Natural Horse-Man-Ship: Six Keys to a Natural Horse-Human Relationship [Paperback]

This book offers a structured approach that people find comfortable but I would recommend that if you do buy this book also buy Mark Rashid's book, "Horses Never Lie: The Heart of Passive Leadership," and/or Marty Marten's book "Problem Solving, Preventing and Solving Common Horse Problems" and/or "True Horsemanship Through Feel" by Leslie Desmond and Bill Dorrance.

I found Parelli's book to be the best help - it started out with more specific exercises and details on how to applied what I'd learned. In one year working with Parelli book techniques a few times a week my horse went from green broke to "too well trained" to be enough of a challenge for me. I have since attended Parelli seminars and bought the "system" to start my new horse. I disagree with the reviewer that said some of Parelli is untrue or unsafe - that some horses cannot be ridden bareback. Parelli has a very detailed system with very specific pre-flight checks that guarentee your horse will be safe before you get on. If the horse is not safe to get on bareback, then he is not really mentally ready to get on with saddle & bridle either! It's all about preparing his mind and starting a relationship - and it does take patience & lots of work (DON'T try to rush it or shortcut). If you are looking for a quick way to make your green broke horse into an old trail horse, this book is not for you. But then again, you probably will get sick of trying to "train" your horse and be like the 80% of new horse owners that quite before the 1st year is up.

In Parelli training with Teri Palmer, I saw some "un-sane" horses with terrible relationships with their owners being ridden by the last day with a lead rope and halter. My new horse was on the other end - terribly confident and walking all over me. It took him a VERY long time to pass the "pre flight checks" (as Pat says to each new lesson & test, "I've never seen it take more than 2 days!"), but once he did, it allowed me to ride with more confidence and way more safely (no one in the program had a single problem, spook, stubborness, or anything on their horse!!!!-and everyone was there because their horses were terrible originally). The book does describe these pre-flight checks, but I recommend getting a video or going through training if you are unsure about any one of them since seeing it is easier to understand than reading it.

I do say though that although the book is a good start, the parelli trainer sessions (level 1) really helped me with some of the confusion and questions I had about certain techniques. It was very expensive, but so interesting that my auditing husband signed up for the last 2 days after the first 2 were so progressive. I would highly recommend that if you are serious about trying parelli, you consider sessions with a 3 or 4 star trainer, even over buying the system. And find a friend interested in working with it also - it's easier to bounce concepts off each other and get some feedback while working your horse. And it helps with motivation - I'm a "common just do it NOW" type person and it took alot of motivation to take a step back and really do things right (as my horse was ready for).

I'm actually out here today looking to buy Linda Parelli's riding video - I feel that I'm not quite communicating what I want to now that I'm up on my youngster bareback and I really like the way Linda communicates her ideas (she helped organize Pat's).

One other nice thing about the book - if you don't like it, you can alway sell it for asking price on ebay. One downside with parelli - although you can make your own tools (and I did), his ropes and carrot stick are really one of a kind and are expensive. His rope is custom made for his company, and is much much heavier than all other ropes - you cant buy this rope at any store that I've found, or already made lead ropes of this sort. I used much lighter rope of the same size & softness, with heavy clasps on the end, and it's much less effective in giving signals (but it does work sort of). The carrot stick can easily be replaced with any 4-5 foot stick with leather taped on the end(and he uses golf club handles on the end) and if you are new at it a lighter stick won't wear you out as fast (this stick is heavy). The savvy string is a must - it's also extra heavy weight, and there are no replacements (trust me I tried). And obviously rope halters are easy to make or buy on ebay.