Horse Talk

[abigalerose]

See if you can find some stuff by Buck Brannaman too, I like Clinton Anderson, but I personally prefer Buck over any other horse trainer out there

 

[Kusanar]

Quote:


You CAN longe them, but not traditional longing, if you let them just go around in a circle in the same direction looking to the outside and zooming around, they will still be doing the same thing 3 hours later. If you do a lot of direction changes and insisting that the horse focuses on you the entire time, they calm down pretty fast.

Have you ever looked at any of the Clinton Anderson stuff? He's a little rough around the edges and cusses some, and he doesn't take any lip from the horses, but his horses are relaxed, respectful, and would walk through fire for him. There is some stuff on youtube, but if you want to PM me your e-mail address I can send you some other videos that would be helpful so you can see what he's all about.

Okay cool.

Oh yeah, Clinton Anderson was the basis for my "horse training" if it could be called that

he's really the only pro horse trainer I know anything about

But if you would PM me links and videos (so they don't get lost), that would be awesome

I have a couple of Clinton's DVD sets and I was a member for a while so I have a bunch of the extras downloaded, I can put some of it in the cloud for you to access, but I need an e-mail address to send the link to and let you access it if you would like.

I would suggest, that IF you can afford it, becoming a club member on his site would be a great investment when starting a new horse. You get a free DVD each month, a Journal (small book) 4 times a year, unlimited access to all of the previous monthly DVD's and his TV show archives are on there, plus you get a great member discount on the DVD sets, plus access to the forum which is filled with helpful people that can help you figure out what you are doing wrong if you get frustrated. You can even upload videos and the other members will critique you so you have an extra set of eyes that knows what they are looking at. It is $200 a year or $20 a month, but for everything you get for the money it would be worth it even if you just got a subscription for a year and downloaded everything you have access to.

 

[Bunnylady]

BB2K remarked one time on the variety of people whose videos I have watched, and how totally different a lot of them seemed to be. I told her, "if you listen critically, though their styles may be quite different, they really are all saying the same things." Clinton Anderson's "Method" may be delivered with Aussie brashness and showmanship, but he's using a lot of the same techniques that Buck Brannaman does, or Buck's brother Smokie makes wisecracks about (while employing them himself) . . . . maybe because these things work.

 

[Kusanar]

BB2K remarked one time on the variety of people whose videos I have watched, and how totally different a lot of them seemed to be. I told her, "if you listen critically, though their styles may be quite different, they really are all saying the same things." Clinton Anderson's "Method" may be delivered with Aussie brashness and showmanship, but he's using a lot of the same techniques that Buck Brannaman does, or Buck's brother Smokey makes wisecracks about (while employing them himself) . . . . maybe because these things work.

Buck is one of the few I haven't seen much about. I have studied Monty Roberts pretty extensively, he has a LOT on horse phschology and WHY they do the things they do, but he isn't much of a trainer in my opinion, he's a starter. Once Monty is done with a horse, it still needs to go to a trainer to get finished as he doesn't do much other than on the ground respect and first few rides. I have also seen enough of Parelli to know I'm not interested in seeing more, I DO see the similarity between the excercizes that Clinton does and the "games" Parelli does, but I don't like the touchy feely, sunshine and rainbows, "let the horse say no he doesn't want to work today and that's perfectly ok" part of the Parelli stuff.

I recommend Clinton because he seems the easiest to get access to his stuff and to learn, I mean, I have had horses for almost 17 years and have been studying them and their training the entire time and though I recognize Buck's name, I don't know much about him, the other 3 I mentioned are MUCH easier to access and learn from but out of the 3 I prefer Clinton.

I don't agree with everything that he says, and am not a current member of his club (money got tight, I had to drop it, and just haven't signed back up) but, I think that someone getting a young, green horse, that is more high strung and sensitive than they are used to, could really benefit from having hundreds of DVD's and TV episodes to search for answers, thousands of pages of literature at their fingertips, and if all of that fails, a club full of people that are willing to help you if you have issues or just listen to you vent if you went to the barn and everything that could go wrong did.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I knew someone once that said natural horsemanship wasn't really their cup of tea but it seems so useful and accurate to me. I'm wondering if maybe they saw the touchy feely stuff. They were never mean or anything and did reward when they did something right but it seems most people follow more traditional/older methods and it seems to me there's really something to these new methods.

Also question: I probably won't get a mustang but which method, either these trainers or something completely different, do you think is best for that? I'm talking wild ones of course, not ones somebody is reselling (if that's allowed?) or started by the prisons or anything

 

[GingersHuman]

Parelli is my trainer of choice, but yes, many of the natural horsemanship people do similar things, with their own twist.

 

[Kusanar]

I knew someone once that said natural horsemanship wasn't really their cup of tea but it seems so useful and accurate to me. I'm wondering if maybe they saw the touchy feely stuff. They were never mean or anything and did reward when they did something right but it seems most people follow more traditional/older methods and it seems to me there's really something to these new methods.

Also question: I probably won't get a mustang but which method, either these trainers or something completely different, do you think is best for that? I'm talking wild ones of course, not ones somebody is reselling (if that's allowed?) or started by the prisons or anything

Monty Roberts wants to be the horses friend, he gets respect, but not to the point that I am comfortable with, Parelli REALLY wants to be the horses friend, and if the horse doesn't want to do something when you ask, that's fine, ask again later. That's one reason that his stuff is called "games" you don't force a friend to play a game with you, you ask if they want to and if they say no, then you drop it... I don't want my horse telling me "no, I don't want to step off of your foot, try asking me again in a few hours" I want an immediate "yes ma'am!" when I ask them to do something. Before I found Clinton I thought that the natural horsemanship was a bunch of cool tricks, but it wasn't TRAINING...

If I were to pull a mustang off the range, I would read all of Monty Roberts' books and watch Shy Boy, he has almost an instinct about horses and he can explain WHY they do what they do in a wild herd and how to mimic that wild behavior to speak to the horse in a language they understand. He is very good at explaining the psychology of the horse and has worked wonders on several very dangerous horses, but again, most of what he does is on the ground, but not really in hand work, more round pen and developing the relationship through a shared language. Shy Boy is a mustang that he used to prove that his techniques work on wild horses outside of the round pen, he was barely handled when pulled off the range, then turned out with a nearly wild herd of domesticated horses for another year and not touched until Monty went out and cut him out of the herd to train him. I can't remember the time line exactly, but I believe in less than a week, they had his first rider on him and rode him off the range.

Once I had the understanding from Monty, I would use Clinton's method to do the training. Clinton knows what works and is good at telling you exactly what to do when, but I'm not sure how much he understands WHY it works, that's why I say to learn from Monty, then use that understanding on Clinton's method to make it make even more sense to you.

 

[Eggsoteric]

Okay cool.

Oh yeah, Clinton Anderson was the basis for my "horse training" if it could be called that

he's really the only pro horse trainer I know anything about

But if you would PM me links and videos (so they don't get lost), that would be awesome

A good book to pick up is "True Horsemanship Through Feel" (Bill Dorrance). Another personal favorite clinician/trainer/author of mine is Mark Rashid. And, just as an aside, if you want to learn about conformation, Dr. Deb Bennet's "Principles of Conformation Analysis" is a great read.

 

[PeepersMama]

See if you can find some stuff by Buck Brannaman too, I like Clinton Anderson, but I personally prefer Buck over any other horse trainer out there

I'll look up some of his stuff. I've heard good things about him, but I don't know anything about his training methods - yet

Monty Roberts wants to be the horses friend, he gets respect, but not to the point that I am comfortable with, Parelli REALLY wants to be the horses friend, and if the horse doesn't want to do something when you ask, that's fine, ask again later. That's one reason that his stuff is called "games" you don't force a friend to play a game with you, you ask if they want to and if they say no, then you drop it... I don't want my horse telling me "no, I don't want to step off of your foot, try asking me again in a few hours" I want an immediate "yes ma'am!" when I ask them to do something. Before I found Clinton I thought that the natural horsemanship was a bunch of cool tricks, but it wasn't TRAINING...

If I were to pull a mustang off the range, I would read all of Monty Roberts' books and watch Shy Boy, he has almost an instinct about horses and he can explain WHY they do what they do in a wild herd and how to mimic that wild behavior to speak to the horse in a language they understand. He is very good at explaining the psychology of the horse and has worked wonders on several very dangerous horses, but again, most of what he does is on the ground, but not really in hand work, more round pen and developing the relationship through a shared language. Shy Boy is a mustang that he used to prove that his techniques work on wild horses outside of the round pen, he was barely handled when pulled off the range, then turned out with a nearly wild herd of domesticated horses for another year and not touched until Monty went out and cut him out of the herd to train him. I can't remember the time line exactly, but I believe in less than a week, they had his first rider on him and rode him off the range.

Once I had the understanding from Monty, I would use Clinton's method to do the training. Clinton knows what works and is good at telling you exactly what to do when, but I'm not sure how much he understands WHY it works, that's why I say to learn from Monty, then use that understanding on Clinton's method to make it make even more sense to you.

Now Monty Roberts rings a giant gong. He's pretty cool.

Have any of you guys ever had a successful "join up" roundpen session? Because in SIX YEARS I have NEVER even come CLOSE to a legit join up. Ginger comes into the middle when if turn my side to her, but it isn't really because she wants to hang out. She's just lazy

 

[abigalerose]

Out of the trainers we're talking about Monty Roberts, Clinton Anderson, Buck Brannaman and Parelli, I like Buck the best because he's sort of like a middle man, he's not as serious and "horses are only made for working" like Clinton but definitely not as... different? As Parelli lol. He also doesn't call his training a "method" which I like, because all of these trainers tend to use the same concepts and I don't like how Clinton always brags about his method working better than others, when it's quite similar to a lot of others. He's good but he's just too much for me lol. I can't get on board with a trainer if I get annoyed watching them. And Clinton and Parelli annoy me. I love good ole Buck, some of his stuff may be harder to find than others, but you should watch his movie on Netflix sometime.
Same goes with Rick Gore on YouTube, he's good and all but I cannot handle watching his videos.
But regradless, just find the style that works best with you and your horse!

I'll look up some of his stuff. I've heard good things about him, but I don't know anything about his training methods - yet
Now Monty Roberts rings a giant gong. He's pretty cool.

Have any of you guys ever had a successful "join up" roundpen session? Because in SIX YEARS I have NEVER even come CLOSE to a legit join up. Ginger comes into the middle when if turn my side to her, but it isn't really because she wants to hang out. She's just lazy

Yes all the time! June always joins up with me and drops her head and chews, and there's always such a strong connection after that, like we can do anything together. I've had join ups with some of my other horses too but some of them I could never make it happen with.
Are you sure she's just being lazy? Sometime it seems like June is being lazy because she walks slowly to the middle but she's just relaxed, and as for the turning away from her, when you do that you're releasing the pressure and opening yourself up and inviting her in, body language says a lot! I always turn slightly at the end of lunging and relax one of my legs and June comes right to me