It's Official

(Alicia here... )
It's official, Skip is the proud owner of Jackie, his ever faithful and dedicated human.

Everyone I'd like a round of applause with a standing ovation given to Jackie.
(clap, clap, clap, clap, hooray, hooray, clap, clap, clap)

Have you seen how far that boy has come? Do you remember the gangly, oozing legs, skinny, wart faced, spook-a-saurus? And now, a brave and respectful young man happy to take your leadership and carry you across bridges, tires, and through cowboy curtains. He trusts and loves you so much.

I'm so proud of you Jackie...

Thank you for taking the time to share your journey with all of us in this blog.
Thank you for proving how far dedication can take you.

Thank you for taking the time to do it right the first time.
Thank you for spending your few spare pennies to make sure he has the best of everything.
Thank you for inspiring us all.

And mostly... thank you for being you.

Ride on my friend, ride on.
Alicia 

Private Lesson #4 - On the move!

On Monday, September 12, Skip took another giant leap forward in his training.  After a quick warm-up on the ground, I climbed on, and Gail used her horse, "Win", to help get us moving.  The goal was simply to get forward movement.  When a young horse is learning to balance and carry a rider, the hardest thing for them in the beginning is just going.  Gail started out using a flag to wave us forward, and I used my legs, and whatever other signals I could, to get him moving.  Once he was walking, I was able to start guiding him using the lead rope as a single rein, and my own body language.  So far, the hardest part has been getting him started forward.

After a few trips around the round-pen, we opened the gate and rode both horses over to the covered arena where we worked for a while on moving longer distances.  Gail used Win as a guide, and I had Skip follow him around the arena just like ponying him from another horse.  When we moved from a walk to a trot, it again took some effort to get Skip moving.  I had to use my lead rope to spank both sides of the saddle and encourage him to go.  A couple of times he gave me a little buck, just to let me know he didn't approve of the idea.  Gail was correct:  I could ride his buck with no problem.  :)  After his small complaints, we quickly had a nice comfortable trot all the way around the arena! 

Next we rode out to the horse playground to do some obstacles.  First was the bridge... (no problem!)

Then the tires...

Then the cowboy curtain...

What a little show off!

As a side note:  I wanted to reassure you that just because I am teaching him how to carry a rider at this young age, doesn't mean that he will be ridden with any stress until he is old enough to do so.  I know that it is not good for a horse's joints to really ride them before the age of 3, and maybe not even at that point.  The purpose of doing all of this is simply to expose him to as many new things as possible.  We have been working down a path of training since the day he came to live with Alicia, and this is the next logical step.  I will give him the exposure, and work on developing the basics over the next year.  By then, Skip will have a solid foundation, and we will be ready to hit the trails!

 We also got a laser treatment from Dr. Jen this week.  She is still impressed at the progress the wounds have made, and also in the mobility of his joints.  We have started him on two (very expensive) joint supplements:  Hyaluronex liquid, and Adequan injections.  These seem to have made an impressive difference in his movement already.  He can now have his legs pulled directly behind him and bent to  90-degree angles.  This is about 45-degrees more than he had before!

Thank you, everyone, for all of your support and encouragement!
~Jackie

Private Lesson #3

On Friday September 2, 2011...
I rode him!!!

Our lesson started out with Gail announcing that our goal was to get me up on Skip's back.  I just about fainted dead away when I heard those words!  Already?!  Are you sure?!  Am I ready?  Is he ready?  I had so many thoughts racing through my mind, but all I could feel was a warm excitement that I was about to take my first, first ride!  And it couldn't be on a better horse.  Skip and I have been a long way together (as you know), and it is just fitting that we experience this first together.  Gail has warned me over and over to always remember that he is a baby, and not to trust him too much.  I take those words to heart, and treat him as the young horse he is, but deep down, you know that there is a trust that has developed between us.  I remain cautious in my actions, but I know that the bond we have formed will carry us a long way in the years to come. I just try to remain consistent and reliable for him.  Hopefully he will do the same for me.

Before I hopped on, we did plenty of ground work to make sure there were no potholes in his training that might sneak up to bite us later.  I also worked with him at liberty (without a halter or lead rope on), to get him moving faster with the saddle on his back.  If he was going to buck, we wanted him to do it without me on him!  Moving at a lope in the round pen seems to be hard on him because of his legs, so once we got a feel for how he felt about the saddle on his back, we let him rest.  He did buck about two times, and Gail informed me that if that was all he was going to do, I could ride that.  (I am glad she thought so!)

 

Part of the groundwork that I did was to play the seven Parelli games at liberty.  I can't tell you how amazing it is when your horse willingly does exactly what you want with just a wiggle of your finger, or movement in your body. Even though we didn't have a halter on, Skip willingly played the games.  When I asked him to come back to me at the end, all I had to do was smile and wiggle my finger to bring him in.  My best friend came up and put his forehead right in the middle of my stomach for a rub.  Magical...

Practicing lateral flexion one last time

And we're on!

And we're walking!

Gail giving us a "little motivation"

We didn't move much, or very far, but I must say that it was a quiet and comfortable first ride.  Skip was willing to try, and even though he didn't quite understand what I was asking of him, he kept a calm head.  Next week Gail is going to saddle up her horse and help Skip move a little better.  It takes time for a horse to learn how to walk and balance with the weight of a rider on him.  That is why I am so honored that I am able to do this:  it means that I have good enough balance to not ruin him with my riding skills.  You will be glad to know that my head was back in the game this week.  I just put everything else out of my mind and focused on the moment...  After all, that is all we ever really have, isn't it?

Thank you to Amy for being there as my moral support and an awesome photographer!  I will treasure this memory forever, and the pictures are the icing on the cake.

And, of course, thank you to Gail.  This experience has turned my life around, and I am so thankful for every second of it!

We did it!!!!

~Jackie

Private Lesson #2

 Yesterday was a very valuable lesson for me.  Skip and I have worked hard all week long in order to improve all of the things we needed to for this week's lesson.  I was so excited to show Gail our progress that I psyched myself out.  I froze.  Suddenly I felt like that 6-year-old girl who got stage fright her first time in the spotlight.  My lesson was that I need to take a deep breath and focus on my horse.  Nothing else matters.  Poor Gail had to tell me about a dozen times to relax, take a deep breath, and stop fidgeting!  I realized that I was trying so hard to get it perfect that I forgot to keep it natural and pay attention to my horse.  This was the perfect setting to learn this lesson.  Imagine what I will be like with Brent Graef if I can't get my nerves under control!  Eventually we made some progress though...

Under Gail's watchful eye

Both sides!

Forward momentum

 

Gail demonstrating

From our practice sessions this week:

Bubble wrap!

"Resting and soaking" time... 

My homework for this week:  Practice moving forward at faster speeds;  practice the porcupine game on his nose;  keep playing with sprayers;  and focus!  :)

~Jackie

Private Lesson #1

Wow!  What a big day for the boy!

Our lesson started with a review of all of our homework assignments.  Gail and I went through the checklist that she gave me, and she got an idea of where Skip and I are in our training.  She had me play the seven Parelli games with him so that she could see if he had any sticking points that needed to be worked through.  The beauty of the seven games is that it gives you an opportunity to apply all of the basic principles in a very clear, concise way that can be developed as your foundation for everything else in the future.  We had a new obstacle to deal with in a new environment:  distractions.  The neighbor's cows, other horses, motion in the bushes, sprinklers, etc.  All of these things had to become less interesting than me.  This was a big challenge for me, but Gail soon made it clear to both myself and Skip that he was in class now, and it wasn't time to mess around and be distracted.  I need to be more assertive and more particular about what I expect from him.

Zooooom!!

The above picture shows Gail demonstrating to me how to be an effective leader.  She asked him to move with a clear request, then just allowed him to do his job.  It seems that I was being just a bit too soft, and consequently doing more work than the horse was doing!

The one thing that showed up consistently lacking was our "Porcupine game."  That is, any time I put pressure on him, he should yield to it, or move away.  He doesn't.  I have been very patient with him all along, and now it is time to step things up.  If I am going to get in the saddle, I need to be able to ask for a response, and get one right away.  Otherwise, I won't be safe.

After working on these sticky points and getting my homework assignments, we moved on to the game of "Liberty."  We turned him loose and tested my effectiveness with him without any lead rope or halter on.  This is where the truth comes out.  The distractions really came into play here, and I found out that I don't have quite the respect that I need from him.  Not to say that he doesn't respect me, but again, I just need to step up my leadership and be more definite in what I am asking for.

Next, we got the saddle and pad out.  We placed it on the ground and let him sniff it.  No problems here!  He went right up to it and touched it with his nose.  He didn't worry as I swung the pad around and on to his back, and he didn't even worry much with the saddle being swung up onto his back.  He allowed us to cinch him up like a pro, and I even buckled the back cinch without a problem.  When it came time to flop the stirrups around, he got a bit worried, but with consistency and rhythm, he soon adjusted to that strange feeling.  Next it was time for the true test:  moving out.  We started by disengaging his hind end both ways (moving it from side to side), then we walked together for a short distance.  After turning a couple of circles, it was time to turn him loose and let him move faster.  We took the halter and lead rope off again and sent him out on the circle.  He walked nicely at first, but then came the rodeo!  I just asked him for a little more speed, and off he went bucking!  He did a couple of laps around the pen before deciding that bucking was too much work.  After that, he calmed down and was able to recall some of his previous lessons.  Once he was moving nicely without bucking, we took the saddle off and called it a day in the round pen.

At the end of the lesson, Gail generously offered to help us with our sprayer issues.  She spent about 30 minutes getting him used to the hose, and in the end, she was able to spray most of his body with the water.  Pretty impressive since it took me about 3 hours to do the same thing, and I never was able to spray him!

Thanks Gail!!
~Jackie

Doing our homework!

This has been a week of lots of homework for Skip.  Gail has given us an outline of each step that needs to be taken on the road to saddling and riding.  We have a list of tasks to work on in order of difficulty, and Gail has given us until our first private lesson with her this Friday to complete the first section.  Most of it consists of things that we have been working on all along:  haltering, the 7 Parelli games, exposure to unusual things, small jumps, crawling on him, etc.  But it has been really good practice for Skip and I to go through each item on the list and make it "just right."  We are "taking the time it takes" now so that it "takes less time" in the future (Pat Parelli).

So far this week we have dramatically improved the things that he already knows, and filled in several small holes that I have inadvertently left in his training.  For example:  one of our tasks is to play the "extreme friendly game", which you know I have been doing in my own special way.  But I also had to play it with a flag.  I didn't have a flag, so I used a plastic bag tied to the end of my training stick.  WELL!!  Let's just say that we had to go waaaay back to the basic friendly game before we got to use the bag as a flag.  I am proud to say that I am now able to dance all around him and throw the plastic bag up into the wind without him flinching.

Today I took him across the road and had him jump over lots of different sizes and shapes of logs.  Then we used the logs as mounting blocks where I taught him how to "honey up" to the log so I could crawl on him.  After a few times of practicing, Skip now turns sideways almost every time I stand on a log!  I was also able to actually lay my whole body along his back lengthwise.  This was the first time that I have done anything besides drape my body over him like a flower sack.  Of course, he stood still like a perfect gentleman... unrestrained!

This afternoon was time for "Bath Lesson #2."  Sprayers are still a big obstacle to Skip.  For some reason, he just can't seem to get past his fear of being sprayed.  I did all of the techniques:  approach/retreat, follow me, friendly game, etc., but the fear is still there.  If any of my Parelli friends have suggestions, please chime in!  Bath day wasn't a complete bust, however.  He does just fine if I keep the sprayer in contact with his skin while I drizzle the water slowly.  I can even back the sprayer away from his body about an inch before he shies away... This is how we went about accomplishing our second bath, ever!

All clean!

~Jackie

Doctors and Dancing

Today we paid a visit to Dr. Jen for another laser treatment.  She suggested we come in as often as we can; even daily if possible.  While daily is out of the question, we may be able to come in weekly.  I don't know that we will need much longer though, but you be the judge from these pictures:

Laser Treatment, Left Hind

 

 

 

Skip checking to make sure Krista is doing it right.   Thanks Krista!

Left (after a little cleaning)

Left - side view

Right

Right - Side view

Here is what they looked like 25 days ago immediately following his laser treatment:

Left

Right

Do you think he will need many more treatments??

Thank you Jeanie for paying for his treatment today!  That was a wonderful surprise :)

And thank you Dr. Jen Powers... you are the best.


Now, I am going to tell you something, and please don't laugh: 
It seems that when you put a Parelli training stick and string in my hands, turn me loose in a pasture with a horse (where nobody is looking, of course!), I suddenly get this notion that I am an Olympic gymnast with one of those long streamers in my hand.  My old ballet training takes over and I end up twirling the string, and myself, all around that boy!  I guess you can call it my version of the Parelli "Extreme friendly game!"  By now I am sure you are thinking I am a bit "odd," shall we say, but it is amazing how much a horse and dancer have in common. 

 Oh, yes, and I use him for my personal ballet stretching bar too:

He doesn't even flinch when I raise a leg up and put it on his back.  What a good boy!

Of course, if you still think I am crazy, just remember that I am trying to desensitize him to as many unusual things as possible!  :)

~Jackie