Just What the Heck Is Natural Horsmanship?

February 25, 2011Posted 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…

SADDLE YOUR HORSE RULES!

November 2, 2010Posted inMiscellaneous
Sue the "How Do You Do" Horse. It took Sue nearly three years to not flinch when I saddled her. I'm not talking about a slight shudder, either. I'm talking about a 1" rolling oceanic tsumni flinch along her back. That's one inch of rolling fear. She was triple T terrified of the saddle. Sue must have been saddled by a grizzly bear.  Pat Parelli has taught us the safe way to saddle, bridle and mount horse. He does things to ensure our safety and end up so we can live our…

Powder’s Progress – Development Pending

October 15, 2010Posted 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…

JR’s Journal – Chris and JR in Parelli Spotlight

July 25, 2009Posted inJR
Chris has Down's syndrome.  He also has a connection with animals. Chris and JR performed in Pat Parelli's Kansas City Celebration Spotlight events. They did "online".  JR was in tune with Chris.  JR was using everything he had to do what Chris wanted him to do.  Now and then Chris moved out of position which made it difficult for JR to do what Chris wanted.  He tried.  The audience held our breath...and then JR did it!  The audience erupted. Chris and JR performed like clouds on a dreamy day. They…

Susan and Velvet – Parelli 2009 Spotlight Blue Ribbon

July 15, 2009Posted inVelvet
  The reining demonstration is pretty cool. At the end when we run down the arena preparing to do a slide stop, I open the umbrella and it turns inside out! Our Dressage demonstration is highlighted by a "dressage hat" I found at a toy store and really cool dressage moves. We do leg yields at flat foot walk and canter - that means we travel diagonally across the arena. Velvet also does her rocking chair canter-naturally. If we have time, we do drop to a trot lead changes. It's…

Nova’s Notebook – The Beginning

January 13, 2006Posted inNOVA
Pat Parelli is always telling us how he's got yearlings on up that have happily learned the level 1, 2 and 3 tasks. Since Nova is at Pine Dell boarding stable, I decided that she should become a level 3 baby. I've given Jennifer Vaught this task. This is what she looks like at 18 months! Jenny has fallen into the "I Love Nova" club. Jenny reports that Nova is bright and light. Nova is fox trotting and trotting during her training sessions. We've not seen any sign of the…