Parelli Playday!!

This might be my first post that has an explanation mark in the title. That is just how good it is.

First of all, let me begin by saying that Saturday was a disaster. My flight was supposed to leave out of Myrtle Beach at 12:30, which turned into 5:00 (thanks a lot, Irene). So I didn't even get back to my house until 7:00. At that point, I had to change clothes and leave for the barn to play with Sonny, give him a bath, and start packing. After that, Stephen and I had to go pick up my friend Melissa's horse to get her back to my barn. Her horse didn't want to get into the trailer, so by the time we got him in the trailer, dropped her off at my barn, and got home, it was 1:30AM! Stephen had to stay up later and drive here early Sunday morning, so he only got two hours of sleep. He slept most of the playday, which is why I don't have a ton of pictures. But, he did get some in the hour that he was awake so here is what we have!

The Playday started around 10:00. It was held at Jesse Peter's house, who is a three star Parelli Instructor. His house was the perfect parelli playground. He had two big fields with lot of interesting stuff. He had a ton of log jumps, two bridges,barrels, cones, pedestals, tires, a car wash, ground poles, a teeter-toter, and a honeycomb (a bunch of round pens inside a circle). It was pretty much do what you want. Everyone just did their own thing; it was just a way to play with your horse. Jesse would ride by and throw out some comments here and there, but for the most part it was just like we do at home, except with a bunch of toys somewhere else!

I went with my friend Melissa. She also goes to OSU and does Parelli! I am so lucky to have found her. Here are the two of us when we first arrived, along with Sonny and her mare Rydel.

After we got settled in, the playing began! It was so perfect. All the horses were relaxed, the humans were happy, and everyone was having fun!

Sonny has never jumped anything except for poles, so I was really excited that he jumped the log! Not only did he jump this log, he continued to jump REALLY big logs throughout the day! He has never jumped over two foot before, and was jumping almost three foot yesterday! I was really shocked and impressed.

Rydel was awesome yesterday. She is very unconfident and gets scared easily, but yesterday she was so brave and relaxed.

Here are our first attempts at the bridge. Sonny is confident with his front feet, but not his hind. So it took some time for him to walk over it.

Rydel loved the carwash (Sonny, not so much!).

Working with the pedestal.

Masters of the bridge!

Melissa and Rydel work with the bridge, while I attempt to sidepass Sonny over the smallest log.

Success!

I didn't ride much; Sonny and I don't ride much at home so I didn't think it would be a good idea to ride much there. But, I did want to work in the honeycomb and see if he was confident enough to do some things with me on his back!

The playday ran from 10:00-3:00. After everyone left, Melissa and I had one hour private lessons with Jesse. That was probably the best thing I had ever done. Melissa and I accomplished so much in that hour! She worked on confidence (with the trailer, the water hose, a ball, and the tarp). I wanted to work on respect and ways to get Sonny to put effort into things.

I didn't realize that effort went along with respect. In Linda Parelli's words, respect is the appropriate response to pressure. Sonny has a bad habit of responding negatively to pressure (pretty much blowing me off a lot of the time). So, Jesse showed me some really great ways to make him happy to do things for me!

It was really amazing at how quickly Sonny changed the look on his face. He went from pinned ears and wrinkled nose to making happy faces when I asked him to back (and he actually BACKED when I asked him to, not trying to find ways to get out of it).

Jesse took me through all the seven games (the foundation of Parelli) and we worked on respect within every one of them. The circling game has always been challenging for us. Sonny is so lazy, he would never complete more than a lap or two before he stopped. With the help of Jesse, Sonny was cantering (not even trotting!) endless circles until I asked him to stop.

Here Jesse and I are playing the circling game together with Sonny, passing the rope to and from each other. Notice that Jesse and I are approximately the same height ;).

Also, he informed me that when Sonny barrels into me once the circling game is over, that is disrespecting my personal space. So we worked on keeping him out on the circle until I asked for him to come in.

We also worked on a lot of sideways and backwards, helping him put effort into what I ask.

The day was a huge success. Everyone had a great time, and we all learned a ton. I was SO proud of Sonny for all he accomplished. I never would have thought that he would do some of the things he did. He even backed into a tent that was misting water without thinking twice! He was one of the few horses to even go through it, let alone back into it!

That was one of the best days I have had and hope to do it again soon!