Clinton Anderson

I can see why people like him.  He's funny informative and entertaining at the same time.  Steve and I went to the Walkabout Tour that was being hosted up in Denver.  I'd received a complimentary invite to the event which included tickets to the Saturday and Sunday event.  I was skeptical it was actually free but we headed up anyways...what could it hurt?  We got in, and I received our two tickets for Saturday and Sunday.  Guess you do sometimes get things for free in life!!  I immediately called Laurie to see if she wanted to have the tickets for Sunday since I knew I wouldn't be heading up for it.  She sounded excited about the prospect, I regretted the last minute notice but that last thing I wanted to do was tell her she could have the Sunday free tickets and then realize when I got there Saturday that there was a big catch.

Anyways we arrived during a break so ended up walking around at the vendors.  The had a lot of tack and supplies, most looking western so not much interest to me.  Automatic waterers and feeders, so what I will invest in once Steve and I have property.  Then we saw a nice trailer that I got all excited about since I thought it was up for raffle.  Nope, the raffle was for some brake gauge for the trailer.  Well I don't have a trailer so no need entering that raffle.  We found some seats and got ready for the demonstrations.

The first demo was a mare that needed some work in round penning, she didn't like to move off and was difficult to catch.  Clinton went over some of the basics that you need when starting on ground work with a horse.  His main goal was to get the mares eyes on him rather than her heels facing him.  His first step was to get the mare's feet moving, so he kept working to get her at the canter.  Next he worked on changing directions, then consistently changing directions.  He then worked on getting the mare to turn into him...I really should have written this all down but it made sense.  I might have to purchase a book or two.

We had lunch and then went to find new seats since we were surrounded by people with little kids talking, playing video games or kicking the back of our seats.

The next horse was a handsome Quarter horse that Clinton worked on with manners.  The horse barged into his owners space all the time and wasn't good at keeping the pace she wanted...he jigged a lot more that walk or trot.  He worked him on the lunge and constantly changed directions with the horse to get him to start thinking.  Then he taught asked him to canter using just a hand signal but it took effort to get the message across.  He taught us that horses learn from the release of pressure.  He then worked with lead rope tossing over the horse, whips on the ground....basically desensitising the horse to these things to make them more steady.  It was really interesting.  Hopefully Laurie made it to the Sunday one with no problems.  I should read up on his books or view his videos sometime.  I'm having trouble remembering what he talked about since I didn't write it down but I'm not planning on training a horse anytime soon!