Imagination - problem solving

[valiant]

My horse and I started together in November with Parelli based NH. He is progressing and learning a lot faster than I am and are finding me boring!:o I haven't yet progressed to liberty work, and are playing the 7 games on a 12foot rope. We vary this with inhand walks and grooming. I need to make the games more interesting and challenging for my horse, that I can help him solve problems as opposed to him tolerating my requests for yet another sideways or backup:rolleyes: .

Any ideas of puzzles we can solve together?

Ps. I am due for lessons with my instructor, but would appreciate any ideas of stuff that your horses found fun.

[mayoguinness]

Getting him to weave around poles, jump over jumps online, back over poles (very challenging for some horses) and just look for anything of interest that you can play with. Instead of sideways try and get him to sideways over a pole or a cone sideways off a circle;) Set up a little course of different things for him to do, a jump some trotting poles, things for him to weave in and out of and back up through and over........Most of my fun however with Mayo comes from liberty work, theres nothing we like more, its the best bit in our opinion:D

[Crystal Fire]

Those are good ideas, but is there any reason why you aren't just carrying on through the tasks in the levels? Doing the ridden stuff and then opening up your Level 2 pack?
You don't need to get the 7 Games perfect, they will improve as you progress. When you think that Pat says it shouldn't take longer than 3 months to do Level 1, and a lot of people do it in less time, it may be that you're spending too much time on the 7 Games.
You could just take your horse out in the woods on the 12ft line and use the trees etc as obstacles to work around. There used to be some "tournament tasks" in the last book in the level 1 pack - do you have access to that to get ideas?

[india]

Good suggestions Mayoguiness and Crystal Fire :) ....

valiant, don't make the mistake of trying to get each game perfect before moving onto the next one. Level one isn't about perfection, it's about learning the basic principles of each game.....then quickly moving on. If you fall into a rut and stay on the games to long, you'll not only risk your own sanity, but also your horse's! ;)

I think Pat mentioned somewhere in old Partnership pack, that Level 1 is supposed to look rough around the edges, it's only when you reach the end of Level 2 that Level 1 is perfected.

I agree with Crystal Fire, play the games on the 12' line in different places.......cover distance by playing the circling game as you walk, yo-yo your horse up and down hill, back him through various gateways and openings, squeeze him over logs etc.....much more fun for both of you. :)

My advice would be to get cracking through the other level 1 tasks as soon as possible, because once you get started on level 2, that's when the real fun begins. :D

[Joyscarer]

Agree with others.

Get moving on. You can always watch the videos in pack 1 for more inspiration if you need to but level 1 is about the basics and should be fun and not hard work or a bore for either of you :)

[valiant]

Reason for not moving on immediatly (sp?) - money! :o

I don't actually have any of the Parelli stuff, dependant on my instructor to loan them to me, and give me lessons. My instructor wants me to start with the 22 foot and liberty,which I assume is Level 2 stuff?

I will make a note of all your suggestions and play at those. He jumps online, goes through barrels, backup through the barrels (need to "work" at this though), and snake through poles, and trot over poles. Can play more at sideways over stuff and squeeze game as he is a bit claustrophobic about the barrels.

I am probably on "schedule" with the 3 months, seeing that I often do the games only once a week. So, time for the next step.

Thanks for the suggestions and support.:)

[Crystal Fire]

You could see if you can pick up any Parelli packs on EBay. The new style ones go for pretty much retail value, but if you got the old-style ones with the videos you migh get a bargain. That would give you a lot of ideas, and although means spending money, they are designed for you to be able to work independantly.
Yes, in Level 2 you repeat a lot of the basics, but on a 22ft line and making sure your horse works with impulsion. And you get on to liberty, working with a "soft feel" ridden and at the end adding the bridle.
It just strikes me that your instructor is making rather heavy work of the very basics of Parelli, the sort of thing that most people get the roough hang of on day one of their first clinic. As said above, you don't want you and your horse to get bored. :) When is your instructor going to show you the ridden parts of level 1?
Sorry, I'm just going to add something here. Pat P never intended his games to be an exercise that people go and "do" on a regular basis. In common with other NH instructors, being able to get control of the feet and other groundwork is just the foundation for everything else, in particular riding. When you watch someone who has really got this PNH thing sussed, they get their horse out of the field, move it about bit on the way to the yard (bit of sideways along a fence, squeeze through a gate, reverse when required), then they tack up, get on and do something more interesting. The 7 games, "played" in any order and maybe only for a few steps, are just a way to check that your horse's mind is with you.
Does you others agree?

[mayoguinness]

Yep.........well I'm not a PP person but its similar in some respects to ANH so yes I agree unless you have a very tricky horse like Mayo was and in that case when I got his saddle on I used to do A LOT to make sure he was ok with it before I got on ;) It might be a good idea to even just get yourself a rope halter (a get knotted one or something) and just one of those lunging whips to start off with cuz they're cheaper than a carrot stick and are pretty much the same apart from the savvy string :)

[india]

Does you others agree?
Yep, I totally agree with you Crystal Fire. :)

valiant, if you have a look on eBay you'd probably be able to pick up an older version Level 1 for roughly the same price as you pay for one NH lesson from your instructor. Same goes for the savvy string, carrot stick, halter and lines, (they don't have to be the PNH brand). You could even make your own carrot stick, I can remember my first one, it was made up from an old fishing rod.... nothing fancy, but it did exactly the same job as the PNH one I've got now. ;)

...and just one of those lunging whips to start off with cuz they're cheaper than a carrot stick and are pretty much the same

mayoguiness, in my opinion, a lunge whip wouldn't be a good substitute for a carrot stick. Carrot sticks are used as an extension to your arm and for that reason are quite short (about 4') and rigid, where as lunge whips are designed to be long and very flexible....even cut down, I think they'd still be to flexible. ;)

.

[KateWooten]

a lunge whip wouldn't be a good substitute for a carrot stick. Carrot sticks are used as an extension to your arm and for that reason are quite short (about 4') and rigid,

I agree. A good substitute for a 'carrot stick' (c) would be a 'stick stick' (not c), approx 4 ft long cut from the nearest hedge or tree, or picked from the nearest ground after a good storm. The parelli 'Carrot stick' is more durable, but the Wooten 'Stick stick' can be replaced many times for the same overall cost.

[entreat]

Valiant, have you looked at a book called "perfect Manners" by Kelly Marks? Although it's not Parelli (actually, she's a monty roberts student), there's many good twists to the seven games (just under different names), such as backing through an L shape (see attached image). using 4 poles (if you have them), walk your horse through the shape (set wide to begin with) & really pay attention to where his feet need to go and where you need to stand for when backing him through. walk through forwards a few times. Then try backing him through. go very slowly to start with, focusing on keeping all feet inside the shape. as you get better, you can narrow the L shape.

There's also some good things about yielding to pressure.

[valiant]

have you looked at a book called "perfect Manners" by Kelly Marks[/I

Yes, I have the book, but lent it out to a friend. Will browse through as soon as I get it back.

[[I]I]such as backing through an L shape

Have got the L shape, but has been a while since we did it.

Crystal Fire, thanks and I agree with your most of your post, especially the last part. I am very aware that the games is just checking in. Ebay very expensive for South Africans (lovely exchange rate getting worse every day). As I have 2 horses and limited time, the percieved time I've spent on Level 1 may sound as if my instructor and I have been doing stuff over and over, but I am quite satisfied that that is not the case. We have also been a lot of riding work, softness, balance etc. And we have been adding new puzzles regularly. I will have a lesson within the next week to start on the 22' and liberty. Looking forward to that.

I have got a carrot stick and the ropes etc (not PNH brand!)

Again, thanks for the input. I've now got some new puzzles to play at this weekend.:D

Ps. Didn't know how to do the quote blocks:o

[mayoguinness]

Yep, I totally agree with you Crystal Fire. :)

mayoguiness, in my opinion, a lunge whip wouldn't be a good substitute for a carrot stick. Carrot sticks are used as an extension to your arm and for that reason are quite short (about 4') and rigid, where as lunge whips are designed to be long and very flexible....even cut down, I think they'd still be to flexible. ;)

.

I think in effect they can do exactly the same job, used one once when I we were having a NH play day and I forgot my carrot stick so all I had was a lunge whip and I just used it exactly the same and it did the same job, not a problem, only difference was I couldn't get the string off:) So one sticks more flexibly (wasn't any longer) than the other, didn't make any difference to me not that it really matters TBH;)

[india]

I think in effect they can do exactly the same job, used one once when I we were having a NH play day and I forgot my carrot stick so all I had was a lunge whip and I just used it exactly the same and it did the same job, not a problem, only difference was I couldn't get the string off:) So one sticks more flexibly (wasn't any longer) than the other, didn't make any difference to me not that it really matters TBH;)

I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree on that one then .....

My old lunge whip was definately a LOT longer than any carrot/training stick I've ever come across and in my opinion would have been much to flexible to do the job right.

If needed, I'd rather stick (excuse the pun):D to a more rigid substitute. ;)

[mayoguinness]

Guess we will. Have used long ones as well but TBH as there just an extension of my arm it doesn't matter what I use ;) Before I got my carrot stick someone used to lend me there lunging whip and it never bothered me, Mayo never acted any different and neither did I :) But it really doesn't matter, whatever floats your boat :D