Outsider

To see some of my marginally more organised rants, try these links. If all else fails, try hitting them with whips. It works with horses, doesn't it?

http://sites.google.com/site/wehithorsesdontwe/ 

http://saddlechariot.comlu.com/index.php

I wrote this some time ago, and left it hidden on one of my sites, but I think it probably describes what I am doing today, as I vaguely organise my drive from Exeter to London.

Outsider

Ambling across the Devon fields to catch Obama so he could harrow the three corner field, I realised that the early March wind cutting through my clothes didn't begin to counter the pleasure of being outside. I concluded that I am an outsider, and I have finally come to accept the fact. As an outsider you know that when one door slams, it's just another door slamming. Doors control people who are inside, they have no power over the outside. It is after all, out of doors.
I know that what I do, upsets a number of people, and for years I have fought to get people to understand and accept my point of view. By accepting my status as an outsider, I have the freedom, the space to do what I do. If people want to slam doors, that's fine, if they want to understand what I do, and why I do it, come outside. It's where I am.
 Last summer, Obama and I walked from Brecon to Birmingham, in a remarkably casual re run of Cobbet's Rural Rides, camping as we went and taking 13 days and probably 200 miles on the journey. I learned that once you are wet, that is it. Wetter doesn't exist after the first few minutes.
I learned how beautiful Wales and England are while missing most beauty spots. I learned what a brilliant observer, and naturalist and social commentator Cobbet was, and I learned that the England he loved, a landscape with people, didn't exist any more. The landscape exists but the people have disappeared. Nobody works in the fields, children don't play in the lanes, explore the streams or even scare rooks in the fields. And the rooks have gone. Cobbet described a country with a rookery in every parish. I saw a rookery in every county and photographed, and recorded the ones I saw. None had more than twenty nests.
No rooks, no children. Obama and I had walked from Brecon to Synonds Yat before we heard children's laughter outside the towns and villages we passed through. I saw buzzards and foxes, ravens, badgers, endless rabbits, hares, sparrowhawks, kestrels and kingfishers but I noticed every person, outside in the country. because I saw more buzzards than people.
The richer rural areas declare their status with endless signs threatening , prosecution, dogs, armed response, weapons of mass destruction for any individual rash enough to stray from the rural lane onto posh premises. The houses, glimpsed through the rambling razor wire, are set in extensive planting of four by fours, but no human is visible. The signs telling people to keep out are the only evidence of the existence of people.
Impeccably bred horses, (where do non impeccably bred horses come from, are they found under gooseberry bushes?) parade in fashionable rugs, on post and railed catwalks. In 200 miles Obama met one other equid, that wasn't stuck in a field. I have heard concerns over the right to roam, it shouldn't be a right, it should be compulsory. We have allowed huge swathes of England and Wales to become the private preserve of the rich and their security firms with their offensive, threatening graffiti.
As I amble past, I can enjoy the beauty of your house, and your land, and your trees and your livestock and hear the birds and smell the wind. When you drive past  Obama and I in your beautiful car, I can see the car, and appreciate its beauty. I know you can see the veneer and smell the leather, but then I can see the tree and smell the cow. You have paid, and you're inside. I haven't,  I'm outside.
Albert Camus' seminal, (which in my dictionary means unread) novel L'Etranger, always puzzled me because I thought "Stranger" would be a more natural, linguistically, translation, than Outsider. But Outsider is a word I feel comfortable with. My worthwhile life is outside, I no longer want to belong to an English society that is determined to exclude so many from a countryside the owners never go into.
I no longer want to belong to a society that clings to their right to use whips on ponies and horses when they have been rightly abandoned years ago with every other animal. lion tamers gave up whips years ago. I know guard dog handlers who can't believe that anyone would use a whip on an animal. Even the dog owners who upset the Government by christening their animals Tyson rather than Rover, and who walk down the road with tatoos, and rings and studs, don't carry whips.
I start a quiet discussion of my philosophy and it comes back to whips. Sorry folks, if it bugs you shut the door. If you want to see what you can do with a pony without a whip, come outside. It is beautiful out.

Body Language

To see some of my marginally more organised rants, try these links. If all else fails, try hitting them with whips. It works with horses, doesn't it? 

http://sites.google.com/site/wehithorsesdontwe/ 

http://saddlechariot.comlu.com/index.php

Body Language
I didn't mention Winston's teeth at all, but his tendency to come at me, at speed, ears flat back, and teeth on display, has reduced over the last few days. This sentence sounds like nonsense if you have come fresh to this blog, or if you are expecting yet more boring discussions of Parelli baiting.
But this is actually a continuation of my last blog on Winston's habit of kicking, and the incredible variety of uses to which he will put his feet. Obama, by contrast has only kicked me once, though he has threatened a couple of times when he feels I am being unreasonable. Obama has started to tread on my toes of late, but he is pretty discrete and tries to give the impression it is an accident, though I know full well, it isn't. For the first 17 months, he never trod on my toes, but now, if he is bored, will stand gently on my feet.
And once, really scared, on a narrow footbridge over the A30, that I knew scared him, he went up and came down, just brushing my shin with his front foot. But a 5' bridge doesn't give much turning room for a scared animal.
On the teeth issue, Obama has bitten me loads more than Winston, and a lot harder. Mostly he gets the back of my hand, or my forearm and just once he has bitten me on the chest, but I think he was aiming for my shirt.
Obama bites for three reasons, as basic communication, "Oi, look at me!", when he is bored or annoyed, as a message that something is wrong, crossed straps on the harness, traces undone or the painful version when he is scared. these don't divide neatly into three categories, and a more accurate description would be a continuum. But throughout the continuum, the teeth convey a message, and the harder the teeth, the more serious the message. When Obama is scared, the teeth hurt.
The bite that really taught me what was going on, when Obama chomped hard on the skin on the back of my hand, and held it in his teeth until  punched him really hard on the cheekbone, was entirely my fault. Punching him made me realise two things, the phrase "This will hurt me more than it does you" makes a lot of sense if you go round punching ponies on the cheekbone, and secondly, that before you hit a horse for biting you, ask why he is biting you, and have you ignored all his previous attempts to tell you something.
The same is true for kicking. I haven't listed all the kicks from Winston to impress you with how brave I am, though I am of course incredibly brave, but to try and explain how Winston communicates. Obama bites first, and kicks a long way down the line, with Winston we seem to have the reverse and he talks with his feet.
But I haven't a scar from all Obama's bites, or a bruise from Winston's kicks, and I don't expect to get one. I am not brave, I have just learned the concept of body language, and when Obama or Winston use it on me, I don't retaliate with unnatural violence.
The whip can deliver a level of pain that is out of all proportion to the physical exertion involved, and that, to the horse, appears almost magical. I know all the extension of the arm nonsense, but I was beaten at school, and I remember the level of pain. If you don't believe me, get your whip, bend over and get somebody you have just irritated, to hit you. When you crack your lunge whip, the tip goes supersonic. That is what causes the crack. The whip lash was the fastest man made object until rifle bullets went supersonic 150 years ago approximately.
Body language is about communication with the body, not escalating to seriously painful weaponry. Again, I will be told that we only stroke our animals with our whips. If my headmaster had stroked me with the whip, I would have been, very, very worried, but a tap with a whip conveys the message that the option to escalate is there. I could give you a massage using knuckle dusters, and if you had never seen them in action, you might be relaxed, and enjoy the massage, but if I had used them with force on you once, their touch, however gentle, would remind you that I have the power to inflict serious pain.
(And a quick message to the boys in blue, I don't have knuckle dusters, I have never used knuckle dusters, I was using a literary device whose name evades me.)
Both Obama and Winston have taught me that they have the skill and judgement to use their feet and teeth with discrimination, as an instant messaging system, I would prefer SMS but we can't have everything, so I have to treat kicks and and bites as communication. I tend to shout abuse at them, because both of them ignore the bad language, and do pick up the vague message that I don't really approve, without being frightened. Waving hands terrifies them both, but I know they have both been exposed to people with whips, and their reaction is one of simple terror.

I haven't dared show Winston a whip yet. He's still terrified of unarmed people. He may be OK with high speed double deckers, but joggers still worry him deeply. But as he meets more and more non horsey people, he is learning that there is a world out there where hitting horses is considered weird, freakish and rather nasty.
I was driving Obama through Exeter the other day, and a lady stopped me and asked if she could say hello to Obama. I said fine and she immediately started cuddling him and holding her hand to his mouth, but with no food. I asked her to stop as he might nip, and she said, "Don't worry. I've  had lots of horses!" About 30 seconds later Obama nibbled her and she stepped back and hit him in the face.
And then had the nerve to be offended when I told her what I thought of her. I am seriously having to consider not letting horsey people anywhere near Obama. He is fine with people who don't know about horses and ponies and who don't think they have the right to assault someone else's animal. But he doesn't like being hit by the horsey set. Who does. (He has nibbled non horsey people and not one of them has even thought of hitting  him.)
Another simple question. Someone is going to hit an animal with a whip in a public place and is not going to be arrested. What is the animal?
Rather trickier question. What has the animal done to deserve it?

Educating Winston

To see some of my marginally more organised rants, try these links. If all else fails, try hitting them with whips. It works with horses, doesn't it? 

http://sites.google.com/site/wehithorsesdontwe/ 

http://saddlechariot.comlu.com/index.php

I have started training Winston with 18 months of Obama as my background in training. Obama's training was the testing ground for my first system, no weapons, and you aren't allowed to DELIBERATELY frighten the animal. This system morphed into my Carrot Carrot, reverse clicker training concept, basically developed to wind up Theresa which is as good a basis for a training system as any other.
I still hold to the first principles of
NO WEAPONS
No DELIBERATE frightening of the animal..
Obama also benefited from Nick Sanders brilliant location in Brecon, and so I led him out into Brecon, and eventually to Birmingham.
Ducere, latin for to lead, ex, latin for out, Ex ducere, to lead out, the derivation of EDUCATION.
So I led Obama out. I haven't bothered to break him to drive, I just found that on the way back he tended to overtake me as I led him, so I hopped on the Saddlechariot. Pulling the left rein seemed to make him go left, and surprisingly pulling the other rein had the opposite effect. Pulling both slowed him down. That's his driving training. I educated him, I led him out and he learned about  life.
Obama and I have been far enough and fast enough, and through enough, for me to be pretty happy with the system.
So Winston arrived a couple of weeks ago. Not the easiest animal, with a reputation for kicking, and having done not a lot, or slightly less, scared of most things and prepared to kick what scared him. So I parked him at Adele's to see if he and Obama got on, which they did. But even with Obama present, walking down the drive to a seriously rural, dead end Devon lane, was too scary by half. I rapidly discovered that Winston wouldn't listen to me much while Obama was about, so we separated them for Winston's next stage training at Lee's place.
Here, I have mixed loads of treats with leading out. At first the ratio of treats to distance was disastrous. I doubt we were getting three inches to a grass nut, but gradually Winston realised that whatever he did, I was there, between him and danger, and with food in my hand. His behaviour was like a young foal suckling, nudging and nuzzling into me, and I could assess the stress by the amount of treats he needed to keep him happy, but after the third walk, he started to explore a few strides, take a few mouthfuls of verge, and then realised that on the way back, he knew the terrain, and more to the point that we were going back to a boring field, and he went from baby needing to be suckled, to teenager in a major strop.
The transition was nearly instantaneous, from "It's alll scary and I need a cuddle" to "I'm perfectly adult and I know what I'm doing" and he flipped happily between the two states dozens of times each walk, but two weeks from the start and he's taking high speed double decker buses and trucks in his stride.
He visits major office developments and sneers at the traffic on the M5, only occasionally reverting to babyhood, and needing a cuddle, but throughout the process, he has never been hit or threatened. I shout at him, I barge into his shoulder, I stand in front of him and make him walk backwards by walking into him, and when he tries to chomp into my hand when I am feeding him treats, I grab his nose and threaten to rip his nostrils off, but I never hit him, I never raise my hand.
To date he has hit we with all four feet, but only the first hit, hurt. I had just separated him from Obama and was trying to catch him, and he thought I was getting too pushy, so he spun and hit me just over my left knee with his left hind. It was a very precise hit, and he was within easy range of making it hurt badly, but this was clearly a warning. I accepted his point, and made sure I gave him space when  caught him a minute later. I just used more treats, less pressure.
The next kick was stroppy teenager, being taken back to his field, and he just hit my waistcoat with his right hind. The next two hits were front feet, having gone up in a playful strop. I just shouted at him both times, and he hardly touched me. Today he went up once when the pressure of traffic worried him, but didn't even try to hit me, then cow kicked me when he felt safe, but gently, and then tried to stamp on my toes twice, so I tried to stamp on his. I think we are level pegging on toe treading at the moment.
It's scary working an animal, that is so scared, so new to everything, but the buzz when he comes back with another fear conquered, is massive. Tomorrow I intend to put the Saddlechariot on him, and maybe take him round the cconstruction site for a laugh. I have to keep the pressure up as we intend to set off for Lndon on the 16th. We will drive Obama and Winston across Exeter on the 15th for a laugh and to get in the mood.

Parelli Blah Blah Blah Hypocrisy Blah Blah Blah

To see some of my marginally more organised rants, try these links. If all else fails, try hitting them with whips. It works with horses, doesn't it? 

http://sites.google.com/site/wehithorsesdontwe/ 

http://saddlechariot.comlu.com/index.php

Hypocrisy
My Parelli Blah Blah Blah post has found its way onto the Horse and Hound forum, not my natural habitat, and although I had promised myself i wouldn't say any more on the subject of Parelli Catwalk etc, the post in response did manage to irritate me enough to get me typing.

Here follows the text of my original post, and the H& H objection
Pat parelli
Pat Parelli is getting a lot of flak at present for a video of him working a horse at the Festival of the Horse. If you want the details, just google parelli and catwalk and it will be all over your computer like a rash. You will also see old videos of Pat and Linda Parelli working with horses in a way that "enlightened" horse owners won't like.
The Festival of the Horse video possibly shows PP going on for longer than he should have. Now I would have used a completely different approach, mostly involving treats, becuase that is the way I work. I doubt I would have been any more successful. But nothing PP was doing was cruel. Going on too long has to be the commonest mistake in horsemanship, the "one more go and he'll get it right" syndrome. Been there, done that.
The old videos of Pat loading horses and Linda with a horse on a long line are old videos. I have done things I regret. I suspect most people reading this have done things they regret. I hope I have improved as a horseman, but I have hit ponies with sticks and whips, I have banged them in the mouth with bits. I have been rough and agressive. I can't undo that. Some things are on video, they are all in my memory.
I can't delete them, I can't not have done them, but I am the horseman I am today because of my past mistakes. I hope I have learned, but the learning process is not helped by vicious attacks from the sidelines.
What is it about "natural horsemanship" people that they are so keen to attack those on their own side, but stay fairly quiet about the compulsory whips, compulsory bits, promotion of inbreeding, enthusiasm for shoes and disdain for safety that characterises traditional horsemanship.
I know a lot of Parelli enthusiasts, and I know they are completely wrong to pay money to Pat Parelli when they could pay that money to me. Yes Pat Parelli is a good businessman and makes money. Gosh, and nobody who does traditional horsemanship makes money, or is rich, or successful, or arrogant, or opinionated.
I don't use Pat Parelli's methods. Pat Parelli doesn't use my methods. I think mine are better, and I suspect he feels the same about his, but he has fought long and hard against the bedrock of tradition which I respect. I respect the Parelli enthusiats I know (and I still think they could give the money to me).
I watched a Parelli trained guy working with a string of young polo ponies, all on rope halters, all on loose reins, all fit and alert, and a joy to behold. I respect that and all the other examples of good horsemanship from PP's teaching. PP may have gone on too long at the Festival of the Horse, but then again it may have been necessary. His style isn't my style, but that doesn't make him a bad man. He's richer and more successful than I am, than most horsemen, and that doesn't make him a bad man. He may, repeat may, have made a mistake.
Most of us have. [Quote]
And here is the H&H forum answer

I think for the most part it misses the point. The point is that what people saw at the Festival of the Horse was not what the Parellis advertise - methods that use trust and understanding rather than restraints and mechanical devices.
The issue is not whether or not people cut down NH per se while not saying anything about whips, etc. (which is a strawman argument because the majority of responsible horse people I know are just as adamant against the MIS-use of such things as they are against the misrepresentations put forth by PP). Nor is it whether Parelli-trained horses are well behaved (the old end-justifies-the-means argument).
The issue is whether there is hypocrisy in using methods you've previously decried.
As soon as people steer their argument away from the specific instance and into the realm of "well, traditionalists do this..." or "I know Parelli-trained horses that do that..." they've lost the argument, in my opinion. It just becomes deflection rather than debate.

The straw man nonsense is just that. I am perfectly at liberty to discuss the use of whips and compare it to what PP did or didn't do to Catwalk. I only said that in my opinion, compulsory whips, and encouraging incest in horses are more important issues that attacking PP.
However, the idea that "responsible horse people are just as adamant against the MIS-use of such things as they are against the misrepresentations put forth by PP." is a truly frightening statement. Hitting a horse with a whip is nothing like saying its a left brained insomniac, or whatever the correct Parelli terminology is.
To repeat myself yet again, I don't use Parelli's methods, but he doesn't use mine so we are quits. But to equate his teaching with hitting horses, or forcing stallions to mate with their daughters, is sick. If this is the Horse and Hound version of "responsible horse people", I'm staying irresponsible.

But what got me typing was the old "hypocrisy" attack.
Horse and Hound's forum is up to page 166 on this attack on PP. Horse and Hound reported from the Festival of the Horse and their journalists interviewed stand holders there. If the Parelli Catwalk issue is so massive where is the Horse and Hound  story. Well it's here,
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/397/300317.html
and it reports the furore on the online forum, but no Horse and Hound journalist is prepared to make any suggestion that anything wrong happened at all. Is this hypocrisy?

All the statements by the BHS that vets had found a lesion and stopped the display seem to have disappeared into thin air. Is this hypocrisy?

And Horse and Hound forum can take the credit for getting me started on hypocrisy. I have been tryoing to avoid discussing this interesting subject because I really don't need new enemies.
Read the Brooke Hospital report on cruelty to horses.

In poor communities overseas, millions of families depend on horses and donkeys to earn a very basic living.
When animals become sick or injured, traditional treatments are often used, but some of these practices do more harm than good...
If you were to see the ‘treatments’ endured by these horses and donkeys, you would despair and wonder, what could justify such painful
and hopeless actions?
Why pour battery acid onto a horse’s wounded flesh? Or rub hyena faeces in a donkey’s eye? Or practice ‘firing’, by branding an animal with a red-hot iron?
http://www.thebrooke.org/temp/BrookenewsspS10spAWsp%282%29.pdf


And now read this article form the Belfast Telegraph of the 28th July2008

Horses brought to Ireland for 'barbaric' treatment of injuries
Monday, 28 July 2008
English horse owners are bringing their animals to Ireland to have them 'fired' for leg injuries -- a procedure that is now banned in many countries but not in the Republic.
For centuries, horse owners and trainers have been using the treatment for torn ligaments, caused by overexertion on the race course or competition field.
But now, veterinary surgeons question whether the treatment really works -- and some believe it is a barbaric practice that should be discontinued.
'Firing' involves putting what is like a hot branding iron to the horse's legs which increases the blood flow to the damaged tendon, after which scar tissue develops and the horse can be put back on the track fairly speedily, instead of having an 18-month lay-off or complete retirement.

OK. Can anyone see any trace of hypocrisy? Is it only me that sees this as sick, blaming the poor in third world countries for doing things while struggling to survive, which the rich in your own country do for fun?

It is this sort of hypocrisy that continues to justify the use of whips against horses, when there is NO other animal you can buy a whip for. If responsible horse people from the Horse and Hound forum, care about hypocrisy, try looking at this hypocrisy and doing something.

But I won't hold my breath.

Training with thanks to Temple Grandin.

No horse feeds another horse treats.
We all accept that in nature, horses, unlike dogs, primates, birds etc, will not feed each other. Well up to a point Lord Copper. Horses don't feed each other treats, the route is one way. Mother's feed foals.
I can't produce milk, but I can produce food out of my body, OK out of my pockets, but is this a significant difference to a horse, or a mule?

I am working with a rescue mule called Winston, who is very green, and very very scared. but feed him treats, and he likes you. Not only does he like you, he becomes progressively more babyish, and starts to headbut you, as foals headbut their mothers when he is scared, or stressed.
This gives an instant feedback of his feelings, and allows me to take him on  towards new experiences, or back to familiar areas, according to his stress levels. When the stress is high, a lorry has zipped past, or even worse a strange person has approached; he is butting at me, eating treats like a lunatic. Under severe stress, 2 or 3 grassnuts every 5 seconds is required.
Serious hand pocket coordination is required here. As the stress eases, the feeding frequency reduces and he will start acceptinng scratches as a substitute and then, the curiosity returns, and he is ready to explore again.
Temple Grandin's phrase "curiously afraid" sums up the situation perfectly. He loves exploring, but the new things he finds, worry him while he tries to assess the risks, but tucked up against mummy, suckling, he feels safe.
Of course he knows I am not mummy, count the legs dummy, and since my ears are totally inadequate by horse standards, to a mule they must appear ludicrous. But his behaviour to me is becoming more and more babyish. Again I return to Garndin who quotes extensive research on the dog wolf relationship.
Basically dogs are Peter Pan wolves, adult in years, but children in behaviour and appearance. Domestication produces neotony, the continuation of infant characteristics into adulthood. By feeding Winston on demand, and particularly when  he is stressed, I appear to be allowing his babyish character to be exposed.
He feels safe playing, and the minute we get back to known home territory, though he has only known it for days, he gives up the childish headbutting, and pretends to be a big savage adult, charging me with ears back, until that is, he is close enough for a handful of grassnuts.
Then he decides to be a proper mule, dig his toes in, and refuse to move, but a hand in my pocket and he comes forward, then remembers how grown up he is and attacks, until again he gets a scratch or a grass nut.
I'm not even using pressure release, it's body language, engaging in the games, playing grandmother's footsteps, until a car, or a person, or an echoing courtyard scare him and he headbuts for food and reassurance.
I don't know how the system will end, but I intend to go to London with him in about three weeks, from Exeter, with him in a standard Saddlechariot, and Obama in the Bannedwaggon. If my system is right, it's going to get a baptism of fire, but it works so far.
It is an update of the GODMOTHER concept which grew out of Grandin's explanations of Jaak Franksepps theories on the rleationship between PANIC and seperation anxiety. I will be trying to make sense of the theory, which is evolving daily, in this blog.

Progress.

I was coming into Cheltenham with Obama, a fair way along my route from Brecon to Birmingham. Yes, I do know there are shorter routes, but I wanted to stop off and see Patrick Meyer, Obama's foot trimmer, hoof boot consultant and a good friend.

We had set off with Saddlechariot and loaded trailer from near Flaxley Abbey, picnicked by the Severn, explored Gloucester, and were now heading round Cheletenham for Swindon, the small Cheltenham suburb, not the distant town, I am not totally stupid.

 But we had done near 25 miles, we were running out of daylight, running out of energy and I was rapidly running out of patience. The day before, trying to get the Saddlechariot and trailer down the east side of the Forest of Dean, unbraked, down an appallingly steep road was only possible by unhitching and holding the rig back myself while leading Obama.

 I only lost it and piled it into the hedge three or four times, but I had seriously frightened Obama when I tried taking it down with him in the shafts. Luckily, as an articulated four wheeler, the rig stops pushing if you swing the animal to one side, so although unimpressed and frightened, he wasn't damaged or terrified. But I pretty near shredded my left shoulder joint getting down the hill, so when we are outside Cheltenham, me leading from the outside because Cheletenham drivers give no quarter to ponies, every time Obama slowed, or grabbed a mouthful, it hurt like hell.

Couldn't he understand that we only had a couple of miles to go to a nice safe field, that his behaviour was risking both our necks and hurting me like hell. I was looking about for a stick because I know Obama is terrified of them, and he might then MOVE.

And all I had in the trailer was carrots. So I got them out and tried them. Go forward, get carrot. It works.

I had been brought up properly so treats are only used to catch the animal. Once it's caught, treats are an anethema, they make them bite, they make them nappy. You can't bribe them. I am sure some of you dear readers get paid at the end of the week, or month. Do you fling it back and complain to the police that someone tried to bribe you. Er... no, it's why we do the work. For the pay. So why shouldn't the pony get paid.

But the point I am trying to make is that I came close to thrashing Obama, and if I had found a stick before I remembered the carrots, I would have done. I couldn't bang him in the mouth with a bit because I drove the route with a rope halter, but if I had had a bit, his mouth would have been banged.

But this was the start of my carrot carrot approach. And I have gone a long way with it, and Obama and I are about to go further. Obama and Winston, the Mule are going to take Lee, last week a totally novice horseman, but he is driving Obama through town now so is coming along nicely, and myself, from Exeter to London.

We will take the Mark 10 Saddlechariot which was test driven as a prototype from Brecon to Birmingham, and we will take the Three mobile, my latest wheelchair enabled version because I have a few friends who want to drive Rotten Row in London, and this is the only way they can do it. We are raising money for Bookcycle, a brilliant charity, and we will learn lot on the way becuase we will make mistakes.

And when we have made those mistakes, we will look at what we have done, and what we should have done, but we will have to go on from where we are. We can't magically reverse history. We have to learn to say "spot the deliberate mistake" or "the exception proves the rule", or hope nobody was looking.

Lee and I will discuss endlessly what we did wrong, knowing why we made the mistake, what went before, what we thought............ but we can only go forwards. You make a mistake and you have to live with it. Obama still bites me when we start down a steep hill with a load. He remembers that horrible hill. And I get bitten enough to remind me, but then I have learned that bites tell you things. Obama bites when he is bored, he bites when he is scared, and he bites hard. But if I had never bored him, or scared him, I would never have learned that.

Mistakes are an essential part of progress, if you allow people to learn.

And I have learned. The vehicles going from Exeter to London will both have brakes. But Obama will still bite me when we start going down steep hills. I am learning still, I'll let Lee lead him down the steep bits.

Pat Parelli, Catwalk, Blah Blah Blah Nazi Blah Blah

 This is a quote from the Horse and Hound forum.

I don't doubt that people find discussion of and reference to either genocide or Nazi's distasteful. These things are particular human behaviours taken to extreme.

But all the behaviours which lead to genocide and the Nazi movement have been involved in the Parelli/Catwalk scenario, just at a lower level. Just to go through a few:

Blind acceptance of 'authority'
Witch hunt behaviours
Bullying/oppression of those less able than others to defend themselves
Self justification

I am sure a trained behaviourist or similar could be much more articulate on this matter, but I for one don't make a huge distinction between acceptance of someone who chooses to bully/oppress horses or someone who chooses to bully/oppress people. The former have just chosen an easier target.

 I can't decide on how many different levels this is offensive, but if Pat Parelli is upsetting this sort of person, I'll join him. To even begin to equate the Catwalk video and the Holocaust...................... words rarely fail me but this time they have.

I have used Nazi comparisons in the past, here is the link, so I may be a hypocrite, but at least an open one, but I was trying to argue a serious point about what I consider to be a dangerous obsession with breeding, not trying to equate a horse training session which left no blood stains, no injuries, no whip marks with death camps.

I have said before I disagree with a lot of what Pat Parelli does, I disagree with a lot of what YOU, yes you the person reading this, do. That is because I am an opinionated person. I have my opinions and until you all agree with me I will carry on promoting them.


While this sort of ludicrous attack is going on, it is impossible to discuss training methods. My next post is related to what I saw on the Catwalk video, and without being there, knowing the animal, knowing what went on before, and what happened next, I cannot give any useful comments, other than what I have already said, I think PP went on too long, and again as I have already said, this has to be the commonest mistake in teaching. That sentence is a ludicrous length but I can't be bothered to edit it.

I will stand by what Pat Parelli did because when someone is being attacked by lunatics, they need people to stand by them. If we can get this back to a discussion of a training session that may have had faults, (I say may, because I wouldn't condemn anyone on grainy broadband footage) then we can progress, and progress is the subject of my next post.

But I will also say, Pat Parelli has got an enormous amount of people to see there is another way to work with horses and he has produced some stunning results. I'm just jealous that he can make the money, and I can't. I suspect I amy not be the only one who feels this.

Heil Parelli, no, I can't see it really working. Can you?

Pat Parelli, Catwalk, Blah Blah Blah

Pat parelli
Pat Parelli is getting a lot of flak at present for a video of him working a horse at the Festival of the Horse. If you want the details, just google parelli and catwalk and it will be all over your computer like a rash. You will also see old videos of Pat and Linda Parelli working with horses in a way that "enlightened" horse owners won't like.

The Festival of the Horse video possibly shows PP going on for longer than he should have. Now I would have used a completely different approach, mostly involving treats, becuase that is the way I work. I doubt I would have been any more successful. But nothing PP was doing was cruel. Going on too long has to be the commonest mistake in horsemanship, the "one more go and he'll get it right" syndrome. Been there, done that.

The old videos of Pat loading horses and Linda with a horse on a long line are old videos. I have done things I regret. I suspect most people reading this have done things they regret. I hope I have improved as a horseman, but I have hit ponies with sticks and whips, I have banged them in the mouth with bits. I have been rough and agressive. I can't undo that. Some things are on video, they are all in my memory.

I can't delete them, I can't not have done them, but I am the horseman I am today because of my past mistakes. I hope I have learned, but the learning process is not helped by vicious attacks from the sidelines.

What is it about "natural horsemanship" people that they are so keen to attack those on their own side, but stay fairly quiet about the compulsory whips, compulsory bits, promotion of inbreeding, enthusiasm for shoes and disdain for safety that characterises traditional horsemanship.

I know a lot of Parelli enthusiasts, and I know they are completely wrong to pay money to Pat Parelli when they could pay that money to me. Yes Pat Parelli is a good businessman and makes money. Gosh, and nobody who does traditional horsemanship makes money, or is rich, or successful, or arrogant, or opinionated.

I don't use Pat Parelli's methods. Pat Parelli doesn't use my methods. I think mine are better, and I suspect he feels the same about his, but he has fought long and hard against the bedrock of tradition which I respect. I respect the Parelli enthusiats I know (and I still think they could give the money to me).

I watched a Parelli trained guy working with a string of young polo ponies, all on rope halters, all on loose reins, all fit and alert, and a joy to behold. I respect that and all the other examples of good horsemanship from PP's teaching.  PP may have gone on too long at the Festival of the Horse, but then again it may have been necessary. His style isn't my style, but that doesn't make him a bad man. He's richer and more successful than I am, than most horsemen, and that doesn't make him a bad man. He may, repeat may, have made a mistake.

Most of us have.