Natural horsemanship has been around since the Native Americans discovered that horses were of great value and had to be treated with respect. From a young age Pat Parelli was intrigued by this fact. Most “cowboys” trained their horses using harsh whips and spiked spurs, but a few extraordinary people would do it all naturally. This is what Pat Parelli wanted to do with his own horses. Little did he know he would become a world famous trainer with his own program. Pat Parelli is an important person to know about because of his influence in natural horsemanship which is illustrated in his early life experiences, creating the Parelli program, and being on television.
Pat Parelli was born in the California Bay area. He lived in your typical American…show more content… Soon Pat and Linda had riders from all over the United States coming to their clinics. The definition of a Parelli attitude is positive, progressive, and natural (“Savvy Times”). Pat broke down every element of ground work, riding, and free-riding. The very first step of starting is called the “seven games”. It is a series of interactions that gets the horses mind focused and paying attention to its rider. The first game is called friendly. All you do is rub the horse all over with the lead rope, touch its ears, lift up its tail, and lift its feet. It gets the horse comfortable with being touched. The second game is called porcupine. Using the tips of your fingers, you apply pressure to a certain part of the horse to make it move. For example, if you wanted the horse to move its back feet, you would press on its hind quarters. The third game is called yo-yo. You stand directly in front of the horse, facing it, and slightly wiggle the rope until the horse backs up. If the horse doesn’t back up immediately, then you would wiggle the rope more vigorously. Game number four is called the circle game. You lunge the horse around you in a circle a few times one way and a few times the other. The fifth game is called the driving game. You take what is called a carrot stick, (which looks like a whip but Pat is admit that it is NOT a weapon) and circle it in front of the horses face until the horse moves. Game number six is the squeeze game. You would set up a barrel close enough to a fence that you can barely get in between it, and then make your horse walk through it. The last game is called the sideways game. You would take the carrot stick and wave it to the side of the horse until it takes a few steps sideways. These famous “seven games” are what Pat is known for. It is the most popular technique in natural horsemanship