horse training

Buck Brannaman, Steamboat Springs, Day One, Part One.

16 Sep posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

My head is still spinning from the 4 days I spent riding with The Master, Buck Brannaman.

Was it the same as riding with him in Texas, even though I took the same class? Hardly.

Was it just as challenging as the Texas Clinic? I’d argue that it was more challenging, because I was on a colt with about 40 rides.

Did he remember me? Yes! And we got to chat about my colt before the clinic started on Friday. He really helped me get The Dino (who most of you will notice looks A LOT like The Gumper- and he should since they’re half brothers!) moving out more freely by what he had me doing throughout the clinic.

Have I grown as horseman? You bet! Do I have more tools before than I did when I arrived? Absolutely! Did I notice different things about his horses this time, than I had last time? Affirmative! What I learned this time, really made a great deal of sense (not that what I’ve learned from him before didn’t make sense), but this, this was different. I guess I should get to it!

The first thing he explained to us on Friday, was how a horse physiologically gets collected, soft, and elevated. And how what happens physiologically, when it’s done correctly v. done incorrectly. As I mentioned after the first clinic- softness in our horse is our horse reaching back for us- and putting slack in the reins- but we got an even more in-depth, better and more correct understanding of it this time, as Buck has learned a new way to teach it.

In correct softness, and collection, such as in classical dressage style (loose rein- think war horses)/bridle horse riding (and I’m aware, that I’ve not yet explained a Bridle Horse), a horse must be elevated in order to correctly shift their weight back to their hindquarters. By elevation, you need the poll of the horse to be higher than his withers, but you still need him to be soft in the face- so he’ll need to be on the vertical as well.

If you were to take any horse, stand him on level ground and measure him, he’ll be his normal height. But sit on him, ask him to elevate and he’ll be an inch and half taller. Same thing is true when you ask your horse to collect up- they do get shorter, as I’ve explained before. He went on to further explain that when you ride your horse with his head vertical and his poll below his withers that you actually close the shoulder blades and do not allow the ribs and back to raise up. But if you raise the poll above the withers, the shoulder blades do open up, thus allowing the ribs and back to come up and properly elevate the horse (photo examples of correctness below).

Buck on his horse, showing us what it should look like (Monday Photos):

One of my attempts while moving out- looks pretty good though I might could elevate him a bit more (Monday Photo):

At the standstill (Sunday Photo):

One of the things I noticed this time about his horses, specifically when he was loping or doing canter pirouettes, is that his horse is exceptionally elevated. His shoulders are up, and his back legs are under him, and he strides out father through the shoulders and front end than a horse that any Joe Blow might ride.

Some of you are probably thinking to yourselves right now- do you want your horse to travel like this all the time? The answer to that question is, No. You do not. You want your horse to move as naturally as possible, until which time you reach for him and then you want him to reach up and back to you- because if you reach for him, chances are you’re going to ask him to do something, such as stop, collect up so he can turn around, or back up etc.

To teach us the proper elevation and flexion he had us begin with a drill at the standstill- and this drill should carry over to everything else we do on our horse- be it a short serpentine, a turn around, or a one-rein stop (all of which we covered in the previous clinic I attended).

In this drill we wanted our horse’s head above his withers. And then we were to picture a string with a rock tied to the end, attached to his foretop (or forelock). The goal was to have the string stay in the middle of his face, when he was asked to bring his head around to the side, and to have him straight up and down enough that the string would hang straight down from his nose. So you wanted him turned and on the vertical- something like this:

In the above photo, it’s clear, that his ears are fairly level- or they would be if they were both up, that his poll is elevated and that he’s on the vertical. That drill is something we (Dino and I) did become competent at doing and I’m just dying for the sun to dry us out so I can get on Gump and Nora and help them get better. We sat and did that on our horses for about 20 minutes the first day, and it was the first thing I did on my colt every day thereafter that I got on him. I would do 20-30 of them both directions each day before we’d start class.

Here’s an example of doing it incorrectly:

You can see that his face isn’t on the vertical, and if we were to have a string with a rock tied to the end of it, attached to his foretop, it’d be hanging down the right side of his face, instead of hanging down the middle of his face. I’m hoping that the incorrect picture will help you further understand my explanation.

One of the benefits to doing it at the standstill first is that it helps your horse to get balanced. You’d see a lot of people in the clinic whose horses couldn’t stand still at first while they did it. But the balance of your horse starts there so if you can get that working for you at the standstill, and you’re consistent, you’ll get more from your horse at other gaits than you would have had you not started here.

Once that was working for us, he had us gathering our horses at the standstill- but first we’d gather them up- not pulling up, but waiting for their poll to rise above their withers;then we’d move our hands back, to gather them at the poll, and put them on the vertical (remember to release when they got soft). The goal is/was to have them eventually where, instead of working our hands on a 90 degree angle- such as up and then back, making an “L”, we could work on a 45 degree angle, so we would be able to go up and back at once, and have the horse elevate his poll and gather up through his face. For those of you riding, that might want to try this, don’t forget to release when your horse gets the elevation. Once he gets that you want him elevated, you can then move your hands back and ask for them to roll in at the poll- and again release when he gives to you. Buck told us that if he had to pick one for us to get while we were at the clinic, that it would be the elevation of the poll, not the breaking at the poll. He said he has found that getting the elevation helps people get the release better when the horse starts to break at the poll.

And I think this is a good time for y’all to soak in what you’ve just read!

Part two, coming soon!

[ad#Google Banner]

Previous Clinic Recaps:

Belton, Tx- Day One

Belton, TX- Day Two

Belton, TX- Day Three

Belton, TX- Day Four

4 Comments
Filed Under: horse training, Horsemanship, horses

Summertime Fun in Photos

14 Jul posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Trampolines make for great entertainment if you’re a kid:

Nailed it!

Having a colt sniff you for the first time-this is our other intern, Emily:

A cloudy, stormy, western sky:

First Rides- this wasn’t Kelsey’s first colt throw a leg over, but it was for our intern, Kara. She’s on the little black colt, we fondly refer to as Wyatt.

A little cowboy:

Short of the technology in our world, and of course the trampoline, I think one could consider our life a little bit like “Little House on the Prairie”.

What do you do during the summer with your kids and family?

[ad#Google Adsense] [ad#Google Adsense]

1 Comment
Filed Under: family, horse training, Horsemanship, horses, life, photography, ranching, summer

My First Ride

6 Jul posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

I trust that everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July Holiday, and that we’re all slowly easing back into things. We even took a vacation (gasp) and went to the river on Saturday and Sunday! We slack. I’m aware. But all work and no play, make this cowgirl cranky. I jest, I jest!

Yesterday, we were back to our regularly scheduled programming. Sunday, as my present to myself for America’s Birthday, I went to the pasture that morning, and caught my pretty 2yo filly Dolce. Some of you will remember when she was born, and how excited I was. I cannot tell you how long it seems to be from the time you breed your mare, to the time they foal (it’s an 11mo gestation period, in case you’re wondering), and then comes the excruciating wait for them to be big enough and old enough to ride.

My.
Wait.
Is.
Over.

Since I had my filly around to play with when she was a baby, she is well halter-broke, and super friendly. She figures anytime we come to the pasture we more often than not, have feed with us, so she came over to see us when we arrived. I caught her, and 5 minutes later had her in the trailer. Keep in mind, that since she’s been weaned at about 7mos, I haven’t touched her other than to see her in the pasture.

I gave her a few minutes to settle in and then went to playing with her. About 20 minutes, and some flagging later (I promise to explain flagging at some point this summer), she was ready to saddle. Quiet, unconcerned, and standing better than a lot of saddle horses we get in to ride (for other people), she let me saddle her and go right to more ground-work. I didn’t get to throw a leg on her this day, as we planned to be at the river, and I ran out of time, but manana is the word of the day, everyday, here, so Monday would be the magic day.

So yesterday rolls around, and I saddle her, move her out at the walk, trot and lope, and then climb on like I’m climbing on her mama. It could not have gone better! She’s willing, soft and tries really hard. By soft I mean that she follows a feel- so I don’t have to pull her, I can guide her with the float in my lead-rope, as we make the first few rides in a halter so as not to mess up what God put in the horse naturally.

Here’s three short videos of our ride. Enjoy!

I know what I’ll be doing today, and I bet you can guess too! Have a good one!

[ad#Google Adsense][ad#Google Adsense]

6 Comments
Filed Under: horse training, Horsemanship, horses, life

Horsemanship Camps

21 Apr posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Zach picking up a soft feel on Gump.

If you’ve ever wanted to develop a stronger bond with your horse, learn how he thinks, how he operates, get him more broke, feel safer on the trails, or refine the things you already do with your horse, you should absolutely come visit us for either a clinic or a camp!

Zach and I have tossed this idea around for a couple years now and we’ve kinda decided it’s best to just jump in feet first, and see how it all comes out. Both of us strongly believe that horses make the world a better place. There’s a reason that boy’s ranches and many forms of therapies for troubled kids, or autistic, mentally and physically challenged kids’ programs surround themselves with horses. Same with some prisons that use horses as a rehabilitative method. They’re good for the soul. They’re good for you mentally (and physically- they say you can burn 700 calories an hour just grooming a horse), and if you learn to apply correct horsemanship to your life, your life will be better, and you’ll have less knots in your back. At least that is true for me.

All of the principles I learned/reviewed and got better at, while at the Buck Brannaman clinic, work with people as well. In fact one of Buck’s sayings is “Horses and life- it’s all the same to me”. The basic premise is this: make the right thing easy, and the wrong thing difficult. You treat the horse how you want it to be. NOT how it is at that moment. It’s about shaping the situations to get the desired outcomes, not punishing the horse (or kid) when they screw up. That’s not to say there aren’t consequences. Because undoubtedly there are- but for a horse, at least, you shouldn’t ever punish them. They’re not a human. We apply anthropomorphic traits to them, when what we should do is learn how a horse reacts, behaves and responds in any given situation. We need to think like a horse thinks. Help him search for the answer and release the pressure when he finds it. Simple, right?

In theory, yes. But not so much in application. People often get mad at the horse when he doesn’t do what they want. Or assume he doesn’t want to do what they want him to do- which isn’t the case. EVER. What we should do is be mad at ourselves for not really communicating with him the best we can. And that’s what we’re going to endeavor to teach some budding horsemen in the coming months, and hopefully years. That the horse’s shortcomings, are simply our shortcomings. Between myself and Zach we have something like 45+ years of combined experience along with 20+ years riding/training/coaching the public.

At this time, the camps/clinics are all going to be set up on a first come, first serve basis and they’ll be custom designed for each individual or group.

Have a group of friends and you want to come learn something? We can do that!

Want to learn how to solve buddy sour or barn sourness? We can do that!

Want to learn to rope, run barrels, tie goats, or simply ride better? We can do that!

Want to learn to start a colt? We can do that!

Need us to come to your facility to do a couple day clinic? We can do that!

Here’s more details:

We are not taking any kids under the age of 8 for anything under a half day (4 hours) of riding.
The only facilities we have for camping, are either you bring your own camper/trailer/tent/ or you stay in our guest bedroom. However, we are located 15 minutes west from Bob’s Resort where they have a motel.
We are happy to keep your horses here.
Rates for individuals are as follows: $35/hour; $175/day (for as long as you can handle); $300 for two full days. If you have a group or want a week-long rate, please contact us here and we’ll see what we can set up. We ranch for a living, so riding horses is what we do on a daily basis. Can’t get free on a weekend? We can see you during the week!

We hope to hear from you soon! We look forward to helping you on your horsemanship journey!

8 Comments
Filed Under: horse training, Horsemanship, horses

The First Touch

19 Apr posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Last week, Zach and I spent a good 4 days halter breaking and rubbing on our coming yearlings. Some of them never wore a halter, others followed us around with nothing on them, and some learned to lead at the end of a lead-rope. Our goal was more to get our hands on every baby- all 18 of them, and get where we could touch them, and rub them and where they were comfortable with having a human around. For all but a couple of these horses this interaction made the first time they’d been touched by a human, or had even been close to a human. I’m going to attempt to explain to you, as best I can, the method we use and how most of it applies to when we’ll be on their backs for a couple rides this fall.

We like to start our colts in a smaller than usual round pen. We feel it makes it easier for them to feel what we’re asking them to do. So we build two smaller pens in one end of the barn. They’re not actually round, but they’re round enough to generally keep them out of the corners. Then, we rope them. But we don’t throw the rope at them- we toss it at them, with as little energy as possible on our part- we’re not out to be mean about it- it’s all done matter-of-factly as we mean the colts no harm. What we accomplish with each horse, is to have them learn that they can face us for comfort/leadership, have them learn to move their front feet- independent of their back feet, and have their back feet move independent of their front feet and have them learn to travel pretty and round. All of these things apply directly to what we’ll want them to do when we make that first ride, or the 150th ride.

Once they’re roped, if they’re a very busy colt, we let them get used to moving around while wearing the rope around their neck, and by keeping them out of trouble. Some of the colts will go the opposite direction they were traveling when you roped them, and if you’re not careful or paying attention they’ll get the rope behind them, which to some horses is troublesome. They’ll kick at it, or really scatter around the pen. Our job as horsemen, is to keep the colts on *this side* of bothered. So in order to keep the rope from getting stuck behind them, you have to lift it up and over them. Once they’re comfortable wearing it, the fun begins.

This filly is pretty comfortable with the rope on her neck- so Zach is quietly approaching her.

Here you can see, she’s looking away from him telling him, “Zach, I’m not sure I’m ready to sniff you yet”.

We like to make the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard- this works with kids too in case you’re wondering. In this filly’s case, we needed to get her facing us, and get her front feet to begin to “break loose”. Every horse is different, so we take what they give us and work through the process that way.

Here you can see she’s starting to get the idea. Please take not that Zach isn’t pulling on her to face him- there is slack in the spoke of the rope (that’s the piece of rope he’s holding in his hands, that is loose in front of her). This is how we teach the horse to learn to *feel* their way to a release of the pressure. It’s true that horses move away from pressure, but they learn from the release of pressure, by the horseman having good timing.

Now, Zach is going to work on getting her move her front feet, so he has slowly removed the slack from the rope and his now holding and waiting for her to move a foot. If she were to get bothered, and try to go backward, he’d simply let some rope slide through his hand, so it’d keep tension (as little as possible to get the job done) in the rope, and then he’d step to her hip to drive her forward. Forward, when you’re training horses, is the correct answer 99% of the time. If we can teach our horses to go forward or move their hips from side to side (at this age) and we handle them like that for as long as they’re in our care, they won’t learn to “sit back” when tied up, and they’ll learn they can always get away from something scary by moving their feet.

And she gets it along with the always important release:

Then we do the same thing on the other side. It’s the way horse’s brains work. What you do to one side, you must do to the other:

Here she is taking a step. I’m not sure why there isn’t a release in the rope, but I’m sure if Zach didn’t release, what she gave him may not have been the right answer.

Waiting on another step:

There he gets step and the rope goes slack:

It’s time to change directions. Notice the slack in the rope- we’d like her to follow him to her left side, with that much slack in the rope, but sometimes, the babies (and almost every grown “broke” horse that someone sends us to ride) need more help than that at first. Also note, that Zach has the filly in his peripheral vision- but he isn’t staring her down. Horses can read human body language better than humans can read human body language, and if he’d be looking directly at her, she might very well feel threatened by him. He is also ducking his left shoulder as he walks through. That is also to make him appear less threatening.

She’s turned her head to face him, and is actually thinking about checking him out:

For us (and lots of other horseman) it’s very hard to control the energy we have in us when touching a horse for the first time. There can be a lot of uncertainty there. We wonder if the horse will scatter around the pen, or if we’ll push too hard and scare them. It’s our job to keep them from getting bothered, so it’s hard to reach out and rub them for the first time and not rush it. It’s often easier for the horse, and us, to work our hand up the rope, or use the rope to scratch them, because, while it does carry some of our energy, it isn’t electric like we can be and it’s inanimate. So I have found, that for me, it’s easier to focus on readjusting my rope or using it to rub the babies the first time, and then before we know it, I’m using my hand to rub them, in the same manner in which their mother nuzzled them.

She’s looking pretty comfortable right there:

She’s getting ready to move:

Lookin’ pretty good:

Going to the other side:

Usually one side that breaks loose before the other; that is often the result of the nature of the rope- depending on which side the honda sits. The honda is the smaller loop that you can see the spoke (see above if you missed it) come through. Based on where it sits on their neck it does usually release more on one side than the other. But the horse can learn to differentiate, so they can and do get good on both sides by the time we’re done with them.

We’ve got the hips moving in this photo:

Some horses, will move their hips simply based on you pointing your feet at theirs and walking toward them; others it’s important to get them moving their front feet. In the above two photos, you can see that she steps to her right with her left front foot. By the very nature of which a horse is designed, if you can get the outside (left) front foot to step across, almost always you’ll get the right hind foot to go forward, under and away from you. That is the first step in teaching a horse to disengage their hips. Either for a one-rein stop, for a leg yield, for a haunches in, or the start of a side-pass, which we use a lot around here when we are opening gates!

She’s in a place now where she’s interested in checking my cowboy out:

First touch (notice he used the back of his hand- there is less energy transferred to the horse that way):

Here she’s starting to “turn loose”- you can see only one ear is focused on him:

You’ll have to pardon the crazy lighting in these pictures. It was a partly cloudy day, and I was sitting under one of the barn’s skylights-so when it was sunny lighting was good, but when it’d get cloudy, I had to use the flash. *sheepish grin*

He’s retreated here:

One of the hardest things- for me anyway- is quitting rubbing on my horse, BEFORE they feel the need to leave. So it’s best if you rub for a few seconds, and then start again.

She’s checking him out again:

Note all the hair she’s slipping:

Spring is the best time to get these babies in and used to being around people. They’re very itchy- because they’re losing their furry winter coats! When we get them to a place where we can rub them all over, often we’ll take a curry comb with us, and brush them. They get where they really love that!

She pretty much digs what we’re doing and is relaxed when she works her mouth:

I am pretty sure she’s positive at this point that Zach isn’t going to hurt her- her head is down and she’s kind of enjoying being rubbed on!

I’m sure by now, y’all are wondering how exactly does the rope come off? Well, I’m about to show you.

Zach pulls on the honda (the piece he has in his hand) and loosens the rope:

And then for kicks and giggles, he sees if he can get her to follow the feel of the rope that way:

She has the hang of it!

Then Zach will lift the rope with both hands over her head:

Freedom!

I realize this got long, but hopefully y’all stuck it out to the end! Happy Monday!

7 Comments
Filed Under: horse training, Horsemanship, horses

Buck Brannaman Clinic: Day Four

4 Apr posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Gump and I listening intently on Day Four.

I know, I know. I haven’t posted the pictures from Day Three yet- but the Easter Weekend got me all discombobulated. Add to that a trip to the Texas Hill Country, no internet while I was there and I have more to do than I can shake a stick at and, well, this is what you get. A Cowgirl that is way, way, way, behind! And I figured that since I’m so behind, I should probably try to get Day Four chronicled before I forget what went on. Not that I would. It was one of the best days of my life.

We started day four with the usual Q and A session. Lots of people had questions about the backing circles then turning out of them drill that we learned from day three. Buck had told us that we don’t kick our horses to back them up, which had caused all kind of stir from the day before. So that prompted him to show us how he progresses to a faster and faster backup.

To start his horses backing up, he simply picks up the reins, gets a soft feel, tips his shoulders back stays sitting in the go position and asks the horse to come off the soft feel. With the shoulders tipped back, it does shift your weight to a different location thus allowing your horse to learn to decipher the difference in go forward, and go back. Don’t forget that in Day Three he talked about releasing with every step. When the horse is good at the first method, he will then ride ahead of the motion, being sure to release with every step, but the release is late, which in turns makes your horse hurry. After they’re good at that he will vibrate the top of his legs which gets a lot more life out of his horses. By this time he can speed up or slow down the backup, but he says the horses learn that if they hurry, they get to quit and go back to being relaxed, so it is more difficult to slow your backup down after you’ve gotten them sped up. He didn’t say you couldn’t do it, because of course he can. And so can I, though I’m not nearly as fluid at it as he is.

Through the course of the Q and A I asked a question that had everybody thanking me- “what do we do, if in the course of backing our circle our horse gets off course? Do we simply apply our leg and have them move off and back into the correct position? Or do we stop what we’re doing and correct it?”

His answer like many of them, was two fold. He said on a young horse he would correct that by forgetting about the backup, especially of we’re off by 45 degrees or more. He would bend the head farther around, and push the hip in the opposite direction (like a one-rein stop) remind them to move their hip in the direction we’re going, and then go back to the backup. He said on an older horse that needs a reminder, he may use a leg to help bump him or correct him back into position.

Then we talked about how he asks his horses to go forward. If you made me pick one thing that made it the clinic all worthwhile, what he said next would be it. But don’t make me pick one thing, mkay? He said that he sits in the go position (position 2) and opens his legs. If the horse doesn’t respond from that (and of course a colt won’t have any idea what that means) he is then in a position to immediately squeeze, or kick them to create some life in them. He said the common mistake that people make is that they squeeze or kick first, and then have to re-cock to build a bigger fire under their horses. After three days of practicing this, Gump gets it about 90% of the time. I still need to work on me, but it’s so refreshing to have my horse go forward at the walk or the trot or the lope with little effort on my part. He said he rides his colts in the same way he’d ride his finished bridle horses, but the colt of course, won’t know what he’s being offered. However, because a horse is the master of remembering what happened before X (assuming we’re consistent and have good timing) eventually they’ll figure out that right after we open up, they’re urged to go forward with more energy, so before long they’re just going when we open the doors. Something else worth noting- if you don’t have to kick your horse to go forward, then your legs won’t become impotent (meaning that the horse just gets where he disregards any other cues from you about going left or right).

After that, he showed us all the ways he moves his horse’s hips, because as I’ve mentioned before, getting a soft horse begins with the disengaging of the hindquarters. I won’t go into the details, because he talks about all that on the DVDs we own.

Then he split us up into two groups by doing the good old count of 1-2, 1-2. The twos were in one group and the ones in another. He was going to have us work each other like a horse would be asked to work a cow. And I got to be his helper. Oh yes, me. He picked me to help him demonstrate! The point of this drill was to mirror each other. The group of ones and twos stood together in as the rodear (which is the herd being held in the pasture- and yes, we butchered that and came up with the word rodeo). That was good for a lot of those horses because so many of them are/were socially inept. I was in group one, but he asked me to come demonstrate. And lucky me- I had found someone to take pictures this morning, so you get to see it in photographs!

Me listening intently to him explain what we’re doing:

Buck explaining the purpose of the drill. We’d like the energy from the horses to help us pull them through the turn. And the homework we had from day three, the backing and turning drill was supposed to help us get this!

Me getting into position as the cow horse. And of course, Gump has probably worked more cows than me!

Listening intently. Again! I got pretty good at listening this weekend!

Buck explaining further:

Me picking up a soft feel and getting ready to go left (note the slack in the reins from my horse feeling back for me):

Me working my cow, getting ready to change directions:

Trying to mirror my “cow”:

Success!

Trying not to get beat by my “cow”:

He did beat me, but he was a good cow, and just stayed loping around the outside circle until I caught up. This was the first day of the clinic that we’d actually loped around in class. My horse never missed a lead.

My soft horse:

More explaining:

Me working a different cow. This one’s name was Kelly.

I hope everyone enjoyed the recap of the clinic!

5 Comments
Filed Under: horse training, Horsemanship, horses

Buck Brannaman Clinic: Day Two

1 Apr posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Gump

I forgot to mention on day one, that Buck was a little hard on us. I had decided ahead of time that I wouldn’t take anything personally because after all, I’m there to get better. He said that the purpose of the clinic was to help us learn to help our horses. That our horses could be just fine without us, as they’ve been doing just fine without people for thousands of years. That is profound if you ask me. My job isn’t to boss my horse, it’s to help him understand what I want. And in turn, he’ll give me more than I could have ever hoped for. Before we get into Day Two, I figured it was worth noting a couple of other things.

1. I rode my horse on Friday afternoon when the clinic was over. I worked on the things that we had done that morning, in the covered outdoor arena at the facility. There were only 3 other horses in that space and it made my horse feel a little freer. His serpentines that morning had been pretty good, but they were better that afternoon. Same with the one-rein stops. We did some walking, where we picked up a soft feel, and then carried that up to the next gait- a trot, and then down to a stop. To get a good, correct stop out of your horse they should weigh nothing. You melt into them (by saying, I’m done riding), they, in turn, melt into the ground. By getting a soft feel on your horse, and doing it right, the feel comes through the mouth, moves through the horse to his feet- so he can carry it. And what that does is change the horse’s body weight and positioning. Here’s something not many horse-owners or laymen know- a horse carries 65% of their body weight on their front feet. In order to have a horse that is truly collected and carrying the soft-feel RIGHT, that horse must learn to balance that weight, even shift it over his back legs in order to do many of the maneuvers asked of him- be it in barrel racing, turning around correctly as in cutting/reining/cow work. True collection is a shortening of the horse- the horse gets soft through his face, jaw, chin, neck, head, shoulders, rib-cage, rounds his back, and in turn his back end- drives up farther underneath his body than it did previously.

2. As to the one-rein stops- what people and especially those in the horse world need to understand about that maneuver, is that it’s a tool and a means to teach a two-rein stop. And if you do it right, your horse should learn to reach back to you, as you slide your hand down the rein, asking for him to disengage his hips in the opposite direction you’re asking him to reach with his face. And while it’s best done at the walk and trot, those people with good feel, who understand foot cadence can do it at a faster gait if they’re aware enough of their horse’s lead and speed, and don’t expect him to just immediately come around.

Now on to day two. It started with a bang. As in a student got bucked off her horse. But before we go there, I should mention that Buck was walking down the side of the arena, just as I bumped my horse into the jog-trot with a soft feel, and he said to me, “lookin’ good, Jen”. It made my day!

After I had sufficiently picked up my soft feel at the trot I moved my horse into the lope and as I came across the middle of the arena to change leads (we’ll talk about those later) my metal stirrup made some noise and I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a woman’s horse attempt to scoot out from under her. The next thing I know, there’s a foot of daylight between her tail and the saddle, and he’s done run off and left her. Itwasllmyfault. Well, not really, because clearly she had a communication problem with her horse. Buck decided he’d work her horse from the ground that day, and flag him, as we do to all our colts. It’s something every horseman should do to help their horses learn that they can handle noise and commotion. That we’re not out to hurt them. That by moving their feet to get away, we can still direct that energy from the ground (or their back), and in turn they can learn to stand. Confused yet, anyone?

The long and short of flagging a colt is simple- we want to get him used to the noise, the flapping, the waving, and being touched by something and have him be still while we do it. It’s an advance and retreat drill- where we will wave the flag, at first not directly beside him, but maybe beside us, and he’ll raise his head, and maybe decide he needs to move. Fine, he can move, but we’ll direct that energy, keep waving the flag until he tries something else. The very moment he stops moving, the flag stops moving. You do this until you can touch him wherever you want, put it over his back, wave it over his back etc. It could take 30 minutes, or it might take 4 days before they get good at it. It depends on how handy the person doing the flagging is, and how quiet the horse/colt is to begin with.

Buck gets this horse to a place where they’re both pretty happy, and hands the horse back to the owner. She thanks him, and we get our morning assignment. Twenty-five one-rein stops both directions. For a total of 50, one-rein stops. At either the walk or the trot. Next thing I know, she’s arguing with him about her horse. I don’t understand that. You’re going to argue with someone whom you paid nearly a thousand dollars to ride with, and learn from? Seriously? I found out later that day in a conversation with him, that she left with an hour left in class that day. She never returned. Some people can’t be helped.

After we finished the one-rein stops, he had us work on serpentines that were not short. He wanted us to work on getting our horses to a place where they could move left and right off our feet. I half-hitched my reins on the saddle horn and set about doing it. I knew if I had the reins in my hands, I’d use them instead of my feet. I think they turned out pretty good, and I got kudos on my efforts from The Master. Then he taught the class how to move their horses hips one direction, and push the shoulders through in the other direction. So if I picked up the right rein, my horse’s hips would slide left, and when he got his weight sufficiently collected (or rocked back), I would lead my right rein out, and ask him to step his right front foot to the right, then push with my left leg, to ask his left leg to step across and in front of the right front foot. I really struggled with this drill to the right. My timing was off, and I have a very bad habit of not keeping my weight shifted back when I turn my horse like this- he expressed to us that our weight should stay on our outside back pocket when doing this drill so that we could help our horse’s back end stay planted. For some reason, to the right, I want to wad up over his forequarters, and that makes it really hard for him to do the drill correctly. We only got it right a couple of ways this direction but we were spot on from the left. My horse, needless to say was even more velvety soft than he had been the day before. Score!

That night we had a group supper at one of the student’s homes. She has a beautiful place and a great time was had by all. We got more one-on-one time with Buck and I really enjoyed the evening. I know this post got long, and thanks for hanging in there with me. The pictures from the afternoon class are forthcoming.

Happy Wednesday!

5 Comments
Filed Under: horse training, Horsemanship, horses

The Weekend’s Barrel Race

15 Mar posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

I had a lot of fun in Stephenville, Texas, or The Cowboy Capital of The World, as it is known in these parts. They don’t call it that for nothing. There are countless NFR (National Finals Rodeo) Qualifiers and Rodeo World Title holders in Stephenville, as well as a famous singer, Jewel! If we took a count of the number of people that live in Stephenville that have been to the NFR, it would be pretty high! To name a few off the top of my head: There’s ropers, Randon Adams, Martin Lucero, John Paul Lucero, and Turtle Powell; in Barrel Racing there’s Molly Powell (Turtle’s wife), Kassie Mowrey, Cheyenne Wimberly; There’s Bill Pace in Steer Wrestling; Calf roping’s World Champion, Cody Ohl, and 7 Time All Around Champion/2 Time World Champion Bull Rider Ty Murray (married to Jewel), as well as 3 Time World Champion Bull Rider, Tuff Hedeman. I am just certain I missed some folks- but it’s early in the morning, so go easy on me!

I was able to stay with my college room-mate from Freshman year when I was in school in New Mexico. They moved from Colorado to Stephenville 2 years ago. I hadn’t seen her since 2003 (on a family vacation to Colorado) when she’d just had her first baby. Since then she’s had another, so it was fun to catch up and hang out with her family and her husband- a damn good roper in his own right- in fact if he could get someone to finance him he’d have just as good a chance as anyone at making it to Vegas. Kyle has out-roped most of the guys that go to the finals every year.

My Friday night run wasn’t so pretty; he took the bit in the alley and pretty much ran to the first barrel with his jaw locked and I had trouble getting him back. As per my horse’s current running times, we were 2 and a half seconds off. I have to say that he’s getting softer in his face at a higher rate of speed, but we are really missing out on some rate, so that is what we’ll keep working on. Some people might say I’m insane to keep riding him in the same bit, and doing the same things over and over (with perpetually the same results), but really, if he can’t get it in a snaffle bit, what’s the point in putting him in something else? Consistent riding is the key, and if I keep changing head-gear that’s not being consistent. I’m getting to undo 12 years of running, running, running with him. And if he learned to run off in a big bit, why am I to think he wouldn’t still do just that? I constantly struggle with being a barrel racer, who does the right thing for her horse. So many of the girls change bits on a regular basis, and don’t really give a fly flit about how their horse feels. It’s all about winning. My philosophy, as crazy as this seems to some of them, is to have my horse want to do this for me- for him to like it, and not be so wound up or crazy that I can’t do anything else on him.

Saturday’s run was nearly 3 tenths faster than Friday’s run and Sunday’s run was 3 tenths faster than Saturday’s run. I’ll take it! I am entered in a big barrel race next weekend at Alvarado; then I’m thinking that if we don’t have our rate down by then, I’m done entering until I breath the thought slow down and he melts into the ground. Hopefully the Buck Brannaman clinic will help with these things.

Anyway, it’s spring break this week and as such I have a full schedule of lessons, new horses coming in to train, ground to work, a barn to clean and stuff to do, so I’ll be busy, but it will be fun.

Saturday’s Run:

Sunday’s Run:

Happy Monday, y’all!

8 Comments
Filed Under: barrel racing, horse training, horses

A Fun-Filled Weekend

2 Mar posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Well I’m back! I’m not sure yet if I’m going to share the videos from the barrel race or not- but I am going to share all about what Zach and I did, and try not to bore you with my drivel about how much I love him and blah, blah, blah. I would have for sure shared my pretty, 3/4 speed run with you, but my videographer missed the first barrel. The runner in front of me was a scratch, and so I came in early and Zach wasn’t ready!

I’d like to take this moment to thank all the great girls that kept y’all entertained while I was gone. Let’s give them all a virtual round of applause, shall we? I should also shout-out to Brenda, a totally awesome client who made Friday’s great day possible by getting to the barrel race Thursday to stand in line and get us exhibition runs for Friday on her horse and for Gump! I couldn’t go because I thought Zach was getting in at 5pm that day, and the books opened at 4 that afternoon. And I clearly can’t be two places at once!

Thursday Zach surprised me by getting in several hours early! I must have missed it when he told me his flight was getting in at 1pm because last I’d heard it was a 5pm arrival. When he calls me from Rapid City on Thursday morning he was like, I should be to Texas by 1pm! Needless to say I was ecstatic! I graced the family with my famous shrimp pasta on Thursday night, and then Friday we were up and at ‘em to get to the barrel race.

Friday night’s run was really slow, but my horse did everything right, so I can’t and shouldn’t be upset about that.

Saturday we ran over a second faster, but even that was still way off the pace. But that was fine, because we learned that my horse is so long-strided, as one of my commenters mentioned, that it’s very hard to judge and get your timing right for setting him up to turn and be successful. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again- Gump is unlike any horse I’ve ever ridden before- he’s not exceptionally ratey (which means he’s not jonesing to turn a barrel) but he is very fast, and he’s what we’d consider to be a free-runner. He’s broke, but not as broke as he could be, so as we get more and more broke, we’ll get better and better at running.

Sunday’s run was probably one of the best first barrels we’ve ever had, but our second barrel, was a slight disaster. The third barrel was good and I was less in his way- than I was on run #2. All in all I’d say the weekend was very successful and I had a great time. I got to see a lot of friends, and by Sunday night was not only sad because Zach was leaving the next day , but I was absolutely worn out.

That’s the recap of the weekend’s events. It rained again on Monday, and as such is a muddy mess today. The good news is that it’s sunny and beautiful outside! So hopefully the sun combined with this north wind will help us dry out and I might be able to get on a riding schedule before the end of the week. That would make me extra happy!

Have a great day!

[ad#ad-1][ad#ad-1]

4 Comments
Filed Under: barrel racing, horse training, horses

Push (A Lesson in Friendship)

1 Mar posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Here’s another great post from another fun girl, a fellow barrel racer named Sarah:

Do you ever listen to the crowd or the announcer while competing? I have to admit, I do. Even while running my horse I’m still listening for support. I love hearing my friends yell “PUSH”. It makes me try harder. Yeah, that might make me a little co-dependent…although I prefer to think of it as multi-tasking. Whichever it is, supportive friends are great to have.

I am in the process of training my mare on barrels. I recently moved into a bunkhouse on my friend’s property. There’s room for my horse, there’s an arena, and BLM land nearby for riding. After years of having to drive to where my horse was boarded and then hook up the truck and trailer to haul somewhere to ride, I am in heaven. What makes it even more nice is having my friend 50 feet away to motivate me to ride on the days I’m not planning to. How does this relate to training my mare on barrels?

Here goes my conversation with my friend this morning:

Friend: Did you ride this morning?

Me: Nope. I rode the last few days, I’m giving her a couple days off.

Friend: What is she seven this year? (She’s actually eight) Are you on the ten year training plan?

Me: Um, yeah. Maybe I should ride tomorrow.

Friends are great. They care about us and can see our blind spots. Because they see things that we can’t (or don’t want) to see, they can push us forward into better versions of ourselves.

Without friends pushing us how would we get past fears? How many people would have tried cigarettes and alcohol? (Not necessarily the best push.) How would we know when we are being wimpy, or borderline lazy? Friends are there to push us into situations, and laugh because when they pushed we fell on our butt!

I’m writing this because I appreciate when my friends push me. I hope my friends don’t mind when I push them. While competing on horses, we push them to give their best performance (and horses make the best kind of friends). Pushing is a great way to show someone you care. So go on. Go push someone today.

I found this post to be quite relevant to my current situation and wish very much that I had more friends that were like Sarah’s! I am so glad that she shared! If you’d like to read more from Sarah, you can find her at over at Rock-n-Rodeo Girl.

[ad#ad-1][ad#ad-1]

4 Comments
Filed Under: barrel racing, friends, horse training, horses, life

Buck Brannaman, Steamboat Springs, Day One, Part One.

Summertime Fun in Photos

My First Ride

Horsemanship Camps

The First Touch

Buck Brannaman Clinic: Day Four

Buck Brannaman Clinic: Day Two

The Weekend’s Barrel Race

A Fun-Filled Weekend

Push (A Lesson in Friendship)

South Dakota Cowgirl Art

I Recommend:

Current Pastures

Grazed Pastures

The Herd

What I “tweet” about!