Saturday and Sunday-

My mom, Julia and I audited a clinic in Wartrace. Even though we did not have our horses there, it was so much fun watching the other ladies and their horses. Most of what they were doing, I do in a slightly different way, but it was still fun to watch the way their horses reacted to different things, including obstacles, body language, their emotions, how much self presence they had, etc. I learned a lot about body language just from watching them and also noticed that a lot of the ladies would be expecting for something to happen... show slight body language in preparing for it, their horses would do it, and then they would tell them no, to go back and continue with what they were doing. It was interesting to see that they did not know they were signaling their horses to do things but that their horses new exactly what they were asking for! Their was also this adorable little town called Bell Buckle, where there was a cute little ice cream shop that had absolutely delicious coffee and chocolate chunk mint (I couldn't decide), a public restroom (I've never seen one before!) and lots of little shops where people sat in front of them chatting away. It was an absolutely gorgeous area, and I really hope to go back soon for play dates.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday-


I spent these days playing some, but mostly making realizations and learning boosts in short time sessions. I started playing with Cherish again and realized that I always thought too consciously of my emotions, self presence, and energy. The more I went by conscious thoughts, the more muddled my head became, and the less I went by information. My mom had told me one day, after I had explained to her exactly what to do and it worked, and after I had sent an email to someone that I thought was pretty good, she had paused... And then commented, "It's interesting that you can always give other people advice but that you don't know what to do for yourself." I thought over it for a bit (only a few minutes, really) before realizing that I've been thinking way too much. I have the idea of where I want to go, but I wasn't letting myself figure out how to get there because I was so busy studying on different natural horsemen. I rarely let other people's ideas get in the way of my own, but when it comes to horses I want to learn the most that I can. I was so worried about using my body language and everything correctly that I was using everything incorrectly. The less you think, the more you feel, and the better it gets. That night, after I had made that little realization, I went out to play with Cherish and she was absolutely wonderful. My body language flowed, my self presence and energy and emotions were perfect, and it all went very wonderfully. It lasted all of ten minutes.
I also realized that I am always trying so hard to use external joy and energy in order to get what I want with horses. I have been wondering lately why I can be so calm and quiet and clear everywhere else but why lately I have had more scattered feelings when with the horses. I was going completely against my natural self in trying to have this externally focused joy and energy, which was the complete opposite of me! I let myself have my natural internally focused joy and energy with the horses after this realization, and I was calm, quiet, and clear. I had only been pressuring myself to be this way with the horses thinking that I needed to improve something... When instead of improving myself, I need to improve my understanding of myself and my clarity of body language.

Thursday (today)-

My mom and I blew up the Equi-Spirit ball that I got for Christmas, FINALLY! It was so cute, and just perfect for me, both size wise and cover wise. Cover wise? What does she mean? Well, the cover is highlighter colored yellow and has a sweet little smiley face on it. Unfortunately none of the pictures that my mom took really caught the smiley face on the ball, but you can still see the color. We introduced it to all of the horses. Cherish was cool and confident- these past few days have been a complete makeover for her, and it's amazing how quickly she has found and become comfortable in herself. She has her ears up, eyes brightened, and her back is even more rounded now. I swear, after a few days, she has made a complete transformation. It was the same thing when I started playing with Finale. Absolutely wonderful. Anyway, after my blabbering on, I will show you the pictures. My mom only got pictures of me with Finale, but I will have to hand it to her, she did pretty good. She left halfway through, but it ended with Finale trotting towards it, slowing down, pushing it with her nose... and repeating the process. Cherish was only walking and pushing it a  bit, but I imagine soon they will be running all over the place with it.


Right when she walked in the arena, she walked up to it and snorted at it. She did not touch it at first. I had her following it around a bit, me just lightly pushing the yellow monster in front of us to make sure it would not lash out at random. This was the first time I asked her to touch it- where you can see that she is still a bit unsure about the whole ordeal. I cannot blame her, with such a giant... thing... it's bound to chase her around and eat her.

Here the stranger didn't seem so bad anymore, but it still wasn't completely accepted. She was definitely softer and open to becoming an acquaintance with him.

She began walking with it soon enough and was very intrigued by her new yellow friend. He was always smiling at her, so happily, and went exactly wherever she told him to! This one was so much better than Hope, it moved so much quicker and more exact to the spot. It also didn't squeal in protest!




So now you know my adventures for the week. Tomorrow, we are going to put up the hook things so that we can finally organize the tack room and I believe we are going to paint the bookshelves green. I am going to put sand on the pedestal top and paint the final coat so that we can then move it out to the playground that is every so slowly developing. I am going to go for a walk in the morning with my mom and possibly either Finale or Cherish will tag along with me. I hope to at least find and purchase some rope for the cordeo that I will be making. I hope to start some Liberty this week, but I may not get to it and if I don't, that's okay. My body language is my main focus, although not too much of a focus because I have learned that focusing on any one thing too much is not good. I will also be gymnasticizing Finale- because as you can see from the last picture, she needs it!

At some point or another, I would like to start riding Finale and Cherish on a regular basis. Before I do this, I want to have both of them fairly light with the halter and the cordeo and be doing at least five to ten minute Liberty sessions. I know that Cherish really enjoys being ridden, but with Finale, I will have to teach her everything. I don't think it will be too long of a process, based on the way that I teach them to be ridden. I know that it sounds like, sometimes, that I am very advanced, but truly I would not be looked at as "advanced" by most people because I am just in the starting stages of "restarting" the way I do things with my self, my body language, and slightly with the horses. I am a fairly beginning level, but it is beautiful nonetheless.