Onward!

Dave and Rookie passed their L1 groundwork assessment with flying colors. It was enlightening to watch and I had the best seat in the house - right next to Marc, listening to him dictate all the rhyme and reasoning behind Parelli's maddness.

Dave has Pushing Passenger left to go and he officially has his red string. Go Dave and Rookie!!

Seeing how well Dave and Rookie have progressed since we first met them back in Feb. at the last Parelli clinic definitely had me feeling woozy with Assessment Fever. I have reasoned since first learning about the assessment test that its entire existence is for us predators who need recognition, praise, and material prizes as rewards for our accomplishments. We need to see it documented on paper from our instructors that we have passed our level tasks. We need those colored savvy strings, psychologically. They represent the hard work we have put into our horses. These trophies signify we know what we're doing, and we are successfully climbing the totem pole toward Ultimate Unity.

The assessments are changing, as we know. Soon we'll be doing "auditions" in the Four Savvy's for our strings. It seems more confusing to me, and more tasks will be involved. Time is running out for anyone who wants to do less for the same reward.

Without thinking, I made it about the test. We printed out the assessment and started running Jet through it so we could do a live assessment for Marc before the end of the year. Weird things started happening. Jet acted fussy and snotty, sometimes downright RB, like we had never asked him to do such tasks before. All this did was frustrate me ("I'm no good at this!") and scare the hell out of me ("There's no way I can ride him if he's like this!"). I started researching ways to solve the new problems that came out of nowhere - tossing his head porcupining Zone 1, for example. That was corrected, but other issues remained. It's still hit-or-miss regarding when to reward for treats. He was starting his Cookie Monster routine all over again, not paying attention to anything but tearing Mommy apart for carrots, then moving onto Grammy if I refused.

There were some good things that were going on, however. Jet spent a full 45 minutes at the washrack standing like a perfect gentleman. AND he was an ANGEL for the farrier! Both Travis and I were in pleasant shock. That was a product of prior and proper preparation. A few days before, we ran Jet through a dress rehearsal in the barn, where I alternated between letting him hang out and sniff and eat whatever he wanted and playing some games like Yo-yo-ing him in and out of the barn, the stalls, squeeze games, friendly games. Mom simulated Tanis bashing his stall door, as he's known to do when he wants to be turned out, or if someone is in the barn not paying attention to him :-) until Jet stood in the barn aisle half asleep during the racket. On Farrier Day, I had Travis give him a peppermint to ensure Jet knew he was a friend, and asked him to trim Jet's back feet first since he is usually more compliant with those. During the process, I rubbed Jet's legs as much as I could, and fed him peppermints after each hoof was complete. A proud moment it was to tell Travis, "Now see, THIS is what my horse is really like. Just a sweet, gentle, good boy." He agreed, finally able to see I wasn't just blowing smoke when I raved about what a doll Jet is.

Travis also left Jet barefoot, which has now set my plans for some serious riding work back a good several months. His front hooves are improving more and more, but it was killing him to walk on the stones between his pasture and the arena. Thanks to support from the forum, Mom and I discovered the glory of Delta boots. We stick them on his hooves before taking him over the rocks and take them off when he's back on softer terrain. He never had an issue with the heavier, more awkward weight on his feet, and now struts proudly over the stones in his "sneakers."

But the pressure of having 7 Perfect Games nailed for the assessment was still an issue. It seemed as though anytime we brought him into the Parelli bushes, Jet was dragging more and more. His facial expressions were depressing. He still came and met us in his pasture but anything beyond Undemanding Time seemed torturesome. In between barn visits, I spent tons of time lurking on the Forum. One particular post, from the owner of an LBI, struck deep: "My horse didn't care until I gave him something to care about. This did not happen until Level 2."

A few days later, a beautiful thing happened. Jet let me come over and pet him while he was laying down. Ma was able to do the same thing. It was such an important message for me. Jet trusts us. Jet loves us. It made all the mistakes, frustrations and tears we went through with him all worth it. The whole moment had me re-evaluate what the real situation was. I was defining my whole PNH self-worth on Marc's nod and a red piece of yacht braid. Meanwhile, I wouldn't even be able to assess the riding part until the new assessment, and Marc has been so busy with other students, he hasn't even been able to make it to Shiloh since Dave's assessment. To make matters even more difficult, Jet was bored shitless. Play times were now work times, the 7 Games were turning into the 7 Tortures. And yet he let us be with him while he was laying down. Once again, I was foolishly focused on my own direct-line pressures instead of listening to my horse. And my horse was telling me, "I don't need a red string to ensure we've done it right. Why do you, if it's supposed to be about the relationship?"

So I've decided to suck it up and do an audition as according to the new assessment, at some point after the holidays when Marc is more available. Until then, we're moving on in our groundwork. Time to give Jet a reason to come greet us again, other than looking for his supplement bucket. And no more worrying if he understands the games as I try to communicate. If one gets broken, we'll fix it. And since then, as I repeat over and over to myself, "I know the games and Jet knows I know the games," Jet is interested, willing, and having fun again. This weekend, he leaped over fences, played Stick to Me, trotted figure eights and bravely squeezed between a scary tree and a fence to get to a new area of the ranch. We are both stumbling through him learning and me teaching him to pick up his brushes and hand them to me but having a blast playing "Pick it up and throw it around."

And our shining moment of the weekend: we brought him to the Sandbox of Doom, where he's known to throw some of his best fits. The sandbox is a 3-tiered hill Marc and Dave built, the highest part standing about 2 1/2 feet tall. Most of the horses will walk from the shortest to tallest level and step down from either the middle or lowest. I was standing on the highest level, just watching Jet mosey around and decide if he wanted to try anything. He had already trotted happily up and over the middle level and now I was just interested to see if he had anything else in mind. He scratched his nose on the woodpaneling that holds in the sand and lifted his leg a little. Then, with the utmost confidence, with no urging from me or Mom AT ALL, he hoisted his front half up onto the highest level and tossed his head proudly, ears straight up, as if to say, "I am ALL that is MAN!" Mom's and my jaws hit the ground in sheer delight. A few minutes later, Jet pulled himself all the way up, made a little circle, then bravely leaped the 2 1/2 feet down like he'd done it all his life.

I made sure to feed him a carrot that was the length of my ARM for that one. He looked like the happiest little Parelli horse pulling himself onto the sandbox like that. But most importantly was that he WAS happy playing Parelli today. And he was having FUN.