Questions about Clinton Anderson training methods.

I started out with Parelli and really didn't think it was doing much. When I cam on here I heard about Clinton Anderson. I heard very few bad things about him so I bought his book of exercises and really liked it. I find it to make way more sense then the Parelli program, but I have a few questions I am not sure about.

1. When I am doing the hula hoop game, if I ask my mare to come into me she will once I tighten up the lead rope. When she get there she always turns her head to the side and it seems like she is trying to avoid me. This happens in other exercises too. I don't know if this is important or not so I figured I'd find out:)

2. We are currently up to the backing exercises. She will back up in all the exercises but NEVER with energy. She will let me run the stick into her a bunch of times and just keep barley going. What should I do when she doesn't give me energy in her backing??

Thanks so much for your help. It is greatly appreciated.

If you have the opportunity to go to one of his clinics, it's worth it! But, like all the others, it's a business so you get bombarded with "buy my products"! Giddyupflix.com has a lot of his DVDs, as well as other trainers. For a monthly fee you can get alot of good information. Books are nice, but sometimes watching helps more.

1. Pull her head towards you so she's looking at you.
2. If she doesn't do what you want, then ask harder! For example, wiggle the rope for her to back. If she is slow or sluggish, then get more aggressive until she moves with energy.

My husband follows CA. I have never heard him call anything a game.

Thanks Gigem! I will look into it.

Always behind- That phrasing was incorrect. I apologize.

I wouldn't worry about the phrasing. Parelli and CA are identical. Games/exercises are exactly the same they just call them different things. So it's merely a case of which personality you prefer. CA is more direct and openly aggressive. PP has a lot of talking/lectures on their dvd's rather than just the exercises. It's just personal preference.

I am willing to say that CA and PP have some similarities but they are in no way identical.

Though I do not follow either Mr. AB loves watching his CA DVDs so I have seen several of them. He sometimes see PP things on TV. The word identical never even entered my mind when comparing the two.

Well I assure you that they are. I own every DVD of both Parelli and CA. Along with Stacy Westfall, La Cense etc etc.

The exercises are the same. The porcupine game for example is simply yielding to direct pressure. ALL the exercises even the ridden (beginning with single reining and moving into follow the rail and the clover leaf pattern) identical. The only difference is that CA doesn't seem to rely directly on a personality quadrant in order to select exercises to focus on.

Both of them simply repackage the same identical stuff with different names to try and make people think they invented it and it's unique in order to command the. Prices that they do.

The goals are the same how they go about things are not always the same.

Heck, CA's halter is different than PP halter.

When your horse looks away from you, try looking in the opposite direction. This seems to bring them back to you. When asking for energy in backing, ramp up your energy. Stand at the end of your lead but with the belly of it touching the ground then use your energy to ask for one energetic step back then immediately relax. Walk her around then repeat. Don't try for lots of steps. Get a good first one and the others will eventually come.

Lol sorry moving away from the OPs original question but I believe this important. If people cannot recognise what is being done they cannot understand why or how it works and cannot therefore be the best for the horse.

The only difference in the halters is CAs is stiffer and has two more knots to apply more pressure faster. If you believe their approach is different then please give an example and I will translate into other names. I can even refer you to individual chapters in their respective DVDs to prove what I am saying (if it wasn't for copyright I would post clips) perhaps I can search YouTube for clips.

Ps not looking to offend anyone, but both CA and PP ought to be up there as a lesson in the power of effective marketing and building a brand. Heck CA even charges for photos and autographs now.