A patient process

Student breaks and trains horses for a hobby

• Steven Hopkins / Asst. News Editor
• scrollnews@byui.edu

Seth Potter has been falling off horses all of his life.

That’s because Potter, a junior from Lyman, Wyo., breaks horses as a hobby, training them to obey their rider’s commands.

I love watching them go from not even being able to touch them to being able to have them do what ever you want them to, Potter said.

Breaking horses can be dangerous, and the horses Potter trains have given him his share of injuries: he has broken an arm, fallen on his head and been knocked out, stepped on, kicked and bit.

They’re kind of dangerous animals — something to be respected, Potter said.

Potter’s mother, Joann Potter, worries about her son’s hobby.

It drives me nuts. I can’t stand it. It’s my constant prayer that he doesn’t get hurt, she said.

In spite of the danger, though, Potter goes every day to ride and train the horses. He works at Copper Mountain Walking Horses, owned by Dale Sturm, a BYU‑Idaho religion professor.

Sturm admires Potter for his work ethic.

The kid is indefatigable. He rides when it’s 20 degrees. Even when it’s so cold that it’s painful to be outside, he’s out riding horses…. He’s so young he can’t be hurt, or at least thinks he can’t be hurt… he’s fearless, Sturm said.

Potter and Sturm first met while on a religious tour through Europe in March 2006 where they learned of their mutual interest in horses. Sturm invited Potter out to his house and Potter agreed to help train two colts.

His job is to train the horses to be ridden and teach them how to follow the commands of the rider. He also feeds the horses and gives them water when they need it, saving the Sturms hours of work.

Potter begins when the horses are first born, starting with simply touching a horse to get it used to humans. Then he trains them to be lead by a rope. With patience and a little daring, he progressively gets the horse used to having a rider.

One of the scariest steps, Potter said, is the first time he rides a horse with a saddle because he never knows how the horse will react.

In exchange for his services, Sturm lets Potter take his Suburban with the horse trailer to ride at the sand dunes and other places in the area.

Being from Wyoming, Potter always had horses around. His mother said that Potter’s best friends in high school were 55-year-old ranchers that would let him work with their horses in exchange for work.

Potter’s grandmother, now 93 years old, broke horses as a young woman and Potter also learned from her.

When he came to BYU‑I, Potter learned of a draft horse class taught by Rudy Puzey at the Livestock Center; there he learned the basics of the field.

In the future, Potter hopes to use his skills on his own horses to train them to walk over any terrain and be as fearless as he is. And his daily work at the Sturms will help him. I’ve got an addiction, Potter said.