ST Mastery student Wiebke Rudolf from Germany passed Liberty 1 with her mare Jonna and with that Touchstone she passed all 5 Touchstones in Grade 1!
Congratulations!
Wiebke has some lovely words to share about the Mastery and Evaluation Program, and how it has helped her on her wonderful ST journey:
"I started the Mastery program in June 2016, because our five year old Fjord mare, Jonna, showed much physical imbalance: with a riders weight she could not walk straight and she would speed up. So I decided to follow the structured path to deal with Jonna's natural asymmetry from the bottom.
During the first months with Groundwork and Longeing, Jonna showed some behavioral issues like nipping and biting, this caused me to dig deep into the material of understanding horses, the motivation quadrant, the 5R Formula and the Interaction Quadrant. I understood: imbalance in the body leads to imbalance of the emotions (''emotions live in the shoulders"). I concentrated on keeping the COM back and Jonna's motivation increased a lot and she easily learned the next steps like haunches-in.
Evaluations and the visits of Miriam Sherman helped me to refine my pressure and release technique and I realized that if I have a clear inner picture and inner feeling, then I give aids much softer. For myself, it was important to get filmed a lot to see ''what happens before what happens happens" and to make progress in finding the missing 2 mm. My twin sister has always been great support!
To discover the training pillar Work in hand was great fun. It was amazing to see how the logical order of exercises suppled Jonna and helped her to find a good coordination and muscular stability. One year after I started ST, Simone did Groundwork while I was sitting on Jonna.
Liberty helped me to get a strong bond and to develop my training skills in terms of coaching styles and body language even further. Whenever I felt a little bit stuck, I found tips and solutions in the program and I'm glad to benefit from Marijke's knowledge.
Today it is a real pleasure to ride Jonna on trail rides, bitless without saddle, no problem. Jonna listens well and gives her best, so I´m completely happy with her! Now it's time to dive into the Grade 2 exercises!''
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Wiebke Rudolf, Germany
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