Decided to do pix first, and then you can read about my cow adventure if you have an interest in the detail. Bob and I are planning to compete in a Ranch Horse Show in May --cow work is one class we can enter . . .
Needless to say, I was nervous about taking Bob to a ranch 30 min away and working cows for the first time. Bob had been to a cow camp in August, but I did not ride him there, so I thought he would be great --he was, sort of.
Everything went smoothly until the cow owner went with his horse to get the herd, while Bob and I waited in the arena. Bob became increasingly nervous (or I did). I asked the cow owner if I should dismount, not really sure what I should do, as Bob was clearly not focused on me, but the approaching herd. Cow owner suggested taking Bob back to the trailer, then once the herd was in the arena, introduce Bob to them.
Ok.
But I am a coward.
I asked the cow owner to take Bob into the herd first. Fortunately, he and I are the same stirrup length. He did a little ground work with Bob (bending his neck, asking him to move his hind quarter) then got on and did the same thing. I do this with Bob too --but to me, Bob seemed very, very stiff. I then had a brief instruction on why this is necessary (as if I never did it or knew about flexing and disengaging the hind quarter), but why argue with someone paid to do a lesson? I just said ok and pretty soon the cow owner turned a now very focused Bob into the herd.
From there, all good. After working the cows and explaining what he was doing, as well as telling me that Bob doesn’t neck rein by leading with his nose --um, yeah, he does but he wasn’t clearly doing it well enough to please the cow owner --I got on and the cow owner got on his horse.
Under his direction, I boxed a cow successfully, turned the entire herd, separated and held a cow twice, and practiced moving individual cows forward, back, left, and right.
The cow owner said: Bob handles a lot better for you than he was for me! --did everyone read that twice?
Bob was being absolutely spot on for me --but, I ride Bob every day and we practice neck reining, turning, disengaging, etc --I am a gentle rider and the cow owner was, I thought, heavy-handed and quick with his spurs. I wear spurs, but I only brush Bob with them. But as I said, I was paying an expert for his time and not going to tell him how to ride my horse --we only had an hour of cow time, so I wanted to make the best of it.
Some take-aways —I still need to learn how to calm Bob down when he becomes worried/anxious. I saw how the cow owner when he rode Bob did repeated disengage and softening until Bob focused, and I’ve seen my trainer do the same thing. Because I work on my place all the time, there is rarely a time (never) that Bob becomes anxious (tense, piggy in his responses, hard to describe, but he is clearly unfocused on me). I actually thought we were past all that and this was the first time I felt the anxiety since last Spring when I rode him into an open field and the rider with me took off.
After an hour of working cows and learning a lot, the cow owner watched me rope a fence post (successfully, I might add) and told me that he thought my roping technique was fine, I just needed to practice what I was doing more (coiling, forming a loop, and recoiling).
We then took the herd out of the pen and back to the pasture --in the open pasture, again, Bob became unsettled when the cow owner rode away to open a gate. I decided this was not the time to address the issue and the cow owner agreed. I took tired Bob quietly back to the trailer, unsaddled, loaded and took him home.
The cow owner is not a trainer, but he said I can come back for cow lessons any Friday afternoon weather permitting --and I will.
I see our regular trainer on Monday and we will discuss the “open field anxiety” --this may be something she will have to address when Bob is with her for his 30 day training when I am out of the country in April.
You inspire me!
- got skeered of cattle?
