Okay, so it looks/feels nothing like spring, but it’s my spring break…and I had cleaning to do, so we’re making it work!!

It started with laundry…I wanted to wash my saddle pads and polos. But then I realized I couldn’t do all my barn laundry, only to put it on a dirty horse! So Cloud got a bath today. I was planning on bathing him later in the week, but the sun came out this morning…of course the second I got going the weather turned cloudy and cold again. But I had already gotten started, so I went ahead with it. I kept Cloud in after his bath, and his barn is warm enough that he wouldn’t get a chill. 

Well of course, you can’t put a dirty halter on a clean horse…or dirty tack on clean saddle pads. So out came the leather cleaner and conditioner. While all this was going on, I was also soaking my brushes…because, well, obviously you can’t use dirty brushes on a clean horse that will be wearing clean saddle pads and clean tack! It’s been an embarrassingly long time since I’ve cleaned my brushes, so I was thrilled when they came out of the bucket looking like new! 

So basically I am thrilled to get a good start to my spring break. I’m pretty sure there’s nothing left to clean at the barn…so now I can spend the rest of my week playing and riding! I can’t believe I accomplished my entire spring cleaning to-do list in one day….but it was a domino effect! If I only cleaned one thing (the horse, the grooming tools, the saddle pads, the tack), it would just get dirty again!!

Spending all of this time cleaning, however, made me want to set up a routine/schedule for staying on top of these things. Especially my brushes. I really need to keep those clean. If I kept on top of things more, I wouldn’t feel like everything was SO dirty that it all had to be done in one day, lest one dirty thing ruin the clean stuff! So I think I’m going to try to make a list of things that need to be cleaned, how often they need to be done…and somehow make it into a routine. Haha we’ll see…it sounds like a good idea…but in practice….

Anyways, yesterday I had a lesson with Tracey…but for once, it wasn’t our best. It was interesting though. I warmed up Cloud..and he was running around like a mad man. I wasn’t surprised, I had been busy the week before and he had 4 days off. When Tracey came in, we went to work, and the running around went away, but our steering wasn’t great. So the lesson was spent working on steering from my seat, which was totally review for us, but totally fell apart for whatever reason yesterday. It was a good lesson, revisiting steering was good review for me, but not too much exciting to report. I blame me for that one, not Cloudy Boy.

I am looking forward to a good solid week of playing and riding. Life’s been busy for me lately, and I really need to get back into good riding/playing habits with Cloudy Boy. This always seems to happen to me right before spring break….mostly because work is always busy right before spring break. But the past is the past, we are ready for a great spring break together…certainly starting with a *clean* slate!

Saturday morning I went out for a ride on Cloud, hoping to have another great ride to prep us for my lesson today. When I got to the barn, a friend who is starting natural horsemanship with her horse was heading into the arena to play, so I decided to go with her and have a play date! We were having a lot of fun, Cloud was playing with his pedestal and new big green ball. When I was playing the yo-yo game, I noticed that Cloud had a funny expression on his face….he had a droopy bottom lip, but only one side. I drew him back to me…and noticed that half of his bottom lip was swelled up, like he had been punched (more likely kicked or bumped) in the mouth.

So we called it quits on our play date, and I took him back into the barn. I’m surprised I didn’t noticed his lip when I was grooming him. I took a picture and sent it to the vet, but really I figured it was just some random thing…either an allergic reaction or he had gotten kicked or bumped in the mouth playing in the pasture. I prodded around to make sure that he didn’t have like a stalk of hay jabbed in his lip, but Cloud was pretty hesitant about me touching it so I didn’t get a good look. I took his temperature, which was normal, and tucked him back in his stall. It was then that I noticed he really hadn’t eaten much of his hay that day. Poor guy! It probably hurt! I watched him a while, and he was eating, but very slowly. You could tell he was uncomfortable. So I gave him his beet pulp, which he scarfed down, and prepared him a second helping for later, with some hay pellets added in. I wet down his hay in his stall, and asked the guys to soak his hay until his lip goes down. He had no trouble eating his grain, which is good.

There certainly was a time in our lives where I would cancel my riding lesson for today. Although it was his bottom lip, and a bit probably wouldn’t hurt…I certainly wouldn’t want to risk hurting him/irritating his lip when I’m trying to get it to deflate. But nowadays, we have a LOT more going for us. I haven’t ridden Cloud bitless all winter, because of his energy, but I definitely wasn’t scared to give it a go…and I was excited to see what Tracey would have us doing in a lesson without a bit! So I texted her to make sure it was okay, which of course it was!

So this morning I tacked up Cloudy Boy, sans bridle, and led him up to the arena. Cathy was finishing up her lesson as I tied up Cloud’s rope and hopped on. “Do you need a bridle?” Cathy asked. LOL She thought I had broken my bridle or forgot it at home or something. As she finished up her lesson, I tested out our steering and our brakes without a bit. Everything was feeling great!

When my lesson started I told Tracey that I was bummed I couldn’t show her how much work we had done with the bit, but excited to see what we could do without. She commented that she could see a difference in my posture and keeping my outside shoulder down and back, and in my tension, which is great!

Tracey’s plan for our bitless lesson was downward transitions. When she told me that I thought (out loud!!) “OH. MY. GOD.” Tracey laughed, and said that she figured I’d have that reaction. But really, brakes are pretty important when you are riding a hot OTTB without a bit.

We started simple…walk-trot-walk transitions. Tracey wanted me to be very specific, because it would be to simple to get the transition in multiple strides. The instructions were to walk 4 strides, trot 4, walk 4. Well, that was the plan, of course, but it took me a little longer initially. But I was pretty surprised we were getting transitions! I’m talking completely from my seat, not even touching my ‘reins’ to use the halter to stop him. And this is Cloud, for heaven’s sake!!

After we were having success with walk/trot, we tried walk/halt, which was really hard. I could get the world’s slowest walk out of Cloud with just my seat, but to get him to halt without the reins was difficult. Tracey said that she expected halts to be hard for him, so instead of walking around at a snail’s pace and asking over and over, I was to ask, and then use reins to back up my message and teach him. A few times of that, and he learned what I was trying to get at. The most important part for walk to halt was to *not follow Cloud’s motion*…which is so hard!! I had to stay deep in the saddle, and literally stop my hips from rocking with his motion, but I also couldn’t get tense or squeeze his sides to stop my hips from moving. OMG, did you get all that? Seriously, halting was so complex without reins!

Would you even believe that we did some trot-canter-trot transitions? Boy, those weren’t smooth haha. But some tries were much much better than others. Tracey would tell me how many strides I was allowed to get the transitions…and I actually met her demands a few times. But then after doing several canter transitions, we had to break it up because Cloud was starting to anticipate the canter, and wasn’t listening to my seat, which was the entire goal of the exercise. So we had to go back to walk-trot-walk and walk-halt-walk transitions. We got a little discombobulated for a while, I had forgotten the feel from before the canter, and had picked up some tension as well. So we spent the end of our lesson getting back to our good halt/walk/trot transitions.

Today’s lesson sure was a lot of good learning for me, and Tracey was excited too! She actually suggested that riding in a halter once a week would be really good for me to get my seat working harder and my hands working less. Through all the work that we were doing, I didn’t have any trouble at all steering from my seat…I didn’t even realize that until the end of our ride. It just goes to show you all that I have learned with Tracey!!

By the way, Cloud’s lip was looking smaller today. Not back to normal, but probably half of the size it was yesterday. I kept him on bute through tomorrow morning…so I will see tomorrow evening if we need to keep going with the bute. We’ll see if I’ll be riding in a bit or not tomorrow Either way, we will get so much done!

Last Sunday I had a great lesson with Tracey, and I am looking forward to another lesson tomorrow. She typically comes every other week, but had to miss a week so now I am excited for 2 weeks in a row! Our lesson last week focused on my tension. Cloud has had an enormous supply of get-up-and-go this winter. He is a good boy, and is not out to blow up and toss me off, but he is taking the bit and running with it. My tension, I believe, comes from not wanting to get ‘left behind’ the motion. But my tension is feeding into Cloud’s excitement, which just makes us go faster. During my lesson, Tracey would call out from the center of the ring to ‘wiggle’. Yes, wiggle. And that meant that I needed to literally shake out the tension from my body. Tracey has diagnosed that I have a lot of tension in my forearms, which is directly connected to Cloud’s mouth. When I ‘wiggled’ and let the tension out of my body, the tension left Cloud, and there was a lovely transition from a tense, hot, rushing motion to a smooth gait. The second half of my lesson, I was able to keep my body relaxed, and our ride was going great!

Then, Tracey wanted to do an exercise that was going to unravel all of that. What?? Haha! She told me that once we had some nice solid front to back motion, it was time to loosen up our side to side motion. When she put it that way, it all made sense! Especially thinking back to my old dressage lessons, when I would take my super-forward Cloud into lateral work, and just make things worse. His front to back motion had to be loosened up without any tension before we could expect sideways to become loose and free. So, we spent the last 15-20 minutes of our lesson doing an exercise from the quarterline to just off of the wall. We did it in baby steps, and our best go at it was only a few really good steps, but it was our first time trying the task, and I really needed to work at not letting tension creep back in once we were working side to side, and spoil our front to back, if that makes sense. I have had a few really good, tension-free (or less tension lol) rides since our lesson, so I am looking forward to having more time for sideways in tomorrow’s lesson.

One other comment that Tracey made that I wanted to be sure to log for my memory was about riding off of the rail. Certainly, this is not a concept that is new to me…a lot of past trainers have emphasized riding off the rail, but I liked the way Tracey talked about it. Tracey starts a lot of young horses, and re-starts a lot of thoroughbreds off of the track. She told me that she rides every one of them off of the rail…100% of the time. While many of my past trainers have said that riding off the rail is important, I have also noticed that all of them spend an awful lot of their ride time on the rail. Tracey told me that she begins training all of her horses by steering with her seat, not her hands, and riding off of the rail so that they never know when she is going to turn them. So that, by the time she picks up the reins to steer, they are listening to her entire body, and they know not to turn until she says to. It was a great bit of information to take in, and I am trying to break myself of the rail-habit. She told me that although Cloud is 20, it is never too late to change the way we ride. Amen!!

Now to share what my Thursday night Facebook spoiler-status was all about!! Thursday night, I went out in the evening to ride Cloud. I groomed him all up and tacked him up for a ride, then led him into the big indoor arena. Cathy was riding, and two young teen lesson girls that I have only seen a few times around the barn and hadn’t introduced myself to yet. They might be new to the barn, I’m not sure. Anyways, as I led Cloud in, the girls met eyes and I heard a quiet squeal (yes, a squeal) from one of them. “Is that Cloud??” one of the girls asked. I replied, “yes”, and the girl replied… “Oh my God! He is my dream horse!”

I have gotten a lot of compliments about Cloud in my day, and every one of them is so special to me. I take compliments about my horse more to heart than compliments about myself. But this one, really really was special to me. I replied to the girl, “Thank you, he’s my dream horse too”. I could tell walking in that they were finishing up their rides, but they appeared to linger in the arena to watch Cloudy Boy. I mounted up and walked him around, and the two girls halted their horses in the center of the ring and were talking, but sneaking glances at Cloud. As I picked up the trot to get him warmed up, I heard a muffled, “He’s trotting!” from the center of the ring. Cathy finished up her ride, and was exiting the ring and asked the girls if they wanted her to leave the gate open for them. Somewhat reluctantly, the girls left, and I proceeded to have a wonderful ride on MY dream horse.

As I led Cloud back down through the main barn to head out to the West Barn, I passed the girls again. I’m not kidding, I felt like I was hanging out with a celebrity because these young girls were so enamored with Cloudy Boy. I headed over to the West Barn, and walked past a woman sitting in a mini van outside of our barn. As I walked in the barn, she got out of her van and followed me in. As I situated Cloud back in the groom stall, she approached and asked, “Is that Cloud??” Wondering what the heck was going on in the world, I replied “Yes”, and she told me how beautiful he is, and that she had been taking pictures of him the night before.

It turns out that the woman is one of the girls’ moms. But I still was just blown away by the love for my horse! As I said, I get quite a few compliments about Cloudy Boy. I think a lot of owners of the less-common colored variety get their horses noticed. But I was just very touched by the ‘dream horse’ compliment. It reminded me of how I felt when I first met Cloud. I had seen dozens of tall, beautiful, grey thoroughbreds before I met Cloud, but only one was my ‘dream horse’ from the second I saw him. He stood out to me, and I was in love at first sight of him. That ‘dream horse’ feeling has never worn off for me. He IS my dream horse, and I was touched to hear that someone else felt for him something like what I felt that first day that I saw Cloud.

As I explained how I felt to Rob, I realized that it goes deeper than just feeling good about a compliment on my horse. The best analogy I came up with is that it’s like cars….you can spend $100k on a really flashy car, and you expect to get compliments. But if you bought a car that looked like a hunk of junk, and put all the time and energy into it to restore it and make it something great….all along knowing the potential for the car to be something nice, and then when all is said and done and you hear someone compliment the car….it means so much more, right? Than if you had just shelled out the money for a nice car?

When Cloud came off of the track, I feel that he was a horse that, at that time in his life, no one wanted. He had done his time at the track, and wound up placed with a rescue organization, who although I’m sure they hoped for the best for him, didn’t really actively jump into selling him. They placed him in a foster home, and didn’t even bother advertising for him until a year later. Yes, his coat was pretty, but he was track-skinny, and was going through a bit of an awkward change from dapple grey to flea-bitten. He had legs that screamed racetrack, and he was ‘old’ for a horse to be coming off the track. No one looked past what was on paper, until I, as a horse-crazy teen, fell in love.

I think it’s funny how much compliments on my horse affect me so much more than personal compliments I know that Cloud has caught many an eye in the time that I have owned him…I remember the summer before last when I was showing, how much I enjoyed sitting outside Cloud’s stall and fielding questions, and taking in compliments over my pretty boy. But I do feel that since coming to Cliffwood that he is better than ever in his appearance…the riding that I have been doing, the care that he is getting, and the amount of time that I am able to put into things like grooming.

It is amazing to me, that Cloud is getting so much attention when he is really a senior citizen in the horse world. I love feeling like he is in his prime, when his age says he probably shouldn’t be! It certainly makes me hopeful that we have many more happy years together

I want to thank Cloudy Boy’s admirers for their sweet compliments about my horse. They mean the world to me, and I love the thought of someone else standing outside of my horse’s stall and considering him their ‘dream horse’. Once upon a time, I would go to the barn to admire him, and dream of what it would be like for him to be mine.

Okay, gushing complete!

I have a nice 4-day weekend, so I planned a Parelli lesson for myself and Rob this morning. I figured that I could work with Gigi for half the lesson, then Rob could have the other half. Rob is really interested in Parelli – he likes coming out and playing with Cloud more than he likes riding! But any time you have a plan with horses, you usually get a reality check ☺

I had prepped Gigi for our lesson by texting her some things I wanted her help with. The first was tips/suggestions for submitting my Level 1 Online Audition, and then for our lesson I wanted her to check out our sideways and squeeze games and help us improve those. I’m glad I talked to her about my auditions, because she wants me to audition for Level 3 online, because you can audition for 3 and be awarded the lower levels if you pass higher. You just can’t audition for more than one Savvy (online, freestyle, etc). I might go for Level 2 first, just because I want my submission to be really good, but we’ll see.

Okay so on to the actual lesson. I have mentioned in my blog that Cloud has been really hot this winter. Tracey has definitely helped me with some tools for riding through the heat, and today it was Gigi’s turn.

We were alone in the big indoor, and Cloud was acting door-obsessed. His attention was on the door, not on me or what we were doing. Any time he was aimed to the door, he was trying to blow through me to get there. Cloudy Boy has such good ground manners, especially around his barn and in the grooming stalls, but boy, he forgets himself when he’s door obsessed.

We began the lesson working on the sideways game. Anytime we got to the far end of the arena, he was tossing his head and dancing around and just being all kinds of distracted. It was a bummer because I didn’t feel like we were actually getting the help we needed with the sideways game because of his distractibility – he wasn’t showing Gigi where we are actually at with the game.

The more I pushed him to pay attention to me and forget the door, the more insistent he was getting, and started to swing his butt to me and strike out with his fronts and, as Gigi put it, was being pretty rude.

So let me take this time to bring you back a bit, to my blog post about our horsenality and humanality matchup. Cloud and I are both extroverts (fast-moving, expressive), and we are both right-brain/left-brain cuspers. Right-brain versus left-brain is all about confidence, leadership, and emotion. Left-brain is confident, and can be pushy/bossy, right-brain is not confident, and can be a push-over.

Today Cloud’s behavior was extremely left-brained. He was not scared, worried, or upset, he was pushy and bossy and wanted to run me over and get back to his barn, or go outside. And the more left-brained he got, the more right-brained I got. He was taking over as the leader, and I was backing down. Literally. When his butt came swinging and he started rearing and giving me his bad-ass attitude, I was cowering, and backing away. Yes, some of it was putting safety first, but this wasn’t him trying to kill me, this was him taking control for the day. I had to get my big girl pants on.

Big girl pants meant getting particular about where I wanted Cloud to be and what I wanted him to be doing, and to a) not back down when he came in to run me over or swung his butt towards me and b) using my tools to strike and kick at him, just as he was doing to me. It sounds icky, I know, but Gigi put it well today when she said that “We don’t give the horses the benefit of our lower phases when it’s about safety”. AKA, if he’s coming at me striking or kicking, I get to strike first. She also made an interesting comment when she said, “When horses start acting like horses, non-natural horse-people think we’re doing it wrong”. What she meant was that when Cloud was getting ‘big’ and rearing and carrying on, it was because we were having a conversation…he didn’t want to pay attention and follow my leadership, so he was acting like a horse challenging another horse, so my job was to be a horse too, and the Parelli tools are designed to help me act like a horse. The reason they give you a carrot stick is to lengthen your body, like a horse has.

It made me feel better, not only about my horse carrying on in our lesson, but about what has been going on this winter and how I need to fix it. I have been blaming Cloud’s actions on his energy, but never realized that although he has a lot of energy, he doesn’t need to be pushy and door-obsessed, he could be putting that energy to good use. I never realized that it was a leadership issue, and that he isn’t just full of energy – he’s been naughty and pushy!

Although the lesson didn’t go as planned, I am now motivated to work through the pushy/bossy behavior and re-establish my role as a leader in our partnership. He can have all the energy in the world, but he and I are partners, and I will be a strong leader for him.

And how to go about doing that? I have homework…and it is pretty extreme. If you think naturally about how a boss mare teaches lessons and earns respect in a herd, it’s about proximity. A horse that is being punished is sent out away from the herd, and isn’t let back in until time has been served. Gigi told me to be Cloud’s boss mare for the next 7 barn days….Cloud is not allowed to be within a carrot stick length of me, unless I approach him. Essentially, he is to give me a nice large bubble of personal space. I can groom him and pet him and such, but I am not to hover.

I can see how this homework assignment has the potential to earn me respect from Cloud. Gigi said that Cloud and I have excellent rapport, which sometimes means that the lines of respect are blurry. Although Cloud is not always as pushy as he was during my lesson today, I know that he doesn’t respect my personal space. He is ‘snuggly’ haha. I am interested to see how this homework goes, and I will report back. It is a pretty extreme change, but it’s not forever. We just need to find a happy medium between snuggling and pushing.

I guess that’s about it. I did get some tips with the sideways and squeeze games through our lesson, but mostly it was an eye-opener about what happens when our ‘cusp’ horsenality/personality turns into Cloud being a bully and me being a wuss. I’m glad that I got some clarity on our arena issues this winter and will hopefully make some positive changes and enjoy our arena time more!

Poor Rob didn’t get much of a lesson today, because Cloud and I really had to keep going with what we were doing. Maybe Rob will start first next time! But he does want to have a play date with Cloud and I again soon. And he said that he found our lesson really interesting, which is good. I’m glad that Cloud’s display didn’t scare him off!

A while has passed again since I’ve had a lesson with Tracey, but we had another good one this morning. In our last lesson, she had given me an exercise using ground poles to help me with his winter energy/tendency to not listen and just want to run around like a crazy OTTB. The exercise did help, but it wasn’t enough – it didn’t last us very long because after a while Cloud caught on to my game and wasn’t all that keen on listening anymore. I think the key to his energy this winter is that his brain needs to be worked otherwise he has time to think of more fun things to do (run around!).

So when Tracey asked how things have been going I was honest and told her that things were mostly as they were when we had our last lesson, but in my warm up today Cloud was pretty relaxed and listening…which is quite a miracle in itself because the snow was sliding off the arena roof today! So, we just got to work. As we worked on getting him and myself in the correct position, he started to show his energy and run off a bit, particularly when we were tracking to the right. He has always had a tendency to hang on my inside rein as we track to the right, so Tracey put the kabosh on that real quick. She first had me straighten my body by pulling my outside shoulder and hip down and back. I had a good feel of Cloud on the outside rein, and then I was allowed to tickle the inside rein and then RELEASE, and I wasn’t allowed to open the rein either. Instead, when I tickled the inside rein, Tracey told me to hold it close to my outside hand, even almost so much to cross the wither. And I was never never never to pull on the inside rein, only tickle it and release. Boy is it hard to break old habits, and I sure learned that I hang on the inside rein to the right just as much as Cloud does

Another key in keeping his speed in check is my posting and tension in my body. I needed to relax my forearms, without letting the reins slip. Tracey explained that even when Cloud is stretching into the contact, if I let the reins slide then he is just going to get confused about where he his supposed to hold himself and where he is supposed to work. On the other hand, she does want me to play with my rein length to show him that he can be adjustable, but on my terms, and he doesn’t have to speed up just because something changes! Tracey also encouraged me to talk to Cloud to get him to slow down, by asking him to ‘ho’ at the top of my post. Tracey is very big on timing my aides with the appropriate leg, she is very specific! And it works!

As far as exercises today, we did some squares with ground poles, but we also did a lot of 3 loop serpentines using the whole arena, especially at the end when we get him (and me, too) really relaxed and maintaining a nice gait. For some reason when I change directions I tend to get tense, and he tends to get tense, which makes us rush. I liked the end of our lesson because we had worked really hard on keeping a nice steady controlled trot and relaxing my body and his body, so we did a few serpentines in both directions and it was perfect! No rushing, no tension, good communication!

The lesson seemed to really fly by today, and I know this blog post doesn’t really cover all that we covered, but it took quite a bit of time to put all the little details and pieces of the puzzle together to create the nice trot and canter that we ended the lesson with. Tracey is so good at picking me apart and finding what is creating the tension and/or problems in our communication. I hope that when I go to ride tomorrow that I can recreate the feel that we had at the end of our ride today! My homework from Tracey is to work on controlling our pace in all three gaits, which is a major undertaking when it comes to Cloud and I! In our cooldown we talked about energy and how Cloud and I match in energy, which is why it is so hard for me to keep a controlled gait, instead of letting Cloud lean on the accelerator! But I really feel like I soaked up a lot of good stuff in our lesson today, so we’ll see how it goes!

Winter has hit, at least for the night. A few years back I got in a weather-related car accident (I was rear ended) coming home from the barn, and ever since, I have been overly cautious about only driving when I *have* to when the conditions are sketchy. Therefore, I have a night in and am able to write a blog post!

This past weekend I attended the PATH state conference, which was hosted by Main Stay. It was a good day, nice to meet other therapeutic instructors and share ideas, and Main Stay nabbed some good presenters. Obviously I took a lot away for my riding students, which is great because I am so new, I could use all the ideas I can get! There were also horse-related topics presented, which had me thinking about the Main Stay ponies and what we do for them, but it also, of course, made me think about my care for Cloud.

Because this is Cloud’s blog, I am going to focus on what I heard at the conference that I’ve taken back to Cloudy Boy. There are two presentations that I wanted to comment on. The first was a talk on maintaining horses’ soundness, by Dr.Nelson of Bristol Veterinary Service. We were very blessed to have such a great vet come and talk to us, and soundness is very important to therapeutic barns, where many horses are seniors…and of course, had me reflecting on Cloudy Boy.

It was interesting because Dr.Nelson began his presentation talking about our horses’ happiness. He posed the question to the crowd to think of their horses (therapeutic horses and personally owned) and the jobs that they do, and asked who in the crowd feels that their horses are happy with what they are doing. In a room of roughly 85 horsemen/horsewomen, 4 people raised their hands, myself included. What an eyeopener for me. I must say if I attended the presentation a year back, it would have been a tough question for me. I wanted to think back then that because Cloud loved me so much that he was happy no matter what we were doing, but I think the question would have made me uncomfortable. He loved me, but I wasn’t doing good things for him, by having him at Silver Fern and by the style of riding I was doing. Dr.Nelson moved from the topic of happy horses to soundness, and talked about how they are connected. For me, I have proof of that. Yes, he loved me no matter where we were or what we were doing, but he’s so much sounder now, and I know that he is happy now. I think some of the soundness has to do with turnout conditions and his feet, better care and facilities, better arena footing, better riding, but I also have to attribute some of his soundness to his general happiness. What a good feeling!

Dr.Nelson presented a list of “The Ingredients of a Sound Horse”. I’m not sure if it is his list or a list that he uses from another source. But here it is:

1. Genetics/conformation

2. Fitness

3. Weight (overweight being the big negative)

4. Health

5. Foot care

6. Nutrition

7. Equipment (saddle, etc)

8. Work environment (arena footing)

9. Age

10. Job/discipline

11. Human factor

12. Intangibles

As he touched on every piece of the list, I was smiling inside, thinking of all of the personal effort I have put into each of those items. It’s really a good feeling. Obviously I have no input on genetics/conformation haha, but I keep him fit, put weight on him (ok, it’s nice to not have to deal with overweight, but I have put a LOT of research, consultation, trial/error with his nutrition), I have a saddle that my vet approves, Cliffwood has awesome footing (which is not frozen thanks to heated arenas), and I changed his job which has changed his soundness. My boy is old, which isn’t great for his joints but he’s aged pretty well. Human factor is okay because I take that as ‘ignorance’ and ‘not knowing better’ when it comes to soundness issues….and I think Cloud has a leg up just that we have been together so long and I know when to ride and when to rest. I also have no trouble admitting when I don’t know something and consulting with a professional. Having a great professional team is important to the Human Factor, too.

#12 on the list was a biggie. Dr.Nelson listed intangibles as the horse’s heart, pain tolerance, and competitiveness. I have to say that I think that Cloudy Boy is rich in the intangibles, especially in his heart. I have heard for years now from many equine professionals that have come into contact with Cloud (vet, chiropractor, farrier, multiple trainers) that Cloud has that *heart factor*. No matter what, above all else, Cloud’s heart has gotten us to where we are today. It didn’t matter what we have done in the past and how he has actually felt about it, Cloud seems to have a heart that he throws into his job. I wish I could talk to his previous owners to find out if he has always been this way, or if he has grown into his heart because of our relationship. It really doesn’t matter to me either way – whether he is just a horse with a big heart or if he has a big heart because he loves me. I just consider myself SO SO SO BLESSED to have found this horse. I bought Cloud when no one else wanted him…he had come off the track and hadn’t caught anyone’s eye. He was a beautiful guy, but a horse coming off the track at 9 has a red flag attached to it for future soundness issues. And sure enough, he had a bad ankle, which eventually fused and a drop down hip. Plus he needed mega retraining. In short, no one looked at him close enough to find his heart. But I did, and I think he’s worth his weight in gold because of his heart.

Sigh. I love this horse Dr.Nelson’s talk made me feel really great about Cloud, and where we are at. Obviously since moving to Cliffwood I have begun gushing about Cloudy Boy and what we are doing. But, listening to Dr.Nelson’s list regarding soundness, I feel like Cliffwood sealed the deal for us…I feel like I finally may have all of my own ‘ingredients’ for Cloud and my relationship. I have had Cloud 10 years now, and I finally just feel like this is ‘it’, I have done all of the learning that I need to do for Cloudy Boy. The rest will just be icing on the cake. I know that my horse is happy, healthy, and as sound as possible because I have worked on Dr.Nelson’s list in every way that I can. Wow.

The second piece of the conference that I will be taking home to Cloud was the last part of the conference, which was held at the arena in Main Stay, where we learned about performance stretching from Jennie Rizza, who is Main Stay’s equine massage therapist. I recently became more apt to do carrot stretches, from experiences with both Gigi and Tracey, and have seen really big results. Carrot stretches were something that I knew I should do, but had to get motivated to make it part of our routine and see the results from it. Leg stretches, on the other hand, were something that I knew was good for horses, but I was afraid to do because I was afraid to do it wrong. Carrot stretches you really can’t mess up because you aren’t ‘forcing’ the stretch, you are enticing the horse to stretch themselves, but obviously you don’t have to worry about overdoing it because you aren’t physically making the horse stretch. Jennie showed us the stretches and how to do them, and I feel confident that I can safely perform the stretches now. I haven’t had a chance to try them out on Cloudy Boy yet, but we are going to incorporate them into our routine. I plan to do the stretches after we ride, because stretching cold muscles is a no-no. I will report back on how these stretches go!

Alright, I think that about covers it. I guess what I hope others will take away from this blog post about reading the list of soundness and thinking about how you have personally addressed each item. Is your horse sound most of the time? Is it because of the things you are doing from that list? Obviously some owners are blessed with younger horses with better conformation, but I’d also encourage those owners to make sure they look at this list for maintenance. Find what you are doing right and what you can do better. Remember that Dr.Nelson started his entire presentation on the foundation of whether or not you believe your horse is happy. Many riders/owners have a discipline they love, but if you love your horse you may have to decide what’s more important. I have a Parelli bracelet that reads “Put the relationship first”. A happy horse is a healthy horse. Is your horse happy? Would you be a raised hand in that room?

This will be a quickie post because I’ve had a long day (full of horses and horse people, so not a bad long day, just a long day!), and tomorrow I am going to see War Horse, the musical in Chicago with my boyfriend’s mom and sister. Sooo excited, so I definitely want to be rested up for a day downtown!

This morning I had a two hour Parelli lesson with Gigi. I told her all about what we’ve been doing, and especially about our impromptu liberty playing. She wasn’t very surprised that I had success with Cloud at liberty, she said I need to realize how far Cloud has come and how in tune he is to my body language. As our lesson went on today, I started to see what she meant.

The theme for today was refinement…our goal for the day was to start visiting some of our 7 games and see how we can make each game better, with a faster reaction to more subtle communication, and she also wanted to introduce the ‘stick to me’ game and see how I am doing with our new pedestal. She had me start with the circling game, showing her where we are at, then asking me how it could have been better. I commented that the send could be better, so we broke it down into microscopic pieces. In the circling game, the phases of the send are to lead with your hand/rope, lift the stick, swing the stick, tag the spot (aka, if he hasn’t move, Cloud will get tagged with the rope). Gigi wanted us to start with phase 1, but to leave the belly of the rope on the ground, so we are doing the send at ‘liberty’, but with the rope as a safety net. To accomplish this, Cloud’s nose needs to be ‘attached’ to my pointing finger, instead of relying on the rope to lead his nose. So, I started by amping up my energy to let him know, with my body, that I am going to tell him to do something, then I pointed at his nose. If I felt a connection, I pointed slightly to one side, I was amazed at how often it worked, but sometimes I had to back it up with some driving game on his nose. But I could really see how a) we already have liberty-quality communication, in baby steps, and b) how subtle your language can really be! After a bit of that, we went back to the circling game. I felt more confident in myself and my language to Cloudy Boy simply from seeing how subtle I can be, and still get a response from Cloud. We played the circling game both directions with subtle aides, and the belly of the rope always on the ground. So, Cloud was circling me, maintaining a nice, round circle, maintaining gait, without the aide of the rope. This is the really fun, cool part – one of the times Cloud stopped, turned and faced right BEFORE I asked. It was the most polite, perfect turn and face, and as Gigi said, he is so connected to me that some part of my body language must have signaled to Cloud what I was about to do, because it was a very deliberate turn and face, and he usually doesn’t stop until he’s told. She said if he stops all the time before I truly ask that it is not okay, but this one time, she said she thinks he read it in my body language so it was pretty cool!

The next thing we did was the ‘stick to me’ game. This is kind of like the driving game from zone 3, where you walk with Cloud, but this gave Cloud a bit more responsibility. Instead of driving Cloud, he was going to learn to stick with me. This is the really fun, cool thing you see with humans and horses where the human walks/trots/canters around and the horse stays right at their side. We played this with the 12 foot line as a safety net, because it was our first time playing this game. This game, was by far, the most fun of the day…and trust me Cloud couldn’t agree more. I would walk in a brisk pace in a very deliberate path, and *hopefully* Cloud would stay with zone 2 or 3 at my side. If he wasn’t, I would look back over my shoulder, and say “are you coming?” (the words are really just to make sure I stay in that phase), and if not I toss my savvy string back to hurry him along. Well, Cloud thought this was the best game over. He got sooooo playful, he LOVED it! He looked like a 2 year old, giving little rears and bucks and kicking out, but not out of anger/confusion/frustration, it was pure playfulness. Sometimes he would even lag back on purpose, and wait for me to turn and ask him if he was coming, he didn’t like to be tagged, but he loved the game of lagging then hurrying back to position. He learned the game so fast, and was having a ball. I was smiling from ear to ear to see my playful pony come out. The best part of Parelli is when you see how much your horse wants to play with you. I’m glad that we are encouraging his play. That was the most fun of our lesson for the day

The last thing we did for the day was to visit the pedestal. I showed Gigi what we were doing and she basically told me to just keep at it, that he will step up in time. She said that he is not stressed or frustrated, just trying to solve the puzzle, and that if that changes then we will need to break down the task more, either by bringing out some lower wood pieces for him to step on, or helping him put a foot up to let him know it’s okay. She suggested to ‘lead him by a front leg’, which is also something that is on the self assessment checklists for the levels auditions, but I haven’t done that…we were outta time so she said we could talk about it next lesson, or I can check the lesson videos online at Parelli’s website. Sounds interesting to me!

All-in-all, it was a great lesson. I love that the Parelli lessons are 2 hours, it gives us so much time to do so much! When we were done for the day, Cloud was really yawning and licking and chewing, which he does throughout our lessons, but it was like he knew the lesson was done and he wanted to re-process all of it. I could just tell in that moment that he was learning, and enjoying himself. I’m so happy to know that Parelli is something we both most definitely enjoy!

Tonight after feeding the Main Stay ponies their dinner, I stopped back at the farm (it will never get old having Cloud so close to Main Stay and home!) to give Cloud his nightly beet pulp/flax mixture. When I went into his stall he was laying down, dozing. I put down his feed bucket and knelt down to give him a nice snuggly hug. He felt like a puppy dog, letting me snuggle up and love on him. It’s been a while since I’ve caught him laying down. He lays down in his stall every night, but I think usually it’s late at night. I put down his bucket in nose range, and he snuck a few lazy bites laying down, but he got up when I went to clean his mixer.

Can anyone possibly love their horse more than I love mine? I just don’t think so!!

Hello! It has been a while! It’ll be pretty easy to catch y’all up, though. In short, we have been making really great progress with our Parelli groundwork, and not so great progress under saddle. In our groundwork, I really came home from Florida motivated, and we have been playing pretty much every trip out to the barn. My boyfriend built Cloud and I a pedestal, and we are working on his confidence to get up on that. He isn’t nervous about it, just doesn’t understand yet that I want him to put his feet on it. But he will get there. On Friday I went out to the barn with Rob and we both played with Cloud, because Rob really likes to play with Cloud, too. When we were done for the day, I unhooked Cloud and went about putting away my barrels and pedestal. Cloud went over to the gate and was pacing, but Rob decided to go over and play with him some more…he went up to Cloud, then jogged down the long side of the arena, with Cloud trotting along beside him. I stopped what I was doing and watched my boyfriend (a non-horse person, but he’s getting close to graduating from that title!) play at liberty with my horse. I’ve done things at liberty with Cloud here and there…I never have a halter on him to groom and tack anymore. I actually find it more convenient, lol. I’ve also done a lot of ‘liberty’ stuff in the barn…backing him into his stall without his halter or rope on, but I haven’t done much in the arena at liberty. Well, I couldn’t let Rob have all the fun, so I copied Rob, meeting Cloud at the gate and coaxing him to come trot with me. I yielded his hindquarters and switched directions, trotting the other way. I lost him a couple of times, he really was distracted by the gate, but I was still pretty impressed with the communication that we had! I even did some sideways down the long side. Fun stuff! So thanks, Rob, for showing me my horse is coming along very nicely!

Under saddle, it’s a bit of a different story. For starters, we have not been able to have a lesson since October!!! Tracey comes every other week, and I had to cancel twice and she had to cancel twice. I think we would have been okay, but Cloud has been super hot for the last month or so. It’s a typical thoroughbred winter, although I haven’t seen Cloud this ‘up’ for a couple of years. I can only guess that it has to do with how healthy he is and how good he feels. But it hasn’t been all that fun to ride! Cloud just wants to run around….if it were up to him he’d canter for an hour and call it a day. I’ve struggled with his energy, trying to figure out how to get him to go my pace without just pulling on the reins. I didn’t want to lose what we have gained by riding him naturally. He wasn’t completely out of control, but wasn’t exactly in control either. I didn’t have much say in how fast we were going, except to control what gait he was in (for the most part). I had control over where we were going, but not with crisp square turns or even shaped circles. Basically each ride was a power struggle, with emphasis on the power part. I don’t really fault Cloud, he can’t help it if he feels good, and obviously I wasn’t asserting myself to my full potential. I tried a lot of different things, but I just never achieved what I needed to to have quality rides.

Enter Tracey! In the first 5 minutes of our lesson this morning I told her what was going on, and how frustrated I was…I told her I wasn’t having much fun riding, because we just weren’t working in harmony together. Tracey has a lot of experience with Thoroughbreds, so she knew where I was coming from, and she definitely was prepared. She set us up with her hot thoroughbred go-to exercise. Staying at one end of the arena, I was to ride a small square (not a circle). On one side of the square, she placed a ground pole, which had yellow paint in the very center of it. I was to make my square turn so that I was headed straight for the yellow. When I got to the pole, I was to do whatever I needed to do to halt Cloud as close to the pole as possible without going over. If Cloud turned early at a corner, I was instructed to halt before the turn, make the turn, halt again. In my head, I was thinking this exercise sounded disastrous. Cloud hates to halt, especially when he’s hot. But we set about the square, getting some coaching on our square turns. We came up to the pole and I halted behind it, with his toes right at the line. Perfect! We waited a bit, then proceeded over the pole. A gray ear flicked back to me, then back forward. Hm. Made it around the square again, halted behind the pole and waited a few, then walked on. The gray ear pinned back to listen. I smiled ear to ear. “Are you kidding me??” I asked my instructor. “What?” she replied. “He is listening to me” I said. And not just with his ear, Cloud wasn’t jigging, and he was making crisp turns.

It was the simplest exercise. Easier than anything I had tried in my month of dealing with his energy on my own. We didn’t stop perfectly behind the pole each time, a couple of times I didn’t time it right and we stepped over. If it was my fault, it was okay, but if it was his fault, we backed up over the pole to put his toes where we wanted them. If he stopped too far back, we didn’t do anything because he would trip on the pole anyways, and learn for himself. After a few laps each direction, I picked up the trot and continued the exercise. We did some halts at the pole, and some halts at corners if he tried to turn before I told him to. After a while, Tracey told me to approach the pole as though I were going to halt, and then just do a walk transition. Easy!

Now, I had told Tracey that our major trouble came down the long sides of the arena. Her exercise was very contained, I didn’t see how we could generalize. She put another pole in the center of the arena, leaving the original pole. Now I could ride Cloud on a rectangle, lengthening the time between visits to the magic transition pole. Because she didn’t put a pole at the other end of the arena, after a while we did a lot of changes of directions, and practiced going without the pole. We also started continuing to trot over the pole, instead of walking or halting…I would just act like I was going to halt, and if he was listening I would let him keep trotting. I had so much control, and I really had Cloud’s attention. And he wasn’t fussy about giving up control either, because we were keeping him on his toes by changing things up so much. We had our harmony back!

The last 20 minutes of our lesson we spent cantering with our magic transition poles. I approached the pole at a trot, acting like a halt, and asked him to canter just before the pole. If he gave me a nice controlled canter, away we went, either on the rail or over the other pole, but if he got too fast, we’d find one of our poles and make the transition. Yes, we could have done the transitions anywhere, but the poles kept him in line, and kept him listening. It just worked. We did do some halts at various points around the arena, but only if really really necessary. I also got some flack for leaning into my upward transitions, letting my reins slip, and meeting Cloud’s pace with my post instead of defining my pace. Some things to keep working on.

I am just amazed by her solution to my problems with Cloud’s energy. With past trainers, they have just yelled at me to half halt, MAKE him halt, MAKE him walk, MAKE him trot – which just bottled Cloud up and made him fight me harder. This method gave Cloud more responsibility, and kept him guessing at *when* I was going to ask for a downward transition. Instead of fighting me, he was listening. And I still don’t really understand why the exercise worked as well as it did!! Amazing.

I suppose this will probably be my last entry of 2012, and I usually like to try to look back on my year to see how far we’ve come. And this year, there is a lot to say for how far we have come. At the beginning of last year, we were at Silver Fern, getting more and more frustrated over lameness issues and hoof issues, from the style of riding that I was doing and from the poor conditions of turnout at Silver Fern. I was riding with Christy, planning on taking Cloud to more dressage schooling shows in the summer. Our lameness issues were really getting me down, and I was constantly reminded that my horse could only do so much in the dressage world with his gaits and joints being what they were. Talk about discouraging. I loved my horse so much, it hurt to feel like he was less than superb, instead of enjoying him like  I should.

It all began with a budget haha! Over time, I decided against showing, lessened my lessons, then quit altogether. I decided I needed to save the money, and later realized that I actually felt like I was wasting money on dressage lessons, instead of needing to ‘give those things up’. I wasn’t happy with what I was doing with my horse, and I was becoming more and more unhappy with the environment that he was living in. I knew that Cloud deserved better, both in a boarding facility, and in what I was doing with my horse. And he really deserved for me to believe in him.

And so I went back to Parelli, and began searching for a new barn. I saw instant results with Parelli – in the way Cloud responded to me, and in that I began to enjoy my time with him again. I looked a few boarding stables closer to home, but wasn’t finding what I was looking for until I decided on a whim to tour a barn that I originally felt was outside my price range. I had been looking for equal or less than what I was paying at Silver Fern, not keeping in mind that Silver Fern was providing sub par care and quality of facilities than what I wanted. One tour of Cliffwood, and I was sold. Cloud and I deserved that facility, and I felt instantly that it would be a game changer.

We moved in May, and it was the single best decision that I have made for that horse in my 10 years of owning him. We moved from a mudhole, to the lovely option of limestone paddocks for poor conditions, and grass pastures in nice, dry weather. The atmosphere was different too, with lovely arenas, lovely pastures, beautiful scenery, open, airy, barns with good natural light…it was zen-like for us. Cloud made some new friends, and genuinely seemed happy with his home, for, unfortunately, the first time in years. It’s hard to see that your horse is unhappy, until you see him happy. Cloud’s feet began to grow and be healthy, and our regular nightmare farrier visits became a dream. Cliffwood literally took years off of Cloud’s feet.

We continued with our Parelli work, picking up a Parelli instructor to help us progress. Then, on a whim, I picked up Tracey after catching a few of her lessons as I rode on the weekends. My first ride with her and I was sold. Her principles closely aligned with what I was doing with Parelli, and her motto seemed to be “Be all that you can be”….she believes in building each horse to the best of their ability, with the sky being the limit. Gone was the undertone that my horse isn’t good enough, and with her training and my confidence in my horse, he has begun to show his stuff, catching the eye of others and ridding us of the lameness plague. Today at the end of my lesson, another rider commented on how good he looks, and from the center of the ring, my trainer exclaimed, “I know, I LOVE this horse”. And that, is the best way to end the year…a beautiful facility taking superb care of my horse, a horse feeling happy at his home, an owner feeling happy and confident, a relationship that is better than ever on the ground and under saddle, and a trainer that really truly loves my horse – exactly the way that he is.

I will work on my resolutions and post them in the new year. I already feel like this upcoming new year has such promise in comparison to last year…simply because we are starting in a better place. I am so grateful for everything that went down over the last year, and I am trying to not have regrets from our past…I needed to experience what I experienced to get where I am, and appreciate it. So I need to let go of the past and focus on the present and future!

Before I go, I do need to write a little blurb about an unfortunate experience from Thursday. I have been working at Main Stay most of my holiday break, to give Art his days off. Thursday morning when I went out to feed breakfast, one of our horses, Buck, had something terribly wrong with him. He did not make it in the barn for breakfast, but went down and passed away right there. Luckily, Art was out walking his dog and was able to come and help, but really all we could do is say goodbye and try to calm him. It was his time, and it was a big loss. EVERYONE at Main Stay loves those horses, all of them. They are all very different horses, but we love all of them for the qualities they bring to our program. Working with them so closely and taking care of them on the weekends, I have come to know each of them and love them as if they were my own. Buck has been at Main Stay for close to 10 years…I remember when I first met him, as senior in high school when I was volunteering at Main Stay. He was a big part of the Main Stay family over all of those years, and we already miss him dearly. Rest in Peace, Buckaroo…we love you!

I am currently in a 4 hour layover in Atlanta, Georgia…on my way home from a Parelli Tourstop in Tampa, Florida. It was a really great weekend, but I’m going to do a little update on what has been going on at home with Cloudy Boy first!

Let’s see, I left off at my last lesson with Tracey. She encouraged me to work on Cloud’s lateral flexibility, stretching him left and right during every ride, and doing carrot stretches before and after my rides. I have finally, with the exception of my trip this weekend, gotten on a regular riding schedule with Cloudy Boy, and the stretching has really helped his movement and steering. Last weekend I was riding Cloud with my friend Molly (Cooper’s mom), and she commented that the canter I had with Cloud that day would have won me blue ribbons, and was better than any canter she has seen in videos of Cloud from before lessoning with Tracey. And she was right, it felt relaxed and free…Cloud was carrying himself and using himself without restriction.

I was looking forward to another lesson with Tracey last weekend, but unfortunately she came down sick and had to cancel, so I will see her this upcoming weekend. Hopefully I’ll get in some good rides before then, to make up for not riding this weekend.

As I may have mentioned, my trip this weekend was inspired by an old high school friend who I have kept in touch with, who is now a Parelli instructor in Florida. Well, before my trip, she came home to visit her family for Thanksgiving and her birthday, and she came out to see Cloud and I at our new digs. I expected she just wanted a tour of the facilities and to see Cloud, but she wanted to see Cloud and I play – and ended up giving us an impromptu lesson! She liked where Cloud and I were at with our online skills, she said we had a really good foundation going, and that I am ready to be more specific and get a quicker response from more subtle language. She gave me a lot of good tips and made me more aware of my own body language and how quickly I go through my phases instead of waiting for a reaction from more subtle changes of my body language. It was nice to have a fresh perspective to help me with Cloud, and nice to hear that she sees a lot of positive things from us, considering how great her horses are!

So that’s about it, I’m glad that my riding schedule has gotten more regular. It’s especially hard to get back on a regular scheduled when the temperatures drop….motivation is scarce then! But I think we’re going into winter with a good schedule going. The one thing I still need to work on is balancing our ground skills and riding skills. Sometimes after work I want to ‘hurry up and get home’…so I EITHER play OR ride, when I should really work to have a balance so that we can progress in both.

So about my trip. Obviously I went to a tour stop in July, so they followed the same schedule but with different riders and horses…so there was definitely more to learn from having different participants. This time though, I had a different perspective – as Eryn was riding her TB/Shire cross in the Biomechanics session, and knows a lot of people involved with Parelli. So I got to hang out around the stables and behind the scenes, joining the masses for things I really wanted to see, and to shop. Eryn’s stalls were just down the way from the Parelli’s stalls, behind the ‘problem horse’ and ‘non-Parelli trailer loading horse’, and directly next to Lauren Barwick’s stalls, and on the other side, Colleen Kelly’s. I had a little too much fun around the barn, drooling over the Olympic horses, and rubbing elbows with Lauren and Colleen. Colleen especially, was very friendly and fun to talk to. I also couldn’t resist handwalking Eryn’s horses (she brought along her appy mini so he wasn’t left home alone), mucking their stalls, and such…just cuz I can’t be around a barn and not be helping out haha. Eryn’s horses got a lot of attention from the crowd that meandered over to the stable area and watched over the fence…Olyvur for his size and unique coloring, and Shawnie because he’s just adorable haha.

Basically it was just fun to feel like a part of the Parelli family for a weekend. I feel like I am just getting started with Parelli, and would some day really like to take a recreational course or two with them. I couldn’t help but be inspired again by what I saw in the Tourstop. As much as we would all like it to be, natural horsemanship is just not for everybody. That was evidenced by the Paint Show that was also happening at the fairgrounds this weekend. I know that some people just don’t get it, and even speak negatively about it, but it fits me and what I want to do with horses. I want Love, Language, and Leadership in all that I do with my own horse, and future horses. You have to want to have a good relationship with your horse for natural horsemanship to be for you. And, I think, you really need to put in the EFFORT to have that relationship. It’s not just about loving your horse, it takes a lot of effort too.

So, some of the highlights for me from this weekend…I really enjoyed the ‘non-Parelli horse trailer loading’ demo. The owner was a 12 y/o girl, the horse was a Palomino who was difficult to load. At the beginning of the demo, Pat put on some music and gave the girl 4 tasks to do….walk her horse over a tarp, put a big green ball on his back, have him jump a set of barrels, and load him in the trailer. She didn’t get her horse to do any of it. Then Pat began working with her, and because she is young and loves her horse so much, you could see how quickly it all came to her….much quicker than I have seen in other Parelli demos, and I think it really was her age and her love for her horse that was the difference. Pat was patient with her, and very funny and entertaining too. He didn’t just take the rope and do it all himself, he walked her through the games and let her do things wrong, then told her how to do it right. And the change was so cool. They bounced around the different toys/obstacles, never spending too long on any one thing. When the horse’s body language began to change, they approached the trailer…it took a few in and out tries, then he was a champ. The demo finished with them playing music, and her (by herself) taking him around….walking him over the tarp, putting the big green ball on his back, jumping the barrels, and putting him in the trailer. I’m pretty sure she is sold for life!

That was probably my favorite demo. I like the non-Parelli/’problem’ horses. I enjoyed the spotlights…Lauren Barwick, who has ridden in 3 Paralympic games, including a gold and silver medal in Beijing rode a spotlight, which was very inspiring. She rode a pas de deaux on Off To Paris, her London horse, with a working student on Maile, her Beijing horse. Very beautiful. She also played at Liberty with Paris from her wheelchair. and tacked him without assistance, just to show she can! Like I said, I got to meet her and talk to her with her horses stabled next to Olyvur, so I bought her book and had her sign it. I also enjoyed the final demo of Pat working with a pretty extreme horse, whose owner brought him because any time he is saddled he bucks. She had been through several trainers, and in August, he was tacked and a trainer tried to mount him, resulting in an emergency room trip for the rider, and stitches for him. I guess that was the last straw. He was really a challenge for Pat, who worked with him for almost 2 hours. He did not get on him, but had him tacked for the second half of the demo. He could have ridden him, no one in the show doubts that, but as he said, he’s getting older, and it’s not fair to push a horse past their limits of acceptance just for the benefit of an audience. The transformation was incredible though. And he was so patient, even though the horse would seem to be changing his demeanor, and then would suddenly explode again. After the show, backstage the owner sought out one of the local Parelli instructors to ask if she would continue lessons with her, and the instructor said yes. It was one of the best area instructors, who had done several of the demos this past weekend, so I’m glad the horse is in good hands.

Alright, I guess that’s all from the weekend. Very inspiring, and so cool to hang out with some of my Parelli idols. Can’t wait to get home to my horse!

I had another lesson with Tracey today, and it was another good one!

2 weeks ago at our last lesson, Tracey could see that I was struggling to turn Cloud on a circle, so she hopped on to see if it was all me or if it was Cloud, and could feel how stiff he was laterally, so she did  a lot of stretching exercises to loosen him up. She rode for about 15 minutes and by the time I got on Cloud was very loose and flexible. She walked me through the exercises that she did to stretch him, but because he was already stretched and loose, I guess I didn’t really get it because after our lesson I struggled with it. It just felt like I was doing it wrong, because he was so stiff and it didn’t seem to work, so I backed off because I didn’t want to be doing it wrong and making him stretch in the wrong places, which could collapse his spine rather than stretch it.

So today that’s where we started the lesson. I appreciated Tracey hopping on in our last lesson, because she gained a lot of insight to help me with Cloudy Boy, but I needed to get the feel for getting the kinks out of Cloudy Boy. So we started our lesson at the walk, stretching him laterally. The important thing for me to remember is to make sure that he is turning/stretching just in front of the saddle, instead of breaking at the poll. Tracey had me start riding tracking left, and counterbending right. She had me start this way because he is more flexible flexing right, and it would be easier to straighten him out on the left when I am tracking left, so starting with what is easiest first to build him up to the harder way. So tracking left, I opened and tickled the right (outside) rein, and pushed his rib cage as it swung to the inside. I gave a bit with the inside rein to give him room to stretch, and Tracey encouraged me not to hold him in a stretch, but to hold briefly, tickle it with just my fingers, and slowly let him stretch before asking again.

After some success, we switched directions and tried this on the other side, and Cloud was very resistant to stretch to the left. So resistant, that after  a few laps around, Tracey came over to check things out. She had me walk a few steps while she used my left rein to try to flex him, then had me whoa and actually stretched his neck and worked out some kinks in his neck. It was very interesting to feel THAT in the saddle! I could feel the pops in his vertebrae! I was a bit taken by surprise that she did a mini adjustment on him while I was riding, but when we walked off he was easier to flex! I was impressed!

So then we worked on counter bending in the same fashion as we had been the other way. When we had a decent stretch we started counter-bending, then bending, with a lot of direction changes. I really got a feel for how to loose his neck and spine up the right way. I feel more confident that I can do it on my own now. Tracey also suggested carrot stretches before, during, and after my ride. I know I should do them, but just never do…but now I will! Because Cloud is so much easier to ride when he has lateral flexibility. I feel like if I do carrot stretches religiously, and do this stretching in my warm up, that Cloud will get really flexible, which will make him easier to steer.  It was interesting to learn that my troubles with steering from my seat have to do with Cloud’s lateral flexibility instead of a miscommunication. So I am very eager to work on his flexibility and see how it changes our steering!

We walked doing those stretches for a good period of time, Cloud really needs it. We picked up the trot to get to work, but we did continue to flex him left and right in the trot. Tracey said for quite a while that I really need to concentrate on his lateral flexibility and try not to fall into the habit of riding Cloud straight on the bit for an extended period of time. Throughout our entire lesson, Tracey had me switching his flexion. Cloud felt pretty noodley by the end of it all!

We finished our lesson with a canter each direction. Tracey wanted to make sure that Cloud did not rush into a canter, so she put a ground pole down. I rode Cloud in circles, going over the ground pole. Once I had the good noodle neck on Cloud, I was to take him to the pole, and ask him to canter just as he went over the pole, which would help him to lift himself into the canter. Boy did it make our transitions smooth! I think both for the reason that she put it down, to get him to lift, but also because my ‘ask’ was very specific, instead of asking over a number of strides.

One thing that I really need to work on is relaxing my own body, especially my arms. Just as I want Cloud’s neck to be a noodle, Tracey wants my arms to feel noodley….but not let my reins slip! In the canter especially, I could feel Cloud relax when I reminded myself to relax my arms.

A lot of Tracey’s riding instruction is all a lot of feel. When I feel it, I know that it is right, when I feel discombobulated, I know that it is wrong. I think I’m at the point where we are having great rides during my lessons with Tracey coaching us, and we are having great moments on our own. The best feedback is Cloud. When things are right and my body is relaxed, he is relaxed, stretching, using his back, and steering effortlessly. Part of the reason I really need to concentrate on this lateral flexion is that when Cloud is flexible and warmed up, steering is the easiest thing in the world! I can’t believe more people don’t learn to ride like this, because it make steering effortless. When we are really in our groove, it feels as though all I need to do is think about where I want to go, and we go there. From the middle of the ring, Tracey reminds me to ‘post where I want Cloud to go’…and that’s all it takes. It’s the coolest feeling ever when you are steering like that, like you and your horse are one. And Cloud loves it too. Molly came out and watched a bit and commented how relaxed and happy Cloud looks. And really, that’s what this is all about!

And so our homework for the next two weeks is both Cloud and I becoming noodles….Cloudy Boy through carrot stretches and lateral flexion exercises when I ride, and me by sticking to the ‘relax your arms’ mantra. I am very excited to see how noodley we can get by our next lesson, and what we can learn when we get that flexibility and relaxation!

Just another comment…I am excited that in both Tracey’s lesson and my lesson with Gigi (Parelli) there seems to be some agreement. Both Tracey and Gigi have diagnosed the lateral inflexibility as something that Cloud and I need to work on, as well as my relaxation in the saddle. It reaffirms to me that Tracey’s method meshes with what I am doing with Cloud and Parelli, which is a good thing. It could be a real mess if I had two trainers working at opposite ends of the riding spectrum!

And onto something completely different, okay, maybe semi-related. Yesterday at Main Stay we hosted a farm-day for a group of grieving children. The opening event of the day was a demo by Jill McCrae and her husband Jeff on their beautiful Lusitanos. They started with a pas de deux, followed by Jill riding with a gartocha (a really long pole, youtube it), and finally Jill brought her horse back into the ring for a liberty freestyle…she took off all of his tack, and played with him on the ground to music. The riding was really neat, of course, they are elite riders, but I’ll tell you…the OBVIOUS fan favorite was the liberty demo on the ground. And it’s also important to note, that Jill looked like SHE was having the most fun playing with her horse on the ground without tack.