Lily's journey.

03:49,

Thursday 19 March 2009

This is Lily's most recent cups of confidence chart. Instead of getting wrapped up in horsenality charts, to chart the LtheL I use cups of confidence. In case LtheL is a new concept to you:

L - leader (i.e. you)
T - themselves
H- herd
E - environment
L - learner

Environment is Lily's weakest confident point whereas herd is her strongest. Charting this regularly helps me to know what areas we need to play with more.

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08:00,

Saturday 6 December 2008

People often ask me how Lily is complex and it is very hard to explain unless you know her. So I'll let these pictures, taken in September '08 within minutes of each other, she's funny and I love her dearly, even if she is two-three-or-four-faced! ;)

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23:16, Lily a year on!

Sunday 31 August 2008

Well it's been a great year! Ups and downs, plenty of downs in the first half of it. We started natural horsemanship in August, specifically Parelli in January. Lily has always had issues with catching and in March it got so bad that she was cantering off in the other direction if I came near with a halter! Whenever I did manage to catch her she was over reactive and frequently bolted, giving me 'learn burns' on my palms. I knew we weren't working in harmony and that we needed help. Thankfully a friend of mine put me in touch with my instructor who came and confirmed what I knew; that Lily needs a person with more Savvy than I have. Lily had always been my dream pony and although it was quite tempting to put her out on loan to a higher level student, I couldn't bear to part with her.

So in April she went to Arran's on holiday to iron out a few wrinkles, particularly the catching. The guy is a true definition of the word Savvy so I knew she'd be in good hands. I visited a few times to see how she was doing and have Arran teach me how to get good at the catching game. I needed these Savvy arrows in my quiver to have any chance of being able to get her to catch me and to keep her catching me well. She came home in July and I was absolutely dreading her coming home and old habits dying hard. She was good as gold though (despite the day we picked her up being very stormy with a lightning bolt hitting the top of Arran's yard at one point!) she loaded like a pro, came home and settled immediately.

Since then I've spent hours and hours spending UDT with her on line and at liberty to gain her confidence. She's now first at the gate, puts her nose in her halter and loves our herd of two. Knowing how hard it must've been for her to overcome her fear and distrust of humans makes me grateful each and every time she comes over to me just to hang out. Whilst she was away I spent a good few months playing with Benji and I purchased and studied Liberty and Horse Behaviour every chance I got. This helped me realise that although her chequered past hadn't helped her, our progress together had gone backwards because I was talking at her, doing things to her and not listening to what she was trying to tell me. She certainly wasn't ready for level 1 and all the pressure I put on her without even realising, thinking I was doing good had sent her off the edge and into right brain extrovert mode. Now I've taken the time it takes to put principles before purpose and the relationship before the task she has changed hugely and I have a better understanding of her.

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08:36, Lily (Magic Millie)

Saturday 21 June 2008

In July 2007 I had been without a horse for nearly 4 months and, after seeing 6 different horses that I had thought might've come home with me and being proven wrong, I was starting to get disheartened. After coming back from a failed vetting I said to my best friend that this was getting too painful, I was going to give up. She gave me one of her usual everything-feels-less-crappy-for-a-moment hugs and my mum gave me that week's paper and said it wouldn't hurt to look. I saw two I liked the sound of, rung both numbers and got no answer. A few hours later a lady rung back to see if I was still interested in 'Millie' (Lily's name at the time) and I don't remember much of the conversation except her saying, "she's not really a looker but she's a good, honest mare" so I had visions in my mind of a very butch, handsome piebald mare with a roman nose and a not-so-dainty body.
The next day we drove an hour upto the welsh border and arrived at a nice little cottage with a livery yard round the back. Her owner came out, pointed behind me and said that was Millie. I spoke without thinking "Are you crazy? She's stunning!" and then a warning light came on in my head; if she is gorgeous and as good as they say, why's she so cheap? But I thought that I shouldn't pass judgement 'til I see what she's like. She was a bit nervy to tack up and was fidgety walking to the arena but I shrugged it off...
Her owner's son who rides her was late coming home so I decided to hop on without seeing how she was like from the ground (I know, I know...) and her owner had said that "She was quick and not silly but by no means a novice or intermediate ride, she had to have someone experienced". I was a bit skeptical but got on, started walking round and thought she was a bit active but not too quick. As soon as I asked for trot though she bombed off. I managed to get her back to a walk and thought maybe I'd squeezed her a bit hard so I tried again and good golly miss Molly it wasn't a fluke! So I walked back to the gate to talk to her owner. Apparently several people had come and were put on the floor, including a riding instructor who critised her son then got on and fell off within 2 minutes. I now knew why she was so cheap but that warning light had gone off, in fact, I enjoyed the challenge of getting her to trot and canter sanely. See the fence around the menage? I found out that they had to get it refenced because when it was just 5ft, she kept jumping out!
Within 20 minutes of teaching a halfhalt and stopping my eyes from watering everytime she went off on one we were doing beautiful dressage work. If I had not seen her behave like that and her potential, I probably wouldn't have bought her.

I saw her another two times and bought her after her vetting within that week. She was delivered and as I was undoing the buckle on her headcollar her owner said "maybe leave it on a few days just incase" and I suddenly realised why whenever I went to view her she was already caught but it was too late! Oh my, how silly did I feel. I couldn't catch her for a few days after that and I wish I could say it was only that week she was difficult to catch! My first ride on her was fine until she bolted from top to the bottom of our field and did a sharp turn to avoid the stables, I stayed on but I got off after and suddenly realised that it could've been serious. Since then my confidence has never been the same and has only gotten worse now I have to be safety concious due to my health. If I fall off, it could be 'catastrophic' in the words of my neurosurgeon so thank god for Parelli for making riding safer for me and reassuring me that if I'm too scared to ride; it's okay. We started natural horsemanship in August, specifically switched to Parelli in January and Lily and I are all the better for it.

Edit: Incase anyone was wondering why I changed her name from Millie to Lily; her fieldmate is Molly and I thought Millie and Molly would be too twee! She was going to be called Melody but she already responded to the 'ih-lee' syllable so Lily seemed most suitable. :)

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