Had a lesson with a Parelli Trainer today

[Lindsayanne]

And it was... interesting.

She worked with us in a private lesson for about 2.5hrs, all groundwork. Took Regal and I through about 8 "games", all of which Regal was awesome at. (His last owner was into Parelli, so most of this was refresher for him)

It was really educational and interesting, but I can't say I learned or saw anything that really knocked my socks off.

Soooooo... when she asked me if I wanted to schedule another lesson I said no. :o I like my trainer and she honestly didn't seem as generally knowledgable and was more pedantic (i.e. "You MUST do it this way", instead of "if that works and is comfortable, do it- if not you can try this"). But she DID seem to know her NH stuff and it was definitely worth what she charged me just to learn about another method.

Anyway, just thought I'd share

[jumpers4me]

lucky!!!

I have always wanted to do a parelli clinic/lessons. it would be so much fun! do u plan on doing anymore?

[gloryrider]

Yeah, that's what I would have expected.

I guess if I got the chance, I'd try a lesson myself, but I've seen some of the videos, read the articles, and listened to reviews and I haven't been very impressed.

To me, the Parellis seem too much into "this is the ONLY way to be nice to your horse, if you don't let us rip you off and pay us tons of money for our system, then you are a horrible horse person".

That's my opinion, and I don't want to get into a fight with anyone, I just had to have a little rant lol. I'm sure someone, somewhere has been helped at least a little by the Parelli system. For me, though, I'll stick with my good old hunter/jumper trainer, and go on accomplishing the same "special, difficult, and very trusting" things with my horse for a lot less money.

[_boo_]

I just had my first NH lesson tonight too...I am doing it with my arab stally and he loves it! It is more about connecting emotionally and getting your horse to do things in a way that they understand, while maintaining their trust in you!
I think it really is just a great way to spend some quality time exchanging very positive energy with your horse...while gaining a bit more respect from your horse.
I am going to continue...how fun would it be to have a horse who moves its rear when you look at its rear and who understands your body language so well that it doesn't need a bridle to know where you want it to go. :)

[Lindsayanne]

I am going to continue...how fun would it be to have a horse who moves its rear when you look at its rear and who understands your body language so well that it doesn't need a bridle to know where you want it to go.

See, I don't think Natural Horsemanship has that cornered. The only real difference between this gal and my trainer is that she was all new agey and my guy just approaches it very practically. My trainer has had me working on groundwork this week with very traditional methods and within two sessions I was taking the halter off and had a halterless horse following with his head at my shoulders, turns, backing, etc.

[crazyrider07]

cool, I want to do that, of course it would help if I had a horse :mad:

[_boo_]

I am not saying "NH Trainers" are the only people in the world who can or do use these methods to work with a horse.....any good trainer understands the purpose and use of them and uses them to properly train a horse....it is more a matter of finding a trainer who wants to come out and work with a person to teach them how to work with their horse this way.....that is where you will normally come up short.
Many trainers like to get the horse going, give you a few riding lessons, and send you on your way....rather than get you to come out to every session and see how to work your horse on the ground properly so that you can build a respectful relationship with it. I don't know how many times I've seen people pushing and pulling and yelling and shanking their horses because they won't move over or they step into their space, etc, etc....because these people don't understand that yelling and screaming and pushing and pulling in a way that the horse doesn't understand is going to get you nowhere. It drives me insane. And how about driving your horse into a flight pattern for long lengths of time and not allowing it to come back to you and show you that it trusts you??? We commonly call this lunging.....whereas in the circle game you ask your horse to move away from you and become independent for you for a circle or two (you don't move with the horse and micromanage...you allow the horse to circle around you on its own) and then ask them to disengage and face you...then change directions and keep them going and thinking. It is more about emotional contact and focussing the horses energy and thoughts on you than about running your horse in circles so that it gets tired out or builds muscle....why not do those things on its back where we all know we really have fun!

oooh, sorry....I got a bit carried away...anyways...JMHO
Absolutely no offense to those trainers who get the same things done without using a scammy name like natural horsemanship. And double-kudos to those who don't charge an arm and a leg!

[QHArabDonkey]

personally speaking , i think the parelli system is over rated / WAY over priced / and to much of a gimmick , and all that none sense about natural horsemanship is b/s. just call it what it is training , theres nothing natural about a human sitting ontop of a horse. but in my opinion there are alot of great trainers out there who don't use gimmicks and don't call the techniques "games" just to draw people in. look at John Lyons , very respected horse trainer , no gimmicks , Monty Roberts , no gimmicks , no tricks , they work with what the horse has. ya throw things in there like sticks and strings that are to easily miasused and your asking for trouble. i think the pareli system is great in THE RIGHT hands , but its to easily abused , by those that have more money then brains. to be honest my favorite big name trainer is Chris Cox , all he uses in his methods are a rope halter and normally a 14 ft lead. he just makes sense

JMO !!!!!


Andrew**

[Pinnacle]

I think for some people it works.. and if they don't mind spending that money, then by all means, I'm not going to stop you.
HOWEVER... my way has worked perfectly well for my horse and I. We have a great bond, he has 100% faith in me and would do anything I asked him to do, but I have used no "games" to get there. Like I said.. it may work for some, but my way has worked fine for me.

[butterflyfx]

I think for some people it works.. and if they don't mind spending that money, then by all means, I'm not going to stop you.
HOWEVER... my way has worked perfectly well for my horse and I. We have a great bond, he has 100% faith in me and would do anything I asked him to do, but I have used no "games" to get there. Like I said.. it may work for some, but my way has worked fine for me.

i agree...my horse listens to me just fine without an orange dressage whip (that costs like $30 because it's a REAL LIVE PARELLI CARROT STICK!) and an authentic parelli rope halter and lead. :rolleyes: if you want to spend your money on it, then go for it. i'm sure others could look upon me, buying a shitload of saddle pads and say "WTF does she need that for?! she already has 20 and only one horse!" :D what bugs me is when people say "you don't have a good bond with your horse unless you do parelli." :cool:

[QHArabDonkey]

when i first heard about pareli about 10 years ago i thought wow this guy is good , but now that i look at his videos , TV shows etc... all i can think is , most of what hes doing other trainers do to , all hes doing is calling it a game to draw the oooo's and aaaa's in. i think one amuseing part of there pareli system is , all the stuff they offer as "theres" you can get from other companys much cheaper , like my one rope halter with lead , $17.00 , alot cheaper then theres , hell you can buy the ropeand make one yourself cheaper then what they ask fo it. but i can't sit here and say that there program doesnt work , its great for some , just not everyone...



Andrew**

[BluePaint554]

IMO, Parelli is full of crap. Horsemanship, yes, but seriously. It's actually been proven that most of the "untrained" horses he uses in his clinics, are actually trained. And honestly, his "games" are crap. Like, the "carrot stick game", where you're having your horse walk around on a line w/ an orange whip called a "carrot stick", this whole method is called Lunging. It's amazing he's and many others have had so much money off of this stuff. Now there are some people I do like and agree with, but Parelli is defenitely not one of them. Sorry.

Not trying to come off mean or anything like that, just stating my opinion.

Granted, these things do work for some people, and more power to them. I just think it's over-rated.

[countercanter]

In my experience, the people who get drawn into a method like Parelli are either newbies or naturally not very good with horses. If you know what you're doing and are good at communicating with horses, you don't need games and gimmicks to help you out. I have worked with many young horses including a nearly untouched two year old and another two year old that was already over 17 hands and only knew how to lead, and I've always done fine. I currently have my first weanling and am just doing what comes naturally - teaching him to lead and pick up his feet and be respectful of my space. The idiot owner of my old barn asked me if I was going to do Parelli with my baby because it would "teach me to handle him" and I was so insulted I could have punched her in the face...

The other thing that I find insulting is that people who do NH, esp Parelli, imply that if you aren't doing it their way, you are abusive.

[Lindsayanne]

The other thing that I find insulting is that people who do NH, esp Parelli, imply that if you aren't doing it their way, you are abusive.

Interesting post. I imagine their defensiveness about it (which I've noticed too) is linked to what you mentioned before- most being new to horses or not naturally good with them.

I've also noticed that defensiveness and that most people following NH trainers religiously are people without access to lessons or "help".

And in a way, that's a good thing I guess. I'd rather see an inexperienced, ignorant owner trying gentle, non-confrontational NH methods than more confrontational methods that can go very, very, wrong very quickly in the hands of a novice. I've seen horses who's previous owners did Parelli badly, but unlike a lot of incorrectly applied training methods, I've never seen a horse ruined by it.

[countercanter]

And in a way, that's a good thing I guess. I'd rather see an inexperienced, ignorant owner trying gentle, non-confrontational NH methods than more confrontational methods that can go very, very, wrong very quickly in the hands of a novice. I've seen horses who's previous owners did Parelli badly, but unlike a lot of incorrectly applied training methods, I've never seen a horse ruined by it.

I have to disagree here. I have seen many horses ruined by Parelli. I don't think that the Parelli methods are as "non-confrontational" as they let on, or maybe I am always seeing it done very poorly?? At best, what I see is horses extremely confused about what is being asked of them. At the worst, I have seen horses who started out very happy and willing who became belligerant and uncooperative with the addition of Parelli training.

[QHArabDonkey]

it works , otherwise it wouldnt be so populer. its just the people who use it that arent always able to train. i've looked over the requirements to be come a certefied parelli horse trainer , all you need to do is train one horse acording to there standards. now the flaw in this is that no horse is the same , a 17 hand untouched warmblood might tame down quicker then a little pony whos the same. personally i don't follow any trainers , but do learn from them what i can , there are a number of good western trainers out there who do show results and arent "gimmicky" , the old and always favorite John Lyons and a newer to be known person Chris Cox , both of which are very versatile in there techniques , if you ever gotten the chance to see either of them work with different horses you can see them change there abilities as they go. so in my opinion yes as a whole the parelli system is hugely faulty , they need to have people work with more then one horse to become certified , and most of what they call a game isnt really a game , you can learn the same thing from the above trainers , minus a stick , minus any other b/s they throw at it.....



Andrew**

[tmanross]

I think it looks neat.

[live2ride2live]

i think wat u reach in parelli and be easily reached in other more traditional ways. while it does work with some ppl i think it all depends of the horse. the traditional way isnt always the "bad" or "Wrong" way. im not really for it OR against it.

[littlemoney08]

I've always wante dto try that stuff b4! we have some people at my barn that do parrielli stuff! its pretty kool 2 sit there and watch them!!

[HappyHorse13]

personally speaking , i think the parelli system is over rated / WAY over priced / and to much of a gimmick , and all that none sense about natural horsemanship is b/s. just call it what it is training , theres nothing natural about a human sitting ontop of a horse. but in my opinion there are alot of great trainers out there who don't use gimmicks and don't call the techniques "games" just to draw people in. look at John Lyons , very respected horse trainer , no gimmicks , Monty Roberts , no gimmicks , no tricks , they work with what the horse has. ya throw things in there like sticks and strings that are to easily miasused and your asking for trouble. i think the pareli system is great in THE RIGHT hands , but its to easily abused , by those that have more money then brains. to be honest my favorite big name trainer is Chris Cox , all he uses in his methods are a rope halter and normally a 14 ft lead. he just makes sense

JMO !!!!!


Andrew**

Have any of you ever done Parelli? If you study it correctly, you just don't get a bond with your horse, you get a well trained horse to boot. Heck, me and my one friend do Parelli in regular halters and leads, and you don't need all the fancy equipment.

[horsesxox23]

i went to a parelli clinic...and since i'm big on learning and stuff...and they had a special offer i bought levels 1 and 2, for the price of level one....but it was still wayyyy expensive...and i started to read the matierials...and they dont want u to use ur voice at all...and i have trained all my horses w/ body language and voice...so i have adapted the parelli system to work for my horses in a way that they understand what i want them to do, and once they get that u can take the voice out and it will be the parelli way...i have always used natural horsemanship and i have taught my horse to follow turn back, stop, and trot (on the ground)all without a halter or leadline...it really isn't hard it just takes trust and the right expressions in your voice and body....ur voice is a very powerful, yet comforting tool, and no matter what system u follow ur horse should recognize ur voice and its tones

[12234]

I had a horse that i couldnt trot bareback on or lope with a saddle becuase it would buck. But i wworked with him useing the parelli methods and know he is one of the tamest horses i have ever seen. :cool:

[Walk_On_Cowgirl]

IMO, Parelli is full of crap. Horsemanship, yes, but seriously. It's actually been proven that most of the "untrained" horses he uses in his clinics, are actually trained. And honestly, his "games" are crap. Like, the "carrot stick game", where you're having your horse walk around on a line w/ an orange whip called a "carrot stick", this whole method is called Lunging. It's amazing he's and many others have had so much money off of this stuff. Now there are some people I do like and agree with, but Parelli is defenitely not one of them. Sorry.

Not trying to come off mean or anything like that, just stating my opinion.

Granted, these things do work for some people, and more power to them. I just think it's over-rated.


I have to agree 100% here. I too think Parelli is crap, he tells you all the things to do...as long as things go smoothly. But what happens when something goes wrong, give them something else to do...haha yea right! It might work for some but give me a break, how quick does a horse react to something that scares them...nano seconds, or at least that's what it seems...leaving very little time for you to react, no matter how good of a rider you are. Also I've seen horses who were supposivially Parelli trained, hell all my horses I've ever trained acted better than those horses ever did, especially under pressure! I think it's all a big joke and a money racket! Now for newbies, yea it's a good thing as long as they keep it up. But what most of them don't understand is that it doesn't just happen in a few minutes or hours. Getting a horse's trust takes a lil more than what he shows. Ya have to build a relationship with the horse. And I have to agree, I also think that the horses he works with have had some sort of training, and personal contact. Well there's my two cents!

[jilllovesgus]

Honestly, I think every horseperson has to develop their own method to working with horses, and I don't think those Parelli games are the answers to everything. I think people have to learn to understand horses on their own, and build up trust in their own way. If people need someone breathing down their neck and telling them what the horse is thinking and what to do in response, that they need to take a break and just spend some time alone with their horse. I also think different methods apply to different horses. But that's just my opinion. (: