Happy 6th Birthday Aayla and Sierra's second natural horsemanship lesson

We celebrated at home first with opening presents.

Opening her strawberry shortcake tea set from Sierra

This Castle Logix game has become a fast favourite

I made Aayla a strawberry shortcake outfit for her party and for Halloween.

 And I also made her a set of 7 peg people all together in a strawberry shortcake lunch box for easy transporting.

  They were super simple to make and were a BIG hit with Aayla

Since today is Aaylas birthday she gets to choose the days activities for the most part.
I did have to take Sierra to her second riding class and Aayla choose to stay home with daddy to play her new game, and with her new toys.

At riding after recapping about caring for your horse and preparing the ponies to ride with a nice gift of a brush down to thank the ponies for their gift of riding. Then it's time for the first ride.

Sierra gets a leg up

Listening intently to Laura explain the importance of your body movements to get Prince to listen to her. Explaining how you have to sit up straight with shoulders, hips and heels aligned; with a happy upbeat attitude and smiley faces on both sets of cheeks :) Feel energized so your pony will soak in that energy and want to go...and if that fails a squeeze with your legs, never your heels.

Riding bareback first to feel the horses movements and so Prince can feel hers too. Sierra uses her body to ask Prince to move and continue around the arena.

 Guiding your pony where you want to go by turning your body in that direction and looking ahead where you want to end up.

 Learning too get your pony to stop by releasing your energy, letting out your breath with a firm woahhh!

Dismounting by swinging your leg over and pushing yourself away from your pony.

Time to learn some parts of the horse like withers, forlock, fetlock, chestnut, dock, barrel, pole and muzzle.

Another fun natural horsemanship class :)

Then we hurried home to go out somewhere with Aayla...she however had other ideas. Aayla didn't want to go for a walk, or go to the park, or go anywhere for that matter. She wanted to have a home day. A day to play games and go on the quad! One of Aaylas favourite at home activities. She also wanted to help bake a cake for her birthday but somehow I didn't get any pictures of that!

Magical beginnings...the joys of learning natural horsemanship

Sierra enjoyed her first natural horsemanship lesson this week...and it was really quite magical.

Enjoying just being close and observing Firefly...

Relationships between horse and rider are a form of true beauty and I really appreciate the fact that these lessons aren't just about learning to ride. These lessons are about learning to care for your horse, learning to build a special relationship with your horse, learning patience and give and take and working towards building a wonderful partnership between horse and rider.

Credit for this photo to Sierra :)

"The essential joy of being with horses is that it brings us in contact with the rare elements of grace, beauty, spirit, and fire."

- Sharon Ralls Lemon

Waiting to meet Prince...

Approaching Firefly with care; calmly so not to scare him

Learning to let the horse come to you

Checking Prince's hoof for damaging stones

Learning to lead...giving your pony lots of room to follow you

"A horse doesn't care how much you know until he knows how much you care.  Put your hand on your horse and your heart in your hand."

- Pat Parelli

Don't they look like best friends already? Old souls reunited...

"A horse will never tire of a rider who possesses both tact and sensitivity because he will never be pushed beyond his possibilities."

- Nuno Oliveira

Learning how to play protect the herd

Using the barrels to practice balance and muscle control

 

 

Playing musical barrels

A Huge thank you to Laura at Country Spaces Studio for a wonderful lesson...full of many lessons. Who would have thought that a riding lesson without riding could have been so fun?

 

Essence (of horsemanship) : a poem by Horse Poet

A Majesty
Not contained
By force,
But directed
By silence

An Elegance
Not gained
By control,
But grown
By subtlety

A Purity
Not made
By hands,
But found
By perceiving

A Presence
Not seen
By eyes,
But imagined
By feeling

A Language
Not written
By man
But understood
By listening

(I'm breaking a rule as I try to catch up on the blog. I'm getting further and further behind so now I will work from the present backwards until I catch up as life is sweeping by so fast with all our new adventures and I want to document our adventures as they happen)