not parelli but i'm happy

a few weeks back i applied for a team leader job at work and yesterday i got a letter asking me to go for an assessment for the job, so im like over the moon right now.

i owe it in part to parelli in more ways than one, firstly i suppose i should admit that i used a few parrelli-isms in my application form, i tried to use them appropiately in a way that suited leading people and not horses.

secondly the thing that parelli really helped was to give me the confience to go for the job and to think of myself differently, and really look at what ive done in the past to justify to myself (and now to the company) why i could or should do this job.

at the time i just applied for the job just for the sake of it, and in part to show my team leader that i was capable of doing alot more than just what i do, now i could write about how bad the place is but i'm not going to dwel on it.

but whilst doing the application it got me really thinking about my past jobs, what i have accomplished, and it made me really think about what i am capable of at work, and with horses.

Mounting Practice

right well got some piccys now



had a little practice and then had alittle tölt practice as well which went well, especially since we changed the whole method of asking for it, but we think vinurs starting to get the idea now.



then had a play with chester, which went quite badly at first as he was running into all of the pressure, but after chaning to something different and going back helped, then went back to try another figure of 8 and changed to stand the other side which helped again. did also have a little ride, just in a halter and found him to just bace against all the pressure and i could feel my confidence going a little so i left it on as good a note as i could.

Well had a very nice christmasy weekend away, with real snow !

Anyways its very sad now, as we no longer have liberty and horse and success series, however hopefully they’ll be watched and understood by their temporary new owner. However it does allow us to go through the level 2 and 3 packs properly.

Anyways on to horses now. When in Sweden we had a good go on a more extreme lbi, he was very interesting, as ive ridden him a few times and each time has been different. After a little play up to a riding circuit I had a ride and tried to get a gait however he tensed up immediately and so i left it, he’s just had a new saddle and it really allows him to lift up his back and to put his head and neck down.

It was also nice to see a colt who i last saw as a foal, and he was very nice, unsure of people and quite low ranking as another horse came over and he moved very quickly. But it was lovely to see him again.

Had a few practices getting on vinur, and so that it going well, have found that vinur gets abit unsure if you get on from the offside, (the horse in Sweden did that too), but i think its just not used to it, so we’re doing a fair bit of friendly with it which is certainly helping, but it seams to be more when there is a mounting block (or simmular involved) but getting on from the ground is good – don’t want that to read like that weve only just started this as weve been doing it for ages, but its really only now that we are looking at it differently. Hoping to take a photo or two tomorrow. Providing that we are not snowed in.

taste of things to come

well, today was very interesting, so very unxpected, but like wow.

a number of times ive just taken vinur out to 'hang out' with him, an today was no different, so after a little graze i thought that we'd go in to the school and just have little play.

we starte by doing a circling driving game around a barrel, weve tried it before around a wheel barrow but it din't work well, but it did with the barrel, not suprising really, then we did some really good figure of eight. afterwhich i thought that id set something up so the we could do some sideways, so i took the rope off, just so he coul have some time to himself, i didn't expect him to follow me and be interested in what i was doing.

so after putting a few poles on the floor i was suprised to see him move over to them, a situation i couldn't leave so i asked him to go sideways, my heart was going and i was so affraid of doing anything to upset him and him just disappear, but no he went sideways. we did it both ways over a pole, we then did abit of draw, followed with some backup.

i had decided earlier that id like to have a little ride, so i took the opportunity to have a ride with only a cordeo, althought the steering needs to be improved a little it went very well, we had a little walk roun, then i thought id just ask for something more, and we ended up having a little canter and then we came out of the canter into tölt.

we then spent the last few minutes doing flexions and i sat sideways on him for a short while.

cant wait to see how our relationship and abilities develop in the future, however i wont neglet the fundamentals and i certainly dont want to push what we aren't ready for - as difficult as it will be.