Parelli World

While at the Parelli ranch in August participating in the Master Instructor Program one of the things that Pat talked about on several occasions was to watch the Masters and get to know what is world class. He also recommended we look on the internet for videos of World Class performances so that we could get it into our minds what is a top quality performance.

This video was sent to me by Ale G, a very accomplished dressage rider herself. It’s of Edward Gal and Moorlands Totilas’ and their performance at the World Dressage Masters series in Hickstead, 2009. As we were watching this together later she commented ” If they perform like that at the Olympics they will take GOLD”.

Here is the winning event that broke the world record with a score of 89.40%.

Enjoy!

Click Here for Video

I am not an expert by any means but this is an inspiring performance and it’s definitely World Class.

Please return here and leave a comment.

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Tags: Parelli Instructor, Pat Parelli

“Don’t saddle the the young horses in the barn because someone saddled Presence in here and she started bucking and about jumped through the plate glass window into the office” was one of the first comments I heard about Presence even before I knew her name. Little did I know that she would end up being mine.

The second time I heard her mentioned was when Pat asked if there were any problems with the horses that he needed to know about. One of the externs spoke up and said that Presence bucked every time you saddled her. The reason I remembered her name this time was because just minutes earlier I had looked on the board and realized she had been assigned to me for the week.

After the meeting I went out to do my assigned chores and when I came back to start my horsemanship time an extern told me she had groomed Presence for me but she bucked like a fiend when she saddled her. I thought to myself “What have I got myself into here” and then told the extern, “Don’t saddle her, just groom her and let me saddle her so that I can help her through this.” I knew I needed to take it slow and see what was going on inside the mind of this little horse.

My first play session with her I took it slow but at the same time I pushed her a little to see how she would react. On the ground she did great and she seemed to have gotten past the bucks.

When I went to get on her all the comments came flooding in. “She’s really sensitive”, “she bucks when you saddle her”, “has she bucked yet” all just comments but enough to make you think twice about putting your leg over her. Needless to say, I took a little extra time with my pre-ride check before getting on. She seemed good and it was now or never and I got on.

The first thing I noticed was she didn’t argue with me. If I asked her to go right she went right, no muss, no fuss. I brought the life down in my body she slowed with no hesitation. No pushing or pulling and she seemed to want to obey, what a pleasure.  From that first ride I was hooked. I never had a problem from that point on or had a second thought about riding her.

Anyway Presence is now mine. She was part of the Parelli Dream Horse Program and now she is in my Dream Horse Program.

I’ll share more about her in later posts so keep tuned in…

Tags: horse training, natural horsemanship, Parelli Horses, Parelli Instructor

“Now life has killed the dream I dreamed” are the final words to a song from the musical “Les Miserables”. I think in many cases this is true in our lives. We have a dream when we are full of energy and then as life unfolds our dreams begin to slowly die and finally one day we wake up and realize that our dreams are just a fading memory.
Whether it be dreams with our horses or other areas in our lives, we must actively pursue our dreams or they begin to weaken and die. Our dreams must be nourished and cherished so that they may flourish and thrive.

What is your dream?

Here is a lady that was unemployed and caring for her sick mother in a tiny village in Scotland. She has had a dream of being a professional singer since she was a little girl. To the outside world she looks foolish and a very unlikely prospect for a professional singer. From all that I read about her she had about given up on her dream.
Have you ever had a dream that others laughed at or worse you laughed with them at it? Have you ever wanted to do something or be something that made no sense to those around you? And sometimes it didn’t make sense even to you but still you were drawn toward it? Have you ever dreamed something so big that it was deemed foolish by those around you?

Do you have a dream inside of you that you have just about given up on? What is it?

What is your Dream?

Think of it right now as you watch this video and be prepared to be inspired to drag it out and dust it off and start to live your dream.

This video is a clip from the TV show “Britain’s Got Talent”, Britain’s  equivalent to “American Idol”.
Many of you may have viewed this video clip previously but take a look at it again in light of your personal dreams!

Watch the video here

Then return and leave a comment about your Dream.

I encourage you to Dream Big and never give up!

Lyrics to I Dreamed a Dream

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high,
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.

Then I was young and unafraid
When dreams were made and used,
And wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung,
No wine untasted.

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hopes apart
As they turn your dreams to shame.

And still I dream he’ll come to me
And we will live our lives together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms
We cannot weather…

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I’m living
So different now from what it seems
Now life has killed
The dream I dreamed.

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Tags: Dreams, horsemanship

Just the other day I created a video on a private blog for my Level 2 students and one of the things I talked about was focus. Or more specifically using the natural power of focus.

Flashback…

…to a job I had over 30 years ago. I mowed the fairways of the country club golf course. I always hated to mow on Tuesdays because it was “Ladies Day”. That was the day I always had to dodge several balls that came flying my way. If the ball didn’t hit me or the tractor I would usually run over it with the mower and tear it to shreds. Not good for customer relations.

I had to ask myself…

Are women that much worse shots than men? No! I don’t think so! I do, however, think they were more concerned about hitting me than most men. Therefore, their focus was more on me than down the middle of the fairway. Naturally, the balls followed their focus and headed right towards me.

So many times we focus on where we don’t want to go, instead of where we do want to go and wind up exactly where we didn’t want to be in the first place.

I don’t know about you but that sounds a lot like our horsemanship journey at times. The results we’ve been looking for and working towards seem to get further away, without realizing it we are focusing on the wrong thing and as a result we wind up exactly where we didn’t want to be.

Remember, we determine our focus and as an outcome we determine our results.

Please leave a comment about how focus has affected your results.

Tags: Focus, horsemanship