First Fell Off From Milva

I guess there are going to be alots of first...lol
Well, today it was time for the first time falling off her. It wasn´t her fault at all though. Another girl knocked wildly on the riding house door and opened it with a lot of eager to get in. She scared the hell out of Milva who bucked up high in the air. I`m not quiete sure what happened afterwards but I think I fell back in the saddle again and probably squeezed my legs together which made her buck again. That´s what I think happened anyway. I hit my head really badly on the ridinghouse wall and have this big bump on my forehead now. My neck and my knee hurts really bad too.
That sucks cause I´m starting my new work tomorrow. They are probably going to think Shawn beat me up...lol
I think it already started wrong and I can´t blame anyone else besides me. What´s Pat Parelli saying - Set it up for success. Prepare for the unexpected. Take the time it takes.
I´m going to make that my big priority.
Ok, back to the beginning. When I came to the ridinghouse there were already 4 other horses in there. Milva is not used to work with other horses being in the ridinghouse. Maybe 1 is ok but 4 is definitely too much. Even though they were just walking with their horses when I was on here it´s still too much pressure for her I think. So when I think about it now it was very stupid of me to get on her. Another thing was that we walked too long with her. When we did it the last time I was sitting on her for 10 minutes with stopping inbetween. Today I told Shawn to walk more which means I didn´t give her the time to diagest things. Stupid, stupid me. But it´s easy to be smart afterwards.
The good thing is that I made up some rules for me now:
-not having another horse in the ridinghouse when getting on her, except Orkan or Paulina, but not more than 1. I think both Orkan and Paulina make her feel save so having them there is actually a good thing.
-take the time it takes, if it doesn´t feel good, I won´t get on her
-prepare her better from the ground, she has to show much more respect when doing the 7 games, today she was acting like a punk
-stop when it feels good and don´t overdo it, it´s not a race and the comfort and dignity of my horse should always be priority number 1!
If I feel better tomorrow I will get on her again. Just hope my stupid head stops spinning and I can see clear again. Right now everything is kind of blurry.

Weekend

Milva and I had a very quiet weekend this week. Spending undemanding time together yesterday and grazed for a bit. Today we explored the round corall. She has the tendencies to get right brain in a unfamilar environment so we did a lot of approach and retreat. After a while she was doing fine and we went grazing again.
Yesterday there was a family walking by with a babystroller. It was too funny! Paulina and Orkan where the first one who ran away, tail high up in the air and air blowing out of their noses. Milva followed after but she was the first one who turned around and walked towards the scary babystroller. The two other ones didn´t dare to. Strong the pony didn´t react at all and didn´t show any intrest in it either. Funny how different their horsenality is!

First Change Of Direction In Trott!

I went to the stable twice today. Did the stablechores in the morning and cleaned my saddle.
In the afternoon we went into the ridinghouse and worked on our level 2 online tasks.
We did the sidewards game infront of the big black tube. I think it´s easier without having anything in front of her because she is getting angry if she is stepping on it. Sidewards is very easy for her and she likes doing it it´s actually harder to stop her.
Squeezing game over the cavaletti was alright. I wanted to try it in trott but felt that she was still a bit unsecure after the last incident.
With the figure 8´s she got bored today and made up her own game by chewing and picking up the cones.
We did a nice back up from zone 5 - easy for her.
Tossed the rope over her head while standing in zone 5 - easy.
And the best of all we made our first change of direction in trott!!!! How great isn´t that! She even had a nice expression on her face while doing it.
After our little playsession we went grazing for 20min. Milva definitely thought that was too little. I will spend more time with her tomorrow and maybe ride her if Shawn has time.
Love my little pony!

Me And My Shadow

Today was another good day with my little girl. After doing the stablechores we went straight out for a walk around the pasture threw the harvested oatfield up to the big green field. I gave Milva alots of rope to roam at and followed her. The only thing she was not allowed to do was falling in trott everything she was allowed. It was intressting to see where she wanted to go. I thought that she would go straight up to the field and graze but when she understood that she had the 51% leadership she started to explore. Instead of walking up and grazing she went into the next field and mooseyed around there. Very leftbrain.
In the other field she found a spot with fresh harvested grain. It was too cute - she had this very surprised expression on her face and looked at me like do you see - there is food out here in the middle of the field! She is so funny! I had to take her away though after eating some mouthfulls. I didn´t want her to get a colic of eating too much grain.
Playing me and my shadow is really intressting and so much more to it than I first thought.
Me and my shadow is about establishing mutual respect between you and your horse and also about the importance of swapping leadership. The key is to switch leadership between you and your horse by no more than 2% that way the partnership is still respected but someone - either you or your horse - will make decisions until the next swap of leadership is taking place.
I could see the very nice change in Milva when she was grazing. When it was her turn to follow me I just had to walk of and she would follow - with no tension in the rope.
If I wouldn´t play me and my shadow I would never know what´s important to Milva. I would never learn what she is thinking. I would never learn how to make her happy or how to honor her opinions.

Fun In The Big Green Field

Uphill canter, nice expression on her face

Picture taken by Anita, Milva´s mother in law

10min In The Saddle

I didn´t write yesterday cause I was sooo tired. I don´t know why really. You would think not going to work right now I would have alots of energy but it doesn´t seem to be like that.
Milva and I spent undemanding time yesterday, grazing on the field while Anite took some pictures. Her camera is awesome!
Before grazing we went around the pasture threw the harvested oatfield. Milva knows now that we go grazing afterwards so she went abit extroverted. But I couldn´t blame her she just had fun.
Today she was a bit bitchy though. I don´t know really why and it worries me to see her like that. Usually she is always so sweet and friendly but she was already in a bad mood when I got there. I wonder if someone was mean to her or hit her?
There is always a reason why she is behaving like she is.
I took her grazing for 10min today and she definitely thought that was too short! I will go longer tomorrow.
I started with the weavepattern today in walk. She is so smart so she got it directly. We also did some trotting travelling circles. They are not working yet but we will get there.
Shawn came to help me with the riding. She was very calm today and made a big sigh while I was sitting on her. We are taking it very slowly with her so she has enough time to digest all those new things - like having a predator on her back. I look at all the small signs and thresholds. I was sitting on her for about 10min today. Which is the longest so far. She is standing very nice still when I mount and usually she is getting a carrot from Shawn after I´m on her back. I also gave her one while I sat on her - lateral flexion is working well ;). Shawn walked her one round in the riding house, practicing stopping when I make the sssss-sound. She knows that and is stopping when I do it. She also had her head down a few times, relaxing and looked all in all very cool. I went off while she was still relaxed. No need to give her any reason to get rightbrain.

Undemanding Time Well Spent

I was just 2 hours in the stable today. Way too short! Going to be there a long time tomorrow though - promised Milva.
We spent undemanding time together today. Went grazing for half an hour and ran a bit together on the big field.

Predator Behaviour

When predators - we humans, get scared, confused, mad, frustrated or hurt, the ´hole under the tail´ gets tight, the feet do not move, they dig in, they freeze and the `claws´ go in.
Specific reactions (in horse people) are: the hands close quickly and lock onto the reins, the legs clamp to the horse´s sides, the belly tightens, the seat tightens, breathing shuts down, they don´t blink because they can´t think, they take on the fight or defensive response (fetal position), they shout, growl, hit, kick, pull, jerk, yank, and their compete to win or `dominance reflexes´come into play.
Aggression has an attitude of punishment or attack and an emotion of anger, frustration or fear. Because of this, the timing is often late there is a distinct lack of phases just one big Phase 4!
Aggression, no matter how mild or servere, is ineffective iwth horses because even if you achieve the result you want, you lose the horse´s trust and respect, He´ll mentally and emotionally shut you out, bracing this mind and body against you.
Some examples of aggression are represented in actions such as pulling on a horse with a chain shank when he doesn´t lead well, or smacking him across the nose when he tries to bite you. The horse feels your anger or frustrations which increases his insecurity and resentment, so instead of the behaviour going away, it gets worse.
Horses are simple. But they´re only simple if you truly invest yourself in learning about them...not how to sit and hold the reins, what leg to put where... but more about what makes them tick, what´s important to them, how they think, why they do what they do, and how to gain their trust and confidence. When you have this kind of savvy you´ll never get frustrated or run out of answers again.

Half A Round Under The Saddle

Shawn helped me with Milva today.
First I grazed her for half an hour and saddled her in the ridinghouse. Kajsa gave a lesson in there so I waited until she was finished. I started our session the figure 8s on the 22 foot line and it was going well. Did also the circling game in walk, 2 laps, change of direction online and that went fine as well. Tried some travelling circles in trott and I guess we have to work some more on that one...lol
Getting on her is going really well. She is completly standing still when I mount. Shawn walked with her a whole circle. I was sitting on her for about 10min. I could feel that she is not in balance yet but that´s normal. She is very soft to sit on though and very round. I like that!
She is still thinking alot and a bit insecure but we give her time to think and take it very slowly with her. Those first hours under the saddle are so important and I determined to do everything right with Milva! I guess that´s where most people blow their horses up when they go to fast and don´t wait until the horse is ready.
Now we always gave her carrots when I sat on her. Unfortunatelly she is getting a bit aggressiv and just thinking about carrots and invading Shawn´s space when he walks her. I told him to flap his elbows to keep her out of his space and it worked. She was getting much softer directly and had her ears in front again.
All in all I´m satisfied with our ridingsession today.
I was getting a bit angry and irritated at one of my stable collegues today. They just bought a pony two weeks ago and are very traditional ridingschool people. Nice people though just not Parellipeople and have no clue about horsebehaviour or horse psychology. Anyway, she screamed at Milva today cause Milva was telling her pony to move away. I told her NOT to scream at my horse! No one is allowed to scream at my horse! I never do! It is such a predator thing to do! She took good though which was nice to see and said she wouldn´t do it anymore. I don´t believe it but at least I have told her - and I will tell her again.
If you scream on a horse it´s like a predator growling on a prey animal! So when the horse finally starts to trust you and you shout on the horse you ruined everything again. If you have savvy there is no need to shout or scream!

Squeeze Game Over Cavaletti

I feel so bad right now! I tried to make Milva jump over a bigger cavalettipole today. It´s easy to squeeze her over low ones so I thought I can spice things up a little bit. What I did was first having 2 cavalettis after each other cause I thought she would jump them but my smart girl figured out the puzzle and stepped in between the 2 poles. Of course it wasn´t easy for her to get out again but she managed.
After that I highered the cavaletti and put another one on the top of it. I send Milva over and and she did as always and tried to step over it instead of jumping. The cavaletti fell down and she got it between her legs and fell down on her knees. She did stay very leftbrain though but I could see the worries in her eyes. My poor little baby. I assured her that she did a wonderful job and walked with her over the cavaletti a few times - after lowering it again. We also trotted over it.
Befor doing this session we went for a walk in the field again and grazed again for 45 min. She just loves being outside in the big field.
I also put her on the stonepedesdal and yoyoed her threw the ridinghouse door inside - me standing on the end of the 22 foot line. She is such a smart girl!
Can´t wait to play with her again tomorrow. Shawn is coming too so he can help me when I sit on her.

Exuberance

Afternoon Walk In The Rain

It was a very humid and hot day today. Unusual for Sweden but reminds me of Canada.
After all my torturing Milva in the ridinghouse I thought it´s time now to start taking walks again. I did it alot with her when we still where at Gustafslund a year ago but since moving to Malin I don´t walk with her that much anymore. That has to change of course!
Taking walks with Milva is taking me a little bit out of my comfortzone. She really loves it though. Her ears are in the front all the time and she is looking around and enjoying it. She is leftbrain most of the time. I´m just worried that I can´t hold her back in case she is getting rightbrain. I still remember my last walk at Gustafslund with her in the little forest where she decided she had enough and wanted to go home. It was very hard to stop her - especially because I was on the ground and she dragged me behind her. But of course that was a year ago - she is much more behaved now, mostly anyway.
Well our walk today was fine anyway. We went around the pasture, strolling in the cut down oatfield and on the way back she was allowed to graze in the big field which of course she loved. It was rainy a little bit when we walked but still very warm.
I also trotted a little bit with her in the field.
Try to take another walk tomorrow.

Keep It Intressting

After reading Sofie´s blog today I got reminded to keep our playsession intressting and fun.
It´s much harder to be intressting and fun for your than I thought. But I´m trying...
I put the big black tube in the ridinghouse today to work on hour sidewardsgame on the 22 foot line. The goal would me standing on the end of the 22 foot line not moving and Milva passing sidewards infront of the black tube.
Unfortunatally I have teached Milva the sidewardsgame wrong. She is happily going sidewards when I cross my legs in front of her a bit like mirror mirror.
It did work well though when I tried it with the tube. First she tried to solve the puzzle and put one leg on the tube, rolled the tube around, stepped with one leg over it, bit in it - she is too funny sometimes. When she finally asked a question I asked her to go sidewards and she did. Smart girl. I gave her a carrot after that and when I asked her to do it the other direction she just did it by herself until the end of the tube.
My smart little baby. I left it by that today and went out grazing with her afterwards.

Me In A Nutshell

I was twice in the stable again today. Oh god I don´t want to think about starting to work again and just be able to go to the stable once a day - like everyone else.
It was a lovely summerday today and pretty hot. Milva was standing and eating silage when I came but as soon as she saw me she came walking towards me. We went for a little walk around the farmhouse. While we mooseyed around a danish woman called for a jobinterview for next monday. Of course I agreed to it - just I forgot to ask her who she was and where the interview would be...lol
After our little walk we went in to the riding house and did some circling game. Unfortunatally I didn´t sat it up for success! Which really irritates me now when I think about it. I should have known better!!!!
The thing that happend was that I didn´t close the little door from the riding house. Usually it is always closed so of course Milva thought that was really intressting - much more intressting than walking around in a stupid circle and who can blame her? I mean she is right - it is more intressting to watch the people and horses passing by outside.
Anyway, we did some circles and change of direction and a little bit of trott. I wasn´t satisfied though and it didn´t feel good. I also forgot to stop her when engaging her hindquarters so of course she was coming towards me instead.
Well, I have learned my lesson!
After our little session we went grazing again on the big field for 45min. I trotted a bit with her on the 22 foot line and she thought that was funny and got all big and showed a fancy trott - she is just so adorable!
After coming home Shawn called me from the shop and asked me if I want to go to the stable again and do something with Milva cause he had time over before going to the shop again.
So I went there again and put the saddle on her and grazed her for a bit before Shawn came. I sat on her in the ridinghouse for about 10min. She was pretty relaxed and chewed on her carrots. Shawn walked with her a little bit while I sat on her and she didn´t care much about that either. My smart little baby!
I got off her as long as she was leftbrain and ended the session with a good experience for her.
Can´t wait to see her again tomorrow!

Soulsisters

Spending undemanding time with Milva today. Her favourite thing to do and I have to admitt I love it too. There is nothing better in the world than hanging out with your horse!
Shawn and I went to Oskarshamn today to pick up some wood for his shop and because of that I came to the stable late in the evening.
Milva was standing at the silageball eating when I arrived. I asked for permission to come closer to her and after her nodding with the head I sat down in the silagball and kept her company. After a while she stopped eating and just stood next to me, putting her nose in my lap and started to fall half asleep. I love those moments! I stayed with her for about an hour just sitting there and enjoying her company.
Sometimes I wonder if other people feel the same with their horses. I know some do - but not many.
Milva is truly my soulhorse. I have never met a horse before that touched my soul in that way as she does. I wish more people would experience the same with their horses.

Autumn Is Coming

I can feel it in the air and I love it!
Talked to Malin about the silage today and she will put a ball out tomorrow *sigh of relief*.
I went to the stable twice today - luxury because I´m off work.
Milva is still in head and flirting with Orkan.
I went again in the ridinghouse and did the circling game - only. Change of direction online which is working fine.
I also tried it in trott but it´s not so easy with a lbi ;). If I put pressure on her she will continue trotting so of course lunging the traditional would work BUT principles before goals!
I have to get my energy up and become better in my send and in my allow. Not expecting her to slow down because she will feel that. Trust her!
I also tried change of direction in trott but she slowed down. Good thing though is that she gave me two eyes and actually did change the direction and speeded up to trott again. When changing direction in trott I have to go farther back to give her more room to actually change direction. She was trotting quiete fast too today which is not ideal for making a change of direction.
If she can do the direction change we can work on the figure 8s in trott.
After the ridinghouse session I grazed her again for 45min on the big field. Sandra was riding Medea and Sofia was riding Strong while I was there. They were both cantering and galopping around us and Milva didn´t even flick a ear. Love my leftbrain introvert!

What journey do you choose to take? How far do you wanna go?

When I first bought Milva I had those big plans of riding in the Olympics with her - in Dressage of course. I always dream big - always did :).
The Olympics weren´t just a dream though. I competed in Dressage up to St. Georg. Everything can be done it´s just a matter of dedication and priorities.
As you might can tell - my priorities have changed in a big way.
As Pat Parelli is saying "Humans wanna have praise and recognition. Horses wanna feel safe and comfortable."
A short while after Milva entered my life I decided to take the natural way. I promised myself, Milva and every horse that I meet on the way to always put my PRINCIPLES BEFORE MY GOALS!
THE EIGHT PRINCIPLES BY PAT PARELLI
Principle # 1
Horsemanship is natural
Principle#2
Make no assumption
Principle #3
Communication is two or more individuals sharing and understanding an idea
Principle #4
There are eight responsibilities of a Partnership
Principle #5
The attidue of justice is effective
Principle #6
Body language is universal
Principle #7
Horses teach riders, riders teach horses
Principle # 8
Principle, purpose and time are the tools of teaching

Sunday Funday Part 2

I went to the stable again in the afternoon and played with Milva for a little bit in the ridinghouse. We did some figure 8s on the 22 foot line in walk. I´m pretty satisfied with our figure 8s now. I could almost be on the end of the 22 foot line and easily direct her. We did 3 rounds of it after that I did some squeezegame over a cavaletti. Squeezegame is also working well and Milva is actually putting some effort in it and has her ears forward when doing it.
When I try to engage her hindquarters she always wants to come towards me though. I have to be more clear with my signals when engaging her. When we do the circling game and I engage her hindquarters she is always allowed to come towards me. I have to think about that the next time otherwise I confuse her. Anyway, after squeezing her over in walk I tried a trott. She speeded up and trotted a few steps. I think that´s a good start so I didn´t ask for more. When I did the last squeeze over the cavaletti she even waited after engaging her hindquarters and was asking a question - with the ears forwards :). I went to her and we stood there for a little while, scratching her and spending some undemanding time together - good reward for a leftbrain introvert. I quit there and went grazing with her for an hour on the big green field again. She was her old self today while grazing and very calm but also very hungry.

Sunday Funday

I went to the stable at lunch to give the horses silage. Milva was asleep outside on her favourite spot. Orkan and Strong where way down on the other end of the pasture and Paulina was the only one who came to greet me. Milva woke up pretty quick though and called for me. I put out 5 different piles of silage so they wouldn´t fight so much. Didn´t help much though. Orkan just thinks all of them are for him. It´s not a very good situation right now and I can´t wait for getting unlimited haysilage again! I don´t like when feeding time is becoming a stress-situation and that´s what it is right now.
Anyway I also mucked out the stable and cleaned the bathtube and filled it up with new water again. Malin is still away so I also fixed her two turnouts.
Now I´m going to watch some more videos from www.parelli.com . I have printed out all the different pages of the videos so I can check those off I have been watching and write useful comments to those I found helpful. Parelli´s video library is awesome! It´s thousand of hours of useful and intressting information! People out there don´t know what they are missing or they are just ignorant and think they know it all already. Well, I guess not everybody can be a learnaholic.

Rainy Summerafternoon

I went to the stable this afternoon with the intention to play with Milva and try to sit on her later on when Shawn was coming by to help me. I had to find out though that Mrs. Milva had other plans. She went in head today and when she is in season she can be a bit moody. I thought it´s better to slow things down and see what the day brings instead.
When I went in to the pasture to call her she was way down on the other end. I walked half way to her and when I called her she was coming towards me in her usually fast walk. She hardly ever trotts or canters to me she is just walking very fast which looks really funny.
Anyway I thought I try to run backwards as I do when we do the drawing game. Sure enough she started to trott towards me and when I continued to run backwards she cantered towards me, tossed her head and called for me. Soooo cute!
I let her eat outside of the silagebal while I cleaned the stable. I could tell that she was very hungry. Hopefully we are getting silage in our pasture when Malin is coming home tomorrow or on monday.
After Milva had been eating for an hour we went in to the ridinghouse for 5min. We worked on our circling game. She did two perfect circles to the right in walk, changed direction online and did two more circles to the left. I thought that´s enough for today. Definitely don´t want to overdo the circling game with a Lbi! I also did some lateral flexion with her which is no problem. I think it´s a very important to keep our sessions short, intressting and effectiv. Maybe after a while she start to put some more effort in it.
I grazed her on the big field for an hour. The big field is still very new to her and in new places she sometimes get rightbrain. Today she was more leftbrain extrovert though. Started to trott around me, tossing her head and and bucked a bit. Mrs. Mischievous Milva :).
Before leaving I put alots of silage out in the pasture so they would have something to eat over night. It was fun when I let Milva out she was running down to get Orkan and Paulina to eat with her. They all came trotting back.

Pictures of Milva´s add when we bought her

www.guengerich.dk

Those pictures where taken by Dr. Barbara Guengerich, Milva´s breeder. Barbara is a veterinary breeding Trakehner and Shetlandponies. She has her clinic in Denmark and is also working with inseminating mares of all kind of breeds. I couldn´t have find a better place to buy my soulhorse. Milva had the perfect upbringing under the best conditions.