Colorado Morning

Well, it is a gorgeous fall morning in Colorado, the geese are noisily migrating, the horses are "hairing up" for the coming winter, and I see the emergence of a few winter-type jackets on peoples backs.

Sam is on his way to Kentucky, or as our Swiss facilities manager pronounces it Ken-too-key, to drop horses off at the World Equestrian Games and then the Florida campus, which will soon be our new home. I am excited to hear reports as we have not been there yet.

I have been assigned as the customer care co-ordinator here at the Colorado campus and will also be fulfilling the role in Florida too, so although the idea of sitting in an office all day long is not the greatest, there are benefits.
1. A fantastic 90 degree view of the Rocky Mountain Range
2. Fabulous people and horse watching to be seen all day long
3. I can spy on my ponies to make sure they are behaving themselves
4. I have regular hours of 8am to 5pm and weekends off, so I get to spend time with my horses
Sam on the other hand is working in horse development, which involves very long hours and very few days off, subsequently he is finding it difficult to find time to develop his horse.

You do get to see a lot of wildlife here, there are squirrels and chipmunks in grain buckets that'll let you pet them, there are bears in trees that won't. There are little mice that share the supply cupboard in the office with the pens and label maker.

Things are really winding down here in Colorado, we have a four week "Fast Track" course going on right now with 49 students atending, they will leave on Friday. We have faculty and long term students leaving for Kentucky and Florida in a steady stream; by the time we leave on the 7th of October this place will pretty much be a ghost town!

The "Fast Track" course which Sam and I are signed up for here next year looks a little tough, and has inspired us to work on certain things with our horses. Mainly, not using the reins, a very foreign concept for anyone who has ever been riding traditionally. We are trying to teach our horses to go exactly where we want them to, at the speed and in the direction we want them to just using our body language and focus, this will ultimately lead to bridleless riding, a little ways off just yet, but we'll get there.

We had a "Performance Summit" here a week ago, an event designed to show how Parelli training methods can be applied across the board from competition to demonstrations and circus type shows. I was lucky enough to be chosen to do a mounted shooting demonstration in front of about 700 people, so my first introduction to Pat was, "I want you to do a shooting demonstration, and whatever you do, don't miss" so a nice little no pressure intro! Anyway, it went well, I did not miss and I got lots of "wow" type comments from both attendees and staff/students, as well as a couple of requests for lessons! So I am now known as the girl with the guns, so no-one will mess with me, a good reputation to have picked up in the first week we were here I think.

That's about all I'll bore you with for now,
Love to you all,
Jess