"This problem, once solved, will be simple."

Oct 4 2010

This morning I had an interesting time with Prince. We had to revisit our cantering on the circle with connection. Prince had no connection at all and was basically back to square one, where we were in the spring. It didn't help that I have been sick for the last 4 days and so I wasn't really feeling that well but I really wanted to play with Prince. Looking back I should have stopped almost right before I started!! That would have been the best thing to do but I didn't and so we continued on. Also there was one time that I should have stopped and rewarded Prince and if I had of done that it probably would have changed a lot.


As I was thinking and praying about our session, and what I should do next playtime. I am convinced that God reminded me of this. It is rhythm, relaxation and connection, in just that order. Connection is last. If I get the rhythm and relaxation the connection will come. But it was almost like I forgot about the first two. It is a lot easier to see if Prince is connected than if he has rhythm or relaxation. I know that Prince is not relaxed when he is cantering. He is not thinking. He isn't necessarily right brain but he is on adrenaline. So Prince mostly has the rhythm but he doesn't have the relaxation, and if he has relaxation he doesn't have rhythm and neither time will he have connection.

So the next question I had was how do I get the rhythm and relaxation? I decided to try and use obstacles, barrels mainly. My plan is to put the barrels on the circle and get Prince to either jump them or go through them. Which ever works. That way he has to start thinking about what he is doing while he is cantering.

I am excited to see how it goes and I think that I will be a lot more mentally and emotionally fit when I got out again.

Naturally,
~Keri

"This problem, once solved, will be simple."  Thomas A. Edison