NLP SKILLS FOR PARELLI STUDENTS

Why NLP?

The Parelli program is primarily a people training program. So you need to be as interested in your own thinking and behaviour as you are in your horse's.

This unique course gives you the skills you need to accelerate your own progress through the program. It will also give you a deeper understanding of some of the new concepts coming up in the recent Parelli materials.

If you look at the reading list on the Liberty and Horse Behaviour pack, you'll see only one book that is directly about horses. Two of the books are pure NLP books, and two others are about the human mind.

Pat and Linda Parelli are aware that the ability to understand and manage our own thoughts and behaviours is as important as our knowledge of the horse's thinking and behaviour.

What is NLP?

NLP ("Neuro Linguistic Programming") is about controlling what goes on in your mind, to enhance your experiences and your performance.

The basis of NLP is that what goes on in your mind (in particular what you experience as a result of real and imagined things that you see, hear and feel) has a structure and is therefore controllable. This is in contrast to the way many people live their lives assuming that their thoughts and emotions are to a large extent outside their control and dictated by external events.

NLP is also sometimes defined as "the study of what works in thinking, language and behaviour, or a way of coding and reproducing excellence". Many of the NLP tools and techniques have arisen from observing people who are excellent in their fields, and working out (or "modelling") what is going on in their heads which allows them to get such good results. Other people can then use the same approach and also achieve excellent results. Abilities which may look like magic (or just innate talent) can be broken down into understandable component parts and taught to others. In fact, in NLP terms the Parelli program is a huge modelling project of Pat's abilities with horses.

How is this relevant?

To progress fast and have fun with the Parelli program, you need to:

The Parelli program involves modelling Pat's abilities with horses, to allow students to achieve similar results.

• Be able to get yourself into a good "state" – positive, confident, etc
• Control what is going on in your mind – the images you make, what you say to yourself, etc. The horse can pick up on these things
• Be an exceptional communicator (with your horse and yourself)
• Be able to coach yourself through the tough times amd get back on track when things go wrong
• Be an exceptional learner

These are precisely the skills NLP can teach you.

As an example, a basic NLP technique for building rapport and influencing a person is to "match, mirror, pace and lead". This means you initially match the person's energy level, voice tone, body language etc to gain rapport. Once you have rapport you can change your energy, body language etc to "lead" the other person to a better state. You may have seen Linda Parelli doing exactly the same thing with right brain horses. Instead of trying to calm them by being calm herself, she matches them initially before being able to lead them to a better state.

The Program and the Tutors

This is a one day course, away from your horse, where we teach you the core NLP skills you need to progress with the Parelli program.

An NLP practitioner course takes at least seven days. We take the bits that are the most important for the Parelli program and distill them into one day.

The tutors are Roz Watkins who is an NLP Master Practitioner and Louise Trevatt who is an NLP Trainer. They are both quaified coaches so bring additional coaching techniques to the program.

Roz passed level 1 Parelli in 2004, and was working through level 2 with her chestnut mare, Dixie. Unfortunately Dixie has had to be retired due to a serious tendon injury.

However, Louise and Roz recently bought an ex-racehorse, Monty, who was destined for the meat market. He is beautiful and intelligent but a little "challenging" so Roz and Louise are experiencing all the highs and lows of the program as they take him through level 1.

In our experience, most serious Parelli students want to be the best they can be, for their horses. They also realise that this endeavour is not just about horses, and is potentially a lifetime's work.

This course is another step along the challenging and rewarding path that you set out on when you picked up that first level 1 pack.

Contact us for dates and venues of the next course.