Cat's gone riding: March 2015

Y'ALL is a contraction of YOU AND ALL and is strongly associated with

the Southern States of America. In Texas, it never stops rolling off the tongue!

The ceiling at the Will Rogers Watt's coliseum

The Legacy of Legends 2015 took place in Fort Worth, Texas. Over three days, it reunited horsemen from all over the world whose horsemanship’s savoir-faire were influenced by Tom Dorrance and Ray Hunt. The atmosphere was fantastic and the level of horsemanship was top-drawer. This year the program was highly geared towards stockmanship. We saw demonstrations from Joe Wolter, Peter Campbell, Doug Jordan, Wayne Robinson, Anthony Desreaux, Jaton Lord, Nick Dowers…without forgetting Buck Brannaman, the co-founder of the Legacy of legends. Nick Dowers is just amazing and the shape of his horses was just incredible. Buck demonstrated outstanding horsemanship throughout the event on two of his horses, a 3 y.o. roan stud and a chestnut horse with a 24 freeze mark on the shoulder. Below are a few things i picked up along the way which are, by the way, the same material Dave Stuart presents us with during his clinics:

Day 2 -Buck on 24 with the 2 year old colts

Buck talked about the importance of straightness, the horse being centred and balanced. When asking for lateral flexion we want the horse’s ears to be levelled, its face to be vertical and its pole to be higher than its withers. If all three points are met it is an indication that its weight is evenly distributed on all 4 quarters therefore the horse is centred. Some people think that straightness is the absence of flexion. On the contrary, said Buck, straightness is the balance of the horse on all 4 quarters.

A balanced horse is one which is in the rectangle. Always think of the horse being centred between feet and reins. If so, he is left in peace. The basics to a balanced horse are to guide the horse with your legs whilst the horse is loose with the reins. There is no pulling on the reins in a balanced horse.

‘Don’t tell your horse to move away from pressure, tell him to move towards peace.’ BB

Day 3 - Buck on his 3 y.o. stud with the colts

For the reach exercise, think of it as a two-position exercise. Position 1 - Bend the head only. Position 2 - For the reach, the inside leg is on for the flexion then the inside rein takes the horse’s foot out at 90 degrees. As soon as the horse’s foot is where we want, we release the rein. In this exercise, position 1 is distinct to position 2. At position 2, the horse does not move forward at all. Keep in mind not to do too much with the inside leg or the horse’s attention might be taken away from the feel of the rein. The leg is just here to help to get the eye before the reach. All turns begin with a reach.

The soft feel is the precursor of the collection. In other words, at the beginning you ask for a soft feel and as soon as given, you give the reins back. Before asking for the soft feel, the horse must be travelling fluidly at a nice rhythm on a loose rein. A loose rein is relative depending on the horse you are riding. Progressing with the soft feel, ask the soft feel for a few steps. To test if it is a true soft feel, let the rein loose and see if the soft feel is maintained and the horse is still with you.

The walk-trot transition – At the trot, ask for the soft feel to come back to the walk and in turn ask for the soft feel to stop and finally ask for the soft feel to back up.

At H1 level, go to the transition up, then ask for the soft feel.

At H2 level, go to the transition up with the soft feel.

Buck on 24 cantering a circle in perfect balance

Short serpentine, soft feel & leg yield - In this exercise, use your legs to serpentine. Then when away from the fence ask for the soft feel then leg yield back towards the fence. For the leg yield to the right, which is when the horse is travelling to the right on the left rein, the horse’s head should be slightly to the left with the soft feel.

In the fast walk– slow walk exercise, pay attention to the feel and make sure the horse is centred inside the rectangle. This exercise is good to ascertain whether the horse is with you or not.

Ask your horse to move off using his inside hind leg first. The idea is to engage the horse’s mind. The horse will get lighter in the end. When moving off the hind, the horse moves off with power and engagement.

Whilst on a loose rein, travel with focus.

When riding at any allure get your horse to dial into you. Start the walk with the seat then with the legs only if the horse does not respond. Guide with the legs such that the feel of my legs changes to a lighter feel when the horse goes in the direction i want. The idea is to have the horse into the rectangle in peace.

A horse is backing to the right when its head is looking to the right and its hips to the left.

Day 3 - Third ride for these colts on a loose rein

‘I want the horse to do my thing, his way.’ RH

Moving on, after the Legacy, with Tina & Emma, we travelled two hours to the North East of Texas to meet Dawn Hnatow & Candi Cowden. Dawn was to Bud Williams what Buck was to Ray Hunt. If you want to experience excellent stockmanship, you cannot go wrong meeting with Dawn. Dawn’s ability to read cattle and herds of cattle is incredible. She demonstrated the ‘doing less to achieve more’ that everybody talks about, again and again every steps she took. Low Stress Stock Handling is about being effective and understood.

Dawn with a herd of Angus yearlings. Cattle need 3 things: Eat, drink & exercise.
When checking cattle, don't look for the sick ones or they will get sick for you!

Emma & Candi sharing a joke.

From R to L at Cattle Up Ranch ~ Emma, Candi, Tina, Dawn & cat

Moving 415 heads of cattle in the direction we wanted them to go just put a smile on my face FULL STOP

Over 5 days we experienced the importance of moving cattle using a zigzag pattern causing the cattle to move forward and in the direction intended. The angle of the zigzag depends on the flight zone of the cow and the herd. For this exercise to work, all cowgirls need to be on a straight line to each other. This adds another dimension to the exercise in that we had to stay in tune with each other. Furthermore, the direction of travel of the herd would be driven by the angle of the straight line about the chosen direction. We moved 415 heads out of a field through a gate towards the stockyard. The cowgirls’ line needed to be at 90 degrees to the gate in order to be effective. All animals travelled calmly to the stockyard, no one got hurt, no fences fell apart.

At the stockyard, we got 80 cows into a long, 5-meter wide corridor which was closed at one end. The idea there was firstly channel the cattle into the corridor and secondly empty the corridor. At this stage we were on horseback and by using whole steps and weight distribution each rider monitored the flow of the cattle in and out of the corridor as well as the speed of exit. Hence the importance here of helping your horse to be centred and knowing which foot will go where. In this exercise, the thing that blew me away was again the ‘doing less to achieve more’. i emptied half the corridor using my horse’s backward and forward motion. As for the rest, pressure took care of it. The cattle at the end of the corridor were being pressured by the cattle behind moving forward. The pressure reached a level of return and naturally the cattle turned around and walked back out of the corridor. This was TOP DRAWER

Captain & cat

Dawn’s stockyard is simple, well designed and very effective. The idea of a BudBox is to drive cattle into the contention corridor using their innate characteristics and by doing so minimizing the stress. Imagine the capital letter P where the upper part of the letter is a rectangle and the leg that sticks out is the contention corridor. Inside the rectangle the cattle are pressured by a cowgirl on foot or on horseback so that the cattle are driven anticlockwise alongside the fence of the rectangle. Initially the cattle would have entered the box by the side of the rectangle which is continuous to the corridor and just where the corridor starts. The hinges of the gate are, very importantly, situated where the corridor starts. Cattle are being pressured and therefore innately travel back where they came from which is where the hinges are. The gate is now closed and they realise two things: there is an escape route which is the corridor and there is some pressure coming from the cowgirl who is standing at the gate’s hinges. The cowgirl at the gate is facing the cattle therefore is moving/standing in the opposite direction of travel. Moving in the opposite direction of travel causes the cattle to move forward into the corridor. JOB DONE

The BudBox ~ There is a lot to it.

A mixed lot of cows in the stockyard

My time in Texas brought an array of surprises, discoveries, good laughs, old and new friends & a fair amount of ‘surf & turf’swimming in Margheritas.

Saddling up Captain

Candi Kindly let me ride the ranch horse in a Dale Harwood saddle.
As far as Western saddles go, there is no better deal

The Kubota tractor at Cattle Up Ranch had a big round bale attachment which allowed the bale to be unfolded flat in the field as opposed to being dropped in one place as one round lump. Feeding cattle this way means firstly all animals get to eat and secondly the damage to the land is reduced.

No Pictures!

One morning we saw a drove of orphan baby boars on the range. There were a dozen of them.

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This is the main high street of the tiny charming town of Farmersville.
To me this is very representative of small towns of Texas.

Petrol is so cheap which reflects on the low price of goods in general and on the size of the vehicles in particular. Every one drives a massive pick up and leaves their engine running. The Toyota Hilux Invincible we find in Europe looks tiddly next to their monsters. A litre of diesel in Texas costs 36p compared to 120p in the UK!

Look at the size of these pick ups! They are almost as big as the buildings themselves.
Nothing comes in small packages in Texas.

A big surprise to me came on the Saturday night at the AQHA Cowtown Showdown at the Will Rogers Watt’s Coliseum. Lyle Lovett, my favourite artist of all time, sang the US National Anthem.
Lyle is a big name worldwide and even bigger in his native Texas.