April 4-6 2022: The Learning Begins

Marti Szczur

April 4, 2022

Move in and check-in day. Bill Parkhurst, host at Forever Springs Farm, where I am staying, was wonderful and transported Toby over to Linda's Happy Horse Haven. He (Toby, that is) was a good boy and marched right on a never seen trailer. Toby is turned out in his own paddock with horse pals in adjacent fields/paddocks. He is nonplussed and settled in.

April 5, 2022

Today was the first day of my learning adventure with Linda. After getting Toby his breakfast and cleaning his paddock, Cherly White, another 4 week student (whom I first meet 14 years ago at the Parelli campus … how about that for a coincidence?) and I meet with Linda to discuss goals for my month’s  journey. I had prepared.

Big Goal: To maintain and improve my and Toby’s Strength, Agility and Balance (SAB) with focus on preserving my and Toby’s physical, mental and emotional health … Happy Horse and Happy Human.

This lofty goal has 2 sub-goals …

With improved SAB, achieve proficiency (7 or above out of 10 max) in 3rd/4th dressage movements and advanced Working Equations (WE) obstacles/maneuvers with a happy horse.

Improve my riding skills, such that my aids/body language are executed with subtle precision (finesse) with a happy horse.

Toby is (usually) Connected, Relaxed, Responsive (the core behaviors) and Confident with pretty good Implusion, so the exercises/skills I want to focus on this month are in Bending and moving into Harmony and Agility. For example, lateral movements, flying changes, square halts, and extended trot. Also, while Toby’s Liberty is quite advanced, some times I confuse him with what I am asking. I would love some help about adding more clarity while staying subtle when asking.

We then went to collect our horses and practice the “twirl and swirl” exercise to use in getting horses attention and connection. The correction for me was to keep walking toward the hind end and when he twirls to face me, continue walking while swirling the front end over and change direction.  Reminder: don’t walk in a circle to do this … walk around.

Warm-up when riding is to ask your horse the  following 7 questions. If the answer is not “yes”, fix it. (As I mentioned in a earlier post, how to do this is a key objection in Linda Parelli’s curriculum.) 

1.  Are you with me? (Connection) 

2.  Can I give you a loose rain?(Relaxation) 

3.  Will you respond to light aids?(Responsiveness) 

4.  Are you spooky or scared?(Confidence)

5.  Can I regulate your gait/speed?(Impulsion)

6.  Are you flexible (Bending)

7.  I’m doing this, how about you?(Harmony)

After some warmup, we were good to go on 1-5 and ready to do some impulsion and bending exercises. Today was mostly for Linda to observe where we were with our horsewomanship. We made some adjustments…longer stirrups and need to add more shims to saddle pad to lift saddle in back. 

Takeaway …

·      Do not use legs to ask for go (keep them quiet and long with heels down and toes pointing straight ahead). Tap with stick every 3 secs if swing with pelvic doesn’t work.

·      Stand in saddle to get feel of lower leg position. Hold this when sitting back in saddle.

·      Correct horse’s nose to direction you want to and look between ears … don’t over turn my head and look between the ears.

·      When doing speed changes in gaits, do them in large circle.

·      When doing figure 8s make turns smooth, not sharp.

The afternoon did not go as planned. When I went to follow my  afternoon plan, Toby had a swollen eye. There was no known event that I can attribute injury to (like witnessing him bam his head), but stuff happens. The vet came later this afternoon. Luckily, the abrasion was on the inside of the upper eyelid, and not on the cornea or iris. So, some antibiotic and anti-inflammatory shots and ointments and Bute paste, and we should be fine in a day or two. Sigh. 

April 6th

The good news is that Toby’s eye was way better this morning … still a little puffy above and below lid, but eye wide open and no tenderness. So, he was good to ride and what a good learning session we had. Cheryl and I rode with Linda around the property, with a focus on “parking lot” which is a relaxation exercise for horses. Horse is to stand still before getting full release of any rider correction. More than 2 steps and rider makes immediate correction and then releases again. Toby stayed parked with only an occasional correction needed (we practice this at home), and I could feel his softness and relaxation in this new environs. Cheryl’s horse took a bit of time to get it, but as we rode from one parking space to another, he got it. Fascinating to watch.

Then, into arena for more instruction. For me, key takeaways were ...

o  Work on becoming more upright in my upper body. Means I need to be tucking pelvic bone forward and lengthening leg. Stand up in saddle and the feel in the leg is what you want when you sit back down. 

o  Do not use leg or lean forward to get forward movement. Train to have Toby respond to swing from pelvic, so if no response, tab with stick. Leave legs draped and long.

o  Turn my shoulders when turning and watch that head stays looking between Toby’s ears … and not looking for next jump :-)

o  Always have a plan on where you want your horse to go … horse looks to you for leadership/respect or else they will decide where to go. For a visual, imagine if you are out walking with someone, and they aimlessly meander around. How would this feel? I’d take over, for sure.

In the afternoon, I rode on my own just to practice this morning’s lessons … we only walked and kept it short, but explored the property by my deciding on where we were headed. If Toby deviated, I corrected with one rein adjustment and released. I had a fun time, and I believe Toby did as well. He has a lot of confidence these days, but I didn't push it and stayed within his comfort bubble.

Gave him grass grazing time around the stable while I did chores. Toby definitely is connected to me  … comes to check in on where I am and comes when I whistle. Such a cool, little horse. How lucky I am.

Tomorrow is forecast to be a rainy day, so we are scheduled for theory and simulation learning.

Munch, munch. Life is good.
Flies are getting to Toby and leaving some welts, so gave him a little protection.
Happy Horse Haven is a lovely property for both horses and humans.


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