Fwd: [Parelli Central Blog] Loving, Hating and Losing My 45-foot Line

Hana Hosking

Begin forwarded message:

From: Parelli Central <admin@parelli.com>
Date: 4 November 2011 10:02:07 AM NZDT
To: hrhosking@gmail.com
Subject: [Parelli Central Blog] Loving, Hating and Losing My 45-foot Line
Reply-To: Parelli Central <admin@parelli.com>

Parelli Central Blog has just posted a new entry that we hope you'll find
interesting to read.

'Loving, Hating and Losing My 45-foot Line' by Guest, Jolene McDowell

Here's a short excerpt:
"I really, truly hate my 45-foot Line.  Well...make that "hated."

There's just so much of it. I avoided  using it whenever I could, and  I came
up with plenty of excellent reasons: "The arena wasn't big enough." "The rope
collected the wet sand from the arena and got too heavy."  "Markie, my horse,
[...]"

To read the blog in its entirety, please click the link below:
http://central.parellinaturalhorsetraining.com/2011/11/loving-hating-and-losing-my-45-foot-line/

Thank you for subscribing to our blogs. We do our best to bring you interesting
content from individuals who are dedicated to helping create a better world for
horses & humans through knowledge and interaction.

Yours Naturally,
Parelli Central

Horse Training Games - the Porcupine Game

http://www.parellinaturalhorsetraining.com/parelli-7-games-the-porcupine-game/?utm_source=FBPNH_Wall&utm_medium=SM&utm_campaign=FBPNH

Hana Hosking

Prey, prisoner or partner.

I wasn't planning on playing with my horses but when I went up to find a broom in the barn both horses were laying down in the paddock. I couldn't resist going in and seeing if I could lay down with them. I remembered to not be direct line and predatory so walked purposefully and zig zagged until I was about 12" away and laid down with Buzz. I offered the horsemans handshake but he declined. Which was ok. His ears were constantly twitching. He then laid his head down in the grass but was up again I think because one of the chickens laid an egg and was crowing about it. After a coup,e of minutes he put his head down into the grass and closed his eyes. I made the mistake of touching his nose and he really did not like this by moving quite suddenly away. I did this several times. What a dingbat HE DID NOT GIVE ME PERMISSION. Eventually he got up and moved away and I went about my chores. Cool that he did not get up when I approached.

Sharon Week 3

• Is my horse acting like a partner?
• Am I acting like a partner?
• Am I making a game out of it or just doing something?
• Is my horse confident or unconfident?
• What game am I playing, friendly game, follow a feel, or follow a feeling?
• Am I making the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult?
• Am I asking too much/not enough?
• Am I setting my horse up for success?

When we play the games in level one, we are doing it to be safe. When playing in level two our focus is more on having fun. When we move to level three and four we tend to become more task orientated and may find that our horses start having trouble. Ask ourselves the questions above when playing with our horse, and it will help keep us advancing and developing communication with our horses instead of becoming too direct line.

Sharon's week 2

• The porcupine game – follow a feel.
• The Driving game – follow a feeling.
• Play with your horse online as if you are playing at liberty. Play with your horse at liberty as if you were playing online.
• Play with positive patterns online so you will have positive patterns at liberty.
• Saddle for the first time like it’s the 1,000th time. Saddle for the 1,000th time like it’s the first time.
• Carrot stick riding is the bridge from riding with reins to riding without reins.
• If you can’t play a game with your horse at 12ft and you move further away, you’re no longer being effective, you’re just playing the friendly game. (wow!!!)
• Drive a draw need to be equal, If you have too much draw it will kill your drive, if you have too much drive it will kill your draw.
• Try to say “Oh Boy” instead of “Oh No” and act like a partner.
• If your horse doesn’t respect your carrot stick in Freestyle, it’s not going to be good at Liberty.
• Trailer loading – Don’t ask a trying horse to try harder, you’ll break the try.

Sharon's Fast Track Experience

From Sharon's Blog:
Do you just saddle your horse or do you saddle with savvy?
Do you put a bridle on your horse or does your horse seek the bit?
Do you just do the seven games or do you play the seven games?

A Spooked Horse in Windy Situations | Horse Training Article | Parelli Natural Horsemanship

http://www.parellinaturalhorsetraining.com/horse-training-horses-who-spook-in-the-wind/?utm_source=Parelli+Natural+Horsemanship+List&utm_campaign=93037d56d0-Parelli_Connection_9_14_119_13_2011&utm_medium=email

Hana Hosking

Pat Parelli says

Think quickly act slowly.

Interesting something i have never been good at.

A sunny winters play day.

You have been sent 6 pictures.

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These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google.
Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/

Checking out the float

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These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google.
Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/

Riding Again

It was another very windy day but Buzz seems much better when we ride rather than playing online i wonder if that is because he is bored and makes other things up to spook at.

I am trying to remember not to be boring when riding so we play with Riding the Rail and throw in fig.8s, weave and point to point trot.  With Riding the Rail i have to tweek it sometime we change direction, partial disengagement or just passenger lesson and pick up the reins to put him back on the fence.  We had a couple of rests and i wait until he relaxes. I was really pleased with our point to point trotting. In the past he has

The dismount was not as good as yesterday.  I think i am just going to keep trying to chip the negative away. Thank goodness i am not afraid anymore.

Touch It on a very windy day.

It was a very windy day and rain showers were coming through frequently.  I had received my Therafoam shims and was anxious to try them out.

I removed the felt ones and placed the center and right shoulder pads in.  We went into the playpen and Buzz was most of the time LBI but his energy was up due to the strong winds.  We have been playing a lot of the touch it game and as i was getting my camera ready to photograph the saddle he decided to play the touch it game with the mounting block.  Clever horse.

As we are still working on getting a calm relaxed dismount this was my main focus i only rode of a few minutes.  I have to say the strong winds worried me especially when he spooked at some white netting that flew past.  But all was well and we spent a few minutes on fig.8 and weave.

The dismount is getting better all the time.  After i removed the saddle there where some ruffled hairs on his left shoulder which may have been caused by me shimming the right shoulder.  So i will removed the Therafoam shim and replace it with the thin felt pad.

The Eight Responsibilties

The 8 Responsibilites of a Horseman there are four for
the horse and four for the human.

FOR THE HORSE:
1. Don’t act like a prey animal.
2. Don’t change gait.
3. Don’t change direction.
4. Look where you are going.
FOR THE HUMAN:
1. Don’t act like a predator.
2. Have an independent seat.
3. Think like a horse.
4. Use the natural power of focus

Liberty Horse Loading

Dottie plays with the Giant Green Ball

Travel

Touch It

In my endeavor to be more interesting we are playing touch it with a pool noodle.

I have done sort of clicker trainer using my mouth for the click.  Both guys picked it up really quick,

we didn't have to play this for long as Buzz picked it up really quickly.

I need to set up a pattern and practice this in other places.

Pea Metal

The pea metal arrived to day.

Thats 40 tons of the stuff. Doesn't look like its enough.

It had to be checked out.

G.I. Dot had no fear and went right over the top. She would make a great pack horse if she were taller.

Weeks worth of play days

I haven't been good about posting every time we play.

So i signed up for the Northland games on 10th April.
I printed out the list of games and armed with them we went out to see what we could do.

Circle Game
3 full circles at a trot and change of direction.
Buzz we need to work on the send and hindquarter disengage.
Dottie goes out like a freight train and sometimes bucks and kicks its not dirty just exuberant.

I thought it would be good to see what both horses
could do.

We then played trust me game and as I could not remember if i had exposed Dottie to an umbrella. No worries there.  Buzz was a little hipped up coming in from the paddock and at first snorted at this unusual object in the paddock but otherwise no problems there either.

Back Up
They both back up quite nicely but it could be a bit more enthusiastic.  So i will make it a 7 day program.
Put Buzz behind the pole before asking him forward and then backup.  Set yourself up for success.

Dottie and i were mucking around and i was asking her to do circles around me while i was sitting in a chair. She kept stopping behind me and then she put her head on my shoulder.  It was so funny i took a photo.

During the week we.....

We played in Kathy's roundpen at Liberty.  At first Buzz was very unsure of the digger next door so i just walked around and asked him to follow me.  Once he was comfortable we walked in unison he stopped when i stopped walked when i asked him to and backed up one step before walking on.  Its an awesome feeling when you are in harmony with your equine partner.  We did some circle and fig. 8 i quit when while it was still good although as i knew he stops trotting after he rounds the barrels.  Not sure what to do about that?

Also played with the float/trailer.  Just put them on with no pressure to go anywhere or do anything.  Interestingly a couple of day later when i did want to go somewhere Buzz was a quivering bowl of jelly but i decided to put him on and go anyway as i know he is ok as long as i dont want to go anywhere.  Interesting when i am trimming his feet i pick up the foot sometimes when i then go to pick up the rasp he will pull his foot away.  Move closer, stay longer. Hummmmmm.

Paste wormed them today and trimmed feet.

Sophie's First ride on Dottie

Dottie

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Hana

Haying Time

The barn was cleaned out in prep for this years hay.

 Our best paddock.

 Buzz checking out his winer feed.

 220 Bales of hay.

BBQ for supper for tired farm workers.

Arena

My new roundpen with an amazing view.

Thanks to Dennis Marx i have a nice flat area to ride in.  Dennis has transformed an uneven area to an amazing 20m round arena with an amazing view.  To save a few pennies my lovely husband is running the roller over the base.  Now just have to decide what surface i want.

Haying Time