In an effort to help customers make better informed decisions about the clinician or ambassador they send their horses to get trained to, Clinton has added an additional certification for Method Ambassadors. Moving forward, ambassadors who complete a colt starting course and receive a passing mark from Downunder Horsemanship will be certified to accept colts for training. The certification does not permit them to teach clinics or private lessons focused on colt starting. Teaching other horsemen the colt starting techniques is reserved for Professional Clinicians.
Downunder Horsemanship offers two levels of certification to teach the Method: Professional Clinician and Method Ambassador. Professional Clinicians are our highest level of certification. “These individuals have spent years studying with me at the ranch and can teach all aspects of the Method. To put it simply, whatever I know, they know and they have my full confidence in their ability to teach it,” Clinton says.
Our second level of certification is Method Ambassador. These horsemen are tested and have proved themselves capable of teaching and training horses at the Fundamentals level of the Method. “There is a huge gap between what a Professional Clinician is certified to teach and what a Method Ambassador has my seal of approval to teach, and rightly so,” Clinton says. “During the first block of the Academy, students focus on refining the Fundamentals and polishing their knowledge of the first level of the Method. They are required to bring horses to train that have already been ridden, and colt starting is not covered in detail throughout the course.”
As more horsemen turn to Method Ambassadors to train their horses and inquire about having their colts started, Clinton realized that he needed to take additional steps to ensure that customers are getting their needs met and that they and their horses receive the best experience possible.
“Just because a student receives certification as a Method Ambassador, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they have the experience to start a colt. If I don’t have full confidence in their ability to start one of my colts, I don’t want to recommend they start one of your colts either,” Clinton says. “My goal is for our customers to have 100 percent confidence in knowing that when they hire one of our clinicians or ambassadors they are hiring a professional who knows how to get the job done correctly.”
Currently, Downunder Horsemanship has 40 Method Ambassadors spread out around the United States as well as in Canada and Israel. Each of the horsemen has found their own niche market to share the Method with and teach the Fundamentals to. “For some ambassadors, starting colts has no place in their business plan, and I fully support their decision to not want to get certified to take colts in for training. There’s no pressure from the company for an ambassador to become certified to start colts,” Clinton says.
To make it easy for customers to tell if an ambassador is certified by Downunder Horsemanship to start colts, their certification will be noted on their profiles on the certifiedclinician.com website as well as in their listing in the quarterly No Worries Journals.
Method Ambassadors Certified to Start Colts
Rick Badousek – Queen Creek, Arizona
Christa Curry – Birmingham, Alabama
Sienna Demulling – Cave Creek, Arizona
Connie Harris – Stephenville, Texas
Mark Hernandez – Colorado Springs, Colorado
Dacoda Hiatt – Payson, Utah
Jamie Laird – Mart, Texas
Anna McCoy – Albany, Georgia
Addie McKee – Bloomfield, Iowa
Tammra Minteer – Afton, Wyoming
Brock Nelsen – Cody, Wyoming
Jeffery Reed – Trout Creek, Montana
Tracy Reed – Summerville, Oregon
Alexandra Sparks – Daphne, Alabama
Josh Standen – Cave Creek, Arizona
Hailey Trainer – Warner, Alberta, Canada
Ashley Wagstaff – Boise, Idaho
Brittney Watts – Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Cale Young – Statesville, North Carolina
