PARELLI CELEBRATION 2011!!!!

I am of to the Parelli Celebration this weekend YIPPEE!!!

Have you got your tickets yet??

Parelli Celebration 2011 LG Arena, Birmingham, UK April 9-10, 2011

Tickets On Sale Now!  See below for detailed information

Linda and Pat Parelli, together with Parelli instructors and students will look  at many aspects of natural horsemanship at the 2011 Parelli Celebration at the LG Arena, Birmingham. As well as an action-packed educational programme, the team will be celebrating people who have discovered their potential with  horses and showcase them in the Savvy Spotlight sessions. The Celebration’s  key focus will be all about Horsenality, and will essentially show the individual  character of horses, how to recognise the four different Horsenality types, and whether they are on the cusp of two. Said Linda: “I feel like we have decoded horses as individuals. It’s taken the mystery out of why some horses are ‘lazy, crazy, naughty or unpredictable’. Instead of judging them, you understand them and by knowing Horsenality it helps you bring out the best in your horse rather than the worst.” Added Pat: “This is how I read horses, it’s what I do in my head.” There will be an insight into what causes horses to shift behaviours and show  the best strategic, horsenality-based training approaches to get your horse to be:  calm, trusting, motivated and willing. See groups of horses of the same  horsenality, it’s amazing how obvious it is when you put them together and  get your hands on the ‘cheat sheet’, a helping hand to addressing specific  behaviours. From trailer loading to hacking to jumping and dressage, learn from  demonstrationsof training each horsenality – what is hard, what is easy, how  to balance it all out. Everything from Horsenality, to problem horses and  developing relationships with horses will be covered over the two days.  They will also be looking at Horsenality alongside Humanality and  what to do if your horse is your opposite! The 2011 Parelli Celebration will have you sitting on the edge of your seat and  will provide a compelling two days not to be missed. Parelli Member Price: £89.00 Non-Member: £119.00 Child: £59.00 Groups: BUY 10 TICKETS FOR £500.00 Order tickets online through the Ticket Factory or call the Ticket Factory at 0844 581 0825. Club Members: call the UK team for your promotional code to receive your  special member price. (0800 0234 813 or +44 2476 692 888)

The Balance of life

I Just read this fantastic blog post about the balance of life by a Parelli Extern Student so I though i'd share! Enjoy and make a note to remind yourselves!

http://sofie-sofiespantersparelliliv.blogspot.com/2011/03/7-balances-of-life.html

Getting permission to play

Today I turned up and went to halter Bella and she walked off ... Hmm FEEDBACK! After playing a little 'catching' game I offered her the halter and she put her ears back and walked off again ... Mmm 'How Interesting!'

Ok, time for a different tac ... leaving the halter, Liberty it is! Again I went to play the catching game but as soon as I approached her she turned and walked over.  I gently flicked the Savvy string over her neck and asked her to follow the feel as I have a hundreds times - nope i'm not moving! Did a little friendly then tried again. One step, sigh then turn and walk off with a board look on her face.  Ok, not what I expected!!

I walked after her and decided to get more provoctive.  As I approced instead of going to her head I went to her side and asked her for sideways towards - BINGO! She slid strait over then turned and gave me two eyes.  I walked off and asked her to stick to me which she did but with a grumpy face, ok lets fix that, hind quater and for quarter yeilds - fast! PING, happier looking face!

Permission and attitude better now to work on the brain.  I started to do lead by the front legs which she knows, then led backwards by the back leg which we haven't done before.  She quickly got it and was soon walking backwards just from a suggestion.

Now she was connected and forward thinking I started to carry on playing with things that we have been playing with to see where we are at.

Spins - yeilding nicely from the front but a bit 'sticky' when her Z5 is towards me. But finishing nicely.

Lead by tail - Perfect straight.  Getting better at turning whilst backing.

Stick to me matching strides and body positions - ie if i walk slow, hunched over with my head down will she match me.  Really nice with her head, nose almost on the floor.  Was having trouble changing between the different walks. But 1st time at liberty so not bad concidering!

Circling - 1st attemt she left and went as stood about 10ft from me with her bum to me - There's that feed back again!! Did a bit of friendly rubbing then reasked softer. BINGO! 1 perfect circle!

Then tought her something new - lead but the forlock! She already knows lead by the mane so picked this up after 2 attempts. Cleaver girl!

Then ran throught it all mixing it up and ended with a grazing session with me sat on the grass and her grazing by me. 

When I got up she raised her head, I flicked the savvy string over her neck and she walked and trotted next to me back accross the field to get her dinner.

What did she teach me tonight?
* I have to earn the right to play and mean it if I want to!
* Give her more process time ... sometimes I rush her
* My little LB horse will teach me more than I will ever teach her!

Perfect Ride!

Best ride of the year .... so far!  Spent a bit of time checking and re-shimming her NP saddle then prepared her to ride - only took 5mins, a record!! Lots of lovely soft flexions. Did a bit of point to point and trotting circles to get us warmed up and in sync.  Got some really nice trot circle so all the work we have been doing on finding relaxation online is paying off now. We did have a few small issues of her choosing when to eat, but once she figured it was better to wait till i offered she was fine (and didn't take much persuading - my leadership in the saddle must be going up!)

I then moved on to playing the Yo-Yo game by doing lots of transitions B/up - Halt - Walk - Trot both on a circle ans straight line.  She was really responsive and we finished with some really lovely Halt-Trot-Halt transitions from my energy alone. Let her stand and graze for 10 mins with me sat on her as a reward for putting in so much effort in the transitions. When i wanted to get of i just lifted my life and her head popped up ready to go again!

For me I am over the moon that I had almost no hesitation in getting on her today or at any point in the session. Can't wait to go to the beach tomorrow!

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.