Marti and Toby's 2022 Florida Adventure

April 8, Friday   Did warm-up online and Toby was quick to achieve elements 1-5 (Connection, Relaxation, Responsiveness, Confidence, and Impulsion.)   However, when I mounted, he had difficultly with parking. No other horses were out in the field, so it took a little while for him to relax enough to stand still with no other horses around. He did achieve it, but after consulting with Linda, a better strategy may have been to start closer to the stable with other horses around and then, as that worked, move farther and farther away.     Linda’s lesson was focused on Bending. We worked on isolation exercises …    o    1st … only bending head and neck (keeping bit straight and not at an angle or tilted) left to 11 and 10 o’clock (12 noon is head/neck straight ahead) and right to 1 and 2 o’clock. First at stand still, and then at walk and trot. (If at canter, only go to 11 or 1 o’clock.) Be on soft contact and allow horse to do this slowly a...

Thursday, April 7th                                                     Highland and Jazz enjoying Florida living. Predicted to be a day of thunderstorms, and the morning was a bit rumbly with a few showers, so we meet indoors to review/ask questions. To put in perspective some of the takeaways I record for myself, here is a diagram of Linda’s Happy Horse Happy Life model. The bottom three components (Connection, Relaxation and Responsiveness) are core behaviors upon which the other modules build.  And, Connection with your horse is the foundation for all the behaviors. Every time I am with Toby I want to ensure that we have a solid connection, and if not, do some exercises to secure it, before I move on to any other behaviors.  Toby and I usually  have good connection, but if I am distracted (i.e. on the phone or my mind somewhere el...

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 o...

  What a stimulating couple of days at Linda Parelli’s HHHL Annual Conference. The theme was Connection, which is the base behavior of her progressive-oriented program. Here are a few takeaways for me, personally. [Note: The best way to really understand her working model / framework is to take the Happy Horse Happy Life course on How to Talk Horse at   https://www.happyhorsehappylife.com/all-courses . Many of my comments are expansions or reinforcements of what I have learned in this curriculum, so my notes may seem cryptic to some readers.] ·       When wanting to connect with a horse in a herd, don’t “catch” first horse that comes to you, but go to dominant horse in the herd. Once the dominant horse is connected with you, the others will likely follow. ·       When feeding horses, feed the dominant horse first … that is what horses do with each other in a herd. Makes no “horse” sense to have the dominant horse wait...

On Friday, we arrived in Florida. Toby got off the trailer cool and calm after his trip South and has a wonderful field to relax in over the weekend, while I'll be attending Linda's first conference based on her new curriculum, Happy Horse Happy Life. Then, on Monday, I'll move him to Linda Parelli's Happy Horse Haven farm for my month long study program. On Saturday, the morning began at dawn with feeding Toby, who has a fabulous, huge field to roam around in with lots of large trees draped with Spanish moss. He shares a fence line with some of the resident horses, so has some company with whom to converse. He has settled in nicely, but was mighty glad to see me when I brought him breakfast and attention.   Claudia and Bill Parkhurst, from whom I am renting a room in their house for the month, seem to know everyone in the Ocala horse world. This morning at 8 am, I was lucky enough to get invited to join them, along with another Farm guest/resident, to watch one of thei...

 Toby and I took off today for our adventure. 😀😀

 Yesterday  Toby had his winter coat removed in prep for the warm Florida weather. Of course, today the temps dropped in Virginia and gale winds kicked up. Toby is now wearing a warm blanket over his buzz haircut. We leave Thursday, and it will be warming up by them. My lists of what to pack are beginning to evolve into actually packing.