Klaudia, 06/05/2013

As some rain was expected, we played with the horses in the morning. Nita-Jo was with us and helped us out for any questions or advice. We were in the arena grande playing with our horses to prepare them for riding. 
Tes had some extrovert moments but we are building our relationship from day to day by finding strategies to help her out but for sure also to spend some time together. 
Kristi Smith once explained a relationship with our horses as a bankacount. Everytime you need to learn, you withdraw from the horse/ human partnership bankacount, everytime you spend for example undemanding time with your horse you deposit. It is important to balance the account. Everytime you withdraw you expand your horsemanship in order to give back to your horse as well. It makes no sense to have a big deposit neither to overdrawn your account. The answer is as always in the middle....

When I was playing with Tes today we had a nice session of feel of, feel for, feel together. We had couple of this moments of togetherness. She blowed out On line and also freestyle. Her emotional issue with the bit is getting better. I bought some new 11' finesse reins for her, as the 9' reins she currently has would block her to stretch and especially as she has some issues with the bit, I don't want her to experience the bit as a barrier.
I also really like, that she gives me her attention when I approach her pen: 2 eyes, 2 ears. Lovely !!!!!

Respect at feeding time is also getting better. Never forget that she is a young LBE horse with some RBE tendencies. This is not an excuse but an awarness of what to expect from her. 

During the session with Nita-Jo in the saddle we reviewed some of the rein positions like direct rein, steady rein, relaxing rein, partial disengagement, full disengagement and had a chance to experiment with our horses (thanks to Elena for taking the pictures).

We also had a good time in some hands-free hoof prep which is one of the things, Pat wants us to do with excellence with our horses. 

In the afternoon, we had a session with Ann and Nita-Jo to find solutions to improve our business skills in order to help out our costumers better. Roleplay help to experience some challenges in a very "save environment". 

The day was again full of learning and aha-moments. Our group is great. A lot of positive and supportive energy going on!

In the evening we had a BBQ and camp fire. Perfect relaxition and to come loose for us mentally and emotionally with the support of Tim Sullivan playing.