Paloma meets the leaf blower

Steve sent photos and described Paloma's first week or so at reform school. Here are pictures from her encounter with the leaf blower, which she did NOT like,













But with some help from Pearl, who Steve's been using to help Paloma, Paloma can now be blow dried!

Video of Steve and Paloma

I finally finished the video of Steve working with Paloma. Then I lost my laptop (a long sad story) but I saved it to my gallery and you can watch it here:
http://www.me.com/gallery/#100015

Reform School Begins

Paloma was a star yesterday for stage 2 of her trip to Bauhr Ranch. She loaded easily, traveled pretty well (although we could feel her moving around a lot in the back, as she was loose), and waited patiently to get out of the trailer when we arrived. It was 100 miles to La Grange from Wilton, not a bad trip.

Steve put her to work in the round corral, doing a project with another horse. Paloma was the horse to make the other one go, and the two had to get together as a team. She had to learn when it was that Steve was directing the other horse, and not to take off at a run. She figured it out after a few loops; she's a quick study and she'll learn patience eventually.

then Steve introduced the guaracha pole - I'll have to look up the spelling. That's the pole used in a traditional Spanish or Portugese riding where the rider plants the pole and the horse pivots around it. I have dreams of riding her, no hands, doing flying changes around the pole, doing figure 8s...

And Steve rode her, she was good until the canter, and then showed him where the project is, particularly going right. But I'm confident that with consistent work and going back to some of the basics, she'll learn how to do it and give up all her protesting.

Stage one of the trip

Tonight, we took Paloma from Somerset to Wilton for the first part of her journey to "camp."
Paloma was very good. She got right into the trailer, wearing her new shipping boots (a real fashion statement in navy) She traveled well, and got out nicely and patiently at Barbara's in Wilton. She looked around, very alert, but her feet stayed put and then she ate some grass. She's in a big stall in Barbara's barn with a little paddock, so she can go in and out all night. There are 2 other horses in the barn, across the aisle. She was whinnying a little bit but she's OK. She's eating her hay between pacing in and out. At least she won't stock up!
We'll leave by 9 tomorrow for the 2 hour drive to La Grange.

Off to Reform School

Paloma leaves next Thursday, for an overnight at Barbara Washburn's in Wilton, then on Friday the 15th, we load her up and take her to Steve Bauhr's, AKA reform school. She won't have to wear a uniform, but she will have to show up on time and behave herself every day. It will be good for her. I'm sure she will learn a lot, and I bet Steve and Carolyn fall in love with her (everyone does) because she is so pretty. And if she is as good for Steve as I think she'll be, then she will make a lot of progress.
How long will she be gone? Everyone wants to know. I say "as long as it takes." maybe a month, maybe 2, maybe 3.
Of course, since my Epiphany (see December post), I've been having a good time with Paloma, and will be sad to see her go. She will look at me with those big brown eyes and... well, I'll feel like a jerk for sending her away. But, back to paragraph 1, it will be good for her. I've been riding her and working on managing her feet. She seems to be a lot happier and I am pleased to say we have very few blow ups. Sometimes something outside the arena scares her, and I don't feel it coming, and she gets away from me with a few leaps, but I quickly shut her down. In fact, she's kind of shutting herself down these days. We get back to whatever we were doing, and life goes on. Sometimes we make a project of just getting on and off and not going anywhere. Sometimes we walk around the parking lot, and there is always something that gets her going so that she wants to stir things up. All I do is turn turn turn, redirect her and get her to relax, then we sit and visit, or we go on, or I get off. No big deal.

Here is the link to the 15 minute video of Steve working with Paloma.
http://gallery.me.com/jenniferruffolo#100015
I think it's very clear that he will be able to help her out. One of my favorite moments in the video is when he says "I'd guess she's pretty sensitive to the leg?"
And when he says she needs to learn some patience for us humans.
Yup.

December Epiphany

An epiphany (from the ancient Greek "ἐπιφάνεια", epiphaneia, “manifestation, striking appearance”) is the sudden realization or comprehension of the (larger) essence or meaning of something.
I had an epiphany of horsemanship this month. Maybe it was more a personal epiphany, but at any rate, it has really changed my view of what's been going on with Paloma. I watched Steve work with Paloma, and she was calm and responsive, displaying none of her crazy behavior. then I watched Susan working with Rani, a horse somewhat like Paloma, and saw how when Susan used the rope to manage her feet, and was in time with her, Rani calmed down instantly. Same thing with Dave and Paloma. I got to thinking how was it that my horse was so calm with them, and so explosive with me? I woke up at 2 in the morning, and I realized that my timing has been off for a year, that I have been part of the problem.
Timing and feel, it's come to have a new meaning to me. Managing Paloma's feet and being in time with her makes all the difference. Once I figured that out I was able to start riding her again. I got help from Susan in how to get through to her feet. All the way through, and to ensure that she is honest in yielding to me. I saw that I've been off - reacting to her rather than managing her from a balanced place, which has been like throwing gasoline on the fire. I've been talking about balance and bring her up or bringing her down with Dave, but somehow, it didn't fully register to me. It doesn't matter what she's reacting to, or what's going on. I have to make her focus on me. I have to firm up and not tolerate any crap, but I have to do it in a quiet way. The goal is for her to say Yes Ma'am!! Whether it's go or stop or speed up or slow down, she has to do it without any hesitation or sass.
Once I get her in that place, it's great - she's so light and easy and fun to work with, and to ride! She requires constant management - concentration but without intensity. Focused yet relaxed. Quite the paradox.
So now at the end of the year, Paloma is going well for me, but she is still going off to Steve in January for training (reform school, as Marc calls it). It will be good for her to get out every day and exposed to so much more than I can do at home. I'm having separation anxiety already!!

Recap of January -June 2009

Back in December and January, Paloma started spooking all the time. In late January, she had a major melt down and blow up - tried to buck me off. That really scared me, and for a while I didn't want to deal with her at all. But with help from Dave Hillman, Ellen, and Susan, and a lot of acupuncture and time off, she seems to be back to a rideable state. I think she had some pain in her neck and back, which had probably been there all along, since before we got her. It must have gotten to the point that she couldn't take it any more. But she was never lame - just got crazier and crazier. She probably had some chronic pain from some old injuty, and that may be part of why she was so difficult for so many owners before I got her. But also, as Dave said, she's Not Innocent. She has a habit of stirring things up, making chaos, and getting herself into a frenzy. As her rider, I have to stay out of her stuff, and sometimes I let her work it out (on the lunge or in the round pen), but mostly when riding her I have to stop it before it begins. As Dave says, stop her in the first quarter of a stride. That's pretty much no time to react - instead, I have to be balanced and ahead of her, and when I feel her starting to even think about getting wound up about something, I have to firm up and stop her before she starts. It's taken a while to learn what that means in practice, but now I think I have it pretty well down. Back in May I had a fascinating (and scary) lesson with Dave on how to ride through the rearing, and how to prevent it from happening. I'd never learned about that before - just threw away the reins and hung on. But instead, I have to shorten the reins and firm up, and turn her if she feels like she's going to throw herself up or sideways. It's amazing how well that works to stop her from doing whatever she had in mind. And has given me a lot more confidence in my riding - I'm no longer worried that she's "going to do something." instead, I'm riding every stride and thinking about how she feels and where I want her to go, and we are having less and less bad behavior.

I have learned a lot about horsemanship with Paloma - one of the biggest lessons is that I have to ride the horse that I have on that particular day. Some days, she's not a rideable horse, but those days are getting fewer. Some days we only walk, but we get a really good reaching relaxed walk. As I think back on the last 6 months, I realize it's been an opportunity to start Paloma over again - but it's harder with an 8-year old that has developed some bad habits than it would be with a young horse. Or than it was to train Kona, who was a challenge and was naughty sometimes, but was never dangerous.