ST Instructor Rebecca Gilbert from the UK passed the Longeing Grade 4 Touchstone with her 19 y/o mare Milly.
Congratulations!
Here is the video link to her fourth submission for which she received a very nice 2-star score:
And here you can read what Rebecca had to say about her journey:
"I thought it would be nice to share some thoughts about the journey I am on with Milly in ST Grade 4.✨
We have been broadening, deepening and widening the foundations for a few years now to be able to achieve the necessary qualities in Grade 4.⭐
Having this online education is a great way of keeping the momentum up. And I would definitely recommend submitting something on a regular basis to keep the ball rolling. ⚽
Submitting Touchstones can be a bit like a roller coaster ride! It certainly takes you out of your comfort zone, but boy does it stimulate the potential for growth!🎢
Growth isn't a linear process, you sometimes gain and sometimes lose, but bit by bit, if you practice in a purposeful way with clear guidance, growth is inevitable.🌱
I submitted a Longeing 4 in 2016. We were missing a bit a higher mental state needed for Grade 4 so we then dived more deeply into Grade 4 Liberty:
This revealed many hidden gems and brought out a bit of Millys useful opinion about things. 🐴 
So we had a little training interrupt when our son Tom was born August 2017. 👶
Because of this, Milly was a little stiffer when I brought her back into the training due to a long and wet winter and lack of regular ST. She is 19 and has some arthritis, but that shouldn't mean the end of a working life for a horse as many older horses, will show wear and tear in the joints. It's how we can keep the muscles strong and supple that matters with carefully thought out exercises. 🏋️♀️
Marijke really helped me see on the spot details in not only Milly but how I myself moved and how smoothly I handled the tools.
I felt like I was in Karate 🥋 kid for a time, 'wax on, wax off' to really polish in particular my line handling, lol! 🔬
I used lots of isolation and the 5 R's to improve in particular the forward bounding flow and the S changes, as you can see they're still a work in progress but some 2mm improvement started happening.
By lesson 4, I was much more focused on really grounding myself and asking for much more with less.
Again a work in progress but so far the increased physical performance has created a newer ease in the other pillars for Milly. So by stretching her this way, you really expose some quality and let an ordinary horse 🐴 be able to do extraordinary things (big big hugs to Milly for her enormous try!).
Through the Longeing sessions we had this month, she gradually began to feel freer and smoother in the movements. Rest really does rust and ST is totally FOR the horse. I could see I needed to keep her mental state as high as possible but also really talk to her spirit to bring out her 'inner stallion', to show some expression and athleticism in the movements. 💃
It really is the journey that matters, not so much the destination! 🚶♀️
This sentence really enables me to remain strongly rooted in the present moment, and the present moment is the only thing that really exists!⏱
When studying detailed feedback in the ST on line lessons, there are a few strategies I use, which you may find useful.📠
I step by step go through each point, watching the video back. So I can see what I need to see. I then put the written feedback into my minds eye.
So I can see and feel myself doing and achieving what it is the evaluator is talking about. Essentially I put the words as deep as I can into my inner pictures and inner feelings. (IP/IF)👀🤗
If I can't make a clear IP/IF with the feedback, I research in the Mastery material to see what little detail is necessary. 
I purposely practice until the training gradually starts to resembles my IP/IF. The key thing for me to really enable me to keep finding the hidden truths is that; 👀
Focusing on meaning, we miss the discovery. 💡
It's a fine delicate balance between mind 🔬 and heart ❤, left brain and right.
And as ever a deeper awakening that it's about developing self-mastery! Horses are a beautiful facilitator in guiding us to find these deeper discoveries! They remind me that I am not just a human enjoying a spiritual journey but also a spirit enjoying a human journey. 🐴⭐💚"
~ Rebecca Gilbert, ST Instructor UK
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