Spirit-to-Spirit Horsemanship

One of the most delightful aspects of the Parelli program is the fact that it is a PROGRESSIVE program.  Progression:  Movement from one member of a continuous series to the next. ( www.freedictionary.com ) This concept could be the single most powerful aspect of Parelli Natural Horsemanship. As I look back over my long and varied history with horses, I can where my 'failures', my accidents, my ineptitudes all are completely explained by a violation of PROGRESSION.  That is, I either went too fast for my horse or too fast for myself, leaping forward past steps and over-estimating our abilities, or underestimating the time it would take for us truly to master a step before moving on. Most times, I just wasn't on any sort of an organized CONTINUOUS SERIES at all. I can also look at the successes I have had and see where the concept still applies....I was systematically going in a proper sequence and also reading my horse and presenting things in a manner that...

Life with a Right-Brain Extrovert.... is fulfilling.....     is joyful....          has its tender moments....          and its invigorating ones....           ....always keeps me on my toes....        and is oh-so-special when I've passed her test.              Sue, playing with fire, in Ohio  

.....saw horses. --------------------------------- I'm at the point where in the Parelli levels where a pedestal would be handy.  I have tools.  We have scrap wood.  Hmmmm..... Let's make a pedestal. Horse pedestal, lazy-girl-style.  (Full disclaimer:  I am not known for my attention to detail and thoroughness in my home-projects.  I tend to start hammering first and ask questions later). See that square board in the photo?  That's what I've been using for a pedestal.  And actually, that has been about the right gradient for Dani's learning curve....Dani, who is terrorized by ground poles. She put her foot squarely on that board yesterday....and left it there.  Wow.  MAJOR progress. So, we are ready for a little pedestal.  I just want something that will be more sturdy and a bit more of a challenge. Being basically lazy, I mean adept at the conservation of energy, I thought I could just work with that...

is:   progressive..... rewarding.....  (backing by tail hair)         Fun...    exciting..... full of opportunities for personal growth.... and... NEVER boring! ...Sky vs. camera.... Sky: 1  Camera: 0 Sue, loving my LBE, in Ohio

.....the ground pole. See this? Doesn't look very threatening does it? Look again... Now do you see it?  The scary monster that lives within it, around it, through it???  No?  Me neither. But she sees it....or feels it....or just wonders.... what the deal is.... This sweet little mare can be completely undone, transformed into something closely resembling a badly-cartooned version of a tazmanian devil ......by just a close proximity to this evil ground pole.   I'll bet I can conservatively estimate us as having 30+ hours of work on ground poles over the last few years.  I've even broken it down to just a stick on the ground, even just drug my foot through sand and worked with that.   Doesn't matter.....she can still become completely unhinged....at just the hint that we are going to go work on groundpoles.   For a while they were on my 'avoid at all costs' list with her, but I always knew we would have to ...