Re: Please explain NH to me.

["horseplay" <horseplay@ratedg.com>]

This is the thing, Tracey.....just as most trailriders never do more
than one hour rides all their life and they stay at endurance
kindergarten forever..... most folks want to be shown how to do the
*first* thing with their horses and never care to really dive into
deep training waters.  This is why you hear/read soooo much about
round pen techniques....people want basics.  If you read and study
natural horsemanship (aside from Monty Roberts...who really seems to
work better with humans than horses), there is infinitely more
schooling there than round pen techniques.  Heck...John Lyons plainly
states that if you have a horse that you can safely get on...you don't
even need to round pen them.   And I spend a lot more time using JL
give to the bit, head lowering, disengaging hindquarters, etc. than I
have in the round pen.  The round pen just made these other things
easier to accomplish. I have had horses since I was 6.
Now...granted...I am a young woman of 31, but that boils down to a lot
of years around horses nonetheless.  And during my teen years, I cared
for our herd of ten QHs and I didn't know it, but I practiced natural
horsemanship.  I spent HOURS daily among them just playing games,
laying in the grass as they grazed, sitting with them talking to
them.....and watching the herd dynamics in action.  There are distinct
advantages in using herd dynamics in training.  BTW, there really
isn't opportunity for stallion squabbles because of inserting yourself
into the herd as alpha....9 times out of ten the alpha in a herd is a
matriarchal mare and she controls the herd by directing their
movements...not by outfighting them.  That is what makes roundpenning
work...the natural tendancy for a horse to assume a submissive herd
role when another herd member is confidently/successfully controlling
where they move.  Anyway....natural horsemanship is like learning the
Japanese language and customs before taking a job in Japan....you want
to speak the language and know how things work in that neck of the
woods so you can most successfully/easily and with the least amount of
confusion get the job done.  Loose analogy, but maybe it will
illustrate my point a bit.
Shannon

>
> That's entirely possible : my statement stemmed from limited
experience with
> Natural Horsemanship, largely reading, watching videos, attending
clinics
> and surfing the net.  If I've got it all wrong, then I'd be grateful
if you
> could explain it to me : just why do these guys spend so much time
in the
> round pen, and why do they chase the horses round it?
>
>
> Tracey
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