Year End Success!

Abbey and I finished up the 2008 year as Overall Green Rider Champions on the Arizona Paint Horse Circuit! Although the year ended nearly three months ago, we don't have our awards ceremony until nearly April. It's a long time to wait to pick up awards and I was really looking forward to it.

1st - Green Handler Showmanship
1st - Green Rider Trail
1st - Green Rider Horsemanship
1st - Green Rider Hunt Seat Eq

Thanks to Abbey and Stacy Padhye...my good friend who so graciously loaned me one of the best horses I'll ever get the pleasure to handle who has won a spot in my heart for all time :)

Fun With Horses & Dogs!

If you're a Parelli follower than you probably already know that Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan and celebrated Horse Whisperer Pat Parelli are teaming up to help rebuild troubled relationships between dogs and horses.

Cesar and Pat will be appearing together for the first time on an upcoming episode of Cesar's Dog Whisperer which will air on the NatGeo channel Friday, April 3rd at 8pm ET. This episode is intended to help horses with "dog problems" and dogs with "horse problems." Cesar and Pat ride in to help a shepherd mix Chloe and Tibetan spaniel mix Hobo (who chase after the working horses), and 22-year old mare Cupcake (who is frightening the riders). Make sure you tune in to see this exciting team up of horse and dog expertise!

If you want to Let National Geographic Channelknow that you want to see more of Pat and Cesar together WRITE an e-mail to comments@natgeochannel.com and say "PRETTY PLEASE CAN WE HAVE MORE PAT!?".

Speaking of dog and horse relationships, I recently happened to have my camera with me in the arena and took video of Riley (my friend Jessica's dog), who is attempting to lead her two year old paint gelding Tater Tot to the gate of the arena. Both Riley and Tater have been spending a lot of time together lately and have become friends. If you look you'll also see Draco, my German Shepard/Husky mix running around with Riley. Click the Play button below to see Riley and Tater in action. You'll have to forgive my initial comments as I was yelling at my camera (and called it stupid) as I hurried to get the footage. I wanted to edit this out but thought it was more important to share it with you...hopefully it brightens your day!

For more information on dogs, horses and their relationships, please see the following links:

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/dog-whisperer/3735/Overview - Read all about the upcoming Dog Whisperer episode with Pat and Cesar, see pictures, videos and an overview.

http://enews.parelli.com/ - March 27th edition of the Parelli enews celebrates Horseman Ray Hunt and talks about the upcoming Dog Whisperer episode with Pat Parelli.

Winter Wonderland...well not really!

My post title this week is a joke because while there are people in this country just freezing their behinds off we had the most wonderful weather (70's) over the weekend for our horse show.

That's me and Jayden on the left getting ready for showmanship. I have to thank my mom for some of the wonderful photos from this weekend and she hasn't even gotten her new camera yet! She did however use mine for the weekend which I'm thrilled to say I just purchased on Thursday in time to use it for photos and miscellaneous video. I did get to see myself riding Jayden for the first time thanks to this wonderful little device. :)

This weekend was such a learning experience and full of surprises (good ones!) too. For starters, this was my first away show with Jayden - we arrived on Friday to the grounds and stayed until Sunday evening. The away shows work a bit different than the day shows because the horses have more time to settle in, only 3 classes (usually per day) rather than the standard 8-10 for a day show.

I moved up a level from Green Rider since showing last year and I'm now in the Novice Amateur category. This is a larger group (about twice as big) as the Green so I was a bit nervous about how I would do.

We kicked off our weekend with a bit of sleeping in (lol) since I didn't show Trail and I arrived Saturday morning at the show grounds around 8:15. The order of classes is all mixed around from last year so nothing really felt like it flowed the way I was used to all day. Jayden did really well though and handled it like a champ. We took 5th place in our Western Horsemanship under one judge (horesmanship is judged on the rider) which was a surprise because there were 18 people in the class and it was his first time ever executing a pattern under pressure.

He is so comfortable to ride that for the Western Pleasure class (judged on the horse's gaits and tempermant) I was able to mostly sit up there and just show it off; that's such a GREAT feeling! We pulled a 2nd place out of our hat in the pleasure under the same judge that gave us the 5th place.

Sunday starts with Showmanship which is my favorite class. Showmanship gives you a chance to really shine one-on-one for the judge. Typically you execute a combination of maneuvers such as walking, trotting, stopping, backing, backing around objects and pivoting (90, 180, 270, 360, 540, 720 degrees) and then stop in front of the judge and set up for inspection. All 4 of your horses legs must be square and even. The judge will walk around the horse and you must move back and forth at your horse's head at the appropriate time to "present" your horse. The skill comes in as the movements must all be succinct, they must flow and must not be awkward. You must also execute each one with the smallest degree of error possible. Have I mentioned this is my favorite class yet?!

If you'd like to see a video example of a showmanship pattern click the Play button below. This is Jayden and I in action at the Copper Country POR show in January 2009.

Cool huh?

Later in the day on Sunday we ride English which is just as fun (well ALMOST) since we have to dress up in outfits that no one over the age of 16 should be required to wear....seriously! We have to wear skin tight pants that require an undergarment because they show every little flaw that all women of any age over 30 probably have. Don't get me started on this one, I'd love to rebell and wear something else!

I'm getting off track..sorry. We snagged a 5th & 6th in the English equitation pattern (judged on the rider) and then a 2nd & 3rd in the Hunter Under Saddle (judged on the horse). We finished up around 5:30 and I was exhausted; Jayden was practically asleep by the side of the arena. By the time we pulled into home it was after 7pm and I was relieved to see the home fires burning. April is now on my mind...lots of practicing to do and I know just where I'm going to start...Parelli Patterns!

If you would like to see some photos from the show of our whole gange, you can visit http://community.webshots.com/user/kkmr2

Hi-Ho Hi-Ho, it's off to show I go!

We're getting packed and ready to leave for our Winter Horse Show today and as I write this there is excitement in the air. I spent some time last night with a barn buddy and I can't count the number of times she said "I'm so excited to go!"

They've completely changed the schedule of classes, order in which we ride them in and the flow of the show so this weekend should be VERY interesting.

This also marks my first *official* paint show with Jayden. We praciced last weekend at the Blue Ribbon Horse show (that's another story for later) and he did quite well winning under both judges in the 1st Year Green 5 & Under Western Pleasure class.

Gotta run, stay tuned for updates about the show, funny photos and some interesting video!

Learning Patience

Whew! Where has the time gone?! I looked up and realized it was almost 5 weeks since my last post - naughty me :)

Jayden and I are getting prepared to start showing together full-time. In preparation for that I've been hauling him to some schooling shows. I'm a firm believer in mental and emotional fitness in my horses because without it, it doesn't make a bit of difference how physically capable they are of doing something.

Last Sunday we hit a local show that is for beginners and a great place to school inexperienced horses. Needless to say, the horse I thought I would be taking never even showed up. Sure he loaded in the trailer, sure he warmed up great with the "falling leaf" Parelli pattern but then we did something we haven't had to do yet - WAIT.

If you've ever heard the expression "hurry up and wait" it's the most perfect definition for what we ended up doing. The show experienced some issues and what should have been a 15 minute wait, turned into over an hour. The longer my horse had to wait, the more unprepared he became. I watched my normally left brained introvert gelding turn into a borderline right brain extrovert. Was he acting "crazy?" No. But suddenly he couldn't stand still and he had to move his feet.

I decided to put this to good use and practiced backing, pivoting and maneauvering him around to try and re-engage his brain. As long as we were moving everything was fine. The second we stopped and stood still for a mock inspection it all fell apart again. I knew right then that we were in trouble so to speak.

We did make it through the class and he did perform well since only a short time during the pattern did he actually have to stand still. He tried hard, but he still moved during inspection. Lesson learned. This horse needs pretty involved mental and emotional warm up time when he's feeling unconfidant. Translation....for a day show there is A LOT more preparation involved than when we go to an away show where we have stable accomodations.

Later in the day I had him tied to the trailer while taking a short lunch break. Jayden stood still for all of 1 minute before pawing, striking the air and then turning to and fro trying to see the other horses in the arena. I decided to just observe him (that's probably not what I should have done) but I wanted to see just how upset he would get. For about 15 minutes he was constantly moving - I could see the emotional tension building in him. Finally after I couldn't stand to see him so far over a threshold, I untied him and put him back to work so to speak, moving his feat and re-engaging his brain. This worked well while I was on the ground but the calm we finally experienced on the ground did not translate to the saddle.

I won't bore you with the details and a blow by blow - but I do want to say that I've chaned my game plan again. We are working on retreating away from his buddies to the trailer (even when its at home) and when that's going well, tying to the trailer and learning to stand still. It's only been three days (the first day there was a BIG hole next to the trailer) but these last two he was much better.

All in all - we are both learning patience - with ourselves and with each other.

2009 off with a BANG!

HAPPY NEY YEAR!

My head is still spinning that 2008 is over, BUT I know I was ready for 2009. Usually I have difficulty dfor the first month or so of the new year and will continue to write the old year on checks and any lists that I keep.

Well move over 2008 because surprisingly, I haven't done it once! Now before you chuckle, I realize that it's only the second day of 2009, but what the heck, I can be optimistic right?

So in the midst of all of our end of the year madness, I just realized that I never posted for December. It seems I am falling down on the job.

Latelly I feel as though my heart and mind want to go in about a hundred different directions as I sift thrugh all I want to accomplish in 2009. In addition to managing two businesses, I also have to manage myself and my horse activities in a way that leaves me feeling satisfied. Have you ever felt so overwhelmed that suddenly things started to slip? I looked up at the beginning of this week and realized that I haven't ridden or really worked with Jayden in about 3 weeks. That feels like forever to me!

Horsemanship (just like anything) is an every day thing. Even if you're not at the barn....if you're a horse lover you're probably thinking about being there, what you'll do when you're there, how to make the most of the time with your horse (and you know the rest). For me it gets worse when I'm competing because I am always nervous that perhaps I haven't done enough to prepare mentally, emotionally and physically and that I'll push my horse past thresholds. Even though my whole goal is NOT to push past anything but to get him so comfortable that he wants to go show with me.

So even though I was so busy in December that I couldn't really squeeze physical time in with Jayden, my mind was nearly always with him (horses are an obsession! if you don't believe me, buy one and you'll be hooked :).

I'm going to jump ahead but stick with me....

I'm just returned yesterday (New Year's day) from Tucson and the Copper Country Paint-o-Rama. I showed in 2006 there and the weather was awful so I was a bit hesitant about going this year.

I had a blast!!!

I spent some quality time with my friends (thanks Stacy for just giving me a shove!) and laughed and spent time with my horse. What could be better than 24 uninterrupted hours at the barn?!

The result?

All my reservations were moot: the ones where I imagined that it would be cold (it was 70 degrees), the one where I imagined my horse wasn't ready and then the biggie....that I wasn't up to the challenge of being a good leader for him.

I've made no secret of the fact that Showmanship is easily my favorite activity in the show ring. I guess it's because I can really display the results of the ground work and relationship building I have done with my horse.

Watch the video below if you would like to see our performance in the Novice Amatuer Showmanship class on New Year's day.





My biggest mistake in 2008 was doubting the time I had spent with my horse; that somehow because I had been inconsistent these last few weeks, that I hadn't been effective when I was with him.

I think the point to all of this is that everything we do today with our horses is for tomorrow. I've heard Linda say this over and over but it finally sank in these past few days.

Happy horsing around!

Showmanship...can you drive AND be a porcupine?

That's me there on the right with Abbey, my 2008 super horse show partner. See that HUGE cheesy grin on my face?

Abbey and I finished the weekend as High Point Green Rider/Handler and overall Green High Point for the year with the Arizona Paint Horse Club!

I'm smiling because we just finished a great showmanship pattern at the Harvest of Color Paint Show in Buckeye Arizona this past weekend. Next to Trail, Showmanship is my FAVORITE class. Abbey is a showmanship queen - this horse can litterally dig a hole in the ground pivoting on her back right foot (when we pivote to the right) or on her left foot when we complete a pull turn and pivot to the left.

It was always fun to go into a class and show the judge how clean we can complete the maneuvers. I showed this horse at the Pinto World Show this year and if my nerves hadn't gotten to me (oh and that starting cone had been on my opposite side) I think we would have placed Top 10, if not snagged a championship.

I've been watching some of the other girls in the barn work showmanship with their horses recently and seeing how frustrated they can get when trying to teach their horses to pivot. At any given time we are asked to do 90, 180, 270, 360 or 720 degree pivots during a pattern either from a standstill or just after we've walked, trotted and come to a halt.

I realized some of the girls can DO showmanship with a finished horse - that is, one who already knows what to do - but not all of them can TEACH the various parts of it to their horse.

When you break it down, a pivot is really nothing more than the horse moving away from the pressure of you walking into his (or her) space while keeping a hind foot planted - in other words, driving game.

Your horse walking and trotting in sync with you when you walk and trot is really the "stick to me" game combined with the Porcupine game - follow the feel. Although a pivot can make or break your routine as far as the judges are concerned what's really thrilling is what comes before and after the pivot.

Great showman make it look effortless and easy...you can't even see that they are signaling or cuing their horse in any way. In fact, if you look again at the picture, you'll see that my hand is actually quite far down the lead. I almost never have to engage the chain for any reason - my horses know they need to follow my lead when I'm walking, jogging or backing; in other words they stick to me!

When I work with my gelding Jayden (who was TOTALLY wet behind the ears with this stuff when I got him), our showmanship time together is not a drilling session! It's a mix of fun Parelli games to help deepen our relationship, build his trust in me as a leader and to to have fun. I did enlist some assistance from my good friend and showmanship queen Stacy when I got stuck trying to get him to plant that right hind foot but for the most part, it's just me and my horse :)

Bottom line...anyone who does Parelli can easily teach their horse Showmanship. When Pat says there is litterally nothing you can do with a horse that isn't games 1-3 - he's TOTALLY RIGHT!

Next Up: I'm starting Trail (in hand) with Jayden to teach him to follow the feel and meaneuver through objects.