Twosox: Not a mystery any more.

March 8 2011

This morning the vet came out to see what was up with Twosox's eye. It turns out that he has a tumor on his third eyelid and it is most likely cancerous. The vet believes that it is Squamous Cell Carcinoma. He suggests surgery but Mom and I were in contact with a lady out west and she believes that it can be healed naturally. So we are going that route first. The vet wanted to wait three weeks anyway so that it would be warmer.

Twosox did really well for the most part. He didn't like the vet looking in his nose so I have something to play with. Some people say that this particular vet can get rough with the horses so I was prepared to stand up for my horses, respectfully of course, but I didn't need too. He seemed pretty understanding. There was one time that he used his voice to correct Twosox when Twosox was backing up but other than that everything was fine.

At one point Twosox was tossing his head so the vet asked me to hold Twosox's head up a bit so he could see inside his nose and put something in Twosox's eye. I took Twosox's nose and just started to massage it (Twosox loves when I do that) and Twosox stood still for the rest of the time.

I will be sure to keep you all updated on how Twosox does. He doesn't seemed to be in much pain. He is still playing and running around with the other horses. He just has a hard time opening his eye and all. I am praying that we can find a way to heal it naturally. I don't want to have to do surgery.

Naturally,

~Keri

Prince: The Circling Game - Isolate, separate and recombine.

March 7 2011

Prince and I had a really interesting session this afternoon. We got a big dump of snow again so the riding ring was safe to play in once again. It has been a while since we played up there!!

We started with some liberty in the corral. We played with stick to me with my hand on Prince's mane. We started at the walk and then moved on to the trot when the walk was going well. We did about 9ft circles at first then we got smaller and smaller. Prince did really well. Once the walk and trot were going well we tried the canter! We got 1/2 a lap at the canter!!!! It was so incredible!! Prince was connected and I could feel that he wasn't thinking about leaving or drifting away. He was with me!!

I went out planning to play with our Figure eights but pretty quickly I found out that we needed to play with our circles first. I knew that it wouldn't be setting up for success to try and fix everything at once so we started with the send. At the walk and trot it was okay, though not great, and since I wanted to play with Figure eights at the canter I knew that we would need to get our send on the circle at the canter better... much better. So off we went.

First was the back up. That part was definitely broken. Well maybe not broken because Prince would back up but it wasn't to the standard that we were playing at, Prince was putting just enough effort in to make it look like he was putting effort, which he really wasn't.

So after our yo-yo's was better we went onto the next part of the send. It only took a couple sends and re-sends before Prince cantered off at a phase one and maintained gait at the canter for a whole lap so I brought him in. We weren't playing with the allow but I knew that the allow would show how good the send was.

We then moved on to the left. This way was harder for Prince he would canter off okay but then he would break gait. So we played with this for a while trying different things. We played the game "Don't make me pick up the stick" and that got Prince more interested but he was still having a hard time maintaining the canter. Then I remembered something Mr. Pyne said at the lesson I had with him back in November. He said that I was putting to much pressure on Prince at the send.

Now as I thought about this I think the thing is this, I needed to put more pressure on Prince when he wasn't trying very hard so that he would try something but once he started getting more interested and engaged, though still not getting it quite yet, I needed to give him a longer chance to figure it out without having as much pressure on him. So the next time I sent Prince I didn't "tag" behind him when he went off on the circle. I still wanted the canter and asked for it through the energy in my body but I didn't have to use my carrot stick.

This time Prince went off at the canter and cantered a whole lap, then I brought him in. It was great!! The look on Prince's face was incredible! He was engaged!!

So in playing with our send our allow and bring back got better. We did play with our bring back a little because Prince wasn't actually disengaging. So we got that snappier and Prince was disengaging at the end.

We never did get to play with Figure eights but I know that this was a major ingredient to having better Figure eights. One other thing we played with earlier in the session, and through out the whole session was that I waited until Prince asked me a question before I asked him to go out on the circle. This way I could tell (1) if he was interested (2) if he was still processing (3) if he was ready to take new instructions. At the end he was asking loads of questions because I waited in the beginning.

It was a really great session and I learned a lot. Hopefully once spring gets here and everything is less icy and wet we can really get progressing again.

Naturally,

~Keri

Parelli Cake

Here is a picture of the cake that I made to celebrate our Parelli play group 2 year anniversary! Each of the horses represent our main horses and the one with the question mark is for the the people who have come every once in a while, plus it is for a new lady who just joined and I didn’t have a picture of her horse :)

Oh and the main cake is a carrot cake and the individual cakes are chocolate :) 

Naturally,
~Keri

Prince: When in doubt do porcupine games!

March 2 2011

Prince and I had a great Online session this morning. It was to icy in the corral yet to do much unless we stayed at the walk. So we started with backing up unto the pedestal, stopping when all four feet where up then backing down and onto the other one. That got Prince's mind really engaged! He was asking so many questions!! It was great fun! 

Then we did backing up by the hocks and tail. Prince is getting really like at backing by the hocks which is great. It took a while for him to be really confident backing up and not having to stop every couple steps. I had to keep reassuring him that he was doing the right thing :) But now he is way more confident and we can now play with more lightness! 

The last thing we played with was lateral flexions from zone 5! These were so much fun! Prince caught on really quickly. One thing I had to play with was how I was asking Prince because at first I would just comb the rope three times and ask Prince to bend, really softly of course so that Prince wouldn't think I wanted him to move his feet. But then I realized that when Prince and I are doing zone 5 driving when I want him to turn it looks quite similar and even more similar to how I ask him to stop. Because Prince would feel that pressure on the halter in basically the same spot. 

So what I did was after I when through my phases I would move my hand up and over a big. Like I would be moving it to my knee if I was riding. This also made a big difference in how far Prince brought his head around! It was really cool!! We did this on both sides and Prince did so well. He kept his feet still and brought his head right around and would hold it there softly. 

We ended there and just spent some undemanding time together before I left to go get warmed up! It was really cold out this morning, -19 C. Brrrr....

Naturally,

~Keri

Ruffian: Covering a lot of ground.

March 1 2011

Ruffian and I had a good Online session today. We played with a lot. We started with yo-yo's and circles in the corral. I was really impressed with how well Ruffian did on the circles. He was very relaxed and connected. He was cutting in a little bit on the one side so I made sure to pay extra attention to that through out our session. I asked Ruffian to trot 4 laps each direction and we played with game "Don't make me pick up the stick" he really started getting snappier on his departures after a couple sends :) 

Then we headed up to the riding ring. It was still icy, even under all the snow we got yesterday, so we stayed at the walk and trot. We did traveling circles and then played with getting a real circle. This took a while but once Ruffian got it figured out he was able to catch on quickly on the other side also. 

Up next we did backing up by the nose. Ruffian was looking at something over in the bushes so he wasn't thinking at all about me and what I was asking. So it took a while to get him thinking "back up" but eventually he started paying more attention to what I was asking and that was when we got more lightness, speed and distance in our porcupine back up. 

We then went over to a barrel and I got on it and played some friendly game from up there. After that I got down we and did some lateral flexions on both sides getting Ruffian to be able to hold them longer. 

After that we ended and just hung out for a bit before we headed down to the corral. I definitely see how playing with Ruffian more often, even if in shorter sessions, will really help.

Naturally,

~Keri

Boy am I excited!

After saving all possible money for months and months (somewhere around a year or so I believe) I finally have enough money to purchases *drum roll please* a Natural Performer!! I am so excited. I am buying it used (only a year old) from a lady in the States and it should be here sometime early next week.

The great thing about it is that it is a superwide which is exactly what Prince and Twosox need plus my Mom doesn't have a good saddle for Knightly, until now. She will be able to use my Fusion saddle for Knightly and when ever she isn't using it and I want to ride Ruffian I will use my Fusion because I think the superwide would be to big.

So yeah... I am really looking forward to next week ;) I will have to buy another theraflex pad but that is doable and hopefully I will be able to get one shortly after I get the saddle. Most likely with in a month or two. I am also really excited because that means that Mom and I can go trail riding together without one of us being bareback.

Also it will be exciting to see how Twosox's conformation improves as I ride him in an even better saddle. Plus with the improved design on the NP verses the Fusion it will allow both Prince and I to go deeper into Freestyle but especially Finesse because there will be no restrictions and it will encourage Prince to use his body, something that my little Haflinger doesn't always have an easy time doing :)

Oh and I will definitely post pictures when it arrives :)

Naturally,
~Keri

Prince: Liberty out in the open... literally.

February 25 2011

Well Prince and I had a lot of fun today. I decided to really test our liberty and go onto the front yard and play! We had a blast and Prince only left once when he got a bit confused when we were doing sideways and he was about 22ft away from me.

First though we did bridling and yet again Prince did splendidly well. The first time I got the bridle right on him and all done up!! Success!!! Prince took the bit no problem. He is already reaching for the bit even before I am ready!! Then since the first one went so well we just played with getting Prince a little more soft about taking the bit out. He will still toss his head a bit so we played with that and on the last one Prince lowered his head and I took the bit out nicely while Prince kept his head low. It was really nice!!

After that we headed out and played on the front yard. At first I didn't have my carrot stick so we walked across the front yard and over to the garage to get that. Then I let Prince graze for a couple minutes, the snow is melting a little on the paths that we have kept shoveled so there is some grass exposed.

Then after a couple minutes of grazing we did yo-yo's down the many paths my little brothers made, squeeze games between the snow banks and hockey nets, we played with the big green ball rolling it and bouncing it a little, then we spent some time playing with going sideways from one hockey net to the other which were about 25ft apart. My goal was to get it so that I could stand at one net and send Prince sideways to the other net.

Over all Prince did well but we had to break it down a little and I had to stand halfway between the nets and we started there. Prince did really well at this distance and started to get the pattern of going sideways to the net (but not through it!), stopping, sniffing it, having a rest and then going sideways to the other one.

The thing that I was most impressed about was how light Prince was when I asked him to go sideways. All I did was use my core energy and off he went. It wasn't just a slow, not-much-effort sideways. It was a fairly fast sideways. We ended when Prince was able to go sideways while I stood about 2ft from the net. So almost there!!!

After this we backed to the manger door and I climbed on Prince bareback and bridleless from the fence. Then we played with lateral flexions with the carrot stick, transitions, sideways, yo-yo's, indirect rein, direct rein/pivoting on the hindquarters, and some other things. Refining them and testing others that we haven't played with in a while because we haven't ridden in a while due to the ice.

I had to get off once because Prince was decided that he was going to go in the direction that he wanted, which I allowed him to do but then he started getting a bit pushy on the savvy string around his neck so I slid off did some porcupine games on the hindquarters, forequarters, chest and nose and then mounted back up.

A couple times Prince got a little bit confused about what I was asking so we played with those things and then we rode up and down our neighbour's drive way, which she doesn't mind us doing ;), and because it is small gravel and I want to get Prince used to and more comfortable walking on gravel so that when all the snow melts we can still go trail riding down the old railroad track (which is gravel).

We ended on a good note and then I got off and we walked back over to the corral. It was really fun and it was really cool to see how much our Liberty has improved over the last couple months :)

Naturally,
~Keri