Today we almost didn’t get to have a lesson! Here was the barn owner’s message to us at 10am:
Hi all,
The air right now is positively brown with sand. Don’t come out here unless you call me first. Maybe later it might be better. We just hit the highest winds ever since we’ve lived here. Everything is blowing around, the horses are hunkered down behind, in and around the sheds. You can barely walk around. I don’t really want any body in the arena or the barn. Although knock on wood everything is still standing. Kali, if any of the kids are planning to be out here today, Monday, please call them.
Call me later if you are thinking of coming out. It might calm down. I HOPE.
Take care,
K
When we called Karen at 3pm, she said it was down to 20mph winds, with gusts up to 40, so the lesson was back on! It was Lauren, Taylor, Morgan, and Katelynn’s first official arena lesson with us. The horse’s were AMAZING despite the very trying weather.
Today’s lesson was all about synchrony. Synchronization exercises create equality between horse and human, help you learn about each other’s motivations and goals, teach you to read each other’s body language, and create connection. When all those elements align, you are in synch with your horse and, with any luck, with the world at large!
Lauren (10), worked with Thistle. Thistle is brand new to the idea of yielding to pressure. Lauren showed awesome persistence and ability to change her technique in the moment to help the horse understand. She was very willing to just come up with her own ideas for what she thought would help and try it out. It was cool to see. Lauren did lots of Friendly Game and The Whippings to help Thistle quiet down when she first entered the rattling arena. Then she learned the rest of the Parelli games and did more Friendly Game with the ribbons and ball. The last part of the lesson, she did a seatwork lesson on the longe. It was her first time in an English saddle. She was very enthusiastic and would repeat a motion if she didn’t think she did it as well as she could, even though I told her to do them just one time. She’s very self-motivated.
Morgan and Katelynn are 13 year old twins who got their first introduction to horses with us while we were working at the rescue. It’s been about a year since we last saw them. The twins oddly enough, ended up with horses who are as similar and different as they are – Quick Draw and Sarah – both white Arab crosses, but very different horsenalities. After warming the horses up on the ground, Morgan did a lesson with Gina and Katelynn did a lesson with me.
Gina had Morgan doing seatwork on the longe. Morgan’s balance got way better in just this short lesson. All our seatwork is done without stirrups so that the rider’s posture can evolve naturally. We make a point of not coaching the rider’s position. We choose whichever seatwork exercise will help the balance problem we see and good posture develops naturally. When I was growing up, trainers made us ride with sticks threaded through our elbows and behind our back so that the lower back would arch and the shoulders would come back. Today like-minded trainers buy a special vest that has the same effect. Such silliness. Seatwork exercises do wonders for a rider’s seat and confidence.
Les worked with Lauren’s sister, Taylor (13) on seatwork on the longe at the same time as Morgan was riding. Taylor did the same seatwork exercises riding Blondie. Did I mention we started Thistle, Blondie, and Sarah ourselves? Blondie is a coming 4-year-old and has had all her training with us. She’s virtually bomproof and an absolutely amazing teacher. She gives everything to a complete newbie, responding to the most convoluted cues, tests the cocky advanced beginners, and really goes the extra mile for kids who truly want to learn. This palomino mare is worth her weight in gold. Sarah is the same way, and we only started her in January.
After her seatwork lesson, Les tagged Taylor to help her learn how to steer. They worked on lifting up the reins and sliding down one side, opening the rein up to show the horse’s eyes where to go.
At first I tried having Katelynn do a little cantering on Quick Draw on the longe, but he wasn’t feeling it today. So, we switched to learning about lateral movements. I let Katelynn feel shoulder-in as I cued Q from the ground, then showed her how to use her aids to ask for it. All our lateral movement comes off one rein only – no confusing things with 10 million cues. Quick Draw has amazing lateral movement, so learning shoulder-in was a breeze. Net we did a little half-pass, which is much harder for a rider to feel. In shoulder-in, the horse’s nose is bent away from the direction of travel. In half-pass, the horse’s nose is bent in the direction of travel. Katelnn and Q both did an awesome job. Katelynn is light enough to allow Q to do the movement and patient, calm, and cheerful enough to work through confusion. She seems never to get frustrated, and that is a cool quality in a student!
Gina played with her mini both before and after the lesson. Looks like she’s naming the little one Penny Lane 
All in all – a great lesson. Very fun and rewarding.
At long last, I have the video completed from the PonyPros Halloween Show. All the footage took 6 individual vids! I wanted to get the footage completed since we have our first show of 2011 coming up Feb 12 and one soon after on Mar 12. It’s amazing how much the kids improved since Oct. I think you’ll see a huge difference in the upcoming show footage.
