My Apoligies

So i first will start by saying that i am sorry to all that are reading and also to myself. The last year
has been a struggle, in life, in spirit, and in

mind. I have had a very positive day. Wow i feel like a kid almost. I have had a rough six months or so. I am not going to go back anymore then Sept, when all my probs started.

I was so excited to do the Fawn Anderson level 2/3 clinic. I couldnt believe that i was going to be in it. So thrilled that everything came together. The boost i needed to get re connected with my horse. Or so i thought.

Day 1 of the clinic was a lot of licking and chewing on my part. It was all online, and Fawn just kind of getting to know where we all stood with our horses, issues we maybe were having, something we maybe felt really good on, our goals for the end of the clinic. You know that kind of stuff. Goo

d day all in all. Day 2 My ex hurt himself at work so i missed out the whole day cause i was sitting in the hospital. Day 3. Ahhhhh the heavens spoke to me. This was the day if i could have died i would have died complete. I was on my horse and getting more confident, i was so happy i was crying. You know the feeling when you hold your baby for the first time. or when you look at your kids and just grab and hug cause you cant believe how much they have grown. That is the feeling i had. Day 4 Not good. Over night my horse decided to kick throu

gh a paige wire fence and cut the back leg bad. S

o no day 4 for me. At that point all emotions took over. My first horse i thought it was the end of the world. I figured the vet was coming out to put her down. Thank god i was wrong. haha. She wasnt lame at all just needed the skin cut off and need to be cleaned up.

So with a little work can be healed. Today i have realized exactly how much work. I almost wish we could go back to this picture. Or that i could manage my time better. We do have a bit of proud flesh, that i am trying to cont

rol, with great efforts. I am hopeful i wont need to call out the vet yet again here is wishing and fingers crossed, i will get back to Freya at the end. OK maybe not. I havent done a whole lot of anything with my horse since the accident as far as playing with her. Xmas came and went and New years as well. And low and behold i got a cow in Jan. Sooooo now the cow seems to be taking any extra time cause i am milking her 2 times a day. She is a little Jersey who is terribly spoiled. I love her, so cute. So not only do i have horses, i have this cow that is taking up time and 2 kiddos that need me as well and a house hold to run. Freya has taken a back burner........ until today.

Shortly after getting Molly Moo Cow, i found myself with my next for

ever pup. She is a mix boarder Collie/Great Pyrneese. She is fantastic. I wanted a boarder collie cross for some time now, to replace my old boy, due to the fact he is up there in age, not a young as i wanted. Why do they have to grow old. He has been wonderful to and for me for 13 years now. Very loyal, been through the worst with me as well the best. I knew i wanted another one just like him, and i am sure i have found that in Muffy aka Muffler, she is a wonderful addition to my family. If you didnt know any better you would think her and Dippy aka Dipstick were from the same litter. haha, the only

difference is the age. Dippy at 13 and Muffy at 13 weeks. lol and to top that off the kiddos got a baby dwarf bunny for Xmas ahaha. So knowing how busy i am these days, i have re-evaluated my life and am cleaning up. I am pretty much working on a schedual, where i alot such and such a time for the cow and for the dogs and doing chores, and house work and then well Freya doesnt have a set amount of time. If it takes me 5 mins to enjoy some one on one time again so be it, if it taked. I am cleaning up my life. Dedicating more to what makes me happy, not what makes others happy.

On that note, My horse is what has motivated me sooooo much. Because i have neglected her just a little i made a point of going out and hanging out, cleaning her leg and her face. She just gashed her face on something. It was so wonderful. I had forgot that feeling, maybe i was angry with her cause of the timing of the accident i am not sure. I felt in me that i was making myself do things with her after the cut. I didnt feel that yesterday. I felt the sparks we had together. After cleaning her up i scratched her and thought lets just see where we are at. We spent probably 5 mins on the yeilds. She is super awesome and so light and responsive considering i have done nothing for so long.

Maybe horse are like dogs. Loyal and forgiving. I dont know what i would do with out Freya, What we have been through the time it has taken on my part. Well no more....its time to get my ass in gear. ;)

Sorry this is 4 in 1

So i had 4 amazing play sessions with Freya last week. We are moving leaps and bounds. Hopefully i can remember everything. Where to begin. I think i played every game and had my friends throw out challenges as well. We started off with the Friendly maybe extreme friendly. Lets say that more clearly. Extreme friendly for us. I was doing the helicopter over her head from zone 3 and she and i felt wonderful. I am concentrating on better practice with the carrot stick. I don't trust myself throwing the carrot stick over her using extreme just yet. Too worried i might snap it on her belly. I have been practicing though. From there we moved to circles, which are coming along marvelously. I couldn't be prouder. We used the big ring and didn't need the rails of the round pen such a huge accomplishment. She was so connected even at the trot. We then played with the bridge which in my last post was fantastic, however the next time we played at it, it wasn't and i had to go to a phase 4 with some help from my friend. She couldn't figure out how to get her hind end up on the bridge. Anyway without and hesitation up she gets just from the look. Wow. Amaaaazzzzinnggg. I love my horse. We then just hung out and watched everyone else play for a bit. And i got all kinds of yawns, licks and chews, she was feeling great.

Next on the to do list. Porcupine....still working on it in different zones however the forehand yielding is much nicer and well the hind end is remarkable. She is getting so light. The yo-yo...i was getting some resistance in the beginning where she wasn't giving me 2 ears, but in the end it was beautiful. We worked on some sideways, which again is pretty darn good. I know that i want to try to stand still and have her go to the end of the 22' line. We did that last summer and i really haven't tried since. I guess i don't feel worthy just yet. Then for some fun we did a little bit of jumping, with a disengagement and a re-send in the other direction. She was trying to blow off and again, it doesn't take her any time to figure things out. ( Maybe i should be giving myself a little bit of credit here because my leadership and trust in my horse has come a long way. And i know that this is a team effort and that we are both learning and teaching each other) I was on such a high at this point i asked Miss Keri for a challenge. And she delivered. She had us back through an L shape. And the heavens sing. We did it. It wasn't beautiful but we did it. It was a first for both of us so we both had a lot of questions ;). At this point it is lunch time. Sue had just returned from running an errand and decided to play with Poncho, who was also doing very well. With him the best thing to do is hang out and do nothing. He is such a curious horse so in turn i think it makes it very hard for him to just CHILL. Sue also played with his feet. Getting him to pick them up and hold his own weight. Back to Freya and me. So since Sue decided to play i decided there was enough time to RIDE. AAAAHHHHH. It was so awesome. I rode in the big ring for the first time. There was no confidence issues or the slightest of fear in me. We played at just riding point to point on the rail with a hind end disengagement. The disengagement was fantastic, the point to point i guess was fair, and this is the traditional girl coming out when i say MOVE. I was patient and waited for her to respond to me. What a feeling. I honestly didn't know it could be this incredible. Well i could keep going and going on how wonderful it felt, but where would that get this post. Ok, we ended on a fantastic not.

Next Day. We started out with doing some friendly with the saddle, go the saddle on and started moving around. We played some stick to me at the walk, trot, halt and back up. It was a little rusty but in the end it was great. It is always great who am i kidding. lol. Then as the day before we played with the bridge and she got on right away from aprox. 15 feet away. Again wonderful, Then comes the circles, not so great. There was quite a bit of confidence on her part as well as some dominance. So with the help of Sue, we worked through her snakey attitude and finally got some connection. Not enough to ride however. We ended on a great note, but not good enough for me to be comfortable to ride.

Day 3

Today was awww just a relaxing day of grazing and lots of love and trust and a little bit on thresh holds. I decided cause it was late in the day to take her up the quarter mile driveway past the house past the barking dogs, the over grown garden and the scary sumac trees. Those trees are the biggest issue for her. So we took our time. The objective at the end of this was to get her to the bus stop to pick up my little girl. My son had come home early cause he was apparently sick. lol. He manged to eat all of his lunch on the way home and then jump on the trampoline, but he was sick. We made it to the bus stop and then of course Ryland had his scooter at the end of the driveway me thinking that was going to be an issue for Freya, boy was i mistaken. She is totally fine with anything my crazy kids could do. They could be flying through the sky and i don't think it would bother her. I guess i am very thankful to have the kids doing these crazy things because with out me knowing it....it is desensitizing my horses.

Day 4

So today we ended up doing a lot of clean up outside and i didn't think there was going to be enough time to play with my horse.....haha but i made time. The progression that we are making makes it so easy to just catch her and hang out and then see where and what we come up with if anything. So during the clean up i found a tarp. Something we have'nt played with for 2 years or so. Into the ring i go. My daughter helped me nail it to the ground and so began the process of getting Freya to touch it all over again. We started with me on the tarp acting silly and then moved to the rope slapping it and the carrot stick all over it, and she had gotten curious, which surprised me. The next step was the yo yo. Back and forth until......she actually touched her toenails not the whole foot on the tarp, so the tarp was resting more on the tips of her toes. That was all i needed, it was something i didn't want to keep pushing. On that note we hung out some more and grazed and chatted with kiddos, and all in all it was just a marvelous day.

Touching Base

So i had a fantastic play day yesterday, as well as a saddle fitting. My friend Sue came over and we were just going to check out the saddle i bought for Freya 2 years ago, needless to say she was a little bit dusty. I decided to play first, and thank goodness i did. Sue is an amazing woman with so much knowledge. She was helping me to understand what my horse is asking and saying. I was playing with the disingagements. The forehand was not very good. Sue is watching me try with the front end and then ask the question why are you trying to do the whole circle, when it is obvious she doesnt quite have it. HUMMMM why am i trying to get the full circle. Cause that is what i am asking. Now, this is where the wheels will start to turn. One step at a time says Sue. Of course. Why am i trying to get the end result. I am forgetting to teach things. Needless to say Freya and i accomplished our forhand disingagement, then we both had a lick and chew, it was so cool. The hindend is eas for the both of us. She really is a star with the back end. The other thing i did was i finally let the rope go and let her step on it. I left the 22' rope on her in the round pen and walked away. She reacted none at all. You could see her trying to figure out which foot was on the rope. That was the highlight of our play session. Something i have wanted to overcome for quite some time.

As far as my saddle. For something i purchased on ebay 2 years ago, you would think it was tailored to my girls body. And from sitting in the saddle from my perspective very comfy and sits me on my balance point. You can find really good buys on ebay. Thanx for the incredible saddle.

Crazy Weather

Well....do i have a story, an incredible story. I spent about 40 mins today with Freya. A day when i would normally just hibernate. It is very overcast outside as well as very windy, so windy that the laundry on the clothesline twisted the lines not only once but twice. I guess you want me to get to the point. So i wanted to take advantage of our water situation we have going on in the garden. Over a foot of water, so much water that the ducks are swimming in it. Anyway i decided to play with Freya and the water. She had some fun. She had no problem going into the water and to top that decided to play in it. Can u believe it, she was pawing in the water and digging in with her nose to get the grass at the bottom, lol. It was so cute. Needless to say i got pretty soaked as well. Right up and over my boots, o well, i had to show her what to do right. So after about 10 mins of grazing and then the 10 mins playing in the water, we took it back up near the rest of the heard. I thought about ending things there but that second you think about ending, another thought comes to mind. Since circling has been an issue we played a little at that and then we did it at the trot. Lets play a little more, stick to me. AAAAHHHHH that was awesome, we started playing with the walk, stop and then back up, then we added the trot to the mix. Well something we have never done is tried the canter, we got it. I wont say it was pretty however we did get 3 strides, it was so awesome. So lets finish up. We went and hung out and ate some dead wet grass, and she was happy, time to go and join the heard. Heading toward the gate, we played a little bit of touch it. She has such a hard time with zone 5 so lets touch it with our tail.....check, ok that deserves a long rest and some more loving. Open the gate, lets do a squeeze.....check. So we are in and she is facing me ready for me to take off the halter. No no no, lets try something we tried very hard to do last spring, summer, fall. I played at and played at and played at with Freya trying to get all 4 feet on this little bridge i made 2 years ago. Without fail and to my surprise it took about 3 mins and we were done, she for the first time, got all 4 feet on the bridge. Amazing, I guess this shows my leadership and with persistence, anything is possible. I had decided i was done. We ended on a great spot. She lowered her head and off came the halter. That was the only thing that came off. Her feet stayed there for about 5 mins. I was out and watching for the longest time. Then gave her permission to come over to the gate, after i got these amazing pics.

How Dare I

How Dare I forget the cake. The beautiful scrumptious cake. Bad me. This cake is 100% healthy. Nothing bad even in the icing. Taste amazingly Delicious, Look fantastically artistic and creative. Company ahhh magnificent. The cake is compliments of the Standish family. We all have our individual horse portraits ;)

Our groups 2nd anniversary

Well another year has come and moving on now into our 3rd year. We had a fantastic day. I had a mental break through. I had a blast playing with Donna's (our newest member) horses. I decided to get in there and practice the catching game. Her horses are very very new to the parelli world. And on top of that here is a slew of people in their space, something is going to happen, is what they are thinking. I had so much fun playing this game, and it worked, maybe 30 Min's in i had a hold of Mike and keeping both Ed and Mike very curious. I cant say more words of how fun it was. My patience has grown so much with this program. So not only did i have such a great play time, we celebrated our second anniversary, with Rose, Keri, Sue and myself. With these 2 horses we did a lot with keeping them out of our space. They want to be real lap dogs. In the end there was huge progress with these 2, they are both very opposite. The roan was scared of his own shadow where as the little pony was confident, very little fear. All in all it was great to spend the day with my horsey friends. Great food, great fun great company.

Sorry I have been away

Well first off i would like to mostly apologize to my horsey. I am not a fan of winter at all, too cold for me. I must admit that i did spend about 10 Min's a day with her, so i shouldn't feel quite so bad. I did touch her and I am certain it has helped me tremendously. Not all is lost for me just yet. Last week. on Feb 16th play day was here and Sue S. played with Nigel, Keri played with Lidlebit, Sue L played with Poncho who she loves and I of course played with Freya. We had a great play time. In the end i got on and rode around a bit, it was so awesome, i didn't want to get off. When things are going good i don't want to push myself. Baby steps right. Lets see i think we played the usual. Circling, which we were a bit rusty on. Always lots of friendly. With the friendly i did extreme helicopter over her head and she really wasn't bothered which was a big change. We always play at the yo yo game and every time we are getting better. Maybe i am getting better and my leadership is coming out a bit more. Here's hoping. I am just so proud of us and how far we have come. I am looking forward to warmer weather and many more play days.