Charlie Hoodlum

Isn´t he just the cutest :)).
Helene was here to trim Milva´s hooves today. Not much drama for being Milva. It definitely helped that Helene came by a few times and gave her some treats. But she still didn´t really accept her. As soon as he laid eye on Helene the white in her eyes came out but it wasn´t as bas as before. Helene complimented on her good hoofquality. She said if every horse would have Milva´s hooves there wouldn´t be much to do for ferriers.
Before Helene came we played touch-it for 10min. Milva really loves that game. After Helene´s visit I walked her around for 20min.

Milva being Milva

Mini Parelli Play-Day

Saturday: mini Parelli play day with Patricia. First we sat in the car for 1 hour and talked Parelli...lol. Patricia played online with Tinker and I played 20min online and 10min at liberty.
Sunday: 10min online - circling game

20min online - figure 8s and circling game
Milva is in heat and therefor I took it easy with her today. Figure 8s for a warm up and then we refined our circling game. Walk - stop transitions worked very well today. I took it to the next step and asked her to a downward transition from trott to walk she missunderstood me though and stopped instead. Lots of resting and scratching during our playtime today.
Off to Denmark now to pick up some organic vegetables and fruit from Årstiderna.

Wednesday Morning Walk

-10 this morning but it felt like -16, it even snowflaked a little bit, you cannot really call it snowing more flaking - snowflaking.
My first thought was that it´s too cold to take a walk with Milva and to windy and to icy but then I thought again and took her out anyway. It´s easy for me to make up excuses to not get out of my comfort zone, but if I don´t do it we will never go for a trailride.
Even though it was pretty windy Milva stayed calmed and walked with her ear forwards. I drove her again from z3 for most of the time. She didn´t try to turn around once today and she didn´t stop so much either. Good girl!!
She didn´t like my singing though. Every time I started to sing "A drunken sailer" or "Ein Jæger aus Kurpfalz" she pinned her ears back and showed me her teeth. Hm, well I know I´m not the best singer but I didn´t know it was that bad. She is too funny.
Tomorrow I´m going to help the stable owner to muck out 4 boxes cause she is going away in the morning. I will take that oppurtunity and put Milva in a box while I do the stable work so she can eat her hay inside. Not sure if I will have time to anything else with her though, we´ll see.

25min walk, 5min circling game
The swedish kids have sport vacation this week and it was super busy at the stable today. Some people from another stable came to freejump their horses in the ridinghouse and afterwards a kid was training his pony. I didn´t really feel for joining them and took a saddled Milva for a walk instead. I drove her again from z3 and it´s no problem for her to take the lead. She is investigating a lot of things on the way. Never knock out the curiosity of a young horse, was it Ray Hunt who said that?
On the way back we met a biker and Milva turned into a drama queen for a second but gave it a second thought and went straight to the bike instead to touch it and then turned around to get her grain for touching it. Too funny. The biker had stopped by then to not "scare" Milva more.
Back at the farm we played with the circling game for 5min - walk - stop transitions. Her transitions were much better today.

Zeitgeist & Venusproject

A few years ago I stumbled over the first Zeitgeist move and I told everyone I knew about it. Shawn talks about the Venusproject almost every day and therefor it´s pretty normal and common for me now. But if you haven´t heard about it before check it out:
http://www.thevenusproject.com/
www.zeitgeist.com

Picture is taken from my way home from work yesterday, iceflakes on the Öresund
Sunday: 25min walk, 10min online
We went for another walk on Sunday, driving her from z3 again. Milva was calm and relaxed for the most part except for the moment when she decided she had enough and is going home now. We had a little discussion about it and then we continued our way. She is a very opinionated mare ;).
After our little walk we went into the ridinghouse again and worked on our circling game - walk - stop transitions and change of direction.
Yesterday I had to go on a course at work and therefor I spend udt with Milva in the morning. For today I have planned to ride her again. But I´not sure how the ridinghouse situation looks like so we will see. Plan B would be another walk.

Saturday Play

Same as yesterday. We took a 30min walk driving from z3. In the beginning Milva was calm and collected and walked right through her threshold from yesterday. Tataaa.
She reminded me a bit of Ferdinand today, smelling at everything, picking up sticks and carrying them around watching 5 bunnies playing. It was fun though, no cranky face and her ears were forward all the time until she decided she had enough and wanted to turn around. She was by no mean right brain just plainly opinionated. To make a point she made some dolphins jump and reared half hearted. After a little discussion she agreed with me though and we walked a bit farther like nothing ever happened. She is too funny sometimes. On the way back I walked on her right side again - don´t want to get her onesided.
When I came back to stable I got the advice to never let my horse walk in front of me and why did I walk on the wrong side? I asked what´s the wrong side and explaining, me walking in z3 is the whole point from this exercise cause that´s where I sit when I ride her. I did answer nicely though with a smile ;), which I know is not always the case but hi, I work on it people.

Oh Boy, Oh Boy And Again Oh Boy!

No, our cantering circles are still not existing but I have decided to put them aside until I have fixed some other things. I think I started to think a little bit to much direct line lately... oh boy...
I put alot of thoughts in those cantering circles lately. I actually dream about them.
Remember when I mentioned that Milva turned into a taskmistress and "offering" all kind of different things at the same time. Oh well, guess where she got it from. Talking about your horse is your mirror. Dah, think Marion!! All that pawing she started with and doing the compliment furiosly...oh boy, oh boy... I clearly put the tasks in front of everything else, like the relationship. Just because I want to film level 3 online as soon as possible...oh boy, oh boy...
I have all the theory and principles in my head and I know so well to put the relationship first, but no, what do I do. Canter Milva, canter, so we get it done with.
When I watch other people I often see what they are doing "wrong" or how they use the "wrong" approach. Of course I don´t say anything, I wouldn´t dream about that but still, how is the saying going with the stone and the glasshouse. Oh boy - again.
I honestly don´t know where it came from. With a different awareness and plan I drove to the stable early this morning after dropping Shawn of at school.
I had a view butterflies in my stomache when I approached the turnout stable - and they were not the good ones. But Milva still greated me with a nicker and a whinney and gladly left her morning hay and her friends to come to me. Oh boy, isn´t it amazing how forgiving our horses are??
In her usual way she volonteraly lowered her head and put it in the halter. So maybe I didn´t screw up so much after all? She waited for my sign to leave the stable and continued her breakfast outside.
While filling up water to all three turnout stables and cleaning out our stable I stopped next to her and chatted with her, waiting for her to touch me first and being aware of her personal space, her bubble. I sware her face expression changed.
When giving her a soft brush - she is shedding alot right now, I was aware of every little sign of her. I have to admit that sometimes I continue her brushing even though she shows so clearly that she is not happy with it, sometimes she even walks away. But I just ignored it and brought her back and brushed her anyway. Not today though, I truly put my heart in my hand and guess what, she didn´t walk away once and no angry face either. She just stood there and turned her face around a few times to sniff me. Oh boy.
To break our rutin I took her for a 20min walk down the dirt road. Walking in z3, cause that´s where I´m going to be when I ride her. I started to walk on the left side cause that is easier for me but had in my mind to change side on the way back. When we came to our first threshold I retreated, approached, retreated and approached again - all from z3 and then we walked through it. We stopped turned around and waited...and waited. When she blew out air and started to chew I changed side and we walked back, still driving her from z3.
Instead of heading straight to the ridinghouse I asked her to put her front legs on the stone pedestal and then yoyo her in to the ridinghouse. So far so good.
I tried to hold on to that mental stage I was in and not to get direct line now. I could feel it coming up in my blood, those predator thoughts.
Gently I asked her to back up and to circle slowly to the left, asked her gently to stop and waited...cause guess what, yes, I did make her walk on rather quick after stopping. Hm, wonder if that has something to do with her not standing relaxed when I mount her. Oh boy, doesn´t it all go hand in hand.
Yes, so I waited her and see there, she started to chew and yawn and blow out air. I asked her softly to walk on, change of direction and the same on the other lead and that was it for today. Going back with her to the stable. No angry dragon face once today.
I guess I still have a long way to go...
picture is taken summer 2009

UDT

Thursday = undemanding time day, sitting with Milva in the hay and reading the new Savvy magazine.
I received a phone call from the stable owner early in the moring which put me immediately in a right brain introvert stage. If anyone calls before 9 am it must be bad news, thats what I thought anyway. But it wasn´t, she just wanted to know Milva´s bloodline. Which lead to an interesting discussion with Shawn over breakfast.
Isn´t it awful how we try to dictate a horse´s future based on his or her parents´ past or what we want. If the sire is a Grand Prix dressage horse, it´s the son´s or daughter´s only destiny to become the spitting image of their parents?
What about the horses interest?
My main goal and concern is to provide a natural, happy and fun life for Milva and future off springs of her.
Yeah, I have to admit there was a time where I thought bloodlines are one of the most important things when buying a horse. Lesson learned. Milva could be a cross between a donkey and a dragon and she still would be the most extra ordinary living thing walking on this planet for me.
Hm, still want to know why the stable owner wanted to know her bloodline - again.

Touch-It

40min online play - 15min touch-it, 25min online
I started to play with touch it today before entering the ridinghouse. It´s still stormy here which made it more to a challenge. But I thought it´s going to be a good training for Milva. I took her behind the stable where all the big machines and garbage are. She was doing really well. Even though everything was making noises and flying around she didn´t spook once.
A trailhorse in making - I hope.
Inside we met Harry the killercat from yesterday again. Instead of taking him outside I decided it´s better for Milva to get used to him - or other cats.
I played with the weave pattern at liberty for a little while and then took her online. Same there, weave patterns in walk and trott. In walk it´s going very well and she is doing them by herself. Her face expression is not very nice in trott yet though.
Then I played some more with the circling game. I thought to go a step back and see how well we can do the circling game in walk and trott before asking her to canter again. In walk it was perfect. I didn´t had to remember her about her responsibility, we had a nice slack in the rope and she asked questions from time to time without coming in. She gave me good change of directions and some nice walk - stop tranisitions. So far so good.

Theory Afternoon

laying on the couch with a nice cup of tea I watched following dvd´s:
Safe Ride:
This is Disc Three of Ten in the Success Series DVD Set.

Pat Parelli shares his savvy of preparing horses so they are calm, confident and responsive... plus simple safety drills to help keep you safe.

Run time: 1 hour 37 minutes

Safe Ride Details

•What EVERY rider should know about staying safe in the saddle
•How a couple of minutes of preparation can save you a visit to the hospital
•How to prepare your horse without boring him with repetition
•The Parelli ten-point "Pre-Ride Checklist" that has 25 years of proven performance
•How to assess if your horse "looks ridable"
•How to mount and dismount with safety and savvy
•Why you shouldn't get on until your horse gives you permission
•Basic Fluidity techniques every rider should know for balance and safety

The Secret of Catching Horses

This is Disc Five of Ten in the Success Series DVD Set.

Horses are designed by nature to not be caught! By understanding what attracts horses actually changes much more than a catching problem. This DVD also covers leading with savvy.

Run time: 1 hour 4 minutes


Natural Attraction Details

•"Don't catch your horse - teach your horse to catch you!"
•If your horse liked you, trusted you, wanted to be with you, enjoyed your training, riding or recreational sessions... he'd run to meet you
•Why something as simple as entering your horse's stall or paddock affects everything else you do
•How to teach your horse to catch you
•Techniques for safety and respect when leading horses
•What to do when your horse becomes afraid and spooks when leading



I also studied Mastery Manual 1 & 2.
Mastery Manual 1: Balance - 6 exercises to significantly improve your balance
Mastery Manual 2: Independent Seat - 6 keys for developing a confident, independent seat

Spring Has Sprung

I found those here at the stable today :). Spring is on it´s way...

Oh Boy!

10 min liberty - weave patterns in walk, stick to me over cavaletti, draw towards me over cavaletti and backing up from z5 standing 6m away over 4 cavalettis :) - pretty awesome
50 min online with some Oh boy moments.
I started with liberty because Milva offered it. She is a real taskmistress and tries to please so much. If I don´t keep her busy she makes up all kind of stuff by herself.
After liberty I put the 22´rope on and we played a bit with the weave patterns at walk. I can be at the very end of the rope and weave her easily through. Figure 8s she does by herself now after sending her off. Too cute.
But then the fun started. Milva spotted a cat sitting over the A on the other end of the ridinghouse. She must have mistaken it for a mountainlion or something because she got really rbe. Not that she is afraid of cats otherwise, not likely with 25 cats in the stable. I approached the cat with a snorting Milva on the other end of the rope. I unhooked her just before getting to the cat and in the same moment she took off in full galopp. I decided to stay with the kitten while petting it and sweet talking to her. Milva´s curiosity took over and very carefully she approached us. Probably thinking if I didn´t get eaten up by now she will be kind of save too. I carried the cat to the door and released him outside. Milva carefully watching behind me.
I continued with my playsession with a now very exuberant Milva. I wish she would have picked another day to show her exuperance though because the stableowner came in to tear down the freejumping course and she decided to watch for a while and asked me if I couldn´t show her Milva´s trott and canter *cough, cough*.
I couldn´t come up with any excuse quick enough and instead switched over to the 44´rope (luckily).
I explained her that circling game hasn´t anything to do with lunging but instead encourages the horse to maintain gait, direction and looks where it is going and instead of micro managing the horse it has to show responsibility. Which earned me the first weird look. Further I explained that Milva is a lbi and therefor the circling game is a bit challenging for us. Second weird look.
I yoyo-ed Milva nicely back and asked her to walk to the left and when passing my shoulder I asked her to trott. Instead of acting like a well behaved western pleasure horse, with her head down while trotting (wishfull thinking from my side) Milva decided to show off and arched her neck, blowing out fire from her nose and carrying her tale high up like a flag and off she went, bucking and leaping around in the air. I couldn´t help and had to start loughing which gave me the third weird look and the question why I don´t stop that behaviour?? I told her that Milva needs to get it out of her system and usually she is fine afterwards and ready to have a conversation again. Only Milva decided that today was not the day where she wanted to have a conversation with me and instead played her own game with rearing up, bucking around and taking off in full galopp. Oh my. Before the stable owner left she asked if that is what we teach our horses?
What she didn´t see though was that I put more pressure on Milva after I realized that she wouldn´t listen to me and after a while my idea of slowing down became Milva´s idea and we could talk to each other again. I gave her a little rest when she came in to me and some scratches and after chewing and yawning alot I asked her to back up and to circle, this time she was relaxed in trott with her head down and good rhytm and she gave me 4 nice cirles with a slack in the rope, change of direction in trott and 4 nice circles in the other direction. How typical! Why couldn´t she show that while the stable owner was watching? Maybe I was acting different...I don´t know.
It make me realize once more though that Milva would be a very different horse with a diffent owner and that on some days she is alot of horse.

Storm, Storm Go Away!

It has been windy here since Sunday, therefor no riding for me. I don´t want to risk anything now in the beginning. Especially because things are going really well right now.
Saturday we took a 40min walk - down the dirt road and around the pastures. Milva was calm and collected all the way. She had her head down and didn´t spook once. I have never seen her that calm before - it looked very rideable to me :)). I´m sure Tinker´s company had something to do with it as well. Patricia road on Tinker and Tinker looked calm as well. Then we played in the ridinghouse for 20min online - canter transitions and 10min at liberty. Milva reared up twice. The first time because she thought I was unfair and she had to express her feelings somehow. I asked her to yoyo back but she offered the compliment. I told her thank you but now please go back and whoop there she was high up in the air. The second time I´m not quite sure were it came from. We just stood there and watched Patricia and Tinker doing figure 8´s suddenly Milva reared up and when she came down she just stood like before with her head down like nothing ever happened. Hmmm???? When she rears I mean she rears! It´s high up in the air not just a little.
On Sunday we played 20 online and yesterday we played 30min. My main focus is on canter transitions. She starts nicely to canter now - without bucking (mostly) and with only a phase 1 but she doesn´t keep it up and always comes in behind my back. But she did that in the beginning with the trott as well and now she can trott nicely a view rounds without breaking the gate. It all will come, it just takes some time.
For today I had planned riding but as I said, it´s pretty stormy here so I think what I will do is playing with her online with the saddle on.

Busy Week

I had a busy week with non related horse stuff. On Monday we finally made it to the austrian embassy in Copenhagen to get my passport renewed. On the way home we passed Årstiderna´s organic farm and bought fruit and vegetables in their farmshop. The selection was really good and so was the quality. Much better to buy it direct from the farm than ordering their boxes. I think that´s what we will be doing from now on.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I took Milva out for 30min walks around the barn and we played touch-it on the 22´rope. On some ocassions she went right brain but it didn´t take long for her to settle down again.
Today I spend udt with her and gave her a long brush and lots of scratches.

The Latest in Human Nutrition 2010 - Michael Greger MD

I have watched the original dvd of Dr. Michael Greger about Human Nutrition and can highly recommend everyone to watch it! It was such an big eyeopener for me.
Dr. Micheal Greger reads all the latest scientific rapports, works and every article that is published and gives us a summory about it on a dvd. Google his name and if you have the chanze - download or buy his dvd. It´s mindblowing!!!

RSA Animate - The Empathic Civilisation

The Emphatic Civilization written by Jeremy Rifkin

Never has the world seemed so completely united-in the form of communication, commerce, and culture-and so savagely torn apart-in the form of war, financial meltdown, global warming, and even the migration of diseases.

No matter how much we put our minds to the task of meeting the challenges of a rapidly globalizing world, the human race seems to continually come up short, unable to muster the collective mental resources to truly “think globally and act locally.” In his most ambitious book to date, bestselling social critic Jeremy Rifkin shows that this disconnect between our vision for the world and our ability to realize that vision lies in the current state of human consciousness. The very way our brains are structured disposes us to a way of feeling, thinking, and acting in the world that is no longer entirely relevant to the new environments we have created for ourselves.

The human-made environment is rapidly morphing into a global space, yet our existing modes of consciousness are structured for earlier eras of history, which are just as quickly fading away. Humanity, Rifkin argues, finds itself on the cusp of its greatest experiment to date: refashioning human consciousness so that human beings can mutually live and flourish in the new globalizing society…

As the forces of globalization accelerate, deepen, and become ever more complex, the older faith-based and rational forms of consciousness are likely to become stressed, and even dangerous, as they attempt to navigate a world increasingly beyond their reach and control. Indeed, the emergence of this empathetic consciousness has implications for the future that will likely be as profound and far-reaching as when Enlightenment philosophers upended faith-based consciousness with the canon of reason
One of the books from my february bookorder. It sounds really interesting and I can´t wait to start reading it tonight!

Online

I played online for 15min today, working on cantertransitions. What I did not do today was: warming up for a long time and doing a lot of circles in trott and walk before asking her to canter.
What I did was: lots of friendly game then I asked her to yoyo back, walk for half a circle and then trott for the other half and the canter. Before she was thinking of coming in or changing gait I asked her in. Lots of friendly game and lots of chewing from her side. Then the same on the other hand and that was it for today. She did give me half a circle of a nice canter and a good cantertransition with phase 1.
I haven´t made a plan for tomorrow yet. If no one is using the ridinghouse I might ride by myself. Helene is going to be busy tomorrow but I think Milva and I are ready to do it by ourself now. Plan B is more canter transitions online.

Milva - G, 7th ride

7th Ride

Milva was calm and relaxed when I rode her today, like the last time. She stood still when I mounted her and waited for 5 seconds (yes, I did count) but then she started to walk off. I could feel that she wanted to move so the same second she started to walk I asked her to walk off, phew good timing. BUT I really would love if she could wait longer for me. I know it will come with the time I just have to teach her. When she walked off today it felt like she was thinking: watch out, I´m coming through - coming through because she walked right between Shawn and Helene, very nonchalant, and then she put a face on like I got a job to do I don´t have time to stand here and talk to you guys. And she kept that serious face expression for all the 10 minutes I rode her. Hmmm, wait maybe she wants to work??
I did follow the rail on both hands, with lots of corrections because she wanted to go to see Shawn and Helene. It was also the first time today that I rode all the time by myself - without having Helene as leadhorse.
I noticed on the pictures that I have to work on my seat though, the NP is different compare to my dressage saddles after all and I just don´t have the right feel for it yet. I still love it though and I´m sure glad I bought it. I honestly think it´s the best saddle I have bought so far. But it´s different and it takes some time to get used to it.
30min online - longreining as a warm up
10min freestyle