'The Church of the Poisoned Mind'

The heading is a title of an old Boy George and Culture Club song from the 1980s, but it goes a long way to describe the attitudes of the proponents of the various 'schools' of natural horsemanship or enlightened equitation , or whatever they like to label themselves.
'Thou shalt have but one god, and his name shall be Parelli' Scream one band of cowboy hatted zealots, waving their 'carrot sticks' and working themselves up to a lather of ecstasy. 'No!' Scream the followers of the divine Monty Roberts: 'Monty is the true messiah'. '
'Nooo!' Wail the Parellians their soiled chaps flapping a leathery applause as they jump up and down in anger; 'He's not the messiah he's a very rich and naughty cowboy!'
The truth is that both camps of evangelical Yank horse training have a good deal of truth in their methods.........but the cause of more behaviourally based horse training and riding has been done a great disservice by the crass commercialism that surrounds both main schools that seems to give them almost the status of cults.
Fi and I use exercises drawn from just about every behaviourally based method we can find.........cherry picked and adapted to suit the animals we work with and our ways of doing things.
Perhaps it may be time to look at what unites natural horsemen and not be simply bound by the dogma of those who could be seen by some as transatlantic 'Snake Oil Salesmen' or equestrian Billy Grahams. We don't need new religions, all we need is to understand our horses and respond to them in ways they understand.