Becky Hart's involvement with Parelli was when she and several of the other
Light Foot group took lessons from Deb Cooper (www.DebCooperHorses.com) as well as
many other well known endurance riders in the Santa Cruz, CA area.. Becky
currently focuses on Centered Riding Techniques and I believe she teaches that
method. Deb spent 14-15 years with Pat's program. I spent five years at
Deb's place and she help me get to level 3. One of the reasons Deb left Pat's
program was because the program doesn't allow you to take it to sport until you
get to level 4. The Parelli program is a horsemanship program and was designed
for people with limited exposure to horses. However it is applicable for people
with extensive horse involvement and can certainly enhance their performance (as
evidenced by their involvement with the OConners, Leon Harrel, Stacey Westfall
and others). It certainly provides a strong foundation for working with horses.
It can be taken to very elite levels in the liberty area of horsemanship as
evidenced by Honza (I was part of group that worked with him at Deb's place for
about 3 months), and Nezarov (who was introduced to the techniques by Honza).
The program works best with high quality instructors (Deb, Lee Smith, David
Lichman, Janita Hayes, Karen Rohlf, etc.) Karen Scholl is also a product of the
program and now has her own program that focuses on women who are coming back to
horses. It can be learned from the CDs just the same way any subject manner can
be learned from a book. IMO I wouldn't call it a riding program. The best riding
program I know of today is a 50 year old program developed by Monte Foreman
called the Foreman Handle. The only remaining instructors of this program are
Janiece Wilson (Queen Creek, AZ), Patrick Wyse, and Ron McLoughlin (Pearce,
AZ). They teach you how to ride, really ride. Flying lead changes, 360's,
rollbacks, and turn outs to the opposite lead at a gallop.
All of these programs have their place dependent on your needs and
abilities. I have seen many riders in a variety of disciplines with varying
degrees of horsemanship that could benefit from any number of these programs. I
have also seen what most would consider to be top horse people display lousy
horsemanship. One example comes to mind on the A level jumping circuit where a
top level winning rider in warm-up had his horse rear up on him and he pulled
back on the reins pulling the horse over on him. I am sure when you go to rides
you will see people with some very big and severe bits. Endurance is point to
point with little need for elevation. It requires mostly lateral flexion. Bits
are not brakes. Most horses can do what we do in a rope halter. Anybody remember
Tracy Falcone (another Parelli student) doing Tevis in a neck string? When asked
why, I think she said because she can. A testament to her training and her
horse's training. Most people think that they know more than the next guy,
especially those who are earning lots of money conveying their knowledge. I
would prefer to work with the premise that I can learn something from anybody
and never turn down the opportunity for education.
