funny - all these programs in reality embrace a TON of common sense and
horse sense - something we and many other less cowboy types (no insult there to
cowboys - they are a rare breed) have used, embraced and been successful with
LONG before it was fashionable, long before it was in books or videos (dating
myself here) and before some peeps made a ton of money espousing it.
In the end, it is only of use at all if people actually "take it to the
streets" so to speak and USE it somewhere. One of my pet peeves is the plethora
of peeps who go to every good clinic imaginable but fail to EVER apply it on
trail or in a competition, etc. I think that this does a disservice to the
training method and in the end makes it a useless and expensive program
(speaking mainly of the clinic junkies here).
Getting away from forced training and harsh management is a huge part
of good horse mastership; at the same time, I am not one to reason very long
with a horse who has chosen to stomp his foot on mine and won't move - he gets a
good WHACK if he does not scoot the very second I put a hand on his shoulder. I
don't think that is Parelli or any other NH method but it saves my feet to ride
another day. Not everything that does not appear in a NH book or video is bad,
and not everything IN them is inherently good. Just hold it up against the
constraints of common sense and decent horse mastership - and you should do fine
(well, until you get on a list and get clobbered for your opinions:))
