I bought my sweet Percheron cross mare with little history on her. Because she is so kind and patient, we do ok riding the property but she has some obvious issues that need to be worked out to make us a more confident team. I was hoping someone had a good recommendation on an online training course we can work through together. Obviously an in person trainer is the best, but I am also wanting to use this opportunity to learn the process of starting/restarting a horse for myself. TIA!
[Many will flame me for this, but my opinion is that] For restarting or refreshing a horse, the most thorough and easy-to-use program is Clinton Anderson’s Riding With Confidence which is (I think) best done with Clinton Anderson’s Gaining Control and Respect on the Ground.
Reasons:
- Lessons are short. I would watch a 30 min lesson on my lunch and then go home and try to replicate the lesson with whatever horse I needed to work with. Did this with three total, sequentially.
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Lessons start with a written goal. Next is a demonstration with a horse that has achieved the goal. Then the steps to the goal are explained and demonstrated. A horse who has never been taught the lesson is presented and CA works with the horse explaining each step until some mastery is achieved. Suggests doing the same lesson 5-7 days sequentially until the goal is achieved before moving on. [This is where I stop with the ground lesson, and start the in saddle lesson so I work with the horse for an hour].
3)Lesson concludes with common handler/rider errors and how to correct, and common horse evasions and how to correct. CA uses two horses for each demo --one he describes as “reactive” and one he describes as “fat, lazy, and slow.”
The progression of lessons is logical. Each lesson builds on the previous lesson and includes a brief review of the previous lesson to “check for understanding.”
Anderson speaks clearly and succinctly. Some of the on-line trainers I find hard to follow as they digress, or ramble, or um, like, um lots, of um verbal paused. Probably should not make a difference, but as someone who taught Public Speaking as well as English Lit, I appreciate CA’s eloquence.
The lessons can be done with one person and the horse, in a pasture, pen, or arena. Great for people like me who don’t have a round pen or huge indoor.
I did all of the “Gaining Control and Respect on the Ground” --I think there were 4 DVDs (this was awhile ago) —and of the 54 lessons of Riding with Confidence (5 DVDs I think) I got up to lesson 25 or 26. It seemed to me after that the lessons began to repeat themselves.
If you hunt around on YouTube you can find a fellow and his wife who posted each of their lessons with their two new horses as they progressed through the program.
Now there are a whopping lot of people who don’t like CA and don’t like his “Method.” I’ve never met the man, never attended a clinic --but I will say that the Training Program worked for me.
My current Ranch Riding trainer knows and understands CA’s Method but does not follow it per se. My cow trainer (works with me Bob and the cows) is a huge fan of CA. But like all horse people, I pick and choose what works for me and Bob.
I don’t know about access these days, but I think you join a CA group and can then download all the stuff. I will say I bought the DVDs off Ebay for $5-10 and watched with an old DVD player at the school where I taught while on my lunch.
I would suggest watching 1-2 YouTube CA videos and see if it is something that might work for you.
I understand CA is no longer doing videos or clinics --he’s 50 years old now and in the DVDs I watched he might be 20 something.
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Look at the TRT program , Warwick Schillers 30 day jumpstart program or Ryan Rose.
Clinton Anderson isn’t my favorite but his program does work. It’s just not a fit for my personality in working with horses.
Watch YouTube videos and see what vibes the best.
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I second this. I tried a lot of programs before this one, but Gaining Control and Respect on the Ground made the biggest difference for me with my mare.
You have to know yourself. One thing it took me a while to learn is that the advice that resonates the most with you is usually the advice you need to hear the least. I gravitated to training methods that affirmed things I felt naturally inclined to do, but I was hitting a wall. I think people poke fun at CA for taking this brash, machismo cowboy approach to training, while ironically catering to soft-spoken amateur ladies…but the truth is, soft-spoken amateur ladies stand the most to gain from channeling that approach.
If you’re inclined to be firm, decisive, and direct with horses, at the risk of making them a bit nervous, then other trainers are a better match. But if you’re naturally soft and gentle, give CA a shot. The right answer is somewhere in the middle, and the less you feel like channeling that obnoxious Aussie cowboy energy, the more you probably need to. Just my $0.02!
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I love this lady! Love a fun accent, easy to follow videos and she is so kind to the horses. She always starts her videos “Hi guys, its Josie” which feels like its more of a friend vs salesman 
there’s no gimmicks or sales.
Andrew McClean or John Lyons are good, basic, solid foundational trainers. I also really like Right From the Start by Mike Schaffer.
I just have a real problem with Clinton Anderson as a whole, at least the more modern CA, maybe he was kinder both physically and mentally years ago. Today? Not so much, and for that reason, I’ll never spend money on anything of his.
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