Parelli Kids Performance Pictures and Recollection of Thoughts

Here is the link to all the Parelli Kids pictures I have so far, they actually turned out pretty good... you will be able to see my "intense thought" face in a couple of pictures, actually kind of funny.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Helmscdts/200810Oct?authkey=EVmorzpJQoo

Thanks for the pictures Janice!

I felt like I did a horrible job as soon as I got done with the performance, I always feel like that when I get done with a demo or a show. But now that I look back, we actually did really good! I was looking at the pictures, and Sundance and I always looked like we were mirroring... I didn't know he mirrored me so much! Almost in every picture, we are looking in the same directions and moving our bodies in the same way. He even mirrored my personality and energy, I thought he wasn't listening to me, a little to nervous and scattered. But now that I look back, he was just MIRRORING MY ENERGY AND PERSONALITY! We felt and acted the same, how COOL is that! I mean amazing, we are a lot more connected than I have been able to sense and recognize, thanks Jesse for helping me become more sensitive and have more of a feel... there is so much more to this partnership and so  much more sensitivity than I thought there was... it's amazing.

Jesse Peters Advanced Level 2 Clinic

The advanced Level 2 clinic was relaxing yet learned hard core, I loved it. I was an auditor, but yet I felt I was a clinic participant without a horse, Jesse made us feel like we were all in it together! Which was what made it so enjoyable. I got a lot from the simulations, we all danced together in the middle of the arena and learned to follow a feel. We also all walked in pairs with hands around each others waists and followed each others energy, wether introverted or extroverted energy and tried being leaders and others the follower trying to follow the feel. We even rated each others energy and feel by shaking each others hand like Pat Parelli does, and enjoyed learning to walk like him! I learned so much from the whole clinic. After watching a dear friends horse, I saw she was acting JUST like Bebe... and guess which horsenality she was? A Right Brained Introvert. I am very close to finding his horsenality, I believe he is a Moderate LBE when comfortable in his skin, then in a learning situation he is a RBI and when pushed off the edge he is a RBE. I have decided since I have a 3 hour lesson (and can add another hour without hesitation) I will be bringing Bebe too. He is confident enough in the trailer, and I believe he is ready to go to his first out of home place ever! He has only been two places in his life, the breeders and my house. I think this is a PERFECT first place to go, because I will have a Parelli Professional holding my hand through it all. I am very excited that Jesse will be helping me with both of my levels horses, I believe we will get a lot done. My lesson with Jess will be this Friday (Halloween) from 1-4 PM then I will be auditing the advanced Level 1 clinic Saturday and Sunday with one of my most dedicated and closest students. I am very excited about what is ahead, and will be SUPER BUSY until then.

Jesse Peters Clinic and PK Performance Pictures

Yes, my Internet is back up... thanks to the best dad in the world.

I am currently auditing a Jesse Peters clinic (http://www.jesserpeters.com/) and am thoroughly enjoying it, Jesse is an extraordinary clinician and cannot wait to take my 3 hour lesson with him Friday. I am also going next weekend to audit with one of my students, I hope this will help her along in her level 1. Please be praying for her, her mother just died. Also be praying for one of my friends here on the savvy forum, her horse (Grits) is ill and may be put down, pray for her health. Also pray for Sue (another good friend and level 3 student) and her father, her father has congestive hear failure... we're praying for health, strength and sanity. Thank you!

Here is the most important point I learned from the clinic today:

Follow the feel, your horse is your mirror.

Is a 49 (horse)/51 (human) % relationship, not 40/60%!

(Will add purpose to this later for you.)

Here are a couple of pictures from the performance...

Jacksonville Tour Stop Pictures

WOW! I have good news, I gave Linda my dreams and put it in her hands along with other things and my contact info. I am creating my website and Alain Martignier the tour stop manager wants me to send him the link as soon as I get it up so he can look at it and send it to Pat and Linda, when he found my blog link he sent it to Pat and Linda and can't wait to see my website... I can't wait to finish it. I've got some good pictures this weekend to put on the website, I am ready to get home and get it done. I know a lot about the upcoming year and all the new MAGNIFICENT events, I am setting it up to where hopefully I will be performing at the celebrations even if the Parelli Kids can't.

Jacksonville, Finally Here...

We left for Jacksonville about 10 AM and got here about 4 PM, NOT BAD! Trip seemed real short. I got to the equestrian center in time to meet with friends, talk with Parelli instructors and talk with Pat and Linda. I got to watch Pat and Linda, Pat asked lots of little questions too. It was lots of fun, got there around 5 PM and stayed until 8 PM. Pat is the silliest thing, and Linda all so approachable... She used my phone. Pretty funny, FRAN! I also talked with Dan and Gretchen Thompson for the first time, they had seen me before but never really got to meet me. Gretchen wants me to get with Emily tomorrow, tomorrow because Gretchen is picking her up at the Ocala Parelli Center tonight to stay at the tour stop for some family time. We've got lots to talk about! She is a protogee and I am a future protegee. I also got to talk with Jesse Peters, WOW he is tall and very nice. I had a short chat with Kelly Sigler, she still seems to be doing great. I hope Carol Coppinger will be there, I really hope so. I hope to get to chat with Pat a little more, I got some good talking with Linda... but I don't think I got a good chat with Pat, he seemed a little discombobulated so hopefully I will get a good chat in tomorrow or Sunday. I am an ambassador so I will be there at 6:30 AM working until 5 PM, so I am really excited... the magic starts tomorrow. I will hopefully be having dinner with Fran and Katie, didn't work out tonight. I will update tomorrow, hopefully some real good things will come... please be praying!

Internet Down and Leaving for Jacksonville Tour Stop

Hey Fans!

Sorry I haven't been posting, our Internet has been down at my house and still is. I am using my dad's computer at the shop! I will be gone to the Jacksonville tour stop this weekend and don't know when the Internet will be back up. The horses are doing AMAZING! I have had a huge breakthrough with Bebe and Sundance is getting past and passing his hard tasks, so everything journey wise is absolutley amazing. The Parelli Kids Demo at Chetola was BIG and FUN and went perfectly. I do not have pictures or videos in yet, family has it but will get in soon. I hate I cannot update because I have so much to share! Pray for safe trips and that I will get to chat with Pat, and it will make a big difference. See you all in Jacksonville! Here is a picture to recognize me by...

XOXO

Mariah Helms

Yeah, I know...

I haven't been posting a lot. Because lots has been going on! What's up with Fabio? Well, Stage 4 is coming along nicely. He went through 2 days of the 'I hate you' mood, but it was probably my fault but very happily is fixed and have had a great session yesterday and today. We've been working on making sure we are ready for the demo we are doing with the Parelli Kids this weekend, one of the tasks we do is the 7 games to a song with 30 seconds to each game. To say the least, at the last practice I looked like giraffe trying to ride unicycle and Sundance looked like he had horns coming out of his head... It was fun having the feel of being ungraceful with a comedic touch! We looked and felt silly, but at least we were having fun. Now we have choreographed the 7 games in 30 second segments and look quite savvy and organized, Fabs likes it a lot too because it was a fun little puzzle so I have his cooperation 100% which is great. It's so much fun! We also have done some Finesse in the halter and bareback pad which is probably one of my favorites right now, it is SO much fun and Fabs likes it too because we haven't done it in a while.  We have to work on our Finesse and speeds within the gaits because of the patterns with have to do close contact with 12+ people and horses, that are mostly pleasure horses that move at the speed of a slug.  Sundance is learning to be a motivated bright slug, which is tons of fun. Here is a Parelli Kids video that shows some of the songs we will be performing to:

Where? http://www.chetolafarm.com/ When? Sunday Oct.12, 2008 at 2pm

The past few days I have been working on my own official website, here is a sneek-peek...

Bebe is doing better and is very willing, we just have to fix the druthers.

Oh, you'll love this... Bebe will now lay down on command! Will tell later. (Ha ha)

Bebe's Explosion - Conversation with Carol Coppinger 5* Parelli Instructor and Long Line Driving with Sundance

Bebe

Email I sent Carol -

Hello Mrs. Carol,

I've got a little puzzle for you. I have been trying very hard the past 2 months or so to figure this one out, and am getting a little progress but not as much as I should be getting in this length of time. Bebe my 5 year old quarter horse LBE  dominant / RBI ( ? very hard to determine absolute horsenality), has done very well with Level one and two, been a star actually. Then the beginnings of Level 3 have been great, until he had to get out on that 45 foot line in the circling game. I have worked through, with him, a lot of fear of getting out there 45 feet away from mom. He didn't seem comfortable at all without mom holding his hand, but now with some brain storming he can get out there a lot better. He started to feel comfortable and get the idea when we did some one rein type driving where I ask him sideways until his HQ's are toward  me and then ask  him to move on until he finds the end of the line and then proceed onto the circle, and if I wiggle the carrot stick towards zone 2 he needs to face out and get out a little farther. This has gotten good at the walk, and got a lot better at the trot as of today. Where things go wrong is where he "suddenly" explodes, here are the series of events. Something (who knows what or 'who' is that something) disturbs him, he squeals loud (sounds dominant) and jumps in the air and canters, therefore gets his adrenaline up which makes him go right brained, when he feels he can get a hold of himself or needs my direction he very abruptly stops and tries to come to me. Sometimes when he stops he re-explodes and goes back out, all the while I try to keep very low confident energy. I am not sure why he does this, he can go from LB to RB and then back to LB in a matter of seconds and I am not sure what is triggering this. I would love your thoughts and help on this!

Thanks so much in advance!

Mariah Helms 
Little Patch of Heaven Stables
Private Boarding & Riding Facility
704.233.446 /  704.499.1019       
Now offering affordable Private
lessons and Ground work classes
http://www.mariahpnhelms.blogspot.com/

 

Carol's Response -

Hello Mariah,

Great to hear from you.  It sure sounds like he is very unconfident out on the 45 and does not know he is doing OK and may even be going introverted on you.  I would really work at building his confidence at a walk and then a trot at 22+ feet and work up to 45 a it sounds like you have been doing.  It is scary out there!  Not to mention a carrot stick out of the blue just when he thinks he is doing the right thing possibly.  Make sure he is asking questions.  Which way are his ribs?  If they are in then he is thinking going out.

Just a thought.  Slow it down and reward more often and see if you can build his confidence and get him asking questions.

If you would like to call and discuss it,  that would be fine.  The best time to reach me is in the evening at ***-***-2039.

Thanks,

Carol

Parelli Natural Horse-Man-Ship Licensed 5 Star Premier Instructor

If you reply to this message PLEASE leave the e-mail message I sent you attached.

Note: e-mail address is: carol@carolcoppinger.com
website is: www.carolcoppinger.com

 

I talked with Carol, she was sweet, funny, helpful and outgoing as usual. She made it a little more clear for me and reassured me I CAN DO THIS! She knew I was kind of struggling with it because I am such a perfectionist and always wants to be the one with the answers as a future instructor. (Me and my stupid predatorial ambition) I could tell in her voice she was still grieving over Ranger pretty bad, so I assured her I would be praying and she said she needed all the prayers she can get... so I would appreciate all of you that are coming along with me here in my journey to pray for Carol's strength and help her get through this hard time. She is such a precious lady, I can't wait to spend more time with her.

Here is the email I sent to her, and will explain how the session went -

Hello Carol,

He occasionally looks out with his ribs towards me to get out on the line then when he is out there he does better.

I made our session different, today instead of asking him to go on out there at first I held him back and let him go out when he offered and only when I wanted him too. He only broke into a trot 2 times and was pretty easy to get back down to a walk, he never jumped up or squealed or became right brained. He offered to get out all the way to the end of the 45 foot line at the end of the session but his druthers we're pretty bad, he was at a 45 foot length towards the half where the barn is and the other half was about 20-25 feet.  So now the problem is the druthers, I cannot do this any closer to the barn because of weeds that are about 4 ft tall... I wish I could to make him more comfortable but can't. Maybe I can do some tasks to help those druthers disappear I am just not sure which to do. You know this frustrates me! And you know why too,  I as a future instructor should have an know all the answers! (Haha, but that's how I feel.) So I appreciate the help. Bebe showed some new positive traits today, he put his head down a lot beside me, licked his lips and yawned within a 2 minute period which is very odd. He also, for the very first time started to run beside me and walked to the barn with Sundance and I as I was long driving him on the 45 foot line and wanted to stay close to me while I was working with Sundance instead of going up to the barn with the alphas. How Interesting! With his horsenality, I believe innately he is a Moderate LB Extrovert but can become an unconfident LBE then snap into the RBE category.

Stop by my blog sometime to see what Sundance and I are up to, http://mariahpnhelms.blogspot.com/.

Thanks for the help!

Mariah Helms 
Little Patch of Heaven Stables
Private Boarding & Riding Facility
704.233.446 /  704.499.1019       
Now offering affordable Private
lessons and Ground work classes
http://www.mariahpnhelms.blogspot.com/

 

Have any of you had any problems with druthers? How have you handled them?

Sundance

Well, after the Beebsters and I got done playing I walked to Fabio since he was near and decided to go back to some old tasks we did in stages 1/2 since I had the 45 foot line in my hand. He never really got the flying change well on the line but mastered it at liberty (How weird!?) but did really good on the line this time. I remembered reading and that we were going to be doing more long line driving on the 45 ft line so I snapped it on and we started to play. This is only the second time he had done this with me, so I was surprised on how well he did. We walked, trotted, cantered, sidepassed, stopped and backed and had LOTS of fun! I forgot how fun it was, and I am sure we will zoom through the tasks when I officially start them. We had lots of lip licking and ears forward, Fabio just wanted something new to do and learn. I can't wait for the next session! Sundance is so fabulous, fabulous Fabio. Oh, and I learned a new way for Sundance to help me up bareback! I will have to video it and show ya'll, it's a lot of fun.

 

I have been busy with rodeo friends and lessons, I had one today and will have one tomorrow thankfully. I am saving up for a fluidity saddle for little Bebe, so maybe some lessons will pick up and I will have enough by next summer or spring.

Quick Video Update

Something I threw together this afternoon, I will be taking a high quality video when Sundance is actually in a good mood... he wasn't very enthusiastic today but had enough footage to make a little update video.