My new blog is going to be all about my Parelli journey. Not just because Parelli is about horsemanship, and I am working extremely hard to obtain my coaching status, but its about self improvement. It’s about knowing yourself and seeing the TRUTH that the horse teaches. Horses understand your body language, your emotions, your energy, your thoughts and your knowledge.
I have been around horses since I was 6 years old and they have always fascinated me. I learned a lot about horsemanship, the events and the “cowboy way”. But as much as cowboys entertain me, I’ve always just been a soft country girl at heart and I could not buy into the “do what you gotta do” theory. I hated seeing horses with fear in their eyes or getting disciplined over and over again for something they don’t even understand that they are doing wrong.
Now don’t get me wrong, there are a million excellent techniques that horse-people do traditionally or western. And there is a respectful traditional training method out there to learn and follow, but its not for me. Its not how I think or react to these animals. I have been searching for an understanding of horses since I was young. And as I learn more and more, I realize I was doing more right when I was younger than I am trying to do now. So on I go in my search for truth.
Parelli horse-man-ship is a journey in LOVE, LANGUAGE, and LEADERSHIP. It shows the horse how much you care and respect them, by being polite with your cues and building a partnership through caring. It builds a communication through understanding and knowledge. With the human responding more like a horse than a human. By understanding the dynamics of the horse world, a human can duplicate that and gain the horse’s respect through a mutual understanding. And finally by building leadership; 51% for the human, 49% for the horse. Its a partnership, with each party having its own set of responsibilities to fill, but the human having the majority or the leadership so inevitably the human becomes like the acting mother of the horse, who will respond and obey his mother through love, respect and understanding.
Each week I will blog about my horsemanship lessons and bring in a new quote or theory through the Parelli method. I hope you follow my journey and find it helpful in your own journey. Horsemanship is way more than riding, and Parelli is way more than horsemanship- Its a promise of never ending self-improvement. This journey is more than just building horsemanship skills, its about attaining my dream… my dream with horses and with myself.