Goyani and the Show!

Well here it is Monday... and the weekend is almost a blur... what a whirlwind!

It was a fantastic Celebration here in Birmingham, UK with over 4,000 Parelli devotees. It was just amazing. Our best event experience ever, I think.  More on that in another blog because first I want to complete my report on Goyani.

After our HUGE first day of the Celebration, we had our VIP seminar and then after that I had another lesson on Goyani with Walter. And yes... I slept well that night! 
And not to add too much more pressure, Walter had invited a friend from Germany, Herr Friedrich, who is the publisher for the FN (German Federation Nationale) and he was there for the lesson too. Sheesh!

But it was a great session. I had played with Goyani that afternoon in the show for my "introvert" demo as he is a Right Brain Introvert, so I didn't do much on the ground before mounting up. I just made sure he was relaxed yet responsive and using his back as he went forwards - which I did by asking him to do snakey bends in the Circling Game. From the moment we started riding things were already better and my confidence was rising for the lesson in public the next day. Up until then I was feeling a little tight, and I kept thinking about why. I knew from experience that when things don't go well the audience loves it more! They get to see that things don't always go perfectly for us because horsemanship is such a delicate thing and so many things can happen at any given time... for anyone. Keeps you humble. So that wasn't it, I was used to that, I'd gotten over the ego thing years ago. What was it?

I finally realized what it was... I didn't want to let Walter down. He's worked so hard on me and helped me develop Remmer in collection and engagement and now suddenly we couldn't show that much publicized part of the show. These are my words of course, not his. But I felt a responsibility somehow and I really wanted this to work out. So that was the reason for my tightness, especially when the first few sessions were so 'wishy-washy', as Walter put it, and having Goyani respond to me and come over his back and engage his hindquarters was not happening easily. But the lessons of life always come through - passive persistence in the proper position pays off!

During my session on Introverts and Extroverts I talked a little about my preparation with Goyani, that being a RB-Introvert I wasn't going to mount up and just start ordering him around. I needed to gain some trust and rapport first, to see where the edges were and how he would respond to me and what it would take to ask more. And by day 4 I could ask more and not risk losing the trust or feeling that I was doing wrong by the horse.

So Walter took me to the limit (but not over the limit) once again that night and we both were happy with the way things were coming along. He even had me doing flying changes down the center line (which went better that night than the next day!) and our canter had much improved - that had been the most difficult transition earlier. In our conversation after the lesson Walter gave me a wink and a smile. We were ready.

SUNDAY

The big day. Hmmmm. I felt great! I knew now that the basic information was there - a nice horse, great Parelli foundation, a partnership was being formed between us. And we had an ecstatic crowd, fantastic atmosphere and an amazing demonstration from Pat in the morning with a LB-Introvert thoroughbred racehorse that wouldn't run. It all set the stage for developing performance horses through love, language and leadership.

Walter began with a heartfelt speech about the beauty of dressage and what's happening to its image because of the cruel training techniques currently so publicized. And of course not everyone does dressage that way but when you're seeing it at the highest levels of the sport it doesn't set a good image. Walter is so concerned about how many people are turning away from dressage because of it and takes his role as "the guardian angel of dressage horses" seriously, actively writing to and for dressage magazines on a regular basis. One of the reasons he was so happy to come to the Celebrations in the USA and UK this year was for us to help spread his message and show how well the true, classical German dressage fits in with the principles and training scale of dressage. Parelli is a perfect foundation and that's something Walter is also talking about at prominent levels in the industry. You know, whenever Pat has been called in to help a troubled performance horse, the problem always has its root in an incomplete or shallow foundation.

During his speech we showed controversial footage of horses in hyperflexion and with their tongues hanging out of their mouths, and Walter lamented on the loss of dignity for this beautiful animal, not just the pain. He talked of how this was not the way of the old masters and that things need to get back to the truth. That is also why he is so proud to be associated with Parelli and feels a kindred spirit, because first and foremost comes the love for the horse. "How can people say they love the horse and do this to him?" he often says.

And as he spoke of how carefully you need to train a horse, he asked me to come in and we were on. First relaxing walk around the arena a few times and then Walter, in his wonderful way, said to me: "So, my dear, we pick up the reins very carefully because we now go in the most sensitive part of the horse..."

We spent a little time in the walk, collecting, lengthening a little, leg yields, and as Walter saw us coming together we were off into a soft yet energetic trot. As he put us through the lesson - and it was a lesson, not a demonstration - he would correct my legs or my hands, ask for a better circle, and pretty soon he was heading us for the limit: "Canter! Canter! Canter! Ya! Ya! Come on! .... and....waaaaaaalk, now canter! .... and halt. And canter!"

Boy oh boy, we'd not done that one before! I made faces to the crowd and we all had a laugh, and Goyani came through and we actually cantered from the halt. Leading up to that point we had a couple of bobbles - a canter that didn't work, some transitions that did not really come "through", and then at one point I had no idea what he said and did something completely different! We finished with some "half steps trot" that lead to piaffe down the road, and then some 10 metre circles that ended up being a shallow serpentine, almost a straight line, with flying changes. We made most of them, but I don't think it was very pretty after the first one! I'm looking forward to seeing the video (I think!) because when I'm riding with Walter my head is filled with his requests for maneuvers and moment by moment coaching I am almost not conscious of anything else!!

We finished and the audience exploded. I really enjoy being a student and to demonstrate a lesson with Walter in front of our Parelli friends and students is a great honor.

Goyani was super and my heartfelt thanks go to Carmen for allowing me to partner with him for the occasion, I know it's not easy loaning your horse to somebody else! Walter said it was the best in the Sunday lesson, more engaged and 'through', and Pat said he looked wonderful.

So there it is! I survived, and I learned a lot.

Yours Naturally,
Linda