New horse!!!

Ok, so I haven't updated in FOREVER!!! But, lots has happened since my last update. I have a new horse!!!!
No, it wasn't the lesson horse I've been wanting to buy...
At 11:50pm on September 1st, Lizzy had a gorgeous chestnut colt!!! His name is Sebastian and he is SUCH a sweetheart. I think he's going to be pretty Left-Brained Extrovert, but we'll see.
I don't have any pics on this computer, but I will hopefully get some uploaded as soon as I get on the other computer.
Belle thinks he's pretty cool, but is extremely jealous of the attention he's getting. Tomorrow if it's a nice day I'm going to spend a few hours playing/riding her. We haven't had a good long session in awhile and we definitely need one.
Lizzy is such a great mom, it's the coolest thing watching her teach him stuff. From the very beginning you could see her gently instructing him to do certain things like, nurse, and stay at her side. She would softly correct him if he didn't follow her instructions. She was as soft as possible but as firm as necessary. Such a great example for training our horses. Pretty cool!

I'm back!

Yikes! I have not blogged in months! Alot has happened this past summer and I have alot of updates to put on here. I'm gonna worry about that later and just talk about my recent horse activity for now! My most recent play/ride was AWESOME! I set up a smaller pasture that is a nice arena size, and has a couple hills in it so it's fun to play in and a good workout for Belle (she needs some work on hills). I played with her on the 22 foot line, we had a ton of fun playing the games and speeding them up. Then we played at liberty in the arena and had a great time. We played some catching game and played with getting her to come to me at a trot and canter. She was coming at the trot great at really light phases, and her ears were forward and she had a nice expression! YAY! Normally she will come at faster gaits if I asked, but with a nasty look on her face.
Then I tacked her up. I rode her in a western saddle which I have not done in a LONG time, and we rode in the hackamore like usual.
We just did passenger lessons for the first 20 minutes or so. I am really starting to appreciate passenger lessons, I didn't use them much for a long time but now I am seeing how it really relaxes both Belle and myself, gets her impulsion better, and establishes my leadership. It is also SO good for me to just LET GO. I am a super control freak and dropping my reins and just letting her go where she wants KILLS me! So we did a walking passenger lesson as a warm up for about 5 minutes, then trotting for about 15. After I felt like she was pretty light on her go and whoa I played follow the rail. She normally doesn't have a problem with that but that particular day it was an issue. Not a big deal though, we played with it and it wasn't long before she was nice and light about staying on the rail. After we did that we did a short (5 minute maybe) passenger lesson, then started some Tit for Tat! I am also very much so appreciating this game! It establishes your leadership in the saddle SO MUCH, but it's so playful and casual the horse doesn't even realize that you are dominating them. They resist at first but it's so casual that it's not usually a big deal. So after playing tit for tat for awhile we did a cantering passenger lesson. That was fun! She isn't great about cantering under saddle but she's getting SO much better!!!! We had a blast cantering. She threw in a couple bucks but they were fun and a great fluidity test for me ;) We ended the session with another quick walking passenger lesson to cool her down, then I put her up.
All in all it was a great ride/play and considering I hadn't ridden her in a few days I was very impressed! =)

Rainy day and stuff from yesterday

Well I'll start with stuff from yesterday I s'pose...
First I played with and rode Belle. She was pretty good on the ground. Definitly testing my leadership but after a few minutes she and I were both having alot of fun. We played some more w/change of direction at phase 1 and 2... Now that we can do so many things I am starting to ask for them with lightness which is difficult for my LBI/LBE! :0)
I threw a bareback pad on her after that and hopped on. For the first few minutes she was PERFECT walk/trot. Extremely light, amazing. Then she went into a little spurt of "I'm gonna do what *I* wanna do... so please leave me alone dang it!"
So we played through it and in the end she finally calmed down and relaxed and we had a happy relaxed ending to our ride.
I played with Lizzy some and had a little girl over to ride her. It was fun!!


Today is was raining and not great horse weather. During a break in the rain I ran out and hopped on Liz bareback. We ran around in the drizzling rain with Belle galloping behind us. It was a TON of fun. We both got wet but it was so worth it. It was amazing when she kicked into a really fast gallop, faster then I have ever ridden her before. You have to forget about TRYING to be fluid and just BE fluid, just let go and go with the flow and flow with the go!! It's amazing.
That's it for now! Hopefully more tomorrow! :)

Yesterday's play sessions!

I didn't get a chance to post on here yesterday.. I was kind of busy. I did play with the girls though and had two excellent sessions!

I played with Belle for a few minutes in the morning, I did have a stick and she was in a very dominant mood so that was kind of a challenge. We had fun though. We played 7 games with an obstacle and played with sideways over obstacles.

Then I played with Miss Elizabeth.. She was very RBI at first. She wasn't super excited about being caught. She didn't run off, but she didn't look happy about it. We played catching game for a few minutes until she was getting curious and WANTED to come to me! So I gave her some sunflower seeds and that also brought up her curiosty.. she wanted to know what it took to get more treats.. The LBI was coming out!

We played the first 5 games and started playing with transitions and change of direction while circling a little. She is such a quick learner!

Then we played the sideways game... The hardest game for both of us. We got it PERFECTLY to the right (w/a fence) and HUGE improvements to the left! I was thrilled! :)

Once she was confident, happy, submissive, and curious I went ahead and got on her bareback.
She was, of course, great. We played with some of the things I saw at the tour stop, some more refinement. She seemed to be having alot of fun and was giving me SO much try! She has got to be the most willing horse EVER! She just pours all of her on the table and gives and gives and gives. She amazes me.

Then, like Pat says, I put her up like my best fishing rod ;) We spent some undemanding time and I gave her some treats and scratches in her favorite places.

Then I went to play with Belle again. She came to me, which in the past hasn't been unusual, but lately I've felt her not being so enthusiastic about meeting me at the gate... we've been spendin more undemanding time and I guess it's paying off now! :)

I had my carrot stick and savvy string this time, so I was better equiped for whatever she might do. We played the 7 games and I started trying to play the traveling circling game. At first she DID NOT get it, and was so LBI. She would just stand there and look at me like "uh uh, not gonna do it, nope, definitly not, it requires too much energy and I don't feel like it!".
Definitly tested my communication, and once she understood what we were doing she was having SOOO much fun! She was offerering to canter, going over jumps, doing great change of direction and transitions.. She was just amazing!!

Unfortunately I had to leave and didn't get to play for long, but she was excellent during the time I played with her.

Today I am going to just play on the ground with Lizzy, and ride and play with Belle. Later I will post how it goes! :)

-Carolyn and the girls

Introduction & Tour Stop!

I decided to create a blog for my horse stuff in addition to my personal blog.

For starters I am 14 years old with goals of becoming a young horse specialist. I am currently playing in the Parelli Natural Horsemanship program with a LBE/LBI 2 year old grade QH filly.
I started her undersaddle myself and we are currently finishing up L2 ground and working in L2 riding.
I also have a RBI/LBI 17 year old QH mare I just recently bought, that I am taking through L1 ground and riding.
I have been playing in the PNH program for a year and a half now. I have 2 horses through L2 ground and riding in addition to Belle and Lizzy.

Today was the second day of the Fletcher tour stop. It was amazing! I learned alot and was so inspired.
I was able to talk to both Pat and Linda. They were both incredible. Such nice people with the goal of helping horses and humans be safe and have fun.

When I got home I went out to hang out with the girls for a bit. It was interesting.. At the tour stop I really focused on trying to read the horses as best as I could... when I got home I felt I could read my horses much better. I think having a fresh look at different horsenalities helps that alot.

I really noticed Lizzy's RBI coming out. She was so sweet, yet kind of timid and shy. If Belle came up and gave her a snotty look she very politely walked away and didn't mess with Belle anymore. It was mild RBI, but you could see some of the RBI tendencies coming out.

Belle on the other hand was extremely LBI when I first came out. I had carrots and all she could think was "FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD GIVE ME THE FOOD NOW DANG IT!"... Soooo we played with that a bit. I just had a stick and was at liberty with her. We accomplished quite a bit in a short time and she started trying to understand what it took to get a treat, and she was being sweet.

I didn't stay out for long but both of my girls were being sweet and confident when I left so I say it was a good session! :)

I have some new pics of both of them.. I'll post a few of my favorites ;)