The Jeffery Method of horse breaking

What can we learn?

And this Anzac Day, we remember all the horses and animals which went into War with our Diggers, and never returned.

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The Jeffery Method of horse breaking

Following on from the previous post about breaking in a horse in 30 minutes, (which you can view HERE) I promised I would give you a follow up on the Jeffery Method, a true Aussie method for handling untouched horses.

This article is an excerpt from my new book, Buy The Right Horse which you can buy here or from Amazon.

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My husband and I were inspired by Maurice Wright, who was demonstrating the Jeffery Method of horse handling around Australia in the 60s. We had seen him in several demonstrations at interstate events, where he would take on an unhandled wild horse and break it in in front of an audience while explaining how he did it.

He practiced the principles of Kel Jeffery, who first developed it and gave demonstrations up until he was an old man. Maurice had even done a demonstration once with a 10 year old gelding. Maurice wrote several books on the subject.

The Australian Stock Horse Society had only just formed, and Peter had formed the first branch in our State. So, we decided to invite Maurice over to do a demonstration as a fundraiser.

We managed to find a filly off Anna Creek Station, which was sent down in a truck to the Adelaide Sales Pavilion at Wayville, where, before a huge crowd, Maurice began to show the method.

My husband, who was a professional photographer, photographed the whole demonstration. People were spellbound as this was something rarely seen: a man and a wild beast in a yard together, getting to know one another in the kindest possible way.

The filly was extra sensitive and reactive, showing the crowd that she was indeed an unhandled horse! We saw she was very determined, as she could bite, kick, and rear. We noted the filly watched him the entire time, and when licking her lips, Maurice explained it was a necessary sign before he moved on to anything further.

Maurice even apologized to the crowd that she was taking a lot longer than usual. They all said to carry on as they were enthralled.

All Maurice did, in effect, was to use a long rawhide rope with a ring attached, which was slipped around her neck. This was achieved by putting the rope, like a big noose, on the end of a long pole, near her head.

For a while she would dodge it, but ultimately she would run through the noose, and the rope would lie around her neck. He shortened it to the highest point of the neck with the pole, never once tightening the rope until he was about to start “the method.”

He would gently tug it with immediate release until, after a few tugs, she faced towards him. Each time he backed off. He called it "reward with retreat.”

Slowly, this was built on until he could move up close, whereupon he would let her sniff him. As Maurice stated, the filly was the most difficult he had ever started; this stage took about an hour and a half, longer than the rest of the process put together.

In the next step, he started rubbing her all over in"advance and retreat" and waited for the lips-licking before advancing again.

Within a short time, he'd managed to rub all over her, even between her back legs and lifting her tail. He then proceeded to mount and slide all over her body in the same "advance and retreat" manner.

He brought in a saddle cloth, rubbed it all over using advance and retreat, and then proceeded in the same fashion with a saddle. He girthed up and walked away.

This was the only time he left the filly to herself. Soon enough, her attention left him, and she bucked her way around the ring, showing all the signs of a seasoned rodeo horse.

When she finally stopped, Maurice walked back into the ring, picked up the rope, and proceeded as if nothing had happened. The mare immediately felt secure again.

Because she licked her lips quite a bit, some skeptics thought he must have had a trick, like honey!

To cut a long story short, Maurice had another man on horseback brought into the ring to achieve forward movement by leading her off it. As he explained, he'd spent all this time asking the horse to stand still. Now he wanted her to move!

He rode her around the ring, and only after that did he slide off and bridle the horse. He asked for some bend from the reins on the ground. All this still with "advance and retreat."

She quickly learned to walk and trot around alongside the horse, at which point Maurice called it a day. The whole event took around 3 hours.

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So what happened to this horse after that?

My husband looked at the photos that night and decided the mare had good enough conformation to buy her. He wanted to follow up with the Jeffery Method himself.

After buying her for $80, he went to the stables where she was located to pick her up. The man there warned him to be careful, as the method didn't work. He said he couldn't even get into the stable with her!

The rest of this story can be found by unlocking your free trial,
or by reading Buy The Right Horse, available HERE or from Amazon.