Monday Play

I went to the stable early this morning to have some alone time in the ridinghouse. Milva can´t concentrate so well yet with other horses around.
We haven´t been playing now for 3 weeks I think. Instead we just spend undemanding time together. Sunday I was out with her grazing and while I was in the UK Shawn took care of her. Milva and him went for little walks behind the stable to explore new territory. I have never been there before with her because it´s full with machines and other funny stuff she hasn´t seen before. But being Milva she just thought it was fun to go there with Shawn.
Today I played the 7 games with her - only perfect practise makes perfect. That´s why I was particular peculiar today.
When I did the yoyo game with her she was kind of giving after with her right backleg - it looked very strange. I couldn´t find anything on her leg though and she isn´t swollen either. She did react though when I touched her farther up.
I did the yoyo game a few more times just to see how she was backing up and it looked a bit better after a while. So maybe she was stiff or maybe her back hurt from all the rain and wind here.
Because I wasn´t sure if something is seriously wrong or not I just played in walk with her. Doing some figure 8s and squeeze game. After being in the ridinghouse for 40min I finished our session.
Our ferrier is coming tomorrow. Just hope Milva is going to behave. Doing her hooves is not her favourite thing right now.

More Books :))

Books are a girls best friends! In my world anyway!
While waiting for the plane in Birmingham I did some bookshopping. Books from Parelli´s reading list - of course. Can´t wait to cuddle up on the sofa with the cats, a warm blanket and a hot cup of tea and read...

Sophie´s Blog About The Summit

My savvy sister Sophie wrote an amazing post about the Summit. I wonder how she remembered all those things! The only thing I remember is the food and sitting next to Sam Caporn - not Capricorn and talking about Magic´s flight over here.
Sophie and I decided to probably bring our babies over to the US when we do our courses there.
I will write more about the summit later but if you are intressted check out Sophie´s blog - intressting reading!
http://sophorses.wordpress.com

New Levels

I bought the new levels program at the summit and love it! Pat talked about it during the summit and said with the new levels program people should be able to achieve level 4 by themselves.
Level 1/2: Essential skills for safety confidence and fun on the ground and riding
Level 3: Essential skills for excellence in communication bridless riding and liberty
Level 4: The fundamental of performance

November Shipment

Gold Summit Birmingham

The Gold Summit was just AWESOME! LOVED IT!
It was so good to met like minded people who are positive and progressive. It was very inspiring and exactly what I needed! The whole experience was overwhelming and I still have to diagest all the imprssions I got.
Wednesday morning we met Sofie at Scandlines - the ferry station in Helsingborg. Shawn drove us to Kastrup - the airport in Copenhagen from where we took the plane to Birmingham. It was very nice to have Sofie with me for company.
From the airport in Birmingham we took a train to Warwick. We had to change the train twice. First in Coventry and then in Lamington Spa. From Warwick we took a cap to Stoneleigh Park. It felt like going back again so we asked the capdriver if it would have been shorter to take a cap from Coventry and yes, it would have been.
We stayed at Stoneleigh Lodge - a hotel just 3min walking distance away from the Uk Parelli office. We got there around lunchtime and our hotelroom wasn´t ready yet so we went for coffe to the Farm Shop. A very cosy little place just around the corner. It was so english and I just loved it. It reminded me very much of Canada!
Sitting there and having a burger and cake we watche alots of Parelli instructers walking in and out. Neil Pye and his wife Sue were sitting behind us and enjoying there coffe.
After checking in in our hotelroom we walked over to the office and lovely Jenny gave us a tour of the office. Up in the study room we met Carol Coopinger a 5 star instructor.
Later in the afternoon we met Sofie´s friends from Sweden - Annika and Stefan. They have 7 horses somewhere up in Hässelholm. Also very nice people! We followed with them to their B&B and had some drinks there. Or well, the otherones had beer. I´m not drinking alcohol so I ordered something else - which earned me a strange look of the lady behind the bar.
In the evening we had supper back in the lodge - surrounded by Parelli instructers like Sam Capricorn, Carmen Zulauf, Carol Coopinger, Silke and many more.
I guess I don´t have to mention how much I enjoyed the positive vibes around me.
After supper we finally met Dinka from Holland. She is a real left brain extrovert and alots of fun.
More about the summit tomorrow...off to bed now.

Birmingham Tomorrow

I´m leaving for the Parelli Gold Summit tomorrow :). Trying to get everything organised today. Shawn is taking care of Milva wednesday and thursday. I´ll be back on friday.
Tomorrow morning - early morning, we are going to meet Sofie from Hässelholm at the ferry station. Shawn is going to drive us to Kastrup and picking us up on friday.
Wednesday evening we are goint to meet Dinka - a girl from Holland at the hotel and thursday morning we are going the meet Star´s mum Sophie.
It´s going to be so much fun to meet the girls in real life! Too bad that Jo - Bella´s mum, can´t be there though.
Sophie, Jo and I are planing to attend the fast track course 2011 together.
Off to the stable now. Hope my baby can survive without me those two days!

Undemanding Time

I´ve been spending undemanding time with Milva all week. Don´t have the energy to play with her or do some serious work. I hope I´ll find the time and energy tomorrow.
Yesterday and today I went to the stable in the evening. Surprisingly I like to be there in the dark. Especially cause I can be there by myself.
Another day tomorrow and soon off to Birmingham.

Milva´s First Ride With The Natural Hackamore

Yesterday I rode Milva the first time with the natural hackamore - and it worked out perfectly fine :)).
I warmed her up for 30min while I waited for Shawn to arrive. I walked in z3, stopped her with the sss-sound and made her walk with the tongueclick.
I have to admit I was a bit nervous riding her without a bit - or actually, it doesn´t matter if she has a bit in her or not I´m still very tensed when I sit on her. Definitely have to change that!!!
I had a bit of difficulties to stir her but on the other hand I didn´t do any precision riding. My goal was to get her used to have me on her back and to ride without the bit. Mission accomplised so I should be satisfied.
From now on I just ride her myself. Anna hasn´t helped me for a while now anyway and I think our methods are just too far apart at this point.
I´m still greatful she helped me to put the first real rides on Milva - I think 3 or 4 times and that is defintely enough.
Today I wanted to play with her but we have an awful storm here today and it is rainy very hard so I just cleaned out the stable and picked up Shawn afterwards.
Oh - I did had to repair the fencing - not fun in that weather!
Hopefully it´s going to be better weather tomorrow. 2 more days at work and 9 days holidays after that :)))

Hoofproblems

Sopie - I can´t wait to read your work about hooves!!!
I desinfected Milva´s left front hoof now for a few days in a row. She has a pretty big cut in it and obviously it hurts her when I put the desinfection in it cause she stomps with her foot afterwards and is getting angry. Well, now she decided she has enough of my hoofcare and doesn´t want to give them to me anymore. She starts to walk forwards or backwards. She can have her tantrums but it was never that bad as now.
I have to work on that tomorrow.
It was already getting dark when I arrived at the stable today so I didn´t do anything with her. Just cleaned out the stable and around the silagerack.
Hopefully there are not so many people in the ridinghouse tomorrow so I can play or ride Milva tomorrow!

Green Ball

After spending a few days of undemanding time with Milva we got back to business today.
I introduced to the big green ball. Being Milva she wasn´t scared at all - or well, I should say she didn´t show it, she never does. Little warrior pony.
I pushed the ball away from me - like Parelli is recommending and Milva followed after. After a while I started running with the ball and she still followed after.
We had alots of fun for a few minutes - me running with the ball and Milva trotting and cantering around us (us - me + ball). She even had her tail up in the air and showed some stunning trott. Can´t deny her bloodlines there :)!
Even the canter was awesome. Very uphill and balanced.
Anyway as long as I was running with the ball she thought it was alots of fun but when I left her she wasn´t intressted in it at all. Maybe it takes some time for her to figure out that she is the one who is supposed to play and run around with it and not me.
I should maybe start doing some workout as well again. I´m so out of shape it´s not even funny any more!
Tomorrow I´m on a course again - work related. Stable in the evening. I´m probably not able to do much with her when everyone else is there.
I´m looking forward to ride her with the hackamore the next time :).

Outliers written By Malcolm Gladwell

I´m reading the book Outliers right now. It´s on the reading list for the Parelli University. I got the german version from Caroline in Austria and just love the book! I will order the english version for Shawn cause he got really intressted in it as well. Especially the part where he talks about needing 10.000 hours to achieve excellency!
Perfect book for rainy novemberdays.

Rainy Evening!

I was at a course from work today and could first go to the stable after I came home. I came back home to Sweden at 16.00 and it was already getting dark. On top of that it was rainy very hard.
Milva was inside when I came and as always she greeted me with a deep whinny and nodded her head at me - so darn cute! I can be in the worst moode as soon as I see her greeting me like that I´m feeling much better!
I didn´t do anything with her though. Just gave her her oats with the herbs and minerals and cleaned her hooves.
I cleaned the stable as well and put in new straw so she has it cosy and try in the night.
I have another day of course tomorrow and after that I have to work my 5 days and next monday I have another courseday.
Oh well this week will pass as well and soon I´m going to Birmingham to meet Sophie and the Parellis :))))
IIIIIEEEEHHHHHH can´t wait!!

First Ride Pictures

Riding My Pony

I DID IT!!! Rode on Milva today :))))
Shawn came and took some pictures and Mikke was watching as well. I didn´t ride longer than 5 minutes. It was more a testride to look how she feels and not really doing any work with her. I did a bit of change of direction and stopping.
Of course she wasn´t very steady yet and it feels like sitting on a drunk horse.
But of course it takes time for her to find her balance. I also used my saddle today which also was new for her.
Milva loves her daddy very much so she tried several times to to go him and look if he has carrots or if he could scratch her bum - punk. But in the end she would listen to me.
What I didn´t like was that she was walking very fast - must be the result of Anna pushing her. She already started doing it when I walked in zone 3 and steared her from the ground.
I understand Anna´s point of view - that horses have to go forwards to get them collected. But I´m not even thinking about collection and in my opinion it´s better to let her go on her own speed until she has found her balance and is steady.
Her walk felt very rushed and I didn´t like it at all!!
So I think it´s better now to take over again and ride her by myself. I still have at least 9 sessions left with Anna cause I´v paid her in advance. Maybe I can use them later on.
My plan is to take it very easy with her and gently continue our work maybe riding her twice a week for max.10 minutes and slowly raise the amount over time.
When I first came in to the ridinghouse it was very crowded. A girl tried Miami and is maybe going to buy him and Helene was lunging Dupont. Milva had to watch the boys and couldn´t concentrate on me at all in the beginning. After they left she started to got a bit more intressted in me and I could do some more serious work.
Well, I´m very satisfied today. Can´t wait for the next time!!

Riding with Fluidity

I love Parelli´s older material. It´s intressting to see how much Remmer and Linda have progressed over the time. I bought this dvd over ebay, unfortunatelly you cannot order it over parelli.com anymore.
That´s going to be my sunday lecture before going to the stable :)

Onlinesession

Yesterday I worked with Milva in the ridinghouse. It was nice to be there by myself. I put up the cones for figure 8 and one cavaletti for the squeezing game.
I started off doing level 3/4 friendly game.
Porcupine game was getting better as well - at least with the hindquarters, forehand is still not a spin more a circle.
Yoyo game is working very well threw the ridinghouse door. She knows the deal and is offering it herself. The door is one of the kind you can slide which means there is a metallrail on the floor she has to walk over. Walking over backwards is actually a big achievement. And the best thing is that she is putting effort in in to do it. She has her ear forwards and is walking backwards fast and I barely have to use phase 1.
She also surprised me yesterday by offering trott doing figure 8s. I just had to point and off she went in trott.
I also trotted her over the cavaletti and squeezed her over in walk.
Anna was supposed to have a session with Milva today but I cancelled it. I thought about riding her myself today - if no one else is in the ridinghouse ;).

Day 11 With Anna

Anne helped me with Milva again yesterday. First she did a little pre-flight check to look if Milva remembered everything from the last time and after that she got on her.
Anna used her legs on her for the first time to make her go forwards and Milva understood quickly what she ment.
Yesterday was also the first time she trotted her under the saddle. In the beginning Milva didn´t understand what Anna asked her to do and got a bit angry. Tossing her head, switching her tail and I could see the bum getting lower for a buck.
Anna tried to make her go faster by clicking with the tongue and Milva went in to a fast walk but when Anna kept clicking with the tongue Milva I could see Milva getting more and more irritated. Of course she thought she was doing the right thing by walking faster but Anna kept pushing her.
I offered Anna my help from the ground cause I got a bit worried she would blow up Milva anytime. Luckily Anna went off her and started running next to Milva clicking with the tongue to show her that it ment trott.
I tried to explain that to Anna in one of the last sessions that it´s confusing to Milva to click so much with the tongue.
Anyway, Milva got the point and when Anna got on her again she trotted with her.
Not very enthusiastic - she always thinks any gait above walk is unnecesseray but at least she trotted.
We have booked another session tomorrow morning and I think after that I will take over again.
Now I have seen that she doesn´t buck so it shouldn´t be any problem anymore!
Iiiieeeehhh can´t wait to ride my pony by myself!

Stable Work

The only thing I did with Milva today was brushing her and cuttling her for a bit. I also cleaned her hooves extra well and put the new lotion on it that I bought. I have my doubts though that it is working.
I will try to order the stuff from the UK Sofie was talking about.
Took out 3 wheelbarrels today. I usually try to take out at least 2 to keep the stable clean. But with 5 horses and no one else putting any effort in it it´s kind of hard. Well the only one that is doing something besides me is Anita whenever she has time.
I can´t even say anything because officially everthing is included just that Malin is just cleaning the stable 3 x a year. I don´t won´t my horse to sleep in her poop so of course I clean the stable everyday, change the water every day and clean the bathtube and clean the tiles around the eating area. Our horses have haysilage all the time but of course they poop where they eat. If you don´t clean it it effects the hooves. Logical, isn´t it. Just no one else cares *sigh*
I´m planning to put a whole day in on saturday and clean everything extra well!

Storm

We have a really bad storm here today and it´s freezing cold. Fixed everything in the stable and went home again. It feels very strange to be at home before going to work but I think I could get used to it!
Milva was all rightbrain today. After giving her her food I put her back into the stable and Orkan and her were galopping down the field, bucking, rearing up and running with full speed. Just hope they don´t get hurt in the mud. It´s pretty sleepery in the pasture right now!
Milva looks like a polarbear with her winterfur - too cute!

Day 10 With Anna

Anna had a very short session with Milva today. All it all it was for about 10minutes.
One of Malin´s twins was riding Claudius at the same time in the ridinghouse and before she started to trott Anna finished.
Milva was walking like a pro today. Anna made a very short pre-flight check and got on her without hanging on her. Milva was standing completly still and walked off when Anna asked her too.
The whole session was unenventful - which is a good thing. Anna stopped her and changed direction a few times.
Tomorrow she is going to try to trott her. That means if she is back in time from the veterinary.
I have to work now 3 days again but hopefully I can introduce Milva to the grean ball this weekend. I also want to sit on her soon now :)

More Undemanding Time

My pony and I spent some undemanding time together in the last two days. It´s rainy and stormy here so I didn´t feel for doing anything protuctive with her.
I did clean out the stable as always though.
Anita and I talked about it. There are 5 horses in our turnout but it´s just me cleaning all the time - and Anita, bless her.
Oh well, I guess other people don´t as much about their horses as we do.