Elena 06/14/2013

Half of our course is over, I can't believe it!!

Lily enjoying the cool water!

Yesterday we started the day with a Q&A with Kristi with the whole Level 3/4 class. Some good questions came up!
After that we went outside to the seat-builders. I was demoing the jumping on one of them and Nita-Jo corrected my seat and asked me to experiment with my balance point. Klaudia and Kirsi made my seat-builder move when I was on and gave me feedback on how heavy or light it felt for them while I changed my position and got on and off my balance point. Very interesting!!

Before lunch, Nita-Jo made a trailer loading demo with on of the student's horses. It was a LBI Paint Horse and very challenging!
The demo took 2 1/2 hours and the horse was in the trailer one time at the beginning.
He always tried to push against Nita-Jo and a few of the 7 games have to get fixed with him. It's not about the trailer! ;-)
It was very good for everyone to see, how long it takes sometimes to find a good moment to stop. This time this moment has not been when the horse was in the trailer, but when he walked towards it by a low phase and released his tense lips.

Trailer-Loading Demo

After Lunch Klaudia, Shelley and I were demoing the Steady Rein, Relaxed Rein, Partial Disengagement and Full Disengagement with our horses in the Arena Grande.
Our horses did very well and I think, the students could see the different rein positions very well!
But... I really have to work with Lily on maintaining her working trot! ;-)

During the guided experimenting in the afternoon, the students were trying these rein positions and we were there to support them and to answer their questions.

Beautiful sunset on the Parelli Campus