Day Sixteen - Pushing Too Hard

Sonny ran away from me on Sunday. I had been asking him to jump a log. He was moving with exuberance and jumping with a lot of elevation. and I was really excited by the change in him from our first day at the Parelli Center when I could hardly get him to step over a log. I wondered if I could incorporate jumping the log into a circling game so I asked him to circle me at a trot and them moved the circle so he had to jump the log. He did it twice and then looked over at me. I probably should have stopped but I was so pleased with the way he was going that I got greet and asked him to continue. But Sonny had had enough and he said, "I'm out of here" in the only way he could. He took off.. It happened so quickly that I couldn't hold onto the lead line and the next thing I knew, he was galloping toward the hills.
Trudging across the playground after him, I knew that I had pushed him too hard and caused the run away. Sonny is a pretty confident horse but he can get unconfident when he is learning something new and for the past two weeks, a lot of what we had been doing was new. At home we work on one new thing at a time until we have mastered it, but here at Fast Track, we see something new almost every day. As a result, I had been pushing Sonny pretty hard and it was beginning to show in our relationship.
When I finally caught up to Sonny, he looked at me as if to say, "Oh, are you here too?" and then he came right over to me. Horses live in the moment and they can be very forgiving but I knew that if I wanted to maintain our relationship, I was going to have to be careful about how much pressure I was putting on Sonny during our sessions.
So this morning, I was determined to put our relationship first when I got Sonny ready for our time together. Things started our reasonably well. I took Sonny over to the trailer and loaded him from the fender. This elicited a "nice job" from one of the coaches and I was feeling pretty good when I took Sonny to one of the round pens to play. I wanted to try playing a circling game with an object to see if I could be a little more provocative for Sonny. The idea I had was to put a barrel about three feet from the rail and see if I could teach Sonny how to stop at the barrel when I asked. He seemed to be getting the idea, so I decided to add a second barrel but while I was positioning the barrel, he took off again. Of course, he couldn't really go far but he clearly didn't want to stay with me. Was I putting too much pressure on him? I'm not really sure but I did think that I need to put still more effort into maintaining our relationship.
To prepare for our afternoon session of precision riding, our coaches had the class create and chalk out a 20 meter by 40 meter precision pen and then led us through a series of walking simulations without horses. The session ran long and our lunch time was cut short so that we could get our horses out to the arena. Because we didn't have much time to get our horses ready, I was late getting Sonny out to the arena and when I did get there, he was upset by some new equipment that was in the area. I actually had to get off of him and walk him around so he could look at things. By the time I was able to remount, we had missed most of the first of the four focus groups and I could tell that I was feeling a little frustrated. Knowing that Sonny would be able to feel my frustration, I took a deep breath and tried to concentrate on maintaining my connection with him.
All in all the past two days have been enlightening for me. As much as I want to learn all I can while I am here at the Parelli Center, the most important thing to me is to make sure that my relationship with Sonny remains solid. For then rest of our time here, I am going to work hard at putting our relationship first. If I do that, I'm sure the rest

Day Twelve - Rainy Days and Tuesdays

After falling at the end of Monday's afternoon lesson, I figured that I was going to be sore on Tuesday. I took two Advil before going to bed and two more in the middle of the night but when I work up Tuesday morning, I was sore all over and my shoulders, which had absorbed the brunt of the fall were really hurting. I also discovered that I had a pretty spectacular, dark purple bruise where I had hit my chin on the fence. So as I got ready for the day, I wasn't really looking forward to another long riding lesson.
During orientation, John Barr had told us that during the third week of Fast Track we were going to focus on playing with our horses at liberty. So far, I hadn't had much of an opportunity to play with Sonny at liberty and as I drove over to the Parelli Center, I was thinking that today might be a good day to start. So after feeding Sonny and taking him to get a drink, I attached the 22' line to his halter, picked up my carrot stick and headed off to the playground.
Playing at liberty with your horse is a real test of the strength of your relationship because once the halter is off the horse, all that is left is the truth. I've only been playing with Sonny at liberty for a few months so I always warm him up on-line before turning him loose in a round pen. With his dominant personality, he sometimes doesn't want to follow my leadership and a good warm up is essential to make sure I have the proper respect from him before I turn him loose.
Because of the issue we had with trailer loading the first week, every time I brought Sonny out to the playground, I asked him to get in the trailer. Today I wanted to see if I could get him to load while I was sitting on the fender of the trailer. Sonny never even hesitated, he hopped right in and stood there, while I sat on the fender holding onto the lead line. This was a good start to our session and from the trailer, we went on to play some circling games before going into one of the small round pens in the honeycomb.
I wasn't as successful at liberty as I had been with the trailer loading. Sonny would stick with me for a little while but if I tried to put any pressure on him at all, he would run off. Of course, he couldn't go far in the round pen but he clearly didn't want to stay with me and rather than aggravate the situation, I put him back on line. I had been pushing Sonny pretty hard here at Fast Track. At home, I seldom spend more that two hours a day with Sonny but here we are spending 6 to 8 hours every day and after our liberty session, I was thinking that perhaps I hadn't been putting our relationship first in my efforts to complete the myriad of tasks we had been faced with at Fast Track. I decided that I needed to spend a little more friendly, undemanding time with Sonny for the rest of our time at the center.
After lunch, we all went out to the honeycomb area to see a demonstration on riding with fluidity. The skies had been threatening all day and just as John Barr started explaining what we were going to see, the downpour began. I've never been so glad to see rain in my entire life. Besides giving the ground a much needed soaking to reduce the level of dust, I knew the rain was going to keep us from riding for the rest of the afternoon. We retreated to the classroom to cover the theory of fluidity in riding and I was able to rest my aching shoulders. I knew that a couple more Advil and a good night's sleep was what I needed so I could be ready for a full day of riding on Wednesday.

Day Eleven - Mid-term Day

When I was accepted into the Fast Track program, one of my biggest fears was that I would be the oldest and least accomplished person at the course. I've been studying Parelli Natural Horsemanshipä for three years and I'm reasonably confident working on-line with my horse but I am not the most confident rider and I am just working on level 3 skills. So I was happy when John Barr told us during orientation that he and the other instructors expected to see a wide range of skill levels among the Fast Track participants and that each of our journeys would be unique. He also told us that the instructors would be watching us throughout the course, that our progress would be measured and that we would receive two evaluations, a mid-term after 2 weeks and a final at the end of the course.
During the first week we took a theory test and then were asked to perform a series of tasks at level four in each of the four savvys: on-line, freestyle, liberty and finesse. Since I was only studying at level three and hadn't even begun to work on finesse tasks, I was able to go through the testing without worrying too much. Trying to perform the tasks really helped me see the holes in my current skill level. Overall, my on-line and riding skills were a solid level 2 during testing so I knew that if I was going to achieve my goal of level 3, I would have to use my time at fast track to really push myself and for the past 2 weeks, I felt I had been doing that for my on-line skills. But I had not felt confident with my riding and I didn't think I was making as much progress there.
On Friday, I had a very good coaching session with Ryan and Monday morning I saddled Sonny, anxious to put his suggestions to the test. I wanted to see if I could get Sonny to back up using no reins and only my seat and I wanted to see if I could get better rhythm and relaxation when asking Sonny to canter. I also wanted to work on my confidence riding, so I wanted to take Sonny all over the property to challenge myself to be more confident no matter where we were. During the morning session, I was able to make progress on all three of these goals so I was really feeling pretty good by the time we gathered for our morning demonstration..
Day 11 was designated as mid-term day, and our mid-term growth and progress report measured our progress in ten categories: attitude, horsemanship on the ground, horsemanship riding, theory, emotional fitness, physical fitness, horse husbandry and care, social skills, team-man-ship and overall savvy. John Barr told us that we would be getting our reports from our coaches and he emphasized to us that because these were only mid-term reports, we should not be disappointed if our scores were not as high as we might have wished. So I was quite pleased when I received my mid-term report from Ryan and it was actually better than I had expected. I had done very well on the knowledge test and my lowest scores were in riding horsemanship and physical fitness.
Based on the day so far, I went into the afternoon riding session feeling pretty good. We were separated into three groups, one working on circling games, one working on sideways games and one working on the bowtie pattern. The bowtie pattern is a pattern designed to help the rider and the horse develop the correct body positions in order accomplish lead changes in the canter. In order to help us perform the pattern, our instructors had placed two barrels at a distance from one another along a fence in the arena. To perform the pattern, you ride along the fence until you reach a barrel, then you bend the horse around the barrel until he is headed toward the fence. If you have done that correctly, the horse will have his weight back over his hind feet and on the correct leg so that he can easily depart on the correct lead for the canter. You then canter down the line of the fence until reaching the other barrel, when you bring the horse down to a trot as you bend him around the barrel, changing directions and ready to pick up the other lead.
Sonny and I were still performing this pattern at a trot, where I was looking for rhythm and relaxation before trying to get the correct canter leads. I was being helped by Beran, who was coaching me on proper technique. After a number of cycles in the pattern. I had already had one opportunity to practice the pattern and because I wanted to feel more comfortable with the patterns, I wanted to practice it one more time. I was tired but I could feel Sonny beginning to relax and I wanted to reinforce the feeling so I went out to practice again. Beran had just called to me, "Looking good Noreen." when I let Sonny get a little to close to the fence line and I hooked my foot on a pole. The next thing I knew, I was jerked off balance and falling toward the fence. On the way down, I banged my lip against the fence before landing on my shoulder in the dirt. Sonny, being the terrific partner that he is, stopped dead in his tracks. I was more surprised than hurt and after catching my breath, I dusted myself off and got up.
In reflection on what happened, I think that I was trying to push myself even though I was tired. I momentarily lost my focus, allowing Sonny to get a little too close to the fence and when my foot caught, it was so quick and unexpected, I wasn't able to maintain my balance. The entire experience just reinforced to me how important it is to maintain focus every minute that I am riding.

Day Ten - Getting Physical

I have bad knees. They are not your usual, 60 year old, wear and tear bad knees. They are seriously, critically bad knees. My knee problems date back to college days when I jumped down from a bale of straw and landed awkwardly tearing both cartilage and the anterior, cruciate ligament in my left knee. This injury predated arthroscopic surgery, so the torn cartilage was removed and I have been walking bone on bone on that knee ever since. As a result, I have a slight limp, which has placed stress on my “good” knee and it now has its own problems. I see my current orthopedic surgeon each year for a series of injections of artificial synovial fluid to help keep my knees lubricated and I overheard him a couple of years ago telling a medical student who was shadowing him that he wasn’t sure why I was still walking.
I know my knees are a bit of a ticking time bomb and that I am heading for knee replacement surgery at some point so when I was accepted into the Parelli Center fast track program, I was concerned about how well they would hold up but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from coming. With the agreement of my orthopedic surgeon, I doubled my arthritis medicine and I brought cold packs to throw in the freezer so I could apply them in the evening.
The first day at fast track, I had to walk Sonny almost a mile from where I was staying to the Parelli Center and I was a bit concerned when I realized that the pen Sonny has been assigned was about as far away from the classroom and dining hall as it could be. I thought briefly about asking for him to be reassigned to a closer pen, but decided that perhaps the walking would actually be good for me. Besides, I though, fast track is supposed to be a challenge, mentally, emotionally and physically, and the extra walking certainly would be a challenge. For the first few days, my legs were pretty sore and spent a lot of time stretching out my calf muscles but by the first weekend, the soreness had worked itself out.
For the first week, my knees were surprisingly good, but I only rode Sonny during the evaluations on Tuesday and Wednesday of the first week and the rest of the time I played with him on the ground. The second week, we began riding in earnest, and riding can be hard on the knees. On Wednesday we were in the saddle for 3 1/2 hours in the afternoon so by Friday morning, my knees were pretty sore but I decided that my on-line skills were progressing so well, it was time to begin focusing on my freestyle riding.
Because Friday afternoons are taken up by coaching meetings, I knew there wouldn’t be a riding lesson in the afternoon to stress my knees. So I saddled Sonny up and took him out to the playground to warm up. After some good circling game, I mounted up and walked Sonny all over the playground area. Then I took Sonny into the honeycomb to practice walk, trot, canter transitions. He gave me some nice canter departures, not getting too excited. I also took him into the large arena to practice the bowtie pattern at a trot. We were both tired when we finished, but it was a good tired.
The demonstration on Friday was presented by Beran and was focused on helping us understand the mutual responsibilities between horse and human. He told us that the best game for understanding these responsibilities was the circling game. The circling game has three parts, the send, the allow and the bring back. In the “send” we can see the respect that exists between the horse and human and in the “bring back” we can see their rapport. Bearn’s black mare is a high energy horse and he was able to demonstrate to us how changing his energy could impact her response. After working with his mare on line, he then put her in a round pen and showed us how working with her at liberty could refine and enhance their relationship.
My coaching session this week was with Ryan and he helped me identify strategies for the three freestyle riding focus areas I had chosen for the week. He helped me identify the connection between several issues with my riding and gave me good, constructive guidance for working on the issues. Overall, I finished the week on a positive note with Ryan’s coaching
I know the state of my knees creates some physical limitations for me but the first two weeks of fast track have shown me that I am able to do a lot more than I though I could. Perhaps, some of the physical limits I have placed on myself in the past, were more in my mind than in my knees and perhaps the biggest accomplishment I will have here in fast track will simply be getting more physical than I though I ever could.

Day Nine - It's Not About theTrailer

My horse, Sonny, is a pretty confident horse. Nothing much bothers him and I have never had a problem loading him in a trailer. Coming down here to Florida, he didn't hesitate a moment before climbing up the steep, woodened walled ramp to get on to the Brook Ledge trailer. This was despite the fact that he had never seen such a rig before and there was a crazed thoroughbred already loaded who was making a hellacious racket while trying to dismantle the stall he was occupying. So when Sonny wouldn't load in the small green Parelli trailer during our on-line testing, he stuck his head in and looked around but declined to climb aboard, I knew it was not about the trailer.
Trailer loading can be a problem for many horses. Being prey animals, horses are naturally claustrophobic and climbing into a trailer would not be the first choice of a safe haven for most horses. Trailers are, as Pat Parelli often says, metal caves on wheels. In nature, you might find a mountain lion living in a cave but you probably wouldn't find a horse. I've seen horses so terrified of the idea of getting into a trailer that they have thrown themselves over backwards in order to escape.
The trailer on the Parelli Center playground is an old fashion, small two horse trailer that has been put up on blocks to make it stable. It has no doors and because it has no ramp, a horse has to take a step up enter. Sonny is a pretty big horse and the first time I saw the trailer I wondered if he would even fit in it. But John Barr had assured us during one of our earliest classes that he had seen two draft horses loaded simultaneously at a trot into this little trailer and he was sure that no horse in our class was too big for the trailer.
I had been taking Sonny to the trailer every day and he had progressed to putting both front feet and most of his body into the trailer but he still hadn't stepped into the trailer with his hind feet. I had been very patient with him because we had been told never to ask a horse for more effort when he was already trying but after a week, I wasn't sure Sonny was trying. He would get most of himself into the trailer and then just stand there looking bored. I wasn't sure if I should encourage him or not. So Wednesday morning, while Sonny appeared to be napping in the trailer, I flagged down Ryan, one of Parelli coaches and asked for help.
Ryan told me that if I thought Sonny wasn't being unconfident, I should go ahead and encourage him to try a little harder so I tapped Sonny on his butt with my carrot stick. This caused him to back right out of the trailer. Ryan said that now that I had started, I needed to keep asking until Sonny gave me a positive response so I kept tapping him on the butt until he climbed back in the trailer with his front feet. He didn't step up in the trailer with his back feet but he moved them much closer so I stopped tapping. I thought that was a pretty good try from him so I moved on to other challenges.
First thing Thursday morning, I took Sonny out to the trailer and asked him to load. Just like every other day, he climbed on with his front feet and moved most of the way in but didn't step on with his back feet. I waited a moment to make sure he wasn't still trying and then tapped him on the butt with my carrot stick. With out any hesitation, Sonny stepped on with his back feet and stood comfortably in the trailer while I walked around to the front and fed him a treat through the window. With Sonny, it wasn't about the trailer, I think it was about how good a leader I could be for him. I think he had been waiting for me to tell him clearly, it's OK to be inside that trailer.
Fresh off my success loading Sonny in the trailer, I went to the day's demonstration which turned out to be about trailer loading. The entire class gathered at bleachers that had been placed behind the green trailer and John Barr asked the class if anyone wanted to volunteer a horse for the demonstration. Several students jumped up and after some conversation, John chose two horses for the demonstration.
The first horse, a cute little Arabian, was nervous about being away from his buddies and fearful about getting on the trailer. He was a high energy horse who needed to move his feet and he was looking for a leader. John took him through a number of exercises around the trailer, working first to focus the horse's attention and then to gain his trust. At first the horse wouldn't even look at the trailer. After each exercise, John returned with the horse to the trailer. First the head went in and John retreated, asking the horse to do something else before returning to the trailer. Each time John asked the horse to make a little more effort and slowly but surely, as the horse became less fearful and more focused, he put more of his body in the trailer. Finally, after about 50 minutes, the horse loaded completely on the trailer.
The second horse had a completely different personality. He was more dominant than fearful and it was clear from the start that he wasn't afraid of going in the trailer. According to his owner, every time she tried to load him into the trailer, he would turn sideways to the door and refuse to straighten out his body. John told the group that the horse was probably not thinking about going into the trailer. He said that once a horse was thinking into the trailer, his body would line up so it could go into the trailer.
With this horse, John worked primarily to establish himself as the leader. The horse kept bracing against the halter. It was as if he was arguing with John about who was actually in charge. John worked to overcome each brace. Every trick the horse tried, John countered. John wasn't even asking the horse to get in the trailer. After about fifteen minutes of "non-verbal dialogue" the horse just hopped up on the trailer. John dropped the lead line and came over to finish talking with the class about trailer loading. While John finished up, the horse stood on the trailer. He made no attempt to back off, he just stood there. The whole class just laughed in agreement when John pointed out that this horse's issue was "not about the trailer".

Day 8 - Conquering the Green Ball

One of the neat things about taking a course at the Parelli Center is access to the playgrounds and the toys that most people don't have at home. Among the more interesting of the toys is a gigantic green ball. One of the tasks we had to perform during on-line testing was to put the ball on our horse's back for seven seconds and then to bounce it on his back seven times. We had two minutes to perform this task.
At home, Sonny and I have played with the kind of exercise ball you would fine in most gyms. Our ball is about 36 inches in diameter and Sonny is fine with it on his back. I have bounced it off most parts of his body and he is pretty blasé about it. But the green Parelli ball has to be at least 72" in diameter and I couldn't figure out how to pick it up to get it on Sonny's back. After a few attempts, I finally started bouncing it up high enough to get it in my arms but I wasn't successful in the time allowed. Sonny stood there looking pretty disinterested while I was grappling with the ball. I was pretty sure if I could have gotten it up, he would have let me put it on his back.
I wanted another crack at the green ball but I didn't see it anywhere so I was excited today when I spotted one of our instructors bringing it out to the playground this morning. I got Sonny on his lead line and walked him over to the ball. He sniffed out it and then looked away. I started bouncing it, which caused no reaction in Sonny. It took me about a dozen tries but I finally was able to balance the ball between my arms and my head. The key, I learned, was take off my hat (the bill was causing a problem) and to tilt my head to the side to form a tripod with my arms. I carried the ball over to Sonny, but he scooted a few steps sideways before I was able to lift the ball to his back. Once I did, he stood there like a champ with this giant green ball sitting on his back. I know it is just a simple thing but I felt really good when I finally figured out how to pick up that ball.
The classroom session on day eight was devoted to the idea of leadership and what we needed to do in order to be a leader for our horses. John Barr gave a very interesting and entertaining presentation. He told us that our horse will give us instant feedback when we do something they find annoying and he encouraged us to make sure we give our horses feedback. Horses live in the moment and for us to be effective, we need to live in the moment with them. John finished his talk on leadership by asking us to consider three questions. 1. What caused us to be interested in horses to begin with. 2. What kept us in horses. 3. What kind of a leader did we want to be for our horses.
Wednesday's afternoon riding lesson was a marathon session that lasted almost until dark. We rode for 3 1/2 hours, rotating among stations where we worked on a number of different freestyle riding tasks including the “follow the rail pattern“, the sideways game, the bow tie pattern and the circling game. Our instructors are working hard to make sure that we understand how to use our seat and legs to communicate with our horses so that when we get to finesse riding, or reins can be used to shape the horse’s body. I am still working on this concept and while Sonny is getting more responsive to my seat and leg, I know I have not yet mastered the independent seat that is required for the communication I need with Sonny. More than once during the lesson, I found myself lifting the reins top quickly to stop or turn Sonny. The concept is fairly simple to understand but difficult to execute, especially after years of depending on the reins for control.
But the time we had rotated through all of the groups, the sun was setting and there was a definite chill in the air. It was a tired group of students that unsaddled and cared for our horses in the dark and after a dinner of Cajun style fish that was, like all of the meals we have been served, incredibly tasty, I dragged myself home, took a shower and crawled into bed still thinking about what kind of a leader I wanted to be for my horse.

Day Seven - The Confidence Game

Yesterday's emotional meltdown had at least one benefit. It brought into sharper focus the fact that I seem to be having a significant crisis in confidence concerning my riding. In general, I am a pretty confident person. I enjoy learning, like being in new situations and meeting new people and love traveling. I was thrilled when I was accepted into the Parelli Fast Track, so you would think that being down here in Florida with all of these like minded people would be a dream come true. But the fact of the matter is that lately, I have not been the most confident rider and for some reason, being here at fast track has really amplified my angst.
Several months ago, after Carol Coppinger suggested that my saddle might be hindering the way Sonny was moving by pinching him in the shoulders, I purchased a Theraflex® pad. It turns out that Carol was right. The first time I rode Sonny with the new pad, his stride was so much longer it kind of freaked me out. The pad also caused my saddle to be sitting in a new position and despite several attempts to add shims in various configurations, I still haven't got the saddle, pad, shim combination exactly right. Some of the early attempts really had Sonny on his forehand at a canter, which had affected my confidence at that gait but I pretty much had worked that mostly out while I was at home in familiar surroundings.
But now I find myself in new surroundings, with a much more open riding environment, full of obstacles Sonny has never seen before, with many more horse and riders that I am used to. I still feel pretty confident when I am working with Sonny on-line but when I'm riding or even when I am thinking about riding, my confidence is shaken. And during the first six days here at fast track, I've recognized that when I rush to get ready or feel rushed, it has affected my emotional fitness which also affects my confidence.
After reflecting last night on my experience yesterday, I decided that when I came in this morning, what I needed to do to help bolster my confidence was to take my time getting ready and then just get on Sonny and ride. I wanted to experience riding all around the property in a "no pressure" situation, where I could pick my spots to walk, trot and hopefully canter and not have to worry about doing things "on command" or who might be watching. And that is just what I did.
I saddled Sonny up and then walked him over to where Jen was conducting a shimming focus session. When that was finished, I led him over to the wooden bridge to climb on. Mounting is an issue for me. I have bad knees, can't get on Sonny from the ground and need to mount from the right, "Indian style". At home, we have two high mounting blocks and Sonny stands quietly while I get on but here we have been having some trouble. There aren't many mounting blocks and the ones that are available are fairly short. I worry about getting on and that hasn't been helping my confidence.
Once mounted, I took the opportunity to ride all around the property. I walked around most of the obstacles so Sonny could get a good look at them. I took Sonny into a round pen and trotted him. I walked him up to the arena, through the honeycomb and over the bridge. I trotted him down lines and in circles. I asked him to canter several times so I could feel confident in getting the transition from walk or trot to canter. Because I was nervous, Sonny and I weren't really in harmony at the beginning but as I rode, I was able to get synchronized a bit better with him. I rode for over an hour and by the time I was ready to take him back to his pen, I was feeling much more comfortable about the afternoon's upcoming lesson.
At the 11:30 demonstration, Ryan worked on line and at liberty with a little bay mare whose Horsenality™ is very similar to Sonny's. He was trying to show us how to "ask a lot, accept a little and reward often" in order to motivate this horse. He demonstrated all seven of the Parelli games and tried to point out to us how he was trying to be particular while still encouraging the horse to offer more. He made a specific point of trying to reward the horse when it was giving evidence of "thinking about" doing what he was asking for. He encouraged us to begin to recognize the subtle signs that horses give before doing the right thing.
I was feeling pretty good by the end of the demonstration, when John Barr gave us instructions for the afternoon. He told us that we were going to take our first riding lesson at 3 PM an that we needed to warm our horses up so that we would be ready for anything. He mentioned that he could ask us to walk, trot or canter or horses, to walk them through the pond or jump them over a log. The minute he mentioned jump, I felt myself starting to panic and to lose any confidence I had developed during my morning ride. I knew I had to nip this feeling in the bud so when he dismissed the group for lunch, I approached him and explained that I had never jumped Sonny and that I didn't think that I was prepared to take on jumping right now. He told me that I didn't need to jump if I didn't feel ready but that I should warm Sonny up as if we were going to jump. That made me feel much better and I went into the afternoon riding session with only a minimum of butterflies.
It turns out that I didn't need to worry. During the lesson, we only walked and trotted. We rode several familiar patterns. Our instructors were looking more for how we were maintaining our focus and giving directions to our horses. Their corrections to us were focused and too the point. As the lesson went on, I felt more and more confident.
I know I still have a way to go in order to feel completely confident riding in this environment but I feel good that I was able to get through this first riding lesson. Tomorrow I am going to try to build on what I did today and I am going to think about steady progress as a way to win this confidence game.

Day Six - Emotional Roller Coaster

When we started this course, John Barr warned us that we would probably experience some emotional ups and downs and that we could learn a lot about ourselves as a result. Well, today I had my first experience with an emotional down, but it didn't come as a result of anything I was doing with Sonny. On Sunday I lost my debit card. I am pretty sure it happened when I went to Starbucks to purchase a New York Times. I didn't discover that the card was missing until quite late in the evening and when I called Starbucks they couldn't find the card.
So Monday got off to a bad start. I had stewed about the lost card all evening, not slept well and then had to take a half hour out of my time with Sonny to call the bank, cancel the card and arrange to get a new card sent to the Parelli Center. I was so frustrated by the entire situation that I felt near to tears and when I went into Sonny's pen to get him for our morning work, he actually turned his back to me and wouldn't look at me. That really took me up short.
Parelli teaches us that we need to be mentally, emotionally and physically fit when we work with our horses but Sonny had just told me that I wasn't really emotionally fit to be with him at the moment. I stood at the door of his pen fighting tears and telling myself that I was being foolish. I knew I needed to calm myself down before even trying to do anything with Sonny. I stood at door for a few minutes, took more than a few deep breath trying to release the tension for my body and waited for Sonny to look at me. Eventually he turned his head and looked, allowing me to draw him over to the door of the pen. I put his halter on and we headed out to the lower playground.
There were several focus stations I wanted to attend but they were all on the upper playground and given our late start, I thought it was more important to get to the closest playground and start playing. Over the weekend Sonny and I had a couple of great sessions so I expected that thing would go smoothly but I was still holding some tension and Sonny was mirroring me. I asked him to side pass over to a gate and stand. We had been working on this and making great progress but today after Sonny side passed over to the gate I could that he wasn't at all relaxed. His head was up, he was staring straight ahead, he wasn't blinking and probably most telling he was so tight in his mouth it looked almost painful to me. I knew I needed to wait for him to relax so I did. It took a full three minutes before he turned him head and looked at me.
Our session on the playground went OK and I was beginning to feel a little better. I had stopped by the classroom earlier in the morning to check the time for our next session and was watching pacing our session so I could get Sonny back to his pen and me to the next session with time to spare. I thought the next session was scheduled for 11:25 in the classroom so at 11:00, I took Sonny back to his pen, grabbed my notebook and headed for the classroom but when I got to the courtyard, I saw our entire class gathered around John Barr at the seat builders. It turned out that instead of starting at 11:25, the session had actually begun at 11:00 and I had missed John's entire explanation of what we were going to do next. I hate being late to anything and I hate being unprepared and I could just feel all of that emotion that I had worked so hard to eliminate all morning come flooding back.
The seat builders are apparatus that look a little bit like mechanical bulls. The exercise we were about to do would have one student sitting on the seat builder while two other students moved it up and down to simulate the movement of a horse. The riding student has to find and stay on her balance point in order to stay in harmony with the movement. To get on to the seat builder, it is necessary to mount by jumping from the ground. I took one look at the first riding jumping up and immediately thought to myself, with my bad knees I will never get onto that thing!
Now I was not only emotionally unfit, I was getting mentally unfit. The self talk that was running through my head was full of "never" and "can't". I sat down on a log to watch others go through the exercise and all I could think of was "how can I get out of doing this?"
About that time, McKenzie's mom came over, sat down next to me and asked me how I was doing. Apparently having a mom to talk to was just what I needed. I told her the whole sad story and admitted that I was worried about getting on the horse and feeling foolish in front of the group. Like any good mom, she empathized with me and gave me a chance to talk myself into doing the right thing. I thanked her, got up and joined the group. I quietly told Marion, who was the instructor that I was worried I wouldn't be able to get up on the seat builder from the ground.
"No problem," said Marion. "We have a mounting block right here and we can help you. Don't worry about it."
When my turn came, I got up on the mounting block and was easily able to get up on the seat builder. I did feel a little embarrassed that I was the only one in the group who needed the mounting block but I focused on finding my balance point and feeing the motion of the seat builder. In the end, I did fine and I felt a real sense of accomplishment in having pushed past my emotional baggage.
Things continued to improve after that. John and Beran led us in a number of simulations to understand both the motion of the horse and our use of the reins. The best simulation was "conga horse", a three person exercise where one person is the horse's front end, one is the rider and the third is the horses back end. The idea of the simulation was to get us to understand what our horse was experiencing when we used a direct or an indirect rein and it was amazing to me how easy it was to experience this in the simulation. There was a lot of laughing during this simulation and our three person "conga horse" was definitely having a good time.
Following this simulation, Kathy Barr talked to us about horse posture and saddling. Using John's horse, she showed us how to identify over and under developed muscle areas. She also showed us how to determine if a saddle was level, how to use a tube of chapstick to determine where the balance point actually was on the saddle and how shims could be added so we would be sitting on an appropriate balance point. Finally we were sent off to work with our own horses.
I returned to Sonny's pen in a much better state of mind. Rather than rushing into riding, I spent friendly time grooming Sonny and then determining if I had his saddle shimmed correctly. I learned that I probably need to add a shim or two to level my saddle appropriately. By the time I was done, I think I had recovered much of my lost emotional fitness.
All-in-all, it was quite a day. I learned that I certainly could recognize my own emotional unfitness. But more than that, despite some negative self talk, I learned I could center myself and recover my emotional fitness. Hopefully this is a lesson I can take into the next time I get upset or frustrated over something.

Day Five - Finding a Focus

Friday dawned sunny and crisp and I headed off to the Parelli center ready to begin the routine that would take us through the remainder of the course. From here on out, the first three hours are for working with our horses. Since each student/horse partnership is at a different stage of development, this time allow each of us to focus on whatever specific area where we need the most development. During this time, a number of "focus stations" are manned by the instructors, but students are free to attend them or not because they are completely optional.
The first of Friday's focus stations was devoted to knot tying, and since I hadn't known several of the knots that were tested earlier in the week, I took my halter and lead line and headed over where I learned to tie a "bank robber's" knot and a "horseman's bowline". The bank robber's knot is a quick release knot useful for tying horses in a trailer. Legend has it that it gets its name because it was the knot favored during the wild west era by bank robbers when they tied up their horses. The horseman's bowline is useful for tying a horse to a rail and is related to the bowline I learned in Girl Scouts. The instructors demonstrated the knots and after I was sure I had caught on to the concept, I tied a few sample knots before returning to Sonny's pen.
The second focus station I wanted to check out was dedicating to improving the circling game. When I got to the assigned location, there were lots of other students with there horses and I didn't see any of the instructors. Because Sonny sometimes takes off when I press him in the circling game, I decided to go on up the hill to the honeycomb, a set of four round pens set inside a larger enclosure. I figured that if he tried to get away from me up there, at least he would be contained.
Sonny doesn't really like to play the circling game, probably because it requires that he expend some energy. Give his druthers, he would rather eat than circle. So I generally have two problems with Sonny in the circling game. One is getting him to maintain gait and the other is getting him to canter more than a few steps at a time.
Since the instructors didn't seem to be on the field yet, I decided to try out some of the strategies I had seen during Thursday's demonstration and make a game out of getting Sonny to maintain a trot. Facing Sonny, I brought up my energy and asked him to back up. Then I sent him off in a circle around me. As long as he stayed in gait, I focused on staying absolutely neutral, keeping my posture relaxed and my hands as close to my body as I passed the lead line behind my back. But any time he broke gait, I walked quickly backwards and sent him off in the opposite direction, trying to tag him on the shoulder with my savvy string as he went by me. I was playing the game of tag with him. I was trying to communicate with him that if he trotted around me and I'd keep still. But if he dropped out of a trot and I'd make him change direction and tag him on the shoulder.
It didn't take Sonny long to figure out the game. After a bit of snorting and shaking his head at me, he was trotting with a whole lot more energy and pretty soon he had gone six laps without trying to walk. I was ecstatic with that so I disengaged him and brought him back for a cookie. After a brief rest, which for Sonny is almost as good as getting a cookie, I sent him back out and asked him to canter. Using the same strategy, I soon had Sonny cantering a complete lap without changing gait. One lap may not sound like much but in all the time Sonny and I had been playing the circling game, I had never before gotten a complete lap so when he given me a complete lap twice, I decided to call it quits for the morning.
At 11:30, we had a demonstration. Beran, our Australian instructor, led the group in a lesson focued on preparing our horses for saddling and riding. He explained to us that we play with our horse on line in order to prepare them for riding. He told us that we should see our horse walk, trot, canter and gallop with rhythm and relaxation before ever mounting. He said that if we can't get our horse's energy up and then bring it back down in all gaits on line, our horse was probably not ready for riding. He then showed us the proper way to saddle and mount a horse safely. During the demonstration, we got a first hand look at a horse that wasn't ready for riding when Gen's big grey warmblood broke away from her and took off at a gallop.
After lunch, each student had an individual coaching session to help us identify our focus for next week. Before I met with my coach, I gave some thought to what I thought my focus areas should be. I picked maintaining gait at the circling game, improving the squeeze game, and increasing the distance I can get with Sonny when backing him up or sending him sideways. My coach helped me break each of these down and identify specific strategies I could use. She then asked me to identify specific goals for each focus area for next week. Armed with the strategies and goals, I spent the remaining time on Friday playing with Sonny on line.
I am encouraged by the progress Sonny and I made during the first week of Fast Track. While I was nervous during the first two days of testing, they helped me to identify a number of areas where I need to improve. If I can keep my focus, I think we have a pretty good chance demonstrating solid level three skills before we leave the Parelli campus.

Day Four - Beware the Fire Ant!

After my last lesson before I left for Florida, Jane Bartsch, my local Parelli instructor wished me well, told me that she was sure I was going to have a great time and then, before she climbed in her truck said, "Watch out for the fire ants, they are nasty little buggers."
"They have fire ants at the Parelli campus?" I shot back.
"Yep." She answered. "If you see a little mound of sand anywhere, stay away from it. It's probably a fire ant nest and you don't want to get mixed up with them."
Fire ants were about the farthest thing from my mind when I dragged myself out of bed on day four. Despite being exhausted from the all of the activity of the first three days, I hadn't been sleeping very well and besides that, I hurt all over. I was doing a lot more walking than I usually did and I had sore muscles all over my body. I fed Sonny and cleaned his pen before dragging myself up to the classroom where our day four lessons were to begin.
`John Barr greeted us with his usual cheerful demeanor and told up that this morning we were going to have to endure a few lectures before getting out to play with our horses. I have never been so happy to settle down on a folding chair and listen as John covered the history of man's involvement with horses. John's delivery was entertaining as he brought us from ancient times to the modern era and then gave us a little bit of history on Pat Parelli's development.
After a short break, John's wife Linda gave us a lecture on Horsenalityä, a concept developed by Pat and Linda. Because each horse is an individual, Horsenalityä is a way of describing a horse's personality by applying observable behavior traits. The traits are fit around a grid with one axis describing the horse on a scale of confident to unconfident (left brain to right brain) and the other axis describing the horse as more energetic to less energetic (extroverted to introverted). By observing the horse, recognizing the behaviors and plotting them on the Horsenalityä, you can develop strategies for working more successfully with your specific horse.
After a break, John Barr was back to describe what he referred to as a "Bit o' Savvy", which was the evolution of the use of various hackamores and bridles/bits to Parelli Natural Horsemanshipä. He told us that as we developed in skill in riding our horses, we would move from hackamores and bridles/bits designed for giving control, through those used for created contact and finally on to those used for creating engagement. Finally he talked bout tool savvy and the use of spurs.
By the time John had finished lecturing, it was almost 11:30 and time for our first demonstration at the arena. Glad that the lecture had given me a much needed rest, I hurried over to the bleachers and found a spot in the shade. John was out in the arena with his horse as were several other members of the faculty. While John was explaining the correct way to halter a horse, other faculty members were demonstrating with their horses. From haltering, the demonstration moved on to things you could do that would prepare your horse for visits from the vet and the farrier. Ryan, who is currently the barn manager for Pat's performance barn, had trained to be a farrier at one time and he demonstrated several techniques that could be used to ultimately lesson the stress of farrier visits.
After lunch, it was back to the arena for a demonstration of working with horses on line. By this time, I had caught my second wind and was anxious to get a chance to actually play with Sonny. That being said, I knew I had a lot I could learn from watching the instructors playing the Parelli Seven Gamesä on line with their own horses. John placed a lot of emphasis on the Circling Game, telling us that it was the most important game in terms of giving the horse the chance to develop his responsibilities of maintaining gait and maintaining direction. He pointed out the importance of maintaining a neutral position after we send our horses onto the circle because if we are constantly micromanaging our horses to keep them going on the circle, they don't have a chance to develop their own responsibilities.
By the time John sent us off to have free time playing with our own horses, it was nearly 4 PM. As I walked back to Sonny's pen, I kept a eye on the sky, which had looked threatening during most of the afternoon's demonstration. Sure enough, just about the time I had finished giving Sonny a drink and was walking out toward the playground area, the skies opened up.
I don't mind playing in the rain because I have enough Gore-Texâ to keep myself relatively dry, but I am a complete coward when it comes to thunderstorms and the rumbles of thunder I heard were enough to drive me under cover. Retreating to the tack room, I practiced throwing and coiling my 45' line while waiting for the storm to move away.
By the time I finally did get Sonny out of his pen and over to the playground, things were pretty wet and in the waning light of day, it was a bit difficult to discern anything that could have looked like small mounds of sands. I was working with Sonny on the 22' line, dragging the tail of the line through the sand as I walked along playing with various object and that's how I stumbled into the fire ants. Before I knew what had happened, both of my hands were hurting. The aggressive little buggers had climbed right up the rope and were all over my hands. They were apparently also on Sonny's legs, as he had started hopping around. Franticly brushing the ants off my hands, I beat a hasty retreat for some distance before stopping and making sure the ants were off Sonny's legs.
Once the initial stinging stopped, I didn't think too much of the bites but on Friday morning, I found a series of nasty little welts on my hand and fingers. Although fire ants do bite, it isn't the bite that is the problem. They grab on with their mouths to get a grip and then proceed to sting multiple times around in a small circle. Their sting is something like a wasp sting and it causes a welt that swells up, blisters and itches. The blisters reminded me a little bit of what it looked like when I had gotten mixed up with poison ivy. It was pretty uncomfortable. The stings are, apparently prone to infection, so not wanting to take any chances I called my brother-in-law, Dan Harshbarger, who is a physician's assistant for some medical advice. He gave me the skinny on treating the bites and it turned out that I actually had some medicine with me that would do the trick.
Most of the discomfort is gone now but I can tell you that I am avoiding that section of the play ground. And if anyone tells you to watch out for the fire ants, take it from me, it would be a good idea to pay close attention to where you are walking!

Day Three - Benefiting from Lessons Learned

Lying in bed last night, I was thinking about the first day of evaluation and what I had learned that I could take into the second day to make it better. The thing that really jumped out at me was that because I was so concerned about starting the evaluations at the time John Barr said they were to start, I hadn't taken the time I needed to warm Sonny up. This was a problem in both sessions but particularly during the afternoon's riding session where Sonny was much more forward than usual and as a result, I didn't have the confidence that I needed to canter. So my strategy going into day two was to take whatever time I needed to warm Sonny up, even if it meant I didn't get to some of the evaluation tasks. In my mind, doing fewer tasks better would be better than doing more tasks not so well.
Day two was all about liberty (playing with Sonny on the ground without a halter and lead line) and finesse (riding with contact, or the more traditional English style riding). I've only been doing liberty with Sonny for the past six months and I haven't even started studying finesse so my expectation for these sessions weren't all that high but I was really surprised by how well we did.
In the morning's session, I was helped by starting with some of the easier liberty tasks. At the first station I went to, I had to get Sonny to stand on a tarp for seven seconds and then I had to put the tarp on his back and have him stand still for seven seconds. He performed beautifully and that gave me confidence for going on to the other tasks. There were several times that I stopped short of the standard for level four because I was afraid that Sonny would choose to leave me if I pushed him too hard. Most of the time, those decisions meant that I wasn't as far away from him as the standard required when doing the task but I still felt it was the right decision and the evaluators were very supportive. We didn't manage to canter in the circle and he didn't jump the barrels although he did squeeze between them when I created a small space but at least he didn't leave me during those tasks. He also had trouble maintaining gait in the circle and I could only get him to walk with me when we played the "stick to me" game (level four standard would be walk, trot and canter which I am still working to get with him on line) but all in all, we did well.

The afternoon session didn't start out very well. The afternoon was stinking hot and humid and it took me a long time to saddle Sonny so I had just gotten out to the field when the tasks were scheduled to start. But I was sticking to my "get a good warm up" strategy and I just rode off into a corner and started to ride. Our warm up didn't go perfectly but after about 20 minutes, I deemed us ready to go and went to my first assigned station. Finesse riding is all about precision so the first task was to get Sonny to put each of his feet, one at a time, on a small plastic disc in the ring. I managed to get Sonny to put both of his front feet on the disc but I couldn't really his rear feet and I don't think I got him to place them correctly. At the second station we were to do three canter to walk transitions. This was something I hadn't managed to do the first day when were doing the freestyle riding and I really wanted to complete this task today, but the evaluator was bringing three students into the small round pen at the same time and as I watched her I could just feel my anxiety level riding. So rather than give in to my nerves, I asked the evaluator if I could go into the ring alone to perform this particular test because I was a little bit nervous. She was very supportive and as a result, Sonny gave me three beautiful canter departures and we performed the canter to walk transitions with only a little stumble in one of them. That was a real confidence booster for me and we did most of the rest of the tasks reasonably well.
So overall, I would say my strategy had been reasonably successful. That isn't to say there weren't things that I could have done better but at least I didn't feel as anxious and as a result, Sonny was a lot more relaxed as well.
Tomorrow we begin the actual course work. I already know that one area I want to focus on is our squeeze game because Sonny is not showing much confidence when faced with getting in the trailer or jumping anything. I'm looking forward to learning new things and

Day Two - The Evaluations Begin

In order to see what we each need to be working on during our four week Fast Track,. each horse and rider needs to be evaluated by the Parelli staff. John Barr told us that the tasked we would be asked to perform would be level four tasks but he reminded us that the staff needed to understand our current state of development. This meant it was important for each of us to do what he or she could comfortably do rather than to try and power through the tasks at a skill level we might be unsure of. Since Sonny and I are still working on level three tasks, I was pretty sure that we would face some new challenges and I promised myself that rather than trying to push Sonny too hard to complete any task, I was going to make sure that I kept our relationship first.
This morning of the first day of evaluations was dedicated to seeing how well we would do working with our horses on-line and the afternoon would be evaluate our riding freestyle (with a casual, non-contact rein). Since I am much more confident working on line with Sonny, I wasn't very nervous as we set out for our morning tasks but I was surprised at how excited Sonny seemed to be when we entered the large playground area. My usually easy going horse was high headed and snorting. I had a hard time getting his attention as we warmed up and knew I was in for a learning experience. The first thing I had to do was to put a huge green ball on Sonny's back and hold it there for 7 seconds, and then I needed to bounce it on his back. Sonny and I have played with an exercise ball before but this ball was huge and I couldn't get my arms around it to even pick it up. Since the tasks are all timed, I eventually started bouncing the ball on the ground. Sonny stood still but I never was able to get the ball up high enough to get it on his back.
From that task we went to stations where we had to pick up and hold all four feet from one side, back up to the end of our line, load in a trailer, go into a pond, go sideways to the end of the line, jump a barrel, perform a figure 8 without using our carrot stick and circle at a canter with two changes of directions. To make things a bit more difficult, we had to put a twist tie around a loop in our lines. This would show how softly we were handling the line because if our horses pulled back too hard, the twist tie would break, resulting in no score for that task.
I was satisfied with how Sonny and I did even though we didn't complete all of the tasks in the time allowed. The trailer was pretty small and Sonny didn't load in it. I could have forced the issue but I didn't see the point of doing that on the first day when I knew he was uncomfortable. Rather than jump the barrels, Sonny pushed them aside and walked through. I just had to laugh at that. And when I asked him to do the figure eight around the two half barrels, he walked over one barrel, knocked it over and picked it up in his teeth. We did a great job with the pond task. Sonny walked right in and started splashing around. All in all, it was an interesting morning.
After lunch we were sent off to saddle our horses and warm them up for the freestyle riding session. I was a little more nervous about the riding tasks and to make matters worse, just as we began saddling, it started to rain. By the time I got Sonny ready, he and I were both drenched and worse than that, my saddle was soaked. I climbed on with only 5 minutes to warm up only to discover that my saddle was sitting a little to far back on Sonny and I was feeling a little bit out of balance. Probably because I was a little unsettled, Sonny was a bit unsettled, but we needed to head off to our first task.
One of the interesting thing about this evaluation was that we didn't know what the tasks were in advance. When we arrived at an area, the evaluator explained the task and then we were given a set time to complete the task. Unfortunately for me, the first task Sonny and I had to do was a walk, trot, canter task. I knew that I hadn't warmed Sonny up enough to be comfortable cantering him, particularly with my saddle slightly out of kilter so I chose to just walk and trot the task. I told that to the staff member judging the task so he and I were both surprised when Sonny chose to offer a canter on his own.
"Did you ask for that or was that Sonny's idea", the staff member asked me.
"It was pretty much his idea," I answered laughing at my own discomfort and completing the task at a trot.
By the time that task was over, it had stopped raining so I decided I needed to get my saddle adjusted. Fortunately, one of the tasks was actually a saddling task so I walked Sonny over, hopped off and managed to complete the task and get my saddle adjusted at the same time.
From there, we did some canter, walk, back up transitions (Sonny and I trotted), jumped a rail (Sonny stepped over it), performed a "controlled catastrophe", side passed in both directions, demonstrated direct and indirect rein maneuvers, and put Sonny's bridle on while sitting down. It wasn't our best day of freestyle riding but considering the weather, my nervousness, Sonny's nervousness and the nature of the tasks, I was OK with what we did. I probably would have felt a little more comfortable without carrying my carrot stick but I felt that it was important to push myself on this one thing and was proud of myself that I managed to hold the stick during all of the tasks that required one.
I know that one area I really need to work on is my confidence riding, particularly when Sonny is moving with more energy than usual like he was doing today so this is an area I am going to really focus on while we are here. I am hoping that the variety of obstacles available here will provide just the right kind of environment to help me progress both in my riding ability and confidence.
Tomorrow, they will be evaluating our liberty and finesse (riding with contact) skills. These are areas I have just started working on with Sonny so tomorrow should really be interesting.

First Day at Fast Track - The Adventure Begins

My first day at fast track began with an unintended adventure when I went outside to feed Sonny. It was still dark and I called sonny and rattled his grain in his feed tub to get his attention. I heard rather than saw him coming down the fence line and when I looked in his direction I spied a grey ghostly horse apparition headed toward me. At first I thought someone must have put another horse in Sonny's paddock over night but then I realized this grey horse was being followed by another horse and they were on my side of the fence. They trotted right up to me, looking for their breakfast and when they realized I didn't have food for them they snorted and took off down the fence again.
Fortunately, a couple of friendly and helpful fellows were loading a trailer in front of the house next door and when I called over to ask if they had lost any horses, they volunteered to come help me corral the interlopers. The three of us managed to catch one horse and as soon as he was lead into a paddock, his partner in crime quickly joined him. With the escapees safely locked in a pasture, I was able to halter Sonny and begin the one mile walk from Whitehall to the Parelli Center.
Walking Sonny down the road, I tried to manage my own nervousness so that I wouldn't communicate it to him. Sonny was good as gold during the walk. He was alert, but not at all nervous, pausing only a few time to grab a quick bite and we were the first to arrive at the center. The Parelli staff members we met on our walk up the driveway seemed surprised to see someone arriving without a trailer but they directed me to the pen that would be Sonny's home for the next month and showed me my assigned tack room and feed storage unit. After hanging around for a while watching other students with an amazing assortment of horse in an even more interesting assortment of trailers, I bummed a ride back to Whitehall so I could fetch my car and all my gear.
Orientation began at 11:30. John Barr, who runs the education program, introduced the faculty and gave us an overview of how the course would build from week one with a strong focus on line through week four where the focus would be more on precision riding. He also gave us an outline of the daily schedule. Finally John introduced Pat, who talk at length about the Parelli Core Values and how important they are to anyone who wants to go forward to be a Parelli professional.
One of the things that originally attracted me to studying Parelli Natural Horsemanshipä was how principle based it seemed to be and how it focused on never ending self improvement. I was really pleased to hear Pat Parelli talking about core values. Understanding these values, stated below, can really help me see how well aligned I am and what I need to work on inside of myself in order to make sure my mental and emotional fitness is where it needs to be.

Parelli Core Values
1. Put the relationship first
2. Be the best me I can be
3. Get it done with a little bit of fun
4. Exceed expectations
5. Embrace never ending self-improvement
6. Do more with less
7. Be humble
8. Keep it natural

After lunch John Barr explained the Parelli philosophy on problem based learning and evaluations. He asked us to do three things: to trust the process, to be willing to be stretched outside our comfort level and not to give up on ourselves, our horses or our instructors. And he also emphasized that this four week process for each one of us is about our individual journeys. The journey will probably not be without its roadblocks and may even have set back but if we keep our focus and stay in the moment, we will make progress.
The rest of the day was given over to evaluations. We took a knowledge test, for which I felt reasonably well prepared and then did four evaluations on our use of tools, where I don't think I did as well.
All in all, I felt that the members of the faculty with whom we interacted, went out of their way to make us feel welcome and comfortable. There was a lot of laughter and by the time we went in to eat dinner, the level of energy, as measured by the level of noisy conversation, was very high.
My day finished in the dark, with Sonny escaping from his pen while I was bringing him some molasses water. He had sucked down one pail (I think he thought I was giving him candy) and pushed out through the gate when I went out to refill the pail. Thanks to some quick work by nearby students, he was quickly captured and returned to the pen where I left him eating hay. I got home exactly 12 hours after I had left, tired and dirty but feeling really good about my start in fast track. Tomorrow our evaluations continue. It should be another long and exciting day.