Whew, what a long and fun Parelli Sunday!

It started all at 4:00 am. Yes, I woke up too early, but no point going back to sleep. I left my home at 5:30 am to be at my barn by 6:30 am. I needed to feed all the horses, so Kaspin would have enough time to finish his hay and Safe Choice pellets before we left. Kaspin's ride was going to show up at 7:30 am so we could be on the road by 8:00 am to arrive at 9:00 am for the clinic to start! My lovely friend Kim was taking us again, yeahhh Kim. Whew, we made it!! And the clinic started! The morning session was all about the Parelli 7 games on the ground, on line and adding fun to your 7 games and not turning them into the 7 tortures instead. There is no way I can write everything we did! The main thing I was happy about, was some help on my circle game. I am still trying to get Kaspin to canter on the circle game. Canter is very mentally challenging for Kaspin! He usually will offer about 4 strides going to his left and only a fast fast trot to the right mostly. I never really knew, when to ask for more or when to quit? To the right, I can reward the faster gait and then let Kaspin got back to a relaxing trot so his mind can settle and he can relax at the trot again. Once he is calm and relaxed at the trot, I can try the canter again. On the left side, I can ask for the canter and get  the 4 strides, but then ask again right away and try to get more from kaspin. And again after the canter try, I can let him then go back to a relaxed trot and mentally take a break. I cannot wait to try is again at home:) Kaspin did great at the clinic!!

The afternoon session was all riding and really getting the horse to understand his front end and being able to separate from his hind end. Front quarter turns(direct rein) and hind quarter(indirect rein) turns.  After we all learned this pretty well at a stand still. We all then went walking around the arena on the wall and did this at a walk, then a trot! We would walk down the wall and ask for a hindquarter turn and finish the turn with a front end turn and continue to walk off. Pretty darn cool if you ask me. Then we all got to do this at a trot, which was a lot harder. We also practices weaving in and out of objects doing our best to use our focus mainly and try to use the reins as little as possible. Again really fun. All the horses were so well behaved!!!

My main thing I learned again! Was that Kaspin still needs LOTS of trailer work!! If I ever get Kaspin great with the trailer, I will be a super happy camper! Kaspin took a bit of creativity to load him in the am. I had to throw my 22 foot out the trailer window and call Kaspin in the trailer. While my girlfriend suggested lightly always from the outside he walk up in the trailer. Even that took us about 4 more tries and the last time Kaspin stayed on the trailer long enough for us to secure him in. When we left the clinic, it took us well over 30 mins to load Kaspin, agghh. My friends horse was already loaded on(he was coming home from training). Next Kaspin was to get on with his friend Shadow. But I guess, Kaspin figured it was ok to stay at the barn he was at! Kim and I gave many tries of loading Kaspin. Finally we had to get Meggie Andrews our Parelli professional to help us out again(she has helped us before too at another Parelli Playday event). Either way, I was happy to see Kaspin pull his same "don't want to load" tactics for Meggie as well. But this time I got to see someone deal with them the whole time. So I now will have to practice some more at home. I am having Meggie out for a private lesson on April 3rd. So I can review more of the trailer loading then if I don't have things better by then too.

I am sorry for no pictures. But it was just too busy all day and honestly the arena was super dark. I wouldn't have gotten anything worth wile anyway.

Keep it natural, Janine,trailer loading Kaspin, and the late and never forgotten Enzo!