Here’s a clip from the examiner.com about the Parelli exihibition that when so very wrong.
The British are famous for their great love of animals, particularly dogs and horses, and it’s not surprising that they are among the most progressive countries in the world with regards to animal welfare. Many equestrians in Great Britain have embraced the natural horsemanship movement which puts the horse’s needs first and foremost.
But last Friday at the 2010 Royal Festival of the Horse, British students of natural horsemanship were left speechless and uncomfortable, if not downright angry, by a demonstration conducted by Pat Parelli, with some assistance from his wife Linda Parelli.
Generally when a natural horsemanship show comes to town, they solicit in advance for ‘problem horses’ to use in their demos. One of the problem horses selected for the 2010 Royal Festival of the Horse Parelli demo was a young stallion named Catwalk, owned by British show jumper Robert Whitaker. Catwalk’s ‘problem’ was that he was nearly impossible to bridle. Apparantly Robert Whitaker owned Catwalk for only two months before the Parelli demo, and it’s not clear what possible mishandling or abuse he may have endured in the past. Most trainers would not have attempted to rehabilitate such a horse to accept the bridle in an afternoon’s time. A horse exhibiting extreme distrust and fear needs time and space to be rehabilitated, and certainly no one should be in a hurry to ride a horse with an obvious fear related to being handled by humans until the trust issues can be resovled.
But, for whatever reason, Parelli Natural Horsemanship chose this particular problem horse for their demo, and it seems clear from spectator’s comments and the video that Pat Parelli was in way over his head, and desperate to resolve the problem then and there, regardless of the means required to accomplish his goals, which included the perceived abandonment of his own principles of natural horsemanship!
Read this complete article on examiner.com at http://www.examiner.com/x-7431-Animal-Training-Examiner~y2010m7d14-2010-Festival-of-the-Horse-Parelli-demo
Here’s a letter from Parelli in response to the uproar:
Here’s a video taken by a member of the audience on their mobile phone.
Remember the blue tongue when this is viewed tho. The compression is not good, lighting off and only shows a few minutes of a 2 hour session. I’m not saying either way just passing along info. Happy riding and have a good weekend!
