So is anyone attending the Buck Brannaman clinic in Corvallis, Oregon this week? I’m so bummed that I can’t go! Maybe I can live vicariously through some of you COTHers. 
I’d love to hear any insights auditors or participants have to share.
Not going but I just rode with Buck when he came down here to Gilroy, CA. It was an amazing clinic and a fantastic opportunity for me to ride with him.
I’ve audited him a few times over several years, when he comes here to the Salinas area.
But this was an amazing experience to be in the clinic and work on “the little things”
I did the Horsemanship class - but watched Colt Starting each morning. It was fantastic!
I am going Saturday and can take passengers…
I’m driving from SW Portland to Corvallis and back tomorrow (Saturday July 7) for the Buck Brannaman Clinic and am looking for passengers to help share gas costs (cash only please.) My guess is it will be $30-$40 total so the most you’d pay (if it’s just you and I) would be $15-$20.
Clinic info is at this link: http://doublephorsemanship.com/Clinics.html but the basics are: it is $25 to audit the entire day (9-4.30) - that includes two classes - and you need CASH or a CHECK to pay at the gate. The event is at Benton County Fairgrounds.
I’d like to leave Portland by 6.45am (with maybe a quick coffee kiosk stop enroute) and can pick you up from any point easily accessible from I-5 (south of downtown.) The plan is to head back at the conclusion of the last class (estimated arrival back in Portland is 6.30-7pm) My car is an older, but reliable and well-maintenanced (but it does not have AC!), Nissan Pathfinder and I am a very safe, non-smoking, adult (41yo) female driver. I’m okay transporting smokers as long as you don’t smell like smoke or smoke in the car. 
I am NOT okay transporting anyone who is drunk or high or in possession of illegal objects or substances. (hate that I have to add that, as 98% of you are awesome, but…sigh…)
Fancy That, that sounds like an awesome experience! 
It’s a goal of mine to ride in one of his clinics one day. I audited a clinic last year in Washington and it was amazing. It was Horsemanship 1 and 2 though, so I’ve yet to watch one of the Colt Starting classes, which I’d love to see eventually.
Nimbus, hope you find some carpooling buddies! If I was in town I’d definitely be going.
Just finished a Buck clinic and had an amazing revelation.
If you are going to be dedicated to always offering the horse the ‘good deal’, or working towards always operating on a feel…
giving your horse a small squeeze with your heels or a little bitty kick is NOT offering a good deal. You have to offer the ‘please go’ with your body/leg muscles positioning for a faster gait, with the life in your body coming up.
My horse has always been a combination of very dull and very excitable, which are really both flip sides of the same thing- he doesn’t want to follow me as a leader. He would be MUCH lighter and more responsive if he were ALWAYS and without exception offered a request on a feel, backed up by firmness (that kick, whether it needs to be small or a gut-buster) if needed, EVERY time it is needed.
I have two very, very bad habits-
one, that the horse knows that in some circumstances, HE can move MY feet. I know how not to get stepped on…by moving my feet out of the way. I need to always have the horse move out of my way, not the other way around. Once I am completely consistent with this, a lot of things will change, especially involving the horse regarding me as someone he respects, and WANTS to be led by.
The other bad habit is asking the horse to go by using a kick, and never by a feel. It’s not like I don’t know what that ‘feel’ really feels like; I have a really sensitive mare that loves to go, all you have to do is offer the change in your body, and she goes. But I have to retrain myself to always offer that feel to Mr. Dull first, and if I can be disciplined and consistent, he won’t be dull anymore.
I also got a few steps of haunches-in, which I haven’t ever done before. I finally have leg-yield down, I need to closely examine shoulders-in. But wow! Now my horse and I have felt a few steps of properly executed haunches in:)
Fillabeana - that is a really really nice post about bringing the life up in your body and offering that feel to the horse, FIRST. Not “just going straight to bumping with your heels, or even squeezing your calves”
I have a very sensitive, forward Morgan and I have to say I’ve NEVER had to squeeze her or bump or kick her for normal upward transitions. She will feel my seat change and lighten and even if my hands go a touch further FORWARD, she goes.
But she is a go, go go type I have to work on her WAITING and help her PREPARE for transitions more. To be “WITH ME” and make MY IDEA, HER IDEA
It’s so fun to work on these things. I just had a great session with a wonderful trainer who has been a student of Buck’s for over 20 years. She had Fancy (my mare) really sitting back and putting her weight over her hind end in order to PREPARE for us asking a front leg to go to the side. My horse prepared HERSELF, so that it would be easier when we asked for a front foot to go “that way”. She had to lighten her forehand, so that we could direct her front feet easily. It was amazing to see the transformation.
I have a very sensitive, forward Morgan and I have to say I’ve NEVER had to squeeze her or bump or kick her for normal upward transitions. She will feel my seat change and lighten and even if my hands go a touch further FORWARD, she goes.
But she is a go, go go type I have to work on her WAITING and help her PREPARE for transitions more. To be “WITH ME” and make MY IDEA, HER IDEA
FancyThat, my sensitive cutting-horse mare is just exactly like that.
Having the horse wait for you is a major issue there. And it is not easy, you can’t DEMAND and get the horse hotter. But you do have to be firm and consistent.
But…the horse not waiting for you is the same problem as the horse being dull and ‘lazy’, only a lot faster. Imagine, most of my horses have the same problems! (And that would be…me )
At my first Buck clinic, the first thing Buck did was say that watching my horse’s behavior on the ground (we started with groundwork) was like fingernails on the chalkboard to him. So I handed him my ego, and my horse. It has been so much easier learning from Buck, when I don’t have my ego in the way. So I get to thank him twice over, first for teaching my horse groundwork and putting him in a peaceful frame of mind so he could learn, and second for putting ME in the right frame of mind to worry about learning, and not what everyone else thinks of me.
Nice. Certainly good to leave your egos at home
I was just in a Trina Campbell ladies’ clinic (Peter Campbell’s wife) and someone with more of an ego got called-out-on. Big time. That sort of attitude just doesn’t work well with this “for the horse” horsemanship.
I agree that getting the sensitive/go-forward types to WAIT is just so critical. To getting them to be mentally quiet, so that they can listen to what we want.
Very cool stuff here! I’m looking forward to having Buck back next year to my town If I don’t ride in the clinic, I will definitely be auditing!
[QUOTE=Fillabeana;6428326]
FancyThat, my sensitive cutting-horse mare is just exactly like that.
Having the horse wait for you is a major issue there. And it is not easy, you can’t DEMAND and get the horse hotter. But you do have to be firm and consistent.
But…the horse not waiting for you is the same problem as the horse being dull and ‘lazy’, only a lot faster. Imagine, most of my horses have the same problems! (And that would be…me )
At my first Buck clinic, the first thing Buck did was say that watching my horse’s behavior on the ground (we started with groundwork) was like fingernails on the chalkboard to him. So I handed him my ego, and my horse. It has been so much easier learning from Buck, when I don’t have my ego in the way. So I get to thank him twice over, first for teaching my horse groundwork and putting him in a peaceful frame of mind so he could learn, and second for putting ME in the right frame of mind to worry about learning, and not what everyone else thinks of me.[/QUOTE]
Very cool stuff here! I’m looking forward to having Buck back next year to my town If I don’t ride in the clinic, I will definitely be auditing!
Hopefully, the folks who are interested in Buck Brannaman simply because they saw the Buck movie will be fading away, and it will be easier to get into a clinic in the future.
Alternatively, you could go ride with Bryan Neubert, Joe Wolter, Harry Whitney, Joel Elliot, Peter Campbell, and others who really know what is going on. Buck seems to be the only one with ‘superstar’ status, the rest of the good clinicians tend to be not promoted much, and not because they don’t know what they’re doing!
When people find out that learning this kind of horsemanship, is not about learning ‘what to do to the horse’ but learning what crappy things about YOURSELF that you need to change, they either step up to the plate, or go away.
I’ve seen Buck talk someone through a problem and have things work perfectly. (He saw how much help I needed with a rope attached on one end to a yearling heifer’s front feet, and the other attached to the saddle horn on my OTTB, and talked me through it so it was a positive experience for everyone.) More often, I’ve seen him put someone on a track of learning something, and he’ll come in to help if you ask, or if you’re making a big mess. I think if the rope deal had not involved making it a great experience for my horse, he might have left me to muddle through it. Mostly, Buck will leave you to learn to figure things out for yourself. Most folks don’t want to take this kind of responsibility, they’re used to being puppeted through a riding lesson.
In my clinic, he had us working on leg yield to the arena fence, then ask for a few steps of haunches-in, while two riders at a time were cantering over a thick log asking for a change of leads. He said a LOT, and with emphasis, only leg-yield TOWARD the fence, please STOP leg-yielding from the outside, in, you are getting in the way of the cantering riders. I thought at first people were simply leg-yielding the wrong direction, but after a while I figured out they were leg-yielding toward the center, thinking they were doing haunches-in. That Buck didn’t say anything about it, didn’t necessarily mean that he didn’t know what was going on. If you are having trouble, or are confused, you are supposed to go ASK. When you figure something out for yourself, you truly take it on board and KNOW it. I think Buck was hoping that these folks would get interested and figure it out. As for the truly oblivious, they should have been riding in the morning’s class before they were trying to ask for leg-yield and a change of leads at canter, anyway, or at the very least watching the morning class and getting those maneuvers down first. The part about doing the morning class exercises, Buck did tell us, two or three times!
Once you get that curious, and learn to figure things out for yourself, auditing a clinic becomes SO much more valuable as a tool for your learning.
But, if you really want to ride in the clinic, find out who the clinic organizer is and find out how to get on the list, right away. If you get onto a waiting list, and can go ride in the clinic on short notice, you will probably get to ride. My friend was at about number 30 on the waiting list, and got to ride.
