Velvet did her normal extraordinary job during the clinic last weekend. No one else lives in a stable that has Parelli lessons every week, so it's not hard to figure out why Velvet is so highly trained. We had riders from 11 different States attend this advanced clinic. There aren't many level 3 clinics given in the United States (or world, for that matter). So those advancing thru the PNH system have to go long distances for these few and far between clinics. I got over the last vestige of…

Today in a restaurant, I was playing with my little metal toy horsie. I was running the reining pattern on my table. You know how people stare at you when you aren't looking and then you look at them and try to catch them. Well, I didn't try to catch them staring. I imagine they thought I was a 50-70 IQ person playing with my horsie! I'm carrying my metal horsie where ever I go. When I have a chance, I run the reining pattern with him. It really helps…

I took my yellow slicker, my blue tarp and a bag of pop cans over to Pine Dell tonight. I made a water box with the tarp and logs. I hung the yellow slicker on top of a traffic cone that was sitting on top of a barrel. I had Velvet carry the bag of pop cans from the barn to the obstacle course and we warmed up with them bouncing on her saddle. She smelled the water box before she confidentally went through it. She ignored everything else. In…

Pat's new resolve this year was to teach something useful during each Savvy Demonstration. He waited until the last performance to teach flying lead changes. He and some of the students demonstrated the proper body position and drop to trot lead changes. He asked the instructors to demonstrate flying lead changes over two barrels. Luckily, Pat set this up for Velvet to change leads from left to right. Jenny was relaxed as Velvet has been doing it flying lead changes in this direction over barrels at home. Jenny was last in line and she jumped…

This demonstration was held in an arena that was too small for the Savvy Team and there were not enough seats for the crowd. Lots of people had to stand and couldn't see very well.  The exciting thing was that Horse TV was filming this Savvy Demonstration. Hopefully you will all be able to see Velvet on DISH TV, which shows channel 9409, and Horse TV. Even though the arena was too small to handle 9 horses doing their thing, they went in anyway. Since each horse is tightly focused on…