Re: Please explain NH to me.

["Tracey" <tracey@tbt.co.za>]

Okay, this 2 Sandies thing is really confusing.  First 2 Heidies (if Heidi
is singular, is Heidies plural, or is it Heidis?), now 2 Sandies.  If I
start gibbering like an idiot now it is because I've been at the office for
ten hours, and done very little constructive work as I've been messing
around with emails all day : okay


>I ask myself that very question. There are too many clinic junkies - they
go to every clinic offered but never put any of it into real world practice.
To us, all of this stuff is plain common animal sense, and we have been
imprinting and implementing NH for at LEAST 2 decades BEFORE they had titles
or books about them. >


They are now officially called Boiled Cabbage, by the way...


>People ask, why imprint train? Because I would RATHER tussle gently with a
baby who accedes readily by NATURE than wrestle LATER with an 800 pound 3
year old who now has OPINIONS.>

I have no problems with imprint training.  Huge problems with round penning.
Probably deeply-rooted and will require years of psychotherapy to solve.


>Why do we use NH? Because in the natural world, SOMEONE is alpha horse>

Yes, but this isn't the natural world.

> in OUR world, that has to be me, for simple safety reasons.>

If that works for you, great.  It works for me and PG, too, he needs a
leader.  It does NOT work for me and Toc.  What works for Toc is for me to
let him think he's alpha, while I gently just nudge him in the right
direction.  That way, we have no temper tantrums, no problems.


>The horses understand this and everything from body position to an approach
signals something to each horse - and generally something slightly different
to each, as appropriate to their 'station'. The bottom line for us is that,
if these horses were to spend their lives in the word, we would not TOUCH
them. But they will be living in our 'tent' and so a meeting of the minds
must occur. >

Ah, now you're speaking a language I can understand (and it isn't Japanese,
Shawna!)  My argument is that such a meeting of minds doesn't always take
place best in a round pen.


>By the time we climb on our horses' backs as young horses - or old! - they
have a sense of partnership and trust that would not exist otherwise.>


Again, a magic word : partnership.


>As to why some people rarely if ever leave the round pen after years of
this training, I personally think it is fear. I think many junkies have
learned one thing - the round pen - and are afraid to go outside of it and
learn something 'new'.>


Round pens have also become fashionable, in the same way that Flared denims
are fashionable.  Flared denims can make the wrong person look incredibly
stupid, but you can't tell that to the person in them, can you?


>One woman I know well after 3 YEARS won't venture our of the ring with her
now 10 year old mare. >


Hee hee, open the gate!


Tracey