I was like a man in a dream, barely noticing the horse that was galloping around the pen, with white showing around his eyes, snorting, mane flying. I had released the beast into the training pen, then as the gelding flew away from my side I began to think about what to do first. The overall plan was to convert this wild equine into a tame riding horse. Now it seemed like a disaster in the making. At that point I remembered the words of a friend who had worked with me. “I want you to write a book titled 101 steps to the perfect horse.” I guess my mind flipped out at that point. I realized that I was going to have to change the title to a thousand and one steps.
As the colt ran, stopped, reversed, ran and stopped, reversed and ran some more, I slowly came back to earth. A few more turns and he was trotting. His eyes were not showing cotton eyed Joe anymore. Finally he began to walk, and occasionally to look at me, he even stopped and turned toward me. After a while he would let me touch him, then I would back away. I rubbed his withers. At last I put the halter on him and led him back to his stall. Yeah, any single step in training a horse can be pretty simple… It’s just that there are a thousand steps! And… you’ve got to take them one at a time.