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Sisu West Ranch wrote:
> "...old JH think you were going to kill him, he just might have taken
> the next three to actually kill you :-( . Not everything works on all
> horses...."
>
> I will continue to maintain that if even John Henry had been taught to 
> have good manners, and not to bite FROM THE DAY HE WAS BORN, he would 
> have learned the lesson.  Note that he was trained to do a lot of 
> things, like be harnessed, trot (or pace, I can't remember which he 
> was) behind the pace car and not attack the horses on each side, etc.  
> These things are as much against the nature of  an unsocialized horse 
> as not biting people.
Neither

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_(horse)  
http://www.thoroughbredchampions.com/biographies/johnhenry.htm
http://horseracing.about.com/library/weekly/aa100997.htm

Chris McCarron - hall of fame jockey who rode John Henry for most of the 
prime of his career stated that JH seemed to know when it was time to 
get to work. When you got him out to race - there was no funny stuff he 
was all business. There was no problem tacking him nor any problem in 
the paddocks, no problems getting into the gate. But once the gate 
opened he wanted to beat every horse there and he did many times.

Every human is an individual. You can't train every human - no matter 
what type of brainwashing society tries to use there are always the 
rebels that defy. It's been tried multiple times through out history and 
hasn't worked yet.

While horses are human - they are also individuals and one has to wonder 
if in fact we can brainwash, I mean train ;-) , all of them either.

It was JH's focus and gut instinct that made him a great race horse. 
Maybe it was the same focus and gut instinct that made him difficult to 
deal with. I'm actually in awe of a horse like JH - he overcame may 
obstacles because he found an owner and Jockey that believed in him. One 
that would overlook the "petty stuff" because when he ran he was a 
wonder to behold and he got the job done. He wasn't  a horse for a 
backyard owner - but he was one hell of a horse. And he seemed to "Do it 
His Way."


> As for as the possibilities of retraining him as an aged gelding, I 
> will agree with Truman it probably would have been almost impossible.
>
> Ed
>
> Ed & Wendy Hauser
> 2994 Mittower Road
> Victor, MT 59875
>
> (406) 642-9640
>
> ranch(at)sisuwest(dot)us
>
>
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“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a 
monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also 
into you.”  Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil


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