>>>>> At the end of Mark Rashid's "Horses Never Lie" is a story about a woman who started her horse w/ NH, then started having problems w/ him and brought him to Mark R, who describes the horse as being "mechanical" and "resigned" w/ a "lack of enthusiasm." It's very clear from his description of the horse, owner and method that the owner was doing PNH. I used to be a big fan of the 7 games but I'm not so sure anymore. Both Parelli and John Lyons advocate repeating their techniques ad nauseum,
I read that book, and I thought of Clinton Anderson, not Pat Parelli. It doesn't really matter though. A person a overdo ANY kind of training - from little kids left unsupervised on their babysitter ponies who canter and jump and canter and jump and on and on until the pony is so sour he won't do anything...to the barrel racers, to the speed rackers to the tolters (should I bother distinguishing the last two...?).... And I've certainly seen plenty of misapplied clicker training. No trainer is perfect, no training method is perfect - if for no other reason, no owner is perfect, nor is any horse. I use some of the Parelli stuff, but I certainly won't drink any clinician's kool-aid, so to speak. (Am I the only person on the list old enough to remember that reference...?) But, I have to defend him against your last statement. If you listen to what Parelli himself says - and what was in the original Level 1 booklets - he specifically warns, for instance, to do the circling game at least for two revolutions, but not more than four. I'm not sure if that warning is clear in the newer Level 1 kit though. I've seen plenty of Parelli-ites who I think overdo things, even some of their certified instructors, but I never felt like the program directed me to do anything more. That doesn't matter anyway though, not to me. My horses are MY responsibility, and the buck ends with me on how they are trained and treated. There are tons of horsemen who know more than me, and who have tons more experience, but no on knows MY horses better than I know them. That's my job. Karen Thomas, NC
