My Letter to Linda

Hey Linda,
I really doubt you will remember me but I thought I should let you know in some way. Back in January 2008 (was it that long ago already?) I came up to talk to you at the Franklin Celebration in TN. I had just bought my very first horse ever and only had her for a week. Charlotte's Firefly after my friend who lived in Australia. I still have the photo of Sharlie that you signed.
Well a few weeks after the Celebration Sharlie got really sick. Her left eye was swollen, runny and pussy. She could barely open it. The horse that I had assessed as a LBE during the Celebration was gone and replaced with a RBE. The vet came out and said that Sharlie was blind in her left eye due to moonblindness. 
To summarize, from February to May of 2008 my mom and I focused all our attention on Sharlie's physical and medical care. I stopped riding because I was terrified of riding Sharlie and I would always need my mom to help me lead Sharlie. I basically got stuck in the same cycle you did with Regalo in a way. I excersiced her in the round pen, running running trying to wear her out when she only grew stronger physically.
In May, some how I realized that I was NOT doing Parelli. I was not doing what Parelli was all about.
That is the day everything changed. Sure, Sharlie and I still have bad moments but we get less and less every time we play together. Over the summer Sharlie and I went to a Parelli friend's house for 2 weeks to focus on our natural horsemanship. Then I spent a week interning with Emily Larramore who will be coming to Ocala in November for her Fast Track.
The results of this summer have truly come through. On Saturday I went down to go play with Sharlie on the 45 foot line for what was the 2nd time. Here is an example of how it went.
"I wonder if she would pick up a canter 30 feet away because I raise my energy?" Sharlie picked up a canter.
"I wonder if she will change direction if I take only two steps back?" Sharlie changed direction.
We did some amazing things that afternoon. Even though we still can't canter in the saddle (due to confidence issues) and we may be facing the gigantic problem of Sharlie never wanting to load in a trailer again, we still have those beautiful moments.
And I just wanted to say thank you.
:)
Happy Birthday Linda.
~Julia, Sharlie and Casper.

I wrote this on Linda's Parelli Connect page yesterday evening. I didn't even realize it was her birthday till I was about to post it and saw everyone's birthday messages. :P

Maybe we will get a reply, maybe we won't. I don't really care. But it was something that was on my mind for a while now.

Am I A Bad Blogger?

Am I?

I have barely posted anything these last few weeks. That is partly cause I have done barely anything with the horses. (Yes, I know. I fail.)

Well in an effort to make it up to you let me share with you this blog. Its my writing blog.


http://ajourneyofwordsandstories.wordpress.com/

Also let me share a story I wrote. Its short.

The Big Top

I stood fiddling with the leather popper on the end of the lead rope, shifting from one foot to another and trying not to listen to just how loud the applause was from the crowd inside the Big Top. Someone came up and tapped me on the shoulder and said that I was up next. They said “Don’t be nervous, just let the Big Top work its magic.”

I took a deep breath and looked up toward the horizon. There lay the bold and beautiful Colorado Mountains. I was here, finally.

I heard Neil Pye introduce me to the crowd and I clucked to my partner at the end of the lead rope. We took the few steps into the arena and all my worries washed away. I took in the crowd with a smile as I took off the black rope halter after giving my Haflinger a big hug.  River stood by me, waiting patiently for my signal. 

We started out simple with some Stick To Me at the walk, trot and canter that transformed  gracefully into circles that began close and slowly spiraled outward till River was cantering along the rail. I showed him with my body language to weave through the comes that had been placed along the long end of the fence. With only a couple steps back and forward, River followed my body and weaved the cones to perfection. The applause resonated off of the ceiling 

and the walls.

Then I raised my energy and clicked a bit and River sprinted at a full gallop along the outskirts of the arena. After one lap I lifted my stick ever so slightly in front of him and he came to a sliding stop, causing the curling and twisting dust to envelope him and the audience near him  in a large cloud. The applause seemed to echo.

I waited for a few moments and then as if in slow motion I saw River’s proud face emerge from the dust, his ears pricked asking me what was next. I welcomed him back close to me and gave him a small kiss on the nose before swinging up onto his back. He turned his head to look at me through his thick forelock. I gave him a small smile before asking him forward. He took off at a graceful trot. He arched his neck and picked up his feet like he was a large fancy dressage champion, descended from generations of careful Warmblood breeding rather than a Haflinger pony abandoned at birth by his mother and by many people after that. 

We performed a number of figures, including the Clover Leaf pattern, the piaffe and a sliding stop. I noticed a group of 4 girls who looked about 13, 14 years old sitting by the fence watching us with big eyes. 

We ended the performance with spinning around both ways. As River laid down after bowing, the applause was almost deafening. I looked all around me, soaking it in. 

We were here.

The magic of the Big Top did work. 

Gus

This is from July. I forgot to post it when I returned home. Better late than never.






As some of you know I was on vacation, camping in Cherokee, NC. It is a beautiful place to camp with streams, forests, waterfalls..gorgeous.

And in every touristy place there is of course the horse rides. I decided to opt into this one because I was hoping for some wild reason that it would include something to do with Native Americans- don’t ask me why but it seemed like a reasonable hope. We were in Cherokee, NC right next to if not already in the reserve, it was a trail ride...I don’t know. I am just so fascinated with the Native Americans I was hoping for anything. At least it would be a pretty stable right? I had seen some beautiful valley pastures around and I thought “Hey it would be great to see a beautiful barn.”

If you didn’t already know this about me, then let me share. I do not like going on the tourist horse rides. Why? Because I seem to have a knack for going to the worst possible ones. Where the horses go on the same trail over and over and over, never having their saddles or bridles taken off, only having a five minute break to bring water and grab a snack. 

But surely in the beautiful land of the Cherokee it will be different, right? Oh so so wrong. It was the worst I’d seen in quite some time. 

The trails were gorgeous but not ideal for horses to walk on, large slippery pebbles, muddy tiny trails on the edge of a sharp drop, sharp rocky paths. The horses had about 5 minutes to drink and grab some hay- still completely tacked- before being assigned a new passenger. I don’t know what disgusted me more: When one of the guides (not much older than me) told me to pull to stop, kick REALLY HARD to go, jerk left to go left and jerk right to go right. (Okay, I’ll admit he said “pull left” and “pull right” but the way he showed me to do it was basically jerking.) He still told me this even though he knew I was an experienced rider. Or (what was more disgusting) the fact that most of these horses are were ‘old hags’ with thin weak necks and a rather bony body. Most of these horses had to be in the 20’s at least and should be retired.

My horse was Gus. A dapple grey gelding who was crossed with draft. (When I asked what breed he was I got this for an answer: “Dunno...something fat.” Oh the joy of rednecks) He was thick (of course) but seemed to have the features of a more delicate horse. Not Arab, but maybe Andalusian(?) I wouldn’t know. He looked younger than most of the other horses and more muscular. Reaching almost 16 hands, Gus was for the more ‘experienced’ riders.

I didn’t know what to expect, to be quite honest. Gus had been on this trail already once this morning- would this mean he would be bored out of his mind or had already seen the spooky sights of the day and was much calmer now? What horsenality was he? Most of the horses seemed to be left brain introvert but I wasn’t going to assume anything till I could judge for myself.

Either way I was determined to make this trail for Gus much more interesting than he ever would have expected.

We started out on a narrow path that curved to the side of the mountain with a rocky face on one side and a steep drop on the other. My first goal was to figure out what Horsenality he was. 

Almost immediately I was able to tell he was introverted. Not only would he rather not move his feet, but I could tell his brain was moving quickly. What was he thinking about? I wasn’t quite sure. The path perhaps, or how to throw me off the path. Maybe the horse behind him or the horse in front of him. He was thinking about something.

I’ve had my experiences with trail horses. Those who test you, those who try to do anything and everything to annoy you (and usually succeed), those who couldn’t care, who don’t want to be there anymore. A trail horse I have yet to see is a horse who even after years of walking the same trail, is still enthusiastic about it. Has anyone ever seen a horse like that?

So what was Gus? Well for some reason I felt that he was somewhat new at this. Not brand new, but had been only on this trail for several months. Maybe only a year. Somewhere around there. 

Now was he Right Brain or Left Brain? Left Brain obviously. 

Now time to give Gus something REALLY interesting to think about.

We had to stay at least 10 feet away from the horse in front of us. So why not play the Yoyo Game? Slowing down and speeding up while still staying at a walk. I would start with Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3..Phase 4, 5, 6... Phase 6 was flicking the reins back and forth and FINALLY he sped up. Then slowing down was also a challenge. I had to use the reins a lot more than I would have liked. But after about 20 minutes his ears were locked onto me and was listening to my Phases 1 & 2. Now we were coming up to a series of hairpin turns. Hmmm...what would happen if I turned my body instead of turning him with my reins? The first hairpin it didn’t work but the next 3 he bent to the curve wonderfully.

Needless to say, I had never seen a horse lick their lips that much. 

But remember how I said he was for ‘experienced’ riders? Well so far he had all the qualities of a beginner’s horse: being as numb and slow as possible.  

Well on the way back I discovered why he was for experienced riders. Or maybe it was just for me. But he began to test me. Could he snatch at this grass? Could he get too close to the horse in front of him or too far behind? What if he put his ears back and threw his head?


I made the wrong thing hard and the right thing easy (kind of). When he threw his head, I encouraged it. When he got to close to the horse in front of him, I urged him forward even more.  When he tried to slow down so much the horse behind him would run into him, I would slow him down even more. 


Do you see what I mean?


This took the whole hour and a half ride back. But when we got back, he was close to the perfect horse. I wanted to take him home but I couldn't.
It hurt to think he would just have another rider and go back to the way he was before. But I could find some relief in the fact I just made his day very interesting. Maybe even his week, month or year.


I love you Gus, and still think of you.

Bending the rules. Doing liberty without doing liberty.

Brewing...

I have some thoughts brewing about some posts.

Maybe I'll have something out by next week.

My Wonderful Weekend

Sharlie , Casper and I taking a quick snack break
on one of our walks.

Fabulous Friday:

Friday evening Mum and I went down to the stables to visit the horses. Thing was is that my halters, lead ropes and carrot stick were in the other car and Dad had taken it for the evening to a baseball game. This meant we had to improvise.


I went and found one of those rope halters where the lead rope is attached. It was huge and I knew it really wasn't the best thing to use....but I had no other choice. I first took Sharlie out of the field and put her in the round pen to graze. Then I went back to go get Casper. The halter was so huge on him I was afraid it was going to slip off somehow. But it didn't.


The day before (Thursday) we renewed Casper's lease for 1 year. This year I asked for him to be brought into the stables in the winter when it gets super cold. This is because last winter when it snowed his joints became really painful and he was miserable. I was told that when he goes into the stall he freaks out. (O_o)


So we have an agreement now. I am going to work with Casper and the stall and if he can stay in the stall calmly by winter time, he can come in.


So first thing was to see what he would do right now if I asked him to go into the stall. So I led him into the barn and played the Touch It game with him because he was slightly nervous. We walked back and forth across the cement, which was very strange for him! Soon he had his ears pricked and was relaxing. So I opened the door to the stall and just suggested that he go in. I made a big point to only suggest at first, not force him in any way at all.

Casper poked his nose in a bit and looked around, but then politely declined my offer of going in the stall. I found it a reasonable answer so we walked away...and then came back. This time I asked him to go in and he did! He is so responsive now, it is truly amazing. He walked in and turned around to face outwards. I asked him to stay in there a moment so I could observe him. He was tense, there was no doubt about that. 


But he didn't seem to be itching to bash up against the walls or try and break his neck. 


I brought him a bit closer and stroked his face a few times. He relaxed a bit. Then I broke one of my main rules: Don't go into a stall with a horse. I found this to be an exception, even though it won't stay that way for long. Especially in case he did freak out. 


Anyway. I led him around the stall a few times and stopped him by some left over hay to eat. Leaving it on a good note, we exited the stall and made our way out to the grass in the front. 


I am rather puzzled by this. I am going to talk to Emily (Larramore) about it and ask her what I should do. I don't know if I should let him loose in the stall and see if he freaks out then, or not. What are some things I can do in the stall to help him relax? etc..etc..etc..

Next I went to go play at liberty a bit with Sharlie. Yea, usually I play online first. But I can only do that if there is a line for me to play with! Plus, the halter that I was using was currently on Casper. :P


I grabbed a lead rope and walked into the round pen. Sharlie lifted her head to look at me for a moment before returning to the grass. Ah, the grass. 


I raised my energy and clicked to her, sending her out around at a trot. She was introverted and dominant, trying to push into my space while looking outwards. I asked her to change direction again and again till she looked at me. I rewarded her by letting her come in and stand. However instead of coming to me she turned her back to me and began grazing! 


I sent her out again, but this time at a canter. She threw several bucks. Well I think they were bucks. They were so uncoordinated I wasn't quite sure. One leg in the air towards me and the other tucked under her belly...?


It took her some time to get into a nice balanced canter at which point I asked her to gallop. True, not the best thing to do in a round pen but we both enjoy it. This time all I had to do was raise my energy and she sprinted! 


We did some change of directions where she had to a sliding stop before turning around! Then we played a bit of the 'Mirror Me' game that was beginning to look like the Cutting game. I sent her out one last time.

Sharlie arched her neck as she trotted around the round pen. I took a step back and instantly she turned and came towards me. I moved to the right and she mirrored me. We went back and forth dancing, with no ropes or sticks in our way.

I felt like I could float away I was so happy. It was starting to get dark and we needed to take Sharlie & Casper back to the field. One problem: we only had one halter between the two of them. So what I did was I made a make-shift halter out of the lead rope I was using. I was worried that Sharlie would yank on the halter for the grass. But the whole walk back she was so soft and responsive to the feel, it blew my mind!


Friday was fabulous.

Happy pony! (Yea, even with the saddle on!)

Splendid Saturday:


I went down Saturday morning about 10 am to go play with Sharlie & Casper. (Obviously.) I didn't know if I wanted to ride or not, but since some other people were there riding their horse I thought "Okay, why not?" 
Casper had a party in the afternoon so I decided I would play with Sharlie. I played with her a little bit online, just some simple review of the games in Level 1/2. I probably should have played with her more but I was starting to get excited about riding again!


I put the bareback pad on, clipped on the reins and took her into the arena. I tried not to use the reins at all, or as little as possible. I was surprised when Sharlie would sometimes follow my focus. Then again, other times she didn't. 


When I tried to stop Sharlie with my body...NOTHING. I had to stop her with my reins, Phase 3 with my reins at that! Not good, not good at all! So for the next hour or so we did transitions from walking to stopping and back again. I did what Linda did in the video on the Savvy Club Site. (If you have seen it and you know what I'm talking about.) Well instead of stopping at every cone we tried to stop at every fence post. It took a lot of time for her to figure it out. I went through the 4 phases. Stop in my body/ blow air out/drop focus, move legs forward, say "oh", use the reins.


After about 45 minutes she started to seem to get it and start to slow down when I dropped my energy, hesitate and come to a juddering halt just before I had to pick up the reins. 


After that we did some weave and tried to do the figure 8 again without touching the reins. Still needs work, but a lot better than I ever thought we could do! 


Towards the end the ride I thought "Let me try one little trot. It will only be a few strides and then I can stop and know that at least I tried."


I raised my energy and squeezed and Sharlie picked up a very choppy trot and her head was high, her ears back. I ignored those and focused on moving with her. Moving my hips, relaxing my back, etc. 


Sharlie seemed rather surprised and actually tried to look around at me while she trotted. I felt so in sync with her it was amazing. We trotted several time around the arena, did a couple figure 8's. Sharlie never stopped once! She had her ears pricked, she was blowing out, yawning, relaxing, and beginning to lower her head!  


Overjoyed, I asked Sharlie to come back to a walk - with just my body language and a small "woah"- and took her out on a quick trail. 


After I played with Sharlie I haltered Casper and quickly saddled him up with the saddle & theraflex pad and took him on a quick trail ride. As we began our trail I did the same thing with him. 'A Million Transitions'. I asked him to stop (that took quite a bit of effort) then walk, stop, walk, stop. Then I took a deep breath and asked him to trot.


At first it was an impossible staccato, almost impossible to ride. But I did the same thing I did with Sharlie. Focus on moving with him and relaxing...and soon he was trotting with his ears forward and not trying to trot as fast as he possibly could. 


We had a lovely walk to the end of the path and back. Casper didn't try and snatch at the grass more than just a couple times nor did he try to speed walk. As we started to reach the barn again I saw Dad pull up so I asked Casper to trot back up to the barn. It started out calm but then the "foo,foo,foo,foo.." sound of the theraflex pad made as the saddle moved. He panicked a bit and I just asked him to walk again and it was all okay again :)


So quickly summarize the rest of the day: Casper did amazing at the party. I am so proud of him. He had his ears pricked, he remained calm and listened to me. He was fine with the big blue tent they set up and walked under it several times and grazed under it. 


I rode him a bit afterwards but quickly realized he was did NOT like that saddle at all. It was a mistake to ask him to trot but I did it anyways. He went super super fast and it was extremely choppy. Not fun.


One good point though is I found out Casper is very good at doing "Follow the Rail"!! 


There is an Australian saddle in the barn attic. I asked if I could try it out and Susan said yes! I am excited because its the perfect medium between English and Wester and I really hope it fits Casper....or maybe even Sharlie! 




If anybody sees any good deals on a new or almost-new Wintec 2000 All Purpose saddle, let me know at julponey@yahoo.com

Also: What is up with no comments?? NOBODY has commented on ANY of my Internship posts or anything since them! I feel unloved! :)


Toodles!
Julia

Reunion.

HEY!
(This is 1 day late)
        I have just gotten back from England and started school yesterday!

         I went to go play with Sharlie and Casper yesterday after my first day of school. I count this as the first official play session after this very busy summer. I have only played with Sharlie and Casper ONCE in the whole month of July and that was the day after I got back from Emily's.

Yea. Wow.

         Even though I only played with them once, I went down to go see them and spend some undemanding time with them almost every day.

           Yesterday I went down for an hour to go play with the horses. Well of that hour I spend 30 minutes finding and arranging obstacles to use.

The good news is: I HAVE BARRELS AGAIN!! *Happy dance!*

This left me with about 15 minutes per horse.

I really don't like to time things like that but I try and split it equally.

                I had put the duo in the round pen where there was some grass and they would be a lot closer to the arena.

              I played with Sharlie first. I wanted to review the 7 games quickly and try and get through some Level 1 tasks before I put her back in the field.

           When I went to go catch her however, she was having none of that! She took off at a trot and I could almost hear her say "Nana booboo! You can't catch me!" This of course set Casper off but he was slightly right-brain about it. So I did what Pat did in the L&HB DvDs. Focused on the Left Brain horse.
So I asked Sharlie to do change of directions, getting closer and closer together till she stopped.

Thing is that Casper was keeping up with Sharlie the whole time so both of them were changing directions at the same time, and stopped at the same time! (Does that count as double liberty?)

       I haltered Sharlie and led her out. I think Casper was glad to see her go. (She was hogging the clover patch! DUH!) I tried to start the 7 games by doing some Porcupine and Driving Game as we walked to the arena.

WELL...Sharlie pretended that she knew none of it!
Sharlie "Uh..why are you poking me?"
Julia "It's the porcupine game. Duh."
Sharlie "Uhu..What is the porcupine game?"
Julia "You know what the porcupine game is! You yield to pressure."
Sharlie "Does that have to include moving my feet?"
Julia "Yes"
Sharlie "Ummm....Nah. I'll just stand here."

That above is what our conversation was for most of the games. :P However after a bit she 'remembered' the games again and we were able to cover all 7 of them fairly quickly.
After giving her a quick shower, I popped her back in the field and went to go get Casper. I played Friendly Game with Casper as we walked towards the arena. But he had a HUGE threshold at the entrance so we had to work with that. We did alot of squeeze and  if Casper assumed I wanted him to go in the arena I would go "No, you are not allowed to go in!"

About 10 minutes later he was saying "Julia I WANT to go in! I'm not allowed so I wannnnttt tooo!!!!"
We walked in, out and ended there.
:)
I gave him a shower and took him into the field. As soon as I took the halter off he dropped down and rolled right by my feet. Sharlie joined him only moments later.

Both horses rolled at my feet at the same time.

Wow.

I love my horses.

Today is the day.

Today is the day Sharlie, Casper and I begin to pursue excellence.
The day we work to become amazing.
The day we are open to people asking us for help, for lessons, for training.

Today is the day.

Reflections on My Internship with Emily Larramore

I can start out by saying it was an amazing experience.

I am worried that I will use the same adjectives as when I was reflecting on Camp with Kara. I don't want to use the same adjectives because this experience was so different than the one at Kara's, I never want to confuse the two.

So should I compare the two? Probably not. So I won't.

This experience was so unique, it can't be compared. I just wish I had the opportunity to repeat it again. 

Who knew Alabama was so pretty?? Hahaha! Especially around where Amanda lives. It was beautiful. 

I have grown up traveling, but its usually back to the same places. Poland, France, England, California, etc... It was lovely to go some place new. And it changed my perspective of what Alabama is like...well somewhat. It's still the Alabama I thought it was in many ways, but it can also be a very pretty place where some very lucky horses get to live.

The people I met along during these 6 days were amazing people. It was refreshing to meet people who were .... real. I don't know how to explain it. But its a lovely refreshing thing. To find people you can actually talk to and not have to formulate a conversation in your head word for word like a script. Some one said maybe it's just because you were in a new place. I think it's because Emily has a really amazing taste for friends.

Imagine a graph. Now on the Y-axis (vertical) number it 1-10. Number the X-axis 1-20. Begin a line at (0,1) so at 0, and only 1 square up. Let it go straight for about 5 squares. Now the coordinates should be (5, 1)

That is what my learning curve was at the beginning of the sumer. 

Now for the next 7 squares have the line continually rise 1 square. This should leave you at (13, 8).

That is my learning curve during camp in June.

Now lets flatline and maybe get the line to drop. I did not learn much while camping. The coordinates are now (16, 5)

If you aren't good in algebra, I apologize! I hate algebra...But you couldn't tell could you? 

Now from points 16 to 20, go straight up. Up 5 squares in 4 days. Pretty dramatic right?

That, my dears, is my internship. 

Extreme positive curve in my learning.

And that is your math lesson for the day.

I was so lucky to be able to go intern with Emily. In the late fall she is off to begin her journey to become  a Parelli Professional. Then she will be gone for a large part of the next few years. This was probably the  only time for a very long time I will be able to intern with her. (After she becomes a Parelli Professional, it costs quite a bit to intern with her. I would need to save up big time.)

About 6 months ago I lost track of my vision of becoming a Parelli Professional. I always had it in consideration, but then I sort of...forgot. I focused on my writing more and other silly things.
Then talking to Emily about it sort of refueled my interest in it. I love writing, I do and I hope to get a degree in that too but I also love teaching and I love horses. I thrive better in a big community than by myself.

I almost completely sure it is something I want to do.

"Do not blind yourself with certainty for fear that you will miss better opportunities that present themselves." -Unknown

Playing with Vanna showed me the ultimate goal of what I want to accomplish with my horses. That, my friends, is what a Level 3/4 Parelli horse feels like, looks like...is.

The ultimate goal.

What did I learn?

- Energy and how to control it.

- Lightness and how it affects everything.

- Mirrors. Enough said.

- Phases, how important they are and just how many there are.

- Body language and its connection to all above and all below.

- Fluidity. I still have lots to learn.

- Balance. Improved greatly.

- Rhythm. 

- CONFIDENCE. Greatly improved and still improving :)

Thank you to Emily, Amanda and the girlies. (Vanna & Alli) I can never say Thank you enough.

Photo credit to Emily Larramore

~Julia

PS- This post was going to be much longer but I decided to leave some stuff out. There are some things I just wanted to keep to myself. :)

PPS- Emily, you have 24 hours. ;)

Parelli University

Hey guys,

Have you seen? Parelli University now has its own website! *dances around a bit*

http://www.parelliuniversity.com/

It looks gorgeous! And it is so much clearer than ever before (for me at least) so it makes it much easier for me to see if it is something I want to do or not.

Now I can prove to my college counselor that there IS such a thing as Parelli University!

Just had to share,

Julia

PS- Reflections post almost done! You better hope you are good at graphs.