Early this year, I spent 2
wonderful and very rewarding weeks at the Florida Campus, escaping the European
winter while learning a lot. I attended the Parelli Colt Start, taught by a
great group of Parelli Professionals and supervised by Pat himself. Carol
Coppinger was our lead instructor, assisted by John Baar, Jesse Peters, Jake
Biernbaum (at times) and Tiffany Rowe. They all did a fabulous job, supporting
us while keeping us safe :-) Tiffany worked her tail off, capturing the moments
with her camera and providing us and the horse owners with great pictures and
videos. Huge thanks to all of you!
Speaking of 'us', I refer
to the participants, a great group of likeminded students (mostly Parelli
Professionals) from all over the world - Europe, Australia, and North America.
The Colts were a very interesting mixture, we had everything from tiny pony, a
little stallion, wild ranch horses that couldn't even be caught on the first
day to privately owned colts that already knew a lot, some trailered from as
far off as New York or Texas just for the Colt Start.
The course started with an
Introduction on Sunday after the Check In, where Pat explained to the horse
owners what would be happening during the next 2 weeks. It was clear that it
was not easy for them to leave their 'babies' with us, but trusted that they
would receive the best possible start into their life as saddle horses. Thanks
for your trust!
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| Playing with obstacles and saddle |
The Course Curriculum
followed the Colt Start Skeleton: The first 4 days we spent with taming some of
the ranch horses, and 1. accepting the
human and 2. accepting the saddle.
We played with several different horses per day, swapping them through and thus
exposing us (and them) to various styles, horsenalities (and humanalities). It
was very interesting to learn to find out quickly what the horse needed most at
that moment, and filling in those gaps. We played with all kinds of obstacles,
including water, to expose the horses to as much experiences as possible,
preparing them for what they might encounter in the human world. By the end of
those four days, all the horses wore bareback pads without any issue, and we
were able to jump up and even sit on them bareback. To measure the progress, we
filled in reports for each horse, evaluating them in differnet areas, eg approachability,
haltering, etc (that list got longer as we progressed through the skeleton).
Then the horses got a day off, to allow them to soak on those things they had
learned.
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| Asking for permission to mount |
After that, each of us got
a horse assigned, to take it through the skeleton up to 3. accept the rider and 4.
accept the bit. I got one of the ranch horses, number 54, one of the two
wild ones that had arrived on Monday. It was a truly amazing experience for me,
seeing her progress from being wild and hard to catch on Monday, to putting the
first ride on her not even a week later, on Saturday. And it all went very
smoothly, the time invested into preparing her for the pad, the cinch, the
saddle and finally the rider truly paying off. We had established a routine of saddling the horses and turning them loose as a
group in the big round pens, so they got to move around in a herd with the
saddle on, which helped them accept it pretty fast. This also gave us an
opportunity to see what each horse was apt to do.
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| 2nd ride |
On the day of the first ride,
Pat surprised us by telling us to let the saddled horses loose on the big
playground. It was a great sight, the herd of 22 colts cantering around the
pond and the playground, wearing their saddles like pros. After that, Pat asked
each of us about our confidence getting onto our horse, and split us into
different groups accordingly. Then came the big moment - stepping up and down
in the stirrups a couple of times (we had already done that the day before),
and finally mounting. Then bending, and moving the feet with leading rein
starts, one at a time. My little 54 was introverted, so it felt quite sticky in
the beginning. As next step, John helped us move our horses into trotting
around the roundpen, so we could be passengers on their backs. And then - big surprise
- John opened the gate and led us out into the big playground, offering the
horses somewhere to go instead of circling. That was truly amazing, but it felt
very natural thanks to the preparatory exercise of them cantering as a herd.
And the surprises continued, because on the 3rd ride, we already herded cattle!
Another WOW experience :-)
On day 10, the horses had
another day off to lick and chew. For the remaining 4 days, each of us got a
new horse assigned, with view to preparation for the handover back to their
owners. My little horse Remedy was very sweet, riding her was a dream and I had
a great couple of days having fun with her on the playground :-) Still watching
out for those gaps to be filled - like helping her thinking down to her feet, instead
of rushing over things like pedestals and logs. Also trailer loading into all
kinds of different trailers, so loading the horses for their trip home would be
easy.
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| Handover day |
And finally the big day
arrived - handover back to the owners. We demonstrated to them what their colts
had learned in those 14 days, and all of them were pleased and impressed with
the results :-) After a nice pizza lunch together the horses left, and we
received our individual assessments and had to say our good-byes.
The Colt Start was a huge
learning experience, and I certainly became much more aware of GREAT
preparation, how important it is to find and fill the holes in the foundation.
This is what keeps us safe, allows us and the horses to enjoy the progress and
makes it look easy and effortless :-) There's nothing like knowing you will be
the FIRST human on that colt's back, to make you want to make sure he or she is
so well prepared that he/she won't feel the need to buck you off ;-) As Pat
says - the start isn't something, it's EVERYTHING!
Author:
Silvia Aigner, 2 Star Parelli Instructor
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