Gentleman had more than his share of bad habits but his most annoying was his ability to make a short pair of useless reins out of a long pair of split reins by pulling back and breaking his reins whenever and wherever he was tied. Snubbing my horse up to a post was like trying to tie a wild bobcat up with a piece of string... it just couldn’t be done.

I mentioned this to a good friend of mine, Willard Wolfe (sadly no longer with us), who happened to be a very good horseman. “I used to have the same problem with a horse I had as a child growing up in Anadarko, Okla.,” recalled Willard. “The horse was given to me by my grandfather and had some sentimental value so I couldn’t just send him to the glue factory without at least trying to make a decent horse out of him. But I tried every trick in the book to keep him from breaking reins. But nothing seemed to work. Then one day Hunting Horse, an Indian who worked on our ranch, saw that hammerhead of a horse pull back and break a brand-new set of reins.  A man of few words, Hunting Horse called Willard aside and said, “Little Wolfe, ‘Me can teach your horse not to do that.’”

Willard said, “At first I didn’t believe Hunting Horse. So, I asked my grandfather what he thought and he suggested that ‘we had nothing to lose.’ So. the very next day Hunting Horse instructed Little Wolfe, ‘Ride horse out to canyon and wait for me there.’”

Willard had no idea what Hunting Horse had in mind but in desperation he did as he was told. When Hunting Horse and Little Wolfe met in the canyon the Indian instructed Willard to, “Tie horse up to tree.”

Little Wolfe did as he was told.

“Now,” said Hunting Horse, “Little Wolfe spook horse.” Again Little Wolfe did as he was told. And sure enough the horse pulled back on his reins and broke them, but in the process he also stepped back over a cliff and fell 30 feet, head over heels. The horse fell so fast that his shadow was 30 minutes behind him and he landed in a shallow pool of water below.

“Now, Little Wolfe go get horse and tie him to the tree again,” instructed Hunting Horse. “Only this time better if you take your new saddle off horse.” Again, Little Wolfe did as he was told. When the quivering horse had been retrieved and tied once again to the tree, Hunting Horse said, “Now, Little Wolfe spook horse again.”  But this time when Little Wolfe spooked his horse, the now perfect horse just stood his ground, not pulling back on the reins at all. Willard admits that his horse was “lathered up like he was ready for a shave, but he did not pull back and break his reins.”

So following Willard’s advice I tried the same training techniques with Gentleman and reported back to Willard the next time I saw him.

“Did all go well?” asked a concerned Willard.

“Not exactly,” I replied. “I did just as you suggested and tied Gentleman up to a big tree which shaded a gully 20 feet below. Right on cue the minute I had tied Gentleman he reared backward. I didn’t even have to spook him. Sure enough he fell backward into the gully below. Very pleased with myself I brought a very reluctant Gentleman back up to the tree, spliced the reins back together and tied up my horse once again. Lo and behold when I spooked Gentleman this time he did not back up and break the reins.”

“So, it worked,” said Willard with a confident air about him.

“Not really,” I sadly reported. “Now in addition to breaking reins Gentleman has acquired another nasty habit.”

“What’s that?”

“Now he climbs trees.”