Parelli Natural Horsemanship

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Parelli Natural Horse-Man-Ship is a program of natural horsemanship. It is also known as Parelli or PNH. It was created by Pat Parelli.

1 The Program
2 Criticism
3 References
4 External Links

[edit] The Program

Parelli Natural Horse-man-ship is a program that uses psychology, based on natural Equine behaviours, to achieve trust and respect in the horse/human relationship. PNH methods are mentally, emotionally and physically non-violent.

PNH allows for thresholds, boundaries and fears for both horse and human, and encourages issues to be worked through, using mutual communication, leadership and love. Key components in this are attitude, knowledge, tools, techniques, time and imagination. In the program, it is recognised that both the horse and human have responsibilities in the partnership.

One aim of the program is to preserve the dignity of the horse by recognising and using natural horse behaviours and movement, taking the horse's individual characteristics into account. The program teaches people to interact with horses through communication consisting of seven types of "games".

The Parellis (Pat and Linda) developed a home-study program composed of progressive levels of knowledge and skill. The program defines four areas of skills: on the ground with a rope, without a rope; riding with little or no contact to the horse's head or mouth, and riding with close head/mouth contact.

Pat Parelli often states in his presentations that he learned years ago to watch people who were having trouble with horses, find the pattern, and do the opposite of that, in order to find techniques that work better. He emphasizes that it is the human who needs to learn how to speak the language of the horse, which is often the opposite of what the human would normally do. This is because humans are predators and horses are prey animals--flight prey animals.

[edit] Level One

The first Parelli Natural Horsemanship level, Level One, covers safety, basic skills, partnership and mental fitness. When completed the horse will supposedly be more willing to "give" to the human. Level One "games" start out with the person on the ground and eventually, when the horse is under control mentally, some riding is done with one rein and a rope halter. Level One is meant to give the human a basic understanding of horse/prey animal psychology, and how it affects their relationship with their horse. An important principle at this level is to stay in small spaces until a working partnership is forged between horse and human.

[edit] Level Two

Level Two aims to achieve a better relationship, to gain more skills, confidence and emotional fitness. It encourages the development of positive responses in the horse and incorporates the study of horse body language in order to understand the horse's thoughts, reactions and needs. Two reins are allowed in Level Two, and bits may be used. The program teaches a clear progression of the horse's head gear from halter and one rein, to two reins with rope halter or hackamore, to snaffle bit. The Parellis stress that the human needs to develop hands that have the right kind of steadiness and softness or appropriate firmness, and the horse/human relationship has to have progressed to a point where there is little opposition from the horse, before using a bit, in order to avoid damaging the horse's mouth.

[edit] Level Three

Level Three builds on the skills gained in Levels One and Two. Called the Refinement Level, it helps the human learn how to use nearly-invisible cues of focus and energy to communicate movements to the horse. It challenges both horse and human to become even more calm, smart, brave and athletic. At this level, horses are ridden with full equipment or none at all; they are confident with a wide variety of tasks and tools. Their humans are well-versed in what makes them tick and can, perhaps with help, sort out most of the issues that come up in their joint ventures. Pat urges horse people to master Level Three before choosing a particular equine discipline (or equine sport) and competition in that discipline.

Several icons of the mainstream equine industry, such as Craig Johnson (reining), Leon Harrel (cutting), Karen Rohfl (dressage), and Karen and David O'Connor (eventing), have publicly praised the Parelli Program, stating that they utilize these methods in their own horsemanship. Dr. Robert M. Miller, a veterinarian, speaker and author, has been a supporter of Pat Parelli for decades^[1]. The Parellis were among the first to popularize the teaching of the use of horse psychology. This method of human interaction with horses strives to be in harmony with the horses' nature.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Criticism

There has been considerable criticism against the Parellis by the mainstream equestrian world. This is partly due to his "circus-act" like performances and demonstrations with some of his own horses, his marketing schemes to sell his personalized products, the general commercialization of his technique, and the cost of his programs.^[2] The Parellis have also been known to make negative comments about other riding disciplines, including dressage.

Many conventional trainers consider parts of his groundwork techniques to simply be basic horsemanship methods, which have been passed down for generations, and are considered to be common sense by those knowledgeable of the horse and how the animal learns. The criticism is that they are inappropriately described as exclusive to the Parelli system, particularly when re-named by Parelli, although Pat Parelli does credit his mentors.^[3]

Others have criticized the Parellis for inappropriate or unsafe behavior, such as jumping a horse bareback without a helmet, jumping his horse over an uncollapsable picnic table, circling a horse while sitting down, and asking a 2-month old foal to jump over a log.^[4] However, the Parellis do say that they do not encourage students to attempt these stunts. The horse is only asked to do these things when it has confidence to do so, and they teach you not to push a horse.

Finally, because some training techniques result in horses that do not respond to traditional horse-handling commands, when the horse is sold it may require either retraining of the horse or the new owner may need to learn (for a price) Parelli methods. The program, in fact, encourages sellers to sell their horses to other Parelli users. Taken together, these marketing and training practices have led to the criticism that Parelli is creating a cult.^[5]