a view of Parelli today

T

the watcher

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Today there was a fun ride near me, I won't go into too much detail to protect the slightly silly...

anyway out of the 200 riders there were two or three who turned up with western saddles, hackmores..nothing too odd there, until I spotted odd long ropes and a bit of a strange approach. One of the horses while waiting to set off sniffed at a horse dropping on the ground, all quite natural you might think, however his rider appeared quite miffed and said he should have asked permission before doing it ( can you teach horses to beg?)
Anyway, they set off at a very pedestrian pace and we waited around with interest for their return..this was a 12 mile ride with some fabulous jumps laid on and some very sparky horses did it, including jumps, in not much over an hour.
The only rider to come in leading their horse was one of the western riders, twirling her very long rope for all she was worth..didn't really understand what that was about, and apparently it had taken them an age because they had walked most of the way and done a lot of 'circling'

Now it isn't for me to judge what people do on fun rides, and if they choose to go slowly that is their prerogative (except that we had to wait for them to come in) but it all seemed so pointless and they didn't appear to have enjoyed it very much either.

Is Parelli training so all encompassing that it overtakes other elements of riding...like fun?
 
perhaps they keep circling because they had lost their page in the text book???????? just a thought
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perhaps they keep circling because they had lost their page in the text book???????? just a thought
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I literally LOL'd at that!!
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Maybe the people I've known are doing it wrong, but all the horses I've known who's been Parelli'd end up looking downtrodden and dead in their eyes. They seem to lose all their spirit. What I find most odd is that I've been told it teaches you how to interact in the way horses interact with each other....I have yet to see my horse's herd/field leader waving a carrot stick at the others...
 
my friend thinks her horse follows her around because it loves her.
i think the horse herds her about till the last carrot is gone out of her pocket
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I've been to a Parelli demo evening coz I think its good for everyone to keep an open mind that welcomes new or dfiferent thinking. I would beseech people not to judge until they've seen what can be done using Parelli. If you'd seen the (ex-problem) demo horse being softly asked to lay down in the middle of an arena full of 200 people holding their breath you might want to understand a bit more about it. BUT, I would say that the truly awesome results that the Parelli trainers get with their horses are the end result of hours and hours and hours and hours of work. I suspect if you put the same amount of time into your horse using one of the other "natural" methods around today, you'd probably get just as good results. But don't knock til you've tried!
 
The methods I use with Jayjay COULD be called natural. I ride him to and from his field in a halter, and he follows me around (trotting when I jog, cantering when I ... skip
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) if I'm ever setting jumps or poles up in the arena. He still has his tack on, but he does it out of choice and was never trained. I suppose I can sell my knowledge and home-made gadgets now?
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I suspect if you put the same amount of time into your horse using one of the other "natural" methods around today, you'd probably get just as good results.

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or maybe just traditional methods...
 
Sorry dont agree with this comment;

Maybe the people I've known are doing it wrong, but all the horses I've known who's been Parelli'd end up looking downtrodden and dead in their eyes. They seem to lose all their spirit.

As someone has said dont knock it until you have tried it. Seems to me that along with a few other things some people just dont know how to implement what they have either read or watched.
 
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One of the horses while waiting to set off sniffed at a horse dropping on the ground, all quite natural you might think, however his rider appeared quite miffed and said he should have asked permission before doing it ( can you teach horses to beg?)

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LOL! That's really made me chuckle
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PMSL!!!! at circling comment.....each to their own.

There are some useful bits of it but essentially it comes down to common sense, individual animals, time and effort, parelli has its place but it is way over marketing and very expensive for essentially what most people know already, they just dont think about it sometimes!!
 
Parelli is fine if thats the way you want to do things, but what bugs me is when people try and preach and tell you what your doing wrong.

Me and my horse have a fantastic bond and he goes very nicely. I have had parelli people horrified that he is so in your face, but I love my horses character, he loves people and is never rude or bolshy to handle, just over friendly
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To change this behaviour would change his loveable character.
 
I've tried Parelli and whilst I can see that some of the games are useful I don't like it as a system. It's far too slanted towards the human as the 'alpha' and, yes, some of the horses do become like robots. I prefer my horse to retain her character and if she wants to question something then let her question something as long as she does it respectfully.

It can also be too confrontational (increasing the pressure) for some horses and that's when you hear of them rearing 'at' you.

My point, though, is that if they don't do what you're asking then ask again. If they still don't do what you're asking then ask in another way as they obviously don't understand or have an issue with doing it. It's a bit like the English trying to communicate with someone who doesn't speak English ... shouting does not make them understand you any better!
 
I don't really know anything about Parelli so won't offer an opinion. BUT a couple of years ago a horse came to be treated at the vets where my daughter was working. The owners were very into parelli and were very fussy as to how it could be handled and what mustn't be done. I remember my daughter saying it hindered the vets treatment until in the end he basically said I'm sorry but we do this my way or not at all. Common sense is surely necessary with parelli and all other natural horsemanship.
 
I'd like to remind you all that you can get obsessive compulsives with parelli, yes, but it happens in the traditional world too. I'm sick of dealing with people who say "my horse doesn't like...." when it comes to where you hold his leadrope, or how you talk to him, or how you approach him, or how you slap him across the face (lol...yup these people still shout at their horses and smack them and yank them about, but god forbid anyone ELSE touches their horse without bowing down and singing hymns to it first) etc. And yes, these people don't necessarily do parelli.

Problem with parelli though, is that so many people take things the wrong way. I personally believe that the home-study packs shouldnt be available to the general public (although I've used them myself so i'm a bit of a hypocrite!) - they should have more instructors teaching first hand - as there are so many idiots (may as well be blunt) out there who don't understand the concepts, and can't think for themselves in individual situations.

I do follow a lot of parelli's methods, and so far my horse is neither dull nor do I feel I have to prevent her from sniffing at things - that would be disallowing her curiousity which I think is pretty unfair. I also work hard at making sure that she's easy-going in most situations - for example the vet. My vet's traditional, as is my farrier, etc, yet none of them have problems with her, and by nature she's a nervy and snappy horse. So in this situation, parelli (and a bit of personal common sense..) has helped!

Can't really defend others, or say his methods are foolproof, all I can do is tell you that I find it works out nicely for me.
 
well said castlecourtdaisy! I do pnh (u probly seen me on th othr thread!!) Glad to hear sum1 that doesn't sound crazy!! LOL!
 
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