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EAST BAY — Avery Gauthier never gets sick of horses. Which makes it fortunate that her horses never tire of being near her.

That is because the Tiverton native is a licensed Parelli Professional, a three star instructor, and horse specialist in an ‘unorthodox’ style of horse training.

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Parelli Horse Trainer Avery Gauthier

Photos by Richard W Dionne Jr Licensed Parelli Professional Avery Gauthier plays with her horses a Hug and aKiss at Iroquois Ranch in Seekonk and in a homeowner's field in Westport

She travels the East Coast to students who want to train their horses naturally and, she said, it pays off.

“The basic goal is just to get your horses to want to do things for you instead of using force,” she said.

In some ways, it’s more human training than anything, getting the horse’s owner to realize why a horse does what it does and how to let them make their own decisions, she said.

“It’s really understanding that it’s all a predator relationship,” she said.

Horses are prey animals and instinctively they perceive humans as predators, she said. Parelli natural horsemanship works by appealing to their instincts and herding instincts to create trust with their owner.

In traditional training, horses can become disobedient and resistant to activities because humans are essentially forcing them to do something that they do not understand, she said.

Kathy Wattles, who lives in Little Compton with her husband, Gurdon, at Dancing Oaks Farm, had a difficult time getting her now 11-year-old horse, Peacenpromise, to cooperate using traditional methods.

Peace was difficult and headstrong. Then Ms. Wattles learned about Parelli training and tried some on her own, eventually meeting Ms. Gauthier about seven years ago.

“We’ve come a long way,” said Ms. Wattles, as she wagged her fingers toward Peace. After a moment of contemplation, Peace responded by backing up as trained.

Peace understands what she is doing now, Ms. Wattles said, and she thinks about what she is doing instead of just doing it.

Ms. Gauthier visits the farm twice a week where Ms. Wattles and her daughter, Kimberly Anderson, of Westerly, work with their horses at the fourth, and highest, level of Parelli training.

The levels signify a natural progression — one is partnership, two is harmony, three is refinement, and four is fundamentals of performance.

The fourth level is where the owner chooses a discipline for their horse. In Ms. Anderson’s case her Hanoverian, Whispering Jesse, will be entering the dressage ring. Peace used to show, but for now, Ms. Wattles and she are just enjoying the training.

Play is training

The key to natural training is to let horse sdo what they do instinctively.

It takes a lot of patience, said Ms. Gauthier last week as she let her Baskir curly hair horse, A Hug, take her time determining whether an unidentified object was a threat or not.

About two minutes later, after slowly backing up, assessing, moving forward, then repeating several times, A Hug got over her fear and moved ahead. Ms. Gauthier did not force her to go forward; there was no neighing, flattened ears, or resistance.

A Hug, 7, was trained from the beginning through natural horsemanship, starting with the ABCs of horse language.

The first step is to turn training into play — “You learn to play the seven games horses naturally play in the wild,” Ms. Gauthier said.

Many people get into horses recreationally, then give it up when it becomes too much work, she said. The games make it fun for both the human and the horse to train.

The seven games start with the basics.

The friendly game uses rhythmic motion to grow confidence in the horse toward his owner. The porcupine game uses finger pressure to direct the horse. The driving game trains the horse to move without touching him.

After that there is the yo-yo game, circle game, sideways game, and the squeeze game, all of which build on each other until the horse listens to its rider through body language.

The Parelli path

As one of 400 licensed Parelli professionals, she travels to students all over the East Coast and beyond, from Maryland to Vermont to Norway, but when Ms. Gauthier was young, she never imagined this path for herself.

While always interested in horses, she never had the opportunity to act until seventh grade when she exchanged mucking stalls for weekend riding at Silva Spirit Farm in Tiverton.

“I had no idea the path it was going to lead me on,” she said. “I pretty much just put myself in the world of horses and did whatever I needed to do to get where I needed to go.”

She took any horse-related job she could until eventually becoming head instructor and trainer at Portsmouth’s Glen Farm in the early 2000s.

It was at the Glen that she was introduced to Parelli training and realized that she wanted to learn more about natural horsemanship.

She signed up for a 10-week course at Parelli University in Florida in 2004. She didn’t know then that it would turn into “a five-year journey.”

Pat Parelli, the creator of Parelli horsemanship, invited her to take part in a two year program. When Ms. Gauthier finished that, his wife, Linda, invited her to become an instructor at the school.

She spent three years teaching courses at the Florida and Colorado campuses, driving between them with horses in tow twice a year.

“Home” now for two years (she now lives in Acushnet, Mass., and boards her horses in Seekonk), she spends a lot of time in the East Bay teaching private and group lessons and leading workshops and clinics.

Many of her clients are in Tiverton, Little Compton, Westport, and Portsmouth (visit www.averysavvyrhodeisland.com for more information), though she said she is on the road often.

“I’m enjoying being out on my own,” she said, although she goes back to Parelli about once a year to catch up.

She enjoys most when her clients really start to see how their horses’ attitudes change.

It is worth it for everyone, she said, “especially when your horse starts meeting you at your gate, no matter how big your pasture is.”

She does not get tired of her traveling (she usually groups her lessons by locale), and her clients sure appreciate it, but she does not think that everyone likes her on the road so much.

Her five horses, A Kiss, A Hug, Sonnet, Marit, and Gambler, miss her when she is gone.