Abe Gonzales in Waimanalo.
Abe Gonzales in Waimanalo.
The term "horse sense" is derived from the animal's instinctive knowledge about his handler's self-assurance. In humans, it's simple common sense, a deep intuition.
Gonzales has been shoeing horses since he started helping his dad at the age of 6, and riding them since he was 2 or 3.
Arthur Lindsey of Damien High School puts the rope on a calf
during a recent rodeo competition at Waimanalo.
Four of his five brothers also followed in the footsteps of their father, Antone, 75; they, too, became blacksmiths and rodeo riders. And now Gonzales' 13-year-old son, Justin, is taking the same path."Justin has been helping me since he was 6 years old, the age we all started with my dad," says Gonzales. After school and weekends, Justin accompanies him on jobs, "passes me tools, and learns how to be with animals."
That's how Gonzales and his brothers got involved in rodeo - "we were always around horses."
Instead of playing football or baseball after school, they would help their father shoe horses, and then he would teach them to rope and tie. It became easy for them to work with all ranch animals, including cattle, sheep and dogs.
Justin plans to be a horseshoer and his sister Nina, 11, also wants to work with animals in some capacity when she grows up.
Justin Gonzales, 13, moves in on his target during
the team calf roping competition.
Like Justin, Nina competes in the rodeo and more than holds her own "against the big girls," he says.She does best in the barrel racing competition like her mom, Leona, who has won her share of prizeholding buckles, Gonzales says. His own specialty is the double mugging event in which he holds a six-year arena record.
Most of the young rodeo competitors in Hawaii come from ranching families or have friends who have facilities they can use, and learn the skills from their parents the way Gonzales did.
Gonzales enjoys working more with animals than with people. He loves handling horses because of their kindness and the way they obey his commands during training, but their obedience does not come automatically.
"We raise our own babies,'' he says. "I do all the training as soon as they're ready, then turn them over to my kids to train them for an event. The kids learn how to care for and respect their animals, teach them how to do what they want without being forceful," without dangling a carrot or rewarding them with a lump of sugar.
Adrianne Knuppel of Waianae rides color guard at the start of a
Hawaii high school rodeo competition at Kualoa Ranch.
"We use positive reinforcement - praise, petting them, putting them up early when they do things right," which means taking the horse out of the stressful training situation or ending the exercise "so the next time they have to do it the horse is willing to please you to get the job done."If we make things as pleasant as possible, the animals will respond quicker and there's less chance of them picking up bad habits," he says.
Gonzales thinks the discipline this kind of work has instilled in his children will serve them well. Justin and Nina are so involved with "caring for and loving their animals, they're not concerned with what their friends from school" want them to do to "belong," he says.
"We don't force our kids to ride. They do it on their own because they love to do it." Gonzales says.
But more than giving them something constructive to do, teaching his kids how to work with horses and ride them has taught them qualities such as patience and self-control that can't be learned from books.
Bareback bronc: riding a bucking horse without a saddle Terms used in rodeo competitions
Saddle bronc: riding a bucking horse with a saddle
Double mugging: one horserider ropes a steer and another on the ground wrestles it down so both can tie it up
Dally team roping: one rider ropes the steer's head and turns it over so the other rider can rope the back legs
Wahine barrel race: a woman rider races around a configuration of barrels
Wahine steer undecorating: two riders have to keep a steer between them and the woman rider has to grab a ribbon off its back
Match barrel race: two people race against each other around barrels
Bull riding: a rider has to stay on a bull for eight seconds
He allowed his kids to handle horses before they were of the age to be broken so they would trust them and learn "humans are OK."
How you treat people and animals affects the way they respond to you, he adds.
Like his father, Gonzales began teaching his children on a daily basis not to fear animals from the time they were toddlers by first letting them ride in the arms of an adult, and then on their own.
"If they fell or were bucked off the horse, we taught them to immediately get right back on it," just as the old adage says. And if his kids were bitten? "Then they had whatever got bit in the wrong place. They know what end bites and what end kicks!" he says.
At 220 pounds, Gonzales looks like the typical brawny blacksmith in old western movies, though maybe a bit shorter at 5-foot-6. "I fit under the horses a lot easier," he said.
But there's no scowl or bluster; his voice is soft and low and kind. A voice that would calm man or beast.
WHAT: The 15th annual Hawaiian Professional Championship Rodeo Hawaiian Professional Rodeo
set this weekend
WHO: 200 men, women and children, amateurs and professionals, including Martin Kiff, professional rodeo clown and barrelman, and Mike Matt, one of the top young bullfighters in the nation,.
WHEN: Friday, 5 p.m; Saturday, 11:30 a.m. and 5 p.m.; and Sunday, 11:30 a.m.
WHERE:New Town and Country Stables in Waimanalo.
Tickets: available at all military outlets, Brigham Young University, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Cowboy Up or by calling 235-3691. Pre-sold tickets are $15 for adults, and $8 for children; at the gate they will be $20 for adults, and $8 for children.