Super cool Game!!!

What a great game RAC!  This kind of game inspires us to try new things and improve ourselves and our horses. 
I'm a Parelli student (just officially passed my level 2!) and I recognize many of these tasks from things that we need to do to pass our level.  We do online exercises and riding exercises for our level 2.  My online audition is here :-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V34TEeJyXO8
But the halting square!  That's Sunny and my challenge!  I played with it yesterday and today.  Wow - it's harder than it sounds!  And I'm a dog person that has shown dogs for years and so this one is going to be fun :-)
Here is the link to the riding one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfGuRBPCCfE
Last night, I wanted to go out for a little ride.  For some reason I felt like Sunny had a bit of 'wind in his sails' so I threw the saddle on him rather than just the bareback pad.  Here, it is dark at 5pm!  So we went out at dusk (4:30!) and were out past dark.  I was right about him being energetic!  Let me say that we practiced our walk - canter transitions!  It was fun actually.  And just for the fun of it, I thought, hey why not some flying lead changes that follow the trail! 
I have never learned how to do flying lead changes but I 'theoretically' know how... LOL.. so once my 'decision' was made to try - it was me talking myself through it out loud and then laughing as I 'think' we did them... because, I don't really know if we actually DID them!  heheeheheh
But, I do know that as we 'went for it' he would sort of hop and have a burst of energy (hence me laughing because I felt like a big kid out racing her horse around LOL).  I know we missed one of them because he got all unbalanced and had to come down to a trot and then we started back up. 
Once it was dark and I couldn't see the trees as well I thought maybe it would be best to stop racing around.  Enter... walk - canter transitions :-)  I knew he was feeling frisky so they were easy :-))  He's almost always easy to stop so I wasn't too worried about that, it's usually the 'snappy' departure.  But we did a few of them and then the last one, where I knew he was going to want to stop I asked for a canter and then just asked with my seat for him to stop and whoa!  Slide stop!  Yahoo!  Food fun :-))

The neck reining task intrigued me.  I had taught my Arab Gulliver to do this many years ago but haven't really taught Sunny.  Although he does it a little... I think mosly he just moves off my legs.  So, in the Parelli Program, the next level that I'm going to start playing in, has a requirement that we are able to direct the horse with a neck string.  Which is the ultimate 'neck rein'!  So, on Monday, I double rode with my daughter (just at the walk) but used the neck string!  It was so much fun.  I only had to pick up my reins 3 times!  And we were out for about 30 minutes. 

Getting back to why he had a bit more energy last night... we have been teaching him to drive. The past few weeks, on our morning walks, I put on a vaulting surcingle so Rose can ride with handles and I put the long lines through the rings on the sides and drive him.  This past weekend, we put the full harness (minus the bridle since he still works on a rope halter!) and took him out for a driving lesson.  My sister in law has 2 teams of driving horses so she came out to help me. 

Rose riding with the surcingle

Here are a few of him in full harness and being 'driven'.
I took a couple of really short videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN3LgJpmoYw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKqbWgHxhx8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlKK7v5jZec

The last one, he is being a bit naughty and he pulls a bit because he wants to go over to the paddock.  But we had him out for over an hour! So, I can't say I blame him.  Of course we let him settle for a second and then 'drove' him past the barn and took him all the way to the road and back. 

And not to in ANY WAY try to show off because I know Donna is doing a fantastic job getting Linus through water!!! Way to go Donna!  But as you may remember, we dug a pond in the summer.  One of my 'dreams' is to swim with Sunny.  Well... during his driving lesson, I noticed that the pond was the highest it's ever been.... *hhmmmmm*  LOL!  Off came the harness and I took him over to the .... pond!  I wasn't about to go in WITH him but I did want to see if he would go....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGVVs4zPvdo

My sister in law was awesome enough to video it for me but she wasn't sure about my camera so she missed his first trip across where he actually took 1 or 2 swim strides (he was farther in the middle of the pond the first time) but she got the return trip! 

I feel like I torture this horse sometimes!! hehehhe but he actually seemed to LIKE it!!!  he was so frisky afterwards.  And later, after we had put him away, I went back to the gate and he was already there, with his head stuck through as far as he could WANTING to come back out :-)))  Lovely! 

Cyndi and Sunny and Rose and Sheri in Bourget, ON.