500 Miles - The Story of Ranchers and Horses (2017)

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] five [Music] let's go [Music] [Music] [Music] whether it's a horse or a human we need to help them not become a victim anymore and stay as a victim we all need a purpose in life we need a reason to get up in the morning these guys do too you know we all do what we're trying to do here is give these Mustangs a life you know when you put some of the toughest human beings in the world with arguably some of the toughest horses in the world together and they're both curing each other of what they both mean and that's exactly what these programs are bad it's about transforming the lives of people and transforming the lives of horses here we are looking for specific qualities to see if they're gonna meet the needs of the program and if we can't draw them out then we won't be successful pressure peels back the layers to original thought and we have to put these horses through that process so that we know what they're capable of in the way we can be learned is my country [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] we want to do is we're gonna cut out each one of our horses of each tip - and each one of us will be partnered with you guys for the next five days it's gonna train they're gonna train [Music] you know these horses it's a big transformation for them a lot of these horses may have only been captured two three months ago so it's a big transition from total wild horse to now been in captivity you know it's probably a little stressful for them but that's our job as a trainer to make it as pleasant and as understanding so you know we can get a pretty good relationship stuff [Music] well the feelings of a horse when you start doing something with them you know something new so the way I do it is like no force at all you know let him know then okay I'm here not to hurt you I'm here to be your friend you know my philosophy is yes do whatever he can always allow the horse of freedom to make mistakes the freedom to get away and to freedom to run from me what he's afraid of and eventual he learned to face his fear and that's what I tried teaching this to face their fear instead of running from it [Music] you're good bro hang out here with us I like to do as much as I can without forcing them to do anything it needs to be their free choice but we're making this the comfortable place to be for him and not the pressure place so we're trying to take pressure off of him many of us put pressure on him when he's going somewhere else going to be somewhere else you know and eventually out in the whole world is gonna be more pressure didn't be here with us and that's where he's gonna get the you know that peace I started looking a lot of my friends in their lives when I got out of service I began to realize that there was a dramatic need a lot of guys that were once great warriors become marginalized and addicted to various substances the suicide rates are just staggering I know quite a few guys that I'm taking their own lives what I've seen over the years just working with horses like this and helping people work with horses it's not just about the horse it's really more about us [Music] third left kind of walk around the head it takes a lot to intimidate me that's probably the most vulnerable I've made myself in a really long time really left a mark on me just connecting with that horse and this is the very beginning part of a relationship that is gonna be for the next 20 years [Music] [Music] a big trip like this really is this comes out into the nuts and bolts and logistics and getting 16 wild horses across New Mexico and Arizona presents some pretty serious challenges that when you really come down from the forty thousand foot view it's an immense amount of work conceptualizing this and then actually doing it has been a real challenge seven days a week we with horses gather everybody head to the office of work half a day and then um take back off in seven eight nine o'clock at night come home and do that seven days a week [Applause] [Music] just [Music] [Music] some of the horses pick things up really quick I think it's a lot like people it's looking at a new approach you know it's not one-size-fits-all horses we need to prepare these animals for you know what's ahead and it's our responsibility to do that give them every opportunity to be good and stay good but when they get off you know let them run into a boundary and then encourage that when they're right on and then they'll hunt what's right on he's come really easy this worse parents got ahead a mother could love only right easy easy girl [Music] hey good work [Music] it's been really a pleasure kind of watching him and take off yesterday and put it away bareback and just ride out there it's been amazing to watch you're a very determined person I think a lot of people have I'm not saying I don't have an issue with fear but I acknowledge it and it doesn't bother me at this I think that comes from childhood and growing up and experiences and the occupation is do some of the great things I've done I was terrified out of my mind I was willing to do it I've been doing horses for a year that's loose that's a loose term doing horses nearly barely a year and you know I might be feeling it on the inside I think I internalize things very well [Music] I learned a lot from my grandfather he used to say our Italian trattoria Natalie and that means be good to him be good to him be good to him and one of the most important things I learned from him is then respect for the animals respect to them to the horses and we have respect them they're gonna respect you too [Music] well when you get the their confidence trust and connect with them they connect with you you can do basically everything you want [Music] the old philosophy was force fear intimidation repetition you make them do it against their will they hated it too bad we forced them you made a slave out of the horse and a lot of horses even today are slaves and you can tell when you go to catch them they're not their heart isn't with you they'll turn the head away and just kind of put up with you but they're not really not with you inside just because you do good things for people or just because you served your country doesn't mean that life is going to be good to you a lot of guys think hey just because I've you know I joined the military analysand everybody always been something and but they need to realize that they are themselves this is a different it's more of a negotiation the relationship with my horse is more important than what that horse can do for me or how good he makes me look that used to be really important to me now what's important is that relationship between me and my horse you think of your horse like a student or even a child he's just trying to help him be the best that he can be and what he's kind of built and designed to be I began to lose an identity I began to lose a sense of who I was and I was to find my life by those scars I wasn't growing and I wasn't evolving I wasn't realizing that the challenges in my life were actually adding value to it but I wasn't ready to accept that working with these horses has made me change some aspects of my life that I normally probably wouldn't have done which has been a necessity to accomplish this mission and come home and do that seven days a week and be a dad and four kids manage a household and uh it's been a challenge but I'd say it's been one of the most rewarding experience in my life as well this through this process I've learned a lot about myself things that I don't think I would have ever learned had I not been through this experience [Music] I think the most important thing about this project is about building a team of people that have roles responsibilities and our results driven individuals it's not one singular idea but it's a community of ideas that get together to accomplish one thing it's really quite an undertaking to plan this kind of trip a major concern to beginning was snow lumps so we had to find trails that we didn't have old snow and drifts that we couldn't navigate through so we had to find logistical places that we could start and finish without going to mountain tops we started as far north as possible from which you have to be quill motto in Mexico we're gonna have between nine and ten thousand pounds of hay cubes are gonna have places we're gonna have to be supplied with water just containing these animals where there's no trees obstacles are gonna come and that's just a part of life and this wasn't a struggle and this wasn't a challenge it wouldn't have any value so no I don't have any doubts I just you know whether we're there for four weeks or five weeks or whatever we're gonna meet you haven't [Music] [Music] listen if there is a rack and a horse cups towards you guys your job is to stay on the horse being calm remember your horsemanship check your cinches make sure none of those rings are in the armpit of your horse first thing we're going to do is set up we're gonna head down this row we're gonna water our horses and we're gonna come back up and about point eight miles to the CDT trail I have never packed at this many unbroke stock usually you put a young one end with a stranger and that's what I learned you put another young one and another one so I've never worked at this many young stock the hardest thing involved is young suckers is getting minute string who's gonna get along what order to put them in you don't know until y'all so you do it and it all went pretty good but putting a lot of miles on quickly we did sixty miles in two days once so that's supposed to been helpful is the early hard days to get them lined up we have experience at all and the route I know some of the days us brought us with the Brown I Monroe I would talk to him and I would be like when I would be a 25-mile daddy in the mountains and big mountains I'd look at wrestling yeah this is a huge day and we'd get it done we had a lot of late nights like we wrote at night quite a bit the pressures here are primarily taking care of those horses those horses come before ever they get fed before the people they water before the people they get bedded down before people you know they are the number one priority here so that horse has a bad cut on the inside of his nose this morning it's really stinking bad it is infected he should be all healed up by the end of the trip anyway it's just a little stinky mess you got to deal with and this horses you're just constantly cleaning them feeding them and doctor enough [Music] so the pressure is making sure they're okay and guys like me who aren't necessarily used to that it gives you something positive to put your energy into gives you something positive to put your focus on in your purpose too you know before I started the program I was you know kind of a switch not a dial and working with these horses working these guys out in these challenging situations taught me to have a dial it taught me to temper myself you don't have a choice you won't get to the next trail that if you're not tempering yourself that horse will not take you there he'll take you wherever you want to go but he's the one who'd take you so far as as you can treat him it's something that even in Special Operations for seven years I didn't learn anything like that we're all the same type of predator animal that's a prey animal that's a herd prey animal and if you act like that predator around them like you're always ready to go you're always on the edge that's how they're gonna react to you and you have to learn how to bring it all back you have to refocus all of your energy from something mission-critical like an objective to get to in a target to hit to making sure that guy is okay at the end of the day he's not sword up he's not cut he's you know he's taken care of it's pretty incredible to be able to see the entire world differently just from working with these guys you know they're really designed for this Hardy lifestyle with their with throw hard holes their intelligence their willingness to please you know we've got very very few problems with the stock so far you know three months under the belts it's amazing what these guys are doing absolutely amazing when we first start this program when we first came to issued be really have a quiet eye and a good demeanor and and today parrot he works alongside some Pokemon strains in five years so hopefully we get a lot of people a one I have more interest in these Mustangs gonna be good home sorry I gotta maintain my tough-guy image [Music] there's so much downtime when you're in the saddle and going all these miles and you know it means a little bit to everybody but things that you're kind of getting rhythm with is their own breathing and the breathing of the horse the horses hose is a walk the movement of the horse and we always kind of become together in nature it's you know time that we really bond with these horses [Music] it's that cohesiveness being the saddle and kind of being back by yourself with your back straight and your mind starts to slow down that comes with your string and a horse you're riding you can come so attuned to it you're you're hearing become so aware of it it's quite a special time it was you'll have it as much of that as we've had it really makes going back to civilization much more difficult [Music] ultimately this process was to see these horses go through this intense training cycle so we could test them under every condition imaginable we had to create a template about where we needed to be and small goals began to equal bigger goals and that's how we we got through this process we've gone through every extreme I mean when we started this thing it was like freezing cold mornings I mean 15 20 degrees out and then you know 70 degree days and high winds and big climbs big country remote country I mean we have transitioned through so many different types of weather I think we've pretty much experienced at all [Music] [Music] I know what I'm doing but it's my way of doing it [Music] but sounded pretty good do you have anything in your ear I really go cruising up the trail and he's just starting to pull his map out and as he was pulling his map out a mountain biker came down the hill and it looked to me like he just about ran into him pretty dramatically and the horse turned 180 and once I got my horse under control I turned her I saw Ross that he was laying facedown in a cactus she was saying I'm hurt I'm hurt that just spooked the horses and they got after it and I read that joy you know rust doesn't remember any of it can you tell me at all about what happened down at lick okay [Music] Adie I do these dudes are like covered in joy and their faces everything [Music] oh yeah Lumbee he's in he's in route he's in route now they said it's about probably one hour to get there [Music] [Music] how do you feel sore yeah I'm sorry oh yeah okay I got I got to change my jeans just tell cactus in my jeans yeah so other than lose a little sleep I'm pretty good when I went in the hospital I saw him you just wanted to get back in the trail and there's like I didn't even have the heart to you and tell him to take a day off cuz I do I had to be a personal decision he has two broken battles a broken nose and a concussion he's in his 50s that's just a level of commitment that he has a seeing this thing to the end for me to get back on the trail after that injury all I thought was I need to make sure that the doctor okay with this because then my wife whole accept that answer because the nordella is gonna finish [Music] I came for three reasons one to help finish the training cycle of these horses the second would be what these horses you do for veterans [Music] thirdly what I want to do is do this for me be the backcountry no matter where they are mules horses somebody else's horses it gets the mayor of bones and it's just my passion bhisma passion did backcountry well last year has taken from me i'm having cancer surgery I could ride so for me they'll get back out here and do this really means a lot to me I've been really fortunate life to do a lot of things in a lot places until you get to be back here it's absolutely magical place it doesn't really matter what state you're in who are you with which is something that I personally like to continue and foremost again the hardest thing that you'll ever do in your life is look at yourself and you do that the most honest and pure way while on these animals it's really just a mirror it's the things in the mirror that you don't see that will ultimately change your life [Music] being a bold step and doing this we're taking a bold step in the way we help veterans I think it's a great responsibility not only to tell this story but to give these horses a chance and give these better than chance [Music] I think I got a chance to see everything they've got reaffirmed all the work that we did you know I have zero concern about these guys and passing them along to the students obviously they're not polished they've got a lot of rough edges on them but it makes a program that much better this year for the guys who get the opportunity to work with this is the most important thing we do the mashing of the horses and the veterans is really what makes us unique we try to identify core aspects of the individual in me and the horse and match them together to really complement each other we're looking for an individual who really realizes that he can do it but he needs help getting going and I was really one of those guys where I would not necessarily ask for help but I would do something where I was for the position to help myself never really seriously thought that this would be something I would I'd be doing and had the opportunity to to pull a Mustang off the land and train it from being the first person to touch it and seeing where he is now is guys definitely had a special place in my heart so a really unique experience and I encouraged those people that that have that thought or anything to do so to take that step [Music] [Music] Sean Dunham Boerne Texas served United States Marine Corps United States Army with their armored CAV the two tours in Iraq missing the old Pony hammer [Music] my name is chase Spiegel my horses up hope I served in the Army as a combat medic for six years with Afghanistan in 2010-2011 [Music] named Josiah Russell is his parrot and I served with first Armored Division in Iraq and ten top division Afghanistan as a combat engineer what I'm trying to do is create a mirror reflection so that that horse is projecting them they are back on to them and what guys start to realize that that's when the change really begins it's through this matching process it's through this horse human connection where the walls [Music] you get created down and then crack an adventure [Music] [Music] [Music] down run from they don't have much to say [Music] they watch TV night and they work through the day rise with the Sun and they said when they're drunk [Music] most of my friends or they don't get out much but they've got pine trees for miles and they all carry guns we pray to the Lord in the baby-boomers song dirt roads for days and not much in between you ever pass through take your head off for me we fell no costume the time I feel like [Music] feel like a boat [Music] [Music] you know sure made it in the see [Music] yeah whose turn trying to hold on to [Music] you

Channel: /r/Documentaries

Views: 3,844,330

Keywords: documentary, 500, miles, horse, horses, cowboy, rancher., america, ranch, 500 miles, 2017, reddit, r documentaries

Id: C86IkrEjKCM

Length: 37min 14sec (2234 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 12 2017