Monday, November 2, 2009 -
Don't forget to visit my other blog at www.homeschoolblogger.com/blackraspberrychip.
I'm not even sure if anyone really reads this blog or not, but just so you know, I'm not going to be able to post for a while. Things are really hectic...if you wanna keep up with me though, go to my blog.
Thanks so much!!
♥<3♥Ellyn
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Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - The Circle Game
Don't forget to visit my other blog at www.homeschoolblogger.com/blackraspberrychip.
If you want to be added to my mailing list, please post a comment or e-mail me and I'll add you!
Ahh I'm so sorry it's taken me forever to write. I've been super busy...it's not funny. :) lol Well if it's not funny then why on earth did I say "lol"?? Go take a peek at my life...it's crazy. :D
So today I'm writing about the circle game. I'm not keeping track of game numbers anymore-too confusing. :) lol
The circle game is where you make your horse go around you in a circle while you stay in one spot.
The first thing you do is back your horse up using the yo-yo game so he's not right in your space. While doing the circle game you want to be holding the end of the rope, not half way down, etc. After you back him up, hold the rope and point in the direction you want him to go. If he doesn't move, take your carrot stick in your other hand, lift it, and if he still doesn't move, slap his bum with the string. Once he's going, make sure he's not pulling on the rope and pulling you out of your place. If he is tug on the tope until there is a nice dip in the rope between you and your horse. When you want him to stop circling around, bend over and look at his hip. He will then stop and turn towards you, "hiding" his bum. If he doesn't stop, keep looking at it and start towards it with your carrot stick. Viola! You now know to play the circle game with your horse! :)
There are different things you can do to make it more fun or interesting for your horse. Like setting up obstacles for him to jump over, or sending him between 2 objects (barrels, cones etc.). Also you could keep him trotting or cantering, and maybe set a treat on one of the obstacles for him to find.
You'll also use the circle game while doing figure 8's and the squeeze game.
I hope that made some sense...:) I hope to be updating more regularly, but you know how things go. Or maybe you don't! :) Haha...just kidding. :)
♥♥ellyn
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Friday, September 18, 2009 - Game number 3-the driving game
Don't forget to visit my other blog at www.homeschoolblogger.com/blackraspberrychip.
Okay, so I accidentally messed up. :( The game numbers are:
1. Friendly game
2. porcupine game
3. Driving game
4. yo-yo game
5, 6 and 7 to come. :D
Anyway, I messed up on the yo-yo game and porcupine game...it doesn't really matter too much though!!
Now I shall move on to game number 3...
The driving game is to get the horse to move using rythmic pressure. First I'm going to explain how to move a horse's hindquarters.
Go to your horse's hip area, look at it, and start tapping the ground with your carrot stick in a rythm, or kind of wave it in front of his hip in a rythmic motion. You don't want to just wave the carrot stick widly around. :) Can you magine if you were in school sitting ar your desk, and the teacher looked at you and said, "Come," and instead of kind of motioning for you to come, put her hand up and stopped, or started waving her hand wildly around? That's what your horse would feel like if you just waved it randomly around...horses need rythm. :) Remember to keep looking at his hip-horses can feel you looking!
Now if you wanted to move your horse backwards, you would walk toward your horse, with your hands up and moving towards him again, with rythm. If your horse does not move, don't hit him or push him backwards just keep going up to him until you eventually touch him and then oh well! If he got hit, it's his own fault!! Then if you touch him, start tapping his nose. Not hard but with phases. There are 4 phases...obviously, 1, 2, 3 and 4. Phase 1 is before you touch him. 2 is tapping, 3 os tapping harder, and 4 is even harder!! If you hrose won't back up even when you get to phase 4, keep up phase 4 until he moves even one step backwards, then start over again at phase 1.
If you have any questions, PLEASE e-mail comment or PM me!! I'd REALLY like questions. :)
~Ellyn
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Monday, September 7, 2009 -
Don't forget to visit my other blog at www.homeschoolblogger.com/blackraspberrychip.
I'm not sure if I'm going to post about one of the games or 2 of the games, so you'll just have to wait and find out!! lol
The porcupine game is the second game, and in a nut shell, you apply steady pressure to move a certain part of the horse's body. There are different amounts of pressure-1 is hair, which is pressing very slightly then is skin, which is a bit harder, then muscle, then bone. To move the horse's body you apply pressure to the part you want to move either with your carrot stick or your fingers. You can move their hips shoulders or move them backwards by taking your fingers and putting them on either side of his nose and applying pressure. And remember, whenever he does exactly what you want him to do, rub him in the spot that he had to work to do it. Like rub his shoulders if that's what you wanted him to move and he did it.
Okay so for instance, if you want to move your horse's hips a certain way, apply pressure and point your belly button in the direction you want him to move. Horses are very...sensitive I guess you could say and he can tell where your belly button is pointing without even looking! Isn't it amazing how God created them to do that? So if you want your horse to go one way and your belly button is pointing the opposite direction, he's not going to go the way you want him to! I had that problem when I first started I was just pointing my belly button wherever it was and wasn't thinking about it.
Did anything in that make sense? It's a bit hard to explain, especially for someone who is not an expert at it myself (and I'm sure won't be for a little while!). If there is anything that did not make sense PLEASE ASK QUESTIONS!!! :) Hehe. Thanks for reading!
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Tuesday, September 1, 2009 - First off...the friendly game and the yo-yo game
Don't forget to visit my other blog at www.homeschoolblogger.com/blackraspberrychip.
This is my first entry, guys, so give me a break here. :) lol I am never sure what I'm going to write about until I start typing. :D Hang in there, peeps. :)
Okay, I'm going to start off with the first thing that I can think of. :) I'll probably be posting about one subject each time I write. Unless I don't post for a looong time, then I might post about a couple things at once.
What I'm writing about today is called groundwork. It's when you're working with your horse on the ground BEFORE you ride him to make sure he is "in check" with you. There are 6 different games you play with your horse...number 1 is the friendly game. The friendly game is where you do different things to your horse to see what your horse does/doesn't like. For instance, some things that I do are wrap my carrot stick's string around his legs, spin the string up in the air around his head, whip it on the ground near him, rub him al over, etc. If he gets nervous and antsy (is that a word?? lol) about whatever you are doing to him, you keep doing it until he stops and relaxes. :) The other day I was spinning the string above his head and he started moving his feet and turning away, I stood there and kept doing it until he stopped. When he stopped, I stopped. Basically the friendly game is just finding out stuff about your horse, and just being friendly!!
Next is the yo-yo game. The yo-yo game is getting your horse to back away from you and then come back to you. Here's now you do the yo-yo game. With the rope attached to your horse's rope halter, you wiggle the rope slightly with your wrist while pointing at your horse with a mean look on your face like, "You better back away or else". Your horse should back away from you, but if he doesn't, wigge the rope harder, then harder, and then you bring your hand to your opposite shoulder and smack it down on your knee so the rope gets a twist in it and hits the horse in the chin. It's not being mean, trust me, it's just saying, "I said to back away, now do it". Then once your horse backs away, gently pull on the ropeuntil yuor horse comes to you. In my case, my horse usually doesn't stop when he gets to me, he wants to keep going past me. To stop that, you wiggle the rope and point at him with that same hand to stop him. :) That's the yo-yo game!
I hope at least some of that made sense!! I know for some of you this probably won't be useful, but it's helping me in a way, and just sharing it! Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions, e-mail me or comment (my e-mail address is on my sidebar).
.ellyn
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Monday, August 31, 2009 - The Parelli Method
Most of you know me from my other blog, blackraspberrychip, and this is my new blog!
I'm going to go ahead and start off with the thing I wrote about the Parelli method on my other blog. Okay well I finally got to my grandma's house to do what I needed to do. :) I'm so happy that it's not linking you to it anymore...ugh. :)
Parelli Horse Method (or theory...)
Let's start off with what it is. It's a meethod used for training and working with horses. It allows people of all ages and levels to discipline the horse without forcing the horse to do it.
To make the Parelli method work, you must have equal love, language and leadership. We'll start with love.
First you need to love your horse (or the horse you're working with, even if it's not your own!), and let it know that you're not going to hurt it, and that you're not here to be mean and boss him around. If you have language (we'll get to that) and leadership (we'll get to that also) but no love, it won't work! Your horse will think you're trying to FORCE him to do it just to do it, or just because you said so. Your horse might also become stubborn because you have no love. Your horse might be thinking, "Why am I doing this when I don't get any love or reward?" Love and leadership kind of work together in the same sort of way.
Second, you need to have language. If you have love and leadership but no language, your horse will have NO clue what you're trying to get him to do! When you have language, you are trying to make it as clear as possible for your horse to understand what you are trying to get him to do. When you don't have language, your horse gets confused and has no clue what to do, so he therefore won't listen or does whatever he wants.
Last (but not least!) comes leadership. Again, if you have love and language but no leadership, your horse will take charge of YOU instead of you taking charge of him. It is very important to have leadership because if you don't have leadership, your horse might sense that you don't have any confidence in yourself, or that you don't know what you want him to do, or maybe you don't even really feel like making him do these things! It's important also that you let your horse know that you're sure you want him to do what you want him to! Then he might take charge of you. Make sure there's not too much leadership going on because then he will feel like you are just bossing him around and forcing him to do things. Like I mentioned before, having too much leadership is almost like not having any love.
So that's how love, language and leadership work together to make the Parelli theory work! I'm sure you're wondering about the history of the Parelli method...
The Parelli method was founded in 1981 by a horseman and teacher, Pat Parelli. He realized that horses already have the skills they need to thrive and relate with their kind, it was the humans that needed to understand the horses! A big thing in this method is building a relationship wit your horse to make sure that you and your horse are understanding (or "in check") with each other.
So that about wraps it up. It's really an awesome method that everyone should use instead of the typical theory. I hope you learned at least ONE thing from this! And I'm not an expert yet...I'm still learning too. :)
I'm going to write it again on this blog soon but for now, this will do. :)
Now, about me. :D I am 14 years old, and I have only been riding since June. I ride at a horse camp down the road from my house, and it is a Christian camp where they teach the Parelli method, which is what I wrote about above.
Currently I am doing a program there that runs from October to April where you "adopt" a horse there, and you can ride it, groom it, work with it, etc. uring the open hours. Included in this program are riding lessons every other week and homework, which is a DVD that you have to watch that teaches you how to use the method.
For now, that's all I have time to write, but I promise I'll write more soon. :) Thanks for reading and if you have any questions, e-mail me or post me a comment. :)
