year, and then maintenance shots for three.  I was also put on a ridiculous amount of allergy/asthma control drugs, including daily inhalant steroids.  My health slowly improved, and my asthma finally came under control enough where I'd be able to go this year safely, given I didn't push myself beyond my physical abilities and stayed on my medications.

 Financial was the second that cropped up.  As many of my close friends know, I'm pursuing this dream on two eight-dollars-an hour jobs, and as such, I have to be careful with my finances.  Pulled double shifts, saved penny by penny.  I did end up saving enough on a plan to make the travel costs.

Unfortunately, the third strike struck us out.  A couple of weeks ago, a bunch of lumps appeared on Chase's back, and his entire back became extremely tender to the touch.  We originally thought it was rain rot, and I treated it almost daily with a medicated shampoo.  It was not.  The lumps did not respond, in fact, they got bigger.  So we had the vet come out-they don't really know what it is either, but it's neither bacterial or fungal.  He's been put on steroid injections since they're getting worse instead of better, to see if the lumps and tenderness will respond.
This is the line that I can't cross.  My horse is and always has been, my first priority, and his health is extremely important.  If his health isn't intact, it wouldn't make sense for me to go even without him, as I'm not prepared to take care of his medical bills if I went with a lease horse.  Not to mention, as he is my partner, I would probably be too busy worrying about him in Colorado to be at the learning potential needed for that course.
Good news-for what we can see, it isn't life threatening.  He's eating, breathing, and can move about.  The one concern is that it's right on his back, and that may or may not be damaging depending on what it is.  And it does need to be taken care of.  Right now, I am extremely thankful that because of my savings, I am rest-assured I'll probably be able to afford his treatment right off the bat, which means he'll be able to get healthier quicker.

I'll keep you guys updated.  

Good-Bye Vegas

Sorry for the repeat photo guys, but my laptop which has all my pictures of this mare is out of commission for now.  Anyways, today was a bit bittersweet day when I went to the barn.  I had an awesome time with my own horse, who was particularly exuberant, but an empty stall brought back a reality that is a bit hard to register.  Yesterday, the RBE mare that I've been playing with for the past year and a half went to her new home.  She's a fabulous mare, and her new owner is every bit excited to have her as he should be.
It would be hard to describe how much this mare has grown on me, but she has certainly left her mark in my horsemanship and in my overall demeanor.  And as they say, 'hoofprints on your heart'.

And so I say thank you Vegas.  Thank you for teaching me how to better play with the opposite horsenality than I was used to.  Thank you for teaching me patience, and that no horse is truly 'crazy'.  Thank you for giving me a chance to renew your trust in people.  Thank you, for giving your owner and I the opportunity to give real proof to the disbelievers around us that anything is possible.  Thank you for teaching me another meaning to the word 'bravery'.  And thank you for your friendship.

I wish you all the success and happiness in the world with your new owner.  Mr NoName, you certainly got one horse in a million.

Horses: The Spoiled Edition

Hi everyone!  How's your week going?  Good, not so good?  If the answer's the first, great!  If not, I'm sorry. 

Anyways, today's topic is something that was blatantly put into my awareness as of the last couple of lessons I've had with my 'normal' trainer, and while hanging out with one of my 'normal' horsemanship friends.  And that is what happens when you inadvertently shower your horse with so much love it becomes inappropriate and your horse becomes something called 'spoiled'.

As with many other horse owners, my horse is, admittedly, my 'baby'.  Yep, when it gets what I consider to be really cold out, I am guilty of wrapping my already thick furred horse up in layers of gear he may not actually need, he gets a fly sheet in the summer when the flies are bad, and he even gets splint boots when he gets exercised.  And yes, it's all matching (blue or black). 

 

He has a matching blue cooler sheet that I use after playing with him, oftentimes gets too many treats during a session, and even gets massages given by yours truly from time to time. 

 

And while all this makes me feel like a 'good' horse owner, it doesn't necessarily mean it's helping the relationship.  In fact, in a relationship with a left brained introvert, it points to the opposite.  It oftentimes points to an owner willing to bend over backwards for the happiness of their horse.  Which can be a great thing!  When boundaries are established and responsibilities are upheld.

 

 

 

 

 

With left brained horses, one of the main keys to building a strong relationship is actually learning to put your foot down when it's needed, and in a way that's not crabby or mean.  Which can be hard to grasp for people like me, who have the first instinct to throw in lots of love and just expect it back in return.  Because why wouldn't it be returned, right?

But horses aren't humans, and they will show us that that point of view is very misguided indeed, and can actually harm the relationship instead of helping!  We become boring push-overs, and oftentimes the ill-tolerated naggers for our horses when we ask them to do something.  We're exactly like the teachers we've all had in school that have the monotone voice and are always reading straight out of the book rather than teaching us something we couldn't learn on our own, and then looking over our shoulder as we do our classwork.  It becomes quite boring, and frankly, horses don't want to be around boring people. 

 

 

There is also something to be stated here, and it's something I've run into with my left brained introvert.  When we focus so much on making the task enjoyable for the horse, the horse can take that and use it negatively.  For lack of a better non-anthropomorphic phrase, a horse's 'work ethic' can be lost, or in Chase's case, poorly built at all.  Your session will go great for a while, until your horse decides that they no longer want to participate, and that you won't convince them otherwise.  They've had fun up till now, but they're getting bored and will throw a tantrum if you keep asking more out of them.  After all, they're very tired, busy horses and have better things to do (like eat).

 

It is at this stage that we are faced with a difficult challenge both within ourselves and in our horsemanship.  Do we engage in discussion and try to somehow convince them that the task is actually fun after all?  Or do we put our foot down, and say "I directed you to a task.  It is your job to do it."

 

 

 

It's a blurry and sometimes unclear line.  But the truth is, our horses are not going to be happy with everything that we ask of them, all the time.  And while yes, having them voice their opinion and allowing them their dignity is absolutely huge to the relationship, holding the horse to their responsibilities as forty percent of the partnership is equally as important. 

 

I don't know about you guys, but I know that tomorrow when I tack up my horse and play with him, it's going to be with a different attitude.  I'm going to attempt to clean my hands of all this wishy washy goo-goo overly affectionate stuff, and learn to be a better leader for my horse's sake.  After all, that's what it's all about. 

 

 

 

Play Sessions!

Today was a fabulous day.  It was my day off, a gorgeous 25-30 degrees farenheight for most of the day, and as such, happily functional, I was at the barn, playing with four of the horses that I haven't played with since the temperatures dropped.  Give you one guess what this post is about ;)

The horse featured in the photo for this blog post is SG Million Dollar Baby, aka Vegas.  High spirited right brain extrovert, classic ferrari for the experienced horse owner, and for sale.  I'd snatch her up myself, but I'm not in a position where I can afford another horse.  Really enjoyed playing with her tonight with the tarp.  It was awesome watching her try so hard, get curious, and finally, be brave.  :)  She really has a heart of gold, and is going to be someone's super-horse one day.

Next in line for tonight is Ruby-Right brain Introvert with unknown bloodlines.  She's bright bay with a star on her forehead.  Played with confidence farther away from me-she tends to lose connection in a very right brained way when asked to play, but there's been some decent changes recently when I changed my approach.  Going slower, with less energy-who knew-springs connection from right brained introverts.  One of the other issues we've been playing with has been how we say goodbye when I put her back in her paddock.  When we first started playing together, she would pin her ears and rush to the farthest end of the paddock the moment she was let loose.  Today she showed the best improvement she's shown yet with that-turning and walking away softly, and only for a few steps before turning back around and watching me leave with perked ears.


Almost done-next horse played with today was Karma.  Karma is a classic left brain extroverted thoroughbred stud colt.  His breeder/owner plans to race him when he gets older-which is part of what she does.  Karma is the first left brained extrovert I've played with, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little intimidated at times.  But having that same experience with other horsenalities I've played with, I know it'll pass the more I play with him and learn how to.
First off-Karma is the mouthiest horse I've ever played with.  He's smart as a whip, and is not afraid to take a chomp out of your arm when he gets the chance.  We're also having someone more experienced play with him as well to better insure mine and his owner's safety.  He's come a long way-the first time I played with him he tried to climb up on top of me!  I'm excited to learn what he can teach me in the coming months.

Chase has taught me something very important recently that one of my instructors-specifically, Fran Latane, has been trying to teach me for a couple of years now, only recently did it 'click'.  One of the most important things you can do for your partnership with your horse, or any horse you're working with, is leave all the negative emotions you've been carrying around, if any, out of the space and time you have with your horse.  There is almost nothing worse than being emotionally out of balance and then taking it out on your partner.  Even if it seems like a little-maybe your aids are a little too quick, or your voice a little sharp, to your horse it feels like you're screaming.  Even going back and 'apologizing' doesn't really take the brace away from the session, although it can be worked through.  That being said, I am thankful to have such a patient levels partner who is wise beyond his age in these ways.

 

Believe

Believe.  What a powerful statement, and it doesn't even need to be a fully realized sentence.  Having the ability to believe in whatever it is you're going after, and in yourself, is crucial to staying happy in this life.  Believing that the impossible is possible is something that's been lost to many.  I see it daily with the people I interact with-with their heads hung low, they grit their teeth in frustration while telling themselves they can't do it-anything, really.  We've all been there.  But we can't stay there, in that place.  There is no moving forward, and no happiness is found there.

It takes a lot of strength to get out of that place, of course.  It takes forcing your thought patterns to change, constantly re-enforcing that, and taking responsibility for your own emotions, taking yourself out of the stage of 'victim' in your predicament.

However, like most things in life, anyone can do anything they set their mind to.
 

Just musings.  (I take no credit for the video featured.  It just rung a bell with me.)



                                                  HORSEMANSHIP SECTION

Hindquarters, Hindquarters, Hindquarters.  

Lately, I've been focused on getting to the point where Chase and I can send in our level 3 freestyle audition.  I've been taking lessons from two instructors-one, a two star instructor Bryna Helle, and a non parelli but incredibly knowledge-able and talented dressage rider.  Both of them have come to a similar conclusion, in different focuses-hindquarter control.  My most recent lesson with Bryna revealed and taught me that my communication with the hindquarters needs to be established a bit more thoroughly, as well as the ever present challenge of going up my phases with a sense of humor, rather than just smacking him at the end.  Steering, stopping, transitions, everything needs to be communicated with the back end.  And so the freestyle pattern we've been set on includes follow the rail with half hindquarter yields, turning into full hindquarter yields depending on the level of responsiveness given.

My lesson with the dressage rider had a similar conclusion with a different difficulty being addressed in our riding.  The difficulty addressed in these lessons have mainly involved, again, asking more from the hindquarters, but in a different way.  Chase has a habit of dragging his back end when he moves-putting in the minimal effort possible, of course.  :)  So in these lessons our focus has been getting him to put a little more bounce in his step and put effort into carrying me more, rather than just plodding along and jarring the heck out of my back.  The most recent lesson I had with her also focused on our canter, which was disunited in both our parts.  I didn't know how to signal him properly, and he didn't understand how to balance properly with a rider at that gait.  So our conversation kind of went-

"Let's canter!"

*ears pinned instantly*  "Don't want to.  It's hard."

"Just go!"

"FINE!" *bucks and then charges in a sort of gallop/canter follow the rail*  

Thankfully, the instructor had a fantastic way of setting us up properly-teaching me how to position my hips in a very similar way to the fluidity concepts in parelli-who know, right? ;) -as well as a tip I didn't know or think of but made complete sense and helped us out a lot.  Releasing the outside rein as I asked for a specific lead, and tapping his outside hip with the crop to encourage him to switch over in the back too.  It took only a few minutes before Chase's crabby expression started changing into something much more positive, and I started to feel completely in harmony with his movement.  We got a couple of absolutely beautiful canters in that lesson on the lead I asked for-I'm pretty proud of what we accomplished.  

That's all for now!  :)

The Countdown Begins

Ahh a pic of a much warmer day than, well, winter in minnesota this year.  I can dream, I can dream.
Anyways, circumstances have changed, and six months from now in July I'll be attending the Fast Track at the Parelli Center.  Six months from now-my feelings are a mixture of YAY FINALLY and 'CRAP that's SOON.'
A few things have yet to be in order-first and foremost, I need to film the other two savvies of my level three, online and freestyle.  Chase and I passed our liberty audition about a year and a half ago with a 3++ rating-needless to say, I was ecstatic.  Completely chickened out for the next two savvies, and spent the next year and half playing with a 'we're not ready yet' mindset.  Camera broke somewhere along the way, and well, the moment's practically here, ready or not.
So, in a few weeks, I'll have saved up enough to get a camera, and then after that, filming time.

Second, a less fun topic-allergy shots.  I need to work up to my maintainance dosage by then, which shouldn't be too much of a problem, and then transfer my vials over to the nearest allergy clinic in CO for that month.  Bleck.  Shots.

And third but definitely not last-I need to drive myself and Chase there.  Which involves, admittedly, getting a license.

Lots to do, but all in progress.  :)

Sunchaser (Chase)

Chase is my four year old left brain introvert partner.  My family had always responded to my pleas for my own horse with "when you can pay for it yourself", so when I got a job, first thing I did was cash that in.  And so came Chase, a four month old stud colt.

I've always described Chase as the 'most reckless decision I have ever made that I will never regret'.  And that's because it's completely true.  We are complete opposites by nature, and we clashed a lot, even after he was gelded.  I do not recommend anyone starting out to take the road I did.  There are so many ways it could go wrong.  I just wanted it badly enough and had the right people to guide me.

On the other hand, because we were both green, and complete opposites, it set me up for an incredible learning experience.  The kind that constantly frustrates you to the point of tears, scares you, angers you, and then finally, teaches you an incredible amount of patience, and changes your attitude completely.  

Chase has become my best friend, my teacher, and my dream come true.  Though the road to where we are now was rocky, it was worth it.  

I still really don't recommend anyone taking the route I did on purpose, though.  Even if I had the right guidance and it worked out for me, starting your first horse from scratch is not a safe route to go.  If I hadn't been as patient as I had been, solidifying the bond between us on the ground completely first, things would have gone severely wrong when I got on his back for the first time, especially as an inexperienced rider.  As it was, I had been interning at a Parelli-based facility that just so happened to have Farrah Green living there at the time, and she supervised and helped with the first few rides and with solidifying our relationship.

       

Since then Chase and I have taken lessons from Fran Latane and Bryna Helle, and gone to a John and Kathy Baar clinic, and played almost daily when my asthma and allergies allow it.  Chase has become my forever partner and friend.