Mathias Andersson was 5,000 miles from home on Friday, struggling with a calf and standing in the mud near Lewis, with a big smile on his face.

Andersson traveled all the way from Sweden to get his hands, and boots for that matter, dirty.

He and four others from Sweden traveled to the United States to learn from John and Erika Moore, both of Dove Creek.

Moore is an internationally known horse clinician and it was a chance happening that brought Andersson to a ranch in Lewis, standing amid a sea of cows, taking part in Moore’s 30-day course.

Near the end of his 30-day course last week, Andersson and the others from Sweden, clad in western chaps and cowboy hats, were putting calves on their side, holding them down and placing ear tags on them.

“Wow, that was a real fighter, that one,” Andersson said after trying to get a particularly rowdy calf down for his ear tag.

Five thousand miles back home, Andersson is what he calls a glass man. He was installing windows on a woman’s porch one day and saw a picture of her with a horse.

“We started talking about horses and she showed me John’s book,” Andersson said. “She said, ‘If you really want to know about horses, read this book.’”

And Andersson took it one step further and signed up for a 30-day course, which has taken the students to Texas, New Mexico and Colorado, learning about horses and horse communication.

Moore said the course is a comprehensive one that involves riding and training a horse and gaining horse training experience.

“This is not a ‘dude ranch’ arrangement for strictly recreational riding. You will be training your horse in the round pen, arena and obstacle course, and also in the wilderness areas of Southwest Colorado. You will train your horse to work cows, cross rivers, allow you to rope from its back, and many other ‘real world’ experiences,” Moore said.

Moore smiled and watched his students work the cattle.

“This gives all the training meaning and it gives the horses purpose,” Moore said, as Erika Moore roped a calf and the students descended.

Moore travels a lot, mostly going to Europe to teach others how to fix problems they are having with their horses.

“I deal with a lot of problem horses with behavior issues,” Moore said. He travels to Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, England and Germany, in fact, he is scheduled to be in Gothenburg, Sweden on April 11.

And he doesn’t just deal with cowboys’ horses.

“Seventy percent of my clients are dressage students,” he said.

He also deals with jumpers. “Cow horse people are a minority in Europe,” Moore said.

“What I am really teaching is equine behavior,” he said.

Moore has been in the horse business for 25 years and prior to that was and still is in the music business. Moore plays the mandolin, guitar and sings Bluegrass music. Moore was the mandolinist with the band California, the International Bluegrass Music Association’s 1992, 1993 and 1994 Instrumental Band of the Year.

Erika Moore, John Moore’s wife, also helps teach, she occasionally shouts out in her native tongue when one of the participants of the clinic didn’t understand. The two met nearly 20 years ago when John was giving a clinic in Sweden.

“I was the secretary for the riding club,” she said. “Then he ran away with the secretary.”

The couple has two children, who both helped out Friday, writing numbers on the calf’s’ ear tags.

“This is great for the whole family,” Moore said.

Erika Moore also teaches riding through communication from the horse’s point of view.

“It’s so cool, I really like this,” Andersson said. “This is the real deal.”

In Sweden, Charlotte Andersson, of no relation to Mathias, is a hairdresser. She said she was enjoying the clinic.

“I don’t want to go home,” she said. “We have learned so much about horses and ourselves.”

The group was scheduled to go home on Feb. 24.

Amanda Westher, who is a nurse assistant in Sweden, was also happy with the clinic.

“I didn’t think I would learn so much,” she said.