Study Group Task # 2

We've got two tasks this month. the one I picked out of my envelope this time was to go ride sideways without something in front of us, - more of that in the next post. the second task for this month was to think about what we have achieved over the past year.
The best way I can think of it is by describing where we were this time last year.

So this time last year we had not even submitted our level one audition and now we are ready to film our level two audition. Looking back at this video and thinking about what we can do better now I am most struck by the changes in me. My confidence when playing with Liquorice has increased and, with that, his confidence in me. One of the feedback comments the audition team made was that they "noticed your horses expression and ears were cranky. Improving this now will excel your relationship and growth for the future." and I have struggled with this for a long time. I think I have come to realise that I don't have to work at asking him for less but to ask him for more. He seems to look at me more often with ears forward if I have been more of a leader and more assertive.
One of the big achievements of the last year was to actually take him off the yard. This was achieved when we booked on a level two clinic at Wisborough Green in early December. This was a huge breakthrough in MY emotional fitness and led to us buying our own lorry. This, in turn, has helped me begin to realise another dream which is to ride Liquorice safely on the beach. We have taken him to the beach several times now to just walk about in hand, have a bit a of a paddle in the sea, and generally hang out. About three weeks ago he was calm enough for Kevin to get on him and walk about.

Parelli Study Group Task #1

The lovely Jo has got us all organised! As part of our study group she has encouraged us to set ourselves 12 challenges (one per month) to complete by the end of the year .... That way if nothing else we can all say we can do 12 more things than we could do before! Each month we pick one out of our own envelopes and have to do that - it's quite exciting now because, two months on, I have forgotten what challenges I put in my envelope!
So, this video shows my first challenge which was to load Liquorice from outside the lorry. He had been very good at loading ME up to this point! since we had the new van we have been getting him used to it by feeding him his tea in there (LBI highly motivated by food) and taking him on short trips. He then had a very long trip to Wiltshire (see previous posts) and this made him much more relaxed about being in there. However I had a little bit of difficulty getting him on on my own because he would get on if I was already in there but then, of course, I had to get past him to get to the partition to close it.
Anyway, on the day of our study group meeting I asked a friend to video me attempting the task and he was on the lorry in less then a minute! I think that says something about the power of focus!