14th July, 2010 The Rise and fall of Pat Parelli (I hope)

I'm often asked whether the training I provide is the same as Parelli, and I'm very happy to say that it isn't. Everyone should be made aware that if they want to use Parelli training for their horse, it does involve hitting and it does involve violence - horses are hit with the rope, the clip, the end of the rope, the carrot stick, the string on the carrot stick and the hand - and this comes right from the very top of the organisation; all in the name of love, language and leadership. Think before you buy - just because it's expensive and just because it is well marketed doesn't mean that its ethically sound.

Just so that you don't think I am making it up -

Pat Parelli – You Tube

The original loading DVD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwYAn4IH918&feature=player_embedded

More recently on loading

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ueprRcH5B4


Catwalk, Robert Whittaker’s stallion, being dealt with for bridle shyness (about which there are 100 pages of discussion on the Horse and Hound Forum)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gf7w_1ifus&feature=player_embedded


Linda Parelli – You Tube

So called bargey horse with one eye

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyF2QqP29DU


And a short story for you. A few years ago I was asked to go and halter train two New Forest foals that were about five months old. The owner had been able to touch them and stroke their faces. She had first turned to a local Parelli trainer recommended by her local vet. The trainer started to work with them both together in a part of a field on a steep slope, sectioned off with electric tape. The trainer lassoed the filly, which fled through the electric fencing taking it with her along with all the stakes, the colt and the lassoo itself around her tummy rather than her neck. In order to stop her, the trainer tied the end of the lassoo to a tree, whereupon she fell into a ditch and landed upside down. The trainer hit her to get her out. The session did not improve from there and neither were the foals halter trained. I turned up with my panels and we created two little pens within the garage. Here I was able to gently put the headcollars on the foals and on and off and on and off a few times before I left. They were fine after that. The owner has never forgiven herself for letting the first trainer work with her ponies although it seems that the ponies did. We started the filly last year and although she was a little worried about the long reins at first, she accepted them and went on to be absolutely fine.

13th July, 2010 W Day

A 12 hour stint today from leaving home to getting back again. However, another great day on the Isle of Wight where I met William, another fabulous black Irish cob. He has a fantastic temperament and is a real innocent of this world having, fortunately, never been treated badly. Today we went through basic groundwork and then some desensitisation before doing some gentle ridden work to finish. This one could become a police horse if he were tall enough.

Wouter (bottom two pictures), on the other hand, feels plenty tall enough. despite being 15.2 ish. It was a real treat to ride him as I don't often get to ride clients' horses. The Isle of Wight is a particularly beautiful when seen through ears like these. I'd been asked to see whether I could help with a little ridden problem. When Wouter is in the lead, he sometimes starts to go backwards, bumping in to his companion and making it difficult to send either of them forward. Neither rider wants to hit and yet kicking made the horse cling to each other even more. I suggested using a wip-wop rope as it would matter even if it caught the other horse by accident. I was asked to give it a try. When I rode Wouter, I felt that his handbrake was stuck on and that actually he was losing confidence when he was asked to take the lead. My final recommendation was to use the wip wop if he did actually go backwards and to unstick the handbrake a little but also to make sure that there was a change of leader at regular intervals so that he was given a chance to lower his adrenalin and a sort of reward for having the courage to go first. By giving a horse a mental release before he makes the decison to force one for himself, you can build up a lot of trust and confidence.

E-mail received 22.8.10: "Hi Sarah, hope that you are having a good summer .It was really good to see you again and the wip wop method and taking turns in taking the lead has worked straight away Carol and I no longer have to worry about losing a leg with their rubbing. Another big problem has been resolved thank you." Jasmin L.

11th July, 2010 Beware of inherited tack

Yesterday I worked with four lovely owners and their families with their ponies. There were some common elements between all four ponies (one was actually a very tall horse!). First and foremost they wanted to work on leadership and setting a few boundaries. They also wanted me to investigate why one of the ponies had begun to plant himself out on the road and absolutely refuse to move unless turned for home. It seemed to me that it was all to do with his feet - having gone barefoot in the winter, the behaviour started in the spring when he started to be ridden again. He is 17 years old and his feet are trimmed by a farrier rather than a barefoot trimmer and he seemed to be pretty sore; he rode nicely on grass. The final horse was also extremely foot sore having lost a shoe a few days earlier and then been trimmed that morning - so sore that we couldn't work with him. It gave us the chance to have a good look at his tack and brought home that owners need to be aware of the dangers of inherited tack, i.e. tack that comes with the horse. Just because they arrive at the same time doesn't mean that it actually fits. Luckily he hasn't been ridden in it yet so there is time for the owners to get something much better.

"Thank you for a very informative and enjoyable day yesterday. I found it very helpful for Rocky and even today he was much more co-operative which shows results already. I did a small session with him which was successful, however I need practice especially with the going backwards bit!!! I know as women we are great at multi tasking but it does take time! lol.
Brian, as a new comer to the horsey world also said how much he enjoyed the day." LM

11th July, 2010 They are all at it!

Anne H e-mailed as follows:

"I have a Landy update for you. He's not quite so small and scruffy any more!!!! Yesterday, 1st time out this summer and his second ever show, he qualified for the NPS hunter pony youngstock championship."

I worked with Landmark at our Handling the Untouched New Forest Pony course 18 months ago when Anne had just bought him.

I also received an e-mail from Fraser this morning:

"Necator and I had our first class at the Alton Show last week and came 1st in the 1-3year old Foreign Breeds class. He did really well and behaved himself exceptionally. He and I were very tired by the end of it but a good learning experience for us both."

It's been a while since I worked with them both but when I first met Fraser he was a pretty inexperienced horseman who had just bought himself three Andulusians, two of which were colts. It's not my job to deny anyone their dream however there was no doubt that he was going to have a very steep learning curve. As a college lecturer he certainly wasn't going to be afraid of that!

9th July, 2010 Peat

Peat was the pony I told you about that, when he attended his last show, made off with his lead rein in order to go and see a foal in another class. We had a groundwork session for about an hour and a half.

"I thought that you might like to have an update on Peat's progress, took him to show Sunday, he was a very good boy, listened and responded to requests and only had one little jump around (although was hard not to as just yards away in the next ring massive hunters were cantering past Peat). He won the best "forest bred" rosette. Thank you for your help, as you have has shown me how to nip in the bud in a polite but firm way any mischievous thoughts Peat may have had. He certainly seems to be enjoying doing things together and is quite content to let me take to lead. I now have the confidence to take him to the New Forest show, which prior to your visit I was planning to pull out of." TS

9th July, 2010 Kisses

Having started the day at the Verderers' Office where I picked up some collars for my ponies and took Nikki and Kate to look at the courtroom, we ended the day on the Forest where little Pepper (as I call him) proved to be irresistable. I know his owner if anyone is interested in buying a foal that is already really friendly. Judging by his eyes, he may be turning from pepper into salt.

9th July, 2010 You've been fired

Today I was joined by Nikki, Kate, Jane and the usual crew for the Animal Rescue Team Practice event. This time it was a real epic as it involved the paramedics as well as the fireteam. Even the vet was real as Amy was there from The Barn. Much as this is tremendous fun, it is also deadly serious, and today the tension was real as we were also being filmed. The scenario included two horses being trapped, one between tree trunks and another in a barbed wire fence with a third standing fairly steadily. Not only was Jenny unconscious and Jane hysterical, Kate was "accidentally" stabbed with horse sedative. I played a journalist, complete with microphone, whose job it was to be a complete pest.