Parelli here I come!!!!!!

Allright! The audition was AWESOME!!!!! Getting to ride with Pat was INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Blue was a total champ and was a dream. Just being in the environment was thrilling. I couldn't wait to get started.

At the end of day two I got to chat with Brian and he said I was accepted and wondered when I wanted to start. So I said right away, well, after the Harrisburg celebration, of course.

So I'm in the airport on my way back to Florida!!! I just got to spend three days with the family in Harrisburg absorbing all the awesomeness of the Parelli celebration. We had a blast and I think I bought about 15 shirts to wear for my externship, haha. Jeanette and my dad also joined in on the fun and bought lots of things and then to my surprise my mom asked if she should get a carrot stick if she was going to start playing with horses. YIPPPPPPPEEEEEEEE!!!! Mom wanted a carrot stick. I wish we had the moment on video!!! Now she can join in on all the fun.

Well the fam left on Sunday earlier then the show was over, so that was sad, but they had an 8 hour drive home. Anyway, I decided to volunteer with the breakdown of the entire show. It was cool to be behind the scenes. We got everything done in record time.
I was starting to worry because I hadn't figured out where I was going to sleep and how to get a hold of a cab number. But I got a hold of Avery (one of my instructors) and she grabbed a lady (Sue) by the arm and Sue had a rental car and a spot in her bed :) So I got to join them for their buffet dinner and it was fun cause I sat with all the Parelli folks. Then I went with Sue to her hotel. The next morning we had an early wakeup call because Sue was standby for the earliest flight, but I wasn't about to complain seeing I was getting a ride to the airport.

So now I'm sitting here, loving the fact that we now have free wifi in certain airports :):):) So far it's this one and the one in Charlotte. So much better then paying 10 bucks for an hour!

I'm still a little in awe of all the things that have happened so fast the last week, but I'm going to roll with it and love every minute of it! I can't wait to get started tomorrow at Pat's barn. I'm sure I'll be shadowing most of the time and just getting a feel for everything, and it will drive me crazy because I won't be allowed to play with the horses yet, but I will do my best to behave and be patient :) It's so darn exciting!

I doubt I'll be allowed to blog, so the entries will become less and less. Sorry, but as you can all understand, I'm not going to do anything to mess up my chances at Pat's barn :)

Ah, life is good :) Enjoy every minute, it'll pass you by, so open up your eyes and mind and absorb it all!!!

Awesome news!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, I have great news, but I won't write it until the end of my post!!! I'll keep you in suspense, haha.

Anyway, Wednesday afternoon after our matador games I met up with Steffie, Kelly and Tiziana and we played follow the leader games. We had such a total blast!!! We did all the obstacles at the level that each of us were ready to play with them. We just laughed all afternoon and encouraged each other and had the BEST day! We giggled, and grazed, and just enjoyed being out in the sun. Man, I'm going to miss them so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then Thursday they were invited to ride at Pat's barn because they had been there for 8 weeks. I was mostly sad that I had to spend the day without my friends, but also envious that they got to go up to Pat's barn and chase cows and stuff. Lucky devils!! But I had a great day anyway.

I did manage to mess up my left lead with Blue, so I'm not sure what I did there. I think I'm starting to try too hard, instead of let it happen, and it's putting pressure on her, and then it just goes downhill.

Anyway, Today I was in the demo for lead changes and she did great. We are still a little stuck with the left lead, but I'll work on it this weekend. Then we spend the day grazing with my buddies and playing in the water.

So for the good news :):):):) I put in my application for the extern program. Then I waited all week to get word. Well, this morning Pat came up to me, and towered over me and told to be at his barn Monday and Tuesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm AUDITIONING!!! IEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! 2 days at Pat's barn! IEEEEEEEEEE!!!

So yeah, I cancelled my immigration meeting that I had set up for Monday!!! I'll deal with that later!

IEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! 2 days at Pat's barn!!!!!!!!! The pressure is on!!!!!!!!!! It's going to be AWESOME!

So anyway, that's the good news. Blue will stay at the Parelli center this weekend. Sunday I'll have to get her clipped and all perty!
Oh, Pat saw me play with her this morning (at liberty in the enchanted forest) and he told me I had done good work with her :):):):):):)::)

Anyway, tomorrow I go to Seaworld with my buddies and then they fly to Germany and Spain :( But luckily I'll have Brittany and Sandy to hang with :)

IEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, I"M SO EXCITED! And it hasn't really even sunk in yet!!!

Matador training!

I'm writing in the morning because I never got around to it last night. It was hella cold now that I'm used to the temp here! So I wanted to get back in bed and watch a movie!

Anyway our class time was fun. We learned about the shoulder-in, haunches-in, sideways and halfpass. I jumped in on the opportunity again to get a free lesson (meaning I volunteered for the demo!). It was really neat. I didn't realize the shoulder in was so slight, I was always overdoing it! It's really just a turn of my own shoulders. Then we went over the rest.

In the afternoon I went to the matador focus station. We had watched a quick clip in the classroom with a guy on his horse and a bull. It was absolutely fancinating!!! This horse was the most athletic creature I have ever seen! So we got to do simulations with that. I was on Blue and then an instructor would go to stab Blue in the butt with his carrot stick while I was doing the indirect rein, and tada, her booty swung around :):) It was so funny! Then we went straight into the direct rein so that her front end spun around. IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!! Blue did not take her eyes off of the instructor and his horse from then on. She was not even about to get touched again!!!! She is such an awesome horse! I had two more people say that they wanted to take her from me! NEVER!!! She's mine, all MINE!!!!

Then I played some follow the leader games with some friends and we spend the afternoon doing some grazing. It was another great day!!!!!!!

Fun weekend!

Wow, time is really getting away from me!!!

Quick recap! Friday night we went to the Karaoke bar and I sang Julie Roberts song "Break down here", which was totally fun. Then we went out dancing.

Saturday we were invited to hang out at Pat's barn with him!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT WAS AWESOME!!! We got to watch him play with his stallion, then we got hang out with the three babies, which were ADORABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to take one home! They were so sweet. Then we watched him and his son and Fawn Anderson work some cows. Totally awesome!! Then he asked us all what our goals were. It was totally the coolest thing to be up there and watch him at play!

Then we went to the mustang challenge and watched Linda put on a demo and then 4 of her instructors came in to play, so that was super cool. That evening we watched the mustang challenge and the Parelli Instructor won! It was awesome! He cantered into the trailer on the horses back!! Some of the other contestants were very hard to watch and we were only there for the top 10, so I can't imagine what others looked like. But then again, I'm a Parelli student now so almost everything non Parelli makes me cringe :(

Sunday we watched a bit of the auction and Jesse's (the Parelli Instructors horse) was bought by one of the guys that works on the ranch for his 7 year old son. It was super cute. And there was also a parelli student that got 4th in the competition and her dad bought the mustang for her and she left crying. It was so sweet.

After that we decided to go swimming with our horses. Well, it was only me and Leslie that wanted to go all the way it. It was wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much fun!
You'll see the pics on facebook. I'll also post the video's!
Anyway, the one problem was that she kept putting her head under water!!! So we swam, but she'd put her head under water, so we'd head back to shore so she didn't drown! It was the funniest thing! Anyway, it was just super duper fun, and the vids will be posted on youtube, look up MsPureBlue.

Today I did the demo and we worked on finesse. I had to shorten up my reins big time! So that her shoulder would stay underneath her and her neck wouldn't do all the turning. It was super cool and Kathy was the teacher. Everyone said it was super cool to see the change. Too bad I didn't get a video of that :(

I put on the cradle bridle today and we just played online after our riding session to get her used to it for the rest of the week.

Anyway, I'm totally scattered brain because I'm doing too many things at once, so most of this probably doesn't make sense! Anyway, off to give Blue her supper.

Oh No, week 3 is already over :(:(:(

I didn't write yesterday. I'm slowly falling out of the blog habit, I can already tell, but I will try and keep it up for those of you who are actually reading it for one more week.

Yesterday we worked on ribs while riding. So we would ask for them to move their ribs while on a circle without the reins and not leaving the circle! It was interesting, but we basically had to break it down into all the reins styles and how you would move which part and then at the slightest try quit. Well, I was pleasantly surprised! I didn't really think it was possible, but Blue caught on and did great! We'd only ask for about 4 steps and then quit. Going to the left was just awesome, but to the right was a little harder, so there must be a brace in my body.

Then we just cantered around the enchanted forest and played with the clover leaf pattern in the fancy arena. It's so much fun with the carrot stick, but Blue does get a little unconfident if we're cantering and i redirect her. She tries to speed up to avoid it.
But it was good and we worked on our canter departs and it's so easy once I set her up correctly. We did a conga horse with two people and my person wanted me to do a canter depart and i didn't get it with her just pushing on me, but when i saw her do it i understood. I told her it would probably be easier if my hips were slanted and my body was shifted so that I could just forward on the lead. Well, DUH!!!! Why don't i do that for my horse??? So after I got that I went out and set Blue up and TADA!!!!! Canter departs! And she didn't get mad or upset, she just jumped right in, it was AWESOME!!!!!

Oh, I just started talking to some friends, so I can't really remember what I wrote, so I will just continue where I thought I quit :)

Today I messed with my saddle again and had Avery help me. Back to the less wide tree, so we'll see how that goes.

Then riding, we praticed staying on the rail. She wanted to be a bit impulsive so we did a little bit of finesse and we moved along. Finally we got some nice canter strides and no cutting of corners. Then we worked on the question box patterns and I had to quit right away because she got it really quickly. And I didn't even use the reins or carrot stick. The leg work from this week prepared her and it was great!!!!

Anyway, now I have to head home and shower. We're going to the karaoke bar and then out dancing!

Oh Oh, My LBI is baaaaaaaack!

Today was fun. I went to the RBI remuda and learned all about them. I wish Jeanette and Mom were here to listen to all the things because it would make things so much clearer to them! I asked them to video tape it at some point so that everyone can hear about it! I think one day they will! It was just great!

Then I was in a demo, only blue didn't feel like following the pattern, so we didn't really do the next part of the demo, haha. But it was way more fun to watch a demo from a horses back instead of sit on a hard bench! Fawn came over to me after that and asked me to donate Blue to her, hahaha, because she has one that looks just like her, so she wants to make a team out of them. But nope! Blue bug is MINE, all MINE :):):):):):):)

Then we did carrot stick riding and I decided to try to tie the plastic bag to the end of it. I hadn't done that before but it was actually super good!!! Blue was sensitive but not scared of it! So it was a good combo. Normally she just ignores the stick until I need to deliver a phase 4 and then she gets scared of it, so we normally don't get very far. But today was great. We did the direct, indirect, and disengagements with out reins, so that was cool. Then we did stick to the rail and transitions. Well, her stop is awesome, I pretty much fall onto her neck each time, haha! Then I played with my saddle more again and changed my wintec tree into the super wide and see how it feels tomorrow.

Then tonight after dinner it was so nice that I took her for a walk at liberty again. Well, the LBI is back!!!! She was like yeah, yeah, I'll kinda follow you, but I'd rather graze. The first couple of days she was worried and stuck to me like glue, but not tonight!! I was a good 100 feet away from her and she was still just completely content. So then I started to sneak back to zone 5 and she glanced, but didn't turn and face, so she got a good little swack, but she turned and faced and then went right back to grazing. Oh man, oh man, so I asked a couple more times and got completely ignored. So I decided to put the halter back on, and then I made her move her feet. Snappy departures, change of directions at the canter, fast backups, sideways trots. She looked FANTASTIC! like a cow pony, so athletic. She knows when she's irked me to make her work and then she can feel the pressure, hahaha. It was in all good fun ofcourse, but she still knew she had pushed it a bit too far. So after about 5 minutes of that I took the halter back off, and I had my lovely sweet pony with me again, hahhaahaha. Then she grazed and I walked off quickly and I would see her look up and I'd start running away and she came flying towards me in a gallop, and bucking like crazy, hahhahaha, and came to a sliding stop in front of me. It's just so amazing what moving a horses feet can do for leadership!! And then we went back to her pen for her evening peanut hay.

Anyway, another totally fun day and I'm excited for tomorrow again!

saddle annoyance

The saddle is seriously a pain in the butt!!!

Anyway, I went to the bowtie focus station bareback. I did not want to mess with the saddle. So we did our hind end disengagements into canter departs that way. She got the pattern and we moved on. She's much to quick to get it!

Then the shim mess started. And that took a long time. Eventually we settled with one, but as soon as I got on I felt like i was falling forward :( She didn't really like it either. But we just kinda dealt with it and we started trotting around the enchanted forest. She was a little RB so we did lots of circles around trees as we made our way closer to home and then when we got to the main gate I kept her going. She weaved around some and kept trying to stop at the round pen (that's our lay down routine), and I would ask her to maintain gate. Finally the last one, we were pointed towards home and I asked for a trot again and she didn't rush off! So we left it at that.

That was about it for today! Oh we did work on getting laterflexion without reins, and disengagements without reins, and that worked, so that was super fun!