liberty

[plodalong]

hey,Claire,can you help me out here,or anyone that can ask their horse to canter around them at liberty,I asking Claire only because i was watching her with Moley and she was getting good results with what she was doing,I can ask Bo to trot at liberty and he will do that,Ive been trying to get him to canter but without any success so i think i must be doing somthing wrong,I have him on a 12 ft line and send him out into a circle (WHICH WE WERNT VERY GOOD AT BEFORE WE MET rUSSELL) i dont use much energy because i want him to walk,then when i trot,he will pick up the trot,then i raise all my energy and go into a canter mode,but he doesnt follow that.I put the plastic bag on the carrot stick and went through the whole proceedure again but not only raising my energy but encouaging him with the stick in zone 5,he did a canter stride and i immediatly shut him down and gave him lots of dwell time then did all again on the opposite rein.got a couple of canter steps ,shut him down ,invited him in and left it there until the next day,We have been doing this for 10 days but i cant get Bo to understand that i would like him to maintain the canter .Would somebody please tell me what im doing wrong or what i need to do right to enable Bo to have a better understanding of what i want.

[plodalong]

thanksClaire,a longer rope did the trick,wwhy didnt i think of that,it was a bit messy with me getting in a tangle with the 22ft line,but a full circle of canter in each direction,then i invited him in and moved on to somthing else,what do i do now?do i leave it for a few days then go back to it or do i go back and ask him again tomorrow? i forgot to tell you,my confidence has grown beyond belief,we were hacking out yesterday in gale force winds with a hackamore,omg,i cant thank Russell enough for putting me on the right path to being the best that i can be for Bo,I get lots of people saying,its just bo,but when i first got him i thought he was out to kill me,he was bargy bad mannered and did whatever he wanted,I was thinking about all this yesterday,while i was drying Bos feathers with the hairdryer,what a long way we have come ,Pat Parelli is the most amazing person ever ,so are you for arranging all this stuff,once again thanks Claire.

[plodalong]

omg HE DID IT.the games went to hell in a carrier bag this morning he refused to yo yo he wouldnt go sideways then he went intravert and i waited till he was ready to come back,then the left brain showed up.i found a nice place to be and left it at that,This afternoon the rain stopped and i tacked up and did the pre flight checks all was well so we hacked out without any incidents,when i took him back to the field and turned him loose he made it obvious that he wanted to play,ok off we went in LARGE FIELD WITH OTHER HORSESD AROUND,WE DONT USUALLY PLAY IN THE FIELD bUT IT WAS AMAZING HE TROTTED WITH ME STOPPED WITH ME BACKED UP WITH ME SO I THOUGHT I WOULD GIVE IT A GO,I WENT INTO CANTER MODE,HE GAVE A BIG BUCK AND A HEAD SHAKE AND BEGAN TO CANTER AROUND ME WE DID 3 CIRCLES THEN I WENT BACK TO A WALK AND A BACK UP.AND HE FOLLOWED ME DOWN TO THE GATE,WHOOO, WHOOO,HOW COOL IS THAT,he loves liberty stuff and i love him so much,T hanks again claire.we are going to do lots of perfect practice.and get excellent.

[Charon]

WOW - it sounds like you're having an absolute ball ;D
I am a long way off anything that you are doing but I did have my own little moment of joy the other day when Flicker put one foot on the pedestal!!!!!!!

[Claire]

Wow, sounds like you are all having fun!!!!
Its really nice to click on the chat board and see everyone has been enjoying themselves.
I had a really nice session with Moley this morning, Im trying to make the most of the sunshine before winter comes. Although it should be quite easy this year as John and Caroline have decided to put all the parelli horses up in the top fields right next to the honeycomb for the winter, how easy will that be. Take our saddle up there, poo pick, pop next door to play in the honeycomb and pop them back in the fileds, easy. ;D

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[plodalong]

wish i lived nearer claire,it must be like a dream having the play area,i have been told off my yo for walking around with a plastic bag blowing on the end of my carrot stick.other liveries have been complaining about some of the stuff me and bo have been playing with.its funny when a horse comes down the lane to find a car wash type thing blowing in the wind.i will have to go into my winter field instead of using the school.A friend of mine was loading her mare when racheal thought the mare was in the trailer shouted for someone to quickly close the back ramp.rio reared and broke the trailer tie which hit racheal right in the eye.she had to go to hospital and is in danger of loosing her sight,but like parelli said,people havnt got the time to do it right but always find the time to get it wrong over and over.its just plain dangerous to shove a claustraphobic horse into a trailer one hour before the show.I offered to lend her a dvd on loading but she insisted that a chiffney bit would do the trick.it did and look at the consequences.

[plodalong]

sorry charon i wasnt ignoring you,sounds like youre doing a good job with flicka,after one foot comes two, remember its not about the pedastal,keep offering it and will just happen as if by magic,Flicka will suddenly understand what you are asking for,well done.