Dear Franklin

Thank you again for working with us in Maui. I hope you were able to see all the photos [below] O.K. We really enjoyed working with you, and Lucky Luke was wonderful. My daughter, Miwa was smiling a lot, and that is very important. She must have felt safe and felt very confident with herself. At the beginning, I thought that Lucky Luke was an extremely smart horse, but then I saw that you had put the magic on him, that let him put the magic on Miwa. But of course, Lucky Luke is terrific too.

The things that I feel that Miwa did for the first time in her life were:

1. Never letting go of Lucky Luke when leading. At our stables, whenever she feels any difficulties or is scared, she would just drop the lead rope or hand it to me. I guess she felt Lucky Luke was her buddy, that she should never leave behind, and Lucky Luke was so willing to be led by her.
   
   
2. Doing different things with her left and right hands. She was holding on to the lead rope with one hand, and had the wand in her other and was wagging it. This kind of a thing is pretty difficult for her. But I felt that holding on to Lucky Luke was such a priority for her, that she didn't have to remind herself to not let go of the lead rope, and had enough room in her thoughts to do something different with the other hand.
   
   
3. When a problem arised, she solved it by herself. When she was called to turn Lucky Luke to the right, it was very difficult, but she figured out stopping him, and then turning him to the right very tactfully. Watching her, she did things quick easily and smoothly, but the things that she was doing so easily, are actually really difficult things for her. Coordination of various parts of her body, is a big problem for her, especially as she has very bad depth perception, and she gives up easily, but she worked so well. I liked how when she wanted Lucky Luke to move, that she would have the lead rope in her one hand, but would give a little tug with her other hand close to the halter, and as soon as Lucky Luke would respond, that she would release that pressure of tugging with such perfect timing, that Lucky Luke would respond very gentleman like.

I feel that all these things were made possible, because Lucky Luke had the magic on himself, to cooperate with Miwa, and because of that, she felt so confident and eager to try doing things, that she "was" able to do these things. Your patience at waiting for these things to happen, is probably the biggest magic. Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to be able to experience these things happening. I hope that I will be able to try my best, to be able to spend time with Miwa and our horses, in a similar way. Patience, waiting, flexibility, thinking of different ways, showing respect, trust, not setting limits, etc. etc.

I myself enjoyed the time with you a lot. And I have always known, that I can make Miwa enjoy things, that I myself enjoy the most, so I have always been trying to find horsy things to do with her. Actually, I am a veterinarian by license, but do not practise. I was originally very interested in the handling of horses, because I wanted to become a horse veterinarian after graduating from vet school. In those days, women were not employed as horse veterinarians, and horses were restrained for treatments, mostly using strength. I needed and wanted to do it by a different way, to show that women could work with horses, and was successful in a way, but could not be employed, so I presently work in a different business. But I have always been interested in handling horses, in a peaceful way, and am looking forwards to trying out all the things that I learned from you, with Miwa at our stables, and hope that we will both have a good time and learn more about horses.

Thank you again. Hope to be able to see you soon, somewhere or at a time, that Miwa will not have to worry about her hay fever.

Best Regards, Yumi Kawamata (Japan)