This week, the schedule of which was really quite screwed up, did seem to end well. I was assigned Cindee, one of my favorites, Allura and Avalo. Dune had several trailrides with me. Cindee helped me with my seat again. This beautiful mare has one of the most comfortable trots I have ever experienced, and so with bareback pad and rope halter, we did some figure 8's at a jog and trot. This mare is so awesome, she could easily go western pleasure if somebody desired. But I could more easily see her finding her perfect partner in a young 4-H-er who has interests in hunter/jumper, western pleasure and then moving into eventing. Cindee has qualified for Chicago again. You can see her in person... or... horse-on there.

Allura and I spent some time in the round-pen at liberty. She is a left-brain horse who has learned to act right-brain to get her way. But when she runs around the pen wide-eyed and still trying to eat the grass, she has shown her true nature. She is intelligent, though. Once she knows I am on to her game, she faces me and looks as if to say, “Ok... so what do you want me to do?” From there, she was fun to play with.

My third charge was Avalo. Avalo has had loads of foundation work and so he is a good test to see if I am doing it right. He did have a few moments of complete silliness. One day we played in the round-pen at liberty. I was advised to not put too much pressure on him and so I was very careful. When he left me to go do his thing, he seemed to feel very unconfident about it and get a bit frazzled. I did nothing. I didn't even look at him. In fact, I would turn away and look at the ground. I could hear him getting all nutty behind me and so would move even further away. After very short periods (seconds, really) of his being away from me, he would trot to me with his ears forward and want to join my game again. So, I would offer him his position and he would take it happily and then I would ask him to take the next step. Often, he would do the first few steps of the game, then turn away from me and run away and get goofy... only to see that I wasn't going to play his game and so he would join me in mine again. We would eventually get far enough in my game that I felt we could move on to something else. On one day I just wanted to take him for a walk down the driveway. He had been down it several times but not with me. He had a mild or casual interest in the journey down and most of the way back, but as soon as we came around the final bend and the horses and barn were in sight his interest came up. He didn't say anything, but he certainly seemed interested to learn if anything had happened in his absence, all of 15 minutes. We also too a stroll down another lane, where he was quietly amused again. Avalo is very thoughtful and appropriately responsive.

I also played a bit with Teddy, my levels horse, and we had a couple fun days together. I went through the list of tasks to see what we could easily check off and what we still needed work on, or that I needed a visual for. Except for the moisture from the ground soaking into my ropes and savvy string, I enjoyed my time with her. Teddy is one big itch. Much like my personal horse, India, she wants some scratching and will do just about anything for it. At one point, after learning she got scratched when she did what I wanted, I asked her to go around a barrel. She looked at and put a hoof on it. I asked again for her to go around it. She straddled it. I asked again, my amusement mounting. She nosed it. I asked again, with a big smile. She pawed it with the other hoof. Each time she offered something she would then look at me like, “Is THAT what you want? Can I get scratched now?” When India knows that I have any sort of food product intended for her consumption, she simply cannot think clearly. The treat is all that exists. It is similar with Teddy but with scratches. She has several spots that are so enjoyable she literally picks up a leg and leans into. I need to be careful that she doesn't step or fall on me.

That was it for this week. I hope this next week sees us back on a schedule. Might even mow again.

Week 2

This week, I was assigned Tremolo, Dune and “the grey horse”, who we are now calling Chavo. We'll see if it clicks with him. I also had my own kids to play with and Teddy, the mare I will be using as my levels horse. Tremolo has a bit of a problem with boundaries. He crowds people, but not out of hostility or meanness or rudeness... he just is kind of a big kid. Reva was discussing the issue over lunch last week, so I had a heads up. We played several games from a distance. We did a lot of walking around... with him at a distance. He is a very bright boy and it didn't take him long to understand I wanted him over there. He sometimes leaked closer to me, but a nudge or wave of the carrot stick and he moved over.

Dune is a left brain extrovert and the first day I played with him, I didn't notice. He might have been just checking me out. I rode him bareback (still working on my seat) and in a halter, working on his steering. I had a carrot stick on board to help nudge him whichever direction I was asking for.

He caught on pretty quickly. Overall, Dune is becoming a group favorite. He is easy to ride, comfortable... just gets a bit obstinate from time to time, but is never mean or nasty. The second day I played with him, he was totally not into me. He blew me off and just didn't want to do anything I asked. I was still moving kind of slow with him as I wasn't sure what I was dealing with yet, but he kept pushing my buttons. The third day, I knew his game and right off the bat I asked him to move, right now and quickly. He dragged a bit but I persisted and then we went here and there and did this and that, and his ears came up and his eyes opened a bit... and we had a nice time together.

Chavo is also easy going but not at all like Dune. He really seems to want to please me. He thinks things through and takes his time. We revisited the carwash and I asked for him to only poke his nose through. Then his head. Each time I asked him to come through a bit more, I asked him to back out of it. He was not very comfortable with the heavy vinyl around his face on the backing out. But he dealt with it. Finally I asked him to go ahead and come through completely and he was so slow and thoughtful, I just didn't want to ask anything more of him.

I did get to play with my own kids this week, and it was loads of fun. Harcala and I worked on our send among other things. Michelle gave us a private lesson and he was interested and attentive. All you really want in a guy, right? ;-)

My girl had shown her Diva/princess attitude the first time I worked with her this week. I rode her a bit bareback and in a halter as we are both working at that level. And she was so left-brain “no.. I don't want to do that”, and I kept pushing. I did finally make her do what I asked, but she didn't enjoy it and she looked sourly at me. The second day I worked with her, I took the lead off and we went in the round-pen. And she tried a couple things to get out of doing something, and I made her work every time she turned her rump to her. Her draw was incredible. I had her trotting quickly and huffing and puffing and then very casually asked her to come to me and she did it as fast as she could. Ears up, eyes bright... totally into me.

Teddy is my levels horse. We went to the round-pen also and worked at liberty as I couldn't find the 22 foot line. She kept looking off to the horses (it was breakfast time) and you could just see she was wondering if she was missing breakfast. She was not rude to me or blowing me off, but she would glance at and do what I asked distractedly. Her focus mostly on the others. But even with that, she really tried to do as I asked. And I found she is easy to work with. A nice mover and knows everything I wanted to ask of her, I just needed to learn how to ask it.

Overall, another fun, educational and exhausting week. So much for mowing the lawn. Maybe next week.

Week 1

This week I played with three Avalo horses. One is a two-year old gelding named Avalo (That's not a typo). He is a thoughtful and mouthy young guy. One the first day I played with him, I had a very large translucent plastic bag that I used as a prop. He was interested in it and fascinated that it begin so small and grow so large. He tasted it and nosed it and stepped on it and then I rubbed him all over with it. Attached to the end of the carrot stick it could get pretty high, too. He was a little apprehensive about it being above him, so we followed it for a while.

The second time I played with him this week, we played the “touch it” game. I would direct him to put his nose on something, without my touching the thing. He was thoughtful about it and after a while really tried to see what I was focused on or pointing too. One time I was pointing to and focused on the bottom of a strip of blue vinyl on the 'carwash”. He touched a couple strips, even the one I wanted but not at the bottom. Finally, he touched it at the bottom. His face changed with a small thoughtful ah-ha.

My second horse was Allura, a young chestnut mare. On the first day I played with her she had some interest in me and what I was doing. I did only ground work with her for a few reasons. One reason is that she has recently recovered from a leg injury. Another reason is that I had never even seen her under saddle although she was broke to ride. Another reason is that my finger had not recovered from my own little incident and I didn't want to suffer excruciating pain. Another reason was Michelle said no. I guess that last one was probably the most important. ;-)

We played friendly game and just checked each other out on that first day. On the second day, she was pretty aloof with me. Showed no interest in me or anything I was doing. Totally blowing me off. So I picked up my energy and she went a little right-brain. There was no middle ground, it seemed. I asked her to stand next to the mounting block and she was very uncomfortable with that. So we did that for a while and ended on a high note of grazing on-line.

Cindee was my third horse for the week. She is an amazingly gifted and pretty paint mare. She is doing eventing and has recently qualified for Chicago... again. I was hoping that I could get to know her a bit better and maybe actually ride her before she is bought by some incredibly lucky person. My first day with her, we did just ground work, and she was attentive but did let me know she thought it was too hot to be doing much. So we found the only patch of shade out in the playground and worked the yo-yo game and a couple other “small-moves” games. On my second day with her we warmed up and then I got to ride with a bareback pad and rope halter. My goal was to just find my balance and keep it. But I was not expecting such a comfortable jog and trot. I was intending to work on my seat, but it was very necessary with her.

At lunch that day, we discussed our sessions with the horses and Michelle offered some advice on my seat. She did say that my shoulders looked good, but I still needed to round my lower back. This was something I learned I needed on our trail-ride yesterday. I rode Dune with a bareback pad, and at the trot I was slapping up and down to the point that he would rather walk and let everybody else leave him behind than to endure my bouncing. I started working on rounding my back on that ride, but of course, I need lots more work on it.