Celebrating 10 Years of Downunder Horsemanship

Transcription

Spring 2008
Celebrating 10 Years of
Downunder Horsemanship
Innovation. Inspiration. Instruction.
No Fluff - Just the facts, Mate!
Attend the WAHL WALKABOUT TOUR & take home training
strategies you can put into action immediately!
Club Members get up to 5 FREE tickets for any tour!
Bring your friends or family!
Children 16 and under get in FREE!
Demos 8am to 4:30pm Saturday & Sunday
Doors open at 7:30am - Club members get in 15 minutes early!
April 5-6 City of Industry, CA
April 26-27 Edinburgh, IN
May 24-25 Lincoln, NE
June 7-8 Pasco, WA
June 21-22 Memphis, TN
July 5-6 Topsfield, MA
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tour 2008
July 12-13 West Allis, WI
July 26-27 Detroit, MI
August 2-3 Casper, WY
August 23-24 Conyers, GA
Oct 11-12 Fletcher, NC
Nov 1-2 Kalispell, MT
Dec 13-14 Abilene, TX
888-287-7432 • clintonanderson.net
888-287-7432 • www.clintonanderson.net
Features
3
Lessons Well Learned
4
Clinton’s Corner
Ten Years in the Making
Spring 2008
Vol. 2, No. 1
www.noworriesclub.com
journal@noworriesclub.com
Clinton Anderson
No Worries Training For
You and Your Horse!
8755 State Route 638
Belle Center, OH 43310 USA
1-888-AUSSIE2 (888-287-7432)
937-464-2047
www.clintonanderson.net
President: Clinton Anderson
Tour Manager: Cindy Sackett
Writer: Rachelle Wilhelm
Graphic Design: Elaine Baker
The No Worries Journal is published
quarterly by Clinton Anderson Downunder Horsemanship as a benefit to
its members.
Advertising is limited to Clinton Anderson Downunder Horsemanship
sponsors, programs and events, and
affiliates.
Submission of freelance articles, cartoons, poems, artwork and photos
is welcome. Please write for editorial
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No material from No Worries Journal
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must be submitted in writing.
© 2008 Downunder Horsemanship
Printed in the USA
Do What You Have To Do
8
36
From Downunder
To Up Here
Seven Steps
To Success
38
Diez
42
How To
44
Mindy
And Her Foals
“Prettiest Horse in the World”
Bathe a Young Horse
50
56
Trouble Free
Trailering
Scrapbook
And Brief Timeline
Clinton would like to thank his dedicated staff for all that they do:
Elaine Baker, Graphic Design
Sara Bewley, Vice President
Melody Born, Rope Department
Ryan Brown, Rope Department
Matthew Cheadle, Rope Department
Ryan Collins, Rope Department
Philip Davis, Rope Department
AJ Flinn, HR Coordinator
Cooper Flinn, Inventory Manager
Colt Guthrie, Shipping Clerk
Melissa Hawkins, Shipping Supervisor
Vikki Jacobs, Staff Accountant
Sharon Johnson, Customer Service Supervisor
Shari Johnson, Travel Coordinator
Katie Kelch, Farm Manager
Gale McCraw, Producer
Beth Penny, Customer Service
Krista Robinson, Apprentice
Cindy Sackett, Tour Manager
Roger Shepherd, Warehouse Coordinator
Jason Spencer, Semi & Rope Department
Shana Terry, Apprentice
Stacey Vogel, Customer Service
Zach Wahrer, Rope Department
Rachelle Wilhelm, Club Writer
Jeffery Wise, Editor
Tommy Yoder, Graphic Design Intern
Road Staff: C. Lee & Nina Anderson, Karen & Rick Badousek, Carol Berreckman, Ted
Blocker, Brenda Boots, Rebecca Chido, Jenni & Steven Clifft, Amy Gustafson, Renee &
David Humphries, Shari Johnson, Melanie Moran, Lois Phelps, Cindy & Kevin Sackett,
Debra Slaybaugh, Ken Thalman, Kellei Vogler, Midge Woodward and John Zeliff.
Letters
Thank you!
I am sure you get a million e-mails about
this but I really need to say Thank You! I
was at Clinton’s Tour in Tampa, Florida. I
have been a loyal follower of Parelli for the
last several years. I really liked his methods
EXCEPT...I didn’t want to jump over picnic benches bareback with no bridle, I just
wanted my horse to be quiet and responsive. Last year I lost my loyal “Parelli Savvy”
mare to an obstruction. I was devistated,
she was my confidence, my soul mate if you
will. Well, of course I went out and bought
another horse, who turns out to not be a
very good match with me. She is a 16-yearold Kentucky Mountain Saddle horse and
she has some issues. She is spooky, disrespectful, and thinks you should be going
everywhere VERY quickly. I didn’t want
to give up on her, but I just wasn’t getting
anywhere with her. Just putting the saddle
on her was a huge dance in circles, then getting on her was like getting a running start
and then heading off down the trail at full
speed ahead. She had taken my confidence
and shattered it. Anyways, I put her up for
sale because I just needed something quieter. I had been watching Clinton on RFDTV and I went to the webpage. I found he
was coming to my area in December, so I
thought, “what do I have to lose?” With no
one wanting my “crazy” 16 year horse, I had
to do something. I was so excited when I
left the tour in Saturday night. I went back
Sunday, bought my halter and stick (even
though I have the Parelli equipment, I like
Clinton’s better). I came home on Monday
and put my new Clinton Anderson hat on,
caught my horse with my new halter and
headed to the round pen. My mare had
been taught to “round pen” but doing outside turns toward the fence. That first day
I was soo frustrated and ready to give up,
but I remembered Clinton saying the first
day was not going to go well, so I ended our
session on a good note and put her away.
The next day I went out and it took me 30
minutes to catch her in the pasture. I was
thinking, “oh my gosh, I have totally ruined
her, now what?” I finally caught her and
we went into the round pen, she seemed
worse than the day before. We are now six
hours into our new program on the second
day and I am totally frustrated and ready
to cry. I again ended on a good note and
put her away. Today I got up and said, let’s
try this again, I am not giving up on this
horse! I went out to the pasture and she
walked right up to me and practically put
the halter on herself. Things were looking
up! We went into the round pen and what
took me four hours the first day and two
2 | No Worries Journal
hours the second day now happen almost
immediatley! After mastering our round
pen knowledge we moved onto some of the
in-hand activities. She seemed so responsive and just like she had taken a huge sigh
of relief. After 45 minutes and a LOT LESS
sweating, I let her relax. We went back to
the barn, I tied her up. No pawing like before, she cocked her foot and practically fell
asleep. I brushed her, she stood perfectly
still, I cleaned her feet and she practically
picked them up for me. I decided to try putting her saddle on just to see what would
happen. I swung the saddle pad over her
back, she looked back at it but never moved
her feet. I got the saddle out, threw it over
her back and again she just stood there. I
was so excited! I took it all off and put it
away. I took her back out to the pasture and
took her halter off. Instead of running off,
like the day before, she followed me back to
the fence. You have no idea how excited I
am. I DID THIS!! I know we have a long way
to go, but I have my passion for my horse
back. It can only get better from here.
I wanted to say THANK YOU from the
bottom of my heart for helping me to make
this happen. I couldn’t afford Clinton’s videos just yet, but I plan on getting them
because there are certain things I have forgotten how to do. Thank you!
— Krista Breeden
Old dog, new tricks
I saw your show on RFD-TV and it
sparked my interest. When I found out you
had a clinic coming up in Nampa, Idaho my
wife and I went to it. Well, I thought I knew
something about training horses, turns
out I didn’t. We bought some of your DVDs
and training aids and started putting them
to use on my 4-year-old filly. Her job title
up to that point had been pasture brat. At
first she didn’t think much of your methods, to the point of charging me with her
ears back and teeth bared. Now I know why
you call it a Handy Stick. Anyway I got to
the saddling and sacking out part and elk
season opened. So I had to haul her to the
mountains to be used as a pack horse. We
got our two elk down and had to ride back
in the next day with her and a mule in tow.
I was not looking forward to trying to pack
game out on a green horse. When it was
all said and done, you would have thought
she was born with that pack saddle on. She
stood perfectly still while we loaded four
elk quarters on her and not one problem all
the way back to camp. As a matter of fact,
she did better than the 15-year-old mule
did that’s been doing it for years. I know
with out a doubt that if it hadn’t been
for your training methods the whole trip
would have been one big train wreck. So,
thanks for teaching an old dog some new
tricks.
— Stan Puckett
Dream come true
I am writing to thank you for an incredible weekend in Tampa. Although I have
been using similar techniques and tools to
train my horses, I saw what I lacked this
weekend. More than that, I attended my
first seminar with a clinician that truly
wanted people to learn from that experience. It was not about smoke and mirrors and selling the program. It was about
teaching people and allowing them to ASK
questions. I could tell that Clinton REALLY
wanted people to understand his program
and take away as much as possible, regardless of purchase. Thank you SO, SO Much.
When I thought it could not get any better,
I was given a “scholarship” to Downunder
Horsemanship. I was blessed with the entire collection of DVD’S!!!!! I will be certain
to tell everyone that I can that this is the
real deal! Thank you for an incredible experience that culminated in a dream come
true.
— Carol Ann Benge
New outlook
I just wanted to say thank you. My wife
went to one of your shows in Des Moines
Iowa—she loved it.
I am in Iraq for my second tour, and she
sent me one of your DVDs “On the Road
to the Horse.” I loved it! I have watched it
many times, and I just wanted to say thank
you for what it has done for myself and my
wife. It has given me a new outlook on our
horses.
I am looking forward to going to one of
you clinics as soon as I get home, and also
working with our horses, which we call
the kids. We have four of them—three the
same age that we got last time I was in Iraq
(which we bought when I went home for
leave), and another that just needs some
time on him.
Just wanted to say thank you, and look
forward to seeing you soon, Mate.
You need to sell that [Road to the Horse]
to the Army also—I think some of these
kids could use a lot of what you show.
Take care, thank you!
— Sgt. Aaron Hoffert
Do you have something you’d like to share? Email
your letters to journal@noworriesclub.com, or mail
to: No Worries Club Journal, 8755 State Route
638, Belle Center, OH 43310.
Clinton’s Corner
Ten Years in the Making
This year marks the 10th year anniversary of Downunder Horsemanship, and
as a special tribute, this issue of the No
Worries Club Journal is going to celebrate
the history and formation of the company. I share everything from the first time
I ever touched a horse, to working part
time as a waiter, to the formation of the
No Worries club itself. Writing the articles
and sorting through pictures gave me the
opportunity to revisit a lot of old memories that I haven’t thought about in a long
while. It felt good to take a couple of minutes to sit back and realize how much my
hard work and dedication has paid off.
Believe me, there were a lot of days when
I first started my career as a clinician, when
I lived from clinic to clinic barely scraping
up enough money to buy dinner the next
day. Of course, I couldn’t have gotten to
where I am today without the help of truly great friends and their support. You’ll
read about just a few of them in the pages
that follow, but there have been countless
others who have helped me along the way
that I can’t thank enough for their support and belief in me.
A lot of people mistakenly think that I
started this company with a lot of money and instant popularity, but in reality,
nothing could be further from the truth.
When I officially started Downunder
Horsemanship, I had less than $1,000
in my pocket and scrimped and saved to
get by. The funny thing is, I never started
out wanting to be a clinician. Growing up,
I wanted to be a horse trainer, because I
loved training horses and being around
them. There was nothing else I wanted to
do with my life.
However, I noticed early on in my career
that horse training was a very physically
demanding job. Riding eight or nine horses a day puts a lot of wear and tear on your
body. You keep long hours and there’s a lot
of physical labor involved in the general
care of horses. It’s a risky business because
your body is your biggest asset. That’s a
difficult position to be in because if you
hurt your body, you’re no longer able to
do your job. I learned that early on when I
did my first apprenticeship under Gordon
McKinlay of Rockhampton, Australia.
When I first went to work for him, he
was just recovering from a bad riding accident that left him with a broken pelvis.
He had been sitting on a horse leaning
forward to open a gate, and as he went
forward, the horse shied and jumped backwards. Gordon was unseated by the horse’s
quick movements and
his body crashed into
the fence, breaking
his pelvis. He was in a
hospital bed for a year
with his body in a sling.
When I met him, he was
just out of the hospital,
starting to walk around
and getting back to riding. The doctor told him
that if he ever injured
his pelvis a second time,
he might never be able
to walk again. I learned
early on that your body
is your biggest asset as
a horse trainer, and you
better take care of it
and keep it safe as best
as you can, because you
only get one of them.
That realization played a big part on
not only my career choice, but in my focus
on safety as well. Today, the main thing I
stress to people in my program is safety.
You’ll often hear me say, “survive the
situation first and then train the horse.
You can’t train the horse if you’re dead.”
Honestly, I think one of the biggest reasons people are attracted to my style of
training is because of my focus on safety.
Horses are the best animals in the world,
and we can get a tremendous amount of
enjoyment out of them. However, if you’re
scared of your horse because he’s dangerous or you could get hurt, spending time
with him can turn into a chore and something you dread. I’ve had a passion for
horses my entire life, and genuinely take
pleasure in teaching other people how
to experience that same enjoyment with
their horses.
Throughout this issue of the Journal,
you’ll read about all sorts of experiences
I had growing up with horses, opening my
own training barn, and traveling across
the States. I know that I wouldn’t be where
I am today if it weren’t for my native
country of Australia, and the American
people. America gave me the opportunity to share my horsemanship program
with well-meaning horse enthusiasts all
over the nation. Once
I convinced those same
people that there was a
safer and faster way to
train a horse, they welcomed me with open
arms. If it weren’t for
the support of my fans
and people like you,
I wouldn’t be able to
continue to share my
knowledge with the
public.
At tours and clinics,
when people come up
to me and tell me how
my program has made
a difference in not
only their horse’s performance, but in their
lives as well, it makes
my hectic schedule today, and all those
sleepless nights traveling from one clinic
to another 10 years ago, worthwhile.
Downunder Horsemanship has come a
long way from a one man show to a successful business, and I couldn’t have done
it without you. It’s been a wild ride and I
hope you enjoy reading about it as much
as I did living it.
No Worries Journal | 3
Lessons Well Learned:
Do what you have to do to get the job done
Over the course of my life with horses, there have been
10 lessons that have shaped my outlook on horsemanship
in general. I’ve combined each of these lessons to develop
my training program and the way I handle each horse that
I work with. One of those lessons happened very early on in
my career when I just started my apprenticeship with Gordon
McKinlay. Before I met Gordon, I had never really heard of
the term “natural horsemanship.” I took English riding lessons and played polocrosse growing up, but I never really
learned how to work with the horse. So when I went to work
for Gordon, I was fascinated by the whole concept of natural
horsemanship, and must have driven him crazy asking a million and one questions about his training style. On top of that,
I started reading all the books and watching all the videos I
could find on the subject.
There was one book in parA horse is a reaction
ticular that stuck out to me.
The book has been around
for donkey years and is still prominent today. The message it
was giving really hit home to me. The book called for learning
to see the world through the horse’s eye and learning to feel
what the horse feels. Once you accomplished that, the horse
would accept you and willingly do what you asked.
As Gordon’s apprentice, not only did I travel to his horsemanship clinics and help out when necessary, work his horses
to be sold at local and national sales, but I also trained horses
for the outside public. As a general rule, I spent six weeks
working each horse I got in for training. In those six weeks,
I started the horse from scratch and worked to being able to
ride him around soft and collected. Most of the horses we got
in were brumbies who had never seen a person before, but
some of the horses were domestic horses that needed broke
in or “re-educated.” Re-educated could mean anything from
an old stiff horse to a 5-year-old gelding that bucked every
time someone got on his back. At the end of the six weeks,
Gordon invited the owners to come back to get the horse and
I’d show them the horse’s progress. Needless to say, if I didn’t
do a good job training the horse, it reflected badly on not only
me, but Gordon as well. So there was a lot of pressure to do
the best job that I possibly could with each horse that came
into that barn.
Well, it just so happened that at the same time that I was
reading that book, I got a black mare in to break. While the
mare had eye-catching good looks, she didn’t have the attitude to match. She was always cranky and never wanted to
do anything. I remember the first time I went to go get her,
I stepped into the gate and she laid her ears back flat against
her head and gave me one of the nastiest looks I’ve ever seen,
and I’ve got to be honest, our relationship didn’t get much
better from there.
When I worked with the mare, I could barely get her to do
anything because of her sullen attitude. She hated me, she
hated her work and she had a heart about the size of a pea. I
was starting to get really discouraged with the whole deal because at this point in my career, I was convinced that I had to
get every horse that I worked with to love his job. I was starting to take it personally that this mare absolutely hated me. I
wanted all the horses I worked with to not only love their job,
but to love me as well.
After all, the book I was reading kept preaching the importance of trust and building a relationship, and I was really
getting into the whole natural horsemanship “I love you, you
love me. We’re going to bond together” type of experience.
The book emphasized the importance of how everything
should just come together and flow together, and how easy
it should all be. Every time that mare would do something
right, I would instantly reward her with a pat and give her a
little treat. It didn’t matter
if she did the exercise really
waiting to happen.
well one time and then did
a horrible job the second
time, if she even remotely looked like she was going to do the
right thing, I instantly rewarded her because I was trying to
encourage good behavior. I was doing everything this book
said with this particular mare, but she wasn’t behaving according to plan.
Before I knew what had happened, five weeks had gone by
in the mare’s training, and she was really behind schedule.
She was riding as if she’d only had two weeks worth of training, and in just one week, she was due to go home. Gordon
came by to watch me work with the mare. He stopped me in
the middle of an exercise, and said, “That mare is not looking good at all. You’ve done a pretty poor job on this horse,
Clinton.”
You have to understand that I absolutely idolized Gordon.
I would have died at his feet if he would have asked me. So
when he said that to me, my world came crashing down.
When you’re trying as hard as you can to make something
happen, and somebody you idolize comes along and tells you
it’s no good, it can really get to you. I tried to explain, “I’ve
been working her seven days a week. I’m trying as hard as I
can, but she’s just got a bad attitude about everything.”
Never a guy to mess around, Gordon told me that I had
better step up to the plate and get the job done, because the
mare had to go home the following week. He warned me that
if I sent the horse home the way she was right then, the owners weren’t going to be very happy with either him or myself.
So that night, when I went back up to my room and got ready
for bed, I decided that the next day I was going to treat the
black mare like a regular horse. I wasn’t going to worry about
her feelings towards me or towards her work. I had a job to
do, and I resolved to get it done.
The next morning when I got up to work with the mare, I
acted on my plan. I made the right thing easy and the wrong
thing difficult. Any time she ignored me or came after me aggressively, I applied more pressure and made her feel uncom-
fortable for her bad behavior. I really made her feet move.
Instead of barely asking the mare to work, I went in there
with an aggressive ‘do it NOW!’ sort of attitude.
That doesn’t mean that I went in there and started whaling
on her, because I certainly didn’t. I always asked her to do
what I wanted off the gentlest amount of pressure and if she
ignored me, I told her with a higher degree of pressure, and
I kept increasing the pressure until she gave me the correct
response. I didn’t care about her feelings. I didn’t care about
her emotions. I didn’t care about her attitude.
However, as soon as the mare found the right answer and
did what I wanted, I immediately released the pressure and
let her rest. Resting was her reward for doing the correct
thing, and it didn’t take her long to figure out that the faster
she responded the way I wanted her to, the quicker she got to
rest and catch her breath.
Within three days, that mare’s attitude and her perception
of me, and the world in general, started to change. Instead of
being cranky and snarly when I went to catch her, she’d come
up to the gate with a pleasant expression on her face, looking
forward to the time we worked together. Under saddle and
on the ground her entire attitude improved and she actually
developed a work ethic and tried to please me. That was the
complete opposite of me always begging her to like me.
The mare’s attitude changed so fast and her work ethic improved so much that in that last week of working with her, I
caught her up to where she was supposed to be. By the end of
the sixth week, you would never have guessed that just one
week before she was so far behind all the other horses I was
training at the time. When her owners came to pick her up,
they were more than pleased with her progress, and ended up
sending me more horses to train for them.
That little black mare taught me a very important lesson
early on. Everybody wants their horse to like them and what
they do, myself included, but the bottom line is this—do
what you have to do to get the job done. What does that really mean—do what you have to do to get the job done? To
me, it means just that. If it takes one little tap to make the
horse move, or if it takes whacking him 10 times, as hard as
you can, do whatever it takes to get the job done. But it’s very
important that you always follow this rule: Start gently and
finish gently.
Start gently and you may have to build the pressure, but
always finish gently. If you always start and finish gently,
with repetition, you’ll only have to be gentle to get the job
done. You can be gentle all day long, but if your horse doesn’t
respect you or doesn’t try, and you don’t turn up the heat,
there’s no incentive or motivation for him to do what you
want. If you don’t start gentle, and always ask by whacking,
you’ll always have to whack.
Every day, your horse will have a slightly different response
to what you are trying to do. Some days he may feel flighty
and jumpy, and other days he may be a bit lazy and lethargic.
Some days his attitude will be good and he will want to please
you. Other days, you will find him disrespectful and unwilling
to pay attention.
A horse is a reaction waiting to happen. How your horse
reacts on a given day will determine what you do with him.
If your horse acts disrespectfully, do whatever is necessary to
get him to pay attention and respect you while you are still
on the ground. Then, continue the lesson under saddle. If
your horse is listening to you—if he is paying attention, is responsive and has a nice, mellow attitude—you probably don’t
need to spend as much time on groundwork that day.
I think sometimes people get so wrapped up in the whole
natural horsemanship thing, and worry about the relationship they have with their horse, and how the horse feels towards them, that they forget the fact that they have to get
the job done. Let’s face
it, that black mare wasn’t
any fun to be around or
to work with before her
attitude changed. I didn’t
have fun being around
her and she certainly
didn’t enjoy my company. The reason why her
attitude didn’t improve
in the beginning was because I was baby-sitting
her. I made up every excuse I could for why she
wasn’t improving—she
didn’t trust me, she
didn’t like me, etc. I was
trying to bribe her into
loving me and what she
was doing by constantly
rewarding her.
What I didn’t quite
understand at the time
is that whenever you
reward a horse, you’re
rewarding the behavior
You have to earn your horse’s respect by moving his feet forwards, backwards, left and right and
that he was doing right
always rewarding the slightest try.
before you praise him. If
the mare was pinning her ears back and baring her teeth at me
and I retreated and left her alone, in her mind, she thought
“Hey, if I pin my ears and bare my teeth, he goes away.” If she
would plant her feet in the ground and refuse to move, and
I would give her a treat to try and win her love, in her mind
she thought, “If I stop moving, Clinton will give me a treat.”
That made me really conscious of my timing as far as when I
rewarded a horse and when I didn’t. Whatever the horse was
doing the exact second before you reward him is what you’re
teaching him to do.
That mare needed a good dose of “If you don’t like this, try
this. If you thought what I was asking you to do was difficult
and made you sweat too much, try this.” My parents used to
say to me all the time growing up, “Stop whining or I’ll give
you something to whine about,” and that’s a concept I’ve carried over to training horses. After a few days of that type of
treatment, the mare’s attitude came around like you wouldn’t
believe. She realized that if she didn’t want to do something
for me, I could make it a lot harder than what she really wanted it to be. I still use that theory today when I’m working with
horses. If my horse is being belligerent and lazy about doing
Lungeing for Respect at a trot, I say, “Try it at the canter.” It
doesn’t take long for the horse to decide that doing the exercise at the trot is much easier than at
the canter because it takes a lot less energy.
I’m not out to make my horses sweat and
breath hard, but I do expect them to always give
me their best effort. If they aren’t willing to try
their best the first time I ask, then their day just
got a lot harder. My horses soon learn that it’s
best to come out with happy, “let’s go get it done”
attitudes as opposed to sullen and cranky attitudes. Bad attitudes always equal more work.
Every horse is different
Horses are just like people—their personalities vary just like ours do. Some horses are naturally cranky. Can you improve their attitude?
Sure you can, but you may never get them to put
a smile on their face a hundred percent of the
time. We all know people around the office or in
the community that aren’t happy unless they’re
mad about something or someone. Some horses
are the exact same way. Other horses, you can’t
offend them. It’s like some people, you look half
sideways at them, and they start whining and
they hate you. With other people, you can insult
their mother, and they’ll smile at you and say,
“Oh, you didn’t really mean that.”
There are just some horses in the world that
are sorry minded and sorry bred. Let’s just face
facts, we all know kids who come from good parents, who are raised right, but are just kind of
brats, and have bad attitudes. Some horses are
like that too. People ask me all the time, “Have
you ever met a horse you couldn’t train?” No, but
I’ve met millions of people who didn’t want to be
trained. People must be willing to change first.
For example, when I was working with that black
mare, my first method of training wasn’t working so I had to change if I wanted her to change.
Every horse that I’ve worked with is trainable to a point.
Not every horse is capable of being as good as the next one,
but every horse is trainable. What you need to decide is why
would you want to train a bad-minded horse with no talent,
no ability and no work ethic? When you can train a goodminded horse in half the time and get twice the results. That’s
the question I ask people to keep in mind.
This is a lesson that I think a lot of people can relate to.
There are many people in the horse industry that are so
hooked on the whole, “I love my horse and he loves me” emotion that they don’t realize that they’re begging the horse to
behave correctly. I want my horses to enjoy their jobs and
working with me, but the bottom line is this: I have to get the
job done, and shouldn’t have to beg the horse to do his job. It
should be expected. I’ve found over the years that the harder
you work a horse, and the more you ask of a horse with a bad
attitude, the better his attitude gets. The less you ask of a
bad-minded horse and the less pressure you put on him, his
attitude gets even worse. Bribery does not work when training horses. You have to earn your horse’s respect by moving
his feet forwards, backwards, left and right and always rewarding the slightest try.
Hey... I can
actually do this!
Learn Hands-On from Clinton Anderson!
Attend a Clinton Anderson Horsemanship Clinic, and in just 3 days
get the tools and knowledge to change your horsemanship forever!
Learn How to…
• Develop safe, content and willing horses
• Make the most out of each training session
• Get your horse supple and responsive
• Overcome your fears and accomplish your horsemanship goals
Seven New Clinton Anderson Clinics just added to our schedule!
June 13-15
Sept 12-14
Sept 19-21
Sept 26-28
Oct 3-5
Oct 24-26
Nov 7-9
Douglas County Fairgrounds - Castle Rock, CO
Washington County Fairgrounds - Hurricane, UT
Celebration Center - Lyons, KS
Murray Saddle Club - Chatsworth, GA
Circle M Ranch - Pelzer, SC
Chance Ridge Event Center - Elkhorn, NE
Empty Acres Resort - Buckeye, AZ
Particpants, call today to reserve your spot - Clinton’s clinics fill up fast!
Spectator tickets also available, just $35 per person, per day, pre-paid!
Tickets at the door are $45 per person, per day.
www.clintonanderson.net • 888-287-7432
7
From
Down
Under
to Up Here!
Horse Crazy
I can’t remember a time in my life when I haven’t been
drawn to horses or been without them. My lifelong passion
of horses largely comes from my mother’s parents, Fred and
Thelma Piercy. My grandmother always had a love for horses
and she passed her passion for them down to me. When she
and her sisters were little, they used to ride bareback to school
on one of their father’s horses. In those days, there was no
such thing as horsemanship—the horse was just a horse and
had a job to do. My grandmother loved spending all the time
she could with the horses, but as she got older and became
a wife and then a mother, horses left her life. It wasn’t until
her 49th birthday when my grandfather surprised her with a
horse that she was reunited with her childhood passion.
My grandfather gave her a Thoroughbred mare named Lee,
she and my grandmother were inseparable. We always called
her the old Thoroughbred, but she was only seven when
my grandmother got her. She was the first horse I was ever
around, and I can still remember the first time I touched her.
I reached up to her nose and it was as soft as velvet. It was an
amazing feeling and one that has stuck with me.
My grandparents lived on a farm in Innisfail, in north
Queensland, and I have early memories of my grandmother
putting me on Lee’s back and leading me and my older sister, Andrea, around the paddock. As we got older, she’d take
us riding through the bush and down the road. My grandmother really encouraged us to ride horses and she helped us
out where she could, but she didn’t know a whole lot about
Near right:
Clinton riding
Lee in 1979.
Lee was my
grandmother’s
first horse,
and stayed
with the family for over 20
years.
Far right: A
rare photo
of Grandma
Piercy with
Clinton
(admiring
Pinaroo Filly)
in 1992.
“I wish my grandmother were here today to see what I’ve
become. I know she’d love to learn these methods.”
By his own admission, a young Clinton was
always riding something—whether it was a
dog, a chair or a horse.
horsemanship herself. She was always trying to learn where
she could, but there wasn’t much help available back then in
Australia. We didn’t have any formal lessons when we first
started—we just got on the horse and hoped for the best. It
was like the blind leading the blind, but we all tried our best
to do what we could. Since Andrea and I lived in the city, more
or less, with our parents, we were always down at our grandparents on weekends and school holidays riding the horses as
much as we could.
A horse of my own
At the age of nine, my grandparents bought me my first
horse. Casey was a bit of a belligerent mare, but when my
grandparents gave her to me, I was the happiest boy in the
world. I was more than content to have a horse of my very
own. Since my parents couldn’t keep horses on their property, my grandparents stabled Casey for me. I lived for the
weekends and school holidays when I could visit my grandparents and spend time with the horses.
Casey really was one of the pushiest, most disrespectful
horses I’ve ever seen. I’d be trotting her down the road, and
she’d turn her head and try to bite my foot. I’d have to quickly
jerk my leg back so that she wouldn’t bite me. Sometimes
she would try so hard to bite me that she’d go down the road
with her head bent to the side, and because she wasn’t paying
attention to where she was going, she’d run into trees and
fences.
Back then, because we had no idea about training or equipment, I was all about quick fixes. I bought every single piece
of tack I could get my hands on if it promised to get me the
results I was looking for. I remember one instance when my
grandfather and I decided to put a running martingale on my
horse. Of course, we had no idea how to use a martingale or
how to attach it to the horse, but we put our heads together
and decided that the only possible way to hook it up was to attach it to the horse’s bridle. As a result, we ended up tying the
horse’s head back, and forcing her to keep her head tucked in.
In reality, the martingale should have been attached to both
reins instead of the bridle. The concept of the martingale is to
apply pressure on the bit and mouth whenever the horse raises his head. The leverage created causes the horse to lower his
head. When attached correctly, the martingale should have
slack in it until the horse raises his head up high.
With the way that I attached the martingale to my mare,
she should have just flipped over backwards and crushed me
to death, but I got lucky. I rode that horse around for three
weeks with her head tied down. My grandfather and I thought
we were being cool because we could finally get the horse’s
head tucked in. Finally, my older cousin, who also rode horses
and was in the local pony club, came over and told me that I
was doing it all wrong, and that I could have killed myself.
I like to tell that story because I think a lot of people assume I started with all the knowledge I have today. My family
was the biggest redneck idiots in the world. We didn’t know
anything about what we were doing. So if you think I can’t
relate to where you are, or where you’re starting, let’s set the
record straight, I definitely can.
Clinton with his first horse of his own, Casey, circa 1985.
Polocrosse
The most popular equestrian sport in
Australia is polocrosse, a fast paced game
that’s the combination of polo and lacrosse.
The game originated in Australia, but is now played
internationally and is gaining a lot of popularity in
America. As a young boy, I lived near a local polocrosse
club and used to pass it every Sunday as I was going back
and forth from my grandparent’s house. As we drove by it, I
was always fascinated by the players riding their horses fullout towards the goals. It seemed like a high energy sport and
something I could really get into.
One Sunday, my grandfather pulled the car into the club
and we went into the facility to learn more about the game. As
I learned more about how the game was played, the rules and
the qualifications, I got more and more intrigued. I begged
my parents to let me play, and they willingly agreed. It wasn’t
long before I was obsessed with the game. In fact, I was so
passionate about the game that I sold Casey and bought my
first polocrosse horse, Bess. My parents paid $1,000 for her,
and at the time, we thought she was the greatest thing in the
world. By today’s standards, she really wasn’t, but we thought
she was. From when
Polocrosse was a passion from 1988 to 1991. Above left, Bess
with her Junior Horse of the Year ribbons. Above right, Clinton
with teammates and, above, in the middle of a game. Right,
Gordon McKinlay and Clinton in a newspaper article from
1990.
Clinton at his first Gordon McKinlay Clinic doing groundwork.
I was 12 to when I was 15, I ate, slept and breathed polocrosse. It’s all I wanted to do, and I practiced all the time. The
last year I played polocrosse, I qualified for an Australian national junior polocrosse team and Bess was named Jr. Horse
of the Year.
While my teammates and myself were good riders, as far
as having good balance and an independent seat (we had to
or we would have been killed playing the game), we didn’t
have any horsemanship skills. Our horses were very poorly
trained—they couldn’t stop, turn or back up with any consistency. You can imagine that since polocrosse is an intense
game with a lot of galloping, that our horses were pretty high
spirited.
A gentleman came to one of my club’s games when I was
13, and he got to talking with my father and told him about
a horse trainer and clinician from Rockhampton that he
thought could help me with my horsemanship skills. I was
always drawn to communicating with my horse, but never
knew how to do it. Up to this point in my career, I had been
watching every video and reading every book and article on
horses that I could find. However, I wasn’t having a whole lot
of success with putting the information into use. So when I
heard that there was a man who could help me do just that, I
jumped at the opportunity.
Clinton’s grandfather helping Clinton at the clinic, teaching
the horse to lower his head.
My first horsemanship clinic
When I was 13, my mother and my grandparents hauled
me nearly 20 hours to a facility in Longreach, Queensland,
so that I could participate in the clinic put on by Gordon
McKinlay. At the clinic, Gordon showed me a tremendous
amount of training techniques that made a world of difference to me and my horse, and I absolutely idolized him. The
techniques that Gordon showed me that day are very similar to the exercises I do today as far as gaining control of the
horse’s feet in order to earn his respect. One of the best exercises he taught me was the One Rein Stop. The difference
the One Rein Stop made in Bess, as far as being able to rate
her speed and getting her to stop when I wanted, absolutely
amazed me. After the clinic, I was determined to become a
horse trainer and was willing to do everything in my power to
reach my goal. I hadn’t realized before watching Gordon that
you could actually get paid to train a horse. When I realized
that I could make a living out of training horses, I thought I
had just stumbled upon the greatest deal in the world. Not
only did I want to be a horse trainer, but I wanted to be the
very best horse trainer I could be, and I knew that Gordon
McKinlay could help me.
At the time, I was still playing polocrosse and went home
and practiced all of the exercises Gordon had showed me. He
had inspired me and motivated me to be the best horseman I
could become. After the clinic, he had approached me, and invited me up to his ranch to work with him on school holidays.
Of course I took him up on his offer, and became even more
passionate about developing my horsemanship skills. All I
wanted to do was ride my horse. It was the very first thing I
did when I woke up in the morning, and it was the first thing
I did when I got home from school. Little by little, Bess and I
got better and better at polocrosse. I could back her up, stop
her and do quick turns. Any time I could train and work with
horses, I absolutely did.
In fact, when I was 14 and in the 10th grade, I had two
horses that I trained for local kids in the area. I charged them
$50 a week to ride their horses as long as they took care of
feeding them. On top of that, I pushed trolleys (shopping
carts) two afternoons a week at a local K-mart. That job paid
me $80. So when I was in high school, I was making $180 a
week, which was quite a bit back then. From a very early age,
my parents taught me that if I wanted something, I had to
save up my money and buy it for myself. I thoroughly enjoyed
working hard, reaping the rewards and enjoyed the satisfaction of knowing that I had earned it myself.
As time went on, I started to get less interested in polocrosse and more interested in general horsemanship. The
changes I saw in Bess were beyond impressive. She went from
being a crackhead, to a horse I felt confident and safe riding.
However, while my horse was sane and responsive leading up
to games, halfway through the match, she’d start to get wildeyed and lose some of her responsiveness just because polocrosse is a high intensity sport. You’re constantly galloping at
full speed, running into other horses, stopping and turning.
After the game I’d have to spend a couple of days calming her
down and getting her attention back on me. It was a vicious
cycle that never ended. So when I was 15, I decided to direct
my attention towards horsemanship and stopped playing polocrosse. I still love the game and actually shot a TV show
with a club down in Texas a couple of years ago. It felt good to
get back out on the field, even if I was a little rusty.
Always pushing the boundaries
Clinton was always pushing the boundaries. He’d try to change the rules or try to set the situation up to where it was more in his favor. He never took no for an answer. You always had to bloody battle him. Andrea and her father are a lot alike. They’re thinkers. They
stand back and listen before they open their mouths, but with me and Clinton, we sort of form an opinion and then jump in. If it’s right,
good. If it’s wrong, well then, we’ll have to deal with it.
A good example of him being full on and pushing the boundaries happened when he was
around 13 years of age. He wanted to go somewhere on the weekend and I had said that no, he
couldn’t go early in the week. About four days later, he came back to me and he asked again if
he could go to whatever it was, and I said, “Well yeah, I suppose so.”
He turned around and he said to me, “I knew you’d renege mum and change your mind.”
That pulled me up short that did. I thought ‘you little bugger.’ I tell my daughter the same
thing with her son because he’s a little bit like Clinton too. When you say something, mean it.
Don’t change your mind even if you have regrets of what you said. Otherwise, the rules keep
changing. That’s just something kids pick up and you’re not even aware of it. I was bloody
aware of it after that I can tell you.
There were a lot of times when Clinton was growing up that Rob would just shake his head
and want to walk away. Rob is a steady as you go kind of person, but he hung in there. Let
me tell you, when the two of us were together, we were a force to be reckoned with. Clinton
was pretty full on and he’s still like that now. When he left home to work for Gordon, I missed
him charging through the house at a hundred miles an hour babbling on about this, that and
Clinton and his mom, Cheryl,
the other thing. It took me a long time when he first left home to get used to the silence in the
dancing in Australia, 2007.
house. — Cheryl Anderson, Clinton’s mom
More than a hobby
Around the same time, Gordon offered me a permanent position as his apprentice and there was nothing more I wanted
in the world. In Australia, it’s mandatory to stay in school until you’re 15 years of age. After you’re 15, it’s optional whether you complete grades 11 and 12. I made up my mind that I
was going to leave school and work for Gordon, and I immediately relayed my decision to my parents and anyone else who
would listen. As you can imagine, I met a lot of resistance.
Clinton at his first clinic asked millions of questions of
Gordon McKinlay. He had a thirst for knowledge.
When I broke the news to everyone that I planned to leave
school, only three people supported me—both of my parents
and my grandfather. Everybody else was against it—my guidance counselor, my teachers, my friends and family members.
Besides my parents and grandfather, everyone else thought
that I just had a boyhood crush on horses. They couldn’t understand that I could make a living out of training horses.
They didn’t realize that the horse industry was much bigger
than the guy down the road keeping a bunch of horses in his
backyard. I can remember taking horse magazines from the
States to my guidance counselor and saying, “Look, people
make a living out of this. This is not just a hobby. It’s an actual
business.”
Everybody thought when I left school at 15, that I was
making the biggest mistake of my life. But when it came
down to it, my parents supported me leaving. That sounds
somewhat odd, but my parents realized two things. Number
one, I was talented at training horses and I loved it. I might
not have had natural ability spilling out of me, but I was willing to work hard to improve myself. Number two, my parents
knew that in life, if you can find something you’re passionate
about and if you can find something you’re good at, you better head down that track. At the time, both of my parents had
jobs they didn’t like. They knew that if their kids could find
something that they loved and were good at, and they could
make a living at it, it was worth a lot. I suppose they also
knew that if they made me stay in school, I was going to make
their life miserable for the next two years. If the truth be told,
that was probably the reason more than anything that they
let me leave school.
At the same time that I started my apprenticeship under
Gordon, both of my grandmothers passed away. It was very
upsetting for me, because right when I was getting the knowledge and expertise that I needed, the one person who always
supported my horse passion passed away. I’d love for my
grandmother to be around today to see how knowledgeable
I’ve become, and I’d love to be able to help her out, but things
happen. My grandfather, who just turned 80, has continued
to be a big supporter. In fact, I flew back to Australia late last
year to attend his surprise birthday party and enjoyed catching up with him. I’ve always been very lucky to have great
support from my family.
Gordon’s apprenticeship
Of course, when I decided to leave school, it helped that my
parents knew where they were sending me. Gordon’s place
was a safe environment where I couldn’t get into any trouble.
He lived out in the middle of nowhere and the closest town
consisted of a post office, a pub and a small convenience store.
I worked seven days a week for two years. There weren’t any
days off, but that didn’t bother me because I absolutely loved
what I was doing. I love horses, and I love to work and learn
as much as I possibly can.
I wanted the information so badly, that it was the only
thing I could think about. So for me, working seven days a
week wasn’t a hard deal whatsoever. Not only did I work seven days a week, but I worked for free. Gordon never paid me a
cent. I was lucky enough to have parents who gave me a little
bit of money for food and clothes, but I didn’t need much of
anything. I didn’t have a car, I didn’t have a girlfriend, and
I certainly didn’t have a social life. My whole life revolved
around learning from Gordon and working horses for him,
and in return he gave me room and board.
My apprenticeship under Gordon taught me to grow up in
a hurry. I loved what I did, but it was not easy by any means.
There were a lot of hard days. I did everything you could think
of because my apprenticeship wasn’t just about training horses. My apprenticeship under Gordon built my character, and
helped shaped me into the person I am today. He had me do
all kinds of odd jobs, some that didn’t even have to do with
training horses. He baled hay year round, and as his apprentice, I was in the field working and sweating beside him. More
than once I stacked 3,000 bales of hay by myself. I slaughtered
cattle and sheep, built fences, painted fences, cleaned stalls,
etc. Probably the worst job he gave his apprentices was changing irrigation pipes in the field, which was a twice daily task.
When Gordon gave me a job, even if it was cleaning a stall,
I tried to clean that stall as quickly as I could and to the best
of my ability because I wanted to impress him. If he said,
“Clinton go over there and paint that fence.” I painted that
fence as good as I possibly could and as quickly as I could because I wanted Gordon to come back and look at that fence
and say, “You did an excellent job.” I lived to impress him. I
wanted to be the best guy that he ever had come through his
barn in his whole life. That’s the attitude I had. So whether he
gave me a crappy job or a job starting a really nice 2-year-old,
I did it to the best of my ability.
While I studied under Gordon, he taught me a lot of great
life lessons, but the most important lesson he taught me was
when you get in trouble, learn from it, put a smile on your
face and move on. Don’t drop your bottom lip on the ground
and drag it around all day. I learned that if Gordon got mad
and I had a crabby attitude about it, it got me into a hundred
times more trouble. Still to this day, I acknowledge criticism,
accept it, learn from it and then move on.
After two years, I had gotten a great foundation in my
horsemanship skills from Gordon, but I really wanted to learn
more about the reining, cutting and cow horse industries. So I
went to work for Ian Francis, the three time National Cutting
Horse Association Futurity Champion and five time National
Reining Horse Association Futurity Champion.
Breakin’ in Brumbies
During his two year apprenticeship with Gordon, Clinton started over 600 horses. “They weren’t quiet horses either,” Gordon
is quick to point out. “A lot of the horses we got in were wild-eyed brumbies who hadn’t ever seen a man before.”
“And believe me, they let you know it,” Clinton says. “Most of them were 1,200 to 1,300 pounds and straight from the
outback. They could jump, climb, bust or crash their way out of a 7 foot high round pen as opposed to being handled by
me. I couldn’t fight those horses and win. I learned the importance of making my idea the horse’s idea, without the horse
realizing it.”
When it came time to ride the horses, Clinton and Gordon worked together as a team for the first three times the horse was
under saddle—a concept Clinton has carried over to his own colt starting techniques. While Clinton sat in the saddle, Gordon
controlled the horse’s movement from the ground. After the first ride, Clinton would start to take more control until eventually,
he could ride the horse without Gordon’s assistance on the ground.
“The main thing Gordon taught me is how to be
safe around horses. He never once pressured me
into getting on a horse for the first time. He’d always
come out and ask me if the horse was ready or not.
If I said I wasn’t a hundred percent confident that
the horse was going to give me a text-book ride,
Gordon would tell me to spend a couple more days
on the ground. He never pressured me to get in the
saddle before I was ready. The only person who can
tell if the horse is ready to be ridden or not, is the
person working with him. You only have one body,
and you need to take care of it.”
Never forgetting where he came from, Clinton is
always willing to learn from his mentors. In 2006,
he went back to where it all started—right, in the
round pen with Gordon McKinlay in Australia. “I’ve
always said Gordon is king of the round pen. No
one in the world can catch, saddle and gentle a
horse as good as Gordon can.”
Clinton and Ian Francis in Australia, 2006.
Ian’s apprenticeship
I was lucky enough to have grown up in an area where I was
able to see Ian Francis at horse shows and was immediately
attracted to what he could do with a horse. Ian is the Bob
Avila of Australia—everyone wants to send their horses to
him and everyone wants to be as good as him. When I left
Gordon’s, I knew that an apprenticeship under Ian would
take my horsemanship to another level. I remembered from
watching Ian that his ability to ride and show a horse was
above and beyond anyone else’s at the time.
I studied under Ian for a year, and he worked the dead dog
tired out of me, and I’m glad he did because every hour I was
out there training a horse, I was learning something. Unlike
a lot of top trainers, Ian was never afraid to share his knowledge with me. Of course, I asked him nearly a hundred questions a day and made it nearly impossible for him to ignore
me, but some trainers only tell half the story in fear of giving away all their secrets. That wasn’t Ian’s style though. He
freely shared his training methods, and I still practice those
same techniques on my own horses today. In fact, I try to fly
Ian over to the States once a year so that I can continue to
learn from him. Each time I watch him ride I always learn
something new, and he never fails to amaze me.
The most important thing Gordon taught me was how to
be safe while working with horses, whereas Ian was the best
at getting a horse soft. His ability to get a horse soft and supple is unbelievable, and I often say that Ian can make a hollow
log look like a broke hollow log. While my feel and timing de14 | No Worries Journal
veloped under Gordon, it got increasingly better riding with
Ian. He has a unique ability to see things from a horse’s perspective, and is the best at getting a young horse to do things
without force. He can make a horse with the most average
ability do things that make you go “wow.”
At the end of my apprenticeship with Ian, I felt confident
in my ability to not only start a colt, handle problem horses, but to also prepare a horse to show. A lot of trainers can
start colts, but it takes a truly gifted rider to get a horse soft
enough and broke enough to compete and win at national
shows. After studying under Ian, I had further developed my
feel, timing and experience
to do just that.
Clinton Anderson
Training Stables
When I left Ian’s, I opened
up my own 66 acre training
barn in Rockhampton with
my parent’s help. It proved
to be a good business and
kept me busy. Since I was
just starting out, I didn’t
have enough money to
pay someone to help me,
so I did all the work myself. I trained the horses, I
cleaned the stalls, I saddled
Clinton’s first sign advertising
his training business.
These are Clinton’s first ads. It seems Clinton has come a long
way in his advertising!
the horses, I unsaddled the horses, I held horses for the vet, I
fed the horses, I trimmed hooves, etc. You name it, I did it.
In Australia, the horse industry is very different than in
America because it’s a lot smaller. There are a lot of horses
in Australia, and lots of people ride, but it’s a much smaller
population than the United States. Add on top of that, that
the cost of living in Australia is pretty high, and not many
people have money left over once they pay bills to spend on
horses. So the majority of people who own horses, train the
horses themselves and just ride for pleasure.
My main business was breaking in horses and fixing behavioral problems or “re-educating” horses. I wasn’t training
top-notch show horses to compete on. For the most part, I
was training back-yard horses. If someone would bring me
an 8-year-old wild-eyed brumby to break in, I’d smile and say,
“I’d love to.” If I did happen to get a nice show horse to train,
I’d get to ride it for 60 to 90 days and then the owner would
come get it and go home and show it.
I’m not saying that the show horse industry doesn’t exist in
Australia, because is certainly does, but it’s very small. At the
time, Ian Francis was training horses of course, and he was
winning all the national championships. Because of his success, he pretty much got the pick of all the great show horses in
the country. By the time he picked through everything, there
really wasn’t much left over for any of the other trainers.
Not only that, but at that stage in my career, I was only 19
years of age, and I hadn’t really won anything at all. I hadn’t
done a lot of showing since I left high school because I was
too busy with my apprenticeships. Because I hadn’t proven
myself in that area yet, nobody with a really good horse was
going to trust me to train it and show it, and to be honest, I
didn’t really blame them either.
In reality, the only way I was going to get to show was if I
owned my own horse, which is exactly why I bought Mindy.
I first saw a photo of her in the Australian Quarter Horse
Magazine when she was just 2 months old. I was instantly
drawn to her looks, her style and her breeding. Something
just told me that she was special. While I was working for
Ian, her sire, Pillamindi Roc, a reining futurity winner, was in
training with him. So I knew her sire personally, and thought
she could be a good reining prospect for me.
Mindy was born and bred on the prominent Quirran-Lea
Stud farm owned by Cathy Marsh. When I saw her ad in the
magazine, I knew I just had to have her. My gut told me there
was something special about this horse, so I took a chance.
As a starving horse trainer who was barely able to get by, the
$3,000 price tag was a huge gamble for me, but with my parents help, I scraped up the money. As it turns out, it was one
of the best decisions I ever made.
For the first couple of years that I went out on my own, I did
everything I could to get by. I didn’t turn any horses away no
matter what their problem was. Working with all those problem horses helped me develop my training skills and prepared
me for being able to handle any horse that I work with today.
For the most part, I kept each horse I trained for six weeks. At
the end of the six weeks, the owner would come and pick the
horse up, and I’d show them what the horse could do before
they took him home. After I was done riding the horse, I’d
give the owners a 20 to 30 minute lesson and show them how
to control the horse. At the end of the lesson, most people
would say to me, “Clinton, I really enjoyed the lesson, and I
really liked the way you explained the information to me, but
there’s no way I’m going to remember everything we just covered. Is there any way I could bring the horse back in a couple
of weeks and have you give me another lesson?”
I’d say, “Sure, bring him back” because I could always use
the money. Back then, I was only charging $30 a lesson, a far
cry from my going rate now. If somebody wants me to come
to their house and work with them privately, I
charge $10,000 a day. Back then, I could have
been hired for $60 a day.
After I’d given a couple of lessons, my customers started telling their friends about me,
and pretty soon, they’d show up with their
girlfriends and ask if I could give them lessons
too. That kept happening, and more and more
people wanted me to give lessons. It didn’t
take long before they’d call me up and say,
“Hey Clinton, I’ve got seven neighbors that are
interested in getting lessons. Instead of us all
driving out to you, could you get in the truck
and come to us?” I’d say sure, and that was the
start of a little clinic. Little did I know then
that horsemanship and teaching would consume my life.
As I started giving more lessons and taking
on more training horses, something Gordon
McKinlay had told me when I was apprenticClinton’s dad, Robert Anderson with Mindy (at
4 months old) the day she arrived. She’s been a
part of Clinton’s life ever since.
ing under him stuck out in my mind. He’d say, “Clinton, there
aren’t enough hours in the day with your own two hands to
get rich. Unless you’re a gold maker, a sculptor or you can do
something so rare that nobody else can do it, there’s no way
to make good money with your own two hands. You’ve got to
be able to duplicate yourself as many times as you can.”
I also remembered a piece of advice Ian Francis had taught
me early on. He’d told me that you can only ride so many
horses in a day. Clients aren’t paying you to have someone
else ride your horse. They want you to ride the horse. The last
year I was in Australia, I worked 10 horses a day and was giving lessons and mini-clinics. I started my days at five in the
morning and if I was lucky, I was done by nine or 10 in the
evening. I started realizing that training horses was a limited
income, but I also knew that I loved what I did for a living.
Following Gordon’s advice, the only way I knew to duplicate myself and my teaching methods was to make instructional video tapes. While I was over in Australia, I made
three of them: Trouble Free Trailering, Suppleness and Body
Some of Clinton’s
best customers in
his native country
were cattle station owners Lyn
and Trevor Pullen
from Marlborough,
Australia. Their
property was over
40,000 acres. Lyn
and Trevor first met
Clinton at Gordon
McKinlay’s place
and were impressed Clinton and Trevor Pullen, Australia
2006. Clinton never forgets those people
with the way he
who have helped him out, and is always
handled horses and willing to give back to them. So when
the responses he
Clinton went back to Australia, he showed
was able to get out up to help the people who helped him.
of them. It was very
evident to them, even back then, that Clinton had a passion
for horses and was willing to learn as much as he possibly
could.
When they heard that Clinton opened his own training barn a year later, they started sending horses to him.
The couple was pleased with the way Clinton trained their
horses and the way the horses behaved when they were out
working on their cattle station.
Lyn notes that, “These horses started by Clinton were
good to handle and do everything with, but what really
impressed us was how soft they were. They didn’t fight
us, they were calm and responsive. They just had a good
grounding to go onwards with.”
“We found that we could safely take these horses out and
work,” Trevor adds. “That’s not always something we could
do with horses started elsewhere.”
“Anyone with such energy and passion would find it hard
not to succeed,” Lyn says. “But to tell you the truth, I never
thought about him becoming so popular. I only knew he
would do well with the horses, but I should have known
he’d be successful with people as well because of his ability
to talk and talk!”
“His ability to communicate what he is doing with horses
to people is really the key,” Trevor explains.
“And if a huge sea wasn’t between us, we would still be
sending our horses to Clinton,” Lyn says. “Clinton had a rare
quality in someone so young to know what he wanted and
then to go and get it.”
Collection, and Maneuvers. I hired a television crew from a
local news station to tape me because I knew better than to
try and rinky dink it myself. I’ve always believed that if you’re
going to do something, do it to the best of your ability. So I
hired a professional crew to tape me, and I wrote all of my
training exercises down on a piece of paper. I stuck the paper
in my pocket, rolled the cameras, pulled the paper out, read
it and then stuck it back in my pocket. Mindy was the star of
the videos back then, and I looked like a 12-year-old kid—it’s
quite embarrassing to go back and look at them, but luckily,
most people today don’t even know that they exist. What’s
ironic is the videos were actually pretty good for the time that
they were done. By today’s standards, they were pretty poor,
but back then, I must say that they were pretty darn good.
No respect
The biggest roadblock I’ve faced in my career has been that
I’ve always looked younger than what I actually am. When I
was 18, I looked like I was 15. In Australia, my age really hurt
my horse training career because Australians are a little bit
backwards in the fact that they think you have to have a head
full of gray hair and one foot in the grave before you could
possibly ever know anything about training horses.
In order to get business in Australia, I used to put on a lot
of free seminars. I put ads in the paper saying, “If you’ve got a
problem horse that wants to buck or rear or bolt, bring him to
the local fairgrounds and I’ll train him for free for one day.”
Why would I do that? Because I could never get anybody to
spend any money with me if I couldn’t get them to see what I
could do. The only way I could get people to trust me and send
their horse to me for training was to put on free demonstrations. Heck, sometimes I would have to offer free food and
free beer just to get people to want to show up. I knew that
if I could get somebody to sit still long enough to watch me,
that I could ultimately impress them. If I couldn’t get them to
stand still, they would just look at my age and keep walking.
Mindy and Clinton—at the time, a skinny, broke horse trainer.
A Holiday in the States
A rare photo of Clinton and Al Dunning.
The more involved I got in running my own
training barn, the more desire I had to compete successfully on the reining circuit. After
my apprenticeship with Ian, I really wanted
to get involved in the reining and cutting
worlds. Ian had taught me how to put the finishing touches on a show horse and how to
prepare a horse to compete, but I still wanted
more knowledge.
When you’re in Australia, you always
dream about going to America and being involved in the industry over there. It seemed
to have more to offer than the horse industry in Australia. In Australia, horse trainers
strictly get paid to train the horse. They don’t
receive commissions for selling horses or get
to split prize money. Everything in America
is so much bigger, and when you’re a young
Aussie, it looks a lot better. It’s the old, the
grass is greener on the other side mentality. I’ve since discovOhio. Being from north Queensland where temperatures
ered that there’s no better horseman than Ian Francis. He’s
never dip below freezing, the cold Ohio winter was more than
the best in the world, but because of my youth and inexpeI had bargained for. So I thanked Sam for his help and went
rience, I didn’t realize at the time I was learning from him
down to Arizona to ride with multiple NRHA futurity winner
that he was the best horseman I’d ever ride with. With age
Al Dunning.
and travels halfway around the world, I soon discovered how
At the same time, I met my ex-wife Beth at a grocery store.
lucky I was to have learned from Ian.
We were very young when we got married. She was only 18
In 1995, Sam Smith, a reining trainer from Ohio, came
and I was just 21. Beth didn’t ride horses and she had no inover to Australia and judged the NRHA Futurity. I got to talkterest in horses. On the other hand, horses are everything to
ing with him, and when I was 21, I came over to the States to
me. Horses aren’t just my business, they’re my life. We ended
ride with Sam and pick up as much knowledge as I possibly
up getting a divorce after nine years, but I still think she’s a
could. While the information I learned was extremely helpgreat woman, and I wish her the best. We just got married
ful, it turned out that I picked the wrong six months to visit
way too young.
Focus on safety
Gordon and Clinton more than 15 years later.
One of the first lessons Gordon McKinlay taught his apprentice was the importance of safety. Just
recovering from a bad riding accident that had shattered his pelvis, Gordon was fresh out of the hospital
when he took on Clinton.
“Gordon taught me that as a horse trainer your body is your number one asset because if you get hurt,
you can’t ride. If you can’t ride, you can’t train the horses. If you can’t train the horses, you lose customers. He drilled that into my head and really made me conscious of my safety around the horses,” Clinton
says. “In return, I drill the same thing into my students’ heads.”
Cheryl Anderson can remember attending one of her son’s clinics in the States and listening to him
chastise a man for keeping his dangerous horse a stud. He took the guy aside and said, “You know what
mate, you got a nice horse here, but you’d have a nicer horse if you went and got him gelded,” Cheryl
relates. “He was adamant about safety back then, and more than once I’ve heard him tell people that if
they have a dangerous horse they better do something about it because if he doesn’t hurt you, he’ll hurt someone else.”
After years of working with some of the most disrespectful horses in Queensland with Gordon and then later on his own, Clinton knows better
than most how to handle a dangerous horse and stay safe doing it. Because of his past experience, Clinton feels that there isn’t any horse or any
situation with a horse that he can’t safely handle. When he created his training program and the exercises he uses to teach both humans and
horses how to work together safely, he drew on his own experience working with horses that ranged from backyard pets to brumbies. “That’s
why he’s as good as he is,” Cheryl explains. “The tough horses have given him the edge.”
When Clinton ran his own training barn in Australia, Cheryl used to act as his flagger on the ground when he rode the horses for the first time,
but says she never felt threatened. “My job was to get the horse moving forward and Clinton was always telling me, ‘Get behind the girth, mum.’
He probably never knew how scared I was or he wouldn’t have asked me to do the things he did, but he never put me in a position where I
could get hurt.”
The majority of people Clinton works with on a day-to-day basis share Cheryl’s apprehensions and turn to Clinton for help. “Horses are a big
animal and it’s only natural to be scared of them,” Clinton says. “I have a lot of people come up to me and say, ‘Clinton, I’m afraid to ride, or I’m
frightened to fall off, or I’m frightened to get hurt.’ All those feelings are very real and very healthy. Fear is your brain saying, ‘If you don’t stop
doing what you’re doing, you’re going to get hurt.’ I never tell people to ignore fear. In fact, I encourage them to listen to it and then learn how
to control the situation. You get control of a horse by controlling the movement of his feet. Once you can control the horse, you’ll be confident.
Once you are both in control and confident, you’ll no longer be fearful.”
When people ask what he does for a living, Clinton often jokingly refers to himself as a horse therapist. “Instead of bringing their husbands to
me, people bring me their horses so I can sort out their problems. Everyone plays with horses on a different level whether it’s for recreation, for
business or sport. Whatever level you play on, you just got to be safe and enjoy it. That’s the bottom line.”
Down but not out
When I left the states the first time after I got married, I
was actually a little burnt out on training horses for the public. All I wanted to do was ride Mindy and keep a couple of my
own personal horses to show and compete on competitively.
To make ends meet, my plan was to get a regular day job. I
didn’t want to go back to training horses with no talent or
horses that were trying to kill me and buck me off. I had done
it for years and I didn’t want to go back to it.
So I said, “OK Clinton, what can you do to make money?
What are you good at? Well,” I thought, “you don’t know how
to turn a computer on. You can’t fix anything, and you’re definitely not a handy man.”
I figured the only thing I could do was pump gas. So I went
around to all the local gas stations trying to find a job. I
thought if I could get a job pumping gas, filling air up in tires,
etc., after work, I could train Mindy and my own horses. I
knew that I was only going to spend a year in Australia before
going back to the States, so this was just a temporary fix.
It turned out that finding a job was a lot harder than what
I had expected. I went to the first gas station and asked if
there were any openings. The manager’s first questions were,
“What’s your job experience? What have you been doing?”
“Well,” I said, “I’ve been a horse trainer for the past six
years.”
“We don’t really have anything for horse trainers.”
“I realize that, but I’m a good learner, I’m a hard worker,
and I can adapt.
“No, I don’t think so.”
That’s exactly how every single conversation at every gas
station in an hour’s radius from me went. Nobody would hire
me. They acted like I had the plague because I trained horses.
This was the first time I realized leaving school was a very
risky thing. What I did was either very courageous or very
stupid—it was borderline either one.
I started to get so desperate that I would walk up to the
managers and say, “Listen, I’ll work for free for an entire
week. You don’t have to pay me a cent. I just want to show
you that I’m a very hard worker, I’m loyal and I learn quickly.
If you don’t like me after a week, no hard feelings, I’ll go down
the road. If you give me a chance, I’ll prove to you that I’ll be
a great worker.”
When I told people that I would work for free, they acted
like I was crazy. They couldn’t comprehend that somebody
would actually work for free to get a chance to have a job.
That was the first time in my life that I remember getting depressed about my future, but I refused to give up.
Finally, I walked into Sizzler Restaurant, found the manager and said, “Listen, I don’t care if I have to mop the floor or
clean the toilets with a toothbrush, I don’t care what I have to
do, I will work for free or do whatever I have to do to prove to
you that I’m serious and want a job. Will you hire me?”
He said, “Anybody who walks into my restaurant that’s
willing to start at the bottom, work hard and work for free to
give me a chance to see what they’re like, I’ll take my chances.
But you know what; I’m not going to make you work for free.
I can just tell that you’re going to do a good job for me.”
So for the first six months that I was back at Australia, I
worked at Sizzler Restaurant as a waiter. Now, I must admit,
I was a pretty good waiter. I could darn well clean up dishes
and bring food. There’s no doubt about that. I would work
my horses during the day and go into the restaurant in the
evening around 5 and get off at 1. Depending on how many
horses I had worked before going into the restaurant, I’d go
out to the barn and ride afterwards.
Well, one thing led to another, and all of my clients started to find out that I was back in Australia. Half the problem
was they’d see me in the restaurant and we’d get to talking.
During the course of the conversation, they’d always find a
way to ask me to train a horse for them. A sucker for punishment, I had trouble saying no to my friends, so I’d agree to
train the horse.
After six months at the Sizzler, I got so busy training horses that I ended up quitting the restaurant and went back to
training full time. That experience taught me a very valuable
lesson though, when you’re a horse trainer, you’re kind of
limited on what you can do. So now, I encourage people to
finish high school and college because it gives you something
else to fall back on. Australia NRHA Futurity: riding with the big guns
My ultimate goal for Mindy was to take her to the NRHA
Futurity in Australia and compete against the top names in
the reining world. I knew Mindy had the breeding to be a
phenomenal reining horse, but before I started taking her to
futurities and competing, I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t
wasting my efforts. So I sent her to Ian’s for six weeks, hoping that he could give me a better idea of how much potential
she actually had. After six weeks, Ian’s verdict was that Mindy
was more than capable of being successful at the top of the
sport, and he even gave me a couple of tips and pointers to
better her performance. It’s something that I can look back
on now and realize what great sportsmanship Ian showed. He
knew that I wanted to take Mindy to the futurity and win. At
the time, he was training the horse, Riverholme Royal Oak,
for close friends of mine, Bruce and Vicki Neville, that he
planned on showing at the futurity. For Ian to actually help
me and give me tips is the true mark of sportsmanship.
Mindy and Clinton at the 1997 Australia NRHA Futurity. They
won the first go-round, and finished 3rd in the finals.
When I arrived at the futurity in 1997, I was
a 22-year-old kid nobody had ever heard of before. No one knew who I was, and I was pretty
much wrote off as some kid from the bush. The
Neville’s, my parents and Ian all formed a strong
support group, and helped each other out where
we could. It wasn’t until Mindy and I finished
our first-go that people started to take notice.
Mindy rode so well that we finished the first-go
in first place. In the finals, Mindy put in her best
effort putting us into third place—with just a
half a point separating first, second and third.
Incidentally, we finished just a half point behind
Ian and Riverholme Royal Oak (Bruce and Vicki
owned this horse, and I had done it’s first six
weeks under saddle). It was one of the most satisfying moments in my life. All of my hard work
and risks were starting to pay off.
Mindy and Clinton were no strangers to winning.
Mindy’s success in the futurity began to open
At the 1995 Halter Extravanganza at Dubbo, Mindy placed 2nd in Futurity
up doors for me that had previously been shut,
Lead Line, and 6th in Futurity Trail Class, just 1 point off the $3,000 bonus.
and all of a sudden, I was the new kid on the
block. Now, people from all over the country were contactglamorous, but I did what I had to do to get by. I worked at
ing me wanting me to train their performance horses. I was
the reining barn in Texas for a couple of months before I degetting good horses in to train and my career was really startcided to leave. I left because I didn’t enjoy the job and I didn’t
ing to take off in Australia. Unfortunately, I left Australia to
like the way the horses were being trained. Some of the techcome back to the States only eight weeks after the futurity,
niques and practices used in the barn just went against what
so I never really got to take advantage of the fact that I did
I liked.
so well.
At the time, I had an offer to be the head trainer at a barn
By that point in my career, I was convinced that I wantin Italy. I seriously considered taking it, but the only reason I
ed to be a reining horse trainer. I had already worked with
didn’t was because I had realized that it doesn’t matter what
Sam Smith and Al Dunning in America, and after Mindy
you have won overseas, when you come back to the States
did so well in the futurity, I decided
everybody wants you to prove yourself
to come to the States to show reinagain. I felt like I had already done that
ing horses because that’s where the
once. I had proved myself in Australia
industry is. Before I left Australia, I
when I did so well at the futurity with
called up as many reining trainers as
Mindy, but when I came back to the
I could find in magazines and asked
States, it was almost like I went back to
for a job training horses. I called trainbeing the apprentice again. I went down
ers like Bob Avila, Tim McQuay and
to the bottom of the ladder, and I didn’t
Bob Loomis, but they all told me that
want to have to do it a third time. So I
they didn’t have any open positions at
decided that if I wanted to get my cathe time. However, a trainer down in
reer as a reining trainer going, it would
Whitesboro, Texas had an opening, so
be best to pass up the offer in Italy and
I took him up on the offer.
continue working in the States.
Land of Opportunity
When I moved down to Texas, I lived
in a mobile trailer and drove a rusty
1981 El Camino. It was by no means
Clinton’s close friends, Bruce and
Vicki Neville with Clinton in 1995. The
Neville’s were big supporters of Clinton
right from the beginning.
Just a boy from the bush
When Clinton competed against Ian Francis in the futurity, I was a nervous wreck. Clinton was just a kid from the bush, and
he went to Sydney and competed against the Ian Francis’s and all the big name trainers of the time. It was a big event for us. We
didn’t know how it was going to go, but you have to have a go and see where you stand against the big boys. He did exceptionally well, and we were so proud of Mindy.
Afterwards, I went up and congratulated Ian Francis. Rob and I didn’t know Ian very well at all, but I went and congratulated
him because he’d gotten reserve champion and did a great job. I said to him, “You know Ian, what you did for Clinton was fabulous because you knew he wanted to go down there and you knew he wanted to whoop you, but you still took Mindy on and
helped Clinton.” Well, he looked at me like I came from another planet, with an expression on his face like “what are you babbling on about woman?” That’s just the sort of fellow he is. He’s a genuine nice bloke. It meant so much to Rob and I that I had
to tell him my thoughts on it because that’s true sportsmanship. You just don’t see it a lot. — Cheryl Anderson
When one door closes, another opens:
The formation of Downunder Horsemanship
After declining the offer in Italy, I found myself working
at a reining barn in Ione, California. When I took the job, I
made it clear that I was going to be another associate trainer.
I wasn’t going to be an apprentice or the guy the trainer was
going to teach. I already had my own methods and my own
way of training horses and I wasn’t about to change. If the
trainer wanted to hire me, he had to take me as I was. I had already made my first three video tapes in Australia and I sent
them to the trainer as my resume. I told him that if he saw
anything on the tapes that he didn’t like, not to even bother
hiring me because the tapes showed exactly who I was. He
decided that he liked everything he saw and thought I’d be
a perfect fit in his barn, and I was for the first three to four
months.
I got along good with the trainer, but his wife was a different story. She didn’t really care for some of my techniques,
and we had a bit of a falling out. She didn’t like the way I
was training horses, which I understand, it was their business
and they had every right to do what they wanted. I ended up
getting fired, which I joke about now and say that it was the
greatest thing that ever happened because that’s what really
caused me to start Downunder Horsemanship. I’m still pretty
good friends with the trainer and his wife, they’re nice people, but it just didn’t work out for me. I think fate intersected
with itself because I was really meant to be a clinician.
When I got fired from that job, I literally had no money. I
had about $400 in the bank, I had just bought a car (a green
neon), and I had no job prospects. I was between a rock and
a hard place. I realized that if I was ever going to get ahead in
the reining industry, I needed to win. But you can’t win without a good horse. The trouble is, you can’t get a good horse
unless you win. It’s a catch-22 situation. There were only a
handful of trainers at the time, and really still only are, that
have enough talented horses left over that their associate
trainers and apprentices can ride and compete on to get recognition. Obviously, I wasn’t working for any of those guys.
It just so happened that while I was working at the barn
in California, I had given lots of lessons for back yard horse
owners and show people. I had made a lot of contacts doing
that, so when I got fired, I realized that the only way I was
going to get ahead in the reining industry was to win. Well, I
couldn’t win unless I had a good horse. If I was going to buy a
quality show horse, I was going to need between $15,000 and
$20,000 for a 2-year-old. The quickest way I could figure to
earn enough money to buy a show horse was to give as many
lessons as I possibly could.
I was already familiar with teaching people from my previous experience in Australia and the contacts I had made in
California seemed keen to learn from me. I called them up
and told them that I was going out on my own and if they
wanted lessons, they were more than welcome to come to
me. As before, the people I gave lessons to told their friends
and then their friends told more people. By word of mouth, I
started getting little groups of people together to give lessons
to in the area around Ione.
I stayed in Ione for a couple of months before packing up
everything I owned and moving back to Sherman, Texas. Back
in Sherman, I started giving lessons pretty heavily. When I
apprenticed under Gordon and Ian, I went to the clinics they
put on, so I had a pretty good idea what people liked to get out
of them. I did a good job for people and they liked what I did
She’s something special
“This is the best thing we ever bought,” was the first
thing Clinton told his parents when he became Mindy’s
owner.
“He knew that a long time ago,” Cheryl relates. “She
has helped him build up the company as far as showing
everyone what they can expect out of the program. She’s
a member of the family, and I believe she’d walk on water
for him.”
When Clinton left to go over to the States, he didn’t
have enough money to fly Mindy over with him so he left
her with his parents. Mindy stayed at Rob and Cheryl’s
place turned out in a pasture until Clinton saved up
enough money to bring her to the States in 1999.
“When we turned her out in the paddock, she turned
feral,” Cheryl says. “Clinton would probably be horrified
to hear some of the things his sweet Mindy did, but she
turned into the typical broodmare. She’d run the other
horses around, but we didn’t have a problem with it because you’ve got to let a horse be a horse, and out in the
paddock is where that happens.”
Cheryl says “she was just a pussy cat.” In fact, the
only time she can remember Mindy being a bother was
when Clinton was running his training barn in Australia.
“We had electric fencing and we used to have to stand
at the back door and yell out, ‘Is the fence on?’ before
we turned Mindy out. Otherwise, that horse would be
through the fence and into everyone’s feed bins. She
knew when those fences were on and when they were off.
The minute you switched them off, she would be the first
one out of the fence.”
In 2003, Rob and Cheryl came over to the States to
visit Clinton and the first chance she had, Cheryl went
out to the pasture to see Mindy. With her, Cheryl took
Mindy’s favorite treat—two pieces of bread. According
to Cheryl, Mindy will “run right over the top of you for
bread.” At the time, Mindy was turned out with a bunch
of broodmares and was grazing at the far end of the
pasture.
Cheryl walked up to the fence and yelled, “C’mon!” as
loud as she could. “I hadn’t called her like that for over
five years,” Cheryl says, “but she jerked her head up and
trotted straight over to the fence. I burst into tears because she remembered. Other than Clinton placing in the
futurity, that’s my favorite memory of her.”
In Clinton’s own words “Mindy will kill for bread!”
Clinton’s first official US Clinic in Dublin, Ohio.
so they told their friends. Back in those days, when I was doing little clinics, I worked with the participants one-on-one.
If a person had a specific problem such as their horse rearing, I would help them fix that problem. While I was working
with one lady, the other two or three participants would be
on their own. Now, when I do clinics, I work with everyone at
the same time and teach everyone the same exercises.
The first official Downunder Horsemanship clinic I did in
the United States is just right up the road from where I live
now in Dublin, Ohio. I charged the participants $100 a day
for a two day clinic. At a lot of clinics in the very early days, I
could only get three to four people to show up—two of them
were lost and the other one was homeless. It’s not like I started out with a lot of people. I think sometimes people forget
and think that I started this company with lots and lots of
popularity.
One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I had 48
clinics scheduled for my first year. At most of those clinics,
only a handful of people were showing up, but my theory
was if I could earn enough money to cover airfare, I went.
If I couldn’t cover the cost of airfare, I couldn’t afford to fly
out because I was that poor. Were there times when I woke
up at 3 in the morning, stood in front of the mirror having a
shave, and thought to myself, “Why am I flying to California
to help three ladies with their horses?” Were there times that
were hard? You bet there were, but I never gave up. It honestly almost killed me. I was either doing a clinic, flying back
and forth from one clinic to the other, or trying to sneak in a
ride on my own personal horses. I have a long standing habit
of biting off more than I can chew and trying to swallow it
whether it kills me or not. I just hate quitters.
I’m a workaholic by nature, and have been taught from an
early age that the world owes you nothing. If you want something out of this world, you better get up and go get it yourself. If you think somebody is going to hand you something,
you’re in for a shock. I’ve worked extremely hard to get to
where I’ve gotten, and I’ve had a lot of great people help me
get there. I’ve been smart enough to realize that I can’t do
it all by myself. Today I have a fulltime staff of 33 and have
learned to delegate tasks. I’m the best at training horses and
teaching people so that’s what I focus on. I leave the other
professionals I’ve hired to do their jobs.
While I have had my fair share of supporters, I’ve also had
a long list of skeptics, but I’ve never been one to let anybody
Clinton will be Clinton
Every two years Rob and I try to catch up with Clinton in the States. Our first trip was
in 1999, and we barely got to see him because he was so busy running here and there
giving clinics. When we went back over in 2003, I snuck into a seminar and hid in the
back where he wouldn’t see me. (He didn’t want his mum right up in the front row). A lady
stood up and she went on and on and on about her horse, it was obvious from the minute
she started talking that she wasn’t interested in Clinton’s help.
“I did this,” she said.
Clinton said, “Did you try this.”
“I did that and this.”
Clinton said, “Did you try this?”
After about five times of this, people started shifting in their seats and getting a “shut up
you silly lady” sort of look on their faces. Finally, Clinton looked at her and said, “You know
what lady? If I were you, I’d get a gun and shoot that horse.” Of course, he was only kidding, trying to get the woman to open up her mind. But it was nonetheless shocking.
I almost fell out of my chair. I thought “Oh my goodness Clinton, you can’t say things like
that to people.” But everybody in the room laughed. I went back to Rob and I said, “You
know what Clinton just told a lady? He told her to go shoot her horse. He could get kicked
out of the country for making comments like that.”
But that’s Clinton and people accepted that. The lady probably didn’t go home and shoot
her horse, but I’m sure she thought about pointing the gun at Clinton. That was my first
real eye-opener of him getting into the horse industry. — Cheryl Anderson
stop me from what I believe in. If I would have stopped my
career every time somebody told me that I was never going to
make it, that I wasn’t a good horse trainer, or that I couldn’t
teach people, I would have stopped about a thousand times.
Negative feedback never affects me. I just keep marching
down the same track. Now, that doesn’t mean that I don’t accept constructive criticism and adjust myself accordingly, but
I never let people tell me that I’m not good enough. I’m very
loyal to the people who helped me, but the people who don’t
like me or wouldn’t support me, I just go around them.
Throughout my career, I’ve never been frightened to ask
for help. I’ve never been prideful about knowledge. Men and
women joke all the time about men never wanting to ask for
directions. Well, I’m the complete opposite. If I even smell
that I’m lost (and usually I am because I have the worst sense
of direction in the world) I ask for help. Let me just say right
now that the greatest invention God gave to mankind was
the Garmin Navigation System because that’s kept me on the
straight and narrow for the last couple of years. I could get
lost in a paper bag, that’s how bad my sense of direction is.
However, when I get lost, I instantly pull over and ask somebody for directions. My dad is the complete opposite. He’ll
drive around for four years completely lost but will refuse to
ask for directions. To me, it’s a waste of time not asking for
directions. I’d rather stop, get the right information, get on
the right path and get to where I’m going and accomplish the
goal. I’ve always been big on that. If you don’t know what to
do, go out there and have somebody help you. Never be too
proud to ask for help.
So if I asked you for help, and you wouldn’t help me, I’d
go around you, through you, over you or under you, but I’d
never let you stop me from accomplishing my goal. Too many
people in this life tell others that they can’t do this or they
can’t do that. That’s not good enough. That’ll never work. I
don’t buy into that. If you want something, don’t ever let
somebody tell you that you can’t get it. My attitude from the
beginning was—you’ll never stop me. I’ll always ask you for
your help, but if you won’t give it, get out of my way—I’m on
a mission.
Princess in Diamonds placed 4th at the 2001 NRHA Futurity.
I’m about the only clinician that’s willing to put his name on
the line and go out there and compete.
So I kept one or two reining horses that I could have fun on,
but then my showing took a back seat for quite a few years
because I knew that if I wanted Downunder Horsemanship to
be successful, I had to give it 110 percent. All of my attention
and energy needed to be focused on building my business.
I’m still involved in the show world today, but not nearly
as much as I would like to be. I own a couple of broodmares
and keep a handful of horses in training that I can take to
futurities. One of my best reining horses now is Princess
on the Prowl, a 4-year-old Highbrow Cat mare. She’s out of
my best broodmare, Princess in Diamonds, (a Shining Spark
mare) that’s won a little over $80,000. My other top derby
prospect this year is Shine on Restina, a 5-year-old mare by
Shining Spark. I’m hoping to have enough time to show both
Cat and Sparkles at some reining competitions this year. My
main business now is training people and helping them with
their horses, so my show career has taken a bit of a back seat,
but I enjoy doing it whenever I can.
Building credibility
Initially, I started giving clinics as a way to make enough
money so that I could buy a good reining horse. Once I did
that, I figured I’d quit teaching and go back to being a reining trainer again. It’s funny how things evolve though. My
horsemanship business just got bigger and bigger and bigger.
Before I knew it, I was at a crossroads where I had to pick between training horses and being a clinician. After a couple of
years of being a clinician, I realized that there was just more
security in going that route. So I made a conscious decision
to build Downunder Horsemanship up and back off on training horses.
However, at the time and still to this day, I think that it was
extremely important that I continued to show and compete
in the early days of my career. Not only did showing help me
grow as a horseman, but I’m a firm believer in the theory that
you’re only as good as your competition. If you don’t strive
to better yourself and compete against people who are better than you, how are you ever going to grow to that level?
Competing gave me a lot of credibility in the show world.
Most other natural horsemanship trainers don’t show, and as
a result, a lot of horse trainers don’t respect them. In reality,
if they did show they probably wouldn’t do very good at all.
Clinton on Remelina competing at the 2006 NRHA Futurity. Earlier in
the year, the pair won all 3 divisions at the OVRHA Snaffle Bit Futurity.
Hard work never killed anybody
Cheryl and Rob Anderson made sure their children knew the value of hard work growing up. “Rob and I always worked hard and the kids saw that growing up. If mom and
dad work hard, well, that’s what you do. If you set an example, kids will follow it,” Cheryl
points out.
To better themselves financially, Cheryl and Rob took on a milk run when the kids were
little. “Rob and I would get up at 3 in the morning and we’d do the run together because
we wanted to better ourselves. That’s one thing we’ve taught our kids: if you want to better yourself, you’ve got to take on more,” Cheryl says. Not only would Cheryl and Rob do
the milk run together, but they would take Andrea and Clinton along with them. “If truth
be told,” Cheryl says, “Clinton was pretty useless until the sun came up. He’d curl up in
the backseat of the car and mumble and grumble. Once the sun was up, he’d run and do
what had to be done.”
When talk of Clinton working for Gordon first came about, Cheryl remembers sitting
him down and saying, “Clinton, why don’t you just do an apprenticeship for four years
and then think about the horses.”
But Clinton was very adamant that he didn’t want to do anything other than the horses. Finally, he looked at his mom and said, “Why would I want to waste four years of my
life mum?”
“What he said was completely true,” Cheryl admits. “His father did an apprenticeship
in the printing trade for four years, and he hated it. The last day of his apprenticeship he
walked away from it and never went back to it. He wasted four years of his life because it
was something that he didn’t want to do.
“So with Clinton, I figured what’s the point of pushing him into something that he
doesn’t want to do? If he hadn’t gone down to Gordon’s and just drifted, it would have
been a different story. But he had somewhere he wanted to go, someone who wanted
to take him in, and someone who wanted to teach him, so he went. We’ve never been a
“got to do this and got to do that” type of family. We’ve always been a “get in there and
have a go” type of family. If you don’t have a go at it, what are you going to do?”
Cheryl and Rob are adamant that if their son hadn’t found Gordon McKinlay, he
wouldn’t have the career he does today. “There was nobody like Gordon around and there
was certainly nobody in Gordon’s profession that would have taken Clinton on as a 13year-old kid,” Cheryl says. “Gordon and Enid are the salt of the earth.”
Gordon McKinlay fondly remembers the first time he laid eyes on Clinton. The young
boy was a “skinny runt” wearing long boots and shorts to his first clinic. It wasn’t 10
minutes into the clinic before Clinton asked his first question. “He never stopped asking
questions the entire time,” Gordon remembers. “He must have asked a billion questions
and I gave him a billion answers.”
The Rockhampton clinician was impressed with his young pupil’s eagerness to learn
and ended up inviting him to his ranch to work and eventually, to be his apprentice.
Clinton’s eagerness to learn carried over with him when he became Gordon’s apprentice,
a trait Gordon admires in him. “He never let anything stand in his way,” Gordon relates.
“If he didn’t know the answer, he searched until he found it. That’s one thing he learned
from me—never give up.”
“When Clinton left home at 15, he matured very quickly. Working alongside Gordon,
he had no choice but to grow up because he was doing a man’s job,” Cheryl says. “They
worked hard in the stinking heat. There were no indoor arenas. They did all of their work
in a big outdoor round yard with the sun beating down on them.”
The two worked the horses and tended to the ranch seven days a week, day in and day
out. The entire two years that he was there, Clinton never earned a cent. Rob and Cheryl
would send their son money to buy food and clothes, but other than that, he was on his
own. “You tell me how many American or Australian kids would do that now?” Cheryl
asks. “Not very many, that’s for sure, but Clinton was driven to learn as much as he possibly could, and he was willing to do what was necessary to succeed. If you want to get
ahead, you work hard. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. It’s as simple as that.”
When talking about Clinton’s rise
from a boy with no horse knowledge to
a popular clinician today, Gordon gets
thoughtful and says, “Too many people
give up when success is right around
the corner, but he never did. He took
a few more steps and made it around
the corner.”
As a young trainer, Clinton
often worked from 5 a.m. to
9 p.m. or later, and collapsed
as soon as he got home.
Work harder and smarter
than anybody else
My motto when I first came over
to the States and as I continue to
build my clinician career is to work
harder and smarter than anybody
else. I knew that in order to succeed in this country, I had to work
not only harder, but smarter than
my competition. I tried to look
at every weakness my opponents
had and avoid them. At the same
time, I looked at all their strengths
and tried to do much better. I believe everybody does one thing extremely well. So if I see someone
doing something better than me, I
change.
I went to my first two equine
expos (Equine Affair and Equitana
USA) when I was still working at the
reining barn in Ione, California. At
the time, both shows were searching for new talent and for something different than the clinicians
that usually showed up. Always
looking for some extra cash, I approached them and said that I was
Australian and that I trained reining horses, but I’d be willing to do
a general horsemanship session if
they’d like. They agreed and I talked
to maybe 30 or 40 people the entire
weekend, but the experience was
worth a million because while I was
at the expos, I had time to watch
some of the big name clinicians at
the time. I have to be quite honest,
I thought they were pretty average
in ability. I have the highest respect
for them, but I didn’t really think
they had much to offer.
I looked up in the crowd and saw
2,500 people watching these demonstrations, and I was thinking to
myself, “Oh my goodness, you guys
haven’t seen nothing yet.” I think
that was the first time I seriously
considered a career as a clinician.
The first thing that I noticed
about the clinicians of the time
was their ages. Most of them were
almost double my age, and there
was nobody in my age group that
was up and coming to take over the
next generation of clinicians. So I
thought to myself, “Here’s a great
opportunity Clinton. You could run
in there, and at some point, these
guys have got to retire. They have
to slow down. By the time they do
that, you’ll be in the number one
position.”
Stand out from the crowd
Clinton demonstrating at his first
Equine Affaire in Ohio, 1998.
If you know my personality, you know I wasn’t waiting for
anybody to retire. It wasn’t very long at all before the big clinicians of the time knew who Clinton Anderson was. I was
nipping at their heels like you wouldn’t believe. I think a lot
of people thought in the very beginning that I was just another clinician that was just trying to make a name for himself, and that I was never going to amount to very much. They
learned very early on that I was a force to be reckoned with. I
was out to beat them, I was out to be better them, and I was
out to be more popular than them.
Nipping at their heels
I watched all the top clinicians of the time, and I said to
myself, “I’m going to look at their strengths and I’m going to
be better than them in their strengths, and I’m going to look
at their weaknesses and I’m going to avoid their weaknesses.”
I put that with my own particular style, and that’s how I came
up with Downunder Horsemanship. I think I separated myself from a lot of the clinicians at the time because I’m a meat
and potatoes kind of guy. I’m very black and white and cut to
the chase. I’m obviously Australian, proud of my native country, and I played on that when I came here.
In the beginning, my accent was a positive and a negative.
It was positive in the fact that people liked to listen to me. I
think maybe in the beginning, that’s all they did was listen
to me. They didn’t care whether or not I could teach them.
They just liked to hear my voice. But the negative was a lot of
people had a hard time understanding me. I’ve since lost a lot
of my accent. If you think I have an accent now, it’s nothing
compared to what it was like when I first came over here. In
fact, whenever I go back to Australia for a vacation, all the
Australians think I’m an American. They have a hard time believing that I’m a native Australian.
It’s actually good that I lost some of my accent because of
the trouble people had understanding me. It’s hard to build
a career based on teaching if the majority of people can’t understand the words coming out of your mouth. The toughest
situation for me was going through a drive through. I’d say,
“I want a cheeseburger and a coke,” and the attendant would
say, “What?” “A coke.” That would go on for quite some time
before I’d finally look at the person sitting in the car next
to me and I’d say, “Tell them that I want a coke.” They’d say,
“Coke” and the attendant would get it straightaway.
You’ll never hear me say that my training methods are the
only correct way to train horses. There are a million and one
ways to train horses, and there’s no one way that’s more correct than the other. What you will hear me say is that my pro24 | No Worries Journal
When Clinton first decided to pursue a career as a
clinician, his first order of business was to differentiate
himself from the other clinicians, a task that proved to
be easy for the young Aussie.
“What made him different was he was young, charismatic and Aussie,” The Horse Show host, Rick Lamb,
says. “What kept him different is his ability to simplify
horsemanship without trivializing it. Other clinicians try
to do this, but Clinton’s way just seems to resonate with
more people.”
Lee Anderson and his wife Nina were two of the first
people to take notice of the young Aussie. The first time
Lee can remember seeing Clinton was at a Ride with the
Stars event. Although Clinton wasn’t one of the featured
“star trainers” at the time, Lee was impressed with his
knowledge and after working with Clinton knew he had
stumbled onto the next big thing.
“Naturally his Aussie accent was appealing,” Lee
remembers, “but most of all, it was his knowledge and
his ability to teach me and my horse how to apply that
knowledge. Everything that he was teaching me worked
and it worked immediately. For the first time, I felt I had
control of my horse instead of the horse controlling me.”
One way that Clinton separated himself from the
crowd was by staying active in the show world. In many
eyes, what sets Clinton apart from other natural horsemanship clinicians is his desire to compete and win.
“He is the only clinician out there to throw his hat in the
ring and actually compete at a high level,” Ken Bray of
Equibrand says. One of the hardest feats as a natural
horse trainer is being accepted by the show world, but
Ken says because Clinton keeps a foot in both realms,
“He is respected by the industry’s best riders and trainers, most of which are not easily impressed.”
His real world show experience offers a step-up from
other clinicians who choose not to enter the show pen.
Not only is Clinton good at getting and keeping a horse
soft, but he’s able to teach others to do the same. With
his help, an average trail horse can be a competitive
show horse. Multiple NRHA Futurity champion, Bob
Avila observes: “Clinton has gained a lot of respect in the
show world because he’s not afraid to compete outside
his realm and put his name on the line.” When others
shy away from possible public failure, Clinton makes it a
point to compete against the best and give it his all.
“I knew from the moment I laid eyes on him that he
was more special than anybody,” Gordon McKinlay says
about Clinton. The Aussie trainer could see it in the way
Clinton carried himself around horses and in his endless quest for knowledge, but he never imagined Clinton
would become the clinician he is today with a successful
business behind him. Ken notes that one of the main
reasons Clinton is at the top of his profession is because
he continuously networks and surrounds himself with
the best trainers and riders in the industry. “He rides
with them and has them critique him. He studies everything they do and he challenges himself to become better,” Ken says.
“It’s mindboggling amazing what he’s done,” Gordon
explains. “I hear people say, ‘Oh he just got lucky.’ Well,
luck had nothing to do with it. He didn’t have millions
of dollars behind him. He had to do what he’s done
through hard work and sweat.”
gram is the easiest, fastest and safest way to train a horse. I’ve
taken all the guesswork out of training horses and made it as
easy as possible to understand. If you want to try it, that’s
great. And if you don’t, that’s OK too.
Unlike in Australia, my age didn’t hurt me as much in the
States. However, just like in Australia, when I started my
reining career, in the States, I was a nothing and a nobody
when I became a clinician. To build my name, I used to do a
lot of expos all over the country and I put on free seminars
whenever I could along with giving clinics. I went to as many
expos as I possibly could because it was the only way I could
expose myself to a lot of people at one particular time.
At first, only a handful of people would show up to watch
me. I can remember John Lyons drawing a crowd of 3,000
people, and I’d have three people watching me—two of them
were just tired and needed a place to sit down and the other
person was lonely. It was very hard for me to get ahead in
the beginning of my career because I could never get anybody
to stand still long enough to watch me. It seemed like they
would always put me on the exact same time that John was
on. Now of course, it’s the complete opposite. I did a lot of
the hard jobs, and worked extremely hard for the popularity
I have today.
Made for TV horsemanship
In December of 2000, RFD-TV was broadcast via satellite into homes across America. As the nation’s first 24 hour
television network dedicated to agriculture and the rural lifestyle, RFD-TV was going into uncharted waters. No one was
sure if the new station would sink or swim, including myself.
In the end, I decided to take a huge gamble and it’s been one
of the biggest breaks that I’ve gotten in my career as far as
Downunder Horsemanship is concerned.
I committed myself to developing a horse program specifically made for RFD-TV, knowing that the station was so new
that it could fail within six months. At the time, there were a
few horse shows on the station, but they were very limited.
The trainers that were on TV at the time had just chopped
their videos up and put them on air. I knew that if was going
to go on TV, I wanted to give viewers more information than
what was on my videos. I didn’t want to put something on TV
for free and then expect people to buy the exact same footage
from me privately.
I was the first trainer to take a gamble and purchase my
own video equipment. I begged and borrowed every cent I
possibly could, and paid about $50,000 for my own equipment, which was actually pretty hard for me to do. For most
Voted most popular
Just a year after its debut, Downunder Horsemanship was ranked the most popular equine programming on RFD-TV, a title it continues to
carry. Never one to wait for opportunity to come knocking at his door, Clinton is always on the look-out for chances to boost his career in any
form that he can. So it didn’t come as a surprise to a lot of people that he took a chance on the fledgling station in 2001.
The Horse Show host Rick Lamb first met Clinton in 1998 at Equitana in Louisville, KY, and says the young Clinton sought him out because
he knew he had a national radio show. “At 23, he was already very media savvy. We hit it off immediately. I liked his energy and confidence
even before I knew anything about his horsemanship. There was also a touch of irreverence—a “tell it like it is” attitude—that made him
entertaining.”
RFD’s founder and president Patrick Gottsch notes that the station and Clinton have a mutually beneficial relationship, and says that the
Aussie clinician’s straight forward teaching style has been a hit with audiences.
Ken Bray of Equibrand agrees with Patrick’s take on Clinton’s teaching style and says that “Clinton set the standard for all others to follow
in terms of the quality of TV programming and video production. No one else comes anywhere close to covering the variety of topics he has
covered. From imprinting a new born foal to salvaging soured out old horses; from groundwork to the competitive show ring; from English to
western; Clinton’s techniques span the spectrum of issues with horses of all ages and all styles of riding. No one else teaches on the variety
of subjects nor has a more complete library of problem solving instructional methods.”
Clinton says that feedback from the show has been phenomenal, and “it’s a huge honor with all the other equestrian shows available on
the network now that Downunder Horsemanship continues to be the most popular equine program and the second most popular show on the
station. I took a gamble when RFD-TV first came out and it’s proven to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”
“Downunder Horsemanship brought a style of equine training to RFD-TV unlike any other at the time,” RFD’s Director of Public Relations,
Raquel Gottsch, explains. “Clinton’s great personality and ability to immediately bond with horses and horse owners has been evident from
the start.”
“Clinton is a wonderful asset to RFD-TV,” Raquel adds. “He has been with us since day one and has always been a proud supporter of our
network. Wherever he goes, he always makes sure to mention RFD-TV. We are proud to have him as part of our equine programming and
would like to send a sincere congratulations on 10 years of hard work.”
Filming on location,
Clinton doing what he
does best...talking to
people.
Clinton and
Gale McGraw
of my career over in the
States, I couldn’t get any
credit. When you’re a
self-employed guy over
in America with no tax
history, you have no
credit history. I soon
found out that no credit
is worse than bad credit.
Banks would rather loan
money to people with
bad credit than they
would to someone with no credit history whatsoever. At this
point in my career, I didn’t even have enough credit to buy a
pair of underpants from JC Penney’s. Everything that I did
with Downunder Horsemanship was completely built off of
positive cash flow—money I had in my pocket. I went out on
a limb and purchased my own equipment, knowing full well
that if RFD-TV collapsed, it would be the end of me because
I’d go bankrupt.
When I first started my show on RFD-TV, I couldn’t convince anybody to spend money with me. I’d call companies up
and ask for their sponsorship and they’d always say, “Who are
you?” I can just imagine what they’d say about me after they
hung up the phone—“There’s some kid from Australia that
wants us to spend money on him. Apparently, he thinks once
people listen to his horse training advice he’s going to be the
next big thing.”
So that’s when I decided to hire my first employee. Gale
McGraw, among several other good friends, had been assisting me over the past couple of years traveling to expos and
helping out at clinics where she could. She’d been a great
friend to me, and still is to this day, and she agreed to officially work for me. We didn’t know anything about television,
video taping, filming, etc.—we knew nothing.
Learn-a-holic
A self-proclaimed learn-a-holic, Clinton is adamant about
adding to his knowledge in any way shape or form. From taking
courses at Stanford University to watching and reading as many
videos and books as he can, he never stops learning.
“As soon as you think you know everything, whether it’s in
horses, business or life in general, you are going to set yourself
up to fail,” Clinton says. “The best piece of advice I’ve ever received is to keep an open mind and always be willing to listen to
somebody else’s idea.”
A year ago, Clinton enrolled himself in a week long negotiation
course at Stanford University taught by two former clinic participants, Maggie Neale and Thomas Lys.
“I’ve never spent any money on my education and I love the
art of negotiating and putting a deal together, so I decided to do
the class,” Clinton explains.
Leading up to the class, Clinton was nervous and his feelings
of anxiety didn’t calm down when he stepped into the classroom.
“I showed up a little bit late for the first class because I had to
do a clinic. So everybody is already in the room when I walk in,
and they’re taking turns standing up and introducing themselves
to the class. Most of the people had business suits on and were
very corporate America, while I showed up in my Cinch jeans
and cowboy boots. There were CEOs of world corporations and
Clinton loves training knowledge of all animals—not just
presidents of companies. Needless to say, the education level in
horses. He was able to watch the elephant trainers with the
the building was really high. I started feeling extremely nervous
Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, as well as
that I was this rinky dink horse trainer from Australia that hadn’t getting a little hands-on time with an elephant.
even graduated from high school.
“When it was my turn to stand up, I said, ‘My name is Clinton Anderson. I didn’t graduate high school, and I didn’t go to college. I teach people to train horses.’ Then I sat down, and everybody looked at me like I was the strangest person on the entire
planet, with ‘what the heck are you doing here’ looks on their faces. As the week went on, it turned out that I was every bit as
competent at doing the course work as they were.
“By the end of the week I didn’t feel stupid at all. In fact, if anything, I felt more competent in the real world than what some
of the other people in the class were. I went in very nervous but I left the class extremely confident. I went in embarrassed because I didn’t finish high school, but it turned out that I was actually smarter than a lot of the people in the course were, with all
their degrees. Maybe not book smart, but in the real world, I could get it done just as well.”
In the future, Clinton plans to take more courses and has never been afraid to change his ways with the knowledge that he
gains.
“That’s one of the things I love about Clinton,” Downunder’s visual media producer, Gale McGraw, says. “A lot of trainers get
stuck in their routines, but Clinton is willing to change his techniques if he finds a better way.”
Clinton knows what works with horses and people, and “the basics don’t change,” longtime client and friend, Lee Anderson,
observes. “But he is constantly trying to find ways to improve his methods.”
Constantly on the look-out for knowledge, Lee compares Clinton’s quest for information to a sponge, always absorbing as
much as he can, wherever he can. “I’m always trying to match his work ethic,” Lee adds. “He’s a deep thinker and has a remarkable ability to be innovative.”
One thing in my life I’ve always been big on is if you don’t
know what to do, pay somebody to show you what to do. So
I scraped up enough money to hire a professional to come
and personally teach Gale how to use the cameras, edit film
and basically do everything we needed to in order to produce
a television show. It was the best money I ever spent. Every
single TV show, DVD series and commercial that I do, stays in
house. The reason that I do that is so that I can keep the quality really good. I can control every aspect of the media so that
if it doesn’t look right, I can easily make a correction to it.
Once we got the show up and running, it wasn’t an instant
success for me. It took a good year for RFD-TV to gain popularity, but once it did, it gave my career a huge boost as far as
getting me out to the masses. I’ve always believed in myself
that if I could get a crowd in front of me, I could educate them,
teach them and help them, I’d ultimately impress them. If I
couldn’t get a crowd in front of me, I wouldn’t be able to show
my ability. RFD-TV put me in thousands and thousands of
homes across America and that really helped spread the word
of Downunder Horsemanship.
Since then, everybody and his mad dog are on TV. Any
trainer that wants to be a clinician has a show on there now. I
Clinton has had the chance
to meet and work with a
wide variety of people over
the years. In 2007, he and
his friend, country music
star Chris Cagle, filmed
a series of colt-starting
episodes for Downunder
Horsemanship on RFD-TV.
told everyone five years ago that RFD-TV was going to be big,
but nobody believed me. I saw an opportunity and jumped
on it while all the other clinicians went and sat on the fence
waiting to see if the station failed.
What most people don’t realize is the amount of work and
talent that goes into developing a show. A lot of trainers drop
off the air because they thought having a show was going to
be an instant goldmine. If you really want to be a good clinician, you’ve got to have talent, you’ve got to have charisma
and you’ve got to be a great public speaker. If you’re a great
horse trainer, but you can’t communicate, it isn’t going to
work out.
I tried hard from the beginning to give people a lot of free
information on the TV shows. I didn’t want my show to be
just another entertainment type show. I wanted to give people information they could go home and practice, use on their
own horses, gain great confidence, and improve their relationship with their horse. I think Downunder Horsemanship
is the most popular horse show on TV because of these factors: we’re real, we care about people and we want people to
be able to succeed with their horses. It’s not a dog and pony
show. We give people information they can use. They’re not
looking for me to go out there and show off. They want me
to show them knowledgeable exercises that will help them
gain control and confidence in their horses, which ultimately
leads to them enjoying their relationship with their horse.
Now sure, there are certain TV shows that promote certain
products and companies, but you have to understand that in
order for me to stay on television, I have to generate money
and be able to afford to produce shows. Those shows are what
pays the bills.
Now that everyone has joined the bandwagon, a lot of
shows have copied Downunder Horsemanship’s style and my
techniques because we were the leading show. That’s kind of
flattering in some ways. When people copy your methods and
format, it shows you that they obviously like what you do. So
it doesn’t bother me in the least. Call it luck or call it recognizing a good opportunity and tackling it, but RFD-TV gave
me my big break and put me on the national scene.
Road to the Horse
A year after Downunder Horsemanship was broadcasting
on TV, an event that show-cased the skills of natural horsemanship was founded in Fort Worth, Texas. The event, In a
Whisper, now known as Road to the Horse, featured three
natural horse trainers working with untouched horses. The
competition was held over a two day period and gave contestants just three hours to train their horses to ride and
go through an obstacle course. I watched clinicians Craig
Cameron, Josh Lyons and Pat Parelli with mounting curiosity
the first year. Josh Lyons ended up winning the event, and
after watching the contest, I desperately wanted a chance to
compete. I contacted the producer, Tootie Bland, and asked
for a spot the following year, to which she readily agreed.
After years of working with Gordon McKinlay and wildeyed brumbies, I felt that I was more than capable of training
an untouched horse to ride in three hours. As far as I’m concerned, I am the best colt starter in the world because that’s all
I did for years and years. The Road to the Horse is something
I always look forward to competing in because it’s really the
only way to judge the ability of natural horse trainers. Most
natural horsemen don’t take the initiative to compete in any
event. I’m the only clinician that’s willing to put his name
on the line and go out there
sults are literally amazing and I encourage everyone that I can
and compete. Even though I
to find the nearest NARHA center to them and volunteer their
don’t do as much showing as
time, discarded tack items or money. It’s truly a great associaI would like to do, I still love
tion that makes a world of difference to its participants.
the thrill of competing. The
I took a year off from the event and then returned last year
Road to the Horse competito compete against Chris Cox and Stacy Westfall, but didn’t
tion is a way that the general
walk away with the win. I wasn’t disappointed with my perforpublic can compare or grade
mance or my horse’s because my colt did really well, and I felt
clinicians against each other in
that I was able to teach the audience throughout the weekend.
one place.
Every year that I compete in Road to the Horse, I try my best
The first year I participated in Road to the Horse, I comto not only win the event, but to always educate the audience
peted against Josh Lyons and Curt Pate, two horsemen that
as well. In each of the three times I’ve been involved with the
I have a great deal of respect for. The horse I worked with
competition, I’ve shown the public how to step outside the
that year was a sorrel gelding named Hancock Sug. Going into
box and use some creativity to train their horses. In each of
the competition, I was the clear underdog. Josh had won the
my freestyles (which have included: leaf blowers, chain saws
event the year before and Curt was well-recognized in the
and black powder guns) I’ve demonstrated what’s possible if
industry. The one thing that separated me from the other
you start the horse’s training with a solid foundation. For the
contestants is the amount of time I spent on the ground demost part, I think my training techniques not only opened
sensitizing and softening my horse. I think that really surpeople’s eyes, but also showed the importance of groundwork
prised a lot of people because while I was still working with
and preparation.
my horse on the ground, the other two clinicians were already
on their horses. The first day, I did as much desensitizing and
Evolution of tours
flexing as I possibly could because my years of starting colts
A couple of years into teaching clinics, my popularity starthad taught me the importance of establishing a foundation
ed to rise, and I decided that the best way to teach as many
on the ground before getting on the horse’s back. My prepapeople my methods as I could in one sitting would be to tour
ration on the ground paid off during the riding portion of
the contest, and my horse rode really well. After the freestyle
demonstration in which I stood up in the saddle while my
Winning moments from Clinton’s second
horse remained relaxed with his head lowered to the ground,
Road to the Horse championship in 2005.
the judges selected me as the winner.
Many other clinicians have copied Clinton’s
style, but that doesn’t bother Clinton, as
I returned to the competition in 2005 to compete against
he’s always looking for something new to
Craig Cameron and Van Hagris. In the second year, I had to
teach people.
work with Sultry Safari, a gray filly that I nick-named Precious.
If you’ve ever heard me sarcastically say, “It’s OK Precious,”
working with this filly is exactly where I got that phrase from.
She was anything but precious, trying to bite and strike me
several times throughout the competition, but my experience
working with difficult and belligerent horses helped me convince the filly to work with me instead of against me. It almost
made me miss my days of breaking in brumbies at Gordon’s.
Though she was by no means a finished product at the end of
the competition, she was sound enough to ride in both directions, navigate an obstacle course and to crack a stock whip
while standing on her back. Ultimately, we won the event,
and I became a two time winner of Road to the Horse, a feat
no other trainer has been able to accomplish.
I was pleased to donate the money I won that year to the
North American Riding for the Handicapped Association
( N A R H A ) .
NARHA is an association
that
I feel strongly
about, and continue to donate
10 percent of all
proceeds I make
at tours to them. I
saw firsthand the
benefits of equine
assisted therapy
Leaf blowers, chainsaws and guns
while
workare all standard tools for Clinton at
ing for Gordon
Road to the Horse.
McKinlay. The re28 | No Worries Journal
A far cry from his first tour (left),
Clinton now boosts 2,500 to 3,000
spectators at each tour stop.
the country. If you’ve been to one of my tours in the last three
years, you would have laughed at the first year or two of tours
I put on. The first tour I did was down in New Mexico, and
barely a hundred people showed up. You know what? I was so
excited that many people came to watch me that I was walking on cloud nine. I couldn’t have been more thrilled. I had
one table with my products on it and that was it. Now, I have
a semi that follows me all around the country so that I can set
my products up for people. Over the years, my popularity has
kind of snowballed and now, 2,500 to 3,000 people show up
to every single one of my stops on a consistent basis.
People always ask me if I dreamed of being famous when
I was growing up, and the truth is no, I didn’t. I just wanted
to be the best horse trainer I could be and I’ve had a lot of
influential people like Gordon and Ian help me along the way.
My life has taken a couple of unexpected turns, and instead
of training horses fulltime, I spend most of my time training
people the same information I was given. It’s not like I woke
up one day and thought, “Man, I want to be famous.” There
are a lot of people who eat fame, but I could care less about
it. This is a business, and I love it. The fame is just
a part of it. If I died tomorrow and nobody showed
up at my funeral other than my parents and my
close friends, I wouldn’t care. The fame is not what
drives me to do this. What drives me is being the
best horseman I can become and the best teacher
I can become.
When I do a tour and 3,000 people show up, screaming,
clapping and cheering me on and then asking for my autograph, when I go home, I don’t sit and think to myself, “Man
Clinton, you’re a big deal. I can’t wait until you have 3,000
more people in front of you.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m very
thankful for those 3,000 people for showing up because without them, I’d be nothing. What drives me is helping them and
teaching them to work with horses so they can form a better
relationship with their horse.
One of the hardest parts about being a teacher is staying
motivated about teaching the same information over and
over. So before each tour, I stand in front of the mirror and I
say to myself, “I’m going to give people the best show I possibly can. If today was the last day that I was going to be alive,
how would I want to be remembered? Would I want to be remembered as an average performer? Or would I want to go
out with a bang?” So I look in the mirror and I say, “I’m going
to give people the best show I can. They’ve never heard this
information before and they want it. And I want to give it to
them.” Then I walk out and act on it.
Left: One of the first Downunder trailers, and right, the current trailer, big enough to haul horses, equipment and merchandise.
Standing room only
Before fancy semi trailers, sellout crowds and long before tours existed, the only way Clinton could present his
horsemanship program to large crowds was at equine
expos. As early as 1998, Clinton and two or three close
friends would travel across the country to the expos
carting with them his meager supply of products—a few
videos and a couple of halters.
Not a big name back then, Clinton didn’t receive star
billing at the first expos he went to. “It always seemed
he was stuck in the smallest place or way in the back
corner,” Midge Woodward remembers. “It would get so
packed where he was that there would be standing room
only. Once people saw his demonstration and heard
what he had to say, they were so impressed that they
would flock to his booth.”
After a few years of making his rounds at expos,
Clinton’s reputation as a knowledgeable trainer and clinician grew and he started receiving star treatment—preClinton and Rick Lamb on tour in Waco, TX in Nov. 2006.
senting in big coliseums as opposed to outdoor covered
arenas. As his career progressed, he decided to tour the
“Most other trainers keep their techniques secret unless you
nation presenting his horsemanship program. The first year that
want to go to their ranch and spend $20,000 to $30,000 for a
he took his training methods on tour, his fan base was nothing
two week training class. Clinton has an ability to teach his trainlike it is today. “We’d load three boxes of tapes, 10 to 15 halters
ing techniques much better than the rest of the clinicians,” Lee
and a card table into my van and off we’d go,” Gale McGraw
explains.
says laughing. “Obviously we’ve gotten a little bit bigger.”
Midge knew the first time she saw Clinton in the spring of
At the tour location, Gale and a couple of other helpers would
1998 at the Michigan Stallion Expo that the world had to know
set up the card table, spread a kangaroo skin on top of it and lay
about him. “Every tour I go on, I learn something new because
out the videos and halters. “It took us all of 20 minutes,” Gale
even though Clinton presents the same information, it’s always
comments.
a little bit different. Each horse is unique and it’s fascinating to
Now when Clinton heads out on tour, a 53 foot long Peterbilt
watch Clinton tweak his training a little bit to handle each indisemi (nick-named Big Pete) tags along stock piled from floor
vidual horse. He never seizes to amaze me.”
to ceiling with products to sell ranging from halters and Handy
In 2003, The Horse Show host Rick Lamb signed on to emSticks to t-shirts and stuffed kangaroos. It takes a crew of 20
cee Clinton’s tours when the Aussie’s popularity was really startplus people the better part of a day to set up the product dising to take off. “I realized that he was honing his message with
plays, autograph booth and registers to accommodate the 3,000
great care and that it got better each time I heard it,” Rick says.
people that will come to watch Clinton.
“This was mostly at expos in the early years, then four years on
“If we could get 200 people to show up, we were beside
his tour, from 2003 to 2006.”
ourselves,” Gale says about the first year of touring the country.
What impresses most people isn’t Clinton’s ability to attract
During that year, Clinton put on six tours that were completely
crowds in the thousands, but his ability to keep them interested
free to the public.
in his training methods for two solid days in a row. Go to any tour
The first tour Lee Anderson remembers helping at was in
late Sunday afternoon as Clinton is preparing to give his advanced
Colorado Springs, New Mexico. “We had 200 people show up
riding demonstration, and there isn’t an empty seat to be found.
and he gave them a show they’d never forget,” Lee says. As
As the first notes of “Land Down Under” by Men at Work waft
Clinton started gaining more popularity, attendance at tours
over the loud speaker, the crowd erupts to its feet in admiration.
has steadily increased and continues to do so. In fact, the first
“I also saw how the public reacted to him,” Rick adds about
tour of 2008 in Kansas City, MO hit a record attendance with a
his experience emceeing tours. “He kept them riveted for hours
crowd of 4,000 plus.
at a time and got them excited about what they were learning.
Every person that attends a tour can leave with enough inforHe empowered them and in return, they empowered him.”
mation to train their horse to be safe, responsive and respectful.
Left: The first Downunder Horsemanship booth at the Ohio Equine
Affaire, 1998 (with a young Clinton on the left), and right: the
booth has grown to include tack, apparel, and a full line of DVDs.
Artist rendering of the new offices and
warehouse in Stephenville, TX.
Looking ahead
I’ve put a lot of energy and hard work into Downunder
Horsemanship to make it what it is today, and I am very
thankful for all of my friends and supporters who have helped
me along the way. There’s no way I could have done what I’ve
accomplished on my own, and am very thankful for all the
help and advice I’ve received over the years. While my hard
work is paying off, I can assure you that I have no plans on
slowing down now. 2008 promises to be one of the most exciting years in Downunder Horsemanship’s history yet. The
business is planning a move to Stephenville, TX—the cowboy
capital of the world. My staff and I have been working closely
with architects to design a world class ranch and office building to accommodate rising demands. As progress continues
to move forward, I’m getting more excited about the move.
The upcoming move has renewed my dedication to sharing
training techniques with horse owners across the country and
even the world. Not only will I be able to serve my customers
better, but I’ll be closer to the reining and cutting industries.
It’s going to be a fresh start to a new decade of horsemanship, and all I have to say is, if you’ve been impressed with
Downunder Horsemanship so far, you haven’t seen anything
yet. We’ve got exciting new products and training materials
to unveil, and I’m always tweaking my program to get the
best results possible.
When I started Downunder Horsemanship, my goal was
to help as many people as possible with the information I
learned from Ian Francis and Gordon McKinlay. Every successful person, including myself, got a helping hand somewhere and I want to be able to help as many people as possible. Even though it’s been 10 years, I’m only getting started,
and while my goal hasn’t changed, I’m always learning so that
I can keep growing and improving. So here I come, mate,
ready or not—and I can guarantee that I’m not going to let
anything stand in my way.
Richard Lupardus first met Clinton at Equitana in Louisville, KY, and then later that
year, caught back up with Clinton when he was presenting at Ride with the Stars in
Missouri, Richard’s home state. “One of the things that stands out in my mind is Ride
With the Stars—all the big names were there—John Lyons, Lynn Palm, Gawanni Pony
Boy and Richard Shrake. Clinton was a nobody, and it was interesting to see the migration from the other trainers to Clinton’s demo. You just saw Clinton’s crowd grow
throughout the week.”
Richard, an avid gaiting horse enthusiast, was first and foremost drawn to what
Clinton could do with any horse, and then secondarily, how those techniques helped his
horses gait better.
“What he was able to do caught my eye. Regardless of the kind of horse it was, we
needed to train the horse first, then work on the gaiting. His program was so structured.
Being in the military for so many years, that structure really appealed to me,” says Richard.
The two got to know each other a bit better each time Clinton came to the area, and after a few years, Richard signed up for
a three day clinic in Texas. “I was just retiring from the bank and Clinton asked me if I could go on the road with him as a part
time job.” And the rest as they say, was history. Richard became Clinton’s first truck driver, but the position was really that of a
jack of all trades—driver, salesman, apprentice, public relations agent and logistics coordinator. “In those days, he had just gotten his first Peterbuilt and we drove it around with a four-horse trailer with tack room. We were hauling four horses that first year
because he was going to train them for the reining futurity as we went across country. It didn’t work so well, there just wasn’t
time.” The next year the pair only hauled Mindy and an increasing array of product.
“We talked a lot driving across country about exactly what you do with your hands or your feet during a specific exercise. That
aspect, to me, played a big role in the successful implementation of an exercise.
“So as we went down the road I’d ask questions, we’d brainstorm and make notes. It was an adventure! We had a small budget and we’d stay on the couch, floor, whatever, at people’s house’s we didn’t know...never knowing from one day to the next
where we might be tomorrow. Clinton hadn’t been in the states long enough to have a concept of distance or time to get somewhere. We’d be in Oregon and he’d say lets go to California and visit so-and-so and I’d say ‘Clinton, do you know how far that
is?!’ ‘No mate, how far is it’ he’d say and on we’d go.”
So how has Richard seen Clinton change over the years?
“I think he’s more focused now than ever. He’s continued to learn, and he has the best interests of the horse and the people at
heart. He’s so generous at sharing information—that’s what sets him apart from other trainers.
“Not only the willingness to share information, but the ability to share it, because he’s such a good communicator. He’s got a
great heart and wants to do the right thing, he’s very patriotic and proud to be an American.
“I’ve seen him grow as an individual. He’s exactly what he appears to be. He’s the same person in front of a crowd, as he is in
real life. Just a genuinely great guy. He’s got a great gift and I have a special place for him in my heart.”
Richard and his wife Lynn at the 2007
tour in Cookeville, TN.
Going
HOME
Clinton made a trip home to Australia in Dec. 2006 to visit friends and family, get in a little
sightseeing, and to give his first clinic there in over 10 years. He also made a surprise trip
to his family’s home in Queensland in Sept. 2007 to help celebrate his Grandfather Fred’s 80th birthday.
Above: Clinton’s first
Australian clinic in over 10 years. Left: Clinton’s mom,
Cheryl, helps man the booth, and top: Clinton gets some
quality time in with several of the natives.
Above: A family picture—from left, sister Andrea, dad Robert, Clinton,
Grandpa Fred and mom Cheryl. Top left: Clinton and his grandfather,
lower left: Clinton, Fred and Andrea all share September birthdays,
and were lucky enough to celebrate together.
32
Learning from a legend
Clinton was all of 17 years old when Ian Francis first remembers meeting him. “I’d seen this skinny kid about with
Gordon and Enid McKinlay,” Ian relates. “He was keen and
he could work. I saw Enid give him a tune-up for something
he’d done wrong, and he didn’t seem intimidated by the
criticism.”
Ian knew that if Clinton was serious about working under
him, he’d need a thick skin and the mental ability to focus
on the job at hand. “I figured Clinton had been inoculated
with a gramophone needle,” Ian says. “He near drove me
mad with the questions he asked. Now I can be a bit testy
when I am trying to concentrate on sorting out a horse and
someone starts asking me questions, but that never bothered Clinton. He would just file away the answer and start
working on the next question. “
For 12 months Clinton studied under the five time NRHA
futurity champion asking “at least 10 million questions.
People would hide when they saw him coming their way,”
Ian says laughing.
All jokes aside, the Aussie trainer’s lessons on feel and
timing transformed Clinton into a knowledgeable and capable horseman. Every waking minute of his apprenticeship
under Ian, Clinton absorbed all the information he could.
In Clinton’s estimate, “Ian is the best and most
under-rated horseman in the world. While
Americans may win big futurities, they can only
do it on great horses. Ian can take an average
horse and make it look great.”
“Like all the other youngsters that have come
through here, I gave him the opportunity and
exposed him to the riding,” Ian says. “He was
able to pick up experience and elevate his
horsemanship to another level.”
When Clinton made his first three video
tapes in Australia, Ian remembers thinking
to himself, ‘Boy this kid has some nerve. He
hasn’t proven a thing competitively and he is
trying to sell his knowledge.’
“But, when I saw some of his tapes, I
thought ‘He really has done a good job of this!’”
Today in his horsemanship program, Clinton
preaches the importance of feel, timing and
experience—the three things that make great
horsemen. It was under Ian’s tutelage that he
gained valuable insights into developing his
own feel for a horse. “No one gets a horse softer and more broke than Ian does,” Clinton says.
“He has the most phenomenal feel for a horse
and I was lucky enough to be able to study
under him. Every time I ride with him or watch
him work a horse, I still pick up on something
new. Every day that I ride my own horses, I
constantly strive to develop the same sort of
feel Ian has. He has more feel in his little finger
than most people do in their entire bodies.”
As a friend and fellow horseman, Ian admires
what his former student is doing in the horse
industry, and credits the respect he receives
from top trainers to his decision to stay competitive in the show world. “He’s not afraid to
go in the competitive arena and display his
skills to the public,” Ian credits. “There aren’t
many clinicians that are willing to expose
themselves in that manner.”
Not only does Clinton’s show pen know-how
garner the respect of other trainers, but in Ian’s
opinion, it’s what makes him the excellent educator that
he is. “He’s genuinely trying to bridge the gap between the
idealism of natural horsemanship and the harsh realities of
competitive horsemanship,” Ian explains. In a world where
the two theories seem out of reach to each other, Clinton’s
no-nonsense program and step-by-step exercises are making the seemingly impossible possible. “He has an ability to
dissect and formulate maneuvers so that people can relate
to the lesson,” Ian explains. “He’s always been persistent in
finding answers, and now he’s passing his knowledge on to
others.” Clinton’s quest for knowledge is something Ian is
proud to have lent a helping hand. “He retains a respect for
and appreciation of those of us who took the time and interest in him when he needed it,” Ian says.
But what really impresses Ian is Clinton’s drive to succeed and a work ethic he’s never seen wan. “He had a
dream bigger than Ben Hur and he pursued it and did not
allow anyone or anything to deter him. Someone asked him
once why he still works so hard and he said it’s because
he doesn’t want to get to be 60 and still have to work as
Gordon and I still do.” While Ian admits that the implied
criticism stings, he applauds Clinton for seeing a bigger picture and chasing down his dream.
Clinton back at it again, asking a million
questions of his mentor, Ian Francis.
American Dream
When Clinton first came to America, he brought with him
the clothes on his back, $400 cash and a couple of his
favorite bridles. Even though he left Australia with a successful training barn and show pen credentials, in America
he started at the bottom cleaning stalls and saddling and
unsaddling horses for head trainers.
Lee Anderson, from Benton, KY, was among Clinton’s first
friends and followers in the States and saw immediately
a drive to succeed in the young Aussie he’d never seen in
anyone before.
“He’s the true example of the American dream,” Lee
says. “He came to America with nothing but his personality,
work ethic and knowledge of horses. He started at the bottom and built a great business through hard work, honesty
and dedication.”
Representative Ken Bray of Equibrand, a Downunder
Horsemanship sponsor, says that there was never any doubt
in the company’s mind whether or not Clinton would be
successful. “In his mind, he had already achieved success
even before it really came to him,” Ken muses. “He was
determined to succeed at being able to make genuine differences in people’s experience with their horses whether they
ride recreationally or competitively. He never considered
failure an option.”
When Clinton was first traveling around the country conducting clinics, he didn’t have enough money to rent hotel
rooms so he stayed with friends on the road. One of the
couples he stayed with was Gale McGraw and her husband.
“My husband and I always thought Clinton was going to be
big,” Gale comments. “We’ve never seen anyone work so
hard or be quite so focused on his work.”
America provided Clinton the opportunity to spread his
horsemanship knowledge, and long time friend and current
road staff member, Midge Woodward, remembers him telling her that if someone couldn’t make it in America, they
wouldn’t be able to make it anywhere. “I think his thought
behind that was if you’re willing to work, it’s there for you.
He says that even today in his program. If you’re willing to
do the work, the horse will perform better for you. Most of
us just aren’t willing to do the work.”
Midge, like many others, has always been impressed
with Clinton’s work ethic, and can remember him teaching
clinics from 8 in the morning to 6 at night and still finding
time to ride his personal horses. “He’d have a little supper and rest, and then he would leave the house at 10 or
11 at night to work his own horses,” Midge remembers.
“Then the next morning, he was up early and ready to help
his students and their horses. He really was dedicated and
committed to what he was doing.”
Clinton’s parents applaud the hard work, effort and determination their son had in building his business, and often
find it amazing that he is so popular in the horse industry.
“It’s everything to see him fulfilling his dreams,” Clinton’s
mother, Cheryl Anderson, says. “He has a genuine interest
in people and seeing them enjoy their horses. He’s good at
what he does and he loves it.”
According to Ken, that’s exactly why Clinton is so successful today. “He doesn’t take himself too seriously, but
he’s very serious about giving people more than they expect
to receive. He is contagiously passionate about life, about
horses and about helping people,” Ken says. “He truly loves
what he does.”
While Cheryl and Clinton’s father Rob couldn’t be
more proud of their son’s accomplishments, they know
he couldn’t have done it on his own. “Clinton went over
to America and saw an opportunity and took it in both
Clinton’s mom Cheryl
calls him a “true
American” in this
photo—sunglasses,
hat and cell phone
in hand.
hands and ran with it. His drive and determination have
made him successful, but if the country of America and
the American people hadn’t given him the opportunity, he
would not be where he is now.”
Clinton recognizes that he didn’t get to where he is today
without help and never fails to give credit where credit is
due. From acknowledging Gordon McKinlay and Ian Francis
during training demonstrations for 80 percent of his horsemanship knowledge to thanking those who have been loyal
friends from the start, Clinton remains grateful for the network of support he has received. Ken counts that as one of
Clinton’s best attributes, saying that Clinton hasn’t forgotten
where he came from. “He is always mindful to give credit
to those that have helped him along the way,” Ken comments. “He genuinely appreciates his customers and he
pushes himself to give them everything he has.”
In return, he’s built up an impressive fan base that has
a growing hunger for more knowledge, leaving Cheryl and
Rob to agree that America has truly been the land of opportunity for their son. Which is why Clinton felt compelled to
go through the arduous process of applying for citizenship.
On February 21, 2006, Clinton’s dream of becoming an
American came true, when he took his Oath of Allegiance
at the US District Courthouse in Columbus, OH.
One of Clinton’s proudest moments was
becoming a US citizen.
Clinton’s parents and grandfather Fred visited Clinton in
America in 2005, and had the chance to watch him on tour.
Above left: Grandpa Fred enjoys the “trip of a lifetime.”
Above, grandfather Fred, tour emcee Rick Lamb, road staff
member Brenda Boots, mom Cheryl and dad Robert. Left:
Cheryl, Robert, Fred and Clinton.
It comes naturally
“People come up to me all the time and ask me where I learned to teach,”
Clinton says. “I suppose I have a natural ability because people tell me that I’m
so easy to understand. I don’t really know where they’re coming from because I
don’t do anything special. I just teach the information the way I understand it. I
struggled learning all of this stuff, and I pieced it together the only way it made
sense to me, and that’s the exact way I teach it to people because I don’t know
any other way. I’m somebody who dedicated himself to learning everything possible about horses. I firmly believe that if you’re passionate about something
and you love what you do, over time, you’ll eventually excel at it.”
Cheryl Anderson says that growing up, Clinton was always a good communicator and more than once, she was told that he had an old head on his shoulders. “And he did, but it was just him,” she states matter-of-factly. “He could
go anywhere and talk to anyone. His granddad Fred is like that. I can take Dad
anywhere, and he’s good company. Dad, I and Clinton all have that same trait.”
“I’ve never been shy that’s for sure,” Clinton adds. “More times than not, my
parents would probably have loved to beat me with a stick to make me shut
up. Talking is something I’ve always done a lot of and probably more than what
my teachers in school wished.”
On set, Gale McGraw and her crew of cameramen say that they couldn’t ask
for a better subject than Clinton. “He’s the best I’ve ever seen on camera because it just comes so naturally to him. He doesn’t use scripts or notes. It’s just
him and the camera. He does make our jobs easy because he’s willing to laugh
at himself and the mistakes he makes,” Gale says. “One time we had to shoot
the intro to a TV show multiple times because he couldn’t pronounce the name
of the therapeutic riding center we were at, but he never got mad. He just had
a good laugh and on we went.”
Clinton is always trying to develop himself because he feels that public
speaking and relaying information is a constant learning process. “I listen to an
audio tape of me talking five years ago and I cringe because I know I’m a lot
better today than I was then. Hopefully, I’ll be even better five years from now.”
7
Steps to Success
One of the most frustrating things in the world is trying
What makes me good at helping people understand how
to accomplish a task, but having no idea how to go about doto work with their horses is how I present the information. I
ing it. Growing up as a horse crazy kid in Australia, I would
don’t just throw the information at them and tell them good
read books and watch videos of horse trainers doing amazluck. I present the information in a step-by-step system.
ing things with their horses. They could get their horses to
When I tried to learn how to train horses, I needed the inforback up by just pointing at them or they could two-track the
mation broken down into steps, otherwise, I just didn’t get
horse all over the arena with seamlessly invisible cues. I wantit. That’s why I tell people that the definition of Downunder
ed nothing more than to be able to control my horse’s feet
Horsemanship is idiot proof horsemanship, not because I
just like them and to have that type of success in the saddle.
think you’re an idiot, but because I felt like an idiot trying to
While I was extremely impressed with these trainers’ ability
figure all this stuff out. The simpler I kept it for myself to unto work with horses, they really started to get under my skin
derstand, the better I did and the better my horse performed.
because while the horses they worked with in the book or on
I’m certainly not the sharpest pencil in the box, so let me tell
the video took to each exercise like an old pro, my horses were
you, the easier I could keep it, the better.
the complete opposite. I’d go out to the pasture and try to
When I first came over to the United States and started
back my horse up, and she’d bare her teeth at me and lunge
traveling around the country doing clinics, I got to talking
forward. I’d flip through the book or review the video trying
with a buddy of mine who was in the military. He explained
to find the answer to “what if my horse tries to kill me?” but I
to me that the military has a training manual to cover evcould never find the answers. The trainers in the books or on
ery topic you could imagine. For each topic, the manual laid
the videos had me believing that the horse should respond
out a clear objective and then listed the steps necessary to
perfectly to the exercise the first time I attempted it. In realimplement it. My friend said that one of the best features of
ity, nothing could be further from the truth.
the manuals was a section that explained what to do if you
It wasn’t until I started attending clinics and apprenticing
ran into trouble and the procedure wasn’t going as planned.
under Gordon McKinlay that I realized that horses are just
Instead of panicking or feeling frustrated, he could flip to a
like humans—they don’t learn perfectly. When you first inpage and be told how to proceed. All the information he ever
troduce a new lesson to a horse, he’s going to get confused,
needed was systematically explained in these manuals.
frustrated and maybe even agitated or nervous. And you
I really liked the idea of being able to present information
know what? That’s absolutely OK. Horses are allowed to exin such a clearly organized way—something that I wish I
press all of those emotions when we’re training them. It’s our
could have had as a kid learning how to train horses. As my
job as trainers to learn how to help the horse understand in
schedule got busier and I started to put on more clinics, I kind
the easiest way possible what we expect of him.
of forgot about it. It wasn’t until a few years later when I was
After working with literally thousands of horses, I realtrying to come up with sellable products like my DVDs that
ized that they learn best using a step-by-step system.
They’re smart creatures, but they can’t process everything at the same time, so I soon realized that if I took
the time to break a lesson into steps and introduced
each step to the horse separately, he caught on to the
lesson a lot quicker and progressed through his training at a faster rate.
As I finished my apprenticeships under Gordon
and Ian Francis, and started my own training barn,
I came to the realization that the people I was training horses for needed just as much help (if not more)
than their horses.
Now, I’ll be the first one to tell you that I’m not
naturally gifted at training horses. In fact, there are
a lot of other men and women in the world who can
train a horse much better than me. What I am naturally gifted at is getting people to understand a lesson. I can explain a lesson in a way that most people
can get, and as more and more people came to me to
learn how to work with their horses, I realized that I
needed to develop a system for teaching my training
On the road again, helping people at clinics.
techniques.
I remembered the manuals. I knew that if I was going to make my training
techniques available, I was going to have to really make the information
idiot proof. So I took the concept of the military manuals and added and
tweaked a few things so that I could adapt them to what I was trying to do.
The end result was what everyone knows now as the Seven Steps to Success:
goal, why, teaching stage, common rider mistakes, common horse problems,
troubleshooting advice and success tips.
Goal
Before every exercise you see me teach, you’ll always hear me explain
and demonstrate the goal. If you don’t understand what the goal is or what
you’re trying to accomplish, it’s kind of hard to picture yourself doing it
or imagine what the horse should look like because you have no idea what
you’re shooting for.
Why
I’ve realized over the years that you can tell somebody to do something,
but unless they understand why they’re doing it, they’ll never continue to
do it when you’re not around. I want every single person who learns my
program to understand why they’re doing a particular exercise, and why it’s
so important to teach it in the order that I tell them to.
Teaching Step
I break every step down and explain it as clearly as I possibly can. Teaching
can’t be a guessing game, especially when a thousand pound animal is in the
picture.
Common Rider Mistakes
Every single mistake I’ve seen people make over the past 17 years of
teaching the exercise, I explain. Even if you’re not making the mistake, this
section serves as a reminder of what not to do. Knowing what not to do is
almost as important as knowing what to do.
Common Horse Problems
Every problem I’ve seen a horse have with the exercise or anything I can
forsee happening is explained under this section. Knowing how to handle
a situation before it happens will keep you safe and out of trouble. Horses
have one of quickest reaction times of all animals, and if you’re not sure how
to handle a situation before it happens, things can get ugly in a hurry.
Troubleshooting Advice
Sometimes you can follow the teaching steps right down to the letter,
and the horse still doesn’t get the lesson. That’s why I include troubleshooting advice. If your horse just doesn’t seem to get it, try this. If that doesn’t
work, try this.
Success Tips
This is the area where I give you tips or ideas I’ve discovered over the years
that will help you expand on the lesson or help the horse learn better. For
example, if I were giving a lesson on backing up in the success tips I’d tell you
to back the horse up every chance that you get—down the alleyway, into the
wash rack, out to the arena, etc.
These seven steps lay out a lesson in the easiest, simplest way to understand. By the time you’ve read the goal and worked your way down to the
success tips, you should have a pretty good handle on what you’re going to
do and what you expect the horse to do. One of the most convenient aspects
of the Seven Steps is the fact that if you’re having a specific problem, you
can fast forward or flip the page to that problem and learn how to fix it. You
don’t have to search for the answer because it’s right there in front of you.
No Fluff, Just the Facts
The Downunder Horsemanship
training method has no nonsense or
fluff in it whatsoever. It’s the facts of
training horses. As a kid, I disliked
how most books and videos made
horse training seem magical. I can
remember reading phrases like, “Feel
for the inside of the outside of the
horse and when the inner of the horse
comes out to the outer of the horse, it
will be just so special that the two of
you will bond.” What does that mean?
Seriously. I have no idea.
I’ve read so many books over the
years on natural horsemanship that
honestly, when I put the book down I
had no idea what they were even talking about. That’s the problem. People
in the natural horsemanship industry,
as a general rule, aren’t very good
communicators. I don’t want horse
training to seem magical or mystical.
It is very scientific. Do this, and you’ll
get this result. Do that, and you’ll
get this result. In our advertisements
where you see “Clinton Anderson, No
fluff just the facts,” that’s exactly what
I’m talking about. Make it idiot proof.
Step 1, do this. Step 2, do this. Step
3, do this. If Step 2 doesn’t work, try
Step 1 again. If Step 1 doesn’t work,
try this. We’ve always got a plan. If
this plan doesn’t work, try this plan.
Basically, I don’t want you to have to
learn how to figure all this out like I
did. I’ve been through the frustrations
and the lows of training horses. If you
follow the Seven Steps for Success,
you’ll be armed with knowledge that
will make you feel better as a trainer
and progress your horse’s training.
Mindy
My gut told me there
was something special
about this horse,
so I took a chance.
Above and left: Mindy’s at-liberty demonstrations are a
crowd favorite at tours. Below: Clinton works with Jillaroo
Doll while Mindy stays nearby.
Left: 4-month-old Mindy straight off the transport
truck, 1995. Below: As a yearling, Mindy loved
playing in the watering tub.
Training with Clinton since
she was a weanling, Mindy
competed in various events
until her 4-year-old year. As
a yearling filly, she won nine
of the 10 halter classes she
entered and placed in other
classes such as lunge line and
lead trail. In 1995, Mindy
took State Champion 2-yearold Filly honors.
While it was obvious that
the filly had natural talent,
her real ability didn’t come
out until Clinton introduced
her to reining. The mare’s
reining career culminated
with a third place finish at the
Australia National Reining
Futurity in 1997.
Since joining Clinton in
America, Mindy has turned
into the star of the show,
demonstrating to horse owners world-wide the finished
product of the Downunder
Horsemanship training program. The mare has starred
in countless DVD series, television programs and even
has a model horse created in
her likeness by equine artist
Peter Stone.
DOC BAR
DOC O’LENA
POCO LENA
ROC O LENA
MAGNOLIA BAR
ROXANA BAR
MISS ROCK 93
PILLAMINDI ROC
SUPER JOE
SUPER HOLIDAY
BABY HOLIDAY
HOLIDAY STREAK
LUCKY FIVE
LUCKY FLYER
SCOOTERS FANCY
PILLAMINDI DOLL
DOC BAR
DOC’S OAK
SUSIE’S BAY
DOCS SPINIFEX
DOC’S LYNX
ROANIES LYNX
ROAN STAR CINDY
SPINIFEX DOLL
MARTINS JESSIE
MR JESSIE JAMES
POCO MISS TOTAL
MISSCHOWCHILLA
CLOVER KOOLIBAH
KOOLIDAH MATILDA
UNNAMED FOUNDATION MARE
Mindy’s foal Jazzy, below, looks more
like her mother every day.
Mindy is equally at home on tour with Clinton, left,
or practicing reining at home, top.
Oh, Baby!
Jillaroo Doll
Mindy (Pillamindi Doll) has been by Clinton’s side since the creation of Downunder
Horsemanship. By Pillamindi Roc out of Spinifex Doll, Mindy’s registration papers
boast some of the best bloodlines in the world.
Throughout the course of her life, Mindy has produced five foals. Mindy’s foals
Down Under Aussie Gal and Jillaroo Doll are both by Gordon McKinlay’s stallion
Clover Pinaroo. While Down Under Aussie Gal is owned by a couple in Australia,
Mindy was actually pregnant with Jillaroo Doll when she made her trek from
Australia over to America.
Foaled in February 2001, Jillaroo is a black mare and was featured in the Colt
Starting DVD Series. Soon after filming the series, the then 2-year-old filly injured
her coffin bone. It took a long time for the mare to heal, but now she’s back in training with apprentice Shana Terry. During her recovery, Jillaroo gave birth to a March
2007 foal, Chec, by AQHA stallion Nic It In The Bud (Genuine Redbud x Genuine
Doc) making Mindy a proud grandmother.
Mindy’s third foal, High On Cat Nip (by High Brow Cat), is better known as Jazzy.
The sorrel mare has been widely popular with Clinton’s fans since her debut in a
TV episode devoted to her birth. In January 2007, Jazzy started training as a 2year-old, and as far as her future is concerned, she has the makings of a cow horse,
reining horse or cutting horse. Clinton will put her in whatever discipline she enjoys
and excels in the most. Just like her mother, Jazzy will start to make appearances
on Clinton’s weekly television show.
Ask Clinton what he thinks of Jazzy, and he’ll tell you that she’s “just great. She
rides just like her mother does, stops, turns and does everything the same as her
mother. This is a filly I’m going to have around for the rest of my life. It just goes to
show that every great horse has an even greater mother.”
In March 2007, Mindy’s fourth foal was born. The filly, by Smart Chic O Lena,
shares her mother’s white blaze, and goes by the barn name Maui. Clinton enrolls
his mares, including Mindy, in the embryo transfer program so that he can continue
to ride or show the mares, while they produce foals. The mares’ embryos are flushed,
fertilized and transferred to a recipient mare’s uterus. Mindy’s second foal of the
year, also by Smart Chic O Lena, was born April 10, 2007. The filly goes by the name
Sydney and has four white socks and a blaze running down her face.
No Worries Club “Name a Foal” contest!
Mindy, Clinton and Jazzy
Jillaroo Doll and Chec
Your chance to name a Downunder foal! This year’s theme for names is TV
and/or movie stars. Our first foal (pictured here) was a colt born Feb. 1st
out of Princess in Diamonds by Smart Chic O Lena. Princess in Diamonds
is a buckskin mare by Shining Spark out of Eyed Be a Princess. Send your
entries to contest@noworriesclub.com by April 30th. The winner will be announced in the next issue of the Journal, and will receive a $50 Downunder
Horsemanship gift certificate. Find more pictures at noworriesclub.com.
Maui
Sydney
Diez
Clinton calls Diez
“the prettiest horse
in the world.”
Diez (Roosters Ten) is a 7-year-old American Quarter
Horse gelding. By 1989 bay stallion Gallo Del Cielo
(Rooster) and out of the mare Doco Poco Ten (Doc
O’Lena x Miss Poco Ten), Diez has some of the most
respected bloodlines in the cutting and reining worlds
running through his veins. Gallo Del Cielo, a National
Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) money earner, is a
son of famed Quarter Horse stallion Peppy San Badger.
Clinton purchased Diez in December 2001 as a yearling stud colt in the National Reining Horse Association
Futurity sale in Oklahoma from Polo Ranch.
According to Clinton, it was love at first sight. “I
thought he was gorgeous. I love pretty horses. In fact,
I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t love a pretty horse.
He has great confirmation and bloodlines, and he looked
like he was real intelligent. He has big, pretty, brown
eyes. He just had a real smart look to him in general.”
Again, Clinton went out on a limb when he purchased
Diez. The yearling’s price tag of $28,000 was
more than he really wanted to spend, but he had
to trust his gut feeling
and deep down, Clinton
felt like the bay stud colt
was worth it.
He made the decision to
geld Diez, “because honestly, I didn’t want a stud
horse around. I wasn’t interested in the stud business at that time. I was
more interested in doing
clinics and traveling to expos, and I was looking for a
horse that I could take with
me. Too many people have
horses that are studs that
shouldn’t be studs. I don’t regret the decision.”
Diez began his partnership
with Clinton as a yearling, and
since, has been through the entire Downunder Horsemanship
training program. In fact,
he is used as a demo horse
in several of the Downunder
Horsemanship training DVD
series. As a 3-year-old, he learns how to perfect his flying
lead changes in the Leads and Lead Changes Series, and
as a 6-year-old, he performs rollbacks and spins among
other moves in the Advanced Horsemanship Series.
Diez is an all-around performer, from
working cows to Bridleless Horsemanship.
Like Mindy, Diez’s training
was mostly concentrated in
reining.
Diez hit the show ring
as a 3-year-old, and one of
his highlights includes placing 12th at the All American
Quarter Horse Congress
in the Congress Reining
Futurity, Limited Division.
With his show career behind him, Diez has turned
into a celebrity of sorts.
Not only does he travel to
tours and make appearances in the training DVD series, but he also stars in the
RFD-TV series and models
for countless ads. Diez’s
personable character and
eye-catching good looks
have made him one of the
favorites at the ranch in
Belle Center, Ohio.
“He has an extremely
laid back attitude towards
life and is just a pleasure to
work with,” Clinton says of
his gelding. “He never puts
up a complaint and is always looking to please me.”
LEO SAN
MR SAN PEPPY
PEPPY BELLE
PEPPY SAN BADGER
GREY BADGER III
SUGAR BADGER
SUGAR TOWNLEY
GALLO DEL CIELO
LIGHTNING BAR
DOC BAR
DANDY DOLL
DOC’S STARLIGHT
POCO TIVIO
TASA TIVIO
CHOWCHILLA PEE WEE
ROOSTERS TEN
LIGHTNING BAR
DOC BAR
DANDY DOLL
DOC O’LENA
POCO BUENO
POCO LENA
SHEILWIN
DOCS PACO TEN
POCO BUENO
POCO TEN
LADY BLACKBURN X
MISS POCO TEN
STAR’S E NO
LARIMER STAR
FIREBALL TREGO
How to Bathe a Young Horse
Goal:
To use the approach and retreat method to desensitize the
foal to water and eventually be able to run water over the
foal’s entire body, including his face, while he keeps his feet
still and remains relaxed.
Why:
As a prey animal, horses are naturally fearful of objects.
What’s an object? An object is anything that doesn’t live in
your horse’s stall or pasture. Why is it no longer an object
if it lives in the horse’s stall or pasture? Because if it lives in
your horse’s stall or pasture, the horse has become desensitized to it—he’s used to seeing it every day of his life. Not
only do horses hate objects, but they especially hate objects
that move and make a noise. Water is a great example of an
object that not only moves, but it also makes a noise when
it’s sprayed on the horse’s body. Add to that the sensation the
horse feels when the water hits his body, and water can be a
pretty scary object to horses if it isn’t introduced to them in
the correct way.
One of the reasons I love to work with foals is because
they’re blank slates, and as long as everything is introduced
to them in the correct way (using approach and retreat and
always rewarding the slightest try) they learn the correct
habits very quickly. However, they can also learn the wrong
habits just as fast if they’re allowed to. Remember, every time
you’re around your foal, or any horse for that matter, you’re
either teaching him to do the right thing or teaching him to
do the wrong thing. You’re always training your horse. The
best part about raising a foal is if it’s done correctly and a
solid foundation is put into place, the foal will give you very
little resistance down the road when you go to put the saddle
on his back, ride him for the first time, etc.
At the ranch each spring, my apprentices and I are always
busy imprinting the new foals and doing various exercises
with them. Not only do we sensitize the foals and teach them
to move their feet forwards, backwards, left and right, but
we also spend a lot of the time desensitizing the foals to various objects, including water. Water makes for an excellent
desensitizing tool because not only is it an object that moves
and makes a noise, but the foal also has to learn to accept the
sensation of the water touching his body. The better prepared
you can get the foal with things touching his body before you
put the saddle on him, the better.
Teaching Stage:
Step 1) Find an open area to practice the exercise in where
the foal has room to move his feet.
Whenever you desensitize a horse to something, it’s important to do so in a big, open area where he has room to
move his feet. As a prey animal, the horse has a flight or fight
response, which means he either runs from danger or fights
it. A horse would always rather run from danger than fight
it, but if his ability to run is taken away from him, he’ll do
whatever it takes to survive the experience. When every foal
is born, his mother tells him to run from danger. If he even
hears, smells or thinks there’s danger, RUN! Act first and
think later. Your job is to teach the foal to completely ignore
what his mother taught him. Instead, you’re going to teach
the foal that if he thinks he’s in danger, he needs to stand still
and relax and the danger will go away. You’ll do that by using
the approach and retreat method—approaching the horse
with an object and then retreating (taking it away) when he
stands still and relaxes.
If you try to do the approach and retreat method in an enclosed area like a wash rack, or tie the horse up so that he
can’t move his feet, he’ll panic and try to fight his way out of
the situation by kicking, biting, striking—whatever he can
do to survive. A round pen that’s at least 50 feet in diameter
is ideal because it gives the horse room to move, but not so
much that you’ll need a 300 foot hose to keep up with him.
But the exercise can easily be done in the middle of an arena
or outside on the lawn. Just be sure that you have enough
hose to move around with the horse.
Step 2) Stand at a 45 degree angle to the foal’s shoulder,
an arm’s length away. Hold the lead rope in the hand that’s
the closest to the foal, keeping your hand up by his eye so
that you can tap his front end away if he goes to push into
you. Hold the hose in your opposite hand.
Standing at a 45 degree angle to the foal’s shoulder is the
safest position to be in because you’re too far in front to be
kicked and too far to the side to be struck. Don’t be fooled
into thinking that a foal can’t hurt you because he definitely
can. A lot of people treat foals like big dogs and cuddle and
love on them all the time without ever asking them to move
their feet and earning their respect. It’s important to treat
the foal like a small horse and demand the same respect you’d
expect out of an adult horse whenever you’re around him.
A 200 pound disrespectful foal will soon turn into a 1,200
pound nightmare.
Start by spraying water
near the foal, but not on him.
Step 3) Desensitize the airspace around the foal with
water.
Always start out by desensitizing the airspace around the
horse. The last thing you want to do is walk straight up to the
foal with the hose and immediately start spraying him down
with water. Desensitizing the airspace around the foal gives
him a chance to tolerate the object around him first. If the
foal can’t tolerate the object around him, he’s not going to be
able to tolerate it on him.
As a general rule, I start spraying the ground with water
about four feet away from the foal’s legs. I keep the hose in
the same position until the horse does two things: stands
still and shows a sign of relaxing. Signs of relaxing are licking his lips, blinking his eyes, taking a deep breath, cocking
a hind leg, lowering his head and neck or standing still for at
least 15 seconds. At first, it’s likely that the foal will want to
move around and try to get away from the water. That’s OK.
If he moves, just follow him wherever he goes, keeping the
hose in the exact same position in relation to his body. The
biggest mistake people make is taking away the water when
the horse moves. If you take the hose away when the horse
moves, you’ll teach him that if he wants the object to go away,
all he has to do is run away from it. You want the foal to use
the thinking side of his brain and stand still and relax.
As you’re desensitizing the airspace around the horse, be
sure to keep his head tipped towards you and his attention
on you. When the foal’s head is tipped towards you, if he went
to move, his hindquarters would swing away from you so that
you wouldn’t be in any danger of getting kicked. Remember,
you can run faster than a horse can run sideways and you can
run faster than a horse can go backwards as long as he is giving you two eyes.
Keep repeating the process until the foal is completely
comfortable with the water being sprayed next to his body
and doesn’t try to move away from it. Keep in mind that
sometimes a horse won’t show you the five signs of relaxing
(lowering his head and neck, taking a big breath, licking his
lips, cocking a hind leg or blinking his eyes), but if he stands
still for 15 seconds, it is OK to retreat at that particular point.
If a horse stands still for 15 seconds, he’s telling you that he is
not interested in running. He may still be a little scared, but
at least he’s not moving.
Step 6) Desensitize the other side of the foal’s body following the same steps.
I desensitize both sides of the foal’s body before I introduce water to his face. Remember, when you change sides,
you change brains. So when you go to the other side, make
sure that you introduce the water to the foal the same way
that you did the first time, following the same steps. Start by
desensitizing the airspace around him, and then move on to
desensitizing his topline, and then his legs.
The topline is the least
sensitive area—a good starting place.
Step 4) Desensitize the foal’s topline to water.
When you have the airspace around the foal desensitized
to the water, begin spraying his body starting with the
topline—1) withers and back, 2) hindquarters and 3) neck—
in that order. The foal’s topline is the least sensitive area on
his body and the reason why I always introduce water to that
area first. Use the same steps I described above, approaching
and retreating each area until the foal keeps his feet still and
relaxes. I stay away from the foal’s legs and head this early in
the exercise because they are the most sensitive areas on the
horse’s body and if I start with them, he’ll become defensive.
Step 5) Desensitize the foal’s legs to water.
When you move to the legs, some foals will get defensive
and kick out when the water hits them. That’s OK, just ignore
that and keep spraying until they stand still and relax. That’s
why you stand at a 45 degree angle to his shoulder because
you’ll be too far in front to be kicked by a hind leg and too far
to the side to be struck by a front leg. Eventually, the foal will
realize that the water isn’t hurting him, and he’ll stop kicking
and relax.
If the foal
kicks out when
the water hits
his legs, just
ignore it and
keep spraying.
Step 7) Desensitize the foal’s face to water.
The last body part I introduce water to is the face. Most
horses are defensive about letting the hose near their face
because they’re afraid of the water getting in their ears. To
calm the foal’s anxiety, turn the pressure of the hose down so
that the water barely trickles out. Then, still standing at a 45
degree angle to his shoulder, lay the hose just behind his ear
and let the water run down his face and neck. Keep the hose
there until the horse stands still and relaxes. When he shows
a sign of relaxing, retreat and take the water away. Then approach him with the hose again, this time working your way
to the side of his face so that the water runs down his jaw.
When he stands still and relaxes, retreat and take the hose
away. Then you can approach him with the water again and
lay the hose in the middle of his forehead so that the water
runs down his face.
Common Handler Mistakes:
Retreating when the foal is moving his feet.
If the foal gets frightened of the water and starts to move
away from it, it is important to keep the hose in the same
position until he stands still and relaxes. Signs of relaxing are
licking his lips, lowering his head, blinking his eyes, cocking
a hind leg, taking a deep breath or standing still for 15 seconds without moving his feet. As soon as the horse’s feet stop
moving and he shows a sign of relaxing, you can retreat by
taking the water away.
Letting the foal run over you or push you around.
When a foal gets frightened, it’s common for him to want
to push into you. If your foal does that, use your hand holding the lead rope to create pressure and tap him away. Use
a tap, tap, whack rhythm with your hand to apply pressure
to the foal’s jaw or neck. Do what you have to do to get the
job done. It is very important not to let him move your feet.
Remember, the more you move out of your horse’s space, the
pushier and more disrespectful he will get.
Moving your feet too much.
If the foal starts to move around at any time during the
teaching process, move with him, but try to move your feet
as little as possible. For instance, try to pivot and keep your
belly button facing the foal’s hindquarters. If you have to
walk and drift with the foal, that’s fine. Follow him wherever
he goes, keeping two eyes tipped towards you and keep spraying the water on that same spot until he stops moving and he
relaxes.
Not getting two eyes.
It’s very important to keep bumping the foal’s head towards you with the halter and lead rope to get two eyes on
you. Remember, you can run faster than a horse can run
To calm the foal’s anxiety, turn the pressure of the hose down so that
the water barely trickles out. Start by laying the hose just behind his ear
and let the water run down his face and neck. Work your way to the side
of his face so that the water runs down his jaw. When he stands still
and relaxes, retreat and take the hose away. Then lay the hose in the
middle of his forehead so that the water runs down his face.
backwards, and you can run faster than a horse can run sideways as long as he is looking at you with two eyes. When you
let the foal’s head and neck turn away from you, he can kick
you or run off and drag the lead rope out of your hand.
Retreating too early.
If the foal’s feet are moving, you can’t afford to take the
pressure away. Most people stop spraying the water when the
foal is still moving his feet. This is actually sensitizing the foal
to pressure, not desensitizing him to pressure. Remember,
the foal has to do two things before you stop spraying the
water: he has to keep his feet still and he has to show a sign
of relaxing. If he shows a sign of relaxing but his feet are still
moving, it doesn’t count. You can never retreat too late, but
you can definitely retreat too early.
Being inconsistent with the body parts.
Remember to start desensitizing the foal to water on his
topline first: withers, back, hindquarters and neck. Then introduce the water to the foal’s back legs and then his front
legs. And finally, turn the water pressure down and introduce
the water to his face. I introduce water to the foal in this order because it’s the easiest for him to understand.
Moving on to the next body part too quickly.
If you find a part of the foal’s body that he doesn’t like the
water touching, stay in that area until you’ve made an improvement. Don’t move on to another body part if the previ-
ous one is still jumpy or spooky towards the water. By skipping around too much you won’t be able to get the horse to
accept the water consistently.
Moving on to the face too quickly.
Make sure you have completely desensitized the horse’s
entire body, on both sides, to the water first before you even
attempt to do his face. The face is one of the most sensitive
areas on your horse’s body and a lot of horses will get very
defensive about water being run over their face if they aren’t
properly introduced to it. It may take you two or three lessons with the hose before you can begin to introduce water
to the horse’s face.
Trying to make the foal stand still.
Remember, you’re not trying to make the foal stop moving
his feet. You are trying to set up a situation where he wants
to stop moving his feet by himself. The more you try to make
him stop moving his feet, the more trapped and claustrophobic he will feel, which in turn will make him want to keep
moving his feet.
Not finding a starting point.
Start the exercise by desensitizing the airspace around
the foal first. How far you have to initially start spraying the
water away from his body depends on the horse. If the foal
is really scared of the water, you might have to start eight
feet away from him. If he’s not scared of the water, you’ll be
If he backs up, just go with him and stay in position, keeping the water in the same area on his body.
pushing into you. Some older
horses have been very disrespectful for a long time, so you may
have to get quite aggressive with
your hand, the stick, your knee or
even your leg to drive them away.
Be as easy as possible, but as firm
as necessary.
He backs up.
If he backs up, just go with him
and stay in position, keeping the
water in the same area on his
body. If he isn’t giving you two
eyes, bump on the halter and lead
rope to get his attention back on
you. Remember, you can outrun
any horse that’s giving you two
eyes. It doesn’t matter how far
he runs backwards just stay with
him. He can’t back up forever. He
will try to get you to think he can,
but you know better.
able to start spraying the ground four feet away from him.
Do what you have to do to get the foal to understand that the
water won’t hurt him, and always find a starting point.
Not standing at a 45 degree angle.
Most people don’t see the importance of this step until
they get hurt. If you stand in front of the foal and try to spray
the water on him, he could get frightened and strike, rear or
run over you. If you stand too far back, he may react and get
frightened and kick at the water and unfortunately, kick you
instead. Please learn from my pain and not your own. Never
assume a horse is safe—even if he’s just a foal. Always make
him prove it to you.
Not enough repetition and consistency.
Remember, consistency is your greatest ally. Inconsistency
is your greatest enemy. Horses learn from repetition. Don’t
race through the steps. Take your time and spend several
days in a row working on the exercise. And remember, the
more thorough you are on each side, the quicker the foal will
learn.
He runs in circles.
Discourage the foal from running around you by bumping
on the halter and lead rope with rhythm towards his withers. This will cause the foal to look at you and disengage his
hindquarters. You can’t stop him from running around, but
you can make him feel very uncomfortable for doing it. Every
time he tries to run, bump his head back towards you. At the
same time, continue to spray the water. Never retreat with
the water until the horse stands still and shows a sign of
relaxing.
He runs sideways.
Just drift with him while bumping his head towards you to
give you two eyes. At the same time, continue to spray him
with the water in the exact same spot so he doesn’t escape the
pressure. When he eventually stands still and relaxes, retreat
and rub him.
Common Horse Problems:
He gets frightened and moves his feet.
Keep his head tipped towards you, get two eyes and continue to spray the same area on the foal’s body with the water
until he stands still and relaxes. If the foal doesn’t show any
of the signs of relaxing, but stands still for 15 seconds, you
can retreat.
He tries to run into you.
If your horse becomes pushy and disrespectful use your
hand closest to him to drive him away. Don’t try to push him
away from you because you will lose. Tap or whack him away
on his jaw with rhythm to make him feel uncomfortable for
Always keep his head tipped
towards you—get two eyes.
He kicks at the water when it touches his back legs.
Just ignore this behavior and keep spraying the water on
his back legs. If you take the water away when he kicks, you’ll
be teaching him that kicking is the right answer. Once he realizes that (1) the water won’t hurt him and (2) he can’t get
rid of the water by kicking, he will eventually stop kicking by
himself and relax. Spanking him every time he kicks will only
cause him to be more defensive.
Troubleshooting Advice:
The foal just won’t stand still.
If the foal won’t stand still, try doing a groundwork exercise to get his feet moving. The more you make his feet move
forwards, backwards, left and right, the more he’ll start to
use the thinking side of his brain. When the foal is using the
thinking side of his brain, he’ll be in the right frame of mind
to stand still and accept the water. Then you can come back
to desensitizing with the water and you should find a much
better result.
Success Tips:
End each training session with desensitizing to water.
Desensitizing exercises work well if they’re combined with
sensitizing exercises because usually, after you’ve sensitized
the foal’s feet, he’s looking forward to standing still, relaxing
and getting a rest. If every time you let him rest you desensitize him, it won’t take long for him to associate desensitizing with resting. Eventually, he will start to look forward to
you desensitizing him, especially if he’s worked up a sweat
because the water will feel refreshing to him.
Don’t try to introduce the foal to water if he’s full of
energy.
In order for the lesson to go well, the foal must be in the
right frame of mind, meaning that he’s using the thinking
side of his brain and willing to stand still. If the foal is full
of energy, do some groundwork before attempting to bathe
him.
Remember, you’re not trying to make the foal stop moving his
feet. The more you try to make him stop moving his feet, the
more trapped and claustrophobic he will feel, which in turn,
will make him want to keep moving his feet.
Trouble Free Trailering
When I was a kid, I could never get my horse onto the trailer without it turning into a big tug-of-war. It was the most
difficult thing in the world. My parents and grandparents
would all work together to try to get the horse to load into
the trailer, but she would always fight us, rear and back up.
We tried everything we could think of—putting ropes behind
her butt and trying to push her onto the trailer, coaxing her
on with treats, yelling at her, etc. There’d be dogs, pitch forks,
three or four big rednecks swearing and cussing, the whole
nine yards. Talk about the whole Barnum and Bailey show to
get a horse onto a trailer.
Even if we did get the horse on the trailer, someone always
ended up hurt because we had forced her on. For a long time,
I thought that was just how you loaded horses on trailers.
You were either lucky and your horse went on, or you were
unlucky and the horse didn’t go on. Everywhere I went, that
was all I saw. It wasn’t until I went to my first horsemanship clinic with Gordon McKinlay that I realized how wrong
I was. During the clinic, Gordon took time to show us how to
properly load a horse onto the trailer. The techniques that he
showed me and the philosophy behind it completely blew me
away. I couldn’t wait to get home and practice the same techniques on my horse and my family’s horses. I was absolutely
amazed that not only could I teach a horse to go on a trailer
that didn’t want to, but I could get him to crave to be on the
trailer. I could get the horse to love the trailer and think that
it was the greatest place on earth.
After the clinic, I went home and practiced trailer loading
on all the horses I could find. Sure enough, I got the same results Gordon did. Of course, it took me longer, and it wasn’t
quite as good as he did it of course, but I got the job done. I
got such a kick out of that. I was so thrilled that I could get a
thousand pound animal to do something that it didn’t want
to do. Not only could I get him to do it, but I could get him to
do it willingly.
What Gordon taught me that day at the clinic was to look
at trailering from the horse’s perspective. Horses are prey animals and have a flight or fight response. They would always
rather run away from danger than fight it. As a prey animal,
horses prefer to be in big open spaces where they can easily
see predators coming towards them and then be able to run
away from them. You’ll never see a prey animal hanging out
in a tight, narrow space having a rest because if a predator
came along, he’d be trapped. When a horse is in a tight, narrow space, his ability to run away from danger is greatly decreased. That’s why, as a general rule, horses don’t like trailers
because they make them feel trapped and claustrophobic.
Not only do trailers make horses feel trapped and claustrophobic, but they’re also an object. Horses hate objects.
What is an object? An object is anything that doesn’t live in
your horse’s stall or pasture. Why is it no longer an object if it
lives in your horse’s stall or pasture? Because if it lives in your
horse’s stall or pasture, your horse sees it every day and gets
desensitized to it. Horses especially hate objects that move
and make a noise. A trailer does a little bit of everything.
It’s an object, it moves, and it makes a noise when the horse
walks up on it and as it’s traveling down the road.
If you put yourself in your horse’s shoes, trailering is a traumatic experience when the horse doesn’t understand that the
trailer isn’t going to hurt him. When you look at it from the
horse’s perspective, it’s no wonder they don’t want to go onto
trailers.
After practicing Gordon’s trailer loading methods on my
own horse and once I had my family’s horses craving to be on
the trailer, I started traveling around the countryside practicing on any horses I could get my hands on. I practiced on
my neighbors’ horses, my friends’ horses and my cousins’
horses. Any horse that I could get my hands on, whether it
had a trailering problem or not, I would practice the trailering techniques Gordon showed me. After about six months
of practicing on any horse I could find, I actually started to
get pretty good at loading horses onto trailers.
So I decided that I could start to make some money off of
it. With my parent’s help, I put an ad in the local newspaper
stating that for $50 I’d load the horse on the trailer, teach
you how to do it yourself and guaranteed that you’d never
have a problem again. For the two years that I was in high
school, that’s how I made money. I would travel around to
local horse shows and events and offer my services to anyone
who needed them.
As I was traveling around and teaching horses to load on
trailers, I began to notice that 99 percent of people who had
trailering problems with their horses fell into one of two categories. Their horse’s trailering problem was either based on
fear or it was a lack of respect. More than anything, I saw a total lack of respect, and that holds true even today. Nearly all
of the horses that come to my tour stops and demonstrations
at expos don’t have a trailering problem, they have a lack of
respect that shows up when they try to load their horse. All
problems we have with our horses are nothing more than
symptoms of a cause. That goes for trailering, biting, bucking, kicking, etc. Fix the cause, which in most cases is disrespect, and the problem will disappear.
That’s why if I get a horse in for training that has a trailering problem, I never try to load him in the trailer immediately. Instead, I spend a couple of weeks working on groundwork
and building his respect. Once I have the horse’s respect, then
I can load him on the trailer and it’ll take all of two minutes.
The more you can make the horse’s feet move forwards, backwards, left and right, the more you’ll develop his respect.
Then when you do reintroduce the trailer, you’ll find that 80
to 90 percent of his trailering problems will disappear.
Teach the horse to load on the trailer
When you begin to teach the horse to load onto the trailer,
the first rule is to completely forget about the trailer. Act like
loading the horse onto the trailer is the furthest thing from
your mind. The more you think about getting the horse on the
trailer, the more you’ll start to act like a predator and scare
the horse. First, earn his respect away from the trailer, take
the fear out of him, and form some line of communication.
Step 1: Get Control of the Horse’s Feet
The Personal Hula Hoop Space
If you can’t control the horse’s feet away from the trailer, there’s no way you’re going to be able to control his feet
around or in the trailer. The first step to being able to control
the horse’s feet is to teach him to stay out of your personal
hula hoop space. The personal hula hoop space is a four foot
circle that surrounds you. Think of it like your own safety
bubble that follows you around wherever you go. As long
as the horse stays out of your personal hula hoop space, he
can’t hurt you. He can’t kick you, strike you, bite you, etc. because he isn’t able to reach you. Horses play with each other
all the time out in the pasture biting, kicking and striking at
each other, and when they hit each other, it doesn’t feel like
much of anything to them because they’re a thousand pound
animal. What horses don’t understand is that we’re fragile.
They’re in a thousand pound weight division and we’re in a
hundred pound weight division. A horse kicks his buddy in
the pasture and he goes “humph” and walks off and starts
eating grass. If that same horse kicks us, we’re in the hospital
for a week with broken ribs. It’s the same kick, but it means
a lot more to us. Establishing your personal hula hoop space
will insure that you stay safe.
To establish your personal hula hoop space, start out in an
open space like a safe arena or 50 foot round pen. Position
yourself so that you’re standing in front of your horse so that
he’s looking at you with two eyes. Using a 14 foot lead rope,
place one hand four feet down from the base of the lead’s clip.
In your free hand, hold the Handy Stick as if you were going to shake someone’s hand. Then use your Handy Stick to
draw a circle around you. To establish a four foot circle, hold
the handle of the Handy Stick, stretch your arm out as far
as you can and then start making a circle in the dirt all the
way around you. Then to back the horse out of your space,
hold the lead rope and lightly tap the air with the Handy Stick
in front of the horse’s nose. As you tap the air, be sure to
use a consistent, steady rhythm: one, two, three, four; one,
two, three, four. If the horse doesn’t respond by backing up
out of your space, use the Handy Stick to tap the rope. If the
horse continues to ignore you, whack the clip under his chin,
Establish your personal hula hoop space by using your
Handy Stick to draw a circle around you.
and if necessary, use the Handy Stick to whack the rope with
rhythm until he does move out of your space. If he still ignores you, whack his nose. As soon as he takes a step back,
retreat. Repeat those steps until you can no longer touch any
part of the horse with your stick. Once the horse is standing
at the edge of the four foot circle, relax your body language
(lower the Handy Stick and relax your body) and let him rest.
The entire time he’s at the edge of the hula hoop, the horse
has to be looking at you with two eyes. If he isn’t, use the lead
rope to bump his attention back on you.
Once you can back the horse out of your personal hula
hoop space, you can practice drawing him into your space and
then backing him back out. However, don’t ever ask a horse
to enter your space until you have his respect. Remember,
when the horse enters your space, he’s able to hurt you if he
becomes disrespectful.
Yielding the Hindquarters
Another exercise that’s essential to gaining control of the
horse’s feet is Yielding the Hindquarters. Getting control of
the hindquarters is important because the hindquarters are
the horse’s power house and gas pedal. You want to make
sure that you can shut off the gas pedal anytime you want.
Whenever a horse backs up, rears or bolts, it’s because he’s
using his hindquarters against you. Every time you disengage
his hindquarters (one hind foot steps in front of the other)
you push in the clutch and take away his balance point.
Without balance, the horse can’t back up, rear, strike or bolt.
I break Yielding the Hindquarters into two stages. Stage
I is asking the horse to yield his hindquarters 360 degrees
away from you, while his front feet stay still. To teach this
stage, assuming that you’re standing on the left side of your
horse, hold the lead rope (a foot and a half from the clip) in
your left hand and place the Handy Stick (like you’re shaking its hand) in your right hand. Raise your left hand up by
the horse’s head to discourage him from pushing on you. Rub
his hindquarters with the stick to make sure he’s not worried
Yielding the Hindquarters, Stage I. Crouch forward and stare at the
horse’s hindquarters—this makes your body language change from
passive (don’t move) to active (move).
about it. Tip his head towards you, and then crouch forward
and stare at the horse’s hindquarters. This makes your body
language change from passive (don’t move) to active (move).
At the same time, raise the Handy Stick in the air above the
horse’s hindquarters and lightly tap the air four times: one,
two, three, four with rhythm. If the horse doesn’t respond,
tap him with rhythm lightly, then gradually increase the pressure until the horse responds by crossing his left hind foot in
front of his right hind foot. Remember to always start gently
and finish gently by rubbing the horse to a stop. Count out
loud, one-two-three-four. With each set of numbers, increase
the pressure if the horse doesn’t respond. Every set of numbers makes the horse feel more uncomfortable. How much
pressure you need to put on the horse will depend on how
sensitive he is. A dull, lazy horse will generally require you to
use more energy compared to a hot-blooded sensitive horse.
Remember, do what you have to do to get the job done. Be as
easy as possible, but as firm as necessary. It doesn’t matter
how hard you whack the horse because as long as you rub it
away, it never really happened.
As soon as the horse’s inside hind leg crosses in front of
his outside hind leg, immediately rub him to a stop with
the Handy Stick on his hip. Rubbing with the stick shows
the horse that your body language changed back to passive
and he no longer needs to move. Keep repeating the steps
until the horse can eventually yield his hindquarters 360 degrees. Remember to look for just one step at first and then
two, then three, etc. After you’ve taught the exercise to one
side of your horse’s body, follow the same steps to teach his
other side. Remember, new side, new brain so start back at
the beginning.
Once the horse has mastered Yielding the Hindquarters
Stage I, move onto stage II. Stage II is more of a “Yes ma’am,
Yes Sir, I will move now!” You’re looking for the horse to yield
his hindquarters with energy and face you with two eyes.
Holding the lead rope and stick the same way you did in Stage
I, you’ll walk a slightly bigger circle around the horse towards
his hindquarters. At the same time, you’ll wave
the stick in the air with exaggerated motion three
times—ONE—TWO—THREE. And, if the horse
has not turned and moved his hindquarters and
faced you with two eyes, whack him on the butt
with the stick as many times as you need to cause
him to want to hustle his hindquarters away and
face you. As soon as the horse faces you and gives
you two eyes, relax and rub his face with the stick.
By rubbing his face with the stick, you’re teaching
him that when he faces you with two eyes you’ll
take the pressure off and reward him. If you don’t
rub him, he won’t understand the point of the
exercise and will get nervous and frustrated. Go
back and rub his hip with the stick and repeat.
Practice the exercise on both sides of the horse’s
body.
Step 2: Sending Exercise
Once you’ve gained control of the horse’s
feet—you can back him out of your personal hula
hoop space and disengage his hindquarters, you’re
ready to control his forward energy. You’ll accomplish that
with the Sending exercise. With the Sending exercise you’ll be
able to send the horse through tight, narrow spaces (without
moving your feet) at both a walk and trot and have the horse
yield his hindquarters and face you with two eyes, and then
go back the other direction.
We’ve already discussed how horses are claustrophobic by
nature and when made to go through tight narrow spaces
naturally want to use the reactive side of their brains. This
exercise is a handy tool in helping your horse overcome his
fears of tight narrow spaces, such as the trailer. Teaching the
horse to do the exercise away from the trailer and next to the
fence gives you the opportunity to get control of the horse’s
feet before introducing him to a scary situation (the trailer).
If you can’t control his feet away from the trailer, you’ll never
be able to control them next to the trailer.
To start the Sending exercise, stand 15 to 20 feet away
from the fence with your belly button facing the fence and
the horse facing your shoulder. It’s important to establish
a starting point because in the beginning, the horse won’t
want to go through a tight, narrow space. Our ending goal is
to be four feet from the fence, but that’s not where we start
because if you try to force him through a tight space, he’ll
run backwards and feel trapped, which will make him panic.
Instead, build his confidence by starting the exercise at least
15 to 20 feet away from the fence. As the horse gets more
comfortable at the exercise, you’ll get closer and closer to the
fence until eventually, when he’s doing it well, you’ll only be
four feet from the fence. By starting further away from the
fence, it is easier to build the horse’s confidence. Remember
to always find a starting point.
Hold the lead rope (a stick’s length away from the clip) in
your hand furthest away from the horse, and hold the Handy
Stick in your hand closest to the horse like you’re shaking its
hand. Then ask the horse to go past you by holding your hand
(with the lead rope in it) high in the air and pointing in the
direction you want the horse to go. Ideally, the horse should
come off of the pressure behind his ears on his poll and immediately move forward. If he doesn’t move forward, use
the Handy Stick to tap the air by the his neck with rhythm
(one, two, three, four) to create pressure and encourage him
to move forward. If the horse still doesn’t respond by moving forward, start tapping his neck with the stick with a one,
two, three, four rhythm. Ideally, you want to be tapping the
horse in front of the drive line first to establish direction.
If the horse is facing you, tap toward his head and neck. If
he’s not facing you, tap behind the drive line. Continue to
increase the pressure with every set of four numbers until
the horse comes forward. As soon as the horse’s tail passes by
your belly button, stab your belly button with the hand that
is holding the lead rope and step on the horse’s tail with the
same foot as your stick hand to yield his hindquarters. When
you step, swing the stick up and over toward his hindquarters
to encourage them to move away.
Once the horse has yielded his hindquarters and given you
two eyes, pass the stick under the lead rope so that each of
your hands switches tools. Point up in the air in the opposite
direction to ask the horse to move forward, and then create
energy with the stick if the horse does not move. When the
horse’s tail passes your belly button, stab your belly button
with your hand and step on his tail with your foot. Remember
After you’ve practiced the Sending exercise on all
three sides of the trailer, stand at the back of the
trailer and send the horse from one side of the
trailer to the other.
to step and swing with your stick. Make it clear to the horse
what you’re asking. Exaggerate to teach and refine as you go
along. Gradually work your way closer to the fence until you
are only four feet away from it.
Once you can send the horse through the gap on the fence
and he remains calm and relaxed, practice the Sending exercise next to the trailer on all three sides with the doors closed.
It’s important to work the horse’s feet on all three sides of the
trailer (back, left side and right side) because a lot of horses
try to get out of loading onto the trailer by running around to
the sides. By doing the Sending exercise on all three sides of
the trailer, you’re proving to the horse that it doesn’t matter
where he goes, you can always control his feet.
Horses that have had problems loading into trailers in the
past will be suspicious when you practice the exercise next to
the trailer. Don’t be surprised if your horse gets excited and
reverts back to the reactive side of his brain. If he does, it’s
no big deal. Just keep doing the exercise and moving his feet.
Remember, the more you move his feet forwards, backwards,
left and right, the more respect you’ll get and the more he’ll
use the thinking side of his brain.
The more you act like you’re doing a trailer loading session,
the more worried the horse will get. Act like the trailer is just
another fence, and say to the horse, “What a coincidence,
we happen to be practicing the Sending exercise around the
trailer.” If you can’t get control of the horse’s feet and gain his
respect and confidence outside the trailer, you’re never going
to get them inside the trailer. The more the horse uses the
thinking side of his brain, the less he’ll fear the trailer and the
more he’ll listen to you.
After you’ve practiced the Sending exercise on all three
sides of the trailer, it’s time to give your horse one final test
to see how much control of his feet you really have. Stand at
the back of the trailer so that your back is against the door.
Then send the horse from one side of the trailer to the other
without moving your feet. If you have gotten the horse’s respect and you can control his feet, he should come off the halter pressure when you point and readily move his feet. If you
can’t stand at the back of the trailer and keep your feet still
as you send the horse from one side to the other, you need to
practice the Sending exercise more on each side of the trailer
before moving onto the next step.
Step 3: Load into the Trailer Stage I
A Cat and Mouse Game
Getting the horse to load onto the trailer is nothing more
than a cat and mouse game using approach and retreat.
Whenever a horse is scared of something, in this case the
trailer, always approach him with what he’s scared of, and
then retreat (go away) from the object. Approach and retreat
gives the horse a chance to build his confidence in the new
object and situation.
Do you remember as a little kid in the swimming pool how
you’d sneak down to the deep end? You wouldn’t just jump
into the deep end and hope for the best. You’d grab onto the
sides of the pool and gradually work your way down to the
deeper water. If you got scared, you could easily use the wall
to go back to the shallow end. Each time you went back to
the deep end, you went a little farther out. Now, do you remember what it was like when your older brother or sister
would grab onto you and drag you out to the deep end? You’d
be kicking, biting and screaming—doing anything to stay in
the shallow end. Well, that’s the exact same way your horse
feels about being loaded into the trailer. I can guarantee that
if you grab ahold of the lead rope and try to drag him onto the
trailer, he’s going to rear, strike, pull back and do whatever he
can to stop you from taking him on the trailer. However, if
you use approach and retreat and build his confidence in the
situation, and make it his idea to get on the trailer, you’ll be
amazed at how easy the entire process will be.
Now that you can control your horse’s feet around all three
sides of the trailer, you can lower the ramp to the trailer. If
your trailer doesn’t have a ramp, you can either skip this step
or construct a safe “ramp” out of plywood and 2’ x 4’s to simulate the motion of stepping up onto something that moves
and makes a noise. Once you have the ramp lowered, start out
by sending the horse between you and the ramp. Since you’ve
already established control of his feet earlier, he shouldn’t be
too worried about this step. However, keep in mind that if
the horse has had problems with trailers in the past, he’s going to start to get suspicious when you lower the ramp. If he
does, keep his feet moving and his attention on you.
Then ask the horse to step onto the ramp, going around you
in a small circle. You want the horse to go around you in a small
circle instead of doing the Sending exercise because you want
to work on one side of the brain at a time. This step will help
the horse get used to the noise he’ll hear when he walks up the
trailer and to the movement under his feet. If you skip this
step and go straight to loading onto the trailer, the first time
he hears that noise and feels the trailer move under his feet,
he’ll panic. In the horse’s mind, when you load him onto the
trailer, you’re leading him into a tight, dark cave. Don’t make
the experience any scarier for him than what it already is.
At first, the horse will probably rush over the ramp because
he’s using the reactive side of his brain. As you keep practicing and the horse starts to use the thinking side of his brain,
you’ll notice that he’ll slow down and take his time. Any time
the horse wants to stop and smell the ramp or paw at it, let
him. That’s his way of performing his own “safety check.” If
you don’t allow him to investigate the trailer, you’ll never be
able to convince him to load onto it. He has to be a 150 percent sure in his mind that the trailer is safe and not out to get
him. When the horse can calmly walk over the ramp on one
side, switch sides and send him in a circle going the opposite
direction. Remember, new side, new brain so start back at the
beginning.
One Step at a Time
Now that the horse can calmly walk across the ramp in
both directions, you can begin to ask him to load into the
trailer. Still using approach and retreat, look for him to take
one step up on the trailer, then back out. Then two steps in
the trailer and two steps out. Then three steps in the trailer
and three steps out, etc. until his whole body is on the trailer.
If your trailer has a divider in it, pull it to the side if you’re
able to so that the horse will have more room. That will make
him feel less trapped and claustrophobic. Then to start sending him on, stand off to the side and use your hand holding
the lead rope to point up into the trailer. The horse should
come off of the pressure you create behind his poll and take
a step forward. If he doesn’t, use the Handy Stick to create
pressure and make him feel uncomfortable for not taking a
step forward. As soon as he takes one step forward, release
Q
A
Have you ever had a horse not load onto a trailer?
I never had a horse that I couldn’t get on a trailer, but I’ve had a couple over the past 17 years that took me
considerably a lot longer than what I would have liked to have taken. I can get most horses onto a trailer
within 30 minutes to an hour, if I don’t have to talk and explain what I’m doing. There have been a couple of
horses that have taken me longer than that or I had to come back to the next day. If the horse is out of air or he’s
tired, I have to stop and come back to the lesson later. When a horse has physically and mentally had enough,
you just have to give them a break and come back later that day or come back the next day and do it.
In fact, last year at a tour in South Dakota, I had a mare that I could not get on the trailer in the hour and half that
I had allotted at the tour. So I had to come back the next day and finish the lesson up. Why? Because she was
just so pushy and disrespectful that I spent the majority of the first hour and a half working on basic groundwork
skills, getting her to move forwards, backwards, left and right. Then in the second session I worked more on the
trailer. Some horses just have such a lack of foundation or so many problems, that really, the trailer is the last
thing that you should be working on. If you get control of their feet first, your problem with trailer loading will be
almost non-existent.
Ask the horse to step onto the ramp, going around you in
a small circle. This step will help the horse get used to the
noise he’ll hear when he walks up the trailer and to the
movement under his feet.
all pressure and relax your body language. Ideally, the horse
should remain standing still until you tell him to back up, but
a lot of horses will get nervous and start backing out by themselves. If your horse does start backing up, turn his idea into
your own and ask him to back up by wiggling your wrist and
lead rope. Once he’s off the ramp or out of the trailer, ask
him to come forward again. If at any time the horse wants
to stop and investigate the trailer by pawing, smelling, etc.,
let him. The more he investigates the better. That’s his way
of performing his own “safety check.” As the horse’s confidence increases, ask him to take more steps onto the trailer
so that eventually, all of his feet are on the ramp. Then back
the horse out of the trailer and retreat. Take him away from
the trailer and let him rest and relax. This gives the horse a
chance to think about what just happened. You’ll find that a
lot of horses will keep staring back at the trailer wondering
how they just escaped being loaded onto it. Most horses are
so used to being forced onto trailers that when you retreat
and take them away from the trailer, they can’t believe it.
Once the horse has rested a couple of minutes, lead him
back to the trailer and practice loading him again. You’ll find
that after giving the horse a break and a chance to think
about the situation, he’ll actually be more confident in stepping up onto the trailer. Continue practicing until the horse
is completely on the trailer. Then back him out and retreat.
Then come back and load him up again. Every time you take a
prey animal away from what he’s frightened of and he doesn’t
get hurt, it builds his confidence.
4: Load
Trailer
StepStep
4: Loading
into theinto
Trailerthe
Stage
II
Stage II
After you’ve successfully loaded the horse three times in
the trailer in a row, you can start to teach the horse to crave
the trailer. When I say “crave” the trailer, I mean the horse
thinks that the trailer is the best place in the world. There’s
nowhere else he’d rather be. You’ll do that by showing the
horse that inside the trailer he gets to rest and relax, and outside the trailer he has to hustle and move his feet.
Lungeing for Respect Stages I and II and the Sending exercise are great examples of ways to get the horse to hustle his
feet. Send him from one side of the trailer to the other. You
want the horse huffing and puffing, and then give him the opportunity to rest in the trailer. At this point, the horse’s most
valuable commodity is air. You’re showing him that the only
place he gets to rest and get his air back is inside of the trailer.
Try to let the horse rest anywhere from five to 10 minutes
on the trailer. This will give him a chance to relax and think
about the lesson.
Keep in mind that this exercise only works if you really
make the horse hustle his feet outside of the trailer. You have
to give him a reason to want to be in the trailer. After repeating this exercise several times in a row, you’ll notice that the
horse will back off of the trailer slower and slower each time.
The reason he will back off slower is because horses don’t run
to somewhere they know they are going to have to work. They
always run fast to somewhere they are going to get a rest.
For example, horses always leave the barn real slow when
you ride them towards the arena, but when you ride away
from the arena back towards the barn, they are always in a
hurry. They know they have to work their feet in the arena,
and they also know that they get to rest, eat and relax in the
barn. Horses are basically lazy creatures. Use this to your advantage. Eventually, you want to have to practically beg the
horse to step off of the trailer—what I call a good problem to
have. Remember to make the right thing easy and the wrong
thing difficult.
Not just for your horse
What I’m about to say may sound completely
strange to you, but I’ve found it to be the absolute
truth over the years. If you want to be a truly great
horse trainer, get really good at trailer loading. That
may sound odd, but it’s the truth because every
emotion that comes out in a human being—anger,
frustration, nervousness, helplessness—and every
emotion that comes out in a horse—nervousness,
panic, claustrophobic, defensiveness, aggression,
fear—comes out when there’s a trailer involved. It’s
almost like the worst of people come out and the
worst of horses come out when a trailer enters the
picture. If you can learn how to control your emotions and help the horse overcome his fear and build
his respect and trust, I guarantee you’ll be a really
good horseman. Trailering is the perfect example
of being able to make the wrong thing difficult (not
loading) and the right thing easy (loading). It’s also
a great example of approach and retreat. You’re not
forcing the horse to get on and you’re not begging him
to get on. You’re allowing him to make the decision
himself, which is ultimately why the horse wants to
get on the trailer. You’re not making him get on. He
feels that the trailer is the best option and eventually,
he looks forward to taking that option.
Over the past 17 years, since I’ve started doing
this professionally, I would say that I have loaded
over 2,000 horses. It’s something that I still really
enjoy. I get a real kick out of it because it’s a real
challenge. The more horses you can trailer load, the
better your experience will get.
Left: Clinton with Comet during his Polocrosse
days. Below: Returning to Polocrosse after 17
years. Clinton’s comments? “I’m too old for
this—it nearly killed me!”
Clinton’s dog Beanie is a fixture around the ranch.
Above left: With Clinton and his friend, Sherry Cervi, and middle: Helping Clinton celebrate his US citizenship.
Sept 1975
Clinton Anderson born
1989
1st Gordon McKinlay Clinic
1985
First Horse “Casey”
1992
Apprenticeship with
Ian Francis
1990
Apprenticeship with
Gordon McKinlay
1997
Australia NRHA Futurity
1995
Trip to US,
Mindy born
1998
formed
Photo courtesy Vernon Bewley
Left: Even with a full schedule of tours and
clinics, Clinton still finds time to ride his
own horses.
Above: Clinton in his first
“Akubra” hat, 1987. His
mom, Cheryl, writes “He
really loved that hat.”
Left: Gordon McKinlay and
Clinton aboard Gordon’s
catamaran, 1990. One of
Gordon’s favorite memories
of Clinton is relaxing on the
boat after a clinic in Cairns,
“Just him and me laying out
there sprawled side by side.
That’s a special memory to
me.”
2001
RFD-TV show begins
2005
Road to the Horse Champion
2003
Road to the Horse
Champion
2005
Relocates to
Belle Center, OH
2007
No Worries Club begins
2008
Relocates to
Stephenville, TX
Are you taking advantage of all the great benefits of being
a No Worries Club member?
Clinton Anderson’s No Worries Club
is a great value—every member gets:
•A subscription to the quarterly No Worries
Club Journal. Each magazine is packed with
training information, interviews, photos,
horse care articles and more.
•8 information packed DVDs per
year, each on a different training
topic! From ground to riding
exercises, beginner to advanced,
there’s something for everyone!
•FREE access to Clinton’s TV shows
online through the Club web site
(high speed internet connection
required).
•$150 off participation in any
of Clinton’s clinics, or $50 off
participation in any of his
apprentice’s clinics.
NEWSFLASH—7 New Clinton Anderson
Clinics just added to our schedule! See
page 7 for dates & locations!
•Up to 5 free tickets to any of our Wahl
Walkabout Tours —bring a friend or give
them as gifts!
•Access to user chat boards, forums and
more through the No Worries Club website.
• Member-only sales & discounts!
888-287-7432
noworriesclub.com
8755 State Route 638 • Belle Center, OH 43310
PRSRT STD
US Postage
Paid
KENT, OH
PERMIT #15

Celebrating 10 Years of Downunder Horsemanship

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