Step 1: The Friendly Game

Well, our lesson was cancelled on Saturday, but we got it today! We're learning the Parelli style of natural horsemanship, and the first step was mastering the friendly game, which basically involved getting Dee to be ok with having a big orange stick rubbed all over her. She pretty much passed that with flying colors, since she could care less, for the most part.






We also worked on something called the Porcupine Game, which is basically teaching her to move away from pressure (either with a hand or the stick). That one wasn't so easy to master, and in fact, we have some homework to do. When Diane first put pressure on her by pushing Dee's shoulder, Dee's response was to try biting Diane. It did get better from there, though. By the time I took the lead, Dee was at least semi-understanding the concept of going AWAY from pressure rather than pushing AGAINST it.





That was most of what we worked on. Diane also worked on trying to get her to back up (by flicking the lead), but that's got a LONG way to go. Mostly, Dee would either put her head up as high as it could go or try to run off. Eventually she'd try to head backwards, but she never figured out that going backwards was what we really WANTED. Oh well. I plan on working on these games through the week and hopefully we'll get to some new ones at out next lesson!

Natural Horsemanship

When I was a working student in MA, a woman came once a week to work with me and Scudder, the youngster, on natural horsemanship-type stuff. Now, I don't know what type it was... we used a rope halter and the ground work VASTLY improved Scud's manners, that's all I know. SO, when one of the girls in my senior seminar class asked me if she could use Dee and I as subjects for her senior project on Natural Horsemanship, I leapt at the chance.
We get our first lesson this weekend, and I'm pretty excited about it. I think it will be a great thing for me and Dee to work on together! Our "lesson" is Saturday, so I'll make sure to update! Maybe I can even convince megan to come up with me and take pictures.

On a side note, I wish I had my camera with me yesterday, because Dee was SO SUPER SHINY I couldn't believe it. I guess the Ultimate Finish is making her pretty glossy, but she doesn't seem to like eating it, so I'm thinking of switching her to Max-E-Glo rice bran, instead. It will offer the same results without the weird coco flavor that I think Dee is none to thrilled with. I do LIKE UF, and I think Buckeye is a great feed, so I don't want to take her off of the gro n' win, but I think I need something that she LIKES to eat to supplement the gnw with. They do have a UF powder, but I can't really imagine that it would taste much difference, and the powder is more expensive, so if she hates it, that's a lot of money down the tube.

Other Horses!?

Dee had her first ever experience with SHARING yesterday. That is, she was made to share the indoor with not one but TWO horses. Well, ok, she didn't share with both until the end, but she held it together.
Now, of course she's shared space on the track, but that's a very different experience than sharing space in the ring, and I've had horses who get VERY upset about it. Luckily, Beth - who we were in there with first - was nice enough to let us just tag along behind her, which Dee loved. Also, by the end, Taylor could be half of the indoor away from us, and Dee was ok with it, because she could still see her, and felt like she MUST still be following her, so it was ok... what a crap racehorse she must have been! She was totally unconcerned with keeping up!
When Taylor needed to have a canter, another horse had walked into the ring, and that girl was nice enough to have her gelding babysit us in the center of the ring while Beth went for her canter. Dee actually STOOD STILL in the center with Miles and didn't even bat an eyelash when Taylor was cantering behind her. What a good girl! I was expecting her to be a little panicked about such a big horse thundering behind her, but it was no big deal at all.
All in all we did lots of trotting, just slow and steady. It was a good time for her to get her head around other horses in the ring (and when Miles went out and started trotting while we were trotting, she was fine with it!), and it was also a good workout for her (by the end, however, it was a good workout for ME, while I was trying to convince her that continuing to trot was a good idea even though she was tired).
I was very very happy with her, she's a good mare.

In other news, I finally got ahold of Steph yesterday after weeks of attempting, and she's on her way to sunny and warm Florida. Jealous. She's going down with 9 horses and 1 WS... so she's gonna be BUSY (We had 10 between the two of us), but at least she'll be warm. One of these winters when I have the money (I'm actually thinking of starting a Dee Account), I want to be able to send the mare down to sunny Florida for the winter and maybe visit for a week or two and compete somewhere. Hopefully someday... maybe next winter? Who knows!



That was what I woke up to every morning in Ocala.

Rodeo Days

Oh yes, Wednesday the rodeo came to Litchfield and I was the not-so-happy sole participant. Granted, due to the weather, a lack of indoor and absolutely no time to get out to an indoor, Dee has basically just been sitting around for a month, so I wasn't expecting her to be an angel. I WAS, however, expecting her to NOT act like a tempermental herdbound COW.
Almost immediately after I got on, she was totally out of control and I'll tell you something... Horse can BUCK and she's crafty about it, too. After she spent time carreening around doing her best impression of a saddle bronc and nearly landing me on the floor, I finally got her stopped long enough to jump off and promptly threw her on the lounge. Now... normally, I don't lounge unless I'm trying to look for lameness or doing something productive, because I don't like to put that kind of stress on their joints if it isn't necessary, but considering that I could see no way for me to stay on her if she continued her antics, I relented. I was glad I did. She performed some pretty impressive acrobatic feats that I was very greatful didn't take place while I was on her back... and that was just her TROT. She broke into a canter twice and REALLY acted like a wild woman, but I tried to keep the canter work to a minimum (as much as was possible, anyway).
Once she'd gotten her kicks (literally), I felt safe to jump back on. Of course, at that point, I didn't feel right making her do much more work, so I just asked her to walk around quietly and do some trot circles in each direction. That was a much greater success then my first time in the saddle that day, but I was dissapointed with how awful she felt. She's going to take a LOT of strengthening work to get her going well... that hind end is just mush at the moment, and it was VERY obvious at the trot (though it didn't impede her ability to buck and twirl with the best). Oh well... all in good time.
On a brighter note, she's getting much more manageable on the ground. She now lets me brush her without trying to take my head off, and she has been almost... dare I say... FRIENDLY towards me.

Then... on a not so bright note... I had a bit of bad luck on Wednesday. My computer's harddrive crashed. Brilliant. Just what I wanted to go home to. Now, it's holed up at the mac factory getting a new harddrive. Yay for paying a left arm to get a new harddrive!

"Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go."

New year, new goals, new experiences. Last year, I said goodbye to a few friends and a nice horse, I found myself sidelined for too long with a back injury and I spent many long hours fretting about how things would ever work out. For the most part, the bad eclipsed the good, but there was some good to be had. I was editor of Post's literary magazine, "Tapestry", I was the editor of the Post Script - a newspaper my journalism class put out - and managed to get several poems published with the Litchfield Review. I began working part time for someone new, bought a lovely young mare, became a lot closer to some of my friends and found out that there are a lot of people in my life that I can turn to for advice and support. I suppose that's one good thing about tumultuous times... you find out who your friends are and you find out who YOU are. That said, I'm glad to have 2009 in my rearview mirror. I can't imagine that 2010 can be much worse than 2009, so I'm looking forward to it.
I don't like to make many concrete goals at the new year, because I find that even the best laid plans of mice and men go oft awry. There are, however, some things that I'm hoping to accomplish in the coming year.

1. Get out my second (and final) edition of Tapestry.

2. Complete at least one event with Dee. I hope to do 3 or maybe 4, but if we don't, we don't. I'm in no hurry with her, and I just want her to have a fun, educational year while she finishes growing into herself. Plus, besides events, I want to try to get her to some local dressage shows and maybe a jumper show or clinic.

3. Graduate from Post in December. Eek! I can't believe that it's LESS than a year from now. I still don't know where I'll end up, but I'm a little more confident now.

Those are my three main goals. Nothing big. There are, of course, things that I'd like to work on throughout the year, but I won't call them goals. For instance, I would like to find more time to go hiking... at least once a week would be nice, if not more. I'm sure that there are more things I'd like to work on, but I can't think of them at the moment.

On a different note... pony pictures!










And after all of that, I guess all that I have left to say is... 2010? Allons-y!

Queen Of Munchkin Land

I'm pretty sure that in the few days she's been here, the other horses have accepted Disco as their leader. Roxi is like her little shadow, Casper gets out of her way even if there's food involved and Summer just leaves her alone all together. I think Dee enjoys living in munchkin land!
Yesterday was her first trip ever to an indoor. We had some minor mishaps, and she's going to have to learn to load on the trailer with just me, but we got over to Nancy's safe and sound. She was a very good girl getting tacked up in the barn aisle, and then came the big task: going inside the indoor. As I slid the door open, I'm pretty sure her eyes popped out of her head... there were jumps! mirrors! birds! She ogled all the jumps, stared at herself in the mirror and just generally scoped the whole place out. Once I'd walked her once around in each direction, Nancy held her while I got on. Now, she hasn't REALLY been ridden in a few weeks. I'd jumped on her the day before, but the ring was an ice rink and we just walked. Needless to say, I was expecting some fireworks... I mean, a 3 year old in a new place that hasn't been ridden in awhile? Surely there is going to be spooking, bucking or something, right? WRONG! She was an absolute doll, getting straight to business. I just did walk/trot, and we worked on her transitions a little bit... her last trot - walk transition was actually not terrible, since she didn't turn into a giraffe, so I quit with that.
I must say, I was quite impressed. Most of the time, she was stretching and relaxed, coming quietly from behind. I was very, very pleased with her, and I think she'll be quite nice eventually... it seems like she's very sensible under saddle. Now, if I can just get her to stop being such a witch on the ground, we'll be all set!

"We accept you, one of us! Gooble Gobble!"

Disco made new friends yesterday! I tossed her out with Roxi and Casper first, since I was a little worried about Summer. Roxi was first to investigate, and after touching noses for a moment, Disco commenced with the squealing. She squealed at Roxi, she squealed at Casper, she squealed at nothing much in general. As all of this squealing was happening, Disco was exploring the paddock. Roxi quickly decided that she is Disco's new shadow. Maybe it's because she can't really see and Disco is awfully big, so she's hard to miss.
Anyway, after those three had gotten used to one another and were more interested in the hay piles than eachother, I brought Disco in, fed dinner, turned Disco back out and then let Summer loose. Well, just as Summer realized that there was a new horse out with them, Casper and Roxi went charging over to Disco like her little back-up crew, so Summer just said hi and the two began eating from the hay pile (after a totally non-commited squeal from disco).