Testimonial: I'm on cloud 9!

I have been stuck in level 1 for about a year.  However, I have just completed a 2 day clinic for advancing level 1 with Russell Higgins and thanks to him I'm on cloud 9 after a very successful weekend. Wow -Russell was totally awesome as was the course and Gandalf (my horse) and I have a newfound respect for each other and things are going well plus my riding fears are at last subsiding, which is a real big deal for me!
 
I was initially so sceptical about the clinic due to previous bad experiences with other non-parelli instructors, but I found Russell to be completely brilliant and although I refused to let him play with Gandalf on day 1, I would now happily let him play with any of my horses in the future with full confidence in his abilities now that I have seen how good he is and how much he cares about horses. 
 
In fact I went on to have the best weekend so for with Gandalf after owning him for over a year and I'm not easily impressed so this is a huge compliment from me. I have come away from the clinic with a new found confidence, knowledge, refinement and enthusiasm that I was previously lacking and this is all down to Russell. I was a motorcycle instructor for 11 years whilst living in the UK and have a lot of experience in an adult learning environment as how adults learn has always fascinated me so I get it when students jeopardize their own progress by doing things like nodding to the instructor even when they don't understand something but Russell was totally onto this and was brilliant in all aspects of his teaching. He instinctively knew when we were unsure and stepped in to assist without making any of us feel foolish. His abilities were above and beyond the level of normal instructors in each and very aspect and I found he had a natural way of putting people at ease and on the same level. He was a star and a professional one at that:)
 
The other thing that blew me away was the atmosphere was totally brilliant and all of the other pupils were so friendly as was the course organizer Sandra Gow. I was extremely impressed by whole deal and cannot wait to go and practice, plus I am also looking forward to a level 1 assessment as well as the next clinic.
 
Even at the end of the course when I was struggling to load my horse to head home, Russell kindly stepped in and demonstrated exactly how it should and can be done, without making me feel like a failure, which has given me confidence to persevere with the trailer loading myself and has also shown me when to get effective.
 
So thank you Pat, Linda, and Russell Higgins - you are awesome!
 
Kind Regards
 
Tracy