Cleansing...

cleansing talks are always so nice...


1) I need to accept where I am with my horse


2) The only opinion that matters at the end of the day is mine and my horses.



...details later...


I <3 you Frannie!!!!

I suck at updating..

..well, I have a sort-of excuse, BUSY!!! Between the play and equestrian team practices I haven't had a chance to update. Nic has been doing better since the post below. He has been great at the gaming practices, with a little snotty-ness, but not bad, but at drill he started out ok on the ground, then got kinda bad, and Kendra hopped on him for me, he humped up a little when she got on, but then he was fine. She rode him for a little bit and he didn't do anything, so I hopped on and had a pretty good practice with him. He needed some reminding that he can't kill the other horses and the other horses are not going to kill him. I've been trying to teach him showmanship, and so far that going pretty well. He'll trot with me on both sides about 90% of the time, and is starting to understand how to square up. Haunch turns are still bleck, but hey, he's learning, and a lot of that has to do with his lack of knowledge about the porcupine game.

Psycho...

lol, I just got back in from a very wet session with nic
he was an absolute TERROR when we took him to practice saturday..I didn't want to ride him, and so we ended up having to move arenas, so we went home and got okie
... kicking out or bucking when he didn't want to do something, full of energy, just being a jerk
I was like....I'm NOT getting on...

so, our session today was ok.. it was good when we were up by the other horses, but as I made my way down the field he got worse and worse, doing more kicking out every time he didn't want to do something. so I ended up down by the section of fence that is wood, so I attempted some squeeze game, and some sends, and TONS of yo-yo, because it seems he kicks out more when he doesn't want to yo-yo.anyways... the other horses finally came down there, and so I got him to where he was paying semi attention to me, and let him go, and busted butt up the front of the field and started playing with JJ lol. then I made my way up there, and scratched him, and then let him come to me a couple times, and went and fed them.. so it ended on an alright note
mind you, he's in a stall for a month, and been out about 2 days of that
and being fed HOT HOT HOT feed, so I'm sure thats part of it
He needs to gain weight... lol... But he's not getting any alfalfa anymore

That is cut and pasted from an IM session, and I don't feel like editing it to make it sound nice, lol.

I just hope that this behavior is mostly resulting from no work, being fed hot feed and being confined to a stall. If not.. ugh, lots and lots of more work ahead for me, I just do NOT want this to develope into something that I can't handle, because if it does, I'm screwed, lol.

What I'm going to try to do is at least play with him for 15 minutes EVERY DAY, no matter the weather-unless its ridicously cold, pouring down rain or something like that. I think I might take Okie to drill practice on Tuesday, and just give Nic some more time.

Speaking of drill team, I got some good news..

Not only am I on the "core" team, but Kendra chose me for co-captain!

Changes...

After a chat with one of my best friends, Fran, I got to thinking about change. How change affects everyone, and how things change without us realizing it. One major thing I've noticed is how I notice changes so much more since starting parelli 3 years ago. Not only do I notice the changes in horses, but changes in people.

So here are some changes that are happening currently, or have ust recently changed:
-My dads company is being sold to another company who is shipping the equipment to Mexico, therefore my dad is out of the job soon. He has worked at this company for about 25 years.

-Nic is becoming more of a people horse. Since he has been locked in a stall for 2 weeks or less (crazy amounts of snow, 6+ft foot drifts), I have been doing little stuff in the stall with him. I've played with bridling, mouth handling, and porky and friendly. He's really making a change. He always has his ears up towards us and is just more into everything. Last night I played with bridling and worming practice. The bridling went even better than last time, and he got some of his favorite berry goods. Then I found an old, empty paste wormer tube that still smelled like wormer, so we went to work on that. He was actually not that bad, compared to when we brought him home and we were trying to get banamine down him. I got him where I got easily put the tube and his mouth and hold it there until he stopped licking so much. So today I am going to try and worm him for real, because he needs it.

Skinny Horse

*sigh of relief* I think that Nic is alright now. We discovered that he was coughing a bit, and now that that has stopped he has been eating WAY better and more alert and awake. We also got him alfalfa and he loves that, so now he's eating better. He did however lose a bunch of weight during this little phase of his, so now I'm trying to get weight back on him. I actually think that he has already put on a little weight within the past couple of days through the alfalfa and grain.

Today was the first day I played with him for awhile because of him being sickly, then weather, then there was Beauty and the Beast auditions (I'm assistant directing again), so finally got a chance to play with him today. I started with some friendly, then I did Day 1 of hill therapy. I actually didn't do the last five minute walking section because he was getting a little too into the circling thing. Every time I asked him to back up he thought it was time to circle, so I just said "No.. i think you'll just stand." and yo-yo'ed until he decided it was a better idea to stand, and within a couple seconds he was licking his lips. He seems to be a fairly fast thinker and not overly afraid of anything. I took the beach ball and let him smell it and then put it on his back, all while he was loose in his stall eating. Then I bounced it up and down, and it makes a lot of noise, but it didn't bother him a bit.

Pictures of Nic

I had a really great session with him today, and then a stressful day. Session was awesome, he wasn't jumpy at the carrot stick, starting to understand driving and yo-yo more, also did some circling and squeeze game. I can't really teach sideways in the arena because theres no fence around it yet.

And then I turned him out and he laid down.. ok, whatever. Then went and got hay, he got up, ate some hay, then laid down in the hay. I went out a little later and made him get up so I could listen to gut sounds and they were fine. Basically he's spent the whole day off and on laying down. Its weird and freaking me out because he hasn't ate much of anything today. ARG!! horses..

Tractors, Dogs and Strange Horses, Oh My!

I have officially survived two more RIDES on Nic. Me and gma loaded him up on Saturday morning and took him down to Angies for the "open ride" before the actual practice, but I didn't want to go to performance practice. When he loaded up he was pawing, but settled down once we got on the road. Off the trailer like a gentleman, then it was like OMG! New place! Strange horses everywhere!!!!! lol, He wasn't that bad, just a little excited. When I got into the arena he was all starey eyed and snortey and whinnying, and then Bonnie came through the door with a horse and the HERD of dogs. He was looky, and he's not a huge fan of dogs, but he got over it. I put on the Parelli Halter and went to playing, just lots of getting him to move his feet, driving, and some moving circles, investigating the corners of the arena. He started to calm down, and then in the meantime, the farrier comes and is making all kinds noise, the dogs are barking up a storm, but Nic is getting over it.

After a little while he calmed right down to where he was just standing by me while I was talking, and standing calmly with a foot cocked and his head down. So I saddled up, moved him around a little more and got on. I need to work on getting him to stand still while mounting. For the most part the ride was good. I didn't canter him because I was working on getting him to stay an even tempo to the trot and not do the wavery, slow/fast thing all the time.

2nd ride- I took him to gaming practice yesterday and he did even better. Was whinnying when we got there, but it was feeding time for all the other horses and they were making noise, so he thought he had to. Mary had to work up the arena, so I took him into their amazing covered round pen and played with him for awhile in there. He is starting to get the principle games, and he seems to be a nice mix of LBI/LBE, not extremely overreactive, maybe a little lazy, but not so much that its hard to deal with . After that, saddled and went up the arena. Played a little bit more in there, then put the bridle on and had a good ride. He was doing pretty good with the gaming stuff, though I need to not let him stand in line with all the other horses because he really gets to where he doesn't want to leave. Thats not a big issue though.

List of what needs to be done with Nic:
-Work over Cavelletti to learn where his hooves are
-Start asking/teaching for vertical flexion
-Braid his tail
-Pull his mane
-Play more with porcupine game
-Get him to accept the bit/bridling (has a bit of a mouth issue...)