starting a young horse part 9

I had just finished working with my horse for the day, when his owner drove up. "How is my horse doing"? I was very happy with our progress, but I could tell right away the owner was not. Nothing meant anything to him other than, I had not gotten on the horse yet. "I'll do it", he said. I tried to explain what we had accomplished and why I was going a little slower with this horse, but that just did not seem to have an impact on him. However, it was his horse and he could do what he wanted. Out in the round pen he went with a very determined look on his face. He took the lariat and right away the horse started moving around the round pen. Only, the horse was not used to anyone hitting him with it, so instead of making him calmer, it was sending him into a flight mode. The owner was trying to catch him by throwing the lasso around his neck! He caught the horse and finally, after a time pulled the horse into him. Of course, all of this was new to the horse and he was totally freaked. The owner tied him to a post in the round pen and started putting the saddle on. I had introduced him to the saddle so that was not so bad, but you could tell he was very worried and scared about what was happening. I was beside myself, watching 3 weeks of hard work on this horse go down the drain in a frightening way. I was afraid the owner was going to just forget the training part of this horse, take him home and nothing would ever be done with him. I watched him mount the horse, have someone turn him loose and off they went. Literally, the horse one way and the owner the other in about 5 seconds. This happened 3 times before the owner gave up, picked up his hat, dusted himself off for the last time, and without saying a word, got in his truck and left. There I stood in stunned silence watching the horse I had worked with for so long revert back to the scarred, wild looking horse that had first came to me. I did not know if I would ever win his trust back again. I was devastated.