Fall is in the air, the leaves are turning and the landscape is full of vibrant bright colors. Soon the leaf papers will be descending upon us. God bless them; they drive miles and miles to watch leaves turn color.
Other signs of Fall are, of course the opening of Keeneland race track down in Lexington, Kentucky and our own beautiful Belmont Park.
I had the honor and pleasure of spending my Thursday morning with one of the Giants of our industry Mr. Bob Duncan. I refer to him as our own horse whisperer, one of the original horse whisperers. Over the years I brought groups of people to watch him demonstrate his skills and talent communicating with horses. We would stand at the rail at the Oklahoma training track, and he would demonstrate how he could gain the confidence and attention of horses being loaded into the gate, teaching them to load without aggression or force. By the looks on some of the women in the group, you would think they were listening to Robert Redford. They lived and breathed in every word that came out of his mouth. I'm not sure they learned anything, but they sure enjoyed it.
Yesterday we were at the gate again, on the Oklahoma track—Bob's happy place—bright and early filming a short documentary on how over the years he has learned to coach, teach, and persuade horses to trust him, follow him and learn from him through a very gentle and patient way of communicating with them. It was a beautiful fall morning, full of color and a ton of horse activity right behind us. Our own trainer Mr. Bill Mott was nice enough to bring some of his monster horses to the gate so we had plenty of horse action.
You may have heard of Monty Roberts and the Parelli method of training horses, and these were two of Bob's mentors. Monty Roberts was summoned by Queen Elizabeth to come to England and demonstrate his horse training and horse whispering skills for her. Bob spent years learning the skills taught by these now, famous horse whisperers and then tailoring those skills to his own persona.
Many of the attributes and habits that horses have can be traced back to their ancestors and cousins who grew up in the wild. He constantly refers to how they act and live in their natural habitat, which instinctually is their comfort zone. If you are familiar with the horse in its natural surroundings, it helps you understand their habits, triggers, and alerts. Understanding these characteristics and being sensitive to them helps you gain their trust. And when they trust you, these big giant powerful beautiful hairy animals will do exactly what you tell them to do. They will trust you to the bitter end; they will ride into battle for you. They will scale mountains for you. They will cross rivers with you on their back. It's just a matter of forming that bond.
This is what Mr. Duncan has done for the past 60 years. He worked with such greats as Seattle Slew, Quality Road (a very bad actor) and many many others.
After years of hard work, Bob was recognized with an Eclipse award (our sport's highest honor) for his momentous efforts in training horses with a gentle caring touch.
The mini documentary we filmed will be shown at the NYTB educational seminar this Sunday at 5:30 PM at the Fasig-Tipton auction Arena on East Ave. in Saratoga Springs. There will be a question and answer session after the film is shown. You will be able to meet Mr. Duncan in person. Everyone is invited, you won't be disappointed.
Bob says, “with horses you learn something new every day and everything he’s learned can be applied to teaching any horses anywhere for anything.“