Fixing Some Games

As many of you know, the Parelli Levels system has recently been changed to be the "Parelli Pathways." I have looked over the changes, and have self assessed to be in level 2 online, level 2 freestyle, level 3 liberty, and I have not done finesse. I am close to the end in my level 2 stuff, so I am very excited to learn that I can assess levels 1 and 2 soon! The only holes in my level 1 are concerning the procepine game: Woody is not fond of back from the nose or putting his head down by pushing on the poll. So, I went out today to play and work on trying to fix some if this stuff.
I went out, he followed me up the hill, got him haltered, and gave him a good brushing and combeed through his mane and tail. I then took the theraflex, saddle, and girth out to the open area and played with putting that on. He did very well with saddling and stood still the whole time (I just had to move him to change sides). After being saddled, we went over to the round and did some pretty AMAZING stuff. We started with the pedestal and he became a lot more confident with getting on it, and even put 3 feet on (couldn't put the fourth up) and also was able to put just his hind feet on the pedestal... HUGE. Then, we played circling game with a 12 fott line and set up a row of 3 barrels he would have to cross. After the first couple of stops and "what do I do with this?" moments, he began jumping them. Then, he extended his circle to include going on top of the near pedestal, and chilling on top. I laughed so hard at the look he gave like "this is the COOLEST!"... he LOVES the pedestal. I rubbed him, let him sit, then asked him to continue the circle. After that game was over, we did the figure-8 pattern with the 12 foot line (it's a requirement for level one and I wanted to check it to make sure it was good), and he did it perfectly! No restistance and a pretty positive expression. We only did about 4 figure-8s, and then I said "that works, no need to drill you" and we moved on. We did a little stick to me, and then I let him go at liberty. We then did some liberty porcupining (very cool that he didn't leave me) and then we started doing stick to me. We started out at the walk, and he was baing lazy and not keeping up so I'd have to keep touching him with the stick. After he got more motivated, I put him on the rail of the round pen and I was on the inside, and we did walk, trot, jump, AND CANTER! It was so neat. It started out with me smooching to him and speeding up to canter in my body while he was going over the jump, and when he landed he would pick up a canter for a couple strides. Then, I asked him for it when he was one the rail and he did several strides with me cantering with him. It was amazing. We did some Squeeze over the jump and liberty, and I also got the hula hoop all the way over his body. When it had gone onhis stomach and down his back legs, I picked up the Hula Hoop and put pressure on his legs while I backed up holding it, and he back up with me, yielding from the pressure. Things were going so well, I got on, and we did some point to point in the round pen, going different routes. For instance, one time I would say I want to go to this panel, but I want to follow the rail and jump the jump to get there. It was fun and he founf it interesting. We also did the figure-8 pattern freestyle which went pretty well, and practiced jumping the barrels and tried to do the butterfly techinque (it is hard to remember while your in the air!).
I then got off and rode in the pasture a bit, but it was SO windy at that point that I wasn't very confident and it was a bit slippery, so I one-rein stopped him and hopped off.
Some other things I did today was I practiced the "teach your horse to stand on 3 legs" task by holding his leg with the rope for all four feet and also I practiced havnig him pick his feet up by tapping his legs with the stick.
We definitely had an action packed day, and I am so proud he did so well!
On another note, my mom and I are now Savvy Club Gold Members and were the 99 customer to sign up, so we won the "buy one course at the center, get another free" pack! We aren't sure when we will take the course, but it will probably be next year since we already are going to Harry Whitney in June, but it is SO exciting!
~Eden