Buck Brannaman Quotes

Horses are very keen on body language, and what I refer to as “presence”, and expression. They know quite a bit about you before you ever get to ‘em. They can read things about you clear across an arena.

I don't want the horse to get trained, because training the horse is absolutely finite. But if you get the horse to where he operates as if to be your legs, an extension of you, you've far-exceeded that whole training notion.

The horse is a great equalizer, he doesn't care how good looking you are, or how rich you are or how powerful you are-- he takes you for how you make him feel.

Horses don’t think the same as humans. Something that’s most unique about the horse, that I love, is not what he possesses but what he doesn’t possess. And that is greed, spite, hate, jealousy, envy, prejudice. The horse doesn’t possess any of those things. If you think about people, the least desirable people to be around usually possess some or all of those things. And the way God made the horse, he left that out.

The horse is a gift to us, to humanity. And for that, there comes responsibility. If the horse is gonna work for you and work with you, then the best thing I can do for the horse is to make it as good a life possible.

When you first get started, you're the only one with a vision. When you become creative and use your imagination, pretty soon the things you imagined, you can get done. If you got a taste of it, if you got a taste of what I'm talking about, you'd rather do that than eat. You couldn't get enough of it. You'll hunger for it the rest of your life.

Horses are incredibly forgiving. They fill in places we're not capable of filling ourselves.

Think of the horse as your partner.and it's all one great dance. That's not to say it's always going to be easy or you won't have to work through issues. But when a horse is troubled or uncomfortable in our world, rather than show contempt for him, you must demonstrate empathy and work to convince him that you mean him no harm. You have some things that you'd like him to do 'with you', as opposed to 'for you'- and the best way to do that is as partners.

Discipline isn't a dirty word. Far from it. Discipline is the one thing that separates us from chaos and anarchy. Discipline implies timing. It's the precursor to good behavior, and it never comes from bad behavior. People who associate discipline with punishment are wrong: with discipline, punishment is unnecessary.

The horse saved my life, so that's kind of why I'll spend the rest of mine trying to help them.

I don't believe in waiting for a horse to do the wrong thing and then punishing him after the fact. You can't just say no to a horse. You have to redirect a negative behavior with a positive one, something that works for both of you. It's as though you're saying - instead of doing that, we can do this together.

With a horse, if you make it easy for him to do the right thing, that's what he will logically do, but it's not necessarily true with the human. You will see humans that will beat their heads against the wall rather than open the door and walk through it.

I’ve always wanted to do the right thing by a horse, that’s never changed, its just that as my knowledge grew I’ve been able to offer the horse a better human being, as time has gone on.

The horse responds to comfort, they respond to peace better than about anything else you could do. All he wants you to do is just leave him alone. So if the horse responds to you and you give him a little peace and comfort that means more to him than anything.

There are things that the horse did for me that a human couldn't have done.

Whether it's horses or whatever it is you do, it doesn't become an art until your soul goes into what you do.

It is all about the quality of the communication, not the quantity.

Horses are consistent and logical. The horse will do what is easiest for him. If you make it easy for him to buck you off, kick you, and run away, that’s just what he’s going to do. And more power to him. But if you make it easy for the horse to be relaxed and calm and accurate — and also have it be a beautiful dance between you and the horse — it won’t be too long before he’ll be hunting for that just as hard as you are. Whatever you make easy for the horse, that’s what he’s going to get good at.

When you find that the horse is compelled and interested in you, something in you changes. That can be healing or move you deeply.

You try to do as little as you can, but you need to do as much as is necessary to get a result. When you get a result, you do less.

And for a lot of people, they want it all to be fuzzy and warm and cosmic, but it's 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.

The horse can just be a great vehicle for some people to overcome things in their life that they might not be able to overcome otherwise.

Horses aren't lazy and they're not greedy and they're not jealous and they're not spiteful, they're not hateful. They're not that way. But the human can sometimes only describe a horse in the way that they view other human beings.

That absolute pure honesty of the horse, man that's just the greatest thing there is

Gentle in what you do, Firm in how you do it

The horse is so honest.... they live in the moment. And what they do, whether they need to protect themselves or whether they need to accept you really is directly relative to how you make them feel.

If I had a horse buck with me now, I’m a little disappointed. It’s not the end of the world, but I’m a little disappointed if I couldn’t keep the horse out of trouble, whereas it used to be a source of pride, and now it’s sort of source of shame if I let the horse get lost.

Nobody has to lose for me to succeed and that is a unique job. Everybody wins, horse wins, people win, I win.

When you're younger, you ride with 90% physical and 10% mental. But if you could learn how to use 90% mental and 10% physical you'd be better off.

It’s not about how much pressure you put on, it’s how good you are at taking it off.

As a rider, you must slowly and methodically show your horse what is appropriate. You also have to discourage what's inappropriate, not by making the inappropriate impossible, but by making it difficult so that the horse himself chooses appropriate behavior. You can't choose it for him; you can only make it difficult for him to make the wrong choices. If, however, you make it impossible for him to make the wrong choices, you're making war.

In nature this animal would have nothing to do with you. "Natural horsemanship" is just words. It's not natural at all. There's an abundance of trust that must be developed for you. Imagine if humans were that pliable.

As far as horses go, people will ask about one breed versus another. I have to tell you, I really don't have any prejudice one way or another. I treat every horse at face value, how he/she is as an individual.

You might measure your approach to a horse the same way as your approach to people because there are going to be some horses, like some people, who might be inclined to tune you out.

Anytime you are with a horse, no matter if you are a daily rider or one who just gets a chance to ride to the mailbox, you are interacting with your horse. It is all about the quality of the communication, not the quantity. Doing something right once in a while will far surpass anything done wrong more often.

You can't look forward and backward at the same time...........so I choose to look forward.

Solutions to problems often come from knowing when to ask for help.

Someone might steal your childhood, but they can't steal your will. There is a point where you're given the opportunity in life to stop blaming everyone else and start taking responsibility for your life.

When riding, ask yourself what will my horse get out of it if I get what I want? Many times, human nature is to take and to not give anything back.

The horse is a mirror to your soul... and sometimes you might not like what you see in the mirror.

That’s my credo - My work is play. I don’t complain about work. I enjoy it. I like the feeling of being able to lay down at night and you’re so doggone tired, you’re just hoping to get undressed before you fall asleep.

By the time you’ve had a relationship with a horse for a while, there are characteristics in the way the horse behaves with you and around you and responds to you that are directly (related) to some of your traits as a human being…whether it’s insecurity or aggression or fear or hate.

Your Horse is a mirror to your soul.

I take the horsemanship very seriously and I treat it with the same integrity that one would any of the fine arts.

Horses and life, it's all the same to me.

If you miss the beginning, the basics, then you are destined to go back and visit the basics.

I'm still on the move, I'm getting better because I'm still studying. I still want to be a better horseman.

The horse needs to respect you, but sometimes people confuse respect & fear. And they're not the same at all.

Most people think of a feel as when you touch something or someone and what it feels like to your fingers but, a feel can have a thousand different definitions. Sometimes feel is a mental thing. Sometimes feel can happen clear ‘cross the arena. Sort of an invitation from the horse to come to you.

There are no problem horses, only problem riders.