>>>> Pat on the other hand, chose the most difficult of his 2 horses, spent most of the time just doing the friendly game, and then did as much as he could w/ riding the horse, just at a walk was all he managed, while the other 2 had theirs trotting and cantering (well before the horses were ready, esp. in Cameron's case). I was so impressed w/ how Pat refused to push the horse, and also how he chose the most challenging horse. In my opinion he should have won this little competition just for his attitude and clear ability w/ horses.
If you think about it, those training challenge races like those are sort of against the whole spirit of Natural Horsemanship, arent they? Most of these guys have a key slogan on taking your time Parellis is take the time it takes, so it takes less time. Ive never seen Pat push a horse any of the times Ive seen him, but Im still a little disappointed that he signed up to do some of those races, even if he was less pushy than the others. I think the very first thing I picked up at the Parelli weekend seminars was how much human confidence has to do with a horses demeanor. I knew it before, but Id never seen anyone demonstrate it as dramatically as Pat did and Ive watched a lot of people with horses. The first couple I attended had three local problem horses featured for Pat and a couple of his certified instructors to work with. At the very first one I attended, Honza (remember Honza? Judy posted some You tube links to him recently ) as one of the featured instructors. Anyway, the owners would bring their horses into ring, frantically holding the snap of the leadline while the horses dragged them all around the arena. They would introduce each owner and horse, and the owner would hand the horse over to Pat or his person. Before the Parelli people could begin doing a single thing, the horses would invariably calm down. It was especially notable with Pat. Pat would take his horse with this big bemused grin on his face, and you could just see the second the horse knew Pat had the line. The horse would visibly sigh and relax, like whew! Im sooo glad youre here. You know what youre doing, and youll take care of me all is well now. No round penning, no chasing the horse, just an instant sense of relief on the horses part. Not that ALL the issues were instantly fixed, but there was notable change. There wasnt really any magic to it, just complete confidence and understanding and the horses could feel it. It was like they could feel the friendly game before he even started it. Pat would always tease the owners who were tightly holding the lead snap, saying, You know, we sell the whole lead lines, so feel free to use the whole thing. If you are only going to use the snap, I guess we could just sell you a snap. No point dragging the line too if you arent going to use it. Karen Thomas [EMAIL PROTECTED]
