The first day of competition at Road to the Horse brings education and excitement.

Clinton Anderson and Fletches Career

So, who’s winning so far? That’s the question on everyone’s minds after the first day of round-pen work at the Road to the Horse colt-starting challenge, which concludes today in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

There’s not a clear answer to that one. All three contestants — Pat Parelli, Chris Cox and Clinton Anderson — have considerable skills, and anything can happen during today’s sessions.

But here’s another frequent question: Who are you rooting for?

Stacy Westfall, an AQHA Professional Horsewoman and America’s Horse columnist who won RTTH in 2006, said she posed that question to a number of audience members and was impressed by the most-common answer. The crowd, it seems, is rooting for the horses.  

America’s Horse talked exclusively to each contestant after Saturday’s competition concluded. Some had more time for us than others. Here’s their comments:

Chris Cox: “It’s a great event. It’s more than just winning, it’s for these excited people who want to see great horsemanship and want to see these great horses. We’re just trying to share as much as we possibly can.”

What Chris hopes people learned from him on Saturday: “That knowledge overcomes a lot of things, and feel and timing and the sensitivity of reading the horse’s mind, it’s more than training, it’s psychology. It’s understanding the thought process of the animal.”

“I feel good about (Saturday’s session.) He’s going to be a nice little horse.”

Why Chris selected his gray colt, Perfect Performance: “He’s a little wild and real sensitive and a little reactive instead of being dull.”

Clinton Anderson: “I was real happy with (the first session). My horse was good. I felt like everything got accomplished, and we’ll see what happens tomorrow. I got a horse (Fletches Career) with a lot of energy, and now I’ve just got to channel it in the right direction.”

What Clinton hopes he taught the crowd: “That you’ve got to use approach and retreat and not pressure a horse too much, and at the same time, you’ve still got to move his feet and get him to respect you.”

Pat Parelli: On why he selected Hey Whiskey as his horse: “He looked amiable. I connected with him right away. I saw him moving around out there when they moved the horses around last night. He wasn’t the boss hoss, and he wasn’t the wimp on the bottom, either. I thought, ‘He’s a nice horse,’ and he’s the kind of horse I’d like to own.

“I really felt like that horse gave me a lot today. Again, I stick with rapport first, then I start working on respect, and then I start working on the impulsion and flexions. I’ve got some work to do now on his respect, so he understands, so he’s not afraid of me, but at the same time, I’m communicating with him, controlling him and can move his body where I need to. That’s my job tomorrow.”

On an unscheduled dismount: “Wasn’t that slick? That was as slick a dismount as a guy knows how to do at my age. I was trying to get dismounted before he got tight. And then when he kind of started to move, I just said, ‘Well let’s just twist out of here and get out of here slick and easy.’ He was hiding from me on his right side on his eye. He’d look at me real good on the left eye, but when I got up and threw that rope over, I realized, he’s not wanting to look at me over here. I’ve got a little work to do on that side.”

“I tried to do two things, to make sure that if that horse’s mom was watching, she’d be proud of what – or not ashamed of what was happening to her little horse, and I was there as if Tom Dorrance, Ronnie Willis and Ray Hunt were watching. They were sitting up in the light banks looking down, and I didn’t want to wear that colt down. I wanted to make sure he was confident, curious, still sensitive.”

Check out our slideshow, and don’t forget to click on the photos to read the captions. Stay tuned to us on Facebook and Twitter to see who wins Road to the Horse this afternoon!

Holly Clanahan
Editor, America's Horse magazine