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| Our Resident Instructors for May 2013. Bryna and Berry. |
We have finished our first of four weeks with our Resident Instructor Bryna Helle here. And we have kept her busy! About 40 hours of scheduled lessons, workshops and demos. And many of those hours involved small and large groups. I count about 13 people (teens to age 60 something) who have participated in lessons and workshops so far, and another 20 who have observed/audited/attended. A few of the lessons have been at other area barns with Parelli members who began their PNH journey a few years ago. But most have been right here in our barn. We have many Level One and Just Starting Outers participating in lessons, and a few Level 2-3 members. As Bryna says, we are "planting seeds."
Best of all, 11 of our Sanctuary horses have participated in our Resident Instructor month so far. Most in scheduled lessons, a couple in informal playing sessions, and Bryna is spending some special time with our beautiful Bella. Bella's "life" before she came to live with us was one of starvation, neglect, untreated injuries, feedlot "living," you get the picture.
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| Bella is getting some special lesson time this month with Licensed Parelli Instructor Bryna Helle, 2* Junior Instructor |
Another of our rescued horses, Roman, is getting lots of time this month with Bryna and PNH member Britt. Britt owns her own horse and boards at another barn, but she has volunteered to participate in our events here this month and help bring Roman along in his journey. Britt is really "learning the ropes" this month! She has had a few rides on Roman too, and this month will be putting more pieces together.
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| Britt with Roman in a lesson with Bryna |
SDSU Student Andrea has partnered up with Jewel this month. Lots of online (groundwork) lesson time, with hopes of riding Jewel for the first time this month. Jewel has had some good training at various times during her years with us but she did come with some "issues" as a wild two-year-old. She, like all horses, really needs consistency in her life. Andrea hopes to offer that to Jewel this summer and continue when she can once college starts up again.
The days of longing/lungeing (various spellings out there) are done in our barn. Who ever really thought it was a good idea to chase our horses around in circles with a whip! And then wonder why they were hard to catch out in the pasture. Talk about the ultimate Predator activity! Now, we ask, we send the horse out on a circle or wherever we would like our horse to go. And the horse goes willingly!
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| Send, politely ask |
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| then we allow the horse to willingly continue. No pressure. No chasing. Just a willing partner. |
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| And then we change our body language, and invite the horse to come back to us. |
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| and sometimes we spend "undemanding" time our partner. Our Horse. |
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| It really is a partnership thing. Jewel and Andrea. |
And all of this, everything we do with our horses before we get on them, relates to riding.
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| Bryna and Berry, May 5, 2013, at New Hope Horse Shelter |
Another of our participants is Angela. She loves all of the horses here very much. She has ridden some of them including Star and Minerva and has chosen Star as her partner this month in lessons with Bryna.
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| Angela with Star |
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| Bryna and her assistant Emma |
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| Emma with Andrea's pup Coal, Barn Guards |
