ROAD TO THE HORSE

On Thursday we left Calera, Al. and traveled to Murfreesboro, Tn to attend "Road to the Horse" which was my Christmas present. That night a bad weather front came through with tornado, thunder storms, hail and heavy rain warnings. Most of the participants and attendees of this event found themselves in the "tunnel" of the Miller Coliseum, a safe place. Many of these people were traveling with their dogs so, of course, they brought the dogs to the safe place, too. Katie was the only cat that we saw there. She was in her carrier and very quiet so the dogs never knew she was in their presence. When everyone decided it was safe to return to their RV, they found no damage. There were some areas in Tennessee and Kentucky that were hit by tornadoes and straight line winds.



Let me try to explain what Road to the Horse is. It is a horse event that is held each year in Murfreesboro, Tn. They invite 3 horse clinicians to compete in starting a colt in a 2 day time frame. They use natural horsemanship techniques. At the end of so many hours with the horse during the two days there is a test of a certain number of maneuvers they have to complete and are given points, like walking over a large plastic tarp, walk, trot and canter in each direction and pick up each foot. This year Pat Parelli,

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Chris Cox

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and Clinton Anderson

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were the clinicians. Chris Cox won this year which is his 3rd year to win. Clinton Anderson had won twice previously and this was Pat Parelli's first time to compete.

These were young horses, probably 3 years old that had only been on the ranch and not handled. They were brought out as a group first before the three were chosen. I thought it really funny to watch them look at the big screen TV. They were fascinated with themselves. I am not really sure if they knew what they were looking at, but they were looking.

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They all three did a wonderful job. There was entertainment during the three day event along with loads of shopping.

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We left Murfreesboro on Sunday afternoon even though we were scheduled to stay until Monday because of another bad weather front coming through on Monday. We got out with ease and beat the rain. Allan and I pulled into a McDonalds and spent the night in north Alabama. Our next overnight stop was back at Sun Coast RV for one night and then moved to Birmingham South RV for the rest of the week. We have several doctor's appointments scheduled this week and our colonoscopies on the south side of town.