Clinton Anderson from Downunder Horsemanship has developed a way to train horses, regardless of their past problems or traumas. It all begins with training the owners to gain their horse’s respect and understand how to control them properly. Join Clinton on his weekly endeavors of tackling some of the most challenging situations with problem horses and problem owners. This week, we hear about a valuable lesson learned from Clinton Anderson Method Ambassador Rick Badousek—quit your horse before he quits you.
Rick starts this episode by telling viewers about a valuable lesson he learned from Clinton when he was studying at the ranch. The lesson? Quit your horse before he quits you. A lot of times, horsemen get so focused on an exercise and doing it perfectly right away that they end up frustrating their horse. Perfecting an exercise will rarely, if ever, happen in one or two lessons. With some horses, it can take a really long period of time. In fact, some horses need a week or longer before they really get the exercise down to the point that you feel like they’re giving it their best effort and can give them an A+.
Other horses may never reach that A+ status. It might just not be attainable given their athletic ability or genetic predisposition. Still, many horsemen will continue to drill on and try to teach the concept lesson. They’ll try to get their horse to reach that A+ level in the first lesson. If this is the way training is approached, you’re eventually going to lose everything you gained.
It’s just like what Clinton’s mentor Ian Francis says. Look at training your horse like putting a dollar in the bank. During every training session, you’ll put a dollar in the bank, leave it alone and let it draw interest. In other words, work at perfecting exercises a little every day.
When you introduce a lesson and keep drilling on it, pretty soon, your horse is going to throw his hands up and say, “I don’t know what you want. I give up.” And everything that horse had done before that moment is all going to go down the drain. It’ll be a pointless, wasted effort that sets you back to square one.
Another good example of this mentality is when you think about a colt. Say you’re riding a young horse working on loping sessions with the goal of building the horse’s confidence at the lope. Your overall goal will be to get the horse to move out in a relaxed manner with cadence to his feet while he stays on the correct lead. However, the first time you ask a colt to lope, he’s going to be all over the place and unsure of what you’re asking him to do. You’ll need to find a starting point and then build on it until he can lope in a straight line with cadence. If, when you first ask him to lope, you keep drilling on him to try to perfect the lesson, he’ll get frustrated and shut down on you. You need to quit him before he quits you. That’s the key to it all. You want to quit that horse when you’ve established a starting point, aka made a good deposit in the bank, and then let it accrue some interest. It’s as simple as that. Pushing a horse past his limit is only going to cause problems, but being able to see when it’s time to call it a day can help you master the technique and get the most out of your horse. So, just remember, quit your horse before the horse quits you.
Clinton Anderson has devoted the past 20 years to creating the best training tools and videos available to horsemen worldwide. The Downunder Horsemanship app offers over 100 hours of free in-depth training content. No Worries Club members will have access to Clinton’s ever-growing training library and many members-only features and information. The best part is that you can view and interact with each lesson on your mobile device or computer, giving you ultimate access to the Method anytime and anywhere.
To learn more about the Downunder Horsemanship training method, become a member of the No Worries Club, or get information on any of the products seen on our show, head over to our homepage and download the Downunder Horsemanship app today!
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