Horsemanship
Team Australia beats US icons Pat Parelli and Craig Cameron in the World’s most prestigeous colt starting contest
2012 Road to the HORSE
WORDS BY LISA ROHNER SCHAFER B
e it with whips or jokes, horsemen Guy McClean and Dan James (pictured right) of Team Australia put in cracking performances to win the first International Road to the Horse colt starting competition that took place March 9-11 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Undeterred by a shaky start, the Aussies rallied to beat icons Pat Parelli and Craig Cameron of Team USA, and team Canada’s Jonathan Field and Glenn Stewart. As a showcase for natural horsemanship training methods, this prestigious colt starting contest has in past years consisted of three or four competitors starting virtually untouched colts under saddle over the course of two days. After only a few hours of round penning, the trainers take on the final challenge of riding their horses through an obstacle course. Meanwhile, the audience sees each step of the process. This year the event was lengthened to three days to accommodate a new format - teams of two would take on essentially the same challenge, each representing their country. What transpired was an event of patriotic pageantry, stunning entertainment and impressive horsemanship with plenty of twists along the way. On the first day the trainers chose their colts from a remuda of 15 three year old American Quarter Horse geldings from the famed Four Sixes Ranch. The horsemen had been observing the horses for
several days prior, so while the order of picking was random, the decision of which horse to choose was not. Just before the first two hour round pen session event producer Tootie Bland threw in the first twist - any team could switch colts and receive a total of 40 bonus points. Team Canada opted to swap and take the points.
Each of the first two days the trainers got to showcase their styles by performing with their own horses. Pat Parelli put on a touching show with his son Caton, whose triumph over the challenges of having been born with hydrocephalus (water on the brain) is in part due to his partnership with horses. Some of the trainers took the opportunity to give mini clinics.
Aussie Dan James and his partner Dan Speers (the two are partners in Double Dan Horsemanship) demonstrated how they train their trick horses. James had his horses sitting, rearing and running intricate patterns. As the highlight of his performance he raced around the arena standing on the backs of both horses, with no tack whatsoever.
His teammate Guy McClean had an equally crowd pleasing liberty act using four horses. With three duns set up as barrels, McClean imitated a typical barrel racer’s run complete with the head-high, prancing and dancing that happens just before the start.
www.westernhorseuk.com 11
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LISA ROHNER SCHAFER
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