For a few years, my primary mantra (I have several) has been Get ‘er Done. This was coined by Larry the Cable Guy – a red neck working class guy who embraced the concept of capitalism. But I was not completely happy with this mantra.

This morning I came up with one that is more fitting. It is “keep ‘er going.” In so many ways, for me, this is way more fitting in part in that it is the outer circle of the yin yang continuum.

An example – last night I gave my horse/human body awareness presentation to about 18 people who came to the Back Country Horsemen of Alaska meeting. I had expected six people to show up. That there were 18 now-meeting regulars means that finally, the organization has a

momentum of its own. When I was a founding member, we had four members. Often, we considered disbanding.

I gave my presentation – I decided to do this at Claudia and Frank Sihler’s dog training facility because I’d have a lot of space at my disposal. A very wise decision. The presentation did not go well because key slides were missing. These were the slides that were explanatory as opposed to informative. I lost my momentum early on – the looks of incomprehension on the part of my audience members threw me off even more.

I then gave a few examples of how I combine play and movement. By now, my audience members were getting antsy. I juggled, hula hooped, did fun things. THEN I involved them in the ball activities, by having them roll tennis balls under their feet, tossing them to one another and juggling. The flicker of interest occurred when I had the (now) participants start tossing balls with eyes closed, into the five gallon supplement containers. They became involved. I kept the ball rolling, in a manner of speaking, by having them toss the big ball back and forth, hard at first, and then lighter. The most amazing thing then happened – everyone became engaged and involved. It was like we were kids again.

I have since been thinking about what worked and what did not. What did not: the Power Point Presentation. If I am to do Power point presentations, they need to be short and all the slides need to be there. What did: the interactive activities were a hit. Maybe too, at the end, I should have a wrap up session. And I should get going on the interactive activities sooner. Claudia had hula hoops there – I should have gotten everyone to hula hoop.

Ah, enough assessment. Two people emailed me about last night, one with a question, one to ask when the next Centered Riding clinic might be. To have gotten the attention of two people is pay dirt. It also made me realize that I need to keep ‘er going. I am now thinking that I will do a class in May, here, four horses, four people, and $100.00 for four Sunday sessions. There will be a free introductory session. The first half will be centered around human, and the second half around horse body awareness.

Keep ‘er going, indeed.

Next: 85. 3/25/18: Juggling Juggling into the Schedule