Monday, November 30

Leeeeeean with meeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

Well today it was SUNNY and still cold, but it was SUNNY!!! YIPPEEE!
So... At first Eddie and I went in the pasture and we played with a lot of different things! I really played with my slowness, and having him go before me. I really had that in the back of my mind with the whole session. So we played with some bullseyes, cirlcing (which he did 3 laps at a trot without breaking gait) sideways and we're learning this new, fun thing. He stand on the pedestal, I swing the savvy string over his back and he bring his HQ towards me. I'll have to see if I can get a video of it. It's really cool! I LOVE HIM!
We refined things even more and I asked him to stand with his feet just a little in front of the other. Then I leaned forward - and usually I have to ask him with a phase 2 - but today I just leaned backwards and he leaned back. I leaned forward, and he leaned forward!!! YAY! WOOHOO!
We did a few more circles and we did about 3 or 4 circles over the barrels without him breaking gait. Yippee! We did some weave, falling leaf, and some zone 1/2 iscolations and extreme friendly game in those zones. {Thank you Fran for the advice, he's doing much better!}
To finish things up, we went in the corncrib and I finished trimming him. His back feet are doing swell. I really enjoy doing this, it's definitely something I will keep doing for a long time. Trimming is so fun! I'll get some pictures of his feet up too. =-)

Savvy on!
~Lea & Eddie~

Friday, November 27

Christmas is almost here!


Snow on the front porch next to our frost-bitten pumpkins! Thanksgiving morning.
Our Christmas tree is up!!! Thanksgiving afternoon.
Well today Eddie and I played online in the pasture! For once it was sunny, and in the 40's!!! It was so nice outside!



We went in the corncrib first and I did his feet. They were already pretty long, so it took me a while to do his front feet. Probably around 20 minutes. They look so nice now! I'm working on building up the muscle in my legs, because they were very noddle-y by the time I was done. 2 feet a day seem to be my limit. Tomorrow we'll do his back feet. =-)
So we went in the pasture then and played with a lot of different things. We did the question box with the barrels, the weave pattern with the cones, and the circling game with the buckets! I stood on two buckets and we played the game, "Don't make me get off the bucket." He was having fun with it by the time we were done. He would slow down, like he was going to stop, but I would look at him and he would speed up. "How close can I get to stopping without you getting off the bucket?!" It was very funny!!!
We did some sideways towards and zone 5 driving after that. We jumped the logs, barrels, tube and sidewaysed over an upright barrel from zone 5. It was really fun!
Oh yes! We bowed a few times when we were done. He really gets it, and I hardly had to touch him to get him to bow.
=-D
 
I played with Scout for a little bit afterwards. Just playing with some circling game, he jumped the barrels (which is huge for him) did some cavaletties and we went for a jog around the pasture. It was tiring for me but he wasn't even breathing hard! I think we'll do that every other day or so. Go for a jog together. =-)
 
So that's what we did today! It was so nice to get back in the swing of things, but even better to have this great weather!
 
 
   
~Lea & Eddie~


1 John 2:17
And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

Thursday, November 26

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone! I hope you have a wonderful day with family and friends.


Psalm 69:30
I will praise the name of God with a song,
And will magnify Him with thanksgiving.


I haven't gotten a chance to play with Eddie since my last post because it's been snowing/raining. =-( But as soon as the yucky weather stops, we're going to play more! I did groom him and love on him, but we haven't been able to have a solid session. =-) It's that time of year again!....
I think I can officially say it's winter!

Monday, November 23

Energy & Online

Today Eddie and I played online with various Level 3/4 things.
I sat on the ground, had him circle around me and had him go to different obstacles. I was also playing music, so that was really fun! It felt like I was doing a spotlight or something!
So we played around when we did some circles he was VERY hyper!!! He would canter, canter, canter, then I would ask him to do the short trot, long trot and he got all LB again. So once he was LB we went to liberty! He did really good. We did some close, trotting circles, jumped the barrels, stick to me at walk, trot and canter and he only left a few times! Then we stood on the pedestal and I asked him to bring his HQ towards me, with his front feet on the pedestal. He's really getting the hang of that! =-D
We played for about an hour and then it started to get windy and I was frozen, so we ended it there. He did great though, for a cold, windy day!
I LOVE YOU EDDIE!!!!!!

~Lea & Eddie~

Colossian 1:15-16
He is the image of the invisible God. The firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created, visible and invisbile, in heaven and on earth. Whether by thrones, domains, principalities or powers all things were created through Him and by Him.
(recited by heart, so I don't know if it's right!...)

Sunday, November 22

Videos!

Here are some clips from the past couple days. =-)

Best Finesse Session!

What?! Finesse?! You gotta be joking!
Nope.
Today we had the best, real, finesse session. It was great!

Ok, so first played at liberty in the round pen. He did great! We did the figure eight perfectly and he did it at the trot too. Circling was another story.
Sometimes his round pen circles get out of control. I think I know exactly why. My mom and I always wondered if he was 'round pen trained.' The trainer he went to abused him and he has a big scar to show for it. Anyway, sometimes normals (his owner did this) just ran him around in a paddock without a line and they say they're lunging them. We watched her do this and every now and then I think Eddie's brain reverts back to that. Everything we have done at liberty goes flying out the window! But it was interesting, I called him in, and I tell you, it was like bringing him out of a trance. He had been a bad banana and looking to the outside, not looking at me and generally RB. Once I called him (aka showed him I was there) he came running to me. I felt sorry for him. But he sighed, licked his lips and stood by me with his head down for quite some time. Then I asked him to do another circle, but I asked him to stay by me. Circle around me. He did and his head was low, he was relaxed and generally his normal self! Hmm... How interesting! I think we'll have to do circles close to me from now on!
After that we did some sideways and just some playing around.

Freestyle was next! We had ridden for about 30 minutes yesterday, so we had some things to play with/think about. It's really interesting, I figured out something about myself. If I lower my expectations, and not think about the things we have to do... Wait, first let me say something... I still get a butterfly or too left over from this spring. But I think I know how to manage them. =-) With that said, let me go back to what I was saying. If I focus on one thing at a time, then more gets done! I can't look at the big picture for freestyle. I have to look at the step in front of me. Example:
When I'm getting ready to get one, first I play with the friendly game. I jump on him, jump off. Rub my legs on him. Lay on him. Get off. Lay lengthwise across his back. Get off. Get on. Step one is done! Now I just have to keep in the back of my mind, if I feel any unconfidence, get off. Then we can focus on things we can play with. =-)
So first we played with the weave, point to point, then I thought... "Hey, he is SO smart, I'm probably boring him." He looked bored. So I through the idea out there, let's try finesse!
We've played with finesse on and off, but never a solid session of it. So I picked up the fluid rein and we did the follow the rail by some barrels, cones and buckets. That was our arena! lol! Since we had prepared online and even at liberty, he was ready for it and so was I!
I assumed my new body position - I had watched the latest Savvy Clud DVD, the November one, and my position and balance has increased dramaitcally! And we were off! Here's a short video of us doing it:

His neck was low, and I could feel his back come up into me. It was so cool! He offered it and was really interested by a new thing to do!
After we had done that for a while and he was stretching like crazy, we did some weave with collected reins and minor phases.
I LOVE PARELLI!!!!!!!!!!! I never thought I would be doing finesse so soon. Thanks to parelli, we can do finesse with confidence!

~Lea & Eddie~


Colossians 3:15
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.

Saturday, November 21

Woohoo! Energy!

Yesterday Eddie had a LOT of energy! So we did a lot of different things to get his mind involved. Circles first. After a few circles and lots of change of directions, his head was low and he was thinking and a' blinkin'. hehe! Then we did lots of traveling circles. I had him jump the log with me 40 feet away, then we went over the cavaletties, did the weave and sidewaysed from 40 feet away. It was fun! And his mind was finally involved with me, so it was really nice and really light. Yoyo was next and I had him yoyo all the way out to the end of the 45 and canter back in. Hooray! And I didn't trip over anything this time! :-D


~Lea & Eddie~
Partners forever!

Acts 17:28-31
for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

Thursday, November 19

I'm.... Playin in the Rain!

:-)
For the past 3 days I haven't had a good, solid, 30 minute session with Eddie. But we did have small, 10 minute bowing practices! Anyway, today we played for an hour! Yippee!!! Towards the end it started raining, but he didn't care and I didn't either.
So we started online in the round pen. We did some circles first. He was not interested, not rythmic and not paying attention to me. So we did some circles, with a mess of barrels in the way. Responsiblity for the horse = look where you're going. So after about 6 laps each way and a few change of directions he was rhythmic, relaxed and connected with me. YAY! After I got his mind he was like, "What now mom?!" So we did some figure eights, but I didn't ask him to do them like I always do. I asked him to circle, then I had him do a change of direction and then another one. But the 4th one I could see him thinking and going, "We're doing a figure eight!" It was awesome!
Then he told me we were ready for liberty by doing circles with a TON of slack in the rope. So we did! I stood a little off center of the middle of the circle and I moved my ribs for him to sideways over the barrels. All I did was move my ribs.  And he moved right over and sidewaysed over them perfectly! We did some more circles, sideways towards, figure eight, squeeze game over the barrels and straddling them too! We also did some stick to me and extreme friendly game. I really challenged his mind today and I think that's why we had to much fun in the round pen. Because it's NOT ABOUT THE.... ROUND PEN!!!!!!!!! It's about the relationship. DUH moment!
Then I hopped on bareback and bridleless and we walked around for a little bit.
After that I hopped off and we went inside because it was raining. Brrr!!!
It was really fun! I LOVE MY EDDIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!


~Lea & Eddie~

Tuesday, November 17

Windy, Windy November!

Hi everyone! I'm so sorry that I haven't posted for such a long time! It's been pretty busy around here.
Anyways, let's see where we left off...
Friday we worked on the fence for a LONG time!

9 hours to be exact! But we got the north side poles in and half of the west side. One step closer to having the property completely fenced!

Saturday we took a day of rest and a) played with the ponies and b) went out to see Crissie and Jiggles!
Eddie and I played with the weave (which is super-duper savvy now) long reins, push a ball, jump a log from 30+ feet away and friendly game! The log is only about 3 feet long, but 2 feet high, so it's quite a challenge for us to have the same focus and jump it easily. =-) It's fun though!
Then we also did some jumping 2 single barrels in a line. So there was one barrel, then another one in front of it about thirty feet away. We tried it, but he didn't jump it, so we're going to play with that some more! Oh yeah! We also played with bubbles!!! Eddie used to be scared of them. He would snort and hop out of the way, but know they can pop on him and he could care less. :-D Then we bowed! He did a PERFECT bow!!!!!!!!!


My mom was having a bit of a hard time doing the sideways game with Diesel, so I showed her how to do it with Eddie. She did really good! I think it's just a matter (with Diesel) of iscolating, seperating and recombining the driving game. Perfect Practice makes perfect!


After we played with our boys, then I went to see Crissie and Jigs! (my mom and sister came later)

Crissie and Jigs did super! They did some extreme friendly game. Yay Crissie!!! Level 3, yippee!!!!!!!! Then Crissie was going to lay on him and do some zone 3 friendly game. You guys did great! The key is just to get his energy out before you try to lay on him. :-) You'll be riding in no time!
So I think that covers Saturday!
Sunday we went to church, worked on the fence some more and it was freezing! I didn't play with Eddie because he was super content to just stay warm, out of the wind, in the barn.
Yesterday I groomed him (did a makeover!) LOL! I trimmed up his mane, brushed his tail, touched up his feet and just loved on him. I groomed all the horses and made sure they felt pampered!
Today it's cold, yet again. We've been making room for hay in our garage (now our hay barn) and doing school. I'm going to go outside now and groom Eddie and maybe bow a few times in the sand-that-looks-like-snow! ;-) I'll take some pictures while I'm outside.

~Lea & Eddie~


Psalm 77:11-14
11 I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.
12 I will meditate on all your works
and consider all your mighty deeds.
13 Your ways, O God, are holy.
What god is so great as our God?
14 You are the God who performs miracles;
You display your power among the peoples.

Thursday, November 12

Fun, fun, sleepy fun!

Well today was an awesome day! Yesterday Eddie and I didn't play because we were busy all day putting up a fence. But today was awesome!
First I went out to get him and he was so sleepy!! So we went for a walk with everyone and I had Scout at liberty, Diesel followed us and Eddie was online. Scout stayed with us the whole time and Diesel would run up behind us. It was so funny! Then once we did a lap or so, then we went in the outdoor and Eddie and I had some 'chill time.' We got a drink, hung out by the pedestal, then I sat on the jollyball (now THAT was funny!) and I had him do some tiny tasks. I had him pick up his front legs and hold them there without me touching him. It was really cool, because it got him thinking and but we weren't moving! Sometimes you just have to forget about 'going out and playing' and just... go and have fun. It wasn't what I had expected doing for that play session, but it was awesome! I groomed him up, did his feet and he was beautiful! His mane and his tail were all brushes. So pretty!
Then we went in the pasture and did some long reins and went for a few more laps on the track. His sidepasses are getting great! We did some at the walk and he was really lickin and chewin!
After that I grabbed some finesse reins, a helmet and hopped on! We did the weave, bullseye and point to point patterns. It was fun! =-) We even chased Diesel a little bit too, but, shh! don't tell! lol!
After that we did some bowing!!! We haven't done it for a few weeks, so I wasn't expecting much. But he did them the best he's ever done them!!
Here's a video of us doing it!





~Lea & Eddie~

Tuesday, November 10

WooHoo! Energy!

Eddie had a lot of energy today! He had a lot of 0-60 moments!
So we played with the circling game and a TON of other things! Let's see... we did the sideways game towards, away, over barrels, trotting away, trotting towards, towards over a barrel and sideways without a fence to different obstacles! Wowie!
Then we did zone 5 driving with one rein and did turns to the left and right with only one rein on one side. It was really cool, he turned away from the rein with just my body asking him to. Also with driving and we did the spin and driving to different logs and having him straddle them/jump them.
Let's see... circling game! We did a lot of traveling circles and jumping over obstacles at the end of the 45. That was pretty hard, but I do believe it will get easier. He did really well with it though! Oh! And this is for Mirka, *gets excited* she had commented on my video on youtube that Eddie's lead changes were just his forefeet changing leads and not his hind feet. But we did a few more and he did both hind and front feet flying changes!!!! And he did it twice!!!! I kind of bumped his ribs out as he was leaving and that REALLY helped!!! It's awesome, just the slightest movement of my body can have him do a flying change. SWEET!!!! I LOVE PARELLI!!!! I also watched our October DVD and at the beginning Pat talked about the water ski/ hovercraft or something like that, anyway it doesn't matter... I had the principle in the back of my mind the whole time and it helped tremendously! The principle was, to get all the beginning things out of the way (once you're ready of course) (the beginning things are Levels 1-3) then once you get to level 4 you ask for engagement. Things get light for you and your horse just offers everything. I think now that we have it on the ground we can get it on his back either this winter or next year. Usually it takes longer for us in freestyle/finesse. =-) It's all me, I need to work on my savvy/precision in level 3. All in good time. =-)

Well that's what I did today! Tomorrow we're putting in our fence and then the horses will be safe if they ever get out. Wish us luck tomorrow, it's going to be really busy/tiring.

Lea & Eddie

Acts 4:19
19 But Peter and John answered and said to them (the priests), “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.

Monday, November 9

Busy Day!

Well today was full of parelli doings! Well, so was yesterday, I'll blog about that later. First I talked to Keri for a good hour on IM. Then I made videos for both Hannah and Blaze and Keri and Prince.
I posted them below. =-)
Then I went out and I played with Eddie!
We did some circling game to get rid of some of his energy and some bullseye to get his mind connected and his body flexing. Then we trotted sideways a little bit, and I sent him to different obstacles and had him straddle them/jump them. I'll post pictures in a bit! I hopped on with the savvy string as a rein and stood on the pedestal. It was fun!!
I played with Diesel too!! He is SO smart! We did some circling game and he was like, "yeah, and what is the point of this?!" So I have to do my homework on mules. ;-) Then we did some weave and he was so light! I just moved my ribs and he would scootch over.

Oh yeah! Our September DVD came yesteryday, so I'm going to watch it tomorrow and learn all about finesse! Plus our Audio CD came on the 8 responsibilities of horses and humans, so I'm going to put it on my ipod and listen to it while I do stalls in the morning. =-)
 Here are the videos!











Hannah made me a video, THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH HANNAH! I love it!!! You're truly an amazing friend. Love you!






~Lea & Eddie~

Sunday, November 8

I PASSED!

YIPPEEE!!!!!!!!!!! I HEARD BACK AND I PASSED MY LEVEL 3 ONLINE WITH A LEVEL 3+!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One step towards a green string!
She said that one thing I need to work on, is: ask for more - think about how each thing you are asking for would create athleticism (mind, flexion, weight, feet...) Use all the space on the 45.

AWESOME!
And I had filmed this before my lesson, so I didn't have some of the savvy arrows I have now. Real refinement of Level 3. =-)
I'M SO HAPPY!






Lea & Eddie

Thursday, November 5

Three - Zero - Two

3
0
2

?
?

302!
Yup, this is my three-hundred and second blog post! WOW! How time has flown by.

Anyway,
Today was AMAZING!
It was so nice to play with Eddie when my sister and Scout were out. I love having company! Of course there's a time I just want it to be Eddie and I, but I think I was over-processing/analyzing everything when it was just me and him. So I showed my sister how to do zone 5 driving today! Eddie and I warmed up and he was amazing! SO LIGHT! A dance? Some might say so. It was a... barn dance. Not all the way there, but close enough!
We did some sending from zone 5 to different obstacles, jumped some things, (this is without long reins) Oh, and I switched to the 45. I LOVE that thing! I hate the 22 now, give me the long one! lol!
We played with some circling and bullseye too. He SO gets it now! All I have to do is bend my ribs slightly and lower my head and he does! YIPPEE!
Then we went to long reins to show my sister how to do it. He did awesome!!!!! We trotted around, jumped the log, did some slow change of directions circling game and bullseye. Yes, we did the bullseye pattern with long reins! It was so neat! He collected. YIPPEE!!!!!!!!
Here are some pictures:

Then we did the weave with the long reins and he did it beautifully! Yay!!!!


~ Lea & Eddie ~

Wednesday, November 4

Lookin' Alive in Zone Five

Today Eddie and I played in the pasture! First we did some advanced sideways and he was so sleepy again! Hmm... I wonder why? I really don't know. Oh well, maybe I was boring? So then to liven things up a little we did some point to point from 30+ feet away. Our quality is... impectable! I always use eyes, belly button, leg, rope, stick and it has helped SO much! It was really hard to break my habit of always doing something before he does something, but it has totally changed now. Anyway, I was trying to figure out the sorce of his laziness, but then I thought, "Hey, we all have days when we're sleepy! He does too!" So then we just did some little things from zone 5. We did fast walks and slow walks and some more point to point with the long reins.
Hopefully tomorrow he will be more awake! =-) Well... actually they do say youre horse is your mirror and I have been quite tired lately since we've been doing so much around the farm. Maybe he's just mirroring me? We DID play with that yesterday! lol!
Anywho,
Savvy out!
Oh! There's a new Parelli.com! They updated it! Take a minute to check it out!
http://www.parellinaturalhorsetraining.com/

~Lea & Eddie~

James 1:2-3
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

Our Quest for Quality

Yesterday I had one of the best session with Eddie. He was so sleepy, but he put a lot of effort into playing with me.
I was so proud of him!
I took off my yucky muck boots and my socks and (it wasn't that cold out) and he did a ton of 'mirror me.' Lately we've been practicing swaying back and forth and he did it perfectly yesterday!!! He didn't take any steps and all I had to do was lean and he would lean. I'm SO excited and proud of him. He is one amazing horse!
Then we decided to play with some sideways. He didn't have to move his feet a whole lot, but he used his mind instead. hehe, I was on a 22 foot line and I hated it! I think he did too! We've been playing with the 45 foot line for a few weeks now and that's all I want to use now! I sent him over the log and I had to run to catch up because I didn't have that extra 23 feet of rope! But once he straddled the log, I had him sideways off of it while I was in zone 1, 22 feet away. I didn't have a stick. I just sidewaysed and he sidewaysed. There wasn't even a phase 2. It was just my body.
AMAZING!
Then I hopped on after I tied the 22 into a hackamore and we did some point to point. It was really fun!
I'm so excited with how amazing our online has gotten. I think once we pick liberty back up again it's going to be good too. I haven't played at liberty with him for a week or so. But we're going to do it in the pasture now.

I never thought I would be able to say this... But we are officially playing in all four savvies in different Levels.

Online - Level 4
Liberty - Level 3/4
Freestyle - Level 3
Finesse Level 2/3

YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~Lea & Eddie~

2 Corinithians 3:4-6
4 And we have such trust through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Monday, November 2

Video of our Cavaletties!

Here's the video of our cavaletti time yesterday!!!

P.S. Watch the change from the beginning to the end! It's incredible!

Sunday, November 1

Freeeeeeestyle!

Today it was SO nice outside! The sun was shining and it's not too cold out.

So we started with Online and we played with the circling game, weave, sideways and cavaletties. He did great with the circling game. He was relaxed/head down and flexed at the walk, trot and canter. It was really cool to go up on our transitions and keep the quality there. Then we did some long range, far away, sideways. My phases were so light and he did exactly what I did in my body.
Weave was next, and it has gotten incredibly light!!! I didn't do anything but move my ribs. I think we can check that off! =-D
We did some cavaletties next just to get him stretching more. I got some videos, so I'll see if I can upload them quick. =-)

FREESTYLE was next!!!! I hopped on with the finesse reins, and grabbed a helmet and we were off! We practiced the weave and I'm telling you.... Before you do it on their back, do it on the ground! Because it was SO SO SO light!!! I moved my ribs and my leg and he moved right over. I probably wouldn't have even needed reins! Then we spent the rest of our 30 minute session doing impulsion programs and a tiny bit of collection. It was great!!

I love my boy ~     =-)

Lea & Eddie


Ephesians 6:11
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
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