Vareto: 5 areas of confidence

You might have heard about the 5 areas of confidence:

1. in you as a leader
2. in themselves
3. in the herd
4. in the evironment
5. as a learner

This model came into my mind as there is something "confusing" with his horsenality as shows mainly RBI and LBE behaviour in fact complete opposite horsenalities combined with a quiet high level of claustrophobia.

This is a quiet challenging combination especially when we face RB situations. I felt that the progress is slow and not consistent. Knowing him better and better, I could isolate more and more situations, places and things that cause him being RB and speaking about the 5 areas where he is LB and where he is RB. At the end, he is ovious LB in me as a leader and in the herd. 

His lack of (self) confidence which means in himself (2.) turns him easily RB. New places and changes can set him unconfortable. The biggest RB issue is him being a learner which means learning new things. 
At the end it is extremely about trust and time. Waiting for him until he feels comfortable. 
At this point, it is easy to scare him as the line between RBI and RBE is very thin!

The moment he feels safe and comfortable it is time to expand and to be playful. That's the moment he switches to the LBE.

Lateral thinking and goals

According to my last post, here is an update about the "zero brace" strategy for a LBE I mentioned last time.

My horse "Vareto" is kind of Pandora box, when it comes to horsenalities: different horsenalities pending on Savvy, different horsenalities pending on gait, different horsenalities pending on zones. Makes it quiet a project.

As I signed the contract of "put the relationship 1st" I am responsible to help him out with the challenges he has and not using them as an excuse.

Thanks to Parelli connect, you can set-up different goals and follow them. Goals are important to keep you on track and to have a focus "Keep the end in mind". Kathy Baar wrote a wonderful article in the last Savvy Times, August 2013 about goals.

Goals help you....

• ...to think outside the box as you will face challenges during the process. They will test your lateral thinking by not being direct line.
• ...to set-up your goal(s) step by step.
• ...to isolate, seperate and recombine.
• ...to be progressive.
• ...to test your emotional and mental fitness, especially when it comes to "oh boy" situations.

In our case we got wonderful side effects by tracking our Liberty goals: Vareto gains overall confidence after the sessions: 

• he is extremly connected, following every step I make by being mentally connected and his feet are following. It's a miracle.
•  Being more and more confident in any kind of squeeze situations, although we do not focus on the Squeeze game. 
• Turning loose emotionally which is the biggest wow for me in our relationship!!!!

What do goals mean to you and in your personal horsemanship journey?

LBE: Zero brace while riding with contact. Vareto 30/07/2013, part 1

I might not tell you something new, but riding with contact is a big, big issue for Vareto.
The Game of Contact helped him a lot!!! to overcome his RB issues when it came to contact. 
There is still an issue when it comes to contact with the bit but it is completely different to what we had. 

I am so happy we passed his response of  being afraid when it comes to contact and getting RBE by using his feet a lot.
He still uses his feet -he is an extrovert- but his reaction is different which I realized the last 3 sessions.
We did not do a lot of contact riding the last month. I have to admit that it was more a kind of agreement like: "you want to ride with contact? Me neither." But expecting that riding with contact will be better without practice, would be insane ;-)

So we started again and the moment I write this post, we had 3 sessions in a row. I needed also time to lick and chew and to understand what is happening during the last 3 sessions:

• Vareto is taking the reins when it comes to stage 2 within the GoC in walk and trot with a lot of energy: "give me the reins, I want to stretch"
• When I take the reins in walk his answer is mainly: I can go up (Piaffe), crooked, but not forward and not straight.
• He is sometimes grunting when I asked him to move his FQ
• He is tense and bracy, especially in Z1, Z3 and Z5. Talking to Z2 and Z4 is smooth
• Isolating to move FQ (direct rein), HQ (indirect rein) helps him in the moment he wants to go up.
• Asking to soften his ribcage helps him enormous and he is most of the time stretching and blowing without getting in a hurry
• Relaxing rein has the same effect as softening his ribcage
• Soft feel in halt is hard for him. Sticky with the HQ, very active in Z1
• The more provocative the session is, the more "naughty" he is afterwards: nibbeling. Snatching for my hand. In other words, he is extremely LBE after a contact session. 
• He loves an extreme massage in Z1, especially around the mouth and inside the mouth (gums).

Isn't that interesting? Those are all answers of LBE, RBI and RBE and sometimes the reactions are different in different zones. He is switching horsenalities within seconds and mainly between LBE and RBI. Knowing that I totally understand why we have a hard time to find a solution for him. Which strategy to use? I feel the LBE coming out the most and this is what I will address: ZERO BRACE.

The goal is there, the strategies are getting clearer and clearer with every session. I feel that he needs lots!!!! of repetitions, that's why our focus will be on contact riding every day for a short sessions, combined with relaxing trail rides before and after the sessions. 

It is HIM to deal with this huge!!! learned behaviour of contact riding in the past and it is on ME not to avoid extreme reactions to contact from him by not riding with contact.

That is my summary from the feedback he gave. It is a very exciting project of "zero brace in Z1 with contact" and the journey just begun. I will keep you posted.

 

 

LibertyBE, Vareto, 07/30/2013

A lot of thoughts came into my mind as I have a strong focus on playing Liberty with my horse "Vareto".
He is THE master of Liberty as he really likes it. It's not a surprise as he is quiet a LBE/ RBE horse. Always very extroverted.

We have 2 focus in every session: consistency and variety. The consistency is always the bigger part and helps to establish new things he learns which are for sure variety. Whenever he gets more RB everything which he knows, which we establish helps him to calm down. 
As a LB/ RB he likes consisteny as much as he likes variety. 

Our development Liberty is progressing fast as we finally set goals for the sessions and helps me to stay on track. Vareto and me, we are open for every distraction and we help each other to find distraction ;-) which is now harder due to the goals. 

They also help to stay progressive. We did tasks in a short period of time, I never thought they would be possible. Especially as I know that those tasks are a big, big emotional challenge for him and where is RB side is coming up. Getting control of his emotions by himself is the key to be more (self-) confident. That's the moment he switches to LB. Winning emotional situations make the horse also more brave which is important for every RB horse. 
Just because it is his favourite Savvy it does not mean there are no thresholds. 

After every session he exudes fun and convidence. Because he won the game, I was just there to make sure, he will win.
The more sessions we end like that the more confident and the more LBE he gets, which is a different challenge when it comes to riding with contact.

Parelli connect has a new feature, called "goals". I suggest to check it out. It's a great tool to progress and to get support from others to achieve your goal.

"objection your honor" and Principle #3

Today I planned a following session, based on the session yesterday. Can't wait to tell you that it was stunning!!!
As Linda says..."ride your horse today for tomorrow". 
It seams that the session yesterday had more impact on Estrela and me (especially me) than I thought.

We did a wonderful warm-up Freestyle which is not a big deal for her. The focus tasks of transitions and turns felt wonderful smooth!
I focused all turns by controlling the hindquarters. Estrela really appreciates turns via HQ versus FQ!

A little relaxation before we started a short Finesse session. Game of Contact, stages 1 & 2. I kept stage 3 quiet short and I fully concentrated on "resting hands", something which is quiet a challenge for me. Estrela felt so different. She appreciates a lot the concept of passive persistance. 

Today I had a mental breakthrough of understanding resting hands as passive persistance in contact riding.

Biggest challenge is the contact in canter. Another mental breakthrough today as I started finally to understand the resting hands in canter!!!!! We had a some very nice canter sequences and thanks to the resting hands and soft feel I didn't had any objection from her!

It felt like a unity of her and me, me and her: Principle #3: communication is two or more individuals sharing and understanding an idea. 

Did I change any technique? No, not at all, but I needed to lick and chew over the night to understand the resting hands - passive persistance. Not only as a skill but as a habit!

07/17/2013 "Objection your honor"

Riding with contact with a LBE horse is quiet a challenge. Both, Vareto and Estrela teach me that every time.
It's all fine as long as there is room for stretching and kind of floppy reins for moving free without a frame in Z1. 
Estrela is quiet far in her development, we passed L4 and focus on our specialization of Dressage. Mentally and physically she has all the ability for it. The challenge is to convince her from an emotional point of view and emotions start in Z1. How interesting that for a LBE asking Z1 into a frame can be a challenge ;-).

When it comes to contact for a longer time (2 min or more) she has quiet an opinion about the contact and puts a lot of effort into communicating her opinion ;-):
Being above the bit, being behind the bit, trying to take the reins, twist head left or right, not going forward but up, tail swishing, showing emotions by chopping the bit or combination of those ;-) And again, most of those opinions are expressed in Z1. Hm, again interesting.

The worse thing to do is "saying no". It took me some time not to say no and sometimes there are for sure moments I still say no instead of using strategies like "let me help you", "the ambassador of yes versus the minister of no", "tit for tat" *. Every "NO" creates brace and the idea is ZERO brace. But I tell you, there are thousand of NO-traps out there and it is hard not to step into them ;-)

Making it a game is important. Yesterday was one of those session. I had to laugh a lot and what really helps me is kind of rollplay with my horse.

Yesterday we did the rollplay "court of emotions, created by contact" :-)))))
Estrela (lawyer) and me (attorney) had a very animated and intensive dialogue about contact. I got some "objection your honor" from her. My answer was "let me rephrase that". It was so much fun, I tell you!!!!

Not being afraid of an intensive dialogue is the key for me and it took me a long time to accept and to understand that horses like Estrela as a LBE are open and LOOKING for a strong conversation. They will tell you, when blowing out, which is mostly after a intensive dialogue.

I enter these dialogues sometimes with hesitation, but hey, what about never ending self improvement?

So what are your rollplays with your horse?

Let the games begin!

Here are some pics from a contact session...
 

The warm-up within riding with contact: Step 2 of the Game of Contact

The warm-up within riding with contact: Step 2 of the Game of Contact

The warm-up within riding with contact: Step 2 of the Game of Contact

Tit for Tat

Tit for Tat

Sequence within a canter pirouette

"objection your honor"

"let me rephrase the question": extended trot

* If you want to know more about these strategies, read this article by Linda (klick me) and find as well in the Savvy times, November 2010. Find more informations about the article in the Savvy times, August 2010 about "The ambassador of Yes". Available on Parelli connect.

07/14/2013 "Let go of tension": mentally, emotionally and physically

Yesterday I had so much fun with my horses. The theme of the day was "they and me" or you can say "take care of your horsemanship and it will take care of you":

I began with the "will take care of you" part by having a very nice breakfast at the barn, organized by Thomas. Just relaxing and a good way to set it up for success as I love to eat as long as it is kind of "event".

Horses were outside and enjoied the pasture and silage when I visited them. Vareto came to me, so he was the one, I started with.
We did some really nice preparation for riding, focusing on his 4 responsibilities, principle #4 and keeping in mind mine responsiblities as well. He did a really nice job especially on "look where are you going".
He blowed-out and was ready to mount. We focused on a combo of freestyle and riding with contact (don't want to call it finesse, yet). Especially the "riding with contact" part is very challenging for him. Partly from a RBE and partly from a LBE perspective. We had really nice moments after he could move his feet enough in all 3 gaites, mainly in trot and canter for about 1.5 hours including some little relaxing trail ride parts in walk. 
We came to a point where he let go most of his emotional tension when riding with contact (partly RBE, partly LBE tension). 
He has quiet an opinion when it comes to riding with contact. I am very happy that we passed already a long time ago the step of "controlling".   It is time for "reinforcement" *, which we did yesterday by passing the point beyond "I get excited".  That was very important for him and for me in order to understand that getting tense -either RBE or LBE- is not the point to make a break. The break came when he was neither tense or stressed by the contact. In the meantime it was about MY attitude to communicate to him "the bit does not block you", "the answer is not getting faster when taking the contact", no release in the moment when he was tense.
Release came when he was asking different questions like stretching, bending Z3 or better said release of tension in the ribcage which he showed by snakey bends. It is so hard for him, to move his HQ more but not by being faster, but by stepping over. 
I focus more and more on controlling HQ versus controlling Z1, which is really effective for him to find release.
At the end of this session of passive persistance, he really found his Zen: no mental, physical, emotional tension at all as he let go of it during our session.
He blowed a lot, rolled, eat grass and oats and back on the pasture he rolled again and took a nap in the shadow. I was really happy to see him, relaxed like that.

Vareto after the session

Vareto after the session

After some relaxing time, he was really funny, see the videos I did from yesterday. His humor is unbeatable. Klick here.
Time also for me for some lick and chew and dwelltime: orange juice with ice cream:

"Sanfter Engel" (orange juice, vanille ice, whipped cream)

After the "Sanfter Engel" break I started with Estrela. It was time to trim the feet again. Not the best idea when it's hot like app. 90 F and a humidity of app. 80% but it was time.
After trimming we did some Liberty 4+ in the Round-pen. It was really nice as her expression got so much better in the last sessions or better say my attitude changed as I changed my approach and the result is stunning. See this photos as an "evidence". It was hard in the past to get this expression outside her heat and I was looking for a different approach for a long time. Looks like we found it which makes me REALLY happy again! The biggest wow was the driving game for backing up with a positive expression as well as the Yo-yo (both, yo and yo-yo). Hardest games to get a positive expression from her. Same like for Vareto: tension but in this case mental tension, Estrela let go.

Estrela in the roundpen

Soft and positive

Estrela

calm & connected

undemanding time

undemanding time

*All 4 steps of learning are: teaching, controlling, reinforcement, refinement").