Our Love For Spain

Pat and I love going to Spain – so we cannot wait to visit there on the way to the UK Celebration.  The first time we went to Spain was about six years ago with Dr. Robert Miller and his wife, Debby.  Dr. Miller had been invited to speak to a group near Barcelona and asked Pat if he would like to accompany him and do some demonstrations.  So off we went, we met some wonderful people and got to experience the beauty of Spanish life and country - especially the food!

At the seminar we met a man by the name of Luis Lucio, a successful dressage trainer and rider with two Olympic competitions under his belt.  He had come to see what this Pat Parelli was all about, and not only did he become interested in our approach, but we really hit it off over lunch.  We spent the rest of the day and evening with him before leaving for home the next day.  

To this day, Luis tells me that the thing that struck him in our conversation over horses was when I asked him - "So what part of the horse do you find the most challenging?  The mental, emotional or the physical?"  He said he was speechless.  He had never thought about the mental and emotional aspects of the horse and from that moment on he was captivated.  Over the years we have become very good friends.  Luis came and spent a week with us in the USA a couple of times, and we've been back to visit him almost every year.  Luis began incorporating our program into the training of his horses and has made huge changes, and helped many difficult horses and dressage riders come to a better understanding.   His grasp of Horsenality is very good and he's constantly thinking about how to apply that to training for dressage.

Personally speaking, I love talking with Luis, we can talk for hours and hours.  He's a deep thinker, asks great questions, and allows me to ask in depth questions about what he knows of dressage.  He is a beautiful rider, so now that I know so much more through my study with Walter and with Janice Dulak (Pilates for Dressage)  I'm looking forward to asking him a lot more about what he does here - is it just his prodigious talent, or has he some special keys that I can learn?  He also invites me to ride his horses, which is a great honor, and you know what Pat says about "horses teach riders"!  Best of all, his horses are "light", they don't lean, aren't heavy - they are connected, round and engaged.  

Luis always takes us to some fabulous restaurants, and there's this one down on the harbor that makes the most incredible paella, so I'm going to see if I can get a peek in the kitchen this time!