I am grateful that yesterday was one of the best days of my entire life. Those don’t come around all the time, but when they do, you have to savor them.

I recently met some new people, and one of them is a large, loud, rather imposing man with a heart of gold and a deep love of animals. He was in town for only a few days, and fascinated to learn more about the ResqRanch and what we do.

He only had a few hours before he had to head out of town, but he really wanted to come and see the horses. I rearranged my conference call schedule to accommodate for him to visit. I didn’t know him very well, or what to expect, but I liked him quite a lot at the party and was eager to share the horses with him.

He was honestly quite cautious of the animals, which I really liked. He explained to me that he loved animals, and had had many over the years, dogs, cats, fish tanks, reptiles, but that he had a very bad experience around horses and he was very wary of them. His wife and daughters loved horses and always begged him about it, but he had always put his foot down pretty sternly because he had such a traumatic experience and he was afraid for his family. He thought horses must be just too dangerous and unpredictable, but he was still fascinated by them at the same time.

So we talked it through and realized that yes indeed he had been at some ranch where, although his gut feeling told him to be cautious of the horses, the people running the operation just slapped him on the shoulder and said “Don’t worry about it!” These animals are perfectly broke and never act up or run off!”. So, like any normal person, he buried his concerns, and tried to interact with the horses the way he was told to by the ‘experts’ in charge of the horses, although he didn’t like how it felt.

Guess what? The crippled horse who can’t even run, ran off with him, and he got quite hurt, and a lifelong fear of horses despite being an avid animal lover. So I explained to him that sadly, this is the reality for about 80% or more of people in the horse world. They are confident they know what they are doing (is this you?), because this is what they were taught, and because it’s what everyone does. But that level of force that is used in the horse industry, and taught to young children and normalizing the violence, is exactly what got him hurt, and thousands of children and adults, each year. This is not a joke. The horse industry is about 100 years behind in how it trains and handles horses, period. Every marine mammal trainer in the world knows this, and just shakes their head sadly.

So here we have a man, who was using positive reinforcement techniques, with all of his pets, for years, without even realizing it, who, wanted to interact with horses the same way, but was told ‘no, you have to tell them what to do”, so he did, and he got hurt, and a dream, crushed.

​So yesterday, when he came, and we talked all of this through, and he got to interact with Sugar, through the corral fence, while I gave him just a couple of pointers on how to interpret her body language, he was in no time speaking with her, petting her, training her for me (yes, thanks I turned a good listener into a horse trainer in under 10 minutes, facts) while I mucked stalls, and it was such a magical experience, we both had tears in our eyes. He thanked me again and again for the privilege, and the experience, and the renewed confidence in himself, and what he knew all along but didn’t have any to confirm it for him. He almost choked up when he said, I am almost 50 years old and never fed a horse a treat before, today, thank you. He said he can’t wait to come back with his wife. And later that night, he texted me again, how grateful he was, that it had been so good for his mental health to have this experience.

Check out my YouTube channel for a daily "Good Morning!" from the rescues and lots of free tips and training resources. https://www.youtube.com/@the1drq