About Mickey's Natural Horsemanship Journey

My History with Horses…
Because I’ve lived in Texas all of my life, I was lucky enough to grow up around horses.  However, I never owned my own horse until my wife and I moved to our small place (~5 acres) near Magnolia, Texas about twelve years ago.  Once we had the place fenced, we decided to purchase our first horses, and we’ve been on a remarkable journey since that time!  Most of my life I’d ridden Quarter Horses, but when I began to look for my first horse, a friend asked me to look at a breed I’d never heard of…  Paso Finos…  I fell in love after my first ride, and purchased my first Paso about ten years ago (we now have four beautiful Pasos!)

My first Paso, Consul, was a Dark Bay, and to be honest wasn’t really the horse of my dreams, because I really always wanted a Buckskin Stallion.  He was beautiful, had an excellent gait, and was more fun than I’d imagined!  Consul was so well trained that I think he compensated for my rather limited horsemanship skills.  In the horse world Consul would be called push-button, which obviously compensated for my inadequacies.  After all, in my early days, I received more training on how to muck a stall than on how to ride and handle horses!!!

Consul de Calidad

Excelente Sueno (Excellent Dream)

Through some quirk of fate, the breeder from whom we purchase Consul offered us a beautiful Buckskin Paso Stallion named Excel.  He was young with much less training, and the horse I’d always dreamed of!!!  I had my hands full with this horse since day one.  While I felt I could ride any horse, I quickly realized that I really didn’t know enough to be able to ride this horse, and our early days together were less than remarkable.  Luckily I didn’t blame Excel for these frustrating experiences; I was more frustrated with myself.  I felt there was something missing from our time together.  Now I would call this “Relationship”, but it took me a very long journey to get to this realization, and to begin to develop this “Relationship” with Excel…

My Introduction to PNH…
After riding with several Paso groups in Parades, on a Paso Drill Team, and on various trail rides, etc., about six years ago my wife and I decided that we should look at some other horse activities.  We found a Gaited Horse Clinic that was being held near Dallas, Texas, and off we went.  Much to our surprise, these folks were teaching us something totally different than we’d expected or had even anticipated.  The clinician kept mentioning some guy that we’d never heard of named Pat Parelli, and discussing his philosophies on Natural Horsemanship!  I think the only thing we really got from this clinic was that this guy had a video training course on Parelli Natural Horsemanship (PNH) that we could purchase and study, if we wanted to learn more about Natural Horsemanship.

So I purchased the PNH Level 1 Kit, watched the video, studied the accompanying reading material, and went out and played with my horse.  After a month or two, I felt I really had this stuff down, and we decided to attend our first Level 1 PNH Clinic.  I quickly found that all my efforts to date were basically a waste of time!  There was so much more to these games and riding exercises than can ever be understood by watching a video!  I was totally humbled, and vowed that I would start to really learn what PNH was all about.  I had no idea if this would help me with my horse, but at the same time it couldn’t hurt, and we really needed something to move us to the next level of our relationship!

My Path in Natural Horsemanship…
Since this initial L1 PNH Clinic, I have attended countless L1, L2, and L3 PNH Clinics with countless PNH Certified and non-Certified Instructors; attended other Natural Horsemanship Clinics by trainers such as Aaron England, Clinton Anderson, Stacy Westfall, and others; read books by Tom and Bill Dorrance, Buck Brannaman, Mark Rashid, and others; viewed videos of outstanding horseman such as Frederic Pignon and Magali Delgado, Alexander Nevzorov, Mario Luraschi, and others, and taken years of private lessons from a local L4 PNH Student and friend, Cindy Deaton…  So what have I gained from all this?  Basically, I have learned that I still don’t know enough to consider myself competent in Natural Horsemanship, and I may never learn enough.  With each new skill I learn, I also learn that there are infinite nuances to this skill that I know nothing about.  This is a very humbling journey for those of you who might have some inkling to follow my path, but at the same time it is extremely rewarding!!!

Excel and I playing in our Arena…

So after all of this, where am I now?  While I am still searching for new insight from anyone involved in Natural Horsemanship, for me the Parelli Program seems best suited for my needs.  I am currently, and will probably always be, a L3 PNH student.  Some have said that I could pass L3 with a different horse, but I have realized that assessing L3 isn’t really my goal, and wasn’t what put me on this path through PNH initially.  My goal is to improve my relationship with my horse Excel, and try to build the best partnership possible with this wonderful horse, and PNH offers me this opportunity!!!  This realization was recently made clear for me, or in PNH terms: “I had a BFO!” (Blinding Flash of the Obvious), when my wife and I attended the Parelli Tour in Belton, Texas.  Watching Pat and what he was able to

accomplish with his horse was awe inspiring to me, and renewed my interest in the PNH Program.  I highly recommend to anyone and everyone interested in Natural Horsemanship to attend one of these events!  It may change your life, and more importantly, your horse’s life!!!

What have I Gained from Natural Horsemanship?
Like any normal person, I am thrilled when folks recognize some of my accomplishments!  It makes you feel good to be recognized for your newly found skills, and really boosts the old EGO!!!  I have numerous examples, and following are just a few:

·         At a local horse event someone was having difficulty loading their horse, and someone pointed to me and suggested that I could help.  They were trying to pull the poor horse into the trailer, and were somewhat concerned when I didn’t use force to load this poor frightened animal.  It took awhile, and several folks seemed convinced that this weird stuff I was doing wouldn’t work, but you should have seen their faces when the horse walked into the trailer with me outside!!!

·         I was asked to give a PNH overview to some Paso folks a year or two ago, and while I was discussing one of the PNH games Excel wandered off.  When I noticed he wasn’t there, someone offered to go get him for me, but I said no thanks, and asked Excel to return to my side.  You should have seen the look of astonishment on their faces when Excel walked back to me!!!  Several folks commented that he acted more like a dog than a horse!!!

·         I had to take our young mare to the Vet about a year or two ago.  We hadn’t worked with her much on PNH, and after the appointment she didn’t feel like loading back into the trailer.  I began working with her a bit, and several of the folks at the clinic asked if they could help with her loading.  I said thanks but no thanks, and kept working with her.  About twenty minutes later, she walked into the trailer by herself and I started to pull away.  When I looked in my mirror as I was driving away, several of the folks at the clinic were outside cheering!!!  Way cool!

·         At a recent Natural Horsemanship Clinic, I was in rather a heated discussion with the Clinician about some point, and he commented that I was probably a better horse trainer than he.  I don’t think he really meant this as a compliment, but you know…  It really was!!!

·         My local PNH instructor on several occasions has indicated to me that I’m one of her best students!  What a rush!!!  Plus, we were talking about possible Clinicians that I might want to study with, and she indicated that my skills were better than several that we discussed!  I needed something to deflate my head for the rest of the day!!!

·         And finally, I was at a local Paso event recently, at one of my best friend’s house who has been studying Natural Horsemanship for some time.  Someone was interested in purchasing one of the young horses that was there that day, and they asked me to work with her in the round pen so they could see her gait and how she moved.  After working with her in the round pen for about twenty minutes, she was following me around like a puppy.  After this, my friend indicated that I had exceeded his horse training abilities, and that this session was beautiful to watch.  I didn’t know how to react to such kind words and was a bit embarrassed, but my wife cleared the air by saying “He better be good after spending $100,000 on lessons and clinics!”

Like I said, all this really boosts the old Ego, but to be honest, while these things are nice to hear and experience, they just aren’t the real crowning glory for me in Natural Horsemanship.  I’m not sure I can really put into words how I feel now with my horse.  He is so very different than when we started, and you know…  So am I!!! 

Possibly a small example will covey this feeling? 

Recently, I was with my wife while she was taking a private lesson, and I was allowed to use the arena while she and the instructor were working.  After, working with Excel on transitions and some bridleless riding, I took his saddle off and washed him down.  It became apparent to me that my wife’s lesson was going to take more time than I had thought, so I jumped on Excel bareback and rode over to listen to the lesson.  Just to hang out, you know…  Anyway, while sitting there I decided to work on how softly I could ask Excel to move his Forehand and Hind Quarters around.  In the saddle I was able to accomplish this now with only a light touch of my calf, but I wanted to see if we could refine this to an even lighter touch.  Before long it became apparent that all I really needed to do was to slightly flex my inner thigh muscle to accomplish the move I wanted.  At the same time, my wife’s instructor had decided to play some music during their lesson, and Excel and I started moving this way and that with the music.  This is the closest I have ever been to dancing with my horse!!!!!!! 

What can I say…?  You really have to feel this experience to even begin to understand!

In Conclusion…
I feel extremely rewarded by pursuing my journey in Natural Horsemanship, and PNH for me has been the best endeavor I have ever undertaken.  Yes, it can be costly, but the payback is…  Well it’s more than I can even put into words!  In looking back, the only thing I wish is that I would have found this way of life many years before I did.  I am so very envious of the young folks who are getting into the Program, because they will have so many more years of this joy! Because of Natural Horsemanship, I have a new and ever improving relationship with my horse, Excel; I have an opportunity to experience this relationship with my younger horse, Regalo; I feel more confident when I’m around our equine friends; I have developed new friendships that mean more to me than Gold; and most importantly, I am a much better person than I ever imagined!	Regalo (My new boy…) & Excel (My friend…)
I’m not sure if what I have said has or will help you in your journey, but if you decide to follow, this will be my biggest reward!!!