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Anyone watch Buck Brannaman on Netflix?

7K views 18 replies 10 participants last post by  jaydee 
#1 ·
Oh, the joys of finally having unlimited internet!
I stumbled across 'Buck" on netflix, and found it a very good watch.I have the book , was it was nice to watch him in person'
In the last part of that video, is a three year old colt, still a stud, brought to that clinic. He was an orphan colt, and totally spoiled and very dangerous. That colt managed to get Buck's assistant, and bite him in the head, charging him
Seems the owner has 18 studs running together at home-yes, 18!
The owner came tot he conclusion that this horse had to be put down, and Buck 's final comment on the horse, was that people had failed him,by not setting boundaries getting respect
Buck.s approach to horses is built on empathy, and being as gentle as possible, but he openly states that bribing horses does not work,
I think watching this video would be a great resource for many struggling between the idea of getting respect and just trying to love on a horse instead
 
#2 ·
I watched the documentary about a year or two back. It was an interesting watch for me, and I did enjoy it quite a bit. The last part with the stud was a dangerous situation... I feel kind of sorry for the horse in that it had that spoiled life, making him a danger. The owner also seems very irresponsible to have 18 studs running around.
 
#3 ·
I have the DVD and re-watch from time to time. The young stud who had to be put down was probably the most extreme example of something I bet Buck sees a lot of, and was selected for the drama and the point. The woman was a type of animal hoarder. We've all met people with this romantic/rescuer mentality (illness) who get in over their heads and just cannot admit that they are failing their animal/s. I know at least two severe cases personally.

Buck is inspiring. Not so much his techniques, which aren't too different than many a good trainer, but his presence with horses. I love watching him ride, too. He has got to be the most deeply balanced and relaxed rider I've ever seen.
 
#4 ·
My DVD is being borrowed at the moment so I cannot check immediately.

I don’t believe that Buck ever used the word "respect" in the documentary in relation to gaining it from the horse towards the human, but in the opposite.

It is the human that needed to respect the horse by treating it as a horse. Those are two very different concepts.
 
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#7 ·
I don't know if this was in the documentary or not.

“A horse needs to respect you, but sometimes people confuse respect and fear, they’re not the same at all.” -BB

If you watch the way he trains not just in the documentary, but in his clinics, it is an emphasis on where the respect begins.

With Brannaman respect begins from the human giving it to the horse rather than the human trying to gain it FROM the horse.

He does it by not creating fear but using fairness, feel and timing to first show the horse respect by treating it terms that a horse can understand.

Respecting the horse as a horse. It is in showing respect to the horse that you gain the horse's respect in return.
 
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#9 ·
I see him using techniques not much different from any other good horse trainer, and yes, he definitely works on the horse respecting the human
he has that horse yield his body parts, respecting the human's space
At the same time, re advocates respect towards the horse, by understanding and respecting his innate nature
I really don't know why the word, 'respect', in regards to a horse, has become such a'dirty word', equated with being unfairly dominant, when that is far from the truth.
When you earn respect from a horse, trust follows. Respect does not mean you train a horse using fear. It just means that a horse accepts you as being the leader, and does not constantly have a 'make me attitude', but rather a willingness to please
 
#12 · (Edited)
I really don't know why the word, 'respect', in regards to a horse, has become such a'dirty word', equated with being unfairly dominant, when that is far from the truth.
Because of the last part of BB's quote; "sometimes people confuse respect and fear"

Just as there are many spoiled horses due to confusing human kindness and horse kindness (not respecting a horse as a horse), there are many horses that are fearful because the human has confused creating fear and gaining respect.
 
#13 ·
Buck is one of the only clinicians that I would actually pay good money to go watch/participate....if he ever came within driving distance of me.

He is all about the horse and human being full partners, where there is a mutual level of trust, understanding, and respect. The thing I like most about him though is that he's a working horseman. He teaches people how to make handy, useful horses. He doesn't do the circus act thing like so many others. While my riding style is slightly different than his, his philosophies are almost identical to the philosophies that I was raised with.
 
#14 ·
If you watch him just holding a horse's lead rope, as I did auditing a clinic, he could be giving a talk and not appearing to even look at the horse but he knows exactly where the horse's mind is. He will correct one foot moving, the horse's head turning, over and over until the horse is standing still, squared up and looking forward. He doesn't over-correct or punish, he just puts the horse back in the position he requested, instantly and automatically (all while not looking at the horse and talking to an audience about something else), until the horse understands that the only comfortable choice is standing still. There's a bit in the film where his horse, standing on grass, waits to be permitted to put his head down and graze. Call it what you want . . .
 
#16 ·
Let me share with you part of the afterward of his book Believe:

Over the years I've come across plenty of people who criticized me because they subscribed to the old-school methods of dominating a horse. They worked a horse as if they were going to war with it. And they were.

If that's the way you deal with your horses, it's the way you deal with your fellow man as well. I just can't subscribe to that primitive notion of forcing your will on a horse or a human, and I hope if nothing else, this message comes through for my readers.


If you use or have used the premise of letting a horse "win" or "winning" over your horse That quote should give you pause.

This fits with another quote from him.

"As a rider, you must slowly and methodically show your horse what is appropriate. You also have to discourage what's inappropriate, not by making the inappropriate impossible, but by making it difficult so that the horse himself chooses appropriate behavior. You can't choose it for him; you can only make it difficult for him to make the wrong choices. If, however, you make it impossible for him to make the wrong choices, you're making war.

When we make it so that our horse has no choice but to obey, we are making our own conflict.

There are still some people out there who don't get it and probably never will.
 
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#17 ·
I like Buck, but, there are things I question, same as with any trainer
For instance, that aggressive stud- why did he have to be ridden asp, thus have a back leg roped? That is going to put an aggressive horse into fight, has you have taken away the flight
If anything, he would be a horse that as a last resort, should have been thrown.
That was an age old last resort, and produced a profound mind change, on a horse where being put down would be the only alternative
He should in fact, have been gelded, then left alone for a month, and then worked with,
Buck, just like CA, has the public demand for instant solutions, and perhaps followed a path he would not have, given more time, back on his ranch

What many people don't get, is the last part of this statement, I believe attributed to Tom Dorrance, 'be as gentle with a horse as possible, but also as firm as needed, to make that horse a good citizen"
I know you have a horse that was abused, having seen the before picture, and thus you focus on that extreme end, while I have seen many more horses condemned to being un wanted through not having that horse learn boundaries, having that horse spoiled, to the point he becomes dangerous.
There is a happy medium, which I like to think I practice.
I love my horses, they enjoy happy lives, like to work for me, certainly have no fear of me, but they do respect me, thus don't walk over me, don't consider me a personal vending machine, and don't decide where they will or will not either lead or ride
I like BUck and his empathy towards horses, but when it comes down to the nitty gritty, really don;t believe in crash course colt starting , like he and many others that actually compete in colt starting chellenges can accomplish.
Nice to watch, and people like Steve Rother (the horse teacher ) can have an un broke colt, compete in a pattern in three days, working at all gaits, dragging an object, vracking a whip of of that horse at a gallop ect.
Heck, Doug Mills rode a colt without anything on his head, in the large indoor arena, at a full out lope, and this horse was bucking for the first two days of that hourly roundpen session.
Yes, these people have that connection with a horse, so they can do that, but I think there is a huge problem with public perception as to what they are seeing.
Just because it can be done by these horsemen, does not mean it should be done by the average person, nor is that horse truly 'broke'by any means
Thus, as with any trainer, you take what works for you and your horses, while keeping the 'big' picture in mind
 
#19 ·
In interviews Buck has stated that the young stallion that attacked the trainer in that video had brain damage and that was why he was euthanized rather than castrated to see if that helped
He also says in this clip that the safest place to be around the horse was on his back, it was on the ground where he became a danger which says to me that the horse was already broke when Buck came on the scene and things had gone gradually wrong with the horse as whatever was going on in his brain had worsened.
The woman had a lot of stallions there and that's not a great idea but there's no mention that any of the others had aggression issues like this one and I think as it turned out his behavior wasn't down to the way she treated him but from that brain damage that began with his birthing problems.
 
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