The Early Days

I was born in Nevada, as were both my parents, Aramand and Dorothy Fontaine.  My father was my first teacher in how to hook up with horses using their own ways.  We had a family horse he’d ride while he packed supplies on another, and he’d go out with those two and bring down wild horses from the heart of mustang country.

This is how he did it:  he’d locate a herd and then work his two horses close to the first horse he wanted and have them buddy up with the new horse.  He’d stay with that horse until he could put him between his two horses, and then he’d crawl back and forth over the three of them. Eventually he could ride that mustang while keeping in the middle of his two, and he’d ride him all the way back to the ranch.

We moved to Tracy, CA during my childhood.  My father and some of his friends rode local rodeos, but one friend was killed riding saddle broncos, so my dad decided to ride bareback broncs only, and that became a way of life with us.  Riding bareback, we and the horse feel one another and tell it all.  We and the horse become one.