Thursday, April 22, 2010

LARA Clinic - 3/27/10

We attended a clinic put on by LARA.  The main focus was ground work and round penning.  My good friend, Nancy, took Dreamer (one of my old rescues) to be the demo horse.  It was their first adventure off of her property since she bought him a few years ago.  She was so anxious and excited.

Round penning for respect is something that I feel like I have a really good grasp on.  Therefore, it was very interesting to watch someone else work with one of "my" horses.  There were times that I was extremely impressed.  Jennice, the clinician, had terrific body language.  Dreamer responded well, and it was easy to see that he remembered his lessons from when I had him.  The major difference between Jennice and I was our verbal cues.  I am extremely consistent with my voice commands.  Whereas, she was all over the place.  I am not saying who's right or wrong, but it definitely had Dreamer confused.  Eventually, I could no longer bite my tongue and spoke up.  I wholeheartedly believe horses can learn to speak different "languages," BUT in my opinion, when you are working with a horse for a short period of time, it is important to speak their language.

Whether or not Jennice considered my two cents, I will never know.  I am not a trainer, so she may have dismissed me.  Either way, I don't want to sound too negative. I really enjoyed the clinic.  I met new people, joined a club, and learned something.  I never knew how to ask for an outside turn versus an inside.  Thanks to Jennice, I now know.  She truly has a great way with horses, and I would highly recommend her to anyone looking for a trainer.  Sometimes, it's ok to agree to disagree.

Dreamer

Jennice with Dreamer

Nancy gets out there and puts Dreamer to work

Monarch got a lesson from Jennice after being spunky with Liz

Linc also got in a few laps

HERE are the rest of the pics and even a little video of Monarch being silly.

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