This past Sunday I had a 2 hour lesson with my Parelli trainer Meggie Allen again!!! Yeah!!!!
Last time we pretty much only worked on my horses Extreme Left Brain antics. My main issue at the time was that I really couldn't lead Enzo anywhere without him blowing a nut and scaring me to death. We worked on my confidence and worked on only taking Enzo to his thresholds! Enzo hates the scary driveway and leading him down it was like taking a monster to his death! At least, that's how it felt to me and Enzo. Our progress is going great now. I myself can now walk Enzo down the driveway with more confidence and Enzo trusts me more as a leader. We can make it all the way to the front outdoor arena before Enzo decides he is at one of his thresholds(which is far away from the safe barn). But now when he does freak out. It is sooooo much easier for me to help Enzo through it and doesn't seem to be so hard for either one of us. Also before, it would take much longer for Enzo to come back to earth. Now after I play with him during his scary time. Enzo connects to me much faster and can move on.
With this lesson on Sunday we finally got to work more on progressing the 7 games!! First thing I had told Meggie was that Enzo does seem to be more and more Left Brain Introvert when he is calm and trusting of me! Which is such a surprise to me and I am soooo pleased!!! Since, I was really hoping to have a LBI anyway(Enzo's mother is an LBI also)!!! So just lucky me! But if anybody knows a LBI. They are super smart and can be better at mental games with the human!!!! Sooo now I needed more savvy arrows to figure out, how do I keep Enzo moving when he doesn't want to move anymore???? When both of us as first were started to learn the 7 games. Enzo was very reactive and moving his feet all the time. Now that he and I both have built confidence and have more trust for each other. Enzo uses his brain more and not his feet. Enzo has realized that not moving is less work and easier to do. Again I love it, because now Enzo isn't running around like a chicken with his head cut off anymore. But now the 7 games look really boring to anybody that would watch us, LOL. If I ask Enzo to do a circle in the circle game. Enzo might stand there and look at me, then he finally will leave and of course will not continue a circle, stop and turn in, and look at me, like now what! Sooo Meggie helped me realize I need to play with Enzo's mind some more. Not just play with the physical body of Enzo. We worked on having me go through my phases much faster. Since Enzo already knew them too well! Then once Enzo is on the circle, having me stop Enzo somewhere on the circle before Enzo thought of stopping himself on the circle!!!! Also, if Enzo turned in, I should use that to make it a change of direction!!!! Ahhh haaaa, now that is different!!!! Let me tell you!! The next time I went out that week to go play with Enzo I used all the things I learned on Sunday and my circle game was sooooo much more fun for both of us!!!! I was sooo pleased!! I wanted to do more sooo bad. But I knew I would ruin it and I knew Enzo wouldn't see it fun anymore. So I had to let it rest. But how exciting to use Enzo's mind!!! Meggie and I continued on all the 7 games and basically it was all the same of me learning how to use Enzo's mind and getting Enzo more engaged!
Create great moments~Janine and Enzo
