Tell me about Andrew Mclean

[beaconhorse]

The students on the degree course at the college I keep Beacon are studying his methods, and from what they tell me I like the sound of it

So what do you know about him and his methods?

Is he just yet another 'one' on the long list of so called guru's?

Anything else?

 

[MillionDollar]

He came and did some demos with student horses at college and TBH it was amazing.

He starts on the ground. He said everyone thinks its so sweet that their horse follows them, but actually its wrong. Your horse should only walk on when told (contact on the lead rope) if the horse walks on without this contact you make the horse walk backwards by tapping the front legs. Once you can 'park' (being able to walk away from the horse without it moving) the horse you're there. Honestly it was so cool.

One of my friends had this mare who just would not load, on a good day it would take 3 hours. After Andrew did this ground work the horse first heistated to get on the box, but then went straight on. Since then she loads first time with no heistation! How amazing is that.

Also another girl had a SJer who jogged everywhere and if it did not get its own way went straight up. Andrew first did some ground work and then spent about half an hour riding her. By the end of the session this mare was calmly walking, trotting and cantering- in an outline!!!! Andrew even let go of the reins and she remained in the same rhythm. Amy spoke after and she was gob smacked, she said she'd never got her in an outline and never seen her so calm. Andrew then got Amy to ride and again she was brilliant. This mare has gone from strength to strength since.

I got my cob to stop jogging using his techniques. Every time she jogged she would be halted then rein backed. She soon got the mesage, it didn't take too long.

It's also a brilliant technique for schooling if you have a horse who leans and rushes.

So if you halt the horse and it walks on without you giving the aid you rein back. If the horse goes faster than you aked it too, you rein back.

Anyway, sorry to go on so long, i know not everyone would agree with this, its just my opinion. But it does work and i think Andrew is pretty good.

Hope this helps

 

[RachelB]

I had a lecture by him last year at uni, and thought he was by far the best of his "type" of trainer there is (couldn't think of a better word to use there!)
I thought some of his techniques were fairly new and even he didn't seem to understand some things, and he did make a couple of odd and contradictory comments. However I chose to overlook that because I thought the basis for his thinking was very sound, and I wished I could have had a proper demo by him as I'm sure it would have been fascinating.
The last "natural trainer" I saw was this local well-known guy who put me off these methods completely by chasing the poor horse round a small pen cracking a huge lunge whip at it and terrifying it, telling everyone the horse would soon realise there was nothing to be afraid of (the horse only stopped galloping round as it was knackered). I really hated his methods and was sceptical about Andrew until I met him.
I can't remember exactly what he taught us tbh but he does have a book out which is meant to be quite good. I think he's well worth a look if you have the opportunity!

 

[KateStartin]

I have seen him work and had a theory lecture from him. Also studied his papers as i used them for my 2nd year bigish practical assigment. He really made me think about what i was actually teaching my horse and how to make things so much clearer to them.

Thought he was very good and based his work on scientific proven learning theory. Even if you don't use his methods to the letter the book is well worth a read as the basic theory is what is important. The actual implementation can then be adapted to individual circumstances.

 

[RachelB]

That's also what I was attempting to say (except I didn't have my head screwed on earlier and Tate said it far better!). His methods are good because they are flexible and adaptable, not "I will chase this horse round this pen and then it will come to me" - he takes the horse's individuality into account as well as the fact that horses are horses. It's more scientific as well, which is usually a plus for me as I'm a sciencey person. It's not so much about "use my method" either, like some "natural trainers", and more about emphasising how to help the horse to understand what you want from it.
Head screwed on better now