Last week I attended the 3rd Annual PonyPlay Camp and 8th Annual PonyPlay Weekend at The Farm in Kentucky. (http://dulca-scenes.yolasite.com)

Since the fees were low and I stayed on-site I was able to attend the full week. It was a valuable workshop for me as a novice. I learned a lot and got plenty of practice lunging, long lining, cart pulling, etc., The atmosphere was relaxed so I was able to get used to being in a crowd while moving to varying degrees into equine head-space.

The program was casual and loosely structured in order to accommodate the specific needs of those attending. The expert training was led by Doña, who has had an extensive, notable career training and working with bio-horses. She's intuitive and quite adept at reading body language and communicating subtly through the reigns. The professional experience of some of the attendees was exploited in discussions and demonstrations as well. As a human equine it was helpful to sense the difference in qualities of various people's techniques. I was paired up with a novice trainer often and we were both doing pretty well by Sunday.

For those who haven't visited The Farm, there is abundant private land for being an equine, (in my case an ass,) whenever the need arises. There's also a good bit of indoor scene space with all types of equipment. Donkey by day, by night I was incrementally initiated to the larger realm of play. The camaraderie of all made everything enjoyable and meaningful.

The weekend was catered by a crew in the lifestyle. There was enough great food to keep me pulling and jumping despite my high metabolism. The culmination was a ponygirl and ponyboy show on Sunday. The veteran judges were equitable and discriminating. However in keeping with the spirit of the retreat, the competition was light-hearted and not of the blue-chip type.

Although I didn't donk-out as much as I'd like to do in the future, I did have some great moments. Doing as you please was encouraged yet I was a bit too timid to spend much off time as a donkeyboy. Without going into detail here, my preparation was a bit lacking in light of my particular needs. At any rate I have renewed energy to get myself where I need to be.

Many thanks to Doña and the diligent Lady Robin, as well as all the other guests, visitors and volunteers. You gave me a concentrated experience I won't forget. I hope we can have more fun before too much time passes.

one last note: I collect fine minerals and I was actually able to find two nice micromounts of separate unknown species on the property. This kind of thing helps me get a feel for the land.