The Pat Parelli and Catwalk saga: a week later

Very interesting post. I have never tried commercialized NH (I agree with others that what many call good horsemanship, is essentially NH) but have always been intrigued by it. After watching the video (and reading the comment that this went on for two hours) I'm impressed that everybody walked away physically unscathed. Kudos to Catwalk for not acting out more violently. It seems to me that in this instance, where the horse was already traumatized from a previous event, it would have been more beneficial for someone he already knew and trusted to be the one trying to bridle him. I guess this has always been my problem with the stars of NH - it's all about them and the horses are simply a vehicle for stardom.

Whew. What really bothers me is they admit the next day they went back to the horse for more torture! The poor horse! Who has been dealing with lots of horses for a long time and hasn't had a horse who was hard to bridle? I've seen harness racehorses hard to bridle in the paddock where the groom actually climbed up on the horses back and bridled them gently by unbuckling the cheeks and sliding it up. I have seen ignorant young men (grooms in the race paddock) who have every right to be cruel, lose their temper, etc. and be macho with an audience -- and yet do it easily and quickly with the help of an upturned bucket to stand on. I have seen handicapped children saddle and bridle sour old school horses no one could even catch in the stall! Shame on these people. Hilda Gurney has said many times, if violence made a Grand Prix horse, there would be a million of them. Horses know. I feel for Catwalk and I would like to know if the owner of Catwalk is finding him easy to bridle NOW.

None of this is surprising about the Parellis.

The Parelli system is predicated on the idea that you can teach the method to anyone without having to first or concurrently teach the student how to read a horse. This explains why the method doesn't address the issue of the horse planting his ears back and looking irritated or shut down. It also explains why there's no Plan B for the individual horse when the Parelli method attempt fails. You just keep on Parelli-ing.

Bridling a difficult horse is something everyone comes up against at some point in a life with horses. It takes some creative thinking to figure out what will make that particular horse offer to accept the bridle and not just for today. For today, tomorrow and next year. What the Parellis were doing in this video was never going to be more than a sideshow trick even if they had managed to bridle the stallion.

Thanks for making that video, John. I applaud your willingness to jump in feet first.

This is horse training at its worst.

And the music...What is this, a cocktail party and the entertainment is forcing a horse to be bridled? People need to quit giving the Parellis their money. That will solve the Parelli problem!

Yuck.

Thank YOU, John, for standing up for the horses and being unafraid to publicly have enough backbone to do so.

I had a young horse one time who was difficult to put a bridle on. I looked in an old horse training book I had and it mentioned putting molasses on the bit. Which I did and the horse was always great after the first time I did it. The only problem was what to do with the quart of molasses I had bought.

Shame, shame ,shame! Shame on Parelli for doing that. Shame on Catwalks owner/trainer/groom for not stopping that. Shame on everyone with half a brain and any heart for not voicing objection to Parelli and/or organizers of event while this went on for 2 hours. SHAME, SHAME, SHAME!

Obviously a very difficult case, probably many different ways to handle it, how long was Pat to be in town? How did the horse get this way? How many handlers previously tried to help this horse? Was the horse fearful or was it a lack of respect? How often had this horse been bridled previously and how was it done? Does it have to be right or wrong? Is the horse in a better place now not having to go through the mental stress of the past? What if nothing had been done? How many horses go through worse treatment in their lifetimes? How many people try to help? How many people devote their entire lives making the world a better place for horses? How many people live perfect lives without mistakes? How many horses forgive humans for crimes worse than this? Horses dont care how much we know till they know how much we care. I for one make mistakes on a daily basis with my horse and I believe he accepts my imperfections and hopes I'm a better communicator tomorrow. I think he believes I can change. : ) We are all on a journey in life and we are where we should be. Catwalk and Pat were destined to meet for whatever reason, regardless of the outcome, I hope they both learned from it and changed for the better. There are many horses who could benefit from this experience in many different ways.

I think that it is wrong to edit out moments in the video which has been done in the youtube vidoe of the page(video taken by the cell phone) if we are to make a judgment it is not by cutting out bits it sdhould all be shown and then we can talk about it! at the ythe moment it looks like the horse was calm but just a bit uncomprehensive in which case it was rong of parelli to have used such methods however if the 800 kg jumping machine jumped on him violently then ther is no questyion that parelli did the right thing as even when trying to do things in a gentle way sometimes dominating a horse is done by violence afterall that is what riding a horse is allabout,yes i agree that the horse should resprct and look up to the rider however i think it is rong to sugest that pat used visious techniques to bridle the horse! it has been said that catwalk is now bridling much better and parellis work has done the world of good!(parrerlli works with horses he does not just show off his skills to the public he trains tham and takes the risk of failing infront of lots of people to show us his method! utherwise he would have just simply got an underwait old horse and showed you how to move over a barrel!
I think that it is wrong to judje him on one demonstration which was more a job than a demonstration as well somtimes if ypu do not want to be killed by 800 kg stallion you have to use a little bit of violence! It has been said that catwalk is not injured in any way and is now better where is the problem!
People have made way to much of a fuss about this and have judjed off false and edited scripta and have lead to lead to think that riding horses is an easy thing with just a carrot and some scoccing a horse will do whatever you want it to!!! Hey remember they are not stupid and i think that it is an embaressement to the humain race as to think this!!
Pain is a method of suductionj and if you look around and think for tywo seconds you will understand!!!! Next time you see an angree father smack his son think of pat and catwalk it is the same thing!!!!!! ~And i dont think that every child ythat has been hit a few times is a traumatized creature! they are just respectfull!!!
When one of the whitakers wins a grand prix with catwalk they can think back and say that it was all down to parelli!
People who try to make the world a better place for horses are not geneouses they have just sat down and tried to understand!!!
For violence go and look in any of the fantastic studs and wards all around the world and then think if ten minutes of hell for catwalk really is worth a 16 year old boy such as my self to have to sit down and write somthing like this!!!!!

Hopefully somoene will read this and maybe i will have helped some people make a decision!

Showmanship and trust issues do not go well together. The arena environment not appropriate for training. Horses often do not take to strangers, and need a week or so to get to know the new handler. I have 35 years exp. with starting young horses. Pat did the old cowboy quick fix and it went badly. I watched the video. These methods are not a good idea for novices, such as the ones that attend Pat's exhibitions.Because of PNH I get a lot of failed do it yourself spoiled horses for retraining. If you buy a horse that is not trained consider hiring a good reputable trainer. Unbroke, horses are dangerous! Apprenticeship is how I learned. I believe it is the best way and safest way!

Much of the parelli dvd's and videos are focused on reading the horse.

Amen!

Much of the Parelli material is focused on reading the horse. You might want to research before you base your opinion on miss information.

"Old Cowboy" version is the exact thing I think when I see his demonstrations...I grew up training Quarter Horses around some of the epitomes of old west. Most of the methods I saw were harsh and to the point (...for expediency and profit mind you) , and they were methods I purposly worked to not mimic. I had wondered for awhile what was so "natural" about his (Parelli) program and all I seem to see is knee jerk, old fashioned, forceful methods with a new tool or two. I've had this arguement with some very strong supporters of his method, but for me the bottom line is; We need more of a "relationship" with our horses. I've trained countless horses, in a calmer more gentle manner and been by far happier with the results (problem horses and all)
Anyone who makes it important to own one of his products the basis for training a horse has already made the wrong decision in his mind about how to work with a horse.
Valkyrye

I hope that Pat "Oat" Parelli and Catwalk were brought together for the higher purpose of torpedoing the Parelli pyramid scheme. And whatever did you mean, Shannon, by, "There are many horses who could benefit from this experience in many different ways"? Surely you're not suggesting that there are numbers of horses that would benefit from the treatment poor Catwalk received from Parelli because I can't think of even one.