No Bit. No Stop!

You know, when I started Parelli, I read on the forums about fellow parelli students having "altercations" or "run ins" with non parelli people, be they horse owners, yard managers etc etc.

And I always thought "Sheesh, I'm pretty lucky, I don't cop any of that".

Well.. I've joined the ranks of the persecuted.

It all started with the going barefoot thing a few weeks ago, my previous two posts go into detail about the wonderful conversations I've had with my Agistment manager, but today really took the cake.

Today, we held a gymkana at our agistment facility. 40 odd horses with riders of various ages and experience levels all competing in a set number of events over two days.

Sante & I were not competing, having been lame over previous weeks, and only just being considered sound I didn't think it was fair to force him to tear around a course, so we decided that we would assist in course marshalling and running duties, and I thought it would be a fantastic opportunity for us to work on one rein riding, single carrot stick riding, and encouraging sante to respond to me seat first, before having to use my legs or reins, I was really looking forward to it! Sante's feet are starting to look fantastic, and the cracks are really starting to grow out nicely.

Well, the gymkana started with the usual welcome meeting, the rules and all the formalities were done, and people started to get into their age / experience groups for hte coming events.

While all this was going on, the agistment manager came over to me and infront of 10-15 other people came out with the following:

"Just so you realize, the first horse that goes nuts here and bolts off will set your horse off, and if your horse goes, there will be no stoppign him, you should be riding in a bridle, you won't be able to pull him up, no bit, no stop"

I couldn't beleive it!!!!!! In front of all these people! I just smiled and said "Na, thats Ok, no worries" He replied "Its your safety"

He then came up to me a few minutes later and added "Look, I'm not picking on you, but its safety first you know, its your safety" I replied very nicely with "Its ok, I get it, you do what you've got to do, you're the yard manager and there are certain guidelines you have to go by, its ok".

A few people came up to me afterwards and asked what the hell that was all about. When I told them it was because i was riding in a rope halter they couldn't beleive it!.

I just want to state here and now, that I have NEVER been so proud of my horse.

We had a huuuuuuuuge electrical storm here last night, thunder, lightening, driving rain, you name it, it was INTENSE. The weather today was very overcast, with scattered showers forcast. It rained until about 9am, and then was very cloudy and threatening.

The horses are kept on spring pastures that are in really good condition, and as you can imagine are a little full of themselves.

It was BEDLAM. Three people came off before lunch. Horses were bucking, rearing, pigrooting (cow kicking), bolting and just generally misbehaving.

I was getting to the point where i was considering riding back to the yards and playing with my horse, because i couldn't stand watching the disgusting displays of horsemanship. People screaming at their horses, swearing at their horses, kicking the living crap out of their horses all because they are refusing jumps, shying at obstacles they have never seen before and just generally having issues.

There were horses trotting sideways, there were people who's reins were so short, they shouldn't have bothered putting any one, cause they were holding them by the bridle. It was disgusting. Just disgusting. I could not beleive it, sitting on horseback watching these horses silently screaming and no one gave a shit.

And you know what Sante did? Stood their and watched. Occasionally he would swing his head around to "check in", to which i would give him a huuge rub on the neck and an "its ok buddy" But other than that, i rode a completely relaxed rein the entire day, he acted like a partner the entire day, and we had a beautiful day. There were three occasions that out of control horses BOLTED past sante with owners literally hanging on for dear life, faces screwed up in blind panic, and sante, didn't even bat an eye lid. In fact, he yawned, blew out, and went back to eating grass.

I sat there thinking "And I'm the one who gets the "Safety first" lecture.

Yeah Right.