Level 3 Online Video again

My Humanality/Horsenality report says I am a perfectionist and can spend too much time trying to make everything perfect. YEP - that's me alright. It said Garbo doesn't appreciate that much!

We went to Waimarie to film again - I was able to drive the float in and park it in the arena which was fabulous.
They don't have any barrels there and I couldn't fit them in my car along with the pedastal, so I used some rubbish bins!

Good things in filming;

1. Sideways was good, along rail and not....
2. Float loading was fantabulous on 22ft and from 6ft from ramp
3. He jumped a cavaletti, and walked over it as well
4. he was confident apart from backing zone 5 up to a jump stand
5. change of direction went well
6. he circled quite well
7. pedastal  - fab

Not so good;

1. I forgot to do the 2nd half of the yo yo!!!!!!  Good Grief - I think it's because Garbo is so good at it I have to really concentrate on getting him out on the end of the line and I got a little carried away!
2. I didn't really do a fantabulous squeeze - but we did float load 0 ultimate squeeze right?
3. Didn't canter for a whole lap
4. it was a bit disjointed and all over the show for some of the time
5. I could have moved my feet and my carrot stick less
6. the back up on 45ft was phase two not phase 1

ack... what do you think?????? 

Should I send it in???????

Building confidence

Well - it seems a full time job to keep Maraschino confident when playing - but we're getting there slowly.

 I started today by doing travelling circles to get to the round pen, from the yards. I stopped him on the circle at the tyre and he nibbled on the grass growing in there. Then I asked him to go back the other way on the circle - btw - he trots of canters everywhere - never walks. He didn't like the other way so much and so we changed back again and then he went to the tyre on his own....

Obviously he was finding the pressure (yet again) too much - if Garbo was there he'd be like *Yawn Say What?* 

Then we worked a little more on friendly on the move from Zone 3.... he's getting better. Every few things I would stop and wait for him to sigh or breath - he takes a long time.

I even sat down and he breathed in my ear for the longest time.....

Into the round pen we went and this is the question I get at the gap between the barrels (squeeze)....

So we tried yo yo to see if that was easier.... and then backed him up all the way through and forward, and back and forward.... then big rest.....

Soon after this I got him to sidle up to the fence while I sat on it, and just patted him - by now it was nearly dark.... then we trotted all over the paddock - with me next to him, over the pole, changed directions etc - to get him used to going fast and not adding emotion.

I led him back to the wash bay finally and he was fairly relaxed by then - but only when I take the halter off does he do a big big shake and a big breath in.... funny hey.... anyone else's RBI do that???

Why do we skimp on porcupine?

Well I do anyway - I was playing with Maraschino this week and realised I had hardly done any - it's like you do it a few times, yes, that works, then forget all about it. Well I certainly seem to.

It's been really strange working with maraschino - as a youngster because he has no baggage really - and yet I am not starting at Level 1 with him in my learning - like I did with Garbo. So sometimes I feel like we've skipped some and I can't figure out what...

He was willing to be haltered which is nice - that was not always the case. We started with some Figure 8 - like Linda pointed out with Crest and Crest's owner in her blog post - I definitely micromanage them round the Figure 8.. I was trying to figure out how not to today. I walked backwards, gave him more rope, but he still stopped at each spool. Hmmmmm... more thinking required on that one.

We did some more circle game - interestingly enough my carrot stick with the savvy string was in the float and rather than get it I used my 2nd carrot stick without the savvy string and happy to say that Maraschino was not so sensitive to any movement of the stick... (ie just coming 1 cm off the ground).

He can't really manage more than one circle without stopping and facing me (behind me). But that's ok. We can trot together now with stick to me so that will be handy for the Golden Horse Show on November 28 (Paint Ring). I am going to be a rebel and take him in a brown rope hackamore.

We did another few squeezes between the tyre and the round pen and then called it a day. He licked and chewed for a bit after I took the halter off in the paddock we had been playing in, and then he nibbled grass then he took off with a buck back to the yards. Very funny.

Oh - we finished up with a bit of Porcupine!

Maraschino's first 4 y/o play

Yes, Maraschino turned 4 last Monday and we hadn't really had any decent play time this week - so today was the day.

He was really good to halter, no resistance at all... and I picked out his feet (tick)... and off we went - the others came too into the middle paddock. We started with Figure 8 and he got a wee bit stuck 'at' each spool. He also ran out to my right when he had the chance too, even just the carrot stick coming a little bit of the ground for him is enough to 'send'.

He went a little introverted for a bit at one point after some 'sends' and practising carrot stick transitions..

I just waited...

From there we tested circle game and got two laps of trot with coming in, then we also did some over the pole on one side of the circle.

While we were at the pole we tried backing over the pole which he got on his third try I am happy to say, and the we worked on draw - I had to crouch down on the ground.

So - his drive is better than his draw right now... mental note...

We squeezed through the gap between the tire and the round pen which I thought was extra cool because the ground was still a bit soft and boggy in the gap.

He's still jumpy with the carrot stick so we played friendly with that for a while...

Then I sat on the outside of the round pen and played 'mount from the fence' but without the mounting - I probably spent 10 minutes just stroking him while he was up close and I was in Zone 3 alongside him. Sometimes he would move me back to Zone 2, so I would wait there a bit then move along the rail more. He eventually relaxed so much he looked like he was falling asleep.

After that some more more circle, some change of direction and we finished there. I was very pleased with him - it's probably the longest play session we've had so far (about 45 minutes all up).

Maraschino checking out an empty birds egg...

Day 2 stepping it up

It absolutely hosed down from 4am to noon (35mm) so the whole place was very wet and soggy and when I got the boys in to feed them it was threatening to start peeing down again so I thought - errrrr - I'll just not do anything today with Mr Maraschino (not having an arena or anything).... but he wasn't eating his dinner very peacefully - kept looking out over in the far distance - head high. So once I had done all the chores I haltered him and we had a wee play.

I backed him into things... the wheelbarrow, over a pole (backwards no less!), into the yard rails, the hayshed door, then we did some more sideways - all this while the neighbours were fluffing around outside and making sudden noises.... and their dog crying....

We did some more - step over the pole and stop.... it's amazing how small my forward please ask has to be to get him to not go all the way over....and to counter act too much forwards I lift the rope and he backs up over it again.... sheeesh... very very small asks for everything for this boy.

We had a big wait and he started grazing. After a bit he 'snighed' - that's my new word... it's a sigh snort....big breath in (like he's been holding it) and a snort sigh out. He does it alot. Usually after the scary thing - not in reaction to it. So after he snighed we did some more sideways, some more backing into things, some more turn and face slooooowly, and then I thought he'd had enough for one day. So we backed through the gateway (gate only a horse width space open) and backed into his yard. He's calm now and snoozing in the sun.

Garbo's so snoozy he's leaning on the yard rail.

Boy racers

I read an article just recently about managing a small acreage with horses, and it said that horses are innately boy racers and that there is nothing better than a quick drag up the paddock, of course even better with a sliding stop at the end. Which is sooooo true!!

Today my boys were completely crazy about something - they kept looking down over the paper road toward the highway - about 10 metres away from the fence the land drops away quite steeply - George said he could see some cows down the bottom - but maybe one was having a calf or something!! Anyway - something was upsetting them, Garbo would drag in straight lines with big sliding stops - so much so as he turned a corner he slid over! Maraschino was happy doing circles round the tree with a bit of chase Coco in between and buck as well...

Garbo mostly stood looking in the direction of the hidden cows but every now and again he'd toss his head and jump in the air and then chase the others down the other end. Mud and grass flying!

So you can imagine after about 20 minutes of this how much grass I had left in the track - and just after Garbo slipped over I decided to put them in the yards for the rest of the day. Except Coco.

They were filthy by this stage so I decided to give them both a warm shower to get all the mud off and let them dry in the sun all afternoon. I locked Maraschino in Coco's yard (since he ran in there).. and haltered Garbo and washed him first - he wouldn't stand still while I tried to get the mud off (initially with the brush) so I bumped him a few times quite assertively - I had had enough! He wasn't seeing me as a leader and I decided to change that. I felt like my emotions were rising but I guess noticing that is the first step, then you can rectify it.

I hosed him down and was using the water scraper near his back legs when he lifted his left at me, so I instantly hit him with the towel on the leg, didn't hurt him of course, and I realised I did it in anger, but he improved his attitude somewhat after that.

I don't think they settled much even though they were fine (and yawning away) when I left - I went out for 4 hours and when I got back there were only two runny poos and no hay had been eaten - so I decided the time had come for some more Parelli (I did a wee bit putting them in the yards after the shower)...

Garbo had a turn first and we did the three mastery tasks so far on the DVD;

• Back up from Zone 3 and move FQ away at the same time to teach horse not to move HQ away while backing and to back straight.

• Sideways - walk like a monster then disengage the HQ, walk around the horse awy from rail so you end up on opp side and sideways back the other way

• Squeeze game - use flick fingers towards nose as you send past to keep them going out for further and away from you longer before turn and face.

All three went well - well the sideways was a bit hard in the wash bay - but I think Garbo figured out my monster walk! He licked and chewed anyway.

Then I got out the plastic bag - which I have been avoiding because Garbo hates it (unless it has food in it). One thing I have learnt with Russell's lessons is that sometimes you have to see the 'reaction' and deal with it, get through it without giving up. I am usually doing everything in my power to calm my horses and not rile them up - so I took a different approach. I started with the plastic bag in my hand and rubbed him all over, retreating back to his wither if he looked worried. But really - I have done this before and he'll stand there all day looking 'a little worried' and we simply don't progress. So I moved the bag up his neck and to his ears and between his ears - his head would go up and I kept going until his head came down - we did this about 4-6 times before he quickly learnt that putting his head down meant I would retreat back to the neck or wither.

After a few times I got the bag on his head between his ears (and moving) without a severe reaction. Then I did it all over from the other side.

Then I put the bag on the carrot stick (in for a penny, in for a pound).... and he freaked out a bit more - but I made a point of going beyond just a little uncomfortable and rubbed him in places like his sheath, between his legs (front and back) - retreating to his wither. He was licking and chewing alot. Then I moved the bag up his neck and his head went up, he froze and snorted and looked like he may either strike out or try to run so I slowed down and waited (still moving the bag) until he lowered his head - then I stopped. We did this a few more times, then surprisingly (well actually not so much) - he was better with it all over his body.

After that he yawned and yawned and shook his head for ages. Then I put him back in his yard and got Maraschino out!

The backing straight was pretty easy because I had the carrot stick by Zone 1 to back up - so he avoids touching that! He also backed with the rope under his neck from Zone 3 and his sideways (monster walk) was pretty cool - think I need to tone the monster down a bit though lol. We didn't do the plastic bag or squeeze game as it was nearly dark and I still had poos to pick up.

They all seem calm now - Coco came trotting up from the other side of the track when I whistled to say his dinner was ready.

Going to try and do the Plastic Bag every day for a bit with Garbo if weather prevails.

Obstacle Course at Jool's

Jools was attending a Western Ribbon Day today where they had to go through gates, under things, turn inside squares etc. She said we should enter because she reckons Parelli horses do really well. I would love to do something like that so I might do next time!

So she suggested we use her practise arena today instead.

Well firstly there were chickens to chase, (we rounded up some cows and herded them into a new paddock the other day!), poles laid in a square, paper cups hanging from baling twine to go under, a rope gate to open and close, a dirt filled tire, sacks on the ground and all sorts of other interesting things around the place.

We tried everything online first... he kept going out of the square while disengaging the HQ.

Then he was not too sure about going under the cups.... REALLY? he says to me!
Lets try the other eye...
Oh ok then. Yay Garbo.
Sniff out the signs.... after chasing the chickens again!
And we had a play with Jool's 'flag'. He was so much better with it today.

So then I got on bareback, one rein, and rode it all!! Cool fun. He was better not going over the edges of the pole square with me on funnily enough.

Then we had a play at liberty in the round pen - but it confirmed to me he is lame on front left I think. I have booked him in to see Tommy Berhns Chiropractor but he's not up till May 27 so I hope it comes right by then.