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Tag: Direct Mail
How to Make Money with Direct Marketing: Brainstorming a Business Idea
Learn how to develop a core product for making money with direct marketing. Here's an example of how to brainstorm a winning business idea
How Effective is Your Direct Mail Envelope?
If you want your direct mail to melt the heart of the coldest prospects you must achieve impact. How effective is the envelope you are using for your mailing?
Direct Mail Promotions: Experiment to Find What Works
Direct mailing will be around as long as there are products to sell. Your goal, therefore, is for your mailing promotion to be able to catch attention and rise above the "junk mails" that people receive.
How Greeting Cards Can Be a Powerful Marketing Tool for Your Business
It is important to test different marketing techniques and determine what works well for your business. Learn how a business owner effectively use greeting cards to market his business.
How to Use the 3 Most Common Direct Marketing Measurements
How effective is your direct marketing campaign? Verify the results of the advertising by learning the 3 most common direct marketing measurements
Lillian Vernon: A Catalog Business in the Age of the Internet
Lillian Vernon built a hugely successful direct mail catalog business from her kitchen table in the 1950s. Fifty two years later, let us learn how Lillian and her company cope with the vastly different business environment of the 21st century.
Postcard Marketing: How Often Should You Mail?
To reap the biggest rewards from a direct-mail campaign, you should follow-up your initial mailing with several others, on a carefully planned timeline. But then the question becomes: how much is too much?
How to Start a Handwritten Letter Service Business
In the digital age, real handwriting is more special than ever. As it becomes increasingly rare, the opportunity for people with nice handwriting grows. Learn how to start a handwritten letter or mail service business
Rules for a Successful Direct Mail Campaign
Direct marketing is not as simple as typing a letter, adding an address and stamp, and popping it in the mail. There are some key golden rules to making your direct mailings work effectively.
How to Legitimately Make Money Stuffing Envelopes
Ads claiming to make money from stuffing envelopes is one of the oldest home business scams. But it can also be a legitimate business!


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After last weekĺs BCS Armageddon, itĺs coming down to the end again, and nothing is as it seems.
All eyes are on Notre Dame this week, and the pressure could not be greater on the Irish.
My eyes will be on Florida vs. Florida State, plus the now-wide-open Heisman race thanks to the shocking collapse of Collin Klein against Baylor.
The Heisman folks are very specific that we cannot reveal our ballots before the announcement, so Iĺll just run through some talking points that I am looking at this weekend.
1. Will ôJohnny Footballö close out his season with another win for Texas A&M? Can a freshman really win this thing?
2. Manti Teĺo vs. Marquise Lee on Saturday night. EVERYONEĺs watching that one so if one of them can have a big game, the trophy is there for the taking.
3. Is Klein cooked? He doesnĺt play again until Dec. 1, at which time he might already have left the votersĺ minds.
4. Oregonĺs guys were riding high, but now theyĺll need a monster game in Corvallis to get back into the conversation. But donĺt fret, Ducks fans. All Oregon needs is a Florida loss to Florida State (probable) and a Notre Dame meltdown (historically destined to happen) to get back into the title picture.
5. Donĺt forget Braxton Miller, who could lead Ohio State to a perfect season.
As for the picks, I survived what could have been a rocky week and stayed on the winning side. Usually I am a lot like retailers ľ I donĺt get into the black until after Thanksgiving. But this year, I have been better than usual. Letĺs see if I can finish strongly.
As always, these are for entertainment purposes only.
Washington (minus-11) over WASHINGTON STATE Ś The Huskies only beat bad teams on the road. Fortunately, theyĺre playing one, assuming the whole team doesnĺt quit on Mike Leach before the game.
West Virginia (minus-1) over IOWA STATE Ś Hard to believe a team that was 5-0 and ranked No. 3 in the country is now sweating out bowl eligibility. But they have to right the ship sometime, right? They have to hold someone under 50. Donĺt they?
OHIO STATE (minus-4 Ż) over Michigan Ś This should be a tough game, but the Buckeyes are at home and have a chance for a historic season. Also letĺs not forget they are playing for a shot at the AP national title if there is more carnage.
Vanderbilt (minus-12 Ż) over WAKE FOREST Ś Welcome to the new order, where taking Vandy on the road laying double digits seems like a no-brainer.
Georgia Tech (plus-13) over GEORGIA Ś Talk about picking with your heart, but seriously, the Jackets have played well lately and they even won their division while they were sleeping after Miami surrendered their season. (I assume Luther Campbell is somehow involved.) Also, I donĺt need the Jackets to win this game. Thatĺs what Alabama is for.
San Diego State (minus-7) over WYOMING Ś The Cowboys have won three straight and are playing at home, and they usually handle the Aztecs. I told you nothing is as it seems.
OLE MISS (minus-1 Ż) over Mississippi State Ś Clearly, Admiral Ackbar is working overtime this holiday week, because this is the first of two traps. MSU has lost only to Alabama, LSU and Texas A&M, and frankly who wouldnĺt?
MEMPHIS (minus-4 Ż) over Southern Miss Ś I gave the Eagles a chance last week to prove that NO ONE in D-IA goes winless. They covered, but they failed on a two-point conversion that would have given them their first win. All signs point to Memphis sending Southern Miss to an 0-12 season, making this seemingly easy pick Trap No. 2.
SAN JOSE (minus-4 Ż) over Louisiana Tech Ś Tech is another team I am betraying after taking them the previous week. But the Spartans are 9-2 in both real life and against the spread, and I like those odds.
CLEMSON (minus-4) over South Carolina Ś I rarely go ACC over SEC, but Clemson has one heck of an offensive machine. I am giving an uncomfortable amount of 4s and 4 Żs this week though.
NORTHWESTERN (minus-19) over Illinois Ś The Wildcats are quietly a pretty good ball club, save for one horrifically bad quarter against Penn State. I believe they are serving the Illini a special dinner for Thanksgiving ľ their own rear ends on a platter.
FRESNO STATE (minus-16 Ż) over Air Force Ś I promised I wouldnĺt go against any more military academies, but I made a bigger vow to the Bulldogs to always love and cherish them as long as we all shall live. Fresno is going for the unofficial spread-covering national title at 11-1 if they cover.
And finally ů
Florida (plus-8) over FLORIDA STATE Ś I am taking this just for the good times, and since Danny Sheridan tweeted me at 1 a.m. to quote a spread for me on this one. I think Florida has too little offense and has looked too much like Rocky in his pre-Clubber Lang fights lately to pull this one out. But this could end up a scrappy defensive game that is close at the end.
Last week: 6-8
Ś Matthew Osborne is the editor of The Trentonian and a Heisman Trophy voter. He can be reached at 609-989-7800, ext. 201, or email@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @trentonianozzy.

subset: commoncrawl


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Welcome to WebmasterWorld Guest from 188.8.131.52
Forum Moderators: DixonJones & mademetop
In plain English I'd like to track [mydomain.com...] through one set of reports and [mydomain.com...] through another set of reports. I've created a filter for the subdirectory but I am really lost on how to see the reports separately?
In fact I am not even sure that using a filter is the best way to do what I am trying to do?
Please help,


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Felice Herrig stops by MMAjunkie Radio to discuss her upcoming fight at Bellator 84.
The Latest
Megan Anderson out, Tonya Evinger in for title fight vs. 'Cyborg' Justino at UFC 214
And yet here's another turn in the saga of the UFC women's featherweight championship.
Felice Herrig: UFC promoting me in 'hot girl' fights isn't good enough
Felice Herrig expounds on why she was so emotional regarding her looks after her UFC Fight Night 112 win.
UFC Fight Night 112 winner Tony Martin: 'I think I can be the best fighter in the world'
OKLAHOMA CITY – Tony Martin is not necessarily best friends with Johnny Case now, but certainly has some increased respect for his UFC Fight Night 112 opponent after their battle: "He did show up."
Jeremy Kimball thrilled with UFC Fight Night 112 TKO after he 'couldn't sleep at all' on fight week
After a short-notice debut loss back in January, light heavyweight Jeremy Kimball was set on making UFC Fight Night 112 a successful night.
Bellator President Scott Coker: UFC-Reebok deal 'should be against the labor laws or something'
To me, they're independent contractors. They should go out and get whatever sponsors they want," Bellator President Scott Coker said.
UFC Fight Night 112 salaries: B.J. Penn earns highest purse despite tough loss
B.J. Penn took a loss at UFC Fight Night 112, but he earned the most money of any fighter on the card.
USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie rankings, June 27: Welcome to the top-10, Kevin Lee
It certainly won't come as welcome news to Michael Chiesa, but Kevin Lee is now in the top-10 of the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA lightweight rankings.
Manny Pacquiao will pass on watching Mayweather-McGregor fight that 'could be very boring'
Manny Pacquiao says Conor McGregor "has no chance in this fight. In fact, it could be very boring." So, with that being said, he's taking a hard pass on watching.
At 35, Clay Guida feels as strong as ever – but 'I don't want to be doing this when I'm 40'
OKLAHOMA CITY – After snapping a two-fight skid with a dominant display over Erik Koch, Clay Guida says the bumpy road hasn't discouraged him: "I never look at it as, 'It's a young man's game,' because I'm still young."
UFC Fight Night 112 reactions: Winning and losing fighters on social media
Following Sunday's UFC Fight Night 112 event in Oklahoma City, several of the winning and losing fighters took to social media to react to the event or share a message with supporters. Check out those messages.


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The Brian Lehrer Show
Local Politics Roundup: Derailments, Transitions, Appointments
This is a week when many political watchers expect announcements from the de Blasio transition team on high-level appointments. But the news of the morning is the Metro-North derailment, and the questions it raises about our local transportation infrastructure. Mayor Bloomberg did not appear at the crash scene, and a spokesperson referred to the crash as a state and MTA matter; de Blasio issued a statement and his office says he's in touch with authorities. Joel Siegel , managing editor for politics for the New York Daily News, sets the week in local politics.


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video card for ~100€ (RADEON or Nvidia)??
Richard wrote:
Rebel04 wrote:
Richard wrote:
Rebel04 wrote:
thank you Pictus!
I thought that with a better card, I could get a ''higher speed'' using filters (like NikSoftware filters)
thanks again
Yes, there are some filters that support GPU acceleration but you do need a faster card.[...]
thank you
so, in your opinion, I need a card like ASUS GeForce GTX 550 or SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7770 instead my Sapphire HD6450 ...or aren't these card fast?
It don't look at a video card for one application. A computer, at least mine, does multiple things. I know some other programs use cuda cores from nvidia, and their software does not use the ATI, so I would always choose an Nvidia.
I think the GTX550 is faster although if gaming I would research it more because it seems texture processing seems faster for gaming. But you are looking for processing
I think this card is more comparable, core speed is a little slower but memory speed and bandwith is much higher. Similar cards though, 10 dollars less at newegg and I like EVGA utils and support, 3 year warranty, overclockable.
Though the HD7770 and this card are similar again, some apps work with cuda cores only. But if all your apps work with the ATI gpu acceration then you could choose either and be happy.
Again, how much will this help out? I would purchase an SSD drive before upgrading the graphics processor, but that is my opinion.
thanx again Richard!
I only use my pc for photoediting (and internet). For photoediting I use Adobe Bridge - Adobe Ps (CS6) and some filters (=NikSoftare and Topaz). I don't use other programs. With my card my pc works fine, photoshop is quite fast but I notice slowdowns with Niksoftware filters.
My doubt is, if a card (a card of about 120$, not an expensive card...) better than mine (HD6450), photoshop but especially filters could run faster. Or are GTX550/HD7770 similar to HD6450 working in photoshop and Niksoftware filters?
(excuse me for my bad english)
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Can someone explain the logic here?
Ok, now that the configuration is up on bmwusa and you can build a 320, I am more confused than I previously was. What the heck is the point of the 320 here in the US. 98% of BMW 3 series buyers buy the pre-configured setup on the dealer lot which essentially will include leather seats, power seats, wood trim, moonroof, and possibly navigation. Yes, the sports package is a bargain (especially the m suspension...paired with 180hp :rofl:), but no 320 buyer is going to want a sports package (not that type of buyer). Once you build the 320 the way BMWNA will to stock dealer lots, the numbers aren't that far off. As a matter of fact, the lease is only going to be ~$30 cheaper than a base 328 similarly built (again depending on residual and money factor). What the heck is the point of this?
If BMW follows the Cadillac ATS philosophy expect 40% of sales next year to be 320s. 40% to be 328s. 20% to be 335s.
The question is if the premium package on the 320i is mistakenly not including leather. If it is, then the numbers are off by 1450. If it doesn't include leather, then you are right, pricing is very similar.
We need another thread for this?
In a nutshell, it's a $4,300 Non-Performance Package.
It allows for two customers to stay in BMW showrooms and not run off to competitors:
1. 328i customer that wants a few options, can't take a $499 monthly lease payment. They trade off horsepower for the Tech package or the Sport package, save a few thousand dollars in the process, they're at $399. SOLD.
2. Honda Accord customer that's tired of the same old Japanese car, has recently gotten promoted, just bought a house, takes it at $299 straight-up or adds a package to get to $349. SOLD.
With the 320i, she's in there comfortably. She's 73, doesn't need 275 horses, now she can trade them for Premium and Technology and have a couple grand to spare.
Yeah, you can get the car for $34k...only it won't have wood, sunroof, memory seats, leather, etc. What is the point?
What makes you think any fewer 320i buyers will opt for the very affordable sport package than E46 325i buyers, which had very similar engine output and performance numbers? Especially when the price difference becomes $3,950 between a 320i sport package model v a 328i Sport line model.
328i Auto $42,645
Heated Seats
The build that my mother would have taken if available:
320i Auto $38,595
Heated Seats
That's $4,000 less, a 10% savings, simply for trading off horsepower.
Now, if she wanted to put that back into the car, get to that same $42,645 level as the 328i, her build would have looked like this:
320i Auto $42,595
Premium Package
Driver Assistance Package
Lighting Package
BMW Assist
Enhanced Bluetooth & USB
Heated Seats
So, instead of running to Acura, she'd have had two choices:
1. Get a 320i with the same options, save $4,000
2. Get a 320i with extra options Driver Assistance Package, Lighting Package, Navigation, BMW Assist, Enhanced Bluetooth & USB for the same money.
And that's the entire point. As I said in the first post, it allows someone to either hit a $299 monthly payment practically stripped -or- to hit a $399 monthly payment fully loaded.
The 320i is a $4,300 Performance Delete Option that allows someone to trade off horsepower for gobs of goodies. It's a very smart move. Would have kept my mom from Acura, thousands of other moms too.
To OP, how did you conclude a 320i will lease for just $20 less than a 328i?
I have found it to be a great resource for Internet forum discussions,
Ok, bear with me I'm only a medical student and not an MBA. I'm sorry, but I still don't see how this new model makes any sense. Granted there is only one thing more boring to me than thinking about lease payments for an old guy's even older mother (and that would be the three pages of gram positive and gram negative bacteria I have to memorize). But let's see now:
The $38,595 320 is ~$439 a month.
The $42,645 328 is ~$486 a month
When you're already paying ~$17,000 to lease a car for three years, what is another $1,700 more? I just don't see it. Was it really worth BMW rolling in yet another model just to cut the lease price 10%?
Believe me, I understand that "badge whores" will be all over this...but really I can't see it putting a ton more sales in BMW portfolio. 180hp is not enough for this car. I have the same engine in my 528 and my mother has a 328 with the I4. In both cars it is barely enough with the added torque being the mitigating factor. This engine is going to suck, big time.
Yes, the sports package is quite a bargain on the 320 for what you get. Yes, buyers might have jumped all over this...if this was 1999. I don't have the data, but how many 3 series sold actually have the sports "line" nowadays? What good is a sports package if the car is under-powered by today's standards. But yes, i do agree with you and the sports packaged 320 may be the only thing that actually makes sense in this scenario. However, this will only effect (or is it affect) ~1% of actual sales.
I wonder if BMW will include a de badging option in the us with the introduction of the 320?
Additionally, the stripper will have deep discounts to hit $299 which is the reason BMW is doing this. You can't go to some random fifth grade lease calculator to see that. If you paid attention to your own image in the very first post, you'd see that BMW is currently offering a 328i with Premium for $369 a month. The 320i will be $299 a month, plain and simple. That $70 means a lot to fixed income retired mom's and debt-laden graduate students as you'll find out.
Like you said, stick to medicine.
It all depends on what model BMW wants to push to the market.
Personally I find it hard to believe they are willing to cut their profit by up to $4k by replacing their volume seller from 328i to 320i. But if threatened by the cheap models from the competitors, they could easily subsidize the 320i leases, which could easily make a $70+/mo. difference.
its a sub $300 per month bmw to get them into the showrooms, once that obstacle is crossed, upsell with some packages. its easier to get an edge buyer in at 299, vs even 309.
When my sister was looking to lease an E92 about 15 months ago I took her to two dealers. One quoted about $57 a month more than the other for exactly the same car. This was a no brainer.
That payment difference of "a little over" $40 a month can easily becomes $60-$70 when the dealer touches that contract. And even when the dealer is taken out of the equation, a difference is "just" $40 a month is enough to sway a potential customer to another car or even brand.
For sure my sister would have done that.
She wants the keyless entry/garage door opener. It's bundled into the Premium packages unfortunately. So another benefit of the 320i is that she doesn't have to pay for leather she doesn't want.
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[WORLD CUP 2014 COUNTDOWN] Four years ago, the USA beat Turkey, 2-1, in its final game of its World Cup 2010 send-off series. On Sunday, it will again take to the field against Turkey, at Red Bull Arena in New Jersey, in another send-off series but with an almost completely different team (live at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN2, WatchESPN, Univision).
SA's Starting Lineup: Howard; Johnson, Besler, Cameron, Chandler; Zusi, Bradley, Jones, Davis; Dempsey, Altidore.
Just four players remain from the team
that beat Turkey as Jurgen Klinsmann continues his late reshaping of the national team just 16 days before the opening match of the 2014 World Cup.
All are part of what Klinsmann calls the "spine" of the team: Tim Howard in goal, Michael Bradley in midfield and Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore up front.
The fifth member of Klinsmann "spine" is Jermaine Jones, who knows the Turks well, having played for Istanbul club Besiktas in the spring. Turkey, which beat Honduras, 2-0, on Thursday night in Washington, has three players
from Besiktas in its traveling squad.
Soccer America Confidentials:
Ridge Mahoney: Brad Davis: 'Never shut the door on a dream'
Mike Woitalla: The USA's new No. 10: Mix Diskerud
Paul Kennedy: Building from the base
Woitalla: Johannsson has reason to celebrate
SELLOUT. The USA-Turkey game in Harrison, N.J., is a sellout. A crowd estimated at 2,500 showed up for the U.S. practice on Saturday.
U.S. Roster:
Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa/ENG), Tim Howard (Everton/ENG), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)
Defenders: DaMarcus
Beasley (Puebla/MEX), Matt Besler (Sporting KC), John Brooks (Hertha Berlin/GER), Geoff Cameron (Stoke City/ENG), Timmy Chandler (Nuremberg/GER), Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy), Fabian Johnson
(Hoffenheim/GER), DeAndre Yedlin (Seattle Sounders FC)
Midfielders: Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Alejandro Bedoya (Nantes/FRA), Michael Bradley
(Toronto FC), Brad Davis (Houston Dynamo), Mix Diskerud (Rosenborg/NOR), Julian Green (Bayern Munich/GER), Jermaine Jones (Besiktas/TUR), Graham Zusi (Sporting KC)
Forwards: Jozy Altidore (Sunderland/ENG), Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders), Aron Johannsson (AZ/NED), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes).
Turkey Roster:
Goalkeepers: Onur Recep Kivrak (Trabzonspor), Tolga Zengin (Besiktas), Volkan Babacan (Manisaspor).
Defenders: Caner Erkin (Fenerbahce), Ishak Dogan (Kardemir Karabukspor), Ugur Demirok (Akhisar Belediyespor), Semih Kaya (Galatasaray), Omer Toprak (Bayer
Leverkusen/GER), Gokhan Gonul (Fenerbahce) Osman Tarik Camdal (Eskisehirspor), Ozan Tufan (Bursaspor).
Midfielders: Arda Turan (Atletico Madrid/SPA),
Olcay Sahan (Besiktas), Turgut Dogan Sahin (Gaziantepspor), Aydin Karabulut (Sivasspor), Selcuk Inan (Galatasaray), Bilal Kisa (Akhisar Belediyespor), Oguzhan Ozyakup (Besiktas), Hakan Calhanoglu
(Hamburg/GER), Alper Potuk (Fenerbahce), Olcan Adin (Trabzonspor), Ahmet Ilhan Ozek (Kardemir Karabukspor).
Forwards: Nuri Sahin (Borussia Dortmund/GER),
Burak Yilmaz (Galatasaray), Mevlut Erdinc (St. Etienne/FRA), Adem Buyuk (Kasimpasa).


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I'm a Realtor by trade, so this might seem counter-intuitive, but I have to get something off my chest: Not everyone should buy a house.
Credit Image: Images_of_Money on Flickr
Whew. I feel a little better. That was clogging up my Chi.
I know the current general consensus is you're not an American and you don't have dreams if you're not hoping to own a home with a white picket fence, but I really have to beg to differ with the wisdom of this. There are a lot things that are NOT reasons to buy a house:
1. You want to prove to your parents you're a grown-up.
Oh, Honey. If you're still trying to "prove" you're a grown-up, you're not yet. And your parents definitely aren't going to take you more seriously when you have to come to them in month two asking for a loan to make your mortgage payment.
2. You've always had a dream of painting the walls in your home purple and green plaid.
Landlords are generally happy to let you express your individuality as long as you're willing to give them a decent deposit and paint it back before you move out. Paint is not a reason to buy.
3. Everyone you know is buying a house, and you're feeling left out.
I'm gonna go ahead and be your mom right now, "If all of your friends jumped off a cliff, dear, what would you do?" Because in certain situations, that's what you'd be doing: jumping off a financial cliff.
4. You heard on the news the local housing market is "going crazy" and you feel like that means it must be a "good time" to buy.
Ah yes, that's the market you want to buy in: little inventory, lots of competition, prices on the rise. That's definitely where the smart money is. Not. Is not, is what I meant.
5. You just got a job in a brand new city you don't know, and you think buying a house immediately will make you feel more at home.
I've seen it time and time again. People are transferred in with a new job and without knowing the area, they drive around for a couple of days and buy a house, only to realize three months later that they absolutely cannot stand the neighborhood/commute time/variety of pollen the trees produce. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to buy without having had time to really soak the community in. Rent for a year. THEN buy.
6. Your grandpa told you when you were little renting is just "throwing away your money," and you always had a deep respect for that man.
Your grandpa sounds like a sweetie, but the poor man was working with old information. Do you remember the housing bubble? How about how it popped? In Arizona we saw a 50% decrease in values from 2005-2009 in many areas. Does that sound like a good investment to you?
7. Your wife's best friend just bought a house so your wife has serious housing-envy and is refusing to have sex with you until you buy her a house.
Oh, your wife is kind of a bitch. You should consider counseling or possible a trial separation until she gets her head out of her hindquarters. You are the ones who will have to ultimately live with your financial decisions long-term. Ignore external distractions.
8. You're pregnant and pretty sure it will automatically make you a bad parent if you are just renting a house. Kids need stability and a mortgage payment to really thrive.
Not even one of my children was born knowing how to spell "mortgage" (which was a significant disappointment to me). Parenting and stability are not even a little bit about owning a home.
9. The tax benefits you will get from owning the house will absolutely, without fail, make the purchase financially worth your while.
See number 6. Yes, the tax benefits are great, this is no longer a legitimate blanket statement (if it even ever was). You need to look at the whole picture. It might be worth it, but it also could very well not be.
10. Your sister owns a house, and you've always felt moderately competitive toward her. If she can do it, you can do it bigger and better.
You're prettier and have bigger boobs than your sister. You need to just be content with this.
I'm not saying you're never going to be ready to buy a house. I'm not even saying it's not the time for you now. My point is only that I've seen people buy for all of these reasons I have listed and I've seen it not work out well. The big picture is the most important thing to consider.
Elizabeth Newlin - Realtor®, mom to three boys, humorist, overcommitted. Head over to www.RealEstateTangent.com to hear all about it.
More from living


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HARRISON, N.Y. – House hunting in Harrison? There will be several open houses on the market this weekend.
The houses on display include a six-bedroom house at 21 Beverly Road in Purchase listed for $2,795,000 and a multi-family house at 98 Clifford Place in Harrison listed for $670,000 .
For more open houses this weekend visit our Real Estate page.


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The state government appears to have quietly doubled its projections for the number of new houses in a major redevelopment of land around Parramatta Road.
It announced plans in September for areas around Parramatta Road to be overseen by UrbanGrowth NSW, the state-owned development corporation.
At the time the government hailed its potential to add 25,000 jobs and 25,000 mostly high-rise homes.
But in notes distributed to a closed-door briefing earlier this month, UrbanGrowth was trumpeting a new figure: 50,000 homes and 50,000 jobs.
The developer said the numbers were derived from using more long-term projections than the state government's, which based its estimates over the next two decades.
But it refused to say how much further these projections would go. However, UrbanGrowth acknowledged plans had widened.
"Further work has obviously been done since September 2013 to examine the capacity of existing infrastructure along the corridor," a spokeswoman said.
UrbanGrowth would not say when it was planning to announce its expanded plans.
Critics were drawing an analogy between these plans and the progressive doubling in size of the Barangaroo development.
"The government makes the initial announcement to get community support and then the delivery authority doubles [it] without any democratic oversight," said Greens MP David Shoebridge.
Urban Taskforce, the lobby group representing property developers, had pushed for greater density in the areas and in 2012 floated a plan for 100,000 homes.
A spokesman for Planning Minister Pru Goward said the government would not remove planning approval powers from local councils or planning panels.
In that case, UrbanGrowth could be forced to win approval from ten, mostly Labor-controlled councils to win approval for its plans. It had recently started striking agreements with councils to begin talks.
Leichhardt mayor Darcy Byrne refused to join Marrickville and the City of Sydney councils in signing up for talks because he feared the project's plans could already have grown far beyond his council's development limits.
"The government's plan to redevelop the Parramatta Road corridor can best be described as being conceived on the back of an envelope," he said. "Despite continual requests for data … these projects are still concealed by a cloak of secrecy."
The City of Sydney voted to sign a memorandum of understanding that paved the way for negotiations on Parramatta Road with UrbanGrowth on Monday.
But Labor councillor Linda Scott successfully moved to ensure the council did not agree to any further negotiations on other UrbanGrowth projects unless it agreed to reserve 15 per cent of any developments to affordable or social housing.
UrbanGrowth also had plans for redeveloping the area around the Sydney Fish Markets.
"UrbanGrowth has made clear one of its key priorities is to turn a profit," Ms Scott said. "My concern is that this will come at the cost of community facilities."


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Answers Home
» Health & Wellness
» Pregnancy
What are some signs a pitbull is getting ready to have her puppies?
Im new at breeding but would like to know some signs of when to take her to the vet to deliver my bf took her to the vet but did not ask for the signs!!!
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on Jan 25th 2008
in Pregnancy
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dogs normally give birth about 63 days after breeding.You may see her start nesting.You will need a whelping box for her.You can make one or you cna use a plastic kids pool(you know the blue ones)line it with blankets,ones that u don't care if they get ruined because they will.Also ones that don't have holes in them that the pups won't get their toes or legs stuck in. When you notice her nesting or not eating or a day you take her temp by using a rectal termometer,a little bit of vasoline on the end,a normal dogs temp is between 101.5 and 102.5 it will drop with in 24 hours of giving birth.Then you show her to her pool or take her out let her empty(pee or poo)herself out and then take her to her whelping area.You should set this up in a quiet place about a week before she is due so she can get use to it.In your bedroom or someplace warm is good.I will finish this at your dogs page.
Pedro answered on Jan 25th.
Other Answers
You should let her have her puppies at the vet since your are inexperienced. And why are you breeding anyway? You obviously have not done the years of research needed and don't have the experience. Take my advice, after this litter, study about it. Study with all your might. If you feel the requirements are too hard, then you are not cut out for breeding. Leave it to the professionals.
Gray Dawn Treader answered on 1/25/08. Helpful? / 0


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What's your view on Parelli / natural horsemanship?(61 Posts)
Been offered a loan where the owner does a lot of this. Some people are telling me to run a mile / others are saying give it a go.
Any views?
I meant Parelli does not = Natural Horsemanship
Nope, NH is practised by some real horsemen and women. Parelli tends to attract Pony Polishers, and within that there seem to be a lot of Parelli students who have put a slant on things that would send Pat P Purple with rage. (Like letting horses decide what they want to do). But Parelli does not - natural horsemanship. Far from it.
The roots of real natural horsemanship go back to the vaquero tradition through the Dorrance brothers, Ray Hunt, and others. People like Buck Brannaman and Jack Brainard give a better picture of what you would expect from a good "natural" person, although the term is so tainted now by Parelli that it tends to be avoided.
I have some issues with Monty Roberts to be honest, and don't consider him to be anything like the horseman that Buck B is. Anyone who uses a buckstop and sells foal-sized Dually halters is going to give me pause for thought.
(I consider myself a proper horse person by the way, as I start my own horses, I'm out and about every weekend taking part in some sort of event and ride most weekdays.).
This is fantastic, proper horse people mumsnet thread. Tried to read xaviers epistle but saw the words "you must first play the yo yo game" and didn't bother. Agree with general sentiment here that NH seems to be practiced by the pony polishers who are too frightened to ride their animals so treat them as overgrown dogs.
I'd like to say I'm sorry that sounds harsh but I'm not sorry as this state of affairs isn't good for the horse or the person.
Oh and my other favourite saying if the NH crowd "I want my horse to think for himself" no, I want nearly a ton of animal with a brain the size of a pea to let me do the thinking thanks
I think there is quite a distinction between Parelli and kelly marks type NH.
As far as Parelli is concerned Im with Schoolgovenor, work of the devil imho. Had a friend give me a demo on my lovely well mannered arab many years ago whe it first came to uk, 30 minutes later and I was never able to lunge him again as the "backing up "game made him associate whips and long lines with rearing up. Seems that lots of people do parelli to avoid actually riding ther horses.
On the other hand I think Kelly marks talks a lot of sense. we had a cob who was a nightmare to load and in desperation I got one of her RA people out. I honestly never thought t would work but after an hour of leading him about, backing up etc (with me thinking all the time Ha Ha just wait till we get near the lorry), we went to the lorry and he went up the first time. But the really amazing thing was that his whole attitude had changed. Normally once he was in the box, he just wanted to back out and it was all a stress, then he just stood there happily completely relaxed. I have never been so amazed. Also the woman had a broken arm so it was me doing llthe handing, she just directed me. he was never a problem to load from that day on!
I know quite a few Parelli-ites, and the one thing that stands out the most is that the deeper these owners get into the Parelli thing, the less likely they are to actually ride their horse
It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen. But they think the horse has to "agree" to be ridden that day, and strangely enough, their horses aren't very agreeable.
I didn't read everything you posted, Xavier, but I have read Xenophon, so yeah, not too much of this is new. Just the material the props are made of, I think.
I watched the video .
I haven't ridden a horse for over 15 years (and my French isn't good enough to understand the video) but I was horrified by it.
Basically "I will push you, pull your head about, kick your belly (twice ) and put my hand up to your face.And you will tolerate this".
Poor horse had his head up, ears back, trying to get away.
I was willing him to push the silly bint over.
Dmare shares a field with a parelli trained Mare (well when she stays in the field). The story goes she was very difficult, would only do things on her terms, and was very spooky. She still only does things on her terms but now she is scared of NOTHING, she is just bloody dangerous in my humble opinion. She is constantly barging through the electric fence and out of the paddock. I have caught her and put her back a couple of times,....only out of choice as, she sets the whole field off into a stampede if you go into her field, while she is out side of it. She is barge, pushy and no respect for personal space.
When I go to get Dmare in, and she is in the field she will kick at Dmare, charge up to her, while I am putting her headcollar on, waving anything at her do not make her stop, I have even waved the "electric gate at her, and she has just barged into it.......she honestly is a liability and I hope she gets kicked off the yard, due to the cost of the fences she pulls down every night. I hate HATE going into the field when she is in it, as nothing scares her, and that makes her incrediably dangerous.
We have one Parelli woman at our yard and we all think she and her methods are barking!! Her horse is a bloody pain in the arse in the field too. Always after tidbits - barging at the gate etc.
She does this sort of psuedo lungeing thing. Where she is in the middle on the end of a rope, and her horse sory of dawdles / slops around in a vague shape around her - not a circle - just sort of mooches about - she does it for HOURS. I have NO idea what she is tring to achieve. She ties her horse up on the yard with a WAY too long leadrope and then wonders why she gets tangled in the rope or gets in everyones way - as nobody can tie up near her as her horse is a bit kicky. Hacks out in a really loose string headcollar arrangement. But can;t hack in company as the horse gets too 'wild'. Well stick a fucking bridle on it then!!!
I wouldnt. Nutters who are too frightened to discipline the horse correctly in the experience I have seen.
I didn't watch it with the sound on btw so I don't know what was said/what justification there was for the 'training methods' used.
I couldn't watch all this video. It broke my heart seeing the confusion on that poor horse's face. He was standing there perfectly well-behaved and interested in his surroundings until the girl started abusing him. One of the comments asks who the 'trainer' is and this is the reply:-
*The trainer is apparently Aurelie Merlin who got into Parelli and trained at La Cense in France getting her training diploma from them in 2008. The person who put the vid on youtube said they blurred the face because they weren't positive that it is Aurelie in the video*--or more likely they don't want to get sued--.
Sheldon Xavier, lucky I'm a good speed-reader otherwise I'd have gone blind.
In other words, they do not like their horses to be living creatures, they would rather have them to be machines. Had to pick you up on that one as I've already mentioned the Parelli demonstration I saw at Windsor. I've never seen such a bunch of brain-dead, dull-eyed horses in my life. It was in total contrast to the paradressage demo which went before it, where the horses had bags of spirit and energy and were clearly enjoying their work.
True wild horses, leaving out some disputable exceptions such as the prezwalski horse, are regretfully not around anymore. I think exmoors are truly wild apart from round-ups once a year (am I right in thinking that?). They were mentioned in the Domesday book so have certainly been on the moor since then and they live in natural herds all year round with no human intervention. Unlike the mustangs they aren't descended from domesticated ponies that went back to the wild, they have always been wild, at least the feral herds have (obviously there are some bred in studs but not all that many I don't think otherwise they wouldn't be on the endangered species list).
I'm with schoolgovenor.
Horsenalities: a loads of codswallop dressed up as science in an attempt to legitimise the background claims.
Riding skills of PP and LP: you must be joking, under any system, Western, English or what have you, a horse that is not working from behind is a poorly trained horse. LP's demonstrations of dressage movements are about as sophisticated as my 2 year old showing a half pass with 'My Little Pony'.
Marketing: ferocious marketing machine, designed to fleece people who know no better into thinking that perfectly common place behaviours that most horses know (or can easily be trained to pick up) are somehow miraculous and can only be brought about if you invest in a £50 stick.
Reality: the videos. Impatient, arrogant trainers cutting corners and getting frustrated and cruel when quick results are not easily forthcoming.
(xavier if posts do have to be 3,000 words long please use paragraphs)
To be honest xavier, I'm losing the will to live reading your posts.
Horsenalities - apart from being widely criticised by real equine behaviour experts... I think the reason why many people who support nh training have a problem with this way of looking at horses is that it encourages people to be inflexible in their thinking about horses. They stop looking at the horse in front of them in that moment. Do you think someone like Buck Brannaman attempts to slot horses into such categories? The reason you haven't found anyone else attempting to teach in this way is because it's not a good idea. But as Pat relies heavily on a system that is a franchise, and has to look the same the world over - it's a solution that he's come up with to do the best he can. (I have sat wearily through the Horsenality DVD teaching several times, it's still crap).
Catwalk - the video is rough, but the treatment dealt to that horse is beyond dispute. Pat abandoned the approach and retreat method very quickly and went into roping legs and levering the horse down with a thin rope under it's top lip. Disgraceful, and comparing it to other instances of horse abuse is hardly relevant. That is what someone who wants to influence the world of horses was prepared to do in public. I shudder to think what he does away from the crowds.
The Yo Yo "game". Smashes the horse around the face with a heavy metal clip. In fact, as nobody seems to pay much attention to the correct fitting of a rope halter in Parelli, the clip often smacks horses round the face just when they are running about "playing" - because the noseband is too big. Strangely enough, when you watch the really good trainers in action - people like Buck, Mark Rashid etc, they manage to get their horses backing up without the help of a bit of metal to hit them with. They also get the horses backing up with relaxation and correct flexion... something it's hard for a horse to do when forced.
Oh, and I know all about the order to "play" the "games" - Friendly, Porcupine, Driving, Yo Yo, Circling, Sideways, Squeeze... Very clever to use the word game when talking about something that is anything but for the horse. Generally, on any Level 1 clinic, you see horses going through some things that are far from games to them.
Barney the one-eyed horse smacked about by Linda for a prolonged period. Well, I have that DVD on my shelf, because it was part of the Level 1 instructional set. Linda was not only beating up on a horse that for a lot of the time couldn't even see her coming - she was teaching beginners that it was fine.
There are some excellent examples of the natural horsemanship approach, unfortunately Parelli isn't a great example and has done a lot of harm in the UK. So many barriers have been put up with the horse-owning public because of their experience of Parelli. Now anyone with a rope halter in their hand gets lumped into the same mediocre camp.
Dear school governor, you make some very interesting and good points, at least, you bring up some issues that will trouble a lot of people when dealing with natural horsemanship. I believe its important to bring such points to the table and discuss them, because they only can learn us how to deal with horses in a more efficient way and rather than short pro and contra statements, it is my opinion that a thorough discussion is far more beneficial to everyone.
Concerning the videos, I will not try to legitimise Pat Parelli concerning the 2010 video, but I am also not going to condemn him. The same goes for the Linda Parelli video, which I have seen a half year ago (but trying to look it up again, it was removed due to copyright issues, so I am not going to make any direct comments about that one). First of all, I would like to point out that for all the videos Pat Parelli has made; we can all agree that this video is the only exception where his dealing with the horse went over the top. So let us keep perspective here. Secondly, I think it is important to notice that the kind of abuse that is demonstrated here should not be overdramatized. To be honest, I have been to quite some horse markets, jumping events (which are a big thing in Belgium) and other horse competitions, and I rarely encountered an event where no harsher and more irrational methods were being applied. Most of this problematic behaviour I witnessed behind the scenes (I am one of those people who always want to have a look what happens in the trailer department of a horse show). People hitting their horses on the head when they when the horse was frightened to be put on a trailer, people driving their spurs into the side of the horse when it showed some resistance to them, etc. Luckily, these kinds of people are always an exception amongst many others participating, but nonetheless, every event seems to have one or two of them.
To be sure, this does not legitimize what Parelli did during the show; it only tempers the dramatic online outburst which it rendered. I have difficulties making comments about the horse itself or what exactly was going on there, since the movie is quite short and has a terrible resolution. That being said, I do not think that Pat Parelli dealt with the situation in a good way. Everyone agrees this horse had severe bridling issues, and in my opinion these issues necessitated a lot more time and a lot less stress within the environment than such a demonstration could offer. The crucial mistake Parelli made here, was not screening the horse well enough up-front. This was clearly not a horse to be used during a demonstration; a different approach was most definitely in order. In other words, Pat clearly made an error of judgment even before the show began, and this lead to a world of trouble and many disappointed viewers. By stating this, I do not feel that methods being applied here were wrong (as far as I am able to judge), but rather that the way they were applied was wrong. I also do not think that Parelli people, rising up in Pats defence, should make quick judgements of the horsenality (a usefull concept to which I will return later). This horse was not simply a horse resisting bridling because of dominance issues, more was going on here (by which I do not say that dominance was not one of the factors, again, I cannot judge such a case by watching a low resolution movie, nor do I think anyone could). In the end, the fact remains that Parelli broke some of his own rules, probably under the pressure of hundreds people watching him and expecting success, and, consequently, because of the dangers that commercializing his methods imply. What this demonstrates to me is that people make mistakes and Pat Parelli is no exception to that rule (nor do I think the best horsemen in the world). The only thing I regret is that the Parellis did not use such examples to explain what they were trying to do and to indicate where they went wrong. We should evade making mistakes. But when we make them, lets try to learn from them.
On the other hand, I am also quite critical about people using such an incident to discard the entire Parelli system or natural horsemanship as a whole. If we are keen to agree that Parelli made a mistake here, lets also agree that in many of his demonstrations he does good things (even if you do not want to take up the entire system, you would probably agree that some of his methods are interesting nonetheless). What we should better focus our energy on, is to discuss the methods being applied and the system as a whole. Schoolgovernor brought up some points that seem to disturb him, most notably the yo-yo game and the concept of horsenalities. Regretfully, he doesnt explain what he finds disturbing about them. I will try, from my own point of view, to explain why I have sympathies for these methods and concepts as expressed within the Parelli system.
Let me begin with the yo-yo game. This is not an uncommon criticism uttered by people unfamiliar with the Parelli system and is, to some extent, disputed within the world of natural horsemanship. I can agree with these criticisms, but they have more to do with how the yo-yo game is applied than with the fallacy of the method on itself. The greatest problem people have with this game is that it targets a very sensible part of the horses body and that pressuring this part is therefore essentially wrong. This is partially true, but then again it is for this reason that even the most conventional methods target this part of the body. A bridle, for instance, is used in every kind of horsemanship, applies pressure to the head area of the horse (and this is why certain problem horses have so many difficulties with accepting the bridle). Consequently, why can we apply pressure on the head area when riding a horse, but can it not be used on line?
Critics will answer that the level of pressure which is applied to the head area when wiggling the line is too high. One criticism I read, stated that this gave the horse severe back problems and resulted in a bad posture of the horse. What this indicates to me is that people fail to grasp the concept of what is intended by the yo-yo game. First, applying pressure on the head of the horse is not uncommon when horses interact with one another. When horses establish dominance relations or when horses challenge dominance positions, they often start by a stand-off. Horses go on facing each other and follow up by biting towards each others heads, resulting in the back-flipping of the horses heads. Everyone who has regularly observed horses will have seen this type of behaviour and will recognize the same pattern in the yo-yo game when phase four is applied. So it is not unnatural, but should it be applied on a regular basis? The answer is yes and no. The issue about the yo-yo game is the right amount of pressure, and, again, this is where people fall into their mechanical thinking again.
Bringing me to my second point, the Parelli program explicitly states that before you enter in the yo-yo game, three other games should be played with the horse, the so-called friendly game, porcupine game and driving game. Especially the last one is essential to have good results with the yo-yo game. In the driving game appropriate pressure to move a horse is being taught. This implies that pressure (which you can also apply with the carrot stick) is applied to the front end of the horse in increasing amounts, and this pressure is released on the moment the horse back-ups. Only when the horse acknowledges this pressure, the yo-yo game can be started whereby the same amount of pressure is now induced by making use of the rope. By no means is it encouraged to apply great amounts of pressure on the line and by no means is it encouraged that horses should flip back their heads every time the yo-yo game is played. If this is the case, than the program clearly states you should work on the driving game again.
What essentially happens is that the mechanical thinking human wants to have quick results, racing through the first three games and doing the yo-yo game. Surely, this has results when enough pressure is applied, and, consequently, people are happy because the result they wanted is achieved. Therein lays the problem. The yo-yo game is not just about a mechanical movement you want your horse to make; it is about creating a balance in approach and retreat behaviour and in establishing your leadership in creating that balance. The simple backing-up is not the only thing on which success has to be measured. Disappointed people who blame the yo-yo game for back issues or bad posture (not to speak of another more dangerous result this can render: rearing), have perhaps been applying too much pressure on their horses head. What you want in the end, is the horse to move back with just a small wiggle of the rope (not making him to flip-back his head or being disturbed by it in any way) or, even better, by a small wiggle of the fingers. If this is achieved, you have achieved communication upon which a partnership can be established, and this is a result more important than the mere mechanical movement of the horse.
One of the arguments critics can now bring up, is that the program is not paying enough attention to how people approach their horses and how they play the seven games. This is a criticism I could agree upon, although the Parellis make a great effort in trying to deal with such problems. Horsenality is actually one of the products in trying to make students focus more on their relationships and levels of communication than on the sheer mechanical results. I find it always a little bit strange when people, claiming to be sympathetic of natural horsemanship challenge this idea of horsenality, because the concept is in itself an improvement for people who want to establish such a relationship and, to my knowledge, it is the only systematic approach in trying to understand how horses behave and how to link that behaviour to appropriate training methods.
Is it a perfect explanatory system? Most definitely not, it is rather a sort of new paradigm, allowing people to tackle problems they might encounter in a different more organic way; a paradigm shift which I can only applaud. To be sure, this is not a thorough scientific theory about horse behaviour nor does it intends to be so. It is a generalised framework that should be used as a tool to focus more on the horses behaviour when playing the games. It tries to empower people to think outside a directional and mechanical approach when their horses are doing something else than what they were expecting from the game they were playing.
There can, however, be formulated some criticism against the system of horsenality. Firstly, when this concept is used as a kind of all-explaining theory of horse behaviour and this is indeed something that certain Parelli enthusiasts are doing and to some extent is encouraged by the Parellis themselves. However, when you look at the DVDs, it becomes clear that the main purpose of the horsenality concept is to encourage people to learn to work and play with their horses rather than to follow a standard set of rules (the same logic sits behind the Pattern series). The risk that ever lurks is that people are going to approach this system in the same mechanical way as they have approached the games and thus ending up with other problems of the same kind. People tend to classify their horses according to the left-right brain scale and the introvert-extrovert scale and hope to find a new set of rules to deal with their type of horse. To some extent the Parellis are conscious of that and are producing a lot of movies on the Parelli member page to deal with more specific characteristics of horse behaviour. So the system is one of constant refinement, but offers in my opinion a very good starting point for people to deal with certain issues.
A second criticism is perhaps more fundamental, it is the static and rigid subdivision of horses according to their horsenalities. Horse behaviour is not something one can divide in four simple categories and it certainly is not static as well. This is certainly acknowledged by Pat Parelli, even in his earlier work such as his book. The way a horse will react depends on many factors, his current mood, the state of the horse-human relationship, environmental factors, etc. Quite often, Parelli students go on classifying their horses into one of the four categories (which they often do with a remarkable success, demonstrating the effectiveness of the program) but assume that behavioural state of their horses wont alter with time. For instance, horses with a lot of energy and a high move factor (extroverts) who are easily scared (right brain), will become more and more confident over time. But these horses can also have a certain degree of dominance instincts within them (this goes for a lot of stallions) and will consequently behave like left-brain extroverts. Just by simply working from one of these categories will not give all the answers to dealing with these kinds of horses and, in some rare but not uncommon instances, result in problem behaviour. Also dominance, which is most accentuated in stallions, but certainly not absent in the behaviour of mares or geldings, is barely treated (often regarded as being an element of left brain horses, which is not always necessarily true).
Nonetheless, the concept of horsenality remains one of the few systems that take account of the variety within horse behaviour and that links the necessity to read this behaviour to training methods. By this virtue alone, the program is commendable. The criticism that the concept of horsenality is too abstract, generalised or static, masks the fact that many other ways of training, natural or conventional, often do not take into account the variety within horse behaviour at all. As far as my limited knowledge allows, I have not found any alternatives out there trying to teach students to link their horses behaviour to a holistic training system and, in the end, thats what natural horsemanship is all about. So being conscious of the limits of such a general approach, it remains in my opinion a good, albeit improvable, starting point for working with different kinds of horses. Rather than all together discarding such a concept by just commenting you do not put a lot of faith in it, I think it would be better to further such concepts and try to develop them into better frameworks, whether this is done by Parelli and his students, by other natural horsemen and women or by conventional trainers.
Interesting thread. Back in the days when I rode more regularly, I inclined towards natural horsemanship (don't know much about Parelli)
eg understanding why a horse is shying at a puddle that is no more than 3 cm deep - because horses eyes perceive depth differently to the way we do ... once you understand that ... you can be more patient resolving the issue and avoid wrongly "blaming" a horse for being "deliberately" nappy
Agree xith BigBoPeep "IMO, most problems can be solved by simply trying to see things from their POV, not projecting human stuff onto them"
Well, that's all very enlightening. I expect Op decided whether or not to take her Parelli horse on loan months ago though.
I can sum up my reservations about Parelli (not the NH movemement!) in a few words:
Barney the one-eyed horse. Abuse on an instructional DVD.
Catwalk. The day Pat P lost the plot in public.
The Yo Yo game and heavy metal clips.
Depriving horses of food and water (recently confirmed by Pat as something he would advoctate).
Pseudo "equine behaviour".
Oh, and did I say Horsenalities??
There are some great trainers out there from the more "western" approach. I think Pat is "the best of the worst".
I would like to take the opportunity to comment on the Parelli system, but also to go into some deeper problems when the combination of humans and horses are concerned (I apologize for the length of this thread beforehand, but I want to be nuanced in my statements and provide ample argumentations to my views rather than making some statements out of the blue). Although I now work as a professional historian, in a previous life, I worked as an evolutionary biologist with a specific interest in behavioural ecology (quite a transition, isnt it). Consequently, I have always looked to horses in quite a different way and looked for systems who, in one way or another, were complementary to my view. Surely, my professional biological work never had anything to do with horse behaviour, but you can imagine that one gets a nose for trying to unravel behavioural patterns in all species one encounters. Because I was also riding and always had a close relationship to horses, I could apply my general behavioural knowledge to horses themselves.
Before I get to the issue of the Parelli system, I want some wrong statements, which were quoted on this site or others, out of the way. Firstly, it is true that natural horsemanship is a branded term. It is used to coin a certain way of dealing with horses and you will not find the term being used before the twentieth century. On the other hand, it is wrong to stress that human-horse relationships are artificial or not natural, because horses need to be in the wild. Such a statement leads us to forget that horses are basically domesticated animals and have been so for thousands of years. True wild horses, leaving out some disputable exceptions such as the prezwalski horse, are regretfully not around anymore. For sure, some people will refer to wild mustangs herds, roaming the North-Amarican plains, as being wild horses, but they are actually domesticated horses which have survived in a natural environment again. This being said, we must not forget that still a lot of the original instincts are still present in horses, but those instincts are bendable for horses to enter in a relationship with humans. This flexibility is the product of thousands of years of breading and domesticating the original wild horse.
This brings me to a second point, where my expertise as a historian proves valuable. What the Parelli system does, as most of the so-called natural horsemans systems, is in fact not new at all. When looking at historical sources, you might discover that a lot of the basic ideologies expressed by natural horsemanship nowadays, was already present for a long time. Surely, the concrete way of applying them may differ in their details, but a lot of principles can be found in such sources. Popular amongst natural horsemen and women is for instance Xenophon, who speaks of many methods which can also be found within natural horsemanship, but are in fact also applied by many experienced, professional and conventional (I do not like the word traditional, because in my historical opinion natural horsemanship seems more traditional than a lot of the modern uses) trainers.
Breaking-in is a formidable example of such a process and a typical American I might add. To break in a horse, with its quite aggressive connotation, is a term which is mostly used in Western language. To demonstrate the contrast, let me present you with the Dutch word: zadelmak maken, translated in English this would be something like saddle taming, a word with quite a different connotation, wouldnt you say. It signifies a more gradual process in getting a horse to get used to a saddle, which in fact renders the western method to be the more exceptional. Adding to this argument, is the work of king Edward of Portugal written in the fifteenth century, who carefully explains the gradual appliance of the saddle to the horse and, of course in another kind of terminology, describes a method that nowadays would be called light-riding (which is a non-exclusive component of the Parelli free-style savvy).
Returning to the main question at hand, what to make of the Parelli system? Lets even extend that question to what to make of natural horsemanship in general? In my opinion, natural horsemanship is an essential evolution within a world, where more and more people are getting the ability to get in touch with horses, but have less and less time to get in touch with horses and are more and more encouraged to think in a mechanical way. Natural horsemanship is actually nothing new than the good horsemanship of the old days, now applied to new necessities of our modern way of living and our modern way of thinking. Within the development of such a natural horsemanship, Pat Parelli has made an invaluable contribution. Even if his system has disappointed some people, it has helped a great deal of other people and, what is more, it led to discussions as the one we are having right now.
But what differentiates the Pat Parelli from other great horsemen or natural horsemen. Is it his great talent as a natural horseman? For sure, this is one of the aspects. However, there are even greater men around there (one of the greatest is Jean-Francois Pignot in my opinion, just watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIHY0Y5Fw4o). Where the difference lies is that Pat, together with Linda Parellis consumer-customer experience, has successfully attempted to work out a system that can be taught to a great deal of people. And therein also lies the problem with the Parelli system. Such a system enables people with different levels of experience to engage in horse training, and those people often expect quick results and mechanical answers to their own horse problems. Next to that, people often want to read in the system what they like to read. The great trouble with the failing of Parelli for a lot of horse enthusiasts has quite often nothing to do with the system on itself, but more with the way people approach the system and how people read the system. Adding to this problem, could be the fact, and this is something which Parelli enthusiasts need to recognise, is that Parelli has become (and probably always was) a commercial enterprise. Sometimes, more exception than rule, you will encounter people being disappointed by official Parelli instructors. In such cases, I suspect the commercial nature of Parelli being one of the problems. People have to pay to become a member of the Parelli community, then they have to pay to get de DVDs to enter the program, then they have to pay for taking auditions so they can be officially recognised as level 1-4 horsemen and then they have to pay to enter the instructors program. In other words, people willing to become a Parelli instructor have to make a considerable investment and, consequently, one cannot be too finicky about their abilities to help others with their problems. Nonetheless, as far as I am able to scope, I must say that most of these people are quite able to undertake their tasks, perhaps only failing when working with severe problem horses.
Lets leave behind the commercial argument, which I will not consider right here (because in the end everyone is free to start with the Parelli program or not), and get to the key issues of the program. One of the most heard arguments against the Parelli system is either the creation of problem horses by the system or the boredom or frustration that the system renders. Let me begin with the first problem, the creation of problem behaviour with horses. In my opinion, this problem lies with two important reasons, one which is indirectly created by the success of the program, the other with people not paying attention to what is actually taught within the program.
What the program does in terms of animal behaviour is first the acceptance of humans as being not a threat to them. This is actually a very good lesson, the more because it focuses on general methods in giving horses a safe feeling. The so-called friendly game, which in later levels gets extended to the extreme friendly game, is nothing more than a very intelligible work that is often looked over in conventional training methods. Extreme friendly game, for instance, is nothing new or revolutionary. It has long been used by the mounted police force in training their horses to be comfortable in the most extreme situations. What is more, this first simple game of the Parelli method demonstrates the invaluable asset of implying behavioural methods into training programs. The so-called approach-retreat system is an excellent example thereof and essentially the best method to train a horse to learn to adapt to all kinds of variable situations.
The trouble that however originates from such an approach is that many horses get to feel really comfortable being around with humans, in a way they accept humans as being part of their interspecies flock. But this also means that this confident left-brain horse is now going to apply other instincts on his human companion. Off course, this does not go for all horses, but mostly dominant horses (the so-called left brain horses) will prove to be a problem. Here problems may arise and, in my opinion, the program still has to little attention for how to deal with dominance issues (I am not saying that the methods that are being used in the program, do not offer the tools of dealing with dominance issues, because they do, but it needs consequent approach). A particular problem is formed by the so-called right-brained dominant horses (horses which are initially afraid, but, once the fear is gone soon go to dominate). They are the kind of horses who spook from everything they see, but which hold a dominant position, or at least show dominant behaviour, within the herd.
Nonetheless, it is clear that the authors of the Parelli system are conscious of these troubles. The DVD series horsenality is specifically designed to deal with these issues, although it still leaves people with quite some questions. Consequently, depending on your own abilities and natural feel of horses and on the type of horse you have, results may differ, even leading to the creation of problem horses (which are actually not so problematic, they are quite often horses who are initially afraid and timid, who then have learned to accept you, but consequently start to utter dominance over you).
A more fundamental issue in creating problem horses lies with the people applying the system. As Parelli puts it nicely, there are two kinds of horse people with problems, the carrot people and the stick people. Lets be honest, most people starting out with something that is called natural horsemanship will be found in the category of the carrot people and the question is quite often how much they take Pats own comment truly to hart: be as firm as needed and as gentle as possible. Most people following the program have little trouble with the last, but are quite often ignoring the first. Sometimes it is necessary to be firm and when you watch Parelli during his shows, you will see that he has a keen eye which amount of pressure is needed. When people start with the program and only apply very gentle pressure (phase one or two as called in the program) they will not get a lot of results. What is even more, when their friendly games encourage their horses to become confident in their neighbourhood, their lack of proper pressure or consistency therein renders horses who become lazy or even dangerous (because they will develop dominance issues).
Is this due to the program, I think not. It has more to do with how people approach the program and how people approach the horse. This problem is further enhanced because natural is often equated with only gentle and this is a great misconception. The statement that we must not see horses as equals proves my statement here. Natural horsemanship is about using the natural behaviour of the horse to get better and more enjoyable results and, more importantly, to create better situations for horse and rider. The partnership which is implied is as much an equal partnership as the partnership horses have with one another. In this regard, I want to take it even a step further, we should not only regard horses as our equals, and we should not regard horses as humans. A problem often encountered by many people who look in natural horsemanship a way to turn a horse into a human partner. This is not only unnatural in my opinion, but even doing injustice to the horse. The partnership consists of one between man and horse, not in trying one of the parties into one another. What the partnership, rather than a purely dominance relation, do require is that the human partner, being the most rational of the two (or at least so we assume) needs to learn the language of the horse and not the other way around (and this can justifiably be the major objection to more conventional training programs).
The second problem, being people getting bored or frustrated by the system, has in my opinion everything to do with human mentality and is perhaps something Pat and Linda or other natural horsemen should make a video about. Again there are two issues to be concerned here. First, since I do not have to make money of getting people into a program I teach, I can be harder in my statement (by which I do not want to attack anyone personal, whatever system they like to follow): there are a lot of people, especially recreational or sportsmen, who are riding for all the wrong reasons. I do not mean that all the good people are into natural horsemanship and all the bad people are into conventional horsemanship, also people engaged in natural horsemanship are sometimes doing it for the wrong reasons. A useful question is always: why are you doing your horse activity? Quite often people only get focussed with results and personal ambitions and the interaction with the horse gets lost somewhere along the way. I am not saying that you cannot have a purpose or ambitions with your horse activity, but if the horse itself gets out of the picture, then you have a serious issue to deal with. If you like jumping over things without wanting to spend time doing other things with your horse than jumping, why not doing motor cross? (you will make higher jumps at higher speeds than you ever will be able to do with a horse). When you want to race at incredible speeds, but you do not want to work with your horse, why not buy a racing car and go on the circuit? (you will be able to race at speeds a horse can never sustain).
Why am I making such a hard statement? Simply because behind the arguments of boredom or frustration, there lies the argument which people wont explicit that they do not want to play the games or that they do not have the time for playing the games. A variation upon this argument is that they do not like it when their horse does things they havent ask them to do. In other words, they do not like their horses to be living creatures, they would rather have them to be machines. When you are getting bored with the games or frustrated with something that does not work, ask yourselves why you are getting bored.
Surely, this does not apply to all people getting bored or frustrated. Quite often people try and try the program, but they have the feeling that no progress whatsoever is being made. In some cases, they even feel that things are getting worse. This has to do with the second issue I would like to address, namely the way people approach things. Humans are linear and problem solving creature. Furthermore, certainly in our modern days, people tend to think very mechanically: If there is a problem, there must be a fix. This being said, it is important to realise that the Parelli system never stated to be an easy-going system. The reason that so many DVDs are being produced and that so many videos can be watched on the ParelliConnect site, has not only to do with commercial opportunism, but also with a clear concern with the problems natural horsemen seem to encounter when dealing with their horses (the more because every horse and every human is different). For sure, it is not an easy task to work out a system that applies to all cases and it is this fallacy that most people frustrates when starting with Parelli. Nonetheless, it could be argued that the Parelli system is the most exhaustive of all natural horsemanship programs out there. So a first important advice is, take your time and allow yourself to take your time. No one ever said it would be easy (even if Pat and Linda quite often make it look easy, perhaps something they should be more mindful of).
Of course, there is more going on. What I almost always seem to notice in the criticism is that the system does not work and it reminds me to the many times that I did not have success (take in mind that for a time, I only worked with the Parelli book and nothing more). It is partially my biological education that always made me return to an organic approach. When something did not work, I went working with that. Questioning myself and analysing my horse. I tried new ways, paid attention to the signals I send and sometimes even took whole steps back. Next to that, I spent a lot of time being with my horses, being in their herd. Observing them, see what moved them (literally and figuratively) and paying attention to their behaviours on and off line. I created my own games next to the Parelli games (which turned out to be applications of the Parelli games when I got my hands on some videos of Pat). One of the most important things, in my opinion, is to get organically when working with horses. This is actually not a new insight, nor is it restricted to natural horsemanship. Many professional horsemen, training horses in conventional styles, know this and apply this. Why? Simply because some of these methods are traditionally been taught to them, but, more importantly, they spend a lot of time around horses. Horses are a part of their natural environment and they naturally learn to read them. What natural horsemanship does is an attempt to give such insights to people, amateurs or otherwise, who do not have the luxury of being with horses all the time or who have less feel to learn such things on themselves. Natural horsemanship, by definition, encourages humans to understand their horses so they can improve their relationships with them and by consequence also their joint ambitions, wherever they may lie. It is not stating something new, it only opens up a system for success which was previously (and still, perhaps to a lesser extent) used by professionals out of experience and pragmatism, to a public of horse laymen. But in the end, it is up to the student to become a master, a path that goes not always over roses. Then again, isnt that true for anything worth doing?
Depends on the practitioner.
Jean Paul pignon is a world away from some twat brandishing a dually but lack of c'mon sense.
It's the smart way to deal with horses - mind over matter, trouble is many think it's about being a complete pushover.
Ha yes like the other day when I arrived at the field to see dpony in the distance legging it up the hill. My friend said "Oh I think I spooked him when I went along the bottom just now" but I said "No he's been up to some mischief". It was just written all over him but I can't really explain how. Anyway, I walked along to find he'd been trashing the electric fencing .
Actually, I think that ponies DO have emotions very similar to humans. I've seen jealousy, rage, fear, mischief, adoration, depression and joy. And ive stood and watched them and known exactly what they are thinking!! It's more about remembering that horses aren't as complicated as people. They are more than capable of reasoning, and even planning to a certain extent, just on a much smaller simpler scale than people. They don't do conscience or guilt.
well I hate the phrase natural horsemanship - nothing natural about it, or any horsemanship - natural is horses running wild. horsemanship is human. NH is just as much into its bits and bobs as conventional, it's just that its a flicky rope rather than a pelham etc.
IMO, most problems can be solved by simply trying to see things from their POV, not projecting human stuff onto them, and it's amazing how many people just do not get that.
I think that common sense = not anthropomorphising any animal, whether equine, canine or anything else. Assuming that an animal thinks and acts like a human is the first assumption any novice makes. No-one is born with innate knowlege, but common sense helps with sifting the useful knowlege from the crap and this applies to anything.
Hahaha Catpuss, I think that is more the sort of person we are talking about who is a "parelli-ite" as opposed to someone who is natural horsemanship and employs good old fashioned horse sense.
We had a loaner who was into Parelli. He loaned our slightly odd pony. He used to spend hours flicking a bit of rope all over him. The horse would retaliate by trying to rip his face off! Never made a blind bit of difference!
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text:
How low (in the ratings) can Glenn Beck go?
Looks like the CNN news team threw the wrong anchor overboard last week.
Looks like the CNN news team threw the wrong anchor overboard last week.
Instead of unceremoniously dumping [1] Paula Zahn for her soft prime-time ratings, the CNN brain trust should have axed Glenn Beck [2], whose viewership is far smaller than Zahn's. In fact, on the night that Zahn announced she was leaving CNN, Paula Zahn Now easily bested Glenn Beck in the ratings, as it had often done for months.
Truth is, Beck's show has been in a ratings slump for most of this year. (The show's audience peaked 10 months ago.) Yet the right-wing talker who bashes progressives [3], Muslims, immigrants, and environmentalists when he's not pimping [4] for the John Birch Society remains a CNN favorite among his television bosses. If CNN were a meritocracy, it would be Beck out looking for a job, not Zahn. Instead, CNN appears to be sponsoring some sort of affirmative action program for an audience-challenged conservative who is allowed to drive his ratings into the ground without fear of being ousted.
Here's how Zahn and Beck shaped up during the second quarter [5] this year. Beck's weeknight show on CNN Headline News attracted, on average, 305,000 viewers, 111,000 of which were among the crucial 25-54 viewer demographic that advertisers prefer. By comparison, Zahn during the second quarter grabbed 557,000 viewers each night, 190,000 between the ages of 25-54. Yet it's Zahn, and her comparatively solid nightly newscast, who gets pushed out the door.
To recap CNN's strange affection for the unpopular right-wing TV host, Beck was hired by CNN Headline News in January 2006 as part of the channel's effort to open up its prime-time schedule and move beyond simply looping the latest headlines. The previous year, CNN Headline News welcomed tabloid crime chaser Nancy Grace. Phase two was to be the arrival of the radio talk-show host Beck, whom CNN suits famously described as being "cordial" and "not confrontational." An avowed non-journalist, hardcore conservative, and self-described rodeo clown who has fantasized [6] on-air about killing Michael Moore, Beck has proven to be anything but "cordial."
He has wondered [7] why former President Jimmy Carter did not attend a "suicide bomber graduation ceremony." He compared [8] Al Gore to Adolf Hitler. He suggested [9] that a black, Muslim member of Congress was loyal to Al Qaeda. And he recently aired, on this radio show, a very creepy monologue [10] about Rep. Dennis Kucinich's sex life:
BECK: What would be the drug that would be just powerful enough to make you not really realize that you're making out with Dennis Kucinich? ... I was thinking cyanide. That would be the only thing that would really dull the senses enough. Even then, your dead body would be like, 'Dennis Kucinich has his tongue in my mouth.' "
And then there was Beck's embrace [4] last week of the radical-right John Birch Society, right on CNN Headline News. Just how extreme was Beck's move? I did a transcript search on Nexis and determined that in the nearly 230,000 hours that CNN has broadcast since its inception 27 years ago, Beck's program was the first time any CNN anchor or reporter interviewed a spokesman from the John Birch Society and presented that person as an authority on anything. And for good reason: The John Birch Society has for decades danced on the far-right fringe [11] of American politics. It has urged cutting off all U.S. foreign aid; it vehemently opposed the Civil Rights movement; and the society claimed presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson were all communist sympathizers. But suddenly, thanks to Glenn Beck, John Birch Society flacks are being tapped as (immigration) experts on CNN.
Regardless of the damage Beck was doing to the larger CNN brand, late last year, CNN Headline News chiefs were crowing in the press about what a breakout cable news star Beck had become, that he had the hottest show on the dial, and that his show had grown CNN Headline News' ratings by 80 percent. (The New York Times [12] and The Washington Post [13] dutifully typed up the good news with flattering profiles; to date neither newspaper has reported on Beck's subsequent ratings demise.)
Soon after the 2006 midterm elections, though, the bottom began to fall out. The most glaring, telltale moment of Beck's ratings collapse came on May 2, when his much-hyped special taking a skeptical look at global warming was a major ratings disappointment [14], finishing in last place at both 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. among total viewers, losing to the regularly scheduled cable news offerings on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC.
Maybe it's those dismal ratings that forced Beck, in yet another CNN first, to start shilling [15] for sponsors on-air, in the middle of his program, like a dollar-a-holler AM disc jockey: "I am proud to announce that tonight's show is brought to you by the Sleep Number Bed and Select Comforts." What's next, Beck testimonials for pesticides and recliners? (CNN must have been so proud.)
The Beck ratings slump continues
Beck has tried to brush off his ratings slide as no big deal. According to blogger and Glenn Beck foe Chris Achorn, the hardcore conservative host, on his daily radio show, dismissed [16] "left-wing blogs that have proclaimed my television show dead because of a bad four-week ratings period."
More like a bad four-month ratings period. Beck had an awful April [17], a miserable May [18], a tepid June [19], and an up-and-down July.
It was in July that Beck subbed in for a vacationing Zahn at the 8 o'clock hour on the mother ship, CNN. (This was right before Zahn's bosses gave her the boot.) Beck's ratings were so weak, and he dragged CNN down so badly [20], that MSNBC actually beat CNN for the week in prime-time ratings in the 25-54 demo; a feat MSNBC rarely accomplishes. In fact, prior to Beck's appearance, the last time MSNBC beat CNN was in April, when MSNBC hosted a prime-time [21] Democratic debate, which artificially spiked the channel's weekly ratings. But the week Beck joined the CNN prime-time lineup -- bingo! -- MSNBC leap-frogged the competition [22].
The reason Zahn is being replaced is because her program often comes in third place during the 8 p.m. time slot, not only losing badly to Fox News, but also slipping behind MSNBC. As The New York Times reported [23]: "The estimated 558,000 viewers her program has been drawing, on average, each weeknight this year, according to Nielsen Media Research, represents less than a quarter of the nearly 2.3 million who watch 'The O'Reilly Factor' with Bill O'Reilly on Fox News. Ms. Zahn's program also draws about 100,000 fewer viewers a night than 'Countdown With Keith Olbermann' on MSNBC."
So Zahn got shown the door for coming in third place. But Beck does her one better; his show often comes in fourth place in its time slot. And forget about losing to Countdown by 100,000 viewers. On two of the nights that Beck filled in for Zahn on CNN at 8 p.m., the show lost to Countdown by nearly 400,000 viewers.
When Beck substituted for Zahn, he was actually hosting three prime-time programs that week on the CNN schedule: at 8 p.m. on CNN, and Beck's usual CNN Headline News program at 7 p.m., which then repeats at 9 p.m. It was pretty much all Beck, all the time. Aside from the dreadful numbers he pulled CNN, how did his CNN Headline News show do that week? Even worse. For instance, on the night of July 3 [24], as the news of Scooter Libby's commutation was being aggressively dissected by news junkies, Beck's Headline News show at 9 p.m. attracted just 58,000 viewers between the ages of 25-54, which is just a jaw-dropping number for prime-time cable television. By comparison, Fox News' Hannity & Colmes was able to attract 369,000 demo viewers that night at 9 p.m.
And the July 3 showing was no holiday-week fluke. On July 20 [25], Beck's 9 p.m. telecast managed to nearly match that anemic showing, attracting just 60,000 demo viewers. Worse, on June 5 [26], Beck's 9 p.m. show was watched by a microscopic 50,000 viewers between the ages of 25-54. But nothing could sink lower than Beck's June 4 [27], 7 p.m. ratings performance, when his show was watched by just 40,000 demo viewers, an unspeakably lame ratings figure.
Is there any ratings depth Beck could hit that would finally trigger CNN execs to rethink their failed experiment?
And even when Beck has, on occasion, bounced back with strong ratings, he's often so far behind his competitors he can barely see them. For instance, when news broke on June 8 [28] that celebrity socialite Paris Hilton was being taken back to jail to serve out her drunken-driving sentence, Beck's ratings that night spiked. At 7 p.m. his show grabbed 427,000 viewers, one of his best showings in months. The only problem was he still lost to the competition, whose ratings rose even more thanks to the Hilton-driven media frenzy.
And don't think just because Beck's show airs on CNN's little sister, Headline News, that the channel's not capable of grabbing big ratings. Nancy Grace has turned into a sizeable hit for the Headline News, attracting approximately 493,000 viewers each night; 187,000 in the 25-54 demo. In fact, Headline News' prime-time lineup sometimes resembles a yo-yo [29], going up and down each night between Grace (up) and Beck (down). Both gab-fests air twice each night; Beck at 7 and 9 p.m., Grace at 8 and 10 p.m. After Beck's poorly rated 7 o'clock broadcast is over, ratings shoot up for Grace. When her broadcast is over, ratings drop back down for Beck at 9 o'clock. And then, like clockwork, ratings jump right back up again for Grace at 10 o'clock. In the television business, it's called losing your lead-in; being unable to retain viewers who watched the previous show on the same channel.
All of which begs this question: In the hyper-competitive, big-money world of cable television news, who at CNN is protecting the underperforming Glenn Beck, and why?
UPDATE: In a July 31 press release [30], CNN Headline News boasted that for the month of July, ratings for Glenn Beck, in its 7 p.m. ET time slot, were up 11 percent among viewers 25-54 (to 110,000), and 25-54 ratings were up 30 percent in the 9 p.m. slot (to 113,000). What CNN Headline News did not mention is that last September Glenn Beck averaged [31] 149,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo in both the 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. time slots. So even with his July ratings increase, Beck is still playing catch-up.
- Network/Outlet
- CNN [32], CNN Headline News [33]
- Person
- Glenn Beck [34], Paula Zahn [35]
- Show/Publication
- Paula Zahn Now [36], Glenn Beck show [37]