“Neigggggghhhhh!” I just love the sound of a happy horse, and that is why I love being a professional horse trainer. Well, back in February the NLHTM clan went to the 2011 Road to the Horse (RTTH) event. RTTH is a competion between three top horse trainers and you only have so much time to train a horse that has not had much human contact. You get two hours in one day and 30 minutes of that time has to be resting time for the horse. Then the next day you have that same time arrangement, and then you have to do an obstacle course under saddle. You then have a 2 minute freestyle to do whatever you want to do. The freestyle that you do is right after your under saddle portion and you have to do it with all of the props up. RTTH was located in Murfreesboro, TN, and we drove the whole way there. The competitors consisted of Clinton Anderson, Chris Cox, and Pat Parelli.
I think that the event was put together really nice. Saying that, I mean that ‘Tootie Bland’ the producer, did a lot of work to make the event come together the way she wanted it to. I also liked how there were venders up on the top level of the coliseum, as well as outside in a tent. Also, I really enjoyed the event personally. I think all of the trainers did a good job with their horses. I know it’s hard to train a horse that isn’t started because I had to work really hard at gentling my Mustang Jacuzzi when I was working to get him ready for the Mustang Makeover competition that I did in TN in 2009. I worked at it very hard to get him to trust me and then to get him to let me do a lot of fun things with him. I’m riding him now and he trusts me a lot. Watching the trainers at RTTH, it made me remember all of the stuff I did with Jacuzzi to get him tame from the wild and to trust me.
I really had a good time at RTTH. And on the way there we stayed at our friend’s house in TN so it was good to get to see them again too. Also we got VIP tickets so we could go in to a room and be able to get free soft drinks and water, watch the event on TV (even though it was right outside the door), and we got free food. We purchased those tickets because NLH TM wanted to get the most out of this important horse training event as possible. We also talked to TV producers and national radio announcers and lots of people in the horse business. We met all of the clinicians also. I had a blast!
Talk to you later ~ Brooke
