Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Not trying is failing

Hey everyone,
lately i've been thinking a lot... and i realized how much i've been doubting lately. i have such a fear of failing it's insane. I want to be good at Parelli and good with horses and everything i just am so scared of not being good enough. I want my black string so badly and i've been working towards that for so long... and i don't want to make it big in a show ring, i want to naturally train and work with horses and teach people how to achieve their dreams of that perfect relationship.. naturally. I've felt like some people doubt me... and doubt my abilities and don't think i know what i'm doing. Now, that is not the focus i should have at all because honestly the only opininion that matters is God's. My goal is next summer to be on the Madison Celebration savvy team or savvy spotlight and my ultimate goal is to be a instructor. I turn 18 in December and hopefully by then i'll have my official green string and be well on my way to my black one. Next summer I would love to be able to take a course at the Parelli center in Colorado with Magi. We'll see where God leads... but I'm realizing that not trying is failing... but if you try and don't achieve what you originally set out to it's not failing. It's trying and that's what matters. No matter what people think.. I have to stick to that and trust in my Lord and my horse... and not listen to the doubts.
-Kayla and Magi


Savvy tip of the day: when playing with a dominant LB horse don't be afraid to match the dominance and be firm. I've heard it said that what Pat gets horses to do is no different than what normals get them to do.. Pat just teaches us to do it naturally and have the horse acting like a partner. A dominant horse can't be babied and knows how to push buttons, so be persistent, use phases and do not be afraid to go to a phase four. Spoken from experience with my dominant LBE/LBI Magi:)

Saturday, June 13, 2009

I <3 finesse!

I got to play and ride last night.. wow amazing! I rode Magi in the western bridle I bought to show him in and I practiced riding one handed. It's funny how much I freaked out about it because the truth is I think I could go into a show ring bridleless and it wouldn't be an issue. He was collected and so mentally engaged I loved it! I love him! He is really enjoying the higher finesse stuff we've been working on and I think it's been good for me because we're doing a lot of the finesse Parelli patterns that include things like figure eights, clover leaf patterns... so ones that i've done before pre-Parelli. So when I realized it was for finesse I was like ok this will be interesting because I know how to do these. But the amazing thing is how Pat explains it on the DVD is it's like a dance.. it's a language. As I've been riding the patterns with Magi it's incredible because we'll be doing a figure eight pattern and it's like the whole time he's collected.. not just physically.. but mentally. Asking me questions like "Are we going to turn here? How extended should my stride be? Lead change here? Sidepass here?" And then as we get to higher levels I begin to ask "can you do this circle with your hindquarters pointed out of the circle?" Asking for a whole other degree of balance. Things like this fascinate me!!!! I absolutely love it and the cool thing is Magi is a very extreme LBE/LBI.. very dominant horse and gets bored easily and switches between introvert and extrovert so fast it's so hard to see the switch. So you would think that he'd get bored doing a figure eight pattern, but doing it in a way where I'm asking him "can we do it with your body positioned like this instead of like this?" keeps him so mentally engaged. I love L4 finesse!!!

I'm going to Blackhawk college tomorrow for a judging camp and college visit.. and then on tuesday I'm competing at the Illinois state judging contest and hopefully I can qualify to go to nationals!!! I want to go to Blackhawk next year and I'll stay at COD (a local community college here in IL) this coming fall. I am so excited to go to Blackhawk.. I'm hoping to get a full horse judging scholarship to go there and I want to major in equine science and ultimately hopefully become a equine vet techinician and train horses and give clinics on the side. And of course be a parelli professional! So these next couple days will be awesome to get to visit Blackhawk again and meet their horse judging coach!!! I'll post when I get back!
<3>

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

First Post

Hey everyone!
well it took me this long to start a blog, with a big push from my good friend Katie (horse_play on the savvy forum). I am a Level 4 Parelli student with my gorgeous black 9 year old Arabian partner Magi. I've owned him for five years and have been doing Parelli for four years! I love it... there's no other way to say it but i absolutely love PNH! And my horse:) Magi and I are almost Level 3 grads (still waiting to hear back on our online and freestyle auditions) and are playing pretty heavily in Level 4.. almost ready to assess finesse! I want to be a parelli professional one day... i hope that happens. We'll see what God has for me though.
Well.. a couple weeks ago I bought a new horse trailer which ended up having a rotted out floor.. so we had to return it and thankfully my dear friend I bought it from was willing to give us our money back. We found another trailer... a super nice 2009 brand new corn pro slant load trailer! With a full dressing room and tack area.. so nice! For the same price also. It arrives on monday.. i'm just a little bummed cause I can't go to my 4-H group's horse clinic tomorrow. Which really isn't a big deal I mean it's not a Parelli clinic or anything.. but for me it was kind of a big deal to go. To finally take Magi someplace totally naturally and have so much fun! But apparently that wasn't in God's plan and I'm just praising Him that we didn't find out the trailer floor was rotten because Magi fell through it!!!!! He's okay! Instead tomorrow I'll play with him a lot and ride again.. I'm supposed to go take him to his first horse show two weeks from tomorrow. I'm very excited about it and I'm showing in Parelli bits, saddle pads and halters:) how else would I show? But i finally feel able to go into a show enviroment and be natural and confident and savvy with my horse and not worry about what a judge thinks.
Savvy ON
-Kayla and Magi