After thoughts on Clinic

The 4 days spent at the clinic was a lot of fun and challenging at the same time. With so many new words and things to remember such as : Bubbles, speaking to the space, "we" not "I", resets, resets are not releases, lead, dominant, and passive. There were so many concepts covered, some new to me some not. I was lucky in the fact that my horses live at my trainers barn and since Aimee Brimhall is her trainer I was able to take lessons and prepare for the clinic.  And now going forward I can work closely with my trainer to continue and grow. One of the biggest take aways I got was the reset of the phases. It's important not to stay at phase 4 when asking a horse to do something because then they come to only expect phase 4. Also it gives them something to brace off of. This is something that will help Navi and I. In fact it already has...she is already leading much easier! The other thing I realized is I need to make sure I am offering "we" to all the horses, not just Pixie. I realized I tend to be an "I" around Jess because that is what he is offering. Jess would be considered our most "broke" horse as in the amount of training and what he is capable of doing, but now I see that he is also the most disconnected of our horses. He is an "I" horse completely meaning he does everything mechanically, but if something goes bad he isn't going to think of me at all. And that is apparent with our last couple of messy moments. Do I think we have a bond with Jess, of course we do, but it isn't the same as with the mares. Jess has spent his life as an "I" because that is what most if not all rodeo/ranch horses are. They are a means to an end. They do stuff because they learn they have too. I want to go back to basics with Jess and see if I can't get that "we" connection, but in order to do that I have to make sure I am offering the "we" not just riding him as an "I".  Time will tell, but I am excited to try and make a better connection with him. Just think of the things we could accomplish then. We were able to try and make the connection with Pixie and Willow a long time ago, because we had to teach them new things. And they don't take to force real well. This is also exciting for Navi and I because she is such a clean slate that she will never have to know any different. Hopefully this will mean great things for our future riding partnership :)

I want to clarify that "I" horses have the ability to look amazing at what they do. Mechanical can be very impressive. And there are very few people that can tell the difference in when a horse is connected with its person and when it's just doing the motions. But what I learned this week (which is something I always had an idea of) is if there is more force required then the connection has been lost. This is something I am guilty of also, even with Pixie. When something wasn't going my way I moved to stronger aids instead of trying to find the missing piece. I went to a twisted bit and spurs. Now I know bits are only as strong as the hands behind them, but when you transition up for the sake of control it is being used for the wrong reasons. At the time I didn't have the knowledge to get what I wanted without force, then I made the move to my trainers barn and have since been learning. I am happy to say my spurs haven't left my trailer since the move :)

This last week inspired me to grow so much. I can't wait to see what the future holds now that I am armed with this new information :)