Every time I go to see Juliano I seem to have a plan. A plan to ride, play on-line, do liberty, work on a pattern etc. If I have time before making my way down to the stables I watch a DVD of Pat or Linda or read an article and then I visualize how will I teach Juliano and myself that concept. I think of a blueprint of what small things we have to work on. I go to the stables with all these ideas and plans for our session. It’s all easy and picture perfect in my mind but then the reality verifies my plans. There are so many factors that can influence what we do on that day: time span, the weather, Juliano’s mood, my mood, farriers visit, friends and so on. So how to plan your and your horses progress and not make it a goal before principle? Tricky question and even trickier answer. I recently discovered that the greatest plan is not to have a plan at all.
Being Parelli students we have so many things to work on, so many ideas and fun things to do, that sometimes I have a feeling I should play with Juliano a few times a day to cover all areas. There is on-line, liberty, freestyle and finesse and a million exciting challenges in each savvy. You travel up the levels with your horse and after each you think “Now, now we know everything!”. Soon after that, another door of another level opens and you know it’s just the tip of an ice-berg. Again you have so many things to learn and it gets more and more exciting each step of the way. For most of us horsemanship is our passion, something we want to learn every day and we devote a big part of our life to it. We go to see our horses eager to learn, eager to ride and then……
……then there is the horse – our beloved animal, which has it’s own needs, ideas and preferences. Now comes the tricky part, the part where our human plans meet the state of mind in which our horse is in. Do we continue with our plan for the day? If we are at home with our horse, not on a course does it go: Monday – freestyle, Tuesday – finesse, Wednesday -on-line, Thursday – Liberty, Friday – Hack, Saturday – Play Day, Sunday – off? From what I’ve observed in interacting with Juliano, 9 out of 10 times I have had to change my plan. Lets say I want to ride, do some finesse and I go to get Juliano from the field but I can clearly see he is in a super playful mood and I don’t have time to do both, play and ride. Do I continue with my plan and say “OK, knock it off, we are going to do lead changes today” or do I take this playfulness, grab a 22″ foot line and just go play? The answer is simple, I abandon my plan and follow Juliano’s idea. This is easier said than done, at first I was a bit angry with myself, I thought “I didn’t do anything special with Juliano, we didn’t learn anything”. After some time I started to realise I actually learned a lot more and so did my horse. By allowing him to choose his “plan” he actually offered more and learned faster. There were times when we didn’t ride for a week or two but we’ve had breakthrough after breakthrough on the ground. These were the most amazing sessions.
Just yesterday, I wanted to ride but we ended up doing Liberty. Liberty is not my strongest savvy yet but I was blown away by Juliano’s focus on me. He would trot back to me when I asked him to disengage from the end of the arena, not round corral, arena! Our draw has never been so powerful. In the photo below, you can see the exact moment in which I’ve asked Juliano to come to me. His feet were still moving away but I got his mind and few seconds later he was standing next to me. This was a dream Liberty session and I wanted to ride instead!
Juliano
I now have a golden formula for me and Juliano. I keep a blueprint in my mind of patterns and ideas to play around in all four savvies. I try to be one step ahead with my part of the learning and the information that I may need. I don’t make plans for particular days, I allow Juliano to do that for me. I go to the stables, greet him and observe him for a bit. After short time I know what he wants to do, what mood he is in. It’s his idea and his choice of a classroom in which he wants to be on that day: on-line, liberty, freestyle or finesse. It took me some time to figure out how to be flexible and as Pat says “put principles before goals”. How do you plan your sessions? I can’t wait to read your ideas.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I often get frustrated with how little I achieve and the more I try to more I get frustrated and sometimes with modifying / changing a plan you appreciate the small steps of progress ..my horse Falcon is very variable ( lots better now with Parelli and the knowledge I gained ) and the best plan sometimes can not happen …sometimes a good grooming session is an achievement as my horse hated being groomed now he asks for it ….so the riding goes out the window .
I have to say that my horse will always vote for groundwork so sometimes I have to ignore him a little and try the best plan for our riding work .
It is a balancing act especially with all the other commitments in life …..it is ashame we need sleep otherwise i would skip that and keep playing with my horses ( and dogs )
Love the article ……and a wonderfull looking horse !
Marta
I loved your post because it really made me wake up to how I plan and play with my horses. I’m 16 and despearte to leave school and become a Parelli instructor but I have a long way to go before I’m good enough to apply. With this in mind I realised how focused I’d become on goals and particular tasks and can Danny do this pattern or can Amy do this task, instead of our relationship as a whole. I was so desperate to get my red string and make progress that I had forgotten what I was really in this for. I now go to play with a loose plan on my head of what we may do but now I go with my horses flow instead of being so direct-line.
So from Amy, Danny and I, thanks for reminding me to ask first and listen to my horse!
Thank you for this great post! I can truly relate to the difference it makes in not going to play with a strong plan. Right after I got home from a course, I was so motivated, and therefore planning each session to keep myself on track and progressive. I ran it over in my head on the way to the barn, knew exactly what I hoped to ‘work’ on. Well, guess what? for a time, untill I got over that mindset,,,,Sonny wouldn’t catch me in the pasture, in fact he’d turn and go the other way !! He could feel my direct line thinking even though I was thinking that I was beign soft and not acting like a predator. Your post has inspired me to remember to have the blueprint, but be receptive to the horse that shows up for play. Thanks!!
Thank you for all the great comments. It is so wonderful to be able to share my journey with Juliano here. Sometimes I get a feeling I’m over-thinking our relationship with Juliano and I start obsessing, but reading your comments I know I’m on the right track
Great blog Marta…. I just keep reminding myself of the first picture of Juliano that you posted a while ago and what a majestic animal he is now – thanks to you!
Petra Christensen
Parelli 2Star Junior Instructor
Parelli Central
Woo Hoo Marta, what a awesome experience!! Thanks for sharing your insight about this, I find at times I get a little lost along the way in regards to my time spent with Gino. Reading this reminds me to put the principle before the goal. It also reminds how important it is to always be one step ahead in your process.
Great job and thank you again.
Dear Marta
I loved to read your post, because I recognised a little bit myself in it. At the beginning, when I changed my plans according to the horses wish, I felt irritated and asked my self “should I, or should I not”? But when I see, how much fun the horses have, when I kind of ask them as my partners, what they feel like doing, I think I get the answer directly. Yes, I SHOULD change my plan according to the horses wish. At some days it is very interesting what each of my four horses prefers to do. Mostly all of them are always ready to play at liberty, that is their big fun. And often after having played at liberty some time, I feel if this was it or if now we could play on-line or put the saddle on and do some basic finesse or freestyle. It inspires me to know, that I am not the only one who follows the horses wish! Thank you, Marta.
Marta…You hit this one spot on! Loved your post. When I decided to drop the word “goal” out of my head, my Lucky began to really engage me on his own initiative.
Thanks so much for being another one of my Parelli Heroes by example. People like you keep me going and inspire all of us.
Nancy, blown away…literally. It’s gusting up to 40 here today.