A client of mine spent 3 out of 8 sessions auditing Buck Brannaman’s clinic in Farmersville, TX and has sent me some snipets here from the great man:

 

  • learn how not to drive, get the horse to follow a feel
  • don’t get greedy…in other words, keep pushing the horse through something good to where it gets bad.  Then, you have to get through the bad to get back to the good
  • the thing horses value most is peace
  • its important to reward your horse
  • reach for the horse so he/she can reach back to you-he likened this to how a man asks a woman to dance; reaching out his hand so she can reach back for his. Its not about “grabbing” “pulling” and “jerking”
  • the more experienced a rider you are, the higher up the leg you work and the less experienced a rider you are the lower on the leg you work
  • get the weight off of the horse’s front legs and engage the hind quarters
  • you cannot possibly expose a horse in your lifetime to all the potential things that could scare it so close all the “exit” doors a horse thinks it has.  Don’t lose your center and keep the horse in the rectangle. Keep your horse out of trouble
And a quote he shared that I loved, “I may not know where I am going, but I am not lost…”