Spirit-to-Spirit Horsemanship

Lately, I've been working through a few of the Parelli concepts.  The Keys to Success is such a powerful paradigm.  Key number 3 is TOOLS.  One of the beautiful things about the Parelli program is that there really are very few tools needed, and in fact, key number 6 is IMAGINATION.  Looking around our place, there is a endless supply of materials and items that can be used in a different way to help me on my horsemanship journey. My mini-pedestal has become a really fun tool, but I decided it needed a bit more stability.  (See original construction post of mini-pedestal here:  http://www.spirit2spirithorse.blogspot.com/2013/02/i-dont-need-no-stinking.html  ) It seems like if there is a funky way to step on this thing, Dani will find it.  (At least I have the problem now of her stepping on it!!!  That is progress!). My LBE, Sky has also found it difficult to position his front feet squarely on it....the top surface of the pedestal is a ...

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...