Rodbaston 2013 - Monty Roberts Tour

 Rodbaston (South Staffs College)

Normally, I use a panoramic view of the venue for my blogs, but last night, I forgot! Which leaves me with the one above highlighting (pun intended), the one broken light in the whole of the arena. Yes, it was directly over the round pen and gave me a nice dark spot for filming. Aaaargghhhh! OK, I'm fixated by the lights as anyone on tour will testify. But it is important, as we never know what kind of horse issues Monty and Kelly will encounter. Last night was a great example. Monty had a 9.6 scale horse (that's out of ten). The footage will be heading onto Monty's online University as a lesson. Thankfully the footage isn't that bad, and the work carried out will be a valuable working lesson.

Before any of the TV folks reading this start shouting. I would have my own lighting rig as well, but I would need a generator too, as most venues have one, or maybe two 13 amp sockets in the whole place. We have to hang a sound system of that, along with Monty's slow cooker!

Rodbaston, because it is so local to me, meant that my wonderful wife and son could come along for the afternoon and early evening. Sue (my wife) would be on tour checking horses physically, but now we have our wonderful son, one of us has to be with him. 

As you can see from the images though, it didn't stop Philip from taking after Monty. He saw Jake (Monty's rider) working with the horses in the round pen checking them for soundness, and after that had finished, rushed into the round pen with our dog's lead, and pretended to perform join-up with a horse! That's my boy!!!!

A couple of pictures for you from the dingy lit venue! The first is the starter called Zena, who will be partners with a lady with physical challenges. This mare had such a big heart I think she will be looking after her owner for sometime to come.

Monty working with a horse to stand still, one of the most important things a horse can do for you when you get on! Otherwise it may be a trip to the hospital!
And finally a big thank you to the helpers at the venue. They stayed until the next morning (after midnight helping everyone pack-up, clear up, and ship out!