Filippo attended LHH last year and will be returning again in 2012. We look forward to his return as any horseman that has this kind of passion is always a welcome guest  at LHH.  Thank you Filippo for your thoughts.

Actually I would have a few topics to talk about. Maybe they are not strictly related to LHH but surely they are related to the LHH mission. I am talking about the “Revolution in Horsemanship”. I have found LHH an excellent LAB and very fertile environment for promoting the Revolution in Horsemanship. Whoever I met at LHH was a very kind, interesting and skilled (or willing to be skilled) person.

I am honest when I say that LHH is an incredible positive experience.

I find very true that the Revolution in Horsemanship has not to do just with a few techniques about how to deal with horses. Of course it is also that but it emphasizes or it helps us to understand that we need to change from the inside and then we will see the great results. Who can better remark how we are changing inside if not a horse ? I was not surprised when I read in Dr Miller book that some people turn into tears when they watch Eitan dvds. That’s art and art penetrates all barriers and reaches our hearts.

With my introduction I would like either to share my ideas with you or to tell you something additional which is basically also the topic for the hypothetical blog.

I have tried, with my very few experiences and poor skills to meet people in Germany who are interested in the Natural Horsemanship and to be honest in the last months I have found some (actually I have realized that there are even more interested people than I was thinking of). However people are spread into far away distances and there cannot be any community. Or let’s say there can be and there are several spread and fragmented web communities but not communities where people can really meet and support each other every day.

I can summarize in another way by saying that I find really important that people who want to live and practice Natural Horsemanship have the chance to do it in our daily lives, at our barns. Clinics, seminars, web communities are all very very important but at the end we need to have the chance to practice in our daily life otherwise we cannot really feel and live the change.

Why I am telling this story? Because I find really hard for people who practice Natural Horsemanship to have an easy lives. I am experiencing this at least in Germany or better saying in this part of Germany. Several times no facilities are offered to the ones who want to follow this way, many times the use of equipment/tools for desensitizing horses are not tolerated, criteria (strongly promoted and recommended by any horsemen) for developing/build a better relation with our horses are strongly criticized. People sometime deride, etc. Of course as many people like me are (which means beginners), we make several mistakes and this does not help us too much. The result is often that a lot of people move often from barn to barn with the (often vain) hope that in the next place it will be better.

Last summer at LHH 2011 I have talked to many people about the idea to find a solution for having entire barns where the majority of people follow the Natural Horsemanship and I got a quiet interesting idea from Susan Sember. She said something like, we could try to create a network where all people have the chance to join together. As an example she said that she has a few hundreds of customers in Germany and if we could all create a network where Natural Horsemanship oriented people could meet and make projects like create barns or being in the same barn or talk to business men for investing in the Natural Horsemanship, this could help us a lot.

Of course the network would not be limited to Germany but worldwide open. I am just talking about Germany because this is where I live.

I have seen that in Germany there are people like Monty Roberts, Pat Parelli who are quite popular and a lot of people are interested in what they offer. These are not the only horsemen people know and follow. Last September I was at a Linda Tellington Jones clinic and there were a few hundreds of people who participated. Also Mark Rashid is quite known, Gawani Poniboy, Steve Halfpenny, Peter Pfister (a German horseman), Buck Brannaman, Frederic Pignon (a French horseman), Leslie Desmond, Lester Buckley, Dr Miller, Dr Heuschmann (a German vet) and surely several others. If all these people could promote the creation of such a network I am sure soon there would be thousands of people connected together with a unique aim: the interest for the Natural Horsemanship. And this could be an additional and strong impulse for widely spreading the message.

When I went to visit Ellen (DiBella), she was encouraging me and very kindly supporting me and my idea. And I asked her: why do not you come all LHH/WDAA/Cowboy Dressage clinicians periodically to Europe and organize clinics constantly? I am sure soon people would start to convert. I am sure of it. I might be wrong for Germany (at least at the beginning) but definitely not for Italy, Netherland, Spain, France, etc.

I think nowadays also the barn owners are a little bit in crisis. The society is changing and those tournaments that in the past were bringing thousands of people (and money) and making barn owners happy are nearly gone. The new generations are probably looking for a different relationship with their horses and the answer can be either quit the equestrian sports or the Natural Horsemanship.

If I can tell you the truth, Germany is a quite tough country and it is not easy to deal with !
Maybe people like Dr Miller could make change their mind to Germans. Why? Because Dr Miller is far away above bigotry, localism, hypocrisy, etc.

I hope for your big help and I also hope to see you and Eitan soon here in Europe.

Many thanks.

With my best greetings,

Filippo
Filippo Smedili
Düsseldorf, Germany
E-mail: filippo.smedili@googlemail.com