Video of our spotlight at the tour stop:

Woke up at 4:30am. About 8 hours of sleep in 2 days combined. Took 9 horses and ponies to the Parelli tour stop. Filled the arena with PonyPros. Blew even our own socks off. The Parellis were amazingly generous with us. They gave all the kids halters and lead ropes, plus the levels 1-4 pack, and gave Les and I four-week scholarships to the center in CO. Feel like I need to sleep for days, but it was worth it Can’t believe how awesome the kids and ponies were. Check out the photos of Linda when we showed her our video, told her we had 5 more kids at home, and that we boarded 30 minutes away.

Some quick facts:

• Blue Man has only been with us for 4 weeks. This was his first experience traveling off property for an event. He was rescued a year ago by Mustangs and Mohr, then came to us at the very end of April. At that time, he had basic groundwork but had not been started. He has 1 ride on him now and is, as you can see, having a ton of fun with Parelli!
• Thistle has only been with us for 2 months. She was 10 years old and was ranch raised, so had had no training before coming to us. This was her second time ever in a trailer and only only her second time away from the home she was born and raised on. Look how awesome she is now!
• Thistle’s partner, Emma, is a 6th grader and has only been involved in horses for 3 months. She has learned all this from PonyPros in just 12 weeks!
• Peanut and Wallie are only 4 years old. This was only their second time hauling out to a different arena. They have been with us for about 9 months now and were unstarted when they came to us.
• Casey is an adopted rescue horse. Conner has only owned him for four months.
• Koa is an adopted rescue horse. This was her first time ever hauling out to a strange arena.
• Celebrity has only been with us for 2 months. Chloe, age 12, was his partner at the tour stop.
• Sam is a rescue pony who used to stand like a tri-pod because he was so fearful and in so much pain. He used to run to the other side of his pen and smash against the panels when someone walked by. He has been with us for almost 2 years now.
• Because the horse who Katelynn normally works with is a rescue who is not strong enough to travel, this was Katelynn’s first time ever working with Sam. Talk about a good pony and natural student to put it together so fast and so well!
• Our dream is to have an Atwood Ranch style program for ponies and to have the best kids program in the world.

There were a huge number of successes today…

-Zoey, Maddie, and Emma stood on their ponies for the first time.
-Zoey and Maddie stood on Peanut and Wallie bridleless in cordeos.
-Emma and Maddie jumped the barrels, and jumped them bareback nonetheless.
-Chloe sat like a frog on Celebrity, cantered him, and jumped him over a bigger jump.
-Blue Man got ridden for the first time. Chloe put the first rid eon him.
-Cinnamon got ridden by someone other than Kali for the first ride. Chloe put the 4th ride on him.
-Desiree rode a horse for the 4th time in her life, getting to ride Celeb. It was her first time trotting bareback.

Apparently PonyPros and ponies flourish in tornadoes and monsoons

Today was Morgan, Katelynn, and Lauren’s second lesson. As part of our program, kids come out for a minimum of 3 hours a week. We’ve found kids don’t improve with less time that that. We theorize that kids need more than one hour a week because working with horses is like learning a new language, you need to be immersed to become fluent. So for the cost of just one lesson, our kids get 3 hours of horse time per week – 1 hour-long lesson and a 2 hour self-directed session on the weekend. Morgan, Katelynn, and Lauren are going into their third week of the program and they have improved so much! Taylor was sick today, so had to miss out.

Morgan’s seat is 5x better than it was just a month ago. She’s looking awesome! She now has a long leg and length through her torso. What a huge difference!

Katelynn and QuickDraw sidepassed a pole while riding for the first time. It was amazing to see Katelynn put the aids together to make it happen – blocking a little in front so Q didn’t walk over the pole, then forequarters/hindquarters on the outside rein. We don’t use much leg in our lateral movements because we don’t need it – just a little reminder here and there if we want quicker movement sideways.

Lauren added some work without hands to her seatwork repertoire. Work without hands is really cool because it is a big perceived risk but is actually even easier than riding with holding on to the pommel because you can sit correctly. It’s always fun to see the kids faces when they realize they can let go!

Gina has been working with Blue Man on the basics. He is rocking at sideways and jumping the barrels. He looked like a pro today! I took him for awhile to feel him out and he jumped a single barrel on the wall from a walk first time I asked. Later Gina worked with Blue Man on Hippity Hop, which prepares the horse for riding. You lay on the horse like a surfboard and paddle (ie., rub the girth area) and slide backwards off the rump. We do Hippity Hop before sitting in the horse in straddle because it is easier to get off if they get scared and because it is even tougher for their nerves than sitting on then. So, you know if they can handle Hippity Hop, that they’re ready to ride. Hippity Hop is tough for the humans, too, though, because it does require a lot of upper body strength and coordination, especially when you’re working with a 12h pony! I jumped in at the end and laid on Blue a few times to help get him over the hump. I ended by sitting on him in straddle for the first time. Soon as we have some decent weather he’ll start his riding career!

Wednesday was a madhouse! Maddie and Zoey had a make up lesson and their nanny’s daughter, Desiree, wanted to ride. We say “yes” as often as possible, so Desiree got to join in the lesson. She rode Celeb and let me tell you, I have never seen a girl in a tutu on a pony before, but it was seriously cute. Tutus and horsehair – every little girls dream.

Celeb’s new name is Rusty. Spencer, the little girl who is buying him, renamed him and it is perfect. Celeb loves it. Rusty is a perfect fit. It’s rare to have a new name that immediately sticks, but this was one of them! Doesn’t he just look like a Rusty?

Rusty was unbelievably good with Desiree. Desiree is 8 and has only ever ridden a horse 3 times before in her whole life. She took one riding lesson with us last summer and has had a few ground lessons, but mostly just watches while Maddie and Zoey ride. Desiree is normally quite timid, but that’s an 8 year old girl thing. We’ve found girls feel really mortal, so we are careful not to push kids at that age in particular. Instead, we let them watch and observe, and then, poof, out of no where, they jump on and ride like they’ve been riding the whole time. We have started telling our students who are not sure they want to ride, “I will teach you if you get on and start to walk, but you have to get on on your own,” so that we’re not in between them and the horse. It’s amazing because when they are no longer afraid, they just get on and go. Desiree didn’t even use a mounting block – jumped up on Rusty herself. She had watched Maddie and Zoey enough to know how to steer and, of course, when there is no fear in the way, ponies do just what they’re told. Desiree rode all around the arena, getting on and off a few times on her own experimentally, and walked over the poles like a pro. All the while, bareback in a tutu Can you believe we’ve only had Rusty for four weeks?

The arena was packed the whole time and you couldn’t hear yourself think over the sound of little girls giggling, lol. Maddie asked me how to know if she was in the right position over a jump. I told her stick her arms straight out to the side and if you can do that, then you’re in the right position. Maddie started out with one arm and eventually progressed to two arms. It was awesome! She could drop her reins right before the jump, then let her hip angle close and allow her body to naturally assume two-point in the air. Very cool!

Chloe tried it next, riding Thistle. Chloe worked on having her hand behind her back instead of out to the side, which helps exaggerate the closing of the hip angle. You can see her working on it in the photos. Wacky hand positions is my new favorite way to teach jumping. We are, after all, all about letting the body find the position naturally. This way, I don’t have to say much about closing the hip angle or letting the hips drop back – I just set it up and let them find it, same as with a horse

Zoey worked on her confidence with Wallie. She trotted around in her Western saddle and cruised over some poles and small jumps. Wallie is getting a new saddle pad soon, which will look very cute with Zoey’s breeches and helmet.

Katlyn had her third lesson on Sarah. She’s trotting in the treeless English/Western hybrid and riding some off the longe at a walk. She and Sarah get along great. Sarah was particularly worked up because Gina had Penny Lane out for a walk and Sienna, who has adopted her, was quite frantic about where “baby” was. So, for their warm-up on the ground, I had Katlyn circle Sarah from one end of the arena to the other so she would learn how to travel with her. It was tough, but they made it!

I think that was about it…plus Les and I riding Koa and Ilo. Did I mention I took these photos from Ilo’s back? It was a long day!

Today was a busy day! Conner (12) rode KC, and Emma (12) rode Thistle and Celebrity. Les worked with Sundae and rode Koa, I rode Ilo, and worked with Sam. Gina worked with Blue Man and got things prepared for her new mini!

Blue Man was laying down when we went to go get him. He showed a lot of trust and didn’t hurry to get up. He looked very handsome and we were able to snap a few pictures. He’s such a site with his mane standing on end!

Blue Man is just about ready to start so I have been having Gina watch colt starting dvds by Lesley Neuman, Ray Hunt, and Parelli. She recently watched the Parelli Savvy Club dvd where Pat helps Jake start the blue roan QH gelding. Pat demonstrates ways to desensitize the horse and Jake rides the colt bareback, then later with a saddle. It’s a fascinating dvd because you get to see it all. We use some of the same techniques in starting our colts.

Blue Man is working on synchrony. He is very distractable and, while he likes humans, he thinks they are senseless and only require about 1% of his total brain power. We are working to convince him that we are interesting, useful, and worthy of his attention.

First we did Travel Together with Blue Man. He’s naturally balanced and relatively relaxed on the longe. Then we worked on Hippity Hop. He was not too keen on on standing quietly to have Gina lay on him so we went on to The Whippings. Blue Man became quite calm and attentive in no time at all. We then worked on balancing the for quadrants of the horse doing a pattern that involves sidepassing a pole, the balancera on the rail, and jumping a barrel at a walk.

Blue Man had never sidepassed a pole before, so Gina had to work up to it, starting with one step of sideways without a pole, all the way up to sidepassing the whole 12′ pole. As with everything, Blue learned quickly. Blue had very little trouble with the balancera. He was light and moved forward and back attentively with ease. He’s naturally nimble. When invited out of the squeeze, Blude did a good job not rushing through Gina’s hand in anticipation of the barrels. He was quite beautiful over the barrels, jumping calmly and efficiently, with good form.

During Emma’s lesson, I tagged her for the same thing I had Chloe working on the other day – a good release over the jumps. Emma progressed very quickly. It was Thistle’s first time trotting a gymnastic. We were working on migrating through the gymnastic, focusing on a fluid, no-brainer ride for horse and human. The jumps are treated as non-events, just an obstacle on the trail.

Thistle is the wonder pony, as Emma is the wonder rider. Thistle has been under saddle for just 1 month and Emma has only been riding for 3 months. Emma started Thistle herself with our supervision and has done all but 3 or 4 of her rides. The gymnastic was a trot-in cross rail, bigger vertical, then a smaller vertical, one stride in between, though Thistle trotted the whole gymnastic rather than cantering at all. We did two 15 minute jumping sessions with clicker play for Thistle in between. Thistle was quite quiet and content to just hang with Emma. She seemed to enjoy snuggling with Emma as much as pushing the ball or playing other games.

At the end of the lesson, we did a little liberty play, as Thistle usually likes it and is naturally quite fancy. Thistle jumped the obstacle on her own several times, even though we were guiding her away from it. She is a beautiful, brave jumper. She did the canter strides in between the jumps, making good distances 90% of the time.

Next Emma rode Celebrity. Isn’t she lucky to go straight from school to lessons where she gets to play with as many horses as she can in 3 hours? Celebrity was awesome. Emma trotted the same gymnastic on him as she did on Thistle Conner rode at the same time and worked with KC on a big X and on the gymnastic. Both girls were working on synchrony, building the range of what they could do together with their mounts. KC, traditionally a bit lazy and a head-shaker, was doing quite well. It was fun to see Emma on 12’1h Cebs and Conner on 15’1h KC jumping the same jumps.

Lastly I worked with Ilo on migration at the trot. She tends to worry quite a bit about sounds and any little extra movement I make on her back. We’re working on keeping trotting. Ilo has such a little shuffle of a trot that, as I’m encouraging her to keep trotting, makes me think of Dory singing, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming,” from Finding Nemo.

Les worked with Koa on synchronization while trotting bareback. He used a cone as a target for the circle. Koa progressed very well, building up to being able but connected to Les. Les felt discouraged at the end of the lesson, though, because Koa didn’t have much play drive, probably because they were working on a task that challenges her emotional fitness. During their play sessions, Les has been working with Koa using Mediterranean horsemanship principles to teach piaffe. While she was a little unexcited yesterday, Koa is doing quite well working towards piaffe. He cues her forefeet with a touch near the elbow and her hind feet with a touch near the flank. It it is quite imperceptible and graceful.