Friday - last day. :-( Same morning as before - we fed the horses, mucked the stalls and then went for breakfast. After breakfast, we saddled up and went to play with cows again while Fame watched. Richard had us get them out of their pen, drive them to the other end of the arena and then put them back in the pen one by one. Much harder than it sounds. We worked in teams of 3 at first and them just partners. It was very fun.


We headed back for lunch, after which Richard did a very cool bridleless riding demo with his horse to let us see what's possible and what an ultimate goal might be and then he answered questions for a while. After we broke up, I played with Fame in the round pen again, walking, trotting and loping in both directions with quite a bit more loping and me off his face, and then I took him out into the arena under saddle for the first time which was very exciting. I just did a passenger lesson - he pretty much just headed for the gate. Guess he was done. Then Karen B and I went back to Boccalis for more wine and then to a market for less expensive wine.
We rushed back for dinner and then saddled up for our last ride. We went on a very cool trail ride to a place called Diamond Hill picnic area.
We tied the horses to trees and gathered up to sing songs and tell stories. Cheryl had gone ahead in the car and put out a beautiful spread of fruits, cookies and beverages and had lit the table and the fire pit up with candles.



When we were done, we headed home under the light of a gorgeous full moon. A beautiful ending to a beautiful week.

Thursday - Well we stretched the envelope today!!! After breakfast, we saddled up and I ponied Fame to the jump arena.
But before we got there, Richard asked if we'd like to do a mountain trail loop. I asked him where I should tie Fame up and he said "Why don't you just take him with you." So, not knowing how CRAZY the trail was, we set off. (Here are some pics from the trail.)



At the first hairy part, Fame balked and I lost the rope I was holding him with, but he was so scared, he came right to me. I managed to get off Badger at some ridiculous grade, get Fame's rope and get back on and off we went. The funny thing was that that part of the trail wasn't even close to hairy. There were parts where you couldn't even tell there was a trail - you were going straight up, over solid flat, slick rock, there were hairpin turns - it was nuts! But Fame had learned that his best bet was to follow Badger and I knew my best bet was to just let Badger do his thing. There was a time or two after that where I had to slow Badger up for Fame to catch up, but we all made it with nothing more than a minor scrape on Fame's knee. Whew! Talk about a confidence builder! Then we went to the jump arena.
I tied Fame up outside and Badger and I went inside. Richard set the jumps up so there was everything from one pole laying on the ground to about a two foot jump. I wasn't really happy because I don't like jumping, but by the end of the session, Badger and I had worked our way up to going over a 1-footer and it was quite fun. After lunch, we watched a gate opening lesson and another independent seat lesson and then Richard played with the bronc, Mijo, gentling him with a ring rope around his flank. What a rodeo show that was! During the break, I saddled Fame up and brought him into the round pen where we walked, trotted and loped in both directions unassisted.

It was very exciting - especially the fact that it happened without incident! By then it was almost time for dinner and after dinner, we saddled up, rode up to the big arena and played with cows!

What a blast. Richard had people open the gates and send the cows into the arena, then we all surrounded them and took turns riding through the middle of them. Then we separated them into two groups and, at his direction, cut a certain number and sent then to the other group. By the time we were done, the almost full moon was bright, we put the cows up and headed home. When we got back, about seven of us girls sat out on the patio (it was the first relatively warm night) with glasses of wine, told stories about other natural horsemanship clinics we'd been to and about this one. Another great day.

Wednesday - So . . . Wednesday - the best day so far! Breakfast as usual and then we had the pleasure of going to Cowboy Church at he most beautiful church in the world. Richard played the guitar and we all sang from the programs Cheryl had given us. Then Richard gave a short sermon before we saddled up for the morning.
We went up to the gymkahna field, the difference being that I took Fame with us. I'd asked Richard if someone could pony him along and he said, "Well, why don't you do it?" So I did. Once we were at the field, we played focus games. We put posts around the perimeter and rode point-to-point, or to every other pole and then he asked us to see if we could circle the pole while keeping our hand on it the entire time. Fame, who had been tied to a fence to watch the goings on got loose, or almost loose multiple times, so I guess I flunked the knot tying session we had. Ooops! We went back for lunch and then after lunch I got another knot tying lesson followed by an independent seat lesson (where you ride with no reins) on Badger. Richard directed him from the ground while I tried to direct him with my body and I guess we were doing rollbacks - or so I'm told. Then, at break, Tom helped me with Fame. He was ground support while I did a passenger (well, ok tried to do a passenger lesson) on Fame. We walked, trotted and I loped on him for the first time! I got cleaned up for dinner and Karen B. and I decided to go to Boccalis for great Italian food, Chianti, and their famous strawberry shortcake. We also opted out of the evening ride for massages at the Chinese massage place where we had 30 minute back of body and 30 minute foot massages for crazy cheap. What a heavenly day!

OK, well! It's been an eventful two days! And exhausting, which is why I'm just now posting. Tuesday morning, we got up, took care of the horses and then went to breakfast as usual. Here's a pic of our dining hall . . . Then we saddled up the horses and rode up to the big arena which is just above the gymkhana field to play some horse games. We divided up into two teams and the first game was the 1s had to stay on the rail going clockwise while the 2s went counterclockwise around the inside, but close enough to each other to high five the person you passed. Then we wove in and out of each horse we went by and finally we played a game where you held hands with your partner wherever you went and Richard called out the gait you had to be in. I had a death grip on Ann Marie and almost killed her because I was so determined not to let go of her hand that I almost pulled her off her horse and she almost got drug with one foot in the stirrup. Anyway, we came in third. Tom (one of Richard's interns) and Karen - a really good rider from Missouri came in first. Here are some photos of us in the arena . . .

After that we came in for lunch and then Richard used Fame for the afternoon "project." He went all the way through from getting a feel for him through loping him for the first time. It was fantastic to watch. Here are some photos of that . . .




After that, Karen B. and I went into town to the Von's. Here's a picture of Karen B . . .When we got back, we hung out and had a glass of wine with our roomies . . .Then we went to dinner, saddled up again and rode back to the big arena for more games. Only this time it didn't go so well. We had been warming up our horses and done a little loping and then we were playing a game where Richard would call our number and we had to trot off to one end of the arena and lope in a circle, picking up the correct lead, then, when he said, trot off to the other end, making a figure 8, and lope in the other direction picking up the correct lead. I was in the middle of the second circle when I heard a lot of commotion at the other end of the arena. Turns out Leslie's horse Mijo had buggered out, did a huge rodeo buck and launched her. She laid on the ground for a long time. Tom went back to camp to get the Suburban, during which time she was able to get up, and they took her back to the dorm. By the time the rest of us rode home, she'd decided it was a good idea to go to the emergency room. They checked her out, did CT scans of her head, neck and spine and determined that she hadn't broken anything - this time. She'd actually fractured two vertebrae 8 weeks ago when the same thing happened. Ugh! OK - well, that was Tuesday. Gotta go to feed and get breakfast. I'll try to blog Wednesday at lunch. In the meantime, here's a pic of my great Thacher horse, Badger . . .

6/21/10 - Full Day 1 - Well, we got up and went to a yummy breakfast (bacon, eggs, french toast and potatoes) and then the 3 of us that were using Thacher horses got taken to the turnouts to meet them. My guy is Badger. (I forgot to take a pic of him, but will today.) We brought our horses into the arena and did some ground work for the morning, including saddling and bridling and then broke for lunch. After lunch, Richard played with 3 of the participants horses that were having issues in the morning, so we could all ride at night.



We took a break at around 3:45, so I went to get Fame and played with him and was actually able to get a saddle on him again. Thank heaven! Then we took a walk (me leading him) around the very beautiful grounds. We had dinner at 5:30 and then saddled up and rode to the gymkhana field which is HUGE, where we all warmed our horses up by trotting and loping and then played partner games Richard explained to us. We got back to the barn at around 8:30 at which point I tucked the horses in and went promptly to bed completely, deliciously exhuasted. Great first day!

6/20/10 - Well, I've arrived!!!!! Thanks to my sistas, Fame and I arrived safely at the Thacher School just before the dinner bell. The rooms were very welcoming. Everybody had a name tag on their door with curly ribbon and inside there were goodie bags, fresh flowers, horsemanship and horse health literature, name tags and a cowboy bible. I got Fame settled in his stall, set my stuff down in my room and dashed off to dinner. After dinner, I fed Fame, and then it was off to orientation. Richard introduced himself, told us a bit about the Thacher School and then we went around the table introducing ourselves and telling about our horses and what we hoped to get out of the week. After orientation, I walked around campus checking things out and then settled into my room (see attached pic). I have my own room, so I was able to use both bedspreads Gwen lent me. Isn't it cute? Anyway, more tomorrow and I'll carry my camera with me now that it's unpacked so I can start taking pictures! So, so, so happy to be here.

6/10/10 - Alright - so for today's learning. There was an incident at work yesterday where my boss sided with my nemesis and arch-rival, against me. To say I was livid is an understatement. I railed against it, drove my friends crazy obsessing about it, conjured diatribes to my boss about what the consequences would be if he didn't choose differently in the future, and basically fumed for a couple of hours. My wise friends advised me to refrain from spewing venom on my boss at that moment and sleep on it. Today, now that my blood is no longer boiling, the steam has stopped blasting from my ears, the sage words of my friends have sunk in, and I've processed the information the Universe sent me, here's what I've learned:

1. That I don't need somebody else (my boss in this case) to have
my back; God has it.

2. That consumate bully control freaks (my nemesis) are to be pitied rather than despised.

And most importantly . . .

3. If you keep your eye on the goal (moving forward with your own dreams) all that is unsupportive of those dreams becomes mere background noise that isn't worth your attention. It's major in maintaining perspective and, therefore, equanimity.