Once Bitten Twice Shy: How to Train a Dangerous, Dominant Horse

G'day mates, Clinton Anderson here from Down Under Horsemanship. You know what? Horses are a beautiful creature. They're smart, they're very graceful, they're strong, they're athletic. But there are times they can also be very dangerous. I don't truly believe horses are dangerous by nature, but they don't realize how big they are, they don't realize how strong they are. They move very, very quickly. When you can gain your horse's respect and learn how to control your horse, not only can you do it safely with your horse, but you can also get your horse to enjoy the time that he spends with you. My job or my core purpose here at Down Under Horsemanship is to inspire the dreams of horsemen. And I'm going to show you by understanding, by moving the horse's feet forwards, backwards, left and right and gaining that horse's respect, there isn't anything that you can't teach your horses. All you have to do, mate, to get tremendous success with your horse is follow the Down Under Horsemanship method. So listen, mate, sit back, relax, because we're going to inspire you with the method. She turned around, faced me, ears up, eyes zeroed in and came at me, knocked me down, hit me two or three times. She chewed me up a couple of places. I guess it was teeth that tore up my ear. And somehow when I got up, she turned and she kicked me. I recognized the look in her eye. You know, I could just see that evil, I'm going to kill you look. I do have doubt that is Clinton going to be able to fix her. 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. So Mackenzie, tell me about your horse, mate. Why did you bring this horse here today? Well, ever since she attacked my mom, I just don't feel safe around her. She was warned when she bought the horse that it was a kicker. I told her right there, don't buy the thing. Well, you know, we don't listen to mothers. I love her. I've had her for, you know, since she was a yearling. And I just, I don't feel safe doing anything with her. Now, has she ever tried to attack you or act aggressive towards you? Since she attacked my mom? Yes. I'm afraid to be around her. You know, she's turned and has been aggressive towards me. So you've really lost your confidence. Definitely. Yeah. I don't blame you for losing your confidence, mate. It's a very dangerous situation. I can't do anything with her anymore. Well, I know that I can fix the horse using the Down Under horsemanship method. What I'm going to do with this dangerous, aggressive mare is I've got to gain her respect by moving her feet forwards, backwards, left and right. My first challenge, though, is actually just getting her to be caught to where I can take her to the round pen to start the method. With her being aggressive and dangerous the way that she is, I know I'm going to have a hard time getting her caught. So my first thing is to stay safe for me first, keep her safe, get her caught, take her to the round pen so I can start the Down Under horsemanship method. When dealing with a horse like this, it's very important to maintain your safety. You know, they are 1,000, 1,200 pound animal. And if she attacks me, I'm going to come out in the wrong end of the deal. So safety first is the most important thing. OK, mate, let's go look at the horse and I guarantee we can help you with the method. I did have doubt. I mean, I've never seen anything like that. I've never seen an extreme case like that before. And I did have doubt that, is Clinton going to be able to fix her? Let me go in a little bit first, OK? So that if something bad happens, I can kind of keep her out away from us. You know, don't be surprised, Mackenzie, when you come back in here again and you get close to her that, you know, your emotions start coming back. You know, it's very traumatic for somebody to be attacked by a horse because when they get back around the horse, all that fear comes back to them again. I could see the look in her eye that I saw. The fear came back to me, you know, that feeling of stay back. And I thought, you know, there's just no way. To be honest, there was never a doubt in my mind that I could fix or train this horse. My only concern was how long was it going to take? I'm going to ask you to leave here right now. So that way, if it does get really dangerous, I know you're out of the road. OK, mate? OK. You just head on out. See there, she's acting aggressive right 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 featherlight 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. You know, I've been around him my entire life, and she was kind of my first little project, I guess you could say. And for her to have gone to my, you know, big accomplishment, basically, to acting this way, it's pretty hard to take. Pretty disappointing. Once I got in there, then I had to catch the horse, and catch the horse in a way that he wasn't going to bite me or attack me. I'm going to drop my halter and lead rope on the ground, and if she turns her butt to me, I'm going to start applying pressure to her. Right there. When she turned towards me, I took that pressure off. This horse wasn't being threatening and being aggressive because he felt insecure. He was being threatening and aggressive because he was dominating the human beings. See there, she's acting aggressive right there. There. That was better right then. There, I like that. See how I'm backing away from her? That's a good girl. That's good. That was a good one that time. You think of a horse as being, you know, this beautiful animal that's just, you know, for fun and enjoyment and, you know, but when they turn on you like that, it's a totally different perspective. Right there. Ah, that's really good. See her trotting up here? That's really good. That was the best one yet. So she's learning her first lessons of respect here. Do not run away from a human being and do not attack them. So if I can get up to her, I will. What I would like to do, right there. Horses are aggressive for two different reasons. Sometimes they're aggressive because they're threatened too much, and they feel like being aggressive is the only way to save themselves, okay? That's one way a horse is aggressive. The other way is by a horse is being taught to dominate human beings, and that's what this horse had learned. That mare knew that Mackenzie was fearful of her, so that just magnified that mare to take control. Right there. Her kicking at me? That's her saying, get lost. That's that aggressiveness coming back in her. I've never seen a horse act like that. You know, it just blows my mind. I'm going to reach my hand out here, and when she smells me, I'm going to retreat. Oh, I like that. I like how she followed me just then. I don't take my eyes off her. I don't trust her. She could turn and attack me like she did Mackenzie's mother. If I can just rub her on the neck here a little bit, just find a starting point, okay? Rub her on the face here. She's got to realize this. This is what I'm after. Now, this is very, very important now that you rub on her. This is where you do a little loving on them. This is where you show them that doing the right thing is a payoff for it. I felt like the mare made a lot of good improvements once we got her in the round pen. By creating movement, getting the horse to run, you're establishing that pecking order, okay? I'm trying to show the horse I'm number one, you're number two. I'm the leader, you're the follower. I can only do that by creating movement in his feet and then redirecting that movement. We're going to point, cluck, and then spank the ground. Now, see how she's kind of shaking her head and switching her tail there? She's kind of lazy, isn't she? See, she doesn't like the fact that we're moving her feet. That's why she was attacking you and your mother because she was trying to get your feet to move. It was frightening. I was holding on because I was anticipating her, kick it up, and I could see her attitude. What I'm going to ask her to do is change direction to the inside, Mackenzie. I'm going to hold my finger up and I'm going to imagine I'm pulling on the lead rope on that halter. I'm going to step out in front of her and then run backwards and hopefully get her to turn in towards me and give me two eyes. The more you chase them forward, Mackenzie, the more they want to look at you. Drive the hindquarters. I'm going to try her again near you. Ready? Step in front, now back, back, back, back. She turns into the fence, I'll quickly cut her off. The reason why I want to cut her off, Mackenzie, is I want her to realize that she's done the wrong thing. In front, now back, back. Turn into the fence, make a move. Try it again. Step in front, now back. Ah, good girl. Even though she made a mistake, it was only one. We're making progress. When she keeps two eyes on me, I want the horse to realize that she gets to have a rest. When she shows me her hindquarters and her butt, that's a sign of lack of respect. That means that she loses weight and she has to walk a little harder. Does that make sense? I want to catch her, but more importantly than that, I want the horse to catch me. Instead of me trying to catch her, I want her to catch me. When I can get the horse to think that the human being is the best deal possible, is the most rewarding option for them, now you're truly going to start getting a good relationship with your horses, okay? 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. Now that we've let her rest for a few minutes, it's time to go back and still continue on with the round pen lesson. What I'd like to do is get this mare to actually hook onto me and follow me around. So I'm going to apply a little bit of pressure to her hindquarters here, okay? There, when she looks at me, I take that pressure away. Now what I'm going to try to do is I want to walk around towards her hindquarters and I want her to actually swing her hindquarters away from me and face me with two eyes. There's a little bit right there, not much, just a start. Just kind of fit in her ears. Yeah, she's not sure what to do here. Yeah. Catch her eye, catch her eye, pressure her, pressure her, pressure her. See her kicking at me? Yeah. Okay, see how she just, see how she was shaking her head now? I'm going to go back and move her feet again, okay? When she has that horrible attitude, what do we do? Move her feet. We started getting control of her feet, forwards, backwards, left and right. She started using the thinking side of her brain and she started to realize that if you want to be aggressive and be a bad horse, life can be pretty uncomfortable. She got a little bootcamp, didn't she? Yeah. What I'd like her to do, Mackenzie, is follow me around and that when she finally does that, then she'll be really submissive. The reason I chased her away then is I'll live with a little bit of that head tossing, but then I felt like she was just taking it too far then. She kept it going. You know what I mean? Yeah. Move those feet. This is the attitude we're looking for now. Notice she's not shaking her head now? Yeah. Her attitude's a lot better. She's not perfect, Mackenzie, but she's a lot better. Yeah, she still seems kind of unsure when you walk up to her. She's unsure whether she should be submissive or aggressive. Yeah. You know what I mean? That's just repetition. That's just why it's going to take a few days of working with her to get her to completely submit to us. Good girl. It's important that I got this mare to move her feet and give us two eyes and respect us. What's even more important is that you are able to do it, Mackenzie, because even if you left this mare with us to train for the next two or three weeks, we could get her behaving really well. But if we send her back home to you and your mother, if you don't change the way you interact with her, she'll attack you again. It's a matter of time. It may not be for a month or two, but eventually she will do it. So I need to teach you how you can move her feet, gain her respect, so she'll never ever think about being aggressive again. Okay. You know, when I asked Mackenzie to come back in the round pen, I could obviously tell she was nervous, but I could also tell that she saw hope in what I was doing. She saw how I did it. She knew that I was right there beside her. I wasn't going to let her get hurt. And I could tell that she trusted me, but she was still a little, had lack of that confidence. That's normal. Once we, once I showed her how to move the horse's feet, she got confident very quickly though. Point, cluck. That's it. Now see how she's really shaking her head at you? Chase her, chase her. Run in there and spank her butt there. Do you notice that as soon as I put you back in, she's acting aggressive again, isn't she? Right. Run after her. Point, cluck, spank, whack her on the butt. It was kind of scary. You know, the fear came across me again because she had that attitude, that spark again. See that? Excellent. Ask her to change direction. Step in front, then straight back. Step, now straight backwards. Now send her the other way. Point, point. There you go. Make like an L shape out in front and then straight back. Ask her to speed up. The more I was messing with her, the more confident I was, I was becoming in messing with her because I could see, you know, this is, this is working. And why didn't I do this a long time ago? Yeah. Now, next time you ask her to step in towards you, Mackenzie, as soon as she looks at you, I want you to walk away from her, okay? So catch her eye, step out in front. Step out in front of her. Walk away, walk away. Turn away. Good girl. Excellent. Just stand there. The fear goes away and it's not something that's difficult to do. You know, it's easy to do. It's just a matter of knowing what to do and when and how and, but it's, and keeping it up. Fear comes from your brain saying, I'm not in control of the situation. I try to show people how to get control of their horse. And when they get control, they get confidence. When they get confidence, they're no longer fearful, mate, in that order. Now walk more around towards the hindquarters and lean forward like you're stalking her hindquarters. Lean your upper body forward, really forward. Hold your right finger up and look at her butt, not her head. Look at her tail. Look at her tail. There you go. Excellent. Move your stick a little bit towards her butt. Cluck to her. Keep walking towards her. Keep walking down the fence. Keep walking down the fence. Keep walking. Keep walking. Keep walking. Good girl. See how she's giving you two eyes? Yeah. Excellent. Now go in there and rub her now. Rub her. Excellent. Walk away towards me in an arc. You ready? That's it. Walk. I think this is a great place to quit her. She's in the center with you. She's got a nice look in her eye. Her eye looks very calm, just very gentle and very calm. And that's a good sign. It's like I have my horse back again. I can continue enjoying her. And it's like I've got what I started out with before. I don't have that evil, I want to kill you horse anymore. It's amazing. It's amazing. I love horses and I love being around them. And I have a tremendous amount of respect for somebody who has the talent that he has to do that. I hope you've enjoyed the show, mate. Next week, we're going to be bringing more of the Down Under Horsemanship straight to you, showing you how you can apply the method to your horses and achieve extraordinary results. Listen, Mackenzie, let's get going, mate. You've done an excellent job. Thank you. If you'd like more information, mate, on any of the products you've seen on today's show, click on our website at downunderhorsemanship.com and we'll send you a free catalog, mate.