Day #6 - “The Truth” - and - Catastrophe! “Prey/Predator Monday,” August 31

31. August 2009 by Edie.

“When you take the halter and lead rope off, all you have left is the truth.”  ~Pat Parelli

Well, just when you think things are going great, SOMETHING happens to bring you back down from the clouds.  I’d better start from the beginning of the day though, so here goes:

Today we started in the ranch house with PP John Baar introducing a passel of new instructors who are going to help us through the next week.  We also welcomed some new students who are joining us - some for only one week and some for several weeks - classes run simultaneously here, so people come and go, but the majority who started last Monday (around 40 people) will be here for the whole month along with me - some of us are getting pretty tight by now.

John started by talking about how this week we will be working on Liberty savvy, hence “The Truth,” title of this course, meaning, when you take off all the ropes, halters, etc., what do you have left? - THE TRUTH!  Does your horse really WANT to be with you?  Mmmmmm . . . .

We talked about how having the right attitude is SO important - it must be positive, progressive, and natural.  We took each word separately:

POSITIVE: We are to remember to visualize POSITIVELY to create better outcomes.  John again talked about fear (our’s AND horse’s) and how the right side of our brain doesn’t care about logic - its only function is to keep us ALIVE (Cheri, wish you could be here for some of this and share your journey with others!).  John said that what we focus on will expand and is more likely to happen, so that visualizing worst-case scenarios actually makes the possibility of them happening much more likely.

PROGRESSIVE: he talked again about the 3 reasons we do on-line exercises with our horses: 1) to advance our communication, 2) to prepare for something else, and 3) because horses teach people and people teach horses.  He talked about having 3 phases to your session with your horse: warm-up (something easy for both of you), teaching phase (have a plan for your session, then step outside your comfort zone(s) and STRETCH!) and cool-down phase (go back to something simple and end on a positive note).

NATURAL:

- is NOT mechanical or judgmental

- has an attitude of justice

- uses the laws of nature

- “want” vs. “make” (it’s OUR job to set it up so our idea becomes our horse’s idea - we should set them up to do their job with dignity!)

- pressure motivates, release teaches

FOUNDATION BEFORE SPECIALIZATION!

Natural is staying positive and progressive and putting the horse’s need(s) first!

Then John went on to set us up for his demo. outside in the round pen with his horse, Leo.  He talked specifically about circling game and how it is important for us to remember “the power of neutral,” (something I really learned a lot about last week with Sam Caporn).  He drew us concentric circles and asked us to think about staying in the smallest inner circle while in neutral - horses are very aware of and sensitive to silhouettes, and our stick has to be a part of us.  He also talked about how traditional longing simply de-sensitizes horses and doesn’t give them ANY responsibility.  We need to think about how we set up our horse to go out onto the circle and expect them to do THEIR jobs: 1) act like a partner, not a prey animal, 2) maintain gait, 3) maintain direction, and 4) watch where they’re going!  These responsibilities are in a hierarchy of importance (in that order).  He reminded us again that the better our “send” is, the better our “allow” will be, and that as soon as we make it a game, our horse will take an interest.

John talked about how body language is universal, but that WE don’t have to use it to survive - and horses DO!  We must be clear and consistent in order not to confuse our horse.  He ended with saying he wants us to exaggerate to teach, but then REFINE (tall order!).

We had a couple of visitors this morning - Pat and Allure!  Pat talked to us about our “aha” moments and a bit about his (new) relationship with Allure - Linda finally asked if he would ride him for her, since she is not completely recovered from her injury, and he said yes, of course.  He talked about how he has been teaching Allure about cattle and I asked him “How does he like it?”  Pat replied - “He’s like a happy alligator!”  Such an apt description of this off-the-charts LBE horse!  It was cool to watch him “fidget” as Pat talked to us - he obviously hated standing around and wanted to be off doing whatever it is they were going to be doing, but Pat just matched his little movements with his own and Allure never really got anywhere - funny!  Pat never got frustrated or impatient, just continued his Q & A and comments.  I can see why Linda says that Pat and Allure are perfect for each other! 

Then, we went outside and John played with Leo.  He reminded us how it is hard to TEACH at liberty - that is why we start on-line and get it good before we try things without a rope.  We should build/teach on-line first.  He mentioned that some people and their horses seem to be better at liberty than on-line (that would be us!) and just when I was starting to feel cool and think that was a GOOD thing, he said “Those are usually LBI horses who are simply saying “let me out there so I can do what I want!”  Sure sounds like HotShot - better get our on-line better for sure!

John showed us some cool stuff with Leo (backing all the way around the pen - backing is a GAIT to maintain!).  He sent us off to work this afternoon on the first three games (only) at liberty, reminding us that “for every door we close, we need to open another.”

So, after lunch I had to take Ash to the doctor in town - her throat has been bothering her so much because of the dry air - they told her she was OK, although VERY irritated in her throat - at least she’s not sick or anything, that would have been horrible!

After lunch we had three choices to play with:  online building to liberty in the big playground, liberty in a playpen (games 1-3) in the big playground honeycomb, or liberty circles in the grassy hill honeycomb.  Ash and I got back a bit late, so I took HotShot into the 50′ round-pen to warm him up, with the intention of going to one of those stations.  As I was working on his change of direction (we were a bit “stuck” on this, since he has SO MUCH more impulsion since our session with Sam last week, he doesn’t want to slow down!).  So, John Baar was riding by and I asked him for help.  He gave me some pointers and we were just about ready to put HotShot back on line to slow him down and get him more settled, when John got off his horse and offered to show me (bonus!).  He came in the pen and off HotShot went.  I think he was quite nervous about John and in retrospect, John might have taken things a bit slower and played a little friendly first, but oh well.  John seemed to be getting somewhere, but then he pushed a little too hard and HotShot’s draft horse came out again - he decided to go through the tiny opening (about six inches wide) that John had left between the round-pen panels when he came in - disaster!  He knocked down one panel and of course, it was attached to another, and another . . . then as they started to come down, he ended up all tangled up in the panels with his legs!  I of course didn’t breathe until he got himself out and trotted up to the pens - freak-out!  I went up and got him back near the water tanks, and he was limping a bit on his left hind, and three of his four legs are all scraped up.  Talk about heart failure!  So  - we went right back to the round pen and moved him around a bit until he calmed down, then I went up to the wash rack and cold-hosed his legs, applied Betadine, then antibiotic ointment (all provided by wonderful co-students who had witnessed this calamity and came running with help!).  My first-aid kit was up on the hill in my trailer, so I could have gotten it, but it sure felt good to have all the support.

We all talked about what could have been done to prevent such an incident (John immediately took responsibility for leaving the tiny hole between the panels that Hotty obviously thought was a door he could leave through!).  I decided to go back on-line for a few days in that particular pen to get him back and centered.  As of two hours after the incident there does not appear to be any swelling, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed that his legs won’t swell overnight, but if they do, a co-student has a laser and phototonic wand that she is going to show me how to use - and another co-student who is an O.R. nurse said that even the small cut on his pastern doesn’t need a stitch or anything.

I thanked God IMMEDIATELY for watching over us - I don’t know what I would have done if he would have been seriously injured - scary!  Thank God he has legs like tree trunks!

So, off to check him one last time in the dark (hopefully there are no bears about tonight) and head back to a hot bath and bed.  I saw John and Aaron off this morning after a fun Sunday playing in the river and the hot springs downtown Pagosa Springs.  They left around 7:30am and were going to try to get all the way to Omaha, NE tonight before stopping, so they have a shorter drive tomorrow and Aaron can get home in plenty of time for his first football game.  Godspeed, but I will miss them for the next three weeks!

Going now to ponder how the angels watch over us . . .

Edie

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