Hrynjandi Story

written by Elisabeth Pogatschnig

"I am the proud owner of a brown-wind-coloured islantic-horse gelding named Hrynjandi (means "rhythm"). I bought him as a 3 year old - just from watching a video-tape of him. When he arrived a few months later at my stable I had a scared, timid horse. He had absolutely no trust in humans. Hrynjandi had lived almost 4 years on a 40 ha ranch in Iceland from where he was shipped to me. At first I tried to gain his trust with the "help" of different people - more or less unsuccessful. Whenever he got scared he was in the habbit to freeze then suddenly explode. For sure I had played with the thought of selling him but I never managed to do it.

When I was totally at the end of my knowledge and nerves - I couldn't cope any more - I remembered the Parelli method. I always thought that it would be something for recreational riders but I never saw it as fully-fledged work for horse and rider. (By that time he couldn't be caught anymore in the field and jumped into the metal hayrack and out the other side - just to escape from humans. To do any farrier work he had to be sedated with a double dose and even then you could not put a foot on the farrier's stand.)

As it turned out - Hrynjandi was (in a human environment) a right brain mainly introvert type of horse and I had to learn to understand him and change my approach in order to help him. (Check out the Horsenality chart on the left - this was just before Elisabeth and him started training with Michael and learning Parelli.) A type of work that is a lot of fun but also challenges you in many ways because there is a lot of new things to learn.

The goal is that horse and rider understand each other better and learn from each other. You work on trust and bond. I learned to understand my horse based on his body language. I can now read how he feels - if he is scared or relaxed. On the other hand I see that Hrynjandi has learned to read me better and trust me more and more. (Check out the Horsenality Chart on the right - this is just a few months later. You can see how he has started to be more confident and his fear & trust issues have become mild)

I think we are on the right track to our goal and that we will be a "sworn-in" team one day. I have changed my opinion about Parelli and found that actually this way of working with horses is way more valuable and classy, a lot about paying attention to the little details and being patient. I hope that more horses and riders who have troubles will seek this approach to find harmony."