Don’t Expect Immediate Perfection

Clinton Anderson from Downunder Horsemanship has developed an effective method for training horses. It’s training the owners that poses a real problem. Join him as he tackles some of the most challenging situations with problem horses and with problem owners. This week, Clinton reminds us that training your horse requires ongoing patience, dedication, and time and you should never expect immediate perfection.

Clinton starts out with reminding us that it is virtually impossible for a horseman to experience perfection straight off the bat with a horse. It doesn’t matter how long someone has been training horses, how well trained their current horses are, or any other factor. Every horse requires fine-tuned training that is going to take time and repetition. It’s all part of the training process.

When you start a colt under saddle and you work with them every day, they seem like they make tremendous progress in the first 30 days. You’ll notice huge changes to their attitude, ability to make progress, and the respect they have for their owners. That period of time is when you’re making big chunks of improvement that are easily noticeable day in and day out.

However, after those first 30 days or so, those improvements aren’t going to be as noticeable. Don’t worry, if you’re following a training program, you’re still making improvements, but those improvements will be slower now and will continue to get slower as you progress. Eventually, you’ll only notice just a little bit of improvement as the weeks continue to pass. This is normal.

As an example, Clinton tells us that it takes him roughly two full years of solid riding, six days a week, to get a really world-class trained horse. That’s two years of dedication, daily training, and building a partnership together between a horseman and his horse. You have to be dedicated and put in the work to achieve this one step at a time.

Clinton asks his audience, “How do you get to the top of Mount Everest? One step at a time.”

The same mentality needs to be applied when training your horse. Every day, take one step. Clinton tells us that he’d rather see his horsemen taking one step every day consistently over three steps in one day and a “break” for the next four days. Horses need consistency and repetition to reach “perfection.” If you overwork your horse one day and then neglect to work with them for the next few days, you’re going to take one step forward and four steps back. Every single day that you take off is a step backwards.

Clinton Anderson has spent the past 20 years of his life devoting his time to creating the best training tools and videos available to horsemen all over the world. Unfortunately, you can’t bring your TV into the arena to watch videos. That’s why Clinton and his team have been hard at work developing a new platform to deliver the training in a whole new way, a way that brings 20 years of horsemanship and puts it in the palm of your hand. Now, you can access the mobile method and get everything at the touch of a finger.

Our Downunder Horsemanship app gives you access to your digital training kits and allows you to download videos and training content directly to your mobile device or view them on your computer. The Downunder Horsemanship app also offers over 100 hours of free, in-depth training content. You can access all the training material through three different levels by joining our No Worries Club.

To learn more about the Clinton Anderson training method, become a member of the No Worries Club, or to get information on any of the products seen on our show, head over to our homepage and download the Downunder Horsemanship app today!