Carrot Stick Riding

Played with Gizmo a little before riding and he got straddling the pole almost instantly. We did it on a small pole first because I haven't done it in a while, then we progressed to the telephone pole size log. Got it, we moved on to figure eight. Online first, then I took off the lead rope to see what I had. He have me 3 revolutions at the trot at liberty. Not bad, huh? Very proud of that. Our liberty really doesn't exist because I have no round pen. Sometimes I play with it in the pasture. His sideways with speed along a fence would have probably made Pat Parelli fuss me. We rode with carrot stick today because I don't do enough of it. I'm always doing the pattern follow the rail and million transitions. It seems to me that I do that an awful lot and we still don't have it, ha! Gizmo was introverted today. It is funny to me how he changes. We did indirect turns that led to direct turns. He did very nice but very slow. He went into the canter from the trot, but I asked for it while we were walking. More practice on that! Lately I've been asking him to lope for longer periods, like one full lap around the arena, today we went one and a half and I cut through the middle and kept him in the smaller circle. He didn't have any problems with it. He didn't turn with my body today like I thought. I had to go to the phase 4 of the carrot stick almost everytime. I'm figuring he was so introverted today because I saw him and Can Do in the pasture for about 30 min playing dominance games. They were doing a lot of cutting up and running. He was probably whooped from that. Who knows!

Gizmo's Week

We played online and Gizmo was sooo introverted, however, I did get the trot on the figure eight. It was such a beautiful, cool day and the sun was so warm. I was actually feeling kind of lazy myself. His change of direction going from the right to the left needs a little improvement. I really like how he is letting me halter him and bridle him. He is seeking the bit with his lips. Guess I'd do it too if I liked molasses. This was all in preparation to ride. I cannot do too much ground work as far as circling game when I want to ride because he fizzles out. I have to save that energy for the saddle. After saddling, I took it very slow. I wanted to do a follow up from yesterdays ride.We did phases at the walk and trot seeing how little I could do to get him to turn when I wanted. At first, he was not so great, so I picked up the carrot stick. This seemed to bring him more life just knowing that I had it. Soon after, his life came back down. Not sure what that was about! It was just a small bit of life anyway. After making some turns around the cones, he started to turn with just my body. I only did a couple and got my happy butt off of him. Didn't want to drill him. I'm hoping that this will make my ride better for tomorrow, right Linda! Forgot completely to do backup, but did some indirect turns leading into a direct turn and he did it, very slowly I might add! Oh, I forgot to mention that we worked on fig. 8 at liberty. He did it! I need to incorporate more liberty into my program.

First Liberty

I felt progressive with Can Do today! She was attentive and cooperated with me. I need a NP saddle so bad. I'm using one of those synthetic saddles with her because my Circle Y in too tight for her round back. It just seems to fit her better, but not great. Maybe Santa will bring me one. I'm really lol right now!!!! Anyway, I was happy with her session of FR, direct turn, indirect turns, and stopping with my seat. I even played a little liberty with her in the arena and she stayed with me. I tried stick to me. If I tried asking her to move her front end in the pasture, for example, she would ignore me or walk away, so I felt good about that. When I did a partial disengagement to change her from my left side to my right, I got two eyes and it flowed pretty good. Joey is putting sand in my tire today and is regrading my path in the arena. Yeah!

Called in the Professionals!

I have been riding nearly everyday, but haven't posted. I've called on the professional - Maurice. I'm waiting to hear from him now. Gizmo is doing better than expected on ground work, but I'm not progressing in freestyle. It is like I just started. Direct thinking - probabaly! Drilling him - probably! But after one and a half years of freestyle I should be out of level 2. I've even stopped riding Can Do so I can concenrate on Gizmo. With that said, I'm ready for some level 3. However, I must post that we have started liberty. I have no round pen, but decided to give it a try in my arena. He did everything I asked. I even filmed it and posted it on youtube (way out of the box for me). Yesterday, which would be the first time I tried it out of the arena in the big wide world with no fences, he again did everything I asked. We played stick to me to get to the obstacles then I sent him over the bridge, one foot on the bridge, two feet, then back up. He was on! Then I asked him to jump 3 barrels and he did. How cool was that. Then I played STM to get to the pasture, opened up the gate and sent him in. No grass eating either. That was exciting! Wish I could go to the summit coming up. I know I would learn so much. I will be eagerly awaiting the DVD that comes out on that one.

Provocative!

 Our ride today was fabulous. I really felt try in Gizmo right from the start of our session. I have been trying to be so light with a phase 1 of a phase 1. I'm feeling that maybe he is finally starting to connect with me. I've read that it happens in level 3, which I am playing in online and a little freestyle, and low and behold it is happening. They say to trust the program! To top it off, I decided to hose him down when we were done so I put him next to the water hose and left him to get the nozzle. Well, he wandered off to visit the other pasture horses about 30 feet away. I ran back the water hose, grabbed my c stick and attempted to disengage his hindquarters. He then spun towards me at a trot and I instantly had the thought to slap the c stick hard on the ground. His trot turned into a canter and I put my hands up to stop him right in front of me. His expression was a "10" and mine was "OMG!!!! Did I just do that". The feeling was amazing. This was completely at liberty which we have only scratched the surface with. At that moment I realized the true meaning of being provocative. I get it!

Liberty

I have to brag! I pulled my new 4 horse trailer, all by myself, to my friends house this week. I brought Gizmo because I thought he needed to experience being alone with me somewhere else. Well he did great. When he got unconfident as the other horses got further away, I made him think by giving him tasks to work on. We were also able to work on liberty for the first time in a real round pen. He did everything he was supposed to do. We played all seven games, even circling game! It really pumped me up because I'm am seeing progress. It seems like I was stuck for awhile, but now we are moving forward and it feels great. I need to get those auditions going. I bought a new card for my camcorder and I will get my friends to tape me soon. I promise!