Parelli Natural Horsemanship

Join Pat & Linda Parelli and friends as they travel the world teaching Natural Horsemanship.

Pat and Linda Parelli are internationally renowned as some of the world’s most provocative and most respected thinkers and teachers of Natural Horsemanship.

Their teaching style is magnetic, motivational and effective. In fact, their teachings are in such demand that they have groomed Parelli Instructors to teach more of the Level 1 Partnership and Level 2 Harmony clinics while they begin to concentrate on the higher level students.

More than fourteen years ago, Pat turned his focus from training horses to teaching people and has put a great deal of study into the development of his programs. Human nature makes us all want to start with, “Teach me to spin...to slide...to jump...do lead changes...to ride with collection. I don’t want to do the basics, they’re boring”.

Pat found that if he could teach people to become horsemen first and to have savvy in four basic areas: On Line, At Liberty, riding Freestyle and riding with Finesse...that they would be able to do anything they dreamed of with a horse.

What you will learn through Parelli are not the usual basics, but are some of the most advanced concepts in horse psychology and behavior around, as well as some of the most advanced techniques in working with horses both on the ground and on their backs. Pat’s students achieve in just a few weeks what it takes most people a lifetime to master.

How can you learn those elusive skills of feel, timing and balance? How can you learn to become a true horseman and a natural with any horse you touch? It took Pat more than 20 years to learn what he knows, but now is able to teach students in a few years what took him a lifetime to achieve. Because there is now a system and progressive steps in every level, students save years of time in developing their savvy.

How good can you become with horses? And how will you know when you are that good?

Most riding schools focus on just that- riding. But as a horseman, riding is only one quarter of the skills and knowledge you need to be safe and effective with horses.

Horses are more than just a riding animal. They are an attitude on four feet. They have instincts, thoughts and emotions about people just as we do about them. Their attitude determines whether they will respond or react, positively or negatively.

Unconsciously, people trigger survival instincts in horses all the time and usually with great consequences. A horse will do anything to escape if he perceives his survival is threatened.

Because people aren’t usually taught how a horse thinks, the bolting, rearing, striking, bucking, kicking and biting are labeled as " vices,” when in fact, they are sure signs of self-defense or poor communication and a lack of trust and respect.

Horses are herd animals that have a strong need for social order. They regularly challenge each other to find out who is the strongest, fastest, quickest and the bravest among them. Once the alpha horse has been established, the dominance games go on until the pecking order is established all the way down the line. And don’t think it stops there! When people come into the picture and the horse has gotten past his innate fears, he will play these same dominance games with his human. Understanding horse psychology is a big key to becoming skillful. When you understand that survival, comfort and play are important to a horse (and in that order), and you learn to read his body language you have the basic building blocks of communication.

Understanding his games and his needs and then playing those games with him helps you become his alpha, his leader.

Learning these things about a horse develops a level of savvy in you that is rare in the horse world, but a savvy that’s unmistakable in students of Parelli Natural Horse-Man-Ship.