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The Whisperer's Horse




Robert Vavra's print masterpiece


THE HORSE WHISPERER


Nicholas Evans' novel The Horse Whisperer

Now a major motion picture by Robert Redford.




This is now one of my all time favorite movies. You must see it. It is now in the rental stores. It is graphically beautiful, absolutely believeable and flawless. I sat through the long move absolutely spell bound. If you do not like this movie there is something wrong with you.


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Here is a link to just one of many great internet sites about this movie. Below are just two of the many articles you will fine on this site link.

THE HORSE WHISPERER



A review by Richard Foxx

The horse whirls and dances, silhouetted against a blue-black sky, delighting in the showers of crystalline snow that peel away from its hooves like puffs of magic. The scene, like most of THE HORSE WHISPERER, takes your breath until you remind yourself that it's only a movie.

Ah, but what a movie.

With his latest offering, Robert Redford has given us another classic, a film to stand beside A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT, and DOWNHILL RACER, and ELECTRIC HORSEMAN. With apologies to no one, true to his dream, he has created a little gem.

Based on the best-selling novel by British author Nicholas Evans, THE HORSE WHISPERER is, on the surface, the story of a horse, and a girl, and her mom, and a cowboy who tries to make it all work out. Out riding on her horse, Pilgrim, on an achingly perfect Connecticut winter morning, 14 year old Grace MacLean is involved in an accident that costs her right leg and mangles the horse in a scene so riveting that you can't possibly believe the disclaimer by the American Humane Association. Grace, convincingly portrayed by Scarlett Johansson, becomes a shell; Pilgrim has turned into a renegade.

Grace's mother, Annie MacLean (Academy award winner Kristin Scott Thomas), is a high-powered publishing exec who spends most of her time in New York while her husband, Robert (Sam Neill), keeps the home fires burning in Connecticut. Annie comes to believe that the rehabilitation of her daughter is tied to the rehabilitation of Pilgrim and, with characteristic cold efficiency, she begins to search for a trainer.


Pre Fall


It is then that she comes upon the legend of the horse whisperers, trainers whose voices could calm wild horses, and whose touch could heal broken spirits. Her search takes her to Tom Booker (Robert Redford), a cowboy who lives in the Rockies, the inheritor of the ancient gift. Annie offers to fly him to New York, first class, of course, and when he refuses, she packs up a sedated Pilgrim and a surly Grace, and drives both to Montana while her husband remains back east.

Redford, acting, directing, and producing, unfolds the story deliberately, crafting each scene as much for what is not said as for what is expressed. Annie, with her Range Rover and her fax machine and her cellular phone trying to run her magazine from a room at the Lazy J motel, hardly notices, at first, the beauty of the western landscape, the mountains, the wildlife. In scenes that rival the best of OUT OF AFRICA, Redford lovingly displays, without comment, some of the prettiest country God ever created. He involves us in the ranch life of the Double Divide, in the lives of Tom's brother Frank (Chris Cooper) and his sister-in-law Diane (Dianne Wiest) so subtly that when they invite Annie and Grace to move out the ranch it is a natural progression.

Kristin Scott Thomas reveals the depth of her acting ability in every scene, her face able, at times, to express an entire pallet of emotion. Scarlett Johansson, who plays her daughter, can be bitchy and charming all at the same time, but the pain she is able to convey is almost palpable. Sam Neill is, as always, inspired.

Redford is the quintessential cowboy, the extension of the ski racer, of the outlaw. Like with RIVER, you feel he is the chronicler, perhaps the protector of a way of life, of values that sometimes seem to have become only words on a page. He obviously works by his own schedule, striving to please himself first.

Redford's passion seems to be the horses. He obviously respects them. His work with Pilgrim is treated carefully, slowly, so that you find yourself slowing the pace of your everyday, speeded-up expectations and begin to appreciate the small details, the small triumphs, one step forward, one step back, that horsetraining involves. In one of movies most magical scenes, Pilgrim pulls his halter out of Redford's grasp, dumps him in a creek, and runs into a field. Hatless, soaking wet, Redford follows, and then hunkers down and watches the horse. The flies buzz, the sun sinks, but man and horse look at each other from a distance. At long last Pilgrim drops his head and begins to graze. It is another long time before the horse makes his way slowly to the man.


Pilgrim


Redford's equestrian advisors, Buck Brannaman, Curt Pate, and William Reynolds, did their work well. But it is obvious that their advice fell on fertile ground.

Not surprisingly, Annie and Tom fall in love. And here, too, Redford treats the issue with the same carefully crafted skills, knowing there will be no easy choices. So smoothly does he work, that when Annie's husband shows up at the ranch unexpectedly, you churn inside along with them. Sam Neill is a decent man, a committed father and a devoted husband, and it makes for one of the most mature love stories I have ever seen.

We sat over a glass of wine after the screening, JoAnn and I, quite literally bathed in the glow of seeing what a master had created, wondering if "they", the non-horse people, would get it. It's a long movie at two hours and forty-five minutes, and there are no car chases or explosions or nude scenes. "It's passion." she said, and I nodded. "He didn't have to make that movie, but he did."

I'm glad he did. The passion shows. People will get it. I hope you see it.


Minister and Pilgrim




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Behind The Whispers

The Horse Whisperer Advocates Gentle Training
by Diana Deterding

Reprinted with permission from International Arabian Horse, the official publication of The International Arabian Horse Association.

Robert Redford's new movie, The Horse Whisperer, isn't just another horse story. It's a slice of real life that some very dedicated trainers live everyday.

When Robert Redford bought the movie rights to The Horse Whisperer for $3 million from first time novelist, Nicholas Evans, he wasn't trying to change the world. In fact, he's not sure a movie can have a lasting affect on people. But whether he means to or not, Redford may do more for the treatment of horses in 2 1/2 hours than all the gentle training advocates have been able to do in the past twenty years.

The Horse Whisperer is not just a movie with horses—it is a movie about horses and how they can affect our lives. Set in the modern West it tells the tale of an injured teenager named Grace, her traumatized horse, Pilgrim and Tom Booker, a trainer whose quiet voice can reach into the heart of a horse and bring it peace. It is moving and powerful. A natural for Redford who for the first time is producing, directing and staring in a movie.

But it's not just the fact that Evans has spun a fine tale and that Redford is telling it on the screen that is causing such a stir in the horse world. What gives the movie such power is the fact that what you see is possible. Tom Booker may only be a fictional character, but his methods, his spirit and his philosophy are very real. Through The Horse Whisperer Redford has a chance to expose millions of people to a training philosophy that replaces the bronco-busting approach that has been a part of our culture for over two hundred years with a kinder, gentler way to work with horses. But, he won't be doing it alone.

Redford's Resident "Horse Whisperer"

One of the reasons The Horse Whisperer has the potential to become an important (rather than just entertaining) horse picture is Redford's commitment to making the horse work authentic. To accomplish this, he has brought in a number of horse people to work on the film. At the head of the list is Buck Brannaman, horseman, trainer and technical advisor.

Whether Buck likes it or not (and he says emphatically that he doesn't) when this picture is released, he will be thought of as a horse whisperer. It is his philosophy, learned from gentle training legends Tom Dorrance and Ray Hunt that guides the film and serves as a role model for Redford's character, Tom Booker. Booker's clothing, his style of riding and his way of working with horses are all based on Buck. Brannaman even doubles for Redford in riding scenes when the director is needed behind the camera.

For several months whenever Redford was with a horse, Buck was nearby, making sure the actor's legs, arms, posture, and attitude were ringing true. He also worked with the equine movie stars, along with friend and fellow trainer Curt Pate. When asked why they took the movie job, they are sincere when they say, "This movie may be our best chance to send people a message about communicating with horses in a language they understand." It's an impressive goal, but one that Brannaman thinks is realistic. After all, it was his demonstration of "listening" to horses that helped land him his job on the film.

In 1996, Brannaman met with Redford and gave him a private demonstration of what he does with horses. Brannaman showed Redford how to get a horse to lie down—something Redford wanted to do in the film—and how to listen to what a horse has to say through his body language. If a horse tucks his tail tightly between his legs, Buck points out, he's telling you he's tense. If his head is high, he's bothered about something. If it's low, he's not paying attention. "If a horse licks his lips," Buck continues, "it's kind of a concession and he'll probably be willing to at least try to do what you ask." The key to successfully working with horses is to listen to their side of the story. "They're always talking to us, we just don't listen very well."

Learning to understand horses has been a lifelong journey. When Buck was 11 his mother died. And while no one could have predicted it at the time, it was this tragic event that not only altered Buck's life, but set him on a course that led him to horses. His father, "kind of fell apart" Brannaman says, forcing the authorities to place him and his brother in a foster home in Norris, Montana. His foster family was poor, so Buck learned to shoe horses, break horses (the old fashioned way) and trick rope to earn money for clothes and food. Whenever he wasn't in school he seemed to be with horses. Eventually his trick roping landed him a series of commercials for everything from Visa to Busch beer. By the time he was 17 he had developed a trick roping act and taken it on the road. But throughout his young life, Buck was searching for that elusive "something" that gives life purpose. He found it in 1979 at a Ray Hunt clinic.

Bozeman, Montana isn't a bad setting for a life changing event. Surrounded by beautiful mountains and rolling range, it was one of many western towns where Ray Hunt took his message about reading the signs in a horse's body and riding with a rhythm that Hunt calls "dancing" with your horse. Buck was drawn to the clinic by Hunt's growing reputation for being one of the most progressive horse trainers in the country. The young horseman and the veteran trainer immediately connected. Hunt sensed a gift in Buck for understanding horses. So he and his wife Carolyn took Buck under their wing and began to teach him about being with and working with horses. After traveling with the Hunts to dozens of clinics he had found his spiritual home and a new career giving clinics of his own. He was 22 years old.

Today at 36, Buck travels 15,000 miles a year doing more than 40 clinics across the country helping people and their horses start off right. He still goes to Ray Hunt clinics (Hunt, now 67 still does almost as many clinics a year as Buck) saying he'll never know enough to stop learning. That statement is probably the key to understanding Buck. He is a student first—and to him the greatest teachers are horses.


Whisperer's Corral




The "Horse Whisperer" Philosophy

The philosophy behind the work that today's modern "horse whisperers" do is not all that new. Passed from teacher to student, Hunt met his own mentor, the legendary Tom Dorrance in 1959. Hunt needed some help with an ornery horse and as the two men talked they learned that, ornery or not, both had an aversion to forcing horses to submit. "Some of the methods of working with horses involved force and gimmicks to get a horse to submit," Brannaman says. "Pulleys, chains, levers and tying their heads down. That was considered advanced training." Instead of resorting to "traditional" methods the two horsemen wanted to find a way to understand horses and "talk" them into working with humans instead of forcing them to. That formed the basis of a philosophy that is still being used today by many advocates of gentle training.

The concept is simple. In his book True Unity, Dorrance tells us, "The horse has a basic need for self-preservation." When people try to dominate a horse, generally out of fear, they try to protect themselves. He goes on to say, "Sometimes people think punishment is the way to discipline the horse. The horse can only watch and resent that. But if it is presented as if he did it to himself, he will respect you." And that's the key to communicating with horses. "You always have to honor the horse" says Brannaman.

That Buck honors the horse is evident in everything he does. In his book Groundwork which he wrote to help those who attend his clinics use what they learn at home, he constantly talks about "starting" horses (he never uses the word breaking) in a way that is as easy as possible on the horse. Everything from the type of rope used (60' xxx soft nylon with a metal hondo so it won't burn them.") to the best way to first approach him. He writes, "when you approach the colt head on, you need to rely on your ability to center him by rolling his hindquarters in line with you. When he is straight, and only then, try to pet him between the eyes, being careful not to scratch him. Rub him slowly. If he backs away, wait...till he stops then start again. You can slowly walk toward him when he backs away, but don't reach for him at the same time or he will think he's supposed to leave. When he has finally stopped you may then reach and try to pet him again." The book is full of ways to respect the horse and keep yourself out of trouble. Buck never forgets that a horse can do some serious damage if it decides to run you over. For this reason, he really believes that people should seek instruction for starting and riding horses . . . "to help you and your horse become more comfortable in the world that you want to share."

Spreading the Word

Like Tom Dorrance and Ray Hunt before him, Buck has passed his knowledge along to other trainers. One has become a friend who also worked with him on The Horse Whisperer. Curt Pate met Buck at a clinic just as Buck had met his mentor. Growing up in Helena, Montana, Curt was skeptical of the Ray Hunt method. Starting colts with nothing more than a rope was unthinkable to a Big Sky cowboy. But one summer, working on a ranch 16 miles from the nearest telephone, he heard of a clinic that Buck Brannaman was giving. With little to do in his off time, Curt and his wife Tammy went to see what all the fuss was about. What he saw there changed the way he looked at horses, related to horses and even he says, the way he relates to people. "Once you start to understand what partnership really means, it's hard to look at things the same way," he says.

At the clinic Curt and Buck talked and he was hooked. He borrowed Buck's videos from a friend (he couldn't afford to buy them at the time) and studied them for the next year. Working colt after colt he refined his horsemanship and then went to another of Buck's clinics. Buck had become his hero and after spending time with him that summer, his hero became his friend. That friendship has encouraged Curt to take up the torch of horsemanship based on communication, giving 15 or so clinics a year—some as far away as Sweden. His part as a technical consultant on The Horse Whisperer has brought him additional recognition but what really has him excited are the opportunities that are coming his way to help people better understand the horse and their place in our lives.

"People sometimes have a hard time accepting this style of horsemanship," Curt says. "I know I did at first. It's hard to think that you've been doing things wrong all along. But that's not the point. Buck always says, and I agree, that there are many ways of going about working with horses. There's not a right or wrong way. If it's based on respect and communication then it's good for the horse and that's all that matters."

He goes on to say, "All I ask people to do is take an honest look at this approach. It's not going to be a fast track to more ribbons or buckles, but it's better for the horse. Eventually, if you're working together and you respect each other, the other gets done." Curt feels that Redford's movie will give people "permission" to at least investigate a new way of working with their horses. "The story is very powerful," he says. "You can't help but go home a little curious about what you've just seen."

Curt points out a passage from Buck's Groundwork book. "Some of you have been working at this for a long time, and you realize what a commitment it is to become handy with a horse. It seems to be a work in progress all of our lives. If we can leave them a little better off than they were before we came, we've fulfilled our duty to them and to their maker."

And that basically sums up Buck, Curt and all those before them. People who try to leave us and our horses a little better off than we were before. If Redford has done his job well, maybe we'll be able to say the same thing about him.


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Diana Deterding is a freelance writer and member of The Horse Industry Alliance, a group of horse-related businesses, associations, publications and individuals who are dedicated to enhancing lives through horses. A team of HIA members were invited to the Montana set of The Horse Whisperer and have been following the progress of the film for more than a year. For more information about The Horse Industry Alliance, contact Patti Colbert, Executive Director at plcolbert@aol.com or write HIA, PO Box 56, Bertram, Texas 78605




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