Our Freestyle is...

Sonny and I  2-3 years ago

AWESOME!  I can now (some/most of the time) ride Sonny ABSOLUTELY bridle-less!  As in NO neck rope/carrot stick!  WOO HOO!  We are still working on refining it.  But I am soooo HAPPY!!!!  YAY!

Toby and I have been playing around with our freestyle too :).  He can now walk on with out me having to start tapping him with my carrot stick on the rump :).  Over the past few weeks Toby has gotten really good with his halter porcupine game.  He now moves off of the littlest amount of pressure.  This is big for him.  You have to remember that this is the horse that used to play tug-o-war with me EVERYTIME I would ask him to move off of pressure from the halter.

I may have enough money to get the L1/2, L3, AND L4 Parelli *new* level packs!  I have the savvy club now so I only need $300 to buy all 3!  YAY!  I'm going to be getting around $50-100 next weekend and then for Christmas everyone gives me money so I should get $100-200 from that and then for my b-day (January 9th.  I'll be 14!!!  I'm going to be driving in a little more than a year!!!!  Scary!  Stay off the roads!) I get the money they would normally spend going out to eat ($100-150) because I will eat home instead PLUS I get all the money relatives send (I have LOTS of relatives too :} ) so I should be ordering them by Febuary!  I'm really excited!  Well I have to go and price all of my stuff for our yard sale :} .  UGH!

~Shalom, Savvy Out, and God Bless~

Happy Thanksgiving!

5 things I am thankful for (in order from greatest to least)~
1) God/Jesus/Holy Spirit
2) Family
3) My Horses
4) Friends
5) Parelli/Natural Horsemanship

Hope y'all had a GREAT Thanksgiving!
~Shalom, Savvy Out, and God Bless~

I GOT A SAVVY CLUB SUBSCRIPTION!!!!

My grandma got it for me as an early Christmas present!  Thank you Manna!!!!!  Well I just wanted to shout that out!  Later I will post what I've been doing...
~Shalom, Savvy Out, and God Bless~

Today is *Drumroll*

Contest Results day!
Ok this was really hard to pick...  But the winner is~
LEA!!!!
Lea, Email me at ltm1996@gmail.com to claim your prize and send me some pics you would like me to use on your blog button and/or header :).  It should be done sometime this week...  I will probably work on it the next time I am at my grandparents.  I will leave a comment on your blog so make sure to email me those pics!
~Shalom, Savvy Out, and God Bless~

Figure 8's, New Mindsets, Work in Progress, and Interrupting Patterns...

I'm back!  I will start with the first part of my title...  Figure 8's!

For a while I didn't do the patterns because I just, well, I just thought they were plain stupid and they were also EXTREMELY boring (so I thought...).  I had already bought the online and freestyle so I decided, Why Not?  Lets go for 'em!  So I did.  Within FIVE MINUTES I had Sonny, mind you this was our 1st time doing it, TROTTING the pattern!!!!!!  He was also pretty much doing it without my help too!  YEE HAW!  When he gave me that trot eight I almost cried!  The next time I did it he CANTERED IT!!!!!  With drop to walk/trot transitions ;).  I'm SOOOO happy right now!  I was pretty positive before but am now SURE that my horse is *the* smartest horse EVER!!!!

 

 New Mindsets

I, over the past couple of days, have learned a new mindset.  I noticed that I never really changed my old "traditional" mindset...  So about a week ago I made myself change the mindset I had.  One thing I changed is NEVER to force them to anything but instead offer it to them.  I did that the other night and Sonny doesn't like to jump all that much but I gave him the option of going between me and the jump (which was probably a 10-15 foot gap) or go over the jump.  The first couple of times he went between me and the jump but then all I did was focus on the jump and he jumped it!  YAY!  I also got him to maintain gait (which is hard for him) 2-3 times around all because I did not nag!  Instead when he passed a certain area I would ask him to canter and when he caught on he MAINTAINED THE CANTER THE WHOLE WAY AROUND!!!!  That is HUGE for him!  YAY Sonny!  I am really liking the results I am getting with this mindset.  I think I will keep it!

Work in Progress

The next part of my title is about Toby.  He is definitely a "Work in Progress".  He is so hard to work with but at the same time fun!  You never know what you will get.  Will he be a RBI, a LBI, a LBE, or a RBE today?  He can also switch between all four horsenalities in one play session!  Lately I have been playing with Sonny more than Toby but I have worked with him.  I rode him Saturday and he did AWESOME!  We worked on stopping and moving off my leg into a walk without me having to follow through with a bump or hand slap on the butt.  By the end I got him moving off of a squeeze pretty consistently.  Mostly though I have been spending more undemanding time with them.  Which is fun!

Interrupting Patterns

I just wanted to ask a question.  What do y'all do to interrupt your horses patterns?  Be it if they are acting RBI or RBE or LBI or LBE.  I'm curious!  If my horse (Toby specifically) turns RBI I stop and wait until they lick their lips.  But if they are RBE I send them in a circle and put my back against a fence so that then they have to stop and turn every half circle.  Now for LBI and LBE if they are doing like dominance games with me I send them out onto a circle and make sure they are listening mighty well!  Do you do any of those things?  If so tell me!  I am curious!

~Shalom, Savvy Out, and God Bless~