Quick Update!

Thought the easyest way to update this was by copying my hours logged on Parell Connect!

 Will do a proper blog post soon promis!

Jo Hibberd said It is so cool when not only do your horses run to you but when you drive down the lane at 5pm you see two horses standing stretching there necks to look down the lane to see if you are coming yet! Love those guys x

Tue 15 Mar 2011 at 09:29PM - Comment - Delete

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Jo Hibberd with Arabella, (Freestyle, 15 mins) Little bareback tonight. Felt a bit apprehensive as she was in a punky mood but didn’t let her out-phase me in my plan to ride. So got on and just sat there for a bit. Asked her to walk and she did but then stopped to graze. Asked her to lift her head by tapping her neck, which she did but with a not pleasant look on her face, walked two steps then went to graze again. This time i caught her mid way by doing an indirect rein/ direct rein turn and then walking her 4 or 5 steps then asking her to stop and graze! When I was ready to move off I lifted my energy and ‘pop’ up came her head, ears forward and off we went! Got a few nice turns and some lovely lateral flexions before letting her graze and a scratch session before getting off as it was getting dark. Finished with a hand graze and some UDT on a nice patch of spring grass.
So glad I stuck to my plan to ride. Thats one less I have to do before I am hoping on her confidently and cantering into the sunset!

Tue 15 Mar 2011 at 09:23PM - Comment - Delete

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Jo Hibberd with Arabella, (On Line, 15 mins) Playing stick to me in prep for riding. got lovely walk-trot-canter-halt-backup transitions. Again playing with featherlight lines. Some nice sideways towards and away over a pole.

Tue 15 Mar 2011 at 09:10PM - Comment - Delete

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Jo Hibberd with Arabella, (Freestyle, 30 mins) In bareback pad. Point to Point, sideways over pole and working on her lateral flexion as she has been getting bracy – my fault, started to give her treats from the saddle now when i ask her to come round it’s ‘treat or you get nothing!’ Feeling braver today as she was being so partner like I attempted a trot! She happily obliged but the stopping was a little interesting as my body and brain was saying walk but my bum was saying trot!! When I lifted my rein she stopped immediately, poor confused pony!

Tue 15 Mar 2011 at 09:08PM - Comment - Delete

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Jo Hibberd with Arabella, (On Line, 30 mins) Quick play online using my new featherlight lines! I LOVE THEM! Love the feel they give me and Bella obviously does as she was so connected! Helped mum with her traveling circles with Prince and even swapped so I could teach Prince and Bella could teach mum – Principle 7!

Getting a New Perspective

My Newest Blog on Parelli Central!

Getting a New Perspective

Wedding Dress Training!

Well on April 16th 2011 I get married to my wonderful if long suffering partner Jon.  As part of my day we are planning to have some photo's taken with Bella and our Jack Russell 'Poppy'.  So, in preparation for this I have been doing lots of friendly game with things like hoops, sheets, blankets, plastic sheeting ... anything I can think of to prepare her for a wedding dress!  The plan is to have pictures taken with her and if she is calm them with me sat on her, but we will see how she is on the day!

My Friend and Parelli Student Lynne Watson has been helping me.  Here is a video from our session on the weekend to give you a taster!

I want to also say CONGRATULATIONS to Lynne on Passing her level 2 Freestyle with a L2+!!!! She has now graduated L2!!!

50+ questions

Yesterday’s online session was following on with helping Bella to find relaxation whilst doing transitions and maintaining gait using the circling game.  I was playing with her on the 45’ Line.  

We started the session by going through into the back field as this is drier. Bella was great and was able to walk the whole way there with me driving her from Z3 & Z4. I have been trying to get her to go first whenever we go any ware as she is now the lead horse when we go out so we are working on confidence taking the lead.  She walked out with a lovely swinging walk completely relaxed. 

Once in the field we did a little falling leaf and changes of direction, sideways etc just to get us in sync then I sent her in a circle at the walk and within half a circle she blew out and dropped her head.  I gently sent her up into a trot and it took about 5 circles till she dropped her head and snorted. BUT a HUGE thing was that she took up the WHOLE 45’ line today! This is a 1^st as normally after she gets to about 30’ she gets all RB! 

We rested a while then changed direction and went to the right.  Her worst rein. Walk was fine and again she took most of the line. About 40’ this time, but it took her a good 15/20 mins to find relaxation in the trot. But in that time she must have tried about 50 different things looking for the answer; Working Trot, Med Trot, Ext Trot, slow canter, Jog, fast canter, stop at the cone, walk, change direction, leg yield, collected trot, jump the poo!, flying change, you name it she tried it but all LB and asking questions the whole time. Finally her body came soft, she dropped her head, snorted and trotted a quarter of a circle and I brought her in and rewarded it.  LOTS of licking from her! 

Finished with a bit of touch it round the field then Z3 driving back to the stables. Such a great session :)

It's about the feet

My session this weekend consisted of going through the plan James Roberts gave us to see where the sticking points are.   When I was sitting at James’s I knew I had done it all before during the summer with her and we where working on the riding fine. But in the past couple of months the riding has changed so I thought it would be a good idea to start from scratch and see where we get stuck.

So here goes,
* Have your horse catch you - She trotted down the field to meet me 'tick'
* Halter with Savvy - when I stood next to her neck she brought her head round and put her nose in the halter before I asked, 'tick'.
* Touch all over - yes including mouth and 'private' areas - even got a blissful look on her face when I scratched her between her teats - 'tick'
* Place down the feet - not so hot, picked it up nice then tried to stamp it down when I went to place them, got there eventualtulay but not up to the usual.  Interestingly the back feet where 10 x's better then the frount feet.  During the summer I could pick up and place her feet were ever I wanted them, as many times as I liked, even while she was eating. Need to work on this.
*Standstill - perfect 'tick'


This was as far as I had planned to go today as the ground is to wet to play on, but I spent some time grooming and scratching her. Also did some lateral flexion on the ground, a bit sticky but not to bad.


All in all a good session. It what was interesting was how much has changed in the placing of her feet that I haven’t noticed until I really started thinking about it, no wonder our riding has been off! So my plan is the everyday I will pick up and place her feet until they are better than the day before.

Plan2Plan with James Roberts

On Sunday 9th January we braved the cold and did the 220 mile round trip to JRFS in Wiltshire for a horseless workshop with James Roberts.   The theme of the day was 'having a plan' here is the discription of the course:

'Plan your programme for the year in achievable steps. You will be taken through James’ Experience Plan to give you a programme to follow for the next 6 months! James’ plan is easy to follow, and realistic! It is used on a daily basis by James and his team, having been cultivated over the years by James in order to get the best out of his young horses, challenging horses and foundation horses. You can even watch James demonstrate areas of the plan with his young horses and foundation horses!'

As always with James this was a very beneficial and thought provoking day.  Although I had heard a lot of this when Bella was there being started it now makes more sense now that I am a little further down the road. 

We started the day with James saying I am going to ask you a simple question 'What do you want to do with your horses?' to which the normal answer is L3, L4, Instructor etc BUT on the grounds that Parelli is a training program for your horse 'What do you want to do with your horses?' .... after a few moments of silent processing people starting coming forward with things like dressage, endurance, riding club, having a horse my kids can ride safely ...  James point to this was that sometimes we get so stuck in the programme that we forget why we are doing it in the first place!  Which left me thinking, what do I really want to do with Bella??  Well I guess the answer to that is have fun, be safe, hack out and maybe get back into my dressage. 

James than went on to talk about leadership, the tools we need (not the halter/rope type tools but the tools of a horseman) and then onto the plan. 

Here are some photos of notes he made whilts talking including 'THE PLAN'

 The Plan!

By the end of the day we all had a plan of what we are doing, where we are heading and why we want to get there.  Thank you James for an amazing day.

 

Blue String Arrived!

On the 1st of November this arrived in the post!

Parelli Tumblr

I have had some of my photo put up on Parelli Tumblr! Check them out:


Me & Bella


Simmulation Day

Winter Workshop Series with 2* Terri Martinus

Over the winter I have been fortunate enough to be able to take part in a winter workshop series with Terri at Brinsbury College in Pulborough.  To enable me to learn better and not have to worry about emotions I borrowed a lovely mare called Kit that belongs to my friend Gill.  I have been riding and competing Kit on and off for the past 11 years so we know and trust each other well.  She was also Bella's 'nanny' when I first bought her.

Introducing Kit! 14.2hh Connemara x TB Mare 24 years young, RBI mainly, Still teaching us all a thing or two!

I had a few play session with Kit before the clinic to bring her up to speed (Gill has already got her through L1).

In the first Clinic we worked on doing the 7 Games but looking at them with 'Level 3 Eyes'.  Really working on refining and getting better quality in the movements.  We also did a lot of freestyle riding (which is why I brought Kit not Bella!).  It was great to be able to just get on and not have to think about her to much and focus on my body and getting things right so I can make them clearer to her.  We also got her first sideways when ridden which was really cool!

The second Clinic was all about focusing internally and being aware of out energy and how to control it to get the best out of our partners. I found this a challenge at first as Bella is a lot more 'tuned in' to my energy than Kit is but we soon got ourselves sorted and I found it was a great way to block out what was going on around me as I do tend to get distracted by spectators, what other horses are doing, saber tooth butterflies!

The third session was postponed due to snow but will be happening at the end of Jan so will blog about that separately.

Catch up .... opps been to long!

Ok Really SORRY! Just realized I haven't blogged since September!!! Bad bad me, but I have been busy so the next few blogs will be as a recap and then I will start again properly in 2011!

Were to start,

Horseless workshop - Run by me for the local Savvy Sussex Study Group.

In September I  held a horseless workshop for our small study group. The aim for the day was to be able to practice all those simulation that we have learnt over the past year in a fun and supportive environment where people can learn and not feel silly.  My field is quite isolated so it was the perfect venue. 

We started the day with some Carrot Stick Savvy!

For online:

·       Picking up the carrot stick (both hands):

1.     Using string ‘flick’ it up and toss it behind you

2.     ‘Flick’ it up and catch it  (can you get to the point where you can flick it up high enough that you can spin round and still catch it?)

3.     ‘Flick it up, catch it then hit a target WITH THE LEATHER POPPER!

4.     GAME of quick draw – Best of 3

·       Practicing an underhand flick, use a fence post

·       Pop a balloon – phase one then phase 4 =POP! Both over hand then underhand

·       Firm to friendly on a barrel – practice phase friendly and 4.  Then can you go to p4 and change it to a p1 mid way?

·       WACK A BARREL! P4 on a barrel then rub it – how quick does your energy come up and down?

For riding:

·       Tossing the carrot stick from hand to hand, can you do it walking, trotting, and cantering??

·       How to throw a carrot stick, in pairs throw it to each other … how far can you get from each other?

·       Throwing it on the move … figure of 8 every time you pass someone you have at swap carrot sticks, walk and trot!

Moving on to Online Skills

·       (halter and 12, 22 & 45 lines, working in pairs) how soon can you feel it and what does each phase ‘feel’ like on the different lengths of rope.  Blind folded – can you still tell now?

Conger Horses:

·       figure of 8

·       sideway with fence & with just a pole

·       circle – with change of direction

Then Parelli Puzzles!

5 tasks, 5 minutes!

Level 1/2 people: (Fran, Gill, Janie)

·       Squeeze between you and fence,

·        Z1 on pedestal,

·        figure of  8 – from 12’ft away

·       yo-yo over pole

·       sideway along the fence (1 gap distance)

Level 2/3 people: (Lynne, Jo & Liz)

·       Squeeze over a sml jump

·       Z1 & Z2 on pedestal THEN Z3 & Z4 on pedestal

·       Figure of 8 (from 12ft + away)

·       Sideways over a pole

·       Kick ball through two cones

Lunch !!!!!!!!!!

In the afternoon we did a bits & bridles simulation

Fluidity

Energy levels.  Walk , trot, canter then run as fast as you can then STOP!  How much energy did you put into it? What sort of walk trot canter did you do? How long did it take you to stop – no I mean stop! How quickly did you come of it?  

Balance point:

On a barrel with someone holding a SS, can they pull up of balance?

·       How you sit now (feet off the floor)

·       How you sit now (feet off the floor), but grip with your knees

·       On balance point

·       On BP but grip with your knees

·       On balance point and stick you chin out

·       On BP with arms bent

·       On BP with arms straight

·       On BP, chin normal, knees relaxed, arms bent = power position

·       Pedaling

·       Push passenger position

On a barrel on a slope, DOWN hill –

·       How you would expect to sit (trad taught)

·       Now on BP, weight back in seat, and pushing on hands (to simulate neck or saddle horn) – load the back end. 

·       Explain the ‘lockit and rockit’ concept

On a barrel on a slope, UP hill –

·       How you would expect to sit (trad taught)

·       Now on BP, weight back in seat, and pushing on hands (to simulate neck or saddle horn), but back almost upright so you load the back end

·       Bend their ribs to release a brace – go tight in your body, the bend your ribs until you CANT hold the brace anymore.

·       Stand on to blocks and try to pull each other off. Balance point

Freestyle Riding

Rein Positions:

·       Lateral flexion

·       Lateral flexion using CS

·       Indirect reins

·       Indirect  rein – backing up with CS on Z5!

·       Direct reins

·       9-step back-up

·       Sideways

·       pick up and drop reins with out looking

·       casual, bunny rabbit, butterfly, contact rein

·       suspension rein

·       California roll

In groups of 3 conga horses:

·       Stopping – just lift/pull back on both reins,  lift one rein, then one rein  but shift your weight onto your balance point 1^st – feel the difference.

·       Direct and indirect reins on the move

·       Cantering – correct leg (in pairs, focus)

·       Bowtie pattern

·       Sideways

Leadership

Blindfold in silence in pairs – follow my leader around an obstacle course, switch half way! 

Phew! What a day!! But loads learnt :)  Here are a few pics from Parelli Tumblr to give you a taste of the day

http://parellicentral.tumblr.com/post/1257402019/a-few-weeks-ago-our-local-savvy-sussex-group