Horsemanship & Training: Natural vs. Normal

I claim, in the description of my blog, to be a horse rider & trainer. I don’t train horses for a living, but I have trained my horse, and have helped start a young filly under saddle as well. I hope to have the opportunity to start more young horses under saddle in the future. 

You may or may not have heard of Natural Horsemanship before, but I shall endeavour to provide you with a brief overview of Natural Horsemanship, how it differs from Normal Horsemanship, and how it works better, and more naturally for you and your horse. To quote one very great Natural Horseman, Pat Parelli,

“Natural Horsemanship is so old, it’s new again!” 

Natural Horsemanship is not so much training, as it is a way of thinking. In fact, it is training your mind to think like a horse. Sometimes it involves more training on the human’s part than on the part of the horse. Since horses are prey animals, they all are born with a built in flight reflex. Horses are born cowards, born claustrophobics, and born full-throttle-a-holics. One more thing that those without a biblical world view do not realize, is that horses (and all animals for that matter) do not, and never can have rational souls. Animals cannot reason. However, you can think like a horse to help your horse overcome his fear, and trust you as the leader. Horses do not naturally follow bullies, but leaders. Once your horse trusts you as his leader, he will do anything for you. 

The Normal Horseman will use these tools: 

Halters

Bridles

Whips

Longe line & cavesson

Spurs

Hobbles

Check rein

The Natural Horseman uses these tools:

Rope halters

Ropes (for communication) 

Sticks (as an extension of your arm) 

Bits (for riding refinement) 

Spurs (as extensions of your legs)

How do you achieve the epithet of Natural Horseman? 

There are six keys that are extremely important in the whole idea of successful Horse-Human interaction. These are taken from Pat Parelli’s book “Natural Horsemanship.”

1. Attitude

You must have a positive and progressing attitude, and you must understand the natural point of view of the horse. 

1. 2. Knowledge 

You need to have the knowledge of how horses think and operate. Most people think like people, and that’s a whole different type of knowledge. 

1. 3. Tools

Tools that work naturally are essential. A Natural horseman is distinguished from a normal horseman by the tools he uses, as well as the tools he doesn’t and wouldn’t use. 

1. 4. Techniques

Natural techniques must be understood. For example, most people saddle a horse and get on, kick to go, and pull to stop. Instead of these normal ways to make horses go and stop, use natural techniques that produce snappy departures and graceful transitions. 

1. 5. Time

If you take the time it takes, it takes less time. Most people don’t have the time to do it right, but they always have the time to do it over and over. With respect to time, we have to understand the relevancy of time, the meaning of short-term time and long-term time, and the word “timing.” 

1. 6. Imagination

You have to exercise your imagination. Imagination is something children have that adults do not, or at least they lost the ability to use their imaginations effectively. Einstein said that imagination is even more valuable than knowledge. 

These are the ingredients that are necessary to achieving excellence through Natural Horse-Man-Ship.

For more information on Natural horse training, please visit the websites of these great natural horsemen. 

Pat Parelli

www.parellinaturalhorsetraining.com

Stacy Westfall

westfallhorsemanship.com

Below is a video of Stacy Westfall riding bareback & bridle-less in Freestyle Reining at the All American Quarter Horse Congress in 2006. She won, setting the current record for the highest score in the history of the All American Quarter Horse Congress. I think her score was 302.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-7v8Ck1crg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLrK5QTUywA