ducks4you
Loving the herd life
I cut this to a new topic, after I realized that this was a really long response to the Parelli thread.
Just watched a Clinton Anderson rerun--the one with one of the last performances with his mare Mindy, in Las Vegas--and my jaw dropped when one of audience members gave a slap on the wrist to the Parelli's.
Boy, once the criticism starts, there's no going back.
I think that those of us who have been long-time horse owners, and have studied classical horsemanship need to be a little bit more vocal with our opinions about new phrases and new methods. If the "new" lines up with the old-time, tried and true horse training methods, I believe that we can endorse some of the plethora available on the Internet and on Satellite/Cable programming. Otherwise, I believe that we owe it to new horseman to speak out against them.
The big names that I have read are trainers who have been trained by successful trainers, and owe what they know to previously successful horseman. I learned a great deal from the writings of Alois Podhajsky, George Morris, and Reiner Klimpke, among others (including Ben Green, who wrote humerous, early 20th century Western Horse stories!!) and I spent my first few years teaching horsemanship with my spare time nose buried in "Practical Horseman." I read THAT until I saw the articles began to repeat thems--only so many ways you can teach somebody to do gymnastics!!
I digested everything I read and tried it out. All of the trainers above are in lock-step agreement about how to treat your horse. That is my yard stick.
I do not want to put ALL of these new trainers into the same pigeon hole. Obviously people's lack of time coupled with many people's lack of knowledge has created a need to make horses rideable again. I believe in capitalism. I think it's quite humorous that "impulsion" is now called "moving a horse's feet". (Re-packaging, like the "Sham-Wow.") I find it odd that people are concerned about their horse's boredom under saddle. :/
I have found some programs very helpful, like Ken McNabb's program about handling stallions. There was good stuff for geldings and mares, and he emphasized getting the horse to pay attention and to lead well. Another helpful program was Julie Goodknight's, with a well-mannered QH, whose owner was changing from Hunter to Western Pleasure. Her gelding was slamming to a halt on the forehand. Julie had her canter on one rein, halt and back-up, then cue for a trot on the other rein. You could see the horse begin to use his quarters.
I believe that those of us that know should edit our comments so that they err of the side of the rider ALWAYS being safe. I like the one comment Clinton made on this program. He said that if a horse kicks another horse, the "kickee" says "OMPH", then moves to another part of the pasture to eat. A human gets the same kick, and ends up in the hospital recovering from several broken ribs.
YET, our well-mannered horses move around us just like we move around a baby crawling on the floor, both trying hard to not hurt the weaker party.
I remember reading some articles by the Parelli's in the mid-1990's. Their ideas seemed interesting. I've even tried some of their new stuff this year, like moving your body like the horse's gait while riding that gait. I dismissed that one because I like my horses light and responsive. I was getting too much of a response, which would have been great if I was jumping,
but I wasn't.
What are your thoughts?
Just watched a Clinton Anderson rerun--the one with one of the last performances with his mare Mindy, in Las Vegas--and my jaw dropped when one of audience members gave a slap on the wrist to the Parelli's.
Boy, once the criticism starts, there's no going back.
I think that those of us who have been long-time horse owners, and have studied classical horsemanship need to be a little bit more vocal with our opinions about new phrases and new methods. If the "new" lines up with the old-time, tried and true horse training methods, I believe that we can endorse some of the plethora available on the Internet and on Satellite/Cable programming. Otherwise, I believe that we owe it to new horseman to speak out against them.
The big names that I have read are trainers who have been trained by successful trainers, and owe what they know to previously successful horseman. I learned a great deal from the writings of Alois Podhajsky, George Morris, and Reiner Klimpke, among others (including Ben Green, who wrote humerous, early 20th century Western Horse stories!!) and I spent my first few years teaching horsemanship with my spare time nose buried in "Practical Horseman." I read THAT until I saw the articles began to repeat thems--only so many ways you can teach somebody to do gymnastics!!
I digested everything I read and tried it out. All of the trainers above are in lock-step agreement about how to treat your horse. That is my yard stick.
I do not want to put ALL of these new trainers into the same pigeon hole. Obviously people's lack of time coupled with many people's lack of knowledge has created a need to make horses rideable again. I believe in capitalism. I think it's quite humorous that "impulsion" is now called "moving a horse's feet". (Re-packaging, like the "Sham-Wow.") I find it odd that people are concerned about their horse's boredom under saddle. :/
I have found some programs very helpful, like Ken McNabb's program about handling stallions. There was good stuff for geldings and mares, and he emphasized getting the horse to pay attention and to lead well. Another helpful program was Julie Goodknight's, with a well-mannered QH, whose owner was changing from Hunter to Western Pleasure. Her gelding was slamming to a halt on the forehand. Julie had her canter on one rein, halt and back-up, then cue for a trot on the other rein. You could see the horse begin to use his quarters.
I believe that those of us that know should edit our comments so that they err of the side of the rider ALWAYS being safe. I like the one comment Clinton made on this program. He said that if a horse kicks another horse, the "kickee" says "OMPH", then moves to another part of the pasture to eat. A human gets the same kick, and ends up in the hospital recovering from several broken ribs.
YET, our well-mannered horses move around us just like we move around a baby crawling on the floor, both trying hard to not hurt the weaker party.
I remember reading some articles by the Parelli's in the mid-1990's. Their ideas seemed interesting. I've even tried some of their new stuff this year, like moving your body like the horse's gait while riding that gait. I dismissed that one because I like my horses light and responsive. I was getting too much of a response, which would have been great if I was jumping,
but I wasn't.What are your thoughts?
