Article
Decades before 'natural horsemanship' and 'horse whispering' became big business, Ray Hunt was out there in an old pickup with a two-horse trailer, hoping to make enough gas money to get him to the next fairgrounds.
"I didn't see any commercial value in it", says Ray. "If I had, I probably wouldn't have done it".
The horse world didn't exactly welcome him.
"I was working with the mind", Ray exp...lains.
"A lot of people didn't want to believe the horse had a mind.
'Get a bigger bit'. 'Get a bigger stick'. That was their approach'".
Spectators watched as untouched colts were saddled and ridden for the first time with hardly a buck.
In a matter of a few days the young horses were ready to go on the payroll, meaning they had enough faith in their riders and had learned enough of the rudiments to be useful on a ranch.
In this atmosphere of trust and understanding, with no hobbles or snubbing posts, no external devices, except for the now widely imitated orange flag, it was hard to see what Ray was doing to get such extraordinary results.
Accused of using ringers, drugging horses, even hypnotizing them, Ray laughed it off and kept going.
"I was there for the horse. People were way down the list."
On a recent visit to the Hunt's North Texas ranch, Pat and Linda Parelli stop by and the conversation soon shifts to something else that seems to have been on Ray's mind most of the day.
Can you be in it for the money as well as for the horse?
Pat tries to convince Ray you can. Pat doesn't succeed.
With Ray Hunt the horse comes first and anything that threatens the horse's status will always be a moral dilemma for him.
- Excerpt from an article titled 'For The Horse'
"I didn't see any commercial value in it", says Ray. "If I had, I probably wouldn't have done it".
The horse world didn't exactly welcome him.
"I was working with the mind", Ray exp...lains.
"A lot of people didn't want to believe the horse had a mind.
'Get a bigger bit'. 'Get a bigger stick'. That was their approach'".
Spectators watched as untouched colts were saddled and ridden for the first time with hardly a buck.
In a matter of a few days the young horses were ready to go on the payroll, meaning they had enough faith in their riders and had learned enough of the rudiments to be useful on a ranch.
In this atmosphere of trust and understanding, with no hobbles or snubbing posts, no external devices, except for the now widely imitated orange flag, it was hard to see what Ray was doing to get such extraordinary results.
Accused of using ringers, drugging horses, even hypnotizing them, Ray laughed it off and kept going.
"I was there for the horse. People were way down the list."
On a recent visit to the Hunt's North Texas ranch, Pat and Linda Parelli stop by and the conversation soon shifts to something else that seems to have been on Ray's mind most of the day.
Can you be in it for the money as well as for the horse?
Pat tries to convince Ray you can. Pat doesn't succeed.
With Ray Hunt the horse comes first and anything that threatens the horse's status will always be a moral dilemma for him.
- Excerpt from an article titled 'For The Horse'
"Practice doesn't make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect. We need to be more disciplined within ourselves so that we can present our objective to the... horse in a way that he can understand. ALLOW them to learn; ALLOW them to work at things; ALLOW them to figure things out. CAUSE [don't MAKE] the wrong thing to be difficult and the right thing to be easy." - Ray Hunt
"We expect immediate learning from a horse. We expect him to go from Kindergarten to the eighth grade - to high school - to college without enough time, preparation, or consideration for his thought and feelings. We often don't even get him into a learning frame of mind before we begin to train him. We don't even have him relaxed and confident, where he can sit down in class and listen. We skip all that preparation because we are so superior or neglectful or lazy. Because we haven't prepared ourselves to recognize our horse's feelings" - Ray Hunt
“It’s not so much what we do, it’s how we do what we do. And all you are trying to do is get this horse to where you can operate the life in his body, through h...is legs to his feet, through his mind. The mind might come last because he don’t understand. But you have to give him space to learn. So it’s got to come from US to the horse. And what is your responsibility? It’s no different than raising a child. So this horse is running over you, walking on you, doing things you don’t want. Why would you let him do that? Who is the instructor? Who is the teacher? Who is taking care of this outfit?" - Ray Hunt