[skysthelimit]

Originally Posted by SecretAgent

natural horsemnship=common sense in a really expensive box.

yeah, but have you SEEN that box? It is sooooo pretty.

[skysthelimit]

Originally Posted by SweetSavannah

this is just my own personal experience but where i keep my horse we are in a very suburban area.

board and agistment for a horse is about the same as you would pay to rent a room in a really nice share house. the acre properties have jumped on the opportunity to make more money by scaling back their paddocks and increasing the number of boxes in their barn.

the result is a lot of horses and not a lot of space, or turn out time.

the main thing that this situation means is that most of the horse owners in the area work outside of the horse industry to pay for the expensive agistment.

the result of this is that we have lots of horse owners, and not a lot of career horsemen/trainers. i can't "send my horse to the trainers" because quite simply there isn't one in my area! so how are all these horse people, who work 5 days a week and ride in the evenings, supposed to learn horsemanship?

hmm we could float out to one of the top trainers 90 minutes away on saturday. or we could fork out $70-80 an hour for one of the half decent riding instructors to come and help us with our "lunging problems". but the thing is when you pay that much for an instructor who teaches dressage to help you out with your ground handling skills it isnt really a value for money session. its a bit like getting an electrician to fix your toilet.

ahh... if only there was a simple, easy to understand method that i could learn about in the comfort of my own home. if only there were some exercises that i could practice every day that would teach my horse respect and make it more responsive to my commands.

go you! that's what I'm talkin' bout!~brit

[kizmet]

WELL I LOVE IT SO THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ME RIDING PARELLI!!!!! NO SADDLE JUST MY TRUSTY CARROT STICK!!!

[SweetSavannah]

aww thanks skysthelimit

for all the over-merchandising etc thats going on at the core of it is a really good method that benefits people in a similar situation to myself. that is to say, someone who is surrounded by horseOWNERS, not horseMEN.

and yet i find that when i am doing a floating lesson with my youngster i get at least two people come over and offer me advice.

its like "hello? this is a floating lesson. thus called because my youngster has a lot to LEARN. and yes she might be taking a long time to go into the float but i'm not in a rush, i have set aside this day especially for teaching her to go on and off the float properly. so while i admire your suggestions of me going and getting a lunge whip/dressage whip/cattle prod (thanks so much you've been ever helpful and i will take your advice on board) i think i will work through this the way i have done in the past. slow and steady."

[MaggieSue]

so while i admire your suggestions of me going and getting a lunge whip/dressage whip/cattle prod

I'm sure you have your trusty 'carrot stick' in hand, don't you?? There is no difference. They are ALL used for the same purpose-I don't know why you think there is any huge difference!
This is the problem the 'non-nher's' have...it's not the method, it's the 'shove it in your face' attitude of the nher's.

NO SADDLE JUST MY TRUSTY CARROT STICK!!!

Yes, and your 'carrot stick' is used to control the horse-this is not a huge thing, not much different than riding with a halter and lead.

ahh... if only there was a simple, easy to understand method that i could learn about in the comfort of my own home. if only there were some exercises that i could practice every day that would teach my horse respect and make it more responsive to my commands.

Then go do it! I'm happy for you, but stop with the 'my way is better than your way' attitude. THAT was the one reason for this thread! I don't live there, I was able to have access to a great trainer who taught me alot and taught me well. But, according to PNH, I'm a horrible person because I don't do it the way 'they' say it should be...it's always 'Pat says this or Linda says this'...well, I don't care what they say-because I don't follow them. Get over it.

[Sweetsizzlinrumour]

Originally Posted by MaggieSue

I'm sure you have your trusty 'carrot stick' in hand, don't you?? There is no difference. They are ALL used for the same purpose-I don't know why you think there is any huge difference!
This is the problem the 'non-nher's' have...it's not the method, it's the 'shove it in your face' attitude of the nher's.
Yes, and your 'carrot stick' is used to control the horse-this is not a huge thing, not much different than riding with a halter and lead.

Then go do it! I'm happy for you, but stop with the 'my way is better than your way' attitude. THAT was the one reason for this thread! I don't live there, I was able to have access to a great trainer who taught me alot and taught me well. But, according to PNH, I'm a horrible person because I don't do it the way 'they' say it should be...it's always 'Pat says this or Linda says this'...well, I don't care what they say-because I don't follow them. Get over it.

I agree with you..I like the methods but I don't believe it's the only way to train for sure...I have also seen the cultish attitude some people have about natural horsemanship..especially PNH

[SweetSavannah]

hmm MaggieSue, maybe you should just stay away from horse people altogether if that is the way you feel when people try and show you new things.

i've had all number of people come up and tell me what i 'should' be doing with my horse. some of those people i listen to, others i just smile and say "thanks i'll think about that." and you know for me its been the non-NH people that have been the pushiest with their own homegrown horsemanship methods!

funnily enough as soon as i say "i do parelli/NH" people seem to jump on me with how things "should" be done and how parelli is a bunch of fluffy horsemanship! the shoe is firmly on the other foot in my case! im the one who has to stand there and be preached at by non-NHers!

[cd_horton]

Just thought everyone, NH'ers and Non-NH'ers alike, might appreciate this quote from Ed Connell, once of the all time great bridle horse (vaquero) trainers of all time:

"It requires a lot of study and thought on the part of the rider to become skilled in the use of this training method. Even when he has becaome skilled in it, he will find that each horse he handles will always require study and thought.

The horses he is handling will always be uppermost in his mind. As long as he is handling horse, it will always be this way. There will be no end to it. That is as it should be, because it takes study and thought to figure out each horse according to what he is. They are all different. When the rider becomes expert at doing this, the better his horses will be.

When he does this, he has found out that he has learned to read between the lines with any horses he is handling.

The rules have to be used, and they are there for him to use. No matter how he has learned them, weather out of a book or by actual experience, there will be many times when he has to take different approach to get certain results.

This is reading bewteen the lines. In others words, the rider is using common sense by taking advantage of the expereince he has acquired. It could also be called using his head."

[Aussiesnapps]

Excellent cd---they used to call it good ol' horse sense if my memory serves me correctly. If it works for you and you are getting the desired results without having animal control called then work it.

If you are a humble trainer you will never get to the point that you think you know everything. Because none of us do...Every trainer that has been mentioned on this thread has brought something valuable to my horses and my Bag O Tricks is just getting bigger. Thanks to diversity of the feild these days I have a ton of resources to go to in order to find what works for ME. Good luck to both sides of this debate, ya'll hang tough, I'll take my peice out of the middle please.

[EQRider]

Originally Posted by Jess!

See, I don't call that natural horsemanship, I call that common sense.

Like I said, NH is just a bunch of marketing phooey.

YES YES YES!! lol I think thats exactly what NH is, someone's brilliant idea to incorporate common sense stuff into a "system" and pass it off under some great name to people who don't like giving their horses a smack when they need it because they don't want to be "mean" or "hurt" them. Likewise with the training aspects...