Parelli Fun Day!

Last Sunday, Gypsy and I attended an organized Parelli Fun Day, hosted by our much-loved and admired Parelli hostess - Amy (who is a Level 3 student). This was essentially a day for local Parelli students to get together and pit their Parelli skills against one another in friendly competitions of the "Parelli Games." I brought my camera, but after taking only the two photos attached, the batteries died, so this particular blog entry will have to wait until I get copies of Amy's pictures before I'll be able to post any of the actual "Games".

The first "Game" consisted of a line of pylons that our horses had to weave back and forth between, then at the end, turn and face, then back up 7 steps. The catch is that the human had to stand behind a line of poles that ran parallel to the pylons to guide the horse from (you can sort of see the pylons and poles behind Gypsy in the attached photos... you can see both the "easy" line and the "advanced" line of poles behind the first). If we stepped over the line, or if your horse knocked a pylon down or missed one, you would lose points. There was a second line even further from the first for advanced level 2 or level 3 students. I just stayed behind the first line. Gypsy did great (as expected) .... only knocked over 1 pylon.

The second game was sitting on a chair and asking your horse to back away from you between 2 barrels about 20 feet away. You weren't allowed to get off your seat to guide your horse. Once the horse's front feet were between the barrels, she had to stand for 7 seconds, then come back to you, then you had to back her up between the barrels one more time. This was Gypsy's best event. She was perfect!

The next event was the squeeze game over barrels. The trick though was that you had to stand behind some poles again (and for L3's, even further away in a hoola-hoop) and ask your horse to approach and jump the barrels, turn, stand for 7 seconds, and jump back over the barrels the other way. But since there was a good 6 or 8 feet between the pole we had to stand behind and the barrels, many horses opted to scootch around the barrels, rather than go over them. It took some patience and good communication skills to get them over. Gypsy and I haven't tried any of these things at home yet, so for this one, I ended up standing in front of the poles. She succeeded with me at a closer distance, but we only got half points for that one.

The last event was standing on the outside of a 20-foot circle and ask your horse to go into the circle and stand with all 4 feet on the blue tarp in the circle. Then count to 7. You could get extra points if you could get your horse to stand in the circle (with you outside) with the tarp on their back. Gypsy got the task points PLUS the bonus points. She did just awesome - especially considering we haven't done any of this at home yet.

Throughout these "Games", Gypsy was completely focussed on me and asked all kinds of questinos and tried so hard for me. I was so proud of her! The photos included here are of her stepping up on to one of those huge tractor tires. She wouldn't step up on her own, so I wrapped the lead line around her front hoof and helped her lift it up on the tire. Once we set one hoof on the tire, she stepped up with the other one too. After these photos were taken, she got up with all 4 feet on the tire. Very impressive! We tried it again after lunch and she stepped up without any help the second time. She's such a star!

Later in the afternoon, after the games, anyone who wanted to went on a trail ride. We rode for about an hour or hour & 1/2 give or take, climbed a few hills, went down some steep hills as well, and even galloped up one as well. In all the years I've had Gypsy we've always galloped through pastures and fields when we've gone on trail rides, so for her to stay at a walk (with this ride and with the Blackfoot ride a few weeks ago), she had a hard time staying to a walk. She almost seemed to say "THANK YOU!" when I let her gallop up one of the hills. She was definitely impatient, but she still listened and behaved. No pulling. We had a blast!

What a perfect day! The weather was beautiful, the company was great and we were surrounded by horses. Who could ask for anything more?