The Road Less Traveled

If you ever want to really put your principles to the test, accept an invitation to compete against two established winners in a totally foreign environment and have the audience be a volatile mix of dedicated students and detractors, and now not only be riding a 3 yo. colt for the first time within two sessions but ride it through an unfamiliar course of obstacles… oh, and know that the world is watching to see how Parelli principles stack up in the “real world” of horse training!

Pat Parelli was awesome at the 2011 Road To The Horse competition last weekend. And I don’t say that just because I am married to him, I say it because he was the model of excellence at every level. Pat’s principles of horsemanship are what he strives to live up to every day, and in this pressure cooker situation he was the picture of cool, calm, collected and principled. He put the relationship first, above winning and ego. Not one bead of sweat was shed and at the end of every session, he took the time to put his horse up and spend some time petting him. Oh, and he brought him home at the end because he fell in love with him too.

Pat and Troubadour back at the Florida Campus

I was amazed at how many people marveled at how Pat didn’t buckle under the pressure and turn into a predator but it’s quite simple really. He didn’t go there to win the competition, he went to prove that you can put the relationship first and succeed in the toughest of situations. Some people think you can’t be nice to horses if you compete and we know nothing could be further from the truth. No real horse lover wants to get to the top if their horse is going to hate them.

But in essence, that’s what the Parelli program teaches. Real horsemanship has a code of honor because how you treat your horse tends to be a reflection of your core values and principles. What I love is that our students exhibit this too: what it takes to create harmony around you tends to spread to all the other areas of your life. Nothing warms us more than when we hear feedback about our staff and students, about how unusually nice they are. Even after our events, the facility management will ask, “Who are these people? They were so nice and friendly, they even picked up after themselves!”

Now you only see Pat in public, I get to see him behind closed doors and there’s no difference – well, often he’s a bit quieter! As I write, I’m hearing Pat telling yet another friend the story about going to get his colt this morning at the Road To The Horse Competition: “You’ll never guess what happened this morning? I went to get Troubadour to load him into the truck for the journey home. I picked up the halter and headed for the gate, and Troubadour made his way from the opposite side of the corral, around and then through the herd of horses and met me at the gate.”

Make no mistake… it is truly about the relationship because it’s about core values. Pat didn’t do this event to be the winner. He did it to showcase the program we have dedicated our lives to share with the world. And I don’t think there could have been a better platform. It was the ultimate test of Pat, of us, of his program, his horsemanship, sportsmanship and the leadership of a powerful growing force in the horse industry that puts the relationship first. But most of all, it’s because the pursuit of true horsemanship leads us up the road to being better human beings.

Tagged as: linda parelli