Comments on: Lessons from Pat Parelli and Catwalk

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By: Mary Hunter

Mary Hunter — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 18:04:20 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Lynne. I'm glad you enjoyed the post.

You're program sounds great! I just sent you an e-mail.

cheers,

Mary

By: Nativehorsemanship

Nativehorsemanship — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 14:21:53 +0000

Thank you. It never made sense to me, this focusing on the outcome. I use my stallion as a lesson horse for children, many with autism and fetal alcohol syndrome. Because of how he lives (outside with mares and foals) and because of our extensive training since I got him as a yearling (he's now 15 ) he understands his job and he is my working partner. Because our exercises involve going forward, giving to pressure, moving specific feet, and bridleless work, I am able to extend and collect him, do flying changes, open gates, etc etc. Not because I taught hum those specific things, but because we have a relationship of trust and respect and the building blocks are there for each advanced exercise. He sidepasses so beautifully, but the kids call it dancing!
Lovely, intelligent piece of writing! Lynne Ferguson, nativehorsemanship@gmail.com

By: Mary Hunter

Mary Hunter — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 22:52:17 +0000

Great points!

Thanks for leaving a comment.

~Mary

By: Kip Lilly

Kip Lilly — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:06:21 +0000

First thing that should have been done was have his teeth, mouth, jaw checked out.
He may have/had one abcess tooth or more. Teeth worn out and grinding incorrectly,
number of different problems to choose from. His jaw line may have been offline. Horses
do have headaches. Won't know until you have it checked out. Changing the bit
may help but the pain is still there for a horse to have to deal with. The way they eat their
food may not be apparent that they are having mouth problems.

By: Horse's friend

Horse's friend — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 22:29:28 +0000

Up until I witnessed on You Tube the way this horse was handled by Pat Parelli, I had the utmost respect for him as a Natural Horse Trainer. I also had and I say “had” as in the past tense, a severely “head shy” horse, his problems caused by someone who, and I quote from Pat Parelli ”didn't take the time” and it takes less time”. It took me many months of patience, persistence, compassion and the most important thing required, common sense, which many people lack when it comes to handling horses, to undo the psychological damage that had been done to my horse by some ignorant, egotistical fool. There are no “bad horses”, just too many horses at the hands of uncaring, arrogant and illogical fools. I have been an avid follower and devotee of Pat Parelli and his methods, and have attended his clinics and demonstrations and been enlightened by his methods, but, I can honestly say, I would have walked out in disgust had I have witnessed this display of “Unnatural Horsemanship”.He has certainly lost my respect as a Natural Horse Trainer.

By: Mary Hunter

Mary Hunter — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 23:00:03 +0000

Hi There,

Thanks for the comments! I really like some of the points that you made.

Particularly, "I know that Pat has more tricks up his sleeve to get a horse to do something than I do, but that dose not mean that way is the only way or the best way."

There are so many tricks, methods, and techniques to get a horse to do something. However, we have to assess the short and long term effects of each of these. Sometimes, I think trainers opt for a fast technique that gets the job done, rather than looking for something that will give better results over the long term and do more to build the overall relationship with the horse. And in these public demos, there is so much pressure to pick something that will give fast results and please the crowd.

Thanks for pointing out that the wording was unclear in the paragraph about equipment. I'll go back and see if there is a better way to word it. You are right, Pad didn't use all of those things in his demo and I did not at all mean to imply that he had.

cheers,

Mary

By: t-ami

t-ami — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 16:35:18 +0000

Well, i watched the utube of pat and Catwalk. Unfortunately, the quality of the video was very poor, and i was not able to fully assess the details of what was happening. Overall, i did not come away finding it as horribly abusive as the video-tech reported the incident. HOWEVER, and i am a big Parelli fan, i am in agreement with you on the element of TIME. i am not an expert on horse training, but i couldn't help but wonder, how or why this could have been done other than how it was. i know that Pat has more tricks up his sleeve to get a horse to do something, than i do, but that does not mean that way is the only way or the best way. So my limited exerience leaves me with a limited frame of reference and a notion that i would have preferred to see this situation handled without the rope around the leg. i don't know how it was attached to his head.

Now few editorial comments:
"...after the fiasco with Parelli and Catwalk." i guess you may actually feel like the event was a fiasco, but that line is leading for folks who may have not seen the video yet.

"Any piece of equipment in the wrong hands can become a torture device.
Much of the buzz about the incident with Catwalk is about the specific
techniques and pieces of equipment that Parelli used. Lip chains,
hobbles, tying up a horse’s leg, laying down a horse, gag bits, spade
bits, whips…many pieces of horse tack resemble medieval torturing
devices. " <- All of this together sounds as if Pat used all of these things in his demo with Catwalk. Since you do not specify the equipment in the intro sentence, following with that list insinuates implications.

i was not there, i only watched a fuzzy u-tube, so i know little of the incident. i do like your 5 take home points! Too often we straight-line humans force horses to fit into our schedule. If only we would be more like them, life would be much simpler and so much nicer!