Anuario Raza Polo Argentino Anuario2017 | Page 273

Break-In Clinic in Bahía Blanca BAHÍA BLANCA RURAL EXHIBITION Within the framework of the Bordeu Rural Exhibi- tion, and responding to a call by our delegate, Mr. Martín Carpegna, Ignacio Recio held a break-in cli- nic in which he showed us in very few hours, how to approach the horse, and also the first mounting of it, explaining each step in detail, and actually showing us how. It is worth mentioning that of the more than 50 people there, no one moved from their place till the end, which shows the interest they had in the sub- ject and the skill of the speaker. Ignacio Recio: “The Important Thing is to Be Trained” “At this clinic you did a great job with a filly. How was it?” “I am very grateful to the Irastorza family who gave us this very intelligent mare and what we were able to see was what the first approach between the tamer and an un-mounted horse is, and I tried to show three different ways in which one can ap- proach the horse. From mounting her bare-back; getting rid of her ticklishness with one’s hand; rela- te body-to-body with the animal… another system is using long reins; running ropes around its legs; flexing the neck, in order to then mount her. This is used more in riding horses, more for safety’s sake. And the third option is to approach it from above, knowing that it is a tame animal; saddling it and getting on carefully, trying to get it to understand that nothing bad will happen to it. All this we were able to show in about three hours. I was lucky in the fantastic mare I was given, she allowed me to show all the systems without becoming mentally exhausted.” “In your opinion, are there more resources now than there were before?” “Break-in now is much easier. I experienced the last stage of farm break-in, but I think everything is safer now. Before it was more of an artwork; it wasn’t possible to say why things happened, and it all went back to the talent of the tamer. Fortu- nately nowadays there is a lot of information one can research, because it is achieved at each step. There are many tools; more knowledge, that make it easier and avoid violence. Today we seek much more safety for both horse and rider. Nowadays the tamer has a longer working life.” “How do you perceive today’s genetics in break-in?” “The truth is that it has changed a lot and the ge- netic issue has developed a lot. I think nowadays horses with high genetics are very permeable and assimilate everything. That is why we must be very careful when you approach them so that they un- derstand clearly each of the concepts we seek to instill. We try to make all the knowledge sink in so that they may play in the long run.” 271