Horses are the backbone of any ranch, and we take great pride in our herd and in the horse program. As you might know, though, we’re always trying to improve the experience for our guests. In a renewed commitment to leading the industry with top tier horses and a horsemanship program that focuses on consistent and well-rounded teaching methods, we are welcoming Kaulana Papalimu, fondly known as KP to most of us here, back to the ranch in a newly created role as Director of Horse Operations. This new role, along with all our awesome wranglers, will allow Vista to continue to diversify and grow. And we’re all pretty darn excited.
KP originally came to the ranch for the 2013 summer season as a late-hire wrangler. He stayed until about 2018, working his way up to Head Wrangler and Head Trainer, before his life led him in different directions, but as he charismatically told me, “Every time I’ve tried to get away from horses, they always come back.” He has only been back for a few weeks now, so without putting him too much on the spot and before we all disperse for the off-season, we thought it would be a good idea to introduce him to all of you who might not know him and give returning guests a sense of what he’s been up to during his time away from VVR and his hopes and plans for the future of our horse program.
KP, we are all so excited to have you back at the ranch. For those who may not know, what is your background with horses? Have they always been a part of your life?
I was born and raised in Hawai’I, where I began training horses there with my uncle when I was about 12. I instantly fell in love with it, and it was always my dream to become a cowboy. You wouldn’t necessarily know it unless you were introduced to it, but Hawai’i has a huge cowboy culture. My dad’s dad and my dad’s great-grandad were actually some of the first Polynesians to be trained by Spanish Vaqueros. [The origins of cowboys in Hawai’i can be traced back to the 19th century, when British Captain George Vancouver gifted the Hawaiian King Kamehameha with a few head of cattle. The cattle were relocated to Hualalai Mountain at an elevation of about 2,200 feet, where they were enclosed in a stone-fenced pasture. They were left alone for quite some time, free to roam and reproduce. When they began to outgrow their pasture and escape, the Hawai’ians needed a way to corral the feral cows and soon the Paniolo (or Hawai’ian cowboy) culture was born. Read more about the fascinating history of Hawai’ian cowboys here.]
What brought you from the island of Hawai’i to Vista Verde all the way up here in Northwest Colorado?
In 2012 I was living and working in California before deciding to come out to Colorado in 2013. I was a late hire for the summer season and then was offered a position to stay for the winter season. As the second summer season rolled around, I was assistant head wrangler under Nate, and I learned so much. I got my first taste of running the barn and managing people and what worked for me and what didn’t. Then, the following winter I transitioned into Head Wrangler before taking over as Head Trainer the next summer and staying for 3 years.
Had you ever experienced snow or winter before? I’d imagine that would be a huge shock to go from the climate in Hawai’i and California to here?
Not even close. One morning I remember walking out of my house to train a new sleigh horse and it was -38 degrees. I took one breath when I walked outside and started coughing up a lung from the cold air. But I’ve always been someone who takes things in stride and you either grow with it or find something else. You know what they say, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
It seems like you’d need to be able to take things in stride when working in the barn. Is that sort of your approach to training and working with horses? Or what would you say is your personal horse training philosophy?
It always changes. And I think that’s why I’ve been able to see a little success because I’m always looking for a better way to do things and I’m always open to new ideas. I have gathered a lot of knowledge through Buck Brannaman’s training methodologies, and I like using them because he sets up a ladder of how you progress your horse. There are consequent steps and if either the rider or the horse is missing a step, you can go back to make sure the stepping stones are in place to get where you want to go. Additionally, I’m a Christian and my faith is a huge part of who I am and my philosophy in teaching horses is kind of the way that Christ calls us to him with the option to stay or leave. It’s not a punishment; it just has to be the horse’s decision to form that partnership and to want to communicate with you.
I bet it could be hard sometimes, but very rewarding, to explain to guests who have never been around horses before how to communicate with their equine partner. Do you remember a specific instance from your time at Vista where a light bulb went off for a guest and they learned a lesson from their horse?
During my first summer here I was teaching a clinic and we were talking about just that—the way horses communicate nonverbally. I had a woman in the clinic who was having a rough time grasping it and getting to a good place with her horse. As the clinic went on, I was saying how sometimes you and your horse are talking to each other correctly and you’re really synched up and sometimes you’re not. You might lose contact with your horse, but at some point, you’re going to come back and meet in the middle. She stopped her horse after that and just started bawling. Tears were rolling down her cheeks. I thought, oh no what have I done–this is not good. I said, “Ma’am I’m really sorry if I said anything to upset you. That was not my intention.” And she looked up at me, tears welled up in her eyes, and she said she needed to get off to make a phone call. “I need to call my sister,” she said. “I haven’t talked to her in two years.” I helped her dismount and get to the phone in my office and just thought, wow, God really had a plan there for me that I didn’t see coming.
That’s pretty cool that we can provide the space for moments like that to happen. With that being said, how do you plan on advancing Vista’s horse program? What are your hopes and goals for the future?
It almost sounds too simple, but my vision is for the horse program to be the best that it can be. I want to elevate our caliber of horses. We’re hoping to bring in younger horses to get more consistent training and work under saddle to build reliable dude horses while also building up our wranglers to have consistent terminology and riding styles across the board. I enjoy teaching, and I think what’s most incredible about a horse is how adaptive they are to learning different things. I think humans are no different. But horses teach us something humans can’t because they have very few verbal cues and it’s about teaching body language, energy, and head space to redirect feelings of confusion and frustration into something good and creative and useful.