Back To Basics.

I have a feeling the first part of 2012 will be about mastering the fundamentals. I have big dreams, but I will never be able to do the fancy stuff without first having the basics down to a science. This is not to say that I will be starting completely over, as a lot of tasks are second nature by now. However, there are a few holes in my horsemanship that need to be patched before we can move on. In fact, I believe part of these holes developed because we have been working through the program and Rydel has gained confidence. For example, sometimes Rydel challenges me during the Porcupine Game- a game that I could easily win against my submissive Right Brain Introvert. Now that she has learned to be more confident she sometimes tries to be dominant and pushy and instead of getting frustrated with this I just smile and play the game right back until I am the winner. I never want to destroy the confidence she is gaining, I just want to ensure that she maintains respect.

As I mentioned before, another fundamental we have been working on is the passenger lesson. In a previous lesson, Juli pointed out that perhaps Rydel had been too introverted in the past to really express how she felt during riding and now that she is coming out of her shell more I have to deal with her opinions, both good and bad. This is why I am slowing things down and going back to passenger lessons before trying to do much more advanced freestyle riding. Not micromanaging our rides has really given her a much better impression of riding and this will pay off later when I start asking more from her.

My goal is to send in my Online Level 2 audition video by the end of the month. I have purposely been putting it off because I have been trying to really get the fundamentals down- isolating the patterns into component parts and trying to achieve tasks using the smallest phase possible. I'm hoping in the next few weeks our video looks far better than our first attempt both in technique and rapport. Only time will tell but I think taking the time it takes will really pay off!
_____________________________________

Natural New Years Resolution #4: The 5 Ingredient Rule. This is a difficult rule to follow (especially as a college student) but the idea is to eat the most pure foods possible. So, when you are in the grocery store, try not to buy anything that has more than 5 ingredients in it. This mostly applies to ingredients that aren't natural and are things you cant pronounce.