RE: [RC] the horse can't out pull you - tying and rolling the dice - RHONDA LEVINSON
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Sometimes we just need to take the time to teach the horse these things properly, which is what "muscling in" and "tying them tight to let them fight it out" are just shortcuts that may or may not work.
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I disagree. I think there are horses for whom Parelli style methods will work just fine. And there are horses, like my strong willed mare, for whom Parelli methods are just a disaster. For Taffy, she simply would not do certain things unless she knew there was no way to avoid it. You could do the friendly game and porcupine her to death and she was simply never going to give in once she made up her mind about something. She had made up her mind NOT to stand at that tree unless there was no way to avoid it. Obviously, I had tried many different training methods before using the tie and fight it out method - or I wouldn't have had so many broke halters and leads. :-) For her, her attitude extended to more than just tying. She decided at one point that she wouldn't lead and would race backwards instead. She quickly learned that I could run forward faster than she could run backwards, and that I would make her continue to run backwards waaaaaay longer than she thought was fun.
I think there are horses that have to learn that fighting won't work. Once Taffy understood that fighting did not work, she stopped fighting and was pretty easy to work with.
