Sept. 16 at the Napa Horsemen’s Association, wild horse gentler Lesley Neuman gave a demonstration of how she works with the animals.

It was an impressive show of how powerful, gentle pressure can quickly create trust between the human and the horse.

Neuman was like the “horse whisperer” of fiction and film, because of her gentle technique; but in reality she was hooked up to a loudspeaker so she could describe every aspect of the procedure to the human audience.

The horse's attention was on her, and seemed unaffected by the loud sound system.

Neuman started by just getting into the horse’s space, the horse constantly moving away.

Then she picked up the rope, dropping it after the horse responded to subtle pressure. Gradually she held the rope more, the horse constantly moving as she would walk into its space and then would back off.

Neuman did this until the horse decided to stop moving away. She stopped too, and they looked into each other's eyes.

As Neuman continued her strategy of gentle pressure, at one point she was tossing the rope at the hind legs of the horse to desensitize of its fear of ropes.

In short order she was able to toss the rope at the horse without it being startled. She was also shortening the distance to the horse by rolling up some of the rope.

It didn't take long before she got close enough so that the horse could sniff her hand. When the horse allowed her to get close enough for her to touch it, she touched its halter first, then progressed to where she could touch the horse itself.

She introduced her hand gradually, the back of her hand first as this is less threatening to the horse, and eventually she got to where she was rubbing the horse's eye (horses like that).

By the end of the session the horse was getting into Neuman's space, curious about her.

This transformation, this trust took less than one hour to establish.