We had a delightful play date at the ranch today.  It started out damp, but the rain held off and the sun broke through before lunch, giving us a perfect Autumn day.

We played on line in pairs – one person with her horse, the other as observer, coach and cheerleader, as horse and human played with obstacles in the arena.  It is easier to see where communication is going wrong if you aren’t in the middle of something and great to get positive feedback when a little change in communication makes a big change in your horse’s response.  We spent an hour or more checking out what worked and what still caused the horses concerns. People helping each other, having fun and all for the good of the horse.

When horses and humans were moving together in trust, we then turned individual horses loose in the arena to play at liberty with their owners with the rest of the group discouraging the horse from looking for comfort away from their owner.  What a study in contrasts!  Debbie’s Gabe is an exuberant LBE with a strong bond to Debbie.  Grace’s Casper’s is an LBI with lower energy, but still hooked up with Grace.  Laurie’s Smidge demonstrated a lovely soft connection with Laurie as they danced, weaving cones, walking and stopping together.  Sahara, Maia and Tiara all found the multiple people and horses quite intimidating and took quite a long time to find their human, but what a beautiful thing it was to see the horse realize that safety and peace was to be found with their human.  Great examples of taking the time it takes and doing what the horse needs to build rapport and trust with your horse.  Loved it!

We broke for a potluck lunch, had lots of horse talk and then went back out to play with some basics of teaching your horse to ride with just the string around their neck.  First step is making sure that the horse understands and responds to your body language and reins when you never take the slack out of the rein.  If that is in place, then it is all about making it clear to your horse what each gesture means, asking softly, clearly and waiting to reward that smallest try.

Smidge had finished up his 30 days of schooling and was heading home with Laurie.  Before he left, Laurie rode him in the pasture and into the pond.  No leaps into the pond, unless you count the leap of faith of horse and human in each other.  Smidge entered the pond quietly and equally relaxed watched Gabe splash his heart out.

All in all, a very good day.

We took Tori, Maia and Smidge out to Denman on Sunday.

Smidge is a darling Paso Fino gelding who is here to gain a little courage and soften his reining and leg yields.  He has completely won my heart.  His first reaction to our pond was doubt and he entered the pond the first few times with a huge leap.  Perhaps he was trying to jump over it?  I have been riding him at the ranch and introducing him to our neighbor’s cows, llamas and goats.  I took him to Denman with the thought of testing out his courage on the trail and seeing how he did with Little Butte Creek.  Smidge was awesome!  He led the way when I asked and only paused a couple of times when he lost confidence, with the tiniest of spooks in place when a bird took off from the nearby brush.  While he was the last to enter Little Butte Creek, he walked in and by the third water entry, had gained enough relaxation to join in the splashing and take a drink.  What a great little horse Laurie has in him!

Anne rode Maia, Katie rode Tori, Donna was on her Torfi and we were joined by Anna on her Lucas.  The day was hot, but the creekside trail was cool, and beautiful.  A lovely outing.

We restarted saddle work with Tiara last week. She is continuing to build her confidence and trust in herself and in us.

Slow and soft is the key to this mare.  Ask softly, wait and wait some more.  Eventually, her head will drop, she will blink and lick and chew and she will give you her best try.  I can see a path toward her becoming a brave mare, a safe mare, sensitive to a thought and with a world of trust.  Katie is helping me stay on that path, bringing a big heart that truly loves this little mare and wants to see her succeed.

Tiara still comes into the arena on the ground with apprehension.  We ask her to play with us at liberty and she relaxes.   We ask her to park please so we can mount and she generally can within one or two tries.  When uncertain, she will freeze.  That happens less often in the arena now, but still happens when we ride her out of the arena.  That is OK.  Where there is no force, there is no resistance and we are convincing her day by day, experience by experience, that we can be trusted.

Seeing Katie and Tiara out in the field looking relaxed makes my day.

We have had some gorgeous full moons lately, causing us to pause as we finish up ranch chores and just appreciate the beauty of the ranch by moonlight.

Anne and I took Tori and Maia to Crescent City, California with Robin Keeton and her Rocky Mountain mare, Reba.  We had an amazing weekend, riding the beach on Saturday, the dunes on Sunday and ending up riding in the redwoods on Monday.  Tori, Maia and Reba were great trail partners and Robin, Anne and I soaked up the beauty of the coast, our amazing horses and a wonderful weekend together.

Here is a short video of our adventures set to the music of Mary Ann Kennedy.  Her songs – Heart in Your Hands, Trail Less Traveled and Horses and Life are perfect background to the spirit of our weekend.  Hope you enjoy it.

On August 25, 2012 Ron and I welcomed Anne Frankowski, a German exchange student from a village near Hamburg, Germany to Oregon and Mystic Ranch.  Anne is part of the AYUSA (Academic Year USA) program and is enrolled as a Junior at Crater Renaissance High School in Central Point. She will be living with us during this academic year.

Anne has a passion for horses and natural horsemanship.  What a great fit for Jackie and Ron and Mystic Ranch. You’ll be sure to meet her when you come out to the ranch.

From the day of her arrival, Anne has been connecting with the horses and trying to choose which one will be her special companion during this year with us.

Maia and Kami are her top two contenders. I wonder who will win Anne’s heart?  I know she has already won Ron’s and mine.

Tiara is a beautiful, sensitive pinto Arab mare with smooth lovely gaits, stamina and agility.  She was also deeply afraid of things that flapped or touched her when she wasn’t expecting it. She would go from sweet and compliant to losing her brain and leaving when something startled her. Ropes touching her were the worst. To get her used to ropes touching her sides and legs, I had her wear a surcingle with a couple of short dangling ropes clipped to it for about a week – until she seemed to become completely comfortable with it. OK, what is step two?

I took every cone, ball, tarp, extra rope, garden hose, rain slickers, inner tubes, barrels, hula hoops, swimming pool noodles, Frisbees, garbage cans, empty feed bags, a big plastic bag filled with empty cans, PVC pipes and any other toy I could think of and spread them out in our round pen and seeded them with carrot slices or cookies on top and underneath them. I then brought up Tiara and her sensible boyfriend Sandor and left them in the round pen.

Tiara and Sandor stood crammed near the round pen gate looking like “what is all this crap doing in here?” as I walked away to pick up manure. A couple of minutes later, the two horses were glancing at all the objects and within minutes Sandor was going from object to object discovering the joys of the treasure hunt. An hour later, all the top treats were gone, but a number of those underneath the objects were still there. I rolled the ball away and showed Sandor the hidden cookie and he proceeded to shove the balls over and picked up the hat and Frisbee, cone and tarp to get to the treats. Tiara watches. How many days of doing this before she learns to follow his example? Before curiosity, exploration and puzzle solving trumps doubt, fear and flight?

After a few days of treasure hunts on their own, I put Tiara on line, walked into the round pen with her, picked up various objects and rubbed her with them, dropping them and going on to the next one. Toleration, not acceptance. We’re not there yet.

More treasure hunts with Sandor for the next couple of days. Fewer cookies being missed. Apparently moving the inner tube and barrel is not on their list of acceptable or likely things to do. Getting to a treat inside an empty feed bag is also too difficult. Still, she is knocking over the bucket and pushing the swimming pool noodles to find where I’ve stuffed a cookie into it.

OK, let’s try adding a human to the equation again. This time I line up the obstacles around the edge of the round pen, every 6 feet or so and have Tiara on line. I ask her to “touch” something easy and name it. She does and gets a treat. We walk over that object and on to the next. Some things take as long as 5 minutes before she is willing to touch it with her nose and some objects she skirts around rather than walking over it to get to the next one. Stepping on the inner tube, the tarp and the empty feed bag are beyond her. Still, her head is low as she approaches the majority of objects, her eyes are mostly soft and once she works up the courage to touch something she is going back to touch it again and again, saying “don’t I get another cookie for touching this?” And, she is beginning to recognize the names of a number of the objects without any fear at all.

Back to more treasure hunts with Tiara on her own – Sandor in the trail course watching his lady.  It clearly takes longer for her to get in the spirit of the treasure hunt – hours longer, but she gets to everything except the cookies under the tarp, feed bag, barrel and inner tube.  Good enough for now.

Just as I knew my earlier approach wasn’t effective with this mare I know this approach is finally making headway at how she perceives startling things in her world.

Just got in from doing evening chores.  A storm was coming in as I ran the horses in from the pasture, creating the most amazing lighting.  I had to take the picture.

A little later, as I weeded the garden, I noticed that the sky seemed to be on fire – bright reds and purples.  Chores forgotten I went back out to the pasture to admire the evening sky and take another photo.

I feel so blessed to be living in this beautiful ranch with Ron, pursuing my dream with the horses I love.

Why don’t you come out and share this paradise with us?

Our July play date landed right in the middle of a heat wave – mid 90’s.  We got an early start playing on the ground in the cool wooded trail course, starting with the horses on line.  I played with Maia, with Lindsey playing with Mystic and Katie playing with Tori, perfecting their communication with the obstacles, backing the L, stepping up on or over or jumping over logs, going up stairs, bridges and teeter-totter, squeezing through the car wash and through narrow trees.

As the horses synced in with us, we turned them loose at liberty.  Maia was the star there.  She was eager to play with obstacles and would race away at a canter when I asked her to go and then fly back toward me when I called her with the same enthusiasm.  Our horses were in a partnership frame of mind

We started out riding with a new team sport – herding geese.  Tori, Maia and Mystic proved that the same skills needed for herding horses work for herding geese.  Once we had evicted the geese from our section of the pasture, we started playing in the pond.  The day was hot, but the well fed, fresh water pond was so refreshing, we enjoyed the heat.  We started out just riding through the pond and letting the horses splash us and themselves and drink their fill.  We then dismounted and I walked into the pond and took first Maia and then Tori down to the deep end of the pond where Maia and Tori had to swim.  I think this was Katie’s first time riding a swimming horse!  Jenny did some playing with Sandor in the pond too.

We turned the horses loose to roll and enjoy their pasture and we adjourned for our potluck lunch.  As usual, the food was excellent, the companionship the best and the talk all about horses.

Life is very good.

Tori and I joined Robin Keeton and her mare Reba for a Jackson County Horseman’s Association sponsored camping weekend up at Willow Prairie.  It was a gorgeous weekend and the two mares were perfect companions on the trail.  I love how Tori enjoys exploring the wilderness, carefully placing her feet as she navigates rocks, mud, creeks and logs.  To top it off, the JCHA raised $2,725 for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.  Life doesn’t get much better.