Please do not “buck” the opportunity to see this inspiring documentary about the life of the man Buck who is now transforming the lives of horse-owners and their horses across America. A child victim to his father’s abuse, Buck and his older brother learned at a very young age how to lasso for money and others’ entertainment. The beatings they endured and the assault on their senses at this impressionable time left their mark. However, saved from a life of terror, Buck came to live in happy and healing circumstances with a new mother and in a new home. Today, he is sought internationally for his ability to work with horses and to teach their owners how to handle them. He demonstrates in the movie, for example, how being tethered at the end of a rope elicits the same responses from a human as much as from a horse. Just as his own responses were tried and tested by his father, he now applies that knowledge in his own work. We witness the “method in the madness.”
This gentle and kindly man, despite his early emotional scars, is not bitter or revengeful. We see that he understands the delicacies of the horses’ feelings from within himself and he is able to communicate to elicit their cooperation. He is able to speak directly into the owners’ lives too, without ado. What is so inspiring is Buck’s repeated demonstrations of patience, self-control, gentleness – true Unconditional Love for the horses, a principle deliquent today. His time spent traveling and away from his family, and his dedication to help both horse and rider alike, is all his Service in Unconditional Love to humanity and our planet. He is a horse whisperer from the heart, a beautiful mentor and example of the higher way that can be lived by man together with the Horse Kingdom. With the spread of such knowledge, so much needless suffering can end. It is not only the horses that will benefit. Perhaps his traumatic early years were karmic, but instilled within Buck is a peace and loving-kindness that is extraordinarily beautiful to watch. He is without a doubt a horse of a different color.