horses

Second Clinic in Steamboat Springs, CO:

From The Horse’s Mouth

7 Nov posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

This week we have ANOTHER contest/giveaway, with yet ANOTHER one next week! I mean, who doesn’t love free stuff, right? Plus it’s the holidays and that means these are things that I think will make GREAT gifts!

Through the years I’ve gotten to know some very interesting people; some that show me I’m on the right path (as in those who’re quick to show you the kind of person you DON’T want to be) and those that continue to make you strive for excellence.

And then there’s those that have similar thoughts when it comes to horses.

Mr. Robert (Bob) Kinford is one of those folks. He has decades of experience with horses, and his colts all ride around happy- a big plus for me! He’s got an amazing sense of humor and can cook like no other! He’s a cowboy gourmet, a buckaroo, cowboy humorist, a low-stress cattle handling expert, as well as an author!

He was kind enough to let me get a sneak peek into his latest book: “From the Horse’s Mouth” and I have to tell you, his wit and wisdom shine as he writes a book from the perspective of the horse!

This isn’t your typical horse-training book. It’s a humorous, sad, and real book about how we, as humans, tend to over-look our horse’s perspective. Now those of you that know about our training philosophies here at the ranch know that we try to always put the horse first. It’s why we ride with Buck Brannaman. But there’s still folks out there, that never think about how their horse feels or what’s going through his mind. This book does just that, and it’s a great read!

From the Introduction:

Everyone is always looking for that “magic bullet” to take care of all of the problems they have with their horses. The problem is, there is no silver bullet. After working with thousands of horses over the decades, three things have become clear.

First every horse is an individual, and second, every horse is a product of its past. Third, two horses can have a nearly identical past, yet hold opposite lessons from it. The best analogy I can come up with to describe this is two children raised by an alcoholic parent. One may grow up to repeat the life of it’s alcoholic parent, getting drunk, beating the kids and kicking the dog, while the other grows up to abhor alcohol and cannot raise a hand to their child under any circumstance.

This individuality makes working with each horse unique. Developing a relationship with horses is much like developing relationships with people. One may be willing, open, and easy to work with. The next may be like dealing a past full of abuse who is suspicious, angry and looking for an opportunity to lash out. Yet another may have a past of injuries which cause problems due to pain or vision loss which cause adverse reactions to what we are asking of it.

The goal of From The Horse’s Mouth is to let the reader walk a mile (or two) in the horseshoes of of their equine friends. Let them walk in the shoes of horses to learn why the problem lies not in the horse, but in their own deafness to what the horse may be telling them.

Here’s my review:

In a world full of instant gratification, where winning is all, the one thing over-looked in today’s equine world is the point of view of the horse. Bob does a great job making the stories not only entertaining, and relatable, but shows us that if we put the horse’s thoughts first, and study how to become “fluent in horse”, and work on the horse’s schedule and not ours, we’ll be able to have a willing partner who’ll ride with us to the end of the earth. Isn’t that what we all want?

Now, if you have someone on your list that loves horses, I highly recommend you enter to win this book. Bob has been gracious enough to offer an autographed copy! Yes, folks, that’s right, an Autographed copy! And I bet he’ll even sign it with a few words of wisdom if we ask nice!

So here’s how we’re going to give you chances to win:

1. Head over to The Horse’s Mouth on Facebook, and tell them, you’re here because I sent you!

2. Follow Bob (or me- @thesdcowgirl) on Twitter: @bobkinford, and tell us you want to win a copy by using the hashtag: #bkhorsesmouth

3. Tell your friends! For more chances to win, send your friends to The Horse’s Mouth Facebook page, and tell them to let us know who sent them. You’ll both get an entry.

4. And finally, leave a comment below, letting me know you “Liked” the Facebook page, or twittered about the book or both!

This contest will run through Friday at Noon Central, so be sure you enter, and enter often!

Happy Trails, and Happy Horsing Around!

PS. Be sure you check out Bob’s other writings, in the links above. I assure you, they’re full of wit, wisdom and good eating!

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Filed Under: contests, horse training, Horsemanship, horses

It’s Friday!

4 Nov posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

I spent the majority of my week gathering pairs, sorting pairs, and sorting calves; and of course taking a few photos. I’ve been on no less than three different horses this week and Dino got moved to the A-team as my other partner, Gump, has a little boo-boo on his chest and forearm. It was shipping week on the ranch, also known as our payday! I’ll talk more about that at a later date.

In the rest of the spare time I had, I worked very hard to finish the calendar project! It is done. And no, I’m not showing you all the pages! You’ll have to buy it if you want to see them! But you should know that there will be never-before-seen photos in it! It’ll make a great Christmas gift, and I’m only having 100 printed, and guess what- there’s only 60 left!

You should also know that I got a call yesterday from a perfect stranger. A perfectly nice stranger, that is. A perfect stranger to me. He knows people in the family. That’s just how small South Dakota is! He is a contributing photographer to the Capture Dakota project, and wanted me to know that my photos have been appearing in the Aberdeen News and he wanted our address so he could send me a copy of the paper! So see, perfectly nice!

Now let’s get to the good stuff! The pictures- compliments of the iPhone and Instagram!

Nukie and I bringing in some stragglers when we cleaned a pasture on Sunday.

Dozer, Banjo and Nuke, enjoying some grass over lunch on Monday.

The view from my lunch seat! I was leaned up against a very comfy saddle listening to horses eat!

Dino trailing pairs on Tuesday.

And that is pretty much my week in a nutshell. I really do hope you’ll consider making my newest project one of your Christmas Gifts!

Happy Trails, and Happy Friday!

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Filed Under: horses, photography, ranching

Riding in Iowa, Day Four (Part 1)

6 Oct posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

I was asked by a family friend after I got back from the clinic, “What was the most profound thing you learned?”

I didn’t hesitate when I said, “I learned that you should tip your horse’s nose into the direction of the counter-canter”.

Now this friend, does himself, ride and make bridle horses, and he asked me to explain to him what it was that I meant.

Some of you are now thinking to yourselves, “you were in a Horsemanship 1 class and this is what you found most profound? A lot of times in H1 you don’t even get to lope your horses!” Am I right? I’ve been in two H1 classes where the lope was never discussed. And I’ve never witnessed Horsemanship 2 so I don’t know what he covers in that one.

What I do know is that on the fourth day of the clinic, Buck rode his beautiful horse, Rebel, around for a short demonstration, and of course, everyone just kind of stops what they’re doing, and gets out of his way, and gives him the arena. So we’re watching Buck, put his horse through his paces, and in that time, he counter-canters him. A counter-canter, for those who don’t know what that is, is when your horse lopes in a circle to the right on his left lead. For those of you who don’t know what a lead is, I’ll explain:

A lead is the foot (or feet) that your horse leads with at the lope/canter, which is a three beat gait. If your horse is going left, his left hind and left front should “lead” him around the circle. Same if he’s going to the right- his right hind and right front will always be in front of his left hind and left front. In order for your horse to counter-canter, he must lope a circle to one direction on the lead that is opposite the direction he’s going.

As I told my friend, who asked, “why would you need to counter-canter your horse?” , it does a couple things.

1. It allows your horse to come through a place where he might begin to anticipate a lead change. In other words, the horse will be loping a circle on the correct lead, and then you’ll take him across the center, on a diagonal, where you might ordinarily set him up to change leads (which we can talk about later if you’re interested), and you don’t. You hold him on the lead he’s already on.

2. It helps to balance your horse. If he can learn to hold himself in frame while he does this, it just adds to his ability and helps him become softer and more willing.

Buck and Rebel counter cantering to the left.

You don’t hold him on the counter-canter for more than a couple circles as it’s a very hard maneuver for you and your horse to learn, plus, we all know the best gift we can give our horse is the release, so if he does it and gets a release all the better for him.

How did this whole counter-canter discussion come about?

It started in the afternoon class; the cow working class and Kip, Buck’s friend and former “apprentice” if you will, said, something along the lines of, I noticed when you were counter cantering your horse’s nose wasn’t tipped in the direction you were going. Which led Buck to explain that he tips the nose slightly in the direction of the lead, and rolls the horse’s head up and in. I then asked for further clarification and said the following: So if my horse is loping on the right lead, and I take a left circle, I tip his nose in the direction of the lead he’s on. To which Buck replied, yes, but remember you hold your soft feel the entire time they’re on that counter canter, and your flexion is a lateral/longitudinal flexion both. You don’t need his face cranked that direction. Just the nose and you might see his eyelashes on that side. He then added, you know, you think you’re making a pretty good snaffle bit horse until you decide you want to make a bridle horse, and then these things start to make sense and you realize there’s so much more to it than you originally thought.

Now, I told Buck, when I first rode with him in Belton,Texas last year, that I wanted to make a bridle horse. After the above conversation I had with him before that afternoon class started, I am pretty sure he remembers that we had more than one discussion about it at that clinic.

I have to say the lightbulb really came on this afternoon. I have been working on the counter-canter with Gump and I’ve been missing some things. The two things I’ve been missing is 1. a proper amount of elevation and 2. I haven’t been “setting” his head correctly. Our counter-cantering has gotten a lot better since my “lightbulb moment”. We’re still not doing flying lead changes, but like Buck says, he does thousands of simple lead changes before he ever starts asking for the flying lead change.

The funniest part of all of the above, is when I told my cowboy Zach that’s what I’d learned that afternoon, he says, Yeah, I knew that already. I’m like, what the h%^& you’re holding out on me? Why am I just now learning this? He just chuckled. I guess I wasn’t in a place that I would have accepted the coaching.

This post got a bit wordy, as I suspected it would, so we’ll cover what I learned in the morning class in a separate post.

In the meantime, I’m going to to the barn today and ride my hackamore horse, Gump, and see if we can’t continue to improve!

Happy Trails!

More about my time riding with Buck is below.

Day One from Iowa

Day Two from Iowa

Day Threer From Iowa

First Clinic in Belton, TX:

Second Clinic in Steamboat Springs, CO:

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Filed Under: horses

A Night at the Movies- With BUCK!

5 Oct posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

I figure today is as good as any to share with you my experience of seeing “Buck” for the second time. Especially since the DVD was released yesterday and I watched it twice already. The first time we saw the film, Zach took me on a date (which is rare for us, because we’re so far from anything) to Bismarck, ND where it was showing, closest to us. The second time, however it was in Decorah, IA on the first night of the clinic.

It was a first time to see it, for Kelsey and Sharon who came to the clinic with me. My niece however had already seen it with her mom in Bismarck a week or so after I did.

The film is mesmerizing. Especially if you’ve never read, “The Faraway Horses”. But even then, it’s amazing. It’s well put together and tells a story of someone who is not only a horseman, but a counselor, teacher and therapist for people. He is not a horse trainer. Let’s don’t confuse the facts. There’s a difference in someone that trains horses and a horseman. Horse trainers are often on a schedule; with clients and judges to please. A horseman realizes that there is no schedule; no deadlines. The horse will be where he will be on any given day and it’s our job to realize that anytime we touch the horse we teach him something. We should take the horse from where he is that day. Nothing is ever the horse’s fault. Horses are sensitive. Buck says: A horse can feel a mosquito land on his butt in a windstorm.

It tells of Buck’s abusive childhood, and shows how much he loves his daughter Reata and his wife, Mary- and how a choice was made not to further the violence and abuse of his past. Further it teaches that good horsemanship isn’t just held with the horses- you don’t be a good guy at the barn, and when you leave the barn you go back to being an ass. If you want to truly succeed and have what Buck has (or my Zach) for that matter with horses, your life must encompass these thoughts. Reward the try. Set it up again if they fail. Don’t punish the horse (or kids) for their willingness to try. Don’t ride with hands like a butcher. Push your kids and your horses to think, learn, and to try and reward their successes. Buck isn’t lying when he says you have to be a parent to your kids before you can be their friend. It’s no different with a horse. You need to be their leader, their partner- not some domineering force over them.

After watching the movie, the folks that were from the clinic in the theater, knew Buck was coming to do a Q&A. But those that were in the theater from Decorah, had NO IDEA! I honestly don’t remember every question asked- but I will share those that I do recall!

It was actually entertaining to hear them gasp and murmur when the manager told them that Buck was in town and would be doing a short Q&A.

The first question he got asked was, “What are you doing in Decorah?” Which of course was followed up by, “Can we come to the clinic?”

He was asked about Smokie- his brother; who after graduating High School spent 25 years in the Coast Guard and raised a family of his own. He now lives in Wisconsin.

Someone asked him about Monte Roberts- and I’ll not go into detail there; we’ll just suffice it to say that he is not a fan.

My Niece asked him what happened to his foster father, Forrest; he died a few years back.

Someone wanted to know who his compatriot was that went to meet with Robert Redford before they started filming the “Horse Whisperer”. It was Kip Fladland.

There was the ever present talk about Tom and Bill Dorrance and Ray Hunt, and how really Buck will never live a life other than the one he lives now because he has undertaken the mission to bring this style of horsemanship to the world.

The rest of the night is kind of a blur- but a lot of people asked him questions and it was a really good time. He started by saying he was really tired and had considered not coming, but he’d told the clinic participants earlier in the day he’d be there, so he came. I can’t blame him really for being tired. I have no idea where the man gets all his energy; but I’m ever thankful he does!

I promise I’ll wrap up the series on riding with him soon. This our busy time of the year on the ranch- there’s been lots of riding to gather bulls and we’ve already done fall shots for one group of pairs. This week, we should be getting to the other two sets of pairs.

Y’all be good!

Happy Trails!

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Filed Under: Horsemanship, horses

Horses oh, Horses!

28 Sep posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

I went and visited a couple of my mares yesterday and managed to get some really cool shots! I love when that happens! I love to see how big and friendly my babies are getting!

Lily is as big as her mama and Rival is just cute. Though I didn’t get many pictures of him. He likes to “hide” from the camera. But I did get some of his gorgeous mama, Shuttle. She’s my favorite mare of all time. Ok. Maybe I’d say that about my other mares, Dolce and Sonora, but Shuttle, really holds a special place in my heart. She was the first horse I ever bought all on my own accord and I had high hopes for her. But a joint infection ended her promising career early, so she has a new career, as a mama! This year she had a colt by Poco Tivio Pep, and next year she’ll be having a colt by WDX Nukem.

Here’s some of the girls running- they did this all on their own accord. Silly mares!

Shuttle is certain that she should have been a wild mustang.

She and Rival are so pretty!

I just love this picture!

They’ve finally decided they might could slow down and let me walk in there to rub them.

Hey girls!

I love how they’re running around with long pieces of grass in their mouths!

If you look close you can see Lily Filly back there!

Hopefully you enjoyed seeing these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them. Happy Wednesday and Happy Trails! And don’t forget- these photos can be purchased here.

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Filed Under: horses, photography, pictures

Riding in Iowa, Day 3

27 Sep posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

I have to say, from the time I got my hands on my horse that morning until I got off him at noon that day, he was completely different.

And you know why? Some of you reading this already know the answer. Some of you may not. The answer is that I was different. I was there to support him, believe in the work that I’ve done with him, and wasn’t worried about how well we’d do that morning. I just “knew” it was all going to be alright, and it was.

Again, the morning started with practice of our flexions (which I tend to do a lot of while I just sit on my horse. You can’t get your “soft feel” too good, folks)! There were a lot of serpentines, and the “pick up and set a front leg down” drill. This time, however we were nailing about 50% of them to the right, and almost all of them to the left. It’s all in the timing. You need to ask for that foot right as it’s leaving the ground, so you can “direct” it. It’s pretty easy to figure out where the front feet are on your horse, the back feet however, are sort of blind feel, because you can’t look down and see the shoulder moving. I’ll be explaining foot falls, and foot-cadence more in-depth on our ranch blog. That said, timing of this drill isn’t easy to begin with, and I’m still working on it at home!

I did a lot of moving Dino out as needed- since we were 25+ riders in an arena that would have more comfortably held 15 people. And as I recall, there was a lot more working at the trot, because, well, that’s the only balanced gait your horse has. So we did a lot of picking up a soft feel, while getting proper elevation. There was a lot more backing up, and Buck told me that when my colt gets stuck (which he had been doing while backing up) to take more hold on him, and provide more energy, and as his feet break loose, give something back to him. I said, even if he’s behind vertical? And he said, yes, “he’s behind vertical because his feet are stuck.” Well doesn’t that just make all kinda sense? It’s not always about doing more with your hands- you can’t pull your horse backward- you can make it uncomfortable for him to do anything but back up. Open your legs, tip your shoulders back, pick up a soft feel, and wait for the feet to break loose. Your horse may back up with his nose in the air, but that’s improper form, and as such it’s better to never release your horse until his nose is down and there’s no resistance on the reins. You want his poll, and jaw soft and relaxed.

Here’s Dino picking up his right front:

It’s good to note here that I might have better success with this drill if I wasn’t looking at his foot. Often if we look down, we will “over-weight” that foot making it harder for the horse to move. And honestly, if you can feel the foot moving, there’s not really any need to be looking at it!

Here’s me picking up a soft feel:

And here is in what I’d say is smashingly good form:

Allow me to digress for a moment:

Did you know that each time you ride your horse you teach him something? Good, bad, indifferent- he’s learning something. The best gift we can give our horse is the release and relaxation that comes from us just allowing them to “be”. So when you stop your horse, if you let go the reins when he stops and his nose is in the air, you’ve just taught him that if he puts his nose in the air you will release the reins. How many of you reading this have then been told, “your horse needs a tie-down?” He doesn’t need a tie-down, he needs only consistency from you and he needs to learn to carry a soft feel. Interestingly enough, Buck said the exact thing I said above, though this was the first time I’ve heard him say it. I tell folks all the time that they’re always teaching their horses something be it good, bad, indifferent.

If you’d have told me what would happen next at this clinic, I’d have slapped you and said “Get Out!” But it did happen. My day, and probably my year, got better than it was already going. I loped my horse across the arena, and I guess Buck must have been watching because I got to the other side and heard these words- “Jenn, that is going to be a nice horse”. I nearly fell off. I just gulped and said, “Thank you”. The thing about hearing those words from him are this: He doesn’t tell you what you want to hear. He tells you how it is. He tells you what’s going to make you better for your horse. In fact, he actually told us that at some point he hopes he can get enough of us to a place, where he can teach us what he knows instead of the stuff we should know. I’m striving to get there! Buck doesn’t blow air up your skirt. He makes you work for everything so you learn it, appreciate it, and as such you get better for your horse.

There are no horse problems. Only people problems. People who don’t take responsibility for their inability to communicate with their horses. When you lose your ego and realize that your horse cannot do wrong, your horsemanship will grow in leaps and bounds. I know this because I’m walking proof. Ask me next time you see me.

The rest of the day is a blur, though I know my horse really did ride good that day, because I was aware of where he was and was there to support him when he needed the help. If we become aware of what our horses need from us, everyday horseback will become a good time horseback. You’ll never have a bad ride again!

Stay tuned- Day four is forthcoming, as is a post about a night at the movies!

Happy Trails!

More about my time riding with Buck is below.

Day One from Iowa

Day Two from Iowa

First Clinic in Belton, TX:

Second Clinic in Steamboat Springs, CO:

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Filed Under: horse training, Horsemanship, horses

Riding in Iowa, Day Two

23 Sep posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

I’m going to be brutally honest. Much of Day 2 is a blur.

And I’ll tell you why.

It was a struggle for me to get through this day.

I was ~~nervous,~~ or rather unsettled, for some reason, and that didn’t help Dino. NOT ONE BIT. He whinnied around and fussed and kicked up when I asked him to move out.

What I do remember most from this day is the, as I’ll call it, “foot drill”.

Today really wasn’t a whole lot different than Friday. And as I’ve said before in my writing, the level of the riders in the class really dictate how much gets covered.

Now, I’m usually too focused on my own horse to notice what others struggle with, but I think it’s probably safe to assume, based on hearing Buck’s coaching, that people were struggling with 1. a soft feel and 2. foot cadence.

We did the standard morning warm ups- some flexions, some serpentines, some one rein stops, walking/trotting while picking up a soft feel and giving it back. Though I know there were some that struggled with the soft feel. And there was certainly something he saw in the group that led to the drill that did me in on Saturday.

I say that it did me in- it was just challenging for me because itt’s just not something that I really practice, and my timing on it is sketchy at best. Poor Dino- it’s a good thing he’s patient and has been taught to search for the “release” and the “answer”. And it’s a good thing I reward his every try, or the poor guy would really be confused by what happened next.

Buck, took his pretty gray filly, Gidget, and picked her front feet up and set them out, while going forward. Of course he could do it every step. He told us to just try to get every third or fourth step. And then added that he doesn’t have every clinic do this drill.

The point of the drill is to get good at foot cadence. And of course that led to the conversation he has with us in every clinic about how Ray (Hunt) used to make them call cadence for hours, and at the time he never understood why. Though he’s grateful for it now. I can call cadence, but have me get in time with a foot to set it up and out, and I’m late 80% of the time to the right, and I nail it 95% of the time to the left.

If you’re lost at this point, I’m going to explain.

In the “foot drill” if you’ll indulge me in calling it that, you want two things to happen: 1. You are attaching the direct rein to the front foot and 2. you are wanting that foot to become light- so light in fact that as your horse picks it up, you could actually set it back, forward or out to the side.

That said, it’s a super cool to feel your horse pick his foot up, and literally hold it until you tell him where to set it (by releasing the rein). I’ve practiced this some at home with Zach, but not to the extent that I should be practicing, as was evidenced with my clinic struggles.

Here’s how Buck had us attempt this drill:

We started from the serpentine and would then go straight for a few steps, and try to set the foot out to either the right or the left. And we might have to make a circle to make it easier on our horses to “help” them understand. If our circles got to short, or we lost too much forward motion, he’d tell us to ride back to our serpentines again. Once in while I’d get a foot to feel light as a feather, and it would just feel weightless and I could put it anywhere. It was great! And then I would struggle again. I’m just fortunate that I can come home and practice with someone who has better timing with this drill than me!

Again, there was “flat” work on the rail, half circles to change directions, some backing up, and for me, some loping out, to keep Dino moving.

To make the day more fun that it already was, I got to meet a girl who’s been my twitter friend for a while. She took a couple fun pictures of Dino and myself from the day, which was good because I had forgotten my camera that morning. For shame, right?

Doesn't he look pretty?

I was so tired at the end of the day that I went to bed at 9:30. That rarely happens, but I was exhausted.

More to come, I promise!

Happy Trails! Enjoy your weekends!

More about my time riding with Buck is below.

Day One from Iowa:

First Clinic in Belton, TX: