Post by Casper on Feb 26, 2007 18:58:55 GMT -5
Raise Your Hand If You Love Horses
Pat Parelli
with Kathy Swan
Described as a horseman, raconteur, philosopher, entertainer, and educator, Pat Parelli is truly a renaissance man in the universe of horses. "What I teach is so old, it`s new," he says. But more importantly, he`s brought a systematic, intelligent and savvy way to be with horses to people around the globe. Some of his knowledge and expertise has come easily, some with a high cost.
So, who exactlyy is Pat Parelli and what drives the man who`s become known as the world`s foremost proponent of natural horsemanship? Indeed, most people don`t realize that he and his wife, Linda, coined this descriptive term used in headlines worldwide. He`s the one person who has developed a methodical natural horsemanship program, and over the last 25 years, Pat`s mission in life has been to help natural horsemanship evolve from a back-yard phenomenon to a mainstream movement.
Raise Your Hand If You Love Horses chronicles the first 50 years of Pat Parelli`s life. From a kid growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area suburbs watching television Westerns to a young bronc rider, and from a typical horse trainer trying to make a living to an internationally renowned figure who has helped hundreds of thousands of people develop a partnership with horses, Pat Parelli has made a long and rewarding journey.
In his book, Pat describes the early experiences that shaped his life and reverently talks about the mentors who`ve influenced his thinking and helped him become a horseman. He details the struggles he`s had to overcome on the long road to success, and explains how he created an unparalleled program to help other people accomplish their goals with horses. Along the way, he fondly portrays the special horses who`ve helped him grow into the extraordinary horseman he has become. Also, the reader gets a glimpse into the future with Pat`s vision of where he thinks horsemanship is headed.
Pat is famous for his riveting way of making a point through the moral of a story. This book contains hundreds of Pat Parelli stories, from his earliest remembrances to the fabulous experiences and opportunities he has enjoyed in the last decade. As a bonus filtered throughout the chapters, readers are treated to "People`s Perspectives on Pat"-anecdotes in which Pat`s many friends, all well-known and respected in their fields, tell stories about him.
Pat Parelli has been able to break through the discipline barrier and touch every aspect of the horse world- English, western, racing, all breeds and activities. It`s been his passion to share his hard-earned knowledge with everyone who seeks excellence with horses. His dream and life`s work unfold on the pages of this book.
Read An Excerpt
19 Something For My Soul
"Casper is the most challenging horse I've tried to make a lifetime partner with."
Linda and I put on a clinic in a little Canadian town called Olds, just west of Calgary, in the summer of 1995. We had about 30 participants and about 300 spectators. During lunch break in out motor home the first day of the clinic, we both turned to each other and said, "Did you see the black stallion?"
The Black Stallion
I usually don't allow stallions in my clinics, but somehow this one`s owner signed up through the host or something and slipped through. However, we had no problems as the Quarter Horse stallion behaved himself. (He`s not known to be a noisy stud horse, but he`s not shy either.)
We watched him throughout the day and evening; out curiositites were piqued. When it came time to ride in the clinic, the black stallion`s owner, Hazel Street,asked if she could simply sit on her horse bareback. I said she could but asked her why. She explained that when anyone put a saddle on him, he`d really buck. He`d gone through six trainers, and no one had been able to get a second ride on him.
I said, "Ah, really, well then, why don`t you sit out the session, and afterward I`ll saddle him and see how it goes." To myself I said, "I really want to get the feel of this horse."
Linda and I had just completed a weeklong wilderness course, which we put on in Banff for some friends of ours who owned a pack outfit concession in that area. My slicker was still attached to the back of my saddle, and on the right side I had my rope and a Sierra cup (small, brass water cup). The latter was hooked to the saddle, and it made a tinkling noise whenever a horse moved.
I played with the handsome, race-bred stallion on the ground for a while. He was familiar with the Seven Games because he`d been through the course all day. When I put the saddle on him, I noticed that he got a little tight. I didn`t think that much of it until I started to cinch him, at which time his eyes bulged out of their sockets. He started to look like a Halloween cat- his back up, eyes wide open and a scared expression on his face.
I realized I`d better "let some air out," as they say. I had a rope halter and a 22-foot rope on him. I figured that with the rope I`d be able to double the stallion back when he bucked. No problem. I`d done it hundreds of times before with other green or difficult horses.
Tinkle, Tinkle
When the black stallion saw my lariat out of his right eye, he moved away from it, and, as he did, the brass cup made a little "tinkle-tinkle" noise. When it did, the horse lost it and launched himself into the air. As he did, I was prepared, or so I thought. I set back and held onto the rope. Rope halters are usually effective in this kind of situation because they`re thin. When a horse feels the pressure, he normally bends around to give to it. But the black stallion wasn`t a typical case. The halter pressure didn`t even faze the airborne horse. He hit the rope with so much force that he pulled me off my feet. I flew 10 feet before I landed on my belly. This horse had launched me in the air, and I`m a fairly big man. I can usually stop almost anything!
He bucked for at least a minute and a half- now, that`s a long time. Most rodeo horses have flank straps on them to encourage them to buck for eight seconds, but by the seventh second, they often start to slow down, stop bucking hard and run instead.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the black stallion stopped and took a deep breath. Then he moved again and, when he did, he heard the tinkle, tinkle. Oh boy, did the bucking ever commence. This went on for an hour! He`d stop, catch his breath, hear the tinkle, and explode again, and every time he put his heart into it. There was no bottom to this horse. I thought to myself, "Oh my God, this is incredible."
I already had a sore foot that day. I don`t remember how it happened, a sprained ankle or something. I was sore that morning, but by this time, I was hobbling around.
We were in an indoor, rodeo-size arena, and I had a crowd of 300 watching this whole procedure. Sore as I was, I played the Catching Game with the scared and distrusting stallion. Finally, he composed himself enough to canter around, turn and face me. I played with him until he got left-brained. (The left side of the brain relates to calmness and thinking. The right side is emotional and reactionary.) He`d been working out of the right side of his brain, which in him is very strong.
After a while, I was confident enough to get on him. And, as I`d expected, he felt like a wonderful horse to ride.
Casper, the Friendly Ghost
At a clinic the next day, I asked Hazel if she`d condsider selling the five-year-old stallion to me. She said, "Well...." and hemmed and hawed around. It turned out her husband, Brian, specializes in breeding and selling horses, and they`d purchased the horse to breed black and white Paint Horses. The stallion is a true blue-black color, not a fade-to-brown type of black.
Linda and I thought his name was a play on words. Casper, the ghost, is white, and this horse was anything but white. So, I asked Hazel why they called him "Casper." She remarked that he was a spook, but a friendly spook. It`s almost like he`s two horses, she explained. He can be one way one minute and something totally different the next. There was no in-between. She`s absolutely right. He`s juxtaposed in every aspect.
But, in my estimation, he was (and still is) one of the most magnificent-looking horses I`ve ever seen. He`s one of those "can`t-take-your-eyes-off-him" kind of horses. We came to an agreement with the Streets to buy him. And, at the time, he was one of the most expensive horses I`d ever bought. I didn`t get him cheap. I really wanted him.
We had a Canadian veterinarian perfrom a pre-purchase exam on him. On the X-rays, the vet found some changes in one of his front feet, so he didn`t declare him 100 percent sound. I didn`t care, though, and bought him anyway. The horse has never taken a lame step. He`s solid-footed.
I bought Casper at the same time we were in the process of buying the Pagosa Springs ranch. The place was literally falling down around us. Barbed-wire fences lay on the ground everywhere. Every gate had baling wire holding it together. Some were just baling-wire gates! We put the horses where we could, in the run-down, old red barn or in corrals, held together with aspen logs attached to posts with, what else, baling wire. The whole place was in shambles.
We`d been there about a week when we had to fly off to give a clinic. Jim Smith, who owns Boot Hill Saddlery in town, had become our friend early on and said he`d come out to feed the horses for us.
When we returned home, we found that somehow the horses had gottne loose during the night. Casper had arrived from Canada by that time, and apparently he and Scamp had had a romantic interlude. The following summer she foaled a filly we called
Touche because she had a beautiful "tush."
My Biggest Challenge
The first time I saddled Casper after he`d arrived in Colorado was in back of the old red barn, which had a makeshift round corral attached to it. Linda had a camera on hand, ready for the explosion we both expected would come. After I cinched the saddle, Casper bucked hard enough to jerk the lead rope from my hand again, as he`d done in Canada. He jumped so hight you could see the top of the barn door under his belly! Linda has the pictures to prove it.i He eventually came back to earth. I still say he`s the bucking-est horse I`ve ever seen.
Casper is very popular with the crowds at my seminars and demonstrations. He now has a Breyer model horse created in his likeness. Everyone always asks about the brand on his hip, which cosists of a rafter, an anchor and a 4. The rafter stands for the Street family`s household, there are four of them and they`re anchored together. I like that concept and wish I`d come up with it.
Casper was raised in nothern Canada. He has a scar on his left hind leg; it`s not bad, more of a thickening than anything else. The story goes that when Casper was a yearling, he and another horse were trapped in a corral by a grizzly bear. Casper jumped a five-foot fence rail to save himself. He`s a very intelligent horse; he figures things out. But at the same time, if he goes a week without being ridden, he`ll buck. He`s bucked with me several times in the past and three times hard enough to get me off. In my life, he`s the only horse that`s bucked me off three times. Even throughout my 14-year rodeo career, I`ve never had any horse buck me off twice.
Fortunately, Casper usually doesn`t buck with me on him anymore. The last time he did I was in a round corral at a colt-starting clinic. I`d roped a colt that moved around us, and, when he did, the rope caught under Casper`s tail. Oh boy, did Casper jettison me into the air. I can remember coming down, grabbing a corral panel and landing with my feet and hands on the panel. I never hit the ground! But there was Casper, jumping straight up and down in one spot. He`s an unbelievably athletic horse, who`s been a real provocative challenge for me, not just to get along with him, but to get him to perform. He hates to go bacward and sideways, so maneuvers such as lead changes and the peaffe are exceptionally problematical for him. My saying has always been, the worse your horse goes backward and sideways, the worse he does everything else.
I`ve played with difficult horses for a day or two, but Casper is the most challenging horse I`ve tried to make a lifetime partner with. It`s not because he bucks, is spirited or sensitive. Partly, it`s because he`s allof. He`s not gregarious. Even when he`s with the mares, he`ll stand at the other end of the pasture. T
hey can leave, and he often doesn`t care. That makes it hard because pair-bonding isn`t important to him. Still in all, there`s a special thing between us. He comes to me when he sees me in the pasture. He does something for my soul.
Pat Parelli
with Kathy Swan
Described as a horseman, raconteur, philosopher, entertainer, and educator, Pat Parelli is truly a renaissance man in the universe of horses. "What I teach is so old, it`s new," he says. But more importantly, he`s brought a systematic, intelligent and savvy way to be with horses to people around the globe. Some of his knowledge and expertise has come easily, some with a high cost.
So, who exactlyy is Pat Parelli and what drives the man who`s become known as the world`s foremost proponent of natural horsemanship? Indeed, most people don`t realize that he and his wife, Linda, coined this descriptive term used in headlines worldwide. He`s the one person who has developed a methodical natural horsemanship program, and over the last 25 years, Pat`s mission in life has been to help natural horsemanship evolve from a back-yard phenomenon to a mainstream movement.
Raise Your Hand If You Love Horses chronicles the first 50 years of Pat Parelli`s life. From a kid growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area suburbs watching television Westerns to a young bronc rider, and from a typical horse trainer trying to make a living to an internationally renowned figure who has helped hundreds of thousands of people develop a partnership with horses, Pat Parelli has made a long and rewarding journey.
In his book, Pat describes the early experiences that shaped his life and reverently talks about the mentors who`ve influenced his thinking and helped him become a horseman. He details the struggles he`s had to overcome on the long road to success, and explains how he created an unparalleled program to help other people accomplish their goals with horses. Along the way, he fondly portrays the special horses who`ve helped him grow into the extraordinary horseman he has become. Also, the reader gets a glimpse into the future with Pat`s vision of where he thinks horsemanship is headed.
Pat is famous for his riveting way of making a point through the moral of a story. This book contains hundreds of Pat Parelli stories, from his earliest remembrances to the fabulous experiences and opportunities he has enjoyed in the last decade. As a bonus filtered throughout the chapters, readers are treated to "People`s Perspectives on Pat"-anecdotes in which Pat`s many friends, all well-known and respected in their fields, tell stories about him.
Pat Parelli has been able to break through the discipline barrier and touch every aspect of the horse world- English, western, racing, all breeds and activities. It`s been his passion to share his hard-earned knowledge with everyone who seeks excellence with horses. His dream and life`s work unfold on the pages of this book.
Read An Excerpt
19 Something For My Soul
"Casper is the most challenging horse I've tried to make a lifetime partner with."
Linda and I put on a clinic in a little Canadian town called Olds, just west of Calgary, in the summer of 1995. We had about 30 participants and about 300 spectators. During lunch break in out motor home the first day of the clinic, we both turned to each other and said, "Did you see the black stallion?"
The Black Stallion
I usually don't allow stallions in my clinics, but somehow this one`s owner signed up through the host or something and slipped through. However, we had no problems as the Quarter Horse stallion behaved himself. (He`s not known to be a noisy stud horse, but he`s not shy either.)
We watched him throughout the day and evening; out curiositites were piqued. When it came time to ride in the clinic, the black stallion`s owner, Hazel Street,asked if she could simply sit on her horse bareback. I said she could but asked her why. She explained that when anyone put a saddle on him, he`d really buck. He`d gone through six trainers, and no one had been able to get a second ride on him.
I said, "Ah, really, well then, why don`t you sit out the session, and afterward I`ll saddle him and see how it goes." To myself I said, "I really want to get the feel of this horse."
Linda and I had just completed a weeklong wilderness course, which we put on in Banff for some friends of ours who owned a pack outfit concession in that area. My slicker was still attached to the back of my saddle, and on the right side I had my rope and a Sierra cup (small, brass water cup). The latter was hooked to the saddle, and it made a tinkling noise whenever a horse moved.
I played with the handsome, race-bred stallion on the ground for a while. He was familiar with the Seven Games because he`d been through the course all day. When I put the saddle on him, I noticed that he got a little tight. I didn`t think that much of it until I started to cinch him, at which time his eyes bulged out of their sockets. He started to look like a Halloween cat- his back up, eyes wide open and a scared expression on his face.
I realized I`d better "let some air out," as they say. I had a rope halter and a 22-foot rope on him. I figured that with the rope I`d be able to double the stallion back when he bucked. No problem. I`d done it hundreds of times before with other green or difficult horses.
Tinkle, Tinkle
When the black stallion saw my lariat out of his right eye, he moved away from it, and, as he did, the brass cup made a little "tinkle-tinkle" noise. When it did, the horse lost it and launched himself into the air. As he did, I was prepared, or so I thought. I set back and held onto the rope. Rope halters are usually effective in this kind of situation because they`re thin. When a horse feels the pressure, he normally bends around to give to it. But the black stallion wasn`t a typical case. The halter pressure didn`t even faze the airborne horse. He hit the rope with so much force that he pulled me off my feet. I flew 10 feet before I landed on my belly. This horse had launched me in the air, and I`m a fairly big man. I can usually stop almost anything!
He bucked for at least a minute and a half- now, that`s a long time. Most rodeo horses have flank straps on them to encourage them to buck for eight seconds, but by the seventh second, they often start to slow down, stop bucking hard and run instead.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the black stallion stopped and took a deep breath. Then he moved again and, when he did, he heard the tinkle, tinkle. Oh boy, did the bucking ever commence. This went on for an hour! He`d stop, catch his breath, hear the tinkle, and explode again, and every time he put his heart into it. There was no bottom to this horse. I thought to myself, "Oh my God, this is incredible."
I already had a sore foot that day. I don`t remember how it happened, a sprained ankle or something. I was sore that morning, but by this time, I was hobbling around.
We were in an indoor, rodeo-size arena, and I had a crowd of 300 watching this whole procedure. Sore as I was, I played the Catching Game with the scared and distrusting stallion. Finally, he composed himself enough to canter around, turn and face me. I played with him until he got left-brained. (The left side of the brain relates to calmness and thinking. The right side is emotional and reactionary.) He`d been working out of the right side of his brain, which in him is very strong.
After a while, I was confident enough to get on him. And, as I`d expected, he felt like a wonderful horse to ride.
Casper, the Friendly Ghost
At a clinic the next day, I asked Hazel if she`d condsider selling the five-year-old stallion to me. She said, "Well...." and hemmed and hawed around. It turned out her husband, Brian, specializes in breeding and selling horses, and they`d purchased the horse to breed black and white Paint Horses. The stallion is a true blue-black color, not a fade-to-brown type of black.
Linda and I thought his name was a play on words. Casper, the ghost, is white, and this horse was anything but white. So, I asked Hazel why they called him "Casper." She remarked that he was a spook, but a friendly spook. It`s almost like he`s two horses, she explained. He can be one way one minute and something totally different the next. There was no in-between. She`s absolutely right. He`s juxtaposed in every aspect.
But, in my estimation, he was (and still is) one of the most magnificent-looking horses I`ve ever seen. He`s one of those "can`t-take-your-eyes-off-him" kind of horses. We came to an agreement with the Streets to buy him. And, at the time, he was one of the most expensive horses I`d ever bought. I didn`t get him cheap. I really wanted him.
We had a Canadian veterinarian perfrom a pre-purchase exam on him. On the X-rays, the vet found some changes in one of his front feet, so he didn`t declare him 100 percent sound. I didn`t care, though, and bought him anyway. The horse has never taken a lame step. He`s solid-footed.
I bought Casper at the same time we were in the process of buying the Pagosa Springs ranch. The place was literally falling down around us. Barbed-wire fences lay on the ground everywhere. Every gate had baling wire holding it together. Some were just baling-wire gates! We put the horses where we could, in the run-down, old red barn or in corrals, held together with aspen logs attached to posts with, what else, baling wire. The whole place was in shambles.
We`d been there about a week when we had to fly off to give a clinic. Jim Smith, who owns Boot Hill Saddlery in town, had become our friend early on and said he`d come out to feed the horses for us.
When we returned home, we found that somehow the horses had gottne loose during the night. Casper had arrived from Canada by that time, and apparently he and Scamp had had a romantic interlude. The following summer she foaled a filly we called
Touche because she had a beautiful "tush."
My Biggest Challenge
The first time I saddled Casper after he`d arrived in Colorado was in back of the old red barn, which had a makeshift round corral attached to it. Linda had a camera on hand, ready for the explosion we both expected would come. After I cinched the saddle, Casper bucked hard enough to jerk the lead rope from my hand again, as he`d done in Canada. He jumped so hight you could see the top of the barn door under his belly! Linda has the pictures to prove it.i He eventually came back to earth. I still say he`s the bucking-est horse I`ve ever seen.
Casper is very popular with the crowds at my seminars and demonstrations. He now has a Breyer model horse created in his likeness. Everyone always asks about the brand on his hip, which cosists of a rafter, an anchor and a 4. The rafter stands for the Street family`s household, there are four of them and they`re anchored together. I like that concept and wish I`d come up with it.
Casper was raised in nothern Canada. He has a scar on his left hind leg; it`s not bad, more of a thickening than anything else. The story goes that when Casper was a yearling, he and another horse were trapped in a corral by a grizzly bear. Casper jumped a five-foot fence rail to save himself. He`s a very intelligent horse; he figures things out. But at the same time, if he goes a week without being ridden, he`ll buck. He`s bucked with me several times in the past and three times hard enough to get me off. In my life, he`s the only horse that`s bucked me off three times. Even throughout my 14-year rodeo career, I`ve never had any horse buck me off twice.
Fortunately, Casper usually doesn`t buck with me on him anymore. The last time he did I was in a round corral at a colt-starting clinic. I`d roped a colt that moved around us, and, when he did, the rope caught under Casper`s tail. Oh boy, did Casper jettison me into the air. I can remember coming down, grabbing a corral panel and landing with my feet and hands on the panel. I never hit the ground! But there was Casper, jumping straight up and down in one spot. He`s an unbelievably athletic horse, who`s been a real provocative challenge for me, not just to get along with him, but to get him to perform. He hates to go bacward and sideways, so maneuvers such as lead changes and the peaffe are exceptionally problematical for him. My saying has always been, the worse your horse goes backward and sideways, the worse he does everything else.
I`ve played with difficult horses for a day or two, but Casper is the most challenging horse I`ve tried to make a lifetime partner with. It`s not because he bucks, is spirited or sensitive. Partly, it`s because he`s allof. He`s not gregarious. Even when he`s with the mares, he`ll stand at the other end of the pasture. T
hey can leave, and he often doesn`t care. That makes it hard because pair-bonding isn`t important to him. Still in all, there`s a special thing between us. He comes to me when he sees me in the pasture. He does something for my soul.
i have linda`s signature on every ticket i have for parelli(as well as pats), the brochure that i got at my first parelli seminar, my book about pat, and a hat that says Parelli and has their logo.