Ugh, I have these boarders at my barn. They’re very nice and very willing to help out and do things and such. Anyway, they’re HUGE Parelli/Clinton Anderson fans and they run their horses around the ring with their sticks with plastic bags tied to the ends. I’m all for using plastic bags and tarps and scary things when training but this just tops it all…
I was at the farm yesterday about to teach a riding lesson to a beginner on a horse who is half arab. Now, my half arab is NOT dangerous in any sense, takes the word ‘Whoa’ absolutely literally and is a saint, however… he’s still half arab and can get excited. My boarders show up with their Clinton Anderson sticks and start waiving them around while walking to the pasture to get their horses. My half arab FREAKS and takes off running circles around his paddock while my student is standing there watching. She was on her way to catching him to tack him up for lesson. Anyway, he’s running, bucking, farting everywhere and the boarders and just beboping across the farm with their stinkin sticks!! Arg!
Well, the Arab calms down and she catches him and tacks him up. She rides, all is well with him and her.
After lesson I decide to catch my young gelding whom I have been working with for the last 4 months trying to put weight on (he was a rescue) and in the process of breaking. He lives with the boarders two horses in the big pasture. They’ve already caught their horses and are “playing” with them in the ring. All that Clinton Anderson stuff with the sticks, long ropes, games and such.
As a side note, I totally understand that the “Natural Horsemanship” stuff kinda makes sense. I understand the concepts behind it, but I have a different way of achieving the same results without the sticks.
Anyway, they’re swinging their ropes and bags and such and my horse who had come up to me at that point takes off. I stood patiently til he ran it out for a minute and he came back. But by then he’d figured out that I was going to work him and he stood within 5 feet of me, but wouldn’t let me get close enough to catch him.
The boarder came out into the field with me and said “Horse Catching One oh One” and I snapped back “I know how to catch horses, thanks.” That’s where I dropped the attitude and just sort of ignored his “I’ve seen Clinton Anderson catch a wild horse in a 35 acre field in 15 minutes” comments. GRRR!!!
Then he makes comments about Dressage as that’s what I’m going to be training my gelding to do. “Oh, you don’t want to put saddles on them until you can walk trot and canter bareback with a rope halter” “Dressage is so unnatural, you force the horse into that shape, force him to do tricks”
Where do Clinton Anderson, Chris Cox and Pat Parelli followers get off thinking that they know everything?? Just because you WATCH VIDEOS of people training doesn’t mean you know it!! You have to do it, nothing replaces time in the saddle! Two years of video watching versus 17 years of riding and training…
Oh and the boarder comments on how my horse hasn’t been put through the seven games so I shouldn’t be sitting on him at all! Oh, and my horse is a paint and has that traditional “crazy eye” due to the white scelera (sp?) around his eye and the guy says “Clinton Anderson would tell you to sell this horse immediately, he’s got the wild eye, he’ll never be a good horse.”
Wow, this is longer than I thought it’d be. Sorry! Thanks to those of you who continued to the end…
I definately feel better now.
