Johannesburg, Kruger, and Durban! Oh My!

I have a few announcements before I dive into talking about going to South Africa:

I got a job this morning :) Yay! It was scheduled for 7:00 AM, but then the interviewer called at 5:30 and asked if I could come in at 6:00...so sure enough, that's exactly what I did.  I was so tired x.x  He said he already knew he was going to hire me when he called to set up an interview, but I'm sure being able to show up an hour early didn't hurt his first impression of me either.  Score? I do think so.  I'll be working Saturday and Sunday from 1:00 PM to 11:00 PM.  I think it works really well with my school schedule and will provide me with enough time to focus on my academics, too.  My job position?  Laundry assistant!  Not exactly what I had in mind, but it is a job and the company is outstanding. I guess buying that money tree actually gave me some good financial luck ;)

Freckles killed my beta fish...again.  So now I'm on number three!  I haven't named him yet because I still think that even though I put him on my bookshelf, Freckles will end his life some time within a 30 day period.  If he survives passed that, I'll give him a name.

So, AFRICA!  Logan and I have everything reserved and paid for.  Our agenda is all laid out!

We will arrive in Johannesburg at 5:30 PM and stay at MoAfrika Lodge, then that morning we will be picked up to begin our three day camping safari in Kruger National Park.  During the safari we will go on three game drives (two during the day, one at night) and a bush walk.  I've read reviews that the food they serve is AMAZING.  On the drive back to Joburg we will see the Blyde River Canyon, one of the largest (and greenest) canyons on earth.

When we get back from the safari, we will spend another night in MoAfrika Lodge.  The next morning we will go get our rental car and visit The Lion Park!  This park is pretty neat.  You drive through and see all of their lions, and then you get to play with and hold the babies!  We will leave around noon and start our drive to Durban (Six hour drive from JoBurg).  Durban is the largest port in South Africa.

We will stay in the Blue Waters Hotel that night.  It is right along the Indian Ocean.  In the morning we will go to the botanical gardens in Durban where they have plants dating back 2.1 million years.  People say it's like walking into Jurassic Park!  The photography opportunities of plants and birds are going to be exploding out of every crevice! At noon we will leave to do something that I've been wanting to do since I was little girl (besides go to Africa, of course)...riding horses on the beach, and then swimming with them!  It will be a six hour round trip ride.  We will spend 2 1/2 hours riding to the beach through the bush, and then we will have lunch on the shore and swim with the horses.  We will ride back afterwards.  Expect A TON of pictures :)  Poor Logan's butt is going to be killing him!  Hee hee hee ;)

The next day we will spend the majority of the morning shopping in one of South Africa's largest shopping centers (so big it has its own hotel!).  We will have lunch at a Beluga and stuff our faces with fresh caught sushi and ostrich steak before heading back to Johannesburg.  We will get to Joburg around 8:00 PM and will lodge at the Misty Hill Country Hotel.  This place should be called a resort, not a hotel!  We will go to the Lion and Rhino Reserve the following day, take a swim at the hotel and relax, then have dinner at a renown restaurant called Carnivore.  They serve very authentic African food such as zebra, gazelle, giraffe, and more.  They literally stab a piece of meat with a spear, cook it over an open flame in front of you, then slice off pieces on your table.  The day we are scheduled to leave we will go to the Maropeng and Sterkfontein Caves which have some of the oldest hominids on the planet.  It is called the Cradle of Mankind because of the numerous important scientific discoveries involving hominid evolution.  I'm pretty excited to see that.  We will head back to the airport around 2:00 PM to drop off the rental car and start the process of heading back to America.  

Going to South Africa will be such an adventure!  I feel safe going with Logan, and I think we will have a fantastic time.  I wouldn't be doing this if it weren't for him.  The circumstances may be different as to why we are going, but I'm not worried about it.  It doesn't change the fact we are friends and share this vision.  Expect a lot of pictures and a lot of new stories!

Sooo I was wrong...

On my last blog post I talked about what great progress Buck and I had made.  I said that it would take a lot of work and time to be able to ride brideless in an uncontrollable environment (because that is honestly what I thought).  Tonight, Buck proved me entirely wrong, and then shoved it in my face a little bit!

Today my mom bought me a dressage crop (or training crop, whichever you want to use.  It's a 3 foot long, skinny stick basically).  We thought it may be a good idea to see how Buck would react to a smaller, harder to see object rather than using the carrot stick.  I've been wanting to be "smaller" in my movements when I ask him to do something, and the dressage crop would help make the transition.  I first started out putting Buck through his paces on the ground.  Side passing, rotating on the front and back, and backing up and coming back to me were a piece of cake.  The dressage crop seemed to make no difference, although I could tell he recognized something was different.  I decided to try riding him brideless again in our dry lot area to see if he had processed the idea of it a little more.  He sure did!  I stepped out on the ledge and chose to use the dressage crop instead of two carrot sticks to see how he would respond...even better than with the carrot sticks!  LESS really is MORE!  We were trotting around and weaving in and our of our fruit trees within minutes.  I asked my mom if she would walk around the block with us (for safety seeming how it would be his first time in a situation like that).  She said yes so off we went!  I had my Savvy string around his neck and the crop in one hand.  My mom walked behind us the entire time.

It was amazing.  Cars passing by? No problem!  Sprinklers going off on both sides of the road at one time?  Easy!  Little kids running up to him?  Loved it!  Lighting and three other horses calling for him?  They weren't even there!  Buck had his head dropped and was actually stretching out his neck for the whole ride.  His bottom lip was floppy and his ears were forward.  Talk about a happy horse!

Buck had obviously processed from our first time riding brideless on Friday.  His anxiety has plummeted and he is responding to me better than when I have ridden him in anything else.  The things Buck and I will accomplish in this next year are beyond me.  I have told people that he continues to surprise me every time I work with him.  

I'm actually kind of sad to be leaving for ten days in August.  Going to Africa will be AMAZING, but I'm going to miss Buck and working with him nightly...hopefully he won't be too upset at me...or maybe it will just make him miss me ;)

My Mind Has Been Blown.

I woke up this morning in one of the worst moods I've ever been in due to a horrible night's rest and several days of building stress.  Despite how I was feeling, however, I decided I needed to go see Jenny and Larry and attend at least part of the horse clinic that was being held today.  When we got there my mood improved slowly, and by the time 10:00 came around I had left all my troubles behind and was focusing on what was in store for today--FUN!

Buck and I began the day with a light grooming and then traveled over to Craig's indoor arena that was filled with all sorts of obstacles.  We did everything at liberty, which means I have no direct contact with Buck and I have to use my body language and my carrot stick to direct him through objects.  He was such a good boy.  We squeezed through some things, did several figure eights through barrels, side passed over a big blue ball and a white barrel that had tipped over, and walked over some "scary" objects.  It was a good start to a soon to be great day.


When Jenny began instruction she asked if we wanted to ride.  My confidence in Buck (and myself) has improved immensely since being back from New Mexico, so I was actually quite excited about it.  I got him to side pass over to a fence that I was sitting on so I could mount him easily, and then we did partner riding.  Partner riding is when you ride your horse, but you do not direct them where to go (no touching the rein!).  However, you do control the pace of the horse. That was a great warm up to remind me how my muscles, body position, and speech effect how Buck operates while I'm riding him.  We worked in the round pen for a while doing that, and then we moved on to something different--riding with a carrot stick.  

A carrot stick is a fiber glass stick that is about four or so feet long.  When we ride with just a carrot stick, we direct the horse by putting pressure on the horse's face, which makes it turn.  If we want them to stop, we put the carrot stick on their chest.  If we want them to keep doing whatever it is they are doing, we move to a neutral position which is either resting the carrot stick on our shoulder or putting it down to our side.  Of course, I think that makes it seem a lot simpler than it actually is, but you get the idea.  Buck quickly picked up what I was trying to get him to do and I felt much better about my own performance compared to the brief time in New Mexico that I did it.  We eventually ended up cantering for a bit in the round pen.  At one point he did a small skip/jump type thing because he was so happy.  Talk about amazing!

When we got back from taking a lunch break, a lot of exciting things happened (Well, more exciting things).  I wanted to try cantering Buck with just two carrot sticks outside of the round pen.  I was so excited to see what would happen, and I had a lot of confidence in Buck that he would be great.  And that he was!  We cantered outside the round pen with ease.  He stayed close to the rail for the most part and listened to my directions.  
He tested me at some points, but I didn't let him get away from me and we ended on some great strides.  I really wanted to have someone take a video of it, but maybe next time :)  By the end of it, I was really, really tired.  It took a lot of energy!  Buck could have kept going though, and I think he wanted to in fact.

Before I dismounted we went back into the indoor arena and went through the obstacles one more time (carrot stick riding all the while!.) Not a problem!  I was able to roll the big blue ball underneath his belly with my carrot sticks and put his front and back feet in a hoolahoop (Second time ever Buck has let me put his back feet in something, big deal for a horse!).  I got off and did something I found pretty funny.  I took the blue yoga ball and started bouncing it off of Buck's sides.  Neck, barrel, butt, bouncing it over the top of him, he didn't care!  I eventually ended up picking up his front leg hoof, placing it on the ball, stretching it out, and rubbing it gently.  And what a stretch it was!  He really enjoyed relaxing his leg on the ball.  His eyes closed and everything.  Who would have thunk?!

I feel like I should add in here that I do not ride with a saddle.  I don't think it is necessary!  The feeling of being able to control a 1,200 pound horse at a canter with just two sticks is invigorating.  The fact that Buck chooses to listen to me under these circumstances is amazing.  He could easily throw me or take off running with me, but he chooses not to because he wants to be with me and he wants to do well.  Thank you, Buck!  Of course, at this point in time everything is in a controlled environment.  It will take a lot more work to be able to ride safely in areas that create anxiety for Buck.  But for now, I think we have made a huge step in the right direction.

It is really quite astonishing to see how far Buck (and I) have come since our first clinic.  Buck was a hard, dull horse.  I had only ridden English and Western, and I knew the kind of horse Buck was.  To say the least, I was not looking forward to working with him to any extent.  It felt more like a chore I was doing for my mom.  Buck would not back up without having to push and pull on him.  He would invade your space like you weren't even there.  And he was a nightmare to ride.  
Now, with the natural horsemanship skills I have acquired thanks to several wonderful people (Jenny, Larry, Steve, Craig, John, and my mom), I can get Buck to back up 30 feet with just a flick of a string, I can get him to disengage his hind end with a point of my finger and a look, and I can ride him brideless.  It is amazing how little a horse needs to get it to look at you with excitement, willingness, and love.  For 20 years, Buck's entire life, he has been ridden the wrong way.  Now, he is finally able to feel what it is like to be a horse that has fun and enjoys being ridden!

What I am learning is invaluable.  Every time I work with Buck my life changes a little bit more.  To me, this is the only way to manage a horse.  I look back on how I would get a horse to do things before, and it was completely ineffective and dumb.  This is the right way.  This is the way a horse was meant to be used.