Show Up To Your Work- An update on the last 12 months

It's been a quiet few months on the blog front, but less so behind the scenes, particularly in the journey with my horses. 2012 saw the completion of my 1 Star Instructor course at the Sydney campus, which felt incredible to complete.

In between travelling all over the state to complete compulsory free teaching hours, the journey of getting my own horse to Level 4 remained the challenge. Having the focus, but at the same time the flexibility to deal with the state of whichever horse I had for my partner that day was something I was having trouble with. For a while, horses even lost their fun for me as I had to fulfil this requirement to solidify my instructor status. Can you imagine what they were perceiving from me? Direct line thinking, autocratic, dogmatic, chauvinistic and anthropomorphic thinking are all perceived as predatory behaviours by horses, and this causes them to act against us; but in line with their natural reactions for self preservation. Horses are creativity, its my art and my love but I needed a new attitude to channel progressiveness without the failure of not 'being something' when I felt my whole identity was riding on it. In the end I just did what I enjoyed which was just to hang out and play within known realms with my horses, with no progression.

I watched a video, a TED talk actually, from the author Elizabeth Gilbert. It talked about how talented people are skewed by our warped perception of what a 'genius' is. You see, prior to the development of a full blown egocentric society, talented people used to have a genius not actually be a genius. It sounds like a crazy idea, but it was common knowledge in ancient times, in more than one culture (In Greece it was refereed to as a Damon) that you had an external influence on your whether your talented blossomed or not, despite your work. It was a way for people to handle failure and success without throwing their life's worth into it. To cut a long story short, it helped release people from the fears of their own failure, if your work was shoddy, you were only half to blame because you just scored a lazy 'genius'. Gilbert summed it up perfectly at then end of her talk. Whether you experience moments where you feel the work of the god is simply being channelled through your body as a vessel, or your working your backside off with a lazy co-creative mystic being, the fact is, no work is being done if you don't show up. So whatever your work is you feel you need to do, all you need to to do is be there doing it. So that's what I began to do, show up to my work no matter if it the sun shone or not. Progression can only happen in motion!

In July I was privileged enough to spend a short time with 4 Star Instructor Mikey Wanzenreid, in his home in Les Bois Switzerland. What a refreshing way to look at how the Parelli program is taught! I gained some fabulous new insights, and a fresh way too look at old ones. It was also a great taster to how the Parelli Community is able to co ordinate worldwide and it was fantastic to meet one of international instructors, and gain insight to how everything works during some seriously cold winters!

Mikey Wanzenreid's farm in beautiful Switzerland

So now I am home, playing with completing my Level 4 by the end of this year. We have big things coming up this year, riding with Pat and Linda Parelli themselves, and volunteering at the Parelli booth at Equitana in Sydney....its financially draining but bring it on!

The Inaugural Parelli Intensive Horsemanship Course - Australia 2012

She went from this unconfident with water....

To one exceptionally brave pony!

For those anticipating my post about my six week Parelli University course over July-August, be inspired by the amazing photography of Megan McAuliffe with her slideshow of photos of the students progress over the six weeks. Here is a few taken by some of the other students also...

The Inaugural Parelli Intensive Horsemanship Course - Australia 2012

Patterns and Teaching Horses.

My analysis of Patterns is that they are found everywhere nature, and horses are no exception (e.g graze and sleep at particular times). By using patterns when we interact with horses, we give them a chance to be active participants and really open the door for two-way-communication. A 'pattern' can be described as strategy or even a plan when we apply it to playing with horses. For an animal capable of reading intention, and who learns anywhere between 7-10 times faster than humans do, knowing exactly what we want, and when we are going to quit (Pressure motivates, but it is the release that teaches) before we ask our horse to do anything, really is lesson in focus for humans, and as I begin to reach higher levels with my horse, I understand the importance of the clarity of my intention, and how that directly correlates with my body language that Rain (my horse) is reading. The horse not doing what we want can only be two things,  lack of understanding (that can be seen by unconfidence in the horse) or dominance.  Both reflect on our leadership skills. Using patterns with horses is a great blue print for teaching young horses. It offers enough repetition in the learning process that makes a horse feel safe, trusting, motivated and willing and after a few sessions the horse knows exactly what to do (variety can be introduced as well, by combining seven games etc. patterns are not designed to bore a horse to death!). Both sides of the horse-human relationship have responsibilities (which I will get to later in my blog) and patterns are a great way to trust, but hold each other accountable for those.

Patterns are the blue-print for teaching horses. 

Valuing the Journey.

I think the greatest appeal to me about learning in this program is the fact it is never ending. Finishing things has never been something I have felt comfortable with, the linear progression from start to end has always lost me, and lost me quite appropriately for the topic, in the middle. I love middle's, the lingering place where you can take tangents, actually feel yourself expanding as you learn. I believe so long as you are learning, there is no end. Diverting off topic, I believe this is why teachers of students need to frequently continue to learn, to put themselves in their juniors shoes so they are constantly reminded how it feels to master  a level of excellence along the cycle from unconscious incompetence (you don't know what you don't know), concious incompetence, concious competence to unconscious competence...and  around again.

Valuing the journey for me has been about keeping the big picture in mind always, committing just to be positive, progressive and natural. My own expectations of myself have always been my most limiting factor, I can be so hard on myself I can cloud my own passions. Learning how to separate myself from ambition enough to let myself learn, and be kind to myself has been challenging. I frequently remind myself exactly how lucky I am to go and simply play with my horse, who offers feedback to my own mind and how its affecting my body language and communication with her, so acutely I cannot credit knowing myself like I do without also crediting my time with horses. She really is my mirror. Animals speak a universal language by instinct, and I think humanity could really be enlightened to many lessons if we began to nurture a kinship with all life that seems so diluted in our disharmony and lack of receptiveness with our surrounds.

A few photos from Fast Track...

Maintaining mental connection at liberty playing stick to me.

Looking up from the horse yards at the student tent and office at the Australian Parelli Campus in Wilton, NSW

Rain, exploring her play drive tentatively with the green ball. 

Look at that draw! Being assessed on final testing day at  liberty.

What Makes A Successful Play Session?

The first play session I had at home with my horses after Fast Track I was a little apprehensive. Could I go out and play with the same quality as I could with Rain in the "perfect environment" of the Parelli Centre? So before I went out into the paddock I quickly brainstormed; What makes a successful play session? ( What do I need to put into place to make it great for my horse and I?)Here is a few things I learnt that I could put into dot points to apply to my future play sessions with all my horses.


-Make it a game...fun!
- Being particular keeps your horses mind, but don't micromanage or be critical.
- Put ten ounces into intention and one into phases
- Have a good neutral to balance consistently fair phases.
- Know your expectation of the task before you ask it,so you know when to release and quit!
- Understand when to apply pressure and when to release because pressure motivates a horse, it is the release that teaches.
- Be a genuine ambassador of yes, not a minister of no.
- Expect a lot, Accept a little, Reward often.
- Be an 'Oh Boy!' person, not an 'Oh no...'
- Truly understand your horses idea first (What game does your horse want to play?)
- Set it up for success (Isolate, Seperate and Re-combine)
- Make a plan but be flexible
- If it is going well, quit! Play for tomorrow.
- Don't be afraid of the reaction in order to find the response but be aware you are not causing a willing partner to be reactive by being impolite.
- Don't ask a trying horse to try.
- Maintain mental connection right from the moment your horse catches you until you slip the halter off.
- Ask your horses permission
-Honour your partnerships strengths, you owe it to your horse.
- Your horse and you hold each other accountable for your horses responsibilities.


Does anyone else have any things that make their play session with their horse fun and successful for the both of you? Feel free to add to the list in the comments section underneath!

Fast Track Reflection- March 2012

In March this year, I was privileged to spend four amazing weeks at the Australian Parelli Campus in Wilton NSW. I was one of twenty two students making the next step into advancing their horsemanship dreams or pursuing a career as a Parelli Professional. As I have Professional goals, I had to come away with a grade of 75% in my theory test and a level 3++ grade in all four savvy's, Online, Liberty, Freestyle, Finesse.


It is impossible to sum up how life changing Fast Track was for me, or just how much was learnt thanks to the amazing team of instructors and faculty. I would like to personally thank Rob and Megan McAuliffe, Carmen Smith, Shannon Davies, Kerryn Armstrong, Bonnie McIntyre, Shana Walters and Julianne Tetlow for there guidance and support.


The thing that struck me most was that there was nothing I had not already heard of in the program in the Fast Track curriculum but everything from the simple 7 games, patterns, horsenalities, and Pat's little sayings but yet there was so much depth yet to be fully understood. It really was about simple things done well. "Horsemanship is nothing more but a series of good habits and patterns" says Pat, but HOW good is up to our expectation and commitment to our partnership with our horse. Doing everything at a higher quality is something I came back to with a new filter to reflect my whole life through, and I raised the bar on everything I had been underestimating my capabilities, especially with my horses.


Fast Track began and ended with testing. Everyone was a bundle of nerves in the beginning despite the only goal was to "show us what you can do, not what you can't". Mainly it was just to set the benchmark of what we need to learn, and to see how far we have come in the end, and it did just that.


The curriculum covered advancing the 7 games, Horsenality Strategies, saddling and vet prep, Steady rein demo's, Advancing the Patterns, Impulsion games, and each day there was a series of workshops and demo's progressing from Online to Finesse. Each Friday, we met up with our instructor coach to set the weeks goals, and it was so helpful to have some ingredients from the instructors to play with, while keeping the overall goal in mind. This systematic technique really helped me see progress as something not to be afraid of, and how to isolate parts of a task to set it up for success for my horse and I, think laterally, problem solve and demonstrate my leadership to Rain.


There is so much I could say about Fast Track but I can only conclude with the statement that it is best to be experienced, by any one who is serious about improving their horsemanship to a performance level or has professional goals.