The Ranch had been in the business of breaking horses for a long time…as long as anyone could remember really. There were good times and there were bad times and there were times in between and the days came and went but one thing remained the same – the breaking of horses.

It was no easy thing to break a horse, each one required a subtly different approach depending upon temperament and upbringing. Often times the easiest to break were not the ones you would expect. With so much time invested in the business there were literally generations of horses that had gone through the gates and into the corral. One would expect that those horses that were third or fourth generation ranch animals would have an easier time in the ring and that the odd wild horse that was brought in would put up more of a fuss…but that was not usually the case.

Sometimes it felt as if the ranch horses were more stubborn and set in their ways, as if to say the the lead ranch hand “I’ve been here longer than you and will outlast you – I do things my way”. On the other hand the wild horses had a greater sense of pragmatism it seemed. They had a deeper sense of what it meant to sacrifice for the herd and move as a group rather than as a wildling, fierce but alone and ultimately weaker for all that. The worst of them all were the older ones that had become set in their ways and existed solely for their own ends because no one had loved them enough to lead them…these horses were like as to die or kill you before submitting to being led.

Every ranch had its own way of doing things, its own way of breaking a horse. Some had even come to a place where the idea of breaking seemed archaic and old fashioned and that the way to tame them was through long, often tedious methods of bonding – and this generally was fine until a moment of critical decision had to be made; in such moments both rider and horse would freeze or bolt in their own independent directions. Still others had given up on breaking all together and sold their horses wild to unseasoned buyers who believed the aggression and independence were strengths.

For this ranch hand however there was only one way to meet the ranch objective of training up a horse that would catch the vision of its master and work hard to achieve it – one on one, in the coral.

Every horse came into the coral unbroken, wild and independent. They had a sense of direction but it was their own and completely out of tune with that of the ranch hand. A successful breaking depended on only two factors – the horse and the hand. Each horse had a unique personality with unique strengths and weaknesses.Each horse was destined for a different role – some were to be work horses pulling plows and wagons and such, others were to be ridden, still others a little of both. The hand had to be mature and experienced enough to know each horse and guide it to the ultimate goal of horse and rider becoming one team working toward the same objective – each utilizing their own unique strengths in harmony with one another – this could not happen with a wild horse or a hand that was unwilling to take the reigns and do what was necessary.

Put an unseasoned hand on a wild horse and it wouldn’t be long before the hand was upended and laying stunned and flat on the ground while the horse continued on its way. Other hands could be cruel and used unnecessary force which may break the horse but also its spirit too and in this sense such a hand was a failure. One thing was true though – a hand had to be decisive and often had to require the horse to do something it did not want to – the success or failure here depended on how much the hand was trusted and how patiently the hand reinforced the role of rider and horse.

No, a good hand knew that from the moment the horse entered the coral until it left it needed to be led…that it was part of a grander objective that involved the vision and guidance of the hand. A seasoned hand loved every horse genuinely and knew when to press the spurs and just how hard to do so. A good hand knew that the horse was not a slave but also not a master and would work to transform the horse and ultimately the herd into a unit that would all work together with rider toward a common cause.

It was not easy. The hand knew that no horse liked to be broken, just as no ranch hand liked to be thrown. The hand knew that these basic instincts often led other hands and horses to agree to disagree creating horses that went where they pleased – often to the peril of their rider and to the horse as well.

No – sometimes the hand had to be firm, especially early in the breaking. Over time the horse would come to trust the hand and allow itself to be bent to the hand’s will for the benefit of each and ultimately the ranch. In this fashion they would come to common cause. Any other way was a waste of time.

The hand knew that there was a natural pecking order in a wild herd. That the stallion led through deciveness and with the best interest of the herd in mind. A herd without a stallion would fall apart. There was no such thing as a herd with a weak or indecisive stallion and in the same way the hand knew there should be no such thing as a weak rider or a weak hand attempting to break a horse. It would never work.

As long as these principles guided the hand, the ranch would continue to do as it had done. Success depended solely on these things.