Post by Kelly Marks on Mar 22, 2009 7:45:30 GMT 1
The End of An Era
Ray Hunt 1929-2009
By Monty Roberts
In 1947 I met a cattle rancher named Bill Dorrance. He had married a lady whose family owned a several thousand acre cattle ranch on Mount Toro just south of Salinas, California. I got to know Bill quite well and spent a lot of time on his ranch riding, working cattle and listening to his advice about training horses. I was 12 years old and didn’t realize that the concepts Bill sported were quite unique for that day and time. What I did realize is that his concepts were very different from my father’s.
Soon after meeting and working with Bill I met his brother Tom who at that time was a working ranch cowboy who came from Nevada to visit his brother. Tom and Bill Dorrance would get together and talk like machine guns about training techniques that I didn’t even begin to understand. The one thing you can make no mistake about is they were both passionate about their work and believed that they had a chance to revolutionize the way horses were trained.
It must have been some time in the early 1950s that a young man came to visit Bill who introduced him to me as a student of his brother Tom. Bill told me that the young man’s name was Ray Hunt. By this time I was about 16 and already showing in open competition. Ray was about 22 and had an incredible appetite for learning. He and Bill didn’t agree on everything but they certainly seemed to me to respect one another at least from my point of view.
Soon after this time I began to see Ray show up at various working cow horse competitions. His style was different from the main stream horseman and I recall that it took a considerable length of time for the judges to begin to mark Ray favorably. He loved to teach young people and even though he was young in years his ability verified that he had put in a lot of time on the working ranches of Nevada, Idaho and the Northwest in general.
Through the late fifties and well in to the sixties I traveled the horse show circuit competing with Ray on a regular basis. It was clear that he was focused on his life’s goal. Ray always had time for a beginner seeking assistance. It was no surprise to me that shortly after he retired his favorite horse Honda he became the first of the hard-traveling clinicians. He went at that job with an even greater sense of purpose than his huge measure of the same in the show ring.
Ray continued to work with Tom Dorrance for many years. The Dorrance brothers and Ray Hunt, in the opinion of most horsemen, created an ERA. With the Dorrance brothers passing that legacy was left on the shoulders of only one member; Ray Hunt. The recent death of Ray brings to a close a period of our history that will forever mark a change that I believe will exist in perpetuity. These three cowboys opened doors of understanding through which virtually every future horseman will pass.
Ray Hunt was, for many, a man difficult to get close to. I don’t believe I ever met a horseman who was more dedicated in the attempt to get his students to be as perfect as possible. He had little tolerance for mediocrity and no patience with lethargy. He believed in his concepts like no other I have known except maybe for the Dorrance brothers. The three of them worked extremely hard to keep their principles pure.
Each of us who strive to better understand our horses owe this trio of cowboys a debt of gratitude more sizable than the next generation will ever come to understand. Any horseman who knew one or more of these individuals should take the time to concentrate on the very positive affect this era has had on our horse industry. It is now time to celebrate their incredible achievements and to thank them for the effort that they have expended for horses globally.
International horsemen that span the spectrum from Olympic Gold Medal winners to weekend pleasure riders should realize that, without the era which Ray Hunt closes, they would be advised to treat their animals in a very different way from what they now know as normal. The world has changed dramatically since the beginning of the Dorrance/Hunt Era. Their gift to the world was to open the minds of the horsemen to more deeply consider the needs of their equine partners.
It is with these facts in mind that I extend a tribute to Ray Hunt. His passing encourages me to rededicate myself to extending this mind set for non-violent training so that their era can be built upon, and even greater dedication to, considerate treatment of horses can be extended throughout the world of handling horses and people too. I sincerely believe that horses can teach us so much about the needs of all animals as well as our fellow man.
Ray Hunt 1929-2009
By Monty Roberts
In 1947 I met a cattle rancher named Bill Dorrance. He had married a lady whose family owned a several thousand acre cattle ranch on Mount Toro just south of Salinas, California. I got to know Bill quite well and spent a lot of time on his ranch riding, working cattle and listening to his advice about training horses. I was 12 years old and didn’t realize that the concepts Bill sported were quite unique for that day and time. What I did realize is that his concepts were very different from my father’s.
Soon after meeting and working with Bill I met his brother Tom who at that time was a working ranch cowboy who came from Nevada to visit his brother. Tom and Bill Dorrance would get together and talk like machine guns about training techniques that I didn’t even begin to understand. The one thing you can make no mistake about is they were both passionate about their work and believed that they had a chance to revolutionize the way horses were trained.
It must have been some time in the early 1950s that a young man came to visit Bill who introduced him to me as a student of his brother Tom. Bill told me that the young man’s name was Ray Hunt. By this time I was about 16 and already showing in open competition. Ray was about 22 and had an incredible appetite for learning. He and Bill didn’t agree on everything but they certainly seemed to me to respect one another at least from my point of view.
Soon after this time I began to see Ray show up at various working cow horse competitions. His style was different from the main stream horseman and I recall that it took a considerable length of time for the judges to begin to mark Ray favorably. He loved to teach young people and even though he was young in years his ability verified that he had put in a lot of time on the working ranches of Nevada, Idaho and the Northwest in general.
Through the late fifties and well in to the sixties I traveled the horse show circuit competing with Ray on a regular basis. It was clear that he was focused on his life’s goal. Ray always had time for a beginner seeking assistance. It was no surprise to me that shortly after he retired his favorite horse Honda he became the first of the hard-traveling clinicians. He went at that job with an even greater sense of purpose than his huge measure of the same in the show ring.
Ray continued to work with Tom Dorrance for many years. The Dorrance brothers and Ray Hunt, in the opinion of most horsemen, created an ERA. With the Dorrance brothers passing that legacy was left on the shoulders of only one member; Ray Hunt. The recent death of Ray brings to a close a period of our history that will forever mark a change that I believe will exist in perpetuity. These three cowboys opened doors of understanding through which virtually every future horseman will pass.
Ray Hunt was, for many, a man difficult to get close to. I don’t believe I ever met a horseman who was more dedicated in the attempt to get his students to be as perfect as possible. He had little tolerance for mediocrity and no patience with lethargy. He believed in his concepts like no other I have known except maybe for the Dorrance brothers. The three of them worked extremely hard to keep their principles pure.
Each of us who strive to better understand our horses owe this trio of cowboys a debt of gratitude more sizable than the next generation will ever come to understand. Any horseman who knew one or more of these individuals should take the time to concentrate on the very positive affect this era has had on our horse industry. It is now time to celebrate their incredible achievements and to thank them for the effort that they have expended for horses globally.
International horsemen that span the spectrum from Olympic Gold Medal winners to weekend pleasure riders should realize that, without the era which Ray Hunt closes, they would be advised to treat their animals in a very different way from what they now know as normal. The world has changed dramatically since the beginning of the Dorrance/Hunt Era. Their gift to the world was to open the minds of the horsemen to more deeply consider the needs of their equine partners.
It is with these facts in mind that I extend a tribute to Ray Hunt. His passing encourages me to rededicate myself to extending this mind set for non-violent training so that their era can be built upon, and even greater dedication to, considerate treatment of horses can be extended throughout the world of handling horses and people too. I sincerely believe that horses can teach us so much about the needs of all animals as well as our fellow man.
