I want to try natural horsemanship but I'm not sure it will work on my horse?

When an only child lives in an isolated location and never learns the social skills required in order to appropriately interact with other children, if he moves to the city, the child may have trouble adapting to the social demands presented by being thrown in with the well socialized children he encounters there. The child still thinks like a child, even though he may not know much about how to interact as a child.

The fact that he lacks social skills doesn't mean the child can't bond with and learn from a competent teacher. Your horse is the perfect candidate for application of skilled NH training principles. NH training is about working with the nature of the individual horse, and is equally as much about teaching humans to listen more and bully less. You don't have to act like a horse to train a horse, but you need to understand why horses act and react in the ways they do. All you have to do is learn to understand her ways of interpreting and reacting to her experiences, appreciate her limitations and strengths, and apply that knowledge to working with her nature instead of against her nature in order to gain her cooperation and respect.

Parelli is ok, hes not my favorite, but you shouldn't avoid him like the devil. I personally love Clinton Anderson, I think he and Buck Braneman are the simply, the best. I went and watched a Monty Roberts clinic a couple years ago.... I think the old man is losing it. He was doing things that made no sense, and were just down right dangerous, the whole audience was wondering why he didn't have a hoofprint in his fourhead.

Google some natural horsemanship things, or buy some books. In all reality It shouldn't be called "natural" because in my opinion it's just good horse sense everyone should have. The end results are truly worth it.

People who say natural horsemanship doesn't work, have obviously never done it right, or actually seen what it is, or what it's trying to achieve.

Both comments so far are cool! I will add: Your horse is a horse, she has the same instincts and impulses that the western derived "Natural Horsemanship" (Tom and Bill Dorrance / Ray Hunt, Buck Brannaman and later, Parrelli / Andersson) acts upon with positive and negative reinforcement to train horses. Having said that, you can train a horse, with time and patience, to DO just about anything.

Where I find this subject becomes exciting is when you widen it and see training as only a part of the whole story. The soul journey which horses are able to touch in us is astounding.

Are you familiar with any of this? If not this is some stuff I find highly inspiring:

This trailer show pretty well the abundance of other trainers with very different philosophies.

Path of the Horse:

http://youtu.be/9j0Z19IhgPA

Just some cool vids..

Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling:

http://youtu.be/bhNXt_c2nXw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHyPWkg8POw&feature...

Alexander Nevzorov:

http://youtu.be/zkR5-mrxbjw

Enjoy!

I have five haflingers all bought greenbroke and normal horsemanship was the one approach to settle there nerves, they have been all exactly such as you describe your horse. Nonetheless i used no books, videos and so forth. In my view every horse is one-of-a-kind identical to each individual is distinct, what works with one horse won't nessecarly work with yet another in case your horse would not preform leg instructions it manner you do not have his full attention you would not have his concentration considering the fact that hes looking at things to be fearful of its now not your fault its simply what younger horses do, mine did precisely the identical. I found that lengthy sessions of grooming helped the horse relax and learn that no harm will come from me. When riding out my horse would always spook, so i determined to lunge her for 10 minutes on every rein with distinctive objects round her that might rattle and be unusual to her like luggage and so on when she in the end went out she can be relaxed as she had already seen and heard the things that scared her and she or he finally discovered they would not damage her, it was once after that i was equipped to college her as i had her full awareness and now strikes with grace and not ever bats an eyelid at a thing. The excellent recommendation i can give you is consider like a horse and then your horse will eventually see things through your eyes.

To be honest, I have studied a large number of NH trainers and found them to be very similar to each other. The big red flag is the ridiculous price tag on the "training toys" and the cult like products. Parelli used to be my favorite untill it became all about selling crap at five times their value. I personally make rope halters superior and custom fit for horses for only ten bucks compared to over fifty for Parelli's. I use american made rope as opposed to the chinese crap Parelli uses.

Your horses situation is exactly why you SHOULD consider natural horsemanship. What you are describing is a horse that is feeling out of place in a herd. She needs a leader. One who will not chase her off or beat the crap out of her. ( what she probably fears when near a herd). She has assumed her position as the bottom rung of the pecking order ladder. She may always be the bottom of the herd, but that does not mean she cannot become a better horse.

Study various NH methods and combine the exercises that seem to fit you and your horses needs. Take the training SLOWLY and make it enjoyable. One of my mustangs was like this and I found that taking baby steps in the routine gave much better results than the faster climb up the training ladder did with the more agressive members in the herd.

She IS thinking like a horse, she thinks she is the low man on the totem pole. Enjoy, take your time, and work first and longer on the non lounging parts of the NH training. i.e. despooking, flexing, yo-yo game, etc.

Also visit the ACTHA ( american competitive trail horse association) web sites and extreme cowboy challenge sites. You will see how courses are set up with things like landscape timbers, tarps, balls, . are used to train and despook a horse. Plus, these are a hoot to play with at home.

Below are some pictures I took at our recent Trail clubs' challenge. This is a bridge built onto a single 4by4 post laid flat in the middle. The "bridge" tetter totters when crossed. I can post more pix. if you wish.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50856837@N04/80015525...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50856837@N04/80015509...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50856837@N04/80015427...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50856837@N04/80015405...

As you can see in some of the above pixs, some contestants clearly learned where their horses needed improvement. Despite the difficult obstacles, they all had FUN !

By all means go for it. Natural horsemanship will "work" on any horse, whether it is a problem horse or not. Have you heard of Kelly Marks? She uses Monty Roberts' method and is awesome. Check out her book, "Teach Your Horse Perfect Manners".

Natural horsemanship isn't some kind of different way of training.

It's just a warm and fuzzy term that means you don't use force or intimidation or pain to train your horse.

that's it.

It's what people use to train a horse, who don't want to beat their horse, or cause their horse pain by using twisted wire bits, or whip the horse to submission.

That said, your horse knows she's a horse, so what's putting her in a pasture got to do with you training her? Nothing.

You can train her with whatever method you want.

Just because your horse wasn't raised with other horses, doesn't mean she can't learn from the other horses how to act and what's expected of her.

Also, she's a mare. So, being that, she may be a loner more so than a gelding would. Lots of mares do that. They don't like being around other horses too close to them. that's normal.

So, bottom line...put her in a pasture with other horses and go use Parelli or whatever, and simply be humane. that's natural horsemanship...being humane.

Agree with Prodi, except: Avoid Parelli at all costs. Especially for an orphaned horse who may have distorted views on personal space. Parelli also has some warped ideas about what his students should pay for traditional training tools simply because he names them something cutsie and paints them a different color. Parelli is the devil, IMO.

Monty Roberts, Buck Brannaman or John Lyons are much better mentors.

I used pat parelli's level one CD for ground work training and I loved it!

just cause you're horse is not really into horses shouldn't effect your results in natural horsemanship.