It's certainly not how I train horses, and I am often called upon to handle/retrain horses which have become dangerous through lack of sensible handling, or by being similarly brutalised.
Hermit...if you knew that the horse's 'original problem' was its failure to understand what its novice handler was asking of it, and that it became resistant and bargy as a direct result of it having a rope swung in its face which it was unable to get away from, so that its only recourse was to barge into its handler, would you say this treatment of it was justified?
The horse has only one eye, the offside one, and, obviously feeling insecure in its surroundings, and with the constant jerking of the rope, and no indication from the handler that its responses were correct, it was bound to be inclined to look around for reassurance for its safety. Mrs P apparently is trying to get the horse to pay full attention to her, but in fact is only succeeding in causing the horse to be afraid and, as a result, to shut down. That's why it always wants to look away...what other option does it have.
The flapping of the hand toward its eye, and the occasional physical contact with its face are apparently the Parelli way to teach it to yield its forehand. In fact it only serves to make it headshy, and may actually cause the horse to resist to a greater degree than would more subtle means of teaching it that particular response.
This clip is all the more disturbing as it is part of a dvd aimed at entry level Parelli students who are novice horse handlers. Unfortunately, there are many who will buy into that method of horsemanship, and will believe that this is the way to treat a horse which shows resistance to their will.
In my opinion, it amounts to abuse of a horse by an idiot.
