I am SO EXCITED! Clinton Anderson is coming to Katy, TX for the weekend for his tour. It is a two day event and both Matt and I are going to be able to go. Dana is so gracious to fly in and watch the kids for the two days. I cannot say thank you enough, Dana! :) I love you!
Above is Clinton and his horse Diez. I hope Leo and I will have the same kind of respect and friendship that Clinton and Diez have. Sounds REEEALY cheezy I know, but if you only understood the passion between human and horse then you would know how I feel. :)
Some people don't understand Clinton's Method when training horses. Before the friendship, there has to be respect. If the horse doesn't respect you, you are more than likely going to get kicked, thrown, bit or worse. You have to establish that you're the leader and the horse is the follower. You also have to think that this is an 800-1200 pound animal and if you don't establish that leader position, they will walk all over you...sometimes literally. Everything that Clinton does is the same thing that horses would do while in the herd. It's all about body language. Let me just give you and example.
If a horse wants you to move out of his space, he's going to:
1) look at you and pin his ears back (That's your first warning)
2) put his neck low, still pinning his ears, and comes at you
3) turn his butt towards you, saying if you don't move now, I'm going to kick you
4) alright, you didn't move so WHACK!!!! Then you get kicked and more than likely end up in the hospital.
That's why you have to establish that leader position. When a horse always faces you with 2 eyes, he respects you and knows that you're the leader. If he begins with number 1, you are going to whack him along the neck with the handystick (what Clinton has above) to tell him that you will not tolerate that kind of attitude. You want to catch the first warning before it escalates. It's no different than another horse kicking at him for doing that. People think that it's abuse, but it's really not. It's not like you are consistently whacking him for it. It just takes one good time and usually the horse will understand it. There may be some instances with a truly stubborn and dominant horse that you will have to whack them a few times b/c they continue to try and be dominant. I mean, think about it. That horse is telling you he's going to come at you and kick you. I am around 130 and if a horse, that's roughly 1000 lbs starts coming at me like that then you're damn right I'm going to whack him across the face or neck to get his attention to get out of my space and to NOT come at me like that again. Horse on horse do a lot more damage to each other than lil ol' me against a horse. Just sayin'. :)
Don't think I'm being harsh. I'm not. I am compassionate and totally loving when it comes to horses. Leo and I do wonderful when we work together. He's a pleaser. There are just some horses that are more stubborn and pushy than others and will try to take the leader position whenever possible. That's why you always have to be paying attention when around or working with horses. You have to "match the punishment with the crime." If a horse is using his shoulder to push into you, nothing aggressive, just leaning into you you take your handystick and start gently tapping him on the neck and increase the pressure of the tapping (harder) then release the pressure as soon as he quits leaning into you with his shoulder. Not everything is harsh or hard. It's just when they do the very disrespectful actions that have a harsher punishment. Yet, when you've made your correction to whatever "crime" it was, you let it go and move on from it. You can't get angry or frustrated. Horses can sense that and it, in a sense, is a form of weakness.
Well, I am going to get ready for bed. Enough of my horse ranting. :) Can't wait for the morning. There will be pictures and videos! :)
♥ K
