Horse clinic

Went to my first Horse clinic, a guy I had seen before on RFD TV - Dennis Reis. If you've seen the guy with the big mustache, that's him.

I was thrilled to be going (even more thrilled that I got a free ticket, LOL!) - got there two hours early just to hang out and see what was going on. (Yes, I'm in baaaadd withdrawal by now - Hank doesn't even get shipped until sometime later this week).

It started kind of slow, but soon he was working a problem 2 year old Paint in a round pen who was starting to strike at people and threaten his owner. Dennis did really well with him, even rode him for the first time that the colt had been ridden. He had one of his advanced students keep on trying to desensitize the colt to a blanket and saddle while Dennis answered questions. Danged if everytime the guy blanketed him the colt didn't lay his ears straight back - everyone is watching this go on behind Dennis as he answers questions.

At the lunch break, he's answering more questions, so I approached him and asked "okay, so now where do you go with this colt?" His response was somewhere around "Hey look, this colt came here with these problems, I didn't give them to him." I was so taken aback that I nearly stuttered- "Oh, no - of course not, I just wondered what a next step would be!" The owner of the colt who was standing beside me, brought up the fact that she had imprinted him birth and Dennis started talking about how it was a mistake that anyone could have made and next time it would better - he thought the colt believed he was a human and wasn't taking any crap from them. Okay.

After the break, he had his (wife?) imaginary round-pen her Arab while he drove a herd of stallions around him, counter to him, nearly through him. Both the Arab and Deborah did a fabulous job, I would've died. He also had Deborah and another student round up the other horses while on their horses reinless. They did great - you should have seen Debra ridding at a full canter with nothing in her hands but these two sticks, they use, the Arab's tail floating behind - she looked like a centaur. I was in awe.

Then came question & answer time again. Someone, of course, said "So, now what do you do with the colt?" The defenses came right back up - "Blah. blah, blah - you guys don't understand that my head is on the chopping block everyday.....blah blah blah ... I don't PICK these horses, I screen Nothing!..." until he finally got to the part about the imprinting, and then (slightly lower level) explained that it was something that you don't concetrate on, don't keep picking on the problem, just keep on moving on.

Then for the finale, he took a problem mare (ooo, she was a pretty little buckskin...) and laid her down in the arena - very nicely, very quietly. It was tres impressive.

The second part of the clinic starts in an hour.... I guess I'm going to go and see if there's some more I can pick up, but the guy's behaviour over the colt, his harranguing of his people over a bad sound system (this went on throughout the entire show) really left a bad taste in my mouth. And, of course, there's the constant pitch to buy his books and DVD - for just under $1000. It may well be worth it - he undoubtedly knows his way around a horse, no question, but that price is incredible. Shew.

I'll report back with the second half....