One-on-one instruction just flat out works better for me. That can be in the context of a group lesson, as Martin Black does and Richard Caldwell did. They worked with the group, and used directed teaching where applicable. A private lesson is great too.
As popular as Buck is, most people are going to be instructed in a BIG group, primarily by generalized instruction. That will work for some folks, and not others.
For the cost of the clinics though ($650 odd up here), it’s a pricey opportunity where you’ll have to be willing to demand attention politely to get it (unless you’re really screwing up or excelling, I would suppose).
Sorry, not able to perform the mental gymnastics that somehow mean I didn’t fully open myself to the experience.
OK, Aktill, so if you aren’t going to get curious about how or why people will go ride in a crowded arena, with little ‘personal attention’, spend a lot of $$ and take a tremendous amount of learning home from the experience, then I will present this again, in other words, for other people to read.
And, Aktill, I am not trying to ‘argue’ or ‘make a point’, or sass you. If you want to get curious about how Buck and Ray made such a huge impression for some people in ‘grossly overcrowded’ clinics, you will get curious. Otherwise, you will continue seeking instruction from people who give you personal, face-to-face explanations. And that is entirely your decision, it can’t ever be judged as the ‘wrong’ one by me.
Ray Hunt, in his CD ‘Think’, talks a bit about how things were when he first met Tom Dorrance.
Ray wanted to know, who taught YOU, Tom?
And Tom replied it was the horse that taught him…so Ray assumed he had himself always ridden dumb horses, and boy would he ever like to be around those SMART horses that had taught Tom.
And another Buck clinic story…
The clinic had started 5 days ago with colt starting, and the colts were continuing on into the H1 class. It was day one for me, day 5 for the colt folks.
One gal’s horse was pretty troubled, and kicked the tar out of other horses if they got too close. During the colt clinic, most of that got some close attention, but Buck still told all of us, that if we got kicked, it was NOT colty’s fault, that we should pay attention and stay OUT of his way.
Day two, Buck makes an answer to someone’s question, and says, ‘By the way, John, thank you for giving my horse a lot of ‘personal space’. That is the polite thing to do, and I appreciate it, lots of people just ride right up without paying attention.’ On the surface, that was a compliment to John, but also a reminder to the participants not to ride in too close to each other, and to the problem colt. (Who never had a ‘blowout’, by the way.)
Day four, I ride up to ask Buck a question, and keeping the ‘personal space’ thing in mind, I look carefully and aim to position my horse about two meters away.
I am waiting for him to finish speaking to someone else, he is talking to the rider on his right, I am coming up on his left.
…and as I ride in closer, Buck’s horse gives me a pinned ears, nasty pinchy face.
So, I re-calcuclate, positioning my horse farther away than I had first thought I needed to be, and Buck’s horse quit with the nasty face.
Buck answered my question without saying a thing about personal space.
But I believe Buck was showing, and telling, me that I should read clues from the other horse, about how much space to give. I had ridden up thinking about a particular length, not noticing or looking at or gauging his horse’s reaction.
I do not believe for a second, that Buck didn’t notice his horse sassing me. I’ve never seen Buck’s horses pull faces like that. I’ve seen Buck tolerate lots and lots of people who don’t know any better, who don’t have basic control of their horse…and Buck might give you a body-language clue but I have always seen him ask his horses to ignore it.
I think Buck felt his horse’s reaction as I rode up. Buck wanted for me to learn something, and so he let his HORSE give me an OBVIOUS clue, rather than telling me anything about how I should read the other horse to gauge space needs.
Long story short…look for answers within the HORSE.
Buck does a lot of subtle stuff in his clinics, and I am sure there are fifteen or twenty clues he tried to give me for every one I found.
He’s trying to engage you on another level. When you begin to look for it, there is quite a lot of ‘one on one’ attention given to you in those crowded clinics. It just isn’t very much ‘face time’ or talking you through things.
When Buck learned these things, he didn’t have videos of Ray or Tom to watch.
He went to every clinic he could, hung out on the rail and watched, trying to figure out for himself what was going on.
Those clueless riders…some of them are going to try, try again, and somehow get turned-loose, along with their horse, they’re going to feel that connection for the first time. How does that happen? It can’t depend entirely on a rider’s ability.
Buck has said before in a clinic, I won’t see some of you guys for one or even two years, I want you to have enough to think about until then.
I won’t say that one-on-one instruction isn’t a hugely valuable tool, but finding that ability to look in other places, to try and make mistakes and learn from not one but lots of horses, with ‘your problem’ or something you have working really well…that advances your understanding of this horsemanship in a logarithmic way, rather than one notch at a time, one lesson at a time.
