Clinton Anderson: Motivating a Slow-Moving Horse

Motivating a Horse that is Lagging Behind

Clinton Anderson from Downunder Horsemanship has a tried-and-true method for training horses. He believes that getting horses to behave is simple. The real trick is training the owners. To make sure that your horse is behaving, it’s important to gain their respect. To learn the Downunder Horsemanship Method, join us weekly to watch Clinton tackle some of the most challenging situations with problem horses and problem owners. In this week’s episode, Clinton shows us what we need to do to motivate a slow-moving horse.

Every now and then, Clinton has owners come in and tell him that their horse won’t walk fast enough—he just keeps lagging behind other horses on group trail rides. As with any problem, a horse that lags behind is an easy fix, to a degree, when the horse is  trained properly. To start, recognize why your horse is lagging behind the other horses. Most horses fall into one of two categories: 1) the horse is sorry-broke and lazy or 2) his natural pace is slower than the other horses in the group.

If your horse is falling behind the rest of the group because he’s lazy, the answer to fixing your problem is to work on establishing a good “go” button in the arena with transition-type exercises, where you get to practice a lot of go, then transition, then go, then transition, to get the horse good at taking your cue to move his feet seriously. Exercises to practice are One Rein Stops, Yield to a Stop, and Bending Transitions.

If the reason lies in your horse’s natural pace, you can make some improvement, but you’re probably not going to completely fix the issue. As Clinton reminds us, each horse has his own natural flow or style of walking. Some walk really fast, so it’s more difficult for them to walk slowly or causally. Others walk really slowly. It’s the same with people. Some of us tend to move more quickly. It’s difficult to break a natural habit with both people and horses. With that being said, you can improve your horse’s pace to a point. If you find that he’s lagging behind the group, squeeze his sides with the calves of your legs to cue him to speed up and trot to catch up with the other horses. When he catches up to the group, sit in the saddle and pick up on one rein to slow him down to the walk so that he’s following a safe distance behind the horse in front of him.

For the past 20 years, Clinton Anderson has devoted his life to creating the best training tools and videos to help bring his method you. But there’s one problem. You can’t bring your TV out into the arena. That’s why Clinton and his team have been working to develop a new platform to deliver the Method to you in a whole new way—one that brings 20 years of horsemanship and puts it in the palm of your hand. Clinton is proud to announce the release of his Mobile Method, a new Downunder digital experience. Through the use of an app, you’ll have access to digital training kits that can be downloaded directly to your mobile device or viewed on your computer. The Downunder Horsemanship app also offers over 100 hours of free, in-depth training content.

Now, the No Worries Club offers three ways to get the content you need, at the price you want. You can access all of the training material at three different levels and download them straight to your device. Our No Worries Club membership offers low monthly prices with up to 50% discounts on all purchases plus 8 digital videos per year, 4 digital journals per year, and access to the No Worries Club website. Our basic level allows you to purchase and download training content to your device at our standard price with no annual fee. For the ultimate experience, opt for a premium membership and you’ll get access to thousands of dollars of horse training instruction delivered right to your fingertips. Plus, with our new Mobile Method, you’ll get maximum results in minimal time.

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 today’s show, head over to our home page.