Create Exuberance – Understanding Her Idea First

Parelli student Debi Taylor sent us this great blog about a recent learning experience with her horse, Bonnie. Take it away, Debi!

Very recently – yesterday, in fact – I was playing with Bonnie for the first time with firm Level 3 On Line goals in mind. My plan for the session was to practice our Figure 8s. Bonnie had other ideas.

I took the 12-foot Line off, ready to get put on the 22-foot Line, and Bonnie started a sort of close-range Circling Game. Okay, so she wanted to play at Liberty? Alright, let’s give it a go!

Bonnie is not usually taken to bouts of energy or enthusiasm, certainly not enthusiasm in its physical manifestations, but I felt she needed a little run. So, with her on the arena fence and me roughly on the quarter line, I asked her to move off at a walk and mirror me. Walk, trot and then canter. WOW! She got the right lead and then got ‘happy’. She kicked and hopped her way around the arena. I thought, “if I mirror her, maybe this could turn positive,” so I kind of kicked and hopped (not literally) with her. We did this a few times in each direction until I saw a slight question from her and asked her to come in.

Bonnie and I, getting some quality play time in!

I was so excited, and not only because she stopped! For the first time in a very long time, Bonnie came to me with enthusiasm both physically and mentally – AND her ears were forward! She wanted to come to me. So far, so good. So I played with her idea and she loved it. Now I wanted her to play with mine.

Firstly, I asked her to maintain the trot throughout the pattern. As Bonnie is a Left-Brain Introvert, her usual tendency is to walk through the change of direction so I tag (or threaten to tag now) the ground as she goes through. We got this on the 22-foot Line quite easily, so it was time to up the ante and get out the 45-foot Line and ask for Figure 8s at the canter with a simple change through the change of direction. I thought dropping from canter to trot would be quite easy for Bonnie, but this time wasn’t quite what I had in mind; her canter was quite spirited and her Figure 8 was not quite as even as I would have liked, but we were stepping up a notch, so I let the quality of the pattern slide for this session. Having Bonnie’s life up was a positive step forward for her. Having gotten her cantering around the barrels, I asked her back to trot for the simple change. Nope… flying change! Not once but three or four times! I am still blown away by her willingness and exuberance.

What a great session. Bonnie showed me the meaning of truly conversing with HER. She had an idea, I understood her idea, we played with her idea in a way that could lead to or improve the idea I was heading toward, and then I asked her to play with my idea and she happily obliged.

Tagged as: Debi Taylor, Parelli Social Media