What is Natural Horsemanship?

According to Pat Parelli, one of today's most inspirational teachers of such methods, "Natural Horsemanship is so old, it is new again". Such good horsemanship has been around since the days of Xenaphon (365 BC) but we have somehow got lost along the way.

Today, we are trying to break down the prey-predator barrier by using a form of communication based on the horse's natural body language and the games that they play with each other in the wild. By helping the horse to see the human as less of a predator and by the human learning how the prey animal thinks, we can achieve a level of partnership with the horse that causes him to have the heart and desire to do anything we want -whether it is jumping, dressage, reining, trail-riding or any of the myriad activities we can do with our horses.

When we achieve this, we no longer need force - bigger whips, bigger spurs, stronger bits, in fact, we don't need any of these things at all! By learning all the basic skills on the ground to a high standard, we can easily transfer this to the saddle when we get mounted. Natural horsemen learn to ride with one rein, a natural rope hackamore and also without saddles and bridles – so great is the relationship with their horses.

Ultimately, riding becomes really refined. But even in the early stages, many people find that they achieve more with their horse in a few months than those who have ridden all their lives.

Tamasine has been using Natural Horsemanship methods for several years now, first in the UK, and then here in South Africa. Initially she used the Parelli programme, achieving levels 1 & 2. She was a considerable way into level 3 when she came across the Silversand Natural Horsemanship programme, created in Australia by Steve and Irena Halfpenny. Their programme is based on a model developed by Philip Nye and they spend many months of the year travelling to bring it to interested students around the world. They have developed an easy to follow self-study programme, which, in Tamasine’s opinion, goes far beyond what some of the other NH study programmes are offering. Steve has a wonderfully gentle and understanding approach to the horses that his students admire and it rubs off on them..

The Silversand Programme fits much more with what Tamasine feels NH is about. To quote Steve, it is more about “who we need to become as people” than about training methods. At NHZA we feel that this is important and run other courses that help to develop this attitude, which in turn helps us to become better horse-people. The Silversand Programme is about ‘awareness’ and asks us constantly whether what we are doing is ‘for’ the horse rather than ‘to’ the horse. We need to be mindful of how we are with our horses in order to understand why they do the things they do or why they react to things in the way they do. The programme helps us to help our horse ‘think his own way through problems’ and to avoid confrontation as much as possible. It is about having a dialogue with our horses and giving them options that help them make their own decisions. This makes for a far better relationship with our horses than in other programmes.

Steve likens this relationship to that of a friend who you greatly admire, whose opinions you value and who you hold in high regard. This person has your total respect, and if they were to ask you a favour, you would not hesitate to do it for them – in fact you would respond without question. This is the relationship, the partnership, we want with our horses. This is ‘true’ harmony.

Having spent time in Australia with Steve and Irena Halfpenny, Tamasine is now a Silversand Associate (the only one in South Africa) and will return there regularly to keep up with the latest in NH.

Tamasine gives one on one lessons and conducts clinics around the country, helping people improve their relationship with their horses.

Visitors are welcome to come and see what Tamasine and Silversand is all about. Just give us a call to find out when she is working with the horses, so that you can come to spectate.