Dakota's hoof!

Well, her hoof seems to be better. She isn't limping any longer, but I'm continuing to pack her foot with sugar and iodine and make duct-tape boots each day. She's been pretty tolerant, but the experience of being in a stall for a week has brought out her inner brat! Ha! She has been rather pissy and acting dominant, etc. All things I can deal with thanks to the Parelli work, which usually gets things shifted pretty quickly. I've been taking it very easy with her because of her foot, but she is entering her 'teenage' years as she approaches being two, and I need to keep these behaviors in close check. Luckily, with the work I'm doing with her, and can achieve that in a good way. I just got a Level 1/2 DVD from Parelli and it is really, really helpful! I've been learning from videos from the site and a borrowed older DVD, but this fills in many gaps. I keep getting, over and over, how it's not about the horse but about ME. I feel like right now I'm training me not the horse! Though she gets to learn with me.

Anyway, I'm anxious to get back to work. I changed paddocks in the hopes that this one will be less muddy and I never have to deal with another abscess! I have never had a horse get an abscess before, mostly because I had a lot more control over what my horses stood in all day and I've always been very diligent about taking care of their feet. No matter where she is at this stables, she's in mud at least part of the time. Being young, she has feet that are still forming, thin soles, etc. Plus there are plenty of sharp rocks around, which is what the vet things punctured her sole. So I have my work cut out for me to make sure this never happens again!

I'm sad...

On Saturday, Dakota came up lame. The vet came out Sunday AM and immediately (and easily) found an abscess on her hoof. She will be fine, and is already feeling better, but it's been hard on us both. She has had to stay indoors in a stall, and does not like it one bit! She's been outdoors her whole life, so being cooped up all day is not making her at all happy! For me, it's taken away the most fun part of my life here in Ashland. My two hours with Dakota is taken up with making duct-tape boots and getting Dakota to stand still long enough to put it on. I hope her abscess heals quickly and she never, ever gets another one!

Of course I am grateful it is something simple to treat and not one of the horrible things that ran through my mind when she first came up lame!!

Today we had sun!

It's been very cold and wet here in Ashland this past week. Even had some snow! But today, Sunday, we had sun!! So we bundled up and took the family out for a walk.

It was beautiful! I finally got a picture of John with the kids! You can't see his face because of his big, fat hat! Next time I'll make him take it off.

Dakota was in a rather bratty mood. Mostly she wanted to eat grass and do nothing else, but the walk was good for her. She was breathing a bit heavily at the end. She needs lots of conditioning! It will be harder to get her conditioned in the winter months, but I'll do my best! We are doing a lot more with Parelli games and there is so much more to learn. Should keep us pretty busy during the cold, wet months. We'll do lots of circling game to get her in shape. Me too!

Scenery

Some scenery from our walks. John takes great pictures!

Dakota's first day of school!

Today was a banner day for Dakota! I joined Pat Parelli's Savvy Club when I got Dakota so I could log in and see videos and access resources to help me learn natural horsemanship. I hooked up with a local group of Savvy Clubbers who get together each month for a 'play date.' Today was our first play date, and the second biggest event in Dakota's young life up till now, the first being the day I brought her home, of course.

There were 14 horses and owners there to play together and learn from each other. Everyone there knows more than I do about Parelli work, but it didn't matter. Dakota did GREAT! She loaded on and off the trailer well and did everything I asked of her, despite the bigness and newness of the situation. Pictured to the right is Trish and her horse, Mystic, who boards at my barn and took us and our horses to the play date! She has been a generous friend to me.

We did a lot of fun stuff, working online and at liberty with our horses. Well, they did liberty. I don''t work Dakota that way just yet. We've done a bit of work at liberty, but mostly Dakota sticks to me like glue and I haven't pressed it. I've only just started sending her away. She's still young and I want to build her trust and confidence in me and in our relationship.

Here are some photos from the day:

A long post, but it was a good day...

Wrote this two days ago after an amazing inner 'breakthrough' with Dakota:

I am so excited I wanted to share this with someone! I watch Parelli videos from the Savvy site just about every night and then trying things the next day. Each night I go to bed thinking about what I want to do with Dakota, then I do it. I've been making some headway with it, but really, it hadn't yet really 'clicked.' I was doing a little bit of what I was seeing, but not really getting it, not really getting to the level of real communication with Dakota. And not really understanding the basic principles of the communication.

Well, today something clicked. I watched and watched videos of him doing demos with different horses. How he moves, how he communicates with the horses. I started to feel a shift in my understanding of it. Not in my head, but deeper. I went in today realizing that I was doing some things that could create long term problems. More force related, getting her to do things with more force than I wanted. Parelli is such a master at knowing how to work with the horse with a great deal of compassion, and to teach the horse in a very interactive, patient, yet highly effective way that happens very quickly!

I'm just scratching the surface, I know, but today things were very different. I had an absolute blast, and I think Dakota did too! She is a LBI for sure, and it's been hard to get her to move her feet, get motivated, all the usual stuff. Today she was interested, curious, moving, and very willing. I did not use any force at all. Encouragement, firmness, but no force. And we did way more than we usually do. I realized from reading some Q&A online as well as watching Pat that I was being way to cautious with her. I could feel she was ready for much more.

So today we tried all kinds of things. She has the basics of the first five games down, especially the first two. Driving game is coming along really well, and I'm taking my time with it. But she's definitely getting it. I had just started the yo-yo and circling games with her at the end of last week, but today, we really went for it. I released the second she moved in the right way, and then repeated and really got her moving. This was the first day she trotted a full circle without me really have to apply more pressure than I wanted to! And we did driving game around the arena at a fun walk, did circling through ever smaller slits through barrels on their sides. I let her take her time, use her innate intelligence and curiosity, and we both had a great time!

I definitely use treats with her as occasional rewards, which really helps keep her interested and having fun with it. But mostly it's just making things fun and interesting. I realize too that she learns things so quickly, I need to keep being inventive about how to teach her while we do it in different ways. Like doing driving game with all kinds of obstacles and mixing it up each day. Same with circling. Then I can do some regular circles in between, practice yo-yo games, the others. In the midst of things that are not the same every day.

Tomorrow I'm doing to do yo-yo between barrels. I need to buy a tarp and work with that. Use poles. The whole world is opening up and I'm so excited!! And it was thrilling to see her today, also excited. Happy. Having fun. Getting lots of scratches and praise and treats. I could see her really feeling some pride, if that is the right word. She gets it when I let her know she did really well and is happy. The greatest thrill was in the yo-yo and circling games, when I bend down and welcome her in and she turns and comes up to me with her ears forward, excited and happy.

I know tomorrow may be totally different, that there will be many ups and downs. I've worked with horses my whole life and know how it goes. But today, I'm basking in the joy and happiness I feel with the level of communication and fun Dakota and I had together. I love that horse so deeply, and it's so good to feel confident that I am learning, and because I'm learning she is able to learn too.

Another gorgeous day

Just got back from a women's retreat in beautiful Buckhorn Springs. This picture was taken Friday, before the retreat, when John, Mila, Dakota, the barn dog Buddy, and myself all took a nice long walk. Dakota of course had a great time eating grass and I actually use grass as a training aid, which works great for her! I didn't see her, or John, or Mila for two days, which was hard, but the retreat was really good. But today, I couldn't wait to get out to see Dakota! I didn't spend as much time with her, just enough for a bit of training. It is really windy and quite brisk, but omg, it was so beautiful. There were intermittent clouds, dramatic and beautiful, mist in the mountains, oranges and rust colors everywhere, and it was dusk by the time I drove away from the barn and then took Mila for a long walk. It is breathtakingly beautiful here at times. I'm so grateful to be here, and know how lucky I am! John semi-retires and will be here full time by the end of the year--just 1.5 months away, and then it will be complete! One thing I realized at the retreat this weekend. I really LOVE my life. We will have to deal with some issues concerning making enough income et al when John is down here for good, but I welcome the challenge and love that we will be building our life down here in earnest! Until then, I walk alone with Dakota and Mila and on Fridays and weekends, John joins me. And Buddy of course, who joins us whenever he is around and sees us heading out. He is a wonderful, calm, gentle soul who is very good for Mila to hang around. And Dakota too. A gentle teacher for them both and a good friend to me...

Day in the life of a horse...

Today we took a very long walk. Might be the last day we can do so for a while. It's definitely becoming winter down here in Ashland. We're in for rain and cold days and nights for a while. It will be hard to find ways to keep Dakota engaged and enjoying our time, being stuck indoors. We are fortunate to have a nice big indoor arena, but it gets boring for her and for me to be in it too long. There is much to learn for us both, so I'll do my best to keep in interesting.

In the meantime, it was a beautiful day today. I love being with my little Dakota (all 775 lbs of her!) and we took a very long walk in the sun, discovering the edges of the area we walk in. There are fences, with locked gates, on the other side of a very large field which took us over an hour to get to. It is too bad, since on the other side of the locked gates is open country, and it would be great fun to be able to just keep going. Eventually I'll need to get a truck and trailer to haul us both to mountain country. For now, the fields will do. There is a lot we have yet to discover there and we can walk for hours...

Btw, the vet promises she will lose that hay belly she's cultivating, and her withers are already starting to catch up with her back end...

Weather turning

The weather is definitely cooling here in Ashland. We have some lovely days, but also some cold, wet ones. Not wet like in Portland, though. Hardly any steady rain, but intermittent stuff. One day rained all day and really made things nice and muddy. The dirt at the stables clings to our feet (and hooves) creating huge balls of mud. Not fun to walk on. We walk slowly along the pathways through the paddocks, it's so slippery.

Dakota is definitely losing weight. She's getting extra hay and I'm starting her on some feed and vitamin supplements to help. Alan the stable owner recommends rice bran, which I may also start her on if she doesn't pick up weight soon. It's the cooling weather for sure, and also her change of diet (from non-stop grass to hay) as well as her growth spurts. She has had a really good start, a good foundation, now it's up to me to keep it going. I still feel bad that she is no longer with her herd, in the idyllic setting she grew up in. But it's the life of a domesticated horse. Someone was going to buy her. I feel good it was me. She'll have a good life with me.

But the main thing now is consistency and training. My two weeks (almost) off having the flu set her back a bit. She's gotten a bit bratty again. So back to daily Parelli work and then our walks. We both have a LOT to learn!