The Horse Tamer Series Blog – Episode 6: Lisa & Petunia

“Taming, Trust, and Training all start with “T”, but there's a huge difference between those 3 words.  In order to train a horse to do what we want she has to trust us, and in order to trust us she has to be tame which means she believes in her heart of hearts that humans are partners and not the predators we appear to be.”  Pat Parelli    

In September of 2024, Pat Parelli released his expertise to an even broader audience with the launch of The Horse Tamer, a series now streaming on Tubi, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV+. In this captivating 8-episode season, Parelli works one-on-one with horse owners facing significant behavioral challenges, offering insights and techniques that highlight his four-decade commitment to building love, language, and leadership between horse and rider.

Each episode in The Horse Tamer introduces a unique partnership in need of Pat’s guidance.  Over the next few weeks we’ll be introducing you to our cast and crew, the special horses, owners and trainers who make up the beloved characters in this one-of-a-kind equestrian series.  

Episode 6 is truly unique, featuring not only a wild mustang, but also a whole cast of team members committed to doing their very best for this special little horse.  The Horse Protection Society of Florida rescued Petunia, a mustang with a troubled past, hoping to give her a fresh start. But Petunia’s deep-seated mistrust of humans keeps her distant and unapproachable. Pat steps in with his signature Natural Horsemanship techniques to help Lisa and her team gain Petunia’s trust. Through consistent, patient work, the whole team learns how to become a safe place for Petunia, unlocking the possibility of connection and care that Petunia has never experienced.

Right off the bat, Pat starts by educating and empowering the team of staff and volunteers on how to play with Petunia’s nature and cause their idea to become her idea by introducing the Village Game.  By working together as a unit, they provide a unified front and a clear pathway for Petunia to make a choice, with her dignity intact, to go into her pen.  Technique is important here so that the pressure can be easily interpreted by Petunia – wrist, elbow, then full arm windmill.  This is using phases of pressure and it is incredibly effective with horses. The goal is for Petunia to find a safe place, and a secondary benefit is that her team of humans are the ones who helped her find it. 

Shortly after this comes a classic moment of Pat re-programing human behavior as he literally has the participants walk up and touch the gate to Petunia’s pen without closing it.  By nature, humans are predators and direct line thinkers, and that behavior rightly unnerves horses.  This is a moment of retraining our brains to think like a horse first and to develop trust one step at a time. Pat’s words, “if she comes out, no problem”, help us see that the horse is in charge of the timeline.  Her education and her taming and trust come first, and we have to let go of our human timeline because there is no training without trust. 

Next, Pat walks in on his four legged friend Slider in order to help establish rapport with Pentunia.  He even intentionally turns his horse’s hind end away from her to decrease the perception of a threat.  Pretty soon she’s facing him willingly, and he’s able to progress into playing with the air space around her by stroking the air with his long-body-logic telescoping pole.  This is all proper and proper preparation in anticipation of actually touching her, remembering that horses are masters of distance and approach.  By playing retreat and re-approach with the stick, Pat lengthens his body to be able to reach out and touch Petunia.  

Ultimately this is about connection.  If the horse gives you one eye, back off a bit.  If she gives you two eyes, back up and reward the connection.  This is what causes horses to want to connect.  It’s simple, but not always easy.  The opposite of connection is direct line thinking which is why teaching how to create connection is so imperative for us humans.  And it pays off as seen at the end of the episode with each team member stroking Petunia’s forehead.  

The true beauty in this episode is the empowerment of an entire team:  teaching the team how to teach Pentunia to like being with humans and enjoying what we have to offer.  By educating this entire community, the results become exponential.  How many future horses and horse owners will be impacted by the truth in this episode?  Hopefully the numbers are countless. 

So share with your family and friends, whether they are horse owners, horse lovers or just looking for a good TV program.  This is clean, kid and animal friendly, edu-tainment at its finest.  Gather your two legged and four legged family close and settle in for some great Horse TV, now streaming live for free on Tubi and and also available on Amazon Prime and Apple TV+!