Just What the Heck Is Natural Horsmanship?

Posted inMiscellaneous
NATURAL HORSEMANSHIP For more than 6000 years, man tried to bridge the chasm between his own species, the ultimate predator, and the horse, the ultimate prey animal.  Man needed the horse to be a servant. The horse was programmed to be anything but a servant.  The man adopted his most efficient tool, brute force.  It was the basis of horsemanship practiced by the common man for millennia. We had early natural horsemen: Simon of Athens (400B.C.), Xenophon (430-355) and Alexander the Great are the names most well-known  by natural horsemanship…

Four Outdoor Horse Hours

Posted inNOVA
Thank you Jennifer Vaught for the great lesson and the fun time riding with great friends. Great friends, a great teacher and great horses.  The greats pile up! We rode slow with occasional times of speed and many rest periods.  We didn't want sweat. OK, most of the four hours wasn't outdoors.  Most of it was in an indoor arena. Someone did forget to turn on the furnace.  I left home at 11:30 and came back at 4:00.  The lesson was from 1:00-3:00, but it always runs longer. We did toast up in the…

Powder’s Progress – Development Pending

Posted inPowder
Sunday, Powder will be headed to "For the Horse" Ranch to enjoy 30 days of training with Jennifer Vaught.  Jenny was a Parelli 3 Star instructor for 15 years.  Pat found Jenny near the beginning of the development of the Parelli people training system and asked her to be an instructor. She has influenced untold numbers of people in the midwest.  She has influenced my life a great deal! Jenny has taken two Horse Development courses with Pat Parelli and Pat's mentor Ronnie Willus and was certified as a Young…

Powder’s Progress – Take a Giant Step

Posted inPowder
Surprise!  I asked Jennifer Vaught if she might want to train Powder for 30 days and the answer is YES! We're talking mid October thru Mid November.  I've also just about talked Jenny into blogging about training Powder. Wouldn't that be something! I think everyone should send Jenny an email and tell her how excited you would be to read a blog about Jenny's thoughts during 30 days of training.  What does she hope to accomplish in the daily sessions? What happens during Powder's training.  When does the first ride happen?  How…

Nova’s Notebook – Lesson time with Jenny

Posted inNOVA
Pat Parelli has done various studies of their students and why they enter the program.  Some of them have specific problems and when these problems are overcome, the students move out of the program. Many stay a long long time. Others drop out for various reasons. The category I'm in is "Want to Always Learn More - Can't Ever Get Enough" Lessons are my favorite horse back riding activity.  Lessons with the right people.  My right people are Jennifer and Tony Vaught. Tonight was the first time I've rode Nova since…

Nova’s Notebook – 1st Demonstration!

Posted inNOVA
About two weeks before the big Vaught Family Natural Horsemanship, Jenny asked if I was going to ride in the demonstration. Whoops!  I didn't know that Nova and I were going to be in the demonstration.  We had an assumption and non verbal communication. Now, it's something to be practicing all along for "being in the Spotlight" someday as opposed to actually having a date for a demonstration. Nova and I started to practice and the holes we had were just a bit glaring.  I had not practiced enough in…