A new friend.

This is a part of the world where horses still roam freely.
The Gonzales family has a bunch of them and their horses are up in the mountains behind the rancho.
That is a vast area where the animals find food and water.
They never see a human being in their lives.

Except when the Gonzales put on their sombreros and leather pants, mount their tamed and well-trained horses and ride into the mountains equipped with lassos and dogs.

They go to look for horses.
To catch one and bring the animal down to the rancho.

This has recently happened and they brought with them a 3-year-old stallion.
They tied up the beautiful animal in the dry riverbed near the ranch.
The horse had never seen and smelled human beings and was scared to death.
If anybody was coming close, the horse would panic.



Gumaro Gonzales was asked what he was going to do with the animal.
He replied that they would keep the horse tied up for awhile until it calmed down.
Then they would have a special guy come who would mount on the horse while it was controlled by as many other Mexicanos as was possible.
Then the horse with the man on his back would be set free and a kind of rodeo would take place.
The horse would try anything to get the man off his back.
The idea is that this will not be successful.
So that eventually the horse gives up.
By then the will of the animal has been broken.
And can become a horse easy to handle for humans.

But for now the horse is just standing there in the hot sun tied to a short rope.
Sometimes he gets food.
Sometimes they take him to the watering place.
But not always.

A fantastic opportunity to try to befriend the horse.
For weeks now this process has been going on.
Not knowing anything about horses, the strategy was applied to give him several buckets of water to drink every single morning.
Obviously the horse would be thirsty standing there in a place with no shadow and temperatures rising to around 30º C. (86 F)
The first days the bucket was put as far away from the horse as possible.
Then some distance was made to the bucket, like 10 meters (32 feet), to wait taking care not to make sudden movements.
The horse would eventually come to the bucket and drink.
Each day the distance between the human and the bucket was made smaller.
Until after some time the bucket could be put down and while standing next to the bucket the horse would come and drink.
Those were memorable moments.

When Gumaro was not around, discreetly an amount of dried alfalfa was taken from the supply of the rancho they keep to extra feed the cattle and horses.
With the dried alfalfa the same method was executed.
Until eventually the horse would eat while the alfalfa was still in the hand.



After some weeks of these exciting exercises of taming the horse, the brown animal would come up real close.
Is that dangerous?
Will he bite?
Or suddenly prance and trample the good willing photographer to death?
Who has only experience with dogs and cats and knows nothing about horses.
And a horse is big, ladies and gentlemen.
Compared to a cat.
When the horse came up close there was fear raging in the mind and the tendency was felt to quickly turn and run away.
But by strength of mind, in which the thought was forced to dominate to trust this horse, it was allowed for that big animal to move his head to the body of the photographer and sniff and look.
It was just curious.
Simply wanted to smell.

By now the horse has made a friend.
A helper of Gumaro saw how the horse responded to the photographer and said:
“He knows and likes you.”



This is very true.
When even passing by during the day, without alfalfa or water to offer, the horse neighs.
And in the morning one can see how he is looking to see when his friend is coming.

Horses are very special animals.
Very delicate, distinguished and elegant.
To obtain their trust and friendship is a privileged experience.







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