An article from Horse Illustrated

This article was in the June 2012 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine(which we just got a few days ago...in April??). It's not a Parelli article, it's by Clinton Anderson. I'm not as big a fan of Clinton Anderson.....he studied under Parelli, and then went on to change things up a little, and never credited Parelli. He's a little more fast and aggressive- in my opinion, his methods work pretty good for LBE's...but not for horses that need to take things slower (Introverts). Then again, I haven't gone into real depth through his stuff....

Either way, it talks about horses bucking when you ask them to lope- like Buster. A lot of it made real sense, and a lot of it is basically what Mrs. Miller taught me to do, so I thought I'd type it up and post it here. Anything in bold is my personal notes.

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Respect At The Lope

Q: My 4 year old horse is usually very laid back about everything. However, when we start loping, he strts bucking,. I have checked my tack and nothing seems to pinch him, so maybe he is just young and excited,. How can I fix this habit?

A: First, good job on eliminating your tack as the source of your horse's problem. Now, let's define what bucking truly is. What a lot of people call bucking is when the horse's front feet stay on the ground and he kicks up his back legs. That's not bucking. Bucking to me is what you see at the rodeo: All four feet are off the ground, the horse's head is down low, and his mouth is open. Kicking up, or "crow hopping", is a simple demonstration of a horse's lack of respect. What type of horse usually kicks up? A lazy one that doesn't want to go forward -a left brain introvert-. When you ask a horse like this to go from a jog to a lope and he kicks up with his back legs, it's his way of telling you to get lost.

On the other hand, most horses that are really bucking are not showing a lack of respect. They are most likely reacting to fear: the fear of a rider being on their back, the girth, the back cinch, the rider's legs, the spurs, or something that jumped out of the bushes. Something caused them to use the reactive side of their brain. That's how most horses learn to buck. Sometimes, once a horse has dumped a rider three of four times and has gotten used to bucking, he starts bucking out of habit, not so much out of fear. I think this is what happened with Buster. He bucked the first time out of fear or maybe even plain old resistance- at the time I didn't know how to deal with it. After that, it became habit.

Whether your horse is kicking up to demonstrate his lack of respect or is truly bucking out of fear or habit, there are several ways to fix the problem. If he's kicking up because he doesn't want to go forward (which sounds accurate), get his feet moving better on the ground. Preferably, put him in a round pen -this is what Linda said to do as well-(or on the longeline) and then point up in the air with your hand to signal him to move forward, then cluck and spank with a whip until he lopes around the round pen. First spank the ground, and if necassary, spank your horse. Get him so focused on you that as soon as you ask him to move by pointing with your hand, he immediately responds. If you get rid of his laziness and lack of respect on the ground first, he'll be a lot more willing to go forward when you get on him. In fact, if you diligently do your ground work, more than likely, kicking up under saddle will no longer be an issue.

When you do get on your horse and ask him to lope, first squeeze with both legs and ask him to go forward. Wait for a count of two, and if he doesn't go, cluck. Wait for another count of two, and if he doesn't go forward, spank him from side to side with the end of your reins or a whip. If you spank with rythym and he kicks up with both back legs, spank him again. You may have to spank him several times before he realizes that every time his hind legs leave the ground, you will leave him alone.

If your horse is truly bucking, the last thing you want to do is spank him because he'll only buck harder. If he is bucking, immediately do a one-rein stop; bend his head around to one side and try to get him to disengage his hindquarters. This takes away his ability to buck because his hind legs are moving laterally. As soon as he's stopped, get off him and go right to work moving his feet on the ground. Don't get off and put him away. If you do, you'll teach him that bucking is what earned him a rest. Hustle his feet so he understands that bucking was a big mistake. This is the mistake I made the first time. I didn't know what to do, so I quit working with him.

You do have to be a confident rider to go through this process. If you're not, make sure you do your groundwork thouroughly and correctly so that your horse will go forward under saddle as soon as you squeeze and cluck. Or, have a more experienced rider  get on for a few days to get your horse's feet moving at the lope.
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A Nerdy Day

I had the nerdiest, funnest day today!

Momma recently met some people that live just up the road from us- she met them through a homeschool group. And they just got chickens for the first time this spring, so when they heard that I knew lots about chickens, they wanted to come over and just chat bout chickens for a while. Of course, I was so willing to do that. :)

So I spent the whole morning just chatting and getting to know this lady and her son. We had lunch together, and I got to go over and see their chicks (they got their chicks from the mill, so their chicks are from the same batch as mine). They're great people! I'm just feeling really blessed to be able to meet such great people in our community. :)

Oh! And just one more post for today!

The Christian magazine, Girlz4Christ (www.girlz4christmagazine.org) is in need of some writers, photographers, and artists. It really is a great magazine, and a great group of girls who put it together, so check it out. And if you want to contribute, shoot them an email with some of your stuff. ;)

Okay. I should go to bed now. x)

My own little devo. :P

Thought I'd share this here. This is actually a little bloggy post thingy from another site that I'm a member of,  www.newreleasetuesday.com. If you're a Christina music freak, then you need to visit this site! Special album previews, artist profiles, downloadable music, music videos....all kinds of stuff there!

Anyway, I'm not the best writer, and I'm especially bad at devotional type writing....but this is the best I've ever done, I think. Except for that one about the rain and the horse show and the really nice dude....okay, I'll post that one soon. x) Here it is:

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My heavens, it's been a while! Such a crazy life! Which leads me to this, my latest blog post....

Picture Perfect.

Those words have been ringing through my head ever since I thought of them a few weeks ago. Those words might not surprise you, coming out of a minor photography geek ( :P ), but I know they surprised me.
Let me explain myself.

I can tell I've changed lately. I'm impatient, I'm worried, I'm trying to look different....I'm trying to be picture perfect. I'm trying to be that way because that's the way the world wants me to be.

But I've decided that I don't want to look that way. I don't wanna be picture perfect. Or at least, the world's version of picture perfect.

The words came to me on a late night trip to the barn (as stated above). I was driving along, with some good ol' Thousand Foot Krutch blasting. The weather was beautiful that night, so we had the windows down. You know how you get those moments when your just happy? You don't have a care in the world, and you can't help but smile over nothing and think about how good things are? That's how I felt that night. I realized that I hadn't felt that way in a while, and that it felt good. I felt like everything was perfect at that moment- picture perfect.

That got me to thinking. I realized that to be picture perfect is great- depending on what your picture is made up of. If your picture is full of drugs, sex, and other crap, then I'm sorry, but I don't want to be looking at it. If your picture is full of Jesus though....then you've got it made. :)

I started thinking (heavens, I sure do a lot of 'thinking' and 'realizing') about what my picture looks like- and you know what, I was surprised at what I saw. Sure, it wasn't the worst picture ever, but it needed some serious editing. (Heh heh, getting nerdy here! :P) There were blemishes all over the edges that needed to be retouched, and it needed some serious sharpening. The contrast was all messed up as well. And the camera flash had highlighted a few things that I really didn't want to see. At all.

So, yes, I've edited. And guess what? I feel a mile high! My picture may not be perfect yet, but it's on the way! And when it's done developing, it'll be perfect.
Picture Perfect.
For real this time.

So, I don't have a bible verse to go with this. But if anybody else does, feel free to say it! I need to hear it!

Hope you enjoyed reading my nerdy little post. I've been meaning to share this for a while, but I suffer from "it's-not-good-enough syndrome", which is also something I'm trying to edit out of my life. :)
Ta-ta for now!

PROGRESS!!

I worked Buster this evening for about an hour. I'm so happy!! He did some serious thinking yesterday. He had his attention completely on me the whole time. He tried to go into a canter once, in the beginning, but I immediately disengaged him the way Mrs. Miller taught me, and he was great after that! We did beautiful walking circles, and then 1 and a half trotting circles to the right, and almost a full trotting circle to the left! We also worked more on the snappy back up, and on his leg yielding from the ground. He really likes the leg yielding, I think.

I put the saddle back on him and worked for a while in that. I actually really don't mind riding in the saddle. I got the stirrups shortened, so they weren't flapping about this time.

I'm feeling so motivated and encouraged right now

The only dampener: The stirrup fell of the saddle horn today when I was tightening my cinch, and hit me right in the glasses. There's a huge scratch on the right lens now. Hopefully next week we'll be able to get new lenses put in though. Come to think of it....these glasses deserve to be retired permanently. They've had several sets of new lenses put in them, and they've never sat straight on my face since that time Arragon whacked me int he face with his knee....man, that was not fun. I actually have a permanent scar above my left eye from that. Battle scars, baby! But anyway, I;m getting off topic here.....x)

Oh my....what a big day!! A day full of learning experiences! In other words: a good day! :D

Mrs. Miller and Casey came over today to help me with Buster. We started at a walk, and we would change direction every 1/2 circle. If he went into a trot, we immediately stopped him. The biggest point she made is that I'm too easy on him- which is why he's taken control. He's a more advanced horse now, and I need to be a little more firm, and a little more particular about what I want. She told me not to be afraid to shake that rope hard. So I shook it hard every time he went into trot. I would also use my carrot stick- I'd smack it hard on the ground and make a 'saw' out of it. It didn't take long before he was paying attention. Then he started offering more. We still kept to a walk though, until we got three full circles- relaxed.

We then moved on to the trot. He blew up several times, but Mrs Miller was there to tell me to hold my ground, or when to relax and stop the fight. We would let him stand and relax for a second, and then we would ask him again. In the end, we got two full circles at the trot- completely relaxed and paying attention!! Of course, we gave him some mental breaks every now and then. Mrs. Miller taught me how to leg yield from the ground, and Buster picked up on that immediately!

Before the Millers left, they showed me how to put my saddle (Ms. June called the lady who's saddle I'm borrowing, and the lady said that I was welcome to use it!) on correctly.
BUSTER.
LOOKS.
SO.
DANG.
CUTE!!!!!!
He looks kind of like Pat Parelli's Mr. Skyline Peppy! So cute!!!

He did well with the saddle. I got on him after a little bit, and we both took a short ride around the arena. The only issue I had with him was getting him to go. I can't move my seat as well to ask him to go in a saddle, so he was a little confused at first, but he picked up alright.

We also did some cleaning on our saddles after we were done riding. Mine needs a ton of work.

Overall, I think I gained a little bit of respect from Buster today, and I think we both gained some confidence. I feel more motivated than I have since January! I'm happy! :D

My 4-H Achievement Night Speech

So, for 4-H Achievement Night, I'm doing a speech on the Horsenalities. This is still kind of a rough draft, but here's my outline. I'll have some posters to go with it (charts, horsenality clip art).

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Hi, my name is Maggie Mae Doster. I’m 18 years old, and I’ve been in 4-H for about five years. I’ve been a part of the Dreamcatcher's horse project for two years. In our horse project, we practice Parelli Natural Horsemanship, which is a form of Natural Horsemanship developed by Pat and Linda Parelli. Parelli Natural Horsemanship focuses on teaching the human, rather than training the horse. Pat and Linda have discovered that understanding the psychology, personality and nature of horses can become the basis for a deep, seamless, and mutually beneficial relationship between human and horse. This approach is now recognized worldwide as an innovative and effective method of natural horse training.

Halfway through my Parelli journey thus far, I was introduced to the Horsenalities, a term coined by the Parelli’s. Horsenality is a combination of the words ‘horse’ and ‘personality’, and is a convenient way to characterize the different personalities found in horses. The Horsenality system helps people to discover the horse’s innate character. If you know how your horse thinks exactly, then you can figure out how to ask him to do things without confusing or frustrating him. By knowing what’s uniquely important to an individual horse, both horse and rider can become more balanced, centered, and confident.

Within the Parelli method of horse training, Horsenality is divided into four main categories: Extroverted, Introverted, Left-brained, and Right-brained. It’s all pretty simple once you break it down.

Extroverts are:

• high energy
• they have a tendency to run
• they have more ‘go’ than ‘whoa’

Introverts are:

• slower, they have a tendency to stop
• they have more ‘whoa’ than ‘go’

Left-brainers are:

• dominant
• brave
• confident
• calm
• tolerant

Right-brainers are:

• submissive
• fearful
• not confident
• nervous
• reactive

Horse personalities come in 4 combinations:

·        Left-brained Extrovert

·        Right-brained Extrovert

·        Left-brained Introvert

·        Right-brained Introvert

Right-brained Introverts are quiet and obedient, but tend to be hesitant and distrustful. They can blow up at the drop of a hat. Right-brained Extroverts tend to be hyper alert or panicky, high-headed and over reactive. Right-brainers have to have a leader- someone to depend on- in order for them to relax. If they can’t relax, they can’t hear or see you, and that’s a really good way to get hurt.

Left-brained Introverts are clever, food oriented, stubborn, and often times unmotivated. A Left-brained Introvert needs someone that is creative, but willing to take thinks slow. Left-brained Extroverts are, to say the least, fun! The fact of the matter is that they think ten times faster than us. A Left-brained Extrovert is mischievous, very mouthy, playful, and charismatic. They’re the type of horse that would steal your hat and run away with it.

Each of the different Horsenalities has many positive attributes. Extroverts are athletic, and are fast learners. Introverts are calm and dependable- they make good therapy or school horses.

The Parelli’s have developed these Horsenality charts, so that we can effectively diagnose our horses. It’s important to remember that some horses can be ‘well-rounded’- they exhibit characteristics in every quadrant of the chart. Some horses can be Left-brained one instant, and Right-brained the next. A horse’s Horsenality depends on which quadrant has the most spaces filled in. Once we know how to talk to our horse in a language it can understand, we can develop a much stronger bond with our horses.

Any questions?