What do you think about Buck Brannaman?

^^^I like him and his boys. Jim is a sweetie and a good hand.

I'd be interested to hear which parts of his style don't click for you! I love it when I can find something to disagree with even in a well-respected teacher. It really serves as a good reminder to think for oneself. For me the one thing that comes to mind in emulating his groundwork is the practice of bumping the horse off the halter to break down their momentum and get to the hindquarters when they're trying to pull away on the ground. No question that it's ultimately effective but I've found that it tends to -too- easily put a halter burn on a horse's face if you do it much. There's even a frame in 7Clinics I found which shows a horse with those 'strawberries' under its chin from the halter. So I do question as to whether it's the best solution, or whether we couldn't find a way around that.

A lot of what I disagree with in Bucks method isn't groundwork so much, but rather his interpretation of a the bridle horse process. And this really a disagreement with his process itself, but I guess difference is a better word for it, in what I think makes a good bridle horse. I don't like riding horses in a snaffle for at least a year. I think learning the fundamentals with a snaffle is good, but I don't think all the work for the first year needs too be done in a snaffle. I find you get a lot more lightness and understanding of a hackamore and a bridle bit if they are ridden in a bosal substantially in their training. Buck likes to ride his horses for at least a year in a snaffle bit. I'm not saying this is wrong in any way, because obviously it works for him, but I find it quite unessecary to ridea horse in a snaffle for that period of time. It teaches the horse the basics, but I don't want my horses to learn light cues off the bars of thier mouth. I'd rather refine and advance those cues working off their nose, jaw and poll. I find you get much softer horses with minimal use of a snaffle.

That is something I like about Buck - he gives a good name to old school cowboys. I don't really care whether a trainer is into natural horsemanship, or any other discipline, as long as it's "good horsemanship." This is obviously subjective in some ways, but I think there are some core principles that run through every discipline.

I don't really have a beef with other natural horsemanship trainers, though I don't follow their stuff extensively. I have a Pat Parelli book published by Western Horseman from the '90s, and I picked out some useful tips from it. I'm just not willing to pay the premium on his newer instructional material, let alone all the other junk he markets.

But I will shell out for a Buck DVD or book, because I know he has high quality stuff that will help me advance as a horsewoman.

I love Buck I think he is an amazing horseman! He's going to be in Oklahoma in March I can't afford to actually participate but you bet I'll be there auditing and soaking in the knowledge!

I love Buck! He is so down to earth and just wants to give knowlege, not sell himself. I would love to go to one of his clinics as an auditor, because I am currently horseless sad panda, but just the knowlege that I could gain would be worth going regardless of my horselessness Anyone know if he is coming anywhere near Michigan?

Bay harbor Michigan in October aerie!
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Yayyyyyyy!!!! Now to convince the BF (Da biff as I call him) to go with! Thanks!

I see on the schedule that Bryan Neubert came to Maine last year... I will have to check to see if he is coming again this year. Perhaps Ahab and I can attend. Does he work with 20 something Percherons?

Ooh, where in OK?