How to Train Difficult Horses | 7 Clinics with Buck Brannaman | wehorse

I don't use gimmicks. I don't use martingales. I don't use draw reins. I don't use tie-downs. I don't use drop nose bands, flash nose bands, hinge drop nose bands. I don't use any of it. I can get it done with my hands and my feet, and if I can't, I'll figure out why I can't. There's never been a gimmick invented that got through to the horse mentally. Now physically, there are levers that people have devised, and some of them frightening. But the problem is when you design a lever to make a horse bend in a certain way, you've turned it into a pulley. But the problem is with a pulley system to force a horse to physically bend rather than ask him to give to you and bend because he wants to. Whenever you increase your strength exponentially, you've also decreased your ability to release exponentially. So the horse becomes mushy and lifeless without feel on the end of the reins. Well then, of course, some people will use a tie-down because the horse has got his head on upside down throwing his head. And maybe their intentions were good, sometimes, because the horse was throwing his head and they thought, my gosh, my hands are terrible. I better quit. Well, but to the horse, he realizes, hey, when I put my head on upside down and throw my head, I'm going to get that relief and they're not going to be prying on my mouth. Maybe I ought to have my head there more often. Well then, pretty soon, they go down to their local tack shop and they buy him a tie-down, tie it down between his legs, and they think they have it fixed. But as far as the gimmicks, I don't think the horse needs them. And I've probably used every gimmick you've mentioned and some that you've never even heard of. In my earlier life, I would try anything. I just wanted to get along. I wanted to find a way to get a horse to do some things. And I didn't know the difference. There are plenty of things that I've used that I would just be embarrassed to even think of using it now. But I've grown as a horseman from what I was 30 years ago. So I might be still making lots of mistakes, but I'm not making the same mistakes I was making 30 years ago. So I have that going for me at least.