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This is about horses, or more to the point, why I don’t read books about horses. I read a book I like to get lost in the adventure. I can’t do that when the author introduces a horse as most don’t have the slightest idea what they’re talking about. I was born on a cattle ranch, I’ve dealt with horses all of my life, and there’s a room full of trophies and a bank full of money to prove it. For more information on my background go to www.authorsinc.com and look at the pictures, see the background and then decided for yourself. Now on to some myths that are just wrong.
Myth 1: You cannot guide a horse with your knees. To start with, there’s a quarter inch of leather, then there’s the cinch and buckles, and finally, the horse doesn’t know what the heck you’re doing anyway. I’ve turned out, this is the correct term for a horse that you’ve started, worked with for two to three years, and wound up with a finished product that is ready to go out and win. I’ve turned out roping, cutting, and reining horses. I’ve also turned out and ridden race horses into the winners circle. If you want one of these horses to go left, I assume you’re supposed to press the right knee, and they did turn left, they’re going to leave you off out at the right with your head stuck in the ground.
Myth 2: You saddle a horse, step into the saddle, and ride the bucking bronco until he quits.
I’ve never let a horse buck. There’s no reason to. First of all, they don’t know how and they learn by doing. Secondly, there’s no reason to terrorize the animal. Thirdly, my bones are too brittle for all of that exercise. Training a horse is no different then training any other animal. You wouldn’t terrorize a dog in training so why terrorize a horse. My experience in dealing with thousands of horses is that they want to be as big a pet as your dog.
Myth 3: The word Stallion is not in the vocabulary of horse people. To horse people it’s stud. It’s the only word they use.
Myth 4: You can disguise a horse by changing it’s color or some other such foolishness. Let me ask you this. If your best friend dyes his or her hair would you still recognize them? Horses look as different to horse people as your friends do to you. If you were to change the color of say, Smarty Jones, and a top flight trainer or jockey that had seen the horse walks by, sees the horse in a pasture a half mile away, the first words out of their mouth is ‘What did they do to Smarty Jones, and why?’ I know, Dick Francis did it once, and I did read Dick Francis, but he tried to disguise what he was doing, and in the end even he didn’t believe it, I could tell by the way he was writing. He did go ahead and publish the thing anyway.
Myth 5: There’s no such thing as a rodeo circuit. I don’t know where the term came from, but I’ve been going to rodeos since I was fifteen and I never heard anyone say that. The correct term is ‘I’m going rodeoing, I’m going to a roping, we’re going to the rodeo at Houston next week. If you’re going to write about horses I suggest getting a subscription to Horse and Rider. The articles are written by people in the field and not by writers researching an article.
Charles Montgomery www.authorsinc.com/
About the author:
I was born on a cattle ranch, have lived on one all of my life, and I have turned out thousands of horses.
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