LEANNE'S LATEST TESTIMONY after another 6 days.

--this time with Chris --her husband!   

He said "One day --I will meet you".  He did on Leanne's third trip to us.

Feb. -2-2010

Rose,
There are so many challenges we face in life.  Yet there are so many more that we hide from.  Some of these we don’t even know we are hiding from until you undertake Rose’s horsemanship.  It took me a while to find it and it was not until my third visit from Australia in 18 months that I really began to understand.

Getting a connection to the horse is one thing, communicating through body language another, and many of the natural horse programs start with these complex but basic elements.  Rose’s live-in intensive delivers so much more than that.

Focusing on the rider before the horse you explore your responses to the horse, your ability to communicate lightly and with clarity, your sense of respect for the horse heightens each time you realize how much softer you can be and get a corresponding quickness and softness of response from the horse.

When I went to Rose, I had been working on ‘soft hands’ for about 7 years.  I thought I had soft hands.  To realize I could get them about 300% softer in three weeks and achieve so much more amazing results from the horse was astounding.

I have been a dancer for over 25 years and knew that body language was so important.  From our dressage lessons we hear seat, legs.  There is so much in the seat its true, but it comes not from strength and position but a breathing, relaxed softness and the ability to move with almost minute flexibility in your seat - yet this appears as stillness. 
You are moving with the horse, giving him freedom of movement and the ability to extend with relaxation.  It is incredible and has made my riding a completely different experience.

As an interior designer, I know that the best approach to a problem is to look at it creatively - yet I forget to do this when I am riding, thinking - this is how the book or my trainer tells me to do it.  
Gaining a creative approach to what messages you are sending the horse and what they really mean and really learning to listen to what the horse is telling you is the essence of Rose’s message.
And it works!

The light-bulb moment came when I finally understood the strength within softness and what it means for the horse and the rider.  I now know that that is ultimately my goal in riding. It is easy, yet it is sometimes hard to retrain our brains and bodies not to ‘abuse’ the horse our actions.  But it IS worth it.

Learn about yourself, retrain your body and brain and ride with spirit and your horse will love you for it.  I know mine did!

Love you Rose and Thank you for changing my world (and that of my horses) into a better place.

Leanne Stevenson
JOINNG UP  Art+ Dance+ Equine

www.joiningup.com.au  <-- please copy/paste

Below:  The Greatest Form of Flattery --to Our Programs, and 'Rose at the Barn'.

THANK YOU Leanne & Chris.  ---We will always love you.

[Since a relocation, their phone number may not be the same]

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