Program
Parelli Natural Horsemanship is a program that uses an approach to communicating with horses based on natural equine behaviors, to achieve trust and respect in the horse/human relationship. PNH methods are similar to the ways that horses act with one another within a herd.
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 recognized 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 continuously watching for subtle cues in the horses posture, movements and facial expressions. Building on the idea of horse personalities, it encourages riders to take the horse's individual characteristics into account. The program teaches people to interact with horses through communication consisting of the seven types of interactions that horses have with one another. These are referred to as the "7 games".
Pat and Linda Parelli developed a home-study program composed of progressive levels of knowledge and skill. The program defines four areas of skills: on the ground On Line, at Liberty, freestyle riding with little or no contact to the horse's head or mouth, and riding with close head/mouth contact. Though there is very little focus paid to actual rider skill.
Several noted members of the mainstream equine industry, such as Craig Johnson (reining), Leon Harrel (cutting), Walter Zettl (dressage), Louis Lucio (dressage), Luca Moneta (Jumping), and Karen and David O'Connor (eventing, dressage), have utilized similar methods in their own horsemanship and voiced support for Parelli's methods. Dr. Robert M. Miller, a veterinarian, speaker and author, has been a supporter of Pat Parelli for decades.
The program uses a concept, marketed as Horsenality to assist students in "reading" their horses during working sessions. A trait identification system (both positive and negative traits or behaviors) and index provides a picture of the characteristics of the horse and provides related strategies for managing behaviors and strategies for achieving success.
The system borrows from parallel concepts in human psychology derived from Analytical psychology, Personality psychology, the concepts of Four Temperaments, and the more modern Keirsey Temperament Sorter. No studies verify or disprove this theory as applied to horses.
Read more about this topic: Parelli Natural Horsemanship
Famous quotes containing the word program:
“When the Revolutionaries ran short of gun wadding the Rev. James Caldwell ... broke open the church doors and seized an armful of Watts’ hymnbooks. The preacher threw them to the soldiers and shouted, “Give ‘em Watts, boys—give ‘em Watts!””
—For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“To the cry of “follow Mormons and prairie dogs and find good land,” Civil War veterans flocked into Nebraska, joining a vast stampede of unemployed workers, tenant farmers, and European immigrants.”
—For the State of Nebraska, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Here also was made the novelty ‘Chestnut Bell’ which enjoyed unusual popularity during the gay nineties when every dandy jauntily wore one of the tiny bells on the lapel of his coat, and rang it whenever a story-teller offered a ‘chestnut.’”
—Administration for the State of Con, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)