Summer Plans

So, since I haven't yet alluded to my summer plans, now's as good a time as ever.

*Drum roll please*

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I'm going to be a working student for Farrah Green, a 3* Parelli Professional!!!! I've had this officially arranged since February, and will be there sometime this summer. Don't have a clue as to how long, but I'm hoping to have a more specific time set up in 3 weeks, because that's when we're going to be leaving to head to SD to tour the facility and find out more about the place. So, pretty sweet!

Elaborating on Feel

Since it seems this is just on my mind lately, we had another session where I went really slow and things worked out really well. It just knocked my mind out of the water with the power of a plan. I felt like if I showed Moose what I had in mind, and made an effort to help him do it, and really concentrated on what I wanted him to do, he got the idea. He understood my intent. For example, Moose gets a little funny when people stand above him (I think because since he's so tall he's never had anyone really taller than him before), so I decided to stand up on our picnic table, and have him walk along one side of the picnic table, then turn around around a cone, and walk down the same side, and turn around around another cone. It was a very awkward pattern, and I knew it, so it was a test. And Moose passed with flying colors. I felt like he knew what I was asking from the moment I started, just because I was so focused on the pattern.

Also, I read something posted on Mugwump Chronicles a long time ago just recently about horse's walking on a track, and about it being a color and such (I'd link to the old blog post itself, but I don't know what it's called, sorry). Well, I'm not quite sure about it being colored, but I did find out something interesting about it today. I asked Moose to circle around me, and he's gotten in the pattern of doing a few laps, and then stopping. We're just not far enough into the levels to change his mind about this yet, lol. But it's not a big deal. So I sent him out, made sure he knew it was a circle, and then closed my eyes. He stopped right away, so I re-sent him. This time, he walked 3 laps around me calmly without a fuss, and I have to say I think they were the most perfect circles we've ever gotten. "How interesting!" Then, as I opened my eyes to disengage him, he stopped. I was overjoyed! I guess there really is something to this stuff.

Overall, by myself making a conscious effort to slow down and make sure he understands, I feel like Moose is really hooking on better now. I feel like I should go back and read Tom Dorrance's book again now. I think maybe I'd get more out of it this time around.