Working with a horse “at liberty” as it is called (i.e. without any tack, bridle/saddle or rope to control the horse) both on the ground and mounted has become increasingly fashionable in the last few years. This is in big part thanks to Natural Horseman and horse world phenomenon Pat Parelli. While Parelli has successfully built an empire around natural horsemanship, his unparalleled success has also created a bit of a confusion about the difference between natural horsemans

About one thousand years ago, a ship carrying exceptionally beautiful Arabian stallions sunk near the Indian west coast. The strongest and luckiest of the horses managed to swim to the coast where they were found by the Rathore rulers of Marwar in what is today’s Rajasthan. The rulers were exceptional horsemen themselves. Conquered by the stallions’ beauty, they captured the Arabians and brought them back to their kingdom where they bred them with their existing flock made of