Hindsight means to be able to look at your fanny. It also means to be able to figure out the error of your ways. This ability is embedded in the prefrontal cortex, the site of short-term memory, and as well, in the hippocampus, the long term memory. In the case of the former the insights occur shortly after the event in question; in the case of the latter the insights occur a while after the event.

I have been thinking about yesterday. Yes, I had a few successes in that I was able to assist Connie in her desire to become more comfortable around horses. However, I erred majorly in a number of respects. The one saving grace about this is that my days are such that I have time to think about things, though the thoughts come about in between working on projects; right now I’m

smack dab in the middle of working on several, including Forks, strength training, horsey homeschooling, cataloguing my book-based body awareness exercises, and doing my four FEMA disaster-relief tests.

I don’t feel like letting the world know how exactly I was remiss, but being forthright about this will at least in my own mind enable me to do things differently the next time, the consequence being that I’ll be a more effective teacher.

First of all, I had Connie follow me into the pen. The horses have been doing quite good in respecting my boundaries, but they were lax in respecting hers. I should have had her wait outside the gate for me. I could, in the future, sprinkle hay on the snow, or I could put out the gas containers containing treats. Most definitely, more mindfulness on my part is needed, as well as additional ongoing training.

Next, we did the body work and specifically the bladder sweeps in the hitching post area, where the horses eat. I tied them up so they could not eat – this caused considerable duress. Next time I am going to do the work in Tinni’s stall area. I also ought not have done an exercise that I was only partially familiar with. From now on, I’m just going to do what I know so well.

I also failed to use the playground of higher learning for its rightful purpose, which is not to train, but to educate horses. The horses were on the lead all the time. Of late, I’ve had them off lead. Having Connie interact with them, off lead would have been more fun for her and for them. Better yet, I should have done the walking exercises down on the road. Tinni is now very adept at accompanying me on our walks and it’s quite easy to match strides with him while keeping one’s hand on his back, this being the point of balance when riding.

We did a smidgeon of human body awareness work – I wish we had done more. I suspected that I didn’t do this because I didn’t know what exercises might work best. With this in mind, I am now reviewing and getting all this material in order. This is a huge task but necessary.

Doing exercises in between cleaning individual hooves and then circling the hooves after cleaning worked well, as did doing the carrot stretch exercises. Plus, I located areas of stiffness in all the mares. So the day was not a total bust.

Hindsight – you can’t live with it and you can’t live without it.

Next: 324. 11/20/18: Balloon and Anchor