Another Year

Well this is the last day of 2009. Where does time go? It feels like I was just saying this!

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:

 

 
Eddie and I have made some amazing progress this year. We've gone from starting Level 3 to polishing it off and diving into Level 4. Today I made a list of things to accomplish in 2010. But first, here's our list from this year, what I wanted to accomplish and what we didn't get to. :)
 
(* means we did it)
~ONLINE~

*Be able to lead by anything-tail, chin, hocks, ear, legs *Stand totally on the pedestal (did with 3 feet! too small for 4)
*Drive from zone 5-all games
*Jump towards
*Change of direction at canter
*Trot sideways
*Sideways towards
*Straddle a barrel
~LIBERTY~
*Draw at trot
*Lead everywhere with everything
*Stick to me at canter and trot
*Equal YoYo coming in at walk and trot
*Transitions-walk trot canter stop and backup
***Change of direction at walk, trot and ?canter? <--- didn't do it at the canter
*Sideways towards and away at walk
*Straddle a barrel (half over)
*Large jump at circling game
*All 7 games with and without an obstacle
~FREESTYLE~
Bridle from back
Hold tail over shoulder
*Passenger lesson at trot and canter          <---- just at the trot
*Savvy string usage with game 5 and 7 (keep hackamore on)
*Back up transitions with 2 carrot sticks
*Lateral flexion with 2 carrot sticks
*Circle around obstacle with less then 3 corrections walk/trot
*Sideways with carrot sticks
*Jump over barrel or 18 inches <---- 18 inches, over the cavaletties
~FINESSE~
*Everything with a positive attitude
*Soft feel at walk and trot
*Leg yeilds at walk/trot/canter <------ just at the walk!
*Legs to backup/Jingle Bell stops
*Back a corner
*Walk/trot/canter transitions  <------ trot/walk/ halt/ backup transitions
*10-30 meter circling game
*Sidepass while walking
*Open a gait
Jump and back up  <----- haven't jumped much, if not at all.
*180 turns

So out of... a LOT of things, we only didn't accomplish 6. Wow, I was expecting we wouldn't have done a lot more!!!
Here's the list of things to accomplish in 2010:

ONLINE
Long line advancement - selecting leads at the canter - transitions between gaits
10-20 laps of the circle
Laying down
Shoulder in/haunches from long reins
Trot sideways towards
Distance! Get to the end of that 45
LIBERTY
Circling game - connected at the canter
Close circling - all gaits
Change of Direction at the trot & canter
Cutting game
Stick to me at all gaits with refinement
Draw at the canter
Make turns with his tail
Play in the pasture with less than 3 'leaving's
Send in our Level 3 Liberty Audition
FREESTYLE
Canter, canter, canter - when we're both confident for it, of course
Drag things
Using my seat to back up
Fingers to guide
Lateral flexion with 2 sticks
360 with sticks
Transitions, transitions, millions of transitions! Refining them and using savvy string
Bullseye refinement
Focus refinement
Bowtie pattern!
Squeeze over jumps
Sideways refinement - bridleless
Figure eight refinement - one stick/savvy string only
FINESSE
Soft feel at the trot
Leg yields at the trot
Transitions with a soft 'landing' like a duck on a pond
Shoulder in at walk
Haunches in at walk


That just about wraps it up! I'll probably be adding things as I think of them. I think it's going to be a fun year!!

~Lea & Eddie~
~On to 2010~

Trimmin' Time!

Yesterday Mike came out to trim the boys! :) They did great! Eddie's feet look amazing and Scout's are getting much better. (Thanks to the Pete Goo!) hehe!
The weather is getting better too. It was sunny for the past 2 days and now it's snowing on and off today. But it's tolerable!  I'm hoping to play with Eddie today out in the pumpkin field or something, because it's now icy out there. So we shall see where we play today! I think we might play with some more spanish walk too and get better at that!
Yesterday I hopped on Eddie while Mike trimmed Scout and I got to watch how he trimmed Scout so that I can keep him rounded off in the front. :) It will be fun, I really, really like trimming, especially Diesel! hehe! Eddie did really good when I asked him to back up. I just had to wiggle my legs and he backed right up. Yippeee! I think we're getting closer to bridleless riding! just needs more practice!


This morning I went throgh the self-assessment checklist and I was really surprised with our online. I think we need a Level 5 column! There are only 3 things that we can't do in Level 4 online. I know there are things we can improve on, but still, not many 'new things' we can start. It's time to go to youtube and watch some Level 4 auditions to get ideas of things to do. :)
Anyway, our December DVD came in the mail today from parelli and so did the Audio CD, so I'll put that on my mp3 player and watch the DVD to get some more things to do!

Also, we went to go and hold Jiggies (Crissie's horse) He did really good, and I played with him afterwards.

We did some circling, falling leaf, sideways and some bullseye. He did great, but his circles were a little off and it took quite a few sneaky phase 4's to get him out of the circle.
His feet are looking, much, much better. Yay!









Lea & Eddie


John 8:31-32
Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Another video! :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Lea & Eddie!!!!
This Christmas has been pretty memorable! Our weather was crazy and the flu was going through the house.

On the 24th my dad got the flu and was asleep all day. We got a really big ice storm and there was a TON of ice on everything. As the picture suggests, our trees took quite a beating!

A lot of branches fell off and the sound of the ice on the branches was just downright creepy!

Our power went out earlier the night before, because of all the ice, so that was pretty chilly. Thankfully we have a wood-burning stove, so we powered that up and that was our only source of heat. But standing by the fire, warming up my hands, I took up the phrase, "Why not us?!" and we had an amazing Christmas! My dad got better, but that night my sister got the flu pretty bad and the power was still out. I cuddled up next to the fire with my mom and dad and we told stories of our favorite Christmas'. The power came back on that night, so it was off for a bout a day.

The horses were quite troopers! They were snug and warm in their barn and we had filled up big buckets of water so they were set that way. The only they missed was their 'mush-mush' which are the Ontario Dehy Cubes. hehe, although we did get to heat up water with the wood stove and they got a small meal of it. ;)

Christmas morning was much better! The power was on and we were all warm. My sister was feeling better and I kept loading myself up with Thieves, an essential oil that keeps sickness away, I don't really know how to explain it... Here's the explanation: http://youngliving.com/thieves-essential-oil/Thieves-Oil Anyway, we opened presents and watched movies for the rest of the day!

It actually rained all Christmas day, so the horses didn't get to go out yesterday either. Poor guys! They're going to have a lot of energy! We got each other 3 movies each, my dad got Fireproof, Close Encounters & Die Hard (the 2 latter being uber-guy movies that I don't want to watch) My mom got Driving Miss Daisy, The Sound of Music and Julie & Julia. My sister got Steel Magnolias, Sabrina, and U-571 (a war movie). Then I got the BBC Sense and Sensibility, The Ultimate Gift, and A Knight's Tale. I think we've watched 4 out of all the movies so far! hehe! Today we're watching Sense and Sensibility!

My sister and I each got nutcrackers, work gloves, alarm clocks and chocolate! My also surprised us and printed out our blogs and put them in bindings. So now they're books!!! I'm so excited about that. That was really special! We got some other very special things and we feel so blessed.

It's snowing now and the horses are still snug and warm in their barn. We had an eventful Christmas, but one of the best! It looks like it will be snowing all day, so I don't know when I'll be able to get out to play with Eddie. But I'm sure he doesn't mind having some time off. :)

I'm still not sick, thank the Lord and we're taking this weather a day at a time!

Hope all your Christmas' were wonderful and you had a great time with family and friends! Let us not forget the 'reason for the season' that God sent His Son for us.

Merry Christmas!

~Lea & Eddie~

Galatians 5:22

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law

P.S.

I also submitted something for ParelliTube:


~Lea & Eddie~

Yesterday's Session!

Was amazing!!!
It was snowing/sleeting and it was windy, but we had a great time!!!
I taught him the spanish walk and he did it perfectly!!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/video/video.php?v=1305118271512
There's a video of it! It's through facebook, so let me know if it works.
I was just so proud of him! First I asked him to lift it with the driving game, then I asked him to paw with a little more driving game and I gave him grain. So we did it for each foot until he was doing it, then stepping too. What a cool horse!
We did some more cutting game, and chase me game. He loves those games! Stick to me was something else we did at the trot, canter and walk. :) Oh guess what?! He even jumped a single barrel laying down.
I rode for a little bit after that. We trotted around and for 1/2 the time I stayed on, but with a) slippery snow pants and b) a wet, slippery horse, I came off once, but it was so funny! I was laughing! I got it on video too, I thought it was quite humerous!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/video/video.php?v=1305122231611
We just had fun after that and I went in because I was cold. It was fun though! I love playing in the snow!!

So, now we're supposed to get 1/4 inches of ice today and it's supposed to rain a LOT. great... it will ruin all the beautiful snow we just got.
Oh well, at least it will be a white Christmas with some shiny ice mixed in there.

Lea & Eddie

Colossians 2:6-7
As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

Sums it up!

I think sums up what we did today! Does it not?

Post #331 & Some Level 4 Online Stuff

Yup, it's post number 331! I can't believe it! Time has flown by so quickly!
So this is what Eddie and I did yesterday. I couldn't decide between Liberty or Online, but since we did Liberty the day before, I decided to do Online. I grabbed the 45 foot line and headed out with Edward. :) First we went for a lap on the track doing some circling game and trotting sideways. He did great considering he was pretty distracted by wind or something of the sort. I got his mind where it should be and then we did some zone 5 driving with one rein. He did some very nice haunches in and transitions with a phase 1.
After we went for a lap we went in the pasture with Scout and Diesel. Oh my goodness... His circles were INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even explain them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I stood in the middle, sent him out and he went cantering to the end of the 45. HE STAYED CONNECTED for the first time!!!! His ear was on me and was so attentive. He did 4 laps - at the canter - at the end of the 45 foot line. While I stood in neutural! Oh my goodness. It was amazingly incredible!
Then we did some zone 5 driving with 2 reins. We did the weave pattern, some sidepasses and push a barrel. :) He's so awesome. <3 Then Crissie came to watch us with mom and Allison. She had come a little before I went out to play. Eddie so knew that they were watching. They were cheering and yelling and... *cracks up* He started strutting his stuff! We jumped the double barrels (one barrel then another barrel about 20 feet away from the first one) and he did a beautiful flying change of direction while he was out at the end of the 45. He did his front feet and back feet at the same time, so that was awesome! We did some cutting game with them cheering too and he was rearing and having a jolly ole time showing off. *laughs* He is so cool. I love you so much Eddie! Thank you God for giving me this amazing partner!
This is the song that sums up my life right now. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su-qazp6te8 It's Open Up Your Eyes by Jeremy Camp. It's on my playlist down a ways on my blog if you want to listen to it there. "The time has come to realize and see the plan you've been designed for. So face the fear of all unknown and see the heart inside." That's my favorite line from that song, and I'm living it! I feel like Eddie and I can reach anything nd do everything with God's amazing grace!
Just this morning I hopped on him for a good 15-20 minutes and we walked up and down the track's north end and he even trotted for quite a bit!

YIPPEE!!

~Lea & Eddie~

Wow! All I can say is WOW!

Well today's play session was just downright amazing. Amazing, amazing, amazing!
What I learned - don't over analyze things - just do it.
With that nugget of wisdom.... here's what we did:
We went in the outdoor to play at liberty. Because the pasture is too big of a temptation for Eddie to run off, but it brings a big challenge to the table of corners. Anyway, we went in there, and I unhooked him from the line because I wanted 'set stuff up.' But we ended up playing stick to me to the things I was going to move, but I couldn't because they were frozen to the ground. We went to the objects and landed at the pedestal where I had him stand. Then we led by the tail off of it (5 hairs - I'm not kidding you) and I asked him to go forward back onto it. Then I had him yield his HQ towards me and away from me while he FQ were still on the pedestal. Now mind you, this is without any pre-liberty online checkes. We just... did it! 
He left for a little bit after that to see if there was anything else that was fun to do, but I played a bit of catching game and he came trotting back. I had an idea! CHASE ME! So I kept running away. It took him awhile to catch on, but by the end of the session he was cantering after me. (thanks Amy Fallow for the idea - you can never learn too much! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPuaAIXd1BE) So we mixed in some cutting game with that and he LOVED it! We'd run this way, then I would spin around and go the other way and he would chase after me with his ears pinned, but he was having fun of course!
Next was close circling game! Now, he always does it when I turn with him, but I wanted to advance it, so I was standing in neutural. At first he left, and went and grabbed the 12 ft rope. "Hmm.... how interesting! Is he telling me to go online?" So we did and I just left the rope on the ground, and I stepped on it if he went past 9 feet. He did 2 circles at the trot with the rope on the ground, like a good banana and exactly where his ribs should be. WOW! Then I took the line off and he did 2 circles at a walk with me in neutural. Like I said a little earlier, don't over analyze it - just do it.  I think there's a time in your relationship where you can do that. Your horse knows the fundementals, he's smart, so just DO IT! Try it! If it fails, go back to the step before it.
We did a little bit of sideways after that, and he did very good with that too. :)

Guess what we did next? About a half an hour of freestyle! YIPPEEE!!!! I was thinking this morning and I decided to play with our Million Transitions and starting to not use the reins. Just the savvy string. the carrot stick is too cumbersome as of right now and I feel to awkward with it. Eddie doesn't like it either! Hey, it's true - Your horse is your mirror!
So we did just that, we played with a million transitions and it kept him guessing, even though we were going in an... oval. ;) He did them superbly!!!! I had to use my reins for about 50% of the time, but most of it was with my seat and/or the savvy string. He did much better with the savvy string. I just sat back for the back-up and he backed up 5-7 steps with just my seat and the savvy string! Then we trotted down the long ends and I just had to stop him with my seat! Wow!!! That's basically all we did for freestyle, but it was so cool. Just yesterday I thought our freestyle was going down the tubes, but it's spiking right now! That was the first, real Level 3 Freestyle session I've had with Eddie. And I loved it. He loved it too! I expected something more from him besides the average. ;) he liked the challenge too.

Lea & Eddie


Hebrews 13:5
Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

"I'm running! I'm running! I'm RUNNING!!!!!!!!!!! .......... i'm done...."

That was Eddie's motto for today!
We went out to play and he was full of energy. Well, he had gotten in with Scout, he went through the fence. Don't ask how a 15.3 hand horse can get through a fence... You don't want to know! So he obviously wanted someone to play with.
Anyway, we went out to the pasture with the plan of improving our cutting game and playing with our sideways towards. Well Eddie told me, "NO WAY! LET'S PLAY!!!" So we played!!! We went for 1 whole lap in the pasture doing falling leaf. He was having a blast, then after 3/4 of a lap, he stopped, looked at me... and was like, "I'm done, thanks!"

So he was nice and relaxed for the rest of the play session! We played with the cutting game, advanced sideways and double jumping. He did super whith the double jumping! He did is twice over 1 barrel, then the tube. I was so proud of him, it looked like it took a lot of coordination!
<---- That's a picture of Eddie and I playing the cutting game! He did super with it, very attentive, and very hyper! hehe!

Then, he was even calm enough, that I hopped on and we went halfway to the gate.
I was thinking about that earlier, I think our
freestyle needs to TLC. Because in the fall, I was riding every day, felt little-to no unconfidence, and he was completely fine with it. I think it's just because we haven't ridden too much, that he's kind of snarky and I'm a teansy weansy unconfident. I just have to remember to trust myself. :) And trust him. :)

~Lea & Eddie~




Galatians 6:2
Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

A Walk in the Snow

It was pretty nice out today! It got to about 20 degrees and Eddie got to take his 'blankey' off for most of the afternoon.
So me, dad and Allison all went for a walk with Diesel, Eddie and Scout! We went on the outside of the track, between the new fence and the track. It was Eddie's first time out by the south tree line. This time he could actually go in it! :) We walked by sone trees and did some super squeezes between thorns and the fence. He did so well, I was so proud of him!
Then we came up the west end, through the orchard and he ducked under some apple trees. It was so funny! He would stoop his back as he went under them to keep them from touching him too hard. hehe, he's so silly! Then we continued up the west end, and instead of turning east, we kept going into the front yard! He's never been completely in the front yard, so it was a little scarey for him. But a little yoyo fixed that! Then we turned west, to go up the north end and we went passed the pine trees, up the driveway and to the barn! He did so good, I'm so proud of him! Usually he's pretty RB with unusual places. Maybe a change in our relationship? Or maybe just the return of some long, lost confidence? I don't know, but he did swell. Super swell!!!!
I love you Eddie! :) <3

Lea & Eddie


Psalm 19:14
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

Be acceptable in Your sight,
O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.

Feet trimmin' time!

The thermometer reads 13 degrees. It feels like -8. What to do today?
Something that warms me up!
Hmmm...
Trimming!!!

I had a mental list that I needed to do Scout's feet, Eddie back feet and Diesel's back feet. So I started with Scout and I did all of his feet. It's weird, they look long, but when you look under them, they're not long... Hmmm! So I just rounded them up and took off some excess hoof wall. Balanced the heels and spread out the heel/toe plane. We've been putting "Pete Goo" in his feet every 3 days and it might be helping. I think they look a little better than how they did before we started using it. The "Pete Goo" is half Triple Antibiotic and half 1% Clotrimazole Athletes Foot Cream. Pete Ramey came up with it and it's what Mike suggested to use to get Scout to lower his heels and spread them out.
I also had to make a halter out of 2 savvy strings because all the halters were inside thawing. ;) You can never be without a savvy string!

Then I did Diesel's back feet and checked his fronts. They look amazing!!! I'm so, so happy with how they look. He is really the first horse (er... pony) that I have trimmed and watched a change in. I'm so excited! A whole new hoof (literally, it all grew out) in 6 months. Nature hoof care is amazing! I took off some of his long hoof wall, brought it back and rounded it off. They look wonderful. I'm being careful with trimming it all the way back, so I just take a little off at a time. I'm not experienced enough to do a full trim, just little bits until it's where it needs to be!

I haven't done Eddie yet, but I did make a mental note because he had blown out an abces in his hoof wall and I wanted to make sure that it doesn't chip because it's almost to growing all the way out. I'm sure it's going to chip, I just have to keep it rounded so it doesn't chip anything else off.
Man, their feet have still been growing pretty fast, even with me trimming them in between.....  ????  I just hope that Mike comes before Christmas because they could all use it.

So that's what I did today! By the time I was done, I was wearing a sweat shirt, I was hot!!!

~Lea & Pretty Feet Eddie~


Mark 11:22
So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God."

Energy! Woohoo!

Well we got the Online Patterns in the mail today - we ordered them off of GiddyUpFlix - so we watched those this morning. Then Eddie and I went outside and played with some of the Level 3 and Level 4 things that Pat was doing with Casper/Vanna.
He did really well considering he was a RBE for part of the time. A tree branch fell from a really tall tree, so that's what got him into the RBE-ness. So it was perfect - Patterns help RBE because they know what's going to happen next. :) We stayed on the figure eight pattern for about 15 minutes, weave for 5, squeeze for 20 minutes and circling for 10 minutes. He had some trouble with the squeeze game, so we stayed on that longer until it got better, then we quite. I think we need to  practice some things that we're not too great at. It's easy to do the things that are... well... easy, because Eddie loves them and I love them. Some of the other things, that are fundamental, we've either skipped or not done them.
So we did a few things that are hard for me and him. But I think the key is not to do all of them in one session, but to do one in a session and practice it in accompaniment to the things we can do well. :) Well now that I've talked through my thoughts... lol!
It's a journey of never-ending self improvement - that's for sure!
After we did the 20 minutes of squeeze game, he was very relaxed. He was sighing, licking his lips, trusting in me, and had his head down way low. Then we did some circles and ended it there. Oh, we also got some really nice point to point 40+ feet away. :) Very cool!
So, next time we play we'll play with the fun things and one hard thing!
Yippeee!!!!

~Lea & Eddie~




Matthew 1:23
Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”

How Fun

Does this not explain it all?!

Fun in the Snow!

Today was so much fun!! My sister and I had a play day in the snow!!!






First Eddie and I did some fun online stuff with the hackamore and reins extended into a 22 foot line. We jumped over the tube which was covered in a 2 foot drift and extended for 3 feet. He just soared over it!!!
Then I grabbed a helmet, redid the reins and hopped on!

This is when we were backing up and he got all collected - I love it!!
So we played with the clover leaf a little bit and just walked/trotted around a little bit. We chased my sister and Scout too - hehe!
It was fun to ride in the snow!

We just had a good 'ole time with the ponies. My sister has been teaching Scout how to drive, so she took us for a ride!

She had an inner tube attached to his surcingle and we went for a walk! It was fun!! I think Scout liked it too! Eddie didn't like it, because he had to follow me, but it was fun!!!
YIPPEE!!!!!



~Lea & Eddie~

A Walk in the Snow

It snowed again all morning, and at 1, we decided to go outside and take the horses for a walk to get outside and stretch their limbs a little bit. So we just went for a walk by the buildings and let them graze for however long they wanted to.
I love snow!

It's so cool, last winter Eddie and I were just starting Level 3 Online, and still playing with Level 2 freestyle. Now we're graduated both, and well on our way to graduating Level 3. Who knew that we would ever get this far? Well, God did. I remember when we first started, I had a goal to graduate Level 1 when I was 15 and Level 2 when I was 18. Hmm... I never thought that they would be so soon. And so maintainable.

Look at all that snow!!!!
I could so live some place where there is snow all winter. I hope this snow stays around for a while!

It looks like it's supposed to get down to the single digits tonight, so I have to make sure Eddie stays nice and warm!


~Lea & Eddie~


John 15:5
I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

I'm Back!

Hey there! Hope you're having a good day! I'm back!! I just got in from a wonderful play session with Eddie!
We went out in the pasture and played mostly with the cutting game and falling leaf. We played for a good 20 minutes. It was a lot of fun! He was really getting into the cutting game. He was jumping from side to side even though it was slippery. Speaking of slippery... I was cutting to the right, and he was following my move, and my feet slipped out from under me and I fell on my behind. ;) hehe! It was funny. Eddie was looking at me like, "Why are you down there?! We're supposed to be playing!"
So I got back up and we played a lot more. Oh guess what?! We were jumping over the log together and he FLEW over it! It was a foot or MORE high than it and it's a good 2 feet off the ground, maybe more. It was just awesome. It was so much fun to play in the snow!

So after we played we went in his stall and I had noticed that his front left hoof had chipped, so I did his front feet. They were pretty long! His hoof wall was really thick, so I brought it back to about 3/8 of an inch thick and closer to the sole. They look much better. I do love doing hooves, it's fun, but also testing to see how good you can get it.

That's what we did! It was a very fun play time!!

~Lea & Eddie~

SNOW!

Well the snow has finally gotten here!

There's the radar of what's about to come through. The X is where we are. The last batch of snow has just left. the boys are outside enjoying the fresh air and stretching their limbs.

We love snow! Hopefully we'll get to play today, even if it is snowing. I love playing in the snow. :) I don't know if Eddie does, but I'm sure he'd be happier inside eating hay!


So, since there's not much to talk about on this beautiful, snowy day... I thought I would make up a small list of things Eddie and I are going to play with this winter.

• Freestyle! Winter seems to be our big freestyle season. So, I'm hoping to do some bridleless riding, and getting him to be softer to my body sygnals.
• Cantering too. I love to canter in the snow, and he really gets into the groove of, "Let's GO!" It will be really fun to canter around this winter. :)
• Jumping! My goal is to jump three cavaletties stacked up. Maybe the tube, but definitely not the barrels yet. That's pushing it, for now. We'll get there!
• Liberty! I'm praying that we can play at Liberty in the pasture successfully before spring. I think we can do it, I just have to cause my idea to become his idea! ;)
• Finesse - more fluid rein. We're not going too fast into finesse yet. I want to make sure he gets the concept of it.
• Online - advanced zone 5 driving! playing with haunches in, and shoulder in, because he has a hard time with the latter. half passes and playing with where his body is when he does them.

We did them the other day, and he did great with them!!! We sidepassed from barrel to barrel with one rein and he did great. Yay!!















Winter is here,
Lea & Eddie




Ecclesiastes 3:1
To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven.

He's Offering like Crazy!

Well I think I have tapped into Eddie's offering bubble. Lately, I've felt like we can do anything, if we take a slow, and steady approach to it.
Today we played in the pasture, and he was amazing! He jumped 2 single barrels in a row, cantered towards me, did some ULTRA light sideways towards and sideways away. But the coolest thing, he jumped two barrels that were back to back. He just FLEW over them. I had never asked him to jump any higher than the barrels laying down, so we just made it l-o-n-g-e-r!  It was so cool!
His cutting game is getting really good too. I jumped back and forth and he keeps his eyes on me, he loves it!
I think we have our quality and distance down for most of the things we're working on. Now we just need to play with speed. His circling game was interesting! He had gotten very LBE on adrenaline from cats running every which way, so I just stood in the middle and let him burn it off. I'm telling you, it doesn't last long!!! But the 5th circle at a canter he went to a walk. He sighed, licked and chewed and just looked at me. "Were we doing something?!" Yes! We were! Can we do two circles each way at the trot, then you can come in? "Sure mom!"
Then everything was fine! He's so awesome. I love him so much!
I hopped on after that and we chased Scout around. It was really funny! While we rode, we played with some suspension rein and our focus. He really follows it now. It's so amazing! This winter, I'm hoping to a) canter a lot and b) try some bridleless things. We've been preparing all fall, so I think we may be ready for it. Like an amazing Parelli student said, "When you are ready, you are ready. Doubt won't then creep in." - Dawn Emmerson.
We'll be ready, when we're ready. :)

P.S. Snow is on the way here!!!!!!!!!! YAY!


~Lea & Eddie~


Mark 3:25
And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

Winter, winter, winter is here!

Winter is finally here! It's been in the 30's all week and it's supposed to drop down to the 20's this next week. I love winter, it's my favorite season, besides fall!
Let's see... Yesterday Eddie and I had a short, 10 minute session in the evening. I know, our first session in the dark! It was kind of weird, I don't think he liked it! lol! But we did play with some bullseye, figure eight and I just let him graze. :-)

Today it was much nicer out and it was sunny! So we played for a nice long time. First we started with going for a walk in the track with everyone else. We drove from 5 with the 2 reins and he did amazing!!! I asked him to do some haunches in and he did it beautifully. Shoulder in wasn't as good, but he did try.  :)
We went in the pasture afterwards and played with some bullseye, circling game, long range point to point and we played with some more cutting game. He loves that game! I hopped on after that we walked around and did some point to point. It was very fun!
Hopefully we'll be able to get some more good play sessions in before all this snow comes. There's supposed to be a LOT of snow this upcoming week!!!!!!!!!
Savvy on my friends!

~Lea & Eddie~

New Stuff!

Today was an awesome day!! It was snowing on and off, so I went out to play in the snow, it was so pretty!!!
So the last couple of play times have been kind of boring, because we've just beening playing with things that we've been doing for a couple of weeks/months. So today we started playing with some new things! And man, did he have fun with it!!!
First we started playing with some cutting game. HE LOVED IT! I would make him guess which way I was going to run to, and he would jump the way I went and he reared a little bit, and shook his head. hehe! It was so cool for his LBI self, he was full of energy!! We did that a few times and it so so cool!
Then we played with some advanced sideways. I had him sideways towards me a lot faster than what we normally do. I stayed percendicular to him and I crossed my legs, and he crossed his! What an awesome horse!!
The next thing we did was, jumping multiple barrels in a row! I have 4 barrels set up. 2 together, then 10 feet away and had the other 2 together. We jumped one set, then trotted to the next! I was super proud of him, he did it the first try, for the first time! YIPPEE!!!
Then we played with some more cutting, and just chilled for a little bit. It was so cool to play in the snow. I LOVE snow!!



~Lea & Eddie~


John 6:35
And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

It's December!!!

HAPPY DECEMBER!!!
Well that is definitely not what it looks like outside! It was in the 40's all day and I hardly wore a coat! It was nice outside!!!
This morning my mom, my sister and I put up 2 more rolls of fencing. We're almost completely done!!
Then I played with Eddie in the afternoon! We played online in the pasture and we did some slow things, because he was really sleepy. We leaned back and forth, (got it on video!) played with some driving game from the pedestal. I had him bring his HQ towards me while he stayed up there. Then some advacned porcupine pressure with leading by the forelock! :-D He did pretty good with it!!!
Oh, guess what?! We're starting something really fun. I squatted on the ground, and I tapped his barrel so he would sideways towards me, over me. We're a long way away from it, but I think he gets it. I just have to play with my confidence! :) It's so cool, I couldn't have asked for a better horse. Whenever I get RBI, he goes LBI and takes care of me until I'm settled. Sometimes he doesn't, sometimes he goes LBE, but then we just back up until we're both comfortable and he has things to do! I love you Eddie!!! We bowed a few times and called it quits there..... oh.... but wait!!!!!
As we were going to turn the camera off, he picked it up... He took the lens in his mouth... I tried to grab it.... but he ruined the lens! And we just bought that camera!!!! :-D I actually have it on video, because it was still rolling when he chewed it.... well that's a hidden expense I didn't plan on! But God is good, He will provide. :)

As this month of December begins...
Lea & Eddie

James 4:7
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.