It's been a quiet couple of weeks since Roebke's Run, and neither of us seem worse the wear for it. It got REALLY hot for a few day and both of us melted for a while, and then last weekend it got REALLY cold, like in the 50s and raining, although the flies never went away, which lead to this get-up when Royal ate his grain on Saturday.

Winter blanket and fly mask. Only in Minnesota.

I've kind of been doing more Parelli-leveling-up stuff with Royal. Unusual circumstances aside, we can usually do our show stuff mostly competently and I've been trying to keep his brain occupied. I got the 45-foot-line for the first time in a long time, and Royal took to it like a duck to water. He had a brief moment of "OMG ON LONG LINE RUN FAST" before getting his brain back and cantering around like a sane horse. And when we moved to the Touch It game, he decided that touching stuff with his nose was boring and he would just sidepass over it instead.

We've also done some ground-driving on the road, which we seems to enjoy quite a bit. He sets a pretty good pace going away from home until he gets to a place that sort of worries him, and we circle for a bit and he feels better and we keep going. We haven't made it to the Sheep of Death yet, but it'll probably happen soon.

We did have one odd that went wrong, though. I planned on riding in the back pasture, hopefully using the figure-8 pattern in freestyle and finesse, but Royal was not a happy camper. The neighboring cows are by the back pasture, and they are fascinated by Royal and me. And when they are fascinated by us, they move very... slowly... as... a... group... towards... us... and... it's... kind... of... creepy. Like you look away, and look back a bit later, and the whole group is ten feet closer and staring. This unnerved Royal greatly and I couldn't get his brain back. He keep wanting to gallop his willies away, which didn't work. When I tried cantering him in a circle, he was disjointed and flinging himself on the forehand, making it hard to ride. I got off and tried to get him focused on the circle, but he was still all distracted. And then his hind legs got all tangled up and he fell. First his hind leg slid out and he landed on his butt, then he couldn't quite get his forelegs right and lay all the way down. He got up right away and didn't seem hurt, but it was still so weird. The fall seemed to wake him up a bit and even though the cows still creep up on us, he doesn't get as distraught. So, problem solved? We'll see.

Our next show is a dressage schooling show next Saturday. Gotta practice our tests!

Royal's Relapse

Word of advice to everyone: do NOT get a Mystery Illness of Mystery. Because it is not fun, and you will spend a day in bed with a fever and you will go to the doctor and the doctor will run lots of tests and none of then will come back conclusive and you will only know what you don't have but still feel like crap. I started feeling bad after Carriage House, but chalked it up to exhaustion. Only it took a week before I could walk across the pasture without feeling like I was going to pass out. Which obviously meant I didn't do much with Royal except lean against him and run a brush down his side while he ate his grain. It took a few more days before we went for a short ride on the road. Which was about all I could do at that point.

All of this meant that Royal had quite a bit of time with no mentally challenging activities. Even when the weather is bad, I try to keep his proverbial left brain working with things like leading by a leg or Touch It games. But when I feel like Death Warmed Over And Left To Cool On The Counter, it didn't happen. So as I've started doing stuff with him again over the past couple of weeks, he's been unusually right brained, to the point where I've had to stop working on Contact or psuedo-bridleless riding and help him realize that the squirrels are not out to get him. The fast that's been raining almost every day and he hates doing stuff in the rain doesn't help either. On Monday, we went for a ride on the road, and I could feel his adrenaline start coming up as we got out of the driveway. I asked him for a trot, which quickly turned into a canter and then a gallop up the hill. At not point did he feel out of control, but I let him go as fast as he needed to. He settled into a trot that would have been at home in a harness race and even trotted past the Sheep of Death without too much fuss. Eventually he settled into a walk, snorting and sighing and stretching. But he still felt a little on edge. Tuesday we played a bit OnLine with the Figure-8 pattern, and he seemed to really connect with me.

So on Wednesday, I decided to try practicing braiding. I didn't know if his mane was the appropriate length (answer: nope, too long. Need to shorten in a couple inches), so I tied him up to a tree and gave him some hay. But he decided that he was not going to tie that day. Usually he's super great about tying, but on Wednesday, he pulled back. Hard. And repeatedly. I untied him once and let him trot around for a bit, thinking maybe he had too much energy. But no. I retied him, and the same thing happened. So I figured I had to do something before he injured himself, went to untie him, and as I pulled the rope to release the knot, he pulled again, trapping my hand between the tree and the rope, taking off a couple layers of skin on parts of my fingers. Ouch. Luckily I had some Band-Aids in the car, so I was able to bandage my hand. Even though I took him out to the field to let him run off the adrenaline (and he ran for a long time), he still was fidgeting and didn't want to eat his grain. In hindsight, his neck was probably sore.

So, luckily I have some strategies to try out. Mostly they involve lots of Friendly Game with the tree & refreshers of the Porcupine Game, but also being very strategic about how I "tie" him. And by "tie", I mean wrapping the rope 4 or 5 times around the tree so it has some give, but not too much. A Blocker Tie Ring may also be a useful investment.

Or I could find a Sudoku For Horses book. That might help.

Doing Stuff With Royal

I've had something of a minor epiphany over the last month which is: Royal likes to do stuff.

No really. He does. I've noticed a pattern with regards of how happy he seems to see me. If our previous session was fairly low-key, he doesn't want much to do with me. He's willing to be caught, but seems very uninterested in the whole thing. Even though there's always cookies and grain involved when he sees me. If our last session was interesting and/or challenging, he's really happy to see me. He walks right up to me and seems really perky. So, we need to Do Stuff.

I say this is a minor epiphany because I'm so used to thinking of Royal as a Right Brain Extrovert.

Which he was when I got him. Almost off the charts spooky and reactive, and as a result, dangerous. So everything had to be very consistent and calming. Any change used to send him into a mental and emotional tailspin, so I worked really hard to making sure that didn't happen. We also spent a lot of Undemanding Time to allow him to associate humans with good things and relaxation. So for year, I was in the mindset of keeping things calm and consistent.

But Royal isn't that horse anymore. He's really developed and changed in the nine (!!!!) years I've had him, and small changes in his environment don't mean the end of the world. He's not quite a Left Brain Extrovert in that he hasn't become really dominant or naughty, but he likes learning new things and having fun. So I need to keep that in mind. A bored Royal will probably result in a disgruntled Royal.

This last week had a few... interesting events, what with the SLEET that arrived on Thursday. Really? In October? The horses apparently lost their minds and tried to outrun the sleet while my sister was putting their blankets. But they didn't get too far before they realized that a) it was sleeting everywhere and b) the food was back where they came from. So, luckily they didn't get too far before going back home, but still. NAUGHTY HORSES. Try that again, and we'll get really loud colored blankets for you. With flowers and polka dots.

The next day, there were puddles everywhere, so I used that as an opportunity to practice water crossing. And he did great! The few couple got a mini-Stink Eye, but the rest went without incident. He even tried to jump the ditch which was completely filled with water. And the next day, because I'd been interesting, he was happy to play with the Weave pattern and even offered to go through a big puddle before I'd even thought of asking.

Today was more of the same. We stuck with the Weave but added another blok at the end, so in order to turn back and go the other way, he had to do a little pivot on his hind end. He thought that was interesting, so I mixed it up with figure-8s, sideways over the bloks, and Touch It. The high note was when I used the bloks to make a little jump, and incorporated that into the figure-8. So he would go around a single blok, come though the middle, turn and go over the jump, then turn and go back though the middle. He was a bit confused at first, but began to seek the jump before long and really put a lot of effort in.

So, the lesson here is Do Stuff With Royal. We can still have lots of relaxing time, but I need to make sure he's always mentally engaged.

Parelli Horse And Soul Tour Stop - St. Paul

This was the first time the Parelli's had come back to St. Paul (the State Fairgrounds) for a Tour Stop in a long time, and I was excited. It ended up being a real old-fashioned tour stop, and of course my camera decided to only work some of the time. Saturday morning started off with a huge thunderstorm, and we barely had enough time to grab coffee at the Coliseum before the show began. It started off with Pat doing a demo riding a horse named Slider and Bobby Sox (who was featured in the Game of Contact DVDs. She's matured a lot since then). He basically went over "What is Parelli?" and the basic outline of the program. The local Instructors also brought their horses out and had some fun with them.

Then it was Linda's turn, and she went over Horsenality with the Instructors and their horses. It's always amusing to see them play the circling game: the extroverts zoom off like they're in a race while the introverts mosey off. Each Horsenality has different needs and have different strategies. For the Right brain extroverts, you need to help them feel safe and use up their adrenaline as quickly as possible. For Left brain extroverts, engage their brain and their feet so they don't become bored. Right brain introverts, wait for them to ask questions and come out of their shells. Left brain introverts, mess with their heads to get the feet in motion. It was really interesting and I got a lot of new things to try with Royal.

Then it was the Horsenality-Humanality mismatch demo with Linda. The pair were a BIG LBE with a tendency to bolt when he felt like it and a more introverted human. The demo was all about keeping the horse's interest and helping the human match and mirror his energy. After she mounted up, they just trotted around until he got all his energy out and was able to focus.

Then it was time for Game of Contact. It was fairly basic, but educational. The most interesting horse was a little RBE Arabian mare who didn't stretch, she STRETCHED!!!!!!!! Basically diving down with her nose and nearly hitting the ground. The focus with her became about helping her have a softer stretch while still maintaining the contact. Royal sometimes has a tendency to stretch really emphatically and while I appreciate the effort, it can be a little disconcerting. So, that was helpful.

The last session of the day was called "Trailer Loading with a Non-Parelli Horse" and this horse had a history of being really hard to load, even to the point of having to drug her to get her to the Fairgrounds. So of course, when Pat asks the owner to try to load the horse, the horse hopped right in. But she wouldn't get out, so Pat had the owner turn her loose so they could work on her confidence. He had the owner join in a help try to load her at liberty, and she was so unconfident that they had to stay at least 30 feet away at first. So then it become about pressure and release, helping her find the sweet spot of the trailer until...

So that was interesting (the video above isn't mine. I was still on the other side of the Coliseum.) Then Pat and the horse's owner played with the horse for a little while, and the horse made some really big changes.

The next day held less rain and started with a Leads and Lead Changes demo with Pat. It was mostly stuff I'd heard before, but still useful information. Main takeaways: pay attention to the diagonals (handily demonstrated by the different colored polos) and weight distribution.

Next was Rider Biomechanics with Linda and Colleen Kelly. Colleen is really big on side-to-side balance and not letting your leg get too far in front of you. The Instructors were good demo riders and Colleen was entertaining as always.

Afterwards, the rider on the grey horse (Lillian) did an absolutely wonderful On-line, liberty and freestyle demo with her horse, ending with the horse laying down in a release of adrenaline.

Then they had another demo horse, this one a very extreme LBE who had no respect for personal space. Pat had to teach her how to back up and go sideways before anything else could be done. It took a while, but she calmed down and became ridable. Pat rode her over the tarp, jumps and around the big green ball. It was beautiful.

Overall, it was a really inspiring and educational tour stop,  I hope they come back to this area again next year (Madison maybe?). It's always a highlight of the summer.

Adventures, Peace, and Pedicures

Bah. Another week, another paper/test/ridiculous assignment. And now the U has one last dirty trick up its sleeve with regards to my internship. We'll see if lawyers have to get involved, but hopefully not.

Royal and I had a grand adventure on Saturday. I had enough time to get some riding in and we played with posture and frame. I can get everything (head, shoulders, spine, abs, knees, and feet) in the right position for about half a stride before it all falls apart. So I'm working in pieces, starting with the abs. It seems like if you don't have those right, it's hard to get anything else. I think I was marginally successful. Afterwards my barn owner asked if I wanted to go for a ride on the road. Which I agreed to, and we moseyed down the dirt road until we got to the highway. And decided to go across. To the suburb-like paved-street neighborhood.

I don't think Royal's ever been in the suburbs before.

But he did great! We first encountered a shiny horse-eating little windmill which he briefly thought was going to eat him but then decided it was in a coma harmless. We walked a little more before we encounter some dangerous children. Normally I would have invited them to come and pet Royal, but he was trying really hard to hold himself together, so I decided against it. To their credit, the little munchkins kept their distance. Onwards, we found some scary siding materials and barking dogs, but he still kept his cool. He wasn't particularly relaxed, but didn't freak out either, apart from leaving a few, erm, "calling cards" on the street. I was very proud of him when we got back to the farm. I also kept chipping away at his mane, and it's starting to come together.

Sunday was... less successful. I tried to work on Liberty stuff and found that we have some significant holes there, especially in the forehand yield. He tends to walk backwards and sort of sideways instead of a nice clean yield. It's definitely something to improve on. And trying a figure-8 at liberty did not go well. At all. He does the pattern perfectly OnLine, but suddenly forgets it at liberty. It probably didn't help that I was trying to do it in the arena instead of the round pen, which was kind of wet. I ended the session feeling kind of discouraged.

Yesterday was pedicure for the boys and they did great. BJ thought about throwing a fit but I had a discussion with him beforehand and he realized that behaving meant he could go back to grazing sooner. But they were almost overdue. I can usually count on 6-9 week intervals between trims, but this time 8 weeks (normal in late winter/early spring) was way too long. Sections of wall almost as wide as my finger got taken off and the change from before to after was pretty stark all around. Crazy weather evidently means crazy feet. And the line from Royal's abscess is almost gone. I forgot to get a picture of it, but it will probably get clipped off at the next trim. Which hopefully means it will be done forever.

Less than a month until graduation. I think see the light/train at the end of the tunnel!

Vet School It Is

So, I had a (mostly) quiet week and a half. It's been a tough time of tests and paper, so I haven't had a lot of time with the horses. But right now, as long as I show up every once and a while with cookies they're happy. A little obsessive and zombie-like, but happy.

 Coooooooooooookieeeeeeeeeees...

On Friday, I had some time between class and work, so guess where I was. I wanted to play with Royal on the 45' line in the hopes that he would not be all crazy-like. He was slightly more sane, but still wanted to zoom around like a maniac. He also has a habit of hitting the end of the line (usually close to the gate), interpreting that as a "come-in-to-the-center" signal, and trotting in all snorty. The progression of bolt-come in has made it had to progress. So, this time my strategy was to allow him to hit the line, come in for one or two seconds, and send him straight back out. We kept at this until he was able to canter around a complete circle without bolting or pulling on the line. Progress! 

I was working on getting him to go sideways over a small log when my barn owner started calling for me. Her old horse was choking and she didn't know what to do. I went to them and felt a hard lump in his throat, by the junction of the esophagus and trachea. I tried to message it down while my BO talked with the vet on the phone. The poor horse was miserable, coughing with half-masticated food coming out of his mouth and nose. The vet said to keep trying to push the block down and help it break up. For an hour and a half, we keep rubbing the old guys neck, trying to break up the block and help him swallow. It seemed to work; the lumps went away and he seemed more comfortable.

At this point, I would love to stop here and say the horse got better, thanks to our intervention. Unfortunately, that was not the case. My BO had to call the vet out later when the horse stopped getting better. It turns out we did move the blockage... down to the entrance to the stomach. The vet had to pass a nasogastric tube and manually break up the blockage. In addition, he had aspirated some of the food, giving him a high chance of pneumonia. He's better now, but it could have been really bad.

The other vet came out the next day for the second half of spring shots, so the boys got jabbed. BJ was good, but Royal threw a conniption fit while he was tied up. Great. He's been so good about it, so I haven't really had to teach him tying etiquette yet. That may change. He also did okay with the shots after I played with him a bit. Luckily, it was just vaccinations and nothing else. No sedations or drugs to mess with his head.

Pictured: Not Royal

But the whole choke event basically made up my mind. I felt so powerless, but also that what I was doing was the right thing. I know I want to do this sort of thing for a career, so for now, it's vet school or bust. I don't know how I'll get there or where I'll go, but I'll make it work. Somehow.

Speaking of vet stuff, Royal's face keeps getting better.

But, he likes to keep life interesting. I found this, probably gotten during a fight with one of the other geldings. No broken skin or tenderness, and I think the hair will grow back fairly quickly

Never a dull moment.

Spring Break: Now With 73.6% More Spring!

Well, that was, surreal.

We had freakishly gorgeous weather all week. Even Monday (the "crappy" day) was amazing by March-in-Minnesota standards, and Royal molted all week. It's almost too nice, and I'm expecting the other shoe to fall soon...

Monday it was "cold" (60s) and rainy, and of course Royal took full advantage of that:

He looked so proud of himself when I got him out of the paddock. It's hard work finding the muddiest of the mud, I suppose. I managed to get him somewhat cleanier...

The dark patches are wet hair; apparently the mud was REALLY wet. After this we went ground-driving on the road, which he seemed to find interesting. We haven't done any ground driving in a while, and both of us were a little bit rusty. He still found the area by Needledick's house scary though. I can't say I blame him, since there are scary noises coming from there all the time. Other than that, he did very well.

Tuesday I attempted to do some one-rein riding/prep for bridleless, but that didn't turn out well. I was already in something of a bad mood, and Royal feeds of my moods like crazy. It didn't help that the birds had returned to the arena and were making a lot of noise. Eventually I gave up and took him out on the dirt road. He was a little jittery, so I asked for a trot which turned in a canter. I threw caution to the winds and asked for a hand gallop, and he obliged. He went for a while, before I asked him to slow down and turn around. And run like hell, which he did. Damn that horse is fast. After that, we were able to focus on some stuff in the arena.

Wednesday I decided to torture BJ with some grooming and mane-taming. Which turned out okay. He didn't shed as much as I thought he would, but he was fairly tolerant of my fussing around. Cutting his mane didn't look as good as I hoped (he was kinda squirmy) but it was alright.

I messed with Royal after that, cutting his mane as well. But I discovered a bit of a problem: his mane is REALLY thick in the middle of his neck, around three times as thick as the ends. So no pictures until I get done thinning that section out, which is a very slow process. I'm using the Lynn Palm method of "pulling" the mane, which doesn't seem to bother him too much. But it can't be done in just one session, so I'm going slowly and it's improving. But if I ever get in a financial jam, I could probably sell his hair for something.

Thursday was JUMPING DAY! I began with a lot of ground prep since we haven't done any jumping in the past couple of months. I also had an idea about helping Royal conquer his fear of tarps and stuff on the ground. I thought I was going pretty basic with the Blue Blanket, but it occurred to me that maybe I haven't gone basic enough. So I set up two poles about two feet apart to simulate a ditch. And even that got the hairy eyeball for a second before he hopped over it. For riding, I set up our favorite pole-to-crossrail and a 2-foot single. The actual fences went well (I think I'm getting over my initial nervousness that usually comes with jumping), and I recreated the "ditch," which got a halt with hairy eyeball. Back up, try again with a gargantuan leap over the teeny "ditch." It took a couple more times, before he skipped over it like it was barely there. I think we're getting there.

Friday I had to meet with someone for a while before I could go to the farm, so I only had a little time to play with Royal before I had to go to work. I tried to play with yielding to pressure on the hind legs. He's still pretty iffy on that, which he demonstrated with a lot of kicking and deer-in-the-hindlights expressions. He improved a bit and on Saturday we were able to play a bit with the Blue Blanket. This time the strategy was just to let him retreat as much as he needed and figure it out for himself. He still seems no more comfortable with it, but eventually he'll get it.

Sunday was more Game of Contact, and he is really improving. We're steadily progressing into Stage 3 and he's getting it. He still trying to yank the reins out of my hands at first, but I can really feel him start to hold the contact and drive from his hind end. My posture is also starting to improve, if I can remember everything. Another ride on the road in the sun to close out what has been the best Spring Break I've ever had. I wished it could have lasted forever, but all good things must come to an end.

It was fun while it lasted.

Spring?

I'm expecting the weather forecasters to show up drunk soon.

I'm no closer to figuring out my career/life plan. I still can't quite let go of the vet path (dreams die hard, I guess), but I'm starting to pursue genetics counseling more. I'm still in the process of gathering information, but I don't really have any firm plans. Except perhaps that I should learn how to bartend.

But, onto to happier things: Royal! The last couple of weeks have been beastly in terms of tests and papers being due, so I haven't had a lot of time to play. But now it's SPRING BREAK and the weather is gorgeous. Like 50s and 60s gorgeous. Royal's begun to molt even more now, and all the fitness he built up during winter break has pretty much gone away. But he's gaining it back and learning the Game of Contact even better. We're starting to move from stretching to holding a steady frame, and he's starting to get it. We've had two sessions of frame, and in the first one, there was a lot of nervous chewing and snatching at the bit. I expected this, since he still has some baggage when it comes to bits and contact. It's not as bad as it used to be (where he would start threatening to rear if I picked up two reins) but I know it's still there. So, it took a while before he stopped being nervous and held the frame for a few steps. I was happy, and we went for a walk on the dirt road to cool down. Apparently, he finds the random patches of snow terrifying, so it was a slow process.

Today, it was even warmer (I ending up riding in a t-shirt!) and he was even better. Some nervousness at the beginning of the GOC portion, but eventually he relaxed and held the contact for a little while both ways. More happiness, more walking on the road, more spooking, and more bravery.

Life is good.

I'd Take A Carrot Like This Back To The Store

I promised myself I wouldn't do it. I already had a perfectly good carrot stick and not everything has to match. So no, I wouldn't do it. Nope. Not happening. No.

But I couldn't help myself.

A BLUE carrot stick? My word! But I just had to have it. I think it's part of the fun of horse-ownership, matching everything you can. Most of my brushes aren't royal blue, but everything else can be. Why not? I had a coupon and I can use my blue string to make everything really coordinated.

They really put a lot of work into it. Even the divots in the handle (for grip) are Parelli horse heads. And of course "Parelli" is emblazoned all over the thing.

I still think it looks cool.

I haven't had too many chances to play with it. I've been feeling sick for most of this week. On Monday we did some jumping and went for a walk on the road. The deer carcass was gone, but Royal still gave that area the stick eye. Tuesday was really warm (50!) and the horses were sweaty just from standing around. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were freezing cold and I couldn't stand being outside for more than a few minutes. Where did winter come from? Saturday was better. My Game of Contact DVD set come earlier in the week, so I'd been watching that and get lots of ideas for things to try. But Royal made me eat some humble pie.

Often, the things I think are going to take us a long time to figure out often only take a few minutes and the thing I think will only take a few minutes take a few hours. Such is life, and I still have not learned my lessons well. I started off doing some bit isolation with Royal (teaching him to stretch down into the bit) on the ground, and about thirty seconds in, we both hear a crack. Oh no, not Needle-Dick! Yes, and he was just getting started. For the next two hour, echoing cracks sounded throughout the arena as I tried (and mostly failed) to convince Royal that the world was not ending. It took about an hour and a half before he calmed down and realized that bit = stretch. No riding, as I wanted to quit on a halfway sane note.

Today my friend came out to the farm to meet Royal and do some riding. Royal was very well behaved and even my dad's horse BJ got in on the action. Much fun was had by all (except for a bit of unpleasantness at the end) and I think I can make my last day of vacation count. And then, back to school. Sigh. :(

Farewell West Point

Yesterday, Linda Parelli's magnificent horse West Point died. I don't know any details yet, but heard it was an accident. My condolences to Linda and everyone at the ranch. Westy was a joy to watch and I learned a lot from him.

You amazing horses need to stop dying. First Gogo, then Hickstead, and now Westy. It's too sad.

Flying

This past week was a dozy, with tests in every single class and a lab report and a lab journal due, so I was quite busy. And sick. I also got sick. I think I did okay on most of the stuff, but we'll see.

Royal and BJ got pedicures on Monday, and they did really well. Royal has a groove around his left front that I'm pretty sure is from the abscess blowing out the coronet band. It looks odd but cool, and he doesn't have an extra sensitively in that hoof. In fact, he's doing great. Yesterday was the first time I've ridden in a week, so we started out in the arena, playing with impulsion and faux-bridleless riding before moving on to Finesse. I've been using my halter with Finesse reins instead of a bit, mostly to give both of us confidence and it seems to be working. Instead of focusing on where Royal's head is and if he's moving in the right frame, I've been trying to make sure we have a good connection. If he goes above the "bit", I just lightly bring my inside hand up in a suspension rein. If he goes back from it, I bring my hands back in an effort to keep the connection. Kind of combining Karen Rohlf's ideas and Game of Contact. And so far, it appears to be working. Royal's getting better and better about maintaining the connection and wouldn't ya know it, all the nice physical attributes come along with it. Sweet.

I worry about him getting arena sour, especially with winter coming up, so we went for a walk on the road. Which turned into a trot, then a walk, then a trot, then a canter, then a gallop. All intentional and all fun. When I first asked him for a gallop, I could him hesitate, almost going "Really?" Yes, really, Royal. We came back to the canter for a while, then turned around and galloped again. And it was amazing. I just started laughing, so pure was my joy as we flew down the dirt road. And Royal loved it too, wanted to do more. Not in a tense way, but in a fun way. It was great for both of us to just let loose and go as fast as we wanted. And even though that was pretty fast, I think Royal's got another gear in there. We'll probably have to wait for next year for it.

I did have to put a stop to it, as I didn't want him to get too tired or sweaty. And Royal, to his credit, moseyed back to the farm on a loose rein, totally relaxed. I'm pretty confident that he enjoyed it as much as I did, and he'll want to do it again.

Ah, Royal.

The Arrival of Fall

We had a bit of a heat wave the last couple of weeks and it was nice, sort of. Royal's been getting his winter coat, so unexpected heat waves can be hard on him. But mid-week, fall arrived with a bang. Temperatures went from the 70s-80s to the 50s-60s. I've been pretty busy, but still went out to the farm for some Night Riding. One of the perks of having an indoor arena at the farm. I found the big door open despite the cold and wind, and tried to close it. What followed was me pushing against the door with my 115lb. frame and growling "damn you, static friction!" under my breath. Despite my efforts, I didn't close the door, but the wind wasn't too bad in the arena.

After getting Royal, I realized he'd gone tramping through BOTH kinds of burr bushes, big and small. So, I had to get those out before I tacked him up and started out. After our first circuit around the arena, I saw that the moon had risen and was visible from the door. Well, I suppose it was a semi-good thing I hadn't been able to close the door.

Sorry for the crappy pics. My cell phone apparently does not like taking pictures at night.

After that, we did a basic little warm up before playing Seven Games with a little cross-rail. Friendly, Porcupine, and Yo-Yo/Squeeze went well, but my combination of Circling and Driving sent Royal in hyper-mode. It started well enough, but soon he wanted to canter around the small little circle, which was just not possible. We had a little discussion about the appropriate speed for tiny cross-rail, and finished with a little Game of Contact/connection with the reins. He's still learning that Finesse is supposed being where we hold each others' hand, not where Royal flips out and Renee gets frustrated. He made some great progress, so I ended on a good note.

This afternoon, we had another light ride. Some wtc, with another little bit of rein connection, which he did fantastically at. After a little bit, I really felt him stretch into the contact, but without leaning. Something I've never felt before, and it was cool. I feel like we're really coming together.

Where To From Here?

I've done a lot of thinking about what the future holds for me and Royal. Even though we didn't pull off a Disney movie finish, I still felt like it was an extremely successful weekend. I really want to keep going with eventing, even if we never get a ribbon.

The question become, how do I mesh competition training and Parelli? So far, the official Parelli line has been that you don't do anything even remotely related to competing until you graduate Level 4. This is the equivalent of mastering 3rd Level dressage and be able to do flying lead changes bridleless and canter half-passes while ground driving and trailer loading at liberty, when it all comes down to it. I think it's patently ridiculous to require that before doing BN and Novice eventing. To achieve Level 4 with Royal, I would either have to go down to the Centers, which is becoming more and more unobtainable to the non-Parelli-Professional, or continue toiling away for what will probably be another 4-8 years. Neither option is appealing, so I'm not doing either.

This summer I did a sort of half-and-half. We did lots of competition-type training, but with a lot of Parelli techniques, and always with Parelli philosophy. Confidence is number one, reward the slightest try, and always keep things fun. I feel like our relationship vastly improved this summer. Instead of chipping away at tasks, I had lots of specific small goals surrounding the shows and travels. Things like jumping ditches, going through water, various jump heights, beginnings of dressage, getting my new trailer, etc. I really don't think I would have done any of that if I hadn't been so focused on competing. I've also begun to see what Royal is truly capable of. I always knew he was special, but he has really risen to the occasion this year. So, I feel it was a really good decision.

But, it's been a quiet couple of weeks. I've been busy with school, volunteering at the Humane Society, work, and this weekend I audited a Karen Rohlf clinic. It was cold and windy, but so worth it. She had so many useful simulations and concepts that I'm still bouncing around in my head. She creates a very good bridge between Parelli and dressage, and I think it will further add more to my and Royal's journey. Hopefully I'll be able to ride with her next year.

I've been having some short and quiet sessions with Royal. Just online or liberty session, although today we tried to do some riding today. But it was cold and rainy, and I didn't feel like Royal was really connected to me. This sort of thing seems to happen about once a month, for whatever reason. He was really distracted and not "all there" so we just had a lots of undemanding time and retreat. Eventually he came out of his shell and we had a short ride, just doing passenger lessons and circles at the walk. After which, he returned to his usual goofy self and tried to eat some paper.

Ah, Royal.

Royal Gets A Quiet Week... And I Don't

After the excitement at Steepleview and with Birchbury being postponed, I decided to give Royal a relaxing week. He's really earned it, and I think letting him have ample time off is good for him mentally and physically. I try to keep our sessions fun and engaging, but it can still be hard stuff. We had a relaxed session on Wednesday, just playing at Liberty in the arena, and with yielding to pressure from Zone 4. He was a champ, as always. Friday was hot and buggy, but we still had fun on the 45 foot line. Today was Freestyle Dressage Test day. I put the bareback pad on and used the hackamore and we did the Intro A & B tests. Lots of fun was had, and the tests aren't too challenging. Turn, stop, go, circle, change direction, circle, change gait, stop. Pretty simple stuff.

I had a mostly exciting week. On Monday, I was at the clinic and one of the appointments was some dog vaccines and blood tests. One of the dogs (a big hound) didn't want his blood drawn and fought like mad. Eventually, it got to the point where the owner was kneeling on the dog, I was holding off the vein, and the vet was drawing the blood. At the last moment, the dog kicked and the needle went through his skin and into my thumb, stopping just below the back of the nail. Do I need to say OW!! I had to keep it wrapped and iced for a while, but other than a puncture wound and a bruise, no damage.

Thursday was another interesting day. The vet and I were called out for the works (check teeth, clean sheath, Coggins test, vaccines) for a Percheron-cross and his new owner. Who's never owned a horse before, and this is a 1400lb. behemoth. He decided he didn't want anything to do with us and he didn't have to. There was no fear in it, only dominance. We ended up having to give enough IM sedation for SIX horses. Oh yeah, this was a tough one. And the worst part is that we were confirming his suspicions about this being a fight, and it's probable that the next time will be worse. The owner said that a trainer was going to work with the horse, but this went beyond cookie-cutter "disobedience". This was a nearly-feral horse that had no respect for humans except as treat dispensers, which is something that is going to take a lot of work.

I hope his owner is up to the task.

Steepleview Derby Day

I really really love Parelli.

I got up at 5am to get ready and on the road to Steepleview. It would be an hour's drive and I was pretty sure it would take a while to get the trailer hooked up and Royal loaded up. I was right: I got to the farm a little after 6 and headed out just before 7. I figured out a neat little trick to line up the ball and hitch, so that didn't take too long. Royal was still skeptical of the trailer, but loaded fairly well. We were on our way, and luckily for both of us, the roads were fairly quiet. Sweetie the truck chugged along with the new trailer and we spent a lot of time on the freeway and one long county road.

We arrived at Steepleview around 8 and I had to leave Royal in the trailer so I could find the check-in tent. After getting my number and course maps, I got Royal out of the trailer and let him move around. Then I had to tie him to the trailer so I could walk my first course, Starter Novice. This course consisted of fences up to 18" in height, with no unusual obstacles (banks, ditches, water), so I figured Royal would have a good time of it. I got back to the trailer, saddled the Fuzz up, and headed to the warm-up area. We were fifth on the course, and once the previous rider finished, trotted out. The first fence was a red-white-and-black stadium cross-rail with a judge in a big hat sitting not too far away. Royal was not too sure of the judges' hat, but walked over the jump. Then it was a series of logs and tiny benches that he made small work of before turning up the bank to another stadium jump. We tried to canter the turn, and the ground evidently was a lot slipperier than I thought as both of Royal's hind legs slipped to the left. He immediately caught himself and we kept going, hopping over another log and the first three jumps in reverse without a hitch. I was worried about the slip, as a similar thing happened to Gogo of Eventing-A-Gogo! in 2009. She injured tendons in both hind legs, and she still has not fully recovered. Fortunately for Royal and me, his legs were cool and tight after our run.

We went back to the trailer, hung out, and then I had to walk my Beginner Novice course. I knew I had made a mistake signing up for it while walking the course. I had been so focused on the unusual obstacles that I neglected to think about the height and width of the jumps. Royal can jump up to 4' easily, but I've only gone to 2'6" a few times and am not as confident as I should be. And these were robust BN fences. I knew I would be doing a lot of mane grabbing during this course. I had a question about how to enter the water for fence 4, so I walked back up to the check-in booth. There I saw a sign with all the SN entries and a "4" next to my name. I asked the person what the 4 meant and she said it meant I got fourth place. I was shocked, but happily took my ribbon.

At the trailer, I met two nice ladies who were so impressed that I was here all by myself and that Royal and I got a ribbon at our first cross-country competition. I had a nice conversation with them and headed back to the warm-up arena. Royal could feel my nerves and was deer-leaping over the jumps, which did not help me at all. I was second on the BN course; the first person fell off. She got back on and finished, but my nerves were starting to fray. We trotted out, had a three spooky jumps and went for the water. He was hesitant, but eventually walked in. I just let him walk, figuring it was better to let him check it out instead of trying to get him to go through it fast. Then it was a big coop and a long turn to the ditch. I prepared myself for a screeching halt... and he hopped right over. I was so elated that I botched the turn to the next jump and had a refusal. Well that totally blew my confidence and we had a refusal at the next two jumps, including a sizable table. We were able to get over the 10 jump, through the water in the opposite direction, back over the coop, and refused the last jump before popping over it again. I know it was probably kind of scary to watch, and it wasn't much more fun to ride. We went back to the trailer, put all my stuff back in, Royal loaded in pretty well, and we went home. All in all, I feel like it was a success, because I learned a ton.

Here's why it made me love the Parelli Program even more:

1. Self-Sufficiency. Parelli really focuses on developing independent horses and riders. I saw a few other loners there, but most had their trainers or helpers with them. Parelli gave me the confidence to do this by myself and the tools with which to accomplish it, both mentally and physically. (Speaking of which, about 1/3 of the way through the BN course where Royal's huge jumps were twanging me off his back, I thought "I love my saddle". It kept catching me and keeping me centered, even through the huge efforts.)

2. Confidence. The fact that Royal and I could even do this is amazing, let alone that we came home with a ribbon. Remember, this is a horse I used to be too scared to ride at a walk in the arena, let alone canter over solid obstacles in a field. Also, I know my confidence has taken a hit, but I know exactly how to regain it. The next thing I have planned is the Birchbury schooling show and I know how to prepare for it.

3. Realism. I have learned how to realize my and my horse's limitations, which is why I am not planning on going to the Roebke Run event. The problem over the BN course was me. When I get nervous, I freeze and shut down. Royal was only responding to my lack of confidence when he refused and that is something I can't rush. If I took the month off and practiced everyday, we might be ready. But that's not realistic, so I'm going to put my horse and my confidence first, and aim for the Steepleview recognized event in September. You can't rush this stuff, and I don't want to go into another event unprepared.

So, all in all, a success in terms of learning and material gains.

Royal with his ribbon.

The New Cave On Wheels or We Haven't Won The Porcupine Game

We all know this was coming.

I sold my other trailer on Wednesday and bought the new one the nest day. It belonged to someone I know and who needed to sell it fast. It's a 1993 Trail-Et two horse straight-load bumper pull with lots of room for Royal. And it looks cool.

I don't have much experience backing up trailers, so last night I watched a bunch of Youtube videos on how to back up trailers. Most helpful was a series by a semi driver who broke it down into little steps that I was saying out loud to myself as I practiced backing in the local high school parking lot this morning. I'm sure I looked like I was nuts, but once I got out to the farm, I was able to back it into its spot with very little trouble. A few more times and I'll get the hang of it.

Royal was less enthusiastic about it. Besides the fact that its new! and weird! and different! which always sets him on edge, he hadn't been in a straight-load in years and the last time didn't end well. To make a long story short, he wiggled out of a 3'x1' escape door while still tied inside the trailer. And he didn't get badly hurt, only had a few scrapes.

I've previously mentioned that Royal had a tendency to turn around in the other trailer, which is just not an option in this one. That had to have made him nervous, since he had to carefully reconsider how to get out. It took about an hour to get all four feet in, with a lot of help from my trusty clicker and carrots. Then we got to the butt bar. Once Royal could stand in there for more than five seconds, I tried fastening the butt bar. I then found out that Royal is not totally respectful of pressure in Zone 4. He respects it in Zone 1 and yields off the halter like nothing, but is willing to blast through pressure in Zone 4. So he would hit the butt bar and lean on it. No panicking, just leaning, waiting for it to open. Then the new guideline became that if I went to unhook the butt bar and he started backing into it, I would walk up to his head, ask him to move forward and start over. He got that message pretty quick, and would wait for me to say "okay" before backing out, but we'll see if it sticks tomorrow when we go to Steepleview.

This is not an ideal situation, or even a very good situation. I would love to leave the trailer in his paddock for a while or just load him everyday for seven days before going anywhere, but that isn't practical right now. We'll just have to muddle through and try to make everything go as well as possible.

Time to Think

I haven't written lately mostly because I've been too busy. I still have plenty of Royal-time and other happenings, but just not the time to write about it.

Since Carriage House went fairly well, I signed us up for a cross-country schooling event this Saturday. The idea is to let Royal encounter "unusual" obstacles, like banks and ditches, in a laid-back setting. I had the idea to tape my clicker to the handle of a crop so I could "click" Royal while riding. I was able to find a cheap yet sturdy crop and, while it looks ugly, it works. I was able to play plenty of Friendly Game with Royal but he still tends to get a bit amped when I carry it. On Sunday, we were doing some jumping and I had two 2'6" fences set up in a four stride line. Royal did it in three. So I was thinking I'd scrap that idea since he'd already be pretty energetic going cross-country anyway, and I didn't want to add to it.

Fast-forward to Wednesday. After a great warm-up, including a Soft Feel at the canter, I created a scary obstacle consisting of a bright blue western saddle blanket draped over a 15" high pole on the Bloks. Royal trotted right up to it... and slammed on the brakes 5 feet away. I was surprised but laughed. We tried again, and he overjumped it by two feet. A couple more passes and he was jumping over it like nothing. So I decided to make it into a "ditch" by laying the blanket under a 9" high pole. For some reason, he still spooked at it, but did hop over. Once he was doing that pretty well, I took the pole away. For some reason, that made him almost melt down completely. He would completely stop any forward motion beyond a certain point, so I eventually got the Clicker Crop out and would tap my leg until he at least tried to go forward. I wasn't trying to make him go over it, just try. He did go over, but it was a scared little deer leap. He wasn't acting like an RBI, just wasn't to keen on getting close to the Blanket of Death.

It took a few sideways leaps before he went straight over it and then it took what felt like ten million Squeeze Games more before he went across it like it was no big deal. And we did end up messing it up.

Luckily, it's washable. But it was so weird how frightening he found the blanket just lying on the ground with nothing above it. So, trekheners and liverpools yes, ditches no. He also got quite a bit of emotional sweat, and was breathing quite hard even though all we did was walk. Much more mental/emotional exertion than physical. I just tried to be as quiet as possible and let him work it out, although I did have to do a few strong one-rein stops when he tried to bolt away from the jump. Hopefully he was able to work out all his demons, although I may attach a savvy string to my saddle on Saturday. That way I can help him out if he gets stuck, but he won't feel threatened.

Royal enjoying a nice roll in the arena after being hosed off.

I also sold the big trailer and got a new used one. Will post pictures of the new ones when I can.

The Pond Comes Back

And Royal and I go back in it.

We've had a bunch of rain here and the pond that Royal and I went swimming in came back. On Wednesday I went out to find it was quite big, twice the size of last time. I hopped on Royal bareback, and tried to ride him in. It took some approach and retreat, but eventually he walked in. It was a really shallow part, so he didn't need a lot of effort to get through it. We waded back and forth a couple of times. Then we went to the deeper part, which Royal was somewhat suspicious of. For good reason, as I found out, as the water was up to his chest and my jeans got very wet. He's a 16.1H leggy Anglo-Arab, so that means the water was around 3.5-4 feet deep. He didn't care; he started splashing which got me even more wet. A couple more passed in the deep water, and we were done for the day.

Today, I decided to focus on jumping and if there was time later, try for the water. We had a pretty good jumping session: Royal was mostly relaxed with a few rush-y jumps here and there, but it was good. If the weather holds out, we'll go the the Carriage House schooling show on Sunday. However, if there are thunderstorms, we'll stay home thankyewverymuch. But right now, I'm prepping like there won't be any storms. We'll see.

After the jumping was done, we went out to the pond. All saddled up and everything. Royal hesitated a bit, but walked straight in to the shallow part. Then the medium part and finally the deep part. He splashed us silly a few times, shook himself dry like a Labrador, and had a good time. I was able to film a couple of passes through the medium-depth part (thanks in incredibly flexible and sturdy camera stands):





Yes, this is the same horse who used to be afraid of his own urine and the same rider who used to be too scared to ride him. We've come a long way, baby.

Public Perceptions of Parelli People

I don't often tell people I'm a Parelli student. Not even the vet clinic I'm interning at.

Not because I'm embarrassed or anything, but mostly because I don't really see it as a good "political" move. When Parelli is mentioned in a "normal" horse context, it's almost never in a good way. It's often "those Parelli people are so stupid and gullible, paying $500 for a halter" or "That Parelli method is too soft. They just let the horse walk all over them; you gotta show 'em who's boss" or "The Parellis are abusive!" So, gullible, wussy, or abusive. None sound good.

None of these, of course, are true. None of the Parelli halters (or any other equipment for that matter) cost anywhere near $500. They teach people how to be effective without losing their tempers, and reject smacking/jerking as a one-size-fits-all correction. And the abuse charges are incidents that were way over blown by people who already hated Parelli. One "case" was an old video edited to look like a 4 minute Phase 4 with no release. I have the original video: it was part of the level 1. In the real video, the horse is running over the top of his owner, refusing to stand still, and not respecting the owner's or Linda's space; but Linda gives the horse plenty of release and time to come off the adrenaline. But, for ten minutes, the horse absolutely refuses to calm down and keeps doing the behaviors listed above. All of which make a dangerous horse, one which would caused many people to flail on his halter screaming "HO!!!!!" while he barged into them. I've seen it many times. The Catwalk thing was also way overblown: the horse was being dangerous to the point of knocking Pat's microphone off and was evaluated by a veterinarian afterwards, with no evidence of abuse found. As a side note, it was very interesting to see how many people leapt off the "Parelli is for pansies!" bandwagon onto the "Parelli is abusive" bandwagon in a very quick manner. So, what? Are we pansies who let our horses walk all over us or abusers leaving welts on their sides and breaking their jaws?

But, the damage is done and it gets done further every time a Parelli horse is not completely perfect behaved. Anytime a Parelli horse acts up, even in the tiniest manner and/or in ways that many "normal" horses act up each and every day, it's seen by many as a failure of the Parelli program. Is that fair? No, because horses aren't robots. Given the right circumstances, any horse can be dangerous. And for many horses, getting them to the point where they don't randomly explode (like Royal) or stand mostly still for the vet or farrier is a huge accomplishment. But it's a lot funner for the haters to focus on the fact that the horses aren't perfect, therefore Parelli is an expensive waste of time, Q.E.D.

In my short time with the clinic, I have already seen a few Parelli students. Most are people who have decently behaved horses. A couple have been "bad" but I have seen much worse, both from the people who hadn't touched their horses in a year and couldn't get halters on them, to the person who hadn't trained her horse or had its feet trimmed in two years. So, in that respect, the Parelli horses have been mostly good and well behaved. Not perfect, but not horrible.

But Parelli students are in a bind. We are a minority in the horse world, and a largely disdained minority. Every time a Parelli horse is a bit naughty or a Parelli student doesn't have all the answers, is seen as a mark against Parelli. However, less-than-perfect "normal" horses are not a mark against "normal" horse training. Jerking on and screaming at a scared yearling is considered okay, but a wary Parelli horse is not.

What do we do about it? I don't know, but I suspect the answer lies mostly in continuing to do Parelli and do it around other people. I don't mean telling every single horse person I'm a Parelli person, but simply doing it without any fanfare. Not "lookee here! I'm doing Parelli!" but "Yes, I do Parelli. Any other questions?" When I take Royal to shows, I won't hide my Carrot Stick or use a non-Parelli halter. Hopefully, people will see that while my horse and I are not perfect, we are happy and we enjoy doing things together.

Because that, really, is the truth. :)

Renee Says Relax... and Royal Listens

Oh what an interesting few days it's been.

Friday was my last final (O Chem) so what did I do? Of course. I went riding. And it was not a good one. Royal was very hyper and distracted, and I just could not hold his attention. He seemed fine on the ground, but not in the saddle. I spent an hour trying to get him to synchronize with me, to no avail. Partial disengagement, figure-8s, transitions, nothing worked. This depressed me greatly, and I could just see all of my summer goals fading away.

Saturday, winter came back for a visit. An unwanted visit, but not we could do about it. I was working at the clinic all morning and a good part of the afternoon, despite my finger's protests. I ran into a Parelli student, and made some observations about perceptions of Parelli vs. "normal" people that I'll talk about later. But I had no idea how I was going to be able to re-kindle my synchronicity with Royal. What to do.

Today I went up of the farm intending to do whatever it took, as long as it took, to help Royal relax. And, wouldn't you know it, a bit of partial disengagement turned the hyper block of wood into butter. Royal was so soft and relaxed, so I started trotting. A little excessive speed, but not a lot. We do some more PD, and he gives me a trot that could win a Pleasure class, both directions. Right lead canter, no problems. Left lead, a little fast for two strides, but then he settled into a nice relaxed canter.

I had no idea what to do with myself. Here'd I had the intention of spending hours helping my horse relax, only to have him relaxed in 15 minutes. So, I did something I've been aching to do for months: jumping. I set up our favorite starter grid (pole to cross-rail) and that was no problem. After three passes, added another cross-rail 18' away. Three more perfect passes. Turn the second cross-rail into a 2' vertical. No problems.

At this point I was feeling confident, so I did something I have never done before: I raised the vertical to 2'6". Now, I had never jumped 2'6" in my life. 2'3" a few times, but never any higher. Royal's jumped higher plenty of times, but with my feet firmly on the ground. After mounting back up, we tried the grid again. I felt Royal add more power, which felt quite cool. He seemed to jump in a more "heavy" manner: I could really feel feel him land, which is not usually the case. At 2' and below, he seems to float over the jumps and land like a duck. I didn't know if the heavier landing was due to the increased height of the jump or the short distance I was making him take. But either way, we had many wonderful leaps over that jump and I hopped off a very happy human. Royal got a nice roll in the dirt, the crumbles from the cookies (which he loves), and a nice long grazing session.

Oh, and the field boots are currently doing very well with the addition of the gel ankle bands. Felt very comfortable today and didn't get in the way of jumping, unlike other tall boots I've worn. I think they're keepers. :D

Royal in Bayfield, 2006.