BUCK BRANNAMAN -Northern MI

by Nancy Morton

Buck cane to our area in Northern MI for the third time the last 4 days. He has made a commitment to himself that he will not ride any colts but will work with others working on their own and he will start one of his at the same time only riding his own. He made that commitment because of his back surgery and has intended on taking this year to heel....Of course on little mare had to be fixed....couldn't saddle her as she would squirt forward and around her owner every time the saddle was just barely placed on her back. Dust was fly and Buck was panting....but as usual by the end of the clinic the horse was on its way to being ok with it and the owner was doing the right thing to continue along that path.

Buck's clinics are pretty intense....as least they are up here. Trying to understand everything and ingrain it into my soul is like trying to take a drink out of a fire hose. But thanks to Bill's book and the studying completed to date....I can truly say there were only a very few things that I didn't understand after 2 years!!!! Application? That's a different story. All winter I also had Buck's tapes.

I seems that in the past I had to deal with terminology and just plain words and concrete concepts....I couldn't watch him correct someone's posture or hands on the reins or leg cues and see the process at work.....This year it was very plain to see the cause and affects. If anyone has the chance to attend....get ready for some hard riding....mentally and physically. He doesn't let up on you and he really calls a spade a spade. One of the participants had been to a clinic in AZ last winter and rode with him, and she said that he was much easier on the Azians. She attributed it to the fact that they already know the basics where here it is like teaching babies to walk.

What a chaotic scene, 25 to 30 riders in an outdoor arena. Their horses going nuts from the excitement and the newness of the others and the area....all riding in circles and backing in circles and backing qtr turns to the right and to the left and bringing front ends across, with only a string down and around their necks. By the 4th day, all was well with the world. One horse could care less about the next horse, all tuned into the rider all with snaffles now...doing precisely as Buck commanded from his position in the middle of the arena on Pet. Horses sidepassing and opening and closing gates...cantering in an out of each other...with calmness and confidence. Once in a while there would be a cranial meltdown of horse and/of rider...and a spurt of exuberance would have to be worked through momentarily. BUT, each rider without knowing it, had learned the benefit of moving the feet, of making the idle beast busy, of calming in a very proper and effective manner, both rider and horse. By that 4th day the lightness was plainly visible and a heightened clarity of cues was evident as well.

The horses were separating out this and that and the riders were calmly allowing that to happen. You could see the satisfaction in both the horse and rider. Next year I have to ride. It is a goal worth shooting for. I saw the benefits of getting the soft feel and the straightness that Bill talks about in backing and going forward...and so many thing I didn't quite understand in the book's pictures....were demonstrated right in front of us. It was a fantastic experience made greater by the studying that I had done so far on my own and through reading and trying to understand the posts on this list. The colts that were started were puppies, he said...and the big message that seems really hard to get across to people...is the benefit the rubbing...simulating

a mare's muzzle of her muzzle. When they first sat on their colts and he started flagging them all in the round pen-9 horses and riders including his own...he repeatedly yelled "rub 'em" and threatened it the riders didn't do as he said he would remove the horse's halter and lead in which many were finding security. RUB 'em! I'm telling you. RUB 'em all over. RUB 'em!!!!

Encourage forward movement, reinforce it as if it were a gift. Never drag or pull forward. Be thankful when they move out and RUB 'em!

Amen!

Nancy