Are you familiar with Clinton Anderson? He’s the Downunder Horsemanship guy on tv. Emma and I went to see his program over the weekend and I gotta tell you, it was soooo much more than I expected.
First, there were a little over 2000 people there and he had nearly every person (over the age of, say, 10) hanging on his every word. He has this really special way of making you feel like he is talking directly to you – even though he is 200 feet down and away, speaking into a microphone and not even making eye contact. It’s not a cool guy charisma kind of thing, although I do feel for the girls I’m sure he left in his wake during college, it appears completely natural and it draws you in. I was blown away by the rock star way the crowd responded to him. People were holding up signs, screaming his name and would stand in a line 800 people deep to get a picture with him.
Two things were obvious about why this may be. One, he definitely knows what he’s talking about. He had those horses wanting to sleep in his back pocket after working with them only 20 minutes. Plus, he explained his method of training so clearly, it made anybody of any age and skill level want to at least give it a try. Second, he made receiving the information easy. He was quick to express the frustration (and fear) of trying to get a 1200 pound animal to do what you say when you say, he was quick to laugh about it and that – in my opinion – made people feel like he is a real person simply showing you something…not an expert whose team setup his stage success minutes before letting you have a look. It felt more like we were sitting on his fence at his farm and not in an event arena.
He made a fan out of me, I’ll tell you that right now. I even made Emma stand in line so I could take her picture with him. She was mortified.
Can you see the words under his logo? Innovation. Inspiration. Instruction. I was inspired all right. Inspired to take his words of wisdom, his approach for training and ways of establishing leadership into my work, home, parenting and, yep, to the barn. This week, I’m going to share some of the most meaningful things I learned over the weekend and tell you how you can apply them to some of your people problem spots. It’s all pretty basic stuff. I mean, if an animal can learn it….
I could probably explain this a lot better if I had my own horse. Geez! What’s a girl gotta do to get a horse around here?
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I have never seen Clinton Anderson in person, but have watched him on TV. It is amazing watching him work with the horses, and none of it feels contrived. You can also see and sense the effect it has on the audience.
I agree with you that it is an amazing gift to be able to sense what the animals are probably feeling, helping them get through it and then moving on.
His methods are very instructive when dealing with humans as well. If we could just spend the time, empathize with what’s going on in their minds, hearts and little world, find a way to make it seem better, we could get many more of them to the water, and get them to drink of their own volition.
Good post.
Martina
@martinamcgowan