PENROSE — Jack Wright started working professionally with horses just after graduating from high school in 1980, but it took another 20 years or so to reach the epiphany that made him a world champion.
“It took a lot of years to realize that asking a horse to do something worked a lot better than demanding,” said Wright, 53, a compact, athletic man who tends to do more listening than talking. He’s among the elite and competitors at the .
Wright’s method of training has earned 30 world and reserve titles in competitions including the 2014 American Paint Horse Association world championship, high point all-around horse, high point all-around reserve horse, high point Western horse and the high point exhibitor award.
Translated for city slickers, Wright is one of the world’s best cow-horse trainers, a skill prized by people who breed and show horses. A horse that can turn on a dime, skid to a halt, and is equally facile at heeling (helping a cowboy rope a steer’s hind feet) and heading (catching the steer’s horns) is worth a lot of points, and .
“His work has been outstanding,” said Craig horse breeder . She hires to train and Tru Rolex, two of the world’s top paint horses, and Rolex N Starlight, a young horse Wright is taking to the stock show. (The horses’ names reflect their registered lineage; Gay Bar Drummer shares the same family tree as , a horse Wright is riding in the stock show.)
“He likes the horses. The horses like him. They perform very well for him, and he’s a very, very good trainer … They give him their all.”
Wright is unparalleled in his ability to teach a horse to respond promptly to cues as subtle as shifting his weight in the saddle, or changing the angle of the rein on the horse’s neck.
Here’s how Wright summarizes his gift for analyzing a horse’s strengths and disposition: “I just spend a lot of time with the horse on the ground,” Wright said. “I just watch them and pay attention to their disposition. I feel ’em out. I look at how they act when I’m leading them. I see what happens when I pick up their foot, and watch how they react to that. There are so many things you can do to study a horse.
“For example, if the horse doesn’t flinch when you pick up its foot, you know you can work with him right away. If he tries to take his foot away from you, then you know that horse is a lot more sensitive, and it’s going to take longer to earn his trust.”
He studies the horse for . How does it respond when he touches its neck? Its flank?
That’s how Wright learned , who is one of the , was willing to do just about anything in exchange for a good forehead massage.
“It took a little time for him to build up trust, and he’s a little touchy around his ears and his head,” Wright said.
“But rub on his forehead, and he’ll let you do whatever.”
It’s a little more complicated than that. Wright has an instinct for figuring out what job or event best suits a horse, and he’s direct with clients.
“If I figure out that some horse isn’t made for a certain event, then I tell the client that the horse needs a different job,” Wright said.
Wright’s clients board their horses at his place in rural Penrose. Each has a stall in the quiet barn next to the long horse trailer that was among Wright’s winnings at the American Paint Horse Association show last November. (Wright also has a stunning collection of trophy belt buckles and y prize saddles.)
Wright shoes the horses as well. It’s another way of building trust. An added benefit: He’s amassed a respectable collection of used horse shoes. Wright welds them into coat racks and what he calls chandeliers, tiered structures that hold ropes and other gear.
“I’ve had a lot of enjoyment helping people as well as horses,” he said.
“I guess a good way of putting it is that horses have taught me how to live my life. It goes back to patience, and treating them the way I’d like to be treated. Each horse needs something different, and that’s true with people, also. You can’t ride one horse the way you do another one. What works on one horse won’t work on another.”
Claire Martin: 303-954-1477, cmartin@denverpost.com or twitter.com/byclairemartin
Jack wright
The Penrose horse trainer is responsible for working with cow horses that won more than 30 world and reserve titles
