So, the Celebration!! Well, it was brilliant! Having only gone to one Tour Stop (last year's), I don't have a lot of background to compare this one too, but it was incredible to me. I would recommend it to any committed Parelli student.
And I apologize for no pictures. I didn't bring a camera, and even if I did it would have only been a throw-away one. Oh, and I forgot my notebook the 1st day, too, so it's mostly from memory, and is going to be really out-of-order.
Day 1:
The Savvy Spotlights took up almost all this day. I arrived at 10:30, so missed the first hour, but arrived in time to see a lady doing L4 Z5 driving with two reins. She was pretty good. I was impressed, but even more so when Pat helped her get more drive. I was surprised to see him getting so firm with a L4 horse, but hey I think he knows what he's doing. :) Anyways, Pat said that to turn your horse to the left (still Z5 driving) instead of pulling on the left rein, put slack into the right rein. Also, he told her how to prepare her ropes to start driving, but I don't think I could explain that without a picture. But I'll find one if anyone is dying to know.
Another thing I learned is that you can start counting laps at the circling game when the horse is connected to you. You know he's connected when his ear is on you. So, when he runs into the end of the rope, that means he lost connection. Also, if you're circling with the 22', it's not a 22' rope unless you use all of it! So, try and hold onto the very end of it.
There was another lady who Pat helped learn to post her diagonals correctly. Basically, it boiled down to when you need to post, post to the direction you're going in time to that hind leg. For example, if I go left, then I post in time with the left hind leg. To remember this, Pat suggested that when riding Freestyle, hold on to the reins with the hand that is which direction you're going. So to put it all together: if I'm going left, then I post with my horse's left hind leg, and I put my left hand on the reins. So, every time you switch hands, you have to switch diagonals, too.
One of the common messages of this day - besides use all of the 22' - was tracks. Pat kept talking about tracks, which were grooves in the arena from it being groomed. The 1st track was the one closest to the wall - in Freestyle, you should be as close to the wall as possible, but not touching it: that's how you know you're on it. Pat emphasized that you need to pay attention to which track you are on. When you play Follow the Rail, that's how close you should be! Also, he said in Finesse you especially need to pay attention to tracks, because it is important to use the arena well, especially because this one was smaller than normal.
I also learned a way to use all 7 games in one 'stunt' (for lack of a better word). It's hard to describe, but I'll do my best. At liberty, Pat said if you can do this 'stunt', he'd give you your L4. So, say we start off going sideways to the right in front of a fence. Drive the HQ 180 degrees until the horse faces you. Then, drive the FH away so the horse is now facing the fence again. Here, you need to switch sides, so now you're going sideways to the left. Video would work better to explain.
The last event was Pat playing with the rescue horse. She was a gorgeous QH. My first impression of her was RBI, because of how she spooked, but I then classified her as a RBE. An interesting tidbit: playing on the ground builds back muscles that the saddle kills. Hmm. Pat said that if you do the Circling game, and your horse has his body curved the wrong way, that means he lost confidence in something. Your job is to figure out what.
Now, for Day 2!
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