Last weekend we had Theory/Lesson Days. Saturday was "Horsenality." Sunday was "The 8 Principles" of Parelli Natural Horsemanship. We had classroom sessions in the mornings, and lessons in the afternoon. We had one spot open on Saturday, but Sunday was full!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!! Thanks participants!
Here is some of the feedback we have received so far:
Angela does a write up after about every lesson. Here are bits&pieces of her first couple of lessons: "What a wonderful experience! This is so amazing, all that I am learning. Properly presenting the right energy, and using all the phases in the right places so the horse can learn too. The most important thing I think I learned today was making sure that I wait and have the patience for the horse to get it. Which is the licking and smacking with their lips when they process what we have just done. Great day! Thanks to Star, Bryna and Darci. Emma, Bryna's German Shepherd, is a sweetheart too!
This is from Britt:
"Well,
what can I say? The lessons that Roman and I have had with Bryna have been
amazing and I have already learned so much! I have had two individual lesson
with Bryna so far and they have been wonderful. Then, on Saturday, the workshop
was called ʺWarm Up Strong to Ride Softʺ. It started off with us playing the
catching game with Roman, who was sticking to Bryna's horse, Berry, and Darci's
horse, Lily. That was actually really great and in the end, he found me
as the sweet spot. During the workshop, we had to assess what area (calm,
connected, or responsive) needed to be improved so our horse was rideable. We
prepared our horses a bunch to prepare for the very few things that could
actually go wrong during the ride. For Roman and me, we had to balance the
calmness with the responsiveness, which was difficult for me because when I
would try to up his responsiveness, I would fail to stay in harmony with him by
using the phases ineffectively, which would cause his calmness to go out the
window. We played mostly with the figure eight pattern on the circle and
throughout the workshop, Roman got much better and my timing got better, as
well. I still have a long way to go, but I learned a ton. Also, one of the
highlights of the whole workshop was when Bryna let me play with Berry on the
figure eight. It was so amazing to feel that lightness. Honestly, I cannot wait
until Savanna and Roman are that light because it is amazing. Berry backed up
beautifully with hardly a phase 1 and then everything she did was so light. I
loved it and I learned so much from her! I played with the figure eight with
Roman for a little while longer and then, when he made some more progress, we
decided that he was ready to be saddled, so Bryna showed us the Parelli way to
saddle. The main thing that I did not know is the correct way to hold the
saddle and then a bunch of the little specifics of the saddling process. Once
the horses were saddled, we played with them between the three cinchings. A
really great thing that Bryna gave us as a checklist with the saddle before
riding is 1) to walk, trot, and canter and 2) to go over a squeeze, preferably
a jump. After our horses were all ready to be ridden, we talked for a while,
and then unsaddled them without riding, which definitely blew their minds. The
workshop was wonderful! After that, we all had a fun movie night of Parelli
videos. We asked Bryna a ton of questions and it was a fabulous experience! I
sure do love Parelli and what I realized after my lessons is that I am in love
with learning and getting taught when it comes to Parelli. Having Bryna help me
with my horsemanship is one in a million and I just love learning Parelli.
Honestly, it is such a blessing to have Bryna here and it is absolutely
wonderful to be able to learn from such a fabulous teacher. Thank you, Bryna,
Darci, Roman, Berry, and Emma! I am loving my lessons and I cannot wait to
learn more! -Britt Jacobsen
This is from Barb:
I discovered New Hope Horses the middle of
April and began to learn with Shadow. I have played with Shadow for nearly a month and
am beginning to play with Star as well. I have never fallen in love
so quickly in my life (other than when I became a mom)!! I had only
heard of the Parelli program and was very interested when I found it
being practiced at New Hope.
I am in admiration of the love and respect given to the horses which is demonstrated in so many ways, beginning with the way the barn is managed.
I have so enjoyed help from Darci and lessons with Bryna. I have learned so much, not only about horsemanship but also about myself. The lessons have been conducted with such professionalism, encouragement, and care! I am thankful that Darci and Bryna "connected" and made Bryna's stay here possible. I am also thankful that there are so many people taking advantage of Darci and Bryna's knowledge.
My goal is to someday have a horse of my own again and to enjoy a partnership and connection with him/her that is different than I learned when I was younger. I just have to work on being patient and continue to learn and prepare for that day.
I do feel that I will have a lifelong connection with New Hope.
Barb Smith
I am in admiration of the love and respect given to the horses which is demonstrated in so many ways, beginning with the way the barn is managed.
I have so enjoyed help from Darci and lessons with Bryna. I have learned so much, not only about horsemanship but also about myself. The lessons have been conducted with such professionalism, encouragement, and care! I am thankful that Darci and Bryna "connected" and made Bryna's stay here possible. I am also thankful that there are so many people taking advantage of Darci and Bryna's knowledge.
My goal is to someday have a horse of my own again and to enjoy a partnership and connection with him/her that is different than I learned when I was younger. I just have to work on being patient and continue to learn and prepare for that day.
I do feel that I will have a lifelong connection with New Hope.
Barb Smith
