Buck. The real horse whisperer. BBC4.

Norfolk Pie, I think the difficulty was that it wasn't a problem horse clinic, and it wasn't really a clinic for backing difficult to start horses. The conversation between the organisers shown in the film really rang a bell with me, as I've been there. It's "This person has brought this horse along that has far too many issues to address to attempt in 4 days. And we can't have them in the arena with everyone else because there will be bodies all over the floor. And anyway, if we did it would spoil it for all the other paying customers because they wouldn't get their fair share of attention...".
My guess at what Buck was trying to do when he worked with the stallion in the round pen and roped the leg was that he was having a last-ditch look at whether he thought the horse could be safely dealt with by someone else after he'd gone. He probably kicked himself when the experienced bloke he thought would be OK got hurt, but then horses aren't an exact science. To be fair, he wasn't offering that owner a quick-fix solution, but trying to work with the situation he was presented with. Leg roping is really controversial, but I leg rope all of mine and never have a strong reaction maybe because it's more instinctive in a horse to have a think about something around their leg than it is to just go mad and run away. (Think about how they survive various natural obstacles around the leg).
I know how this situation arises because I've hosted clinics where I've been ready to just give someone their money back and send them and their horse home. But then I have the trainer worrying about that owner and saying that maybe if they could at least do something to send that person back safer than they arrived... and what if we do an hour or so at the end of each day rather than having them in the main clinic... Then the next thing we know the trainer is getting slated all over the internet for being too tough on the horse, or on the person, when ideally they wouldn't have chosen to deal with it in that environment at all.
(Just to be clear - this does not refer to anyone of my Kent friends and contacts OK??).
Maybe other trainers with another approach, who weren't due to be back on the road in 3 days, could have dealt with that sad, scared and aggressive stallion differently. But they weren't there to offer were they? Really sad to think about it.
 
p.s. We've had Monty Roberts acclaimed as The Horse Whisperer. Now the BBC publicise Buck as The Real Horse Whisperer (not a title he gives himself). Apparently Mark Rashid is working on his film at the moment. Maybe "Here's another Horse Whisperer"?
:-))
 
Absolutely, Bucks was authenticated by friends and family, Monty's was strenuously denied by his family.
 
siennamum said:
I think we have always had natural and intuitive horsemen in the UK. Our culture/tradition is to take months to handle, back & ride away young horses tho. which is much less dramatic and too boring & too much like hard work for people who want a magic solution to their inability to manage their horses.
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Hit the nail on the head. It's the 'seeing the horse change in front of your eyes' thing that captivates people. It is easy to understand why people who had never had access to traditional European horse trainers would assume that they take their time with a young horse because they can't take it any quicker, rather than understanding that it is generally a deliberate decision to take things slower. And when you believe that someone can achieve in a day what traditional trainers can only achieve in weeks or even months then it is not a huge jump to assume that they may have a magic answer to all your horse's problems.
 
I think the thing that differs with Buck and other accomplished horseman at the top of their particular profession, their particular profession. If you train UL dressage horses, chances are when that horse comes to you he/she has already been started and you work your magic from there. How many times have I said that starting horses is a skill set just like being Carl Hester or Reiner Klimke or John.Whitaker. The problem with being a horse starter and dealing with problem horses is that peope don't see it that way. People with young horses they send away are really mostly concerned with cost and how long til I can ride and when can I start training with real professionals. If people treated sending their horse away with the same intent of winning at whatever level there would be more quality starters around instead of just anybody who thinks they can have a go. Trust me it's not easy. A lot of people don't care who starts said horse they just want it done. They don't think like that when looking for an instructor or in their plans for hitting the big time.

Oh and lots of women in horses in America. Don't know where that comes from. Where do you all get these things.

Terri
 
siennamum said:
Does Lucy Rees not count as a UK person?
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She certainly does. There was a documentary made by HTV in 1983 called "To Ride a Wild Horse". It showed a challenge between Lucy and a "cowboy" she met in her travels in Arizona - who could break and ride a mustang first, chosen from a herd that had been rounded up and corralled. He used ropes and sacking out on his chosen horse, a gelding (we saw a castration done without anaesthetic in the middle of the corral); she sat at the side of her round pen, read a book and waited for her young stallion (she didn't want to put him through the op) to come and investigate her. After a lot of fighting by the cowboy and gentle desensitization by Lucy, it ended up with her exploring the local countryside - walking through streams and into a cave at one point - bareback on her horse, having clearly won the challenge.

She also wrote a wonderful book "The Horse's Mind".

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Horses-Mind-Lucy-Rees/dp/009153660X
 
Equilibrium Ireland said:
I think the thing that differs with Buck and other accomplished horseman at the top of their particular profession, their particular profession. If you train UL dressage horses, chances are when that horse comes to you he/she has already been started and you work your magic from there. How many times have I said that starting horses is a skill set just like being Carl Hester or Reiner Klimke or John.Whitaker. The problem with being a horse starter and dealing with problem horses is that peope don't see it that way. People with young horses they send away are really mostly concerned with cost and how long til I can ride and when can I start training with real professionals. If people treated sending their horse away with the same intent of winning at whatever level there would be more quality starters around instead of just anybody who thinks they can have a go. Trust me it's not easy. A lot of people don't care who starts said horse they just want it done. They don't think like that when looking for an instructor or in their plans for hitting the big time.

Oh and lots of women in horses in America. Don't know where that comes from. Where do you all get these things.

Terri
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You are completely right :( Starting young horses used to be my main line of work, but I haven't done any (other than my own) for a couple of years because I used to find it so frustrating. Very few owners were interested in discussing their horse's history or long-term plans with me, they just wanted me to slap on a saddle and get on its back. The 'problem' horses that came to me were generally much more rewarding because the owners were really actively involved, almost without exception.
 
Lots of women in horses in America - yes, there probably are now, but go back a couple of generations, the the 70s or thereabouts.
Here, local shows, pony clubs, riding clubs - ratio of girls to boys, probably at least 10 to 1, I can't recall any lads at the DIY yard I kept my horse at or the local shows (apart from a very few pot hunters). Girls with their mums, rarely dads, I suspect you will find the same sort of proportions of kids at riding stables.
USA - I don't really know for certain but a couple of generations ago womens place was in the home, mens was on the farm, in the corral, whatever. Traditional American rural society was very much behind here in terms of equality, and many horses were working rather than pleasure horses. From what I have seen yes there are a lot of women in horses there now, but how many female trainers do you know there?
 
fburton said:
She certainly does. There was a documentary made by HTV in 1983 called "To Ride a Wild Horse". It showed a challenge between Lucy and a "cowboy" she met in her travels in Arizona - who could break and ride a mustang first, chosen from a herd that had been rounded up and corralled. He used ropes and sacking out on his chosen horse, a gelding (we saw a castration done without anaesthetic in the middle of the corral); she sat at the side of her round pen, read a book and waited for her young stallion (she didn't want to put him through the op) to come and investigate her. After a lot of fighting by the cowboy and gentle desensitization by Lucy, it ended up with her exploring the local countryside - walking through streams and into a cave at one point - bareback on her horse, having clearly won the challenge.

She also wrote a wonderful book "The Horse's Mind".

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Horses-Mind-Lucy-Rees/dp/009153660X
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No one talks about her though, which suprises me, although I suspect it has to do with her being a behaviourist (or something like that) rather than a natural horsemanship person. The wet hills of Wales are rather less glamorous than Montana also I think (although I believe she is now based in Portugal)
 
siennamum said:
No one talks about her though, which suprises me, although I suspect it has to do with her being a behaviourist (or something like that) rather than a natural horsemanship person. The wet hills of Wales are rather less glamorous than Montana also I think (although I believe she is now based in Portugal)
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I think that because she's not a cowboy, she's just not 'interesting' enough.doesn't have the accent, doesn't have the marketing machine and doubt she wants it.

all of her books are well worth a read.
 
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Norfolk Pie said:
I'm intrigued by this. Whilst I in no way doubt Bucks ability, feel and talent with horses, if I posted the following I think I'd have got shot down wouldn't I?
Or have I missed something? Admittedly I didn't see the whole programme, but I ink I saw everything of this horse.
***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
HHO please help me! I've got a 3yo that has been sent to me to back, he's so aggressive he is unhandleable, the owner doesnt seem to have much horse sense, and has given him no boundries. she wants him done ASAP though, so I thought id crack on and get sitting on him. I've never seen anything like him. I've done a bit of round pen work with him the first couple of days, and then managed to catch him by his hind leg, to get a saddle on him. (The rope on the hind leg is the only way to ensure I've got control of him, as he will attack with his teeth)

Anyway, got a saddle on, got a rider on and sent him round the pen, walk trot canter (still had the rope so my jockey wasn't in danger)

That was all good, by the end he was pretty sweaty, and I don't think he looked very sound when he walked out the pen, but I figure that's less important than getting him broken?

Anyway, next time my rider goes in there, the horse goes for him, and bites his face , needing stitches.

Do you think I've gone too quick with the backing process?

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

I dont have a massive issue with the hind leg roping, within the right context - I appreciate different techniques within different countries.

I do agree the horse should have been shot.

I do agree the horse needed a seriously good horseman, almost certainly using a good form of horsemanship, (although there are some area of that which I find odd, but that is probably because I don't see the whole picture)

What I can't understand is why we think a horse with massive issues with humans will lose its aggression when concurrently being asked to carry someone in three paces in a very short space of time? I should think he was pretty sore and uncomfortable, so only adding to the issue.

It is precisely this "in a hurry" attitude that makes me avoid backing / starting / problem solving clinics like the plague. There are no short cuts, and I detest all these shows that offer them.
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Lets be fair... that was a one off and my best guess was it was to make an example of how NOT to bring up a horse.

Most of the other riders/handlers at the clinics they showed were fine.
 
Did you notice that Stupid Woman hadn't seen fit to mention to Buck that she had all those others at home? She commented that she didn't know what he'd say if he knew. :rolleyes:

I think that this kind of training is so popular in the States is because the old cowboy methods are very aggressive. I've noticed that the top trainers and PP are nearly all from cowboy stock, so my guess is that they've sought a kinder way.

Here in the UK we generally don't throw our horses to the ground etc to break their spirit (though we sometimes do it in other ways), and like someone said earlier, these are working horses and perhaps the good ole boys simply don't have the time and resources to do what they would see as faffing around for six months.
 
Tinypony said:
p.s. We've had Monty Roberts acclaimed as The Horse Whisperer. Now the BBC publicise Buck as The Real Horse Whisperer (not a title he gives himself). Apparently Mark Rashid is working on his film at the moment. Maybe "Here's another Horse Whisperer"?
:-))
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Ah well, not a bad thing is it :D:D the more the merrier when it comes to horses/good horsemanship :)
 
Well just watched the program (thank you to the posters who gave the link).

Having read the first several pages of enthusiastic praise find myself thinking "is that it"?

Nice man, terrible childhood, earns a living, got a great accent.
The rest no, you can keep it.
I'm in agreement with Norfolk Pie.

And if that 3yo colt was just used as an example of how not to deal with a horse, then anybody involved with the program is just as exploitative as any of those who usually are castigated.

Where was the compassion for that horse?
And there may well have been scenes that were cut from the program, but that is a deliberate editing decision.
So why would anybody want the overall message to go out that when a really bad, problem horse comes along, with so little time being spent trying to make a difference, a decision can be made to PTS?

Quick fix or no fix?
 
Tinypony said:
Norfolk Pie, I think the difficulty was that it wasn't a problem horse clinic, and it wasn't really a clinic for backing difficult to start horses. The conversation between the organisers shown in the film really rang a bell with me, as I've been there. It's "This person has brought this horse along that has far too many issues to address to attempt in 4 days. And we can't have them in the arena with everyone else because there will be bodies all over the floor. And anyway, if we did it would spoil it for all the other paying customers because they wouldn't get their fair share of attention...".

I know how this situation arises because I've hosted clinics where I've been ready to just give someone their money back and send them and their horse home. But then I have the trainer worrying about that owner and saying that maybe if they could at least do something to send that person back safer than they arrived... and what if we do an hour or so at the end of each day rather than having them in the main clinic... Then the next thing we know the trainer is getting slated all over the internet for being too tough on the horse, or on the person, when ideally they wouldn't have chosen to deal with it in that environment at all.
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Sensible words from Tinypony. As I watched, I hoped the colt was worked on OUTSIDE of the timings of the day's published clinic had ended for the sake of all the lovely clients and lovely young horses who'd signed-up for a colt starting clinic. Very difficult situation for a trainer to find themselves in, refuse to do anything and you run the risk of being labelled a useless trainer, do something in un-ideal circumstances and you run the risk of being labelled a useless trainer, a no-win situation for any trainer.

That colt needed a one-to-one assessment over a longer period of time at its home so that the trainer could see firsthand whatever the home setup was and whether it was ever likely to work or whether it was doomed to failure, and spend much longer with the owner to weigh them up too, without the television cameras and spectators. It would have been a huge shock to a house-reared horse to be put on a trailer and travelled to the venue, full of strange people and horses. I still think that particular horse was utterly ruined, by its upbringing, and would have had a long road back to any sort of normality and an even longer road back to a point where humans could feel they could trust his behaviour.
 
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Aarrghimpossiblepony said:
Well just watched the program (thank you to the posters who gave the link).

Having read the first several pages of enthusiastic praise find myself thinking "is that it"?

Nice man, terrible childhood, earns a living, got a great accent.
The rest no, you can keep it.
I'm in agreement with Norfolk Pie.

And if that 3yo colt was just used as an example of how not to deal with a horse, then anybody involved with the program is just as exploitative as any of those who usually are castigated.

Where was the compassion for that horse?
And there may well have been scenes that were cut from the program, but that is a deliberate editing decision.
So why would anybody want the overall message to go out that when a really bad, problem horse comes along, with so little time being spent trying to make a difference, a decision can be made to PTS?

Quick fix or no fix?
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Why wouldn't you make an example of that situation? Should we shield people from such a reality?

I agree though, no attempt should have even been made to try and start him but I guess an assessment was made by the trainer to see if it was worth it in the long run...

The most compassionate thing that could have happened is not to have revived the poor thing when it was born :(
 
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JillA said:
Lots of women in horses in America - yes, there probably are now, but go back a couple of generations, the the 70s or thereabouts.
Here, local shows, pony clubs, riding clubs - ratio of girls to boys, probably at least 10 to 1, I can't recall any lads at the DIY yard I kept my horse at or the local shows (apart from a very few pot hunters). Girls with their mums, rarely dads, I suspect you will find the same sort of proportions of kids at riding stables.
USA - I don't really know for certain but a couple of generations ago womens place was in the home, mens was on the farm, in the corral, whatever. Traditional American rural society was very much behind here in terms of equality, and many horses were working rather than pleasure horses. From what I have seen yes there are a lot of women in horses there now, but how many female trainers do you know there?
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In spite of what Fox News might have you believe, "traditional American society" was just as diverse as the immigrants who moved there and the geography of the place. In any case, I know lots of female trainers. In fact, in the 16 or so years I learned to ride there, all but one of my trainers were women (and the lone guy was from Germany). Like all but an insignificant minority of trainers, they have not become international brands, but they have good reputations locally.

There are, of course, female trainers who have become well known outside of their immediate areas. Offhand, I can think of Sally Swift, Linda Tellington-Jones, Julie Goodnight, Carolyn Resnick, Mary Twelveponies... just a few that come to mind sitting here being kind of jetlagged. There are far more than that.
 
Tinypony said:
Norfolk Pie, I think the difficulty was that it wasn't a problem horse clinic, and it wasn't really a clinic for backing difficult to start horses. The conversation between the organisers shown in the film really rang a bell with me, as I've been there. It's "This person has brought this horse along that has far too many issues to address to attempt in 4 days. And we can't have them in the arena with everyone else because there will be bodies all over the floor. And anyway, if we did it would spoil it for all the other paying customers because they wouldn't get their fair share of attention...".

Totally agree with you. Completely impossible, no win situation. My query was what was the purpose of getting a rider on a horse that, psychologically had massive issues, and therefore physically was unprepared (which would have been commented on if someone on here said - "sat on the boulshy breaking horse today, walk trot canter. Thing is still totally lethal to handle"

My guess at what Buck was trying to do when he worked with the stallion in the round pen and roped the leg was that he was having a last-ditch look at whether he thought the horse could be safely dealt with by someone else after he'd gone.

That's fair enough - as I said, no real view either way on the leg roping, I appreciate its a technique used.

I know how this situation arises because I've hosted clinics where I've been ready to just give someone their money back and send them and their horse home. But then I have the trainer worrying about that owner and saying that maybe if they could at least do something to send that person back safer than they arrived... and what if we do an hour or so at the end of each day rather than having them in the main clinic... Then the next thing we know the trainer is getting slated all over the internet for being too tough on the horse, or on the person, when ideally they wouldn't have chosen to deal with it in that environment at all.
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Totally agree with this too. I think all of us have moments where we arrive somewhere and think "oh Lordy, you can not be serious". But the thing is, the horse HAS to come first. There is NOTHING more important than us, as professionals doing the right thing by that horse. When someone asks me to teach them on a lame horse, I explain why that's inappropriate. I do the same if their horse is too thin, or the saddle doesn't fit, or it's back is sore. or, frequently, when a young, poorly muscled horse cant hold its balance in trot, how on earth they think it will cope in canter?
In my mind, it's a non negotiable part of my job - I'm there to assist the horse, and try act as "voice" between him and his (often novice) owner.
And you know what, yes of course there's the odd person who thinks I'm as mad as a box of frogs, but if I present them with scientific facts (ie, your horse can not cope with A B C, so how do you feel about asking him to cope with X Y or Z?) it is very rare for the owner to be difficult. 99% of the time, they ask "ok, so realistically, what do I do from here?"

So I still don't understand what backing the horse in this instance was achieving? Genuine question, I'm not being critical :)
 
tallyho! said:
Why wouldn't you make an example of that situation? Should we shield people from such a reality?

I agree though, no attempt should have even been made to try and start him but I guess an assessment was made by the trainer to see if it was worth it in the long run...

The most compassionate thing that could have happened is not to have revived the poor thing when it was born :(
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No, but without follow through it's exploiting a bad situation.

My daughter pulls me up for this all the time, but I am very, very cynical when it comes to these kind of "real life" documentries.

The decision to send the trainer who got hurt into the pen with no back up and then instruct them to carry on like he did, sorry but it screams set up to me.
Not suggesting that they wanted an injury, but they wanted the horse to react.

The thing is, maybe I'm wrong, but flapping a blanket around in a stallions face and at the same time not allowing the "flee" response seems to be asking for a fight response.

What did they expect?
Especially in light of the behaviour they had already seen and the testimony of the owner.

If what we saw damns a 3yo to be PTS, then there must be some very lucky horses around.
And the thing is, if the horse was worth a fortune for breeding, some underpaid stablehand would be expected to manage the horse. And they probably would.

Nice enough program but would have preferred to see a lot more handling than interminable rope tricks and folksy homespun philosophy TBH.
 
siennamum said:
No one talks about her though... etc.../QUOTE]
Don't they? I think I inhabit an alternative universe.

There is a brief bit in the film that makes it clear that the organisers were going to arrange for the young stallion to be looked at away from the clinic.

Why did a rider get put on board? We can only speculate. We certainly didn't see the full picture, discussions that took place with the owner, loads of stuff went on the cutting room floor for sure.
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I'm reminded of what he said about The Horse Whisperer - something along the lines of it being a film of a love story, not a film about horse training. This is a film that's more about Buck the person, it's not intended to be an in-depth view of how he trains and what his thinking is about that.
Shame that the thing with the stallion has overshadowed the rest of the film really. When you consider that, from the brief clip of the discussion between the clinic organisers, the stallion probably wasn't a suitable clinic horse anyway and maybe shouldn't have been there.
 
MotherOfChickens said:
I think that because she's not a cowboy, she's just not 'interesting' enough.doesn't have the accent, doesn't have the marketing machine and doubt she wants it.

all of her books are well worth a read.[/QUOTE

People just luuuurrve a cowboy... It's that simple.
And of course Lucy is a woman so can't possibly be as good or as interesting as the boys in stetsons and cowboy boots.....
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Man it is so easy to sit on the sidelines and criticize

I think all these trainers are beneficial to horses as they are not condoning using violence on your horses.

So many people are willing to pick up a stick without thought, so frankly whether its Buck, Monty or someone else, I would rather have it on tv than not
 
Sometimes I think we need to think about what we're commenting on. How many people have started multiple/hundreds of horses? What perspective do you have in real life for such horses? Telling someone there horse is lame or too skinny is not in the same category. Some horses can do a quick and dramatic turn around by being started. Yes, that's true. They have a whole new perspective on life. Life gets easier for them. To a degree you see this with spoiled over handled youngsters. Not aggressive as shown. But watching a few little clips and saying this should have been differently, really how do you know? Sitting in a field with a book wasn't going to get the job done here. But sadly some people think it would. Softly softly bonding lands you dead or seriously injured. Why is it hard to accept that a horse can be well and truly screwed up by spoiling and never laying down boundries? No we're to into those words abuse and rescue. Instead of using that word bond try mutual respect. It might make things easier for horses. This is a case in which a come to Jesus meeting in a non beating way was necessary. Why that's so hard to undetstand is beyond me. And maybe had Buck decided to give this woman free instruction for a year or two it could have been done slowly to suit people. But I don't work for free so why should anyone in horses that make a living out of it? Don't get me started on that subject.

Anyway must go to feed.

Terri
 
Equilibrium Ireland said:
Sometimes I think we need to think about what we're commenting on. How many people have started multiple/hundreds of horses? What perspective do you have in real life for such horses? Telling someone there horse is lame or too skinny is not in the same category. Some horses can do a quick and dramatic turn around by being started. Yes, that's true. They have a whole new perspective on life. Life gets easier for them. To a degree you see this with spoiled over handled youngsters. Not aggressive as shown. But watching a few little clips and saying this should have been differently, really how do you know? Sitting in a field with a book wasn't going to get the job done here. But sadly some people think it would. Softly softly bonding lands you dead or seriously injured. Why is it hard to accept that a horse can be well and truly screwed up by spoiling and never laying down boundries? No we're to into those words abuse and rescue. Instead of using that word bond try mutual respect. It might make things easier for horses. This is a case in which a come to Jesus meeting in a non beating way was necessary. Why that's so hard to undetstand is beyond me. And maybe had Buck decided to give this woman free instruction for a year or two it could have been done slowly to suit people. But I don't work for free so why should anyone in horses that make a living out of it? Don't get me started on that subject.

Anyway must go to feed.

Terri
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Who has expressed anything here that you are saying?

The BIB
It's not just the method, it was the half hearted approach for the benefit of the cameras that got me with the 3yo.

They showed the initial session (and what that achieved I still don't know) and then followed it up with something that was incredibly negligent.

And then it was blamed on the horse.

You talk about "boundries" and "mutual respect" but how about repecting the horses boundries, having some respect for the idea that flinging a blanket around when the horse doesn't actually know at that point whether it's coming or going, is going to end in tears?

Over and over, it's repeated about not getting into battles you can't win, but that goes out the window when faced with a problem?
And in the initial session with the 3yo, how much release of pressure was in evidence as reward for compliance?
No it went on and on, comply with the rope round the foot, comply with the saddle, comply with the rider, comply with the cantering/go forward, ect.
 
How many horses like this have you done? I've started hundreds and never come across any like this. Respect for the horse? Boundries none established by his idiot owner and yet she signed up for a clinic to have her horse worked with. Tell her to go home I guess is what you think is right. Maybe so. Flinging a saddle blanket around is hardly an abusive approach. He didn't understand. He understood nothing. The only thing he understood was to get he own way and do what he wanted when he wanted. So how do you start? Do tell. Keep in mind you don't own the horse and this is your living. You gonna do this for free so you can give horse all the time he needs. Just curious as people are quick to criticise and yet don't have much experience in this area. Nor do they have to balance making a living while doing the best for the horse and getting paid by an owner who has their own timeframe.

Terri
 
Equilibrium Ireland said:
How many horses like this have you done? I've started hundreds and never come across any like this. Respect for the horse? Boundries none established by his idiot owner and yet she signed up for a clinic to have her horse worked with. Tell her to go home I guess is what you think is right. Maybe so. Flinging a saddle blanket around is hardly an abusive approach. He didn't understand. He understood nothing. The only thing he understood was to get he own way and do what he wanted when he wanted. So how do you start? Do tell. Keep in mind you don't own the horse and this is your living. You gonna do this for free so you can give horse all the time he needs. Just curious as people are quick to criticise and yet don't have much experience in this area. Nor do they have to balance making a living while doing the best for the horse and getting paid by an owner who has their own timeframe.

Terri
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It's not whether it's an abusive approach, it's whether it's an effective approach. Incremental steps to achieve the goal.

The rope foot thing, well build on that. Throw the blanket around using the foot control, pressure and release, build the boundries, show the horse that there is reward in compliance and punishment (pressure) when their isn't.

That which they singularly failed to do in the initial session.

You say the horse understands nothing, I agree, so why make the assumption that it does?
That a bloke flinging a blanket around is something the horse should be well scared of and respect?
Would have thought that much was self evident.
It's been brought up in a house FGS, I reckon blankets might have crossed it's path at some point.

The horse was compared to a predator (LOL), how many lion tamers use a blanket?

You seem to have the most problem with the idea of somebody doing this work for free.
But where was money ever mentioned?
The woman I assume paid for the clinic, the clinic wasn't suitable (was that made clear in the advertising, I don't know), so the follow on should be "this is what you need to do, this is how much it will cost".
Only then if that was turned down, can you make accusations that people want this training for free.
 
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