Kaya has been helping us with Moon and recently took this lovely big mare into the Joel Conner groundwork class at Safe Harbor. The two really connected over the weekend and Moon had some great changes. Kaya’s groundwork is improving and she has become a very BIG help to us in our Horsemanship Program. Here is what Kaya had to say about her experience with Moon in the clinic:
“I had the incredible opportunity to work with our massive Percheron, Moon, during the groundwork portion of the recent Joel Conner clinic. Moon is an impressive-looking horse and definitely got a lot of attention from the audience! She is also incredibly kind-hearted and she is going to make someone a great friend someday!
“Pretty much the entirety of the first session was spent trying to get Moon’s attention on me, rather than on her friend Cassidy or other horses in the clinic. I admit this was rather exhausting, but I was proud of how I was able to maintain consistency with Moon and I was really hoping that some of what we worked on would help her the following days. I had had to really control my own feel and make sure that when Moon was with me, there was peace and when she wasn’t, there was work. This method of making the wrong thing difficult and right thing easy is so effective and cool to study!
“The next morning, Moon was immediately more at peace with being separated from her friend and her attention was much easier to obtain. We were finally able to work on something other than herd-boundness and started working on fixing the braces in her hind quarters and front quarters movements, leading, and backing up. I personally am going to work on “being more methodical” about what I ask, in order to help horses figure their way out of braces without confusion. While we still have a long way to go, I’m so impressed with the changes that Moon made over the weekend! It is so exciting to be able to help her feel more comfortable in difficult situations and it absolutely made everything worth it when she genuinely looked to me for comfort and peace on several occasions on Sunday.”
