Re: RC: Re: Spooking / round pen work

[DESERTRYDR1@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/27/00 4:47:15 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
bolinger@bigsky.net writes:

<<  Some people need that time in the round corral/arena in order  to build
 > THEIR confidence...seems to me a large amount of what Parrelli does  is
 > aimed at building the humans' confidence...hours and hours of asking the
 > horse to do different things helps the person to figure out how a horse
 > reacts to various stimuli...there are allot of people out there who have
 an
 > extremely difficult time interacting with horses because of a deep seated
 > fear...the success of the natural horsemanship techniques has as much to
 do
 > with gaining the owners confidence as it does the horses'.>
 > >>

Think of it this way.  (And I am NOT a big fan of NH and Round pens for 
"Bonding")  Some people really are afraid of horses.  They like them from a 
distance, and they want to ride, but they are afraid of an animal with a mind 
of its own that is so much bigger and more powerful.  In the round pen they 
learn that THEY can control the horse's movements.  They learn if they do 
THIS the horse does THAT.  It takes a lot of the mystery out, and gives them 
a clue how a horse's mind works.  I guess the reason it doesn't appeal to me 
is that I never had any fear of horses.  I always had complete confidence in 
my ability to control a horse.  Sometimes I was wrong, but that's a whole 
nuther issue.  jeri