Buck Brannaman Quotes

Discipline isn't a dirty word. Far from it. Discipline is the one thing that separates us from chaos and anarchy. Discipline implies timing. It's the precursor to good behavior, and it never comes from bad behavior. People who associate discipline with punishment are wrong: with discipline, punishment is unnecessary. ~ Buck Brannaman

The horse is a great equalizer, he doesn't care how good looking you are, or how rich you are or how powerful you are
he takes you for how you make him feel. ~ Buck Brannaman

With the horses, you can't let them call the shot part of the time and then you call the shot part of the time. They're not really designed to be your leader, but they can be a great partner, but you need to lead, and they need to respect you and respond with respect. Don't think of respect as a dirty word. You need to respect them as well. ~ Buck Brannaman

In life, we don't know why things happen. I believe God is not responsible for the bad things that happen to you. Sometimes I think He's responsible for the good things, but sometimes it's something you shape up for yourself. ~ Buck Brannaman

If I heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times from Ray Hunt. He said 'make the wrong thing difficult and the right thing easy'. Then he said 'but don't make the wrong thing impossible'. Well ... you learn from making mistakes. It's that simple. ~ Buck Brannaman

You can accomplish amazing things with this if you have a passion and you work hard - I just think it's a cop out to say 'I wasn't born with this, so it's OK if I fail'. You can make up the difference with hard work and devotion. ~ Buck Brannaman

I'm still on the move, I'm getting better because I'm still studying. I still want to be a better horseman. ~ Buck Brannaman

I've often told people who ask if there is a God: Get around enough people with horses and see what happens. See how they survive in spite of all the things they do, and you'll become a believer! ~ Buck Brannaman

Horses aren't lazy and they're not greedy and they're not jealous and they're not spiteful, they're not hateful. They're not that way. But the human can sometimes only describe a horse in the way that they view other human beings. ~ Buck Brannaman

You get that horse to really operate as if he's your legs and you can take that anywhere you want. You can dress up in any kind of clothes you like. You can be a jumper, dressage rider, trail rider, cowboy, anything. ~ Buck Brannaman

One of the biggest challenges of a horsemen is to be able tot control your emotions. ~ Buck Brannaman

In nature this animal would have nothing to do with you. "Natural horsemanship" is just words. It's not natural at all. There's an abundance of trust that must be developed for you. Imagine if humans were that pliable. ~ Buck Brannaman

I just spend my life driving down the road, training horses and helping people. ~ Buck Brannaman

There's a difference between mastering something physical and working with an animal. There's a spiritual component to working with a horse. You're dealing with the spirit of a live animal that thinks and makes decisions. ~ Buck Brannaman

Simply put; I'm trying to see what I can get done with the horse without him being troubled about doing it. ~ Buck Brannaman

Anytime you are with a horse, no matter if you are a daily rider or one who just gets a chance to ride to the mailbox, you are interacting with your horse. It is all about the quality of the communication, not the quantity. Doing something right once in a while will far surpass anything done wrong more often. ~ Buck Brannaman

I'm not trying to turn you into cowboys, I'm just trying to get you better coordinated, get your horse used to things, get your horse comfortable.
Heck, on the first ride you should be swinging a rope off a horse. You should be doing this not so you can rope a cow, but just to get him (your horse) gentle.
You can't think of everything in life your horse might encounter that might make him afraid so you'd better prepare em for it in other ways. ~ Buck Brannaman

Solutions to problems often come from knowing when to ask for help. ~ Buck Brannaman

My teachers used to tell me you need to learn to adjust to fit the situation. Don't just do what you've always done because it might not always work. ~ Buck Brannaman

Don't get on a horse that's moving. ~ Buck Brannaman

With the horse I always consider that if I do too much in too little time and I'm not patient, he's gonna shut down and I won't get anything done. ~ Buck Brannaman

You have to plan ahead so that rather then seek revenge for the horse's misbehavior, you see his aggressive behavior shaping up and can redirect it. You change his mind before he's acted and move on to something else. ~ Buck Brannaman

Horses and life, it's all the same to me. ~ Buck Brannaman

The horse is so honest ... they live in the moment. And what they do, whether they need to protect themselves or whether they need to accept you really is directly relative to how you make them feel. ~ Buck Brannaman

On a horse there is a perfect position of balance where he doesn't feel like he's pushing you along with him or dragging you along with him. It's like two converging currents in a river, where those currents converge, there is a point where there is no movement, no energy; and that's what you're thinking when you're on the back of a horse ... ~ Buck Brannaman

Kind of where you end up your ride on a horse is so important. It's a little bit like when you guys were younger & you were dating, that last two minutes of the date can be a real deal breaker. With these horses it's the same thing you know? You got to quit on a good note. ~ Buck Brannaman

I don't believe in waiting for a horse to do the wrong thing and then punishing him after the fact. You can't just say no to a horse. You have to redirect a negative behavior with a positive one, something that works for both of you. It's as though you're saying - instead of doing that, we can do this together. ~ Buck Brannaman

They say nerves heal real slowly. Lots of things about us heal real slowly. ~ Buck Brannaman

It's amazing what a healing effect horses can have on kids, particularly troubled kids, that might bridge the gap that a well-intended human just can't do. ~ Buck Brannaman

Not all horses are going to be show jumpers, not all horses are going to be dressage horses. So you have to sort of find where the horse physically fits into what might suit him, but all horses can be comfortable and all horses can have good, solid fundamentals. ~ Buck Brannaman

There are no problem horses, only problem riders. ~ Buck Brannaman

The horse saved my life, so that's kind of why I'll spend the rest of mine trying to help them. ~ Buck Brannaman

Once I get the horse where he's responding and working for ya and has a good frame of mind and a good attitude, it's not just the horse that needs fixing. It's the human that needs fixing and it's the human that created that in the first place. ~ Buck Brannaman

When riding, ask yourself what will my horse get out of it if I get what I want? Many times, human nature is to take and to not give anything back. ~ Buck Brannaman

That's my credo - My work is play. I don't complain about work. I enjoy it. I like the feeling of being able to lay down at night and you're so doggone tired, you're just hoping to get undressed before you fall asleep. ~ Buck Brannaman

Some guys make their careers off one horse; kind of a trick horse, a wonder horse. I'm not knocking that, but for me I'm trying to get better and study. That means taking out new horses. It's a life study. When I've finished a horse, I turn him out and basically stop riding him, except taking him to the occasional branding so I can enjoy him. ~ Buck Brannaman

When you're younger, you ride with 90% physical and 10% mental. But if you could learn how to use 90% mental and 10% physical you'd be better off. ~ Buck Brannaman

I realized that there are some things about all of us, no matter where we're from, that connects us as humans. We're looking for the same sorts of contentment in our lives and while some people are searching a little harder than others, we're not all that different. ~ Buck Brannaman

Most people don't realize how little it takes to get a horse to move. ~ Buck Brannaman

Someone who doesn't know anything about the ways of the horse could be fooled into thinking the approach is all cosmic or mystical. It's not. Anybody can do it who has a passion to do it and has put in enough time. These people are horsemen and horsewomen, not whisperers. ~ Buck Brannaman

When you first get started, you're the only one with a vision. When you become creative and use your imagination, pretty soon the things you imagined, you can get done. If you got a taste of it, if you got a taste of what I'm talking about, you'd rather do that than eat. You couldn't get enough of it. You'll hunger for it the rest of your life. ~ Buck Brannaman

The horse seems to wanna please the human and so many times if the human isn't much of a leader well then the horse has gotta do it's own thinking. The horse isn't really designed very well to be the leader but just because the horse is responding to ya, I don't really think of it as it succumbing to you. I think it's more of the horse sort of joining you, being more of a partner. ~ Buck Brannaman

I take the horsemanship very seriously and I treat it with the same integrity that one would any of the fine arts. ~ Buck Brannaman

I've always wanted to do the right thing by a horse, that's never changed, its just that as my knowledge grew I've been able to offer the horse a better human being, as time has gone on. ~ Buck Brannaman

Once you have seen quality horsemanship and are exposed to the things you can do to help a horse be gentle and dependable, then why wouldn't you do those things? No matter what your horse's age, you are going to try to offer him the best that you can. If you adjust what you are doing, he will adjust too; horses have an amazing capacity to make changes. There is always hope. ~ Buck Brannaman

That's the cool thing about horses - they don't have prejudice. They don't care if you're tall or thin or if you're dark or if you're light, or if you're rich or you're poor, if you're handsome or not so handsome. ~ Buck Brannaman

My horse needs to be quiet enough not to draw my attention. You want your horse always aware of you. Be aware of your horse! Fidgeting? Direct that! Think of it as a gift. Do something with that energy; redirect it or it will be a negative. Don't let your horse check-out. A horse wants peace. Trade movement for peace. ~ Buck Brannaman

Nobody has to lose for me to succeed and that is a unique job. Everybody wins, horse wins, people win, I win. ~ Buck Brannaman

You can't make something happen with a horse, but you can fix things up and let it happen. ~ Buck Brannaman

There's an ancient bond that still exists today between horses and humans, it is even there with people that have never ridden a horse or been around horses. The horse is what settled the entire west. If it weren't for the horse they'd probably be only a couple hundred miles from where they started. A lot of people don't realize how much they owe the horse because it's not so much a part of our culture right now as it used to be. ~ Buck Brannaman

There are things that the horse did for me that a human couldn't have done. ~ Buck Brannaman

With a horse, if you make it easy for him to do the right thing, that's what he will logically do, but it's not necessarily true with the human. You will see humans that will beat their heads against the wall rather than open the door and walk through it. ~ Buck Brannaman

I started to realize that things would come much easier for me once I learned why a horse does what he does. This method works well for me because of the kinship that develops between horse and rider. ~ Buck Brannaman

You don't have contempt for a horse that's troubled. Everybody has baggage, everybody has things that they've had to deal with in their life, and it can be something positive depending on how you use it. ~ Buck Brannaman

Horses are incredibly forgiving. They fill in places we're not capable of filling ourselves. ~ Buck Brannaman

Gentle in what you do, Firm in how you do it ~ Buck Brannaman

And for a lot of people, they want it all to be fuzzy and warm and cosmic, but it's no different with a horse than with a kid ... You can't always be the kid's best friend. First you have to be the parent. ~ Buck Brannaman

The horse is a gift to us, to humanity. And for that, there comes responsibility. If the horse is gonna work for you and work with you, then the best thing I can do for the horse is to make it as good a life possible. ~ Buck Brannaman

Everything you do with a horse is a dance, ~ Buck Brannaman

My daughter's all grown up now compared to what she was, but I used to say, I've got to have my horse to where if she's leading my horse somewhere, and she's got a big armload of Barbies and drops something out of her hand, that son of a buck ought to stop and respect her while she's gathering up all her dolls and not to walk on her or take advantage of her. And if I've done my work right, by gosh, that's what they'll do. ~ Buck Brannaman

Others have falsely claimed to be the inspiration for Tom Booker in The Horse Whisperer. The one who truly inspired me was Buck Brannaman. His skill, understanding and his gentle, loving heart have parted the clouds for countless troubled creatures. Buck is the Zen master of the horse world. ~ Nicholas Evans

When you see a horse that's troubled, you sort of feel sorry for them, yet that doesn't mean that you wouldn't still ask the horse to behave and find a way to fit in and respond to you as well. ~ Buck Brannaman

You try to do as little as you can, but you need to do as much as is necessary to get a result. When you get a result, you do less. ~ Buck Brannaman

There is something in the human psyche that there is a connection between horses and humans, a real special kind of a thing, and I guess it's always been there. I hope it will always be there, I hope we don't evolve past that. ~ Buck Brannaman

A lot of times, rather than helping people with horse problems, I'm helping horses with people problems. ~ Buck Brannaman

You want your kids to feel happy and good about themselves. The rest they'll work out on their own. You never know what your kids will be drawn to. ~ Buck Brannaman

Horses are very sensitive and perceptive. You don't have to be physical with them. ~ Buck Brannaman

All your horse looks for is the thing that matters most, peace and contentment. Give it to him. ~ Buck Brannaman

The horse needs to respect you, but sometimes people confuse respect & fear. And they're not the same at all. ~ Buck Brannaman

The horse is a mirror to your soul ... and sometimes you might not like what you see in the mirror. ~ Buck Brannaman

The horse responds to comfort, they respond to peace better than about anything else you could do. All he wants you to do is just leave him alone. So if the horse responds to you and you give him a little peace and comfort that means more to him than anything. ~ Buck Brannaman

The head raised too high even in good will be struck off too soon. ~ Pearl S. Buck

I am, I must confess, an obsessive and superstitious letter-writer. When I am troubled I will write any long letter rather than make a telephone call. This is perhaps because I invest letters with magical power. To desiderate something in a letter is, I often irrationally feel, tantamount to bringing it about. A letter is a barrier, a reprieve, a charm against the world, an almost infallible method of acting at a distance. (And, it must be admitted, of passing the buck.) It is a way of bidding time to stop. ~ Iris Murdoch

I only envy as basic old sexual jealousy. ~ Joan Juliet Buck

This raises the age-old problem of mind-body reductionism. I'm not about to solve it and fortunately I don't need to. I can take a pragmatic approach. Sometimes, it works to think of myself as a mechanical system. Sometimes, it works to think of myself as a perceiver and maker of meaning. Sometimes thinking of myself as an agent with free will helps and sometimes, especially when the scope of the will is exaggerated, it doesn't. (At times telling myself to "buck up" just leads to a debilitating kind of neurochemical backfiring.) The ~ Susan J. Brison

Mainstream white feminists will have to confront the racism of white women and the harm it does, without passing the buck to white men. ~ Mikki Kendall

New Rule: America must stop bragging it's the greatest country on earth, and start acting like it. I know this is uncomfortable for the "faith over facts" crowd, but the greatness of a country can, to a large degree, be measured. Here are some numbers. Infant mortality rate: America ranks forty-eighth in the world. Overall health: seventy-second. Freedom of the press: forty-fourth. Literacy: fifty-fifth. Do you realize there are twelve-year old kids in this country who can't spell the name of the teacher they're having sex with?

America has done many great things. Making the New World democratic. The Marshall Plan. Curing polio. Beating Hitler. The deep-fried Twinkie. But what have we done for us lately? We're not the freest country. That would be Holland, where you can smoke hash in church and Janet Jackson's nipple is on their flag.

And sadly, we're no longer a country that can get things done. Not big things. Like building a tunnel under Boston, or running a war with competence. We had six years to fix the voting machines; couldn't get that done. The FBI is just now getting e-mail.

Prop 87 out here in California is about lessening our dependence on oil by using alternative fuels, and Bill Clinton comes on at the end of the ad and says, "If Brazil can do it, America can, too!" Since when did America have to buck itself up by saying we could catch up to Brazil? We invented the airplane and the lightbulb, they invented the bikini wax, and now ~ Bill Maher

While most people whittle their days chasing another buck, or a little bit more fame and attention, or a little bit more assurance that they're right or loved, death confronts all of us with a far more painful and important question: What is your legacy? How will the world be different and better when you're gone? What mark will you have made? What influence will you have caused? They say that a butterfly flapping its wings in Africa can cause a hurricane in Florida; well, what hurricanes will you leave in your wake? ~ Mark Manson

My parents read the comics to me, and I fell in love with comic strips. I've collected them all of my life. I have a complete collection of all the "Buck Rogers" Sunday funnies and daily paper strips, I have all of "Prince Valiant" put away, all of "Tarzan," which appeared in the Sunday funnies in 1932 right on up through high school. So I've learned a lot from reading comics as a child. ~ Ray Bradbury

They are, in fact, Cheaters, luring men into the foaming waters of carnality without even the vaguest possibility of conception. What a delight, what a subversion of expectation. The healthiest and most womanly of women are in fact a rendition of Amazon queens, self-possessed and self-defined, women whose bodies have an enviable integrity and a fleshy, nonreplicative beauty that razzes Charles Darwin. The buck, the stud, the bull, stops here. ~ Natalie Angier

The question is, when so many others cut corners, shave the truth, self-deal, believe in the fast buck, and follow the crowd along the low road of least resistance, can we even afford to travel the high road of ethical behavior? Frankly, we can't afford anything else. Any other competitive angle is a pure crapshoot in today's business world. Companies with shaky ethics and shabby standards will be crippled as they try to compete in our changing world. ~ Price Pritchett

I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in the kindness of human beings. I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and angels. ~ Pearl S. Buck

When they arrived at his apartment, Allen's roommate Tim, was lying on the faux black leather sofa in the living room watching an NBA play-off game on their fifty-two inch flat-screen. Owen was barely over five feet tall with a pale complexion, buck teeth, kinky hair, and he wore thick glasses that made his eyes look like they were popping out at you in 3-D; but he was sweet as pie and had a heart of gold. ~ Monica Mathis-Stowe

Seeing America slowly was, in a way, like eating slow food-I wasn't covering much ground in a single day, but I was digesting a lot more. ~ Rinker Buck

Gotta be more than grabbing nines to buck tin in, gotta be more than just to lust women, gotta be more than platinum Rolexes. ~ Puff Daddy

As for inhibitions, I've spent a lifetime developing them, and I don't intend to lose them. ~ Pearl S. Buck

In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write. ~ Pearl S. Buck

You're spending a lot of time with this girl."
"Whoa!" I stepped out of the shower, buck -ass naked, finding Ollie standing in the doorway of the bathroom. "What the hell, man?"
"What?" He shrugged. "Not like I haven't seen your junk before. ~ J. Lynn

This is where I think the writing started. The "righting," if you will. The righting of circumstances, the shaping of the world the way it should have been, had God not had crossed eyes and buck teeth. In the real world I had no power; in my world I was Hercules unchained. ~ Robert McCammon

Is our Heaven your God, and is your God our Heaven?' she inquired.
'They are one and the same,' he replied ...
'There is only one true God. He has many names.'
'Then anywhere upon the round earth, by whatever seas, those who believe in any God believe in the One?' she asked.
'And so are brothers,' he said, agreeing.
'And if I do not believe in any?' she inquired willfully.
'God is patient,' he said. 'God waits. Is there not eternity?'
page 206 Pavilion of Women ~ Pearl S. Buck

Self-expression must pass into communication for its fulfillment. ~ Pearl S. Buck

Clint Eastwood is an extraordinary director because he knows the value of a buck. He knows where it will show on the screen. ~ Angela Lansbury

My first whore, I'll talk about later and was more or less my teeth-cutter. But to continue, I sweet talked and Grey Goose-shot my way into a C-note quickie with the hottest one of these babes, and it was the best and most freaky buck-wild sex I'd ever had. This event changed me from being a decent, normal guy into an inveterate whorefucker, and somewhat of an aficionado. Whores, if chosen right, are the creme de la creme of fucking, as they have practice, study porn tapes for BJ technique and largely like it, and the vast majority I've been with could win the Nobel Prize for sheer amazing fuckery. ~ George P. Saunders

Basically it's the core story. About a guy having an affair with the mother of the girl he falls in love with. ~ Buck Henry

Well, and you may have lived in the courts of the Old Lord, and you were accounted beautiful, but I have been a man's wife and I have borne him sons, and you are still a slave. ~ Pearl S. Buck

Be born anywhere, little embryo novelist, but do not be born under the shadow of a great creed, not under the burden of original sin, not under the doom of Salvation. ~ Pearl S. Buck

You made a mistake. One fucking enormous, stupid mistake. That's all. Now get over it. Buck up and fix it, and if you can't fix it, keep going anyway. It's the only way to live. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

The superior man leads not by violence or by coarse physical acts but by the pure intelligence of a wise mind. ~ Pearl S. Buck

Food for all is a necessity. Food should not be a merchandise, to be bought and sold as jewels are bought and sold by those who have the money to buy. Food is a human necessity, like water and air, it should be available. ~ Pearl S. Buck

You know what's wrong with our waterfront? It's the love of a lousy buck. It's making the love of a buck, the cushy job, more important than the love of man. It's forgetting that every fellow down here's your brother in Christ. ~ Budd Schulberg