written by Founder Allison Brunelli

One day last November I sat down to my email and unlike many days when I expect a lot of click, delete, click, delete, click, delete... I came across an email sent by trainer Meredith Crawford.  I savored and saved it.  (see email below)

It's a marvelous testimonial, representing much of what I'm working toward (with the help of Lendon Gray and other affiliates) with Barnby Notes -- encouraging teachers and students to get more involved in working side-by-side with their training notebooks.  Meredith does not know anything about this award, but now she will. She deserves it for going out of her way to walk the walk toward helping her students learn new techniques for learning.  She'll receive $100 toward teaching equiptment or supplies and three handsome Barnby Notes hardcover notebooks for personal use or to give to worthy students.  

Hi Allison!

It's been awhile. After receiving the Barnby Notes newsletter today, I wanted to write in with my own thoughts on encouraging students to journal...

Inspired by what I saw transpire at the Region 6 Youth Camp last July (when you presented on how to keep a training notebook and the kids were significantly and surprisingly excited), I came home and started giving composition notebooks and pens to my full-time students. Inside the front cover flap, I insert a copy of the attached document (which outlines several ways to keep good notes with a web address to barnbynotes.com). I don't just give them out to my students who already know how to ride and have their own horses; I also gave them out to those learning to ride for the first time. Now, I tell perspective students that I expect them to keep a journal and as soon as they express interest in a second lesson, I give them a journal and say, "Start writing." The results have been...huge.

Each week, I see exponential growth in my students. A concept introduced in one lesson will be grasped and implemented in the next. Moreover, I watch how journaling has inspired students to thoroughly engage in the learning process and make it their own. It helps them to sort out what they learned during the lesson and what questions they have or what they didn't quite understand. On one notable occasion, I had briefly introduced weight as an aid and assistant in lateral work during the lesson; the next week the student came back and told me how after journaling, she began to experiment with using her weight and seat as an aid, discovering on her own how to classically use her seat to control her horse's tempo (!). 

Finally, since the Donida Farm webmaster started linking my Barnby Notes entries on the website, people have called me about instruction because of the entries... Couldn't get much better than that!

-Meredith Crawford, Trainer at Donida Farm, Barnby Notes Public Notebook Author

Note:  This testimonial also inspired me to develop a preferred program for trainers where they can purchase softcover, composition-style training notebooks for students at our cost and it will include a Barnby Notes stylized guide for keeping good notes.  The guide will feature tips by learning specialist Dr. Kathy Kelly who is soon to be featured in our upcoming learning center where she will offer mini video classes on learning how to learn and related topics (learning styles, etc).  The preferred program for trainers will be available when the learning center launches.  Stay tuned!