Mr Versatile. ...Rides Again l FEATURE ARTICLE l

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Mr Versatile. ...Rides Again l FEATURE ARTICLE l"

Tyrone Waters
5 years ago
Views:

1 l FEATURE ARTICLE l Mr Versatile...Rides Again... ARTICLE: MARYANNE LEIGHTON ~ PHOTOGRAPHY: DOWNUNDER HORSEMANSHIP The world s leading clinician, Australian-born Clinton Anderson, with his Aussie mentor and friend, Ian Francis 30.

2 FEATURE ARTICLE Master cutter Ian Francis is a horseman of many talents and many more achievements. He is a trainer of international repute who is often described by his peers as the best all-round horseman in the world. The cutting fraternity knows little about Ian outside the cutting pen. Cutters are mainly familiar with his three NCHA Futurity wins and three reserves, his NCHA Derby win plus the scores of regional cutting futurity and derby champions that he has produced. But he has done so much more. Over his thirty-year career Ian has won almost every equestrian event that exists. He has trained polocrosse horses, hacks, dressage horses, Arabians, Warmbloods, Shetland Ponies, Australian Stock Horses and all the Western breeds, and has won every type of class he ever entered. He racked up wins in an unbelievable number of challenges, championships and futurities, including five NRHA Reining Futurities and four Reserves, another four NRHA Reining Derbies and four Reserves, four NRCHA Reined Cow Horse Futurities and seven Reserves, two Cloncurry Stockman s Challenges, two-year-old, three-year-old and four-year-old Widgee Stock Horse Futurities, and two-year-old, three-yearold and four-year-old Monto Stock Horse Futurities. Ian was the first Aussie trainer to win $100,000 in reining competition and he trained and showed countless Royal Show Champions, AQHA National Champions and All Breeds Futurity Champions in halter, western pleasure, hack, bridle path hack, western riding and versatility. His cow horse futurity champions often did double duty as reining futurity champions and they frequently competed in halter and western riding at the same time. If that isn t enough, Ian won the International Reining Council s IRC World Cup (held in Canada against international competition), was Equitana Asia-Pacific Masters Reining Champion and just for something completely different, he trained and rode three Brisbane Royal Champion Station Hacks. He dominated Rockhampton Quarter Horse Sale from A sight not seen any more, Ian in jodhpurs. Here he rides Jenny Kingston's Kolora Lunar Lady in the early 1980s 1978 to 1993 and to this day conducts clinics around the world and trains non-pro and open horses that win for their owners and other professional trainers. In recognition of his wideranging achievements, Ian has been inducted into the NCHA and AQHA Halls of Fame and is an NRHA Rider Legend and Mitavite Living Legend. Is it any wonder that in the 1980s and 90s Ian Francis was known as Mr Versatile? Clinton Anderson However, Ian isn t just a trainer of horses. He also gives freely of his time and knowledge to support and encourage other riders and is a mentor for other professional trainers. In fact, he is the man to whom other trainers turn when they face insurmountable problems with their horses. Over his 30 years in the business, Ian has mentored, encouraged and nurtured a long list of young Aussies, many of whom are today s outstanding trainers and horsemen and women. Without a doubt, his most successful protégée is Clinton Anderson. Who is Clinton Anderson? Only one of the most visible and successful Aussie horsemen ever to hit American soil. After working for Ian in the early 90s then training from his own establishment at Rockhampton, Clinton arrived in the US as a wannabe clinician who didn t even have enough money to buy a new pair of undies and who is now one of the world s most respected and successful people trainers, set to turn over an astounding US$20 million this year. Ian recalls the brash young Clinton questioning, watching, listening and absorbing information while he took on board Ian s strong work ethic. Clinton acquired valuable insight from Ian into how to gain feel for a horse and most importantly for his future success how to teach it. After leaving Ian, Clinton set himself up at Rockhampton, training everything that walked in the gate, turning away none of the hundreds of horses presented to him, including what seemed like every rank horse in the district. He says the foundation that Ian and those tough horses gave him means that today there is no horse and no situation involving horses that he cannot handle. He conducted his first horsemanship clinics from Rockhampton and in 1998, at the tender age of 23, began the hard journey of establishing himself in the USA. Struggling to get his business off the ground, Clinton knew he had to work harder and smarter than any of the established big-name Americans. In his first year he conducted 48 tiny clinics and only eleven years later by working harder and smarter than anyone else he can command US$226,000 from a single three-day horsemanship clinic. Hundreds of thousands of riders and fence-sitters sit in rapt attention at clinics conducted by this charismatic man who has a remarkable (and very marketable) ability to communicate clearly, succinctly and with passion and humour. He is supremely self confident and apart from selling himself he sells training equipment along with instructional DVDs and books (more than four hundred thousand of them to date). There is a Clinton Anderson fan club and his high personal profile influences the purchasing decisions of millions of American horse owners NCHA CUTTING HORSE YEARBOOK ~ Eye to Eye 31.

---------- ---------- FEATURE ARTICLE ---------- ---------- Ian winning the 2002 NRHA Reining Futurity on Diana Francis' Most Likely Olena Clinton has twice won the prestigious Road to the Horse

3 FEATURE ARTICLE Ian winning the 2002 NRHA Reining Futurity on Diana Francis' Most Likely Olena Clinton has twice won the prestigious Road to the Horse colt-starting challenge, an event that is heralded as the USA s Greatest Horsemanship Event of the Year, and he was the first clinician to launch a weekly made-for-tv horse training show to provide something of interest that educates as well as entertains. His show covers a wide range of topics and addresses concerns and problems that are common to all horse owners. It instantly became rural network RFD-TV s mostwatched equine program. A life-long clinic junkie, Clinton has learned and continues to learn from the best in the world, including his Aussie mentor, Ian Francis. At every one of his clinics, Clinton still gives credit to those, including Ian, who helped him get where he is today, because every successful person, including me, got a helping hand somewhere. Such is his continuing regard for Ian s abilities that Clinton flies him to the States twice every year to conduct joint clinics. Around 165 riders and fence-sitters turned up for the most recent Clinton Anderson / Ian Francis clinic in Texas this March which left the participants clamouring for more. Jennifer Gonzalez said, I was blown away... Ian is funny, patient, helpful and worked with everyone to get them through on their own level. Kelly Jackson added, I cannot believe how much my mare and I learned...ian is so nice...it was great that Clinton wasn t centre stage... I would do it again in a heartbeat. Lynne Boyer said, It s such a treat to watch Ian. He is so kind with everyone, works with everyone no matter what their level til they improve. And they all have such big smiles on their faces after they are done with him! Between them Clinton and Ian sold US$9000 worth of DVDs, books and training equipment in the first day of the clinic, including 100 copies of Ian s motivational book That Winning Attitude that Clinton has re-released for the American market. Ian is delighted with the response to what he calls his little book, saying it is so popular in the States that another hundred have been stolen over the past three months. Training the trainer to train a cow horse Now Ian is helping Clinton in his quest to win the coveted National Reined Cow Horse Association Snaffle Bit Futurity in Reno, Nevada, in Reining has long been Clinton s passion and, considering how little time he has to train his horses, he has enjoyed reasonable success in futurities both here and in the States. He was third in the 1997 Australian NRHA Futurity after winning the first go-round, and in 2006 he won not only the Ohio Reining Futurity but also the Limited, Intermediate and Open Divisions. Now Clinton is throwing his reining hat into the cow horse ring. Even though he has never competed in cow horse before and there s only 16 months until the biggest show in the cow horse world, he is not afraid to mix it with the big boys and their supremely talented horses. Clinton s futurity prospect is his own-bred gelding by CD Olena (NCHA Futurity and Derby winner and NCHA Horse of the Year) out of his reining futurity winner Nic N Smart (by Reminic out of Cowgirls Are Smart by Smart Chic Olena). He is confident that this gelding will handle the pressure and intense action of a speed event like cow horse because from his breeding programme he has already produced winners for the NCHA s top money-earner Todd Crawford, as well as reining s first three-million-dollar rider and winner of four NRHA Futurities, Shawn Flarida, and million-dollar riders Brent Wright and Andrea Frappani. A cow horse has to be calm, fast, agile and responsive with a burst of speed and the ability to quickly change gears and leads, stop and turn back. Training a cow horse involves training one multi-talented and well-rounded horse in three distinct disciplines two-handed cutting, reining and fence work (where the rider must turn the cow against the fence in both directions and circle it in both directions). So, a competitive cow horse must be an above-average cutting horse, an above-average reining horse and an above-average working horse. It goes without saying that training for three disciplines is time consuming, challenging, intensive and expensive but Ian says it is also unbelievably exciting and very rewarding. Ian knows working cow horse inside out. His lifetime of working with cattle and his innate understanding of how they think combined with his background in camp drafting enabled him to make this heady sport his own back in the 1980s. He trained and rode cow horse futurity champions at every important show of the day, produced the AQHA Working Cow Horse of the Year for five years in succession from 1986 to 1989 and the Queensland Reined Cow Horse Futurity Champion for the six years from 1985 to In 1989 he not only won the QRCHA Futurity but also placed second and third, and in 1990 again won and took out Reserve Champion. 32.

4 Clinton Anderson with his Aussie Quarter Horse mare Pillamindi Doll (Pillamindi Roc by Roc O Lena out of Spinifex Doll by Doc s Spinifex). Mindy has her own fan club and some say she is more popular in America than Clinton Thrills and spills The most thrilling phase of cow horse and the one that draws the huge crowds is the fast, risky and often explosive fence phase. Clinton Anderson says, If you have never seen a working cow horse running full-out down the fence to turn a cow, with last-minute turns, near misses, dust flying and the crowd cheering, you can t comprehend the thrill of witnessing this ultimate high-speed chase. It can really take your breath away. Fence is all about thrills and spills and Ian says it is not unusual for a horse to fall during this phase. Ian was renowned for his fearlessness along the fence and you always knew when he and his horse were about to enter the arena spectators would leave what they were doing and flock to watch the man they called The Kamikaze Pilot. Heather Pascoe s Australian Stock Horse mare Star Carousel fell with him at the famed Moonbi Cow Horse Futurity in 1986 but he managed to stay in the saddle and won the Futurity and also placed third and fourth on the Quarter Horses D.Bar Paint Your Wagon and Whisp O Lena. At the 1990 Dubbo Futurity, Nonda Tall Poppy, again owned by Heather Pascoe, emptied him out of the saddle in another spectacular fall but he scrambled back on and again won the Futurity. Why does Clinton Anderson in America look to Ian Francis from Australia when there are so many high profile and successful trainers in the USA? Because of his unique ability to read a cow and get a horse soft, Clinton explains. He adds, Not a lot of trainers over here are good at doing all three phases of working cow horse and Ian is world class in all three. Ian s contribution to Clinton s quest to win at Reno is to help him change the way he trains his horse. He says, To adapt for cow horse, Clinton has had to change a few of the things he does with his reining horses. He s also had to change his outlook and think about the differences between training and competing because he s just as likely to want to pull up and fix things if they go wrong! Few horses are good at all three phases of cow horse so Ian is teaching Clinton to balance the three, working on the areas his horse needs help and refining the good bits. Clinton works his horse every day, spending two-thirds of his time on cattle and the other third on reining. He says, The good thing about working cattle is that they do something different every day so it s hard to get a horse sour because he never knows what s coming up next. Keeping his horse mentally fresh and alert and giving him a purpose is important to Clinton who occasionally takes his cow horse on a trail ride and gives him a day off every week. Unlike a choreographed reining pattern, anything can and will go wrong in cow horse so Ian has set out what if scenarios for Clinton. What if the cow doesn t want to come off the fence? How do you make her? What if the cow doesn t want to be turned? How do you turn her? Clinton is learning to make split-second decisions and go with them and he is singleminded in his determination to do this cow horse thing right and Clinton on a mission is something to see. Ian says, The thing I admire about him most is that, with such a high profile as he has, he s not afraid to put himself out in front of everyone and he s not afraid to fail in public. To give him the best chance of not failing at this most challenging event, Ian will return to Texas to tune Clinton s horse just before the futurity NCHA CUTTING HORSE YEARBOOK ~ Eye to Eye 33.

--------- l ---------- FEATURE ARTICLE ---------- l --------- A lifetime of knowledge Clinton wants to make sure that Ian passes on every last particle of the knowledge and experience he has amassed

Going a step further, early this year the pair filmed a series of training DVDs.

5 l FEATURE ARTICLE l A lifetime of knowledge Clinton wants to make sure that Ian passes on every last particle of the knowledge and experience he has amassed in his lifetime with horses and cattle, so over the past few years he has videotaped more than 300 hours of conversations between the two of them, just for his own private use. Going a step further, early this year the pair filmed a series of training DVDs. These cover building a foundation on competition horses, developing stockman s challenge and reined cow horses and developing a reining horse. Ian says Clinton s talented in-house production team has delivered a product that is way beyond anything seen in this country before, It s pretty up-market for Australia and the graphics are fabulous. There are six to seven hours of viewing on each topic and each DVD includes training interspersed with Clinton reminiscing about Ian. Clinton says, In case you re wondering why I ve done these DVDs I wanted to do Ian a favour. I wanted to say thanks for what he did for me and to pay him back for all the times he helped other people who didn t have the manners to thank him themselves. Aussie competitors in all disciplines could do worse than take a lead from Clinton Anderson. Make the most of what Mr Versatile has to offer before it s too late and remember to thank him. 34. Clinton says, I try to work on both reining and cattle every single day. I mix it up for variety and so that I can check all my bases and make sure he s working well in all areas.

horse people Natural HORSEMAN 14 M ARCH-APRIL 2012 AMERICA S HORSE

horse people Natural HORSEMAN 14 M ARCH-APRIL 2012 AMERICA S HORSE Caton Parelli and his mare, Mango, practice on some cattle. COCO Caton Parelli overcomes obstacles to achieve show-ring success. S By