Ok.  I generally try to remain objective about the different clinicians and field questions tactfully but honestly when asked, but this video came across my desk and I can’t remain silent.  Especially when we have such a great example of horse training in our little Crockett.

Kirk commented last night that he is amazed when each mustang I gentle is so well behaved.  We work with dozens of horses during the week and the ones that are badgered and for lack of a better word, disciplined in to badgering back are many.  Few are the soft, responsive horses that we have in our training pasture or for our own use.

This is a passionate subject for me, so I will try to refrain from pointing fingers, except to say that if I had not witnessed similar behaviors in many of the well known clincians I would not be writing this at all.  But unfortunately, what I know to be fact and what is marketed are two different things.

So thank you Universe for bringing all things to the surface.

Mind you, I grew up in a very religious home and was taught never to cast the first stone.  I never listened to my parents…so let me throw a stone.  View the following link, then cruise back over here to read the rest of what I have to say.

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

In 2006 Kirk and I attended a Parelli event in Manchester, MA.  We also requested an audience with the Parelli’s.  They invited us to their Pagosa Springs Colorado ranch and we met with them in July of 2007. 

By this time we had worked with a number of Parelli horses and Parelli supportive owners that were having very impressive difficulties.  I admired their attempt to create a remedial program but have always had trouble with the idea that horses are to be conditioned to a response and that this response be labeled “Natural”.

Nothing about getting your halter jiggled or having your jaw smacked or your head slapped or your well intentioned effort to show affection thwarted in order to protect your private space has ever seemed “Natural” to me.  It’s offensive and the horses that I work that have been treated this way tell me so.

They view it as an irritation, poor manners and they all become defensive.  Training in this manner will always bring that up.  Training further in this manner, if the horse doesn’t give up, will breed an attack and I’ve seen plenty of horses that have had that primordial instinct arroused.

In a fear based relationship, fear will always dictate the question and the answer.

I prefer to give my horse the benefit of the doubt and believe that a light request breeds a light response, especially when the answer from the horse is followed by a reward. 

The case is complicated and no doubt I will be filleted for even breathing an ounce of disagreement with the Parelli empire, but I am prepared to stand by my work….confidently.

I can do so because I know that I am never going to have to teach a horse to back or respect me by treating it like this horse was treated in this video.

Now, I did some research and there are plenty of supporters of this video and plenty of people who are screaming that this video doesn’t show the entire interaction.

OK.  I am willing to entertain that…for about a millisecond.

Why in the world would anyone want to treat a horse like that?  NO horse could do such harm as to have to listen to a clip smacking it in the jaw.  A horse with a raised head is evading and this one is so disengaged that he is willing to take lots of abuse without reacting.  A sign of benevolence. 

In my research I learned that this horse has a history of abuse and that he is in fact blind in one eye. 

When I learned this I felt a familiar sick knot in the back of my throat. 

Even if the horse is better behaved than he had been, in better flesh from the abuse he’d suffered previously, this treatment does nothing to restore his confidence in the human race that has failed him before.

Working with Mustangs there is one thing I’ve learned.  Respect is everything.  Respect is earned and it is damned easy to loose it!  Working with a horse to help understand THEIR point of view is much more difficult than disciplining a horse to recognize YOUR point of view.  But I still prefer that.

My horses, wild or not learn that I appreciate being a part of their herd.  Not the other way around.

Loving them enough to treat each of them as an individual is what makes it easy to teach a horse to read my requests…sans jerking, pulling, slapping or confusing, unnatural behaviors.

Horses don’t run each other around in circles.  They don’t push each other with sticks and they don’t pinch each other like a rope halter does when it is tugged to get another horse to do its bidding.  Understanding that is why I can have a totally wild horse cooperative and happy to see people.

Horses that are treated in the fashion this video demonstrats often become hard to catch and become vacant from the relationship.

I don’t want a vacant horse.  I want a horse that is excited to be with me, eager to read my body language so that we can interact and enjoy our time together.

Kirk and I have been working feverishly for several years to bring back the Natural to horsemanship…but because of the Natural Horsemanship empire (the one that supports whacking your horse in the head with snaps, ropes and hands), we are forced to differentiate our work as UnNatural. 

Oh well.  If working my horse and those we train UnNaturally means they work with us in a light and eager fashion, intuitive to our requests and happy to oblige, then I am prepared to write a new book on the subject.  Or film a television show…or both.

Any producers out there who would like to help?

If this video is an indication of something, its an indication that there is a huge need for a paradigm shift in the psychology of the horse world.  My desire is that Kirk and I will be at the head of that charge and instrumental in its occurance.  It’s about time that Natural Horsemanship was given back its rightful title.

For the sake of the horses.

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