What's your view on Parelli / natural horsemanship?

[Frangipan1979]

Been offered a loan where the owner does a lot of this. Some people are telling me to run a mile / others are saying give it a go.

Any views?

[Pixel]

I didn't watch it with the sound on btw so I don't know what was said/what justification there was for the 'training methods' used.

[DENMAN03]

I wouldnt. Nutters who are too frightened to discipline the horse correctly in the experience I have seen.

[willyoulistentome]

We have one Parelli woman at our yard and we all think she and her methods are barking!! Her horse is a bloody pain in the arse in the field too. Always after tidbits - barging at the gate etc.
She does this sort of psuedo lungeing thing. Where she is in the middle on the end of a rope, and her horse sory of dawdles / slops around in a vague shape around her - not a circle - just sort of mooches about - she does it for HOURS. I have NO idea what she is tring to achieve. She ties her horse up on the yard with a WAY too long leadrope and then wonders why she gets tangled in the rope or gets in everyones way - as nobody can tie up near her as her horse is a bit kicky. Hacks out in a really loose string headcollar arrangement. But can;t hack in company as the horse gets too 'wild'. Well stick a fucking bridle on it then!!!

[mrslaughan]

Dmare shares a field with a parelli trained Mare (well when she stays in the field). The story goes she was very difficult, would only do things on her terms, and was very spooky. She still only does things on her terms but now she is scared of NOTHING, she is just bloody dangerous in my humble opinion. She is constantly barging through the electric fence and out of the paddock. I have caught her and put her back a couple of times,....only out of choice as, she sets the whole field off into a stampede if you go into her field, while she is out side of it. She is barge, pushy and no respect for personal space.
When I go to get Dmare in, and she is in the field she will kick at Dmare, charge up to her, while I am putting her headcollar on, waving anything at her do not make her stop, I have even waved the "electric gate at her, and she has just barged into it.......she honestly is a liability and I hope she gets kicked off the yard, due to the cost of the fences she pulls down every night. I hate HATE going into the field when she is in it, as nothing scares her, and that makes her incrediably dangerous.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

I watched the video .
I haven't ridden a horse for over 15 years (and my French isn't good enough to understand the video) but I was horrified by it.
Basically "I will push you, pull your head about, kick your belly (twice ) and put my hand up to your face.And you will tolerate this".

Poor horse had his head up, ears back, trying to get away.
I was willing him to push the silly bint over.

[LittleBunnyFeileFooFoo]

I know quite a few Parelli-ites, and the one thing that stands out the most is that the deeper these owners get into the Parelli thing, the less likely they are to actually ride their horse
It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen. But they think the horse has to "agree" to be ridden that day, and strangely enough, their horses aren't very agreeable.

I didn't read everything you posted, Xavier, but I have read Xenophon, so yeah, not too much of this is new. Just the material the props are made of, I think.

[miggy]

I think there is quite a distinction between Parelli and kelly marks type NH.
As far as Parelli is concerned Im with Schoolgovenor, work of the devil imho. Had a friend give me a demo on my lovely well mannered arab many years ago whe it first came to uk, 30 minutes later and I was never able to lunge him again as the "backing up "game made him associate whips and long lines with rearing up. Seems that lots of people do parelli to avoid actually riding ther horses.
On the other hand I think Kelly marks talks a lot of sense. we had a cob who was a nightmare to load and in desperation I got one of her RA people out. I honestly never thought t would work but after an hour of leading him about, backing up etc (with me thinking all the time Ha Ha just wait till we get near the lorry), we went to the lorry and he went up the first time. But the really amazing thing was that his whole attitude had changed. Normally once he was in the box, he just wanted to back out and it was all a stress, then he just stood there happily completely relaxed. I have never been so amazed. Also the woman had a broken arm so it was me doing llthe handing, she just directed me. he was never a problem to load from that day on!

[Moby68]

This is fantastic, proper horse people mumsnet thread. Tried to read xaviers epistle but saw the words "you must first play the yo yo game" and didn't bother. Agree with general sentiment here that NH seems to be practiced by the pony polishers who are too frightened to ride their animals so treat them as overgrown dogs.
I'd like to say I'm sorry that sounds harsh but I'm not sorry as this state of affairs isn't good for the horse or the person.
Oh and my other favourite saying if the NH crowd "I want my horse to think for himself" no, I want nearly a ton of animal with a brain the size of a pea to let me do the thinking thanks

[schoolgovernor]

Nope, NH is practised by some real horsemen and women. Parelli tends to attract Pony Polishers, and within that there seem to be a lot of Parelli students who have put a slant on things that would send Pat P Purple with rage. (Like letting horses decide what they want to do). But Parelli does not - natural horsemanship. Far from it.
The roots of real natural horsemanship go back to the vaquero tradition through the Dorrance brothers, Ray Hunt, and others. People like Buck Brannaman and Jack Brainard give a better picture of what you would expect from a good "natural" person, although the term is so tainted now by Parelli that it tends to be avoided.
I have some issues with Monty Roberts to be honest, and don't consider him to be anything like the horseman that Buck B is. Anyone who uses a buckstop and sells foal-sized Dually halters is going to give me pause for thought.
(I consider myself a proper horse person by the way, as I start my own horses, I'm out and about every weekend taking part in some sort of event and ride most weekdays.).

[schoolgovernor]

I meant Parelli does not = Natural Horsemanship