Horse Training Clinic Report

Note from Lil: The following text is from a lady who participated in a clinic given by Cleve Wells. At this point, I have no way to verify the claims in this email, but it does reflect similar observations by other people who have been very outspoken about what they've seen. I did some googling for the writer's name on the web, and to the best of my knowledge, the writer is credible. I think it is wise to take everything into consideration with the proverbial grain of salt, and to weigh all the evidence before coming to conclusions. I have not included the writer's identity in this file, but if you wish to contact her, you may email me and I will forward your message to her. (She did give me permission to publish her remarks.) Some of it may be disturbing to sensitive readers and children, so please be forewarned.

As a member of AQHA and someone who is beginning their show career I sincerely hope that the association investigates thoroughly the allegations about Cleve Wells.

I personally attended and participated in a clinic conducted by him and it was a horrifying experience for both myself, my husband, and some close friends of mine who had come to support me in what I thought was an amazing opportunity. I believed based on AQHA's support of him (he is shown in numerous journal articles, and touted as one of the "big cheeses" in the industry), as well as his hugely misrepresented DVD's and training manuals that he was a valuable trainer in expertise and methods.

When I was a part of the clinic, my horse came out bloody after being ridden by Mr. Wells. Unfortunately, at this time I was literally just beginning my interest and journey into the world of showing and training Quarter horses and I was not strong enough or educated enough to fully understand the bigger meaning of what I experienced. I was heartbroken by my clinic experience and both my husband and I had to reflect and process a great deal of what was discussed w/ Cleve Wells directly (i.e.. his training beliefs and methods, and what he "really" did at his ranch) and what occurred at the clinic. We had to determine whether we wanted to even continue on to show in the Quarter Horse industry.

I am heartbroken by what I experienced personally, and now what is being shown regarding his training methods today. The thought of why didn't I speak up about my experience sooner haunts me.

I'll never forget my experience with him. I think I was very similar to Nicole. I research and read everything (I am quite a bookworm), and I trusted AQHA's regard of him. In my mind before I actually met him, he was a "celebrity" to me (I am incredibly ashamed to admit that now). I was "honored" to have been chosen to participate in the clinic. The things that he said to my husband included that he doesn't waste time or money on veterinary care, that there is no vet that is allowed on his property...if he has a horse that won't do it's job, they "get it where it hurts" to get the message through to them and take away food and water until they give in, and if a horse doesn't have the talent or gets hurt, they don't waste a second more on it, they take it out back and shoot it because there are plenty more where that one came from and time is money. My husband returned to me after this conversation had occurred as white as a ghost, and refused to tell me what he had said to him (this conversation had occurred before I went into the clinic with him, and my husband who is not a horse person had no idea how to handle what he said).

The clinic was basically Cleve (actually in his own words saying this was what he did w/ horses), he wanted to do anything/everything he could to piss a horse off and get it to be the worst it could be because then he knew what he had to work with. My horse actually ended up pissing Cleve off because no matter what he did to him, my horse would not react negatively!!! Which in some ways was probably not the best thing for him to do. I had no idea what was going on, and why he was asking me to do certain things (which when I didn't do to his liking he would either take my leg or hand and make it do it and heighten his voice at me saying that I was too gentle or not strong enough, or he would get on my horse). I was basically in complete shock throughout the entire thing. A couple of my friends came to support me and watch and they said I was just staring at him, shaking and breathing really hard, that I looked like a deer in headlights. I am broken inside that I didn't have the courage to just take my horse away from him, but I was paralyzed because this was the very first time I had ever been exposed to this extreme method of training.

At the end he handed me back the reins, I brought my horse back to his stall and he had blood dripping from his mouth, I carefully took the bit out of his mouth, and it too was covered in blood. He had scabs on his mouth for over a week.

Cleve is very good with his words and making things sound as though there is "good" reason to do what he's doing, but if you listen to his words, and watch what he's doing, they don't match at all (he'll say things like I'm not spurring him hard, I'm just tapping him, and if you look at his legs you see his toes turned completely out, and the sharp kicks that he's doing, then you see the spurs he has on, which he'll say just have soft little ball tips on...they aren't soft spurs!).

I sincerely hope and prey that AQHA stops turning their backs on all of this, it was because of their very public "love and acceptance" of him that I went to this clinic (which was literally the first clinic I had even ever gone too!).