The day starts well, that is I arrived at Milton Keynes EC okay after only a 20 min drive. Apart from I parked in the wrong place, but easily sorted, about turn and go through the right gate.Moira arrived soon after me and as we were using her trailer for trailer loading she drove straight into the arena. Phew!! The trailer only just fitted through the doors. Once everything seemed sorted I scampered off for a coffee getting a lift to the refreshment tent. Luckily I did get a lift as it was miles away, well I say miles but not really miles, but blimey what a walk it would have been.

What's that? My Mobile. its Hoppy. (Dawn Moreton as if you don't know by now) uh oh! Directions told her to take the M1 and now she's off to Junction 16. Wrong way, a quick u-turn (over the slip roads not on the actual motorway itself), and soon we see Hoppy and Catherine arriving with Jayne (Evelyn's horse as Capella is Lame).Just in time Hoppy as Jane the Pony Club Leader arrives with a bundle of sarnies, fruit and crisps for us. We have also realised by this time though we had the CD Disc we don't have anything to play it on.bit of crossed wires there.. but its Brian to the rescue.. a swift phone call and Brian brings our CD player. and grabs a sarnie. This is our only chance to warm the horses up and play a little before we start. Hang a mo! I can feel rain, the roofs leaking ..but only a little and the rain stopped as quickly as it started.. Thought we were gonna get a bit wet then.

Very soon the kids start trooping in to the seating area, Moira, Catherine and I go to the back of the arena to wait our cue to start playing with our horses. First Hoppy explains that we are not representatives of Parelli Natural Horsemanship, Monty Roberts etc or any other form of Horsemanship and that we are here purely to show the relationship between Horse and Human and how you can play together using Natural Methods. Hoppy runs a fantastic introduction explaining what Natural Horsemanship is soon we hear the music. That's our cue.

Session 1
We trot the horses into the main section of the arena where we have a great selection of props to play with, we played friendly games, turning of the haunches and forehand, backing up and yoyo, sideways all with and without the props. Hoppy brought her huge Parelli ball and we had squeeze boards, barrels, jumps, cones, tarp and blocks. as well as the trailer.. Catherine .overcoming her shyness played with Jayne effortlessly, Moira and Chance showed how you can use Natural Horsemanship with a 17.3hh Horse, big horse but what a babe. and little me with little Kyle. Hoppy coordinated the music and as we played she give a running commentary of what we were doing and why.

Session 2
This session was with Chance and Kyle, now remember we play giving what the horses give us, nothing is planed and we don't know what the horses will do, strange place, noises and smells. is our relationship strong enough to carry off ... liberty?

Well this is where I get distracted, it's pretty hard to play with your horse and watch others at the same time, but what I did see of Moira and Chance was very impressive. Chance was so responsive, more energetic, kept an eye on Moira and happily played games with her. Kyle .what can I say, he's so cute. Kyle did his best to read my language and a couple of times he sauntered off down the arena, but he was left brained and happily came back to me.
I later found out that when Kyle sauntered down the arena Peter (Hoppy's husband) went to catch him by the headcollar only to hear. "Don't you dare catch him, don't touch him. No! Don't touch him" Yep Catherine is telling her dad quietly but firmly not to touch Kyle but to just direct him back up the arena. Wish I'd of heard that, would have been so funny. Any way's Kyle gives me liberty, playing games and even loaded into the trailer on his own. Hoppy asks the audience "Can you trailer load your horse like that" They reply with a confident "Yes" so Hoppy asks "Without a headcollar and leadrope while you stand outside the trailer" the response soon changes to "Err! No"

All the while we are playing I notice how the horses are watching and listening to us, wanting to be a part of us, ears pricked forwards, soft gentle muscles rippling as we ask for turns, backups, changes of gaits and taking on the small jump.
On the slightest cue the horses respond like a swift eagle, eager to please and to be our friend. Seeing Chance moving with lightness and ease instead of being heavy and clumsy as one may expect of a Shire x horse had the kids taking in the beauty of nature.
All to soon I hear the music quieten and Hoppy say thanks and start to introduce the next session.. Time for me to leave the arena.

Session 3
This was a session to show what we have demonstrated in the last 30min is not something that you can do in an instant but takes time and patience with understanding and consistency. So, this is when Moira gives Catherine a lesson with her horse Jayne showing the process of asking for manoeuvres such as yielding, backing up etc.. I don't get to see much as I am outside saddling up Kyle, but I enter the arena and quietly take a seat in the corner and watch.
Moira starts to explain how you use phases to ask the horse to come to you but Catherine gets to phase 1 and Jayne willingly comes to her. No chance of showing phase 2 or 3 then lol. Moira laughs then explains what Catherine would have done if Jayne had of shown resistance. Jayne is so responsive, and that is so pleasing to see.

Session 4
The finale, as Moira is saddling up I give a brief talk about how we saddle up and about asking permission to mount and why we ask. One person asks me "What if I get to a competition and my horse doesn't give me permission"? My reply is simple "Your not ready to compete" The person looks surprised at my reply and I wonder what she is thinking but she doesn't come back with another question so I leave it there.
My 5 min talk over I start to stretch Kyle's legs with yields and circling, Hoppy talks through what we are doing and soon we are mounted and playing. Not a lot of time left so we show some one rein riding, with indirect and direct reins, backup and sideways before moving onto carrot stick riding and then a few minutes of riding with only a length of string around the horse's neck. At one point on the right rein Kyle decided to speed up so I allowed him to take a few strides round the back of the trailer then with a shift of my weight and the soft words "Steady Kyle" I whisper to him and he obligingly comes back down to a trot.
Moira in the meantime is taking Chance over the tarp, the jump, through the squeeze etc showing how focusing and using her weight guides Chance easily around the props.

The music once again quietens; Catherine comes into the arena with Jayne. We ask if anyone has any questions but nope, no one comes forward. For the last 10 minutes or so a couple of the kids come and meet the horses and play a little friendly and disengaging of the quarters. The girl with me is surprised as how gentle we use the stick and string and is then further surprised at how, using not quite the right body language Kyle doesn't move.

Phew! The first day over and what fun we had, managed to get some photo's but the light conditions weren't too good in the arena so you may have to look a little harder than usual to see the pics..