Buck Brannaman is one of the best known natural horsemanship trainers in the US. He is well known not only because he is really good, but also because he was the subject of the award-winning documentary film Buck which tells the story of his upbringing and how he came to rise above it. He was taught by some famous horsemen out west, including Ray Hunt, considered one of the fathers of natural horsemanship, though I don't know if either Ray Hunt or Buck use that term in connection with their way of working with horses.
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| Pretty horses! Impressive arena as well. I would love to ride my girl there. That's Buck in the middle. |
When I use the term, I'm thinking of the horse training methodologies that attempt to work within the horse's mindset, by using observation of horse behavior to guide training and then manipulating the horse's behavior by putting pressure in some way to make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult. I know there is some backlash against the idea of natural horsemanship in that it relies on negative reinforcement (removal of a bad thing as a reward) instead of the positive reinforcement (rewarding the good behavior with food or other desirable thing), which is used in clicker training and much wild animal training. However, no matter how you want to train your horse, the fact is that prior to the rise of natural horsemanship methods such as those of Ray Hunt, Tom Dorrance and now Buck Brannaman, Pat Parelli, Clinton Anderson and countless others, old school/traditional methods of "breaking" horse were the order of the day for thousands of horses. The new way of thinking has now saved thousands of horses from heart-breakingly cruel methods of literally breaking of the spirit of the horse.
Buck himself is also an extraordinary person, and I would urge anyone, interested in horses or not, to watch the film. My whole family watched it (even given their odd lack of interest in horses) and even considered coming with me yesterday because they admired him so much. You can watch the film and/or read his book The Faraway Horses to learn more, but in a nutshell in his young childhood he was raised by a loving mother but also by a violently abusive father. When his mother passed away at young age, he and his brother were left at the mercy of this man. When the abuse was discovered, they were moved to a wonderful loving foster family who raised them. He went on to become a world famous horse trainer, who is now known for his firm but kind and understanding treatment of horses, and inspires others to treat their horses with the same kind of respect. That's taking lemons and making champagne, if you ask me.
Needless to say, though, yesterday was all horses, no dramatic story, so Dave and the boys would have been bored out of their minds. However, the little crew of people from my barn and I were delighted! Watching Buck riding and handling the horses he was on made me want to be able to do it so badly I could just taste it. He and the horse were just perfectly in sync, and Buck could just move that horse around with almost undetectable movement, on the ground or on his back, wherever he wanted him, for one step or twenty. I also noted that while the horse was standing quietly, just being a good boy, Buck would rub his forehead or his neck. I've seen so many videos where no affection is shown to the horse, that it just made my day to see that. And the lesson for me was that it seemed to mean more to the horse coming from the person the horse respected so much. Of course I'm over-thinking it, but that's my specialty!
I learned a ton of things about horse thinking in general, and visualizations to keep in my head while working with Skye, and I ended up taking a ton of notes in my handy dandy notebook (which is also delightfully filled with drawings of bugs, eyeballs and Nintendo characters by the boys). But the best part was seeing the horses. We had front row seats and so seeing them come by was like a parade. Just eye candy for horse lovers. Both the morning class and the afternoon class (two separate classes, two groups of horses) had its own Friesian that looked like something out of a fairy tale. So gorgeous. My phone was just about out of power, so I could only take a few pictures, so here is picture of another Friesian who has won my heart for your viewing pleasure. More about him in my next post.
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| This is my Friesian friend Black. As impressive as any I've seen. |
There were several very cute Appaloosas, which I was formerly crazy enough to think I didn't like that much. Wrong again! These were so cute and seemed very willing. (And my sweet Reebok was an Appaloosa; I still miss him every day.) Also, I've never seen so many roans in my life. Even a couple of bay roans. So very cool. A big buckskin paint that I wanted to buy on the spot, a very cool leopard spotted Appaloosa (once again, a horse I thought I wouldn't care for. Why do I bother?), a deep golden stocky palomino Quarter Horse who looked like he trotted out of a little girl's dream. There also a number of various colors of gray, from charcoal to ones so light they looked like alabaster, including a couple that had to be Thoroughbreds, which was neat to see in among the Quarter Horses and Paints. The horse Buck rode in the first class was so adorable. I guess he was a bay roan, but in the light, he almost looked purple. Here he is, that cutey:
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| Yes, the photo is crappy (I was talking!) but you can see his color and how cute he is anyway. |
Buck referred to him as green, but I'm guessing I've never been on a horse as well trained as that one appeared to be.
Of course, I learned once again that I got the horse I needed. I was just loving looking at the variety of horses, and imagining my future lottery winnings buying me one of each I saw, but the ones that drew my eye the most, the ones I thought looked best, were always beautiful bays with pretty heads and well-proportioned bodies. Even the flash of Friesians and palominos can't turn me away! Even better, the second class, Horsemanship II, was full of Quarter Horses of all different colors that looked like they were brothers and sisters of my girl! Pretty heads, kind, intelligent eyes, nice movement. These people knew what kind of horse is right.
When I took Skye to training soon after I got her, the older man trainer had taken one look at her and told me she had Doc Bar blood (a famous Quarter Horse stud apparently famous in the area) and looking at all these horses that looked like her, I would have to say there was something to it. There were a couple of bays, a stunning black, a roan, and - be still my heart - a buckskin. (I flippin' love a buckskin, maybe as much as a bay.) Damn, those horses looked good. As someone from the barn pointed out to me, some of them looked almost as good as Skye. (I suspect they may have been teasing me, because believe it or not, some of them actually think their own horses look better than Skye. Crazy, I know.)
It was an interesting group taking the class as well. The majority of them appeared to be middle-aged, with a fair number of even older folks. There was one pretty old guy who was just a great horseman, and an older woman with long gray hair who was so good she must have been to one of these clinics before and practiced all year. Also, the guy (probably late 50's, early 60's) who had a gorgeous stocky palomino had a mustache so showy and long you could have hung Christmas ornaments from it. I loved it. If you're gonna do something like that, go on and go all out, I say.
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| Sadly, I did not have the power left in my camera, nor the nerve, to get a pic of the impressive mustache. I'm sorry. It was worth seeing. |
A couple of the riders were younger women (30's maybe), and the group seemed almost evenly split between men and women, which seems unusual now that women dominate the horse world for the most part. It comforts me to know there are still a bunch of men out there loving horses. There was one guy that I dubbed JR Ewing because he reminded me of the TV character with his upright and almost cocky demeanor and perfectly pressed shirt and jeans and impressive chaps and cowboy hat. He was very good though, and his horse was impressive.
Another neat thing was that everyone had groomed their horses impeccably. The white on all the horses practically glowed, and the manes and tails were all clean and silky looking. The horses really were impressive, and I was thinking as I drove back to my in-laws that it made sense that people who cared enough about their riding and their horses to shell out the $700 or $800 to take the 3 day clinic would have awesome horses and cool tack, and that they would show off their horses when given the chance. So overall, it was just a very fun experience. I will definitely be viewing as a spectator the next time he comes through.
To learn more about Buck Brannaman, his website is:
http://www.brannaman.com
To learn more about Buck, the documentary film about him, the website is:
http://www.buckthefilm.com
If you would like to buy me an early birthday present, you can get me this:
http://www.7clinics.com
Or you could just watch them yourself, I guess. I really think buying them for me would give you a warmer feeling though. 'Just sayin'.
I'm off to see that mare of mine. I'm sure she will be acting for me just like Buck's horses act for him soon. Or not. But we'll keep trying.
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