ACTHA Monthly | November 2014 | 7
My Secret
By Nancy Slater
ACTHA's Open Division National
Champion 2013-2014
Licensed 2 Star Parelli Professional
and horsemanship coach
Shaman was an untouched 2 year old when I bought her. She was a bright eyed, clean slate. I started her on line and at liberty. Then, as she grew, I introduced and transferred those ground work teachings to the saddle. By carefully working on Shaman’s mental, emotional and physical fitness during our training sessions together, at the age of 3, I was able to enter her into our first Obstacle Challenge together- and win! She continued to win other Obstacle Challenges, and at age 5, she won ACTHA Nationals in the Open Division!
Except for local gymkhana shows when I was a kid, I had only ever been a pleasure rider. I never had a lesson, though I rode most of my life. Learning a “natural” approach to horse training turned out to be the key to my success.
Moving the body parts with unseen aids became obtainable using ‘phases’ of 1) suggest, 2) ask, 3) tell, 4) promise. Establishing rapport, making sense out of pressure, and giving everything a purpose, she and I had a lot of fun together! She looked at me differently. She WANTED to be with me, even though we worked on more and more advanced tasks over time.
Shaman discovered I was always looking after her best interest, and I knew what motivated her. She is a Left Brain Introvert who can get easily bored, pushy, argumentative, food focused, disinterested, and lazy. Being as gentle as possible, as firm as necessary, and using what she likes: food, scratches, rest, interesting, fun things, I brought out a clever, calm, confident, dependable, consistent, tolerant, interactive friend!
And that’s my secret. Parelli Natural Horsemanship.
On my journey, I learned:
Horses working out of heart and desire, do everything better!
Read and listen to Shaman
Give her exposure and experience to different places and things
Approach and retreat to build her confidence
Put pressure on slowly and release quickly to encourage the try
Teach with both consistency and variety
Teach the components of a task separately, then combine
Stay focused