REFLECTION &
REVIEW
Time to “Reflect and Review” a bit on the journey that
Toimpulsivetonotice (Cearra) has been on since she came to us back on August
13, 2016. The journey has been one of discovery, leaning and patience.
When she came to us she had VERY limited “life experience.
Our first “meeting” was filled with attitude and sass for a variety of reasons.
Her ground skills and ground manners were sorely lacking in what we would call
“foundation skills” and her performance user saddle was “iffy” because of her
physical condition. Her previous human (God bless here), actually sold the
horse and then when she found out the poor care the horse was getting bought
her back. Major level of AWESOME HUMAN right there! Something about the horse
sparked our interest and after much discussion we made arrangement to bring her
home.
And we tossed her right into the deep end of the pool.
The day we picked her up, we hauled her, Argent and Ronan
(they all had not met yet), to a Golden State Horsemanship Club practice! New
place, new horses, new people….and we used her as a “demo horse” for a Round
Pen Workshop. Since her skills in this area were anemic at best she was perfect
for the workshop! She also learned about personal space and backing up by
responding to rhythmic pressure. It was a mind blowing, reality altering
journey since then.
Even with the winter snow and rain creating long breaks in
training and with the much needed vacation we took, Cearra has really
progressed well and is ready to –maybe – find a new family. Maybe. We really
like this mare.
In the months she has been part of our family she has:
- · Greatly improved her ground skills and manners through learning well over 20 different exercises!
- · Greatly improved her trailer loading.
- · Traveled to new places and had new experiences.
- · Experienced (and enjoyed) obstacles and trails.
- · Greatly improved under saddle becoming soft in the bridle and listening to seat and leg cues nicely.
- · Improved her mental, physical and emotional fitness.
- · Worked as a Teacher’s Aid in several Horsemanship Workshops. She worked with a variety of people with different skill levels on the ground and under saddle.
- · Developed a solid work ethic and willingness, even when she is scared.
- · Developed a better “vocabulary” of communication and learned to respond to the “quiet conversation” concept.
Considering where her starting point was on “Day 1”, she has
made LOTS of progress!
·
In the months ahead we will be working on the
following:
- · Going to more new places and having new experiences.
- · Taking her mental, physical and emotional fitness –along with her personal confidence – to new levels.
- · More MILES under her hooves!
- · Refining learned skills and introducing new one to greatly improve her skill set.
Basically, we are going to first ensure that the foundation
is strong and then we are going to get into the “cool” and “fun” stuff. We know
Cearra was going to be more of a long term project horse because of her young
age and limited life experience. We are glad we brought her home and share
these months together. More than other “project horses” we have worked with,
this mare had really grabbed a hold of our hearts. It will be interesting to see
what the future bring to all of us!
Thanks for reading!
Our first meeting.
Day 3
Feb. 1, 2017
Feb. 1 2017
Feb 1, 2017
Feb 1, 2017
Feb 1, 2017
Feb 1, 2017
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