L 3/4 Advancing Online Workshop w/Jerry S. Williams, 3* Parelli Professional 05/01/11

May 01, 2011

Advance your online skills to the subtle elegant communication that brings out the expressiveness of your horse. Learn how to move from just Asking to Suggesting. Bring both your 22’ line and 45’ line.

As in all our learning/teaching opportunities, Renegade and I certainly did not look anything like the description (above) of this workshop. We stumbled and fumbled, we were awkward and clumsy, and generally looking anything but elegant!!! That being said, we learned a lot during this workshop and I can see the road to where we are going clearly. I want to enjoy the journey but I so want to get to that elegant and subtle communication stage in our relationship.

Some of the things we covered in the workshop were how to advance our 7 games to challenge ourselves and our horses and how to develop strategies to become more imaginative in our game playing to better engage our horses. One of my favorite things we did with our horses was play jump rope, a version of the extreme friendly game. The game takes teamwork: you, your horse, and a second person. Your horse “holds” one end of the rope and your friend holds the other end while you do the jumping of the rope. Definitely an extreme friendly game and I must have prepared Renegade well because he stood like a pro while Jerry swung the line for me to jump. The only problem we had is that I CAN’T JUMP ROPE!!! I used to do it all the time when I was a kid but somewhere on the way to adulthood, I became a giant clutz. I either jumped too early or too late; either way, I got tangled up in the line every time. Ah well…it gives me something to play with until I get good at it. Maybe I can even teach Renegade to swing the rope!!

Other ideas we played with to help us become more provocative and advance the games with our horses are: greater distances, more speed or effort, straightness, lightness, lower or more refined phases, and some strategies to help us with that. I can’t wait to play with everything I learned but I need to remember not to overwhelm Renegade with everything at once!!