stands patiently as he places a saddle on
his back.The following is a reprint of an article that appeared in the Indiana Sunday section of the Greensburg, PA Tribune-Review newspaper
Bond links horses to trainer
by Marilyn Kukula
Tribune Review
Standing in the center of a horse ring, Bob Sagely of Blairsville swings
his right arm out slowly, directing two wild mustangs that seem willing to obey his
unspoken commands. The animals circle the ring in opposite directions like experienced
show horses, passing within a few inches of each other. When Sagely steps toward them,
raising a stick topped by a bandana, they move more quickly. When he backs off, they slow
down. When he stops and turns his back, the younger horse Shiloh slowly comes up to the
man and stands patiently as he places a saddle on
his back.
"I've noticed a big change," said the horses' owner, Cynthia Howe of Fairfield Township in Westmoreland County, near New Florence. Howe, the caretaker of Camp Henry Kaufmann Girl Scout camp, said the two mustangs had never been trained or saddled to her knowledge, before Sagely started working with them about a month ago. Shiloh, a brown gelding that has lived at the camp most of its life, responds to Sagely's body language as the trainer inspires a trot simply by bouncing lightly in the saddle. If Sagely relaxes his head and shoulders while riding, the 6-year-old horse gently stops without any signal from reins or halter.
"If
you've made that connection, they'll match your rhythm," said Sagely. "Their
minds control their feet. If you get that connection, cooperation and willingness in their
minds, horses are born followers. The biggest thing you need is time and a lot of
patience."
VAQUERO STYLE
He says his horsemanship methods are based on the Spanish "vaquero"
style, a slower, gentler style he learned as a teenager growing up in southern California.
It focuses on the relationship between horse and rider. Sagely works from the belief that
forcing a horse to do things, or "breaking" the horse, isn't the same as
controlling it. "I was real lucky to hang around with some men who were
great-great-grandsons of Spanish cowboys."
When he starts working with a horse in a big open area, he walks toward
it, pressuring it with his presence, bothering it when it is anywhere but inside the ring
of fence he wants it to enter. "I always provide the horse with a place to go if it
feels too much pressure," said Sagely. 
"Their instinct is to run first. If they can't
honor that flight response, they fight. You don't want to fight a horse." He makes it
clear he is the animal's leader. He convinces the horses that his way is the easiest way
for them. "Horses respect confidence in their leaders," he said. "In the
game of horsemanship, he who moves his feet first loses."
NO BITS, WHIPS
He works the horse gently with a style that contrasts the American bronco-busting
tradition. He doesn't use a bit in the horse's mouth, a switch or even a harsh word toward
the animal.
"He's probably the most humane horse trainer I've ever seen," said Wayne Lichtenfels of Robinson, who has owned horses for more than 30 years. Lichtenfels met Sagely a few months ago when the trainer came to the Lichtenfel's barn to shoe two of his horses. When Sagely asked why the third horse wasn't getting its hooves trimmed, Lichtenfels explained that the horse, Keely, was so uncooperative and spooky that no one could pick up its feet or shoe it safely. Lichtenfels said he was considering selling the 9-year-old mare to a dog-food maker. "He (Sagely) took Keely and played with her a little and trimmed all four feet," said Lichtenfels.
Over the past few months Sagely has been training Keely, and Lichtenfels can see a change. "Keely's just a different horse altogether," said Lichtenfels. "It's unbelievable what he (Sagely) did." When Sagely gave a seminar on his horsemanship techniques recently, he used Keely to demonstrate how a horse is supposed to respond. "There's no such thing as a horse that can't," said Sagely. "Tell me about a horse that can't and you're telling me about a person who has set it up so the horse doesn't understand what is expected, what that person wants him to do."
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