A horse is a horse , of course ...
Natural horsemanship is about working with a horse ’ s nature , not against it .
Two cracks of a stock whip is all it takes for bay geldings Oscar and Maverick , two paddocks over , to raise their heads and come running to load themselves into the trailer . No coaxing , leading , or shoving . The whole exercise takes less than a minute . The loading the trailer YouTube clip is Russell Higgins ’ most talked about demonstration in natural horsemanship . The 4-star senior Parelli instructor and his 3-star partner , Ruth Carlye , have a horsemanship centre at Brumby Farm in Te Awamutu .
“ Getting into a horse trailer is a very difficult thing for a horse ,” says Russell , as any horse owner will know , and horsemanship is “ about taking the time to get horses to do things that they wouldn ’ t naturally do ”.
After all , it ’ s not even natural for a horse to let a person ride on its back , let alone be confined in a small space like a horse trailer – although Russell ’ s horses let him stand on them , they roll over for him like a dog , and they jump barrels for him without a rider . Horses are “ highly trainable ”, says the couple , you just need to be able to communicate in a way that they can understand what it is that you want them to do . At Brumby Farm , Russell and Ruth teach one to five-day camps and clinics to horse owners of all levels based on the Parelli programme of natural horsemanship .
They have an equine dream team of five bay geldings who help with demonstrations , and they also run stock for cattle camps so visiting horses can put what they ’ ve learnt to the test . The couple – he wears a cowboy hat while she rides and dresses British – primarily teaches people how to develop a successful partnership with their horse , but they also take in horses to train and hand back to their owners . Parelli is a philosophy in horse training coined by Pat Parelli in the 1980s . A former rodeo bronc rider , horse trainer and horse lover , Pat created the programme based on his observation of horse behaviour , psychology and communication . Pat discovered that a life-changing human-horse partnership is possible once people begin to think , feel , act , and play like a horse . Russell , who grew up on a horse trekking farm in the Bay of Islands where his parents broke in Kaimanawa horses ( then known as brumbies ), discovered Parelli in 1998 while studying equine management at Waikato Polytechnic . “ It just made sense to me ,” he says , of the logical , sequential approach . He went on to become one of Pat ’ s hand-picked apprentices , spending 18 months on Pat ’ s ranch , and has since established himself as one of Parelli ’ s longest-serving instructors . Russell has taught in 15 different countries , including at all the international Parelli centres .
“ Natural horsemanship is about working with a horse ’ s nature , not against it ,” says Russell , “ to work in a way that horses will understand because of the way they are wired .”
“ They think very differently , have different brains . They can ’ t think in ways we are able to , so people have a misunderstanding of their behaviours and actions .” And don ’ t even talk about personality – it ’ s “ horsenality ” – although some horses certainly are more suitable for “ people ’ s skill levels ”.
“ We try to treat horses as horses and not project our own feelings and emotions . “ What we do is very functional but it works . People want a horse in their life and it ’ s about helping them to enjoy that .” “ We are like marriage counsellors ,” says Ruth . “ A relationship with your horse can be very dysfunctional . We set it up so they work very well together .”