Horse Guru
I haven't been to all the clinic, nor read all the books, and definitely not seen all the videos, but I have nosed about the training philosophies of different ... we'll call them "Horse Gurus." These are not people who train horses for a specific event. Most of their experience seems to come from simply getting horses to "behave" and work well
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I got into natural horsemanship long before it was popular. Not because I saw some clinic or was looking for a miracle either. Quite simply, I was a teenager with a very difficult horse and there was a cowboy at the barn and I *adored* his buckskin mare. One day while watching me struggle with my problem child, he offered to help me. And thus was my induction into natural horsemanship. He taught me everything I know and pushed only two items: a rope halter and a longer lead rope.
His name is Terry Tryon and since then, he has become a small-time clinician himself. You can check out his website at http://www.leanintranch.com
He is my man. His methods were simple. I think all of these guys use the same skeleton to build their program, so I've been taught pretty much what everyone else is teaching nowadays. Only it wasn't with gimmicks and it was very low key. Sadly, we couldn't help my problem child much--he had just been too badly abused and his mind was too far gone. But Terry taught me a whole lot and now all of it is the foundation for how I teach, start and handle any horse.
As for the other guys, I like Brannaman and Lyons, the rest are just too commercial for me. I even visited the Parelli ranch once, thinking I'd attend and get a certification. While Pat and his wife are very nice people (I have personally met and interviewed them both), their staff at the ranch are snooty know-it-alls that need to learn a thing or two about customer service. And I don't need to pay an arm and a leg for Pat's "official" gear when I can get it for half as much from my friend Terry, handmade by him, and designed specifically to fit each of my horses. :) However, that didn't stop me from accepting a bunch of free gear from the parelli camp when I was a journalist! lol!
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I do agree that a lot of them teach some of the same things: awareness of your body, awareness of your horse's body, and awareness of basic equine behavior and how this rules the interactions of the other two.
Yeah, I've vaguely toyed with the idea of getting certified (Lyons or Parelli), but for what I want to do (teach people how to ride/better communicate with their horses vs. fixing other people's problems) I think I'd rather gear my time towards becoming a certified riding instructor.
Free is always good *grin.*
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