When Clinton discovered that the Loveland, Colorado Walkabout Tour groundwork student, George Hilgendorf, has spent 37 years in the USA military and is retiring in August, he wanted to do something special to reward the horseman. “I wanted to let George know that I appreciate his dedication and service to our country and that I recognize the sacrifices that he and his family have made throughout his career,” Clinton says.
The clinician decided to give George two tickets to this year’s Ranch Rally so that George and his wife could attend and is paying for their plane tickets to Texas. George is thankful for Clinton’s generosity and the lesson he received at the Walkabout Tour and shares his thoughts below.
“Hi all, George here, yes that ‘GEORGE.’ I wanted to say what a dream-come-true experience it was to have a 45-minute private lesson with Clinton, and oh yeah, 1,500 of my closest friends watching, too, ha ha. As usual, Clinton was spot on with what I was doing wrong, and my horse Payton quickly learned that there was a ‘new sheriff’ in town and he had her responding better in no time at all. Clinton gave me some great tips so that I will be able to become that ‘new sheriff’ here at home, too. Best of all, I didn’t even pee my pants! After retiring this August after 37 years in the military, I will have much more time to train our horses on a consistent basis.
With this experience came a bit of a glimpse behind the scenes of a tour, and I just wanted to say that Clinton works harder that anyone I have ever seen, all of his staff, too, and he deserves all the success that he has built with Downunder Horsemanship. I also wanted to again thank Clinton and Shana for this opportunity and to thank Clinton for his tremendous support of our military and for his extreme generosity to me personally.
See you all in Texas in October. God bless you, Clinton, and God bless America!” — George and Payton
