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Pat Parelli • Chris Cox • Clinton Anderson
Pat Parelli
 Born in California's Bay Area, Pat Parelli was obsessed with horses at an early age. When Pat was just 13, a horseman and trapper named Freddie Ferrera of Livermore, California, recognized Pat's talents with horses and took him under his wing. During the summers he would teach him valuable lessons about how to be more natural with horses, dogs, cattle, and nature itself.
Pat's horse career began with working in stables at age 9. If there were horses, Pat would be there, enthusiastically helping with whatever he could, ears open for every drop of information. He even started to develop his own ideas about raising foals and training horses, an unusual thing for a young boy.
At the age of 17, Pat Parelli launched himself into rodeos, his favorite event being the bareback riding. A natural, with a good coach in John Hawkins, Pat won the Bareback Rookie of the Year title in 1972, his buck-off average just 4%. Watching many rodeo athletes trying to move on, Pat was determined to find life after rodeo. A career in training horses seemed logical and he started a business that concentrated on starting colts. However, like many trainers before him, it wasn't long before the pattern of equine and financial frustration set in and Pat found himself on the verge of getting out of horses altogether. He also resisted the idea that horse training should treat horses like inanimate objects.
Then three significant events changed his life:
- He met Tony Ernst from Australia, who was a student of the horse, a disciple of Kung Fu martial arts and a master musician;
- He began to work under the tutelage of Troy Henry, a master horseman from Clovis, California, who specialized in training and developing both horse and rider for competition using psychology and communication;
- He took an interest in developing mules to be able to perform like horses.
Through Tony Ernst, Pat learned about inner power and the Kung Fu principles of discipline, body control, and mind-body mastery. Troy Henry opened up a whole new world to Pat by helping him understand horses' mental and emotional processes as prey animals as well as the true dynamics of horsemanship and how they applied to performance horses. The mules taught Pat the importance of reverse psychology, the principle of safety and comfort as the only real incentives, and developed in him more savvy on how to get a prey animal to "want" to perform. They also taught him about patience! In 1980, Pat founded The American Mule Association .
Being an intense student of horses and horsemanship, Pat had begun to develop his own style of teaching and expanding these principles. He also became interested in showing reined cow horses and was successful in reining and cutting events with both horses and mules.
One of the greatest frustrations Pat experienced in training horses was handing them back to their owners who often had a noticeable lack of skill and understanding. He found that if the rider didn't have enough savvy, the horses would regress. After much soul searching he finally decided that he couldn't go on just training horses, he had to find a way to help people become more savvy with horses. Pat Parelli discovered that he had a natural talent in finding the right words to explain what he understood about horses. So he turned his attention to helping people instead of horse training. He began to give "lessons" but had no idea that one day he would be able to help people on a much larger scale.
In 1983, while performing bridle-less at the California Livestock Symposium, Pat met three men who significantly contributed to his horsemanship knowledge: Tom Dorrance, Ray Hunt and Ronnie Willis – all masters who became Pat's mentors. A few years later the world's leading equine behaviorist, Dr R. M. Miller, observed one of Pat's bridle-less demonstrations and recognized that Pat's concepts aligned strongly with his own philosophies on influencing the horse's mind and on foal imprinting. He predicted that by the time Pat Parelli reached age 40, he would have become one of the best horsemen and teachers the world had known.
When we look at Pat's life now – with Parelli Natural Horsemanship centers on three continents and students the world over – we see that Linda and Pat Parelli are fulfilling the Parelli goal of changing the world of horse training and changing the world for horses and the people who love them.
Dreams Do Come True!
Chris Cox
 Chris Cox' entire life has been influenced by his relationship with the horse. He moved with his ranching family from Florida when he wasn't yet two-years-old, to an island off the coast of northeast Australia to raise cattle. During his time on the 100-square-mile Prince of Wales Island, and while he worked as a hand on numerous ranches on the mainland in the years that followed, the horse served as work partner, transportation, entertainment and even companionship for Cox.
"Being around horses has been as natural to me as breathing," Chris says in his book, Ride the Journey.
While Australia shaped the young Cox, it was with an eye toward returning to the United States that he honed his horsemanship skills competing in Pony Club, camp drafting (similar to working cow horse), and working for large ranches. He started his first colt in his early teens and went on to excel in his horsemanship studies at Longreach Pastoral College. His dream was to find a way to make a living working with horses - preferably in the United States.
At eighteen, he took the first step to fulfilling that dream and headed back to America. Following some ranch work in Florida, Cox began training mustangs for the Bureau of Land Management. Throughout the '80s and '90s Cox took in horses to train and began to devise what has become his trademark program - a step-by-step progression of skills for all levels of horsemen to improve their horsemanship.
His program has proved to be immensely popular with people of all ages and skill levels. It requires no gimmicks or special equipment but rather commitments to understanding the horse, devoting time, self-examination and honesty about one's own limitations.
At Road to the Horse in 2008 with fellow competitors Mike Kevil, Ken McNabb and Tommy Garland. In 2007, Chris competed alongside Clinton Anderson and Stacy Westfall.
With his Chris Cox Horsemanship television show on RFD TV, the nationwide Ride the Journey SM Tour stops and appearances at equine expos and events, Cox has touched the lives of many a horse enthusiast and shown them there's a straight-forward, practical way to gain a better relationship with their horses. Those who saw him win back-to-back championships at the 2007 and 2008 Road to the Horse Colt Starting contests witnessed the effectiveness of his methods and his clear passion for horses.
2008 marked Chris' second consecutive win at the prestigious Road to the Horse Colt Starting Event. “I'm honored to be part of such a great event,” says Chris. “I went up against some great competitors.”
Cox is not only a successful clinician; he trains and competes at the highest levels of cutting horse competition. At his ranch he often has over twenty horses in training even as he juggles his demanding clinic, touring and competition schedules.
At his Diamond Double C Ranch near Mineral Wells, Texas, Cox offers progressive six-day horsemanship clinics several times a year. Chris also offers nationwide three-day clinics to make it even easier for those throughout the country to get first-hand instruction directly from him.
He and wife Barb welcomed their first child, Charlie in late October of 2008 and their son Case in January of 2010.
Clinton Anderson
 Clinton Anderson was raised in Australia where at the age of 6 his family recognized a natural ability with horses and cultivated his interest, buying him his first horse at age 9. Clinton began attending horsemanship clinics at age 12.
At age 13 he began playing polocrosse and was chosen for a national team representing his state. Clinton started his training apprenticeship full time at age 15 with nationally acclaimed clinician and horse trainer, Gordon McKinlay of Rockhampton, Queensland. During the next two years, he started and trained over 600 horses under Gordon's expert guidance.
At age 17, Clinton left Gordon McKinlay and began working for Ian Francis, nationally acclaimed Australian horse trainer in Gympie, Queensland. Clinton worked steadily with Ian for one year, then used his knowledge and expertise to begin his own training facility.
Clinton continued his own training and clinics until coming to the United States in 1996 for a brief apprenticeship with Al Dunning, winner of multiple AQHA World Championships. Clinton then returned to Australia and his horse training business. In October of 1997, Clinton officially made the United States his home where he began training, touring and conducting clinics.
In April 2001, Clinton became the first horse trainer to launch a “made-for-TV” weekly training program broadcast on satellite television. The use of untrained horses and a variety of topics covering common problems faced by horse owners has made his show the network's most popular equine program.
In 2003 and again in 2005, Clinton faced the country's best horse trainers and clinicians in the prestigious Road to the Horse Competition, becoming the first person to win the event twice in a row. Throughout his career as a clinician, Clinton has continued to breed, train and show his own reining horses. He currently continues to compete and win at the highest levels of competition.
2006 was also a significant year for Clinton personally. Although extremely proud to be a native Australian, Clinton also has a deep love of the United States and on February 21, 2006, he became a United States citizen.
In August 2008, Clinton moved his company headquarters from Belle Center, Ohio to the “Cowboy Capital of the World” located in Stephenville, Texas. The new Stephenville facility is located in the heart of horse country and offers a world of opportunity for Clinton Anderson and Downunder Horsemanship.
Today, Clinton continues to teach, train and compete. He works hard to educate horse owners on how to be safe and effective while enjoying their horses. His mission is to “Inspire the Dreams of Horsemen” which he does with his easy to understand training method that's designed to help horse owners get the results they desire.
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