Maren Milton
I just want to share about our session today with Tony. Li'l Man and I had a lesson to work on advanced games and leading and following the shoulder. First Tony worked with Li'l Man and got him responding 100% to his cues for moving his shoulders, backing up and stepping sideways following his shoulders without coming forward and crowding him at all. After about 45 mins of tuning him up and showing him what was expected of him, he handed over the rope to me and went over all the moves step-by-step, breaking them down for me until I could at least begin to attempt to ask Li'l Man to do what Tony had been teaching him. It took a while for me to get a hang of the way to get the same results, but Tony was very patient, and after re-analyzing what I was doing as opposed to what he was doing, we finally got some semblance of the response we were looking for. In the end we realized that I was looking over the wrong shoulder! Sometimes it can come down to the smallest detail, and I am so grateful to Tony for his patience and perseverance, and his insistence on clear communication between both humans and human and horse! I had been trying to do this on my own, but just wasn't getting it, so I feel very accomplished that we finally got it! I look forward to practicing the moves and getting them as smooth and effective as when Tony does it! He makes it look so simple. I am glad we have him here to help us through the rough spots.
I hope everyone is enjoying the winter weather and getting out there as much as possible!
Maren Milton
Maren Milton