Sansa has come back from her week off, beaming like a golden ray of sunshine. A willing, happy, brumby; and what a week it has been.
Week 10 began spending some time with Donald McCulloch. Sansas first true Dressage Lesson; she dealt with white bandages very well. Donald was incredibly helpful, we worked on even paces, engaging our trot work, and began putting together some canter work ideas for the freestyle at EQUITANA in November.
Nigel has been working miracles with his brumby Alpine Daisy, fire, flags, and speed. Sansa’s eyes just about pop out of her head as she watches Daisy drag around a giant tarp. The great thing about The System that Nigel and I use to educate horses is, that no matter the distraction our horses learn to trust in our cues and leadership.
When we are not indoors watching on is awe, we have been out and about on the farm or practicing our cues in different environments. Podiums, bridges and creeks are all ways to test how well Sansa trusts the go forward cues. I must say Sansa now loves every podium, everywhere and anywhere she can find one.
We finished up this week with a “Sunday Brumby Session” at Tubbarubba Indoor, Sansa was as happy, willing and gorgeous as ever. Massive thank you to everyone who came to be part of the brumby journey on Sunday, there is only one way to test your cues with a crowd of distractions, and that is to find a crowd.
Sansa got the opportunity to practice her lay down, in front of her supportive fans. Her onlymistake being that she got up when everyone applauded. I paused for a second before reminding myself that,
“It’s not what happens that matters……. Its how you react to what happens that matters”.
The plan is always to let Sansa make mistakes before doing the opposite. The opposite to up is…….?The mistake of getting “up” without waiting for a cue, was a great opportunity to practice the lay “down” cue again.
Once again thankyou to everyone who came down to help us train our brumbies, dates for the next training event will be on www.facebook.com/Brumbydiaries