Getting closer to my dreams one step at a time

Do you remember what first made you want to be with horses? What made you take this path? What gets you through the tough times?

Well for me I have loved horses from before I could remember.  It's not the riding, I mean it blows me away that we are allowed by these amazing creatures to be carried on their back, let alone jump, do dressage (my personal passion) etc, that's all just a bonus it's way more than that, its about the way they move, their beauty, athleticism and the passion, pure natural raw love, forgiveness and peace that they represent which is something we all strive to reach in our lives.

I remember the first time I really saw what Parelli was.  It was just after I had bought Bella as a 5 month old foal and I knew I didn't want to train her the traditional way ... but how?  I was looking on Ebay for 'natural horsmanship' and it pulled up the normal selection which I know about but non of them was quite 'right'. Then I saw an 'introduction to Parelli' dvd for 99p! The best 99p I have ever spent!  This dvd was about 10mins long I think and it showed you all the things you could do with your horse using the program: trailer loading, riding bridleless, liberty, jumping big logs etc, which blew me a way. 

But you know what? It wasn't all these fancy things that made me want to do Parelli.  It was this one lady playing a liberty with her horse in a huge field and she asked the horse to canter a circle around her so close that it was almost touching her and the horse was doing it willingly with its ears forward and looking at the lady with a look that still to this day blows me away.  I knew then, in that moment that this was the program for me.  I wanted THAT relationship with Bella.

Well, that was 5 years ago and to this day I still have that DVD and 4 days ago Bella offered me a taste of that dream.  We were having fun playing at liberty after a brilliant online session when I asked her to circle me. Now normally she would go a few steps then stop or just leave with a grumpy look on her face! But this day she put her ears forwards and walked a complete circle around me so close I could almost feel her breath as she went behind me, then she stopped back in the same place she started from still with her ears forward.  I was almost in bouncing up and down in excitement by this point! Ok, so it wasn't a canter but it was a taste of my dream and proof that I will get it one day.

So my question is to you, do you notice every baby step or only the big leaps?