by April Corvino

Created on: January 23, 2010

This is a bit of a touchy subject for some. I have been on both sides of the spectrum on this. Even I see no proof of it being a sales gimmick since if anyone takes the time to read Pat Parelli site since he is the one to coin the phrase Natural Horsemanship. He uses some to most of his training based on Native American training. So how can it be dangerous. I also have read of another Gawani Pony Boy who is in fact Native American and teaches how to work with horses in  the natural way. Some people say it is. My horse was considered dangerous. If we treat our animal like a tool and not as a partner who says we won't get hurt. I can tell you  I have not been hurt by my horse but I have on occasion gotten on others horses and not had a great experience. So I am going to go over a few reasons why I believe it is not a sales gimmick.

Dangerous, that is the word I hear when I say something about natural horsemanship. How dangerous is it if we give a beginner a really harsh bit for a horse. I was taught to always put a nicer bit since the person is learning and we don't want the horses mouth being hurt. Yet I have heard others say other wise of that technique. Have you ever heard you attract more bees with honey. I used his methods from level one and I have a very loyal horse. How can it be a sales gimmick when others seem to be safe with his methods. (sigh) if you do not take the time to understand and try to speed through because they know what they are doing and they don't need to worry about how the horse is we just go through the steps instead of actually feeling what we are to be accomplishing with the natural way of training.  I hear about too many equine specialists who are self proclaimed. Me and my friend when we here that we turn the other way since they usually have no clue. I had the chance to work with one and people say my horse is crazy. She was terrified of my horse and tried to get me to sell him and yet I have been safe for 5 years with out incident.

I can only think of a few ways this kind of training can be dangerous. It is in how you train with the natural horsemanship since most unless you go to a trainer can misunderstand a certain point or decided to add their own ingredient to the mix of natural with non natural since once you get your horse thinking wow this is fun and then change it to not you will of course get some kind of negative reaction. Gawani Pony Boy talks of how the horse and rider would

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