The Buck Experience

He's as famous in horse circles as the well-known actor who portrayed him. Born 29th January 1962, Dan M. 'Buck' Brannaman is a renowned horseman and teacher of natural horsemanship. 

A philosophy based on working with the horse's nature, Natural Horsemanship uses an understanding of how they think and communicate with each other to allow us to train them to accept humans, to respond and to work with confidence with them. 

Buck states that his goal is to make the horse feel safe and secure around humans, enabling the horse and rider to achieve a true union. His skill in the saddle is matched only by his ability to teach safe and effective horsemanship to riders of all ability levels. 

The author of the Groundwork and The Faraway Horses books, Buck has produced many horsemanship videos, and with 'BUCK', a visually striking documentary on Brannaman, which premiered Robert Redford's 2011 Sundance Film Festival, winning the Audience Award for best documentary, he has become well known worldwide. 

Although born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, in 1962, Buck was raised in Montana and Idaho. He had an abusive father, which led to many years of foster care for himself and his brother. Horses soon became his comfort, and he used these experiences to look at a situation from their point of view. Buck has written: 'I've started horses since I was 12 years old and have been bitten, kicked, bucked off and run over. I've tried every physical means to contain my horse to keep from getting myself killed. I realised that things would come much easier for me once I learned why a horse does what he does.' 

He went on to use these experiences in his career as a horse trainer, recognising the same fear and hostile reactions in difficult animals he could remember from his childhood. His belief is that horses who are abused are like abused children. They expect the worst and do not trust anyone, but this can all be overcome in time. 

Inspired by the teachings of Tom & Bill Dorrance and also Ray Hunt, one of the founders of the natural horsemanship movement, Buck now teaches his clinics worldwide and is noted to have said, 'the goal for clinics is to just try and teach the human to understand as much about their horse as I can help them understand.' 

Buck also went on to become a motivational speaker for organisations that lay outside the equine world and has frequently described the connection between animal abuse and the abuse of children and other human beings. 'For me these principles are really about life,' he says, 'about living your life so that you're not making war with the horse, or with other people'. 

As well as his love of natural horsemanship, Buck Brannaman is also an accomplished Trick Roper and, since the age of six, has performed rope tricks in television commercials. In fact, he holds two spots in the Guinness Book of World Records. However, this skill is tinged with sadness as he admits that his father gave him and his brother little choice about practising roping tricks. It was that or receive a 'whipping'. He does, though, take pride in this skill and offers roping and cattle working clinics, too, and retains a close association with the historic Vaquero cowboy tradition of the western United States. He now lives in Sheridan, Wyoming, with his wife, Mary and their three daughters. 

As well as being the lead equine consultant on the internationally acclaimed film The Horse Whisperer, Buck Brannaman was also alleged to be the inspiration for the lead character, Tom Booker, played by Robert Redford and Nicholas Evans, the author of the book has acknowledged that this is true and that he believes that Buck is the Zen master of the horse world. 

Publicity from the book and the film, along with Buck's approach to treating troubled horses and humans with equal doses of compassion, helped promote other fields, such as therapeutic horse riding. 

 

In the summer of 2015, Buck held training clinics in the UK; read on for first-hand accounts of these clinics from our readers.

 

"The reins are connected to the feet not the bit." by Ruth Dickens, Confidence coach at Upbeatequestrian.co.uk 

 

The arena was crowded with horses, and many people were surprised at just how many Western-trained horses there were in the UK.  

Overall, the pace of the clinic was amazing; it was all very calm. I most loved the clarity and the respect for the horse.  In fact, it was halfway through the second day before anyone got out of walk/halt work. Everything was covered, from the initial leading and directing from the ground to the frame of mind it is best to have when working a horse.  

I noticed that Buck covered the groundwork, but he was keen to ride as soon as he was satisfied that all horses were safe to progress to mounted work. It was also fantastic to see that he rode a horse that was strange to him, which had issues for him to work on. That was more informative than seeing him ride a "made" horse. 

Some quotes from Buck..... I may have paraphrased some, but I have tried to be true to the meaning.   

"The reins are connected to the feet, not the bit." I loved this quote, Buck showed how he uses the bit, not as a general request, but to move a particular foot in a specific way. It seemed like positive guidance rather than a "don't do that." 

"Get busy BEFORE it all falls apart." 

"The horse has to be punctual."  

"Overbending occurs when you do not get to the feet and is worse when you give an inappropriate release. To resolve it, keep the aid on until the feet connect." 

"When the poll is free, the ears will be level. Serpentines will unlock this area. A horse can be transformed in 3 days; if you do 2 solid weeks, it will be transformed for life." 

"The short serpentine is the way to get engagement. Holding the front end through the reins will get resistance, not engagement." 

"Look after their safety. If they are in a tight spot, move them to a more comfortable place. They will learn you now all the cool places. Canter to the safer place in the arena if you can. They have a totally different feel once they trust you as much as their mother to keep them safe." 

"In a distracting environment, if he checks out mentally, then you have to make the dance interesting and complex enough to hold his attention and engage him mentally so he has no attention on anything else." 

"Give the horse the dignity of allowing him to work it out. Give him the time. It makes him eager to search. That is more important than the exercise you are doing." 

"This is the deal with horses. You go from euphoria to despair. As you get more experienced, you don't get such huge swings. You just get on with it when it's not going so well." 

 

So, what did I get out of this? 

It was the rectangle visualisation and the short serpentine exercise. The rectangle refers to the rider visualising a rectangle around the horse that he directs to where he wants to go, and the horse has to stay in the middle of that rectangle. A lazy horse may be too far to the back of the rectangle and a busy horse too far forward. One that turns by overbending and drifting out will end up on one side of the rectangle. The horse learns that he is left in peace when he is in the middle of the rectangle.  

I tried that visualisation with my horse, Jay, and it helped me see that Jay was behind the centre and on a turn to the outside. I also know that if I nag at him, he will switch off to that. The answer was...short serpentines.  

As we have practised more and more, I find that in the serpentine, I can feel how Jay habitually hid at the back of "his rectangle" and how I can really get after that; with his head at 90 degrees, it puts me in the captain's chair. His work becomes more forward, and after some serpentine magic, Jay offers collection, too, without holding him up. We have both ends of the spectrum, a balanced horse. The magic serpentines have also stopped drifting; when he turns, he actually steps in with his front feet. 

 
WHEN BUCK MET BUCK  | by Alison Johnson, Intelligent Horsemanship

So, in June this year, I was lucky enough to be able to ride on the Buck Brannaman clinic at Aintree in Liverpool with our very own Buck–Cee Me Sailin.
 
The clinic started at 9 am and in my mind – knowing there were going to be 650 spectators arriving – I wanted to be there and have the crowd build up around us rather than us just turn up with a considerable audience, another 24 horses and expect my boy to just be as chilled as possible. The walk from the stables to the equestrian centre was down the racecourse and in front of all of the stands. It was shortly before I left the stables that it dawned on me - in Bucks's previous life, he had been an outrider on a racing yard; giant gulp and realisation that this might be the undoing of all of those hours of preparation in getting him to Aintree to achieve maximum benefits while I was there. This simple walk up the course may just dredge up memories and send him over the edge, challenging all the trust we had built.  

Our walk was relaxed, but when we got there, the relief he showed as we walked off the course towards the equestrian centre was evident to anyone looking. I was the first into the arena, and as planned there weren't too many people that it upset Buck. We mooched around and got familiar with our surroundings as some of the other riders and their horses appeared – many not quite as comfortable with their surroundings as we were. He was such a good boy and made me so proud of how he held it together; as far as we know, he hadn't been away from the racing yard for 4 years other than a couple of spells to various places for schooling and a quick look out to a small show the week before so I could get an idea of how he would react, so this really was a big deal for him. He was awesome!

We spent the next 3 days in the most outstanding educational bubble imaginable. Watching and riding with Buck Brannaman, seeing his timing and feel how effective he was on a very green horse and how he developed this horses confidence and ability was truly spectacular.

Asking questions and having him feed my very reason for being there with interest and an obvious passion was one of the best experiences in my life – every question was answered with clarity and dedication to pass on and share his knowledge. His ability to break everything down into bite-size pieces so everyone could learn was truly inspirational.

As for my Buck, he just got better and better over the 3 days, which made me want to burst with pride. This little horse who came from a truly awful place and could have ended up anywhere was in there, with the world's greatest horseman, and he held his own, doing everything I asked like the real star he truly is. Such an amazing boy. 

 

Road to Buck | Kate Street

 

My equine partner for this adventure would be Tuff Harlan. Tuff came into my life in  February 2012 and will always be my funny Valentine. He is a big, bold, bay 12-year-old 15.3hh American Quarter horse and is a super learner. He is acutely clever but can sometimes be a very insecure horse. He is also my best friend and greatest teacher.

In a clinic environment it is essential to remember that learning is a multi-faceted experience. You have to remember the participation, the detail from your involvement. What it evoked in you, not just how it made you feel at the time, but how it made you feel afterwards. Did it galvanise something within you? Or strip back what you thought you knew and set you on a different path? 

When recollecting my time at Aintree, I try to remember how my horse felt, how my emotions affected him and the situation,  what the environment was like, and what the clinician and other participants brought to the mix.   Now, that's a whole load of information right there before any breakdown of what was being taught at the time... It's a heady mix of information, feel, emotion, and skill, topped off with a lashing of vulnerability as to maximise your learning, you have to be open to what is being presented in front of you. 

Doesn't that all sound exciting? Well it was. It was exhilarating, enthralling and somewhat exhausting! 

Witnessing the progression of each horse and within each partnership was interesting. For me, what was evident was the change between Tuff and I. It was not a change in which we differed from each other but more of an organic growth, where my horse was almost relieved when I expected more from him, as the clarity in the task and the release gave him great comfort.   He felt like a winner, I felt like a semi-competent horseman, and we felt like a team. He got softer and lighter. I became more particular with my body, more considered in the feel that I was offering him. I began to train myself to guide with my legs and use my whole body to operate my horse. My hands were less tools of necessity and more for refinement. 

The short serpentine is the exercise I would like to talk about that is really a linchpin for all of this.
So when taking the horse either right or left, you still need to consider where those feet are and get in time with the front leg you are taking in that direction so that it is not a random swinging of the horse around. To do that would be the equivalent of tripping the horse up. Knocking them off balance that way would soon equal a horse that doesn't want to move.  

You allow a straight step or two before taking the horse in the other direction. This allows you to get timed up with the other front leg before asking for the movement.   Do not make the mistake of taking a lot of steps in between the change of direction and allowing your horse to travel 10 ft. All you will achieve is taking the brace out, then putting it back in with too many steps, taking it out again, putting it back in again.... you see where I'm going with this.  

It will equal a long time before you achieve what you've set out to, which is a horse without brace, moving all four corners even. Now Buck talks about 'legs only' with the long serpentine, but the short serpentine should never be legs only.

Buck also recommends the short serpentine if you ever find yourself on a horse that feels like it's going to blow up. Get on that short serpentine until you feel a change. Buck told us a lovely story about his daughter Reata being sceptical about the need to teach the short serpentine when she was younger. She now teaches the colt start classes at MSU and has all of her participants do this exercise!