Rubbing Dino, Day 3

Well, we’re here. The last day of the clinic. I am always sad on this day because it’s ending. But I’m also always glad because my horse is so much better. And my 40 ride colt made great strides during these 4 days.

I think this is a good time to review what we’ve covered so far, so before we get to it, let’s do just that.

Day One- we covered proper head carriage, the beginning of elevation/collection and a discussion of what physiologically takes place in the horse when collection/elevation occurs. We also covered getting a soft feel while walking out and for me day one was filled with loping across the pen to work on my legs no longer being impotent.

Day Two brought more of the same from day one, though we worked on actually getting some collection/elevation at the walk/trot, did more sets, and more moving out, if you’re me! We also had a discussion on the turn around, which is one of the important things for your horse to know how to do properly. That said, they can’t properly turn around if they’re not first elevated and collected correctly.

Day three we did cow work, sets, backed circles and worked on getting our horses to really flow through their hips which will help us today as we do lead changes, and cow-work in the rodear.

Which brings us to today. I must admit that part of me was really bummed for not having one of my horses that is farther along with me. We had a LOT of beginners at the Belton Clinic, we didn’t get to lope in class at all, save for the last day of cow work, and when we warmed up in the morning. Both The Gump and Sonora “Nora” (and of course my crippled mare, Shuttle) are to a place were we can pick up the lead of my choosing from the standstill, and are soft enough to let me gather them up at the lope, break to a trot and then back to the lope in a different lead (simple lead changes). In fact, last week I put my first two rides on Nora in the hackamore. And like Buck told us at this clinic, for a while we’ll go back and forth- and I can’t tell you how badly I want to do that, so I may break down and do just that. We’ll see- after all my horse doesn’t get into the hackamore because she failed the snaffle. She’s graduated to the hackamore, so we can always go back to the snaffle. Gump needs a lot more riding in the snaffle before he’s ready for the hackamore, seeing as how he’s a reformed run-away match-racing horse he’s still not hardly as soft as any of my other horses; at least not on a consistent basis. As an aside, that doesn’t make me love him less! He’s still my favorite horse to ride across the prairie!

Getting down to business- after a good warm up of doing more flexions, elevations, picking up a soft feel and carrying it up, down and for a stride or two at the walk and trot (and for me loping off a few times- and getting the right lead, at which point I exclaimed rather loudly, “I’ll be &*) @%*&%@! I got the right lead!” which warranted a big laugh from Buck and Shayne Jackson (who is a loyal student of Bucks)!

Getting the right lead

It was time to work on some leg yields and haunches in. For those of you unfamiliar with a leg yield and haunches in, never fear. The explanation is forthcoming. And it’s what’s essentially needed as the foundation for your lead change (non-horse folks- the lead change is simply the lead foot when the horse is in the canter. Notice your dog run sometime, there will always be one front foot leading the other- when they’re going left- it’s the left front foot; right is just the opposite)

In a leg yield, your horse is bent into the direction you’re riding, holding what we hope is a pretty round shape- and what you’ll do is yield them away from the direction you’re going by still going forward. This maneuver is not to be confused with a counter-bend which is an incorrect maneuver. That requires an explanation all to itself, and as a *recovering barrel racer, I’ll explain that to you in a post someday. A leg yield’s purpose is to keep your horse round and have the ability to move the circle wider if you want. Here’s what you’d do. At the walk (because we all have to walk before we run!) you would pick up a soft feel, properly elevate you horse, take away your outside leg, because we have to give the horse a place to go. In this case we’ll be walking left circle, so we’ll add our left leg, remove the right, and bump, push, or urge your horse’s shoulders to the outside of the circle. You’ll get a bit of movement at first (release), then a step (release) then several steps and at that point you can let your horse come back to the circle and walk out naturally again. And of course we won’t get several steps at once.

Showing pretty good form for a baby...

As a second part to the lead change, and a good transition from the leg-yield, you’d ask for the haunches in. I find I struggle tremendously with this drill- even on my horses such as Gump and Nora. I got the chance to ask Buck about the fact that my horses slow down when I ask them for this, and he said it has to do with the uncertainty of what I’m asking for, and the fact that it’s new. He said to just ask, and if they slow down, speed them back up when I’m done with the maneuver. They will eventually learn to travel out while I do it. I should add to this though, that timing is everything with this drill. If, in our above example, I’ve leg yielded my horse to the right (or outside of our left circle) and it’s now time to push the hips to the left, or to the inside of the circle, (haunches in) you want to do so as the right hind leg is coming up off the ground, so that your horse can step up under himself and over. Much easier said than done, I assure you. It isn’t rocket science however- it’s simply a changing of the leg you use- from left leg to right leg (moving your left leg out of the way) and your horse is, voila! set up for a lead change to the left.

The proper way to change leads is from back to front, of course. And you want your horse slightly bent to the direction you’re going to go. So if you were loping, say a circle to the right, and you came across the center of the pen, you’d drop to the trot for a stride (theoretically) pick up the left rein, add your right leg, which should tip your horse’s hips enough to left so they can pick up the left lead, and away you go. This is exactly what Buck had us doing- though we used the arena on a diagonal which was super clever! Why I’d never thought of that before, I don’t know! But we’d be going around to the left at the walk or the trot, and he’d have us, at one corner, pick up the left lead, which of course we were rockin’, break to the trot (for a stride was the goal- we didn’t reach it), and come out the other side on the right lead. I was late the first time and had my horse all set up to do it and missed it. Buck and I both groaned about it at precisely the same time! Then we switched directions and did the same thing to the right. Even though my horse wasn’t able to do this, I’ve been able to take what I learned and apply it to both Gump and Nora, and while I’m still not quite able to just trot one stride we’re getting there. Buck said eventually it will be the changing of the legs (ours) that has our horses changing leads. He doesn’t determine when the lead change will happen. He only sets it up so that the horse can be successful. Again, as in the haunches in, timing is everything. You want to ask when the horse’s right front foot is going to hit the ground, so that he can change while his other three legs are suspended. Is anyone else tired now? Just reviewing this makes my head spin.

On to the cow work in the rodear. He broke us off into two groups, and I was fortunate enough to have Shayne be my partner. In rodear work, if you’re having trouble with your horse’s leads, as I was, you always want to be the cow horse. The cow horse stays between the “herd” on the inside and the “cow” on the outside, and as such is set up to get the correct leads in a way that easiest for the horse. I was kind of struggling through my turn arounds to the right, not asking with enough life, because I was trying to make everything be perfect with my horse all at once. Buck finally said to me- “do this like you’re doing the job at home, and it has to get done!”. At which point, I made a sweeping turn to the right, and my horse just hopped into the most beautiful right lead. We all cheered, and my colt really did look good. I love “cow” work like that. As an aside- I took him to do some fall work, just a few days after we got back from the clinic and he rode through the pasture on his first outside trip like he was meant to be a saddle horse. We even picked up the right lead several times. Though I’m still struggling with it in the arena.

With that right lead, we quit and that ended the clinic for me. I always hate when they end, but I am looking forward to taking my colt back next year, so we can see how much we’ve improved.

I hoipe y’all enjoyed this trip as much as much as I enjoyed sharing it. I look forward to more adventures down the road.

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*I have not quit running barrels. I am just not the typical barrel racer. I don’t desire to be lumped in with a group of people that for the most part think they practice horsemanship, when what they really practice is sacrificing their horse’s comfort and training (brokeness) for winning. Not every barrel racer does this- there are lots of girls who have horses that can do something besides run barrels- but I know PLENTY who do.

Rolling right along, aren’t we? It’s only taken two weeks for me to get to this post, but hey, at least we’re here!

Day three brought with it more of the same- lots of flexions before class started, moving out as we had on days one and two, some backing circles and turn-arounds, asking for and getting a soft feel at the walk and the trot, three of the four ways to move your horse’s hips, and finally, working “cows”.

Again today, my back ups had improved, to the point that we could carry the soft feel from the stop to the back up for several steps before I needed to stop asking and let my horse think on what had happened. Backing circles came even easier, and we did lots of half circles to change directions! We had lots of pretty stops from the trot- where he was elevated, rolled in through the jaw and round through his back as well!

Below- Buck working with a mare in the morning class that was having trouble backing up when asked from the ground- and we know, as good horsemen, that how our horse behaves on the ground directly affects how they behave in the saddle:

Instead of moving her feet she just wanted to move her head and evade the backing in a circle away from you:

Because, on Day One, we learned a new way to get the start of collection with our horses- in the elevation/flexion drills, Buck has changed the way he teaches you move your horse’s hips. There are four ways he uses, but he only taught us three of them. In Belton, TX, he taught us four. Here’s the methods:

1. Set your horse’s face in the proper elevation and lateral flexion position, and ask with your leg for their hips to roll away from you. If you were to have them bent left, their hips would roll right, and if they were bent right, their hips would roll left. You want to get this light! And I mean, light- where you can nearly think to yourself, I’d like your hips to roll one way or the other, and have it happen with very little pressure. The best way to achieve this, is to start with very little pressure to ask your horse’s hips to move, and then build to more to get the result you’re after. Horses are the masters of remembering what happened before what happened, so start small and eventually you can end there. Make sure that you’ve left the door open (removed any pressure/barriers) on the side to which you’re asking their hips to move.

2. Teach your horse to stand still while you rock his hips back and forth. This is done with the reins dropped, and slack, so your horse learns to tune into your leg. If he goes forward the first few times, and they will, you very quietly pick up your reins, set them back a step or two, and start again. Eventually they will stand there and rock. Maybe in the coming weeks, I’ll make a video of this to share with everyone! Dino is really good at it! Note: You should never yank or jerk on your horse if they don’t do what you don’t want- because they are at least trying something. They are trying to figure out the answer that you’re looking for. Patience is a virtue!

3. Ask your horse to elevate properly, while straight- no bend this time,  and repeat step 2 from above.

4. This is the one he didn’t cover at this clinic, but did at Belton. I asked him if he still wanted us to do this- because he says in one of his DVDs that he knew about this method for 10 years before he used it and doesn’t want us to make the same mistake. This one you get your horse’s face bent to one side or the other with proper elevation and lateral flexion, with them rolled in properly through the jaw and poll, and wait. No leg, no nothing. Wait. Wait for them to move their hip in the opposite direction you have them bent. The purpose of this is to get your horse thinking on your intent. The reason he isn’t going over this one now, is because he wants you to do it only after you have your horse consistent at properly elevating with lateral flexion. So the answer was yes, do it, but not until you’ve consistently got your elevations and flexions correct.

Now one of the purposes to getting your horse freed up through the hips- in addition to backing circles- would be…wait for it…wait for it…lead changes- which we actually covered in this clinic! But not until Monday, so you’ll have to wait!

On to the cow work- we didn’t work in the rodear today. For those of you thinking, “what the heck is the rodear?” Never fear. I will tell you. Rodear means to round up or surround. In the Great Basin way of cowboying, and I’m certain they’d prefer to be called Buckaroos over cowboys, cattle are often worked out of the rodear. Which means you work them in the round. We worked out of the rodear on Monday, but today, Sunday, we just mirrored each other with our horses. And in case you’re thinking rodear sounds very much like rodeo that’s where the word rodeo comes from. The Gringos, well we butchered Spanish. Or something like that!

The goal of this drill is 1. practical application of the skills we’re instilling in our horses and 2. to help our horses get better in the turn around. They can draw off the energy of each other and that should help them turn around with a purpose. So you will walk, about 10 feet away from the horse next to you in as straight a line as you can, and when that horse stops, you stop your horse. When that horse turns, you turn your horse, all the while trying to keep them rolled over their hocks, properly elevated and rolled in at the poll/jaw when you gather them up to turn. And it’s okay for them to get beat- by that I mean that if you’re the cow in this exercise, and you stop, back up and turn and the person who is riding the horse, is late, they can catch up. Eventually their horse will realize that the sooner they get correct the less work it is on them, and before you know it you have a horse that makes correct, pretty, sweepy turns and does so with a purpose. I would like to try to get video of this in the next week or so as well, so we’ll see if I can get that done.

We ended the clinic with the cow work, and it was fun. Dino and I struggled through some of it, because he doesn’t naturally have a lot of life in him- he’s very lazy- which is my kinda horse, but he needs to learn, as do I, how to bring the the life up, and me how to build a fire under him which will bring his life up. Plus we have been struggling a lot with the right lead. It’s all my fault- what I am doing to cause him to have problems getting it, is unknown to me right now, but I will figure it out and that will help me with all my horses.

Tomorrow we’ll wrap up the clinic, and we’ll cover lead changes, and work in the rodear!

Happy Trails!

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Previous Clinic Recaps:

Belton, Tx- Day One

Belton, TX- Day Two

Belton, TX- Day Three

Belton, TX- Day Four

You’ll have to pardon me for not taking notes after the clinic this time, like I did at the previous clinic I attended. We had a killer condo to come home to each night (photos of that coming soon), and frankly, I was really tired after each day.

Day two began with me getting on Dino about 45 minutes before class started. I do my very best to take Buck’s advice, and if I’m given homework, you can bet I’ll do it! We didn’t really have any homework, per say, but he did suggest to us that we do plenty of flexion work before class began so that’s what I did. I did move him out a bit too- and that came a LOT easier than it had the day before.

Day two really wasn’t a lot different than day one, in so much as what we did. Though we did do more sets- and some serpentines. Anyone that has ever been to a Buck Clinic knows that serpentines are one of the favorite things he has us to do. I usually just half-hitch my reins over my saddle horn and use my feet first- which is actually the point of the drill. I know myself well enough to know that if I put the reins over the saddle horn I will force myself to use my feet first- not just go into auto pilot using my hands first. The goal with serpentines is to get the horse operating off the energy and movement and feel in your legs as you change legs with each turn. I’m not necessarily kicking him to move over- I’m directing the energy in his body with the energy in mine. In case you’re lost now:

If going to the right, my left leg will be slightly forward, my right leg slightly back. The reason for this would be that you need to open the shoulders on the right, and drive the hip to the left in order for your horse to hold the pretty, round, “c” shape we desire to have. It would simply be reversed for the left- left leg back, right leg forward. Riding like this, and getting in the habit of doing it every day, even in when riding on the trail really helps your horse. I do try to practice these on my horses, but like Buck says- if they haven’t got it, then you haven’t done it enough yet. We started to make some progress by the end of our time spent on this- enough that even Buck noticed. Hold that…Buck notices everything. Even if you think he doesn’t.

Dino’s backing had significantly gotten better by the end of the day and throughout the weekend we became more proficient. The sets started to flow on the second day. I often have people tell me they have problems with their horses backing and I feel it is a result of the horse being too sticky through their hindquarters. We’ll cover all of that on Day 3! One thing to remember about doing sets is not to be the first one done if you’re on a colt, green horse, or youngster- it is to get a couple good steps, let that soak (rub your horse), get a couple more good steps (rub your horse), let them soak, and then go from there. If you get two good steps and your third might be sticky, well then by asking for a third step you will ruin any good “flow” and “feel” you had going in the first two. You always want to quit while you’re ahead. Horses search for the release. Pressure is simply the motivator which we use to get our horses to search for the release. But if your timing is bad and you don’t release when you should, your horse will become sticky.

Buck said this weekend, that there isn’t a horse on the planet trained well enough that he won’t come untrained to some degree if whoever is on his back doesn’t educate themselves enough to ride and continually search to become better.

We did a lot more work, trying to get our horses to really walk out and Dino was infinitely better than he’d been the day before.

Photo from day three of Dino really striding out (me thinks he’s trotting here):

Today we also worked quite a bit on asking our horses to pick up a soft feel at the walk- by elevating first, then rolling in at the poll, carrying it down to the stop. Same thing from the walk, to the trot, to the stop, or the walk to the trot to the walk. And again, anytime my colt didn’t move out like I’d quietly asked him to, I really got after him to lope across the arena. Please note- on a really green colt, you won’t try to hold that soft feel to the faster gait at first- you’ll get a soft feel at the walk for a step or two, give it back, then ask for the trot, get a soft feel for a step or two, release ask again and then see if you can carry that soft feel down to the walk or the stop. Dino was far enough along with the soft feel that I could carry it from the walk, up to the trot and down again, though I wouldn’t ask him to hold it for more than a couple strides each time. Buck said our trotting looked really good- good elevation and we were rolled in at the poll correctly! Go us!

Watching the folks in the Foundation Horsemanship Class on Friday Morning:

We had a lot of trouble getting a right lead- in fact we didn’t get one at all today- so Buck had us rolling our hips to the right anytime that we got to the other side of the arena on the wrong lead. He wasn’t worried about us being on the correct lead just yet, but he wanted me to be aware of what lead we were on when at the trot (yes, you can be on a certain lead at the trot- and walk too, for that matter- more to come). He told me that if I would be consistent in rolling my horse’s hips to the right when we came across in the wrong lead, that before we knew it I’d get it and say” well, I’ll be go to hell- I just got the right lead.”

He really cracks me up. He is so witty and extremely entertaining. Yet hard on you at the same time.

One last thing we worked on before we ended the day, was turn-arounds. The kind of turn arounds you’d need if you were sorting cattle at a gate, or cutting a cow from a herd, moving or simply working an invisible cow.

I know I covered this in the previous clinic work up, but I will cover it here again- but this time it’s going to get a post all to itself!

Happy Monday!

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Previous Clinic Recaps:

Belton, Tx- Day One

Belton, TX- Day Two

Belton, TX- Day Three

Belton, TX- Day Four