The very un-natural side of Parelli

To most that know me, they know that I am a recovering Parelli follower.
When you first hear of something like Parelli, you think it will be a gentle, beautiful experience, in which your horse will learn to love you more then molassas dipped carrots. This my dears, is how they lure the scared, weak and basically the crowd that has had something AWFUL happen with a horse they loved (me).
When I was watching the DVDs, I noticed how as I got further into them, the more things started to not make sense. The more I practiced the games, the more my horse was coming INTO my space, pushing me around. I thought at first "YAY! He loves me, he wants to be my pocket pony."After a month, I had a serious scar on my back from my horse's chompers. I figured.. I must not be progressing fast enough. I have to continue on with the training. That's when I saw this:

This horse is blind in one eye. If you can make sense of what the hell she is doing, you are better then I. All I get is she is beating the hell out of this TB's face.

This video pretty much sums up the crowd that uses Parelli. I imagine the dialog going much like this; "Stop it, now come on now, you know better.. No.. noo... owch! nooo! HEY!"



I think this lady actually thinks the horse is being respectful at the end of this "session". My current horse acted just like this with his previous owner. It took a month of ground work to get him better, and he still will TRY to get away with things if I don't watch it. A stud chain over the nose one time solved all his loading/ standing still/clipping problems. All that pinning of her ears, and pawing at you, this horse is pissed off, and doesn't understand what the fuck you are trying to tell her to do. She leads fine in the end probably because she thinks you are taking her back to her stall!
Natural Horsemanship is out there, and it does work. It just doesn't all come from one trainer, or one DVD collection. It comes from finding that balance finding good, and rooting out the BS. Playing groundwork games can be amazingly rewarding- a good foundation of groundwork on a horse means a great horse in the end. Parelli CAN work for some, but it is dreadful in the wrong hands. It's up to you to do the research and find what works for you and your horse.