first day of teaching

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” - Albert Einstein

Yesterday was my actual first day of teaching at the NWTRC. My lessons last week got, surprise... rained out. The weather has not been ideal this spring, but it came through for me yesterday and we had beautiful warm sunshine for all of my lessons!
This is a whole new experience and opportunity for me to learn and grow. Horses and teaching are familiar to me, but this is a whole new population and setting. Every moment is a new challenge and adventure; and I love it!
I love being pushed to change and grow, to think about things in a new way, and to face challenges head on. I enjoy working hard and dealing with struggles, because I know they offer some of the best opportunities for learning.
As I step into this new realm of the horse world, I am taking every opportunity I have to learn and grow. I am supposed to be a "teacher" or "instructor", but I feel like I am more of a student who is facilitating skills and experiences. Making note of things that work well, and adjusting things that don't go as well.
I feel like my first day was a great success! Not because everything went smoothly, but because there were glitches and things to be learned from. I had moments of confusion, where I felt unsure of what to do in a certain situation. There were times I second guessed my skills. There periods of great joy where everything in the ring 'just clicked'.
I know there will be good and bad days, but everyday is a new opportunity to learn and I'm going to take in anything and everything that is put in my path.

spring session begins!

Tomorrow is the first day of our spring session at the NWTRC and it is my first day of teaching as well! I am really excited to start teaching, and am only a little worried about getting rained out on our first day, which I really hope doesn't happen because I am ready to go! Yesterday we had our volunteer training. We met all of our volunteers and did an overview of the duties they will be performing, as well as practicing hands-on skills with the horses. It was beautiful and sunny out, and all of our volunteers seemed excited to start the session as well.
We have been very busy out at the farm for the past couple weeks getting prepared for the session to start. All of the horses have been tuned up from having some time off over the long rainy winter, except for Zorro, who went through pony boot camp with myself and Danielle. We have also been very busy organizing and getting the word out about our next fundraising event, The Human Race, which is on May 14th 2011. For more info go here http://www.nwtrc.org/index.php?section=events#race
I'll update again in the next couple of days!