Licensed Parelli Professional 2* Junior Instructor

My official Parelli Professional website can be found at;

http://instructor.parelli.com/lillanroquet

Wednesday 13 August 2014

Hovering Their Hand Over the Cake- Playing with the LBE


This is an older blog about playing with Kerryn's LBE while I was living in Australia ... Everyone has their TOUGHEST Horsenality, and LBE's are definitely mine ;). Hope you Enjoy!

PHEW! Amazing and challenging ride on Sparky, Kerryn's LBE gelding today; so I thought I would write a little note about my challenges and successes and musings with him ;)
First of all, LBE's are by FAR my hardest horsenality to play with... give me consistency, and Right brain horses ALL DAY, but try and figure out how to make it a game... and well, that is MUCH more challenging.

So to start our session today, our "catch" was AMAZING... Best it has EVER been with Sparky and I. He saw me and hooked on right as I came out of the garage with his halter, and nickered and began heading for the gate, I was SO happy I had a treat to reward him for that sort of behavior too! Then we headed over and gave him a long brush... first time we really had good itchy spots, too and a lot of participation and relaxation during brushing which was awesome. Also a great standstill... which can be a bit challenging for Sparky at times; and for me... I'm great with horses that don't stand because they are scared... or don't stand because they want to be disrespectful... but horses who don't stand because they really think there are better games to play? PHEW! That's more challenging for me! You have to be much more delicate than with an LBI, so you keep encouraging their participation, but they aren't really scared either so... yeah... challenging!

So then Sparky and I were on to saddling... Starting with getting relaxation in throwing the pad up onto his back, because he really seems to go head high, and be bracy with me during this point. I kept going with repition... then realized he was starting to think "this is a great game"... UGH!! lol. So I began throwing it on, asking him to drop his head, pulling it off... that was MUCH more fun for both of us, and in two second we had a lick and a blow out and a well placed pad ;)




Then we went on to saddling... Stepped in front of him, let him sniff me, went to move around to his right side, HUGE block with his nose... so I retreated backwards, stopped let him sniff me, went to move to his right side and again HUGE block with his nose... third time... yep same thing. Ok three times is a pattern, is this unconfidence or is he playing a game again? ARGH? I dunno! Ok... whats a strategy in the middle? So, I backed up, stopped, let him sniff, me then put my arm out and asked him to yield his nose BEFORE I stepped over there then retreated again (YES, all this time, I AM still carrying the saddle on my hip, in case anyone was wondering). Ok, that seemed a little bit better? So perhaps take it to the next step? This time I retreated, stopped, stepped into his space and asked his nose, then neck, then feet all to yield to place me in saddling position, then I retreated immediately, YAY... lick and chew;) Ok so perhaps now I'm playing the game with him! On the right track. Retreated again, stepped in, asked for a full yield, he did, put me into position, and licked again. Third time, stepped into positoon and he yielded himself. Ok... so if this was a RB horse, I would retreat again here, but I think He is trying to play a game with me... three swings with the saddle, confidence and  relaxation from him, so straight on it goes. (And might I say... one of my better saddlings, would have passed Pat's Fence fence EASILY). His girthing was beautifully, softly yielded for me to have the other side, and stood like a rock.





I moved him around a bit, and he softened and blew out almost immediately ;) He was also the softest he has ever been in yielding his ribs, hind end, change direction, shoulder excercise so that was really cool. I decided to go ahead and take that all as check marks and mount up!

From here we headed for the gate... which has been a bit of a challenge for us to get participation in opening it. I thought about really being clear in asking him to respond to my leg, then backing it up with the rein... as Pat says, "expect they will respond, but be prepared to correct, not more one than the other."  Well with Sparky I was definitely erring on the "be prepared to correct" side and I think this was REALLY aggrivating his LBE playful side. So I decided that would be my main focus for the ride ;) 



So basically as we made our way to the gate I REALLY focused on eyes, belleybutton, leg, THEN rein. I really had to work at this because I noticed how quickly I wanted to correct him the moment I felt him shift his weight or think in the wrong direction. I think this is from so much time with my mare... who if I give her time to think or shift her weight in a direction other than what Im thinking gets TOTALLY lost and right brain... so with her I almost err on the side of being prepared to correct cause that support from her leader keeps her confidence.


With Sparky, a LBE, he was almost testing me I felt! He would LEEEEAAAAAANNNN forward when I asked him just for sideways, but he wouldn't actually move a foot... then if I just persisted with my phase 1 of leg pressure he would eventually sidepass nicely to the gait and we would rest. Same thing happened when I asked for a back up... he would lean out as if he was going to sidepass away from the gate... if I just stuck with him, respecting the fact that he wasn't being dis-obedient ... (YET!...) then he would respect that and back up softly and we would rest. But the time we completed all the maneuvers required to open the gate he was compeltely acting like a partner because I had proved to him that I wasn't going to correct him BEFORE he made a mistake!

He was being a classic kid... you say "don't touch the cake" and they HOVER their hand above it, getting as close as they can without touching it... if you react to this... YOU weren't playing the game! if you leave it alone... soon enough they will walk away and do something different ;)




Sparky and I had a FABULOUS ride. He was the most solidly LBE he has been with hardly any RBE moments out on the trail. He was happy and forward moving, and we even had a few little exuberant bucks, haha! The whole ride I was always thinking about giving him a long time at phase 1... and really waiting to correct him til he ACTUALLY made the choice to do something different! He started really engaging in following my seat and suggestion, and had the clearest understanding of his fundamentals he has had with me yet! We were even able to demonstrate leg-yielding across the trail for Joan and Chevy without touching the reins ;)