Sat through the fool's clinic today at horse fair. I knew I wouldn't like him, but I was surprised how much I hate him. That poor 3 year old...yank crank pop yank crank. Then he struggled with a lead change- and as he's joKing as if it's funny, people laughed and I cringed. I was hoping the horse would dump him. The poor horse was so frustrated- and yet he kept up- the horse unable To swap behind to the right lead. Dumbass says "I know he's sound- I just had a vet look at him." When he finally switched to the other horse to demo his stops, I watched the helper hand walk the poor 3 year old at far end of The arena. His stifles were SO stiff, and the horse, IMO, was very visibly sore. I bet he was loped for a good 45 minutes. Oh, and at the beginning he said the horse was an awkward stage learning where his feet were. Dumbass, horses pretty well know how to lope and where their feet are...but it's hard to do with an unbalanced bag of potatoes on top keeping the nose to the chest. Ugh. My eyes are bleeding. And my ears are sore, and I'm disapointed in the positive reinforcement the asshole kept getting from the crowd.
I'm really glad I wasn't the only one! I kept laughing when he was on the 4yo, and he kept saying, "I'm gonna keep real light hand on him." Then, he would yank his hand up! How is that being light on that horse's mouth?!? I usually have a lot of respect for reiners because I feel it's like the dressage of the western world in that it was meant as a mean to get your horse to be ultra responsive at all times. Did anyone else think it was funny how he referred to the horses as "fresh" because he "didn't have a decent warm-up area to run them down in"? I don't "run my horses down" to make them behave, do you?
YES!!!!!!! And then after a spin he yanked and said "now I'll reward him." I thought- "is a yank a reward?" I don't lunge my horses to exhaustion- I'd like them trained- not broken. ETA: the horse wasn't looking so "fresh" to me. What disgusted me was the 45 minutes of loping. At one point when he did stand still, the 3 yo's right front knee was rocking. That sucker was exhausted...
I have no idea what "running down" is, but if it means turning them out in a secure something so they get their ya-yas out(some people call this free lunging, but there really is no lunging to it -- so maybe "running down" is a better term, I don't know), then yep, I certainly do that (that's on the project docket actually -- trying to work with a really fresh horse is like trying to take a 7 yo. on the first sunny day of spring we're going to stay indoors and work on memorizing multiplication tables -- probably not going to happen). I don't lunge really fresh horses (warming up a horse that needs to be warmed up without a person on is another story)...who wants to hold on to the careening wall of death at the other end of a 20' piece of rope? Not I (too old and sore for that shizz). Back on topic: that's too bad that it was such a bad experience -- although I suppose this may have been a lesson in what not to do??? (seriously, only knowledge of Al Dunning is that he's pretty big in the reining industry and is supposed to be pretty good, shrug).
Ahhhh dont get me started on Al D. Dosent surprise me he would use a pussy cop out like not having a good place to "warm up " his horses. Like most trainers and riders like him, if they don't have a climate controled,perfectly level, lump free arena...they bitch up a storm and use it like a crutch. I cant tell you how many times Ive heard riders blame the arena for a bad ride...makes me wanna grab some earmuffs and a violin!
TW you didn't buy his Western Horseman hackamore book did you? I'd like to look at it out of curiosity.
I caught the end of him, a little before he switched out horses since I sat down to watch the next breed demos. I saw enough and cringed the whole time. So did the ladies next to me, maybe it was one of you lol.
Sure, I'll lunge them within reason. My mare is 13yo and still needs a quick focus session of groundwork before getting on. It's the idea of going and going until they are on the verge of exhaustion that irks me.
Well its typical of his shit. The one guy, in my opinion rode with constant spur. Maybe it was my phone but was there something up with the breast collar on Ds bay horse? It looked like it was digging into his neck.
