I'm confused!?

And the "carrot stick" god that gets on my nerves!

There is a reason he named it the carrot stick.

Why did he name it the carrot stick?

Because its orange? I have one in green! Does that make it a grass stick?

Why can't we just call it a whip? I don't see much difference between a carrot stick and a dressage whip (or a fishing rod for that matter). But then again, I don't own either one at the moment, so I could be all wrong.

I think "natural horsemanship" implies that we are trying to learn the horse's natural body language and use it to communicate with him instead of flat-out trying to force him to do what we want. That's what "natural horsemanship" means to me personally anyway.

I totally agree with you trailhorserider

These is a personal observation and not a bashing of any particular individual or methodology

Having been a horseman for over forty years, I am fascinated with those individuals whom are drawn into the marketing used by trainers and clinicians of natural horsemanship.
Each of these individual trainers and clinicians do have good knowledge of the horse that should be shared and yet the their efforts go beyond that with the result being the horse is actually shown disrespect. Being used as if it were a piece of machinery or even worse being used as if were merely a dominated breathing toy.

"KEEP IT NATURAL"

Great marketing tool!

There is no such thing in 'natural' horsemanship as spurs, whips, carrot sticks, dually halters, big red balls, clickers and all of the other gimmicks that the P.T. Barnums of the horserealm are selling. Showmanship v. Horsemanship; circus v. Reality......

I.e.....recently a trainer lost a $1.2 million dollar suit for schooling "bridleless" riding, because the rider was killed. Yet, the ultimate goal for certain individual trainers and clinicians is to get their students to ride bridleless. Why teach this absolute foolish form of riding? The rider has zero physical control of the horse if the horse panics or takes any abnormal drastic action.

Yes, the above objects can be useful to a very small degree in schooling, however, the users are more apt to become dependent upon them.

Natural horsemanship is the voice and the aids....schooling the horse from the horse's perspective.
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I think it's called a Carrot Stick for the same reason Tellington-Jones called her whip a "Wand": so you don't think of it as a whip, she told us.

One's state of mind, what a human thinks when he uses a tool, makes a difference. I think it's weird; but true. It's why so many people really want the toy with the Tag (Genuine Original whatever) instead of a perfectly comparable copy.

I agree...NH is not a new thing, nor is it anything that "Has" to involve special equipment, videos, or seminars...it involves listening to your horse and responding in such a way that the horse understands what you want of him. No gimmicks, just common 'horse sense'.

No, silly. . .that would make it a celery stick. For darker shades of green, perhaps a cucumber stick?

Or maybe a Granny Smith Apple Stick?

Maybe they'll start marketing colored sticks to match designated "horsenality" types?

The supposed reason for the "carrot stick" name (according to what one Parellite told me) is something about the fact that it is used as an extension of the arm to guide the horse. There's that balance between using force (the stick) and kindness (like treats, hence the carrot).

Personally. . .I just think it's just more silly Parelli lingo that they came up with to make it sound like he "invented" something new and wonderful and different. . .available now for the bargain price of just $60!

The Parelli marketing machine has done a great job of slapping its own made-up names on basic horse training concepts and then jacking up the price. And then they convince their followers that their products and methods are "different" and "better" than anyone else's.