Frank Bell , Your thoughts?

I was introduced to Frank Bells 7 step safety system when I first aquired my mustang.

I also took part in a 2 day clinic with my mustang about 2 summers ago with one of his accredited trainers. I learned a lot and he spent a lot of time teaching the 7sss to the clinic particpates . I may have the chance to do another clinic with him this summer but I would like to focus more on riding , I feel pretty good with the ground work and my horse is a baby doll on the ground. My confidence issues appear when I am in the saddle and feel some private lessons with this trainer would be beneficial.

I like Frank Bells gentle approach and was wondering what others experiences were: good or bad?

I really like Frank's style too. I just discovered him and bought his book describing the steps he takes. I love his approach to give to the horse first before we ask other things of them. I've heard him referred to as one of the gentlest of the natural horseman, and that's something that appeals to me. Plus he seems like a really normal guy, and his experience is stellar. Anyone else ever attending his clinics?

Wow, thanks for the response. I pretty much forgot about this thread but am glad to see that someone else has read his book.
Thanks for the input : )

Never again! I got his DVD on trailer loading and it was one of the biggest horse-related waste of money ever for me. I put it on eBay next day I watched it. I'm not nearly fan of Parelli, but I'd rather go with him then Frank Bell.

I haven't seen that DVD. Why do you think it was a waste of money?

Because 1st of all it was somewhat useless, many people don't have a trailer or setup he used (and he didn't mention it of course anywhere in description), and 2nd he didn't do a great job on it - in fact it looked pretty dangerous to me at times.

I've seen trailer loading by couple very respected local trainers and that was really good job - something anyone can do and actually worked on really tough to load horses. Nothing even close to Frank Bell's "loading".

Well-I like Frank Bell, generally, and use some of his techniques.....I tend to take what I like and what works for me from several of the NH people. I also have done a clinic with him, and got lots out of it, in fact, have a new horse and was hoping he would come back to the area. However, after the clinic I had a couple of follow up lessons with one of "his" certified instructors, and she was WAY too gentle for my taste. When my horse kicked at me and I slapped him with the rope I thought she was going to have a fit! Sorry-but dangerous behavior is NOT acceptable, and IMO they need more than a harsh tone of voice! Also have seen the trailer loading video, not for a long while tho, and didn't find it useless at all.......there is some knowledge to be gained from almost everything, I think. Every horse and person are different.