“We are now halfway through the four week Fast Track course. Each day continues to be fascinating, with a combination of sessions in the classroom and out on our horses, demonstrations with the instructors’ horses, as well as exercises on the ‘seat builders’, which help us practise our riding positions in movement away from our horses. We also have a daily choice of ‘focus stations’ to practice what we’ve learned from the instructed classes and where we can call on the coaches for additional assistance or ask questions if we need to. And of course we also have time for ourselves to either work on things with our horses or just hang out. Topics for the week included warm ups, rein positions, posture, conformation and saddle shimming, trailer loading, leadership, Freestyle riding patterns, 45’ rope handling skills, advancing games on the ground, and the path to Liberty (see my previous blog for a description of Online, Freestyle and Liberty)... to name but a few. It’s been a pretty full on week!

Bitten by the bug

On Monday night I got a lot of mosquito bites. The next morning my left arm began to swell and I began to feel pretty rough. My energy and confidence began to wane, and this had a big impact on my progress. Wednesday was also a write off, and although I did spend some time with my horse. Thanks to support from the coaches (and anti-histamine tablets!), things began to get a lot better towards the end of the week and I was able to recover myself physically and get my mental and emotional fitness back on track. Phew!

Results and resolve

Being a couple of days behind my personal schedule and with so much to achieve lying in front of me, the week’s events really caused me to re-assess my current position and realign my goals for the course. On Friday I received my mid-term results and these have given me a clear picture of where I need to make progress. I met with my personal coach, 2*instructor Sharon Crabbe from the UK, and shared with her my plan for the coming week. It’s a realistic plan I think, and one that sets me up for success and builds a good foundation for what’s to come after that.

The Road to the Horse

The weekend saw a very special event take place in Tennessee, where Pat Parelli participated in a colt starting competition called The Road to the Horse. Over two days, Pat and his fellow competitors Chris Cox and Clinton Anderson each had a horse to break (or ‘start to develop’ as we’d prefer to call it in Parelli-land), ending with a 35-minute test including ridden elements and obstacles. Pat did a lovely job with his horse in the time they had. He told the audience part way through that he had bought his horse, who he named “Howdy Partner” at the time but has since renamed “Troubador”, so we will also be able to follow his progress over the long term. It’s just the beginning for him.

Chris Cox also did really well with his colt and ultimately won the title of champion for 2011. A large group of us watched the event via a live webcast and there was a lot of cheering and whooping as he took his colt through the tests. Great job Chris!”