Horse trainer finds a better way to break horses

There's nothing like breaking a few dozen bones and losing half your teeth to convince you that there's got to be a better way.

That was the conclusion of longtime horse trainer and former Montrose resident Blaine Prieur after years of training horses "the old way."

"The old way was that you got on a horse that had never been ridden and you got bucked off," Prieur said. "You kept getting on and getting bucked off until the job was done."

The old way breaks both horses and bones.

"I've fractured every rib and had six surgeries," Prieur said. "I've broken all my fingers, my ankle, leg and I've forgotten what else. Only half my teeth are real."

None of it made Prieur love horses any less.

"Horses don't mean to hurt you," he said. "They're reacting out of fear. Horses just do what we teach them to do."

Two years ago, Prieur, 42, moved to Colorado, where he was hired to train horses that had been raised on large cattle ranches and, other than branding and vaccinating, had been untouched by humans.

Training each horse took weeks of time, and left Prieur sore, tired and frustrated. Broken fences and halters were proof that the horses weren't enjoying the process, either.

He sought help from Hal Winterton, a Montana gentleman with a reputation for a fast and painless method of horse training.

Prieur was amazed to watch Winterton transform a horse from wild to saddlebroken in hours instead of weeks. Winterton agreed to take him on as a student.

Prieur was an eager pup and now demonstrates the technique at horse clinics.

He recently visited the Double Nickel Ranch in Millington where Roberta Hollingshead, of Columbiaville, watched him work his magic, with her horses, Bar Story and Clock.

Neither horse had even seen a saddle, and were "like kids who'd had no discipline--in other words, spoiled brats," Hollingshead said.

That's the way Prieur likes it.

"I prefer a horse that hasn't been touched. In fact, I kind of hope that the horses I demonstrate with are crazy, so people can see what's possible."

At the clinic, Prieur first joined Bar Story, Hollingshead's 3-year-old Palomino Quarter Horse, in a round pen, where the mare trotted in nervous circles.

Standing in the center of the pen, Prieur waved a "flag" --actually a shredded, plastic bag attached to a long, flexible stick--in front of and behind the mare.

As he worked, Prieur explained that although the flag doesn't touch the horse, its noise and motion are unpleasant enough to make the animal want to move away, which is the essence of the pressure-and-release concept.

Once the horse tires of trotting back and forth away from the flag, it begins to slow and drop its head, the first stage of submission, Prieur explained.

Whenever the horse turns toward the trainer, it is rewarded with the removal of the flag and lots of soothing words and touch.

After Bar Story reacted properly to the flag, Prieur and his brother, Andre, carefully attached a length of strong cotton rope to one of the mare's hind legs. Needless to say, she wasn't happy about it, and some spirited bucking ensued.

Prieur strongly cautions horse owners not to work with ropes at home. In the hands of anyone not thoroughly trained in the technique, the rope can burn or break a horse's leg.

Prieur and his brother are careful not to pull the rope, but to exert only enough pressure to encourage the horse to move with rather than against the line.

The removal of pressure is the reward the horse receives for taking a step in the right direction.

It's harder than it sounds and requires constant maneuvering by the trainer and assistant to avoid the rope being pulled too hard or in the wrong direction.

When done correctly, the process is not painful to the horse but is annoying enough that almost all horses, once they accidentally take a correct step and feel the rope go slack, decide that compliance is easier than fighting.

After an hour or two of patiently applying ropes to just about every part of the horse's body, trainer and horse are ready for a calm first ride.

Hollingshead was amazed at seeing her two horses peacefully ridden at the end of the day.

"He's great," she said of Prieur. "I'm very impressed."

Prieur hopes more trainers will learn the pressure-and-release technique, which he said "is similar to the way Native Americans used to break wild horses.

"It puts less stress on the horses and the riders," he added, "but it takes awhile for something new to catch on. I trained for 23 years before I tried it.

"If I'd learned it sooner, I could've avoided a lot of sore horses and broken bones."