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Kari Bowser auditing 

4/30/2016

1 Comment

 
Today I audited Kari Bowser, 2 * Parelli Professional, giving lessons. I was happy to see complete beginners trying out PNH with their horses. I've been thinking about the principles and why we do things the way we do them quite a lot lately and how I would approach teaching. At first it was painful to see Kari not say anything and watch her students make mistakes and it drove me crazy. But then I realized that an important part of teaching is knowing when to shut up and let your student think it through. At the end Kari's students got a lot more out of it. I can't bear watching people that I teach make mistakes (for example, my sister) and then I micromanage really badly, which is not a good thing to do.

It was extremely refreshing to see Kari's "How can I help you?" attitude towards horses, even if the horse was giving her a hard time. She didn't think of phase 4 as phase 4, and her voice and body language reflected that. She kept doing what she was doing and helped the horse to keep up. Normal people use phase 4 as a punishment, Parelli people use Phase 4 as the last resort to get the horse to succeed. This attitude is what makes Parelli Phase 4 different from punishement. I find it easy to not get angry at the horse because they only do the best they can, even if this behaviour is inconvenient to me, but when I do Phase 4 I clench my teeth, which is not a true, tension free Phase 4. I'm aware of this, and I'm working on getting better, because it can significantly affect my posture when I'm riding, if I correct Kai with clenched teeth. My horsemanship is better when I approach every horse with a "How can I help you attitude?" and the knowledge that each horse is doing the very best it can at the moment, 110% of the time, even if they bust through pressure or run away in fear or defiance.

I was excited Kari cover the corners game with B. It was a good refresher and inspired me to go out and play it with Kai, because he would really enjoy this puzzle.






1 Comment
Stacy
4/30/2016 06:12:15 pm

Ada, Excellent writing today. I can see that you are giving this journey much thoughtful consideration. It is great that you are becoming self aware of your actions and are learning to change them and your way of thinking. It is important to be able to self critique as you are doing, you will learn from this.
Congratulations on making level 3 as well :).

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    Kai

    Kai turned 5 on February 27, 2016! His name means "Keeper of the keys."

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