This message is from: Starfire Farm <starfiref...@usa.net>
pedfjo...@aol.com wrote:
I must say that someone just this week sent me a video of what appears to
be this game. It was hard for me to watch all 4 + min. of it, I must say.
The
saint of a horse did not understand....and the human spent all 4+ min.
basically yanking his face off with a lead rope to get that space. Over
and
over. BAM. BAM. BAM, backing the horse, pulling it sideways. If the horse
looked
to or approched the human with his head, BAM. The horse kept looking to
the
human to " fix it " but clearly did not know what the human was looking
for.
Well, I'm going to stick my neck out here and hopefullly not get it
chopped off.........Lisa....? By your description, it sounded like the
horse was being given NO time to settle and was CONSTANTLY being yanked,
jerked and banged on. However, Linda did give the horse opportunities to
focus on her, basically "center" itself in her presence, a number of
times, by softening her body posture and energy, but the horse's
behavior patterns kept coming into play, i.e. not trusting the human, or
believing that the human had the capacity to take care of its
surroundings for it (being the herd leader).
What I did NOT see from Linda were postural signals to draw the horse's
attention back to her (essentially centering the horse) other than the
use of the rope. There was a lot of directing the energy of her tools AT
the horse's body, rather than the area surrounding the horse's body,
which rather surprised me. In my opinion, Linda missed a number of
opportunities to really explain to the horse what she was looking for
using the tools that she was using in this tape. I don't know how old
the tape was. I have seen them do things quite differently in a similar
situation in the past couple of years. I used to be contacted by people
to help them out of what they had learned from the Parelli system. The
Parellis have "changed their message" and it's not that bad anymore.
I have worked with a number of horses like that one and they can be
tough to work with on the ground without either 1) getting hurt yourself
2) getting through to the horse without looking like you were really
wailing on it. Would I have done things differently? Maybe a few years
ago, no. Like I said before, I don't know how old this tape is, but
perhaps Linda is better now. I have certainly changed how I understood
the use of these tools and the behavioral patterns and needs of the
horse over the years. I've seen a number of "NH" clinicians (to coin a
term) learn to work smarter, not harder, over the years, with more
sensitivity to the needs of the horse. Some still churn out
"robots"...maybe that will change with their maturity.
Now, I am not a Parelli fan or disciple, but I have watched them, as
well as other NH clinicians, over the years so I could understand what
they were doing and help folks understand what they were trying to learn
from a clinic with any of these guys. Most of the time, folks get so
wrapped up in the system, they leave the horse out of the
equation......but that's another story.
They are as mad as me watching this poor display of " NH " Horsemanship.
Tom Dorance is rolling over. Nuff said. Lisa
Actually, Tom Dorrance did use some of the techniques in the tape. With
more skill, timing and feel, of course, but he could be tough on a horse
when it was necessary. As could Bill Dorrance and Ray Hunt...when
necessary. And if you had seen one of their tougher sessions out of
context, you would have been howling about that as well. What most folks
don't get/aren't able to see is the communication/soft offer of support
to the horse that was given prior to the handler "firming up" on the
horse AND the offering for the horse to "get with"..or focus on...them.
THAT is where most of us get into trouble. We go after the horse before
we give it a little signal or indication of what we want. Really bad
handling occurs when we keep going after the horse without giving it an
opportunity to respond. Sometimes, these things happen so quickly that
the uneducated/inexperienced person can't see those offerings. Clearly,
this horse did not have any reason to trust humans throughout his life,
hence the searching/distracted behavior.
This kind of mis-information...without showing the result of the
session...without knowing the basis for the action, is a problem in this
media-hyped-up-sensationalizing-frame of mind that is going on with the
internet - as well as computer arm chair experts (who perhaps haven't
had to deal with horses like this one...not that he's a bad horse,
clearly a nice horse, that needed some help.)
So, say what you will, understand the tools and please show where the
horse is now. My bet is that he likes and trusts his humans much better now.
Beth
--
Starfire Farm
Beth Beymer and Sandy North
http://www.starfirefarm.com
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