Levels Self-Assessment

In order to assure myself that Guinness is ready to participate in a L2/3 clinic in May, I've self-assessed with Guinness and, amazingly, he has demonstrated that he can do the majority of L2 and some L3 things!

The things that we need to play with most are:

Online

• good, consistent circles at the full 22', with obstacles and w/o breaking gait
• good, constant Sideways over a pole at a distance and w/o a fence
• jumping barrels
• good, consistent weave & figure-8 patterns (more my issue than his!!)

Freestyle

• life up to go
• walk/trot or gait transitions
• Sideways 20' along a fence
• Open a gate

Here is the detailed breakdown:

Online

• All L1 tasks
• All L2 except: pick up all 4 from one side (not tried), circling with obstacles maintaining gate, reliable sideways over pole, sideways w/o fence, jump barrels.
• L3 achieved: extreme helicopter, flag, pedestal, hind feet on pedestal, message inside ear, ball on horse, lead by ear, hold tongue, lead by mane, drive from Z5 w. one rein (out on trails!!), S patterns, falling leaf (my technique needs improvement), trailer load, forward under tarp, one foot on a pole.
• L4 achieved: Swing rope from Zone 5, 1 foot on object, bounce ball on horse, slap ground 6 times from Zone 5, lead backward by tail, backward under tarp.

Freestyle

• All L1, except: squeeze to go (still refining)
• L2 achieved: swing legs, rub w. raincoat, toss rein over head, swing carrot stick, mount from fence, back up 10 steps w. 9 step backup, lift rein & hold to stop and back up, change direction at walk, ride through narrow space, walk over small log, turn face & wait.

Liberty

• All L2 except: walk-trot-walk transitions
• L3 achieved: horse comes willingly, stand on tarp/pedestal, extreme friendly Z1-3, lead backward by tail, lead backward by leg, lead by ear, move hind end, draw at walk, change direction at trot, slow sideways

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The clinic is still 8 weeks away from now. Given the snow & mud of the last 3 months, I think that Guinness is coming along really well. We'll have unlimited use of an indoor arena at a local riding stable for the next month, so I'm pretty sure that we will be able to progress his Freestyle skills further. The biggest thing is for me to improve my 22' rope skills!

Mental Gridlock

This morning, I was invited over to play with my L3/4 friend's mare, Vanna. The rain held off just long enough for us to have time for a good session.

Once again, as I stepped out into the arena, my brain seemed to stop functioning! After some prompting to do a "pre-flight check" of Vanna's responses to the Porcupine (she escaped a bit) and Driving games, my friend challenged me to stand on a pedestal and send Vanna in a circle 3x each way at a trot.

This was (of course) more difficult than it seemed it should have been. First off, Vanna just didn't want to back in anything like a straight line. Instead, she offered me sidepassing in a circle, backing in a circle, a squiggly back, and various other evasions/tries. Instead of getting too particular about backing up, we allowed her to move her feet in a walking circle.

Like last time, I struggled with keeping the 22' rope away from my feet and out of a knot with my savvy string. My stick kept falling to the ground, which was farther than usual do to me being on the pedestal! Boy, was it awkward, and frustrating since I've been supposedly doing PNH for oh, over six years..

After we sort of got the hang of the basic circle at the trot (not so hard since Miss Vanna is a quite the extrovert), we moved into transitions. Once again, while my head was thinking,"Which way should I turn in order to slow her down?", the moment had passed and I had to adjust to a different situation. Eeek. (Honestly, I think that the last time that I actually played with this task was with Smokey at a Kelly Sigler clinic two years ago.)

We stopped for a bit and played with some simulations, taking advantage of three innocent bystanders to form a Conga Horse. ;-) This worked great, because it allowed me to rehearse my rope handling, cues, and energy, without creating a bunch of static for a real horse. Thanks, Aunt Barb!

It occurred to me once more that all of my studying of PNH materials, without the corresponding time with an actual horse, is more of a hindrance than a help to me right now. I'm so self-critical that I just want to run screaming sometimes.. However, Alyssa is doing a great job acting patient and non-judgmental (even though inside she must either be cringing or laughing her butt off - or both).

I realize now that the name of the game for me is going to have to be MUSCLE MEMORY. This is what saved my rear in the production of Joseph last summer. I practiced enough that my body knew how to dance even though my brain was freaking out. I just had to trust the process and keep my brain from messing things up. It was a huge lesson for me.

So, from now on, before trying a new skill with a horse, I'm going to strive to rehearse some simulations to set the movements in my body. That should relieve the pressure on my struggling brain.

For all of my whining, this practice with Vanna is helping me a ton. It is becoming increasingly clear to me that I wouldn't be able to pull out this rut without a coach being physically present with me on a regular basis. I'm sure that once my motor skills catch up with my mental stuff, I'll be primed to really make some progress.

Another thought is that, boy is it a different perspective actually standing in the center as a horse is circling around me, versus viewing the PNH study materials from the viewpoint of a spectator!

As I've told many folks, the Parelli "Patterns" DVD set are about as interesting as a set of crochet instructions - unless you DO them. I need to diligently apply this idea to the rest of the PNH materials. Perhaps a 30-day commitment to play with Guinness is in order?

I'm looking forward to another session with G. in the indoor arena. Hopefully, it will be this Tuesday evening. My freind gave me a tip: to get Guinness moving without having to spank him, try lifting and leading one rein in the direction that I'd like him to move, and then bring up my energy.

Unfortunately, I seem to be more "green" than I'd given myself credit for. Thank goodness that I picked a baby with a mellow and forgiving horsenality.

Indoor Adventures

This evening was session #5 for me at a local riding stable. This time, since the driveway has finally melted, I decided to bring Guinness along with me.

He loaded right up, even though he hasn't been on a trailer in a few months, and we headed two miles down the road to the stable.

Once there, I opened his window. Guinness was very interested in the cars passing by on the highway and he nickered at a horse in a paddock in the distance.

I unloaded him and walked him into the indoor arena. There were no lights on yet, so it was pretty dim, but he walked right in (knocking over buckets hunting for food as he went).

The barn manager directed me to a large stall in the corner where he could safely hang out to watch me ride. I parked him in there, and then went just outside to catch my lesson horse. While outside, I heard loud banging and some yelling. It happened again. The barn manager hollered, "Clare, you'd better get back in here - your horse it trying to climb out of the stall!" Oh my.

I walked quickly back in to see Guinness rearing up and trying to scale the bars at the top of the stall. He wasn't calling and seemed pretty deliberate about it. I whistled to him to let him know that I was coming, and then approached him. He reared again, and I waved him back as I entered the stall. Once inside, I backed him up some more until he dropped his head, and then attached his lead rope. I opened the stall door and asked him to wait, then turned him around and he backed willingly out into the arena. Whew!

I gave up on the lesson horse and changed plans to play with Guinness instead. We walked around a little on the 12' rope, then walked outside to switch to the 22' and to put on his bareback pad. Once back indoors (with the lights on), we played online until we ran out of things to try and he was feeling happy.

Fortunately, there were only two other people in the lesson and everyone was very patient. Guinness was starting to look for more things to do, so I asked him to pick me up at the mounting block. He simultaneously tried to push me off of the mounting block, stand on it himself and park-out. He was very enthusiastic. Once he got into position, I climbed aboard and gave him a treat. He then kept twisting his head around trying to see if I had more cookies.

We walked casually around and explored the arena. (The trainer commented that he didn't appear at all worried about me being on him.) The other students decided to try pole bending for fun. Guinness stopped and STARED, especially when the horses cantered toward us. I don't think that he has ever seen horses running around with riders on them.

He was so intent that I allowed him to try it himself. He steered surprisingly well, but doesn't yet respond to leg pressure to move forward, so I had to resort to patting him on the rump (I forgot my spanky string).

All went great through the end of the lesson. I even cued him to lay down to roll two times - rewarded by cookies!!

It was dark outside and I needed to load Guinness to go home. The trailer was parked on a slight hill, which didn't help his head. He loaded once, then backed out and refused get back on. I was thinking, "Oh great, and I can't even leave you in a stall overnight.."

I reparked the trailer in a more level place, turned on the interior light, then reapproached the task with a helper at the rear with my stick. When he started to balk at moving forward, she tapped him on the rump and he hopped right in and started eating, so she shut the door. We let him relax for a minute, then closed everything up and headed back home without incident.

What a saga! Now we know that we need to work on trailer loading in the dark, stepping up with individual hind legs, and hanging out in a stall. I'm looking forward to taking him back next week. Fortunately, the time will change before then, so it will still be daylight when we finish up. :-)

Little Sister

Doug and Alicia Coop, of Coops Rockies, are proud to announce the birth of Guinness' new half sister!

She was born on March 8th, and is chocolate with a light color mane. Her name is "Coops Free Cocoa Finale" - nicknamed "Allie."

Her mom is Barb's Cocoa - Guinness' mother. And her sire is Coops Freedom, the black stallion featured in the very first blog post on this website. She will be Barb's last foal.

Congratulations on a gorgeous baby!

Horsenality: Charting Guinness

I just took a moment to re-chart Guinness' horsenality on the Parelli Horsenality Profiletm chart. (Click here for sample charts.)

Here are the significant results. I've omitted the "mild" traits - by far the majority!

Left-Brain Extrovert characteristics (7 of them)

extreme:

• playful
• tendency to bite/strike (other horses)
• mouthy
• friendly

moderate:

• smart
• willful
• exuberant

Left-Brain Introvert characteristics (5 of them)

extreme:

• food-oriented
• calm
  

moderate:

• easily bored
• clever
• dependable
  

This pretty much shows that he is, at this point, borderline LBE/LBI - perhaps leaning toward "extrovert." There were no marks in RBI and only 3 mild marks in RBE (at a parade!) for impulsive, runs over you, & bracy.

In my opinion, leadership strategies for him, in particular, would include:

1. Play

• be creative
• new things/lessons
• speed up
  

2. Incentive

• purpose
• scratches
• treats

* The big challenge for me will be getting him obedient (goal for LBE) while maintaining his motivation (goal for LBI) - remembering that he desensitizes really easily.

I should avoid:

• retreat (except possibly to improve draw)
• repetition?
• going slowly
• allowing him to be close to me all of the time
• Liberty, until he is much more obedient Online

We should particularly practice (on the 22' & eventually 45' rope)

• moving his FOREHAND!
• Yo-Yo - balanced drive/draw
• Porcupine Game
• All parts of Circling Game
  
• Figure 8 pattern

I'm going to try to go through the PNH literature with all of this in mind. I'm also going to print this out and post it in the barn as a reminder!!

Emotional Fitness

This afternoon, my friend invited me to come out with her to play with her two critters at her new boarding barn. Silly me - I imagined a relaxed time watching Alyssa play horsey. Not so!

My friend handed her sensitive LBE Arab mare's leadrope to me and instructed me to go play with her. So, I led Vannah into the arena, swapped out her 12' rope for a 22', and then pretty much burst into tears. Hmm..

I've noticed for awhile that I'm having leadership issues. I also have had pretty significant performance anxiety. Put them together and it apparently equals tears. Now, I wasn't thinking any particular thoughts to provoke this, I was just trying to gather my thoughts to get started. When the tears started, I actually started to giggle and to think, "How interesting.."

I've just finished reading the book, The Tao of Equus and listening to the audiobook, Be the Pack Leader. Both books stress the importance of emotional congruence when working with both people and animals. So, I didn't try to suppress my feelings. Instead, I took a moment to explore them with Alyssa and then to regroup.

In a nutshell, I feel powerless and ineffective when working on a 22' line. Plus, I feel awkward when playing with someone else's experienced horse for fear that I'll annoy the horse with my clumsiness. I feel as though I'm in a fog whenever knowledgeable PNH folks watch me. (Forget ever auditioning for Pat!!)

It boils down the that fact that I've spent 6+ years *studying* Parelli Natural Horsemanship and during all that time, roughly the equivalent of 6 months of applied daily practice. I was in "Level 1 Limbo" for no kidding about 3 years.. (The red L1.) As an innate LBI, in all that time I've done way too much "thinking" and not enough time "moving my feet."

I now have the opportunity to move through the discomfort of "conscious incompetence." With all of my theoretical knowledge, I'm highly critical of my own performance. But, I now have a plan for a series of future play sessions:

Using the tool of "isolate, separate & recombine" I am going to turn over planning and direction to her, while I focus on refining my cues & body language. My friend's horse is playing somewhere in L3 Online and will give me clear feedback whenever I miss the mark. This will also allow me to work through my performance issues in a safe environment.

All I can think is, thank goodness that this has come up NOW, while I have time to deal with it before the Carol Coppinger clinic in May. Conscious competence, here I come!

4th Riding Session

Well, honestly, last Tuesday's practice session was a bomb.. Fortunately, I've read enough other people's blogs to realize that it happens to everyone sooner or later.

That evening, there were a total of 5 horses in the arena at once. One wasn't a part of the lesson - just schooling - as the rider loudly repremanded the horse every few strides. Of the other four, two riders hadn't ridden at all in several weeks.

I noticed when I first got Doc from his paddock that he was acting a bit squirrely and not connecting with me. Unfortunately, the number of horses around and time constraints weren't conducive to playing on the ground much before mounting up.

Our teacher had set up a pattern of ground poles for us to practice over (involving a circle). Since there were so many of us in the arena, we each took turns with the pattern, and spent the rest of the time in a small area.

I used this time to practice backing, flexing, a little sideways, etc. But, what Doc and I really needed was a period of time to move "our feet" without pressure in order to warm up and get in sync with each other.

In addition, I was feeling stiff in my lower back, and I'm sure that I didn't feel as comfortable or stable to Doc as I have previously.

Even though not as fufulling as previous sessions, I still learned a lot this time about the importance of "prior and proper preparation" for a successful outcome!

A PNH friend stopped by to watch the lesson. She gave me some great insights and I look forward to riding more with her in the near future. :-)