The Real Deal with ‘Horse Breaks’
Alright, so you hear ‘horse breaks’ and maybe you picture some tough cowboy wrestling a wild stallion into submission in like, an afternoon. Yeah, movies, right? Lemme tell ya, my experience? Not so much like a blockbuster. More like a slow-burn indie film where you’re not sure if anything’s actually happening for a long time.
I got this fella, we called him Rusty. Not ’cause of his color, more ’cause of his attitude – stiff, resistant, like he’d been left out in the rain too long. Everyone had advice, you know? ‘Do this, do that.’ Read a bunch of stuff too. Some of it sounded real smart. The biggest thing I found, though, wasn’t some magic trick.
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First off, I just spent time. Sounds dumb, right? Just… being there. I’d go out to his pasture, not even trying to catch him at first. Just sit on a bucket, maybe fiddle with some tack, whatever. Let him get used to me not being a threat.
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Then came the grooming. Man, that was a battle at first. He’d swing his head, stomp his feet. Not mean, just… scared, I think. Or stubborn. Probably both. But I kept at it. Soft voice, slow movements. Little by little, he’d let me do more. That brush became, like, our first real conversation.
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Talking. Yeah, I talked to him. Probably looked like a crazy person to anyone watchin’. But I’d tell him about my day, the weather, whatever nonsense came to mind. The point wasn’t what I said, but the tone. Trying to be a calm, steady presence. That solid thing people talk about.
The actual ‘breaks’? They weren’t one big thing. It was more like… a series of tiny cracks appearing in that rusty armor. One day, he wouldn’t pull away so fast when I reached for his halter. Another day, he’d actually nicker when he saw me coming with the feed bucket, instead of just staring suspiciously. These were the moments I started to see progress.
And here’s a crucial bit: I had to give him breaks. Loads of ’em. If he got stressed, or even just a bit antsy, I’d back off. End on a good note, even if it was a tiny, tiny good note. Pushing too hard? That just made him shut down. Learned that the hard way, believe me. Couple of times I nearly threw in the towel. Thought he was a lost cause, just too set in his ways. My neighbor, an old fella who’s seen it all with horses, just chuckled one day and said, ‘He ain’t breakin’ you, is he?’ Made me stop and think, for sure.
It took months. Not weeks. Months. And even now, Rusty ain’t no show pony you see in fancy competitions. He’s just… my horse. We understand each other, most days. The biggest ‘break’ was probably in my expectations. I stopped trying to force him into some mold of what I thought a ‘broken’ horse should be, according to books or whatever.
Funny thing is, I got into this whole horse thing by accident. A buddy of mine was in a tight spot, couldn’t keep his horse, asked me if I could take Rusty on ‘for a bit’. Well, that ‘bit’ turned into years. I knew next to nothing when I started, really. Just what I’d seen in movies, like I said. So, this whole journey with Rusty, it wasn’t just about him learning to trust me. It was me learning what ‘trust’ even looks like from a horse’s point of view. And learning a heck of a lot of patience I didn’t know I had. Turns out, ‘horse breaks’ is less about the horse breaking, and more about you breaking… your own bad habits and your hurry to get things done.
So yeah, that’s my two cents on it. It ain’t glamorous. It’s a lot of quiet work, a lot of just showing up, day after day. But when that horse finally chooses to be with you, without fear, and you feel that connection? That’s the real deal. That’s the break you’re actually looking for.
