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.