9am we arrive to find all the participants already there, horeseboxes and trailers fill the car park and many cars start to arrive. Unknown to Silke I make sure people sign her birthday card as on Friday it was Silke's birthday, then ask everyone to gather inside the arena. the sun is coming out...
Silke asks everyone to gather in a horseshoe so that she can talk to us and one by one we are asked to give a little history of our horses and our parelli experience. There are approx 30 of us "what a fantastic turn out" I look around and see already the smiles on people's faces. In the arena many props are set out as well as Moira's trailer...what has Silke in store for us..
Silke asks a few spectators to be judges and award points for each task completed and give bonus points for imaginary task performed. We take in the obstacles, Tarpaulin, Jumps, Poles, Cones, Big Ball, Slalom, Barrels, Squeezes etc..We all set off and music booms across the arena, when the music stops we have to move onto the next obstacle. This was great fun as we really had to use savvy as some obstacles were not so straight forward, it also give Silke a chance to observe us and see our strengths and weaknesses. Kyle didn't think much to trailer loading and guess the hanging strips to Kyle were electric and Cookie (Susi Boyd's horse) wasn't too impressed with the blue barrels, each horse and handler had various difficulties and it was good learning for spectators. Silke then called us in to a horseshoe to discuss what we had learned and as a few had problems with trailer loading we then one buy one had a little help from Silke. First up was Chance a strapping Shire x TB standing at a towering 17.3hh. Though Moira tried hard Chance still said no....Silke took the 12ft line. Chance stood tall but not once did he look like challenging Silke. With gentle but firm handling when needed within 5 minutes Chance stood quietly inside the trailer. On my attempt I heard "Stop wriggling the rope" I thought I'm not wriggling the rope I am allowing more slack so Kyle can go into the trailer...When I took notice of what I was doing I was actually causing the rope to wriggle...Silke was right as usual and I swiftly corrected my technique. The obvious is not always so clear. Laura had some difficulty with her horse Jess a lovely 15.2hh IDxTB. Jess was being a right handful and constantly pushed his was through Laura often knocking her back. Laura tried very hard and it was interesting to watch.
After watching the variety of horses and their reactions this taught me 3 important factors.
1) Don't always assume what you are doing is right, 2) Listen carefully to your insructor and ask if your not sure of anything and 3) Be aware and listen to your horse.
By now the dust from the arena is kicking up and Silke asks as she has been doing all day..Am I okay? I have Asthma and EAA for those who don't know. I feel okay just now and we carry on.
Game 1 - Friendly ..We were asked to play extreme friendly with our horses until they relaxed, this could be resting a leg, softening of the eyes, relaxation through the neck, floppy ears etc. It was interesting as there we were 8 of us swinging these CS around and not one horse panicked or broke free. We then played it again but this time asking our horses to lower their heads, some asked by holding the 12ft line and applying pressure down towards the ground whereas I (not sure if any one else did this) asked Kyle to lower his head by using phases at the poll. We finished this game off by playing extreme friendly as we all walked around the arena.
Game 2 - Porcupine .Silke asked me to demonstrate the first game which was to ask your horse to porcupine back from a light touch on the nose and using your fingers and thumb to coordinate each leg. For those who could not see clearly Silke showed what I was doing with my hands. Kyle was very good and only raised his head slightly to which Silke says to ask him to lower his head then ask for a few steps. This worked well but I think I did too much as Kyle started to brace against me. I thought I had just undone everything but after a rest he was okay about it again.Phew! Not finished there Silke asked us to ask our horses to back up with a little more impulsion and this was achieved by using the CS on the chest or putting more energy into your legs. At one point I noticed Zoltan giving plenty of impulsion but had also took to stargazing as his muzzle went higher than his poll. I never did see if he did a better back up. Let me know Pat..... Silke then asked us to porcupine the forehand pivoting on one back leg and the hindquarters pivoting on one front leg. The idea was to use as little phase as possible. Silke reminds us all its all about touching the hair, skin, muscle then bone in that order and to reward the slightest try. Sounds complicated and at first it is until your horse thinks "That's what you want me to do". Lucky for me Kyle already knows how to do this task and I'd love to hear how others got on. Its so hard to watch others when your engrossed in what you are doing.
Game 3 - Driving ..After going playing the porcupine the horses learnt what was being asked of them which was preparation for the driving game. Now we had to drive the forehand and the quarters without using touching with our hands or CS but instead using phases with our "Mother in-Law look" and if needed phases with the CS. This was repeated with plenty of slack in the line and finally by holding the popper and standing approx 9-10 feet away from your horse. This helped so much in learning how you use your savvy, body language and timing. To see if you are using your phases correctly and also learning when to up the phases and when to lower them again. This was found to be good preparation for liberty. Again I missed seeing how others got on.so come on get your stories in.. .
Silke starting rounding off the morning's activities and out the corner of my eye I saw that Dawn Amour had lit the candles of Silke's Birthday Cake and was hiding behind Julie Lenton who was carrying her presents that I had bought. I knew the candles burnt down quickly so I had to interrupt Silke. I announced to the spectators that Silke was unaware that some of us knew it was her birthday, Silke says "Oh you make me all red" to which we all laughed. We then sang happy birthday and give 3 cheers. Silke then made her wish and blew out all the candles which luckily hadn't burnt away. Then Silke turned back to continue where she had left off and then realised she had forgot what she was saying...Oop's! But hey, the distraction was worth it..
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Left: Silke receiving her birthday cake and presents from Myself, Dawn Amour and Julie Lenton
Right: Silke blowing out the candles,
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1pm and it is time to stop for lunch, Brian had taken a few orders and soon we were all sitting outside tucking into delicious Pizza's from Dominoes. The frost was gone and in its place was a blazing sun. We had a great chat with Silke and at 2pm she told us to go and play with our horses and for the spectators to go in at 2.30pm. However Silke was such fun to chat to that most forgot and it was 2.20pm when we finally got back into the arena.
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