Natural Horsemanship Playday

Some of the Parelli folks around here got together for a playday on Sunday. We joined them for some groundwork and some riding exercises. It's always educational to see someone work through the exercises in person. Here are a few photos:

Ranae doin' a little work.

Come on over big fella

See.  Nuthin' to be afraid of.

Why kids make good horse trainers.

Trotting over the sundial poles.

A little sidepassing

Look at her eye here. I think she fell asleep on me.

Backing IN the trailer.

A Quick Video Post

The podcast has been keeping us fairly busy. It is a lot more work than I ever thought it would be. Anyway, we had taken some video on our last ride out at the river. It is from January 8th and it's short. We found some pipes laying on the ground and Jessie and went to work on them. Boy, it's oftentime difficult watching yourself. My posture is terrible and when we are side-passing, I'm leaning forward. What's up with that? It causes Jessie to back up and the whole side-pass gets messed up.

Ranae was having a good time going through these gullies. Dusty stayed nice and calm. This is a fun place to ride. If you look closely you will see a stand of trees in the background. That was where we wanted to do some jogging around the trees but there was too much deadfall.

It's just three minutes long. Enjoy!

Episode Four of the Podcast

I'm duplicating posts here and on our other blog, DUH Podcast.blogspot.com for a short time, just to keep those interested informed on the progress of our podcast. We hope you'e subscribe and if you use itunes, please rate our podcast. Thanks.


We're looking at the stats and the good news is you are finding us. We don't know exactly how, but we certainly appreciate it. Thank you.

In Episode Four we try and transform this thing into a regular show. We've added some production elements in the hopes it will be more interesting to listen to. We've added a feature called "Problems We Used to Have" and you'll get an update on Ranae's trailering problem. There's Downunder Horsemanship News with an update from the latest No Worries Club Journal, and you'll get health update, along with a question from the mailbag.

As always, your feedback is important.

Episode 4

The Podcast Episode 2

We've been working out the technical bugs to the podcast. There are still some challenges ahead. Once we get these worked out, I think we'll sound more relaxed and comfortable at the mic. It's a tricky situation trying tot juggle sound levels, content, and pacing when everything is new to us. We will get these things worked out. We will be adding some more production elements. We would like to add some interviews. If you would like to share your Downunder Horsemanship experiences, please contact us at jharrer@pacbell.net and put DUH Podcast in the header.  We'll set up a convenient time, and give you a number to call so we can record the interview.  Don't worry, we can edit out the bad parts ;>)


Anyway, here is Episode 2 Oh, and just one note. They do seem to take a minute to load on my computer, so be patient. Or go to itunes and subscribe :>)

Our Podcast

Ranae and I have started a podcast. It is available on itunes. Just do a search for DUH podcast. We hope you will enjoy it. We hope you will participate. We hope we can keep it interesting. Here's Episode 2.

Episode 2

My Year-end Tribute To Jessie

Each year I try to compile some of the unused video and photos we've shot to put together a montage of our year. This year I put the video to a mashup of my favorite "Downunder Horsemanship" songs. (My audio editing still leaves much to be desired) Some of these clips where from our ill-fated movie, "The Method is Bogus", a sarcastic look at the training technique. Yes, we had a script and everything. Unfortunately, we were well into production when we learned that I cannot act, and the project was put on hold.

Other than that there was not a whole lot to choose from as 2011 was a year where I worked more on my photography than my videography. Looking back I didn't realize how many times I stood up on her. Jessie is such a good horse and continues to be a shining light in my life.

Happy New Year

California has been experiencing some very mild weather and we've been fortunate to ride not only Christmas Weekend, but New Year's Weekend as well.  The horses are doing very well.  We took some cones out to the Airpark field and worked on a number of exercises.  These cones were under ten bucks and they are easy to carry.  We can set them up in a flash and they let us do all kinds of exercises with them.   They act as our trees if we are bending.  At the trot we can two-track to weave in between them and at the lope they work well to help us keep a decent circle.

Here are a few photos from the rides:

Ranae loping at the Airpark field.

Ranae and Dusty practising their Steeplechase

Jessie the side-passing monster

Doing circles around our "tree"

Practising our lope-over skills
Hope you are getting to ride!