In December 2009, I moved Shadow to his new home. Unfortunately at the time, he was suffering from an infection in his hoof, which we have been treating with the help of hot poultices, aloe vera, onion water, and some flower remedies.

While his hoof was bad, I did some gentle ground work with him, following the advice of a wwoofer* who has many years of experience with horses and is a stringent Parelli-ite (my name for anyone who follows Parelli’s every word). She taught me some interesting things; however, today I discovered something I’d been suspicious of for a while.

The Parelli work we did with Shadow and the rest of his new herd showed definite signs of improvement, the horses all became better mannered, Shadow settled in nicely… Then today I thought why not see if he’s up for some liberty again, something we haven’t done for some time. Shadow made it very clear that if I asked him to move his hind or fore quarters around or to back up, he would, but had not interest in playing with me what-so-ever!

What have I learnt from this? If you follow something like Parelli, religiously, you and your horse learn a method through which you, the human, gain results an can boost your ego. Not only with Parelli though. We should take a look at another famous horse man, who has touched many people’s hearts and goes by the name of Monty Roberts.

It was these people that first showed me >>>

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