Play Drive

Just like you and me, horses have their priorities in life, but they're completely different than ours.

            Horses are at their most free and most athletic when playing with one another. But around humans, horses tend to be preoccupied with issues more basic than play.  Natural horseman Pat Parelli.

"It's their instinct to be safe, to be comfortable, and then when everything's fine, to play. You never see horses stop and say, 'Time out, lions. We want to play right now.' They don't play when they feel threatened. They only play when everything feels great to them."

As far as horses are concerned, humans are like lions we're predators but as we grow in our horsemanship we learn how to not act like predators. That's central to Parelli Natural Horsemanship, a system that leads to a sort of unconscious competence, or what Pat calls savvy, and savvy is the key that unlocks the play drive in any horse.