One of the comments I hear from adversaries of Natural Horsemanship is that "it's great for groundwork but is not really practical for the real world". I have to be honest that I never understand what that is supposed to mean - how is a solid partnership with your horse not conducive to real world work like showing, or ranch work? I like being able to fully trust my horses because they fully trust my leadership, to be able to slow a horse with my seat rather than my hands (which should just be good horsemanship, really), and to have my horse working in full partnership with me, whether it be working cattle, doing dressage, or jumping. Using Natural Horsemanship-like thinking (which includes methods other than Parelli as well, including a lot of classical dressage, I find - etc) can enable a great working partnership that actually helps you excel in the real world. So to those who don't think Natural Horsemanship methods are practical in the show world, I give you (in addition to the O'Connors, Ian Miller, Karen Rohlf, and many other greats out there) the following exerpt from a recent Parelli e-news:
Parelli Trained Horses Win Big at the Missouri Fox Trotter World Show
Several Parelli students blew their own socks off last week with our Fox Trotters at the Missouri Fox Trotter World Show in Ava, Missouri. First up was showmanship, than came western pleasure. Horsemanship and reining were next. The Parelli patterns prepared their horses very well for these challenges. There were jumping classes and trail classes. One day was ranch horse day which included cutting, roping and working cow horse classes. They always remembered to put the horse first, occasionally scratching a class if their horse wasn’t mentally ready. By the end of the week they had accumulated 18 world champion titles, 26 Top 5 titles, and 5 top 10 titles! To top off our week, Nichole Copple riding Velvet, not only took home an amazing 13 world champion t itles, she was awarded the two highest youth titles that can be achieved. Nichole is the 2009 Youth Over-all Hi point World Grand Champion which included 13 classes. She also took home the Youth Ranch Horse World Grand Champion. Caitlyn Vaught with her horse Attu, came home with the Youth Ranch Horse World Grand Champion reserve. Caitlyn also came home with two world champion titles. So how old is Caitlyn? Just 9 years old!!! The Novice Hi-Point Championship went to Susan Engle on her horse Nova along with two world champion titles. Mindy Bertholdi came home with the Amateur Pleasure Hi-Point Reserve title. She and her horse Vegas are also the amateur reining World Champion. Hope Kohout and her horse Raffle were in the top 5’s and top 10’s. Tony and Jenny Vaught also showed in the open division for clients Lynne and Waland Burger and had a successful week as well. It was a wonderful time!
Point made :)
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