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Dave's Experience

I never wanted to train or break horses. I never had much luck with animals. I grew up in London and their owners generally kept the dogs inside.

All the dogs I ever met bit me. I went horse riding in Ireland at my grandmother's farm. It was an old cart horse borrowed from the next farm. It was fun for a while then the horse got bored and bolted, galloping away to a distant farm with me on it. I cried every step of the way. My next few adventures with horses were as a teenager and very much the same. They could be grouped under the general title of "the horses that tried to kill me". They were good fireside stories for my children and bored friends.

I heard somewhere that the fears you do not conquer in life you will surely have to face in the moment of death. In the mountains of Wyoming in the summers of 1996 and 1998 I had overcome many of my fears, yet I knew I still had to overcome my fear of large animals. So that was one of the reasons I was now about to step into a corral with a wild, untrained horse that could, quite possibly 'try to kill me".

Stan started to set up the corral for "gentling down the horse" as he called it. He was not a horse whisperer. He didn't even like the term. "Just be good to the horse and he'll be good back to you." In fact he seemed to spend most of his time watching and listening rather than talking. For every occasion Stan had some little trinket of advice for me; to get me to the next stage. Right now the next stage was getting the horse in the ring and me in there with it. I'm not sure which would be more difficult.

Stan talked me through two busy days of horse gentling until I got onto the saddle and walked the horse around the corral a few times. I had done it. The horse never even kicked or spat at me, or "tried to kill me." I would like to say it was easy, because in one way, with Stan coaching me it was. But on the other hand I had some serious fearful mind barriers to pass through. So it also was one of the most difficult few days of my life.

I also learned a great deal from the experience. I can attribute this to Stan. I learned that we depend too much on words in this world. Most of our communication with the horse was non-verbal. I learned that how we are, what we are thinking and feeling is transmitted to animals. My lesson from this is that it is also transmitted to humans. I recalled all those uncomfortable moments in life when I "knew" something was going on, yet the verbal communication was incongruent.

"I don't like that horse" Stan said of a ranch hack that was tied up by the house. I had never heard Stan talk harshly of anyone or anything till this moment so I waited for the thought to continue. " We didn't train this horse. They did it on another ranch. When they trained the horse they beat all the spirit out of him. He's got no energy for life. My horses can't wait to be ridden; they have plenty of get up and go." I immediately flashed to my own life. People had always been trying to beat me down. I was always being criticized for my high-spirited lifestyle and attitudes. This was a huge realization for me.

I had never put a bridle on a horse before, and with this horse, a wild horse, I now had to. I also had to put a bit in it's mouth, again a first. This called me to find a great trust in the wild horse and myself. I realized in the process that fears are a very selfish act. Neither the horse nor anyone else around would benefit from the fear. Being fearful is being totally self-consumed. I had criticized others in my life for being self-consumed, fear was just one of my ways of being so.

Stan supervised each step of the horse gentling process. Once I had the horse accepting one stage in the process I would feel both elation and relief. My immediate instinct was to leave the corral victoriously and go smoke a cigarette (I don't even smoke). Stan cautioned me on this"If the horse is ready to progress, then keep progressing. The horse is ready to learn, keep going. He'll tell you when he's not ready. And don't take too long with each stage or the horse will just get bored and irritable. You see how they behave when they are irritable." There have been many times in my life when I had experienced this myself. I remember learning the alphabet at age five and having to repeat it again and again. I remember starting to tune out the teacher and the classroom, and getting a little irritable myself.

Working with these large animals, especially with Stan as coach and ringmaster, is a humbling yet heartwarming experience. In the final analysis I'm not sure if it s the horse that gets "gentled down" or the horse trainer. It is the kind of experience I could recommend to anyone. I give Stan Addison, his family, and his horse ranch my highest possible recommendation. April 17, 2000

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239 Givens Road
Arapahoe, Wyoming 82510
307-332-3813