Theme of the Past Year

It has been over a year since I have posted. I find that hard to believe. It seems like time has been speeding up. Since my last post, Gunny and I have had a period of time that has included a lot of down time. There has been a mysterious lameness to deal with, figure out and then treat, there have been injuries, and then life in general conspired against horse-time for part of the year too. But I am back to doing more directed activities with Gunny now and look forward to sharing my discoveries and thoughts as I go.

My main intention over the past year was to learn how to take the connection that I had established by learning and using the Waterhole Rituals and be able to "go on the road" with it and to be more conscious about making my horsemanship mine. I want to be able to "do things" and keep that same, awesome feeling of mutual enjoyment and togetherness that we have when hanging out together. I am also working to learn how to have our connection be more stable and secure. 

We have gone through periods of manipulation and control, defensiveness, "wandering eyes" and  mutual understanding. I would like to reach a point where the balance of the relationship doesn't wobble so much between these. I do feel that part of this wobble is a result of phases that our relationship is going through as we recover from dominance-based natural horsemanship and shift into relationship and community-based relationship. I also am working to learn when an issue is a reflection of an imbalance in our relationship, a lack of understanding indicating that I need to find a different way to teach, or a lack of understanding where I need to interpret his behavior differently and adjust accordingly.

I have discovered several things that have proven to be key to finding and keeping the feeling of connection while we are doing more normal horse-human activities. Some of these things are tools that help me see a different perspective, which helps me to find a different solution, some are exercises that I have discovered, some are tidbits of an idea from another trainer which filled in a gap in my understanding, and some are new ways for me to evaluate our interactions and plan accordingly. I will share stories about the things that have proven to be key, the phases that I have observed our relationship shift between, and any new developments on the journey in the coming months.