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.

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!

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!...)

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.

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.”

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~

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.

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~