Kaya M, who has been working with Darla for a while now, brought this lovely white mare into the riding portion of Joel Conner’s clinic recently. Here is what she had to say about their time spent together in the arena:
“I literally can’t say enough good things about this mare. She handled all of the clinic like she’d been doing it her whole life, even though it was only her second clinic. Darla was much more relaxed about the other horses around us this time and it’s clear that her confidence continues to grow. Joel helped me get more particular when asking Darla for lateral movements and we got some pretty great changes in our front quarters and backing an arc. In order to help Darla continue to find more balance, we’ll keep working on these lateral movements and her responsiveness to me leg. Working on these things will hopefully help to free her up even more in the canter. She’s gotten better, but she needs time to rework her muscles to support herself through her topline rather than through her muscles underneath her neck and body. Darla was able to progress through some more movements this weekend and we even started leg yielding. Darla is so soft in a soft feel and it’s exciting to be able to do more and more with her! While I’m having a blast riding this horse, I’m excited for Darla to find her person to continue her horsemanship journey with her.”
