Parelli Instructor gives a hand to RDA volunteers by Sue Pratt

 

On Tuesday the 20^th September Riding for the Disabled Illawarra Centre was very privileged to have Lillan Roquet 2* Parelli Professional, come to the centre to do a demonstration on horse psychology and “horsenalitly” for us.

The centre is run entirely by volunteers, with varying levels of horse experience. Our wonderful horses are all donated or loaned to us, RDA being the perfect retirement for them, giving them a caring home with a little regular gentle exercise. The horses firstly undergo a three month trial and training program to determine their suitability, before being accepted into our riding program. Safety for our riders and the well being of our horses are our top priorities, and all our volunteers are keen to learn more about how to understand the horses they are dealing with.

Lillan played with a couple of the horses that our less experienced volunteers find challenging, explaining why these horses would do the things they do, and how to be better leaders for them.

First Lillan played with LBI George, whose subtle dominance games would often go unobserved, until “all of a sudden, for no reason at all” he’d be leaning on them and dragging them around. Lillan showed the volunteers how to be the effective leader George needed, while at the same time showing how light George could be if you use phases consistently.

Lillan and George

Then RBI Bambi was brought in. Bambi is very dominant in the paddock with the other horses, and would shake his head around when being held by a leader, which was unnerving for our less confident volunteers. The question was whether this was dominance from Bambi, or due to unconfidence. We had already determined that Bambi was very quick to pick up on people’s emotions. He is a great example of “your horse is your mirror”!  Lillan observed that Bambi was having trouble looking at her with two eyes, and that confidence (or lack of it) was the problem here. Unfortunately her demonstration with Bambi was cut short as the wind picked up and heavens opened!

Lillan and RDA Volunteer

It was wonderful to see these horses change under Lillan’s approach, and for everyone to understand what motivated their behaviour. It was also great, next time at RDA to watch the girls handling the horses with a new level of awareness, understanding and savvy!

Here’s what some of the volunteers had to say:

“I found it really cool that we always knew about the small things the horses do like Bambi for example, kept on stopping in class and I found it great learning why he did that (being unconfident and freezing up)!” Rachel

“I liked how she showed us how to be the leader.

For example how to make George move instead of walking around him …..

Also how to wait for them to process the thought.

And have enthusiasm even when making only small steps forward.” Karin

We’d all like to send a very big THANK YOU to Lillan for volunteering her time to help a very good cause.

If you’d like to know more about RDA Illawarra check out our website www.rdaillawarra.org.au

Sue Pratt

Parelli student & RDA coach & volunteer.

Posted by Isabelle Greenfield