09.47

Hi everyone! Day 3, Round 2 of the Road To the Horse. Day 3 begins with Richard Winters carrying the American flag around the arena.

09.50

After the introductions, Tomas Garcilazo doing his roping routine on his Stallion out of Hollywood Dun It. The routine is much the same as it was the first two days, with the same Mexican music. And now he’s off, they’re recapping the events from yesterday. Playing back the bucking incident that Parelli went through yesterday, now Parelli is riding out into the arena on his horse.

09.54

Now recapping Cox, they’re showing how much effort he was putting into trying to get the horse to feel him, the Jeffery method, desensitizing and finally mounting his horse. I think Cox made excellent progress yesterday. Now he’s riding out on his horse. Now Clinton Anderson. Anderson chose a very high spirited horse with a lot of athletic ability and stamina. Both he and horse worked extremely hard yesterday. Clinton is really trying to put his skills to the test on the horse that he chose. He was the only one of the three that did not saddle his horse, he spent the entire 2 hours doing groundwork and laying a foundation. Riding out into the arena on Durango (I believe). I wish there was a way to see which horses the clinicians brought. Cox never mentioned the name of his pair of horses and it’s been killing me to find out that dark bay he was riding.

09.58

They’re going to drag the arena now and get the roundpens setup, then it’s time to bring the colts out.

10.00

Cox’s colt refuses to come into the arena, they’re having a lot of difficulty bringing the colt out. He keeps running back into the tunnel, which we can’t see. All three clinicians are there trying to help. HAHA! And now they’re playing Jeopardy music!

10.02

How interesting, now they decided to bring out all three horses simultaneously to use the herd instinct. They all ran into Cox’s roundpen. Now they are cutting out each one and then leading them… hopefully into the correct roundpen. Clinton’s colt is currently out trying to figure out where to go, and now they finally got him in the correct roundpen, and he’s licking his lips. They still need to cut out Parelli’s colt.

10.05

The clinicians will get 2:20 of time for training. 2 hours of training, and 20 minutes of total required rest, so they will actually get more time today than they did yesterday. And Parelli’s horse is now in the correct roundpen, the judges are seated and we are ready to go! There’s an interesting question regarding Chris Cox from yesterday. He took all the tack off his horse, but he left tack in the pen, and the question was raised if he would be penalized. The judges reviewed the written rules and the rules did not state in black and white if that was allowed or not, so Cox will not be penalized for yesterday. And now, here we go!! The clinicians step into the pens and and the timer begins. This is so exciting!

10.08

Cox immediately came in and sent his horse around, lunging for respect. Parelli came in and is petting his horse at the moment. Clinton also sending his horse around. And Cox already using approach and retreat with his horse, walk up and rub, then walking away. Clinton appears to be using a lariat to lunge his horse, and now he roped his colt and is using pull and release as he did yesterday. Although this time the colt is responding better. Lamb announced that the audience is encouraged to be noisy and cheer.

It should be pointed out that the bucking that Parelli’s colt did yesterday was not as a result of the crowd cheering. People have said that the colt bucked because he is very right brained. However, this is incorrect. Parelli’s colt is very left brained and that’s why he chose him. He’s a very relaxed, calm, duller horse. Not too dull, but he is certainly not right brained at all.

10.11

Parelli has been just rubbing his horse down so far. Clinton has now been able to approach his horse and is getting the halter on his horse. Cox already has the halter on his colt as well. It should be pointed out that all three clinicians are using very similar tools. They are using rope halters, lariats, and long lead ropes. The differences are Parelli uses a longer thin line to tie up around his horse, Clinton uses a stick and string, what he calls a handystick. Cox does not use anything extra.

10.13

Parelli is lunging his horse by a foot, but it doesn’t look intentional, the horse appears to be running away from the rope wrapped around his leg. Lamb (the announcer) said that Cox is spending a good deal of time desensitizing his horse, Cox quickly corrected him, he is “preparing” his horse. He does not like to use the term “desensitizing”. Lamb made a note to ask Cox why a little later.

10.17

An interesting thing to note between Cox and Clinton is that they use very very similar techniques, especially for yielding, desensitizing, change of directions, etc. Cox uses much more dramatic body language than any other clinician I’ve seen. But they use nearly identical techniques. Parelli is always slowly walking around the horse. Although I wonder if that played into Parelli’s horse not be challenged enough with desensitizing, leading to the reason that his colt bucked with him in the saddle? hard to know. Parelli appears like he’s trying to get the rope off his colt’s leg. Clinton is doing a LOT of change of direction, forequarter yields and rollbacks. Clinton’s focus has always been to move the horse’s feet: forward, backward, left and right. He’s putting those words into practice here. Chris Cox has left the pen for a short rest.

10.21

Cox is now back in with his horse and Parelli is taking a break. Parelli says he’s not sore from yesterday. Parelli is talking about some of his clinic’s he’s going to be putting on at his ranch. Parelli said he likes the fact that his colt wanted to connect with Parelli quicker and stronger. He says he has to work on more respect today, and more flexion. Says he made a mistake yesterday. He gave Parelli gave green lights all day, until he got on his colt, and he gave Parelli a yellow light on the right side, and he said he went “over the limit” with his horse. I ponder a little what that means exactly.

10.25

Based on what he said and what I watched, I think what he’s saying was that he didn’t find the area where his colt that was touchy and needed more work and preparation before he was ready on that side. Interesting how he mentioned he has to focus more effort on respect today.

Clinton Anderson is working around his horse like he’s a broke horse, no sneaking around him. Cox is spending a good deal of time desensitizing, er… ‘scuse me, “preparing”. Stacy Westfall is talking about how in her first year, she forgot to put her gloves on, when she put the rope halter on her horse, that horse pulled away and she got the biggest rope burn. She says when she went over to the judges area to wash her hands, she was screaming because the water on a rope burn is like fire. Cox has put a bridle on his horse and is continuing to rub him down. Clinton now rubbing his horse down.

10.27

Now Parelli has gone to a long 22′ line and using a stick with plastic bag. Yesterday, he used his training stick, what he calls a carrot stick, with a material flag. Now Clinton has warned Rick Lamb to give fair warning that Clinton is going to be making some loud noise, and he’s using a stock whip again. Parelli appears to be desensitizing his horse to the plastic bag. Cox has an obstacle in his roundpen. Clinton’s horse isn’t even flinching with that very loud whip-cracking. He’s using very passive body language and the horse understands he’s not supposed to react or move to the whip.

10.31

Parelli now getting his horse to move and yield to pressure with the rope wrapped around him, he has to find his way out of the fix. Clinton is rubbing his horse down and doing more lateral flexion. Something he mentioned that he wanted to do more of yesterday. Cox is also rubbing his horse down qute a bit and trying to get him to relax more. Parelli is now talking a lot while desensitizing his horse, seems to be trying to educate the crowd on what he’s doing. Interesting change from yesterday.

10.38

Now that was interesting. Chris Cox was working with his horse, saw something he liked. Dropped the rope and ran away. Parelli is still talking a LOT. Giving his own little clinic in his roundpen. Fascinating. Now he’s taking another break. Clinton Anderson is using his lead rope to desensitize the girth area. One of the things that Clinton focuses on is lots and lots of groundwork and preparation before he even thinks about introducing the horse to the saddle. He is bringing the saddle in now. Both Chris Cox and Pat Parelli are taking a break, watching Clinton and talking. All three clinicians appear a lot more comfortable today with what they are doing.

10.42

Clinton is now using desensitizing with rhythmic motion, using the saddle blanket as a desensitizing tool. The horse is backing away, so he’s keeping the pressure on until he stops moving his feet and relaxes, then he removes the saddle blanket. The horse understands the best thing to do is to stand still. Chris Cox is saying that he didn’t like how his colt ran over people and tried to jump the gate when they were bringing them in this morning. He’s talking about why he doesn’t use the term “desensitizing”, he always wants to keep the horse’s mind engaged to what he is doing. He focuses instead on ‘preparation’, although interestingly enough, it’s the same thing the other clinicians do, although they use the term desensitizing.

10.49

Clinton Anderson is putting the saddle on and off, over and over. To desensitize the horse. I wonder how much Parelli can get done while he’s focusing so much effort on talking to people on what he’s doing, telling people about the Parelli program, trying to sell it to people. He has a saddle pad with a cinch, and two ropes attached to a halter on either side, and appears to be doing driving with the horse.

10.53

Chris Cox is now doing much the same thing with the saddle and pad that Clinton was doing a moment ago. So similar, these two are. Saddle on, then off, and back on again. Both are doing almost the exact same thing at the moment. Clinton is also focusing a lot of attention on flexing. Parelli has two very long lines attached to the halter, and cinch and is indeed doing driving exercises with him.

10.56

Both Clinton Anderson and Chris Cox now have their respective colts saddled and are doing some lunging and yielding to pressure at the moment. Both colts have their moments of getting excited, but both are trying to teach their colts an appropriate response to their fear so that they will be more relaxed by the time both get into the saddle.

11.01

Cox has is now mounting and dismounting his horse repeatedly. Parelli is commenting on Cox’s efforts. Both Cox and Clinton now on the ground yielding or disengaging the hindquarters. Cox and Clinton again doing identical things with their colts at the moment. This is Clinton’s fourth trip to RTTH, he won twice and the third trip he was beat by Cox’s second win. This is Cox’s third trip to RTTH. Both very experienced at starting colts. We mentioned before how Clinton and his mentor, Gordon McKinley started over 600 brumbies in a 2-year period. “Mustangs” as we call them here in the U.S. are called Brumbies in Australia. Clinton is now taking a rest. Much earlier than yesterday, when he waited until 45 minutes left to take his two breaks that had to total 30 minutes. Rick Lamb just asked to turn off Pat’s mic and the crowd protested, so Rick had to inform the audience that it was Pat’s request to turn the mic off.

11.04

Cox has now mounted his horse, has done some yields and even got to a trot on his colt already, he’s still working with just the halter and lead rope from the saddle. He’s using squeeze and spank to get the horse into a trot. Every time the colt responds, he releases his pressure and rubs the horse. The colt is uncomfortable, but he doesn’t appear ready to buck… yet. It almost appears that with as much pressure as Cox is using, spanking in the saddle, the horse would ordinarily be quick to buck, but Cox spent a great deal of time preparing his horse for this moment.

11.07

Chris Cox is urging the colt to go to a lope… already!! The horse protested once with a nice big kick out buck, but not problems, they just continued at the lope. Cox has asked for a lot, but he’s being quite successful at the moment. Exciting to watch!!

11.10

Parelli now has his horse saddled, is asking him to lunge and… oh my!! His horse is going into a severe bucking spree again. The first time Parelli put the saddle on yesterday the horse bucked, but Parelli hasn’t desensitized his horse like Cox and Clinton have. Parelli’s horse bucked Pat off, and continued bucking around the roundpen. So this would be the third time this horse has bucked with the saddle on. Parelli said: “And everyone said this was the easy horse!”. Wish Parelli would have done more of this yesterday to get the buck out. I don’t think his colt was ready to be safely ridden yesterday.

11.12

Clinton took a short break and is now back in the pen doing stirrup flapping with his horse. Rick Lamb interviewed him and asked about his progress. Clinton said that everything has been going well, but he started feeling like he was sneaking around his horse, and every time you sneak around a horse, it’s a red light that you’re headed for trouble, so he went to just putting the saddle on and off to give himself more confidence and get the horse more relaxed. Rick asked if Clinton expects the horse to buck, Clinton said no, he doesn’t, but now that he’s said that, he’ll probably get bucked off, but he’s hoping it will be fine.

11.17

Cox is taking a break now with his horse. Interviewed with Rick Lamb… his colt gave a good sign by drinking water out of the bucket Cox was holding. Cox prefers pasture horses to horses kept inside. Stalled horses are more disrespectful he says. A couple of times his colt has challenged him, but Cox was on top of it and dealt with it. Cox came back to the Mic and said: “Since Pat promoted all his clinics, ya’ll can come to my clinics for free for the next two weeks”, the crowd laughed and cheered. Rick said, “Wow, you guys are getting a good deal out of this!” Clinton, while desensitizing his horse, told Rick: “Hey Rick, that’s true, but I always say, if it’s any good, you shouldn’t have to give it away!” The crowd roared a cheer and Rick said, “Oh Zing!! haha!”

11.19

Parelli has his horse unsaddled now and is using the green ball for desensitizing. Interesting, he seems to be trying to take more time with desensitizing now, seeing how the colt reacted to the saddle the last time. Clinton is now using the bull whip again to desensitize his horse.

11.22

Parelli talked earlier about how he doesn’t want to scare his horse when he’s desensitizing, an interesting contrast from Clinton who says: “Heart attacks are free, so give them one!”, and preaches at his clinics that the more you “scare” your horse and desensitize him, the calmer and more relaxed he’ll be. Clinton is now rubbing his horse down. Cox has just finished his long break and is back in with his horse.

12.56

Chris Cox has taken his saddle off and is doing more desensitizing and yielding, more preparing. Pat Parelli has setup a contraption on his roundpen to give some overhanging desensitization. He’s now asking his colt pass under it, back and forth. Clinton just got the bridle on his colt.

13.01

Clinton Anderson is still working on desensitizing to the saddle, stirrup flapping, and is focusing a lot of effort on flexing his horse.

13.08

Parelli just saddle his horse again, and has gone into a fourth bucking spree, although oddly, Parelli isn’t trying to disengage the hindquarters to keep him from bucking. Chris Cox has introduced his horse to a jump obstacle, a tarp and now bringing in a couple other obstacles as well. Rick commented that Chris is doing a little pen decorating.

13.12

Clinton is teaching the forequarter yielding, he’s using a stick to tap the neck away, creating pressure, then rewarding the horse when he yields. All three trainers have saddles and bridles on their horses and doing various yields, pull and release, pressure and release, and desensitization to get their horses to relax and be more comfortable for when the riders get on. Chris Cox is back in the saddle again, still using the lead rope to disengage the hindquarters. He’s going back to trotting and turning on each side.

13.19

Cox’s horse gave a little bit of a buck, but Cox knowing how to deal with that had no trouble getting his colt to keep going, he kept the pressure on. Cox is keeping a lot of pressure on his horse, asking him to keep going, the horse started bucking quite a bit, but Cox stayed consistent, didn’t bale off the horse, just stayed with it, kept the horse going. This colt is giving a nice show. Parelli’s colt isn’t the only horse that knows how to buck!

13.21

Cox’s horse did quite a bit of bucking, still bucking occasionally. Chris keeps the pressure on as long as the colt is doing the wrong thing. Once the colt relaxes, Cox releases the pressure and rubs him to a stop. Cox is proving he is a very good rider and knows how to deal with these situations.

13.23

Clinton still taking plenty of time desensitizing, now rubbing the legs. Parelli put baloons on his horse’s saddle, that proved to send his horse into a few more bucks again as well. Clinton’s horse looks very relaxed and calm at the moment. Yesterday he was by far the hottest and most flighty of the three colts. Cox’s horse is really starting to respond now, lots of licking and chewing, he looks much more relaxed. Cox is back on the ground for more groundwork and yielding. Parelli continues telling the crowd what he’s doing.

13.29

Parelli is saying how he wouldn’t want to take his horse to a scary movie because that wouldn’t make you feel good. So he’s trying to desensitize the horse without scaring him. Cox wasn’t using a bridle when he was riding, he just rode out the bucking with just the halter and lead attached. Cox is putting the bridle back on the colt now, although the colt is a little uncomfortable with the bridle the mouth, so he’s spending some time desensitizing the mouth area. Clinton is using a stick and plastic bag and doing lunging for respect again with the saddle on. Parelli climbed the side of the roundpen and is desensitizing his horse with the stick and string up higher. Parelli is spending a little more time desensitizing before getting back in the saddle again. Clinton is sending his horse back and forth, getting his forequarter to yield using the plastic bag on a stick. Clinton was just trying to send him, and the horse stopped, so Clinton recognized this and immediately went to desensitizing with the plastic bag.

13.31

Clinton has gone back to yielding with the plastic bag, and is using a few obstacles now. He seems to be doing well. Cox is putting the bridle in and taking it out of his horse’s mouth. Parelli is sitting on the fence setting his horse between him and a barrel he has setup in the roundpen.

13.33

21 minutes left, Parelli is on his horse now. He’s spending time flexing his horse, you can feel the tension as people are a little worried about him. He got bucked off yesterday and that horse has been bucking quite a bit today. Cox is on a break at the moment.

13.34

Everyone watching Parelli very carefully now. Clinton is now finally on his horse! 19:30 left. Clinton looks very comfortable, and is flexing his horse side to side. Parelli is holding on to his saddle horn and looks a little nervous.

13.37

Clinton appears to be using the bridle with a snaffle to yield and disengage the hindquarters. Clinton’s horse is a little nervous but Clinton is being persistent with yielding. Cox is back in the roundpen and having his colt go over more obstacles, tarp, etc. Clinton is now at a trot and is doing the point, cluck and spank exercise. Now at a lope and the crowd is going crazy. The horse is a little nervous, but surprisingly relaxed. So far has been the most relaxed by the time the rider has gotten on.

13.39

Crowd is really cheering now. Now Clinton’s horse is doing quite a bit of bucking, every time he bucks, Clinton gives him a good swat to keep his feet moving forward and not give him time to stop and keep bucking. Clinton is riding this out pretty well too. The limited time of the competition means that you have to get on the horse before you would typically get on an unbroke colt. Now Clinton’s horse has relaxed again, he’s looking good. Parelli now looking good as he has his horse walking under saddle.

13.40

Parelli now at a canter and the horse and rider are looking comfortable! Crowd really going crazy now as Parelli and Clinton are doing very well on their respective colts, with less than 14 minutes remaining. Clinton still needs to take a 6 minute break before the time runs out.

13.41

Cox is back in the saddle, asking for some yields. It looks like Cox is using reins now. Almost 12 minutes remain. Clinton still pushing his horse pretty good.

13.44

All three are in the saddle now. Cox is really putting his horse to work, flexing. Now he’s back at a canter and his colt is still bucking a bit. The crowd is giving “woh!!” at each buck. The bucks aren’t too severe, but they are certainly exciting. Clinton is down off his horse now, a couple of yields, and back in the saddle. Parelli is using a big stick while in the saddle. Clinton is using a riding crop, and Cox appears to be using reins to encourage the horse to move forward.

13.47

7:20 left and Clinton dismounted and is removing the saddle. He still has to take a 6 minute break and can’t wait until 6 minutes left to take it. Parelli still has to take 3 minutes of rest.

13.49

Parelli is taking his 6 minute break with 6:20 to go. He’s left his horse in a halter and lead, complying with the rules, so he’s done. Clinton is saying that his horse needs some wide open spaces, his horse is a bit of a challenge he says but: “Hey, that’s what separates the men from the boys”. 5 minutes to go, Chris can use all of that as training time. Parelli and Cox have both dismounted. It looks like Cox is setting up more crazy contraptions for obstacles. Parelli still needs to take a 3 minute rest.

13.52

Cox is riding around with all the crazy contraptions, Parelli is out of the pen. Crowd is now cheering. Parelli is now done training for round 2. He has left his horse in a halter and lead and left the horse with his assistant. Parelli now with Rick Lamb. Parelli said it was a little tougher than he thought it was going to be. He thinks the balloons helped a lot. Said he didn’t get all he wanted, but got all he could get, but felt like it was enough. A little over 2 minutes left, Cox has removed the saddle and is now just with the halter and lead.

13.53

Less than a minute left to go, Cox is just doing pull and release, but he needs to get the tack out of the arena. And now, Cox is done as well! And that’s it for round 2!

13.55

Cox now being interviewed. He said he has some stuff working his way. They will have 35 minutes to do rail work, obstacle course and freestyle. This will begin in a minute. Cox doesn’t seem entirely pleased with something, not sure what, they are taking a short intermission now before the next segment.

13.58

Tootie Bland on the Mic now, explaining the obstacle course. The obstacles are numbered. Tootie says “I think I had a little too much fun last night” in a bit of a slurred sentence and her raspy voice… um, okay. They are walking through the obstacles now, she’s explaining how they should ride through the course.

14.02

They have an obstacle inspired by something Tommy Garland likes to use, the noodle walk. They are walking through and are at obstacle #8 now. Parelli is asking a lot of questions, he’s saying he’d rather use his rope! Chris Cox says: “You’d probably rather use your horse!”.

14.04

Hahaha! Chris Cox asked if he dallies if he’ll get more points. They are asking the judges. They said it depends on how the colt acts. Parelli is asking for 30 feet to be marked off for one of the obstacles, as they have to drag a rope for 30 feet. Now they’re using the cowboy method of measuring. (walk 10 paces). Now they’ve marked it… Tootie says: “If you want to go that direction”. C’mon Tootie, you had a year to plan this out!

14.05

There’s a hanging bell, with some sawdust to mark it. I think Chris Cox is going to have a little difficulty getting it. He’s a short guy, you know!

14.08

Ah, the bell is the mystery obstacle, it’s worth 10 points. They are going to give a demonstration with one of the wranglers. Kinda made the wrangler’s horse a little nervous when the bell rang. Clinton confirmed that there are 2 mystery obstacles, both mystery obstacles are optional. And the second obstacle is the dragon from Project Cowboy (produced by the RTTH as well). The idea is to hop over the dragon, if you clear it, you get 20 points. That’s worth a lot!! Tootie said that she won’t have the red eyes and smoke on the Dragon unless they want her to put those on. Cox said that only if Tootie rides through it first.

14.10

Haha, Parelli asked if they get to come out and do the obstacle course on the ground first. Clinton immediately answered: “NO!”, Parelli: “You’re not the one making the rules”, Clinton: “That’s what the rules have been for 7 years”… someone, aptly rings the bell, which sounds like a boxing ring bell!! hahaha!! Everyone laughed. Now Parelli is asking about being able to do some stuff from the ground. The crowd is giving a resounding boooo!! and noooo!!

14.11

So now Parelli is reading the rules with the Judge. Clinton sits down on the dragon. The rules have been confirmed, you can’t practice the obstacles online. I think Parelli is really nervous about this! Now they’re going to draw for who goes first.

14.12

Cox pulls a #9, so he’ll probably be last. Clinton pulls a #3, and Parelli pulls #10! so the order will be: Clinton, Cox and Parelli last. Here we go!! And now they’re playing “WE WILL ROCK YOU!” song.

14.18

Everyone is very nervous, tension is very high. Cold clammy hands, this is the moment of truth! If you have a clinician you are rooting for, your heart is beating through your chest, your throat is tight, you’re sweating at the palms. This is it! Clinton is up first.

He’s talking now as he’s saddling his horse, talking about how he wants the horse to use the thinking side of his brain. I think Clinton is talking to help his nerves relax. You can hear a pin drop, everyone is silent in the arena.

14.20

Clinton is telling people why he waited for so long to get on his horse. He wanted his horse to be as safe as possible before he got on, he spent a great deal of time laying a foundation on the horse. He’s doing lunging for respect in the roundpen at the moment. 29 minutes left. The only person talking is Clinton right now, no announcer, no commentator. It’s Clinton’s time.

14.21

Clinton tightened the girth up three times now. He always tightens the girth three times before getting in the saddle. Don’t tighten it too quickly or they could go to buck or doing something silly. It can also cause them to be girthy. He’s doing a bit of stirrup flapping, getting his horse to relax a little more before getting on again. 27 minutes remain.

14.23

Clinton is putting the halter over the bridle to make it easier to do a little groundwork with his horse with the bridle on. He’s yielding the hindquarters now, explaining everything he’s doing and why. Clinton is breathing heavily. He’s talking about why he uses a stock whip. It’s traditional to break a horse using a stock whip because it gets the horses used to loud noises, which helps make them safer when a sudden loud noise is made, it’s not going to scare them because they’re used to it.

14.25

Clinton is leaving the roundpen now, 25 minutes remain. He’s leading the horse, walking around the outside of the arena. You can walk around and do exercises, but not at the obstacles themselves. His colt is being curious. When he stops following pressure, Clinton adds pressure, then takes it away when his colt is being good. At any time Clinton can declare when he wants to be judged on something. The horse was trying to investigate an obsticle but Clinton quickly told him: “you’re not allowed to practice!” the crowd laughed, everybody silent again now as he continues walking around the arena. 23:18 now.

14.27

Clinton declares he wants to be judged leading his horse 40 feets. Now he wants to get extra points for having his colt trot. It’s nearly perfect, his colt does well. Rick clarifies that you have to lead for 40 feet then stop as part of the same obstacle. Clinton is doing it again. Asking the judges now… and yes, passed that obstacle.

14.27

That was poor of the judges for not informing Clinton that he needed to do that, he spent extra time doing that again because he needed to stop.

14.28

Clinton is back around the outside of the roundpen, the colt has become a little fidgety, so Clinton is yielding the hindquarters around to get him to use the thinking side of his brain more before getting on. 20:40 left now.

14.30

Clinton is doing the sending exercise now, still on the ground. Clinton is using a riding crop to encourage forward motion. This horse is pretty sensitive. Clinton wanted a hot horse, an athletic horse that can go the distance and he has it.

14.31

Someone asked Clinton if he named the horse, and he said he was so busy he forgot to name the horse! They asked if he’s better than Precious (the horse he used and named at RTTH in 2005), he said “Yes!! Precious was evil”. hahaha!!

14.32

Clinton is at the halfway point on his time, still on the ground with 17 minutes to go. He’s mounting now.

14.33

He’s in the saddle, and of course flexing his head both directions before going anywhere. Now yielding the hindquarters both directions. Ooh, big buck! No problem. Woah, a few more big bucks. Every time he goes to buck, Clinton bends him and disengages the hindquarters which takes the power out of the buck. The colt is giving him fits, 15:30 left to go now.

14.35

Clinton is cantering around the arena, getting him going. The colt is bucking occasionally. Looking better now, the crowd is holding their breath at each buck.

14.36

Just under 14 minutes, he declares his trot to the left, canter to the left and says: “here’s my gallop!!” The crowd cheers! Clinton is pulling his horse around in circles, Rick asks if he wants to be judged at the 180, Clinton says: “Well, sure, it’s a hell of a lot more than 180 though”

14.37

Walk to the left, 180° turn to the left, so both halves of the 180 are complete, circle to the left done. Trot to the right now… 12 minutes left.

14.37

Canter to the right for judging, oooh, balking, he is going the wrong direction, … trying to get him back to the right… okay, now back to the right, at the trot… still needs the canter to the right. 11:15 left.

14.39

Canter to the right now, looking good. Clinton is breathing heavily. And he needs the stop, and… Clinton says, no, that wasn’t a good stop, wants a better stop…. a little nervous horse, but he did get stopped for judging. 10 left now.

14.40

Clinton tells the audience: “If he jumps the fence, run like hell!” everyone laughs. Clinton asks for judging the backup. It’s a little slow and uncertain, horse is balking a lot. But I think he got that… 9:18 left now. Still have walk right, mount and dismount.

14.41

Mount for judging, dismount for judging. Those are done. 8:35 now, all that remains is pick up feet for rail work. 1 foot… 2 feet. Other side now. 3 feet, and… four feet. All done very well. The crowd cheers. 7:50 left. Ready for the obstacle course now.

14.42

Weaving the pokes, one direction good, second direction much better. Nice and relaxed the second time through. The crowd cheers as he completes that obstacle. 6:30 left now, heading for obstacle #2

14.43

Walks through between the long poles, very VERY nice, crowd goes wild as the horse completes that obstacle completely calm. Now walking over the circle of poles. Looking excellent, crowd goes wild again as he completes #3, 5:35 left now.

14.45

Tarp now. Obstacle #3, balking at it… letting him sniff the tarp, this one is hard… almost, c’mon. Clinton is persistent. He’s going to skip the tarp for now, or he’ll run out of time. Walked over the poles, nice jump, looking really good. Rope stuff now, 4:13 left.

14.46

He has to walk up to get a rope and swing it above his head, looks great! Beautiful. has to drag the log, which the other rope is attached to, 30 feet. Looking excellent!! Did that one really well. And that one is done, 3:10 left. #9 now, the disengage box.

14.47

Disengage was perfect, crowd cheers. Now time to ring the bell, haha! He rang it REALLY HARD. Says if you are gonna go out, might as well go out with a bang. Jumps the dragon perfectly!!! That’s 20 points, and 10 points that he got well. Now freestyle!! 2:00 left!!

14.48

Clinton just undid the bridle on his horse, waved his hand… flying around the ring now with no bridle, the crowd is GOING WILD!!! He’s slapping the bull whip on the ground as he flies around the arena… no bridle on a just started colt!! Everyone is on their feet!!!

14.49

17 seconds left, and wow. And that’s it, Clinton Anderson is done!! Chills down people’s backs as they watched, so exciting. So he only didn’t get to the tarp, didn’t get the points for that obstacle.

19.06

And we’re back with Chris Cox, up next… taking a long time to bring the horse out. Had the same trouble this morning. And they’ve handed him of to Chris. Had some difficulty getting him into the roundpen, he’s pretty riled up. Now he’s in, they’ve started the clock.

19.09

Cox is talking now, he’s talking about how energy affects horses. Negative and positive energy. We have to give them strong leadership or they will look for that leadership elsewhere. Chris is using pressure to produce high energy, then releasing it back to low energy. The horse is feeling that and calming down a bit. Cox’s mic is breaking up, so he’s asking for a new one. He doesn’t think they will stop the clock for him. Tootie just confirmed they will stop the clock. That’s the right thing to do.

19.10

They’ve got him a new mic now. That little break was good for the horse, he was able to quiet down significantly. Cox is going right to the saddle and started putting it on. The horse is staying pretty quiet and calm now, saddling was easy. Bridling as well. Now he’s bringing him outside the roundpen already. This is going much quicker with Cox than it did with Clinton. Cox is talking to the crowd as well, the Mic is his. Again, you can hear a pin drop, all ears on Cox.

19.13

The colt is giving a little difficulty leading, but he’d rather just stay back. Chris has him going forward now. Pretty good. And now he’s asking to be judged leading and stopping. A little confusion if he went 40 feet, but the Judges say that was good. Cox is telling the crowd sorry if he’s not personable with them, he has a little job to do. Cox is pretty even, quiet. Not teaching quite as much, but has some really good tips and useful information. Especially about energy and understanding about being a strong leader. He compared being a leader to being an airplane pilot. You can’t get in the cockpit and tell people you don’t know what you’re doing, you’d be heading for the exit. He says horses are the same way. They need to understand that we know what we are doing. Chris is leading the horse around the rail, looking good. Pretty calm and soft. A lot quieter than Clinton’s horse. His horse looks a little more tired.

19.14

And at just less than 20 minutes, Chris has mounted his horse. Not to bad. Judging for canter to the right, canter to the left. Walking, all looking good. Horse is pretty relaxed, this is looking really good. Not too much balking, but it did look like the colt tried to bite Cox’s leg there for a moment. Now trotting to the right, looking good. 16:30 left now.

19.18

Nice, Cox did a nice rollback on the fence. Now his colt is giving him more problems, shaking his head. He went over one of the obstacles, that was unintentional. Finally got him under good control now. Chris stopped, judging for mount and dismount. Both went quite smoothly. 14:30 to go. Chris is back off his horse. Now he doesn’t have a lead rope. He’s yielding his horse with nothing attached. The colt could run off if he wanted to, but he’s staying near Chris, this is good. Now picking up feet for judging, no problem on the first two. Other side… Good on front, good on back. He commented on how his feet need to be trimmed. The crowd cheers. Horse still looks nice and calm, looking really good so far. Resistance seems minimal at the moment. WOW!! EXCELLENT backing up!! Crowd roared with applause. 12:34 left now.

19.19

Now walk to the right for judging. Pretty good. Rollback to the right, and rollback to the left, pretty good. First one was a little resistance, but he redid that, and it looks good. Walk left and stop are left. Looking good. 11:30 to go.

19.22

Both went well, so he should be done with the rail, he still has 11 minutes to go, he’s making excellent time. It looks like his preparation and riding out all the bucking has really come in handy. He’s doing the first obstacle, pole bending, at the trot… almost missed the last pole, but did it very well. The colt was ready to go through a third time! Cleared number 2 with no resistance!! 10:00, now the circle poles, walking over them without any difficulty. Finished all of them with 9:38. Now the tarp… Clinton didn’t pass this obstacle…. and Cox did!! Tarp work in the roundpen paid off for him. Over the next set very well, same as Clinton’s horse. Looking really good. Now up to the rope to swing. He’s doing a great job of selling it. Both horse and rider are doing fantastic, so far much better and more compliant than Clinton’s horse was doing at this point.

19.27

Swinging the rope done, now the other rope to drag the log. Cox is using a riding crop. Clinton was as well. Now Cox is going to dally dragging the log, he was serious!! Now he’s having the horse back … the rope dropped, did he go 30 feet? I don’t know! He took a turn, I think if you add it up, it might have been, but that was close. I don’t think they’re going to use a measuring tape. Now Cox in the yielding box. One direction is all that’s required, he stepped on one of the boxes, but did okay. Not quite as well as Clinton. He’s trying to one-up Clinton on every obstacle. He rang the bell lightly, unlike Clinton. Jumped the dragon with ease. and that’s the obstacle course, with 5:46 left on the clock!! The rest is extra points in free style, he has A LOT of time! So far a clear winner between him and Clinton Anderson. It has worked out to get the much quieter horse. I think that worked against Clinton unfortunately. I think C.A. set the bar a little too high for the time allotted. Clinton gave himself the biggest challenge but in the end, what matters is the judging. Now Cox is just loping around the arena doing rollbacks, waving his hat. Clinton’s lope looked a lot more comfortable, but this is all extra.

19.29

Now Chris is standing on his horse, and has jumped off the saddle, running around throwing his hand, slapping people five. He acts like he’s won, but still have Parelli to go. He’s pretty excited! That’s saying a lot for someone who seems so calm most the time. Wow, I’ve never seen Chris like this. he is running around his horse now, yielding the hindquarters. This, fellers, is one calm horse!! That bucking really paid off!! If you can ride it out, it seems to work! Now Cox has removed the saddle and is leading the Colt, he still has time, however. Clinton’s freestyle was far far more spectacular and amazing, but Chris’s horse did much better through the obstacle and rail. Still, 1:37 on the clock, You’d think he would ride bareback or something… do something more!! We want to see more!!

19.31

And now they’ve led outside the Arena. It was far less emotional than and stimulating than Clinton’s freestyle, I think there were a couple of things that currently put Cox ahead: his horse was more compliant and calmer, a heck of a lot more tired than Clinton’s horse. He went through the obstacle course much faster. No balking in the obstacle course, that helped. But Clinton’s freestyle smoked Chris’. Now we’re waiting for Pat Parelli to come up next.

19.36

Now Parelli is up. His horse led in pretty easy compared to Cox’s horse. Parelli has the mic now. He’s asking for forgiveness if he’s ever accused people… ?! Okay. He says that he’s there to make the world a better place for horses and humans. Talking about how horses are pray animals and herd animals.

19.39

Parelli is saddling his horse now, 32:22, so he’s making good time. His horse is much calmer than Cox’s or Clinton, already going much faster. Pat’s horse has been the most calm throughout the competition except for his repeated bucking sprees. Parelli didn’t challenge his horse much, we’ll see if that has an impact here. He’s talking about the various good parts and bad parts he found on the horse while training. Hard to track what he’s talking about. Horse is moving while being saddled, but is staying calm. So far looking very good. He’s being particular about using the left hand instead of the right hand when bringing the cinch up. Talking about liking to use the term starting instead of braking. Even though people don’t mean anything bad by using “braking”, he’s saying that thoughts become our actions… so he’s thinking positive, progressive and natural.

19.42

Parelli is talking about how all good things come from your heart, lots of talking not getting much done with the horse here, 29 minutes remaining now. He keeps talking about how our thoughts come from our heart. He finally chose a name, Partner. Neither Cox nor Clinton had time to name their horses. Parelli has already purchased this horse, going to take him home. They are going to give weekly reports on his progress. They are going to take him to Texas in May for the colt starting presentation they are going to have there. They are going to start 6 horses of other breeds in 3 days. He’s spending a lot of time talking, minutes rolling off the clock, not doing anything at the moment. 27 minutes now.

19.44

Parelli spending a lot of time selling his program right now, well, he has the mic, so that’s his option, but his time is ticking, he should get going. Okay, now Parelli is asking his horse to do something. The horse is saddled. He’s saying that instead of the horse “bucking it out” he’s going to do it a different way. He doesn’t want the horse to “be upset” or bothered. Now he’s yielding the horse around. Talking about how he was able to help his horse a bit this afternoon. Was able to get the horse to a “harmonious spot”. He’s saying that he wants it to be beautiful and artful.

19.47

25 minutes now. He didn’t like the colt going to the trot, he wants him to just walk, so he’s trying to shut the horse down by using no pressure. His techniques are most different from Chris Cox and Clinton Anderson. He doesn’t use very much pressure for anything he’s doing. Mostly just asking the horse to do something. He’s tapping the horse on the side of the neck to get him to move –yes, all horse trainers will do that — there was a question that came up that Cox and Clinton “hit” their horses, this is not actually the case. Horses will kick and bite eachother with far more force than we can use to tap them with. Good trainers know how to apply pressure and release it at the right time. All three, Cox, Anderson and Parelli do this very well, and that’s what makes them great.

19.50

Parelli showing good horsemanship, acknowledging the horsemanship of the other two trainers, this is really admirable and something we missed from Cox, who was very competitive and took a few verbal jabs at Clinton’s demonstration earlier. Parelli leading his horse out of the roundpen, under 22 minutes now. Parelli sounds like he’s giving an inspirational speech as he’s leading around. 40 feet leading done, stop done, picking up feet now: 20:26 to go… tow feet good, horse is moving, doesn’t want to pick up the hind right. Now he got it. And now got all 4 feet. Cox’s horse did the best with picking up feet, Clinton’s the second best, Parelli’s colt didn’t do quite as well. Parelli talks about himself being a “certified horse-hugger”. Haha, yeah. Partner (the colt) is doing well, nice and calm and relaxed.

19.52

Now Parelli is leading at the trot, horse didn’t want to come, he’s become a boat-anchor… he’s happy with himself, he got the human to trot and he’s just being a boat anchor, this is kinda funny. But the horse is certainly relaxed. Woah!! Now he’s freaking out a bit, went into the poles… okay, back under control and following Pat.

19.53

He gave up trying to make the horse trot, he’s going back to the roundpen now. 17:00, less than halfway to go. He’s going to use a hackamore instead of a bit with bridle. He’s talking about the history of the word “hackamore”. Pat, your time is ticking away, you need to get into the saddle soon! 16 to go now.

19.55

Partner grabbed the hackamore in his mouth. Okay, mount for judging, now dismount, looks good. Hindfeet narrow, front-feet wide for proper balance. If the front feet are narrow, he’s not in a power position. now he’s in the saddle with 14:19 to go. Good, he still has good time.

19.58

Now they are moving in the saddle, back and forth. Parelli is trying to be as light as possible. Yielding back and forth, trying to get him under control, the horse is still very calm, just not being entirely compliant at the moment. Parelli is using a long riding crop with a piece of plastic on the end to help guide the horse around. Still walking around, now he’s going along the rail. Okay… looking good now, looks like he is ready for judging. 11:38 to go now, declared his walk to the right… op, horse went to a trot, back to the walk… back to the trot, isn’t walking 40 feet too well.

20.01

Trot, walk, trot walk… Parelli says that those are transitions, but the horse decided what speed to go, he needed 40 feet at the walk, don’t know if he got it. Now trotting 40 feet to the right for judging. Looks good now, this horse wants to trot, didn’t want to walk. Parelli talking about pushing the horse around instead of trotting around. Now canter to the right for judging. Letting the horse pick his own pace here. Stop and backup look fine, Cox got these really good. Clinton and Parelli about even at those two. Half turn good. Clinton’s horse was much better at going straight at the gait that Clinton picked, Cox’s did pretty good as well. Partner is kinda doing a sideways thing. now trot to the left… Pat’s stick broke.

20.03

Canter to the left, all that remains is walk to the left, 8 minutes to go. Walking, walking… not bad, not straight, but it is consistent. Passed for judging. Obstacle time!! Pat is doing very well I think. Time for the polls. Chris Cox showed very good control going through the poles. Partner is pretty nervous of these polls, going at the walk. One pass done, second… looks good. First one done, now to 2, 6:44 to go!

20.04

Through #2 very well, no balking, little nervous, but Partner did very well, now over the circle of poles. Walking slowly over the poles, looks good, looks good. Crowd cheering. Now to the tarp, this is the obstacle that Clinton’s horse didn’t pass. Parelli spent a good deal of time with the tarp in the roundpen and… it pays off!! Clinton didn’t use the tarp in the roundpen and I think it came back to bite him. Through the other obstacles, very good, very good… looking excellent! 5:16 to go. Now to the ropes…

20.06

First rope, partner won’t stop moving so Parelli can get it and swing it… okay, good… Partner is nice and calm. Oooh, a little skiddish there, but did fine. Now time to drag the log 30 feet.Can’t get partner to move forward in a direction here, having trouble. Okay, now they’re going… okay good… nice and smooth. Drug it a good 50 feet at least. Now to the yielding box. Only needs one direction worked good. Looking good thus far. Crowd cheering at each completed obstacle.

20.08

On to the ringing bell, excellent, no trouble there. Now over the dragon, he won’t go. He stepped over and on the dragon, knocked out one of the tires, but he’s over… now on to freestyle with 2:10 to go!! Great job Parelli!! Now his cantering around the arena!! Crowd cheering!! Nice emotional song here. Parelli is calling for the green ball!

20.11

Partner is pushing the green ball. He’s such a nice horse. Parelli is going to enjoy training him this spring. Good fit for him, nice calm and relaxed horse. Not a difficult one, but did challenge Pat with the bucking issue he had. Congrats Pat, you did very well!! Crowd cheering, standing applause now. Parelli bouncing the green ball very VERY high!! So excited. Happy for him, this was his first RTTH and he did spectacular. Clinton had the smoothest horse, the most exciting Freestyle, Parelli with a fantastic second best with freestyle. Cox didn’t really do a freestyle except standing on the top of his horse. Cox beat everyone with his control of his horse and obstacle course. Clinton had the best freestyle, but I think Chris Cox is the guy to beat! We’ll find out who won in just a moment.

20.22

All three trainers did a fantastic job. I think Pat Parelli had a setback personally after the first round. He had the easiest horse, the calmest, quietest one to begin with, but was challenged with the bucking he experienced. I think the Partner lulled him into a bit of a false sense of security and Parelli tried to move too quickly by getting on and asking for too much before he was really ready. Good calm horse, went through the obstacles very well. Turned out to be great, and that horse got a good home with Parelli. The talking through some of it seemed to drive some people nuts, but he rebounded.

Chris Cox picked the best, well balanced horse. This was the consensus from the breeders. Good feel, not too dull, but not too jumpy and active. Good athleticism with a balance. Had a lot of buck to get through, but Chris is a fantastic rider and was able to ride through it. He put the most riding time on his horse in the arena. Cox made a lot of comments about loving on your horse, good fit for the horse he had who wanted a lot of physical comfort and reassurance. Cox’s horse was quite calm through his entire demonstration, and I felt was the most solid. Chris demonstrated the best and most control under saddle with his horse.

Clinton picked the most difficult horse, the most active, most athletic, and… probably the prettiest. He wanted a challenge, and got the challenge. Clinton spent a great deal of time with laying a groundwork foundation, he doesn’t like his horses to buck when he gets on and his methods are designed to get the most respect out of his horse, and he did that successfully, but he didn’t have as much riding time as Cox and Parelli had with their horses. Clinton showed an amazing amount of control on a very hot horse. Then really showed people what he had by removing the bridle and riding this 2-day started colt completely bridleless, no halter, nothing to control the horse and was just amazing. But I don’t think it was good enough to win.

Chris Cox showed the superior riding skills. Pat showed that someone doesn’t need to run around to train a horse, and that picking the right a calm, relaxed horse is important for that method. Clinton showed his amazing horse training skills and dedication with training and getting a difficult horse under control. Chris and Clinton both made it easy to learn from them and understand what they were doing and how you can do the same with your horse. Parelli sometimes uses a lot of rhetoric that will go way above your head and is often confusing, but showed that he is an excellent horse trainer.

20.24

And now the trainers have come out on their horses, big presentation. Cutting to the chase here. They are pulling out the card with the winner. Tootie on the Mic now. And the winner is…

20.25

The Road To The Horse winner is CHRIS COX!!!! Congratulations Chris!!! He just threw his hat into the air and is taking a lap on his horse around the arena, he is very excited, crowd is going wild!! Chris did an amazing job, clear winner in my opinion. He showed he is the best Colt Starting horseman in the world, and is now a 3 time RTTH champion!! He has invited his family into the floor of the arena to celebrate with him.

20.28

Chris is about crying now, very emotional. He won a belt buckle with the words: “World Champion”, a very nice custom Martin saddle, a painting and spurs… oh yeah, and ,000!! Congratulations to Chris Cox for winning one of the most thrilling horsemanship competitions. Everyone did fantastic. Very excited for Chris.