i think sometimes horse gurus get a little carried away, they start out wonderful, then they have so many employees to support etc they start trying to add new elements to their program and they just arent good at it! I dont want to step on toes too, but like Dr. Deb. Sheesh, she should just stick to back structure and bones etc. I read a thing she wrote one time about trick training where she instructed people to do something i had done by mistake one time and took years to un-do. So clearly she was out of her element, but apparently someone told her she knew it all :)
But CA, he has, like all the rest, some good stuff! But some bad stuff too! I personally was disappointed in his gaited horse stuff. The two horses he worked with, the first one had no gait problem, it had a behavioral problem imo, and he had some success with that. But the second horse, oh man, that just hurt me deep because what i saw, was a long tall pacey horse identical to my jaspar, and to fix the gait, he had the rider crank the horse in behind the vertical and at the end when the horse was "fixed" she was actually stumbling along struggling to jerk her head sideways and look where she was going and was still pacey as heck! The rider was going jounce jounce and he says "hows that gait, better fer ya Mate?" and shes going oh-oh ye-ye-yeah jounce jounce and the poor horse. It just hurt me so bad because I was thinking of my jaspar and what a good horse he is and how cruel it would be to try and turn him into something he isnt! You can get a great gaited horse at auction these days for 300 bucks, why torture one that cant gait??? Its sad. And Chris Cox, I just love him, then the other day I watched a foal training thing he did and I was horrified. I have seen parelli do things I dont like, even tho he does LOADS of stuff thats so great. I cant stand John Lyons, he oughta quit pretending to train horses and go ahead and come out as a full blown holy roller preacher. I love Mark rashids books but I've never seen him in person. Lots of people have said terrible things about Brenda Imus and she is a marketing freak but I saw her in person and I got some good out of her. I LOVE Tommie Turvey, I mean LOVE his stuff, but its not every day stuff. I thought Gwani Pony guy was dispicable and saw him in person and was actually pretty impressed. Craig Cameron, oh my gosh, he likes to kick sand at a horse and throw up his arms unexpectedly in the horses face to desensitize it! Its teaching head shyness! Teaching a horse to always be on edge, always knowing any time someone could sling something in your face! I saw Ken McKnabb in person and he was good, as good as Stacy Westfall etc. Lynn Palm is about the best ever but she's blah and not charasmatic or show bizzy, just quiet and down to earth so of course she's not gonna end up a super star :) anyway. It just goes to show what I've said before... just take what you need and leave the rest. But i won't be taking much from CA when it comes to gaited horse training. I think for gait training Liz Graves is the best. These are all just my thoughts and opinions. take what you need and leave the rest :) Janice -- yipie tie yie yo
