On the weekend I went with two ladies from the barn to Clinton Anderson's Walk About Tour at the National Western Complex in Denver. The clinic was just GREAT!!
Actually, I just found out that Clinton Anderson is existing! I saw a video posted on Facebook of a girl (Stacy Westfall), who rides bareback and bridleless and does spins and sliding stops (of course without falling down). I was really impressed by this and tried to learn something more about 'Natural Horsemanship' that we as English (Dressage) riders don't know.
Anyway, I googled this and came across a Clinton Anderson. I got on his webpage www.downunderhorsemanship.com and there are videos of him training horses. Just amazing! On this webpage I found out that he's coming to Denver for a horse show!
On Craigslist I tried to get cheaper tickets than stated on the webpage ($45 for Sat and Sun combined) and I looked on Ebay. I won on Ebay 4 tickets (2 pairs of Sat and Sun each) for $30! So I got a ticket for myself for just $15!!!! I was so happy!!
I could not wait for the weekend to arrive and on Saturday morning, I entered the Show Complex at 9 a.m. sharp.
And there he was, Australian's Clinton Anderson, who resides now in the US, in Stephenville, Texas!
First he talked about his training method and demonstrated this method on a 5 year old bratty horse in the roundpen. After lunch, he demonstrated the method on a halter and leadline for the horse folks who are not blessed with a round pen.
His method is really close to the Dog Whisperer's Cesar Millan one: Gain respect!!! Everything is about the horse respecting the human! Cesar uses a firm touch after several 'Shhh!' warnings, Clinton uses a carrot stick and smacks the horse on whatever body part he wants the horse to move after several warnings as well.
This dark brown 11 year old gelding, Maverick, was disrespectful and running almost constantly over the owner when the owner presented the horse, when Clinton worked with him for about 40 minutes, the horse already transformed tremendeously!
In the first picture Clinton wants his own space and backs up the horse out of his personal space, inthe second picture Clinton wants the horse to move his hindquarters around the front legs. Body language is everything!
The next day he rode Maverick and to get his neck softened, he flexes (bends) the horse's neck several times towards his leg. Maverick is blessed with an enormous muscular neck on the underside (Unterhals), because he was just disrespectful behaving and carried his nose high up into the air all the time. A horse that surrenders keeps in low, not higher than its withers. Maverick has a lot of learning to do!
Here's Clinton signing autographs during breaks. Of course I got one, too!
My friend who took this picture did not push far enough on the button of the camera so after 2 unsuccessful pictures I wanted to tell her that she needs to push harder on the button. Of course now she did it and this is the outcome of it...Grrr! LOL Second pic is me talking to Clinton about a behaviour problem of the mare I ride.
Of course Clinton is marketing his own line of horse tack. Pretty overprized for my taste but probably worth the money!
Anyway, I had a blast at these two full days, my wonderful husband took care of the kids and I learned a lot! In fact so much, that I fell asleep with the kids at 7:45 pm on Saturday!
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