[chronicles] Red Roan VI: The Undiscovered Country

[redroanchronicles]

Citizens of the Internet, do not be alarmed. I know what you're thinking: I haven't blogged lately, and you're missing the random stories about my dog, random stories about science, random photos of horses, and other things that start with "random." You've probably been wondering where I've been, and no doubt you've been entertaining worst-case scenarios: bear attack, shark attack, bear-holding-a-shark attack... the possibilities are endless, and with an adventure-filled life like mine, I'm sure you wouldn't be surprised to hear that I'd been busy saving the oceans from jellyfish (I'll get you one day, jellyfish!) or fending off a zombie horde (aim for the head! AIM FOR THE HEAD!).

Oh. You hadn't noticed I was gone? Well, fine then. I don't notice you either. (I actually do, though. Your hair looks great like that.) The truth of the matter is, I've just been a little swamped with real life. I have recently scored what could accurately be considered my dream job, doing graphic design work for Parelli Natural Horsemanship. I'm a student of the Parelli system and an admirer of their graphic style, so it's pretty ideal for me; plus I don't know if you'd realized, but I seem to like playing around with pictures of horses. So I think it's going to be a win-win, and I'm extremely excited about it. I've been finishing up my last few weeks at my current job, where we're working away on a deadline and doing a lot of overtime, and in what's left of my time I'm packing up my life into a pitifully small collection of boxes so I can once again move. This time I'm headed for Pagosa Springs, Colorado, and I'm planning for this move to stick. I've finally reached that point in my life where I do not want to move anymore. At all. Ever. (Unless Lee Pace decides to propose to me and we get to run away to Canada together or something. ILU, Lee Pace. Call me.)

Anyway, I just thought I'd share the good news and reassure you that I will, indeed, get back on the ball with this blog. Soon, my pretties. In the meantime, I'm about to throw you some more science links for your entertainment. Stay tuned.

Comments

[afuna]

This entry has me grinning madly, just so you know :D

[redroanchronicles]

Excellent. My work here is done. ;)

[j00j]

Good luck with your move, and I hope it does stick! And yay awesome job! Watch out for them jellyfish o_O

[redroanchronicles]

Thank you! It looks like an awesome place, though I'm going to have to figure out some way to upgrade my truck (which isn't paid off yet) to a 4-wheel-drive. :-/

[rednikki.livejournal.com]

Awwww! I remember when you got the Parelli DVDs and brought them to our house in Tujunga, years ago!

[redroanchronicles]

Yeah, I've been a student for a pretty long time. One of the great perks of the job is that I get free lessons on the weekends, and I have some access to the new instructional materials and everything too. Plus the job is just terrific all around. :)

[ranunculus]

Woot! Great!

We were just in Fort Collins, which was a really, really nice little city, but I see it is about as far away as you can get from Pagosa Springs and still be in Colorado.

Good luck with the job.

My only comment about the Parelli CD's is that I found them faintly patronizing. I really like the method tho, and think the "carry with you" cards are a brilliant conception. Amusingly enough, when pretty much pure Parelli was used on my horse I watched him begin to manipulate parts of the system to control the person using it. Bugger! I still use a variety of the techniques tho.

[redroanchronicles]

I haven't seen most of Colorado, so it'll be nice to try to explore a bit from here. (Plus the nearest really big city is Albuquerque, and I've never been to New Mexico at all.) Definitely a beautiful state from what I've seen so far, and we're blessed with a particularly gorgeous locale here, especially with the hot springs and the busy hot-air balloon business.

I totally hear you on the Parelli DVDs; for me it depends a lot on who's presenting them. The old levels DVDs were mostly presented by Linda, who is the kind of teacher I do best learning from... somebody who really explains things and is very focused on learning strategies and whatnot. The newer ones are designed to be quicker to get through, and are presented by Pat who has more of a showmanship sort of presentation that I don't learn from as well. (I eventually get a bit exasperated with endlessly repeated sayings and whatnot.) I've gotten a lot out of the program in general though, and I think the Liberty and Horse Behavior DVD set is easily among the top five best horsemanship resources ever created. It's worked very well for me but it's a continual learning process, and things that I think I've got down solid I'll go back to a few years later with some more experience under my belt and go, "Okay, I didn't understand that at ALL before." :D

Like with anything, I keep my mind open and draw my techniques from whatever source works best... I recently used a combination of Parelli techniques and clicker training to work out a needle-shy problem with a friend's horse, and I'll be blogging about that one of these days. I don't like to be dogmatic, and in my mind the best technique is the one that works best for both horse and human to be happy with each other.

[ranunculus]

I'll look forward to your post.

Joe has been a real eye opener for me. I've worked for most of my life to be quiet, gentle and soft with horses. Not for Joe. Joe doesn't even "hear" me if I'm quiet and gentle. Joe hears strong and forceful to begin with and then clear and concise.

[redroanchronicles]

That's actually my biggest problem in my own horsemanship right now, is that after so many years of working with completely wild horses I've learned to keep my energy level way down and my presence and movements quite small. So now I do that even when I should be doing the exact opposite. I have a lot of trouble "bringing my life up," as they say, particularly with my own horse. Now that I've gotten some coaching on it (we get free lessons as employees, woohoo!) I'm getting better, but there's definitely more retraining of myself going on than training of my horse. :D