Aimee Brimhall Clinic Day 4

Our riding and ground work continued on day 4. In the morning session we learned about the driving game while riding, and for our ground work lesson we learned a circle exercise that involved moving forward to backwards with no stop just a fluid transition from forward to backward. The end hope is they will stay on the circle to back, but for now we just focused on getting the back up no matter which direction they went. Pixie and I did fairly well at this exercise she of course would stop and turn in as soon as I sent the intent to back up, but that was ok. She was listening and we got some great backups that were continued at a phase one. She was far from the circle, but we have a year to practice :)

On to the riding exercise we were given a sting (no string) and told to ride without leg or reins. We were to just practice our front end/hind end yields to a stop by driving from above with the stick.  I must admit I was a nervous nelly for this exercise. I found myself thinking Pixie was going to go back to her old ways and be scared of the stick. Even though she couldn't care less about it on the ground I have never ridden with the stick. I saddled up for this game to give myself more confidence! I had to get over the nervous feeling if I wanted to be successful at this. So I jumped on with stick in hand. What happened...Nothing! Pixie acted the same as if I was on the ground :) So we ventured off to practiced. She would yield easily on the front, but the stopping was a bit harder. Once I learned to relax and turn my body off she found the stop easier. I found the right hand side to be the easiest since I am right handed, but soon enough we got the left side down too. We didn't end up getting a hind end yield that day...she is too forward thinking still, but with practice we will figure it out. Before we broke for lunch we gathered to go over our findings. Mine was that I have to give Pixie more credit. I sometimes still live in the past and she is long over the past. I have to trust her as much as she trusts me!

After lunch we did review to wrap things up. We went back to our indirect rein conversations and practicing circling the barrel. This is a challenging exercise for us. Then we gathered to answer final questions and took the class photo. It was a great 4 days with lots of stuff to remember. Now off to practice for next year!