World Equestrian Games? You Bet!

H&R: And U.S. breeders of reining horses…obviously, this should help promote our stallions and breeding programs to other countries and improve the market for U.S.-bred horses abroad?

CLINTON: No question. This is going to be a fabulous opportunity for Americans to showcase Western horses of all types, actually.

H&R: You mentioned learning from the world-class equestrians who’ll be there. Could you tell us more about that?

CLINTON:You can learn great things from any trainer, in any discipline. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to change your approach to follow theirs exactly. But say I see someone suppling a horse a certain way—a dressage rider, a reiner from Germany, whatever—and I realize I can use that to my advantage in my own training program. I’m constantly doing this…looking to others and learning from them, gleaning nuggets that will work for me.

Here’s a recent example: I bought a DVD featuring cutting trainer Boyd Rice—he’s won several million dollars and has been highly successful in his field. In the DVD, he said something I already say, but he said it in a way that was really catchy.

It had to do with backing up a horse when he’s being resistant. The horse is stiff, his head in the air. So Boyd uses his legs in the horse’s belly to unlock the horse’s feet and get him moving.

I do the same thing. What I say is, “When the feet stick, the head goes up, so use your legs to move the feet.” Most people’s instinct is to pull harder, but that just makes the horse more resistant.

But Boyd’s twist on it is: “I use my feet to move their feet.” Very clever! And easy to remember. It’s a great way for people to link their horse’s feet to their own feet and leg cues, so they’ll remember to use their feet (instead of their hands) when their horses’ feet stick.

This is a perfect example of why I buy educational materials from other people (and I’d be a fool not to, anyway—because I want them to buy mine, right?). That little phrase of Boyd’s, alone, was well worth the $100-plus I spent for the DVD.

And at WEG, of course, there’ll be endless opportunities to learn like this.

H&R: You’re always encouraging your customers to learn from anyone they can, not just you.

CLINTON: That’s right. I think it’s because I myself have always had a craving for learning. A passion for it. All the little things you find and adapt to make your own…that’s what keeps you constantly improving.

I tell people, never be afraid to ask someone how they do something. Always be humble enough to learn something new. Otherwise, it’s only a matter of time before your knowledge becomes outdated.

H&R: Any final thoughts?

CLINTON: To have all this fabulous expertise right here in the USA, in our own backyard—great trainers, horses, the trade show, all that goes along with an international event of this magnitude—is just an unprecedented opportunity. So it’s not the time to say, well, I’ll wait for the next time it happens. It might be a long wait before it happens like this again. Jump on it!

I guess my bottom line is that any person who has a horse or is genuinely interested in horses and doesn’t go…well, that person is just being foolish.