JP Giacomini’s blog post today was very interesting to me. He clearly outlines the differences between young horse training in classical dressage vs. natural horsemanship, and a bit about the British system. While not critical of NH and the British systems, he does point out where the weaknesses are.
This caused me to reflect a bit. My early training was with various instructors, the best of which was trained in the British system. I credit her with my decent seat and soft hands.
I didn’t start horses. I rode schoolies. I rode anything. And most of them were pretty tolerant of the various kids and beginners that ended up on their backs. But they certainly were not terribly sensitive. Even as an adult, I don’t think that I ever really had the chance to ride a true schoolmaster. So it was a joy to have a chance to train my own horses to be light from scratch. I’ve tried to do my best so far with Lily and Paisano. Lily was really my guinea pig in that respect, so she has a bit more to fix. Paisano came through it more cleanly. 
Now I think that it’s time soon for me to find a good instructor with a schoolmaster. I want to go the next step in my own horsemanship. Cirro will reap the benefits of that! I’m not sure how often I will be able to fit lessons into my horse budget, but I do want to do it. I have feelers out, so stay tuned…
I love that horsemanship is a never ending journey. There is always another level to look to. And since I keep running up against references to Nuno Oliveira’s writing, I must pick up a book or two…
Interesting post by JP Giacomini’. This part:
“The criticism I hear most about my approach (which is pretty
standard today in Portugal and Spain) is that the young horse is
deemed to be “rushing”. This is an incorrect assessment because a rushing horse goes faster than the trainer wants him to go while our youngsters go AS FAST as we want them to go because we push them until they offer no resistance to the fluidity of the forward movement request. Only when we know they are truly willing to move, are they allowed to slow down. I have now included in my progression the more useful parts of natural horsemanship and my own relaxation method (endotapping), but without ever forgetting the classical principles without which there is no proper training possible.” (reposted from “The Centaur Blog”)
This explains exactly what is desired from a gaiter before we ask him to gait. Especially an SM gaiter. First the foundation forward (walk, trot, canter), backward, sideways, pivots fore and aft, speed changes, solid stops quiet feet. no head set, push push push for forward momentum in all gaits, build responses. Then and only then when the horse is fluid in all of these “tricks” do we begin asking for gait in a percise way. This can take two years and in the end as the horse develops along his head comes in to proper balance and his body builds round and thick. You will be surprised to see how much “gut” Paisano develops when he gets around to gaiting with confidence. It’s called stomach crunches.
Anyway I agree with this guy in his approach. Coming from a Natural Horsemanship perspective, my training basically follows the same principle. Forward movement whether it’s in the round pen, on the lunge line. or under saddle. Where I disagree is that not all NH methods are fast in terms of having horse backed and working in 3, give or take a day or two, days. Parelli (not my favorite) takes up to 7 years to develop a horse. Most folks never get past the 7 games. However, the program for those who follow it (properly) to its end produces a superb well balance horse and rider in whatever discipling they choose.
Oh and Natural Horsemanship is not the name of the cowboy roundpen methods. It’s the trademark name of Pat Parelli’s program.
Getting the bad rep of the “cowboy way” again.
I thought that Parelli’s was Natural Horse•Man•Ship. NH in lower case or just the word, to me is all sorts of methods, not just his. I haven’t looked into his methods too much. I wasn’t willing to spend the bucks for his started package.
In any case, I also agree with JP’s ideals. The trick for me at first, was to not be afraid of the forward in a green horse! There is the unknown with them. Will it be just trotting or bucking??
That is where the experience of the rider/trainer comes into play. You have to be secure, relaxed and confident enough to let the horse move. Forward needs to feel okay for them. Control and collection comes pretty easily. Then again, mine had so much ground work, ground driving and general stuff done with them that the actual riding wasn’t much of a big deal.
I think it’ll be time to start Cirro on some simple driving soon!
Back in the day when Parelli started out you never heard of Natural Horsemanship – the term did not exsist. Pat coined it and trademarked it. The media picked it up and ran with it for every western roundpen method trainer that came along. Not all of the trainers that are categorized as NH are NH trainers. But they use the same tools.
Yes I do a lot of ground work too and my horses are already moving out fluidly before I get in the saddle. It is then a very short time before the horse has his wits about him enough to move out under saddle too. I have a very strict line that I draw where behavior is concerned – my young horses are good concentraters they already have quiet feet and learn very quickly that when I threaten to dismount their feet better be quiet. The result of busy feet is a few turns around the pen riderless. Most of them learn very quickly that they dont want me to come off their backs. When we speed up if they get a bit out of sorts all I have to do is stand up in the saddle as if to dismount with my hand on their neck and they stop and plant their feet. The same result comes if I get out of the sweet spot or lose a stirrup. The same discipine is used for shaking heads, switching tails, mouthiness etc once I know that there isnt a discomfort other than having to be ridden involved. The foundation work for this is started from day one and I do not move on until I have the feet completely under control. That can take three days of hard round penning or three weeks of easy round penning being very specific about boundries. My round penning also moves to the stall or pasture at leisure times. If I show up and need the horse I call him to the middle of the area and if he doesnt comply he gets a few turns. The same rules apply no matter where the horse is. He never gets confused about where the rules apply. When I take a green horse out away from the round pen I use my lunge line (that thing is my best friend). Its always attached to my unfinsihed stock and ready to round pen right where they are no matter where that is.