April Gratitude Practice: Live in the Moment.

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I am grateful for the wonderful play session that Onyx and I had yesterday.

We have been playing with moving his inside hind leg under his mid line for a month. Through these short sessions, he has been building understanding and hind leg strength.

My coach taught us that asking our horse to move forward with one leg, instead of squeezing with two legs is safer. Most people squeeze with 2 legs when they are worried, if we teach the horse to stop or back up with 2 legs squeezing, the horse will stop or back up, if someone is riding and gets scared.

To me, this is brilliant. I have struggled with lack of confidence the last few years, so teaching my horse this concept makes perfect sense to me. I made it a point to focus on this one concept, for a month.

Yesterday, I was playing with Onyx while Dan was putting a 1000 pound bale of hay into the barn. Onyx had to be online, because the gates were all open. He is used to being at liberty (no physical connection to me) for the first 10 minutes in the arena. He usually can go wherever he wants to go to eat the grass along the fence line, before I ask him to connect to me. Since I have been playing with him before or while he is eating his hay or grain, he knows he will be rewarded with the food he is drawn to, if he plays along with my asks.

This was a wonderful positive outcome, which I had not expected.

Grass is a huge draw, so I made sure to give him grass as a reward option. Our sideways or side pass has not been great in the past, so I was delighted and amazed that he was able to move sideways along the fence from one of his favorite grassy areas to the next favorite grassy area. I had treats in my pocket to offer him as well. I loved that I was able to ask his front end or his hind end to move over with the tiniest amount of pressure. My ask was so light, it was almost from my thought, my focus and/or my body position.

I suspect that my angel team connects to me like this, as well. They ask me softly and if I understand, they celebrate.

If I don't understand, they ask or say it again with a stronger focus, and with more energy. Alternatively they may choose to guide me with a larger breadcrumb or break down the information into a smaller task before I can understand the messages they are sending.

This is what I did with Onyx. I broke down moving sideways into talking to his inside hind leg only for a while. Once he understood this, at the softest ask, he understood how to move sideways along the fence. He was able to put it all together and move with grace and understanding from point A to point B. It was beautiful and magical as we moved as one down the fence line.

Have you ever needed something said in a different or simpler way, so that you could understand it?

Have you ever broken a task down so that it was easier to teach to someone?

Have you listened to yourself and or to others when learning or teaching something new, thus knowing where they are stuck, so that you can learn or teach it in simpler bite size pieces?

I have been stuck for a month. I backed off of my writing, so I could give myself what I needed. I needed to pause, so I could live life in the moment and learn some important lessons on my own, without any pressure to put what I was learning into words.

I think I am ready to write again.

Manifest a magical day!