Our Progress

Here is our Online and Liberty Self Assessment Checklist as of 9-29-09. I cannot do any of the patterns yet in Liberty.

We're slowly progressing, a little! We have done everythign in Level 1 with Online and Liberty!! :-) I'm excited about that. Now we are solidly playing in Level 2!! Freestyle and Finesse aren't at Level 1 yet, but we're slowly getting there.

My goal is to scan these assesment checklist every month and see how much we've progressed! The next play session with Brizzee I am hoping to do a lot of things in Level 2 Online. We aren't nearly as far as a lot of the other "Savvy Kids" out there, but we're coming along slowly :-)

Savvy On,

*~Randa~ & ~Brizzee~*

PS. Tomorrow hopefully I will have pictures of the weanling!! We still haven't set up a place for her yet, and today it is so windy outside... :-(

It's Not About The Grass

Today was interesting and very fun!! I got done with school--all except one subject, and that's Modern World Studies, but I don't have a test for that until the end of the week--so I got Brizzee and we played outside! We couldn't play in the paddock, because our Mustang is out as well as all the other horses, so it's a bit crowded! And everyone--except of course Brizzee--likes to hang around people and they are in the way, so I decided to take her out, having the grass issue in mind.

You always read things like; "It's not about the trailer," "It's not about the tarp," "It's not about the grass", and I *thought* I had that drilled in my mind...WRONG! lol. So today I set up three cones, had a grain bucket on one end, and of course the grass on the other. We did weaves and then she ate grass for a while, and we did sideways away from and towards the grass. She really got to trotting and going fast towards the grass, so that was interesting. And after we played a few more things, we played on the grass.

If we were playing the Circling Game and she ate the grass, I wouldn't ask her to stop eating and then go again, instead I would just ignore her eating grass and be like; "You'd better get going." And she did! Then it dawned on me; "IT'S NOT ABOUT THE GRASS!!" DUH!! My, my, my. So we really had fun with that. She went sideways a long way away from me with the motorhome in front of her and my feet stayed stilL. Sidewaysing away without anything in front of her is a little challenge. She likes to go forward a lot, but for the most part she is goign sideways, and she's trying so hard, I love her to death.

After a few games on the grass, and she actually came all the way into me without stoping to snatch a bite, I decided that I would ride her bareback a little. Well, first of all I tried hopping onto her neck, and the wasn't working. So then I tried leading her up to soemthing, but there wasn't really anythign I could lead her up to so I tried to get on her neck again...such a sweet girl. She lifted me up and I manuevered to her back, swung my leg over, and just as I was getting ready to push myself back, she decided she just had to get a mouthful of weeds...well, I fell off. I did a summersault over her head and landed on the gravel. She just jumped away and braced, her eyes were all big and white, and then she slowly started blinking. Then I lead her up to a trailer, hoping that it would stay down on its tongue, which thank goodness it did, and hopped onto her back. I think that's the most "enjoyable" ride we've had most of the summer. She didn't fight wanting the grass. She pushed it everynow and then, but I didn't get in a fight, I just slightly moved the rein (tied the 12' to the halter) and she'd look away, and she really followed my body language and pressure today, so I'm excited. I don't know what happened to change her attitude about needing the grass while I ride her, but I'm excited!

I just can't beleive "It's not about the grass!" clicked into my mind until today, but duh! It's obvoius. I don't how many times Linda talked about it or whatever and it's like; "Yes, but how do you get your horse away from the grass??!" YOU DON'T! You just ignore it. She was looking at me funny too...I'm excited that that finally clicked, now I wonder how many other things I hear them say constantly until "OH! I got it." strikes home!

Day after tomorrow we will probably move the round pen up closer to the house somewhere to put the 5 month old filly, Gunsmoke in. My mom and I both will be playing with the filly; she hasn't even had a halter on her before, so she will be raised Parelli. I'm excited to see the difference between how it is playing with her, then how it is playing with Brizzee...major difference I'm sure. But I'm so happy! Every since I can remember I've wanted to play and "train" a foal, and now I get my chance, it's awesome!!

I only have a dentist appointment tomorrow, and then another one 2 and half weeks from today, and that's when I get my parmenant crowns on, so hopefully I will be dentist-free for 6 months afterwards! Unfortunately, lol, I still have school, but there's nothing I can do about that. School, babysitting, horses, and everything else---as Linda would say, "Oh Boy!" ;-)

Savvy On,
~Brizzee~ & ~Randa~

Hanging In There Like An Ape...

Interesting title, eh? lol. The other day I went out and played with Brizzee. We had a lot of fun. We just basically just hung out, did a few things, whatever, walked around the corral. She offered a very nice circling game at the trot, and did a change of direction very smoothly. She slowed to a walk, and stopped and looked at me for a few seconds before she turned teh other one and began to trot again, so I ended it there. And I ran backwards and she trotted up to me, that was really neat :-)

The most exciting thing that Brizzee did was she went sideways from me standing in zone 5! I was so exciting. I had tried doing it next to her, but she got unconfident so I stepped back and was going to have her turn and face me, but when I flicked the carrot stick she started to go sideways, so I took it and went sideways with her--only behind her. So that was really cool :-) She's such a patient horse with me.

After we played some more games on the ground I thought I'd try to get on he from neck--yeah, not happenin'. She was so patient with me though, her ape lol. She put her head to the ground, her noise touching, and I jumped up on her neck, and she lifted it up, and then I just hung there, kicking me feet around, and then she would lower her neck and look at me like; "Are you goin' to get on or what?" I tried that a couple of times and then my arms slipped and I fell right on my rump, I thought my mom was going to die laughing so hard. Brizzee, well she just looked at me, such a sweet ole' girl. So I ended up leading her over to the fence and got on her bareback that way. She still likes to go to the gate, but we're getting a little better. I'm making a pattern where we walk from one end of the pen to the other not too far away from the gate. Every now and then she argues, but little by little, it's getting better. I think that I just need to work on my body langauge more. That has to be it, why she keeps going to the gate for safety because she doesn't know what I want because I don't have the right body energy. And Linda makes it look so easy :-(

Well, I'm off to do school now. My first year in High School, and so far it's hectic. I have Journalism as my elective--I'm not sure whether I like it or not yet, but it's somethign, I guess. Next year I think I will have Computer Literacy or somethign like that.
Savvy On,
~Randa~ & ~Brizzee~