This is why I hire professionals.

I was able to have a private lesson with KAT this afternoon and I am feeling much better about a lot of things.

1. I now understand WHY he's raising his head.
2. I now understand why it's better if he lowers it, and NOT just for the show trend.
3. I should actually ask MORE of him and let him get away with less...BUT...
4. I should make sure he knows when he's doing what I want, AND
5. "Trick" him into thinking he will have to work less if he does what I ask.
6. That foreign language of "inside rein-lift his shoulder" stuff at the lope makes total sense now.
7. When I was speaking that language CORRECTLY to him he responded perfectly.
8. He really IS as curious and "looky" as I think he is, I just need to set boundaries of when it's okay to look and when it's not. (see #5)
9. As his "reward" we rode along the fenceline where a bunch of horses were in the big pasture. The all came running over and he got excited. I did keep him going forward, but let him look all he wanted.

This is why I have no problem asking for help and hiring a professional. Half an hour later and my biggest frustrations are pretty much gone. I still have some work to do to keep him consistent, but I know more about what I'm asking him to do, and therefore can better know whether or not I'm getting it.

He was out with the "boys" when I got there and for the first time he didn't let me walk right up to him. He saw me coming and I know he knew it was me. I'm trying to teach him to come when called (those turn-outs are huge) but he's not really responding to that yet. He's always let me walk right up to him, though, and I've made a point not to be too pushy about bringing him back in. Something in Parelli's book made a lot of sense to me: how would you feel if you were in your hammock reading a book and your friend drove up, yanked you out of the hammock by the arm, shoved you into the driver's seat of your car and started telling you where to drive to. SO I've been walking up to him with treats and petting him, clipping the lead and letting him take several more mouthfuls before asking him to walk on, and letting us mosey our way to the gate, stopping every few paces for another bite. That way when we get out of the gate and I demand his attention to lead him to the barn he's still chewing calmly. Anyway, I got about 20 feet away and he turned around and started walking away at a 45 degree angle. I turned with the intention of cutting him off and he started walking faster. Of course I'm seeing visions of trying to chase him around the pasture while KAT is checking her watch. So I thought I try something. I looked over and the closest horse was Ripper, my favorite lesson horse. I walked straight to him and pulled a treat out of my pocket and started petting him and breaking off pieces of the treat. You should've seen Junior's face! "Hey-what the? Hey, but, you, wait a minute!" He came up and sort of hid behind Rip with a very sad look on his face so I started talking to him and walked over and gave him a treat. Of course Rip didn't like that part, but I clipped Junior and everything was okay. I figured I'd turn him back out when we were done, but his dinner was waiting for him so he was content to stay in.

He's such a goof. During the lesson if I fully gave him his head he would turn and walk straight for KAT and ask for scratches. What a ham!

Too Cute.

Happiness Is...

Happiness Is...
...a calm horse with a relaxed neck, jogging quietly along amidst tractors, ducks, and kids on bikes.
...peppermint scented horse breath.
...being able to leave the dorky ankle boots in the tack box.
...prehensile lips enveloping your hand and gently taking the apple treat.
...having a lunge line in your car for a legitimate reason.
...strangers telling you how cute your horse is.
...feeling your legs getting stronger.
...mucking out YOUR OWN stall.
...a horse big enough to make your butt look small.
...spurs with pink rhinestones.
...being able to ride whenever you want, without making an appointment, or asking permission.
...my Junior.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back.

Pat Parelli say in the first part of his book Horse-Man-Ship (which, by the way makes me think it's a relationship between a horse, a man, and a boat) that You MUST be willing to accept that when things go wrong, the fault is YOURS and not the horse's. I'm paraphrasing, but still. I do accept this as a fundamental truth. Some exceptions exist, but I'm sure my horse is not one of them, he's a good boy. I'm sure it's me. And don't get me wrong, he's really not doing anything bad, he's just not doing everything as well as I know he can. I also know we're just beginning week three so I shouldn't be so hard on him. I ALSO know that I don't want to do anything to UN-train him or make him not enjoy his job during this very formative time in our relationship. We seem to do better in lessons. HIS concentration is better or he's more relaxed. *I* seem to do better when we're alone. When I'm in lessons I tend to catch myself zoning out. Maybe that's better because *I* am also more relaxed, but I need to be able to work on my own and have progress. I KNOW I shouldn't overreact to these little setbacks, but well, did you read the title of this blog? That's what I do. I ordered that 101 Arena Exercises book so I can do something more than circles and serpentines. When he's "on" he's ON. So supple and smooth, relaxed neck, easy transitions. I can do shallow serpentines with *almost* just leg pressure and body weight and can halt with *almost* just my seat and "whoa." But when he's "off" it's like he's never been ridden before. He takes all cues to the extreme or not at all. He picks his head up when I ask him to put it down. He walks all crooked unless I ask him to turn and then he cranks his head around but veers the opposite way. Yesterday I decided to just see what he would do if I let him go where HE wanted to and hold his head how HE wanted to. What did he do? He walked into all the corners. And I mean straight into the corners. Would've tried to take us into the mess of jump standards if I hadn't pulled him out. Finally he walked to the rail and put his neck over the wall and just stood there. Just stood there. I didn't do anything. He didn't do anything, he just stood there. I let him stand there for a few solid minutes and figured he really DID NOT want to work. So I pulled him back and over to the gate, bent down and popped the latch open. We walked outside and around the building out into the hay field and did a few trips down the fenceline and back. He relaxed a little so I called it good and put him up.

So I know it's me. It's my skill or my balance or my...something. I just need to figure out how to fix it.

In the mean time, I really do love my horse. He's pretty neat.