Latest / The Touch of a Mustang / A Horse Showed Him What Fear Was with Jeff Cook | Episode 50

Transcript

A Horse Showed Him What Fear Was with Jeff Cook | Episode 50 · The Touch of a Mustang

0:00
They'll have another guy that he was kind of abusive.
0:03
He got thrown out of the Army because he was beaten up on on
0:07
his underlings and was a little bit rough and he was rough on
0:11
his wife and rough on his kids. And they said, you're going to
0:13
some therapy or we're out of here.
0:17
And that Renegade horse that was in the movie that you saw, he
0:19
got in the round pen with that horse when I first got Renegade
0:23
here. And Renegade took no prisoners.
0:25
You know, that horse had been in a lot of fights with a lot of
0:27
got a lot of other horses in his lifetime.
0:31
And this man walked up to him and started like, yeah, I'm
0:33
going to make you run around this round pen.
0:36
He was chasing after him and and renegade spun around and gave
0:40
him the look and backed this guy down like 5 or 6 times.
0:44
And the guy said he came to me later and he said you know what,
0:47
I've never been afraid of my whole life until right then.
0:50
That's the first time I've ever been afraid.
0:52
And now I know what it's like to be afraid.
0:54
I don't ever want to put anybody in my family in that situation
0:58
where they're afraid again. And that was like this life
1:01
changing moment. Now he's had where his his
1:04
marriage is so much better, his relationship with his kids are
1:08
so much better because he understands what it's like to
1:11
have fear like that. There are healers on this planet
1:15
with the power to soften the suffering of mankind, yet they
1:18
have remained in the recesses of the world, abused, discarded,
1:22
and labeled as trash. This is the touch of a Mustang.
1:26
I am your host, Shalise Clough, and I'm here to tell the story
1:30
of wild horses, Mustangs and the humans who are discovering and
1:34
sharing their gifts while working to protect their
1:37
well-being and preserve their spirit so this divine power
1:41
won't be lost. Join us on this quest.
1:44
With the wild Mustang. Tell us a little bit about
1:53
yourself, what you do, and kind of how you came to be living in
1:57
the world of horses and Mustangs, correct?
2:00
My name is Jeff Cook. I grew up in Colorado, Central
2:04
Colorado, and my family didn't have horses going in, but they
2:09
came from Illinois and when I was really little, we moved to
2:12
Colorado and they decided to get horses and I was kind of the
2:15
first one to make that happen. Did the 4H thing, all that
2:21
showed horses in that went to work for a stable in Castle Rock
2:24
when I was only probably 1314 years old.
2:27
I'd work weekends there and clean stalls and that kind of
2:31
thing. But that graduated into, hey,
2:33
you look like you can ride jump on this one.
2:35
And so after a while, I started working.
2:41
Yeah. Yeah.
2:42
Here. Nobody else wants to ride this
2:44
one. You can do it right.
2:45
You bounce good when you're a kid.
2:47
But I went to work for that. The trainer that was at that
2:50
place, his name George Martin and he showed paints and quarter
2:53
horses. And so I got into that world
2:56
pretty early on and, and was working with him and working at
3:00
that stable, worked in the breeding barn, kind of kind of
3:03
put a career already got started when I was like 1314 and I never
3:08
really wanted to do anything else.
3:10
My family then bought a dude ranch in Colorado when I was
3:14
late in high school. So they bought this place up in
3:17
Gunnison and or near Gunnison, Co and they moved up there, got
3:21
40 horses and my brother worked for him for a while.
3:24
And then they asked me to come up and work for them.
3:27
So I went up there and did the all the shoeing and all the
3:30
packing and buying horses and selling horses.
3:34
And while we were there or while I was there, I got introduced to
3:37
Mustangs a little bit because we had a guy that was that worked
3:41
at the state penitentiary in Canyon City.
3:44
And he called up and asked us if we would take on a couple of
3:47
Mustangs and out of their prison program and see how that worked.
3:51
And I think that was one of the first prison programs in the
3:54
country that was like in the early 1980s.
3:57
And so we, we took in some Mustangs and kind of had some
4:01
wild stories about horses that we brought up to the dude ranch
4:04
up there and tried to make them work as dude horses.
4:07
And it kind of worked out, kind of didn't, but I got really
4:10
interested in whole Mustang thing, you know, saw a need for
4:14
that and, and, but I didn't get in deep with it right away.
4:19
We would take a few on it, always have two or three
4:21
Mustangs on our place. Mostly the help ended up riding
4:25
them. We've got very few of them that
4:26
we got to the point where we could just throw the dudes up on
4:29
them. But it worked out pretty cool.
4:32
Went back and showed quarter horses and paints for quite a
4:35
few years after doing the dude ranch stint for a while.
4:39
And then, I don't know, just somehow I started, you know, I
4:42
saw one of the extreme Mustang makeovers and it was here in
4:46
Queen Creek, AZ, and I watched it and I said, you know, I could
4:49
do that. And so I jumped into that and
4:52
went to Fort Worth the next year with a horse and finished just
4:56
out of the top ten. I was 11th by like 1/2 a point
4:59
out of the top 10. And I'm decided, you know, this
5:02
pretty fun, yeah, pretty cool deal to do.
5:04
And so I think I've done like 10 or 12 of those makeovers since
5:08
then. And we've done pretty good.
5:10
We've been fan favorite. We've we've won a couple, we've
5:12
been reserved champion high selling horse twice.
5:16
So that's been pretty fun. And so here we are.
5:19
I kind of found my lot where we do Mustangs, we still do quarter
5:22
horses too. What are you kind of doing at
5:24
your place? Next day.
5:25
So we kind of have a Max of quarter horses and these
5:28
Mustangs. So I have an up and coming 2
5:31
year old that's a highbrow cat, smart level Lena bred horse that
5:35
we really want to try and cut on him a little bit.
5:38
Or maybe maybe if he doesn't cut, we'll do the working cow
5:41
horse thing with him and kind of play with that some.
5:44
We're still doing the Mustangs quite a bit and we'll have a
5:48
horse for the next year's Mustang Challenge that it was in
5:52
Vegas but now it's going to be moved to Fort Worth this year.
5:55
But we'll do that one. I had a horse that was supposed
5:58
to go to the Vegas show this year and she tore a suspension
6:01
leg net about two months before the competition, so we had to
6:05
draw out and I really missed going to that.
6:07
It was their fun. This next year we're shooting
6:10
for one and I've already picked out a horse, but we're not
6:12
allowed to adopt him until October 1st.
6:14
So he's in a holding pattern right now until I can pick him
6:17
up. But I'm excited about it.
6:19
How old were you when you first started working with the
6:20
Mustangs up on the dude ranch? I guess I was probably early.
6:27
I think I graduated high school in 1980, so that's give me my
6:31
age here. So I yeah, probably early as I
6:35
started working with Mustangs. Yeah, and you said they didn't
6:38
really work out great for the dude ranch.
6:40
What are some of the things that kind of attracted you to him
6:42
that kept you on this journey with them?
6:45
I gotta say that probably the first time that we took some of
6:48
these things on, I I was looking at them as like, man, this is
6:53
I'm so cool. I can do something that hardly
6:55
anybody else can do. You know, there's very few
6:58
people around the country that are starting, you know, wild
7:01
horses. And I just thought the romance
7:03
of it was pretty cool and it was kind of what I could do for them
7:06
and I didn't think a lot about what they might could do for me.
7:09
So as we went along, we kind of found I found out that that, you
7:14
know, that outside of the horse is really good for the inside of
7:16
the man with that Mustang thing, you know, them needing our help.
7:20
And we get so much out of them though, that I think sometimes
7:24
we forget that how much they bring to to us.
7:27
So yeah, that that I learned that pretty pretty early on that
7:32
it's not just about them. How did those lessons come out?
7:35
Like what are some of the things that they've maybe taught you or
7:38
helped you see? Well, you know, I think that
7:41
with a Mustang that's different than the rest of the horses and
7:45
then domestic horses, the difference being that they come
7:49
into it as a blank slate. You know, when you're kind of
7:53
the feared and hated man, they, you've never done anything for
7:56
them. So they look at you like just
7:58
any kind of a predator. And so you have to really check
8:02
in with yourself. Where am I at in this process?
8:05
You know, if I make a mistake on my 3 year old quarter horse
8:07
colt, he goes up stupid human and just lets me get by with it.
8:10
Whereas that Mustang, he might jump out of the pen because I
8:13
got too quick with him or, you know, didn't read him correctly.
8:17
And so I think they teach you how to get yourself into that
8:20
position where, you know, I, I truly believe that the only
8:25
thing that a horse wants from us, and especially a wild horse
8:28
is to know that they're safe next to us.
8:31
That's number one for them. That's kind of all they think
8:33
about. Am I, am I safe with this human?
8:36
So I have to present myself as a leader that can get something
8:40
done and yet not have so much predatory energy that they're
8:45
afraid of me all the time. You know, they're going to be
8:47
afraid at first not to work through that fear and teach them
8:51
that I expect them to do what I ask of them, but they're
8:55
probably not going to die around me.
8:56
You know, that's that's a tough position sometimes to be in.
8:59
So we have to check in with ourselves.
9:03
I, my daughter who works with me quite often, will hear me say
9:07
quite a bit. Get that off your face before
9:10
you work with a horse. So meaning, you know, she's
9:13
upset, she carried in some kind of nervous energy or, or, you
9:17
know, anger at her boyfriend or whatever, you know, that
9:20
happened that day. That horse knew it before she
9:23
walked out of the house. Honestly, you know, I can see
9:26
the look on their face when I walk down to the barn from 500
9:30
yards away. You know, what am I bringing to
9:32
the table? So it makes you really check in
9:35
with yourself and you learn a lot about yourself through them.
9:39
Yeah, I found the same thing. They really can read your
9:42
emotions probably better than ourselves sometimes.
9:45
Like we may not even realize we're feeling a certain way
9:47
until we see their reaction with those really sensitive forces.
9:50
Yeah, it's absolutely true. You know, they can.
9:53
Or there's heart rate from something like 30 feet away.
9:56
So they read each other's heart rate, respiration, you know,
9:59
that's herd mentality that they've, they've grown through
10:03
thousands or millions of years of evolution that they've had to
10:06
learn to read that, you know, read their environment.
10:09
And yeah, we can walk in there thinking we're the cock of the
10:13
walk. And it's not always the case
10:15
with them. Yeah.
10:16
Talk a little bit more about kind of how your leadership has
10:19
developed and your philosophies on that.
10:21
I know you had and I should have written it down.
10:23
I know like your description for your company, you talk about the
10:27
importance of leadership versus management, I think is what you
10:30
said. Yeah, Yeah, I think that, you
10:33
know, horses, wild horses in particular, are very, you know,
10:37
herd mentality is everything to them.
10:39
They're they're born wondering what place am I in this herd
10:43
that I'm in their whole life is basically, are you controlling
10:47
me or am I controlling you? Are you controlling me or am I
10:51
controlling you? And they have to constantly
10:53
learn about where their place is in that heard.
10:57
And I'll have clients will say things to me like my horse
11:02
really loves you. Whoa.
11:04
I don't believe that he doesn't really love me.
11:07
That's kind of sad to hear sometimes that I don't think
11:09
they're capable of love. The beauty of that though is
11:12
they're not capable of hate either.
11:13
So there's somewhere in between. What they see from me is I'm the
11:17
leader in this place around here.
11:19
And they want to get close to me because they want that spot.
11:22
They're never going to be #1 here, but they might be #2 or 3
11:26
or 4. So they kind of like to move up
11:28
into that. So what they need to see from us
11:31
is strong leadership without being demanding and bossy and
11:34
unfair. You know, they they require
11:37
fairness of us all the time. And the way that we get that
11:40
fairness, I think is that we allow them to make some
11:44
decisions and we don't beat them up for making a mistake right
11:47
away. You know, we allow them to make
11:49
that mistake and then we say, no, I want you to go this
11:52
direction and that way will be easier.
11:54
So basically we make good behavior easy, bad behavior
11:57
difficult, and they start figuring out that wow, I really
12:00
like doing the right thing here. It makes my life really easy and
12:03
and I'm sick. That safety piece really is
12:05
huge. And I do think like you say,
12:07
they want a leader, they kind of want that guidance to so they're
12:10
not always having to be constantly alert, worrying,
12:13
stressed out. They really appreciate having
12:16
that lookout if you look at it from herd terms a little bit.
12:19
Right. Well, and you can imagine if
12:22
every horse in the herd made his own decisions all the time I
12:27
heard would be scattered to the winds all the time.
12:29
They would never have any organization.
12:31
They'd never be able to survive like that.
12:34
And so there has to be, they all look to that one or two of those
12:38
leaders to say, what are we going to do now?
12:41
You know, And they listen to that older mare or they listen
12:43
to that stallion when he says, we got to do something right
12:46
now. And they don't question that
12:48
authority. And as long as they don't
12:49
question it, they're safe. They question it.
12:51
They usually get their butt kicked, you know, and then then
12:54
they go, OK, I get it. I understand and I think
12:57
sometimes we go wrong a little bit, especially grain owners or
13:01
new owners that have Mustangs. They think it's all about, you
13:05
know, cuddles and kisses and and being quiet and gentle all the
13:08
time and shows a lack of leadership to that horse as
13:12
well. If you can't stand up to him and
13:14
tell him this is what I want from you and make it clear, then
13:17
he goes, well, I guess I have to make a decision now.
13:20
So I guess I'm leading that person.
13:22
So now I'm above that person in the pecking order.
13:24
I'm going to do something bad or what we would look at as bad.
13:28
Yeah, I think that balance is really important.
13:30
I think in the past there's been people who have maybe leaned too
13:34
far to the other side where it's really about control and forcing
13:37
a horse to do something. And then a lot of times we see
13:40
today where, you know, people are too soft or just letting the
13:45
horse guide everything. And it really is that in between
13:48
space where it's like you can have that, you know, respect for
13:51
the horse, but also expect the same from the horse.
13:54
Yeah, it's a bet. Life is a balance, isn't it?
13:57
And in almost everything that we do, life is a balance.
14:00
I often find that really good parents end up making really
14:04
good horse people, and really bad parents usually are terrible
14:08
horse people. And you know, it's not the same.
14:11
It's all the same thing. If that kid feels secure in his
14:14
relationship, in his family, he knows his place and he knows
14:19
that he's going to be taken care of and he's kept safe, he'll
14:22
listen to when his mom or his dad says, do this.
14:26
You argue with him, you get the teeth come out, you know, just
14:30
like what horses do. And so, yeah, I think it works
14:32
out really well if you have that balance.
14:34
That's an interesting comparison.
14:36
Not surprising because kids, horses, you know, and even us as
14:39
people, we, we really need that leadership, kind of that
14:42
guidance that we can take that information in and then make our
14:45
decisions and kind of figure out how to live and work in this
14:48
world. Exactly.
14:49
I had AI used to do. I've done a lot of equine
14:52
therapy work and I was working for an outfit on the east side
14:56
of Tucson here once and we had some kind of movie star people
15:00
there. I want to say who they were.
15:04
There was a woman that got in the way of this horse that just
15:07
about ran her over and I just grabbed her, pushed her out of
15:11
the way, and I said get out of the way.
15:13
She looked at me. I thought she was going to cry.
15:15
And then I thought that she was going to yell.
15:17
I was going to get in big trouble.
15:18
And she said, you know what? I really love horse people.
15:22
And I said, why is that? And she said because they're
15:24
direct. They just tell you what they
15:25
need and what you're supposed to do.
15:26
And it just makes my life so much easier.
15:29
And I thought about that. I didn't have an animosity
15:31
towards this woman. I didn't say I didn't like her,
15:35
but she was about to get run over, so I just knocked her out
15:38
of the way and told her get out of the way.
15:39
And she really appreciated that. So often in our life with
15:43
people, we beat around the Bush. So I don't I don't want to hurt
15:47
feelings. I don't want to, you know, I
15:49
don't want to say the wrong thing.
15:50
So I got to be so careful. And then the moments lost
15:53
already. She just got run over because I
15:55
didn't say something about it. So I think it's just it's the
15:58
same with horses. So I think really good horsemen
16:01
make kind of good humans. Not always.
16:03
I don't know if it's always the case, but yeah, I think usually
16:06
it's that way. There is value in not tiptoeing
16:08
around whether it's our horses or the people in our lives and
16:12
trying to always keep the peace. To some degree.
16:14
You have to have that confrontation and that conflict
16:17
kind of come to A to a middle ground where you guys can both
16:20
work together, whether it's horses, marriage, kids.
16:23
Right. Yeah, Just stand up for what you
16:25
believe in. Tell us about the work that
16:27
you've done with E coin therapy and things like that, that stuff
16:31
you've used the Mustangs for. So, yeah, so I have some equine
16:34
therapy background. I have kind of been certified in
16:38
doing equine therapy through a couple of different
16:41
organizations. And it, I got to work on this
16:44
place that I was just talking about on the East End of Tucson,
16:47
and they did equine therapy and he had a pretty good following.
16:51
He'd written a couple of books. The guy's name was Alan
16:54
Hamilton, and he took an interest in that.
16:56
I saw how effective that was for people who were sort of doing
17:01
traditional therapy where you sit across from a therapist and
17:05
they would go for years on end, you know, paying that 100 bucks
17:09
or whatever it was every every week to go talk to the
17:11
therapist. And I always felt like the
17:13
therapist sort of was stringing them along for, you know, let's
17:16
just keep this going for a while.
17:19
And I would find that in a day with a working with horses, all
17:23
the sudden these people were making these giant
17:24
breakthroughs. And they would say things like,
17:27
I've never told anyone this before and I've never thought of
17:30
that before. And this changed my life.
17:32
Just this hour in a pen with a, with a horse.
17:35
And it's really breathtaking to see that happen for people.
17:39
Then after I worked at that place, I also spent some time at
17:43
Miraval Resort up here in a Catalina.
17:46
It's near here where I live. And I got to work with Wyatt
17:49
Webb here and he wrote a book called It's Not About the Horse.
17:53
And he was a therapist that did not go through traditional
17:57
therapy training. Basically he was a guy that was
17:59
in a bunch of different big bands.
18:01
He knew tons of entertainers and he was in Waylon Jennings band
18:05
and a couple other things like that.
18:07
And he a drug problem, addiction problem that was brought on
18:11
through that lifestyle and learned that horses could kind
18:16
of get him out of that situation.
18:17
And they did. They saved his life.
18:19
And so he started passing that on to people.
18:21
And once again, he would get these movie star type people and
18:24
he had Charlie Sheen, he had Sharon Stone, tons of people,
18:28
Ellen DeGeneres went up there, Oprah went up there.
18:30
Everybody went to this place and they would spend some time with
18:34
Wyatt and they'd only get like a day or a weekend, maybe most
18:38
where they would work with Wyatt.
18:39
And man, he would get so much out of these people.
18:43
And he would always say it's not me, it's the horses.
18:45
It's the horses that do it. And I found that really is true.
18:49
You know, if you just steer them kind of in the right direction a
18:52
little bit, the horse will open tons of doors, you know, for for
18:56
these people. And so from there, I got to do
18:59
some work with with veterans and they were like returning combat
19:03
veterans. You know, that Iraq war was
19:05
still going on in Afghanistan. Things was, you know, what's
19:09
going on? And these guys would come back
19:11
and try to assimilate and back into society.
19:14
And they were so struggling with that.
19:15
And the things that these horses would do just would blow your
19:20
mind. I have a story I'd like to tell
19:22
you. It's not real long, but it's a
19:24
great story. Just it's a good example.
19:27
So we had, I had a group of horses and I had this veterans
19:30
group that was over working with our horses.
19:32
And it was the very first day that these guys have been here.
19:36
And I had this paint gelding that was in this group of horses
19:39
that I, he didn't get along with the other horses very well.
19:42
It was kind of a pain. I didn't really think I liked
19:44
him very much. And this was an experiment to
19:46
see how it was going to work. So I had four horses in in my
19:49
arena and I had this guy, and he was a corpsman, Navy corpsman.
19:54
So he worked with the Marine Corps.
19:56
He was a medic basically, and he had seen a lot of really bad
19:59
stuff. And he was profoundly touched.
20:02
He was. He had taken lots and lots of
20:06
drugs and he had done lots and lots of therapy.
20:09
And he was really in crisis. And we get him in the arena.
20:12
The horses are all at the other end of the arena, clear down at
20:14
the other end. And I asked this guy, I said,
20:17
hey, what would you like to have happen today?
20:19
And he just looked at me and he said, all I want to do is hug a
20:22
horse. It's the only thing my whole
20:24
life I've wanted to hug a horse. And I looked down at the end of
20:27
the arena and this paint gelding was up here looking like down at
20:30
us with his ears up. And he left with her and he
20:33
walked all the way down to us and he walked right up to this
20:36
guy and put his head right up on his chest.
20:39
He threw his arms around this horse and cried for like 20
20:42
minutes into this horse's neck. Just cried and cried and cried.
20:45
Took his arms off the horse. Horse turned around and walked
20:47
back to them like it was the most unbelievable thing I'd ever
20:50
seen. Later on that day, the same guy
20:53
goes out with another horse that we it's a wild horse that hadn't
20:56
been here very long, wasn't broke to lead or anything.
20:59
This horse goes and lays down in front of him like 20 feet away.
21:04
He just lays down, stretches out on the ground and the guy walks
21:07
right up and puts down on top of him like lays on him, like puts
21:12
his head back, got legs all around him.
21:14
I'm like, you're about to get killed.
21:16
But he didn't, and the horse let him do it.
21:18
And they laid there for 15 minutes on the ground.
21:21
Once again, he's crying and just this profound thing.
21:25
And he was so touched by the fact that these horses would let
21:29
him in. And it was amazing.
21:31
I don't think I could have done that.
21:33
I couldn't have walked up to that horse at that point.
21:35
But there was something in that horse that understood that this
21:39
man was broken, needed his help and he just offered it to him
21:43
and it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.
21:45
So once you do a couple of those and you'll see that happen, it
21:49
just makes you crave it. You know you want to to make
21:52
those interactions happen whenever you can.
21:54
So we try, we try to do what we can for these guys.
21:57
It doesn't always go that way. Sometimes nothing happens and
22:01
you go, well that was a waste of time.
22:03
And then the guy calls 2 weeks later and says that was the most
22:05
amazing thing that's ever happened to me.
22:07
And I'm like nothing happened. And he says, well, you know,
22:10
that horse is just like my father, and my father did the
22:13
same things, and we did this, and this is how he compares to
22:17
my father. And now I can go and talk to
22:19
this horse like he's my father and I'm fine now.
22:22
You know what? It's just.
22:23
Yeah. It's amazing.
22:24
That's the coolest stuff. Wow.
22:25
What are some of maybe like the explanations or what have you
22:29
seen that the that it is that the horses do for these people,
22:32
but now where it's like they can be going to therapy for years
22:35
and then they have this interaction with the horse and
22:37
suddenly they have this breakthrough.
22:39
Well happens is that well, horses see authenticity.
22:44
They will not and especially wild horses will not put up with
22:49
being lied to. They never lie to us and they
22:52
won't be lied to either. So typically with with men,
22:57
especially men go in and go, I'm not afraid.
22:59
I got this. Watch me all you guys.
23:02
I'm going to go and tame this wild horse in one second.
23:05
And the horse looks at him and goes, I can read your fear from
23:09
a mile away. And if you're afraid, I'm not
23:11
getting anywhere near you. There must be something to be
23:14
afraid of out here, right? So like the corpsman that did
23:18
that, he was being completely authentic.
23:20
So what was going on inside here was exactly what he was
23:23
reflecting on the outside. He said, all I want to do is hug
23:26
you and throw my arms around you.
23:28
It's the most, you know, the most greatest desire I've ever
23:30
had. And the source goes, OK, no
23:32
problem, I can do that. And, you know, so I think, what?
23:35
What what the horses require of us is authenticity.
23:39
So we have to go in there and we have to say, I'm afraid.
23:43
And he can. If you do that, people will go
23:46
in on the horse and say I'm really afraid.
23:47
The horse goes, yeah, me too, I'm afraid too.
23:51
Let's work this out. And as long as you're being
23:53
honest with them. I've had other situations with
23:56
veterans that have another guy that he was kind of abusive.
24:00
He got thrown out of the Army because he was beaten up on on
24:04
his wonderlings and was a little bit rough and he was rough on
24:08
his wall and rough on his kids. And they said, you're going to
24:10
some therapy or we're out of here.
24:13
And that Renegade horse that was in the movie that you saw, he
24:16
got in the round pen with that horse when I first got Renegade
24:19
here. And Renegade took no prisoners.
24:22
You know, that horse had been in a lot of fights with a lot of
24:24
got a lot of other horses in his lifetime.
24:28
And this man walked up to him, started like, yeah, I'm going to
24:30
make you run around this round pen.
24:32
He was chasing after him and and renegade spun around, it gave
24:37
him the look and backed this guy down like 5 or 6 times.
24:41
And the guy said he came to me later and he said you know what,
24:44
I've never been afraid of my whole life until right then.
24:47
That's the first time I've ever been afraid.
24:49
And now I know what it's like to be afraid.
24:51
I don't ever want to put anybody in my family in that situation
24:54
where they're afraid again. And that was like this life
24:58
changing moment. Now he's had where his marriage
25:01
is so much better, his relationship with his kids are
25:05
so much better because he understands what it's like to
25:08
have fear like that. So once again, you know, just
25:11
the horse taught it. I didn't have to do anything
25:13
except watch the horse. So they're they're amazing
25:17
therapist. That sounds like he was able to
25:20
fear empathy, you know, for the first time in his life, which is
25:23
huge. Yes, I had a kid once that we
25:26
were working with and he had, he was autistic, he had Asperger's
25:31
and he was about 14 years old. And he also had hydrocephalus.
25:34
So he had physical problems too, where his hips didn't work very
25:38
well and he didn't have a lot of strength and that kind of thing.
25:42
But he had like 0 empathy that was, you know, he, if you fell
25:46
down and broke your arm, he would laugh and laugh and laugh.
25:49
But if he scratched his finger, he'd cry all day and be so angry
25:53
with you that you didn't do something for him.
25:56
And he learned a lot about empathy with horses too.
26:00
We would do a game where where he would have to give a
26:02
compliment, so it was kind of a goal for a goal.
26:05
So I set up a goal and had a horse that used to shove the
26:08
ball through the goal. He wanted to Mack wanted to
26:11
shoot goals like that with the horse.
26:13
But the goal for him was for Mack was that he had to give a
26:16
horse a compliment before he could take a shot.
26:20
And you wouldn't believe how hard it was for him.
26:22
For two days, he would sit in the middle of the arena and cry
26:25
because he could not come up with a compliment.
26:28
And finally he asked me. He's like, what should I say?
26:32
I said, how about like good job or you look nice today,
26:37
something like that. And he finally started coming up
26:39
with those. Mom called me the next day and
26:42
said that he had come home that night.
26:44
She was crying when she called me and she he came up to her and
26:47
said, mom, you're pretty. And she just about fell out of
26:50
her chair. She just died because it was the
26:53
first time we had ever given anyone a compliment or seen
26:57
someone else or had empathy for someone else.
27:00
It was just such a beautiful moment once again that the horse
27:03
brought it out. What other ones do you have?
27:05
Any other really good? We had a guy that was with us
27:08
for a long time that was working with us.
27:10
And he had done like Black Ops work with the CIA and he was in
27:15
the Navy. But then they had put him on
27:17
these like CIA missions in Central America and also in
27:22
Asia. And he had done things that he,
27:25
some of the things he said that he had had to do were I can't
27:29
imagine a human that had to live through the stuff that he had
27:33
seen. And he lived with just
27:36
tremendous amounts of guilt, you know, And please, guilt was just
27:39
driving him honkers and he couldn't get along with people.
27:43
Once again, the horses sort of got him over that guilt mode.
27:46
And it was all about living in the present moment.
27:49
You know, what you have done or what you've been is not who you
27:52
are right now. And so we spent years with them
27:55
working on that. You know, what you think or what
27:58
you've been, what you've done is not who you are, the sum total,
28:01
who you are. You know, a horse could have
28:03
done millions of things in his life.
28:04
He doesn't even remember it half of them.
28:06
He's just living in what he does right now.
28:09
You know, he's a product of this moment and that that's where I
28:13
think people learn so much in the equine therapy and is about
28:17
how to live right now. And I think that's a gift that
28:21
for someone like me, anybody who gets to work with horses every
28:24
day, we sort of have to live right in that moment.
28:27
I don't. While I'm riding one horse, I'm
28:29
not thinking about what I have to do after I get done riding
28:32
him. I have to ride him.
28:34
I got to work on him right now, and the Wilder he is, the more I
28:37
have to concentrate on what's going on right now so that
28:41
neither of us get hurt. And that's so freeing and so
28:46
liberating to be able to live like that.
28:48
And I don't think very many people do nowadays.
28:51
They're constantly wrapped up in what's next or what just
28:55
happened or who said something. You know, how do I take that?
28:59
The horse just goes, all right, bad moment, moving on.
29:01
He can't check in with those bad things that happened, but he
29:04
just moves on from him. He doesn't have to live there.
29:07
I agree. I think that's huge, especially
29:09
in our world today where we're trying to live in so many
29:11
different worlds instead of the one that we're actually in in
29:14
the moment. Right.
29:15
Tell us a little bit more about Renegade.
29:17
You kind of mentioned him and I thought his story was a good one
29:21
to share because it's not the typical story you hear about
29:24
Mustangs. Yeah, yeah, Renegade is a great
29:27
story. Just I wish we could have had
29:30
that film go longer. There was a lot of things that I
29:35
now after seeing the whole final cut, you know, there's things I
29:38
would probably change it there and add in there.
29:42
But we tried to make the story not so much about just a horse,
29:47
but about sort of changing attitudes.
29:50
You know, this horse, he was 13 years old when he was gathered
29:53
from the wild and he shouldn't have been gathered.
29:56
He was in a group of of horses. And the BLM story was that
29:59
somebody didn't get a gate shot or something.
30:01
And so he ends up in the online auction, you know, basically.
30:06
And this woman bought him and online auction Stacy Thomas.
30:10
And she's a good person, really good, good person.
30:12
And she saw that this horse needed and he was beautiful, you
30:15
know, big old crazy looking paint.
30:18
But he was, you know, 13 year old stallion scars all over him.
30:22
He'd been that horse of lip, you know, the wildlife.
30:25
He was super wild. And when she asked me to take
30:29
him on, you know, my first thing was, oh, this would be so cool
30:32
to make this horse into a nice, you know, gentle saddle horse.
30:35
And we could go rope on him or do something.
30:38
And having him show up at places and be the Mustang ambassador
30:42
for look what humans can do for Mustangs.
30:44
And, you know, he sort of kind of looked at it like that.
30:47
Look what I could do for this horse.
30:48
And as we went along with him, what I found with him is that he
30:54
would give me all that he could every time he would be.
30:58
He was so edgy it, it was terrifying to ride this horse
31:03
every time. I got a lot of rides on him and
31:05
I never got bucked off of him or anything like that, but I was
31:09
close a lot of times. It was always like I felt like I
31:12
just survived a battle after I got off of this horse.
31:16
And he would look at me the same way and say, you know, I feel
31:19
like I just barely got through this and I lived through this
31:22
thing. You know, you humans don't know
31:24
how much I have to give here to make this work.
31:26
And, you know, so by the end of this thing, both Stacy and I
31:31
talked it over and time and time again, we thought, you know, is
31:34
this something that we should be doing?
31:36
You know, just because we can, does that mean that we should?
31:40
And, you know, my male ego and my cowboy way that I grew up
31:44
with says, you know, get this horse broke and make it work.
31:47
And, you know, every time I'd be like, I don't know if we should
31:50
be doing this. I don't feel right about making
31:53
this horse do things that are just not in him.
31:56
You know, he's too old, he's too big, he's too strong.
31:59
He's too wild. Yeah.
32:00
And so we finally did make that. And he did hurt.
32:02
He fell on me pretty hard. He broke my ankle.
32:04
And he got up and stepped all over me, too.
32:06
It wasn't like just the fall. It was, he got me pretty good.
32:09
And, you know, I just decided, is this, is this worth this, you
32:13
know, putting him through this? And we decided now the best
32:16
thing we could do is see if we could find some sort of
32:19
sanctuary to to take him to and let him live out what time he
32:23
had left. And I'm really glad that she
32:25
decided that's what we should do.
32:27
And so he got a chance to be out there in the wild again.
32:30
And she had even bought Stacy had even adopted or bought on an
32:35
online auction one of the mayor's that was in his little
32:38
group, one of his his band mayors that had been with him
32:41
for years and years. This horse had years of video
32:44
taken of him. Everybody knew who this horse
32:47
was that that new Mustangs and photographers have been out
32:50
there and he was very documented.
32:53
His life was. So she had gotten this mayor and
32:56
she got he, they went together when we turned him out, when we
33:00
kicked him out on the sanctuary. That was a beautiful thing that
33:03
he got to live wild again for a little while.
33:07
Fortunately, they found him dead after a couple of weeks that he
33:10
was out there. You know, as I explained in the
33:13
film, you know, horses don't have a time clock.
33:16
They don't know a week from a day from a year from a month.
33:19
They just don't live that way. So for him to have some time in
33:23
the wild was pretty profound. You know, he got to at least be
33:27
wild again. Back to the renegade thing.
33:29
I think that that he just sort of proved to me that, you know,
33:33
he'll, he worked as hard as he could to get along with us as
33:37
people. And he said, you know what,
33:39
that's as far as I can go. I really I'm not going to give
33:42
you anymore. And it was perfect because he
33:44
was, when we kicked him out on this sanctuary, he spent about a
33:48
month in a kind of like 100 acre pen.
33:53
So he got to be in this big pen with his mayor to kind of get re
33:57
acclimated to just being out again.
33:59
They didn't want to kick him out on 10,000 acres until he was
34:02
kind of re acclimated. So I got to visit him one last
34:05
time before we turned him out, and he did a kind of a flyby on
34:10
me. So he's way at the other end of
34:12
the pasture. And he came running up Mach one
34:14
like he wanted. I thought I'd throw my arms
34:16
around his neck and he's gonna go.
34:17
Jeff, you're back. Yeah.
34:19
You know, that kind of thing. And he ran right up to me.
34:22
He ran up to me as fast as he could run.
34:24
And he stopped right in front of me.
34:26
And he touched my hand and then spun around and ran all the way
34:29
back to the other end again. So I think what he was, you
34:32
know, trying to say something like, I recognize he did, but
34:35
I'm wild. I'm not who you think I am.
34:38
And it was great. It was very touching.
34:40
I sat down pride over that. That was a that was a pretty,
34:43
pretty profound thing for him to do.
34:45
So once again, if we read what they do and we don't blow those
34:49
things, you know, somebody, you maybe could have just blown that
34:52
off Ha ha, that was funny. But really think about what that
34:55
meant. You know, for him to to go.
34:57
I'm wild again, you know, he was why would he even come up to me?
35:01
But he did just to show me something.
35:03
I don't know because he doesn't speak English.
35:05
It almost sounds like a thank you, you know, especially when
35:08
it was so uncomfortable for him in the human world.
35:10
It's like he was trying but so uncomfortable for him.
35:14
So for him to then, you know, he doesn't have to be there with
35:16
you anymore. No, it's come.
35:18
And I like what you just said there that maybe it was a thank
35:21
you and you know, we can look at it like that.
35:23
So, you know, with our brain, we could take that as as that, wow,
35:28
you know, that was so cool. Or we could go, well, he doesn't
35:32
like me because he came up and touched me and then he left
35:34
again. You don't want nothing to do
35:35
with me. Well, you know, that's I'll spin
35:38
in that. That wasn't him spinning, man.
35:40
He's did what a horse did. Well, I don't know why he did
35:42
it, but I'm going to take it as a compliment.
35:45
Right. Yeah, Yeah, you're right.
35:47
That is something that we do a lot, is put our interpretation
35:49
on the horses. Right.
35:51
When they're really mostly reacting what's going on around
35:55
them with tell the stimuli around, Yeah, we kind of take
35:58
that and make it about ourselves a lot of.
36:00
We anthropomorphizing can be a big mistake that we make, but
36:07
but take those moments that you do that, that make you feel
36:11
something and feel what was that that I just felt.
36:14
I felt some kind of some kind of connection that I just felt
36:18
right there. That wasn't an accident.
36:20
Horses don't do things by accident.
36:22
That was something I can interpret it how I want to.
36:26
That's beautiful. It's empowering.
36:28
Yeah, that is point that, yeah, even if we are not interpreting
36:32
it exactly, our interpretation is we are catching on the energy
36:37
to you know what's happening in the mind of the horse.
36:39
Even if maybe our interpretation isn't 100% on target with what
36:44
is happening in their world, it is giving us that feedback and
36:47
that indication of like where the relationships at.
36:51
And then it teaches us. So if you can read that, if you
36:54
can read a little bit about what that horse is doing now, you can
36:58
read that with your children or your husband or your friends.
37:01
And you know, try not to read too much into what they're
37:04
saying. But on the other hand, recognize
37:07
what you're feeling. That's the big thing.
37:08
It's recognizing what you feel. What are the some of the lessons
37:12
or things you've taken away away from your time working with
37:14
Mustangs? Lessons that I've learned from
37:17
Mustangs is 1 is don't take things for granted.
37:21
Probably go right back to that. Don't anthropomorphize too much
37:24
because you know they're going to take care of themselves.
37:27
And if you're not present with them reading what they're
37:30
thinking or reading what their body language is saying, you're
37:34
going to get hurt. And I have got hurt by quite a
37:37
few of them for making dumb mistakes myself.
37:40
You know, taking things for granted maybe a little a little
37:43
bit. So I've learned that that about
37:47
each one is an individual there, there is no two of these horses
37:51
that are alike. So it's great when someone has a
37:55
method and you can go and thought method and do the method
37:59
and all of a sudden it doesn't work on one particular horse.
38:01
No two horses are the same. And that I find it interesting
38:06
that there are methods that are sort of sold that here's the
38:10
method, do this, do this. It doesn't mean it's always
38:12
going to work worked out and especially with wild horses.
38:15
So I'll see a lot of clinicians doing their their thing and
38:19
doing their spiel and I always go, yeah, let's try that on a
38:22
wild 1 and it doesn't always work.
38:25
They have different ways of dealing with their environments
38:27
and I think their past experiences have had made that
38:32
different for each one. So sometimes they're the
38:35
instinct of what they've been through can really play into
38:39
that training. So one method doesn't work
38:41
always. I also think that just in
38:43
general with wild horses that regardless of how broke we get
38:48
them and how gentle we get, a, most of them still have that
38:51
wild a little closer to the surface than your quarter horse
38:55
Gelting does. And so sometimes they'll do
38:57
something that to us looks a little bit stupid or a little
39:00
bit wild. And it's just because those
39:02
memories are still really deep in them.
39:04
You know, horses never really do forget anything and so something
39:08
triggers a reaction from them and they can go off a little
39:11
harder than that Quarter horse gelding does.
39:13
So you know, that's one of the reasons why some people don't
39:17
even want to mess with Mustangs because they're worried that
39:19
about those kind of reactions and you know, all the things you
39:22
hear, you can't make a good horse out of them.
39:24
Well, there's plenty of Mustangs that will prove that wrong.
39:27
But you do have to remember that wild is always a little bit
39:31
closer to the surface. So that would be one of the
39:34
things that I have learned from them and to just not take
39:37
anything for granted. If one thing doesn't work, maybe
39:40
you have to try a little bit different method, being a little
39:43
bit too bullheaded about what you do.
39:45
I got a, a story about that. I had this gelding that I got in
39:50
about, it's been about 7 or 8 months ago now.
39:52
And he was, he was very approachable, like he would
39:55
always turn and face and he'd want to walk up a little bit and
39:58
kind of hit a lot of draw on him.
40:00
And I like that. I thought he was going to be
40:02
really easy to work with until it got anywhere close to me
40:05
putting a hand on him and he was not going to.
40:07
Have me put a hand on him and I get people write to me and ask
40:11
me all the time, but my horse won't let me touch him and I
40:14
have a million different ways of getting that to work.
40:16
And I used all my million different ways of getting that
40:18
to work. I'd flip a whip over his back.
40:20
I'd flip a rope on him, you know, touch him with a stick.
40:24
I got all that stuff done. If I got my hand anywhere near
40:27
that horse, he wasn't having it, right.
40:30
So I was talking to one of my friends who's a Mustang trainer,
40:34
and I said to her, I told her about that.
40:36
She goes, I got an idea. And I said, don't even tell me.
40:39
I know what your idea is going to be and I'm not going to do
40:42
it. Well, the idea was put a glove
40:44
on the end of a stick and act like it's your hand, right?
40:47
You know, And I've seen other people do that.
40:49
And I'm like, I am not going to do that.
40:51
That's such an amateur move. There's no way I'm going to do
40:53
that. Well, in secret I went out there
40:55
and I did that. I take the glove to the end of a
40:57
stick and in it still took me another probably 2 weeks before
41:01
I could touch him with my hand. But I finally got him where I
41:03
could touch him all over with that glove and finally got a
41:06
hand on him and finally got a halter on him and now he's the
41:10
gentlest horse on the place. Little kids can go up and catch
41:13
him and then you know, it's not a big thing.
41:15
But I had to get him over that hump of you're not going to get
41:18
that hand on me. You can touch me with anything
41:20
else, but not your hand. And I even ran him in a botkin
41:24
screw and I wallered all over him with my hands and he just
41:27
snorted fire the whole time and he wasn't having it.
41:30
So I had to adapt and do something that I really didn't
41:34
want to do, but I did it and it worked.
41:36
But don't tell anybody else I did that.
41:38
Secret safe here. Yeah, right.
41:41
We're going to broadcast it to everybody.
41:43
Sometimes you got to try something.
41:44
You got to think outside the box maybe a little bit or you know,
41:47
that kind of thing. And I think it's interesting
41:49
with the different strategies that are shared because you have
41:53
to also take into account where like the person that's working
41:56
with them is and kind of their state of mind and their skill
41:59
set. And so, yeah, it can be really
42:01
important to maybe not limit yourself to like, I'm just going
42:04
to follow these specific things or this is what must happen next
42:07
in this way, kind of, you know, you got worse you got and the
42:10
person you got. One thing I do want to say on
42:13
that note that I feel is important that I try to get this
42:16
message across to a lot of people, One of the something
42:19
that the makeovers has taught me.
42:20
So you know, I've done a bunch of these makeovers and we have
42:22
like 100 to 120 days to get a horse from completely wild, just
42:27
showing him in Fort Worth or somewhere like that.
42:30
And we got to get it done. It's got to start happening like
42:33
pretty quick. You know, if I spend a month
42:35
trying to get a halter on this horse, I'm out, I'm done.
42:37
I'm a month, it's gone already out of four months or three
42:41
months. And what I see a lot of on some
42:44
of these Mustang boards and stuff is people who have had a
42:47
Mustang for a year or two years or eight months or whatever and
42:52
they can't touch him yet or they can't get a halter on him yet.
42:55
And it really that is one of the things that's probably a huge
42:57
pet peeve for me is that you're going to sometime need to be
43:01
able to catch that horse. Something's going to happen.
43:04
He's going to get hurt, he's going to get stuck somewhere.
43:06
You're going to have to be sick, you're going to have to catch
43:08
him. And if you can't, what are you
43:10
going to do? So you have to make it a
43:12
priority. And if you don't catch that
43:15
horse, after a time, he starts understanding you can't, you're
43:18
not going to catch me. You can't catch me.
43:20
You have taught me to avoid being caught.
43:23
And that's how you're that's what you're going to have to
43:25
deal with. So, you know, I've tried to show
43:28
on my Tuesday trainers tips and that thing about like how to
43:31
rope them with a breakaway rope and then rope them with the rope
43:34
of the block. So you don't check, you know,
43:36
you don't choke them and that kind of thing.
43:39
But I think you have to make it a priority.
43:41
I've got to get a halter on this horse and get him where we can
43:44
handle him just for that horse's sake, because you're on borrowed
43:46
time with him until you can catch him.
43:49
I think that really is key is prioritizing it.
43:51
I think a lot of times it doesn't happen the way we think
43:54
it might happen. If we put in that time and
43:57
commitment and the willingness to like learn and try new
43:59
things, then I think, you know, in most cases it's definitely
44:02
something that you can make happen.
44:04
And, and sometimes I think you really do need a mentor to kind
44:07
of help guide you through that process and kind of pick up
44:10
things you might be missing because you don't realize you're
44:12
doing different things. So, yeah, do you think that
44:14
that's good advice to really prioritize these horses if
44:17
you're taking them into your life and and make sure you have
44:19
the things they need to be able to succeed in the human world?
44:22
Well, and that's one of the beauties about the Mustang world
44:25
that the people are, it's about the horses.
44:28
The money is not as big and in it.
44:30
And so it's more about the horses and people are willing to
44:33
help. You know, I, I got guys I still
44:35
call, I got, I have a long list of guys that I call up if I'm
44:39
struggling with something and I'll call them and I'll get a
44:41
little tip from them and they're more than willing to help me.
44:44
And, and I'm more than willing to help somebody that calls me
44:47
and asks me. And I just find that in our
44:49
community, that's kind of how that that goes.
44:52
So, you know, people need to go ahead and reach out and and ask
44:56
those questions and don't be afraid to.
44:59
There's no stupid questions. There's just being stupid
45:02
because you didn't ask the question.
45:03
Yeah, I agree. It is a really good community
45:06
that almost everybody really is in it for the horse.
45:08
They want what's best for the horse, and they're willing to
45:11
sacrifice their time and knowledge and share that with
45:14
other people. One thing that seems to be
45:18
prevalent in the Mustang world and especially maybe here in
45:21
Arizona more than other places, is I see a lot of people that
45:26
get a Mustang, they'll put some time in and they kind of get
45:29
them going and then you see them for sale for $800 or $500.00.
45:36
So I want people, we need to make these horses legitimate if
45:40
we're going to have. We need to put some value in
45:43
them. So if you have 15 hand gelding
45:46
that you have six months in of training in him, keep in mind my
45:50
training is $1500 a month. So times that times 6, what's
45:54
that horse worth? If you're just training alone,
45:57
he's worth 10, twelve, $13,000, right?
46:00
Something like that. So we have to put that value on
46:03
these horses and make them sort of legitimize them.
46:06
So I, I hate seeing people, you know, just dumping him off for
46:11
little or nothing or they get one and they don't put any time
46:14
in him and you get a call. And I've had this horse for five
46:17
years and I can't touch him yet. I mean, he's now he's 12 years
46:20
old. What's he worth?
46:21
Well, he's worth nothing. He's worth absolutely nothing.
46:24
I don't want him. I can go get one for $125.00 out
46:27
of the pen and in a month I got him broke to leave, right.
46:29
So I, I don't want that one. So, you know, if you're going to
46:33
take him, take him on and then make him valuable.
46:36
The more you teach him, the more he knows, the more valuable he
46:40
is and the chances of him every ending up on that truck to
46:43
Mexico to get ground up, those chances go way down because he's
46:47
valuable. He knows something and why isn't
46:50
he worth any more than you know, say a grade gelding that they're
46:54
advertising for 8910 thousand dollars.
46:57
You know your Mustangs, a grade gelding, he's the same thing.
47:00
So treat them like what they're worth and you know, do it, do it
47:04
right, spend the money on them to get it done right, and then
47:07
you got something that's valuable.
47:10
I think that really is a service.
47:11
It's like if we want them to to be protected to not, you know,
47:16
like you say, end up on the slot of trucks.
47:18
We really can do that by teaching them how to how to live
47:21
in the human world and to to give something that people are
47:24
wanting that does really make make them valuable, make them so
47:27
that they're not so disposable. It's been, you know, that good
47:30
citizen that they can trust their children around and that
47:34
kind of thing. Boy, he's he's worth more in his
47:36
weight in gold. I love the the thing that get
47:39
this one too all the time. I'm looking for a horse for my
47:42
kids and I always go, well, how much do you like the kid?
47:44
And they'll be like, well, I love the kid.
47:46
He's my kid. And I'll say, well, I got
47:47
gelding here for $12,000. You know, that's really broke
47:51
and he'll take care of your kid for the next 20 years.
47:53
Well, I don't, I'm not going to spend $12,000.
47:55
I want one for 1200. It's just a kids horse.
47:58
OK, well here, here's one that you can have for 1200.
48:01
He'll probably kill your kid, but you said you didn't like the
48:03
kid that much anyways. You know what?
48:05
So yeah, you know, value is value.
48:08
And and you know, if it's a horse that's worth having, it's
48:11
worth spending the money on it. That's really true.
48:13
And if you're not able or willing to spend the money on
48:16
like you need to be ready to spend lots of time and energy
48:19
learning and really being the skills that you need so that you
48:23
know you can provide that for the horse if you're not able to
48:25
get that from someone else. Time is money too, you know, So
48:28
if you look at this thing, well, I can buy this, you know, 4 year
48:32
old horse that has very little training on it and I can buy it
48:35
for, you know, a couple $1000 well, OK, you're going to still
48:39
put feed and vet bills and another few $1000 into training.
48:44
So at the end of it, you still got a $10,000 horse instead of
48:47
buying that $10,000 horse might take care of you.
48:50
So I just, I want people to be realistic about it.
48:53
And when you, when you, when someone takes on a project like
48:56
a Mustang, it's a big, it's a big undertaking.
48:59
It can be a really serious difficult undertaking.
49:02
So have that in mind. You know, I think sometimes,
49:05
sometimes the the glamour of oh, I want a wild horse and it only
49:08
cost me $125.00. So you know, this is a great
49:13
thing. And then after a while you start
49:15
going on this is the way harder and I thought it was going to
49:17
be. So think it through and you
49:19
know. Yeah, and I think that's kind of
49:21
added because there's a lot of great trainers out there doing
49:24
things really quickly and well with these horses.
49:27
And so you kind of think, I mean, I kind of had it in my
49:29
head when I got my first one, like I'll get it, this will be
49:31
great, you know, like 3 months and it'll be just this great
49:35
experience that we have. And you're not taking into
49:37
account like the time, the energy, the knowledge that these
49:40
trainers are putting in that. So yeah, like you say, it's in
49:43
it. It's a project.
49:44
This is not just like fly by the night, like hop on a horse.
49:48
You guys are going to each other's eyes and everybody will
49:51
love each other. Sometimes we'll have a horse you
49:53
know, how to makeover and you run in there bareback and bridle
49:56
this and running around there in and spins and slide stops and
49:59
then the owner gets him home and goes, I can't even ride this
50:02
thing, You know I can't. He's wild.
50:04
Well, yeah, I only had him four months.
50:06
He he goes good for me, but that doesn't mean he's gonna go good
50:08
for you yet. So it might mean he still needs
50:11
a little more time. But they can put the time in and
50:14
put the effort in them. There's.
50:15
A lot of opportunity and they do really amazing things for humans
50:18
and, you know, helping us figure out how to live in this world
50:22
better. And just the things that we can
50:24
learn is we really have that effort that we're willing to put
50:27
into them. They really return that to us, I
50:29
think. Yeah, for sure.
50:30
Tell everybody where they can find you, all that good stuff.
50:34
OK, well I'm located in Tucson, AZ and my we have a website
50:43
that's Dream Horse Arizona at hotmail.com.
50:47
That's the probably the best way to get ahold of me or I'm always
50:50
on Facebook. You can get me just under my
50:52
name, Jeff Cook on Facebook or Dream Horse AZ on face Facebook
50:58
AZ as in Arizona. Look us up on there.
51:01
I do a thing on Tuesdays. It's just a little give back
51:04
thing. It's Tuesday trainers tip and
51:06
just something that I've been asked about or something through
51:09
the week and then we'll try to get people some information that
51:13
way. It's great to have the the
51:15
Internet and be able to look up as many mentors as you possibly
51:19
can. And, and I do, I watch every
51:21
video that comes around and sometimes I go, yeah, I don't
51:24
know, I'm not going to do it that way.
51:25
And other times I'm like, yeah, I get a little glean a little
51:28
something from there that I really want to do.
51:30
So, you know, stay active in that and find some people that
51:34
are good communicators and but don't put your faith all in one
51:37
because like I said, if you start doing everything the same
51:40
every time, the, you know, method doesn't always work.
51:43
So, you know, be be willing to to change, change up your
51:48
strategies, Yeah. And I, I think even Renegade is
51:51
a really good story of that. But, you know, obviously
51:53
everybody that adopts a horse gets it with the intention that
51:56
you're probably going to ride it and, you know, enjoy life with
51:58
it. And, you know, certainly that's
52:00
a great goal and it happens a lot of the time.
52:02
But be willing for those things that that don't work out the way
52:05
you were anticipating them or expecting them and.
52:13
You know, but I will say that I really think that maybe one in
52:28
20 or so is just one that's probably not going to make it
52:32
for you. And I'm just trying to be
52:34
realistic, you know, unless now people say I can make this one
52:38
work. OK, Well, how much time and
52:39
money do you have to put in him, right?
52:41
Maybe in two years, three years, you know, he'll be OK to ride
52:44
him. I really believe that just to
52:47
make a good honest horse out of any of them from the ground up,
52:50
you're always looking at two years to really make a good
52:54
solid horse out of 1. So, you know, with a Mustang,
52:57
you got to add in a couple of months of just getting them
52:59
where they're OK with even being around them, you know, So it
53:03
takes takes time. And that's why those trained
53:05
horses are worth so much. It's a lot of money gets
53:08
investing time in them. So yeah, I think for sure we
53:11
underestimate how much time they really need to really, you know,
53:16
get the whole, the whole deal that we're trying to do with
53:18
them and and for us also. Yeah, that's one of the things
53:22
that I've kind of backed off on a little bit, like on the
53:24
makeovers. I love the makeover idea.
53:26
I think it's really fun. It's really cool, but you know,
53:30
they, they started the Mustang champions one started doing
53:33
where we got close to a year or, you know, 9-10 months on on that
53:37
horse before we showed him. And I love that format.
53:40
It's so much better to have that kind of time rather than, you
53:45
know, busting out a horse in 100 days, getting him to the show
53:48
and you're on by the skinnier teeth allotted for that time,
53:51
you know, because you're up against that clock.
53:53
So I like the idea of the longer, longer times and maybe
53:57
not having an auction always at the end of them where you got to
54:00
sell that horse. You know, sometimes we sell them
54:03
and the trainer gets half of what they sell for.
54:06
And you know, we put so much effort and time in and we don't
54:09
we don't make that back. So these ones where you keep
54:12
them a little longer really is good for them I think.
54:14
Yeah, I agree. I'm glad that that format is
54:17
changing up and there's some new things coming out to really kind
54:20
of honor the time and the effort that it takes.
54:23
Yeah. Except for a one time
54:25
performance, but then like you say, is that horse going to be
54:27
able to do that for the next person?
54:29
Yeah, yeah. Months to months or it's good.
54:32
And it makes you have a, you know, you really develop a
54:35
partnership and a friendship with that horse after you've had
54:38
him for a while. Like my last year's Vegas
54:40
Horseman, we were, you know, best friends.
54:42
That horse went everywhere with me for nine months, you know,
54:46
and so it was, it was really special to have him for that
54:50
long, you know, and he did really well.
54:52
And now he's with the the best owner ever and she takes such
54:55
great care of him and he's pretty happy.
54:58
That's great to see. That's what we want for these
55:00
horses. Helpful is for them to get kind
55:02
of that good that happy ending. Absolutely.
55:05
Thank you for joining us and learning about Horses that Heal
55:08
and the humans who help them. We hope you'll continue with us
55:11
on this journey. We'd love for you to subscribe
55:14
on your favorite platform and follow the touch of a Mustang on
55:17
any of the major social media outlets.
55:19
Please share with your friends anyone who loves horses or
55:22
anyone who might be struggling and could benefit from this
55:25
message. If you have felt the healing
55:27
power of horses or help them in their divinely appointed
55:30
mission, please reach out. We want to hear your story.
55:34
As we say goodbye, always remember that the horse is
55:37
always there to help you.