March 31 & April 1, 2008

Tour Stop Savvy March 31, 2008
The 31st was the day after the tour stop and boy did I feel savvy, Sundance felt it too.
Sundance
We played with the Shoulder game and had Sundance cutting me like a cow in no time, he did amazing. The second section I played with was the L2 Circling game, departure at canter... I got my energy up and gave him that look, oh I gave him the look! He knows the look, you should have seen his face! We got the canter departure a few times very well, so I left it alone. I let him stand on his pedestal for a few minutes as a reward, he loves his pedestal.
Bebe
Bebe seemed a little unconfident today so I started off with the saving grace of the Friendly game. He would let me rub all over, no big deal to him... 'So what mom?'. Then I started to swing the savvy string over his body, he did great with that. The I started to slap the ground in zone 2 & 3... good. The I started to walk toward zone 4 & 5, he wasn't so sure of that. So I did some approach and retreat for a little while... Long story short by the end I could have the lead rope hanging over his neck and walk around him both ways slapping the ground and stand behind him and swing it over my head and his rump without him moving, his back foot cocked and his head in neutral. I asked him to back up by holding his tail (taught him that last week) and he gave to the pressure and backed a few steps then I left the session totally alone, I pet him a little bit and then we walked to the barn and served supper.

The Horse Eating Ball April 1, 2008
My mom surprised me with the giant green Parelli ball 2 days ago, today we gave the beast life.
Sundance
Sundance & I started off with the same tasks we did yesterday, it was so much better today because I did a little bit of it yesterday and rewarded the slightest try then ended the session.
He was silly today, I gave him the face again and he went wide eyed and had this odd look on him like 'Mom, what are you doing? That looks really weird!' and he made a very spunky fun dominant canter departure, it was a very fun circling game! The shoulder game was also fun, we did it a few times at liberty then left it alone... goody two-shoes Sundance. Then he saw the ball, was not afraid at all and just went up to it and started to move it around and fiddled with it a while. After he was done I sent him to his prize spot, the pedestal. (Session Over)
Bebe
We started off exactly where we where at the end of the session yesterday, very very good. I really wanted to see if we had our relationship sturdy before I introduced the ball to him so I played with different types of friendly games example: holding his tounge and putting my finger in his mouth. He let me hold his tounge without any resistance and let me put my fingers in his mouth without him caring, he just stood there like the good little boy he is. So I decided after that I would introduce Bebe and the ball. The ball didn't mind Bebe at all, but Bebe had a
strong oppinion about the ball. He classified it as the giant horse eating ball and didn't want to get very close to it, he decided he wanted to live another day! So I just walked with the ball in front of me and let Bebe follow behind at whichever length he wanted, after about 5 minutes he would get beside the ball and smell it without feeling too threatned. I walked around a little bit longer then decided it was time for the ball to smell Bebe, he smelled the ball then nosed it then I did some approach and retreat until he was comfortable enough with the ball touching his chest and his head over. We ended the session with the ball against his chest and his head resting on the ball looking quite comfy, that was a great place to stop... He was confident and happy with the ball. Our next session should be so much better, I am so happy with both of my partners. I do believe they are happy too! :)
Mariah Helms