Unbranded

"Unbranded"

A Documentary by
Ben Masters

Ben Masters
Photos by Western Horseman Magazine, Denver Miller, Phillip Baribeau and Ben Masters

Movie Trailer

Excerpts from the book Unbranded

"When I first met trainer Lanny Leach, I instantly knew that he was a horseman. ...Lanny didn't brag about the broncs he had ridden or the ranches he had worked on. He just communicated what needed to be conveyed in the simplest way possible. His intent was not in his words but in his tone and body language. ...Hour after hour Lanny expanded our equine body - language vocabulary from that of scared toddlers to confident pickup artists. Like any guy who leaves a bar with dashed hopes, we learned: be timid and they won't respect you; be too aggressive and they will never trust you. ...The techniques Lanny had taught us for taming the horses and gaining their trust had paid off."

Jonny Fitzsimons, Unbranded, Texas A&M University Press, 2015

Unbranded Book


Unbranded Book

"Picking Out The Herd."

"When I first met trainer Lanny Leach, I instantly knew that he was a horseman. ...Lanny didn't brag about the broncs he had ridden or the ranches he had worked on. He just communicated what needed to be conveyed in the simplest way possible. His intent was not in his words but in his tone and body language. ...Hour after hour Lanny expanded our equine body - language vocabulary from that of scared toddlers to confident pickup artists. Like any guy who leaves a bar with dashed hopes, we learned: be timid and they won't respect you; be too aggressive and they will never trust you. ...The techniques Lanny had taught us for taming the horses and gaining their trust had paid off."

Ben Masters, Unbranded, Texas A&M University Press, 2015


Lanny Leach - His criteria for picking the mustangs.

"What's neat about horses is that they'll show you on the outside what's in their inside. ...You don't want the biggest, toughest horse that's bossing everyone around but don't want the horse that gets picked on either. I look for horses in the middle of the bunch, horses that get respect and give respect. ...You can tell al lot about a horse by looking at it's head. ...You want gentle eyes. Hair swirls on their face tell you a lot. ...How a mustang reacts to pressure in the pens is important. ...The physical conformation of the mustangs was the most important factor in choosing the horses. ...Usually mustangs have pretty good feet because if they don't they die in the wild."

Lanny Leach and Horse in sunset

Lanny Leach with brown horse

Lanny's training.

"The first 30 days of horse training are the most crucial because you're establishing the foundation for the horses habits. It's the beginning of the right things or the beginning of the wrong things. ...My training methods are the same for all horses but extra caution needs to be taken around mustangs. ...With wild horses, you really have to be mentally on top of your game and always in the right spot. ...My objective is to gentle a horse and get it to begin to respond in a way that it starts to trust me. Each horse is an individual and I progress the training methods as they each learn."

Lanny Leach, Unbranded, Texas A&M University Press, 2015

Aggies and mustangs to tackle marathon wilderness trek

CRESSON — Bold and restless, four young Aggies turn their back on modernity and set off on a marathon backcountry trek, riding mustangs through almost 3,000 miles of Western wilderness. Along the way, they brave isolation, rough trails and perhaps even a Rocky Mountain grizzly or two. Read more...