Ron Breines
Testimonial
Ponderosa, New Mexico

Hi Leslee,

It's my honor to be part of your website testimonial to your father. The only explanation for misinterpreting your father's wonderful book, for me, would be that those critics could not have read the book close enough to understand the nuances of training your father was speaking of. The edition I have was given to me by my mentor many years ago, who used them religiously. I read the books many times over and once I could hear your father's voice, I realized he was teaching us all we needed to know to make a full bridle horse. Since he wasn't an academic writer, but someone who used his own humble, vernacular, direct and forthright, I think the conclusion comes from that directness, and the lack of political correctness. His training methods were extremely humane and gentle, and even when he wrote about doubling, which some current "gurus" claim is "severe," he was advocating the gentlest means possible (doubling is simply a one reined stop, written about in almost the same way, with maybe a more erudite language, by Nuno Oliviera, considered one of the premiere trainers of the last century.) The term, "light pulls" was not used haphazardously in these books. He meant exactly that. "Light." That is what he was trying to convey, in my mind, the most. "Lightness in training." And it is what stuck with me since the first time I read Hackamore Reinsman.

So you did a wonderful thing by Your father, and his memory. You should only be proud. Critics are everywhere, in everything. I have written and published enough to know that. Ed Connell's contribution to the Vaquero tradition is vast and important. And I know of no other collection of books so dedicated to this method of training that tells it like it is as well as his.

I am looking forward to reading the newest book, as I've said. And good luck with it. I hope readers will realize from it the incredible gift he has given us, and the horse.

It is those of us who train in the vaquero tradition who are indebted to Ed for leaving his legacy, in our hands through his books. We greatly appreciate that you published this book posthumously and I have no doubt that it is filled with valuable information from the mind and hands of a true expert.

Ron Breines - Director of The Valles Caldera National
Preserve Equestrian Program, Jemez, New Mexico

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