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Show city but Ben's grandmother lived on a small farm surrounded by ranches. His older brother, Mark, used to amuse himself at the farm by hopping on the neighbors' horses. "How do you know which ones have been ridden?" Ben remembers asking. Mark went off to school then served in the military. When he returned, he took up cowboying during the week and training horses on the weekends. Ben would watch him and finally decided deci-ded that he wanted a horse of his own. The best deal he could get was on a horse that hadn't been broken. He worked with the horse for weeks and still had to use a blindfold in order to saddle her. "Well Mark got wind of the fact that I hadn't ridden her yet so he said he would give her a try. She took' off and threw him into a wire fence. All the way to J the hospital, Mark kept saying, 'She's got to be ridden or she'll be ruined. She's got to be ridden right away.' Ben was afraid Mark, who was still bleeding was going to. try to get back on her so he assured Mark that he would do it. He took his horse to a nearby arena with a solid fence and rode her. "She never even offered to buck," Ben laughed. She was half Apaloosahalf quarterhorse and ended up to be a fine . mare. y::'--:'Sy. The word traveled around town that Quinters had a way with horses and soon he was busy with requests from friends who had also bought unbroken deals. In Heber, Ben works with horses full time. Last spring, he had ten 'students', right now there are four horses in training. Each fall when the training season is slow, Quinters takes work with the local sheep ranchers helping them move their stock to market. He often takes one of his client's horses along for the experience. He hesitates to talk about a specific training philosophy. philo-sophy. "People have very different ideas about training horses, ' ' he says respectfully. respect-fully. He prefers to talk about a horse's disposition rather than its personality. He likes to avoid over-personifying the animals. He works from the ground a lot using voice commands and he believes that if you handle any horse enough and properly that you will see results. "A horse bucks out . of fear, " he concluded while saddling up to pick up his son. Just two week later Ben is able to ride Lawrence's wild horse. r him, and then he was given shots and wormed. His ear was tagged and he was branded. Everything he has had with a human has been bad, M elaborated Quinters. Until that is, he fell into Ben's capable hands. "It was a little like trying to walk up to a deer at first. He wouldn't touch grain and he didn't take his eyes off me." From eight years of experience exper-ience he r'ld tell that Freebe wa intelligent and strong wilLd. Within two weeks the horse and the trainer had come to a tenuous settlement, Freebe was accepting grain and allowing Ben to ride him but he was still with - holding absolute trust, "I can't believe how far he's come already," grinned Lawrence as he watched his horse respond to Ben's professional tach. At this point, Quinters was able to ride the horse around the ring and was working on mounting from both sides. "Well, this saddle doesn't hurt my confidence any," he said of the deep-seated saddle. He maintains a. healthy respect for Freebe's sense of independence and in return has gained a remarkable measure of cooperation from him. The BLM stipulates that the wild horses may not be used for rodeo stock. Lawrence Law-rence says that if he can get 4 an elk with Freebe's help, he will be satisfied. Ben started training hor ses professionally in San Antonio, Texas. Before trying try-ing to make a living with horses, he was an airplane mechanic for the government. govern-ment. He remembers the first horse he ever trained. The Quinters lived in the N hi r i y i) j -y f J , .... A 1 ,3 1 vv? e M r - ' - w ; f f i iS- , r i-lH" v &i n ii! flt, : L xjf: 1 R I 0 I I H U?S3i If miiijim "" """I. V ' til lJ .w-'!..! ria I '?!'! -'.V' v V- ' - v '-i ' f . : " "Wv - V ' ' ' There are lots of different ideas about training horses,' says Quinters. Scars and bitemarks suggest that Freebe's priliminary contact with humans was an unhappy experience. |
