Bonnita Roy Clinic (The Horses at Alderlore) part 2

This weekend was the second clinic with Bonnita Roy. We had a larger group and some new horses. There was some good x factors this time. ICE SLIDING on the roof of the indoor made for some pretty interesting and hard work because the horses startled easily and that made them jumpy at first. But that being said we all did our parts to work through it (those of us who didn't have horses that were a bit too intimidating to the owners to work with). Bonnie took over with the horses the owners were a bit afraid of to show them that they were only reflecting the peoples fears back to them and if they could reflect back to horse calm soft energy, (easier said then done for some) The horse would soon follow. She worked with some particulary challenging horses and they transformed to calm and soft by the end of her time with them. Key points she made was it is important to see the horse in the moment just as he is. Not come into any interactions with projections like that horse is dominant or spooky or shy. I particularly resonated with this because as professional trainers, we learn to make quick evaluations of horse and humans and in that aspect can (even when we try to be neutral) project and actually create and attract the very behavior we are trying to change. I see it all the time with horses. The horse changes based on who is handling them for better or worse.

Some of us were in the second group having completed our first Dance class. The next phase was liberty. Last time we worked with the Cordero. It was interesting after reflection that the energy of the people was so mixed and there was a 50/50 split between people who were scared and people who were able to maintain calmness. My personal horse Mercury was in rare form and came in with huge energy. Now normally he is a goof and very playful but this day he was off the charts! What a display (I wish I had video of that)! It took a while to get him to focus but we were able to get a little progress eventually. I felt that being the sensitive horse he is, He was picking up on all the mixed up energy, I was too.
I got to work with one of her personal horses after him who was a little calmer and I could practice my dancing position a bit better. That was good because after a few days of feeling like I had 2 left feet, It soaked it in and on tuesday, when we were all by our lonesome in the arena, Mercury and I had our first "Dance"...with ice crashing and all....