Horsemanship volunteer Kaya took Sienna into last week’s Joel Conner clinic. Here is what she had to say about their work together:

This clinic was my first time ever working with Sienna! She did so great and I learned so much. There were a couple of moments when Sienna kind of lost track of me and got overwhelmed with the commotion, but I got right to her hindquarters and she quickly settled into a quiet drift and got back to work. I was so impressed with her ability to move past these few moments!

With Joel’s help, I decided on three main goals on Friday that I would work on over the weekend. 1. Freeing up front quarters 2. Backing up 3. Backing arcs. I was so happy with Sienna’s progress with these three aspects of groundwork. By Sunday, Sienna was moving her front quarters away from me with a calm balance, we got three even steps backwards consistently based mostly on feel, and she figured out how to move her hindquarters the correct way on a backing arc! Sienna is such a sweet and attentive horse. She was constantly looking at me with bright eyes and ears forward waiting for the next cue. I can’t wait to see how she continues to progress!