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Buck Brannaman endured childhood
abuse and overcame shyness to forge
a career as a “horse whisperer.”
Buck in
the saddle
A modern-day philosopher
shares his wisdom
By Steve Fisher
DON’ T DISMISS Dan M. “Buck” Brannaman
as a cowboy. He may travel the country nine
months a year, conducting clinics to help
horse owners with training issues, but
Brannaman is a modern-day philosopher as
well. “Your horse is a mirror to your soul, and
sometimes you’ll like what you see, sometimes you won’t,” he has said.
Brannaman’s celebrity spread with
Nicholas Evans’ novel The Horse Whisperer,
with Evans revealing Buck
was the main inspiration
for the title character, Tom
Booker. Brannaman consulted with Robert Redford
on Redford’s portrayal of
Booker in the film version
of The Horse Whisperer
and worked as an adviser
on the film. A documentary, Buck, about
Brannaman’s life and work, made its debut at
the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, where it
won the U.S. Documentary Competition
Audience Award.
Brannaman’s story is a living testament to
the strength of his character. As depicted in
the documentary, Buck, as a child, endured
considerable physical and emotional abuse by
his father. At the ages of 5 and 7, respectively,
Buck and his older brother, Smokie (Bill),
were forced to learn and perform rope tricks
or be beaten. His mother tried her best to pro-
tect him until her death when Buck was 11.
When his scars were discovered by his school
coach, Buck and Smokie were sent to live with
foster parents. His father, incensed at having
the boys taken away, threatened to kill them
when they turned 18.
Success in life was largely dismissed by
those around him.
“Pretty early on, it
just sort of came to my
attention that people were
inclined to feel sorry for
me,” says the 49-year-old
“Horses basically saved my life,” he tells
The Connection. “When I went to live with my
foster parents, the horses were such a refuge
for me that that’s where a real affinity and
affection for horses really started for me. I’d
pretty much given up on human beings.”
Brannaman doesn’t look at horses simply
“Whether one was going to have a horse, or a dog, or a child,
with that comes a
great responsibility
to raise them.” — “Buck” Brannaman
as pets. “They’re pets to me, but at the same
rate they’re my partners too,” he explains. “We
work together. Just because I’m the leader, it
doesn’t make me any better than them. It just
means I have my job and they have theirs.”
Nor does he see them in the same light as
people. “Horses don’t think the same as
humans,” he clarifies. “Something that’s most
unique about the horse, that I love, is not what
he possesses but what he doesn’t possess. And
that is greed, spite, hate, jealousy, envy, preju-
dice. The horse doesn’t possess any of those
things. If you think about people, the least
desirable people to be around usually possess
some or all of those things. And the way God
made the horse, he left that out.
COUR TES Y OF MPI MEDIA GROUP/IFC FILMS
“By the time you’ve had a relationship
with a horse for a while,” he says, “there are
characteristics in the way the horse behaves
with you and around you and responds to you
that are directly [related] to some of your
traits as a human being, whether it’s insecurity or aggression or fear or hate.
“There are so many things that don’t
mesh well with the horse, and some of the
more negative traits, that’s the reason people
get in trouble with the horse. Yet at the same
rate, there are some real good traits in human
beings … they may not know that much
about horses, but the horse will have an affin-
ity for ’em and have a great feel for that person
with some of the more positive traits.”
The message of the film goes beyond his
work and his life. “Whether one was going to
have a horse, or a dog, or a child, with that
comes a great responsibility to raise them,”
advises Brannaman, who is married, with one
daughter and two stepdaughters. “To teach
them right from wrong. And to do your job
when it’s early enough that you can actually
have a positive influence on how the rest of
their lives go.” C
