Wanting opinions on my theory? sort of..

Now to all of you Natural Horsemanship guru's. I know there is all of that fancy parelli stuff, but what is natural horsemanship to you? I believe that it is just a different way of going about training. There are no specific rules exactly. It's just training in a natural way, using the herd mentality, and the understanding of horses to train in a kinder way. By gaining respect, not by beating them into submission. So I think, I could say I use natural horsemanship to train my horses, but that doesn't mean I walk around with a carrot-stick and teach my horse to walk backwards when I pull on its tail.. (lol not trying to offend anyone on that last comment but I'm just using it as an example, I know that parelli is a lot more then that)
Sorry just a little rant type thing, any opinions on this?

To me, NH is Parelli. It's the most natural way I have seen to handle and be with horses.

To me, all good horsemanship is natural horsemanship. Good horseman understand what goes on in a horse's mind and their nature. They understand that beating a horse won't do a thing, and that you have to use your own intelligence to win the battles.

I agree with you Brighteyes,
Parelli is great, no doubts there Spirithorse,
But I don't believe that it is the only NH out there.
Thanks for your opinions guys :)
Anyone else?

Compare: a horse acting silly at a show, can't stand still. The normal tendency is to scold him, like "Stop that! You know better! What's the matter with you?"

The NH way is to try to see it from the horse's point of view: he doesn't "know" anything, he's just responding to everything. You move on to trying to get his attention, and/or simply moving his feet in a safe direction (usually a circle) until he can get himself together again. Or some other way, but the point is, you trying to see it from the horses' point of view.

I'd say every good horse-handling these days is NH--- but that's not so. Most everyone I see at shows STILL act as though their horses "know" what they're "supposed to do." Not that these people can't handle their horses, they do, usually with physical restraints. And a lot of them still believe that horses will NOT do something to AVOID being hit.

In NH hitting/not hitting; rewards; release, etc. is really not like human-concept punishment/reward. It has to do with logic, horse-logic.

Parelli and others have "games" and whatnot, mostly as exercises to teach humans this logic, though lots of it can be useful too.

Okay, that's my opinion!

The only way I knew how to train a horse was with NH (When I first got into horses) then found out that people used to do (still do) horrible things to them! I love Monty Roberts! He's the best!

Very well said Beling! I totally agree. I've never tried the full out parelli levels and stuff but I have used a few of their games and techniques in training and found them very effective. I am a HUGE fan of Monty Roberts too though. I love how he explains things in his book. They are so easy to understand and are really helpful when dealing with young horses especially.
Thanks guys :)
Anyone else? I like hearing peoples opinions on this.

I agree that NH is mostly about looking at things from a different angle.

Instead of thinking "I need to teach this horse this and im going to do it this way..." its about thinking "I need to teach this horse this, now how is he going to understand it best...."

NH is wonderful because you can adapt just about every technique to suit a different horses personality, because we all know that one thing doesnt work for all horses...you have to be flexible, and being flexible and looking at things from the horses standpoint is what NH is.

A great example is my gelding... he is the type who doesnt really understand things at first but once it clicks he has it in his head forever. My point is Im constantly having to find new unique ways to train him so that he understands things...Its all about him understanding it...ive had people look at me like im a nut for trying some of the things I do but it works and he understands...

So I guess my opinion is that NH is about finding what works best for each individual animal and trying whatever it takes to make that animal understand in a way that is easy for them to understand, a way that is natural to them...or as natural as horse training can be...lol

Aww that's really cute, and I know exactly what you mean! Every horse is different, sometimes it's really hard to explain it to people who don't know horses. But I can kind of relate it to working with really young children,in that they know how to show you what they want, but cannot talk yet, and don't understand what you are saying either. It's like they have a language of their own, and until you learn to speak it (in theory of course) then you won't get anywhere with them!
Thanks for the opinion, :)
Anyone else?

Very well said.

NH term is sold just way too much in recent years. Lots of people call themself NH trainer or NH follower (depending on ambition level) as long as they have rope halter and carrot stick (and "trained" a horse or 2). But good number of those people don't even try to look at things from horse's point of view. They just get an equipment and follow the instructions from DVD.

It always remind me those old trainers, who didn't care about fancy words (Natural Horsemanship, left/right introverts, and so on), fancy equipment, etc. but just read the horse and worked from there archiving great results and a soft quiet horse.