Iredell
ijTIZEN
Bike Journey
Pages 8-9
Bhiloh Bakery
Pages 12-13
Volume 7, Number 15 • 28 Pages
JULY 29,2004
704-872-1200 • editor@iredellcitizen.com
Published Weekly in the Crossroads of the Carolinas
Statesville, NC 28677 • 50«
“...and who can talk to a horse, of course?”
Maggie Shoobridge
IREDELL CITIZEN
He’s two years old, but every
one calls him Mister. He is a quar
ter horse stallion who needs to
learn some manners and Bill “The
Horseman” Stacy is just the man to
teach him.
Bill Stacy speaks softly but does
n’t need the big stick. He uses a
natural horsemanship method
called Round-a-bout. It’s a gen
tling process gathered from many
books, clinics and instincts. Some
call him a horse whisperer.
“Once you understand the horse,
how he acts and thinks in the wild,
you use that information to put
yourself in the position of herd
leader,” Stacy tells a group at an
informal class held at his farm in
east Iredell. “Horses are insecure
without a leader or direction
because, in the wild, that is when
they are most vulnerable.”
This is the first time Mister has
been handled. With just a rope hal
ter, Stacy pokes his hand in
Mister’s mouth, moves the horse’s
head back and forth and has him
step back and then up again as he
offers pointers to the group.
“If they’ll give you their head, literally
and figuratively, that is a good sign,”
Stacy says. “Giving into pressure
is a good test for trainability.”
Many people think the whispering
goes one way but Stacy listens to
his horse’s nonverbal cues just as
Mister listens to his.
“Horses are unbelievably percep
tive,” he says. “They know pos
ture, tone of voice and even facial
expressions.” Stacy uses all these
to gain Mister’s trust.
The pair moves toward the round
pen for the first time. Mister is
skeptical but makes the step. Stacy
then works at getting Mister used
to knowing who is in charge.
“At first it is like leading a cat,”
Stacy says. “But you have to let
him know who is in charge. If it
isn’t you, guess who it is.”
Stacy dominates Mister by casting
him out of the herd (chasing him
around the pen). The object is to
get Mister to look to Stacy for
leadership. After a lot of hard
work, Stacy steps over and offers
guidance. Mister complies and has
his nose to Stacy’s shoulder, fol
lowing him like a puppy.
Depending on the horse, this “join
up” can happen on the first try or
can take up to three weeks or
more. Once this join-up is accom
plished, and Stacy is considered by
the horse to be the Alpha male, the
rest is easy, relatively speaking.
Line driving is the next lesson.
Here Stacy guides Mister as if he
were remote controlled. During
the lesson, Stacy stands in the mid
dle of the pen giving cues through
ropes, much like he would if he
were driving Mister from a cart.
“You can do anything from here
that you can do under saddle,” Stacy
said. “It’s just a lot safer to do it from
25 feet away for the first time.”
Not long after declaring Mister
ready, Stacy is ready to ride him.
“1 think of the first ride like a
NASCAR race,” Stacy says.
Everyone wants to see a wreck, but
doesn’t want anyone to get hurt. If
anything is going to happen, it will
happen today.”
See Iredell’s Horse
Whisperer page 14
Bill Stacy and Mister “jaw” during training.