Hi everybody. Well, tomorrow night (Thursday) is Team Sorting practice. We are probably going to go to it. I'll take Brizzee, my mom will take Ute and Sugar. She'll probably just be ponying Sugar around, since she hasn't ridden her yet. I am excited, and can't wait for tomorrow, but in another way, I'm nervous. I can't wait to ride Brizzee and everything, I just hope that this isn't a too big of a "jump" in our relationship. I came up with this plan in my head, of what we are going to do when we get there. And I am prepared to change this plan, but this is what I am thinking of doing right now:
First, I'll walk her around outside, maybe play some Circling Game#5 to calm her down, and then tie her to the horse trailer, groom, and saddle her. Then we will MOSEY inside. And I'll wiat to go in until she is confident, and is "wanting" to go inside. Then, we will walk around a little (hopefully there won't be a lot of people there), and then start playing the 7 games, until she is calm, confident, and relaxed. We'll then play Stick to me, drive to a target, etc. Then, when she is really, really confident, calm, and relaxed, I'll mount her. At first, we'll just kinda walk and mosey around the arena, until she relaxes. If she doesn't relax at first, I'll dismount, and play the games again!
Then, after I'm riding her and she's calm, confident, and relaxed, we'll stand by the pen, and watch other people sort the cows. I'll pay attnetion to Brizzee, see if she is watching, or if startles her, etc. Then, if she feels good (if there isn't very many people there) we'll go in and walk around with the cattle (Friendly Game). If she feels tense, we'll leave, and depending on if she's still tense after we leave, I'll dismount, and play on the ground again. If she is feeling really good, we'll start to team sort a little, and see what she does.
I'm not going there to Team Sort...well, I would like to...but I am going to put our relationship first. I am not playing for today, I'm playing for TOMORROW! So, I am going to try to build her confidence (well, ours really. lol), and let her know that everything is going to be okay, and the cattle aren't going to eat her. lol. So, we'll see how that goes tomorrow. She might be really good, not tense, or she might be very tense and go Right Brain.
So, I'll just play with her, and see how it goes. I'll post more this weekend, and let you know how it went, if we do go. If NO ONE is there, we will probably just come back home, which I really don't want to do, but my mom is the boss. But I'll let you know how things go! I think that'll she be a little unconfident, and tense at first, but once we start playing the seven games, and get her to "thinking", I think she'll calm down. But I am NOT going to push her. Even if I don't ride her, that's fine. I'm just playing with her, and building our relationship and confidence.
So, I'll post more this weekend, and let you know how it went! I am printing out the Official Level 1, 2, and 3 assessments now. Just in case they take them off becuase of the new partners, I'll still have the papercopy! I'm also printing off the Level 4 tasks. Level 3 is where you start riding bridless!! I can't wait for Level 3! lol. We have to get through Level 2 together first though. It's been a fun journey so far, and it'll be even funner/SAVVIER!
Savvy On,
~Randa~ & ~Brizzee~
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