Parelli Horsenalities

I'm afraid that I am veering more towards Foxhunter on this one - maybe because I did 'Very well thank you' with all the horses I've ever owned or worked with before I even knew PP existed
My horses enjoy pleasing me, they respect me because I respect them. They gallop up when I call them and when a scarey thing pops up they know its OK to be afraid but they also know its not Ok to leap away or bolt off because I'm there to tell them not too. This is doesnt done by force or game playing its just down to firm fair handling and caring
I do agree that all horses have different personalities though, every foal we bred was born different - even foals with the same parents were rarely the same.
You can't treat all personalities the same though, that's like trying to mould them into something they aren't - some need more time than others, some need a firmer hand, some need a really sensitive approach, some need loads of stimulation to keep them from getting bored. You try and treat them all the same and that's a recipe for disaster. That's like getting on every horse you own and expecting to ride it in the same way. Doesnt work like that

I see that my topic has been hijacked into another Parelli bashing fest, sigh ! I was trying to give information to someone who asked about horsenalities. If this is the way this forum operates then maybe I should go someplace else.
My mentor, James Roberts, had a rule on his yard that you should never say anything negative as it effects your attitude around the horses. You were free and encouraged to question anything and everything, but had to phrase it as a positive question, not a negative rant.

I agree. I'd very much like to see this thread as a bashing-free zone. After all, we're not discussing a certain clinician here, but a concept about horse personality types. Whether we agree with the concept or not, each of us must have at least some interesting observations to share!

Parelli has good ideas, but he does really stupid stuff also

Ie. Tieing a rope from horses halter to its foot and pulling on it to try and get him to walk foreward (for any one who hasnt seen video of catwalk 2010... )

Ie. Beating a one eyed horse (you can't even tell what she's asking the poor thing to do

"friendly game"==desensitizing
"porcupine"==yielding
"driving"==poke it with a whip as your riding it to male it turn(face)or back up (chest) (wearing a halter and lead.....what if horse spooks, you have no control)
"yoyo"==push your horse away and then pull it back to you (make sure he gets really confused huh parelli?)
"circle"==lunging( wait parelli you said you never lunge your horses...didnt you?)
"side ways"==leg yeilding
"squeeze"==loading and obstacles

"carrot stick"=50$=whip (but parelli says he doesnt use whips?)
"cradle bit"== ported, two chin chains(brain fart can't think of what theyre called...)

PLEASE, let's not start a Parelli bashing thread again. There have been already plenty of them and the topic of this thread is completely different! Let's respect the OP's intentions and each other, ok?

Pegasus, on every forum, you will find in your discution steril people coming into it just to drown the thread.
You have to go over, and just pay attention to the posts that are really here for the subject.

There is one thing I don't understand : Moderator, there are Parelli bashing threads, Isn't it possible you transfert the new bashing posts on this thread to thoses threads?
I don't know, just ask the question.

I don't think that the forum wants to encourage bashing threads as such, so I guess that a better decision for all of us would be to learn from this experience and not to repeat it. If it happens that this thread starts turning into a bashing thread after all, actions will be taken, of course. I suppose that some of the bashing posts here were posted because their authors overlooked the introductory post and just jumped in to rant - a great reminder to always go deeper than that and maybe find some good advice/useful experience in the way. :)

I truly hope that from this post on we will all stick to the actual topic of this interesting thread.

Just to share some experience - I now have an opportunity to work with an older (19yrs) Latvian Draft gelding who is a very typical LBI - the hardest type for me to work with, as I have a vice to become impatient or hyper over passive behaviors. The LBI's were the ones that stood in the arena, motionless, while I cried by their sides, unable to motivate them for ANYTHING. It was when I was just starting to learn and I have found my ways of motivating them now. For me it is to be very precise in my body language and always just to suggest, never to make them do anything. Well, that's one small part. But with this gelding I have a special challenge - I need to help a person who is learning with this gelding, but the person happens to be a complete beginner with no body language whatsoever, no self confidence and so on. The gelding is a very stubborn old chap and completely unsuitable for this girl as a first horse - she'd still need a trustworthy and kind confidence builder. Going to be fun to motivate this guy to be responsive to what he finds unworthy of his majesty.

I think the OP's post was a really clever idea - but maybe if he didnt want anti PP comments he might have done better to have skipped the PP intro and not brought him into it at all - just used it as a discussion on horse personalities and how best to work with them.

Well, the horsenality concept is a large part of the horse personality topic as such - many use it, many find it at least interesting, many have learned from it as beginners and, if somebody got to read something about the horsenalities without knowing it comes from PP - I bet he'd find it useful or relate it to horses he knows. ;)

Another kind of horse personality list is done by Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling (my personal inspiration), 26 types of horses, grouped both by their characters and by physical features that can tell us about their minds. However, the system is very vast and complex, and not intended to be used as a simple test or a superficial generalisation. It is fascinating to look into, though. You can find about it on Youtube and in his site.

I'm sure PP has helped people; however, I am one of those who refuse to drink this koolaid.