Reader beware : This is three days of blogging all thrown into one... it will be long and hopefully not very arduous of a read...good luck....
Day One, Game of Contact with Amy Bowers
This morning we started with theory in the lovely classroom
at the 17 Ranch. Amy had an incredibly comprehensive power point to try and get
it through my thick skull what this thing of contact really is to us and our
horses. It started with some definitions, what the USDF says contact is and
then some good banana/ bad banana pictures, lots about posture, and how to tell
if the horse is using his body. I really took away from it to read the WHOLE
picture. Not just focus on “oh, my, that horse has his ears kind of back, he
must be unhappy” if also, the eyes, nose and mouth are soft, the tail is soft,
the neck is long and stretched and the hind leg is tracking up to a stretched
back.
There were lots of photo demos on how to see each piece –
Nose, Neck, maybe the Feet. That was really helpful to see, and then also to
read the stride length. A horse should track true – have the hind foot fall in
the front foot hoof print – otherwise there is a pushing leg vs a carrying leg,
which was news to me! I love learning! I am really really LOVING this whole
experience because I get to be the learner.
Sure, I learn every time I play with my horses at home, but
it is way different to be presented a mostly new concept, in company with all
new friends and just get to spend three whole days with my pony LEARNING! I am
such an OCD student, I just adore learning. If I could be in school all the
time, I totally would be.
Anyways. Relevance. Power Point. We did tons of simulations. How to have a
following hand on the reins, sitting on the edge of your chair and engaging
your core, sucking back your belly button and knitting your ribs [don’t forget
to breathe] We also learned about having resting hands on the reins, engaging
your triceps not your biceps, how to have jelly fingers, and how to have strong
L-bows and not straight-bows. Oh, and
how to play with taking the contact while giving micro-releases! AND [can you
tell I am coming back and adding these as I remember them? It was a long day,
go easy on me] AND how to have hinged shoulders.
There was a great section on the stages of the Game of
Contact. Stage 1 being Confidence – can your horse accept contact while
maintaining gait and direction, so not slowing down when you pick up the reins.
Stage 2 being Stretch – can you ask your horse to stretch into that feel on the
reins. Stage 3 is Frame, where you ask your horse to hold your hand, and Stage
4 is Collection where all the fancy stuff happens!
After uber loads of amazing information we got to go out to
the arena and play with more simulations on some barrels. Man oh man I am
grateful to simulations! Imagine if we HAD to learn this all while riding a
moving, emotionally sensitive, living, breathing horse.... HA! Once on the
barrels we tried to get our bodies in the correct power positions, doing the
Michael Jackson with your hips, sucking your belly button back and knitting
your ribs. Once you were strong, we had a set of reins to pick up and remember
to keep resting hands on and then you get to try and rise, posting THROUGH your
elbows, while leaving them behind to hold that steady contact for your ‘horse’.
Oh, and breathing is good too.
Personally, I am stiff through my upper body/shoulders kind
of area, so figuring out that I wasn’t hinging my shoulders enough was a great
eye opener for me, so I can really focus on that. I really need to leave my
elbow behind and come between them to post. Also, by leaving them behind, it
causes you to not over-post, which is a tendency of mine so YEY!
I was really lucky today, for my simulations because I got
to pair up with Genevieve, who is an instructor and assisting Amy this weekend,
so I got lots of instant feedback and lots of it was positive! I was pretty excited about that. With
something as sensitive to ME as contact, I really want to make sure I am doing
it right. Me and Mo both get RBI about bits and contact and reins. There is a
reason Freestyle is my passed L4 savvy you know....
After the barrel simulations came some walking around ones
with learning how to pick up the reins and what to do if our ‘horse’ [reads
human, holding reins] stops. The idea was to take to contact a little, and turn
using your whole upper body/shoulders/both hands and release so that they then
take a step forward. Surprise, I had trouble with this at the start! Turn my
shoulders... huh??? I didn’t even realise I was stiff there until today. Amy
really broke it down for me and showed me how to not do more than my ‘horse’
and I was finally able to understand and make my body do what I needed it to
do. YEY!
When we had our ‘horses’ and ourselves feeling good about
what to do if they stopped, they were told to keep going so we could play with
asking for stretch. That whole micro release thing was all new to me, so
building that feel is still a working in progress. With the feedback of my
‘horse’ though, I was able to make some changes and learn lots.
Then came demo time. Amy asked for a demo horse and since I
have been kind of stuck with stuff, and figured who better to help Mo be
unstuck than a super-teacher like Amy, I practically jumped up and down when
she asked. So Mo got to be a demo horse! I can think of how many people besides
me have ever played with or ridden Mo, and list them on one hand. It isn’t
many. I am very honored that Amy chose to play with my Mo. And very excited!
And very very very [!] full of learning from watching that experience!
Enter Mo. I somehow spazzed and forgot my saddle pad.
Seriously me, Really? How do you do that? Anyways, I got lucky because Don
Halladay, who is probably my favorite Canadian instructor, was also riding in
this clinic [ somehow I get to be around and ride with the only 5* instructor
in Canada....??? I think I must be the luckiest person around?] and he happened
to have a spare theraflex [though western, so Mo is all cross-dressy now] I can
borrow for the weekend! PHEW!!!! Crisis averted.
So I got Mo, I got her tack, plus a 22’ and stick/string. Mo
herself looked kind of crummy., I have to say. Not out of shape or anything,
but just skuzzy dirty. It was too cold to give her a bath and her fur is in
that in-between summer/winter length so it just gets dustier when I brush
her.... alas.... Into the arena we go,
by herself, to be stared at by 8 riders and ... X amount of auditors... Not
many, I think there are 13 of us all together.
Awesome small group! She got tight pretty quick, but she is Mo, and so
she was still really obedient and waited for Amy to come take over. She was
REALLY RBI. Probably the most I have seen her be that way is a while.
It was so so so so so soooooooooooooooooooooo amazing to
watch Amy play with Mo on the ground. Her goal was Calm, Connected, Responsive.
Right away she said she had connection and responsiveness, but not calm. It was
awesome to see the tiny ways she pointed it out, just little tensions around
her ears, eyes and nose. Her lead was mostly level, her tail was free swinging
and her gait was... normalish. She was a little looky and a little jumpy, but
it was also crazy windy and the indoor was making lots of noise. Amy started with
just little things like checking out the rail, point to points across the
arena, just little things that all flowed together to help Mo get calmer. Then
she put her on a circle, and at first Mo was really unconfident and kept asking
to come in, so it became a game of maintain gait and direction, and wait for
relaxation. I kept expecting Mo to drop her head and blow out any second,
because that’s what usually happens, but somehow, each time she almost did that
[or I thought she was about to] she instead nickered for the other horses! That
is the first time I have EVER seen her do something like that! She is *usually*
the least herd bound horse I know! How
interesting!
It took a really really long time for Mo to give any sign of
relaxing. When she licked and chewed, Amy brought her in. And then off they
went again, and finally she blew a little, and then Amy saddled her. Mo was a
star for that; she knows that job pretty well. Some more moving about for the
girth tightening and a little more calmness, but still not my usual super calm
Mo. It was so... almost surreal.... to see her like that. The weather I think,
and the new space, and the being alone in front of a whole bunch of predators
plus a new person handling her, I guess was a lot when she was already kind of
hanging out in that right brain place.
Mo rocked bridling. I have to say. I love that. It’s my
favorite. Right up there with sideways over for mounting, the fact that I have
to be careful to keep the bit OUT of her mouth when I bring the bridle over
because she tries to take it when I carry it, just makes my heart happy. After being bridled, Amy did some bit
isolations with her. This is where it got SO INTERESTING!!! I knew Mo was
fairly RBI about the bit/bridle/contact. What she showed us today was RBI to
almost CATATONIC!
The idea of the bit isolations is to teach the horse how to
follow the feel of the bit by stretching down. You lift the bit into the
corners of the horse’s mouth and then when they try and seek downwards you
release. Generally this isn’t to
challenging of a concept for most horses, and they get it pretty quickly. I
KNOW Mo gets this under saddle, because we are kinda stuck in Stretch right
now. BUT! On the ground, she just checked out, completely blank, zero try, just
gone. Wow.
The biggest thing about contact that Amy was explaining to
us today is how it is way more of an emotionally sensitive area than physically
sensitive. As long as the pressure is applied sloooowly, it depends on the
horse how much they wish to take. That was supremely expressed to me this afternoon via Mo. Amy
said that that was the most pressure she has put on a horse before achieving a
response! Mo was just so ... gone? ... that she wasn’t even trying or looking for
an answer for a very long time. A very very long time. Amy was amazing, she
just took the time with her, just kept asking for any kind of try and when Mo
dipped her head a fraction of an inch, there was release. FINALLY she started
to come out of it and try. A few really good tries and thats when Amy got on.
She was just looking for Mo to try something – ANYTHING. Just to look for an
answer. So once she did, she had that connection and so they moved on.
Once she mounted and walked off, Mo blew and blew and blew.
That was really cool. She was letting go of all that tension she had been
holding on the ground. To warm up to be ready to ride play the Game, Amy used
the follow the rail pattern with Steady Rein and transitions to gain
connection. Mo was pretty mellow during that, at first not very responsive to
body/leg, but getting lighter with each transition. When she was ready, Amy
picked up the reins at the walk to check stage 1 – confidence, and got right
into a great stretch [stage 2] so they went off at a trot and Mo stretched some
more and that was it! Amy got off and explained how keeping things short, sweet
and successful was VERY important to developing great contact.
And so, it came to be, that I got my Mo back, with LOADS to
lick and chew over for myself while we waited for the other riders to go and
get their horses. One of the super interesting things that happened was that
each time Amy offered a horsemans handshake to Mo, she wouldn’t touch her. Now,
normally, Mo is a pretty touchy feely horse. She snuffles you, tries to raid
your pockets and generally licks every square inch of you. I found it really interesting that she didn’t
even want to really be touched on her face at all during that time. Though, on
the flip side, she absolutely sidled up to Amy and begged her to scratch the itchies
between her hind legs. Several times. Silly goober. Shedding season is great
for relationship building! Everything is itchy!
While we waited for the others to come back, I allowed Mo to
decompress, loved on her, scratched her, and then played with some more bit
isolations while everyone else came in and warmed up. She was way more engaged,
had way more try and more thoughts about the whole thing, which was amazing! It
took mostly very little to cause her to think down. She really understood the
idea now. YEY!!
When it was time, I got back on and we warmed up until we
were connected, doing loads of transitions because she was pretty impulsion
low. When I went to ask for the stretch
she offered it right away at the walk, so I trotted and got maybe two rounds of
the arena getting some nice stretch and then she gave me a great one with some
power and I quit there. I didn’t want to overkill the nice things Amy had done
for her! Short, sweet and successful, right!
I watched everyone else finish riding, and it was really
interesting to see other people with their horses, and how they responded, and
see every one else’s look of supreme concentration and feel ok that I wasn’t
the only one having to try so hard to keep my
dots together!
Finally everyone found a positive note to end on and we
called it a day. Mo got to go back out to her paddock and get her dinner and a
big hug, and I went to find myself dinner, and return to this lovely place
where I am staying, with amazing people. Parelli people are some of the nicest
people I know ! I even forgot my lunch here today, and since she noticed, and
was bringing the catered lunch to the Ranch, my host brought my lunch to the
ranch for me! How does it get nicer than that? I am so lucky to be here! Last
time I came to the 17, it was August and I slept in my trailer! The forecast
says -6 tonight, boy am I glad I don’t have to sleep in my trailer!
And so day one ends, some 2600 ish words later, and its just
the beginning, plus I am sure I forgot some parts. The same way I fogot my
saddle pad, I also forgot my note pad. *sigh* Oh well. Its a good brain work
out to try and remember!
I cant wait for tomorrow! There is so much more to learn!
:D
S
Day Two, Game of Contact with Amy Bowers
Day two was just as informative and amazing as day one! My
brain is on overload, so hopefully I can make some coherent sense out of what I
learned, in hopes of future-me re-reading this and remembering what I will have
forgotten by then!
It was COLD this morning! Many layers were worn, complete
with mittens! Mo was happy to come trotting over this morning and get her
brekky. She likes food, my Mo. She likes it a lot! She managed to be cleaner
this morning too, somehow. Yesterday she was a mess. Sooooo dusty! Something
must have gone well in grass-bed, because she was much more manageably
clean-ish. Yey. Made me feel better anyways, about not presenting a dirty horse
I could do nothing about!
After Mo’s breakfast was inhaled, we went out and played a
little. Mo seemed to be sticking in RB land a little more than usual since we
arrived, so I wanted to take the time to really reconnect with her on our own
terms without the pressure of a learning environment. It went really really
well. We were just out in the herd paddock where they have been turned out, and
on a 12’ rope. We played with lots of
stick to me transitions and some circles and a little sideways. Just little
flowy things that connected us and made Mo feel good. It must have worked,
because she was a star and right with me for the rest of the day!
At 9am we met Amy in the arena for more simulations. THANK
GOODNESS for simulations! I just can’t get enough of them! They are so great
for helping prepare us for what we will feel with the horses so that we are
ready for them! We started on a barrel
on the ground, like yesterday. The goal was to remember everything from
yesterday, and add resting hands to the simulation. SO: Crunch your dots[ MJ move, suck back
belly button, knit ribs] push your knee DOWN, heels out and rest your hands....
now POST! Excellent.
We also did some more with our people partners being the
horse, where we learned about turning. Slow down, engage your core then turn
with both hands and shoulders – it takes so much less that I thought it would !
WOW! I revisited my jelly fingers asking for a stretch too, and I think my
fingers were frozen because I seemed to have lost it completely. I did manage
to get it back by then end of the simulation though, so that was ok. We also
played with weighting the stirrups but weighting out partners shoulders. There was also a hand-holding simulation
where the two people hold hands with a really light feel, a hard feel and then
resting hands. It was so cool to feel how light felt so tentative and almost
creepy, that you didn’t want to follow the person, hard felt rude and you
wanted to object and refuse, and then resting hands felt natural and great and
you actually ended up falling into step with the other person! How interesting!
After the simulations in the arena, Amy brought us out to
the lovely Steady Eddie that Don had built for us! OH BOY! Let the torture
begin! :D Everyone got their turn on Mr. Eddie, and since we went by descending
height, I was last. Surprise! When I got to go, I played with turning my heels
out, I have a big tendency to tuck them in. Amy showed us how having turned out
toes can cause instability by having us stand that way, and pushing the leg and
the person falling over, and then pushing the leg when the heel was out, with
the person being completely stable in that position. I really have to play with connecting my
dots. I tend to leave behind my bottom dot, but I made some progress on Steady Eddie, really focusing on more
crunch going up. I also got to practice my hinging elbows and resting hands.
Great learning experience! I can’t wait to do it at home!
After a short break Amy played with Randee Halladay’s horse
Rio. He was very very tight through his body and neck, and from previous
training, just had a ‘headset’ when the reins were picked up and Randee was
having a hard time helping him find the open door in the bit, since he saw only
a barrier. Amy played with him on the ground, where he started off very tense.
All his neck muscles were bulging with tension, his neck was short and his
stride was tiny.
I learned a HUGE thing in this demo. The horse was RBI, and
with an RBI we know we need to wait, wait and wait some more. Often this looks
like the horse standing beside us doing nothing. Amy made a point today of saying
that having him out on the circle, using consistency on said circle as a
pattern was ALSO waiting. She was waiting for his connection to his job out on
the circle! That just hit me like a ton of bricks. It made so much sense.
Obviously, you and your horse need a fair level of competency before pushing it
to that kind of wait, but still! Brain explosion.
Once Amy got the calm, connected and responsive horse she
was looking for on the ground, she put the bridle on and played with bit
isolations. Those went fairly smoothly and he got the point. With such a great
set up, it wasn’t long before he was really trying under saddle too. It took a
bit, but not long at all. Rewarding the tiniest tries and then he kept offering
more and more! What a cool transformation – he looked like a completely
different horse when they finished. His neck was stretched and he was
RELAXED! Very very cool demonstration.
After lunch time we were split into two groups to ride, so
there would be more one-on-one esque time. I opted to ride in the second group,
so I got to watch the first group. Lots of really cool, really nice changes
from yesterday. Lots of stretching, everyone was in stage 2 I think. Even the
super adorable mule! There was one horse having some trouble so Amy decided to
get on him. It was a Rocky Mountain Horse, and he was gaited. The interesting
this was that in the beginning, he was doing everything crazy with his feet. He
would walk, gait some, gait different, trot, and then oscillate through all
them all over again while being asked to stretch. Amy stuck it out with him,
rewarding any kind of try for down. The horse kind of just ran away with
himself for a little while. AND THEN! Then he got it! And just like that, he
was stretching and consistently TROTTING! How cool is that? He sorted out his
emotions about the bit and it sorted out his emotions about his feet.
Finally it was our turn to go get our horses, while the
auditors got a turn on Steady Eddie. When I whistled for Mo, she lifted her
head, which was awesome, and then when I climbed over the fence, she came over,
which was even better! She was looking very happy, very positive. I must have
done something right in the morning! We went to the trailer to grab a bush for
her mane and body and headed into the arena. We were the first ones there which
was kind of nice. Mo took herself right in, all with me in zone five, so I was
really proud of her confidence. I brushed her up real quick and somehow managed
not to stir up the dust lurking beneath those furs. She was looking great and
we started to play, again with little stick to me’s, and then a little bit of
point to points and some circles. She was connected but not 100% when the other
horses came in, so I made an imaginary figure eight on the ground, and thats when
I really got her focus and attention. I really played with my draw, and getting
that thought to me before re-sending her. When the trot was good we played with
simple changes through the turns, which is really the first time I had thought
about it like that, and it went GREAT.
Mo tried so hard! She was a real star! We wandered over to
get saddled, again thanking my lucky stars that Don had a spare pad I could
use! And then back to our pretend figure eight for a little, and then to the
bridle. In Harrisburg, Avery was there with her horse Ahug. When I was in
Florida for my first six week course, she was on faculty with her other horse
Akiss, and she totally inspired me to want great bridling with him and his
enthusiasm to come over and take that bridle! In Harrisburg, Avery was holding
the bridle to Ahug while RUNNING away and he came after her to get it and pick
up that bit! That was in my mind today, as I picked up the bridle and walked
away from Mo, holding it out for her to take. Mo was a superstar and came with
and picked it right up while I was walking! Pretty cool if you ask me :D Maybe
someday we will be as good as Avery and Ahug, because that was pretty amazing
to see!
We played with more bit isolations, and Mo was right on
today. She really understood from yesterday and really was thinking down when
there was any pressure on the bit. When we got the go-ahead from Amy, I mounted
and we warmed up with a follow the rail using steady rein. Mo was pretty mellow, stretchy on her own,
and doing her thing. So instead of going ahead and asking for stretch in the
trot right away, Amy had me take some time to work on my body. OH! Did I
mention that when I asked Amy to check my stirrup length, they went UP two more
holes?! Yikes! I felt like a jockey! Time to stretch those hip flexors and get
those toes up! To help me do this, I was to stand in my stirrups, sink and
centre my weight and then walk around... It is HARD to stand in your stirrups
while your horse walks! AND you cant just stand and hollow.... nooooooo, it has
to be standing, core engaged, POWER. So that was fun. I played a lot in my body
to see what worked and what didn’t to keep my balance and not get hollow. We
also did some trotting like that too. It was a little easier at the trot
somehow.... the momentum maybe? Either way, still a challenge. The goal is for
a more straight upright stand, but for the time being, I am pretty forward in
my upper body because I just don’t have the strength I need yet. YET!
After that I asked for some stretch and it came easy! YEY
MO! She went right away into a great stretch so we only did a little before
quitting for the day. Short, sweet and successful! Mo rocked it.
Then we got to watch a great demo with Todd’s horse who was
also having trouble seeing the open door down through the bit. She was being so
great and obedient by yielding to pressure, she wasn’t pushing through it to
stretch. Once again, an amazing
transformation in the whole look of the horse. Before, her stride was short and
quick and her neck was contracted and
tight. After Amy finished with her, she was long through her stride and neck
and stretched over her back! It took a really long time though, for her to even
try and look for the open door. A really big lesson on using pressure
appropriately, and applying it slowly, but effectively until you get a
response. Amy tried being light at first, with no response and so then just
upped the ante until there was any kind of try with her. Each teensy tiny try,
there was a release. Eventually the tries got bigger and then so did the
stretch. It was really cool to see.
And such was the end of day two. We all hung out chatting
for a while after, nobody wanted to leave! I also got to watch Don ride his
other horse after the ‘official’ end of the day, and see how that went with
asking for stage 1 and 2. I am really
truly lucky to be able to be here this weekend and be able to surround myself
with such top caliber horse people!
So, another 2100 words later, day two has concluded.
Tomorrow we get to play with stage three and I cant wait!!!!! Mo is going to
rock it :D
:D
S
Day Three, Game of Contact with Amy Bowers
I have decided I am the luckiest person in the whole world.
Today, my horse was a rockstar, I got to hang out with an amazing horsewoman in
Amy, and I also somehow managed to get myself invited to dinner with Genevieve [3 Star instructor] and Don and
Randee Halladay [ 5 and 2 star instructors!]!
I learned so much today. I learned so much this whole
adventure. Also, I saw three amish buggies on my way home tonight. So that was
super cool. I also got to finish my day with an after dinner bareback and
bridles ride with Mo. The interesting thing about this ride was that usually
when I haven’t ridden bareback in a long time, riding in a saddle makes me a
bad bareback rider.... but after thinking about our biomechanics all weekend,
somehow I had such a great bareback ride, like I have been riding bareback all
along! So yey :D Mo was happy and so was I!
So, happy me, happy horse. Though, sad me a little, because
we now all have to go home and the learning doesn’t keep going – well it does,
but not in the same way. I wont have Amy’s expert eye watching everything, nor
will I be able to pick her brain and get amazing and thorough answers to every
question I come up with – and there are many! I was blown away with how
knowledgeable she is on this topic – and with any other question to really.
Every question we had, Amy had a spectacular answer for. A thorough, why we do
it this way and how we accomplish to what end. It was great! I think we all
felt very confident and comfortable in Amy’s capable hands, to take us through
this potentially intimidating subject matter!
Today we started out on Steady Eddie again, for more
torture! It was GREAT! Bet you don’t hear that very often..... only from crazy
obsessive learners I guess. I learned so much about my posture. We really
played with keeping our backs on the pole today, resting hands and pushing that
knee down. Also turning through the shoulders, pivoting around the pole. My
shoulders are very stiff, I learned, and so Mr. Eddie helped me figure it out,
and I also played with it on Mo too, especially later on my bareback ride. Very
cool stuff. I learned how to tip [your shoulders to gain momentum] tuck [you
bottom to keep your dots together] and push [from your seat to rise, not from
your ankles]. With my shoulders, yesterday Genevieve gave me a great analogy to
think about – use your shoulders to channel the horse. Make a trail between
your shoulders and hands for the horse to follow. It makes sense in my head anyways... it
helped me.
After everyone got their turn for learning posture, we did
some simulations about hand position and body stability. If you stand on the
ground and set yourself up like you were riding, and really focus on your core,
and having strong elbows in the right position, with even your wrists right,
you are virtually immovable! Take away
just one of those, say turn your wrists so the flat of your hands is up, and
poof, instability. Or turn your heels in, knocked over. Lean to far back, out
of alignment with your hips, over. To far forward, over. It was amazing how
positively STABLE this one position is. I cant wait until it comes naturally to
me!
After our simulations Amy did a demo on starting Stage 3,
Frame, with a LBE/RBE cusp horse, which was really cool. The ground warm up, as
always, was really important, looking for calm, connected and responsive. It was really interesting because this was
the first really extroverted horse that Amy got to play with on the ground, and
it was so cool to see her change tact compared to the introvert horses. She
really got his attention, changed the games often and proved her leadership. It
wasn’t long at all before he was with her. Through riding he was very stretchy,
so then she introduced the pattern for moving into Frame which was walk, ask for the stretch,
through the stretch as for the trot, once in the trot, gather the reins and ask
for frame for two seconds, when they find the calm spot [if they are fighting
or pushing, say] ask for the walk and stretch again. Really great, really
simple pattern, that really makes sense to horses. And me! Thats the best part
I think! I can understand and apply this pattern, hopefully, to success!
We broke for lunch after the demo and I was in the first set
to ride. When I went out and whistled for Mo, she made my heart very happy by
coming right on over. We had had a little play session this morning again, just
at liberty after I put her away from breakfast. She was in a great mood, and we
moseyed our way into the arena. During our warm up, we played with a very few
point to points, some little stick to me’s, some great canter maintain gait
circles, and she made me so happy when I imagined up my figure eight again
because she offered out some great simple changes, and tried so hard to get a
couple flying ones! She missed them, but fixed herself within a stride or two
instead of her regular ... never. :D
We saddled and did a little more, and then bridled with me
walking away from her again, which was rocking awesome! I love Mo! She tries so
hard! I really must make her her molasses cookies again, she loves them so much
and offers soooooo much for them! We checked our bit isolations again as well.
They seemed intact, and waaay better than day one! She was trying so hard. When
I got on, we didn’t have much impulsion, so I just played around with me and my
body. Standing in the stirrups again was my task, so walking the rail was
peachy keen for me. We did a few transitions too, just getting some impulsion
balanced.
We started the stage 3 pattern, and it seemed to go ok, but
then I lost my go and a little bit of stretch, so Amy suggested we break it
back down to stretch in the walk. I went back to that, and when Mo felt good, I
tried picking her up again, and it went much better. Her tendency is still to
come behind the bit, but its just her unconfidence I think. Amy said just to
ignore it for now, so I will. Just play with lots of little asks, build her
confidence and the rest will follow. I just have to trust that for now! I
completely believe it will. Everything else has come along so well, I just need
to dedicate the time to it, and we will rock stage 3 shortly!
On a really good try, I called it quits and that was that!
Our group finished almost all at the same time, so then I got to put Mo away
and watch group two ride. TONS of
improvement in everyone’s horses! It was so amazing to see the changes in the
previously TIGHT horses, turn into relaxed stretching flowing horses. I love
it!
After those rides, everyone headed out pretty quickly. Mo
was a little sad that she was left all alone, but she has Don and Randees
horses for company, so she isn’t totally alone. We will head home tomorrow
morning. I got to finish my day by watching Don ride his super cow horse, and
having a great conversation with two other instructors, Genevieve and Randee,
so that was a real treat for me. We mulled over auditions and pressure and tons
of other things. I have so many ideas to play with now :D I know I will get my
auditions filmed and sent in SOON. Then
the four of us went out to a fabulous dinner. Just very low key, lovely to just
be together, LUCKY for me to be in such high company. I just keep feeling so
grateful for this entire adventure. I hope I can embark on more! This time
around, I got to be part of a student group with a 5 star instructor [!] not to
mention two other 2 stars, PLUS learn from Amy, PLUS meet amazing wonderful
people who welcomed me into their home, PLUS get to hang out and learn more
with my super horse. There are so many more wonderful things about this trip, I
cant even express. I almost don’t even want to go home . Although I do... because I cant wait to try
this out with Indy, now that I have learned so much more!
Less words today, I must be tired.... homeward bound
tomorrow :D Cant wait to get home and hug my [other] ponies!
:D
S
