Lots of Friendly Game and a Great Walk

It’s been a good horse week! I got to spend a bit of time at the barn yesterday morning while the kids were at camp since I worked Tuesday morning and Tuesday night. I had a nice morning with Lola yesterday. I spent lots of time working on the porcupine game since that is the section I’ve been reading about most recently in my Level 1 kit. I’m even making really good progress moving her front end which has been a sticking point for us.

I did a bit of Friendly game with the clippers. She’s certainly not excited about them, but she is getting better and better. She’s also getting better about letting me rub her nose and inside her mouth.

After lots of porcupine practice, I took Lola for a walk down the street. It was by far the most relaxed walk I’ve taken her on so far! Now there wasn’t much traffic at all, which I’m sure helped, but there was just something about her demeanor that was very relaxed. She wasn’t fighting me to get to the grass. She just walked and looked around and stopped once in a while to sniff the air. It was great! As we turned around to head home, I did let her graze a bit on the side of the road. She was on a very loose lead rope the whole time. It was great!

Today I started with lots and lots of Friendly game in her stall before we even went out. I played Friendly with the clippers, and she was more hesitant than yesterday, so I didn’t push it. I got her to the point where she would stand calmly while the clippers were on and touching her side and I called it a day.

I got a needle-less syringe and filled it with apple sauce and started playing the Friendly game with that today. She wasn’t sure what to make of it at all. Lots of rubbing it on her neck and around her nose. She wouldn’t let me put it anywhere near her mouth. I did squirt a little of the applesauce on her lips, but it didn’t entice her. That’s something I plan to work on lots with her. It would be nice to be able to worm her without it being a big fiasco every time. Eventually she put her nose out and sniffed the apple sauce and I called it a day on that note.

Also played Friendly with a plastic bag. I think the crinkly noise made her think she was getting treats because she kept sniffing the bag. No fear there at all. I waved the bag around and made all kinds of noise with it and she couldn’t have cared less.

Worked in the indoor today and spent some time working on Porcupine game again. She is really moving nicely. I had her back with and without the carrot stick, moved her front and hindquarters, and had her put her head down. I also tapped all four feet and asked her to lift them. The Parelli video also has an exercise where you hold the snap of the lead rope and ask the horse to move forward and back from that pressure and Lola did great with that today.

Did some Driving game today and had luck moving her front end with it for the very first time today! We are definitely making progress. She is getting much easier to move in lighter phases.

Even though I have done all the Parelli stuff before, I’m really trying to work with the home study program and keep to the steps. I feel like it will keep me progressing in the right order and not skipping around. I do find I’m learning new ways to do things with the program and lots of tips that are making things easier. I love the way the program is organized with books to read and videos to watch. It’s very well organized and easy to follow. Officially, I’m reading about and working on the driving game.

I did the Yo-Yo game with Lola a couple of times today and she was awesome. I pushed it a bit today and asked her for more than one step at a time. She didn’t quite understand at first, but she figured it out quickly. I backed her all the way to the end of the 12 foot line and brought her back a couple of times.

We are heading to the lake next weekend for a whole week. I know Lola will be in good hands and she probably won’t even miss me, but it is going to be hard to not see her for a whole week!

Lucky Me!

I’m so lucky to have found this horse! There can't be many two year old horses in this world as tolerant of a 6 year old little girl as Lola is.

Skylar and I went to the barn together today and had such a great time. I groomed Lola in her stall a little when we got there, while Skye hung out and played her video game in the tack room. When I was done, Skye and I took Lola down to the indoor ring to do a little playing. We had so much fun! Skye is not only learning the Parelli games, but she is learning the theories behind them, and the correct way to do them, using very gentle phases to ask for the horse to do something, and then upping the phases if the horse doesn’t respond, and releasing right away when the horse does respond. It’s so much fun to be teaching her this stuff.

We also did some really silly stuff today that Skye loved. We let Lola loose in the indoor, and started throwing things around, marching, singing, yelling, jumping, banging a trash can cover, swinging whips, etc. We were working on acclimating Lola to all kinds of noises. Skylar and I were just laughing and having so much fun. Lola watched us for a few minutes, and then walked away to sniff the edges of the arena for grass. Obviously our racket didn’t bother her! Great! Skye spent quite a bit of time walking around the arena with Lola, making her stop, making sure she didn’t get to close, and leading her over ground poles and a small cross rail. The two of them did great together! I did the first 5 games with Lola, including a little Circle game. I tried to do a Yo-Yo game over some ground poles, but it didn’t go that well. Lola was really trying, but she was a little nervous about it. She finally did it, and her hoof came down between the two poles. They were just plastic poles, nothing that could hurt her, but it scared her a little bit. I rewarded her for her effort, and then did a regular Yo-Yo game without the poles and that went fine. She’s such a sweet girl!

Skye walked her around outside and let her graze for a while, and we called it a day.

I ordered some supplements for Lola. She’s going to start on a fat supplement, a Vitamin E and Selinium supplement, Source Micronutrients, plus eventually hay pellets and regular hay. I’m hoping that will turn into a good healthy balance for her. Now I just have to work on making the switch nice and slowly. I think I’ll also buy a bag of alfalfa cubes and when I’m at the barn, I’ll give her some cubes and corn oil as a little extra treat. The added fat from the corn oil should be good for her.

I almost forgot to mention the highlight of the day… Skye went over to give Lola a big hug around her chest, and I came over and hugged Skye, so all three of us had a nice hug together. I was so amazed that Lola just stood there and actually seemed to enjoy. I know Skye and I enjoyed it!

Friendly progress and the Circle Game

It’s been a rough week to find time for Lola. With the kids being out of camp and school, it is a juggle to find time for work, kids and of course, horse. The kids and I went to the barn together on Tuesday, and Lola seemed quite happy. I groomed her and let her graze and that was about it. I can't imagine having her in a barn with limited turn out. I would worry about her all the time.

I went up this afternoon without kids. Gave her a good grooming and played lots of Friendly game with her. She is improving so much! Her only tough spots have been her nose and mouth. She totally lets me rub all over her nostrils now and doesn’t seem to care at all. She will also let me rub all over her lips with no trouble. She’s starting letting me put a finger in her mouth to rub her gums a little, but she is still a bit apprehensive about it. We are just taking it slow and keeping with it.

After I groomed her, I let her graze a little, and did a little Friendly and Porcupine game in the driveway. Then we went for a walk down the road. For some reason the road was really busy today. Cars kept going by in both directions, sometimes two at a time. I let Lola stop and graze whenever a car came by and we didn’t have any trouble at all. I’ve got to learn to relax more and I think she will too.

I tried to do a little more with her in the driveway when we got back, but the flies were horrible. It didn’t seem to matter how much fly spray I put on her or me!

I let her graze for a bit, and then took her down to the indoor to see if the flies were any better there. They were actually quite a bit less bothersome inside. I did some Driving game and some Yo-Yo game and then decided to work on Circle game a little bit. We only did it at the walk, but she totally understands my send now which is great. Now I just need to figure out how to up my send to get her to circle at a trot.

I used porcupine game to back her over a ground pole today. She was very worried at first, but soon figured it right out.

I tried a little bit of Sideways game and for her first time, that went pretty well too. She got a little frazzled at first, then figured out what I wanted and took a couple of steps. I called it a day right then.

Back on the mounting block to lean over her back a bit. She’s still not very comfortable about that. I leaned on her, played Friendly game from up there, and rubbed her all over from my vantage point. She tried to walk forward a couple of times, but eventually just stood there and looked at me funny. I thought that was a good time to call it a day.

I emailed Sarah about changing Lola’s diet. I’m going to start by taking her off Charger and just feeding her Trotter. Then I’m going to slowly add some hay pellets and slowly wean her off the Trotter. Eventually, I want her just eating the hay pellets, a fat supplement, and regular hay, but I want to take it nice and slow with the transition. I hope Sarah doesn’t hate me for changing things around.

No Sleeping, So I'll Blog Instead.

Here's proof that I can get things done when I don't waste time sleeping. Of course tomorrow I'm going to be wishing that I had gotten some sleep, but I can only toss and turn in bed for so many hours before i just have to get up.

Spent some time at the barn yesterday afternoon. Something clicked and Lola and I had a really great day. I ended up only spending about an hour and a half with her, but pretty much every second of it was great quality time. She was really listening to me, and I think I’m finally learning how to communicate well with her. Of course we have a LONG way to go, but it is nice to feel that we are making progress!

I had planned to give her a bath again, but that never happened. I love that the Parelli program encourages people to just enjoy their horses. They make it very clear that you don't have to have an agenda with your horse all the time, and you don't have to ride. I think so most people miss out on very special relationships with their horses because they don't see past the riding. Don't get me wrong, I love to ride, but I also love grooming, playing with my horse on the ground, and even mucking stalls. All right, maybe I don't "love" mucking stalls, but I do enjoy it. It is really relaxing to me just to be at the barn.

I started out just hanging out with Lola in her stall today. We played lots of Friendly game. She's really good about letting me touch her everywhere except for her nose and mouth, so I really wanted to work on that today. I was able to really rub her nose all over without it bothering her today which was a HUGE accomplishment. She also let me put a finger in her mouth and rub her gums a little bit. She wasn't interested in having me repeat it, but at least I made some progress with that.

She got a really good grooming, and I was happy to see the rain rot is definitely going away. I did a little bit of Porcupine game in her stall, and then more Friendly game with her halter and lead rope. I probably spent close to half an hour in her stall with her. It was really nice and relaxing.

We went for a walk on the little trail loop behind Sarah's house. Lola really wanted to eat everything in sight, so I had to keep reminding her to keep moving. I don't want her to think that it is time to graze every time we hit the woods. It could get really annoying when we start doing trail rides. She did really well today and didn't seem at all nervous. Chloe kept sneaking up behind her and cutting through the woods around her, but Lola didn't see to care at all.

We detoured into the indoor ring after our walk. It was a little hot to be inside, but at least we got away from the distraction of grazing. More Friendly game, and more Porcupine game. She is getting MUCH better about moving her front end. It still needs work, but I can see improvement. We worked on the Driving game for a bit. She's actually getting very responsive to it, as long as I can hold her attention. She does get easily distracted, and if I can't keep her focused on me, I can't move her. I skipped driving her front end today. I'm not sure if I'm avoiding it because it is difficult, or if I'm waiting for her Porcupine game with the front end to be more consistent before I try to move on to driving. I did a little bit of Yo-Yo game with her. She is so good at that! As long as I can keep her attention, she's great. She knows exactly what I want. I was able to back her away from me more today than ever before. At first she looked slightly confused today when she took a step back and I didn't immediately relax and stop asking, but she figured out what I wanted pretty quickly and she backed another step. After a couple of single steps, she got the idea and kept backing until I totally relaxed. I sent her out almost to the end of the 12 foot line.

More Circle game today than we had ever done before. She's totally understanding my send, but not wanting to circle to the right as much and as willingly as she will circle to the left. I'm sure it will just take some time. I actually got her to circle at the trot a little bit today, and I even did a little circle game over a very small jump, fun! I really need to get her front end moving better so we can start working on the Sideways game next.

I brought her over the mounting block again today and played Friendly game with her while I was standing up on it. She was much calmer about it today than she has been before. I leaned over her and patted her opposite side, and she was totally fine. I even jumped against her side a little bit and she didn't move. She hasn't really done anything bad in the past when I've done this, she just starts to walk away when she gets uncomfortable, but today she stayed still.

No bath today, time ran out on me, so I let her graze for a bit, fly sprayed her, put medicine on all her many scrapes and boo-boos, a little rain rot spray, just to be sure, and I called it a day.

We are away for the weekend, so no barn for me for a few days, but I'm sure Lola will be well taken care of and happy to see me when I get back.

I really don't know how I'm going to find another barn that I'm as happy with. I really love having the place to myself most of the time. I don't have to worry about people thinking I'm crazy when we do the Parelli stuff. I have the rings to myself. We've got access to trails, and even an indoor. I have total confidence that Lola is well taken care of when I'm not around, she gets to be out 24 hours a day if she wants, and if she wants to be in, she has a nice, dry, cozy stall. Sarah is so wonderful at putting her fly mask on, and little things like that, which mean so much. The drive does stink. It is a little long, but that is really the only drawback. I do keep my eyes and ears open for info on barns, but I'm certainly not in a hurry to move. I hope Sarah continues to enjoy having her there.

Yesterday I got a new book all about the special needs of draft horses. Really interesting stuff! I think I'm going to be changing Lola's diet. There is a disease called EPMS that affects mostly draft horses, but others as well. I'm pretty sure it is the same thing my old horse, Woody has. Any way, the disease causes muscles to waste away, but it can be controlled well with a special diet including watching carbohydrates, and increasing fat levels. I've heard high fat diets were important for draft horses, and research I've done in this book, and on the web shows that this special diet they recommend for EPMS horses, can be very beneficial to other drafts as well. I think one of things I like about horses is that there is SO much to learn. I've been around horses all my life, and yet there is still so much that I'm still figuring out. It certainly never gets boring to me.

Mom and Daughter Time

Skye wanted to come to the barn with me yesterday, so we had a little Mommy and daughter time. The weather was actually cooperating for once. I gave Lola another medicated bath, hoping to finally see the end of the rain rot. I was a little disappointed that Skye took off to play in the yard and didn’t want to help with Lola’s bath at all, but at least she seemed to be having fun.

I finished the bath, put away the hose, and asked Skye if she wanted to stay or go. She said she wanted to stay a little longer, so I brought Lola into the driveway to do a little ground work. Grass was all Lola seemed able to think about! It was difficult working with her, but eventually she started to listen. Skye came over and said “Mommy, you are playing the Friendly Game with Lola.” I was so proud! She knows the first four Parelli games and how to play them! Very cool! Yesterday, I really taught her some details of the game. She learned about the four phases of asking for something, and about staying in position. She also learned to use her body position and expressions to help communicate with the horse. Really cool for me to watch!

In the last bit of Parelli DVD I had been watching, they showed how to tap each hoof to get the horse to move that hoof. I had never tried it with Lola before, but we tried it yesterday and it just worked, first try! Skylar thought that was very cool, and so did I!

One of the other things I saw in the DVD and hadn’t realized was how Linda puts her arm over the horse’s neck to tie the halter on. I always had my arm underneath the horse’s neck, and it makes it SO much easier to have your arm over the neck, and it gives you much more control. I was happy to learn that technique.

I’m really trying to follow the Level 1 course as closely as I can. I’ve done quite a bit of this stuff before, but I’m finding a lot of methods and details in the course that I didn’t know before. I am doing games that I haven’t officially gotten to in my study guides, but I’m also trying not to rush. I realized this weekend in some reading I was doing that I need to do some work on my Friendly game with Lola. She still doesn’t accept me touching her nose, or her mouth, and according to the study guides, I should be able to play Friendly game everywhere before moving on, so I really want to do some work on that. I’m hoping to get a night at the barn this week, and I’m just going to take some time and really work on that.

We are off the White Mountains this weekend, so no barn time, but hopefully I should be able to get in a couple of barn visits this week before we go. I still sometimes feel guilty for not getting up to the barn enough, but Lola is learning, and she seems quite happy. She’s out all the time, she’s not restless, and really her big job right now is to finish growing, and she can do that just fine without me.

I also feel guilty about dragging the kids to the barn sometimes. More often than not, when I suggest going there, they don’t want to go, and it makes me feel bad for dragging them up there, but once they get there, they almost always find something to do and have a great time. I wish I could let go of some of my guilt!

Riding!

Went to the barn last night, and actually rode! It had been much too long. I was excited to discover that Holly (Belgian mare) is really comfortable to ride. I wasn’t sure what to expect because I’ve never ridden a horse that broad before, but she was great.

I got to the barn, fed Lola a treat, and then put Holly in a stall so I could tack her up. Lola had no idea what was going on! She kept putting her head over the stall and watching me. She paced back and forth in front of the stall. I guess she has bonded to me more than I realized!

So I had a good time with Holly. Tacked her up, and headed to the indoor ring. She was a bit nervous in there, but we worked through it. I lunged her for just a quick little bit to get her used to being indoors, and then I got on. It probably took me 15 minutes just to get my stirrups comfortable! She’s a very W I D E animal. Once I got the stirrups right, it was actually a very comfortable ride. Her trot was nice and smooth, and I got used to her size very quickly. I have to say that riding these big, drafty horses is a really nice change from riding skinny thoroughbreds. I hope Lola ends up being nice and comfy.

I did some circles in the indoor, trotted a little bit, and got bored. I was going to take Holly on the little circle in the woods behind Sarah’s house, but it was really muddy and I was afraid it was going to be too slippery. We walked to the edge of the woods and gave up. I walked her up to the front of the property and did a couple of circles and a little trotting in the outdoor ring. It was raining, but it was a warm rain and it was actually really refreshing.

I let Holly graze a little bit, brushed her off, and put all her stuff away.

Lola was ready for me to give her some attention. I groomed her, toweled her off, and put more rain rot medicine on her. I’m going to be SO thankful when this rain rot is finally gone. I definitely think it is getting better, but it is a slow process. I fixed her stall up for her and got her some hay. I left her in for the night so she would stay dry. I didn’t really get a chance to work with her very much.

If only there were another few hours in every day. I’d be more exhausted than I am now, but there are lots of things in my life that could use the extra attention, the horse, the kids, the husband, the house cleaning, etc. and not necessarily in that order!

A pleasant walk

Short night with Lola tonight because of Lukey’s Spring Fling. He was so cute singing songs with his friends!

Any way, still battling rain rot. Sarah was nice enough to loan me her muck boots tonight because I remembered everything but boots. I didn’t feel good about being around the horses in flip flops!

I took Lola for a short walk down the street and she did great! I made her walk along, and when I heard a car coming, I let her stop and graze. She didn’t spook once. I played lots of friendly game with her while she grazed.

I did a little bit of the games with her in the driveway when we got back. It was hard because she was pretty insistent on grazing, but eventually I got her attention enough to do a little bit of Porcupine and driving games. I also did a little bit of yo-yo game. She did well. I groomed her, did more rain rot spray, and let her graze for a bit.

It was a really nice surprise that she was so well behaved on the street tonight.

Sarah is letting me ride her horse on Thursday. She’s been offering all along, and I’ve been too stupid to accept, but this time I couldn’t turn her down. I’m looking forward to riding Holly and seeing what it is like. She’s a big belgian mare - VERY drafty. I think Holly is much bigger/broader than Lola will ever be, but who knows? It should be fun to take a little ride on her. I hope Lola isn’t jealous ;-)

Still suffering from rain rot...

It’s been a rough couple of weeks dealing with the rain rot. I feel like we haven’t done anything except for grooming, grazing, and baths. I do think the rain rot is getting better, but it is a long, slow process.

I was determined to accomplish something with Lola tonight. I do hope to ride her some day, and I’m never going to feel ready if we don’t put in some ground work!

I’ve been working her in the indoor ring here and there so that I don’t have to fight her over grazing, but I just wanted to be outside tonight. It was way too nice out for that indoor.

Lola got a medicated bath yesterday, so her rain rot was in pretty good shape tonight. She got a really good grooming in her stall. Her coat is getting gorgeous. It’s so soft and so shiny. She’s still shedding a little, but even with the rain rot she looks good. I played lots of Friendly with her in her stall, made sure that her legs and everything were clean and there weren’t any cuts that needed attention. I rubbed her belly and spent lots of time scratching and currying her butt. She seemed to really enjoy that! She is great with letting me touch her ears, belly, tail, but she is still a bit apprehensive about me touching her nostrils and inside her mouth. I worked on it a little tonight, just taking it slow.

I lead her up to the ring tonight without letting her graze. I just shook the lead rope if she tried to graze and she quickly figured out not to, at least while I was leading her.

Up in the arena, I started playing some Friendly game with the carrot stick. Lola of course decided to try grazing. I patiently shook the lead rope, gently at first, and moving up in phases until she got the idea and quit, then back to the Friendly game. I had to give her little reminders the whole time I was working with her tonight, but she was hugely improved by the end of our little session.

We played Porcupine game, and Driving game. Porcupine went very well. She backed very softly, and I got her front end to move better than I had in the past. Driving game went well, but I didn’t push my luck and try to drive her front end. I just drove her back and drove her hindquarters in both directions.

I decided to push things a bit further tonight and we played the Yo-Yo game a couple of times. She did great. I even tried the circle game tonight and had a little bit of success with that. I got her to figure out what I was asking and to move off in the direction I wanted, but I couldn’t get her to keep going. It was MUCH improved over the last time I tried it, so I was very happy. I even stood outside her stall tonight and sent her in without me. That will be a handy habit to get her into for trailer loading. She needs to learn that I don’t always go first and some times I’ll send her some where.

After I finished working with her, I lead her back to her stall, again no grazing. I sprayed her rain rot stuff and covered her in fly spray, and then lead her back out. I lead her about half way back to the ring, and then asked her to put her head down and let her graze.

I really feel like I made some good progress with her tonight. I think the whole thing of having her in the ring and not letting her graze really built some respect into our relationship. She wasn’t pushy at all tonight, even when I did let her graze. She was very responsive when I moved her from one spot to another. I was very careful to ask her to stop after I lead her, and then asking her to put her head down before I let her graze.

I feel like I have been spending WAY too much time on the first couple of Parelli games. I’m going to start trying to work on all 7, even if they aren’t all perfect, it is time we started to make some progress. Once I introduce them all to her, we can start working on making them all better. I'm looking forward to heading back to the barn on Friday to play some more!