Trainer Pat Parelli

Pat and his wife Linda primarily work with beginners although they have excellent advanced levels as well.

Pat is known for his incredible ability to “read” a horse and know what it is thinking. And then there is his great sense of humor and non-stop interesting dialog. Linda has taken Pat’s ideas and helped get them organized and written down into printed material and videos that you can use to learn about horsemanship. Their training materials are the best in the business. They also train and certify instructors who conduct local clinics. And they have RFD-TV programs and an online store. Plus Linda is an excellent trainer in her own right.

Unlike many training programs, the Parelli™ method teaches the human, not the horse. Early on, Pat realized that horses already had all the skills they needed to thrive and relate with their kind. It was adding the human element that complicated things.

From their website:
“Born in California’s Bay Area, Pat Parelli was obsessed with horses at an early age. When Pat was just 13, a horseman and trapper named Freddie Ferrera of Livermore, California, recognized Pat’s talents with horses and took him under his wing. During the summers he would teach him valuable lessons about how to be more natural with horses, dogs, cattle, and with nature itself….

At the age of 17, Pat launched himself into rodeos, his favorite event being the bareback. A natural, with a good coach in John Hawkins, Pat won the Bareback Rookie of the Year title in 1972, his buck off average just 4%. Watching many rodeo athletes trying to move on, Pat was determined to find life after rodeo. A career in training horses seemed logical and he started a business that concentrated on starting colts.

However, like many trainers before him, it wasn’t long before the normal pattern of both equine and financial frustration set in and Pat found himself on the verge of getting out of horses altogether. This was not how he wanted to have to train horses, by processing them like inanimate objects.

Then three significant events changed his life:
1. He met Tony Ernst, from Australia, who was not only a student of the horse but was a disciple of the Kung Fu martial arts and a master musician;
2. He began to work under the tutelage of Troy Henry, a master horseman from Clovis, California, who specialized in training and developing both horse and rider for competition using psychology and communication;
3. He took an interest in developing mules to be able to perform like horses.

Through Tony Ernst, Pat learned about inner power and the Kung Fu principles of discipline, body control, and mind-body mastery.

Troy Henry opened up a whole new world to Pat by helping him understand the horse’s mental and emotional processes as a prey animal as well as the true dynamics of horsemanship and how they applied to performance horses.

The mules taught Pat the importance of reverse psychology, the principle of safety and comfort as the only real incentives, and developed in him more savvy on how to get a prey animal to “want” to perform. They also taught him about patience! In 1980, Pat founded The American Mule Association.

Being an intense student of horses and horsemanship, Pat had begun to develop his own style of teaching and expanding these principles. He also became interested in showing reined cow horses and was successful in reining and cutting events with both horses and mules.

One of the greatest frustrations Pat experienced in training horses was handing them back to their owners. He found that if the rider didn’t have enough savvy, the horses would regress. After much soul searching he finally decided that he couldn’t go on training horses to put up with their owner’s lack of skills and understanding, instead, he had to find a way to help people become more savvy with horses.

He soon discovered that he had a natural talent in finding the right words to explain what he understood about horses. So he turned his attention even more to helping people instead of training. He began to give “lessons” but had no idea that one day he would be able to help people on a much larger scale.

In 1983, while performing bridle-less at the California Livestock Symposium, Pat met three men who were to become major contributors to his knowledge. Tom Dorrance, Ray Hunt and Ronnie Willis. Pat hosted several of Ray Hunt’s clinics and spent time with both Dorrance and Willis, all masters that in one way or another became mentors.”

You can get more information at his website parelli.com.

Here is Pat at his best – no saddle and no bridle. There is NO SOUND on this video.