Elena 06/27/2013

Our last horsemanship day!!

The cows went out of their pasture and through the whole Savvy Park!

We started the day with a 2-hour trail ride around almost everywhere! We made many transitions, e.g. from back-up to trot and walk to canter. The horses really had to watch where they were going! ;-)
We also went up and down a very steep and slippery hill, did some lateral maneuvers, rock slides, snakey bends and counter canters! The horses (and we!) have been really exhausted after that, but we had a lot of fun!
I also went out of my comfort zone sometimes, but it was absolutely okay. ;-)

Nita-Jo and Malin

After the trail ride we had a Q&A with Ann and Nita-Jo in the Lodge. We've talked about some very interesting things and the time was just to short for all of our questions.

In the afternoon we practiced the colt start skeleton John taught us yesterday on our horses with Nita-Jo.
It was very difficult to treat a Level 4 horse as if it was a colt without any experience.
We had - again - lots of fun, especially with the Passenger Riding!

Playing "Find the human"

I can't believe that our 4-week course is already over tomorrow... I really enjoyed the whole course, our group, our instructors, and, of course, my lease horse Lily! I will miss you all!

Lily after rolling in the dust

Klaudia, 06/26/2013

What a great day again. We had a wonderful simulation on balance with our carrot sticks. It is always amazing that simulations without horses helps us to be better with horses. They are so powerful in teaching but also as a self experience.
I mad a 360 photo of the view from our horsepens today. Enjoy this beautiful view and watch out for the moon, still visible in the morning. Beautiful.

Linda and Highland

Linda and Highland

Linda and Navi

After the simulations we had the chance to visit Linda at her barn and observer her with Highland (Extrovert) and Navi (Introvert). Very exciting. It was about helping Highland with his baggage especially when it comes to contact. Navi is a high spirited LBI. Linda explained her strategies for both horses and pointed out how important ZERO brace is. It was a plessure to watch her.

John Baar

During the session, 3 of us left to participate the horsemanship lesson with John Baar. We had the chance to observe the horsemanship lesson after we returned from Linda's barn.
You learn so much from observing, I really enjoied the lesson. John explained the 4 quadrants of Zone 3 to be able to find relaxtion for the horse by communicating to zone 3. Very exciting and interesting.
After lunch we had theory with John Baar. He explained the set-up for a clinic by using the Colt start skelleton. Hm, how interesting and very logical and helpful. 
In the afternoon there was a horsemanship lesson again with John Baar.  I could not really join with Tes as she had a vet check for her health certificate so that she is ready to head back home to Utah. Anyhow we had a short session. She loves to move so I followed her intention to go with the flow. It was fun.

In the evening we had BBQ and campfire. We left early as terrible headache caught me. Everyone of use was a bit excausted as the weather was really hot today and nearly no wind. Quiet challenging. Was happy to take a shower. I bet, tomorrow, it will be very exciting again. I see a pattern, they make it hard for us to leave and saying goodbye will be hard. But as we say in France, it will be "au revoir" which means to meet again.

Elena 06/25/2013

Long, busy and great days are going on here in Pagosa Springs!

The Level 3/4 class left on Friday. We had some nice trail rides for different types of confidence levels. I was leading the "beginning" trail ride. We've done pretty much the same as we did in the focus station the day before: Follow the Leader all over the Savvy Park! I've always got lots of fun doing the Follow the Leader! Thanks to Candy, Sherry, Sharon, and Maria for joining me!

The Finale of this course in the classroom was very emotional! I really hope to see all of you again!

Level 3/4 students driving from the tackroom to their trailers!

On Friday afternoon we had a great Liberty session with Nita-Jo in the Arena Grande. It was amazing, Lily did not run away from me one time and we played all the 7 Games, included Traveling Circles and Jumping over Barrels!! That was a huge compliment Lily gave me that day!

Here's a short video of Lily and I playing Liberty two days later: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE2Vmb08Bdo

Circling Game at Liberty

On Saturday Klaudia and I drove to Durango. It was very nice to not wear riding shoes and we felt a little bit like tourists in holidays! ;-)

We did some shopping and - of course - had a big lunch and a big dinner!

Very cute little Cowboyboots in Durango!

Yesterday, on Monday, we all welcomed the Intern-students on horseback in the morning and played the name game with them. 

John, Kathy and Baby Luke Baar are also here now to support us and the Interns.

On Monday afternoon we got to visit the Parelli Office in Pagosa Springs, which was very interesting! It's nice to know the faces now to the people you are always writing e-mails to! ;-)

We also got another great opportunity that afternoon: We got a post Level 4 Liberty lesson with David Lichman!! It was great! He taught us very good strategies to improve our draw at Liberty. I can't wait to try that with my horse Mousey at home!

Today was another wonderful day full of learning and Inspiration.

Ann gave us two challenges: One was a challenge with the Bowline's knot and our Carrot Sticks and the other was a teaching challenge with our horses in the group. We made a role play in the cover-all, one of us was the instructor and the other five were her students and had to make many mistakes! ;-)

It was a lot of fun!!

We also got to talk to Pat in the morning about our course, what we learned and what we are going to change when we're back home. He offered us to watch him when he is riding his horses on the campus, which I really appreciate!

In the afternoon we had a session with Linda in the classroom about "teachermanship". It's amazing how much you can always learn from Linda, especially from the teaching aspects...

Tomorrow morning we have an observation time with Linda at her barn! I'm looking forward to that!

Klaudia, 06/24/2013

Today it was again a full and intense day. Love it, when it's packed. It is like packing huge luggage with memories and knowledge. Back home it is time to unpack and set everything in order. The luggage so far is big, but cannot wait to put more in.

Welcoming the inters

We welcomed the incoming interns horseback. It is always exciting to meet new people. Interns and our class were together for the orientation and John Baar welcomed everybody before we had some fun games together to get to know each other better.
The interns will spend at least 6 weeks on the Campus and to be honest, I could be a bit jealous but as I know I will come back, I feel centered ;-)

Tammy, Shelly, Heather on the pick-up

Ann brought us to the office and we had a tour, which was really interesting. So many things going on "behind the scenes", so that for everybody, doing Parelli natural horsemanship the dream comes true. Great opportunity to meet some faces, only known by mail.

Beyong L4 Liberty with David Lichman

Back on the ranch we had a great opportunity to have a session with David Lichman. It was fabulous. Very inspiring and motivating. It was about Libery beyond L4. WOW. So much to know. David is an artist offering Liberty to his horses and thrilled us with his dedication of teaching us in this fine art. Something to advance with my own horses. They will love it.
It was mainly about OUR attitude, playing Liberty. What if the horse "just" loves it, to be with you, desperately looking forward to come back to you, finding it's rest with you? Total making sense perspective. Logic to be transformed into heart and desire.

Klaudia, 06/22/2013 - 06/23/2013

Breakfast

Last weekend before we will leave on next Friday. Can't believe that 4 weeks are nearly passed by. Time flies when you're having fun. Leaving this powerful, positive place will be hard and lots of mixed feelings. My family at home is missing me so I do including Thomas, our horses and cats. Will be a very nice warm welcome and my parents in law are there as well. Looking forward to it. 

Elena and me, we really had a great weekend and enjoied mainly eating out, including breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Buckets ready for cleaning

We started the weekend by cleaning pens, buckets and tack rooms from the L3/4 course as a team. Was really fun. Thanks to the bleach, my hands were finally clean, no dust hided in any wrinkel. For that I even acknowledged smelling like a swimming pool. Haha.

Ice cream with the team

After that Ann invited us for ice cream :-P

Elena and me headed out to Durango to enjoy the day off and wanted to give our horses a rest as well. Thanks to Tammy as she offered to check water for our horses in case we return late.

Lunch in Durango. Yummy!!!

River in Durango

In Durango we chilled in a bar and had a nice lunch and did some shopping before we headed back to Pagosa Springs. Durango is about 1 hour drive from Pagosa Springs.

Mr. Spock and Peace :-)

We enjoied the sunset with our horses grazing. Well, actually we enjoied the sunset, our horses the grazing ;-)

Steak and garlic smashed potatoes

We wrapped-up the day with dinner at Boss Hoggs and I had a fantastic steak there.....hmmmmmm

Sunday we had a short session with our horses and filmed each other. Elena made 3 different films from me and Tes for Linda who owns her as Tes is for sale. If there would not be the atlantic ocean, I would love to take Tes home....

Curious Tesora

She is a fantastic horse, learns very quick, is positive and just a wonderful partner.
Here are the links for the videos of Tes.
Tesora On line
Tesora Freestyle, Soft touch
Tesora in the pond

Entree: Mussels in Vanilla Safron sauce. WOW!

In the evening we went out for dinner again at Marconi's which was extremely good!!!!

Klaudia, 06/21/2013

Line-up for the trailride

Tes and me at the end

Today the L3/4 course finished. We had a wonderful trailride with lots of fun in the forest including walk, trot, little jumps, backing off. Tes did fantastic. She is such a nice horse!

Before lunch students and instructors shared their highlights, it was very emotional for all of us and lots of hugging. Students received their certificates and a T-shirt as a surprise gift.

L3/4 class

Those 2 weeks were full of hightlights, I have many beautiful pictures of wonderful relationsships between the students and their horses in my mind, so inspiring.

In the afternoon we had a Liberty session "find the human", "Property game" with Nita-Jo in the arena grande. It was a great session. Tes and I did mainly the principle games as On line prep for Liberty and also when the halter was off. Thanks to Nita-Jo's explanation and Tes, it was really clear that it's not about keeping your horse with you. If the horse wants/ needs to leave it is ok. In this case, the other instructors helped your horse out to find the human again, they are your safety net. It is not about what you do, when your horse leaves but what you do, when it comes back!
After the Liberty session, Tes had a bath in the pond. She really enjoys being in the water. Little seahorse. She even started to lie down. 

As some of the students and their horses left after lunch, it was very quiet during dinner.

Tes and a squirrel sharing oats

Lil' squirrel took over the feed pan of Tes

After dinner we cleaned our horses pens, gave water and feed. Tes often has visitors in her pen (duck, chipmonks). Today there was a squirrel she shared her oats with. Isn't she cute?!

This is all smoke, no clouds

Snowmobiles

I made a pic of those 2 snowmobiles on the ranch. Something hard to imagine with the current temperatures and the dryness.
Unfortunately there are new wildfires around south of Colorado. Wolf Creek Pass is closed so far. Some of the students have to take a longer trip back home. Safe travels!!!

Elena 06/20/2013

We had a lot of fun today!

We started with our Remudas in the morning and talked about „problem solving“ at home when no instructor is around. It‘s very helpful to be on parelliconnect, because you can get so much help there, ask questions and watch hundreds of videos!

At 10 o‘clock 5***** Instructor David Lichman gave a Liberty demo for us and the Level 3/4 class with his three horses. It was very inspiring!

During lunch we talked a little bit with David. He can speak german very well! Next year he‘s going to be in Switzerland and maybe he‘s also coming to Germany! Let‘s see, what we can manage. ;-)

It would be a great opportunity for everyone, especially for the students with gaited horses!

David Lichman

David Lichman

Before lunch, we‘ve done some simulations about lateral manouvers with the Level 3/4 students. And you could see the „power of simulations“ again... ;-)

Simulations on Lateral Manouvers

In the afternoon the students had guided experimenting time again. Many of them went already packing their stuff together or shopping. That means, we had the possibility to ride our horses a little bit.

I went to the covered arena with Lily and worked on our Freestyle flying lead changes. I already tried it yesterday in the honeycomb, but the ground there was to uneven for her (and me!) and she was bouncing to much...

But today we had two really nice flying changes in the covered arena! As soon as she did one, I went out of the arena and let her graze. Hopefully she‘s very motivated now to do them again. ;-)

At 4:15 pm our last focus stations started: Erin and I had the „Follow the leader“ together.

It was really fun! I was riding in front and Erin at the end. We went through the whole Savvy Park, through the Arena Grande and around the honeycomb. We‘ve done some nice patterns in the follow the leader like the clover leaf, circles, going over logs, through the pond, up and down hill and so on. In between we‘ve done some trotting and backing up with the „beep-beep“. Some of us also cantered near the honeycomb!

I love the „Follow the leader“! :-)

Follow the Leader

Tomorrow is already the last day of the 2-week Level 3/4 course. 

The students have the opportunity to do a trail ride.

We‘ve got three different levels/groups of trail riding and I‘m going to lead the „beginning trail ride“. It‘s going to be pretty much the same as we did today in the focus station. I‘m looking forward to it!

The other focus stations today have been „Partner Play“ and the „Linda Blair Game“.

Klaudia, 06/19/2013

Today it was a great day again. We started with a Humanlity Remuda which was really fun. It was mainly about selfreflection, strategies and to point out the strength per Humanlity. Facinating!

Flying lead change demo

A demo about flighing lead changes (in light seat) followed. It is great to see the progress of every student every day. I really love the positive vibrations, which are going on within the L3/4 course and the instructors. Especially with all that fantastic things going on, "imagination is more important than knowledge" makes so much sense. These students have so much positive energy to learn more, to be a better partner for their horses. Positive, progressive and natural.

Longitudanal, Latitudinal flexion demo with simulations

After the lunch there was another demo about longitudanal and latitudinal flexion On line and Freestyle, including snakey bends. It was great to see, how especially emotional tense horses started to relax and to stretch. 

Waiting for Students for Liberty, Pat's coverall in the background

3 Focus stations were set-up: Snakey bends, avanced Liberty and advanced Driving from Z5. Elena and me supported the advanced Liberty and it was so much fun to see the students and horses advancing and having so much fun.

After the BBQ we went to play with our horses in the honeycomb. Elena was doing Freestyle with her lease horse "Lily" and I did little bit of Trotting with the bareback pad, following the rail, outside the honeycomb until Tes started to relax. Inside one of those roundpens in the honeycomb we had a nice Liberty session focused on the Circeling game:

1. Send
2. Bring-back
3. Transitions
4. Change of direction

Tes did really nice, time to let her off the hook, relax and let her graze a little bit together with Lily. We just enjoyed the wonderful Rocky Mountains view including sunset.

Wildfire Colorado

Here are some news about the wildfires going on in Colorado. Klick me.

Tes and me

Tes and me in the Honeycomb

Elena 06/18/2013

Today was a long day... We had a lot to do! ;-)
In the morning we did some simulations on the seat-builders again with the Level 3/4 class, but this time the topic was the preparation for Finesse!
The students did "Sticky Hands", "Resting Hands" and "Following Hands". It was fun and very interesting, because the students had to be very careful to not loose the contact, but also to not push against the hands or reins.

"Following" and "Resting" Hands!

After the simulations we had a demo about the "Soft Touch" and the "Following Hands" with Klaudia, Erin and Shelley with their horses.
It was very good for everyone to see, how you can keep the contact to the horse's mouth without pulling on the reins.

Shelley, Erin and Klaudia

Then, before lunch, Klaudia, Erin and Heather had their focus stations about "Soft Touch", "Falling Leaf + Backwards S" and "Sideways".
Tammy, Shelley and I had another horsemanship session with Nita-Jo during that time!
Lily and I worked a lot on the Soft Touch, because Lily often tries to pull against the bit in every direction. So I picked up the reins and as soon as she gave the right answer, I let the reins go and sent her in a trot.
I'm riding her mostly with the Confidence Snaffle.
It was a very big improvement after that session, she became so much lighter on the reins!
My posture in the saddle also improved the last days because I'm really aware of putting back my shoulders now. ;-)

After our session with Nita-Jo we supported the focus stations.
In the afternoon we had another demo, this time with Nita-Jo and Tammy and their horses. The topic was "Driving from Zone 3, 4 & 5".
Tammy did a really nice job with her mare, everybody enjoyed watching it!

Nita-Jo and Tammy, both with long reins

Till dinner the students had guided experimenting time. Many students worked on their Soft Touch and many tried out the Driving Game from different Zones.
Tammy, Shelley, Kirsi and I have been around to answer questions and the other three of our group had their horsemanship session of the day with Nita-Jo.

Klaudia, 06/17/2013

First day of the new week and last week of the L3/ L4 course....
David Lichman arrived on the weekend to spend time with Pat. Watch this great video of how much fun his horses have to come to him!!!! Klick me  
It is great to watch the students and their horses progress and that we as 3 star candidates can participate and support. The students are really positive and looking for support. The positive atmoshere is amazing!!!! We learn so much for our own journey and also from a teaching perspective. I really enjoy it, watching the students with their horses having fun, learning and progressing. It's great!!!
Today was a very significant day from my personal view.
Part of the day was the Fluidity Make-over. It was great to see how little details change a whole outcome to achieve a better harmony between horse and rider which brings it to a whole different level. I was totally flashed. Everybody in the course had the possibility to do the Fluidity make-over later or/ and participate at other stations to progress. Later on we had time for our horses as well. Tes and I went to the small coverall. She was happy to move and we did lots of change of direction as that helps her a lot to relax emotionally and helps her with bends in zone 3. So our theme was Impulsion and Flexion. She did really nice and we even had some leg yields in trot. She has some hard time with flexion, so we are playing with that on the ground and mounted. At the end we had some nice Freestyle going on by following mainly me focus in a big Figure 8 in trot. I did not even had to use stick or reins. She also gets used more and more to the bit. It is not about the bit but some emotions coming up and she uses the bit as an emotional filter. How interesting.



She was so soft and relaxed after the session, so her mouth was :-)

We had a wonderful sunset in the evening. Could not resist to take a photo of it.

Elena advised a great app for the iphone that tells you how much you moved. Elena and I have an average of app. 10 km per day and each, which is great as lunch and dinner at the ranch is always too good, not mentioning the little incentive we enjoy nearly every evening back in the Condo: ice cream. Looking forward to tomorrow!