Many high points today. The first is that the online agility results came in. Raudi came in third in the advanced level, and is now 23rd in the league point standing. My goal is to get her in the top twenty. This is going to be harder because we are now going into the summer months and there are then more competitors. And Hrimmi, dear Hrimmi, she came in first in the first level, putting her at 34th in the league point standing. This is because the lower levels do not amass as many points. Hrimmi did not have much competition, there were just two others in her division, but heck, I do see this as a major accomplishment. She has also now moved up to medium level, which will be more challenging for us both.

Now, of course I did the course with Raudi and Hrimmi some time back, which is before I came to NY. And since, Karol has been working with me on agility in addition to riding. I am learning to better work in unison with Gabby, my agility horse here – and to keep returning to centering myself.

Once again, we (Raudi, Hrimmi, and I) lost points because of an unwillingness to trot when asked. Karol actually worked with me on this – I am needing to be less heavy on the forehand, and in this respect encourage the horses to do the same. There is also the matter of gathering up my energy and the horses’ energy before going into trot.

All this has a connection to riding – if I figure out how to do this work on the ground, I will be able to more readily be able to do this when in the saddle. This is something that I am eager to pass on to students.

Karol feels that using the clicker just confuses the issue – is one too many things to think about when doing groundwork. She might actually be right. I am, based on this perception, going to change how I do things when doing agility. I might use it when working on individual objects. I am also going to end the sessions on a positive note, maybe taking the horses through an obstacle that they have done well, and/or just rewarding them before they leave the arena.

The most important thing is not the use of the clicker, but rather the use of positive reinforcement and letting the horses all know that they have done a good job.

Hopefully Tyra will have matured a tad when I get home – I am eager to start doing agility with her.

Got two free courses for Hrimmi’s having come in first. The May course – I have it in hand – looks east to me, but then what happens is that quite often what looks easy turns out to be hard and what is hard turns out to be easy. At least this upcoming month we will have more practice time. I am feeling quite optimistic about it all.

Next: 123. 5/3/17: So much depends upon . . .