L&HB, In General

On the first day (I think), we were asked to write our goals for the class. Mine were:

1) The ability to better read and understand my horse.
2) The ability to look at my L3 Liberty tape and see better where I've misread my horse.
3) Have my horse want to be with me even more.
4) Clearly identify her horseanility (huge)

On the last day, we were asked to reflect on our goals and whether we felt successful. I would say emphatically, YES!

1) I am absolutely better at reading and understanding my horse.
2) I watched my L3 Liberty video on day 7 and saw some interesting things. I will try to video tape me and my horses more often.
3) Z was nickering for me by the 6th day and our liberty was better than ever.
4) I believe she's RBE, but I decided to stop trying to solve that mystery and just deal with the horse that shows up. They told us some students don't know for sure until they finish L3. That might be Z and I, too.

I built such a bond with some of the students. I was very sad to leave and I cried some on the drive. I've grown and done a lot of self-reflection in 2 weeks and now I'm committed to carrying all that I learned with me into the future. I promise myself to go back and read my blog entries and continue to practice the new things I learned.

I also spent some time thinking about some demos I could do with my horses. I would like to think of some cool maneuvers and start isolating the actions to build a great demo. With Z, things I could do with her athleticism. With Gemini and Rain, things I can do to show their feet action (Spanish Walk, lay down and bow, synchronized stepping). I will do some youtube searches and get other ideas for things to teach my horses. They are my feedback. They tell me and others how I'm doing. I'd like to develop my web site and have some good demo videos out there. Maybe I'll put together a youtube page as well.

For now, I'm going to make L3 completion my top priority. If Dennis gets well, I could probably spend 6 months focusing on the riding and a little time on the side finishing whatever ground work is necessary. I feel pretty good about the ground work.

Some ideas: demo with Z using a neck rope only from the ground. Rain and something specific to her gating capabilities. Gemini and jumping!!! I have 3 cool horses - I want to show their talents off! I liked the Canadian's feeding demo - syncronized feeding with 4 horses. I liked the European trainers demo with her horse on the ground doing lots of close circles and backwards circles! All 3 of my horses should be able to do circle game backwards - especially Z (hardest for her). Gemini or Rain rearing? All horses bowing and laying down. Nice mounted lead changes on G and Z. My mind is overrun with ideas. I have to remember all of this and stay creative. Thank you, Parelli!

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