Horse Guru

[lantairvlea]

I haven't been to all the clinic, nor read all the books, and definitely not seen all the videos, but I have nosed about the training philosophies of different ... we'll call them "Horse Gurus." These are not people who train horses for a specific event. Most of their experience seems to come from simply getting horses to "behave" and work well

Comments

[tabascokat]

Bob Avila: LOVE HIM all his ideas, methods, etc, all moulded around the particular horse, but to achieve the same goal (a well broke horse) but with the knowledge all horses are different.

Clinton Anderson: hate the man -he pushes the horses too far. his ideas are ok. on paper.

Parelli: is a great salesman. I think if he atually trained a horse, he would do good, but he has too many gimmics, and you have to have all his stuff, or you can't be in his club. He not *that* special he's good, yes, but he's turned into a bussiness for the money.

John Lyons: totally a "do it my way, or GO AWAY kind of guy. All horses have to fit into one training mold. I'm sure his mould is good for some, but bad for others.

Craig Cameron: does things the old fashioned way, minus the man handling. Good with horses, like him, too.

Dennis Reis: undecided
Chris Cox: undecided

[lantairvlea]

I view Bob Avila a little differently as he is in the show world and not just catering towards the "backyard" horseman. I agree that he has some good ideas, but I have a few sticking points as I read his articles (Horse & Rider), but I admit I'm not terribly familiar with his overall philosophy.

On Lyons that was my one sticking point, when he said in his book something along the lines of "your method has to work with every horse, if it doesn't work with every horse it's not right." Which really makes me scratch my head as it cuts out the individuality of each horse.

I think one of the things about doing clinics is that you have people expecting to get that "trained horse" in an hour or so, which often encourages the clinician/trainer to work faster than he should. I think if one wants a really fair view of how someone works on regular circumstances they should either see videos or go to their "home base," but that's hardly ever possible, especially with the pace some of them keep!

[tabascokat]

THe one clinic I have been to was a Parelli clinic, and so far as education, my mind was bored to tears. For the most part,it was a good show.
Except the "problem" horse really wasn't a "problem horse" at all, so that part was really boring.

[lantairvlea]

I've been to an Anderson clinic and I was in a clinic for a local guy here. I learned a bit from both of them, one being that even guys who profess to know a lot can miss something that I felt was obvious.

Yeah, "a good show" is one thing, but I think it really should be to teach people rather than just showing off what you can get a horse to do or promoting "your program," which I get the feel that is what some clinics have become.

[tabascokat]

Yeah, I mean, I really think Parelli is a good trainer, but he built a business, instead of stuck with training....that doesn't make sense....
I did pick up a couple little ways to adjsut things on the ground.
What so many people at that clinic seem to totally mis was that Linda P. Didn't just jump on the horse, and because they played "games" was able to do beautiful sidepasses, lead changes, jump, etc -that horse is trained. Really trained. THe games may build a bond (IDK about you, but I didn't need anyone to teach me how to paly with my horse, lol) but training takes place, as well.