Word: rayed
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...second day. The colts that have been caught and saddled only once in their lives will be ridden today. Ridden, with no bridle for control. Ray explains, "Getting people to ride their colts with nothing on the horse's head keeps a human humble. It forbids them from trying to control the horse, and the horse feels that. Boy, does he feel it. And that's the beginning of trust...
...into one another like bumper cars, but no one gets hurt. Later the riders are allowed to use halter ropes. They pull their horses' heads around and rub them. "The softness comes through the horse's mind, goes through the body to the feet and back up from there," Ray says...
...next days the colts are ridden with snaffle bits. A responsiveness begins to show. As Ray talks, we understand we are in the presence of a man whose words carry over to every part of our lives. When he speaks of surrender, he doesn't mean yielding to tyranny but giving in to respect. When he talks of the "life in the body moving through," he is referring to the results of the riders' self-discipline. When he mentions "finding a soft feel" in a horse, he's talking about friendship and trust. Quickly, any notions we might have...
...Ray talks enlightenment, and we ask questions about how to back a horse, how to get his hindquarters around, how to make him back smoothly. He makes it clear that the dark corners of our own minds -- the doubt and divisiveness -- have to be explored first. To back a horse properly, then, is to back off our own aggression and impatience. To know where the horse's feet are at all times, which ones are in the air and which on the ground, is to know the cadence of human thoughts and actions, how they link up and come apart...
...tries to run off. Les' chestnut mare slips and falls on her because Les has been too demanding. Chuck's mule and Elaine's colt pull away because they've been too imprecise, too lenient. "The horse is a mirror. When I see your horse, I see you too," Ray reminds...