Fall is in the air!
We've been doing PNH for two years now and are nearly finished with L2 groundw
ork. Riding is a different story, but we're making progress. After MONTHS of saddle problems and shipping issues, we finally have a saddle that fits pretty well and are doing *some* riding, but neither of us are really confident. Cloud is such a LBI - and found out very quickly how to push my buttons and make me frightened enough to quit. The pattern went - push my buttons once, find out it works, keep doing it for 2 - 6 weeks until I learned how to solve the problem, then find a new problem. Fun. The good thing is that I really learned how to ride from scratch - and on my own, which is the best way for a LBI like myself to learn! It really sticks with me this way - and that's good.
September is always an exciting time on the Forum because that's the time of the Savvy Conference in Colorado, and a lot of people from the Forum go there. They have wi-fi in their hotels and post pics and keep us all updated as the weekend progresses, so those of us on the Forum are often the first to know anything that goes on at PNH HQ. Very exciting! This September marked the dawning of a new era on the Forum itself - Richard, our beloved although somewhat overbearing Moderator, left and was replaced by a group of moderators - and the passing of the mouse was a bit trying at times, but we all survived unscathed.
September also marked the release of the latest PNH product: The Liberty and Horse Behaviour pack!! This was an exciting day - especially for those of us with LB horses - because *finally* for the first time in my Parelli journey, people in control were beginning to talk about LB issues and finally treat LB horses as a worthwhile conversation piece. Yay! As with every new PNH product release, there was the inevevitable battle about cost and the pricing of the LHB was a subject of minute discourse for months following. I personally couldn't afford it until Spring of 2007, but it was so worth the wait! More on it later, though!
We've been doing PNH for two years now and are nearly finished with L2 groundw
ork. Riding is a different story, but we're making progress. After MONTHS of saddle problems and shipping issues, we finally have a saddle that fits pretty well and are doing *some* riding, but neither of us are really confident. Cloud is such a LBI - and found out very quickly how to push my buttons and make me frightened enough to quit. The pattern went - push my buttons once, find out it works, keep doing it for 2 - 6 weeks until I learned how to solve the problem, then find a new problem. Fun. The good thing is that I really learned how to ride from scratch - and on my own, which is the best way for a LBI like myself to learn! It really sticks with me this way - and that's good.September is always an exciting time on the Forum because that's the time of the Savvy Conference in Colorado, and a lot of people from the Forum go there. They have wi-fi in their hotels and post pics and keep us all updated as the weekend progresses, so those of us on the Forum are often the first to know anything that goes on at PNH HQ. Very exciting! This September marked the dawning of a new era on the Forum itself - Richard, our beloved although somewhat overbearing Moderator, left and was replaced by a group of moderators - and the passing of the mouse was a bit trying at times, but we all survived unscathed.
September also marked the release of the latest PNH product: The Liberty and Horse Behaviour pack!! This was an exciting day - especially for those of us with LB horses - because *finally* for the first time in my Parelli journey, people in control were beginning to talk about LB issues and finally treat LB horses as a worthwhile conversation piece. Yay! As with every new PNH product release, there was the inevevitable battle about cost and the pricing of the LHB was a subject of minute discourse for months following. I personally couldn't afford it until Spring of 2007, but it was so worth the wait! More on it later, though!
Fall also marked the beginning of my infatuation with driving (the equine version). Well, I was actually quite afraid of driving. I think I latched onto it like I did because if I drove I wouldn't have to ride - but I'd still be doing something "real" with my horse. You know, not like stupid ground stuff!
I bought a cart and harness and spent several months behind my horse driving him all over the place (sans cart) - dealing with the frustrations of grass and puddles and getting severely tangled in the ropes. Cloud was a good sport, as always, and we progressed quite quickly - although I purposefully took things slower than we had to... just to be safe. It was quite fun, putting the games to a purpose like that. Cloud likes having a JOB - something definitive he can do. So driving was fun for him. We spent a lot of time dragging tires and logs and tarps all around the yard and arena (and impressing the heck out of the big name reining trainer who had taken over the barn!) -- yay!
Eventually we hooked up the cart and spent a lot of time with me still on the ground teaching Cloud to move and turn and stop. Things were going really well; he was calm, confident and we were having a bit of fun (well, the grass-diving wasn't very fun, but everything else went well!). I was still afraid of actually riding in the cart, but that was OK. We took walks down the road, down the path.. it was nice and relaxing.
Then one day we were practicing outside while the reiners practiced in the arena. Everything went swimmingly, so as soon as the reiners left for lunch, I brought Cloud into the arena and figured we'd practice a little bit and then I'd go for my first actual drive! Things were going well - he was light and responsive - and I almost got in, but for some reason didn't. Then he got the shaft stuck on the fencing and panicked. He reared up, broke the right shaft and went galloping away, pulling the cart by just one shaft, so that he ended up going sideways across the arena -- right towards a galvanized steel gate. He didn't stop and tried to jump out of the arena, breaking the rest of the cart and thoroughly smashing the gate as he did so (including ripping a wood panel off the arena wall). Finally free of the cart, and with his broken harness dangling behind him, Cloud ran out the barn door and (thankfully) turned towards the woods and
not the road. I ran after him and found him munching on some grass, the last remnants of his harness safely off his body. He let me catch him and put him away while I went to find the barn owner to apologise and see how much my bill would be. $450 later (not including the cost of fixing the cart and harness), we were all settled, but boy that was embarrassing and TERRIFYING. I can only imagine what it would have been like if I *had* gotten into the cart when I though about it. Someone was keeping me safe that day - and I'm thankful for it!So that pretty much ended our driving adventures. I figured that riding is actually much safer - at least there's never anything dragging behind you - and decided I'd stick to that.
Probably a good idea!
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