>>> I could post it on youtube and say "here is my horse stonewall, he is >>> trained to lick carpets clean." but i bet if i did some yahoo would post a >>> comment that he seemed distracted and not disciplined enough and that i was >>> a lousy trainer and had taught him all wrong. :)
HA! I saw someone respond to those Icey-Parelli you-tube videos by asking what Parelli says to do to correct horses who nose-dive to grab grass. I was a little taken aback by that question. For goodness sakes, grass-grabbing, or grazing, is such a context-sensitive thing, that it can be a very good sign in some horses, in some situations, or it can be a bad habit in a few situations. I certainly wouldn't want to use a trainer that has a one-size-fits all answer to all "problems" - especially when the problem might actually be a good thing in some situations! Context is everything. It was a red-letter moment for me when my new project horse, Angie, decided she could graze while on the lead line. She's never had a lot of human one-on-one time. She's interested in people, but came to us very, very wary of people. When I'd put a halter on her, she'd behave - almost too well in some ways. It was like she was afraid to do anything that might possibly elicit a reprimand, and thus she was almost robot-like the first few times I took her out to play with her. A horse that won't graze on the lead is probably either nervous, unconfident, or maybe even downright terrified - or he might be sick. Who wants that? I don't. For what it's worth, I know that Pat Parelli doesn't always see grazing as something to be "corrected"- they even mention it in the early videos as something to use as part of the "friendly game." Karen Thomas, NC No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.17.6/1192 - Release Date: 12/21/2007 1:17 PM
