hn25.

i bought a horse on saturday. a 2 year old stallion, mixed gray and brown. it had never been ridden, never been trained, and never been lassoed. in fact, when i went to see it for the first time, you couldn't even come within 50 meters of it. well, now things are different. saturday the horse was taken to the home of a new friend of mine by the name of carlos. since carlos is a pro horse trainer, he told me he would take care of the horse for three days, break it a little, and have it ready for me to take home by tuesday.

the horse was taken there by truck, and when i came to see it i found it tied to a tree. with our approach the horse panicked, rose up on two feet, and lost it. but carlos took it by the lasso, and dragged it out onto the street. with every pull, the horse pulled back, and it looked like it would be a herculean task to train the animal. i then thought, why not give it a try. why not approach the animal with a little love instead of brute force. so i took the lasso from carlos, who hesitantly gave it up probably due to the fear he had for my life, and pulled. the horse did the same movements, kicked, and tried to break free. so i did something stupid, came up closer, and pulled again. this time he stood his ground. i then came even closer, and pulled. now he took a step. finally, i put my face to his, and looked at his eyes. not a move from him. so i stood there for some time, holding the horse, talking to him, and he relaxed. i then brought him back to his tree, tied him up and left for the day. that night, carlos spent some time working with the beast, and by the next morning ruso was walking around comfortably with me.

we spent the day walking the road around carlos' house, taking pictures, and doing a little training drills. it was exhilarating. not only because i was finally in posession of a horse, but because he responded to me. even more so than to the pro trainer carlos. and not because i was doing something better, or worse, but because i showed the animal love, by way of touching him and talking to him. something that is not part of the training process here. every honduran will tell you that the only way to train an animal is with a stick, but i can tell you this, that so far, a hug goes a hell of a lot farther.

tuesday was the hardest day by far. at around 6 in the morning i arrived at carlos' house, and spent about an hour and a half walking again. this period will last for about a week, of pure walking around, a little running around in circles, just to get the horse used to obeying. at 7 30, the owner came with a brand, his brand, a big capital J (which i kind of like cuz it could be interpreted as Jew), and we branded the horse. this process was necessary for legal reasons due to registration procedures. regardess, the horse barely moved, and now he's marked and I've got the paperwork.

we then walked the horse to the blacksmith's where he was shoed. it was an incredible experience. if not for the orange soda i would have thought we were back in the middle ages. all the tools he uses are hand made, the oven is hand built, and he made the horseshoes right in front of me. and although one broke today due to a fracture, the rest were magnificent. the actual practice of shoeing the horse was something else. in fact, it was close to dangerous. i held the horse's lasso while two men (the blacksmith and his son) tried to put the horseshoes on. by the time the job was done, the horse was bleeding due to freaking out and hitting itself, and i had been kicked three times and bitten once. but at least he was shoed and ready to go.

three hours later, i walked the horse onto the truck that took it to my village. it quite an experience riding in the back with it, mostly because it stepped on me a couple of times, but we finally arrived around 5 to my home town, and soon the horse was in its little closed field, where it was munching happily on some grass and zacate ( a tall sedge grass thing, in english san augustin grass).

the bad news came this morning when i found that one of it's shoes had broken in half due to the fracture i mentioned earlier, and now i have to spend part of my day going back to the guys house and getting another shoe and then shoeing the horse again. regardless, at least he's home, safe, and ready for training. and although everyone here thinks im crazy to mess with a horse and its entrenamiento, carlos has complete faith in my abilities, so im not worried. so far the horse seems to like me, so i think we're off to a good start. in two weeks i should be riding it. maybe in three. i will go through the process of training in future blog entries, especially since i will be able to say what works and what doesn't. until then, wish me luck.