It is early Friday morning and I hear Carole get out of bed, as she passes me I ask her to check my watch to see what time it is...I'm so anxious I can't sleep and want to get up. Carole tells me the watch says 10 oclock....Now my watch is set still to GMT time so I work out what time it is in Colorado. "Yes!" It's 5am, time to get up...I open the door with a bang as it hits a suitcase..op's Julia Bye and Dawn Amour wake up confused and look at me with a puzzled expression....
Julia...."Dawn what you doing it's only 3am"
Dawn E...."Nah! It's 5am"
Dawn A...."It can't be, I can't hear the traffic"
Julia...."Are you sure it's 5am" as Julia thinks she may have set the time wrong by accident on the alarm clock
Dawn A..."I always hear the traffic around 5am"
Dawn E...."Well my watch says 10 oclock so 7 hours ahead means it is 5am"
Julia...."Colorado is 7 hours behind the UK"
Dawn E...."Oop's! So it is 3am"

It's a cold dark morning as black as coal and as we arrive at the conference centre we exxpect to see cars queuing right back to the main road, instead all is quiet. "Are we the first to arrive?" We steadily cruise up the driveway and up ahead we see two lines of cars. Then we hear the familiar hoof beats of a horse and then the outline of a horse and rider appears as they come through the mist that has swiftly emerged. As the line of cars creep forward we see other riders guiding the traffic to the car park making sure they park in the right place.

The Crowd Erupts as Pat enters the arena riding Magic and long lining two grey Percheron's...."Thunder and Lightening"....in all their harness.

Pat demonstates the process of introducing horses to pulling something by first hitching to a swingletree and then to a sledge. Pat then finishes the demo by driving the Percheron's out of the arena with Magic standing with her two front legs on the sledge. Amazing........Pat then brings in Casper on long lines while still riding Magic and drives Casper around the arena.
Amy and another student give a demo with two horses On-Line and Pat demonstrates how to get a horse to skip. Yes! Skip...he got two Carrot Sticks and tied the strings together. Holding the sticks formed a skipping rope which he swung over and under Magic as he cantered her around the arena..."Pat never ceases to amaze us".. Pat then holding one stick and allowing the other to lie on the ground started dancing Magic under the strings performing pirouette's just like the spanish riders do with a long pole.

Neil Pye takes a couple of students and their horse's through some games using the new Parelli Puzzle booklet that comes with the new L & HB pack.The booklet is split into 3 and you simply open the pages at randon, this gives you a Task, Zone and an Object. Really makes you think...Wicked idea...Then a few calves were brought into the arena and Pat with the help of his dogs and Dave Ellis on his horse give a cow cutting demo and got the calf to sniff the big green Parelli ball. With the calves still in the arena Pat brought in his mare Mango and her filly Liberty Belle.This was to show the stages of teaching a youngster to get used to cattle and it was pure fun watching Liberty Belle chasing the calves now and then for her own amusement.Pat then discussed the methods of weaning and why it is important.....Time for the lunch break and shopping which, Carole and I bought a Portable Parelli Seat as our backs were starting to hurt just sititng on the pads, these sold out very fast much to the dismay of Dawn Amour who missed out on buying one. The afternoon started with...
Natural Colt Starting ...with Pat and Jake. This session lasted 2 hrs and it went from Jake not being able to get near his colt to lying on the colts back to riding him in walk, trot and canter. At one time the colt went catatonic and Pat explained how this could be dangerous.Some people think the horse has gone left brained when it hasn't. It has simply just switched off and is ready to explode. So Pat plays extreme friendly like a flapping blackbird which soon got the colt focused. The idea was that it would be better to have a friendly human on his back rather than someone flapping around him. At 4pm we had another break for an hour and at 5pm it was the
Rider Makeover with Linda Parelli and a bloke called Steve. Now this Steve looked like he was in his late 20's and we were shocked to discover he was only 16 years old. He was over weight and his body posture was so bad he looked like jelly blobbing about on a plate as the horse moved..not a pretty sight. Linda then went on to help Steve with fluidity using the new English Fluidity Saddle to get him to ride in motion with the horse and to help the horse collect naturally using lateral and vertical flexion. The difference was soon recognisable as Steve stopped sitting like a heavy lump and instead improved his posture to such an extent that his horse gladly went into a soft outline and Steve's smile spoke volumes. The session ended with Steve riding around the arena while Mary Ann Kennedy sang "When You Carry Me" live.
The Evening Dinner and Dance started at 6.30pm with a fantastic amount of delicious food in the marquee, then it was back to the Cover-All for the dancing. At round 8pm the time was cathcing us up and we decided to head back to our cabin. BIG mistake...as we found out later Pat sang to everyone with his guitar and his niece also sang a few songs. Darn it!!

Pat & Jake	The Party	Magic Skipping	Dancing

Oh No! it's the last day...just before 9am Carole and I head up to the Cover-All and see a bloke riding around on his horse. I sit down and realise I have lost Carole,,but hang on there she is coming over. I then realise it was still cowboy church which stated at 8am and me and Carole just laughed. Did you ever watch "Little House on the Prairie" see the bloke conduct a very strict sermon? Well this cowboy reminded me of him. He has very strong beliefs and knocked down any other religion. I just admired his horse. After 10min of this it was a 30min break...Ah well..!!
After the break was a demo called "The Twins" the arena had been divided into two and the twins Cezanne and Evan Prater came in to the arena. Cezanne brought in the Percheron's "Thunder and Lightening" and Evan brought in two shetlands "Barnum and Bailey" giving us three sets of twins. they both played with the horse's On-Line and at Liberty and it was very moving to watch. Evan had been in a shocking accident that left her in a critical condition but she fought back and though she has difficulties in walking it has not stopped her zest for horse's.
You Asked For It This was where people put in a request and this was for Pat to ride Allure, insteade Linda rode into the arena on Allure saying he was her horse and she wanted to take him through the program. People also asked to see "Smart 7" but he was in Florida recovering from an operation to remove a growth from his leg. Instead Pat brought in his sire "Sailing Smart" and showed how he had progressed ove the last 2 years. Then Pat came in riding Magic leading two Andalusian x Thoroughbreds called "River and Nova". Pat give a fantastic demo On Line and at Liberty using his telescopic rods. Teeh unison and dancing was brilliant and you could see the horse's really enjoying themselves. You had to see it to understand what I mean.
Laurel from Canada was then introduced to us all much to her surprise as she had no idea that Pat had included her in the program. Laurel was paralysed from the waist down after a movie stunt went wrong, and against all the odds she has been selected for the able bodied Olympics in China. Karen Rolf had also been training River to do dressage without leg aids. Laural was helped into a specially adapted saddle and Pat went on to give her a wonderful dressage lesson which was very emotional.
RFD_TV It was meant to be "Advanced Parelli Games" but instead we were all included in singing Merry Christmas for the RFD-TV. Pat was on Magic and Linda was on Remner at the top end of the arena. When everyone started singing and with it thundering outside Remner got upset and started jumping around while Magic stood there calmly.. Finally Pat and Linda dismounted and after Pat made a few blunders with his talking the recording went well. Pat and Linda had some fun jumping Remner and Magic over the picnic table then they stood on the table while the horses cantered around it. Pat and Linda then mounted and rode around to some lovley music. Linda urged Remner into a short gallop and he give a small but cheeky buck. with the high wind and the gallop Linda's cap fell off but she just carried on regardless.
The Finale brought in all the instructors from around the world carrying their countries flag and handing out Parelli bandana's to the crowd. None of us managed to get one so later I asked an Instructor if he could get me one and he kindly give me his.

Liberty Belle	Pat & Linda	River & Nova
On The Pedastal	Evan & Shetlands	Carole, Me. Pat & Evelyn

Each day the sun would be blazing and then at 2pm within minutes the sky darkened and heavy thunder and forked lightening would be crashing about outside as we sat watching the demo's snug and dry under the cover-all. Strangely enough though when it was time for a break the sun came back out. Wierd..... The car park took some battering with the field being all churned up and cars were having to be towed out by a tractor. Luckily each day we managed to get out without any problems. I managed to spend a fortune and get everything I wanted signed, done so by Pat and Linda. Loads of Photo's were taken and Carole took video footage of the entire Colorado Journey which we have yet to see. There was so much to see and take in at the conference that it is hard to remember it all and I have more than likely missed something out. It is all over, the cars slowly drive down the driveway leaving the splendour of the past three days behind them but never forgotten.....

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