CLINTON ANDERSON ISN’T AN ***HOLE

There are so many ways Clinton Anderson could be described, but ***hole doesn’t quite fit the bill.

Although he self-labels himself an ***hole, “if your definition of an asshole is someone who tells the truth, speaks their mind, and is direct”, I think it misses the mark.

Besides calling himself an ***hole, Clinton Anderson also sits down with his media crew to voice his support for abusing horses, abusing children, ass rape, the death of female riders who annoy him and calling anyone not pursuing competition delusional. I probably missed a few points but he covered a lot of bases.

He is pretty much dead on. I was raised on a ranch, my first picture on a horse, I was in a diaper. Stud horses occasionally need to be reminded of who’s in charge, I remember one trainer who had a lady ask him how to make a stud horse quit raising hell in the barn, he said he wouldn’t tell her cause she wouldn’t like him anymore! Myself, I know how to do that! I grew up with trainers, riding cutters competitively, and sometimes you have to remind yourself that they are 1200 pound animals, and there isn’t much you can do personally that hurts them. It’s like your cat smacking you around.

There of course is no excuse for abusing an animal, but even less for letting an animal abuse you, which is what most of the beginners do. You aren’t doing the horse a favor either. These folks who have never taken a two-years old from pasture to competing at a high level have no business telling how they need to be trained with love and kindness, mostly they turn a good horse bad. This goes triple for a stud, which by the way, there are too damn many of anyway. At least 9999 out of 10000 should be castrated, if you want to breed good horses. That eliminates a lot of stud related problems.

Frankly, I thought it was a good ‘interview’. After raising Thoroughbreds & having some potentially life-threatening experiences with a “stud colt” I owned, I totally can relate & agree with everything Clinton is saying about ‘studs’ - discipline, not picking on them, rewarding good attitude, etc. They are usually always testing your boundaries.

As for the language he uses, I have never been in a barn yet (including my own) where “colorful” language wasn’t heard at some point of the day. For example, when a 1,000 pound horse steps on your foot, especially if they then lean on that foot, what comes out of your mouth is not likely to be “okay, that would be a major ouchie you’re putting on me here ... ummm, would you puhLEEZE get off my foot?” Similarly, dealing with studs, breeding mares, etc. does not usually result in language that sounds like the Queen at high tea although downright crudeness can be eliminated (at my barn, it was). Language choice tends to be based on your experience & what you will say for shock value (@ss raped tends to get one’s attention) ... some of Clinton’s choices are nothing I would say, but then I have my own vernacular.

I have owned horses since 1985. I rode endurance until a back injury in early 2005-—Not from a horse—and I have owned at least 12 horses in those years, 6 of which I bred & raised myself.

Some I bought when they were full grown, and I learned in a big hurry to be VERY careful who I bought a horse from & how that horse had been raised—including worming & getting farrier attention from birth. Endurance horses cannot compete until they are at least 48 months old-—by their actual birth date.

I have a coming 14 y/o Arabian stallion who was handled by 7 people within the first 2 hours of his birth. He was well imprinted and is still a very happy ‘friendly’ stud. He sired a colt foal for me & that one was mischief from day one. When he finally got a bit too pushy wanting me to ‘play’ with him at age 3 1/2 he got ‘brain surgery’ the next day. AKA=he was gelded. He grew up to be a very solid endurance horse, but he only grew out of PART of his mischief.

Anyone who owns, breeds, raised, handles, trains or rides horses has to always remember that they outweigh you by 4-5 times. They always have to accept the fact that YOU are IN CHARGE. I can get more with my voice than with a whip.

I don’t rescue horses for ANY reason. I don’t know their health backgrounds—nor how they were handled. I don’t need to get hurt trying to turn one around, when the other 6 depended on me to feed & water them EVERY day.

I have hauled horses as far east as southern Wisconsin & as far north as Wyoming & Idaho to do rides. I was living in Los Angeles at that time. My dually -454-1 ton Chevy 1976 truck has over 340,000 miles on it, I drove it over 250,000 miles. I towed a 2 horse with my Buick station wagon until I found the truck I wanted.

I also have crewed for many other endurance riders, all around the western states, driving their rigs.

Since I raced a stallion for National endurance points in 1988, I learned to keep a jar of Vick’s in the trailer. On the rare occasion when another rider would double up with me to go to a race, we used the Vick’s in the nostrils of the stud to keep the travel quiet. Works wonders.

I rode the Pony Express Trail in 2001 with a number of other riders. 40 days—50 miles a day—2000 miles—8 weeks. I took 3 horses, and they were all double haltered & double tied whenever they were out of the trailer & tied to the sides. When I get this property sold & move to the Midwest, I will be double haltering both my remaining horses plus I will have a collar with a lead rope on the Stallion.

I also learned: NEVER wear any perfume or cologne around the horses. Some fragrances are really offensive to their noses & some are really stimulating. Same for men’s cologne. My old vet only used OLD SPICE—and he taught me NOT to use fragrances.

Keep your voice at a modulated level, and if you get excited, they will ramp up VERY quickly. IF you have children around horses—of any age—they have to be told sternly that they cannot use a high, squealing voice or make sudden movements. Both are spook reasons for a horse. A severe horse wreck can happen in less than 20 seconds.

It takes many miles of conditioning to prepare for an endurance ride. Most people use the ratio of 10 to 1 when starting a new horse. IF I want to ride a 50 mile ride, I have done at least 500 miles of training on an inexperienced horse that has never done endurance -—however, once I get “base” on a horse, they retain it for a very long time if they are kept in training. Then my conditioning rides would be about 50-60 miles a week, across 2 or 3 days. I was keeping 4 horses in training, so I had to balance them all out.

Endurance horses load easily, trailer well, camp well tied to the trailer, and eat & drink at every opportunity. They have a long useful life, if there are no accidents in their history. I have seen horses in heir 20’s finishing rides happy all the way.

I don’t have cable TV, so I have never seen Clinton Anderson, however, I know a number of people who think he is VERY SKILLED.

IF you want to be around horses or own a horse—you had better learn first how to handle one. They do have a brain of their own & anything can set them off. Snakes & lizards are some examples. Light colored rocks also qualify—and tumbleweeds—and and and.....

IF Clinton Anderson speaks bluntly—that is the way you have to be around horses. When I had a junior rider learning from me, I made sure that both he & his mother knew that if I said “DO-——or DON’T DO-——, I wanted instant compliance to my words & I didn’t want to hear “HUH? What? WHY?” His life or the life of the horse could have depended on his reactions to my orders. He learned quickly—because my tone of voice didn’t have room for his questions in the middle of a problem developing. We had to share trails with lots of other people & some of the mountain bikers were brain dead around a horse.

IF anyone is worried about the method of Clinton’s information being delivered—I sincerely suggest that you DO NOT get involved with horses.

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