Natural horsemanship

Natural horsemanship probably has more similarities to western riding than English riding, and has become more popular in the UK in the last ten years or so. It's popularity is probably partly due to the way it promotes its intention to use an understanding of horse behaviour as a means of control, without using undue coertion.

Horse behaviour is understood in natural horsemanship through the recognition that they are herd animals, whose natural instinct is to run away from predators. Since humans are natural predators to horses, this means it's important to build a relationship of trust with the horse, and it is this relationship which controls the horse, not fear and pain. To build such a relationship means learning to 'speak horse', to interpret your horses body language so that you can predict how your horse will behave in particular circumstances.

Probably one of the core ideas in natural horsemanship, and the way that is different from other schools, is the insistance that the horse works best with a release from pressure, rather than from the continual applicaiton of pressure. So, the horse is tained to react to a 'cue' to perform a given action, and when the horse responds, the pressure is released. The horse then learns to act to the release of pressure, rather than the initial pressure itself.

Some riders who use the method don't use a bridle with a bit, and use reins made of rope and head collars to ride in instead of briddles. It might be argued that this very different approach to riding, although not completly accepted by many, has caused huge changes in the equestrian industry and the way we think about and use horses. This must be partly due to trainers and educators like Monty Roberts, the original Horse Whisperer.

Natural horsemanship can be attractive if you are learning to ride a horse because it does not rely heavily on 'jargon', and the sort of language that can be confusing because nobody can tell you exactly what it means.   Anyone who has watched one of the Parelli dvds will be struck by the way that things are explained at a basic level, but in a way that can be easily understood and copied.

But then again, lots of the things that natural horsemanship promotes are just common sense horse know how that classical or English riders would do anyway. No English rider would deny that the bond between horse and rider is paramount, and that using pain and fear are not a good way to go when training a horse.