Clipping bunnies

Well at least I'm trying to anyway. I did get started on Tannis, my chestnut agouti German buck. I will post a photo of him when I get him done. Tannis is got a buck head. Nice big and ears well set. He produces a nice fleece with plenty of crimp and nice banding pattern. His mom was a 98.5% German, same color as him and his sire was 100% old line German. Haven't weighed him but I'll put an update in later when I get a photo. He's got a good temperment and does very well for shearing. I'm always picking on him for his one flaw... he gets a really dirty butt. So he is handled more than most. He's quite the gentleman about it though.

Back to blogging

Well I hope that to be true! I am going to try to blog at least once a week. Steve finally got a job and we are on the road to recovery of our finances. We were not that bad even though we need to play catch up on some things. I think I am going to showcase my angoras and post a photo of them and write a little paragraph about them. I only have eight. I will be getting Simi started, our Medicine Hat paint, and he is now for sale if anyone is interested. I will be posting his progress as I start him under saddle. He is going to be quite a jumper but I will not even think about that till he is much older. Once he has found his perfect partner and new home we are going to move the rabbits to his stall in the barn. We have decided that two horses are all we need and we are going to keep from getting anymore unless someone needs a horse started out or needs work put on one. The value with that is it goes back home!

Day to Day

Well as happy as I am to have Seven doing well I also have other things not so great to think about. Steve does not have a job and so we are living off of my income right now. I have been selling things I don't need to create some income to help out. It has at least been working pretty well. I finally sold a rabbit I need to move out, and I had hoped that I had another one sold but it turns out that isn't what happened. The people some of my friends were in contact with can't be reached. They maybe had something happen. I will advertise her on some of the groups and try to take her with me to SAFF the end of the month. Steve has a few ideas as of now to get some income flowing and we have to enlist the help of a friend to get started. They have both worked on building flatscreen boxes for Cowboy Church and we had the idea to build tack boxes and bit boxes and sell them. The local tack shop has agreed to showcase the items for us to help us get started. He is hoping to get together with Larry this weekend and maybe build one to get going and be able to buy some tools to be able to build them at home. Once they get one complete I will post a photo on here. If you are interested in the rabbit for sale she is a sable point pearl Giant/French cross angora. Her photo is the one you see at the top of my blog. Asking $85 with pedigree and $50 without pedigree. She is 10 months old but has never been bred. Her fiber output is good. Email me if you are interested in her and I can deliver her at SAFF.

Breakthrough

Well after reading some articles that were interviewing Harry I decided to experiment with the round pen technique. So back to the round pen we went. I left Seven's halter on and turned him loose and as usual he just stood at the gate. I decided to use my stick and tied a plastic bag on the end. Every time Seven would lose his interest and his attention was drawn elsewhere I made noise with the bag and stick. At first it took a bit to get his attention back to me. He just stood there looking at me and I left him alone. Then he decided to move and when he decided to leave I helped him. When he stopped he turned and faced me I was quiet. You could see his attention being drawn away with the flick of an ear and then his eye. He mostly just stood there but when he chose to leave I would help him leave quicker. Steve was watching and said by the end I shook the bag 45 times. This was about a 20 minute session. As it drew to a close you could see Seven wondering what the answer was. I could keep his attention longer and longer. Finally he walked up and stood by me. Yay!!! Good boy Seven!!!

New way of thinking

Well it might also be a new way of being. Steve had told me last week that my horse was a pansy and so was I. Great words of encouragement huh?? He said I was afraid of hurting Seven's feelings. So I would do things softly to get him to perform the tasks that I asked him. It worked but I soon found out that Steve was right! Harry's clinic helped get me to see this. Seven will do things for me with the outcome being he gets a cookie, this isn't wrong but it isn't good for respect or seeing me as a leader. He would be slow and sluggish and it would just be a trick for a treat. It looked like he was focused on me but really he was thinking about how he could get the cookie and not really thinking about me at all. So, into the round pen we went and got some new communication going. Now at Harry's clinic I so thought he was telling the people to be too rough. I mean kicking your horse isn't really what parelli teaches but it is the same principle. I saw Linda whack a horse in the nose pretty hard because he wasn't paying attention to her! Same thing with Harry's teaching. If you don't get the response you want when you ask for something softly the consequences are you will get bopped!! This actually got the horse's attention back to thinking about what you are asking. A "wake-up!!" Then he went back to being soft again. The horses caught on pretty quick!! Harry's students didn't really use a stick or lead rope to ride so all the have are their hands and legs to ask with. You could use a lead rope to help you but you just smacked yourself to cause a sound. It was always on your leg. Harry also was good at getting his life up. So that is my new way of thinking. Get my life up and I hope with some experimenting that this will work. Seven didn't know what to make of me yesterday as we started to communicate in this different way. Steve got in and helped and we eventually got Seven to chose to be with us. He also had me watch him with his horse and as that happened and Seven was in the field I must have been pretty interesting to him because he came over and stood with me. I figured he would have not wanted anything to do with me. Or was he thinking he would get a cookie???

Harry Whitney

Well I have a lot to put into words! Harry Whitney. What a nice guy!! Made me feel right at home and so did Ronnie Moyer! A great time of fellowship, meeting new people and sharing thoughts!! Ronnie did a great job of combining one's walk with the Lord to one's walk with the horse. Great analogies to how the horse thinks the way he does just not as extravagant as the human. The biggest thing I ended up with was the way we want our horses to be with us is the same way God wants us to be with him. I had a dream on Sunday morning about that and it changed my perspective. I was confused about it and God straightened it right out. Horses do not have bad motives about people, they either are thinking about you or they are not! You just have to figure out the way to keep them thinking more on you and less about other things. It doesn't mean that their minds can't wander but when it does do you know how to get it back?? God explained it to me as "a safe place". God is my safe place. So you should be your horse's safe place. He should look to you for wisdom and guidance just as you should look to God for those things. Now in either case it doesn't happen all the time does it?? You aren't always hooked up to God and your horse isn't always hooked up to you. Even though you can take God with you, do you make choices that he wants you to make?? Your horse is the same way. he makes choices that you either like or dislike. When you make a wrong chioce there are consequences to what you chose, especially if it isn't good. Same with the horse, he has to face the consequences of his choices. Soon both learn to make better choices. Since I was just there for Saturday I missed out on the beginnings but got to see the endings. Everybody turned out alright. Got to meet Eden and that was great!! Hi Eden!!!

Horse Play

Hello!

I titled this "horse play" because after getting home from a day of "work" I want to "play". Well I am quite frustrated but not at my horse. He did good. I learned some more things. I am frustrated on the other hand at my hubby. Not so good. Steve (hubby) thinks I let my horse get away with too much. OK, so Seven's a LBI with RBI tendancies and he throws temper tantrums to try to get away with some things. In talking to a parelli friend who I go to for help, her horse does the same things. She ignores the tantrums. Works. That is what I did without knowing it. so to let you in on the fun, Monday I played on the playground with Seven and did it alone, no other horses. That was not what Seven had in mind. He wanted to go back to the barn! We stayed out, I was playing touch it with him going from barrel to barrel. We did one and when I asked to go away from the barn he reared straight up! He knew what he was doing, thus a tantrum. He wasn't scared. As soon as he was back on all four feet I disengaged his hindquarters. Both sides and then asked him to back up. He did so without rearing again. Then we stood and he licked his lips but he also wanted to come in to me and I said no way! Stay out there! As soon as he quit trying to some in I let him. That was Monday. Tuesday we had some emotional issues about the barn but i actually got him focused on the touch it game. He did exceptional. I used treats to help him and at the end he wasn't evening thinking about the barn, which was the goal I needed to reach. I wanted his attention on me. Is that too much to ask?? Steve said he wouldn't have used treats till the end. Well you have to give them a reason to go there, I said. You can't use treats with Steve's horse because he gets all over you and cares less about the game. He's a "give me the treats and nobody gets hurt" kinda guy.

After I got Seven focused, we did sideways over a log (well half a log) but you gotta start somewhere. Steve said Seven was trying to kick the log out of the way. But he couldn't so he had to go sideways which he accomplished. Goal. Monday he actually offered me alot on his own even though we had a tantrum. We did figure 8, backing, and sideways over a pole away from the fence. (half a pole) The log is close to the fence so he can't go forward. Helps with his confidence but I have to judge that better cause it could be causing claustrophobia. I didn't even try to ride him Monday but we got to Tuesday! He still wanted to be at the barn but he wasn't that bad. We did some circling game to help the saddle settle in. Now all I have to do is point and he knows what I want which is huge since we don't play consistantly. but he sometimes stops behind my back and I don't know why. Steve says it's disrespect and I should face him the entire circle. I say he needs to be responsible. When he stops I flick my stick and string behind my back and he starts going again and I don't let him stop till I ask for the hindquarter yield. I think I'm doing this right. I did notice something interesting, when I use my stick I sometimes am too harsh. Like if I want to turn Seven around, (falling leaf) I would shake my stick to tell him to turn and go the other way. Well at first he would stop hard and throw up his head. Then I experimented and just put the stick in front of his eye real slow and he just turned and went real smooth. Still kinda looking at the stick but if I can get it refined it would be better. Well our ride was short because I did alot of flexing. He can be kinda rude and snatch the rein back so I worked on him leaving his head at my stirrup even after I gave him the rein back. I asked Steve to give feedback and am wondering if I should do that again! He was so negative and I told him so. But he needs to stop comparing and just take things from the one horse. I also told him I am not going to meet any standard he sets up for me in his head. I am looking thru Seven's eyes in how I can get him to want to do what I ask him and not be made to do it. That is the ultimate goal. I want my horse to be happy to be with me!

Revelation

I have been borrowing and watching the Liberty and Horse Behavior DVD's from a friend. I thought I would need some of the old Levels to help me out in piecing some things together. I found out that all I need is to watch this series! What awesome information!! Armed with this and your savvy checklist that you get from the website (patterns) you can do everything you need to and just wait for the horse to tell you when he's ready to go on. I am only on DVD 4 from the first group. I think I am going to buy this series so I can watch it over and over when I want. This series is for people so they can read horses better and get the partnership they have always dreamed of! Cool!!! (so I am no longer looking for Level 3)

New spinning batts

I am drum carding some new batts to sell on my artfire store. They are 75%Lincoln and 25% angora rabbit. In white if course. I am just showing them off here and you can go to the artfire store to purchase them. You can buy them by the oz. I hope to spin some as soon as I can get a bit carded for me! My artfire store addy is www.artfire.com/users/livingwaterfarm

Playground photo and others

Here are some photos that I took and couldn't get published on my blog Friday cause I forgot the camera cord. Seven and Simi like to have their picture taken but Sadarian on the other hand would quite well do without it! I am experimenting so hang in there!! I just figured out how to post mulitple photos.