Pat Parelli is the inventor of the Parelli Natural Horsemanship Program. Through his program, people at home can successfully teach their horses obedience, and give them the skills to be more dependable when under saddle.
What is the Parelli program?
The Parelli Program is the world’s first step-by-step, “do-it-yourself horse-human development program. There is no other program that even conies close to providing the depth of information that you’ll find in Pat’s teaching materials.
Why have a program?
• Because “quick-fixes” either don’t work, or cause the problem to get worse!
• Because horses need a program so they don’t get bored.
• Because no one wants to waste their time trying something that doesn’t work.
• Because humans need a program so they can progress in the most efficient ways possible.
How it works – the details…
Pat developed this program during 25 years of training horses and teaching people all over the world. During this time, he realized that if he could teach people a deeper understanding – a real savvy about horses – they’d not only solve their frustrations, they would unlock their potential with horses as well.
In Pat’s words, “savvy can be learned. I learned it, and I was not a ‘natural’ when it came to horses, I just had a lot of desire. In this program I’m showing you the path I took on my own journey to savvy, but without the wrong turns and tangents that slowed me down along the way.”
This program is firstly about self-development. The first three levels are designed specifically to teach the human and can be studied through Pat’s “program”, After Level 3 Refinement, the program is more about teaching horses: performance; difficult horses, colt starring; etc. This is when it becomes much more detailed and intense, so hands-on teaching is essential.
In all, there are 10 levels that lead to mastery. How much savvy you want to have is up to you and the goals and dreams you have in mind.” (www.parelli.com)
I am a level one student, and my mom and I are going on to level two. So here’s what level one is kind of like:
In level one you learn the seven games. The seven games are; The friendly game, the porcupine game, the driving game, the yo-yo game, the circling game, the sideways game, and the squeeze game. Each game teaches the horse a cue for a certain response that can be easily taught and fine tuned to help your horse understand how to react in different situations. The friendly game teaches your horse not to freak out when foreign objects touch him. The other games teach your horse to move away from pressure and to respond to very light cues. Once they know these games, you can use them in the saddle, on the ground, and anywhere, anytime you need to get your horse under control.
When you have level 1 savvy:
• Your horse comes to you, you don’t have to “catch” him.
• His ground manners are great; he is willing, cooperative, calm, more confident, compliant, friendly and adaptable.
• He is easy to control, you don’t have to use a bit to force him to stop or slow down.
• He is willing to move forward; you don’t have to kick or use spurs.
• He stands quietly for saddling, and willingly picks up his feet for cleaning.
• His attitude toward you is positive and responsive rather than negative, moody or resistant.
• You can teach your horse to do new things because you understand how to communicate with him “
Also in level one, you learn some basic things about horse psychology. Here’s what Pat Parelli says on his website, www.parelli.com.
“Becoming a horseman means you take the time to understand horse psychology and use it for relating to and developing a horse. The dominant or ‘alpha’ horse is the most effective horse trainer ever born. So rather than using people logic, a true horseman approaches horses with the same attitude and communication techniques as another horse.
To become a horseman, there are four areas in which to gain savvy. Two of these are on the ground and two are in the saddle. They are on line, at liberty, freestyle and finesse (concentrated riding). Each of these savvys is a study in itself, something I develop in my students one level at a time.
The first savvy: On line logic
Most horse lessons start and end on the horse’s back. Without ground skills, there’s a large part of the puzzle missing. This missing piece is the main cause of frustration, injury and the predominant cause for attaining only mediocre results. Horses make monkeys out of people on the ground. They’re more clever, faster and stronger. You have to prove to horses that they are wrong about you on the ground in order to gain their respect.
To communicate effectively with horses, you need to learn how to think differently. You need to become a master of lateral thinking as opposed to direct thinking. Lateral thinking means you understand how to get a horse to do something by asking in-directly.
Horses are prey animals. They make a living out-smarting predators like us humans.
They can read us like a book, see what we want and do exactly the opposite at exactly the right time. This is how the horse has survived extinction. It’s one of nature’s designs.
Predators, including humans, are motivated by praise, recognition and material rewards. These motivators are useless with prey animals like horses because horses are concerned mostly about comfort. They just want to be safe and comfortable.
If you can prove to your horse that he is safe no matter what, then you can use comfort and discomfort to motivate him.
I have identified and developed seven games based on prey animal logic. They are the same games that horses play with each other to establish a pecking order. By becoming good at these seven games, you will be able to establish a relationship between you and your horse based on a friendship, trust and dominance. The games are first played on line, starting on a 12-foot line then increasing to 22 and 45-foot lines as you increase your skill and develop more respect from your horse. I call this on line logic because I use lines of communication, not just lead ropes.
Think calmer, smarter, braver and more athletic
Everything you do with your horse has to be a game. If you approach a situation with this attitude, it will keep you from getting frustrated, keep your horse interested longer, help you have fun with your horse, make progress faster and help develop your emotional fitness against getting mean or mad. Remember this is a program of development not just something you do by remote control when you go to ride your horse. If you spend time getting to know these seven games, you’ll become more conscious of how they influence everything you do with your horse from catching him to the most advanced maneuvers. Your entire relationship will become more pleasurable than you ever thought possible.”
For more information, go to www.parelli.com and click on their multiple headings. Here you’ll learn everything you’ll need to know to get started training your horse the Natural Way.
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