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Where the riding whip doesn't work, Martín Hardoy's kindness makes miracles

doma racional

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Martín Hardoy, the horse whisperer
Martín didn't have very good grades as a student. To punish him, his father made him work during vacations: cow-hand on the family ranch in the morning, studies during the afternoon. This way, in contact with the gauchos, he learned to work with horses, and more particularly to break colts.

In youth, he participated in rodeos (jineteadas) riding bucking horses. When he was twenty, his back was injured playing rugby and three vertebra had to be operated. During a long convalescence he looked for softer methods to break colts, tired of the traditional Argentine methods.

That's how he started travelling all over the world to learn the task in riding schools in Europe, and to learn western riding in the U.S or in Argentina. The native cultures also influenced his talent. Martín emphasizes the example of Martín Fierro, the book in which Indians succeed in making their horses lie down, permitting them to hide and surprise the enemy.

Martín Hardoy discovered that violence with horses didn't lead to anything good. He conceived his own method made of kindness and science: the rational horse breaking without violence (la doma racional y sin violencia). It's the product of European classic riding and ethology; the idea is to know how the horse thinks. Dressed as a gaucho, he uses rubber hobbles and flexible reins to not hurt the horse. He lives and works in the Haras Argentino near Luján.

Since 1991, he has animated more than 500 two-day-classes in Argentina and Uruguay. His method seduces the breeders, convinces the gauchos little by little and teaches new techniques to children. His method of preparation of wild horses is contagious and takes possession of the most sceptical minds.

He has produced videos, written a book, taught in all the universities of the country and even has his own television program.

In the world of the Argentine horse, Martín is now a reference of non-violence.

Violence and tradition
The horses of the homeland

To extend the domaine of white Europeans, the Argentine government led a constant war against the Indians during the 19th. century. The army manifested little interest in the quality of their horses nick-named patrios, many of which died as a result of their violent horse breaking methods that were designed to give good results in a very short time period. These were the methods practiced by the gauchos since the 17th century, perhaps since the end of the 16th century. This ferocious way of horse breaking is part of their tradition, and is still an all too often seen phenomenal.

We heritated these practices states Martín.
Horses and physically challenged people
Martín Hardoy participates in the breaking of horses used in the Argentine Association of Equestrian Activities for Handicapped People, of which he is the director. This association organizes original therapy sessions in an army equestrian center located in a nice neighbourhood of Buenos Aires.

Photos © Martín Hardoy
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During a rural exposition in Trenque Leuquén, sitting in in the grandstand among a crowd of sceptical or joking gauchos, , Cédric Ganné was able to attend one of Martín Hardoy's demonstrations.

He explains: The gauchos think that the 'rational horse breaking' method takes too much time to break a colt (Martín Hardoy believes that 70 days are necessary to break a horse, plus the time to finish and perfect its training). It's a question of tradition and also of masculine value. Historically and traditionally, the gauchos, many times outlaws and rebels against any form of society, had to get a horse in a very limited time period. Many times pursued by the police, they had to catch a horse and flee in less than half an hour. We imagine very well that in the middle of the pampa the solutions were limited. The gauchos' talent and their capacity to stay on any wild horse saved their life. Their culture developed like that, in contact with the most difficult horses. They were able to develop a dexterity and a capacity of horsemanship that we can qualify as phenomenal.

Martín Hardoy adds:The riding whip striking the colt frightens him, whereas the caress allows him to be convinced by kindness. However, if the hard way of horse breaking is historically comprehensible, today it's a macho issue. The traditional horse breaking consists in tying up the colt to a post and hitting him. Frightened, the horse hits his head many times before giving in. Then, they cover his eyes, they saddle him up and ride him. The ones who had kinder manners were considered as effeminate and they never showed it in public. I consider the horse as a friend and I convince him to help me.

I'll never criticize what the others do, nor anything that's been done till now; I've learned like that too, and I believed that I was right, for a very long time, until I was shown the contrary.

Horse breaking requires the right balance between kindness and firmness. The excess of kindness makes an ill-mannered horse and the excess of rigour makes horse a rebel.

We have to remark that Martín Hardoy still uses the hard' way compared to the methods of Pat Parelli or Monty Roberts. Actually the Argentine horse whisperer is to the gauchos what the American horse whisperers are to the modern cowboys.
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