Clinton Anderson Presents Running Scared: Training An Aggressive Horse

Most horses, if they show any kind of aggressive tendencies, usually you can nip it right in the butt. But Jack, Jack's special. He's in a class of his own. I tried training him for a couple of weeks. He just kept getting more aggressive, more aggressive. Once you've got a horse that's aggressive, you better start thinking about how you're going to correct that pretty quickly. On several occasions, Jack would dive at me. It's basically like a thousand pound dog, but now he's aggressive and wants to bite you. I decided that I needed to build something between me and Jack so he couldn't get to me. But it sure didn't take him long to figure out that round bale figure. He chased me out of the round pen pretty aggressively. I threw in the towel. I said, I'm done. He needs somebody bigger and better than me to train him. I'm Clinton Anderson, and I have a method for training horses. Getting horses to behave is simple. It's training people that's the real trick. Join me as I tackle some of the most challenging situations with problem horses and with problem owners. My name's Kim Powers, and I've been riding horses since before I was born, and I've been training horses since I was 18, 20 years old. And I've been training and riding, competing ever since. Everything from English, Western, rodeo, extreme cowboy racing, pretty much anything you can imagine. Jack and I have a little bit of history. He's four years old now, and I'm a professional barefoot trimmer, and I actually trimmed him as a yearling. And he was a little bit naughty, but just typical young horse stuff. And then I didn't see him for a couple of years. He was basically a pasture pet. And then the owner decided to send him for training, and that's what brought us to now. Most horses, if they show any kind of aggressive tendencies, usually you can nip it right in the butt. But Jack, Jack's special. He's in a class of his own. Since Jack was basically a pasture pet for two years, nobody asked him to do anything. In his mind, he got more and more powerful over humans. On several occasions, Jack would dive at me. I decided that I needed to build something in the middle of the round pen, so I had something to get behind, and putting something between me and Jack, so he couldn't get to me. And so I decided, huh, I'll just put the round bale feeder inside the round pen, so I have something to duck behind. But it sure didn't take him long to figure out that round bale feeder. He would lunge at the round bale feeder and actually hit his chest on it, teeth bared trying to get at me. One of the times he attacked me, I was just standing here talking to someone else, and he just came running at me for no reason. When I was asking him to stand there, he chased me out of the round pen pretty aggressively. So after that, I threw in the towel. I said, I'm done. He needs somebody bigger and better than me to train him. So let me see if I get this straight. We have a horse that basically is disrespectful and dominant and has the upper hand on human beings. We have an owner that's frightened of the horse and wants nothing to do with trying to get into this situation and fix it herself. We have a trainer that wants to help the horse, is willing, but she's out of knowledge and she's frustrated. When you add those three things up, you know what you have? You have a very volatile cocktail situation. It's not if somebody gets hurt, it's just when and how bad it is. So Kim, why am I here, mate? Well, I've had Jack in. He's been here for about a month, but I gave up training him two weeks ago because his aggression seemed to get worse and worse and worse, and I've run out of the knowledge that I need to deal with it. Jack is just a special case. I don't know what to say about him. He's got me baffled. Hopefully Clinton can knock the attitude out of him and we can continue his training without getting killed. So this is the horse here, correct? Yep. What's his name? Jack. Jack, okay. You know, horses by nature are not aggressive animals, but it just starts in little inclements, okay? Like the horse will kind of pin his ears back at the owner or take a nip or take a bite, and that owner moves away from that horse or doesn't correct that horse. Then that behavior gets worse and worse and worse until eventually the horse is literally chasing the owner out of the pen and dominating the whole situation. First thing I've got to ask you here, Kim, what is that in the middle of the round pen? Because I've got to tell you, I have never seen this situation right here. What is that? That is a round bell hay feeder to basically duck behind. Oh, because it's a barrier. This is like a cage for you. So instead of you putting the lion in the cage, you were kind of getting it outside of the cage to try to protect yourself, okay? So the first thing we've got to do, mate, is we've got to get this out of here because I can't train him effectively if I can't move around the round pen. I understand why you did it, but I've got to get it out of here, mate, because unless I can move his feet, I can't gain control of the horse. I want to go in there right from the beginning and establish my leadership between me and him. Or for lack of a better word, let's just cut to the chase, dominant. He is so far down on my pecking order, it's not even funny. Because remember something, it's not if this horse hurts or seriously injures somebody, it's just when this happens. So make no mistake, this is kind of a little bit of a life-threatening situation here. Verify ready to resume count and go for launch. The first thing I need to make clear in this situation is that we've got a very aggressive horse here that's got away with this habit for a long time. So when I walk in this round pen, I'm going to start gaining control of his feet and establishing that respect by moving his feet forwards, backwards, left, and right. When he's starting to do what I want him to do and he's behaving well, I want to get out. I don't want to keep annoying him and do it over and over and over again. Horses don't learn from pressure, they learn from the release of pressure. Us leaving him alone is the greatest reward he could have. Let's get in there. Clinton's bigger and better than me and if he can't help Jack, I don't think anybody can. So straight away, I'm gonna ask his feet to move. Point, pluck. Move those feet. When I say move, you better move now. Once you've got a horse that's aggressive, you better start thinking about how you're going to correct that pretty quickly. I want him to realize I'm deadly serious. Jack was probably thinking, holy crap, who's this Australian? Right now, he's figured out that I'm not normal. This is a whole different boxing match than what he's used to. Too slow. Move. Right there. He pinned his ears at me right there. The horse definitely had a change in responding to Clinton's more aggressive black and white behavior. You could see that change in his eye. Change direction. Step in front. Back. Ask him to lope. I pointed in the air and he didn't lope. The thing that I had to really get across to Kim was to be black and white. Don't turn your butt towards me. One good whack is better than a thousand little taps. If you're going to get in there and spank one's butt, get in there and get the job done and be done with it at that point. Better. Loped. Then ask him again. Better. I like that one better. Notice those two times I didn't smack him on the butt. Good boy. See him licking his lips? I love that. See how his ears have pricked forward? What do you think he's thinking right now, Kim? Holy crap. He's thinking, holy crap. What is wrong with this guy? He's on crack. That's good. I want him wondering if I'm on crack. Right. Because that's the opposite of him wondering if he's going to kill me today. We've rattled his world a little bit, haven't we? Good boy. See, I'm actually a pretty good friend of yours, but you've got to give me two eyes, not two heels, but not two eyes and run over me. Not bite me, not chase me. And now I'm going to do something he's not expecting. I'm going to walk away. And so you know what? You did a good job. Let's get out. Kim, I went in there and said, this is a whole new ball game. I'm not your typical opponent. I'm somebody a whole lot different. So when I said, move your feet, I went and made it when? Now. Move your feet now. Not in two seconds, not in three seconds. And if he didn't, I got so far up his butt, he didn't know what to do with himself, did he? Anytime you saw me whip his butt, it's because I said, move your feet. And he said, what? No, I don't want to. See punishment works on dogs and husbands, but it doesn't work on horses. So even though I whacked him, that's not to Now I'm sure there's a few true huggers that are watching the show right now, but saw me whack him on the butt 10 times and say, oh my God, I can't believe he just whipped that horse on the butt. But if he would have grabbed you around the throat and stomped on you and threw you into the ground and you went to hospital, do you think he would have called you that night and said, Kim, how are you feeling? I feel terrible that I just stomped you into the ground, ripped your throat out. Do you think he would have sent you flowers? Do you think he would have sent you a card? He wouldn't have cared one little bit about you, would he? Okay, Kim, we're going to take it to the next level. Are you ready to come in there with me? Check out our latest catalog from Down Under Horsemanship. It's filled with beautiful imagery and in-depth information on all the products used in this show. Visit our website or call this number and we'll send it to your door free of charge. Okay, Kim, we're about to go back in there again. You know, he's got your number. Would you agree? You're intimidated by him. You're a little scared of him. Well, I'm nervous because he's almost gotten me before, but I know Clinton's going to be in there with me and we'll get the job done. But I need you to kind of suck it up a little bit now. You know what I mean? I need you to kind of grow some balls and step in there and say, right, I'm in control now. Don't go into a dog fight acting like a chicken because you'll get eaten. Go into a dog fight acting like a dog. That doesn't mean that I want you to go in there and beat the snot out of him. It means that I want you to go in there and be a leader. And when you say move those feet and he doesn't move it, you're going to come undone like a crazy woman on crack. And he's going to say, holy crap, she's just like him. Is there a lot of crack going around the neighborhood? Because both these people are on it. Let's get going, mate. Okay, what I want you to do now is you go around Penny Mouse. So point, ask him to go around to the left first. Point up to the height of the left. Point, cluck. Come on, get in there. What's going on? Now, when you pointed just then, Kim, what did he do? Just looked at me. Did he go anywhere? No. Come on, let's get going. Point, where's your point? You can fix a horse's aggressive behavior, but if you put that horse back into an environment where the human being is scared of the horse, it will eventually go back to the way it was and it'll go back to attacking you again. Come on, get in there. Now just relax. I want you to go from a nice, relaxed woman to a crazy woman on crack. You understand me? Yep. It's a big workout for both of us. Jack definitely makes me want to do more cardio. Come on, get in there. Come on, I don't see you getting in there like you mean business now. Point, there. Yeah, right in there. See how he pinned those ears at you that then? See, he just gave you that eating guy look, didn't he? What'd you do when he did that? I wasn't aggressive enough. You did nothing. I had to step in there and kick his ass for you. That's what I'm getting at. He knows you're back in the pen. He just gave you a signal and said, I hate you. What are you going to do about it? You did nothing. When he turned his head and pinned his ears at us, he said, you better do something about this because I'm about to jump down your throat. Right then and there is when I ran in with the whip and I whipped him on the butt and said, get going. Because what he was doing is he was warning her, hey, I'm about to charge you. I'm about to run over you. Ask McKenna. Come on. What's he doing now? What's he doing now? Come on. He's pinning his ears at you. Get in there. Come on. There, leave him alone. Good girl. Right. Let's talk about that a little bit. It's not go when you want to go. When I say go, oh, I love that. What happened then when I pointed just then? Much more reaction. He jumped like his life depended on it. Guess what? It does. I want him to think if I don't move, he might just kill me. He's that crazy. Okay, Kim, if you're about to step in there now by yourself, I need you to be confident. I need you to be a leader. Don't step in there like you're going to get your ass whipped. Okay? I want you to be confident. I want you to get in there and I'm going to talk your way through it. Okay? If there's any problems, I'm going to step in there and help you. Ask him to Canada, point up high. Cluck. Come on. Be a lot more serious about this, Kim. Ask him to look. When I got in there by myself, I didn't see the penny eared and he was much better behaved. Quicker turns, much more submissive. I responded differently with a horse, a little quicker. It's kind of hard not to when Clinton's yelling at you. Point. Keep pointing. Now quit on that. Catch his eye and get him to come into it. Walk away from him. Good girl. Good girl. Just stop there. Step up your horsemanship with the Clinton Anderson Method. Now available in a complete set. Fundamentals starts you on your journey to ultimate control. As you learn to communicate with your horse, earn his trust and respect, and gain control of his body. Intermediate opens the door to ultimate performance. As you build on your knowledge to create a safe, willing, and supple partner, you control with a feather light touch. And now, all new, advanced, delivers ultimate inspiration to fine tune your application of the method and reach the highest level of horsemanship. Clinton Anderson offers you the ultimate collection of his wildly popular training method kits at a packaged price. When I originally saw the footage of Jack, you know, he looked very aggressive. He was very penny eared, very dominant, very much in control of the situation. But I also saw a horse that I don't truly believe wants to be like that. He's just learned to develop those habits over time. You know, I also saw a horse that if you could get in and get him to do what you want and get out quickly and reward him, he won't want to naturally be like that. So I felt like there was definitely hope for this horse, but you had to address the problem in a step-by-step fashion, be very black and white, and get the job done. I think it's really important to Jack gets past this. If he doesn't get past this, I'm afraid that he's going to hurt someone or end up being euthanized because no one can handle him. Good girl. Keep walking. Just relax. You're doing great. See, now he's being submissive, isn't he? Yep. Now you're the leader. He's the submissive one. Now go back to the middle and just rub him there. Just rub him there. Reward him, Kim. There, rub him a little bit. See, what Kim's got to realize now is it's okay for her to be gentle and love on him, but he's got to be submissive. He's got to have that submissive attitude, what he's got right now. I don't want him to think Kim's the bad one, but I want him to think that if he's disrespectful and aggressive, she will kick his ass. There's no doubt about that. But right now, she needs to love on him a little bit because he's done good for her. Now, you get your stick and string and just flog him with a little kindness there. Instead of flogging him with anger, let's flog him with a little kindness. Let's desensitize him. Clinton definitely helped me get over my fear of this particular horse. I've worked with a lot of horses, but this guy really got me. Kim was definitely frightened of the situation, and I don't blame her. Having a horse attack you and chase you and try to kill you can be very frightening. There's no doubt about that. So I give her a lot of credit for wanting to get on top of this situation. But the horse had already smelt that blood in the water, so to speak, too. He knew he had her number. So it was extremely important that when she worked with him, that she was black and white. She had that confidence in her body language. She looked like she was a leader. This has been just an incredible experience for me. I've been a Clinton Anderson fan since 2004, and it's just really incredible for him to fly all the way up to Michigan to help me and help Jack and Jack's owner. We'll continue to work with him and see where he ends up. I think the cattle feeder will be getting filled with hay. In 26 years of doing this for a living, I've never seen a roundabout feeder be used as a protective barrier to stop a horse attacking you. But I give Kim credit because it's called use your imagination. She had to be safe, and that's what she felt like she needed to do that. Number one rule in my method is what? Safety first. For you first, then your horse. Remember, you can't train the horse if you're dead. You have to survive the experience first, train the horse second. Kim, I want to thank you for, first of all, having the courage and the open-mindedness to come and get some help. The change in Jack, you could definitely see that, you know, there's a new sheriff in town, and hopefully I can be a deputy. You're going to learn from these mistakes now. You're going to learn to make sure that the next horse you ever get in training that's aggressive, you're going to nip it in the bud, aren't you, and not let it develop so bad to where it's this bad. Matter of fact, I'm not going to be the deputy. I'm going to be the new sheriff in town. So when Clinton goes back to Texas, this horse will still be good. It's absolutely everything to gain your horse's respect. Remember, you can't afford to have a 1,000-pound animal get disrespectful and dangerous like this one was today. Kim did an excellent job, she gained her horse's respect, and she followed my method. Well, mate, it's time for us to find the next problem horse down the road. See you next week.