Blog Problems! Help!!

Anyone else having problems with their blogspot right now?
My whole sidebar dissappeared, it won´t let me publish new posts without saving them first and editing again, if I´m lucky half of what I have written appears the rest is lost in cyberworld. Oh, and I can´t leave any comments on other blogs and have to sign in all the time in my blog, Phew not fun at all right now.
Does anyone know how I can change this or find a solution for the problem?

Who Said Can´t

"Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel
awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new."
-Brian Tracy

White Stallion

pictures from our neighbour Johan´s photosession.
Now I would love to put Milva in the stallion pasture to get the same light effects and the same kind of pictures. Unfortunately she is not very cooperative to my idea and gets all right brain when I try to put her in that pasture. Maybe later....one day...
Playing with the sideways game today, lots of different variations.

Horses And People Are What You Are

HORSES (AND PEOPLE!) ARE WHAT YOU ARE...

An old wise man was sitting on a chair in front of a big stable with a lot of horses.

A rider passing by approached him and asked, "Sir, how are the horses in this stable? I am planning to start riding here and leave my stable.

The old man asked him "How are the horses in your stable?"

The rider replied," Very selfish, rigid and stubborn."

The wise man promptly told him, " Young man, in this stable also you will only find selfish, rigid and stubborn horses!"

A little later, another rider was passing by.
He too asked the same question to the old man.

The old man asked him "How are the horses in your stable?"

The rider answered, "The horses in my stable are very loving, kind and generous."

The old man replied back, "Then you will also find the same kind of horses here."

'And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.' - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Beloved Milva

work related course today and now my brain hurts from learning so much new stuff. grazing with the milva pony and off to bed now. too tired to do anything else.

Sunday Play

Went to the stable twice. First time with our neighbour Johan to take some pictures of Milva and the second time for playing some more with the canter. Slowly getting there.

Short Visit At The

Early morning in the stable to feed breakfast - guess who is the hungriest in the morning ;). Mucked out the stable and half of the pasture. Then I went to Bjuv - to Gustavsborg to meet Ulrika and Manno, who attented the Natural Dressage clinic there.
Afternoon I played 3,5 hours with Milva. Asked Milva to canter twice again - once in each direction. In the left lead she is deffinitely more exubarant, right lead another nice collected uphill canter. I only asked her for a few steps and called it a day. She really is trying her heart out with the cantering part but is getting a bit insecure in times.

not the best filming from my side - I know ;)
Playing with Milva while Cornelia rode at freestyle doing level 4 stuff - totally awesome!
With Milva - circling game, canter at both leads. Left lead was a lot of bucking, right lead was going perfect, nice uphill canter but when I asked her to come in she reared up, not angry or threathful or anything like that, it was more like she felt for it. I decided to just ignore it cause she was still calm and concentrated.
Continuing with the compliment and Milva starts to get it :).

Parelli Connect - E-learning Courses

If you go on Parelli Connect you can find a new E-learning course. I have started my course yesterday and totally love it! Lots of useful information put together in a package. I decided to print out all the theory and extra material and put them in a folder so I can re-study it when I´m on the ferry on the way to work. Also I like it better to have study material actually printed out on paper so I can highlight important things and write my own thoughts down as well.
Super fun anyway!

About the Parelli Pathway Companion


Horsemanship is not something you can do from your desk or armchair, so although this course is internet-driven it's designed to get you out playing with your horse and to put into practice what you are learning.

The companion includes:
1.Theory sections: Giving you the background and the why behind what you'll be doing with your horse.
2.Hands-on Activities: Things for you to teach your horse and yourself to do.
3.Reflection: Follow up questions for you to use to reflect on what you've learned.
4.Measurement: Self Assessment tasks at the end of each lesson for you to measure your progress.

If you are experienced with horses, you will gain important insights into effective training techniques.

If you are new to horses, you will learn the first things everyone should be taught when they first started interacting with horses. Your level of experience and expertise before starting this companion will also affect how quickly you will accomplish each Level.

More Play

3 hours of play with Cornelia again.
Milva put all four feet in a big water puddle in the paddock and walked through it. She usually doesn´t like to get her feet dirty or muddy but she did walk through the water when I asked her to - too cute!
Our first sideways over three barrels - only did it over a black tube before. It wasn´t a big deal for her at all. I just asked her and she did it like she had done it a hundred times before.
Squeeze game over the barrels by moving one so she could walk through it. She choose to walk over a barrel though insead of using the whole I made of her. She sure goes over every fence I ask her too no matter how it looks like :).
2 lay downs - even though she doesn´t like the wet sand so much cause she doesn´t want to get dirty - or wet.
Weave patterns with a little jump at the end, draw back and weave back. Some figure 8s and nice cicling game in walk and trot with transitions.
I also started to teach her the compliment and spanish walk again - now that I have Cornelia to show me how it is done :).
Lots of grazing and scratching time in between the tasks of course.
Pizza and True Blood now and Ben & Jerry for dessert :)

Wow!

Cornelia riding her two horses - Lilly the white pony and Sia her swedish warmblood

Parelli August 2011 Goldmembership Shipment

August Audio CD
"Sneak Preview of the Liberty and Bridleless Riding Summit"
Pat invites you to join him at this year’s Summit in beautiful Pagosa Springs, Colorado. He shares with you what the Summit is and why you’d want to come. You’ll also get a taste of what you’ll learn at this beautiful, exciting and educational event.

August Mastery Lesson
Pat's Lesson - Lauren & Paris: Gaining Confidence Under Pressure
Linda's Lesson - Hot Jazz: Liberty Lesson Two
August Savvy Times
This month's issue features articles on The Seven Games in the Saddle, Sidesaddle Savvy, Improving Expression and more...plus your stories from around the globe.

Thunder & Lightening & Rain

Cornelia & Sia
3 hours of play with Cornelia and her lovely swedish warmblood (halvblood) Sia.
My first day of my well deserved 5 days off now. Feels almost like vacation.
My morning started with apple - cinemon pancakes. One of Shawn´s specialty are american pancakes and we have them quite often. We invited Johan our neighbour and had a wonderful breakfast. It was the first time we made pancakes with apples and cinemon and if you like pancakes and haven´t tried this version yet - it´s super yummy and you can´t stop eating.
At lunch I picked up Cornelia, who just lives 200 meters away from our place and we drove to the stable. After we both mucked out our stables we build a super fun Parelli obstacle course and the sandpaddock. No one else is using that paddock lately cause the footing isn´t the best and it´s pretty wet there right now.
We are using it regularly though. Let´s see how long it takes until someone else is complaining about our obstacles though...
We built up a Sundial, plastic tarp, L-shape obstacle, black tube, 3 barrels laying down, 5 cartires for the weave pattern and figure 8´s and one little jump after the car tires.
On the weekend I´m going to borrow Anita´s or Pat´s horsetrailer for the trailerloading part of my upcoming audition. Oh yeah, I´m planing the level 3 audition even though our canter is still non existing but it will be in a few weeks ;).
Halfway through our playsession it started to pour down but we still kept playing.
It was super fun and I´m totally impressed by Cornelia´s skills. She is for sure level 3 -4 and super talented. It´s a pleasure to watch her play and a big inspiration.
Another fun thing is that she will move her two mares into our turn-out stable - after the owner´s build a roof outside the stable.
Homemade spinach pasta now with a pinenut - mushroom sauce and a zucchine, olive, basil sauce. Thanks to Shawn and Johan

Sunday Morning Play

I managed to squeeze in 2 hours of play this morning.
Circling game over 4 cavalettis, maintaining gate, direction and gate. I used the 45´rope and Milva was a real trooper. Most of the time there was a slack in the rope and she actually could choose to go over the cavalettis or around but she chose to go over them each time.
Only one time she got her feet mixed up when walking over the cavalettis which put her out of balance and made her real angry. She put on her dragonface and jumped the rest of the cavalettis and reared up afterwards and came flying towards me. Too funny! She totally cracks me up when she does that.
More sideways over a cavaletti and one lay down and backing up from z 5, which we had some difficultis with lately. Milva got a bit confused - or well, I confused her so she thought I mean spin. Finally my brain kicked in and I switched the carrot stick to the other hand and voila - she backed up again.

Saturday Play

Lots of grazing and a little bit of play with obstacles and circling game with obstacles.

*Love*

Milva´s first name is deffinitely Love!
I went to the stable early this morning so I would have a bit more time to play. After letting Milva eat for 1 hour - as usual, we moseyed to the sandplace, just to find out that it was totally under water and not usable.
We moseyed back ut to the ridinghouse which was occupied by another rider who had turned up the music really high - like disco volume high and on top of that it was music of a radio station I totally dislike. She also took lots of space in the ridinghouse and constantly clicked with her tongue combined with using her riding crop. With one word - annoying.
I only click with my tongue when I want Milva to go forwards - one click for walk and two for trot and that´s it. I also need to do it once for her to understand. Subtle aids, ey. As little as possible to keep her sensitive...
Anyway, I was already on the way to turn around and call it a day when Milva started to walk with confident steps into the ridinghouse. Here we come ;).
I don´t know why or how it happend but she was totally tuned in with me and reacted on the sligthest sign. Very nice circles in trot on the 45´ rope with a slack in the rope.
We finished our play session with lay down while the other girl cantered like a maniac around. Milva didn´t even hesitate. You want me to lay down? Ok, where? Here? 10- 4, here it is :).
Best pony ever!!

Rain Rain Go Away

grazing Milva in the summer rain

Playing 1 hour in the ridinghouse together with Cornelia. What an impressing young lady! She can ride her horse freestyle doing level 4 things like flying lead changes and piaff and canter pirouettes without a bridle on, only with a string around the neck. Totally awesome! Since we have talked the last time she searched all kind of information about Parelli and came up with some really good questions today *me like*.
We went through the 7 games and the figure-8 and weave patterns.
I asked Milva a few times to lay down and Cornelia showed me how she thought her mare the Spanish walk and the compliment.
Circus here we come!

Babies Are Getting Big

picture taken by Malin
I´m not getting much done here I have to admit.
Tomorrow is another day though. Milva and I are having a photosession date with our neighbour and in the afternoon we are having a playdate with Cornelia and her two horses. I´m going to show her the 7 games with Milva and some of the patterns and I will tell her more about Horsenalities :).

Funny How Some People Seem To Cross My Way Over And Over Again

this stallion moved in to our stable last week. Malin sent me a link to the stallions owner, whom surprisingly I knew. The Equestrian world sure is little...

Just So You Know by Sarah Addison Allen

You fall in love with every book you touch. You never break the spine or tear the pages. That would be cruel. You have secret favorites but, when asked, you say that you could never choose. But did you know that books fall in love with you, too?

They watch you from the shelf while you sleep. Are you dreaming of them, they wonder, in that wistful mood books are prone to at night when they’re bored and there’s nothing else to do but tease the cat.

Remember that pale yellow book you read when you were sixteen? It changed your world, that book. It changed your dreams. You carried it around until it was old and thin and sparkles no longer rose from the pages and filled the air when you opened it, like it did when it was new. You should know that it still thinks of you. It would like to get together sometime, maybe over coffee next month, so you can see how much you’ve both changed.

And the book about the donkey your father read to you every night when you were three, it’s still around – older, a little worse for wear. But it still remembers the way your laughter made its pages tremble with joy.

Then there was that book, just last week, in the bookstore. It caught your eye. You looked away quickly, but it was too late. You felt the rush. You picked it up and stroked your hand over its glassy cover. It knew you were The One. But, for whatever reason, you put it back and walked away. Maybe you were trying to be practical. Maybe you thought there wasn’t room enough, time enough, energy enough.

But you’re thinking about it now, aren’t you?
You fall in love so easily.
But just so you know, they do, too.



This essay first appeared as a Valentine’s Day 2010 “More in Store” feature for Barnes & Noble’s Nook.

Breakfast On The Beach In Råå

Yesterday Shawn and I managed to squeeze in breakfast at the beach.
August is another crazy month at work. I hoped it would slow down with the new people starting to work, but oh boy, how wrong I was. Things should slow down by the middle/end of August for sure though.
I manage to play for a little bit with Milva before going to work. We are not playing with new things though.
I met a real nice girl and her mum at the stable a few weeks ago and got a call from them today if we could met at the stable. The girl is playing with her two horses after Monty Roberts methods (not really my cup of tea). When I met her the last time I told her about Parelli and their program and showed her some stuff Milva could do. So today she wanted to show me the new things she thought her horses since we last met - things I showed her the last time. So cute!!
We are going to meet next Wednesday to play with our horses and I borrowed her the Parelli Celebration Dvd. Fun, fun, fun.
Back to work now again...

Work Work Work

Family weekend - check
Bella rode Orkan and played with Milva. I was very impressed with her skills - otherwise I wouldn´t have let her play with Milva. Milva even laid down for her.
I have to work another 9 days in a row now but that´s now really the last time, or so I hope anyway.