Parelli Level 2 Online Audition - PASSED!

One of my favorite things about Parelli is they have a great system for setting goals and improving without any pressure!

The levels of dressage made it easy to set goals and identify where you're at, but there was so much pressure. I always felt the need to improve a half pass or a collected canter before a show. With Parelli, I don't feel any of that pressure.

Our trot Figure 8 isn't the greatest, but I have no deadline to make it better by. When auditioning to pass a level in Parelli, it is not the quality of the movement that matters, but more of your relationship with your horse. You can't find that in any other sport.

The audition works like this: You send in a tape of you and you horse playing for 10 minutes. The video must include a few things depending on the level and the savvy. For level 2 online you must show a leg massage, figure 8, trot to back up, and touch it! As long as you do all of those things, the rest of the time is yours.

Then a Parelli Professional will watch your video, fill out a score sheet, let you know what level you're at and give a bit of feedback! The score sheet is set up so that there is a column for each level and they can check of what level you are for each criteria. Here is our score sheet that we got back:

As you can see, we passed 2++ which means we did the best we could for level 2! On to level 3 it is!!!

The goal is you help you identify where you are, what you're good at and what needs work. For the most part I knew everything beforehand, but it is really reassuring to have it there on paper from a Parelli Professional! AND, if you pass all savvys for that level, you get a colored savvy string and a certificate!

So here is our very first audition, level 2 online!

Goodbye, Stormy

Stormwatch left for his new home in Australia yesterday morning! I am so sad to let him go :(. He has the most adorable face. Who couldn't love that lip?

Although he is gone, I can assure you I feel better tonight. With all that has been going on, the timing couldn't have been more perfect.

Along with everything, I had the vet out today. Sonny had to have some major chiropratic work done, along with getting his sheath cleaned. On top of that, I found out that his pasterns are so upright he is going to have arthritis when he is older. Considering I want to have him for forever, I have to put him on a joint supplement now to help prolong it. Oh, well. It will be worth it in the end!

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!

This is How We Do It

Unfortunately, Sonny wasn't nearly as excited as my dog, Nellie, when I asked "Wanna go bye bye?".

When we bought our new trailer, I didn't realize just how small it was. Because of it's size and the fact the Sonny hadn't been loaded in 2 years, he was not interested in getting on the trailer.

I worked with him a couple days before the move to the new barn, but it took me forever to get him in. I got him in good enough to take him to the new barn, but knew that we had some serious practicing ahead.

I moved Sonny to the new barn on August 5th, the same day Linda Parelli posted on her blog about trailer loading. Was that a crazy coincidence or what?

Using that blog and a little advise from some fellow Parelli students, I got back to work on the trailer.

Starting last week, I got Sonny to be confident and comfortable with the trailer. I could get him to go on, but he didn't want to since there was nothing in it for him. To make it more appealing, I worked at making the trailer a 'sweet spot'. Sonny doesn't like moving; he likes being lazy and eating. So what I did was made him move, move, move. Cantering, trotting over ground poles, jumping, etc. Then I would take him to the trailer and ask if he wanted to get on. If he said no, I said "That's fine, you don't have to go on. But now you have to trot, canter, jump, and so on". If he answered yes and went on, he got to relax and eat treats.

I really didn't know if it was going to work or not. I was never expecting the results I got. I used the above theory and then the very next day (day 5 of trailer loading) I was walking him by the trailer and he walked on without me even asking!

I was so amazed by this, I had to take a video (day 7 of trailer loading). Since we both were so confident, I took his lead rope off to show just how good he is at trailer loading!


I am so very proud of him! I can't wait to see what we can accomplish next!

Sonnys New Place (or is it Palace?)

I finally got around to getting some photo's of the new barn!

If you can't tell from the photos, Sonny and I both love it!! It is perfect.

To start with, the indoor arena is perfect. The arena is huge and there is always a nice breeze so even on hot days it doesn't feel bad. It is closed in, so I can turn Son out in there. The footing is nice and deep (which is perfect for rolling) and I am allowed to keep all of my poles/jumps/cones and everything else out all the time!

The arena is connected to the barn isle. When you leave the arena into the rest of the barn, if you look to your left you'll see a lounge area (with a fridge, couch, and table), the feed room, and lots of storage area for things like the manure spreader, 4-wheelers, tractors, shavings, etc.

If you look to your right, you will see all the stalls and tack rooms.

This is a blurry view of the entire barn from the stall side.

If you look closely in the above barn isle photos, you can see Sonny's head. And that's because...

...he has a stall guard! More than anything at the new barn, he loves being able to have his head out all the time! He even passes up his hay (with he doesn't do for anything!) to hang his head out!

His stall is a lot bigger now, 10x12. Which makes it nice because he goes to the bathroom in the very back, then lays down in the middle and doesn't get pee stains anymore!

My godfather bought brand new interlocking matts and the new buckets for us as a moving gift :).

If you're looking at Sonny's stall, directly to the right is my tack room. Once more boarders arrive, I will have to share. But, at least I was able to set it up EXACTLY how I want it! Organization makes me happy, so being able to set up my tackroom was perfect!

If you go out of the stall end of the barn, you come to the pastures. Sonny has been going out with one mare in a smaller pasture on the left.

To the right of his pasture is the outdoor arena, which is gigantic.

To the right of the arena is a bigger pasture. The owner's three mares stay out there all the time.

The cool thing is, the whole area is fenced in.

From the end of the barn, everything is fenced in. On top of that, I bought a Barn Isle Guard that hooks up right before the gate to the indoor arena. So, if Sonny would get out of his stall or out of his pasture, he would still be fenced in! Which helps me not worry so much!

All I can say is, so far so good! :)

Found!

I found Sonny a new home today!

Here is going to be at a big, but mostly empty, barn that one of my old 4H friend owns! Right now there are only the owners horses there, but he is opening up boarding to the public. He has a huge indoor and outdoor arena, two pastures with shelters, and really nice stalls! But, the best part is: he is only going to be about 5 mins away from my house! Right now he is 20, so that is going to be so much nicer!

Hopefully it all works out. I still have to get things like stall mats (ekk, they are expensive), buckets, and some first aid things. He should be moved by next weekend.

Will post pictures soon!

What's Goin' On?

Many of you probably think I have fallen of the face of the earth. I actually haven't, but things have been crazy lately!

First of all, Stephen and I bought a horse trailer! Yippee! Now we can take Sonny for trail rides, sleep overs, and come and go as we please.

It is small and old, but it will get the job done. My last trailer was huge (extra wide and extra tall for my warmbloods), brand new, and all aluminium. My new trailer doesn't compare to that one, but it is still better than nothing!

Overall it's a nice trailer. Good solid floor, nice tires, etc. It just needs some cosmetic work! Like a fresh coat of paint this winter ;).

Along with that, I just found out yesterday (completely out of the blue, no warning at all) that the owners of the farm that Sonny lives on are moving. Which means he has to have a new home in thirty days. So, the hunt is on! I have a few options, and he can always stay in Stephen's pasture. So he won't be homeless, I am just hoping that I can find a nice barn that is close to home. Being kicked out is never fun!

Things are going to be a bit crazy now with the move and getting Sonny situated, but I will try to be on here as much as possible!

I've Got An Angel

He doesn't wear any wings.

He wears a heart that can melt my own

He wears a smile that can make me wanna sing.

He gives me presents

With his presence alone.

He gives me everything I could wish for

He gives me kisses on the lips just for comin' home.