Vaquero

[Maria]

Aww, You guys sound like you're doing Wonderfully together!!

I defintly Agree that school sucks and It gets in the way of Everything! I defintly need to find time to come visit sometime soon!

[happilyeverafter]

Danielle, I just love hearing about the Parelli. What is this saddling with savvy business? Can you explain it??? I would love to know, it might help with Cat and Enzo!

[Sarah]

Yea I also love reading about your work with Parelli ... you should post more details about it because it is very interesting and seems to be working out quite well for you and Vaquero!

[Danielle;]

Glad to know you guys are enjoying it! If you're looking for more info, you can go to my Natural Horsemanship forum:

www.naturalhorsemanship.piczo.com (link to forum is on that page)

[Danielle;]

Vaquero and I had a good weekend

Sunday:

Did the catching game in the field, like always. He'll always turn around when he sees me, but he's not very willing to come at first. I have to walk around the field playing the catching game until he walks up to me. But it's getting much better.

I then brought him into the outdoor (hooray, spring is here ) and worked on the games. Our biggest fear was the water, so we did a lot of squeeze game through the water, then played a few of the games at liberty. In the end, we ended up being in the center of the ring cuddling. 3-4 other horses came in the arena, and he clearly followed me through all of them, still sticking with me. Oh the joys of Parelli <3.

We then went into the indoor due to a lessons starting, and worked on our grooming. He's slowly starting to figure out that grooming isn't that bad, but with lots of time and patience, we'll get over this hurdle together. Afterwards I put him in his stall to eat for about an hour, then took him out to ride. Our first ride outside this year! It was great, and he was excellent. We mainly worked on transitions. He was a bit excited due to being outside again, but quickly calmed down. So that was sunday!

Monday:

We played a few games, taught a little lesson, rode, and groomed (was much better then Sunday). Our biggest highlight for today was playing the games out in our field for the first time. It was amazing! We then went for the games at liberty (he was wicked with this), and he actually stayed with me for about 5-10 minutes, but then he took off to the lower end of the field. Oh well, I was very happy that he stayed with me for as long as he did. But when he ran off, I wasn't upset at all. It was a great feeling for me to know what I need to work on, and for him to know that he's not being forced to stick with me. I then played the catching game, and afterwards we went to graze for about 20 minutes. I love my horse so much! <3

Well that's what we're working on, take care you guys

Danielle and Vaquero <3

[Danielle;]

happilyeverafter said:

Danielle, I just love hearing about the Parelli. What is this saddling with savvy business? Can you explain it??? I would love to know, it might help with Cat and Enzo!

Glad to hear your interested Jill. Maybe next time your home you can drop up to AEC, and Vaquero and I will show you the methods we are conducting in the Parelli Program (especially the saddling with savvy)

A brief touch on it though:

Saddling with savvy is mostly giving your horse an opinion when saddling. You start off with seeing if your horse is a right or left brain horse (right brain is unconfident, more or less a bomb ready to go off, left brain is when your horse is very smart and confident). You usually see this when doing ground work with your horse. If your horse is right brain, she/he is not safe to ride... at all.

Therefore, working on saddling with savvy, it gives your horse a chance to really see what is going on his/her back. It gives them a chance to check it out, maybe even give it a little sniff/nibble.

To start off, it's best to have a rope halter along with a 12' Parelli line, if not, then it's okay to have a nylon halter with a regular lead. You should be able to flick the lead over her back 6 times, (both left and right side) without her fidgeting around. When flicking the rope over her back, make sure your not flicking it hard enough that it hits her hard on the other side, just enough that it lays on her. But if you do accidentally make a thump, just give her a rub and carry on, horses are forgiving animals, she'll forget all about it. Remember, if she does fidget, keep flicking it over her back until she stops moving around. When she stops moving, praise her, and start again. Do not stop this exercise till you can get the rope over her back 6 times both sides.

The rest is quite hard to explain. The next time I'm at the barn, I'll have my mom video tape me doing this. I'll post it here for you to check it out. I think you'll really like it, and it's also an excellent way to saddle any horse. It worked very well for Vaquero, seeing as he hated having the saddle put on him, but when we started this saddling with savvy; he enjoyed it due to him having more of an opinion.

Hopefully this helped; I'll get mom to video tape me ASAP. Any more questions, feel free to ask!

[Maria]

awwwwwwwww,
Danielle, you and Vaquero are Way too cute!

Natural horsemanship is Defintly a great way to go!

[nat]

Danielle you are going to be my Parelli coach for Sid!!

I love love love..you and Vaquero tons...give him tons of kiss from me!! Sid can't wait to meet his cousin!!*tee hee*

nat and sid

[Danielle;]

Thanks for the comments guys!

And Nat, I'd LOVE to help you and Sid with Parelli. I told Vaquero about the whole Sid being his cousin, he was quite happy, but said Auntie Nat better not forget about him He loves you! He also can not wait to meet his new favorite cousin!

[nat]

how can i forget about vman..he is a cutie=)..this summer they definately will meet..we will have to hack!!