pondering question

[oliverspal]

just watching some cool horse on you tube doing a load of parrelli .my question is this. does the parrelli on ground play ,every cause problems when riding?ie you drop your stick whilst riding and your horse then takes a bow

 

[oliverspal]

come on guys you must have some ideas.like dogs you would not play pulling games with a dominant dog would you.so tetching a horse to rear if you lift your arm is this a great idea ?

 

[samerlin]

aout 25 years ago (long before parrelli) i taught my horse tricks like bending his front legs and going doen on his knees to take a bow and giving you his front legs @(like a dog giving a paw) he then used them to his own advantage ie stopping and bowing then having me slide down his neck..........I then had to try and get him to forget them. have never taught any of my horses tricks since.

 

[trundle]

The only trick I ever taught any horse was my friend's eventer. i am 5 ft and he was 16.3hh, so I taught him to put his head down when I slapped my thigh, Principal Boy-stylee (it was funny at the time), so I could get his bridle on.

Do the Parelllis actually teach their horses to rear? What is the point of that?

 

[oliverspal]

yes samerlin thats the stuff i ment horses turning things to suit themselves and trundle i dont actually think it was the parrellis more like people just playing with their horses did this lesson on bridle fitting have any repercussions?

 

[TarrSteps]

It's like any tool - in itself it's neither "good" nor "bad" but it's all in how you use it. When "natural horsemanship" (whatever that means) became all the rage I wondered what specific common "problems" I would start to see in horses needing retraining vs horses from more "traditional" systems. Sure enough, while of course it's more individual than general, there are specfic problems that seem to go with these approaches, or more precisely certain things are more likely to go wrong in the horse/human communication.

I think the jump from working on the ground to ridden work is a particular problem and, I have to say, it seems a bit of a grey area for people who teach it. This is a gross generalisation but I find NH TENDS to appeal to people who do not have highly developed riding skills, either as something else to do or perhaps as a substitute for working on the riding. Not in any way always - ground work can be a great supplement to ridden work and a very useful problem solving medium - but it does happen.

Which is all a long way of saying yes, there are specific problems, but they come, as problems always do, from losing sight of the big picture or putting incorrect emphasis on particular parts of the training. I've certainly seen horses taught specific moves without enough control to "turn it off" when the behaviour is not desired. Anything you teach a horse the horse can use against you if circumstances encourage it, either because the "aids" are not taught thoroughly enough or the possible flaws are not recognised and adjusted for. I usually tell people to think if there are situations where they wouldn't want the behaviour before they go around teaching something out of the ordinary.

The "trick" teaching is about tests. I'm sure there are people who teach horses to rear (standard fare for movie horses) but hopefully they know what they're up to.

I've also talked to movie trainers who emphasise that horses with those talents are very specialised - one cannot/should not teach every horse every trick.