Truly Inspirational

No one said for you to not post thunderhooves....so I'm not sure where your attitude is coming from?

No, it wouldn't be equal...sometimes we need to be as long as the horse is, and the stick allows us to do that.

So the whip is to make our length equal to the length of the horse???
That's an interesting theory.

The only way for horses and humans to be "equal" is for the human to turn into a horse, or the horse to turn into a human.

In either case. . .that would cancel out the need for horsemanship altogether.

But no. . .they are four-legged prey animals. And they're smart enough to know better than to think that a human is a horse. . .no matter what kind of stick the person is holding.

Lets stick to the topic shall we? Thanks :)

I too, have tried the natural horsemanship thing. I don't fancy it. As kevin and rio stated, those are merely just tricks. This is my own opinion and I'm not bashing anyone who loves this natural horsemanship. I've found that I get further in my training by getting down to the nitty gritty of things, rather than pussyfooting around with whips and circles and what not. If a horse does something bad, he gets hit with my hand or foot or whatever but never with an "extenstion", as some say. If a horse tries to do something bad, I'm not going to pet it and say "you know better than to do that, no." He's just going to do it again. Some people say horses don't understand physical actions, but why does it work than?? Some people say that if a horse is kicking and bucking or trying to harm you, that you shouldn't hit them? I will make that horse fear for it's own life!!! If he can decide to kick out at me for no reason at all, you better believe I will kick out at him and hit him and make him run from me! I just have no time for NH anymore.

I think the word PREY is over used. Horses are not the frightened creatures that alot make them out to be. I have never had a nervous timid horse. My guys are outgoing and fearless.
Do you think it has something to do with the rider???

Back to the OT. I don't find doing a bunch of circus tricks with a whip/stick very inspirational. I do not want to aspire to that.
Been there, done that, holds no interest to me.

Watch how horses interact with eachother. They too, use physical actions to get their thoughts across to one another. And think about how hard other horses kick eachother... you hitting them is nothing compared to what another horse can do to them.

You should not be so critical about Natural Horseman. We had a couple in our barn. They are to be pittied, no ridiculed.
Shame on you.

Would it be possible for SpiritHorse to get one thread in without people trashing her? We are not allowed to trash people on the Picture/Video Forum, even if they are doing something ridiculously stupid or dangerous, because it is not the Critique Forum.

This is not a thread to ask your opinion about NH. It is a thread about the VIDEO and the people IN the video.

I don't like NH either. I don't even like SpiritHorse that much. But delibrately chasing someone down just so you can pick a fight and trash them and their way of training is about as immature and juvenile as it gets. We have plenty of threads trashing NH, can we let her have ONE thread that she can just enjoy?

What's wrong with tricks, anyway?
They're mostly harmless, fun, inventive... ? When I watch human gymnastics, to me, that's like watching people doing tricks.