Throughout his
young life, Tom spent the better part of his time either on
the back of a horse or studying the training methods of his
peers and some of the best horsemen of that era. Working on
such famous ranches as Begg's Cattle Company, 6666's,
Pitchfork, Wagoner's and Binion's in Montana, to racetracks in
California, Tom's versatility in adapting to all types of
horses grew in leaps and bounds. The combined experience
of learning and studying from the best trainers this country
has seen, to riding and training hundreds of horses, is what
makes Tom Hart a true master of the art of horsemanship.
Over the years,
through reflection of his past experiences, Tom has adapted and
improved his methods in his constant endeavor to the best of what
he does. Today, he does things differently than he did five or ten
years ago, but always maintains the sound methods learned in his
formative years in the old ranching country. Realizing that all horses are
different, and that horses teach us . . . he considers the greatest secret
he learned was to be able to start a colt and get it trained
without taking anything away from him, not breaking the spirit,
and leaving each horse with everything he was born with.
Too many
trainers these days don't do that: when they break a horse they
really break him ... the horse ends up being a product of human
programming with no natural spirit left. Tom rejects that method,
saying most people don't realize that if a horse has a
bad habit, it was taught to them, they didn't come into this world
dangerous and fighting. To correct this habit, you have to be
smarter than the horse, so that you can 'read' the individual . .
.
understand what the problem is and and where it came from . . . then
you can begin to correct the problem.
In dealing with
all types of horses, Tom stresses that the main ingredient to
success is patience. Over the years, Tom has had a lot of bad
horses, the worst of the worst, brought to him in a last ditch
effort to avoid the inevitable fate of going to the 'killers'
before someone got really hurt by them. Tom always welcomes these
horses as a challenge and with gentleness, firmness and patience
and has been able to turn many of these animals into respectable
and reliable mounts.
