Time to Roll

Well today was... pretty sweet!!
It's Wednesday and I don't normally ride on Wednesdays, but I'm trying to make it a point to do so. It took about an hour and it was fun!
Aleythia and I took the green halter with the black lead rope and went out into the paddock with all the other horses. We worked with the fillies and pretty much did the same thing. With Coffie and Frosty we moved around on their back. I can so see Coffie becoming our next wreck. She moves around so much when I'm moving around on her back. Frosty was really good about it. She didn't move and was pretty good about it.
We did the same thing with Toffy and Dash, but took it a little bit farther. I taught them the cues of moving their hindquarters and shoulders. And seriously they move just that. Pivot on the back feet, pivot on the front feet. Yep. I only ask for a few steps to the side, but it'll get better. They do understand it. They learn it extremely easily. Pretty soon I'll be able to sratch off one of my goals.
Aleythia had a thought about how Dash and Toffy weren't listening when they bucked. When we took them away from the other horses on walks they listened, so what's different now?
We think it might be because we've never taken them on walks. They haven't realized that they can be comfortable with us without the other horses. Do you know how nice it is to have a horse that doesn't worry where his friends are? It's a lot less stressful. Flicka was awful. We couldn't get her to go away from the other horses if she didn't want too. Those little things are really nice for a horse to know. Like being able to mount them from a fence, standing still for bridling and saddling, groundtying, leaving the other horses without a fit, leg pressure. Ok leg pressure isn't little, but my horses don't do it.
I had a good laugh today. I was working with Dash getting her to move move her hindquarters and shoulders when Stretch comes over, puts his nose of to Dash's neck and laughed at her.It really sounded like a mocking laugh. He did this nicker thing and it sounded like laughter like he was saying "haha, sucker." Oh he makes me laugh.

The other thing I wanted to talk about was Parelli.
I haven't been that into Parelli. I guess I think it's kinda touchy feely whatever. Whenever I here someone talking about "be one with your horse" (insert hippi voice) I tune out. It's not like I don't want to become one with my horse, but when it's said like that I get like "ya... right..."(insert sarcasm). Now if it's said like how your riding instructor would tell you how to keep your horse's shoulder up, I would take it more seriously. So plain and simple I guess I'm saying that prefrence in horse trainers is a lot about the trainer's character. Parelli's training works, no doubt about it. So does Clinton Anderson's, Craig Cameron's, and all the other big trainers out there. But anyway, that's not really what I wanted to talk about.
The real thing I wanted to talk about is something I took away from a DVD on Parelli that HM let me borrow. I was watching Linda Parelli do some roundpen work with a horse. It was pretty much all about teaching your horse to have a good attitude and keeping his attention. See, that's a lot better than how the video came across to me. So she did something different than what I normally see. Or maybe I have seen it, but not really explained and done for a purpose. She first did what she called the feel good game. Or something like that. So I (take note of the singular noun) just think that's sappy. I would just call it making the horse comfortable. But what she did was rub the horse all over to get him to like being around her. After that she sent him off and then waited until he either ignored her or come into the middle. When the horse ignored her she would look at him and crouch down, or make movement to catch his eye. When he looked at her she turned her back on him. She said she was using the horse's natural curiosity to her advantage. When he came into her with his ears forward she turned her back on him, and let him come in. Then she would pet him. Gradually you could see a slight change in the horse's attitude and that he wanted to be with the person in the middle. Eventually he even licked his lips.
But the thing I took away from that is using your horse's natural curiosity to make them interested in you. And here's how it works. I walked up to Toffy, flung the rope over her neck and she started moving away with her ears back a little ways. I moved in the opposite direction and she came back to me with her ears pricked. She expected me to come after her so when I didn't she was surprised and wanted to know what was up.
So I'm not all that into Parelli, maybe because I haven't seen a lot on it, but I do like Clinton Anderson. I see stuff I like in Parelli and stuff I like in Clinton, so maybe I could combine the two in a way that I like more. I think it would be great to go to both trainers and learn from both. That would be ideal. We'll see.