==== ==== Want a Recap of the 2012 Road To The Horse? Here 's the Finale! http://www.naturalhorsemanshipinfo.com/ ==== ==== Road To The Horse 2012-Finale Today, the six horsemen must take their colts through an obstacle course and put them through their paces along the rail, in addition to some ground work. All within a 40 minute time limit. Jonathan Field drew first position. He stepped into the round pen where his colt was waiting for himbut after he got in, he thought there was some new twist to the competition because it was Glenns horse waiting for him. No new twist, just a mistaken identity. After telling the judges that this colt wasnt his horse, they sorted it out, brought in the correct colt and Jonathan got to work. After he got his review from the previous two lessons finished, he had less than 30 minutes left on the clock. I must say, I totally enjoyed Jonathan whenever he had his mic on, and today was no exception. He was so humble and modest and thoroughly entertaining. His little horse was pretty apprehensive at first as he walked him around the arena, but he warmed up nicely. He worked well on the rail and gave an amazing amount of try on the obstacle course. Craig Cameron went next. His little horse did okay on the ground work but the rail gave him problems. He had a hard time staying straight and moving forward. Eventually, he got all the maneuvers done, but not with much flair. His colt did very well on most of the obstacle course and Craig ended with standing up on him in true Road To The Horse fashion. Glenn Stewart was third to go. I really liked this horse after the second round. During the first round he was very pushy and skittish, but he had worked through that nicely in round 2. Glenn spent a good amount of time on the ground work and did well. His rail work was also very well done. This colt is very flashy when he moves out at a good clip. This is the only one of the horsemen and colt that brought me to tears during the obstacle course. You could see how hard this colt was trying and it was very emotional, realizing how much these great animals will give us when we ask politely and they trust and respect us. I felt that Glenn and his colt made the most dramatic change from Day 1 to the Finale. Guy McLean was the fourth to compete. The teams had been given a choice in the morning of switching colts with their partners. Doing so would give each man an extra 30 points. The Australian team was over 70 points behind after the first 2 rounds, so they decided to do it. So, instead of the beautiful bay colt that Guy had already purchased and named Aussie, he stepped into the pen with Dan James gray colt. Since part of the scoring was based on the relationship between horseman and horse, I found this option to be very counterintuitive to whole concept. But the offer was made and they accepted it. Guy did fairly well on the gray colt. But had a lot of problems getting him going around the arena, fluidly and smoothly. He weaved like a drunken sailor, as they say. Once he got him lined out and moving forward things went well. Guy finished all of the obstacles and this little horse showed a lot of try. Guy finished with standing up on his horse and cracking his Australian stock whips. Then, he did a shoulder stand in the saddle. He was very entertaining during his test and a fun guy. Next, Dan James came out to Guys original colt, Aussie. Dan seemed a bit nervous and said being cooped up in a room, waiting his turn and hearing the roar of the crowd was very nerve racking. He spent a good deal of time in the round pen getting to know the new colt and it was time well spent. He came out riding and it didnt take him too long to get the colt travelling out nicely and his rail and ground work went very well. He had plenty of time left for the obstacle
course and completed all of the obstacles nicely. He also ended standing up on the horse and cracking two Aussie whips. Pat Parelli was the last to go because he had had to start with a new colt. He did his first round with this colt this morning at 5:30. I actually made it up to watch as did several hundred other diehard spectators. He was very appreciative of our effort, but you could tell he was tired. He mismanaged his time a bit and didnt get as much done in the saddle as he probably needed to. His colt was still very gentle and wanted to be his back pocket in the round pen. But, when he brought him out to the arena, the colt really did not want to go around on the rail. It took quite a lot of time and patience to get him moving forward with some consistency. Once they got going, they had fairly good rail work and the ground work went alright also. The obstacle course was all completed with both bonuses. Pat ended with his colt following one if his signature big green balls around like a cow. My horse, Bonus, absolutely loves his play ball. Check out Bonuss video on my website: http://www.naturalhorsemanshipinfo.com/fun-videos/ All in all, the horsemen accomplished great things with these colts. It seemed the judges got more generous with their scores, with each horseman getting a higher score than the one that went ahead of him. The final round scores were as follows: Jonathan Field-514, Craig Cameron-559, Glenn Stewart-675, I felt this was low. Guy McLean-690, Dan James-716, and Pat Parelli-738, I felt this was high. But thats just my opinion, Im sure everyone that watched had their own. As it turns out, the Australian teams gamble of trading horses worked out. Although I dont think that extra 60 points was what tipped the final scoring their way. As well as they did with each others colts , who knows what they couldve done with their own. With a total team score of 2720 points, Guy McLean and Dan James were crowned the first International Road To The Horse champions. They were both so overcome with emotion they could hardly speak. It was lovely to watch this phenomenal competition and the extraordinary sportsmanship that each team displayed. Craig Cameron and Pat Parelli finished with a team score of 2687 points and Glenn Stewart and Jonathan Field ended up with 2471 points. Well done gentleman! I am looking forward to next years Road To The Horse in Lexington , Kentucky. Naturally, Susan
==== ==== Want a Recap of the 2012 Road To The Horse? Here 's the Finale! http://www.naturalhorsemanshipinfo.com/ ==== ====