Emma came over from Klamath for her first lesson on Mystic. I started her out on the therapy ball, working on her balance, body language for “go” and “stop”, “walk”, “trot” and “canter.” I then sat on her back and showed her what they felt like when she was the horse and how rotating my hips left or right turned her left or right. With that background we took Mystic up to the round pen, took off his halter and had Emma use her body language to ask Mystic to back up, walk, trot and stop. When that was working well, Emma hopped on Mystic and I ponied her off of Tori, having her use the same body language to ask for a walk, trot, stop and back up. Emma picked up the body language quickly and proved to have good balance. We moved on the arena and worked on turns to her body language in a weave the cones and had her trot and canter, and then sigh Mystic to a halt. While the lesson ended there, after we took off Mystic’s bareback pad and halter, Emma hopped back up on him and asked him to walk, turn and stop with nothing on him at all! Great first lesson.