Klaudia, 06/13/2013

I woke up with a message about the wildfires going on in Colorado. I even did not heard that there are wildfires going on. I am not up to date, but I hope that the fires are under control.

Emily, Jessica, Mary-Anna, Carolyn and Pam

Today it was about "Knot Savvy" in small groups. We also did the "Heliumstick" in my group. Was really fun!

The theme of the day was puzzlesolving. Encouraging students to bring goals down to little pieces, knowing the ingredientes or better said -the pieces which we need to complete the puzzle-. In the group we discussed the end goals so to say the ready puzzle, knowing the puzzle pieces and how we bring the pieces of the puzzle together. The students did a great job!

Than there was time for the students to experiment on the puzzle solving on line and Freestyle.

Nita-Jo and Malin

After lunch Nita-Jo and her horse Malin did a wonderful demo about Liberty. After the demo there was time again for the students to be out there to play with the horses on 3 different focus stations. Elena did the Bowtie, Tammy helped out with rope handling skills on the 45' rope and Shelly had the focus station in the honeycomp for Liberty. Heather supported Shelly and Erin and me Elena.

We also had individual meetings with Nita-Jo about our professional goals. 

We get so much support from our leading instructors Nita-Jo Rush and Ann Kiser. As well as from Kristi Smith and the whole team of the ranch. A very supportive learning environment for humans and horses. I am so glad to be here and to meet people living the same dream. I also enjoy the company of the 3 star candidates and the students of the L3/L4 class. Everybody has a different story regarding horses but also beside from horses!

After dinner tonight I played with Tes. We warmed up strong and had wonderful traveling circles in canter on the end of the 45' including maintain gait and direction. We did "hunting the obstacle" again in canter on the end of the 45'. 
Mounting from a fence is getting much better. She was so sweet and offered by herself to come close to the fence. Then we started freestyle with some follow the role including partial disengagement, circle games in trot and canter, direct rein posiitons and indirect rein positions. Tes blew out a lot and there is a pattern that she needs to canter on line and freestyle 1st in order to get ready to be more willing and also to be ready to do some slower gaites like walk. At the end of the session, we practise to open the gate from the saddle which was also hard for her. She did again really nice as she did not get excited just because we are close to the gate. It was hard for her to stand still by the fence. 

Inbetween there were some cattle in the horse area. Nita-Jo explained to us the concept of prey animals related to cattle, what and how we have to help the cattle to find their way. Tes did like it a lot! A purpose. She was really focused on the cattle and very concentrated. A nice experience also for me as I never had done something like that before. 

Time to head back to the condo for the past-dinner ritual: ice cream.....

View from the ice-cream rocking chair

"What fix first?" :-)