Buck

"Rather than helping people with horse problems, I'm helping horses with people problems," explains Buck Brannaman, who was the inspiration for the hero of\i The Horse Whisperer\i0 (1998), played by Robert Redford. \i Buck \i0 naturally devotes some of its time to the successful feature film, but it\i \i0 focuses mainly on the 50-year-old horse psychologist as he goes about his daily business. For nine months of the year he travels around the United States, training horses and giving clinics for horse lovers. His stepmother, wife, and daughter are interviewed extensively. From a psychological point of view, Brannaman is well-equipped for his work with traumatized animals, because in his youth he had to deal with a tyrannical and aggressive father: "I was just looking for a peaceful place to be." We also hear from his former teachers, the horse whisperers Tom Dorrance and Ray Hunt, as well as from a number of participants in the horse clinics. After seeing Brannaman in action, even the most diehard skeptics have to admit to being dumbfounded. Brannaman believes that the human and the horse have to make a connection, explaining that "Everything you do with a horse is a dance." Towards the end of the film, the tension mounts as Brannaman is confronted with an unmanageable horse that is behaving like a dangerous psychopath.