Word: colts
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...these five days an untouched colt will accept being caught, haltered, led, saddled, ridden, and will have learned the rudiments of the sliding stop, the spinning turn and a smooth backup in an atmosphere so tranquil and trusting, one has to look hard to see how these lessons were learned. Accused of performing miracles, drugging his horses and hypnotizing them, Ray does quite the opposite. He uses almost no prods or external devices at all -- except for his orange flag, which he shakes at the colt's head to make him turn -- no snubbing post or hobbles. He explains...
...first morning of the clinic, held at the Snake River Ranch at the base of the Teton Range, a small crowd gathers to watch the colt class. One tall, black-haired cowboy mumbles that he thinks it's all bullshit. Ray's eyes sparkle. "People come to me and say, 'I'm having trouble with my horse,' and the horse is saying, 'I'm having trouble with this person,' and I believe the horse every time...
From a wide alleyway where six colts and a mule have withstood an early downpour, Jay, a lanky cowboy from northern Wyoming, turns a wild-eyed sorrel horse into the corral where Ray is waiting on his gray mare. The colt's body is rigid, and he lets out the kind of snorts that make a cowboy take a deep seat on frosty mornings. "A horse has a mind," Rays says, watching the colt. "He gets scared and bold, sure and unsure, sick and well. He says, 'Maybe. I don't know. All right . . .' and too often...
Then he throws a loop around the sorrel colt's neck. The horse runs, then plants his feet and struggles. Ray holds the lariat tight -- not with a "fighting feel," but patiently, until the fear subsides. As soon as the colt moves forward, Ray rewards him by throwing slack in the rope...
...When the mind is troubled, the body is troubled," Ray says over and over. Now he ropes the colt's back foot, and another fight ensues. When the colt leans away from the rope, his hind leg is suspended in air. "There's a change," Ray says and lets the lariat go loose. Belatedly, we see that the colt's neck and shoulder have relaxed. "I try to make the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard," Ray explains...