Natural Remuda Equine Learning Center 
NEWSLETTER OCTOBER, 2009

CATHY’S CORNER

Jere & I ,about 1969. So skinny!! The beginning of our Natural Horsemanship!!

Looks like our drought has broken, although you can never tell in Texas. We have had about 5 inches of rain at our house and about 6 or 7 inches where we pasture some of our horses. The grass has popped up about 3 inches overnight.

Sometimes our Natural Horsemanship Journey is something like a drought. You keep going to clinics and practicing and nothing seems to happen. It seems like you are on an endless journey, where all you do is get frustrated and don’t ever get anywhere.

And like a drought, you have to just keep watering the crop and waiting for rain. But in this case, you keep going to clinics and practicing.

Then one day you have an epiphany! You finally get a break through and something clicks. It is very invigorating, like when the lightning strikes and the thunder roars when a rain is coming. All of the sudden everything that people have taught you seems to make sense like never before. Your feel and balance gets better and you can do a lead change smoothly.

Every person is not the same. Some folks come to a clinic and get everything right off. Others are like me. It takes them forever to understand the concepts and they really have to work at it.

The secret to all of it is to work at your horsemanship the same way you wait for the drought. You wait and water your crops and wait some more and water some more. And eventually it will rain, and you will figure out your horsemanship.

UPCOMING EVENTS

October 3
Private Lessons for kids, at the Natural Remuda Equine Learning Center, Utopia, TX.

JERE WILL BE A CLINICIAN AT THE BLUEBONNET HORSE EXPO, AUSTIN, TEXAS, ON OCTOBER 10, 2009!!! COME OUT AND SEE HIM.

October 10 – Bluebonnet Horse Expo, Travis County Expo Center, Austin, TX.
We will be participating in the Bluebonnet Horse Rescue Expo this year. We will have both a Vendor booth and Jere will be giving a seminar on “Horse Personalities, How to Read Them and How to Deal With Them“. The seminar starts at 12 p.m. in the Main Arena. We will also have a booth in the Vendor area. Please come out and see us. Below is the Horse Expo Web page where Jere’s picture and bio is… http://www.bluebonnethorseexpo.co m/clinicians.htm

October 17 – Problem Solving Clinic Natural Remuda Equine Learning Center, Utopia, TX.
We will start at 9a.m. and finish around 3:30 p.m. with breaks for water and lunch. Bring a sack lunch and we will eat together and talk horses.

October 24 – Riding Clinic – At the Natural Remuda Equine Learning Center, Utopia, TX.
This clinic will start at 9 a.m. and finish around 3:30 p.m. Bring your sack lunch and we will eat together and talk horses!!

NEW NEWS

Our Friend Jessica
Our friend Jessica who worked at Post Oak Farm in Burnet came for a visit last weekend. Jessica lives in Missouri and works for a horse barn there now. She is just getting started in her horse life, although she has liked horses for a long time. We had a lot of fun visiting with her. Jessica is one of those young people who makes you think there might be hope for the younger generation after all!!! She is a hard worker and can think on her own. She soaks up information like a sponge and listens when you show her things. We really enjoyed our visit with her. We wish you the best with your horses, Jessica.

Lessons at the Double Diamond in Boerne, Texas
We have started to give some lessons at Double Diamond Equestrian Center in Boerne, Texas. This is a beautiful facility and they seem to be running a very nice operation. When we first came to the Hill Country they had only Arabians and were doing a lot of embryo transplants. Now they are boarding horses and there are all sorts of horses there. It is a nice place with nice people. Thank you Kirstin and Rita, who board there and showed us the ropes.

Parelli Celebration, Ft Worth
Our friend from Batesville, Elizabeth Yeary auditioned for Pat Parelli at the Parelli Celebration in Ft Worth. Elizabeth is a young girl who has been working on her Parelli Levels and is now starting to train horses for the public, with the Parelli System and Natural Horsemanship. We have watched her grow from a shy quiet girl to an outgoing confident person who is really good with horses. At the Celebration last weekend, Pat awarded Elizabeth all 10's (the highest) plus 22 bonus points. He also invited her to try out for his Mastery program! We would like to congratulate her and wish her the best in her horse journey!!

Clinics & Lessons
Now that the weather has cooled down, we have been doing a lot of lessons and small clinics. Seems like everyone has come out from under the air conditioner and wanted to RIDE!! Us included.

JERE’S CORNER

I watched as the man walked toward the round pen. You could see his mind and focus was on the pen and its occupant. When he approached the pen he stopped. Inside the pen was the ultimate prey animal, a horse. The horse was nervous and scared and he truly thought that the man was going to eat him or hurt him. The man stopped, peered into pen, and then said the strangest thing. “If you look long enough you will see.” I never understood that statement until I thought about it a while.

Then the man entered the pen in a relaxed state and started moving the horse around. It seemed strange to do this to a scared horse but as I watched, I noticed that when the horse turned an eye toward the man, he released and retreated. It wasn’t long before the horse was facing him. Then he started retreating and turning and walking away, with the horse following him around the round pen.

The man was so subtle with his moves that it was like watching two excellent dancers, with the partners mirroring each other.

The man said these movements were body language and this was the language of the horse. They use it to communicate with each other. As the man continued around the pen he allowed the horse to catch him so the horse could smell him and touch him, on his terms, and then he touched the horse.

Then the man started talking and telling us the horse just wanted to be treated with dignity and respect. This horse wasn’t ready to ride, he was just started down the trail of trust and relationship with his human partner.

Natural Horsemanship is not so much about horse training as it is about people training. It is about controlling your emotions.

Now that I think back on this man, I wonder…… was I watching a master or was I watching a man who felt he was on the right track by seeking more knowledge. Then it hit me that he was a man with more to learn. And as it turns out I was the man in the pen. The moral of this story is you are never to old to learn.

Happy trails Jere