Due to operator error, this filly didn't look like this yesterday! She was a small but mighty tornado running around the round pen. Even a bit dicey at times. One of my mentors has a saying that "frustration begins where knowledge ends." And while I admit I felt like I ran out of knowledge yesterday, I have to say I was actually quite proud of both myself and Kyerra yesterday because even though we had a rather large setback, neither of us lost our cool or got frustrated. It took us too long to figure out how to stop her safely but we finally did. Then we backed up our training to a less dramatic spot and worked until we got a calm response and then ended on that quiet note. So today I pondered what I needed to do to FIX what I had accidentally done. So I reached out to another mentor and got some great ideas. He gave me hope that all was not lost and that the damage was repairable. With that vote of confidence, we started today on an optimistic note (vitally important to be sure!) We brought in a calm quiet horse and repeated the exercise from yesterday....only this time with a steady companion for the filly to gain confidence from. It made all the difference in the world. Moral of the story.....when you get beyond your abilities, don't give up. Reach out to someone that knows more....do some reading....or watching videos....something that will advance your skills. As you learn and grow, your setbacks will be less frequent and less dramatic. Yesterday we didn't win in the usual sense of the word....but we did learn.....so REALLY....that IS a win.
