This Past Weekend

Hello Lovelies :)

How have you been? What have you been up to? 

Sunday night, after finishing the weekend with some delicious chicken & dumplings and home made lemon meringue pie at my mother-in-law's house, we moved Adalynn from the cradle to her big girl crib! Although, that entailed taking the crib apart, bringing it downstairs and putting it back together in our bedroom :) 

I made the excuse that she still wakes up twice a night to eat - which is a valid excuse! - but we didn't want to put her upstairs all by herself yet. Thankfully, she made the transition like a champ.

Even better, I feel like we had a little breakthrough with her napping. I've tried all sorts of ways to get her to nap either in her cradle, in her crib or even laying in our bed. Nothing. Nada. The only way she would nap is on our someone's chest or in her bouncy seat.

So Monday, I, feeling positive from switcharoo the night before, was bound and determined to get her to nap in that crib. No matter what. And we did it! Mind you, it didn't happen until 4pm, but it happened. And I'm crossing my fingers that it happens today and tomorrow and the next day and the next and the next...

Also, I went to a conference on Saturday and the Cheff Center that taught about explosive behaviors and how to stop the meltdowns. It was a great conference and I learned a bunch that I can't wait to apply during lessons and everyday life. 

My favorite part that was something that I'd never heard before. 

'Kids do well if they can' not 'Kids do well if they wanna'

It made so much sense to me. As a child, I don't remember ever not wanting to do well. 

I took it to mean that if a child isn't doing well, we need to change up the plan. Figure out why. Maybe I'm explaining it in a way they can't understand. Maybe they're not ready for this step and we need to back it up. Maybe they won't be ready for it and we need to go in a different direction. 

I love that it focuses on figuring out what skill the child is lacking and not simply saying that 'she just won't do it'. Why won't she do it. What does she need in order to be able to do it? This belief turns the negative 'She just won't do it, she doesn't get what I'm saying, she's not cooperating' into something positive by asking yourself why won't she do it- is it the way I'm teaching or is there another roadblock we need to uncover? 

Conferences like that really get me motivated. Can you tell? Ramble ramble ramble...I'll end it here before going on and on :)

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Teaching My First Therapeutic Riding Lesson

It finally happened. After six years of volunteering, first with the Cheff Center, then the Allegan County Exceptional Equestrians (ACEE), and now Renew Therapeutic Riding Center, I have finally taught my first few lessons!

Was it one of the most overwhelming things I've ever done? Yes. But it was also one of the most exciting. This is something that I hope to continue for the rest of my life, so although I am very anxious to get more experience and improve with all aspects of teaching, I know I'm going to be learning for years to come. 

I'm currently in Phase II of my certification process. Phase I consists of passing two exams, completing CPR, First Aid & AED training, a skills checklist and procuring a mentor. As soon as that was completed, I recieved my Instructor in Training letter, which means I'm officially in Phase II- woohoo! Now onto 25 hours of student teaching, followed by a 2.5 day workshop, then passing certification- well, either passing or failing after being scored on personal riding as well as teaching a lesson.

For those of you unfamiliar with therapeutic horseback riding, here's a little information;

• Equine-assisted activities and therapies (EAAT) are used by people around the world to assist with physical, cognitive, or emotional challenges.
• For each horse and rider, there is at least one horse leader and up to two sidewalkers. That's a five-body team! Depending on the program, there are usually two or more riders per lesson. For example, a typical four-rider group would have one instructor, four horses, four riders and twelve volunteers. 21 independant bodies! And that's an example of just one lesson.
• The body motion created when a person is seated on a walking horse closely mimics a human walking on their own. In fact, it's closer to our natural movement than anything a man-made machine could create. This helps riders with physical challenges work muscles that aren't able to be worked in their normal daily lives. It helps with flexibility, gaining muscle strength and balance.
• Relationships formed between horse and rider lead to increased confidence, patience, and self-control. This happens naturally, as horses are living, breathing creatures with feelings and a mind of their own. The rider and horse learn to work together as a team.
• Group lessons provide a positive enrivonment to improve social skills.
• The ultimate goal of lessons are for the riders to become independant.
• There are programs for wounded military veterans and active service personnel through Path Intl.'s Equine Services for Heroes (they've also partnered with Wounded Warrior Project)
• In addition to riding, a few specialty programs include driving, vaulting, and hippotherapy.

The informative links provided in this post are from the official PATH, Intl. website. If you have time, please visit the website. Who knows, you might have to find a center near you!

Here is a little poem that's a favorite in the equine world...

I Saw A Child

by John Anthony Davies

 

I saw a child who couldn't walk,
sit on a horse, laugh and talk.
Then ride it through a field of daisies
and yet he could not walk unaided.

 

I saw a child, no legs below,
sit on a horse, and make it go
through woods of green
and places he had never been
to sit and stare,
except from a chair.

 

I saw a child who could only crawl
mount a horse and sit up tall
Put it through degrees of paces
and laugh at the wonder in our faces

 

I saw a child born into strife,
Take up and hold the reins of life
and that same child was heard to say,
Thank God for showing me the way.

Nostalgia

My last horse show of the season was this past weekend at the Ingham County Fairgrounds. This was such a nostalgic place for me because it's where the below photos were taken over thirteen years ago.

We'd stay in our horse tailer for the weekend, which was pretty much a vacation in heaven for me. See the picture on the left? We would hop that fence to go play in the park next to the fairgrounds. Every morning, we'd wake up, take our dollars that we'd bummed off of our parents and run over to the main arena to buy a donut.

Patches was the sweetest horse on earth, I could ride her around the fairgrounds bareback with just her halter and lead rope. The picture on the right is before one of our early morning showmanship classes. I'm bummed that I didn't think to take a photo of Myystr and I in the same place with the same pose.

 

The show this time was complete opposite of last time. Our warm up this time was horrible, to the point of me almost wanting to scratch. In the above photo my trainer, Chris, is trying to calm me down. Once we got in the ring? He was a perfect angel.

 

It felt good to be back.




**PS.
Below is a sneak peek of the pole barn project we've got going on. More on that soon:)

Blast from the Past

I have been volunteering for programs that offer equine-assisted activities and therapies since 2007. Fall of 2013, I found a center close to home that offers classes year round. After a few months of weekly classes here, I decided that I'd like to become certified a therapeutic riding instructor. My mentor suggested that I start taking riding lessons as part of the process.

After searching a few different places for lessons, I came across 'Winning Edge Training Center' in Hudsonville. This perked me up a bit because, when I was little, the barn and trainer that I started riding with were in Hudsonville. I clicked on the link for the website and was looking at pictures of the facility and thought, oh my goodness- that is my old barn! As I'm clicking further along, I find that it's my old trainer as well!

I picked up the phone to call her and I think about gave her a heart attack when I told her who was calling. I starting riding with her when I was a little girl until about age thirteen. It turns out that she had been here and there training and just came back to the old barn in 2013. Is that fate or is that fate?  Now she's married with a sweetheart of a daughter and a young son.

Needless to say, I started taking lessons from her again. I dug around and found one of the scrapbooks that I made years ago, these pictures take us back thirteen years to some of the best days of my life.

This old beauty is Classy Patches, one of the sweetest mares known to this world. I would ride her all around the show grounds with just her halter and lead rope.

 

This handsome fella is Dyamond in the Rough...aka 'Monty'.  The picture on the left is from the same barn we all came back to. Crazy how the world works. 

Can you tell I didn't like him much? 

Let's go back to this spring...