Dancing Horses

E's 4-H club hosted a clinic today. The morning was full of informational sessions covering everything from acupuncture to taking your horse's vital signs. Very interesting and useful stuff. In between sessions, we held hobby-horse races...all very cute to watch. But the highlight of the day came after lunch.

Ruben Villasenor held a hands-on clinic for our girls and then showed them some of his fancy steps with his horse Shadow. The two of them have been showcased at some big horse expos (see this youtube video). It was amazing - and he made it seem so simple, even though we all know it's not really. Then he let the girls each have a short ride on Shadow! While E was on, he showed her how he cues for a rear. She said later that it felt like flying while Shadow was rearing up.

His part of the clinic was a wonderful opportunity for our kids. He spent individual time with each of them, showing them some basic training tools he uses with all of his animals. He then asked each rider to name one thing they needed help with and then proceeded to give some tips and instruction while they rode their horse. He spent at least 15 or 20 minutes with E and Curly, helping her learn to get past her fear of cantering on him and also helping him learn to listen to her cues. She shed a few tears (it was all pretty intense) but she stuck with it and tried to improve her riding skills and push past her emotional blocks. Both horse and rider earned their rest this afternoon!

After the clinic, we all crowded around Ruben to say our thank yous and chat a little. He told E that Curly does not seem to be a mean horse, just maybe a bit passive aggressive. Curly has learned how to take advantage of E and she needs to work consistently with him and retrain him in the basics so that her rides can be enjoyable once again.

We then mentioned that we were in the market for a new animal. And he immediately replied that he has a few for sale right now that might be suitable for us! In our price range, even! I was just blown away and excited about the possibility of owning an animal he's trained....so we will be taking a ride out to his place ASAP to check out these prospects.

Yahoo! What a day!