Impressions on Nat Geo's Dog Whisperer

First I wanna say I love watching Cesar, even though my dog has passed on. It was my familiarity with natural horsemanship that got me hooked on Cesar in the first place, the principles being so similar. Before ever hearing about Cesar, I used to practice a sort of driving game using zone 3 with my dog or bringing my energy up or down to get my dog to respond appropriately. It worked! I haven't tried driving the cat though.

Second, It was just awesome, and the commentary was great explaining Pat's techiques to the general audience. I was kind of worried about people tuning in and thinking, "whatsup with that guy, whacking that poor little pony with the orange stick like that?" Anybody else? And what about that Cupcake? wasn't she just too adorable?

And last, I've gotten choked up watching the Dog Whisperer before, but when Pat mentioned Caton I totally lost it. You could see Pat get genuinely emotional describing his son, given the context of the environment, and that he and Cesar would be able to help the center and the animals involved was I'm sure, very meaningful to him. I hope everyone that wants to gets a chance to see this--maybe Nat'l Geo could run it on their site or Cesar's site to promote "The Dog Whisperer" in general--or maybe as a lead in to a new show: The Cat Whisperer.

Another Great, Ray Hunt, Passes Away..

I just got the news from Daily Parelli that Ray Hunt passed away on March 12, 2009. I just went to the site and have not seen an update, but about a week ago I was at his site as well as the Tom Dorrance site (for the moment, the site is not working) catching up on these seminal horsemen who had been practicing their own special style of horsemanship through "feel." I believe the Dorrance brothers refered to their method as "It" before the Parelli's coined the term "Natural Horsemanship."

It seemed serendipitous according to Parelli, from an interview in audio format sent to Savvy Club members, and from his book "Raise Your Hand If you Love Horses" that he was at the right place at the right time in Califiornia when he crossed paths with Troy Henry, Tom Dorrance, and Ray Hunt, masters all, who eventually influenced and fostered Parelli's own endeavors. These men opened the door to the resurgence of the natural horsemanship phenom, so that new masters such as Parelli and his generation, each with their individual mark, could bring about change for the better for horses and their owners, creating themselves a new generation of "Natural's"

Here's but a few of Ray's common sense remarks on training:

"The human is so busy working on the horse, that he doesn't allow the horse to learn. They need to quit working on the horse and start working on themselves."

"The horse usually gets the job done in spite of us, not because of us."

Ray Hunt, Bless you for your contribution in making life better for our equine friends.