Al Ragusin's Dancing Horse Show

Hi Al,

I really like your column I look forward to reading it each month, but I have a question. When someone says a horse needs breaking what exactly does that mean? My horse is gentle but sometimes it won’t go to the left and then all of a sudden he gets mad and tries to rear. A friend told me my horse was not broke well, is that true? Anything you can help me with?

Jimmy

Hey Jimmy,

I am not sure where the word “broke” came from. But through all my years of talking to other trainers, reading, videos, and observing others, that is the word that is most commonly used. I use it myself and this is what I mean when I use the word. I am saying to him I am the lead stallion and you will follow my instructions. If not with the tack that I use it will be uncomfortable for him to disobey my commands. Of course, in the herd the lead stallion will use harsh methods to get his point across. But time has shown me making him uncomfortable will accomplish the same results. In the old days and probably still today a cowboy would get on his back and ride him into submission. This of course will force the issue and he will have to submit or else. The horse like many other animals has different personalities and depending where he is in the pecking order will depend on his how submissive he will be. The whole idea is to appeal to him to submit voluntarily. Through patience and understanding the herd instinct in him and letting him know that you are not going to hurt him. But one day he will come to a point that he will test you like your horse is doing right now. He must be forced to follow your instructions and if you do not have the right equipment it will make your job more difficult. For instance, like a single rein and especially the split rein by the time you gather both reins since he has pulled them out of your hands in order to lets say from keeping him from raising his nose away from you which he knows that is when you will be at a disadvantage. And since everything he does he lives it in the very moment he is doing it so your correction would have to be in that moment. I would like to see your horse if only on video tape to see exactly what is happening. I think I could be of more help if you would get me one. But let me tell you of a horse that I bought three months ago. He is a four year old gelding and I have traced his life back to four previous owners in the last two years. Conformation wise he is very balanced by this I mean he has a pretty head, nice neck and shoulders, straight legs and a heavy hind end and has a pretty color. When I bought him he was about 200 pounds under weight and in a very weak state so he would almost let you do anything. But now I have been feeding him very good and he has picked up 100 pounds. Now his real personality comes out. He is strong and now he is telling me I will buck when I want to, let you saddle me when I want, and if you try and force it he will throw a fit. Because this is what he has done to the previous owners and they leave him alone. This is the reason I traced down the previous owners and they verified the story. They each said they didn’t have the knowledge to correct this so they sold him. The horse does not know this but he is headed to be put down. No one wants to keep him and it is too expensive and time consuming. They would rather devote that time and money to a good horse. So I have faced with breaking him as I cannot sell him to someone that he might hurt or put him down myself. I will start off by using a bungee cord cross tie normally this does not take long but since he has gotten away with it for so long it could take awhile. What the bungee cord does is allow him to pull all he wants to but each foot that he pulls back the tension increases but never stops him like a rope would. He will stand there with all that tension on his knees and the fight is between him and that bungee cord. He will forget that you are the one that tied him there as he knows when you put him there, there was not tension. He created the tension by pulling back and stand there with all that tension for several minutes then his knees will began to weaken and he will try to take pressure off of his knees and head by taking a step forward (after the anger is gone). But the bungee cord will shoot him through the cross ties like a bow would do an arrow. This will really scare him as he is not angry anymore. But out of fright or anger may try it again only this time he will not go back so far and again the same thing will happen even the most stubborn horses will see that he cannot win and will give in to be cross tied. When you come to get him off of the cross tie he will be thankful to you. Then I go on to his other problems. I am not breaking his will I am only breaking his will to fight me. Soon he will be a good horse and live a good life with all the food, water, shelter, vet and shoeing that he will need. It is either this or going from person to person until he is finally disposed of. He is totally unaware of this so we must look after him as he can’t look after himself in this world he finds himself in. Thanks for the question it was a good one.

Al