Wound up again

Yesterday Pistol was super duper wound up again, so we ended up only doing Liberty.  I've found that when he is really wound up, if I try to put him OnLine, he starts biting while I'm trying to halter him, and then starts acting up whenever he is asked to do something.  So... starting with Liberty in the catch pen is usually better for him.  I can usually get the halter on with lots of approach and retreat and all, but I feel that he is trying to tell me something on days like this.  So, no halter to start, we head straight to Liberty.  First I asked him to Stick to Me, because that has been a real challenge for him both at Liberty and Online.  He sticks just fine, but doesn't want to change gait.  I've found as well that sometimes treating him like a LBI helps him get through tricky spots, so we walked, trotted a couple steps, and got a cookie.  That made a huge difference, but I have to be careful not to use cookies too much, because he becomes a cookie monster!  So I usually only use 1 or 2 during the session to keep his attention on the task instead of the cookie in my pocket.  We went from stick to me into squeezing through the barrels, which he did really well at.  I sensed he was getting bored with smaller and smaller gaps, so we moved on to the pedestal instead of jumping the barrels like I had planned.  I asked him to stay on the pedestal with his front feet (its an old tractor tire filled with dirt, so its really not big enough for all 4 feet) and disengage his hindquarters.  He's gotten really good at it, but every once and awhile he still thinks he should be going sideways around the pedestal, so he will back off and go sideways around the edge of the tire.  Then I asked him to go sideways down the fence while I stood still, and he went what I judged was about 22 feet away without making me move my feet!  I was so proud of him for that!  I decided the session should end pretty soon since he was doing so well.  The last thing I did was ask for a circle, even though I was in a big square pen instead of a small round pen.  He gave me one full circle at the walk, about 12 feet out, and disengaged perfectly when I asked him to.  Session over!  And I finally had a calm horse that was happy to do things instead of an exuberant mess. 

Wintec 500

I got a brand new Wintec 500 with the interchangeable gullet system today.  It seems to be a good cheaper alternative to a Parelli saddle.  I wish I had the money for a Parelli saddle, but right now, the Wintec is what my budget can handle.  My boy is a wide guy, I joke that he is built along the lines of a foundation quarter horse, with a reaaaaaaaaaally wide sprung rib cage and a broad back.  Luckily, he is only in the large gullet, so we still have 2 wider gullets to go to if and when he bulks up more.  Its a really nice saddle, I'm quite pleased with it.  I just tested it on him a couple minutes ago, and we finally had an easy time saddling.  The other saddles didn't fit correctly, so he was really uncomfortable even having them on his back, which made saddling impossible.  But this time, I went out there, and I played the friendly game with the saddle pad, put the saddle up on his back, and stood there.  He stayed still the whole time with a nice calm expression on his face, and so I started playing with the girth.  He can get a little claustrophobic about the girth, so I did some approach and retreat with the girth.  He has an itchy spot right between his legs all the way back to his belly, so every time I put the girth up on his belly, I scratched that itchy spot.  It only took a couple times and he decided he was okay with the girth being buckled.  Keeping in mind that he gets claustrophobic really easily, I did some more approach and retreat with actually tightening the girth as well.  He did really well with it, and I was able to tighten the girth with no problems.  Now this is really important because he has had a couple of bad incidents with saddles, so I really wanted to make sure this time went well.  Once the saddle was on, all I did was stand next to him and scratch his itchy spots.  He ate some grass, and I took the saddle off.  Because he is a very young LBE, I'm trying really hard not to push him past thresholds and lose his trust, so I'm taking things pretty slow with saddling.  He is already doing some nice level 3 stuff OnLine, but I haven't actually ridden him yet.  We had a nice time OnLine too, even though he was a bit "fizzy" at first because I hadn't played with him in 3 days.  He started rearing and bucking, so we did a lot of fast things: sideways to circling to squeeze and back through.  He finally calmed down and started licking and chewing, so I slowed it down and asked for better quality of the games.  He gave me a beautiful sideways on both sides, so we moved on to Figure 8's, which he also did a beautiful job at.  All in all, it was a great day.

Home after a long weekend

I'm back!  We headed to Parelli Across America for the weekend, and I had TONS of fun.  The things Pat Parelli does with horses are amazing!!!  Plus, I got tons of shopping done.  But, of course, I had to leave Pistol at home, which neither of us was happy about.  So when I got home last night, I immediately went out to say hi to him, and he came cantering over to the gate to see me.  I went out this morning to see him too, and brush him a bit.  The flies here are terrible, so I had to put his flysheet and mask on, and he is such a goofball about it.  He helps me put his sheet on, because it doesn't buckle in the front, its sewn together, and being that Pistol is a mouthy LBE, he holds the front of the sheet while I pull it over his head and shoulders.  The funny part is, I didn't even "train" him to do that, the first time I went to put it on him, he grabbed the front, and I decided to go with it, so now every time I put it on, he holds the front while I pull it over his head and shoulders.  I love LBE's, they are so much fun.  Then it was time for the fly mask, and I had him hold that while I brushed his face.  He likes to hold the top(the part that goes on his poll) because it has a hole for his forelock, and he plays with the hole with his lips.  So once I was done brushing him, I drew his head over to me at his shoulder, and he dropped the mask right into my hands.  What a smart boy!  So once his mask was on, we had a good scratch in his girth area, and I went around buckling all the buckles on his sheet.  He LOVES having his sheet on, he feels so smart once he's helped put it on.  Plus, when I scratch on top of the sheet, it feels even BETTER than just a brush. :)  Now he's out eating some grass, and we are going to play a little later. 

I DID IT!

I went and worked with Pistol again, and he was still spooky, so we didnt do very much.  BUT... I taught him how to come to me sideways!  I don't really have a mounting block, so I stood on the back porch, and started trying to drive his hindquarters to me.  I have never done that with a completely new horse, so it was interesting.  He didnt get it, no matter what I did, and I sensed that I was just annoying him, so I changed tactics.  I decided to try to drive his forequarters towards me, and PRESTO!  He got it!  So we did it a couple more times, and headed back to the pasture.  On the way, he decided to stop and eat grass, so I asked him to come sideways to me again, and he did it perfectly!  So we kept on going to the pasture, and he headed right for his water trough to get a drink.  After he was done, I asked him to come sideways to me again to take his halter off.  He not only sidestepped to me, he bent his head over to me for me to take his halter off!!! He is usually polite about taking his halter off, but asking him to come to me sideways before it made all the difference between a level 2 and a level 3/4 halter removal.  I love my horse, I feel like without Parelli, he would be miserable.  He has so much potential just waiting to be uncovered, and he loves using his brain! 

An interesting morning

Today was definitely an interesting morning.   I went to play with Pistol since things have dried up a bit, and man oh man, was he wound up.  We ended up doing some liberty in his "catch pen" because he wasn't feeling the halter at the time.  He ran around for a bit and thought he was really getting away with something because I "couldnt" catch him, and I just waited, and pretty soon he caught me. :)  After we played with the halter, and decided we could play on line today, I asked him for some pretty simple stuff, just a couple hind and fore hand yields, some yo-yo, and standing on the pedestal.  He did amazing with that, he is really putting it all together and realizing that he doesn't always have to gogogogogo.  It was so nice to see my exuberant little LBE yield just 1 step when I asked him softly, and then yield more when I asked for more.  Usually its more "oh did you want me to spin in a circle on a yield?" so that was a pleasant surprise that he paid attention to HOW I was asking him to yield.  I just keep shaking my head when he does things like that, because I don't expect it, but I think I'm not giving him enough credit, because he is smart enough and willing enough that I SHOULD expect it.  So we're working on that, but its a long process. :)  So after we got the halter on, we went to investigate his trailer, and he even did a fabulous job with that.  He went sideways to the fender and actually touched zone three to the fender, put zone one on the fender and the ramp, and put zone one over the ramp while I opened and closed it.  So because he was doing such a wonderful job, I decided to try and saddle him, which we have done before, just to keep in practice with it.  I still haven't ridden him because we're taking it slow, so right now, I saddle him, and we play with the saddle on, and then the saddle comes off and he's done.  The plan was to saddle him, and play stick to me around the front yard (our "arena") and do some circles, and possibly squeeze through the drainage ditches.  However, like Pat says, you deal with the horse that shows up.  The plan changed, in a big way.  I had the pad and saddle on him, and was going to get the girths on, and something spooked him, so the saddle slid, which scared him even more.  So we played some friendly with the pad and saddle to make sure he wouldn't be scared of it, and then moved on, skipping saddling.  My grandparents were working on the garden, and that was realy scary, so we had to go play yo-yo and squeeze by it, which was entertaining.  He gets wound up so easily, but then once he realizes there is nothing scary about it, he's fascinated!  He had to investigate the rake, and the bench, and the tree branches, and the trowel.  He even started picking things up and walking around with them.  Such a silly boy!  But then it got windy, and the flag started flapping, and that set him off again.  I've never seen him look UP at something before, but he looked up at the flag, and started to panic.  So, more yo-yo and squeeze, and then some touch-it and guess what?  That flag pole isn't very scary, it actually has lots of fun little things to play with on it(its a collapsable pole) so he had a good time pulling on all the strings, and lipping the knobs on it.  The flag started flapping while he did that, but he wasn't scared any more, which was nice.  He did look up at it still, but he didn't panic.  He just went right back to playing with the string.  I was just hoping he didnt untie it while he played with it, because then the flag would have come down right on top of him!  But he did such a good job overcoming his fears, that I decided to end the session right there, so we went and grazed for a bit, and headed for his pasture.  He is so connected to me now that I can let him graze on the lawn, without fences, and let go of his lead and he won't leave.  I've even experimented(because our liberty is so good, I'm fairly confident that even outside of a fence, when I ask him to "hide his hiney" he will do it) with dropping the lead and walking away, and he follows me, even though he doesn't have to.  To me, that is such a big deal, that even while he is outside, not attached to me, he still decides to stay with me, even though he could take off and be in the next county before I could catch him.  Even though my plan today didn't happen, I still ended up having a wonderful play session with him, and I feel like our relationship strengthens every time.  I could tell he was really trusting me today, even though things were scary.  He checked in a lot, which is something he didn't do at all when I first started playing with him.   I'm so glad I found him to be my partner.

Stormy days

Its been super stormy for the past couple days, so I haven't had much time to play with Pistol.  I don't have an indoor arena, so when it rains, that limits my time I can spend with him.  I did manage to spend some time with him in his shed while it rained, but there was a tornado warning so I had to go inside. :(  So its already been a couple days of light work for him, and now I'm going to be leaving for Parelli Across America tomorrow, which means no work for him at all.  When I finally do play with him again, I'm thinking he will be full of himself.  :)  What fun.  But I'm still super excited about Parelli Across America.  I've heard there are lots of good deals there, so I'm going to stock up on all things Parelli while I can.

Simple Stuff

I think I have been really focused on increasing Pistol's level lately instead of working on what he already knew, so I decided to take today to add some polish. He has finally calmed down enough that I can redo things without making him throw a fit. I've been working on lots of things with him to keep his clever mind busy, but I decided to work on the pedestal, squeezing over a jump, driving from zones 2-3, and stick to me at a walk and trot. He did a fabulous job, I think he is really starting to understand that there is a reason behind everything I do, I'm not just waving my carrot stick to annoy him. He has been great with the pedestal and squeezing over a jump, so that was just asking him to do it a little better each time. However, for some reason stick to me at a trot really drives him nuts. So we worked on it, and the first time he trotted with his ears forward for a couple steps, I stopped and rewarded him. Surprise, Surprise, he started licking and chewing! Hopefully next time will be even easier because of it. He also did a fabulous job on driving from zone 2-3, I think I may try riding him soon. He was green broke when I got him, so he has had a rider on his back, and she even took him trail riding. The trainer was also the barn owner, and she was nice enough to tell me everything she did with him so I know what he knows. I would love to start riding him soon, but because he is a Left Brain Extrovert, I want to be 100% sure he is okay with me up there. As a LBE, the tendency is to buck or rear, and he has already shown he can do both when he wants to. So I'm going to take it slow, and make sure that I have a good relationship on the ground before I climb on his back. I won't look good in traction. :) When I went to bring him in from his pasture, he was already in, so I scratched him a bit and gave him his grain, which made him super happy. As soon as I was leaving, it started to rain, so I had to go close up his trailer. While I was doing that, he finished his grain, and came over to the gate to whinny to me and beg for a scratch. He has this little pose he does like "If you could just get right -there- I would be sooooooooo happy" so I went in and spent some time scratching him in his shed. He is so adorable when I scratch him, he holds his head really high, stretches his neck out, and sticks his lips out and wiggles them. And then, when I got a really good spot on his shoulder, he dropped his head down onto my shoulder and stood that way for a bit. Even though my horse is suuuuuuuuuuper challenging, I wouldn't trade him for ANYTHING.

The First One!

I'm starting this blog because I've realized I really want to share my journey with Pistol, and I want to share it with everyone I can! :) So... starting now, I'm going to be talking about my journey through Parelli Natural Horsemanship with Pistol, my 4 year old gelding.

I got Pistol about 2 months ago, and when I got him, he was a hot mess. He was a green-broke 4 year old, with the brain of a yearling. He had been ridden and trained a bit, but I was informed that he needed 20 minutes of bucking after the saddle was on and before you got on, and that he "didn't understand lunging". Not a problem I thought, PNH has an answer for everything. I brought my friend/mentor with me to pick him up, and we brought her step-up 4 horse slant trailer to get him. However, when we got there, we found out that he had only been trailered 4 times in his entire life. Oh boy. So my friend started working with him, which took about 3 hours, getting him to yield his front and hind end, squeeze between barrels, and circle into the trailer. Well, he was having nothing of it. I had originally thought he was a Left Brain INtrovert, based on my first visit with him. However, 15 minutes into the session, it was clear he was a Left Brain EXtrovert! He bucked about 15 times when he was turned loose in the arena, ran a couple laps with his tail flagged, and stopped to look at us like "I WIN!". We finally got him into the trailer, which took HOURS, and headed home. Then, when we got home, it took HOURS to unload him! Naturally, I decided that I would need to work on trailering so he didn't get "stuck" in a bad experience and make life more difficult. His first full day at my house, he managed to take his 6 foot gate off the hinges, and was heading out when I got to the gate. I knew at that point that I had an interesting time ahead of me. He was curious about EVERYTHING, and while he would go Right Brain at first, within a week he got himself under control and has been living on the Left Brain side ever since. He managed to pick up on all 7 games in the first day, and I had no choice but to move on, because his mind was busybusybusy. So within 2 days of having him, I was already introducing level 2 concepts to him Online. The changes PNH has made in 2 months is unreal. When I got him, he didn't want to be with me, he thought he was the "dominant horse" in the herd of 2, and was used to doing whatever he wanted, since he had been a bratty pasture pet for 4 years. I had my work cut out for me, but after just 2 short months, he now trots and even canters to meet me in the pasture, lets me pet him everywhere while he is laying down, hangs out in his trailer all the time, and does so much more. To date, our biggest accomplishments include: jumping barrels on the ground because he was terrified of it for the first month, getting 2 front feet and 2 back feet on the pedestal seperately, stick to me at a trot without pinning ears, loading into his trailer while I am standing at the rear fender or the rear tire and while he is at liberty, and approaching the spraying hose at liberty and sticking his muzzle in it(he was sprayed as a 3 month old, and was TERRIFIED of the hose). We are still progressing, I hope to be riding him soon, as he is showing me he is willing, but I have a feeling our first ride will be "interesting". :) I recently acquired a Big Green Ball, and we are having a blast with it! He has figured out how to lay down on it, how to do a big high stepping trot to keep it rolling in front of him, how to herd it, and how to push it with his muzzle. He will also walk into his trailer even when it rocks up and down (I figure it is good training for the Parelli Center teeter-totter), and hang out inside while I play the Etreme Friendly game in zone 5 with a carrot stick and his lead rope. He is so smart, and I cannot wait to see where he will be in a year! I am hoping to become a Parelli Professional, and am keeping my fingers crossed to be able to attend the November 2010 Fastrack course in Ocala FL. Even though my horse is a challenge, he is so athletic and fun, I believe he will be the perfect horse to take me to the top!