Something is happening with Parelli students all over the world that is a bit concerning, and it compelled me to write this blog. I need to clearly explain the difference between longeing (or “lunging”) and playing with your horse – because I’m seeing the Circling Game turning into longeing!

At the very first clinic I attended with Pat Parelli in 1989, he said, “I am a one-man coalition against longeing. I think it is one of the worst things you can do to a horse. Longeing exercises the body while the mind goes to pot.”

Wow. That hit me hard at that time; I was longeing my horse for at least 30 minutes to get him safe to ride. But of course he didn’t get safer, just fitter.

Recently I’ve been able to watch a large number of students, in different parts of the world, warming their horses up for riding and I’ve seen a pattern developing that would make steam come out of Pat’s ears!

- People walking in circles watching their horses intently as they trot around them.

- Horses being asked to carry their heads low as they trot.

Yikes – this is just like longeing! The horses are going in mindless circles, and their heads might as well be tied down because it is not by choice that they are carrying their heads that low.

I don’t know where this is coming from, but it’s spreading and I need to say something about it before people start to think this is how it should be done!

Warming a horse up on the ground means that you allow him to express himself; you give him what he needs and then he’ll want to do what you want. This is what Pat means when he says, “Cause your idea to become your horse’s idea, but understand your horse’s idea first.” Circling is often the first thing people do on the ground, but it is not necessarily what the horse needs. Yes, you should be able to do the Circling Game, but don’t make it your automatic go-to first thing.

How not to longe your horse: Keep your feet still, encourage the horse to use his brain (he has to think and take responsibility to maintain gait and direction without micromanagement), and allow him to put his head anywhere he wants because that’s going to tell you about his mental and emotional state and help you think about what you need to do.

- If his head is up, he’s on adrenaline: You’re going to need to get him calmer by getting him to go a little faster and run off the adrenaline (see my previous blog about asking the horse faster for a lap and waiting for three to see the effect, repeat as needed); if it’s a left-brain horse, do something else to get him more connected, such as a Touch It Pattern at walk then trot, or going exploring with him.

- If he is looking out of the circle, he’s wishing he was somewhere else! You probably need to back off the pressure, stop micromanaging or bring him in more often to find comfort with you and maybe even get some scratches or treats.

- If he lowers and stretches his neck, with nose leading (not over-flexed) and above his knees, he is relaxed and swinging through his body. This is what you are aiming for, and when you use the right approaches for your horse’s Horsenality™, this is what you will get. And once you’ve got it, your horse is probably ready to ride.

I hope this helps you to think more about how to do what your horse needs and to focus on making sure you are using psychology rather than mechanics as you play with your horse and develop your skills. Your horses will thank you, and we’ll keep that smile on Pat’s face… not to mention keep making the world a better place for horses and the people who love them.

Something that Pat does really well is getting right to the point. He knows exactly what the horse needs in order to become calm, connected and responsive – it’s only the secret of horsemanship! So as I come back into the teaching arena, more and more often I can see where this secret has stayed with Pat but needs to get out to all of you! And that’s my job.

When we warm up our horses, I have noticed a pattern (and I used to do this too): unless we’re dealing with safety issues, we tend to do all of our favorite things on the ground. That could be the Circling Game, Stick to Me, playing over some jumps, or on a pedestal perhaps. It’s fun, feels cool, and it makes sure your horse is calm. But I want you to start thinking a little deeper than this, because what I tend to see is horses that are mentally, emotionally and physically tired of it. Bored, bored, bored. And I’ll tell you one thing – Pat Parelli’s horses are never bored!

Recently I was presenting a seminar and I asked the audience if they knew what their horse needed when warming up. The response was basically, “Huh?” Hence this blog!

As Pat so wisely says, “Cause your idea to become your horse’s idea, but understand your horse’s idea first.”

“Yup,” we all say.

But do we really know what this means? The Seven Games and Parelli Patterns are so powerful that they will teach a horse to pretty much do whatever you want, but the attitude with which you apply them is what makes the difference between doing it “with” your horse versus “to” your horse. We’ve all seen these wonderful techniques used with an arrogant or forceful attitude, and that is not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about you and me – well-intentioned, kind, educated horse lovers who are trying to do the best for their horse but sometimes have no idea that they’ve passed the point where the horse actually thinks it’s interesting and it’s no longer really effective. Yes, they are safe and obedient, but they are not necessarily exuberant.

When you warm up your horse, think about this: What is your outcome? Let me give you a simple formula:

1) Calm

2) Connected

3) Responsive

CALM – You need your horse calm so he won’t buck you off, run off with you, be hard to control, or act nervous and spooky. So if you achieved the outcome of CALM, your horse is safe to be around and easily ridden.

CONNECTED – You want your horse to be connected, which means that he is more connected to you than the stables, the herd or the gate. When connected, he sees only you and is not concerned with anything else going on; he might notice it, but he’s not absorbed or distracted by it. Like being out to dinner with someone: you hope they are more connected with you than anyone else! That is up to you – to us – to achieve.

RESPONSIVE – When you ask your horse something, does he comply, resist, or respond with enthusiasm? So many horses react defensively or resist and argue, so getting that eager and willing response is something most of us dream about. Left-Brain Horsenalities™ are often more challenging, but right-brain Horsenalities™ can also get less responsive and interested once they are no longer afraid of things and know the drill.

Now that I’ve figured this simple formula out, I’m excited to expand on it and write a larger article for an upcoming issue of our members’ Savvy Times magazine. That article will also present the “how.” And who knows, a members’ DVD on the same subject could be pretty cool too. I once taught these concepts to a group in a 2-day course for the first time, and the next day, the results were astonishing. It was a completely different picture – the horses were calm, connected and responsive. And the humans were ecstatic. I told them that Pat would be proud!

I remember when Pat first talked about using “reverse psychology” with horses, that the less direct-line you are with a horse, the more progress you make.  I really thought I understood what he was talking about until I started performing in public demonstrations with him.  We would each be given a horse that had various issues, including trailer-loading problems, and within 90 minutes to 2 hours we would have the horses calmly negotiating various obstacles and loading willingly into the trailer.

One day, I had a particularly challenging horse.  Every time I even thought about going near the trailer, he would react badly and try to pull away, so I finally thought “I don’t care if you ever get in the trailer,” and just played with his confidence and responsiveness to me around the obstacles.  All of a sudden, he started wanting to go to the trailer.  It blew me away but it really opened my eyes… even though I thought I wasn’t concerned about the trailer when I was playing with these horses, I really was.  Somewhere in the back of my mind I had this thought that by the end of the session the horse would be loading.  This horse taught me how not to even go there and once I mastered that in myself, my results with horses have skyrocketed in every area.  I’m really not concerned if it happens or not – I focus on the relationship and getting the horse to really trust me and take as long as it takes.  Then, we can do anything.

This past weekend, we staged a unique event in Reno – Pat Parelli Presents: Wild Horse Taming…Naturally.  Pat and seven of his mastery students undertook the taming of eight wild mustangs over three days in front of both a live and webcast audience.  It was riveting watching horses and humans learning, but best of all was what I heard Pat repeatedly saying: “Remember, we are taming them, not starting them,” but it still took some time for that to sink in for everyone.  It was hard not to keep thinking about saddling and riding.  At one point, we asked Pat for his definition of taming and he said, “That the horse has no fear of the human, and until then, you should not be trying to train him.”  HUGE.

John and his horse, sharing a moment.

The day we were traveling home, I received a wonderful email from one of our 3-Star Parelli Instructors that is right on topic and I want to share it with you.  It is a more detailed example of reverse psychology applied to trailer loading that I had mentioned in one of my archived blogs (Texas Event – Done) a couple of years ago.  She described the technique so nicely that I told her I’m going to paste it into my next blog!  What she describes below is truly reverse psychology because there is more emphasis on the ‘come out’ than the ‘go in’, and that’s what helps it truly become the horse’s idea.  Enjoy, and thanks for sharing, Nathalie Lagasse (Belgium):

“The trailer loading strategy I developed was to only send the horse in when she is completely outside, wait (allow) and see how far she gets, and then ask her back out all the way with Porcupine Game (a firm, steady draw), and then resend.   Of course I also take into account all the other stuff I learned from Pat & you in the general preparation, retreating on a good try and doing something else, etc.

Kalley, taking the time it takes.

So whenever I ask the horse back out (with a steady feel on the rope) she has two choices: come back out (if there is still unconfidence) OR decide that she knows the game and actually push forwards into the pressure. I then release when she moves forwards. And while in the beginning I might release on just a tug forwards with the nose, I soon release only when a foot actually steps forwards. This way it is always totally the horse’s idea to go all the way in, and I have learned about the feeling of taking contact and releasing into forwards movement (that’s what Game of Contact is about too!) I’ll even keep a slight drag on the rope when they go forward, which usually encourages them to go in even further – it is really reverse psychology. ‘OK, you didn’t go all the way in, so come back out please, no don’t go in further, noooo, darn it, my horse went all the way in the trailer.’

The fun part for me is that I have been doing it this way with my horses for years now but hadn’t really tried it much with others. Last weekend I saw one of my friends still having to take an hour to load her horse, so I asked her if I could play with her horse and the trailer. It worked great, and she said ‘this actually looks much nicer than what I’d been doing’ (she’d been asking him to go further when he was halfway in by tapping his butt), the next days she tried it herself, and another friend who visited was extremely impressed with the change and said that Milo looked like a little toy car that you wind back and then it runs forward ”

As I was helping a student recently in the Game of Contact, I realized that the reason her left-brain horse was heavy and sluggish was because he was bored, but when she asked if she should be more provocative I said that I didn’t think that was the problem as much as her expectation of the quality of his response. Granted, I think we should always be careful not to bore a horse in his training, but being provocative and doing lots of different and “interesting,” fun stuff is not always the answer and can have its limitations, especially when it comes to riding with precision.

I asked if I could ride her horse because I wasn’t sure what was needed, and as I engaged my seat to ask for the walk… nothing happened. So I closed my legs lightly, and still nothing happened. Hmmmmm! Responsiveness was the issue here – I expected the horse to respond with light aids and he didn’t. That meant that the way she was getting him to respond was by using a LOT more effort than me. Here’s the problem – a horse can feel a fly land on him, so when you are applying 1000 times more physical pressure than a fly, you are working way harder than your horse! It’s not that he can’t feel you, he just doesn’t respond until a certain amount of pressure is applied. This would be like telling a dog to sit 10 times, and he doesn’t sit until the 10^th time. You’re actually training him to sit when you say it the 10^th time! So concerning the horse, if you keep going to Phase 3 and using a lot of pressure he’s only going to move when you get to Phase 3, and he’s going to stop moving unless you maintain a similar level of pressure.

Here’s how I improved it: I asked lightly and politely expecting a positive response. When he ignored me, I started flapping the Savvy String around until he jumped forwards (note – I create commotion vs smacking him). The moment he moved, I released all pressure and rubbed and scratched him effusively. Then I asked again. It took about 6 repetitions before he responded as soon as I lightly asked. Instantly, his whole attitude was different – more alert, more connected, brighter. He even started moving more athletically and lightly on his feet.

When I put the rider back on, I gave her the same focus – expect more. After just a couple of attempts, things went beautifully but when she petted him, she did it quite modestly. I told her to make a big fuss of him, not just say “good boy.” Here’s the key: to the degree that you insist, you need to reward. That means big rewards for big tries and small rewards for small tries. Keeping that balance is really important, it makes your horse want to try harder. Here’s why….

• If your horse makes a small effort and you reward him big, he will begin to do less.
• If your horse makes a big effort and you reward him small, he will lose motivation to try.

Gabby and her horse playing with 'expect more and reward appropriately'

So the key is to put it all in balance – big rewards for big tries, small rewards for small tries. Sounds simple doesn’t it? The hard part is expecting the appropriate level of response, and I say “appropriate,” because how much response your horse can give is directly proportional to his level of education and the ability and confidence you have to ask for it. For example, you don’t want to ask a green horse or a worried horse for more than he’s able to give.

Pressure and release is the cornerstone of horse training – it’s a simple as that. But how you ask, and when you release is where the art of horsemanship really is.

UK Celebration – 6,000 horse lovers there for the show, fabulous weather, great horses for our demos, 30 or more of our instructors, many with their own horses, wonderful seeing everyone there and getting to meet some of you. I wrote a blog about one of the demos, hopefully you saw that.

France – visit to Parelli Professional Marie Claire de Sellier’s center. It’s gorgeous, they’ve done an amazing renovation of beautiful old buildings surrounded by forest, resident students doing a great job. I helped them with the Game of Contact and also showed them how to get more provocative for one of the left-brain horses there.

Spain – 2 days riding with Luis Lucio (Spanish Team) and getting to ride his horses. He is a phenomenal trainer and rider, plus he uses Parelli ground skills and solves problems quickly. He taught me a lot about higher levels of self carriage and collection, especially at the canter. I already used some of what I learned with West Point and improved his canter tenfold.

Luis coaching me on Nervi, his fabulous Grand Prix Andalusian stallion

Switzerland – two-day private clinic with Luis. Watched him make really big changes to the riders and horses. I renamed him “Luis – pat him – Lucio” because in teaching the riders how to give more, when they asked something from the horse he would say “pat him!” and the rider would reach the forward with the rein and touch the horse on the neck. Super results because he really got them releasing well, they did it numerous times in each lesson. I think the most impressive change was to their trainer who bothered the horses a lot in the mouth, made them tense and Luis was a little concerned about her not making much progress since last time. I suggested he use a Savvy String around the horse’s neck to tame her hands (she held it in one hand with reins in two hands) and the results were spectacular. Luis trains his horses using the string and often has students use it too, so they can ask more of the body but not pull on the mouth.

I also got to play with a very challenging horse. Left-Brain Extrovert/Introvert cusp gone Right-Brain Introvert that had become quite dangerous, freezing then running off with the riders and crashing through doors into the barn. Although he was shut down in fear of being pushed, he was also lacking ‘reason’ for what he was doing so I got to use Left-Brain Introvert strategies pretty quickly by planting carrots around the arena and driving him towards them. After he saw the pattern it didn’t take long for him to perk up and his whole attitude changed. Before long he was really connected to me, had a different look in his eye and I kept having grazing breaks with him on the grass next to me, and loose. I then was able to mount him and ride a little bit, but trying to trot was almost impossible. Finally got a little. Everyone was really worried about me getting on him, but I said I wouldn’t until he passed all the tests – Pat has taught me well! The next day I even hopped on him bareback and in the halter. Did the same things then headed for the grass. I advised them to get him restarted with one of our top professionals because in Pat’s colt-starting formula he did not meet any of the criteria: accept the human, accept the saddle, accept the bit. None of it was there and they were trying to do high-level dressage with him. It was hard not to want to bring him home!

Luis is so interested in Horsenality, he thought he didn’t really know it but every time I asked him what Horsenality he thought the horse was, he nailed it. He is also one of the best dressage trainers I’ve seen with Left-Brain Extrovert’s, so provocative.

Germany - Next stop, Klaus Balkenhol’s stables in Germany. What an honor to be invited there (by Anabel, his daughter) to help with some behavioral issues. Interestingly they were all Left-Brain Extrovert and had things like hiding from the bit, hard to bridle and explosive. Of course it all went very well, and I was very impressed with their attitude to training horses. They take their time, they’re gentle, and watching Klaus riding of course was a real treat. Susanne Neff was with me, helping with translations and also with some of the riders and horses after I got things started. They took us to lunch, and the next day to dinner – in fact that was with Dr. Werner Schade who Pat and I met when he was running Equitana about 10 years ago! Great to see him again and he now is the managing and breeding director of the Hanoverian Society. I was excited to show him photos of Westy and just sent him a copy of his breeding as he was interested to know more. Cool huh?

L to R: Wife - Judith, Klaus Balkenhol, me, daughter - Anabel

Doing so much with dressage horses, I realized that I worked on three things in particular: appropriate response to pressure (respect), confidence and harmony. Will be writing about that soon, in Savvy Times.
Finally I was so ready to go home, too long without Pat, my ponies and doggies! Shortly after getting back, Walter Zettl arrived and we had lessons these past three days… I had 3 days to prepare for them and thanks to the good work of Lyndsey and Amy, my horses were ready to go.

This morning Pat flew to MN horse fair and I’m en route in the bus with the dogs (Rhett driving) to Texas for Pat’s great event on Colt Starting (Pat will join us tomorrow night). I SO HOPE you will be there next weekend or watch it on the webcast. There is so much that will inform you about your own horses, horsemanship and affect you in ways I cannot describe. This is something I learned so much about in the early days with Pat and the effect is profound.

If you ever want to really put your principles to the test, accept an invitation to compete against two established winners in a totally foreign environment and have the audience be a volatile mix of dedicated students and detractors, and now not only be riding a 3 yo. colt for the first time within two sessions but ride it through an unfamiliar course of obstacles… oh, and know that the world is watching to see how Parelli principles stack up in the “real world” of horse training!

Pat Parelli was awesome at the 2011 Road To The Horse competition last weekend. And I don’t say that just because I am married to him, I say it because he was the model of excellence at every level. Pat’s principles of horsemanship are what he strives to live up to every day, and in this pressure cooker situation he was the picture of cool, calm, collected and principled. He put the relationship first, above winning and ego. Not one bead of sweat was shed and at the end of every session, he took the time to put his horse up and spend some time petting him. Oh, and he brought him home at the end because he fell in love with him too.

Pat and Troubadour back at the Florida Campus

I was amazed at how many people marveled at how Pat didn’t buckle under the pressure and turn into a predator but it’s quite simple really. He didn’t go there to win the competition, he went to prove that you can put the relationship first and succeed in the toughest of situations. Some people think you can’t be nice to horses if you compete and we know nothing could be further from the truth. No real horse lover wants to get to the top if their horse is going to hate them.

But in essence, that’s what the Parelli program teaches. Real horsemanship has a code of honor because how you treat your horse tends to be a reflection of your core values and principles. What I love is that our students exhibit this too: what it takes to create harmony around you tends to spread to all the other areas of your life. Nothing warms us more than when we hear feedback about our staff and students, about how unusually nice they are. Even after our events, the facility management will ask, “Who are these people? They were so nice and friendly, they even picked up after themselves!”

Now you only see Pat in public, I get to see him behind closed doors and there’s no difference – well, often he’s a bit quieter! As I write, I’m hearing Pat telling yet another friend the story about going to get his colt this morning at the Road To The Horse Competition: “You’ll never guess what happened this morning? I went to get Troubadour to load him into the truck for the journey home. I picked up the halter and headed for the gate, and Troubadour made his way from the opposite side of the corral, around and then through the herd of horses and met me at the gate.”

Make no mistake… it is truly about the relationship because it’s about core values. Pat didn’t do this event to be the winner. He did it to showcase the program we have dedicated our lives to share with the world. And I don’t think there could have been a better platform. It was the ultimate test of Pat, of us, of his program, his horsemanship, sportsmanship and the leadership of a powerful growing force in the horse industry that puts the relationship first. But most of all, it’s because the pursuit of true horsemanship leads us up the road to being better human beings.

As I was visiting the Finesse class recently, I was asked a question that lead me to explain how I approach training my horses each day.  Either I’m making progress or I’m fixing problems.  You can’t do both at the same time… much as you’d like to think you can, it doesn’t work.

You get into trouble when you try to accomplish a task but your horse is having emotional trouble.  And when the horse is ready and willing you can miss the opportunity to make progress.  I know with Allure that moment when he stopped arguing with me was amazing, but I found myself in a kind of fog… I didn’t have a plan for him when he was being good! I’d grown so used to every session being somewhat of a struggle that it kind of set a pattern.  I’d have a plan of what I wanted to do, but within minutes that turned into something completely different because he’d try to do everything except what I wanted.  It became more of tit for tat – I do this, you do that, then I do something to try to counter what you did and then you try to counter what I did.  Sheesh.  No wonder it’s taken years to get anywhere.

If you’ve been following my blog you’ll remember the day we made the breakthrough, the day I finally understood how to encourage Allure instead of argue with him.  And what progress we’ve made since then.  Finally I’m not working on fixing problems, I’m making progress with him… fast.  Even being able to direct my assistants and it is truly amazing to see him cantering around the playground with them, sailing over logs, positive and relaxed.

With West Point, I’m really not making progress in terms of advancing our skills yet because I am fixing some pretty big problems.  His biggest problems are around riding with contact, and being worried about pressure so they are my two main focuses.  Throughout the ride I pepper it in… pick up the reins and ride with a “soft touch”, which is having connection with his mouth but not asking for anything back from him.  We can walk, trot and canter like this, even make transitions but it’s more when I pick up the reins that he has his flashbacks.  So I do it a lot, desensitizing him.  There’s much to fix in this area because he’s had years of negative experiences so that gives me the patience and understanding to take the time it takes for him.  I would say that now he reacts only about 40% of the time, and not nearly as severely.

Contact is coming along nicely, rider just needs to be able to ride THAT trot! Photo by Coco

Last week Walter Zettl was here coaching us and I rode in three lessons with Westy.  It went great.  In fact on the third day he was going so well, all of a sudden there were no problems to fix so I was able to advance a little and did some canter-walk transitions.  We could only do three, but it was progress!  And today, at the end of our ride I picked up the contact and did a few counter bends on a serpentine as I crossed my lawn and they flowed without an ounce of resistance.

Linda and West Point. Photo by Coco

We so often talk about putting the relationship first and this is a powerful example of what that means.  The moment your horse has trouble, take the time to address it and don’t push on through it or you’ll lose his trust and respect.  If you pay attention to qualities like confidence, trust, motivation and willingness it brings a whole new quality to your results.  Remember that Monopoly thing “Do not pass Go”?  Well, that’s how I think of it.  If I’m doing something with my horse and suddenly he gets bracey or resistant, emotional or worried, I immediately focus on solving that issue and return to the original task only when my horse is ready.

Fix your problems so you can make progress, and when you don’t have problems, remember to make progress!  I’m writing an in-depth article on this very subject for the February issue of Savvy Times that will give you lots of examples and solutions.

Pat and I were having an interesting conversation last night.  As usual, we were talking about our day and how our horses did and I was talking to him about finally learning how to be provocative enough for my Trakehner, Allure.  It’s taken me a long time to get here with him for a couple of reasons:

1. He is Left-Brain Extrovert (LBE) that goes extremely Right-Brain Introvert (RBI) as a learner.
2. I really only made the riding breakthrough with him this summer, which I blogged about.

So here’s the interesting part:  I started making great progress with him but I forgot to be provocative.  Hmmm.  Interesting.  And what’s the difference?  Hence this blog!

If you are a student of Horsenalities, you know that the goal with every horse is to have them calm, trusting, motivated and willing.  Each Horsenality presents its own challenge within that spectrum, for example getting the trust of a Right-Brain Introvert or motivating a Left-Brain Introvert.  With the Left-Brain Extrovert, it’s about getting willingness.

Allure was becoming quite obedient.  He was calm, trusting, but not exactly motivated and definitely not willing.  Willingness feels like “Yes Ma’am!  I would love to do that… let me offer some enthusiasm along with my response!” Nope, not there.  In fact sometimes he would feel rather dull, but motivation strategies were not the answer.  I finally realized that he needed things to be more interesting, more “provocative.”

I remember coaching a member of our faculty, Kathy Baar with her horse Macchiato.  He had terrible displaced behavior with his tongue when ridden in the bit, no matter how light the contact.  So using my Game of Contact I experimented with them.  Great results every time, but she could not sustain it.  Finally, I noticed that it had nothing to do with technique, that after 2 – 3 sessions with what I’d taught her, Macchi would start rolling his tongue again.  As soon as I realized what happened before what happened happened – that it would regress after doing the same thing a few times, I suggested that she try to be more provocative, to ask more, to do the unexpected, to change things up sooner and not wait for things to be perfect.  Being more Left-Brain Introvert (vs. her Left-Brain Extrovert horse), Kathy has a lovely, thoughtful calmness about her and provocative was not a term you would assign to her personality!  So, as she struggled with this, I told her to “channel Pat.”

Bingo.  That hit the spot.  Things started to improve dramatically and the two of them began to look more in harmony, energy-wise, and Macchi became much more mentally engaged and… his mouth went quiet.  You might be interested to read about her escapades with Macchi on this too.

So as I was playing with Allure, I suddenly realized that I too needed to be more provocative with him.  At first, like Kathy, I felt very demanding and a bit rude, and that I was picking on him but the look on his face told the opposite story.  He was more alive, present, interested… and relaxed.  Quite amazing, he would very quickly let out a big blow and lower his head.  I remember that used to only happen at the end of a session.

Allure

Now, I am an extrovert but I learned to tone it way down in order to inspire confidence in my Right-Brain horses.  And then having spent a number of years being careful with Allure as an unconfident / damaged learner, I was now missing his needs as a Left-Brain Extrovert.  So he changed, but I didn’t.  The Left-Brain Extrovert Horsenality is smart, a fast learner, charismatic, energetic, playful and when we are too slow, hung up on perfection, trying to be consistent and take it slow, it’s emotionally and psychologically painful for them… kind of like those hyperactive kids who can’t take sitting in the classroom unless they have a teacher who fascinates and entertains them!   The word “provocative” has synonyms like challenging and stimulating.   Heck, I was just happy to be surviving my rides on Allure and recently enjoying the fact that he was calm but it didn’t take long for him to get pretty bored with me, even though we were making progress.  Now that I am working on being more provocative, we’re making progress at an amazingly faster, happier rate.

Find out more with my regular updates on Allure’s wall on ParelliConnect. (open to existing customers now)

And now for some light relief! I figured it had been a while since you saw Moxie and Vinny, and Moxie has really grown. She is so feisty, a real Right-Brain Extrovert. She constantly ambushes Vinny and they play like crazy – she makes noises like a Tasmanian devil! At 6 months old her instincts are starting to kick in and she is tracking critters. Learned it from Vinny, it’s so exciting!

And it’s interesting to see the doganalities. Vinny is Left-Brain Extrovert, he’s all business now that he’s “mature.” He’s always got things to do while Moxie is all about having fun. They are too cute, just love ‘em.

Here are a few snaps I took today.  I’ll need to get Coco to take some of them flying around the grass, my little camera just made blurs.

Linda

Comparing lengths! She's quite a bit smaller.

Squirrel?

Not quite a show pose

This thing needs chewing!

Awwww

Sit, stay... wait..... Good girl!