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 Some cultures that historically produced the best horsemen had unconventional methods of training their horses. The Akhal-Teke breeders of Turkmenistan would pen a young horse in a corral and throw rocks at him, so the horse learned to distrust all people except the one person who did not throw rocks -- his rider -- to whom he would be fiercely loyal. As the nomadic tribes of the Bedouin galloped across deserts and steppes to new locations, young boys would jump onto the backs of young Arabian horses following the herd, and that would be the start of the horse's training. Almost all of the highly-trained ranch horses of the 19th and 20th centuries began their "training" by being lassoed and hogtied by a cowboy until the horse stopped struggling. Which of these methods, if any, is the best?
Natural Horsemanship is a method of training a horse based upon interacting with the horse as the dominant member of the herd using knowledge of horses' natural behaviour. New age? Not at all. Xenophon (430 - 354 BC) wrote a treatise, On Horsemanship, which stressed the importance of working sympathetically with the horse's nature. Brothers Tom and Bill Dorrance (born 1906 and 1910, respectively) are often credited with the development of modern Natural Horsemanship and promoted natural, gentle methods of horse training. Other practitioners, such as Monty Roberts, author of the book The Man Who Listens to Horses, and Pat Parelli, founder of the Parelli Natural Horsemanship training levels, have increased the visibility of "alternative" methods of horse training in more recent years.
 The fundamental ideas of Natural Horsemanship are basic concepts of horse behaviour. Horses communicate using body language and are very responsive to human body language. To communicate with each other they use subtle cues of the body, and, if the other horse does not respond, the behaviour escalates. Training proceeds in the same manner. A trainer asks for a response using a gentle cue, usually pressure on the rib or the mouth. If the horse does not respond, the pressure is increased until the horse performs the action. The cessation of pressure is the "reward" that the horse perceives for performing the correct action. If the cue is clear and the trainer uses patience, the horse learns to react to very little. The horse also learns to respect the human trainer as the dominant herd member.
Natural Horsemanship is somewhat controversial. Natural Horsemanship is marketed as different from the "classical" way of training a horse, when in reality the fundamental concepts, such as pressure-release, are an integral part of classical riding (particularly dressage). Public awareness of Natural Horsemanship has greatly increased over the last few decades; Monty Roberts gives demonstrations in front of crowds of thousands where he "tames" a wild horse in a very short period of time, and Pat Parelli sells DVDs which promise to teach you how to "take giant steps towards becoming a horseman." Training a horse, however, still takes time and patience, and Natural Horsemanship is not a miracle training method, regardless of how easy the professionals make it look.
Natural Horsemanship can be extremely expensive. There are four levels of Parelli Natural Horsemanship that you can purchase on DVD; each DVD is $200 (all figures in USD). An "Equipment Kit," comprised of four common items found in most tack rooms, is sold for $130. Natural Horsemanship clinics, held by certified Natural Horsemanship trainers, can cost $400 to participate in. As with any horse training, the trainer needs to be knowledgeable and intelligent about the training procedure. Misuse of equipment, such as a Flag ($44 for a piece of cloth tied to the end of a stick), can cause horses to develop a feeling of distrust and uneasiness around anything moving and flapping near them. Each method of Natural Horsemanship advises different methods of training, different activities and games, different pieces of equipment, and different rewards. If more than one method is used on a horse, conflicting cues and unclear requests can lead to frustrated trainers and confused and unhappy horses.
 What do I think? I think I've been practicing "natural horsemanship" for years without knowing it. Everything that Natural Horsemanship teaches is already used by any half-decent trainer. Do you want to be dealing with a panicked horse if a tarpaulin appears out of nowhere on your trail ride? No, so you spend time in the arena desensitizing your horse to loud noises, flapping objects, bright colours, scarecrows, gunshots, screeching children, and anything else you can possibly think of. Do you want to be kicking your horse like a maniac to get him to canter? Of course not, so you use pressure-release to teach your horse that when you put heels to ribs, he moves forward smoothly. Since no one appreciates a horse hoof on their foot, a young horse is taught to respect your personal space from day one, whether it's done with a specially-knotted rope halter and Carrot Stick (an orange-coloured whip -- $33) or a nylon halter and dressage whip. If someone is new to riding, I think learning Natural Horsemanship of any kind is a great way to fundamentally understand a horse and forge a strong bond of respect and friendship. But forget the overpriced equipment and "games" that require hours of training to perfect -- go in your tack room, pick up everything scary you can find, put them in the arena one by one, and then spend time with your horse learning that he can trust you to never harm him, and that umbrellas probably aren't weapons of equine destruction.
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