Parelli Methods

[Cindyg]

Oh boy. OP, is it remotely possible for you to get an older gentle horse to learn on while your baby grows up?

I’m one of the few members of this board who was helped (a lot) by the Parelli program. I’m not into it any more, but I can’t join the hate fest either. There’s a lot of good in the program.

Getting into horses can be so tricky. They can be such a delight; and, yet, they can be so scary and difficult. There’s really so much to learn. And to say, “Get a trainer” – even that is no solution. Trainers vary widely in their skill level and their ethics.

Let me recommend a book by a friend of mine that is intended for new horse owners: Riding Horseback in Purple. Or come over to my horse’s FB page where I discuss the delights of owning a gentle horse.

[Alagirl]

[QUOTE=MunchingonHay;7875046]
How about lose the cake and marzipan and just wheel in 5 naked (good looking) men covered in chocolate ;)[/QUOTE]

Yes, I mean the bolded part…it could be a mankini clad lad…

[TBROCKS]

[QUOTE=m.james;7874563]
I’m not trying to spark a debate here.[/QUOTE]

Of course you aren’t!

Riiiiight.

[Guilherme]

[QUOTE=m.james;7874563]
So, I am fairly new to the horse world, I just got a beautiful American Paint foal. Trying to really familiarize myself with the horse world. I like to read up on horse news and whatnot. It seems that every time I pick something up, I read about the Parelli method. It seems to be every where, from success stories to tips, the Parelli name always seems to be mentioned.

I guess my question is, what is so special about the Parelli method? Does it have a significant change on the results of training? If so, what are those results? And are those results achieved only by Parelli?

I’m not trying to spark a debate here. Just trying to really get a grasp on what Parelli training is and why it matters, mainly for my own knowledge base. Would also love to hear about some first hand experiences. Thank you in advance for your time and responses!![/QUOTE]

I’ll be direct.

Parelli is a master marketeer with average professional skills. He has created an entire world where you must first buy his course on his language before you even enter his world. It is pricy beyond reason. I know a couple of Parelli followers who are good horsewomen but they were that before they started “doing Parelli.” While neither would likely admit it I think they became followers because they can make money doing it. I’ve less heartburn with them because I’ve seen what they do and I don’t have issues with it. With some other local participants I cannot make that statement.

New horse owners should not own foals. Period. Exclamation point.

There’s an old saying that “green on green means red on brown” (novice riders on horses beyond their skills leads to blood on the dirt). Sell the foal and go buy an aged “been there, done that” gelding. You will pay for such a horse but if you keep it up then in a couple of years when you develop some skills you’ll sell it for a good price to some other newbie.

If you are not a “troll” then welcome. If you are then go away.

G.

[merrygoround]

[QUOTE=enjoytheride;7875019]
[B][U]TROLL

[/U]Come on people. First time poster, brand new to horses, with a foal, wanting to talk about parelli. Don’t take the bait.

It’s not so much bait as an entire cake covered in chocolate, lined in marzipan, and then wheeled into your bedroom by 5 naked men.

[/B][/QUOTE]

OOOOOOOO! Yes!!

[airhorse]

I was told by a wise horseman to avoid anyone with a show on RFD.

RFD = Recipe For Disaster.

Parelli, once a mediocre horsemanship program, now a social media program.

[merrygoround]

Well if the OP is 1/2 serious they could give a location and someone could probably give them the names of appropriate help.

Having actually seen the results of a similar to OP’s situation, when they were practically giving away a 4 yo, 3 1/2 years later. And No! I didn’t take it.

[pAin_t_Misbehavin]

Getting into horses can be so tricky. They can be such a delight; and, yet, they can be so scary and difficult. There’s really so much to learn. And to say, “Get a trainer” – even that is no solution. Trainers vary widely in their skill level and their ethics.

Let me recommend a book by a friend of mine that is intended for new horse owners: Riding Horseback in Purple.

Cindyg, thank you for that link! I’m going to download it to my tablet and read it over Thanksgiving. Somebody should’ve written that book a long time ago - like, before I got my first horse :lol: - but I’m glad it finally exists. If it’s any good I’m getting my trainer a copy she can lend out to people.

OP - I, too, started out with a young paint horse. Not a foal, but he was three and recently gelded and green as grass. And I explored DVD trainers - only it was before DVDs. And RFDs. We just had books and then videotapes. So I think it’s perfectly possible you are genuine.

Let me give you the benefit of my experience. Sell the foal. Shop around for an excellent instructor. Go to every place near and far - first watch a lesson; then take a lesson. When you find the right instructor for you, take lessons for a year or so and then get a part-lease on a good old been there done that gelding.

Or, you can do as I did. Keep the unsuitable inexperienced paint. Spend lots of money having it trained. Buy the been-there, done-that old gelding to learn on while the paint is being trained. Finally get to ride paint, then, when paint goes lame, buy a youngish, been-a-few-places; done-this-and-that gelding with a kind soul. Find excellent trainer (now that you’ve been around awhile and know who they are) who continues to educate you and your new horse. But continue supporting the lame paint horse and the now-retired old gentleman. Learn more than you ever wanted to know about building fences and stables on your own farm because who can afford board for three horses? :lol:

You’ll save a lot of money and knocks to your confidence if you do it the first way. :yes:

[allons-y]

I’m a newbie here and I find you people equal parts amazing AND terrifying,lol.
But I do have to say, Aussie C.A. ground work really worked with my loony tunes OTTB. I suppose any good ground work would… But it did give me a solid progressive step program to follow. For his teeny tiny terrified of everything brain, it was priceless. I have a lot of experience with ‘project’ horses, , and this gave me some new tricks for my bag. I don’t care for his ridden work with head down like a dead man for instance. I just winnowed out what I liked and kept that. I never purchased anything, saw him (free) in a 2 day ‘show’ and went home and did it. For me and my horse it was a good decision.

[Haybert]

I am mad at a horse seller who sells a weanling (foal?) to a newcomer.

:mad:

But in the world of horses all strangeness is possible.

Aside from the fact that this guy needs a couple years as a youngster just learning horse manners at pasture with some buds, he needs a confident-in-their-skills basics trainer for things like leading, picking up feet, cooperating with vet, etc.

This takes time and patience, not games.

I won’t even touch on starting and making him into a proper riding horse. That is the realm of an experienced, seasoned person who possesses wisdom, patience and humor. That is not only harder to find than you think, but no amount of Parelli, or any other charlaton that sells you a set of dvds, will make it so for you.

I don’t know if you are legit in your post, OP, but give your guy a chance to be a horse before you try any of that rope flipping nonsense.

[walktrot]

So assuming you do have a lovely youngster buy a copy of John Lyons’ “Bringing Up Baby.” Good resource for older horses too. Then find a local trainer who doesn’t follow in the Parelli footsteps. Otherwise you could get tripped up.

[m.james]

I really appreciate all the feedback guys. You are all so resourceful, especially the list of books/reading materials I now have. For those concerned, I live with someone who has had many horses before AND I have been working with a trainer. Just couldn’t find the archived Parelli threads, and was only trying to learn/understand.

[Guilherme]

I just put “Parelli” into the search engine and got four+ pages of hits. Some had PP in the title, others did not. I did not try advanced search to do any narrowing.

You’ll just have to do some pointing and clicking to see what folks have said about him.

G.

[AnotherRound]

[QUOTE=enjoytheride;7875019]
[B][U]TROLL

[/U]Come on people. First time poster, brand new to horses, with a foal, wanting to talk about parelli. Don’t take the bait.

It’s not so much bait as an entire cake covered in chocolate, lined in marzipan, and then wheeled into your bedroom by 5 naked men.

[/B][/QUOTE]

Oh, Enjoy the ride, you are so my hero.

[AnotherRound]

[QUOTE=m.james;7876172]
I really appreciate all the feedback guys. You are all so resourceful, especially the list of books/reading materials I now have. For those concerned, I live with someone who has had many horses before AND I have been working with a trainer. Just couldn’t find the archived Parelli threads, and was only trying to learn/understand.[/QUOTE]

The best way to understand Parelli is to scrub it from your brain. Why would you spend time and energy learning something you shouldn’t apply to your horsemanship skills? You don’t ingrain negative information, you spend your time and energy learning correct information. Give it up and don’t be a sucker, learn the correct way to effectively interact with horses in general and your horse in particular and hire a local, real trainer who is experienced with youngsters. If you have read anything parelli, burn it off your eyeballs, for pete’s sake.

[AnotherRound]

[QUOTE=allons-y;7875780]
I’m a newbie here and I find you people equal parts amazing AND terrifying,lol.
But I do have to say, Aussie C.A. ground work really worked with my loony tunes OTTB. [/QUOTE]

Ground work worked with my TBX too. Ground work is part of every good horseman’s repretoire, but I have never ever twirled a rope or whispered a Pepperoni word anywhere near my horse. Everyone does ground work. Pretending that parelli invented it is eye rolling to say the least. The rest of the crap he did invent is no more useful than braiding a daisy chain and spending time with your horse asking him to stand still while you wind it around him. Bonding? Sure. Useful? You tell me what’s valuablel to you and your horse.

Groundwork isn’t the provenence of the Pepperonis.

[netg]

[QUOTE=MunchingonHay;7875046]
How about lose the cake and marzipan and just wheel in 5 naked (good looking) men covered in chocolate ;)[/QUOTE]

Mmmmmmmmm

[Sannois]

[QUOTE=m.james;7876172]
I really appreciate all the feedback guys. You are all so resourceful, especially the list of books/reading materials I now have. For those concerned, I live with someone who has had many horses before AND I have been working with a trainer. Just couldn’t find the archived Parelli threads, and was only trying to learn/understand.[/QUOTE]

Cannot help wonder WHY if you are just getting into horses would you buy a foal.? You say you have been working with a trainer, Why would your trainer recommend a foal for a new horse person.
Like someone said, green on green, not a good combo.
There are a lot of nice older type horses that are safe and dependable to start out on.

[Cherry]

C’mon peeps–don’t make the Mods have to come in to scold us and shut the thread down. Have you guys learned nothing?

Welcome to the board, m.james!

I personally used info provided by John Lyons on roundpenning to restart my eight year old Thoroughbred mare and it worked like a charm–after eleven days of hard work!

My advice is to find someone more knowledgable who can teach you to teach your foal–that’s the best way to learn… :yes:

My experience with the Parellites is that they spend all their time (I mean ALL their time) on ground work and never, ever progress to riding their horses… That makes me very sad for them…

[wendy]

Parelli actually helped a lot with the one and only unbroke horse I bought- the trainer I hired used Parelli stuff on the youngster for oh, three weeks? and then moved on to actually riding the horse and using regular ol wet saddle pad training methods, and the Parelli games seemed to really ease the horse’s passage from pasture puff into working horse with good ground manners.
There’s nothing wrong with Parelli’s stuff, but it’s just a sort of pre-riding preparation training, great to do with your horse for a couple of weeks in preparation for real training. Which most Parelli people don’t get- the classic Parelli joke is about the person who ends up doing nothing but playing the games and never actually rides.

-and you don’t have to buy anything, you can find a free description of the parelli games online, buy a lunge rope, lunge whip and you’re good to go.