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| Friendly Game |
"Do a little now, instead of a lot later," Pat Parelli said. I heard that little jingle in my head as I headed out to the barn in my slippers to feed and water. I was just going to dart out and fill the hay bins and water tanks and get back to my after work nap. Afterall, it had been a long, busy day at work and I deserved a little down time. I would do a lot of horse training this weekend I told myself unless of course something else came up.
"Do a little now, instead of a lot later," I heard again. It would take about 15 minutes to fill the water tanks so why not do something with Snooze while I wait. I looked down at my slippers. If I go to the barn in slippers, I know I won't do anything. I ran back in the house and put on my boots. I'll do something even if it's just 15 minutes of friendly game.
So now, whether I intend to work a horse or not, I always take a few extra mintues and put on my boots before I head to the barn. Then I can do a little every time and end up accomplishing a lot by the end of the week.
If you are familiar with the friendly game, the first of the seven Parelli Natural Horsemanship games, you know the idea is to get your horse happy to be near you. You start off slowly rubbing them and moving around them with your hands or a rope or a scratching stick. The rest of the games are the start of controlling the movement of your horse or moving them generally away from you. But at the end of the game, you bring them back to you for friendly rubs or scratching spots. The friendly game is a good way to get to know your horse's scarey spots. Does she have sensitive ears? Does he not like having his belly rubbed or feet picked up? Is she spooked by the spray bottle? So we play friendly game to get the horse comfortable allowing us to move around them freely with our toys and tools and hoses and sprays.
It didn't take til the water tanks were even half way full to realize we were not going to start with much friendly game with Snooze. Although we just met, it only took a little time to realize that she was very comfortable being near me. Her favorite place was on top of me. I could put my hands anywhere on her and her response was to move closer not away from me. Moving on to game number two. The porcupine game. This game involves applying pressure with your fingers or training stick until the horse moves in the direction of the pressure to release the pressure by moving out of it. She did figure this out pretty quickly but as she did she would twist around so that if I ask her to move her hindquarters she would snuggle her front shoulder into me.
The tanks weren't even 3/4s full when I realized it might be safer to play a long distance game like the yo-yo game. I drive her away by jiggling the lead rope then allow her to come back. We did get a lot done in a little time. She seems to enjoy the yo-yo game. She figured out quickly that she needs move back when I ask and other than anticipating coming back before I ask she learned to wait until I ask (if I didn't wait too long).
It was a short session but we learned a lot about each other in that short time. We have a good start to our relationship. We identified some needs. And we have a plan for our next short session.
If you are procrastinator like me, keep Pat's little saying in mind. "Do A Little Now, Instead of a Lot Later." Whether you want to write a book, read the entire bible, or become champion partners with a new horse, do a little something about it now! Sometimes later never comes and in the mean time, you can get a lot of little things done!
