The *Real* Clinton Anderson (profanity)

:face_vomiting:

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Imagine how this bloke behaves when the cameras are off! Heā€™s clearly happy enough to have this podcast published.

He was a POS when he started in my home town and heā€™s a bigger POS now.

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Wow, what a flaming asshole.

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So. There is a context here, that we, the public, donā€™t always find comfortable in our parasocial relationships. We think we know celebrities when all we have seen is what they choose to present to the public.

It always amazes me when it is news to the public that ā€˜celebrityā€™ and/or ā€˜horse trainerā€™ is a job, not a separate human species. They are all very human. Just as are all of us.

Every celebrity, in any field, has this side to them. No human is perfect and ā€˜onā€™ all of the time. Catch them at their worst and lowest moment, and they will be as human as any other human. After a lifetime of interacting with some of the weirder examples of the random public, they can all lose it.

I am not a fan of Clinton Anderson. I donā€™t hate him, either. He is what he is. Same as every human.

There are tons of stories floating around the media of this or that celebrity caught showing their least attractive side to a member of the public. This snippet is nothing but one more.

The public creates in its mind a relationship with the image. The celebrity does not know the public as individuals. Even though many individuals think they know the celebrity (they donā€™t).

This big reveal doesnā€™t tell me anything but that he was over-exposed to a member of the public at a moment when he should not have been. As have been countless others before him, and even more to come. Honestly this is why some of the wealthiest and most well-known ā€˜starsā€™ have professional ā€˜handlersā€™ who are there to prevent just such interactions.

Every one of us reading this has also had a very unfortunate interaction with another human being. That may or may not have reflected our real thoughts.

I donā€™t even take it as a given that he would have shot such a horse, as he said. Maybe yes, maybe no. He was drunk, tired, annoyed, and trying to get rid of a pesky irritant. Not for nothing, it worked, she was removed from his presence.

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No horseman talks about a horse like that. They just donā€™t. The contempt in his voice for both the woman and her horse was vile.

He was laughing about the story. It was funny to him, how he much contempt he held for this woman.

He could easily have said, ā€œyou should just retire the horseā€. No one would get hurt, maybe theyā€™d put the horse down, but instead he went ā€œshoot the bā€¦hā€, and you could tell he felt the same about the wife too.

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How he really feels about women

Follow on from above.

Talking about dealing with women (as clients)

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I have indeed heard old school horse people joke about shooting horses, when they are people that you absolutely know would never. Itā€™s a dark humor thing.

We all want to be horse professionals, but imagine getting caught in a groundhog day loop where you are making a living primarily by spouting off to the worst, most hopeless, biggest self created problem set of ammies in the world. The ones that are often beyond help. You would end up loathing them.

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Iā€™m not generally one to hold ā€˜celebritiesā€™ up as idols and realize that yes they are human and far from perfect. But the fact he exposed his truly ugly side like this is kind of unbelievable. Did he think this was relatable in any way shape or form?

I understand being tired and not wanting to be bothered but I have to imagine he would have had a milder story to tell about such a circumstance if that was his point to get across.

Just yikes!

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Decades ago I drove hours to go watch him. One of the horses for the day was dead dead lame. He was chit chatting walking around on a horse that was dramatically head bobbing lame at the walk. The crowds uncomfortable murmurs finally annoyed him enough that he snapped at the whole crowd over his headset that he could tell the horse was lame and it wouldnā€™t kill him to walk around for a few minutes while he told some stories. Horse did not come back day two but one of the horses from day one walked in day two literally dripping sweat on a frigid morning from his ā€œpre sessionā€ before the clinic started. We packed up, left, and I havenā€™t listened to a word heā€™s said since.

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This is incredibly disturbing. Not that I shouldā€™ve expected better

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Iā€™ve thought for years that he was fed up with the over horsed ammy crowd. You can sense the outright frustration and disgust in his voice.

He also trains like every single reining trainer Iā€™ve ever seen. Hard, rough, do it NOW or pay.

That said, while I totally donā€™t agree with the way he said it (and obviously not about what he said about the woman personally, jesus), his premise is not wrong. The horse is 20, has flunked out of multiple multiple training programs - the woman asked what he would do and he answered. Euthanize (in not so kind words).

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What bothers me the most was that he didnā€™t talk about this interaction like it was something he was ashamed of, or something that heā€™d had to learn from. No, just a funny story where this woman was out of line for going off on him after he told her to shoot her horse and shove it in a hole.

It does sound like the woman did not know how to read the room, and that a conversation around retirement might be warranted given the circumstances. Still. The disdain and misogyny dripping from every word is disgusting.

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Heā€™s gross. Iā€™ve never understood why anyone thinks heā€™s anything but an egotistical jackass. Even before his ā€œrawā€ side with all the profanity and whatever else started coming out, just watching his Down Under Horsemanship videos was enough for me to see he was a moron. He pushes horses to THEIR breaking point all the time because HE doesnā€™t read THEIR body language and cues, and then he punishes them for behaving the way nature intends them to behave.

Heā€™s trash.

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Although CA is a POS, he is correct in the assessment of the horse

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Never been a fan, but he was on a podcast that I listened to a couple years back. Dude needs to retire; he sounded so over and bitter towards everything and everyone. I truly donā€™t think he gives a flying fart how he comes off.

I agree with the comments that its likely time to retire that horse so no-one gets hurt, but he could have delivered that in a thousand other better ways.

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I agree. This woman obviously was not getting what the horse was laying down. You have to know when to say when and some people canā€™t make the hard calls.
His delivery sucks but then everybody isnā€™t all sweet and sensitive. Heā€™s probably sick to death and back of dealing with ammy afraid of their horses carrot stick crowd, but thatā€™s the crowd to whom he chose to market himself.
People who do horses for a living like that have a different perspective.

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While I understand being fed up with unrealistic expectations, when you set up your business to cater to naive clients, this is more prone to happen. And telling the story in public shows a contempt for his audience and rampant misogyny.

I have never been a fan of his. One of the worst at ā€œrun the horse to exhaustion then strong arm the restā€ .

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Iā€™m no fan of CA, havenā€™t been since at least 15yrs ago watching him on RFD-TV at a friendā€™s who liked his methods.
I saw someone pitching ā€œtrainingā€ that could be dangerous to the inexperienced.
Wrote him off then :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

But this outburst, on SM :astonished: is a pretty poor example of PR.
Misogyny aside, venting like this, where your potential source of income can view it isnā€™t the action of anyone looking to increase future audiences.

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Heā€™s an arrogant jerk who thinks his $hit doesnā€™t stink and who feels ā€œentitledā€ to spout off (using profanity), belittle, shoot from the lip, treat people - especially women - with contempt ā€“ and inflict his harsh ā€œtraining methodsā€ on horses whether or not itā€™s beneficial to run them into the ground.

Just MHO, of course - but there is no excuse for this crap. WAY too many newbies and amateurs hero worship these guys, and itā€™s the only reason they stay in business.

If you are categorically unable to treat women and horses with a modicum of respect, youā€™re in the wrong line of work.

There is zero excuse for this behavior, sorry.

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Honestly I donā€™t think he cares. I would imagine based on his selling farms and such that his bigger money maker is now elsewhere. I could be wrong though, and there are plenty of machisimo cowboys and charros that would eat his stuff up.

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