Klaudia, 06/03/2013

Officially 1st day of the course. Participants and horses came in. Finishing the unpacking before we met in the Lodge. It's a very nice familiar course as there are only 6 of us joining the course:

• Erin from California, USA
• Tammy from Ontario, Canada
• Heather from Ontario, Canada
• Shelly from Ireland
• Elena from Germany
• Klaudia from France

Elena (left), Erin (right)

So we are a quiet international group. Our 2 instructors are Ann Kiser and Nita-Jo Rush. It will be a great and intensive time. 

We started with some simulations and teambuilding outside the lodge and it was really fun.

After some orientation with had the 1st theory class with Ann and Nita-Jo and it was about self-reflecting. All I can say in the moment is "how interesting". Especially the point of view and your understanding of what that issue means you have to rate yourself determines the rating. Very interesting.

After a lunch break we had time to play with our horses. Tes was very exited about everything: she misses her buddy horse which is heading together with Linda back home to Utah, it's a new place, the grass is really yummy, she wanted to move but had a lot of different opinion on my suggestions and by the way who are you at the end of the rope? ;-). So you can imagine that she was quiet exuberant not only for LBE reason. 
I tried to help her as much as I can. It was not really about raising my energy up but more about having a strong focus and communicate that by being very present for her. I lost her once in one of the round corrals but after some laps of cantering I could disengage her. We had a quiet strong prep to get her calm, connected and responsive before I saddled her. We had a nice little ride. I was very proud of us as we started both a bit scattered and find ourselves by the end of the session. Tes turned out much softer at the end and was very sweet. What was one of the most important thing to me is that she turned from scrutinize to asking questions. This 1st day was more about to get to know each other and to set the plan of our journey for the next 4 weeks. Here are my little projects, I will focus on with her:

• Porcupine game
• Mostly mental and physical fitness but also emotional fitness
• Friendly game saddleing and bridling
• Patterns, patterns, patterns which will help her out with consistency, which is also one my goal for her
• Connection
• Responsiveness

She really is a great horse. Very smart, demanding and beautiful!!!!