The First Annual Parelli Rendezvous!!

I've decided to blog over several days about my experience at the Parelli Rendezvous. The reason is simple...there was so much going on and I was so busy taking it all in that it's going to take several days to capture it all!!!

THURSDAY, October 21, 2010
I woke up early Thursday morning; actually, I was suprised I slept at all since I was so excited about going. I was excited to be taking my horse, and having new experiences with him, but at the same time, I was also a bit apprehensive about whether we could handle all the excitement and stimulus. No worries there but I'll talk about that later.

I had my morning coffee, finished packing my trailer and checking my list so I didn't forget anything, and loaded my horse and off we went to my friends house to off load everything to her truck and trailer since we'd decided to travel together. Since she had to work 1/2 a day, I bathed both horses and when she got home all she had to do was change, get a quick bite to eat and we were on our way by 2:30 p.m. We had a fairly uneventful trip except for the huge number of semi's passing us...it upset her horse a bit. We arrived in Jacksonville at the Equestrian Center about 5:00 p.m. and had a bit of a wait to check in. By then, her horse was done with being in the trailer and by the time we got him unloaded he was pretty sweaty and upset. The good thing was, once off the trailer he settled down quickly. Renegade traveled well the whole way; he was a bit damp but that was because it was a bit warm in the trailer. When I off loaded him; he was looking around at everthing but not in a nervous way, he was just interested in all the going's on!!

We unloaded all our barn supplies and got the horses settled into their stalls then went to the campground to set up our camp. We finished just about the time it was getting dark and that was a good thing. By then we were getting tired and VERY hungry. I had prepared sloppy joes so we could just heat and eat then go get our horses and mosey around to check out the place. Both Beau (my friend's horse) and Renegade were calm but interested and especially happy when we found some nice green grass for them to graze for a while. We had about 45" of undemanding/grazing time with them then went back to the barn to settle them in for the night. Then it was our turn for some undemanding time...we went back to the campground for a little R&R before showers and bedtime. We took the horses out one last time before we turned in for the night.