Back in the 70's, I "adopted" a couple of mustangs from Nevada for a few dollars each. Young, dumb, and stupid at the time - thought it was a hella good deal.
Then tried to break them.
Those were mean bastards! Break them - yeah right.
Couldn't even eat them, too tough and stringy. Worthless animals, I say.
Moved on to fast cars and girls, never looked back.
Several of my friends and myself did the same thing back around 1980. Went to the adoption center in Cross Plains TN and brought back 4. My intention was to breed the mare I got to a QH stud and hopefully break her enough to at least handle her. Anyway, only one out of the four turned out to be breakable, and he looked like part draft horse, so he wasn't as hot blooded as the others were. Those mustangs were meaner than hell, and could kick quicker than anything I've ever seen. Waste of time and money.
Fuggers were quick to bite too! I bet I still have remnants of scars.
'Course, in all fairness, I've tried to break a couple of wimmen too, and not had much luck with them either.
After marriage I kept five brood mares and a stud for many years. I sold off the colts with uncooperative personalities, and sold broke five year olds as we started riding younger stock.
I kept three kids in 4H ponies for about ten years.
The secret to a well trained horse is knowledge. One simply has to know, if that horse ever feels the need to buck, you have already seriously fugged up.
And if you have fogged up, a corral with a center post and swivel ring, a 3 1/2 foot length of 2x4, a saddle, and a guy who knows what to do with those ingredients will make that horse a pleasure to ride.
Osky
You ain't much of a horseman if you think that's what it takes to train a horse.
A round pen? yes.
You snub one of my horses to a center post, or approach it with a 2x4. You will leave my property at gunpoint.
I would not even treat a dog that way.
I want a horse that finds it a pleasure to do my bidding, rather than a horse scared [bleep] of pissing me off. Positive reinforcement works!
Dealing with one right now that has been beaten. Might take years, possibly never. Like to spit some Beechnut in that dudes eyes...
I have done quiet a few. Started on mules about 40years ago. Now that is lot more challenging. I have trained them as saddle mules, harness mules, and pack mules. Horses will kill you by accident.Mules will kill you on purpose if treated badly, so a fellow better know how to work with them. I don't have much use for horses, except a good mare to make mules with.
I remember a quote in an old Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine about the town of Muleshoe and of people that remembered farming with mules. One gent stated that mules would give up to 40 years of good service just for that one chance to kick your head off!
Had a big gelding that would start bucking for no reason and when you’d least expect it and getting thrown every time.
Upon an old black gentleman’s advice the next time he did it I threw the reins and a rope around his neck high over a large tree limb out in the pasture, pulled it up tight to where his head was pointing straight up and left him there till the next afternoon. It was in the hot summertime.
When I untied him I had a reborn Christian for a horse and he never did that again.
I started about like Idaho Shooter. Made money as a teenager putting a 30-day start on a halter-broke horse for $100.
I wouldn't call it 'breaking' a horse, but rather training a horse. A lot of trust is involved, and that has to be earned. I spend about the first 10 days doing ground work. A lot of saddling, bridling, letting the horse stand with that while grooming, picking up feet, sacking them out so they were accustomed to the saddle, bridle, touches, noises, etc, etc.
After about five days of that, I had a set of driving reins I would put on the bit (snaffle bit for starting out), and put the reins through the saddle stirrups and on back. I would drive the horse like that for two or three days so he has learned to commands and pressure, to start, stop, turn, back up.
So by day 10 or so, I'm mounting the horse for the first time. The horse is well in tune to the saddle, bridle, voice and rein cues, stopping, starting, turning. The only thing new is I'm on the horses back, instead of on the ground. I'd spend the next 20 days or so getting them smoothed up on turns, walking, trotting, galloping circles, figure-eights, lead-changes, trailering.
If I had two or three going at once in the summer it was good money. During school, I only had enough spare time for one at a time.
Most horses would hunch up a bit feeling the added weight. Most never bucked. I got bucked off now and then though.
I hit the ground a couple times when the horse flushed a pheasant out from under his feet, and the horse suddenly jumped sideways. A good horse would stop and wait when he gathered his senses, a knucklehead would run all the way back to the barn.
Good times.
Here's an old pic of me back in those days, around 1977, near Sidney MT with my gelding Rob. He was half QH, half Thoroughbred. Great horse, and buddy.
This^^^^^^^ exactly the way I do it
I got banned on another web site for a debate that happened on this site. That's a first
Dealing with one right now that has been beaten. Might take years, possibly never. Like to spit some Beechnut in that dudes eyes...
My first horse of my very own, rather than one from the family farm, belonged to a lady I worked with.
She and especially her husband were having trouble with this mare and were thinking about selling her. She told me about when she bought the mare from an old gypo across town. She went to look at the horse and the guy had the mare down in a corral in a foot of cow schitt. He was standing on the horse's neck kicking her in the head.
When I went to look at the mare, she had several cuts around her ears and over her eyes. My coworker and her husband had attempted to force the horse into a typical two horse trailer to take her to auction. She had beat her head against the the trailer resisting.
I saw the most beautiful black quarter horse I had ever laid eyes on. Absolutely perfect conformation, And the smoothest gait I had ever ridden. I was in Love. I asked my Uncle to drive his 16 foot stock truck over to avoid the whole trailer thing.
Within a couple months that mare would do anything I asked of her. Point into the trailer, and she would jump in. Cross canals full of water. Ground tie while I chased a deer around the mountain. Pack the deer home in the saddle.
But she never was totally at ease with me. She was a lady's horse. My wife, with a kid riding double covered many a mile of mountain trail on that mare. The horse was a wonderful baby sitter for them as my wife had not grown up around horses and had only dreamed of having one to ride.
Such is the nature of an abused horse.
People who choose to brew up their own storms bitch loudest about the rain.
Had a big gelding that would start bucking for no reason and when you’d least expect it and getting thrown every time.
Upon an old black gentleman’s advice the next time he did it I threw the reins and a rope around his neck high over a large tree limb out in the pasture, pulled it up tight to where his head was pointing straight up and left him there till the next afternoon. It was in the hot summertime.
When I untied him I had a reborn Christian for a horse and he never did that again.
Had a big gelding that would start bucking for no reason and when you’d least expect it and getting thrown every time.
Upon an old black gentleman’s advice the next time he did it I threw the reins and a rope around his neck high over a large tree limb out in the pasture, pulled it up tight to where his head was pointing straight up and left him there till the next afternoon. It was in the hot summertime.
When I untied him I had a reborn Christian for a horse and he never did that again.
I don’t [bleep] about horses but I sure as hell wouldn’t let you train my dogs.
Convenient that you had a tree limb in just the right spot in the pasture.
like a horse would stand there and let you through that rope and try to pull up on its neck , fight or flight RIGHT now.
i have been run over bucked off dove off stepped on and kicked enough, but i still love horses.
There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of even one small candle----Robert Alden . If it wern't entertaining, I wouldn't keep coming back.------the BigSky
I never broke any, but sadly, I about killed one taking a shortcut in some nasty country! I never forgave myself for that one , though my horse did! I spent 20 years in the saddle in the high country and rode some beautiful animals. My hat is off to those with the skills to train them! The horses I saddled trained me and made me look good as a packer and guide! I had one bad experience with a mule , my boss' wife insisted I put some miles on. Ben, the mule, was beaten with a 2by4 by one of his owners and was never the same. We used him as a pack mule. He caught me sleeping one day and launched me onto a log, which broke three ribs! I still hurt from it, but I do not blame Ben , the mule!
Nope. Daughter and SIL are the horse people. My favorite mule has kawasaki written on it.
Founder Ancient Order of the 1895 Winchester
"Come, shall we go and kill us venison? And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools, Being native burghers of this desert city, Should in their own confines with forked heads Have their round haunches gored."
I got raked off a pony I jumped onto without a saddle in an apple orchard once - does that count !!
He must have been 12 years old and never ridden, and was probably smarter than me because I was 15, we were a fenced off portion of the orchard, and he simply turned and headed fast and hard for the low canopy of branches to scrape me off… and scrape me off they did.
What made it golden was my 12 yr old brother standing there laughing at me.
Had a big gelding that would start bucking for no reason and when you’d least expect it and getting thrown every time.
Upon an old black gentleman’s advice the next time he did it I threw the reins and a rope around his neck high over a large tree limb out in the pasture, pulled it up tight to where his head was pointing straight up and left him there till the next afternoon. It was in the hot summertime.
When I untied him I had a reborn Christian for a horse and he never did that again.
After marriage I kept five brood mares and a stud for many years. I sold off the colts with uncooperative personalities, and sold broke five year olds as we started riding younger stock.
I kept three kids in 4H ponies for about ten years.
The secret to a well trained horse is knowledge. One simply has to know, if that horse ever feels the need to buck, you have already seriously fugged up.
And if you have fogged up, a corral with a center post and swivel ring, a 3 1/2 foot length of 2x4, a saddle, and a guy who knows what to do with those ingredients will make that horse a pleasure to ride.
Osky
You ain't much of a horseman if you think that's what it takes to train a horse.
A round pen? yes.
You snub one of my horses to a center post, or approach it with a 2x4. You will leave my property at gunpoint.
I would not even treat a dog that way.
I want a horse that finds it a pleasure to do my bidding, rather than a horse scared [bleep] of pissing me off. Positive reinforcement works!
Well I’m sure I’m not the horseman you are, holster up your gun. I said there was a recipe to those objects I didn’t say anything about beating a horse. Back in the late 80’s I first saw this old boy out in Montana. People said he lived his whole life out in a line shack/trailer on private- association lands. He came up to the headquarters just so often for supplies. In summer after running lines, when he came up the ranch owner had him breaking stock for a while but a lot of it was brought over from other people who I’d assume were good horse/ mule people as well that had problem animals. The guy broke horse and mules for both riding and wagon teams. Fascinating what he could do with those animals. On some he had the mentioned recipe and items. His own two horses were trained beyond anything imaginable. I’d thought the best trainers were the Vacaros (sp) I’d seen down along the border ranches but this guy was the best. I swear if that man would have told one of his horses to go to town and get some chew and run it back they would have done just that. His personal horses seemed to read his mind and did things with barely a quiet command. Many many things. Incredible horseman and tough old boy! Ranch owner told me back then one summer out in the breaks he came off the saddle when his horse was struggling on a hill and rattlesnake became involved.. that’s as much detail I know on the incident. Result was he fell back into cactus. Back full of it. Got pulled out what he could reach. Rather than come back out to headquarters he stayed put. No one knew. He rigged up an old razor on the end of a stick and would shave the cactus as it festered out. He reported later the worst of it was when the cactus would drag on his shirt so he had taken a couple of shirts and cut the backs out. Anyway, there are ways and there were people. They always called Him “D”. RIP I’m sure it doesn’t mean much to many people but I feel lucky to have seen one of the last people from a bygone era that could do what he did.
Osky
A woman's heart is the hardest rock the Almighty has put on this earth and I can find no sign on it.
Had a big gelding that would start bucking for no reason and when you’d least expect it and getting thrown every time.
Upon an old black gentleman’s advice the next time he did it I threw the reins and a rope around his neck high over a large tree limb out in the pasture, pulled it up tight to where his head was pointing straight up and left him there till the next afternoon. It was in the hot summertime.
When I untied him I had a reborn Christian for a horse and he never did that again.
I don’t [bleep] about horses but I sure as hell wouldn’t let you train my dogs.
Convenient that you had a tree limb in just the right spot in the pasture.
Not so much convenient as available and the tree is still there.
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