Parelli? Your Thoughts?

I have to my shame been a PP dabbler! When I had my first up and coming young horse I was looking for a natural and kind way to train him. I bought the first lot of DVD's and loved to watch them. I love to watch Pat with a horse I personnaly found it to be a thing of beauty.

Unfortunately when it came time to apply it to my young guy it never worked! I was very disappointed because I found there to be no solutions to problems. I am in rural NZ, I have no show experience, have never been to a clinic or a pony club in my life. I have no training and I have never tried any sort of equestrian disciplin. I have been sitting on horses since I was four. I wanted to learn and I bought the PP DVD's and was not able to learn from them.

It was so frustrating! He would give a wonderful demonstration with a horse that was already schooled and I would feel like a dick because my horse would be rearing and lashing out on the end of my rope. And nowhere were there ever any troubleshooting solutions. Nothing to explain what to do if the methods didn't work! I nearly ruined my poor bloody horse with my ignorance. I honestly hoped to be able to learn from the DVD's (and was assured that I could!) and learnt just enough to hang myself. I was sucked into the marketing, DUUH!!

In the end it was such a muddle and I was so disheartened and lost, I paid a fortune (which I barely had) to bring down a PP trained expert. The guy was good but the thing that really ticked me off, and I mean REALLY bugged me! Was the fact that how he ended up schooling my young horse bore NO relation to the gentle methods demonstrated on the DVD's I had spent a fortune on. There was no way I could have achieved anything like what was achieved based on buying the product.

And I can be told that my expectations were to high or that I was to impatient, tried to do too much without the right "savvy" knowledge BUT that is how it is marketed! Buy these instructional DVD's and you will be taught how to achieve wonderful things. BOLLACKS!

"eualck" is what comes to mind..

i'm a level 1 parelli student and i love it.............it has made me feel more comfortable around them...........:)

I think that the philosophy is sound, but Parelli has systematized it and watered it down so much that it's lot a lot of it's power. Not every horse is going to need all the steps in Parelli's sequence, and not every horse is going to be able to do the steps in the sequence that Parelli dictates. Flexibility is key with horses, IMO, and to take that away is to put obstacles in the way of effective training. I don't use the system, but I do use alot of the "games" (only I don't call them that) and I have had really great success. It really all comes down to trust.

That's the beauty of the program, yes there is a program to follow, but we recognize that not all horses learn the way others do or respond the same, so that's when the thinking part comes out. Is it time to advance? Would it be better for my horse to take things slower? If you do everything the same as you did with another horse you are not doing things right...no horse is the same :)

My understanding of the Parelli system (I've been to the demonstrations and watched the videos) is that, in order to move through the levels your horse has to be able to do every single thing in each level. But some horses are going to have a lot more trouble with backing up than others, but find it much easier to advance in the squeeze game or what-have-you, so a horse might not be able to pass level 3 because of issues with backing up, but at the same time could be doing level 4 or 5 work in most other areas. Also, some of the things in level 3 can help with things that horses are struggling with in level 1 and so on. IMHO, it seems like a better idea to have access to that knowledge and education, but just freeball it as to the application of the games and complexity you ask of your horse. That's all I meant. As I said, I think the basic philosophy is sound and I use a lot of the same things in training my horses.

[quote=SuperStarsSugar;469353]My understanding of the Parelli system (I've been to the demonstrations and watched the videos) is that, in order to move through the levels your horse has to be able to do every single thing in each level. But some horses are going to have a lot more trouble with backing up than others, but find it much easier to advance in the squeeze game or what-have-you, so a horse might not be able to pass level 3 because of issues with backing up, but at the same time could be doing level 4 or 5 work in most other areas.

This is where the person needs to help the horse learn backing up as a skill. Backing over a pole, for instance. The better a horse can back up and go sideways, the better he can do everything else....that is very true. I've been backing my horse all over the place lately, and I've already seen an improvement in some things.

Also, some of the things in level 3 can help with things that horses are struggling with in level 1 and so on. IMHO, it seems like a better idea to have access to that knowledge and education, but just freeball it as to the application of the games and complexity you ask of your horse. That's all I meant. As I said, I think the basic philosophy is sound and I use a lot of the same things in training my horses.

I'm not sure I agree that some things in Level 3 would help a horse with backing up issues at a Level 1 standard. Level 3 is more advanced and more demanding, so it would be unfair to ask a horse to do that when he can't even perform a simple Level 1 back up.

Spirit, I think what she is getting at is that if a horse has mastered everything at level 1 EXCEPT the backup, it would be unfair to bore the horse with the monotony of continueing the same program for days or weeks until the backup is perfect. I get what she is saying that maybe it would make sense to go ahead and challenge a horse to do better at things he is already good at and move up in the levels while staying at level 1 with the backup, etc. At least that is how I understood what she wrote.

If the horse can exceed in everything in level one except the back up, you would stay with the level 1 backup, and progress with everything else....and you have to think what YOU are doing wrong in the case of the backing.

But you wouldn't apply for your level two until everything level one can be completed at at least a level one rank...and same with level two. It's NOT about the levels, it's about the relationship.

They never said "you have to stay in level one until you can pass it...NEVER skip ahead". They encourage you to go ahead with more advanced stuff if you and your horse are mentally, emotionally, and physically ready for the new task. You would not start Finesse after you just learned the circling game.

It's hard to explain the whole system in a few short paragraphs...at least for me it is.

Why would you want your horse to back up over ground poles. Heck mine would be tripping and falling down if I asked them to do that. I want the horse to sit back over their hocks when they back. SO to pick up their hind feet to step over a poll they can not even really see would be defeating the purpose I have for backing a horse the majority of the time.