Buck

---

[Wind howling]

[Rustic acoustic guitar music]

How you doing there, buddy?

See, that feels good,

doesn't it, huh?

All right, well,

I'm off to the office.

To start off,

are there any of you

that have

any particular problems

you'd like to tell me about?

Don't be bashful.

You're among friends.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Let him be,

'cause he's learning

how to kind of settle in

with you.

A lot of times,

rather than helping people

with horse problems,

I'm helping horses

with people problems.

And for a lot of people,

they want it all to be fuzzy

and warm and cosmic,

but it is no different

with a horse than with a kid.

You can't always be

the kid's best friend.

First you have to be the parent.

A horse like this

isn't any different

than a kid that takes

everybody's milk money

on the way to school,

beats up old people.

Maybe it isn't the kid's fault.

Maybe the parent

ought to be in jail.

Boy, do you feel like a fool

and kind of like a failure.

- You know?

- Aw, it's all right.

People bring a lot of baggage

to the table

when they come to these.

Sometimes they're here

for a different reason

other than just

getting to where

they can ride their horse

a little bit better.

If you find a way

to fit this thing right here,

it'll make you better.

It'll make you better in areas

that you didn't think

related to horses.

Good job, buddy.

Horses are my life,

and because of some

of the things

I've been through as a kid,

I found some safety

and some companionship

in the horses.

I was just looking for kind of

a peaceful place to be

where I wasn't threatened,

where my life wasn't threatened.

So I have an empathy for horses

that when something

is scared for their life,

I understand that.

He's a pretty nice horse,

six years old.

Making some good progress,

anyway.

Just a youngster,

just telling him...

I want him to be aware of me.

If I slow down,

I want him to slow down.

See, if I go like this...

I have to practice

my old man walk.

So when I'm really old,

it might take me an hour

to get over there.

He ought to be able

to just go with me,

as slow as I want to go,

and not crowd me.

Might be a little slower

than what he'd like to go.

If I stop, he ought to stop.

If I go back,

he ought to go back,

and I ought not to have

to beg him.

Right now, I walk

at a little faster pace,

but I'm always testing him

to see if he's with me.

When I first seen him,

I thought,

"What kind of voodoo stuff

is this, you know?

How are you getting this done,

you know?"

He walks into a round pen.

In five minutes, he's got

a horse following him around

like a dog.

He and I go together.

Most of us have

a bag of tricks,

and Buck has an arsenal.

Hey, boys.

Morning.

Hello, how you doing?

- Good.

- Good.

Colt starting

is always interesting

because most of the youngsters

have never been saddled,

never had anyone on their back

or a bit in their mouth.

So there is a lot of fear

in both the horse and the human.

The way I do these colt classes,

you guys,

you'll have to get them exposed

to a lot of things

that seem perfectly normal

to you,

but it doesn't seem normal

to the horse.

You walk up to them smelling

like a Big Mac, you know,

or something...

[horse neighing]

Your diet is gonna make you

smell different to the horse,

and then you're gonna

tell the horse,

"Don't worry.

I want to crawl on you..."

[laughter]

In a similar posture

to how a lion would attack

and kill a horse.

They jump right up

in the middle of them,

and they reach

their front claws around,

and as they're biting down

on their spine,

they're cutting their throat

with their claws.

You're asking the horse

to let you be in that posture

and crawl on him.

And then about the time

he says, "All right, maybe,"

and then you say,

"Oh, oh, one more thing.

"I want to strap some hides

of other dead animals around you

before I crawl on you."

You damn sure have to have

some trust.

He's got to believe in you

to let you do that,

and amazingly enough,

they'll let you do it.

Now, the first thing

that I'm gonna show you

is leading the horse by.

Step in here.

Extend the front over like that.

Then he'll go on forward

around me.

This takes some practice

to get good at.

Your horse might be afraid

to move.

It's a real trust thing

between the two of you.

What's your name, dear?

Martha?

Okay, Martha, you want to go

the other way.

You got your horse

leading by good,

just the wrong direction.

That's all right.

Tap her.

Don't be afraid of tapping her

with that flag.

You aren't gonna hurt her.

It would be like you

getting spanked with a sock.

There, yeah.

Dave, lead with the right hand.

Yeah, it's in your left hand.

The other left.

Walk to the hip.

No, walk to the hip.

You're at the head.

That's the eating end.

This is always a hard one

for folks.

[Horse neighs]

Pam, that walking on you.

Now, your horse

is kind of naughty.

You guys make a big old circle

around me.

This horse,

it knows to get away,

'cause she's pretty fearful.

No, you won't get away.

She said, "I thought I had

the angle on you there."

See that head slinging

to the outside?

That's unacceptable.

But she doesn't know

the difference.

She said,

"Well, up to this point,

I've had some pretty damn

good luck with that technique."

See there where she went

to run me over?

That means she's trying

to protect herself.

But when I get done,

I will not have to close my hand

on the end of this rope.

Now, I'd touch her here

on the neck.

I'd say, "You find out this flag

won't hurt you.

Nobody's here to hurt you."

One of the things

that really struck me

was that you always grow up

hearing about breaking horses

or breaking broncos

or something.

There's a whole element

of abuse, really, of, it's...

man is stronger

than this big animal.

We can break them down

almost like Parris Island

and a drill instructor,

and I think it first clicked

for me with Buck

at the whole concept

of starting.

My early exposure to horses

was severe:

Tying horses to posts

with an inner tube tire

so that when the horse

pulled back,

they would slam back

into the post.

It was really brutal,

really, truly brutal.

It was heartbreaking.

I didn't know any different.

I was a child.

But I remember crying a lot.

I felt very, very bad

for the animals.

So when I met Buck,

I was the instant convert.

You can't be a good guy

when you leave the barn

and a bad guy

when you get to the barn.

And if I treat animals this way,

do I treat people that way too?

We all know the answer to that.

I met Buck probably at

his first clinic that he gave.

If I wasn't at his first clinic,

I was probably at his second.

There was a nice change.

And the first time I saw

was amazing to me.

L... l... it just blew my mind.

It just blew my mind

that it could be done in a way

that the horse would cooperate,

like the people,

and not be scarred up

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