2008... :)

Ending on a BRILLIANT note!!!

I got the best presents for christmas - I went to my aunty's house in Yorkshire, and the family got me The Catching Game and Trailer Loading as well !!! YIPEE!!

And on top of the material I bought, the videos on the website are sooo helpful, I actually have too many ideas for me and Olivia!!

Just a quick update - we've been working on changes of direction, I took inspiration from the Parelli Puzzles with Susan and Dusty (level 2 online i think) and Olivia really seems to be having fun with that! I also started backing by the tail, only done a little on that today (a couple of steps but still...bet theres thousands of people who wouldn't even dream of it!!)

And then theres the sideways straddling a trotting pole, and the level 2 online patterns.

And an area i need to work on? My brother asked me what level I was, and I said that I thought I was about level 2, except that I haven't really been doing much liberty, and he asked me why and I said becasue I was scared of regection - basically I don't have any small areas where I can begin, so we must start in the huge school. My mum heard this and says to me, you're WHAT?!? How are you going to get anywhere if you're scared of 'rejection'??
How true. DUHHH Jo!!! I can do all the games on a slack line (prepartion for liberty) so thats my task for the new year! Good luck to me! (and olivia i guess).

And another good note, i LOVE my yard!!! Everyone is sooo nice (i've yet to meet a person who even hints at being unfriendly!) And even better? Everyone seems so interested in natural horsemanship! I've alreay had a request to borrow my level 1 dvds (which i need to remember to take down), and those who aren't practising it are at least interested!!

OHH I'm on such a high!!!

HAPPY NEW YEARS TO EVERYONE!!!
I don't have a snowy picture or anything, so I'll post one of a very fluffy Olivia last year :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

WOOHOOOO!!!!!

Ok, so I'm polish and we celebrate 'wigilia' on christmas eve, basically this is a looong dinner followed by opening your presents (yep, we open them a day early...ish...!!)

So, the point of that is, my AMAZING parents bought me the L&HB!!! YAAAAYYYYY!! So who's not getting ANY sleep tonight? Add that to last nights lack of sleep because of the TV Shows section which has been uploaded onto the savvy club website!
The amount of savvy I'm going to learn before the year is out is ...well...a LOT!!!!!!

Everything with Olivia is going grreeatt!! We've been playing a lot with patterns, and I begun some finesse patterns with her. She's going beautifully! In freestyle, I'm starting to use the carrot sticks rather than the reins, and its good until Olivia gets going fast towards the gate (which is where we have a problem with the brakes!!)

And of course driving from zone 5!! I'll upload a pic because I HATE big blocks of writing!!!



MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!
Lots of love, Jo xxxx

Tri-Polar?

Its getting real hard to read Olivia's horseanality, I think this is going to have to be my priority now, because she changes between these three (LBE, LBI and RBE) sooooo quickly, and almsot without any sign !

Like today, she'd be throwing all sorts of challenges at me (i want to run, bolt, rear, buck) but then she'd stop and say 'well yano what, i think i'll come and stand quietly with you now!'

And then off she goes again!!!

Luckily, my christmas holidays have begun and my mum is taking until the new year off, which means i have lots of time to spend with Olivia, and we can improve our relationship.

I've vowed to spend UNLIMITED undemanding time with her, and there are some cracks we need to mend in the friendly game!! I now notice I've sorted abandoned these, because I've been so direct line and thinking about the END RESULT!
MISTAAAKKKEE

I'll keep you all updated on our progress :)

Jo, xx

Succes is a Journey...

Not a destination!

One of the few AMAZING things I learnt at Rachel Morland's course!!! WOW did i have a brilliant time!?!

I'll try to keep it brief, and put in a picture or two but they aren't very good photos as they are quite far away :( NEVER MIND!!

So on Saterday morning, we just played for a little and Rachel watched us. And me being me, of course froze! I think I become veerrry introverted in a new situation around new people, and i especially don't tend to like people watching me!!! So it didn't start off too well, but everyone was so lovely and Rachel was so encouraging it didn't take too long for me (and Olivia) to settle down!

So we played a bit with driving from zone 3 (and then dropping back to 4 & 5) which was interesting, and definately something I'm going to work on! We also played with focusing on what part of the horses body we want to move, and did this THING (?!?!), and I can't for the life of me remember what it was called, but it taught me THE POWER OF FOCUS

Fantastic! Then in the afternoon we did some riding, and I did a lot of follow the rail at the trot, and learnt about the power of neutral, and that I did a lot of nagging, and thats why Olivia began to ignore me! We did plenty of other things on the first day as well, and I came home buzzing as a bee (but tierd as a....well...tierd..!!)

Then TODAY! WOW! Well, the morning groundwork was brilliant!! Rachel reminded me the importance of making the GAMES FUN! (duhhhhhh). So Olivia has a tendancy to get bored with the circle and buck into the canter, so Rachel played with letting her stop and rest at a block, and this made her soo interested, and she responded to the lightest possible phases and in general looked like she was having fun!

Then in the afternoon Rachel let me play with carrot stick riding (note to self, buy another carrot stick!). This was FUN! we did the cloverleaf pattern at trot, and olivia wasn't too bad! It was fun to watch her nose as she tried to poke it at the stick when i asked her to back up ! Then Rachel has us each do something individually, and she asked me to canter the rail with the carrot sticks (WHAATATTTT!!!) I'm not going to lie, it took me about three laps before Olivia finally cantered, i seriously underestimated how much you have to think about when riding with 2 carrot sticks! Eventually (and after a nice big buck) we got to the cantering! and it was loveerrllyyy

Then we played with the bow tie pattern, and did some backing up and sideways. One thing that was great, was Rachel explaining the patterns. I bought them but I never really had much idea what to do with them, but now I know how to use them and I'll definately by using them from now in!

I'm too tierd to write much else, and that is just a fraction of what I learnt!!! AND on top of the all the amazing tips, I met some amazing people :D:D whooosssshh what a weekend!

Sorry, these aren't great because we were indoors and it was horrible and dark :P

Rachel making the circling game fun!


backing up with carrot sticks


very proud!



sorry about the crap quality!!!
Jo xx

A New Start!

So, today I played with Olivia for the first time in what feels like a million years, and boy was she an angel!!!

There were a few hiccups here and there, but weellll, with out them i would have learnt nothing!!

To begin with, when i went to her field, all I did was whistle and shout OLIIVVVVIIIAAA, and she came! Fair enough, it was at the slowest walk imagineable, but still :D!!

Then, we played a little, and she did not want to keep still! I tried to get her using her brain by doing lots of sideways and backups, and it worked to an extent, but she was still buzzing! So I spotted two obstacles i could use to do a figure of 8, and off i went!

Now I'm not going to lie...I need a LOT of practise at that pattern! I really don't know why its so hard for me to grasp, but I'm definately going to watch the DVD again! Despite me being a bit of a mess, Olivia sort of got it and that was enough to make me happy!!

ANDDD i also got about 3 laps of unbroken canter on the circle! WOOOOWWW!!!

When she seemed pretty calm, I put the hackamore on and did a bit of follow the rail at walk, trot and canter, which she did beautifully. she did chuck in a buck at the canter, but it wasn't mean, i think she was enjoying her self!

So, you could probably tell that i am a happy bunny!! And I think Olivia is as well!!

MAN, i love my pony!!!!! ANNNDD the best bit? 1 week until my course with Rachel Morland!

Jo xx

Moving House

So yesterday was the big day! We had a bit of trouble loading, but I tried to be savvy about it, and rather than forcing her up the trailer I just stood in the trailer with a bucket of her favourtie feed, and I let her be curious, confident, and take her time. After a few minutes, she just walked right in!

The journey SHOULD have only been 15 minutes, but rugby traffic (I live right near to Twickenham stadium for anyone that knows it) meant that it took us about half an hour, if not more! And Olivia got to set her eyes on world famous sites, such as Hampton Court Palace ;)

Anyway, when we arrived Olivia was a bit sweaty, but thats fair enough! I took her to her HUGE stable, which had a nice stuffed haynet in and left her. I stayed at the stables until it began to get dark, and she already seemed quite settled!

SO today I FINALLY turned her out!! She seemed so excited as I walked her out to the field and I'm so happy for her! She had a good run around, and now is just sorting out her position in the herd! I braved the freezing cold and annoying drizzly rain to watch how the herd react to her, and how she establishes her place!
Here are some photos I took:

in her new stable





There were loads more, but I didn't want to make this post tooooo picture heavy !!!

So, this week I'm going to give Olivia a nice holiday to relax, and get rid of all that energy she had, and next weekend we will get back down to parelli! YAY!!

Jo, xx

College

Well, being in 6 form (or college, w/e) means that I have NOOO time to spend with my horse, gutted :(

But it DOES mean I have lots of time to plan my future :)

I have decided that I pretty much definately want to go on a 5 day savvy camp next July with Kaye Thomas!!! Exciting? I think so!!!

Anyway, the point is COST and this obviously isn't going to come cheap! And so begins my business career! At the moment I am searching around my home for random things that I can sail on ebay, and then I'll be getting my self a job (hopefully at the stables!!!) during the holidays, and hopefully (i repeat, HOPEFULLY!!!) I'll have enough saved up for next summer!!!

Then comes task number 2, theres no point getting ahead of myself and raising money for this course, when it is actually a level 3 course and i am level 2!! But becasue I have started everything in level 2, and we are doing quite well, I think buy then we will have some good ideas of level 3

If not, then never mind! I'll have a LOT of money saved up, all ready for the next course that i CAN do!

Excited much, I defineately am! Especially becasue I've got a real initiative to do this!
wahheeyy!!

Much love ! x

Excess Energy

At the moment I'm having to put Olivia on full livery, because of the fact I finish school at 4 and it gets dark at 4.30, and it takes me a MINIMUM of 40 minutes to get from school to stable (on public transport).

So basically, the two girls that work there ride her (don't get me wrong, they are AMAZING riders!!!). Anyway, today one of the girls told me that Olivia had been good as gold (yay!), but that she was very sweaty so I shouldn't be shocked. Well she was sweaty, and thats fine because she needs the exercise, and she has a fairly thick coat.

So I decided to take her for a niiiceee long walk/graze (because she doesn't get turnout), and it was all going good until we got to one meadow, and she just suddenly exploded!!

I swear I can't find a reason for it, and it didn't seem like a temper tantrum because I had honestly done nothing to provoke it! The only explanation I could find was exuberance, which is funny becasue she had a long ride!

it just proves to me that I am right in moving her to a place with turnout, where hopefully she can let go of all her energy, and actually BE A HORSE!

Well I have to get ready to go for dinner, so thanks for reading!!!
Jo x

Horseanality

Just to help you get to know Olivia a bit better, here are the horseanality charts I've filled out for her. She has consistently been LBE, but its got stronger and stronger!
The first is from summer 2007, which would be when I found her!


After she had been in her new home for a year (but no parelli was done with her over that year) this is what she was like:



Then in September when she came to her new home in BRITAIN!, I filled one out. This is probably inaccurate, because she had been travelling for days and she was in a totally new environment (5 horse herd, to 100s of polo ponies).


I'll fill her out another one when she moves to her new yard, and then when she settles in! I think it will take her a while to settle down, so it will probably be months before her true characteristics show!

LONNNGGG update!

Olivia is settled into England life now! However, because of her horseanality (LBE) she has not been as settled as she could have been in her new stables! At the moment she is in the LOVELIEST stables, but with very limited turnout. This has caused problems for us, (rearing, bucking, broncing) and so I decided to move her.

We are playing to transport her to the new stables with turnout at the end of November, so I will tell you how she responds!!

Anyway, we are well into level 2 now, which I am so proud of! Yesterday I finally got sideways without a fence on her, and she honestly did it B-E-A-Utifully!!!!! WOW!!!

I was so proud I couldn't stop smiling!

Now I have started all the elements of level 2 (except for changes of direction and transitions and liberty - but i've had to take a break from liberty because there isn't really anywherre to practise!).

This is good, becuase on the 13th & 14th December me and Olivia are going to a Rachel Morland clinic...HOW EXCITED AM I!!!!

And before I go, I have to explain how sad I am today. This week I am doing work experience in the city (with Horse Magazine, for those that know it), and it means that I have NO WAY of getting to Olivia, so she has been put on full livery and I won't see her again until Saterday.

Here are some photos of me and Olivia:


This is just me messing about !

check out my AMAZING chaps!!!


See yaaa latterr!!

Hello

Well, I decided to make myself one of these online blogs to record my journey with my horse!! I've seen quite a few people with these, and it seems like a good idea!
Let me introduce myself. My name is Jo, and I live in London, UK. Obviously not the best of places for some one who wants to spend all her time with her horse! Luckily I've found a stable nearby where I can keep my horse.
At this moment, I think Olivia is somewhere near the Poland/German border. Olivia is huc/mlp cross breed, a polish mare, born April 2004. I've owned her since July 2007 (when she was 3), and I kept her with a friend of my family in Poland, near our summer home. So that obviously meant that at the end of August last year I had to return home, and she stayed there. This year I returned, and now we are bringing her back to us!

ANYWAY, at the moment I've become really interested in the 'parelli' technique, I found out about it when I bought a book, literally the week after I got back. So after spending the whole year finding out as much as I could, joining the savvy club and buying all I needed, this summer me and Olivia have completed level 1 and we are now mid level 2!

So this blog is going to record my relationship with Olivia :) I hope it is at least a LITTLE interesting !!!!

Oliviais LBE, I'll upload the horseanality chart later because the connection is failing at the moment!