A two year journey from nervous to.....fun
A few weeks before Easter, I found out about the Parelli Games in being held in Townsville with Carmen Smith 4 star Instructor. I was excited and didn’t really know what to expect. I had emailed and asked her for a clue about what was likely to be going on as I was really unsure which horse to take. I did know there was online and freestyle and Carmen added that if I wasn’t confident to ride I didn’t have to….phew!
I have a really easy RBI and an extreme LBI. Both needed time spent with them but I could only take the one. I needed to make the decision. One was fat and one I avoided. It turned out my easy RBI went lame with a hoof infection so my decision was made. My LBI ‘Blue’ and I were heading on a 6 hour trip to meet with Carmen and a lot of faces I didn’t know.
I was nervous about taking my horse Blue as our last Parelli outing together didn’t go well for us at all. Back then I had been confident that we were in a good place relationship wise and that we were going strong in the program. But in August 2009 he let me know we weren’t in a good place at all. On my second day of a 4 day clinic, 5 minutes into our riding section he bucked me off and meant it. I landed hard. My pride was wounded, bones were broken and my confidence was shattered.
It wasn’t till 12 months later, after doing a Level 1/2 clinic with Carmen in October 2010 with my RBI ‘Sam’, that I had more clarity in to how to read Blue better. I decided to try and resurrect our relationship to see if I had more “savvy” this time around. Watching Carmen demonstrating some things with other horses it was like the penny dropped for me with Blue. I had been trying a bit online and a small amount of riding but we still didn’t really have the relationship at all. I had been more interested in the things I could get him to do rather than the relationship I was damaging while I got him to do it.
The Parelli Games were a chance to get out and see if our relationship had progressed in the last 6 months since I started again. To see if I was finally getting what this journey was really all about. We arrived early on the Saturday afternoon and I decided to bring Blue out to get him moving around a bit after our long trip.
He was so responsive and soft, I was hoping it wasn’t the calm before the storm. I didn’t want it to end. People commented that this didn’t look like the horse I had described in my updates and joked that I had made it up. This horse was well behaved and tried to do every thing I asked with out any Blah Blah attitude. He wasn’t dragging me around the arena during our circling game or change of directions like he normally did. WOW! I thought to myself I must be finally getting this.
The next morning I was so nervous… I was wondering if Blue was going to dump me in front of everyone again or were we going have some fun. We played a bit before the games with a carrot hunt then Carmen divided us into two groups. The group I was in named ourselves the Savvy Bunnies, and the other team called themselves the Two’s for Timing. We were given 5 online tasks with a time limit to have them done in. We cheered to each other for support and everyone was smiling from ear to ear. It was up to ourselves to score our own points as that wasn’t the important part. It was all about the relationship we had with our horse. Next was freestyle. I felt confident with my horse online and decided to give it a go. We completed all five tasks just inside the time limit and I think my horse had fun too. He hadn’t bucked me off!
I was very happy with my morning of the Parelli games. Carmen, was very supportive and created a fun atmosphere. She was there to support if things were not going well and offer assistance if needed. Going to the Parelli Games, and our 6hr journey to get there - has given me the confidence to now keep trying with my horse, to keep building our relationship. I don’t avoid him anymore, we are now both having some fun!
By Maria Tomlins
You can follow Maria's journey on Parelli Connect
