I don’t know. I’ve personally known some female “trainers” who do horrendous things to horses all while claiming they love them.
But yeah, anyone with gimmicks and gear they claim you must have in order to train needs to be eyed with suspicion. They usually don’t know even half as much as they want unsuspecting newbies to think they know.
Definitely do homework regarding trainers. If horses are happy, friendly, and allowed to be horses while also being well-trained and mannerly, that’s a good sign. Sullen? Withdrawn? Nervous? Mechanical? No thanks. And do the trainer’s human clients treat their horses with love and respect, or do they treat them like machines? That’s a big clue to me.
Luckily, I learned how to train horses early on in my riding career by simply being in a good lesson program on a green horse and then progressing with that horse through the levels and better and better trainers. I did all of the training myself. No one else ever got in the saddle. That was an invaluable education and prepared me to be able to start and compete my own show horses from the ground up. That’s a rewarding experience for sure.
I find it rather sexist to say women are better/nicer than men. Some are but most decidedly some are not. Some of the best, kindest trainers I know are men.
When I was a teenager, the “horse dealer” that worked with the barn where I rode also taught some lessons on Saturdays - a rough and ready cowboy type living in NJ. I remember his immediate and thorough correction of any of the kids losing their temper at the horses (jerks on the halter, hit with the crop to hard/to much) - kind of not atypical of kids still learning emotional intelligence, not to the level of abuse but not kind - but he was there ready to explain to them in plain words that this behavior is NOT acceptable.
We also had a woman who did most ot the teaching, also kind and knowledgeable and I very much lucked into a good foundation from her. I only went there because it was the closest to my house so I could bike there and had a plan to pay for lessons with my allowance until my dad agreed to pay.
I’m still catching up on this thread, but he did an interview where he accused people of stealing money from him. It was such a strange turn of events. I’ll see if I can find the interview where makes accusations to the people working for him.
I remember when he came on the scene during the 2000s. I knew a married gal who went to one of his clinics and he propositioned her. I don’t really recall the nature of how she got to meet him, but I do remember hearing her tell the story, and that she was really taken aback since he was married and she was married. I heard through the grapevine that this was apparently common. I remember the lady was really flustered and kind of laughed; she said he didn’t immediately take no for an answer, but eventually backed off. The lady and her mom, both horsey friends of mine back in the day, said they weren’t following him anymore after that. That was just so indelible in my brain because I already didn’t like him and his treatment to the horses, but then I really didn’t like him anymore. If a person doesn’t respect “no” it says a whole lot about who they are as a person and what they are willing to do. A friend and I went to a Dennis Reid clinic, and these types of trainers-- Anderson, Parelli, Monty Roberts, John Lyons-- felt like circus performers.
Certainly was and not restricted to CA. Each had a bunch of middle aged groupies including a perfectly respectable barn mate who went off the rails and became a camp follower. Stabled across from another of these self styled gurus and what went on backstage was most unexpected and disgusting.
Very similar version of the same thing which dates back to Elvis and The Beatles. Social media has only recently become what it is today and makes it possible for long distance fantasy “relationships” on top of the traditional camp followers.
That barnmate of mine pushed her marriage over the cliff where it had been hanging but she lost her kids in favor of chasing her guru…court awarded joint custody but her 12-16 year old kids refused to have anything to do with her after she missed her week with them to worship at his feet.
As I read this I realized I think it’s Andrea Fappani’s podcast where I heard it…but i just found this…
I’ve had so much money in my career stolen from me and just wasted in general, pissed away, because I always thought that like, like I’m uneducated…I’ll give you a perfect example of what happened to me in my business. One year there towards the end I almost went bankrupt. It’s kind of embarrassing, but I grossed like 14,000,000 one year and the same year I lost 375,000. It was the first year that I ever lost money in business. And I was embarrassed that I collected that much money and still lost money. So I’m almost bankrupt. Like, I’m upside down. So I get heavily involved in my finances and I start signing every check, checking every invoice.
Uneducated indeed. It happened to better people than him though, not keeping track on the money flow. Plenty of folks went bankrupt and/or to jail for that. Usually the wrong-side-of-the-track people falling into riches.
I’m trying to find the interview, but I do remember he said that his staff (people training under him, working for him, etc.) would just take his credit card and use it. I don’t know the validity of these claims, but he said in the interview that he realized they had “stolen” money from him. This was a few years ago when he started his current podcast, so I’m having some trouble finding the interview. I also don’t want to listen to interviews with him. I don’t find him “real” at all; I think he’s a burned out jerk with inappropriate boundaries.
Anyway, that’s perhaps how he came out of training upside down or maybe he was just bad at business and handling his finances. So, he thinks it’s easier to blame everyone else.
He’s saying that in one year he earned $14 million cash revenue, but lost $14,375,000. By sundry means.
Aside from that, what isn’t included in those numbers, is whatever debt he incurred. To earn $14 million in revenue very likely meant that he first incurred a lot of debt to finance all of the activities that earned money. And/or had a lot of investors who expected returns that weren’t there. Because the investment $$ may have been spent unwisely.
I haven’t listened to his podcast … but just that quote tells me that he had zero idea what he was doing re business.
Honestly – easily. It is shocking how fast the money can go roaring out the door when someone has no idea how to manage it.
This isn’t really the place to dive into all the ways to piss away millions of dollars without a clue that you are doing it – but here are a few …
He built a large training and video facility with tons of infrastructure and extra bells & whistles. And a lot of roof, as otherwise it was difficult to survive long blazing TX summers, with the volume of training work he was signing up. Even pre-2010, his north Texas facility could easily be $1 million, at least. I remember seeing a bit of it in the background of several instructional videos. It was impressive – where do I get summa that!
The video’ing and production of the videos. The entire membership deal, which was huge. He had an enormous sales footprint with all kinds of videos, progressive membership steps, merch … the hired talent plus equipment and material to create, produce, process, manage all of that must have been very expensive. Even in those days with so much less polish.
Plus the huge outlay for spectacular appearances at big shows, nighttime arena demo reining rides, costumes, lighting, fancy trained horses, etc. Grooms, assistant trainers to warm up and keep horses sharp. And traveling with all of that. He was Taylor Swift Eras concerts, on horses.
Overall, he made the Parelli marketing look like small-time amateurs – that’s a comparison for those who are familiar.
Then there is the most expensive cash intensive part …
My guess is that on top of just simple profligate spending on whatever crap, there was debt that needed large interest payments. And investors who expected their money back, with a profit. Or else they would be filing big lawsuits.
Start borrowing to finance a big facility and traveling show, with interest payments likely between 8% - 10%, just the interest payments can eat someone up in a hurry. Whether or not commercial lenders wants their money back, they always want the interest payments.
If you’ve ever watched Kevin on Shark Tank and understood his “offers” for businesses, you’ll get the picture.
And another thing that can eat up sloppy businesses – the IRS and income tax. If his accounting was as disorganized as he sounds, income tax must have been a nightmare mess. The IRS would have been all over him with the volume of cash money flowing in as income plus such an unconventional business. He was lucky to stay out of jail for tax problems if it was as bad as he makes it sound. Especially in those days.
Etc. and so on. Those are just random guesses based on business in general. I have no idea what CA did with his money.
This guy. Everything is everyone else’s fault.
Who gave them the credit card? He did.
‘They’ may have thought they were purchasing necessities for the CA business. ‘They’ may have bought stuff for themselves, on the sly. But the buck stops at the top. It was his business to either monitor it himself, or hire qualified people to do it for him.
All that said – a stupid a$$ like CA would be ripe for embezzlement. And there are plenty of dishonest bookkeepers and other people out there to do it. Likely he was ripped off by more than one person. But – those things are preventable with some good accounting practices and common sense.
He sounds like the kind of entrepreneur who is surrounded by people begging him to stop throwing money away and bring in proper management and accounting – but who either has zero idea how to hire the right help – or is too convinced of his own invincibility to do so. Probably both.
He may act the part of the victim – but he was his own victim.
It did not have to be that way. His story sounds like an irrational, impulsive, self-centered showman, who thought it was all about him. Who never understood what he could have and should have been doing to take care of his future. And those who depended on him, family, investors, and employees. And horses.
I really hate the way he trains horses and after watching this it explains why. I remember trying to watch his rfd tv episodes as a child thinking what is he trying to accomplish? Trying bc i couldnt last. I still cant last watching his training episodes but i am extremely bothered by all this copy cat training pulling head to the cinch and spinning aroubd the inside shoulder. What does it accomplish and why are trainers so desparate to follow that method? Do you really want to put your dressage horse that far out of balance?
I would rather have 2 minutes of clear cut, no euphemisms, profanity so I can make a decision, live with my choice and move on.
This used to be the horse world in all disciplines.
Now everything has to couched in my little pony and horse whisperer fantasy terms that take a ton of time and energy and then the ignorant still argue back.
CA is actually more genuine than he has ever been. And he can afford it.
I suppose he is being quite genuine, a genuine as$hat. But when people show you who they truly are, you ought to believe them
And since when does not using brutality as a training method = turning your horse into a my little pony? You know you can do some pretty amazing things with horses when you use your brain to train instead of your brawn.
Reminds me of these strange parasocial relationships people have with celebrities like TSwift.
