Jess and Calabar learn to trot--the movie

Why yes, I am going to risk mortal embarrassment and post this video of Ellen helping Calabar and me with our trot last weekend. It's a little long, so don't feel obligated to watch all of it, but it shows a lot of what we worked on. And what we still need to work on.

You can see that my big brown horse is being extremely patient even when he obviously has no idea what I'm asking him to do.

Ellen was also extremely patient. When I watch her work with Katie Dougherty-Kunde and Willoughby, I realize that I am at a much different level than Ellen's normal clientele. I'd like to think I'm presenting Ellen with a different kind of puzzle, though, right?

True fact: if you direct me to do multiple things at once, I forget to be nervous. I do, however, still tend to babble and laugh really loud.

Aside from my horse looking as relaxed as he could possibly be, you should also notice he is trying to decide which camera to look at--Joan and the video camera, or Devin with the DSLR who is off-screen to Joan's right. He looks back and forth several times in this video and in some the others Joan took, possibly trying to decide who would get his best side. Big brown ham.

It was a great day and I feel really good about what I've learned. So good, in fact, that we will keep at it, keep building on it, until we both know a little better what we're doing. And then it will be onto the next adventure!