Smokeys first ever lesson... very excited!

Ohhh yay - so do you follow the Mclean style of riding - thats always fasinated me... (Dont follow it myself but have read a few articals and it seems to make sense)

good luck and let us know how it goes

nope, never paid any attention to it LOL, but she does groundwork lessons if required too, so I thought to get a good overview I'd do some groundwork and the last little bit ridden to set us on the right track for his work at home

Jody is great, she was really fantastic with the troll when she went really dog on me in a lesson I had with her!

I love the Mclean style... I would not have my pony today if it wasnt for it...
Good luck at your lesson!

She is great. easy to talk to. very straight forward with what she says, and it all makes perfect sence!! hope you have a great lesson!!

she is lovely, just like a real person LOL

Was good, started with some groundwork, established the "park" (if he was an auto LOL) and got the feet going where we wanted etc.

Then jumped on him and basically just went around the arena doing the same thing. When he was try to accelerate away from the scary arena edging we would decelerate and turn that front leg back towards the scary part. Once around the arena and 2nd time was good (except for going past his own halter PMSL) and then the other way and then we were 20 mins over our time and she was late to leave LOL.

So all very basic and very much the baby steps but very good and a good grounding for us to work on at home.

We'd done a lovely self loading this morning too and then the float did some rocking and jerking on our way in to the lesson and Smokey was sweating and worried, and the mats had come 4 inches forward and the back bar was jammed... Got him off (by myself!!!) and then saw he had a roughed up line of hair right over his rump so he'd obviously gone back and under the back bar (which is now slightly bent might I add!)

So a little procrastination coming home and the McLean/Parelli method still did the trick and on he went

A big day for the sheltered lad and he handled it all wonderfully.

that is great to hear!! good on you!are you getting any more? or has she left?? any chance you get, go for more!

she was here yesterday and today and won't be back till end March after HOY, so will take him back to her then.

Sounds like it was well worth it!

wahoooo go you guys!!

She was great with my big mare - I couldn't get her on the float to get her to the McLean clinic, I tried for 2 hours, so Jody came here after the clinic and did a float training session. She was SO nice and just like a real person : )

hehehe, isn't it funny how we expect these big names to be bigger than real.

I was able to watch her work with our mare thats for sale. She was very good with her.
I have to say it was quite a relief as it was quite a different experience during the week with another very good rider

I'm going for lessons next year sometime. Terrible that I live less than 10 minutes away and have never had a lesson with her yet. Mind you I haven't had a lesson full stop in a very long time!

(wonder what her "home" price is )

I still don't know how she teaches dressage, but the McLeans stuff makes as much sense as any other NH style, they're all very similar.

if you are after her home lesson price is, there is a figure on her website.

http://www.karioisporthorses.co.nz/81.html

im not sure how updated this is, but it is fairly good rate as i have travelled down from Dargaville north of auckland for lessons and find it to be very good.