Day #10 - “Putting It All Together” Friday, Sept. 4

4. September 2009 by Edie.

“Trust that they will respond, but be ready to correct.  Not one more than the other.”  ~ Pat Parelli 

It’s pouring!!!  I’m sitting in the lodge now, after running back through literal RIVERS of water from the pens after lunch - it was hailing pretty hard too - we watched the horses “flip out” for a few minutes, then turn their butts to the wind and “deal.”  I decided that, rather than stand around and do nothing, I would come back down here and type.  So - today . . .

We started in the lodge again with John drawing the Horsenality Chart and talking about how, as our savvy grows, so does our “learning zone” with horses.  We talked about how, if our horse gets unconfident, we need to effectively use approach and retreat, but that sometimes, we need to “push them through” to get growth (move closer, stay longer applies to horses too, Cheri!).  Ronnie Willis said “Sometimes, you might have to take a horse to Hell and back.”  (BACK is the important part!)  IF you have the savvy, you can sometimes push a horse that’s RB or has gone RB through to LB - and “stretch their bubble.”  John stressed that only those with our savvy level or higher should attempt this though - or it could go horribly wrong.  He said the pendulum swings between de-sensitizing our horses (first), then, when they’re confident, sensitizing them again as our (and their) competency levels rise (otherwise, they’ll remain SO de-sensitized that we’ll have trouble getting them to MOVE!).  I thought about this in light of police horse training and realized that it makes perfect sense.  Now that HotShot and I are retired and he has the life experience, confidence, and ability to do other things, we are working on getting him more sensitive.  However . . .

“SENSITIVITY” DOES NOT EQUAL “REACTIVITY!”

but . . . if we never take our horses to the “edge” or their “blow point” when we CAN control it, it will happen when we CAN’T, or at the most in-opportune moment.

John said that we must begin to see our “window of opportunity” for teaching our horse and seize it (not miss it!).  But, we musn’t go TOO far in sensitizing (keeping balance in mind), or our horses might LOSE confidence - we want to strive for balance (whoa = go). This is true horsemanship.

John said that Pat created the “carrot stick” because he knew two kinds of people:  “carrot” people (love, love, love!, but no language or leadership!) and “stick” people (those who only know how to use force to MAKE). The carrot stick is a continual, visual reminder for us to be “extreme middle-of-the-roadists.”  We need to find balance between confidence (dominance) and obedience (submission) with our horses.

We then talked about the Personality/Horsenality Remudas we participated in on Wednesday and were told that the purpose for these was to get us to understand ourselves, so we can seek/achieve balance with our horses (and in our lives!).  Love, Language, and Leadership in EQUAL DOSES is ideal.

Then, the coolest thing:  Linda Parelli paid us a visit!  When she walked in, everyone stood and gave her a standing O!  She spent over an hour with us and did some in-depth teaching about horsenality - including answering specific questions from many of us.  I took a photo of the chart she created and will attempt to post it here - too hard to text everything she wrote, but what I got mostly out of it was that there is no “perfect match” of personality/horsenality, that the best personality for a horse is “a horseman.” The point is to learn to get on with everyone/horse who is different than you - without judgment!  She talked about the “axis of intellect” between RBE and LBI and the “axis of emotion” between RBI and LBE and said that sometimes, we subconsciously seek out our opposite in an attempt to balance ourselves, although it doesn’t always work out well in the long run (our opposites can drive us crazy!). I realized that this is true of me, and that in HotShot’s and my case (he innately LBI, me innately RBE) that we have both “grown” towards the LBE quadrant in order to better match each other - cool!

Then, Linda talked about how, just because a horse is calm, it doesn’t mean he is trusting.  We need to establish TRUST before we push them, or they can go RB or introverted.  The order is:

1) calm

2) trust

3) motivation

4) obedience/willingness (I am happy to say that HotShot and I are HERE!)

She talked about Pat and Allure (Pat has been riding him since Linda’s injury) and how they are a “perfect match” LBE/LBE team.  She said that her broken ribs finally forced her to give Allure to Pat so he could put on a good foundation.  She said “The first time Allure came back after a session with Pat, he looked like he had just had great sex!”  Someone asked her “What about Pat?” and she said “Well, Pat looked that way WHILE he was riding him, Allure didn’t figure it out until AFTERWARD.”  What a hoot!

Then, an (RBI) woman talked (through tears) about how she has developed a better relationship with her RBI lease-horse here in two weeks than she has with her LBI horse at home - what should she do?  Linda asked her “Well, do you want to be comfortable (which is FINE), or do you want to challenge yourself?  Only YOU can decide.”  She said that her LBI would teach her more if she can stick with it.  She said that “alot of people are mis-matched (with their horse) - that’s why they get into our program.”  She admitted that she was drawn to Allure for all the wrong reasons and that he IS a better horse for Pat because he requires SO much savvy, but that her original goals with Allure have now been replaced with “I want to learn as much as I can from this horse.”

Linda identified herself as an “off the charts” LBE/RBE (me!) who is (hopefully) moving down towards the center - no wonder I feel such a strong attraction to her as a teacher - I feel like a kindred spirit! She said “I was poison for my horses before Parelli.”  I guess I tend to agree with her, as in my case I could “get ‘r done,” but no horse ever wanted to BE with me like my horses now do!

Linda talked about our responsibility to our horses: we are either improving them, or we are killing them!  She said “You can’t be who you are with your horse - you have to be a horseman - YOU have to adapt!”  This quote is going on my website!

After Linda left, we had our Finale ceremony and it was VERY boisterous!  Since we human predators LOVE praise, recognition, and . . . certificates!  we were encouraged to cheer loudly for each other - and we did!

Kathy and Avery reminded us that “Only when you find your phase 1 getting lighter and lighter are you being effective.”  Words to ponder.

We finished up by watching a few inspirational videos - Silke Valentin, Honza, and Pat and Sparky.  I am going to try to get copies somehow of some of these videos - just to watch once in awhile to remind me what to strive for.

Well, I’m done writing, but it’s not done raining!  Alicia and I are hoping that this good rain fills up the lake behind the lodge so we can play in it with the horses!  It’s been so dry here this year that we haven’t been allowed in what’s left of the lake.  It is quite a culture-shock to be here and realize the VALUE of water - the ISC has 15,000 gallons of water shipped in here every single day!

Oh well, - the best-laid plans . . . I was going to practice-video my on-line and liberty assessments today - guess I’ll have to wait until tomorrow - the radar is showing a good chance of solid rain for the rest of today.  So, a bunch of the girls are going shopping (cover your eyes, Honey!). I think I’ll just bop around town a bit and see what I can see.  Tomorrow I’ll be here in the morning for Parelli Games - to watch, if nothing else.  THEN maybe I’ll get to do some video-ing.  At least this heavy rain makes it un-necessary to cold-hose Hotty’s legs again today!

Edie

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