The Colt Journal: Rides 22 and 23, Parelli Level 1!

At the last minute, I decided to participate in the last day of Dan's three day Level 1 class at the Parelli clinic taught by Dan and Gretchen Thompson at the Rexburg fairgrounds. Originally I was supposed to have a one hour private lesson in the evening, but I decided to turn that into my Level 1 assessment.

The class went well. Because there were some difficult horses (and people) at the spring Level 1 clinic I was in, that clinic didn't quite advance as much as it should have. This clinic worked out well for me because day three was basically picking up where day three left off last time.

Robin had attended the entire three days with her Kentucky Mountain Horse, Sweetheart. Sweetheart made some incredible breakthroughs and advances during the clinic. I am sorry to Robin for suggesting that she sell the horse. I hope she keeps up her training so we can see what Sweetheart's potential is. It is more than likely that Sweetheart was abused and whipped at some point in her life (not by Robin!), so it is nice to see her start to turn into a normal, well adjusted horse.

After a full day of clinic, I had to load Smooch up and drive half an hour to where Gretchen was teaching her workshop (they were bumped out of the Rexburg facilities on Saturday by a roping competition) for the assessment. When I got there, Smooch was a little tired and wasn't his usual calm, unshakable self. He was a little bit tuned out, which made for a not so smooth assessment, not to mention that it was at a strange place at night. Overall the assessment went well. We needed help from Gretchen working through a few things (some of them basic things that I had forgotten from the first clinic), but for the most part I was really proud of Smooch. And of course it's always fun catching up with Gretchen. She is such a fun, outgoing person with an interesting outlook on life.

Now I get my red Savvy string (Savvy string colors are kind of like belt colors in Karate) and I get to play in Level 2! Lookout, Level 3, here I come!.