Having the round pen away from the walls has turned into one of my favourite things. Here Luke is on a young horse he’s starting and it hasn’t freed up it’s feet yet. I’m riding another colt that’s been a little skittish. As we cruise around the outside Luke is able to cruise along with us on the inside and before you know it he’s up to a trot then a lope and everything stayed calm and relaxed.
And Luke brings a much cooler soundtrack to our day!
A pretty cool coming-3-year-old headed home.
It’s always interesting to see what Tatum might do. This 3 year old is quite a bit bigger than most of our other horses and Tate has a bit of a stubborn streak when it comes to asking for help saddling. So she spent some time getting him to snuggle up to her on the step. I’m sure I’ve said it before but when she’s around some horses it would be worth having a camera on her all the time.
Luke putting the second ride on an exceptional colt. Luke has a quiet way about him that’s helping this colt to stay relaxed and yet responsive. Just taking it slow. Like my friend Shane says “We’d hurry but it takes too long” I think that saying fits here.
Laurie Messner at Winning Strides put Shorty through a Ranch Horse Versatility course today. Shorty is consigned to the Cut Above Superior Horse Sale tomorrow. Check out the catalog. See you tomorrow!
I got Shorty over to work with Dustin Gonnet of Gonnet Performance Horses to work some cattle. Nothing too dramatic, just nice easy work. The sale day is coming up. Shorty is one of a lot of great horses consigned to the Cut Above Superior Horse Sale on May 21.
Bridleless one-man doctoring on Shorty. It’s a little long. I tried to drive the steer off the fence but he wasn’t having it. Shorty is consigned to the Cut Above Superior Horse on May 21. If you’d like to share that would be appreciated. Check out the sale catalog.
Doing a little breakaway roping on Shorty. He’s making his way to Claresholm on May 21 for the Cut Above Superior Horses Sale.
I love this trailer. It was designed and owned by the legendary horseman Bill Collins. If you don’t know of him it would be worth looking him up. He was a rock star.
I only got to meet him when I bought this trailer. I wish I’d have met him earlier. He passed away not long after.
Bill designed it so the horse rides facing the rear passenger side. I liked this because I’d found when I’d haul a horse loose in a stock trailer he’d stand that way. I attributed it to they keep their face away from dust and noise of oncoming traffic especially on gravel roads. And as far as backwards, we generally accelerate slowly and sometimes brake pretty abruptly so the horse can brace himself into the front of the divider or what have you and have a more stable ride.
What Bill did differently is he set it up to back his horse up the rear ramp. Bill was well into his eighties when he was explaining this to me. I remember well him pointing at my chest with his weathered hand making me promise to do the same.
So I had to go figure it out. I never would have thought of backing a horse to load. I still remember having trouble loading frontwards!
But it taught me several lessons.
Being in a hurry doesn’t work. Take the time it takes.
Try to find the slightest try and release the pressure. If we could release when he even thought the right thing we’d be away.
Intimidation and bullying don’t work.
You can’t force them. If you try it just gets worse.
Build on confidence and trust.
Help your horse to think through it.
Wouldn’t it be great if we applied these lessons to all the other things we do with our horses? I’m pretty sure that’s what Bill was hoping I’d learn. I wish I could say I always do but sadly I don’t. But, I know when I’m the most proud of what I’ve done and feel the best about how I’ve worked with a horse it comes back to that I followed these lessons. I’ll always be thankful to Mr Collins and his trailer.
I got a new toy to take videos without a cameraman. Here’s a short video showing a bit of the ground work I do with all my horses.
On the young ones it’s how I teach a horse that he can control the pressure that comes from my leg or rein. If he braces against it the pressure stays but if he softens to it the pressure comes off making a good deal for him.
It also lets me work on different manoeuvres like a leg yield, roll back or turnaround while on the ground. If I’ve got things working well here it goes smoother when I’m on his back.
On older horses it’s a pre-flight check. I’m just asking how he’s doing. Is he tight and worried? Will he let me direct his feet? If I run into an issue I’d rather deal with it here than on his back.
It’s like when you hook your trailer up to your truck. You check the lights, try the brakes. Much better to see how things are before we hit the highway.
I broke this session into 3 parts. The others will follow. If you have a question or comment I’d like to hear from you.
Circle 2 is about helping people bring out the best in their horses.
