Turning Loose

"My biggest problem is taking the time to listen," says one man in Turning Loose. Is he referring to a) his spouse, b) his children, or c) his horse? If you said wife or kids, you'd be wrong. Produced and directed by Barbara Hauge, Turning Loose is an outstanding documentary about an unorthodox cowboy: Ray Hunt, who traverses the country teaching ranchers and cowboys a kinder, gentler way to break horses. "It's easy to change the horse, but it's hard to change the human," says Hunt, who has the rugged good looks of the Marlboro Man and the ready quips of a Will Rogers. Dropping all that metal headgear, Hunt works directly with the horse, reassuring it, offering options, and...eventually the horse realizes that there's no need to protect itself from this guy and amazing things start to happen. Some of the most incredible footage is shot at various clinics which Hunt puts on. Here, enrollees are told that on day two they will be riding their horses bareback with no reins (this is, of course, the same critter who has thrown them into the dirt on numerous occasions). And the coup de grace comes when Hunt singlehandedly loads and unloads a mare into a trailer using only a guide rope. What raises Turning Loose to the level of excellence, however, is not just the fact that Hunt can do wonders with horses; as in the best documentaries there's always something more going on, and here it's the notion of working with rather than against, and as some of the interviewees attest, it does wonders in the home too. An excellent and very compelling film. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (R. Pitman)