I have to get a little proud for a minute. I bought this mare a little over a year ago and have worked SO hard on her. I've taken so many just general horsemanship lessons in order to get her more broke, and this is the first one that I have put on the pattern 100% by myself. Every other colt I've had has had some kind of barrel training prior to my owning them and I just worked on the finish.
The Dragon Lady (as we affectionately call her) earned her name and has tested and pushed me more than I thought possible. Ron Ralls was putting on a clinic close to me this weekend and I thought absolute worst case scenario she would regress under pressure and he could give me some ideas to fix/go on with. He adjusted some issues with my hand position and had me riding her to a different spot than I had been, and I got to make an actual run on her with more speed than she's been asked for before. This is the resulting run, and I absolutely couldn't be happier. This mare has been young minded and I've done my best to take things slow and let her mature before putting too much pressure on her. The icing on the cake was that after this run, I was able to WALK her flat footed back through the pattern and have her relax. Hard works pays off!!!!!
If you've got the chance to ride with Ron, DO IT. Pure horsemanship. No tricks. No gimmicks. No bandaids. And you've got to love his honesty!
I keep telling people how much a clinic helps. They are not just for beginners. They help everyone. You wil find what a good investment this is in your horse and in you. Good job. Practice what you learned.
I keep telling people how much a clinic helps. They are not just for beginners. They help everyone. You wil find what a good investment this is in your horse and in you. Good job. Practice what you learned.
This is actually the 2nd clinic of his I've attended. I was so impressed with his help after the 1st one I couldn't resist taking a different horse to this one. And boy am I glad I did! It's fun to watch all the other people and hear his advice towards them as well. Super helpful since we were all at different levels.
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