________________________________________________________________

July 24, 1997               Voice of the Rocky Mountain Empire

with

By Jack Cox
Denver Post Staff Writer

Kelly Douglas Frank Bell poses with horse that arrived with 'attitude.'

The flyer promoting Frank Bell's services reads like something out of the personals columns.

" See the change," it exhorts. " Experience the difference. "

Call Bell's toll-free number, the ad promises, and you'll end up with a partner more " responsive, light, eager, trusting, feeling (and) fun."

Only the photo and the small print make it clear he's talking about horses.

Bell is a modern-day practitioner of the ancient art of " horse whispering," one of a small fraternity of seeming sorcerers who can turn bucking broncos into well-mannered mounts without using whips, spurs or force of any kind.

But he's not interested in taming rodeo's snorting beasts his clients are the problem children of the horsey suburbs, the thoroughbreds and Arabians that put scores of would-be riders in the hospital every weekend with shattered pelvises, broken necks or fractured skulls.

" My mission is to keep people from being hurt," Bell says simply. " I want to teach them now to develop a rapport, a partnership with their horses, so they won't go out and get beat up."

A 47-year-old ex-real estate investor who calls himself an " equine psychologist, " Bell works out of the Rocky Mountain Training Center In scenic Perry Park, west of the Douglas County village of Larkspur.

In essence, he " gentles" a horse by establishing an intimate relationship with It. He begins by speaking to it soothingly, stroking its ears, probing it in places its hooves can't reach -the hollow of It’s jaw, the mouth and nostrils, under the tail.

Then, once he has gained the animal's trust, he teaches it to respond properly to hand commands by " making things uncomfortable' when it does wrong -using such irritants as a squirt gun, a plastic bag attached to the end of a pole, or a handfu1 of gravel tossed lightly on its haunches.

Special to the Denver Post I Steve Taylor 'Whisperer' Frank Bell works to gain confidence of horse at his training center in Perry Park, 'I find few I can't ride in half an hour or 45 minutes,' he says.

At a demonstration a month ago in Greeley, Bell was presented with a 2-year-old horse that had been part of a wild herd rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management. In two hours, he says, he took it from never having been ridden to calmly standing with Bell in the saddle.

Larkspur horse owner Meg Lodes testifies to watching her " rogue" steed- who reacted to everything, trusted no one and bucked everyone off" -melt in Bell’s hands. Another satisfied customer, Bob Claymier of Marshall, Va., says that not long after his horse had " bucked so hard she broke my pelvis, his wife was riding the same mare with confidence as a result of Bell's tutelage.

" I stress bonding. I'm going to make sure I can dance with a horse a little on the ground before I ever get into the saddle," Bell explains.

" It's just like with people. If you'd just met a woman, you'd want to get to know her a little, take her out to dinner before inviting her over to your place."

The world-class angler got interested in horse whispering after his wife (from whom he is now divorced) was bucked off a horse he had bought for her in 1986.

" I like to say that two bucks changed my life," he says. " One was my wife getting bucked off. The other was meeting Buck Brannaman."

Bell also credits the wisdom of the Plains Indians, as well as such other modem horse whisperers as Ray Hunt, a one-time rodeo rider who was Brannaman's mentor, and Linda Tellington-Jones of Santa Fe, the originator of a technique now known as the " Tellington touch. "

" My competition is all cowboys -they wear boots and cowboy hats. I'm not -1 wear shorts and baseball caps," Bell says with an engaging smile.

" But the basic idea is the same. If a horse is uptight, if it's afraid to cross water or go through bushes, you have to help it work through the problem. Otherwise, it's going to come out (in some kind of nervous response), and then you're going to be in trouble.

Bell is currently performing benefit demonstrations of his skills at major cities throughout the country. Proceeds from these demonstrations benefit local chapters of North American Riding for the Handicapped (NARHA). NARHA has more than 500 chapters in the U.S. and Canada.

Discover the Horse You Never Knew!

A 60-minute video that will change you and your horse's life and relationship! Frank's Foundation Video...the place to start!

Learn More