Day 4, Pagosa Springs, The Truth

All week, Gemini has amazed me. He learns so fast, he's being obedient (hard for his horseanality) and he's offering tons of try. We working towards L3 online and liberty at this point. Today, I got 5 circles on the circle game for the first time. A big progression for us! His sideways is coming along very nicely. I'm sending more provocatively and it's amazing how much better his allow is when I "secretly" send him. His mind is engaged when I make more of a game out of it. I'm just having a blast with him.

We also practiced a new trick, lifting his front leg and holding it up. I'm just amazed by how fast he learns. We've gotten two solid tricks put in place this week. I can't imagine what I'd get after 6 months focusing on his development.

One of the themes for today was Savvy Spotlight. The program is trying to promote the spotlights and help people perform better for Pat at the Celebrations. They decided to allow us to do spotlights for each other and provide coaching. I'm not much of a showman and having people watch me is so nerve-wracking that I immediately went introverted when they talked about it. However, I pushed through and got in the round pen and did one with Gemini. We aren't that developed yet, so we didn't have any great things to show off. However, we played all 7 games (20% of your score), he had ears on my the whole time (40% of the score - relationship), and we used the entire pen (20% of score - use of time and space). I'd doubt we'd have done well in the Imagination area (20%), but it was good for me to go in and try. I was proud of myself. I really don't like showing off that much. I have to get better at that. Gemini was right there with me, which was huge.

Today, Pat showed up and talked to us for an hour. Honestly, he doesn't look too good. His skin looks unhealthy. I'm sure he's tired from life on the road and having to be in so many places at once. I wonder if the stardom gets old, too. It was a good talk, though. He allowed us to ask questions. Then, Linda showed up and did another hour or so with us. There is a new product coming out that explores horseanalities and personalities and will provide insight into how you can interact with your horse and get the best results with your personality taken into account. Pretty cool stuff! Linda is an amazing woman and she's done a lot for the horse world. I look forward to this release.

Tonight, Mark Weiler was scheduled to talk to us at 7pm. So a new friend and I decided to go eat some dinner and have some cocktails prior to that. We got back pretty late, but we heard the end of Mark's mini QandA session. I'm not a huge fan of Mark's, but I know he's a lot of the reason that Parelli has reached so far and wide. He's a marketing guy. He ensures that they make money... lots of money. It's a triad - Mark, Pat and Linda. Not sure how happy everyone is, but they've built it and they are pushing it forward. It's an interesting thing.

The weather was beautiful, my horse is giving me positive feedback, got to hear Pat, Linda and Mark all talk to us as a group... a pretty great day in Parelli-land.