Loved this Amazing Documentary!!!

Stories were incredible to say the least!

Heard many a true account of a horse that was "untrainable", and said horses were sold off for slaughter. Too bad that the previous owners did not know any of the top 100 Horse Trainers all over the USA. They could have made ALL the difference between the "untrainable" to trained in 100 days.

Everyone understands that the Contest creates interest, then participants, but it is unclear if the top ten win any money prizes or not. This could be a "Winner-Take-All" event, which REALLY raises the stakes for all entrants.

Still discussing the Contest, the MOST impressive trainer was the young 19-year-old Mr. Kokal from New Hampshire. The man who had his horse ride blindfolded. As this was his first Contest, I understand that most, if not all first-time entrants can't "win" the top prize after veteran Trainers have participated for seven years or more; 2nd Place Runner-Up Clint Bailey was now 2nd place again - two years in a row. Watching Clint Bailey you see a TRUE horse trainer of the highest calibre. I wonder if Mr. Bailey tried again.

The winner for the 2009 Contest, Ms. Kylie Wilson of Queen Creek, AZ, was great in her own right. The sudden stop-dismount has to be a very difficult trick to teach in the 100 days allotted, and she is one of those Veterans that competed many times. There were many other outstanding Trainers that are the elite of the elite.

But I digress, I still feel that Mr. Kokal, from New Hampshire, might have been overlooked too much. However, the Documentary Filmmakers must have been impressed enough to put Kokal's final ride in the Lower Division Consolation Rounds( which Kokal finished 3rd out of 5 was it?) in the Special Features of the Film. Notice that Kokal's ride was the ONLY one shown in it's entirety despite all of the other fine rides.

Kokal and his brothers started their own Horse training ranch around 13 years of age, and studied the horses' body language over the years, thus finding the better way to get their horses to begin the acclimation process around humans. I wonder if Mr. Kokal ever competed again like many others in the 2009 Contest.

It was touching to see several Trainers trying to bid against the Public to "win" their horses so they could take them home with them. A few managed to do so. The unspoken "secret" here is that these elite trainers did the dirty work of making a wild Mustang trained after 100 days, so the monied folks can come in and scoop up these now-fine horses to take home. I guess that is the way it is in the Horse World. Instant gratification without them doing the hard work themselves.

So I will look up subsequent Contests past 2009 and hope to find a pleasant surprise...