Imagine how this bloke behaves when the cameras are off! Heās clearly happy enough to have this podcast published.
He was a POS when he started in my home town and heās a bigger POS now.
Wow, what a flaming asshole.
So. There is a context here, that we, the public, donāt 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 ācelebrityā and/or āhorse 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 āonā 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 donāt 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 donāt).
This big reveal doesnāt 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 āstarsā have professional āhandlersā 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 donāt 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.
No horseman talks about a horse like that. They just donāt. 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, āyou should just retire the horseā. No one would get hurt, maybe theyād put the horse down, but instead he went āshoot the bā¦hā, and you could tell he felt the same about the wife too.
I have indeed heard old school horse people joke about shooting horses, when they are people that you absolutely know would never. Itās 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.
Iām not generally one to hold ācelebritiesā 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!
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 wouldnāt 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 āpre sessionā before the clinic started. We packed up, left, and I havenāt listened to a word heās said since.
This is incredibly disturbing. Not that I shouldāve expected better
Iāve 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 Iāve ever seen. Hard, rough, do it NOW or pay.
That said, while I totally donāt 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).
What bothers me the most was that he didnāt talk about this interaction like it was something he was ashamed of, or something that heād 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.
Heās gross. Iāve never understood why anyone thinks heās anything but an egotistical jackass. Even before his ārawā 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 doesnāt read THEIR body language and cues, and then he punishes them for behaving the way nature intends them to behave.
Heās trash.
Although CA is a POS, he is correct in the assessment of the horse
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 donāt 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.
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 canāt make the hard calls.
His delivery sucks but then everybody isnāt all sweet and sensitive. Heās probably sick to death and back of dealing with ammy afraid of their horses carrot stick crowd, but thatās the crowd to whom he chose to market himself.
People who do horses for a living like that have a different perspective.
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 ārun the horse to exhaustion then strong arm the restā .
Iām no fan of CA, havenāt been since at least 15yrs ago watching him on RFD-TV at a friendās who liked his methods.
I saw someone pitching ātrainingā that could be dangerous to the inexperienced.
Wrote him off then
But this outburst, on SM is a pretty poor example of PR.
Misogyny aside, venting like this, where your potential source of income can view it isnāt the action of anyone looking to increase future audiences.
Heās an arrogant jerk who thinks his $hit doesnāt stink and who feels āentitledā to spout off (using profanity), belittle, shoot from the lip, treat people - especially women - with contempt ā and inflict his harsh ātraining methodsā on horses whether or not itās 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 itās the only reason they stay in business.
If you are categorically unable to treat women and horses with a modicum of respect, youāre in the wrong line of work.
There is zero excuse for this behavior, sorry.
Honestly I donāt 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.