Kicking Bear Mustangs, About Us

People say, “He rides wild mustangs. He must be crazy.” Well maybe I am. I’ve
been kicked, stepped on, thrown, and bitten. I’ve ridden the back of a stampeding
horse that was afraid of its own shadow, and I have crawled away from a few that
have rolled on top of me. I’ve had a lot of hard experiences with all kinds of horses,
but those experiences have taught me what works and what doesn’t. Through it all
I have loved working with horses and their owners; doing my best to teach both
about riding. Crazy or not, my name is Michael “Kicking Bear” Hockemeyer, and I
train wild horses.
I have worked with horses for a long time. I went to college to study equine
science, worked for a few years as an equine veterinary technician, owned many
mustangs, and worked with a bunch more. I even wrote a book entitled Basic
Horse Training that is available at all the big online book stores. Currently I have
been training mustangs as trail and work horses. I have also been training for a few
new equine sports such as Mounted Archery and Mounted Shooting. My family
keeps its horses in Northern Illinois where my beautiful young daughter will soon
start learning to ride. I am looking forward to teaching her about horses and how
wonderful it is to ride.

My clients always ask me whose methods I use. Which
trainer do I try to emulate? I am proud to say that I follow my
own methods. When I started training I couldn’t afford to go
through a certification program; so I had to learn on my
own. I wasn’t able to buy expensive, show quality horses;
so I had to buy horses that no one else wanted – mustangs.
To top it all off, I had no fancy equipment and had to train
with very little. What does all that really mean? It means that
I had to learn how to work with the toughest to get the best.
I had to use methods that were straight forward and gave
the best results. I had to learn my own ways.
In training my students, I always encourage them to work
with their horses between training sessions. To help them
with their progress, I wrote instructions with simple
illustrations to show them what to do. In a short time I had
enough of those instructions to create an entire book on the
basic principles of horse training. The book was simply
titled Basic Horse Training, and it was released in
November, 2005. The book is available at all the online
bookstores, and hopefully it will be in stores near you soon.
Basic Horse Training will show you how to train a horse
from start to finish with no gaps between.

I have found almost nothing better than working with horses. It
has filled my life with a sense of adventure and wonder that every
person should know. More people should own horses, and
hopefully more people will. However, if more people are to own
horses more people will have to learn about how to handle them. I
am always willing to help people and their horses whether they
live near me or not. It is my goal to help educate people on how to
work with horses of all breeds. So if you have questions about
your horse or if you are interested in working with horses and
have questions… give me a call. I will be happy to help in any way
that I can.

Good luck, and keep riding!