Why settle for normal gear when you can have sooper speshul Parelli tack?!

I could not believe my eyes when I was looking up the Parelli merchandise. Not that I would ever buy anything from them anyway because I think they're all a bunch of loonies, but this was insane.

$92 for a 22 foot lead rope. $40 for a rope halter that you could buy for ten bucks at Farm & Fleet.

And y'know that plastic orange stick that NH people can't go without? $62.67!!! For a damn carrot stick! Unbelievable. And there are actually people who fork over the cash for these things. Why on earth would you want to pay these outrageous prices? Because Pat and Linda said so, of course!

But that's not all, folks. Their saddles start at - are you ready? $4,000! Like we all have four grand to blow off on a Parelli saddle, right?

This particular saddle sells for over $7,000. Yep. Who the fuck has money for that? The saddle's more expensive than my horse!

What about this chunk of leather is so special that makes it worth $7,000? I've seen prettier saddles go for half that price.

Linda's stirrup irons are going for $239, by the way. When you can get brand new ones at any tack store for 20 bucks. Absolutely insane.


Now let's have a look at this chart that supposedly shows what conventional (aka anything not sold by Parelli) saddles do to your horse.

There is no way in hell that any saddle will give a horse a downhill build or a "prolapsed belly".

The saddle has nothing to do with the horse's muscle tone. That's all reflected by the rider. Unless the saddle is so badly fitted that the horse can't do anything. Any poorly fitted saddle will hurt a horse. A well fitted saddle will not.

No saddle is going to cause a horse to have a bad topline. It's not the saddle, it's the rider.

And a "rotated shoulder"? WTF is that? A straight shoulder? All the faults stated in this chart are not the result of a saddle, but of naturally poor conformation. They're basically saying that buying a Parelli saddle will make your fugly into a gorgeous, well- conformed horse. Please, don't fall victim to the Parelli Propaganda. It's the biggest load of shit I've ever heard.

I find it amusing when Parelli people accuse non-Parelli people of being narrow-minded. I tried Parelli once and got nowhere. Victor didn't like it. He stared at me like I was crazy. So I stopped and I'm never going back to it. He also had no balance or muscle tone when I got him, which had a lot to do with the fact that he was with a Parelli worshiper before. I've notice more than a few Parelli horses who have no muscle. That running-around-in-circles thing doesn't do a damn thing for them. Since lunging is so horrible and it's taboo to NH people.

I will never understand the appeal.