Thursday, January 24, 2008

Upping The Ante

Wednesday night is lesson night around our barn. Most of my trainer's clients can't come out during the day since they work, so they come at night. Usually Wednesdays are a lot of fun because there are between 6 and 9 people coming out to ride. Everyone encourages each other and my trainer turns everyone's lesson into a lesson for everyone, as we can all watch and learn as everyone goes. Of course you have to check your ego at the door for this to work! I'm used to it, personally. Most every time I get a lesson and there are people here, I am used as an object lesson for the others; it is rare he actually will coach me--I have to listen to what he is telling the others I am doing wrong or right and make adjustments accordingly. I get my real lessons when no one is here.

Anyway, everyone got there late on Wednesday and so when I was done saddling and warming up all their horses, I asked my trainer if I could get my horse and he said no. This is rare; I really must not pout because most times I can always ride too. I could understand it. After all, it was really cold outside and getting late. But I guess about 3/4 the way through everyone's lessons he must have gotten tired of watching me pouting at the fence (hahahaha) and told me to go get my horse. I got Baby Jane instead of Hal because I haven't blanketed Hal this year and he is a big fuzz ball. Baby Jane is much more slick coated so she would dry easier.

I have been pretty confident on Baby Jane this week. So I got her out smugly, warmed her up quickly and stepped up to the cow like "watch this!" hahaha
And we were smokin... we looked like Snaffle Bit Futurity champions or something. Of course my trainer is smart and saw I was showing off so what does he do? What he always does when he sees someone get cocky; he upped the ante. He yelled at me to put my hand down now and don't pick it up DON"T PICK IT UP!!!!

EEEK! Well I haven't ever put my hand down on Baby Jane and of course he caught me off guard. I put my hand down and he yelled to give her more rein. I admit I was a bit nervous because of Baby Jane's propensity for seeing the reins swinging out of the corner of her eye and getting scared and suddenly jumping 15 feet sideways. This did happen several times to the delight of the people watching and my trainer, who chastised me for letting her do that and yelled to relax and just go to cutting. Of course I've been in this situation now many times and feel I'm getting the hang of it. That's the thing; he puts pressure on me and I am starting to be able to step up to the plate and perform anyway. That's what a competitor must do. So I hunkered down, pushed on my horn, pushed on Baby Jane's neck, whispered a prayer about doing well even on such a green horse and went to trusting my stops. And we cut. We cut pretty good!

Later, one of my trainer's non pros' said wow he really puts the pressure on you; and I said, yeah, well Bill Belichick isn't easy on Tom Brady either. I was happy that, but for a few bobbles in the intereim when I was nervous about the ante being upped, I managed to gather my wits and get to my job, doing it well at the end. As we walked back to the corner of the pen where everyone else was gathered on their horses, my glasses fogged up from the steam and I was hot in my jacket. Baby Jane was self satisfied and confident; confident enough to take a bite out of Peg's horse, Scrapper, as he innocently stood next to her. I guess she counts herself among the "big guns" now that she can be a hand down cutting horse!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Baby Jane Update and a Successful Show

After a few days of getting to know Baby Jane at home, I got another try at our in public herd work at a cutting practice on Friday. This time we were absolutely smoking! We didn't miss a beat; it was so fun! The practice cattle were corriente roping steers. Lots of people don't like cutting these, but I do. The thing about roping cattle is they have a lot of "look" to them, and will play with your horse. If you get in their face, they WILL stop! Its just that if you get behind them in a chasing mode...well forget it. I think the people who don't like cutting them probably don't like them for this reason. However, if you dont' get out of position, if you don't chase, then you can jump back and forth all day and never get out of the center of the pen.

Okay, so I know that since we cut these kind of cattle we really didn't work on the issue that kept us out of the money at the show last weekend. Last weekend we got running cows and the problem was she was tight on a cow; I couldn't get her to go across the pen freely-she just wanted to crouch and jump back and forth. When I legged her more strongly to go across with the cow was when she kicked out and tried to buck. We have been working on that at home, however, on the round pen mechanical cow, and I dont' anticipate it being a problem again. We are getting to know and trust each other and I am starting to understand the feel of her. At home I have been working on rating the cow on long runs and keeping her up, going all the way to the stop.

At the pracice I could feel her desire and craving for cattle. She is such an intelligent, happy little pony. I always knew that, but now that I get to cut on her, and show her, a whole new dimension is added to our relationship. I do think we are going to be great friends.

I also practiced on Hal. Ever since December, I have been riding Hal two handed in a snaffle bit at home. When I was in Fort Worth, I spent a lot of time watching in the practice pen, and watching the two year old guys riding their sale horses two handed. I know what I like when I see it, and the ones I want to emulate are the smooth ones, the ones who have independent hands and good secure seats, who don't try to override their horses or do a lot of contortions in the saddle to get the job done. At one point my trainer was watching with me and I pointed out one of the ones I admired. He told me "you don't ride too much different from that now; the only difference is you lack the amount of seasoning that guy has." WOW!!!!!

Anyway it struck me that most of my struggles with Hal is I was not in the right mindset, about getting things solid in the foundation with him. It is like I thought I had to be too excited about riding him because he is such a high powered horse, more horse than I was used to previously. I was getting too anxious, always trying to get these huge moves, riding too quickly, getting Hal amped, when he is more than happy to get amped to the point of being out of control.

So when we got back from Fort Worth I decided to ride him like a two year old rider, two handed in a snaffle, working on the foundation stuff and getting us on the same page. This is good for Hal anyway. He has plenty of move. The key is to slow him down, get him to relax. I'm starting to understand what Paul Hansma is always talking about in his video. When you have the "A List" type horse, that is what you do. Previously, some of the horses I have rode have been the type I had to motivate a little. Well Hal certainly doesnt' need any motivation! He is motivated enough for both of us. He lives for jumping back and forth, crouching and shaking. He does it in his stall.

Every day I rode him this way. I did not blanket him this winter and he is somewhat fuzzy. So after every ride I have been currying him dry and I also think that is helping our relationship. Our relationship used to consist of only rubbing and currying, before I ever owned him. This is a good thing for Hal; he missed out on "being owned" for so many years and I think he really appreciates the extra attention.

At the practice on Friday I put a bridle on him and went to cutting. It was one of our better runs. I felt so confident and relaxed, letting him do his thing, and he stayed back and stayed correct and most important, stayed mentally connected to me, instead of getting out into the atmosphere somewhere. My focus held up as well and I am so glad I didn't fail him.

I think I have a new attitude towards showing this year. I have a feeling it is going to stick, too. Learning to ride, train, and show is a lifelong journey of course, but it is also a journey of self discovery. The better I get, the more I learn, the more I find out it has a leveling effect on my whole psyche. I am centered; I am grounded. And I am feeling fine about showing this year. The fear is gone. All of a sudden, I realized it just isn't necessary to be nervous. It is like a football game. It means everything...for an hour, and then it is over and it doesn't mean anything. It means everything and nothing all at once. It is so important to the person there and does nothing really to change the world. All a horse show is is a chance to showcase your horse to the best of your ability. It isn't about the person. It is about the horse. The only reason I am there is for Hal, to let him do what he loves to do so much. Why would I want to mess it up with silly human worries?

I went to the show on Saturday with this attitude. I also felt prepared, fully prepared, probably for the first time on Hal. I understand these things take time. There wasn't much chance of me being really prepared last year when I showed him; we didn't know each other well enough yet. Now, though, with my extra slow work at home, the extra hours put in, I feel closer to Hal and prepared to go let him be his best in front of the crowd. So that's what we did. Even loping around warming up Don's horses before my class I was in a different mindset.

I am prone to excitability and an abundance of energy. This can be a real asset, but not when I let it get me scattered. I feel energy from everyone; when in a crowd this can be something that gets me all scattered, like a horse at a show for the first time, overwhelmed with all the new sights and smells. This time I didn't let the snatches of conversation and other things around me distract my focus from the task at hand-warming up Don's horses and then my own, turning back, holding herd. I was serene and happy just to feel the horse beneath me, working for me.

And we showed so well. My herd work was superb and we were the picture of calm cool. I stayed centered and we didn't miss a beat. We won our class. This is just the beginning for me and Hal.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Baby Jane And Me Will Make A Good Team



Tonight I decided to practice on Baby Jane. Wednesday nights are usually lesson nights and if I saddle a horse, I can get a lesson too. My trainer has decided I will show Baby Jane this year in two handed cuttings so she can get seasoned.
I have known Baby Jane since she was foaled. I held her mama when she was bred, I watched Jane get born. I did all her preliminary groundwork and started her. I rode her a bit in her two year old year, but since she was my trainer's "A" list horse, he rode her much more than I did. He rode her almost exclusively her three year old year. I rode her maybe 5 or 6 times. I warmed her up all the time for him, I mean, but as far as cutting, no.
He showed her in a small futurity in Washington, where she drew in a bad bunch of cattle and didn't do much, but she has all kinds of potential; that much is readily apparent. Since that futurity, in late October, she has had some time off.

A few weeks ago, I started riding her when my trainer said I would start showing her. I mostly legged her up and worked her a few times on the mechanical cow, just trying to get used to her.
Baby Jane is pretty goosey and stingy. I have always known this about her. She is reactive to leg and ultra sensitive. I am glad the first young horse I showed was Gem Pony, who was a lot more level headed, forgiving, and mellow. It was good I had Gem Pony first as a young horse, because I wasn't ready for something of Baby Jane's caliber at that time. Now that I have Hal and I have learned to have better timing, etc, I am ready for Baby Jane.

Sometimes when she sees the tail of the rein out to the side she skitters sideways and I feel her get some air under her tail. I knew she would be this way when she was a baby. She is one of the babies from the first crop of Stylish babies. That year all the babies had mega chrome; white legs, big blazes. All except Jane, that is. Plain sorrel, not a speck of white. When she was a foal she looked like a curly horse. She had little curlicues out her ears; her baby hair was kinky, and she had a fro mane. She still has the fro mane. But she is no longer a Plain Jane. She has filled out and become beautiful, despite her plain red wrapper. Hal, of course, is also plain red with no white on him, with a curly frizzy mane.

I did a lot of ground work with Baby Jane; a lot of sacking out. I had an idea she would be like her dam, Nita, who had to have a bag of crushed soda cans tied to her head for two weeks before she would even tolerate seeing your elbow out the side of her eye. The ground work brought out Baby Jane's naturally friendly temperament and made her eager for kisses and love at all times, but didn't really eliminate her natural goosey-ness. Now that Nita is 9 years old, she is feeling broke and somewhat gentle. She isn't as scooty and skittery anymore, though she grabs herself from time to time.


(first saddling; she thought about bucking but it wasnt' serious)

I took Baby Jane to the show on Sunday to practice. It started out pretty good, but I didn't lope her near enough and she felt all balled up and ready to blow at any second. She was tight on a cow; I couldnt' get her across the pen, she just wanted to crouch and shake. I kicked and kicked and kicked a bit harder and she then let me know exactly what she thought about that by bogging her head and letting out a giant double barreled kick out.
Needless to say I learned we have some work to do to get together and that a bit more warming up will be on the bill for next show!
Anyway our ride tonight was spectacular. Everything worked; my timing was right, we were a team. My trainer actually said to me, "there aren't very many girl trainers who ride as well as you did tonight." (he meant cutting horse trainers). Wow. It's not every day I get a compliment like that!!! I'm walking on air.
It's rides like tonight that keep me going when things don't go so well. So much in cutting is so hard, and my trainer is so demanding of me. (which is good; I am demanding of myself, as well). I am learning to do more than just ride a cutting horse; I am learning to train them, and train them right, train them well. I don't want to be some hack. I don't want to be some just get er done yayhoo who sacrifices sound horsemanship principles in the name of winning or getting thrills.
I am really looking forward to getting to show Baby Jane. I feel so lucky that I get the opportunity to ride and show such a nice horse. Every day I go out in the barn and I like my job more and more. Simply walking past and rubbing a nose sticking out of a stall door makes me smile and feel content; content that all is well in the world and I am exactly where I need to be. My life is full and happy with my horse friends all around me.



Monday, January 14, 2008

Huge Wild Eyes Cows Running Towards Me In The River Of $hit

While riding today, I was talking to Barb, one of our non pros, who was out for a lesson. She was talking about the, as she said, "irrational" fear she had of her horse, Maddy, and the buffalo. A few months back, we were at a practice in Merced, and Barb was trying to warm Maddy up on a cool, blustery night in the huge open MHA arena. Maddy bucked REALLY hard. I saw it and was astounded that Barb managed to stay aboard. She had bruises on the inside of her knees and lower thighs from hitting the swells and the horn. After that episode, she had been somewhat afraid of Maddy.

A few months later, she brought Maddy over for me to ride a few times; she hadn't been on her since the episode in Merced. I rode her with no real problems, three times, and then Barb brought her home. The next week she was back for a lesson on Maddy and it all should have been fine...except it wasn't. Barb couldn't get over the fear she had. It actually paralyzed her. When we brought the buffalo in the pen, she couldn't stand it any longer and got off Maddy and left the arena. I went over and got Maddy from her and got on Maddy and turned back for my trainer as he worked the buffalo on another horse. Maddy was a bit cowfresh but didn't offer to buck or do anything bad. After my trainer was done, I went and boxed a buffalo on the back fence, really driving Maddy up to it, getting right into it's face...again, no problems. My trainer then worked Maddy, and finally Barb got back on and worked Maddy herself.

Still, the fear remains. That was the topic of conversation. She couldnt' understand why the fear remained, why this irrational fear was not letting go. She is a brave person. She is one of the most determined people I know. She has ridden horses that were much more unpredictable than Maddy, with no problem.

I told her I, too, had had episodes like that. The problem with an "irrational" fear is that it doesn't matter how other people view it, or how many other people don't have a problem with what you are afraid of. Nothing you can say to yourself seems to help, because the fear pervades not only your thoughts, but your body as well. It gets into your cells and makes your body react in defensive ways that you can't "fix" by just trying to rationalize things in your mind. What's worse about it is the internal reprimands you give yourself for being afraid when you shouldn't be; the embarassment you feel for "failing" in certain situations where you feel you shouldn't fail.

She told me the problem was mostly with the buffalo. She thinks she can ride Maddy okay as long as things are kept slow-in her comfort zone. Buffalo, though, are out of the comfort zone. They are big and scary looking and she doesn't trust them. Just like the Holstein cows on her husband's big dairy. Just the other day he had her out helping him separate some cows in the alleyways. It was wet and the alleyways were slick with water and cow excrement, a veritable "river of $hit." Her husband ran a bunch of cows down the alley towards her, and told her to stand her ground, don't let them through! The alleyway actually had a downward slope and she was at the bottom of it. Here come these Holsteins, all wanting to be on the other side of her, all 5 feet 3 inches of her, serving as a tentative and very apprehensive blocker. She looked at their eyes rolling in their heads, wild and determined, running down the sloppy alleyway, and let out a little scream and leaped for the side fence of the alleyway, climbing to safety. Of course her husband was pissed and didn't understand what her problem was. They are gentle milk cows, nothing more!

As she related her story I realized that sometimes fear is a problem of perception. When Barb's husband looks at his Holsteins, he sees gentle milk cows who will stop if he stands in the middle of an alley and waves his arms. He sees animals which he can control by having a commanding presence. And it's true, the absence of fear, a self confident demeanor, works wonders for controlling livestock. When Barb looks at the Holsteins, she sees animals that weigh half a ton at least, and have their minds made up to go where they want to go. When she looks at the buffalo, she sees creatures who have wicked horns and big huge heads, who make snorting noises and have no problem crashing through a fence panel or two.

Now I know, because I am very familiar with the buffalo, that they are pretty predictable, and they really don't want to run into your horse. You can read where they are going to go by watching their eyes and ears, and individual buffalo have unique patterns of how they move; once you know the pattern, you know pretty much what that buffalo is going to do every time.

So to get over some fears, education and exposure can work wonders. The more Barb hangs around the dairy and watches the cows and how they react in certain situations, she would gain some confidence in working with them. Watching the buffalo, watching others work with them, etc, would probably help her get over her fear of the buffalo. The fear comes from unfamiliarity. Because she doesn't know how the buffs will react, it colors her perception of them.

Watching me and my trainer ride Maddy without having a problem helped convince her that Maddy was safe for her to get back on, even with the buffalo in the arena. Sometimes thats the best way to overcome a fear. Watch and learn. When you have some knowledge about how a situation will play out, you can then have confidence in your ability to handle it. Sometimes the key is just time and exposure.

For me, this is what worked when I had a problem with Pistol a few years back. Pistol was as her name implies. She was hot, goosey, broncy, silly, unpredictable, and so quick and athletic that all these traits were magnified. While a goosey horse really doesn't bother me, Pistol was above and beyond, because of her athletic ability. She would be gone out from underneath you before you could even blink. It's not like I can't sit a horse that jumps sideways suddenly...duh, I'm a cutter, that's what I do.

Well she got me one day; as I was getting on she shot forward and yanked the reins out of my hands. I was half on and half off and didn't quite feel comfortable stepping back down as we were now at a full run and the stirrups were oxbows. So I tried getting all the way on. I was already behind her motion and the effort was futile. I bounced off her hindquarters and got shot up and over the other side of her into the fence, hard enough to knock my glasses off and dot my vision with dancing multicolored stars. After that episode she was funny about mounting...for me, for my trainer, for my trainer's daughter. She would attempt to bolt every time someone would mount. Of course this just added to my apprehension about getting on her. Getting on is a vunerable position. Once I'm on a horse, secure in my seat, both feet in my stirrups, things are good. It is that half on, half off, one leg holding up my body the other swinging out behind me, perched and at the mercy of the horse...that's the scary part.

It got so I wouldn't even ride Pistol. I would make excuses. My trainer would have me get Pistol and I would; I would saddle her, walk her to the arena, and then tell him I had to go to the restroom could he please hold her...and then I would stay in the restroom for 15 minutes or so. Long enough for my trainer to get sick of waiting for me and get on Pistol himself. He didn't have the fear of her bolting. He is much more confident in his ability to cheek a horse around and get on one like her.

After many times watching him get on her and her not bolting on him, I started to feel better about getting back on her myeslf. Instead of perceiving her as a half tame, unpredictable horse, I started counting the times I saw her as a completely normal, if hot, under-control horse who stood still for mounting. My trainer also helped by holding Pistol for me as I got on, until I was confident again that I could mount her without assistance.

There were times, though, I attempted to get over this by myself. I would get her out, and lunge her until she was a bit tired, and then attempt to mount myself. My breath would start getting shallow and short, and I would start to sweat. My heart would start to pound and my legs and arms would go shaky. I absolutely couldn't control it; it just happened and I seemed powerless. The just do it mentality just wasn't happening in this situation. Trying to just push through the fear has worked for me in many scenarios, but not in this one. The fear had gotten into my body cells and was affecting my physiology despite my rational attempt to work through it. At those adrenaline filled moments, it didn't matter that I have a job as a colt starter, that I have successfully rode bulls, that I STARTED Pistol! Nothing mattered except that I couldn't make myself get on her.

In this situation, coming at it from another angle, actually changing my perception of Pistol, was what worked. I think this will also work for Barb. The more times she sees Maddy being good, being sane, under control and not wild, the better she will feel about riding her. The more she is around the buffalo, watching them and learning their reactions, the better she will feel about them.

Another thing that helps overcome fear is confidence in your own ability. My trainer was never scared of Pistol bolting as he mounted because he has complete confidence in his ability to handle a situation like that even if it comes up. In order to feel that way myself, I practiced mounting and dismounting properly and fluidly on a broke horse I was sure would stand still. Shadow was a saint, patiently standing for me as I would get on and off, on and off, on and off, from both sides. I got so I felt very comfortable cheeking a horse around and mounting quickly in one fluid, balanced and athletic motion. I practiced correct form until it came naturally and wasn't something I had to think too hard about.

These newly improved skills helped when I started riding Pistol again. I never had another problem like that with her, and gradually, the memory of my accidental dismount faded away, out of my mind, and out of my body reactions.

So what happens if you find yourself facing a bunch of wild eyed cows running towards you in a river of $hit? Well I guess that just depends on your perception of that situation and the confidence you feel in your own ability to handle it.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

How To Do A Rollback, western style

Here is the first of my how to essays, written in 2005:

How to Do A Rollback.. by Cutter123

When a horse does a good rollback maneuver, it should be smooth and finessy, all one motion, like an ocean wave coming in and going out again.He should stop square in an athletic manner, by loading his hocks and hindquarters, rounding out his back, and keeping his head "neutral" with a soft poll and jaw. (by neutral I mean not up in your lap and not down below his knees or with his chin to his chest).

He should then immediately suck back a bit so his weight is concentrated over his hind end.His ribs should be arced away from the direction he is going to turn, which will arc his nose and hip slightly into the direction he is going to turn. He should start with his nose, and his body should follow his nose through the turn nice and cleanly, picking up his front end neatly and balancing through the turn on his hind end.When he comes out the other side, he should push off with his outside hind leg and go off cleanly and smoothly the other direction, on the correct lead.

He should turn like a rope, or a string, not like a 2x4. Simulate this at your desk right now with a shoelace or peice of string and a pen or pencil. See the different way they turn? A string is fluid. A pen is straight and stiff and therefore will "swing like a gate." When the front end turns, the back end turns the other way. When this happens on a horse, it means the horse "swaps ends;" basically losing all athleticism and making a sloppy, stiff move. (think: Napoleon Dynamite equine version).

In order to help the horse execute this maneuver properly, a rider needs to be balanced, and have good enough timing to apply the aids right when they will help the horse, and in the right manner. Think in your mind about a horse doing a rollback in slow motion without a saddle or a rider. Think about it until you have it clear in your mind. Now add the saddle and rider and see if you can understand where the rider's weight/aids have to be.

First, the rider needs to ride the horse all the way to the stop, sitting up square in the center of her saddle with her legs right underneath her with a nice bend to her knee in an athletic position. A few strides before she stops, the rider comes in with inside leg applied at the cinch to create the slight bend in the horse needed to execute the rollback. The hands stay neutral and the outside leg still applies driving pressure a little further back so the hip doesn't kick out.Then the rider sits her stop.

She does not lean back and pull, stiffening her lower back and therefore stiffening the horse. She sinks down in her saddle, SOFTENING her lower back and absorbing the stop in her joints...hip, back, knees, ankles, all of which are soft and flexible. The rider's upper body is still neutral...not leaning back, not leaning forward, not twisting in the direction she is about to go.

(This is a big problem for a lot of riders. If you feel like you are getting a sloppy, out of control "swap endy" type rollback, make sure you are not twisting too early and "taking off before your horse." ) In the instant the horse stops, rider's inside leg comes out. If the rider keeps inside leg in during the turn, (and we are taking about a horse that is responsive and knows how to do a rollback...teaching a rollback to an unresponsive horse is another matter and I can get into that later if someone wants me to). Anyway, if the rider keeps inside leg on during the turn it screws up your rollback in several ways....one, a rider who is balanced but keeps the inside leg on during the turn will be sitting in such a way to drive her horse forward around the turn, so she will get a barrel type turn, or even bigger, depending on the timing and effectiveness of her other aids.

This is FINE if you want a turn with forward motion.

But if what you want is a rollback, which is a "hold your ground" motion, then it isn't correct.

Rollbacks that hold their ground are especially important for cutters and cowhorse people and cattle penners, because if you go forward in your turn you put pressure on the cow and cause it to run faster, and you also come out behind it, losing your advantageous position.(good rollbacks are also good for other disciplines too. My friend Stephanie, for example, is a barrel racer. When she goes around a barrel it is with forward motion. But when she is practicing and schooling her horses, she oftentimes does rollbacks, even backing up several steps in the process to teach her horse how to be on his hip).

Two (what happens if you keep your inside leg in during a rollback).... Often we are not talking about a rider that is completely balanced with good feel and timing. A lot of the times a rider wants to "turn for her horse," and she will inadvertently lean the direction she is going to turn. This weights her inside leg. If you think back to what I was saying about physicis, you will understand this puts the rider's body weight in the way, making it impossible for the horse to make a clean turn (unless you have one of those saint horses that will actually shrug you back on top and then turn, but even then you cause him to lose some of his athleticism).

Other riders, when they use direct rein to tip their horse's nose, they don't know how to use their aids independently of each other, so they brace against their pull with their inside leg. (Imagine starting a lawnmower, you know how you put your leg on the lawnmower so you can pull against your leg, for levearge...good for starting a lawnmower, bad for getting a good rollback). This will cause your horse to kick his hip out and lose all power/impulsion.

Okay, so we've established our rider sits her stop and takes her inside leg OUT. She is still sitting square. Since she is sitting square, her horse stops square, and his hips don't kick out to the outside. (If they do, you are leaning the direction you want to go, or twisting, or throwing your hip the direction...you are thinking about turning too much. Forget about thinking about turning, and think about stopping, backing up, and letting your horse come through himself).

Now our rider sets her hands and softens her back so she encourages her horse to take a step or two back. (this is for practice and for green horses. When your horse is schooled, he should suck back on his own, slightly, enough to execute a good rollback)Now our rider uses inside rein to tip her horse's nose the direction she is going to go. Her inside hand back and up slightly, towards the outside beltloop/hip seam of her jeans/pants. This motion originates from the shoulder. Elbow stays bent, wrist stays straight. (I caught you, huh! How many of you cock your wrist like Will from Will and Grace when you pull????) As inside rein comes up and back, outside rein has to release so horse can tip his nose. Outside rein comes forward and slightly down. This will also have the added effect of helping the rider twist her body correctly, looking the direction she is going to turn, and weighting her outside seat bone. The horse will start to follow his nose.

DO NOT lean back. This will push your horse forward and make it hard for him to stay on his hip. Stay right over the horse's center of balance, (right behind his withers), which puts you in the front of your saddle, up over your feet. Keep your lower back SOFT (this could be the most important part), so your horse is invited to come through your back and round his back out, using himself athletically.Your outside leg should be slightly back, but still passive at this time. If you take your outside leg forward to help your horse make the turn at first, it will work, but it is also a stiff, hoppy type turn because you are forcing the horse's shoulders through the turn at the same time as his nose.

The rider will start feeling the thrust of the horse's turn sliding her to the outside of her saddle. She allows this to happen, staying balanced by putting her weight on her outside leg. As the horse is in his swing, coming out the other side, the rider then cues with outside leg to add impulsion and help the horse push himself out of the turn. The leg cue comes in anyhwere after 90 degrees, preferably at about 135 degrees. If the outside leg comes in before or at 90 degress, the rider then forces the horse's ribs through the turn too early, which will stiffen him up.When the horse is out the other side, hands come back to neutral, rider comes back to neutral, and applies both legs to ride out of the rollback. She does not lean forward; she sits right on top and squeezes with both legs to create impulsion.

If you are having trouble feeling the rollback, do this exercise at a walk and close your eyes (after you practice a few times with your eyes open).Walk forward, then use inside leg to leg away until you really feel a bend. Stop and back up. Make the stop and back up one smooth motion.

Do not stop and then release your hands and then gather him back up for the back up.

Stop, and keep your hands set until your horse comes off that bridle by backing up. Your hands should be set even.

When you feel your horse backing up really nicely and not sticky (and if he is sticky, make sure you aren't leaning back and your back isn't stiff), then simply release outside hand, just let go of the reins with your outside hand while keeping your inside hand set how it is.

At the same time, lean forward and to the outside, like you are going to reach down and kiss your horse's outside ear. (This means your weight is in your outside stirrup) You shouldn't be doing anything with either leg at this point. This is just an exercise to help you gain feel. Do you feel how when you release the outside rein and "kiss your horse's ear" he swings underneath you? His front end swings away from where your weight is, and he crosses over in front and pivots around. Practice this a bit until you can really feel it. This is an exaggeration of the cue but it will help your body reprogram itself to do it properly, especially if you have been having problems getting to the inside of your rollback.

An Introduction

Hi all, I am a new blogger. I have been writing on several horse related bulletin boards for a few years. I am getting tired of that. I'm not much into arguing or justifying the way I do things, and the last straw came when I opened up an issue of Performance Horse Magazine and saw my words...word for word...printed there as a how to article "written" by some young cowhorse trainer I had never heard of. Yeah.



I feel the need to write, but I'm not motivated enough to be a real writer with an editor and a publisher and all that. I want to share the riding and training knowledge I have dedicated my life to obtaining, but I want to make sure it is ME sharing it, not some other person who read my writing on the internet and decided to make a training article out of it.

This blog will be multifaceted. Sometimes I might just feel like rambling about things...my life, what I am doing and learning, what is happening in the barn, and mostly horses.
I am also going to search through the bulletin board archives and transfer some of my how to essays over to here, so they are saved, and unquestionably mine. Then I will delete them from the bulletin boards.

Hopefully people will get something out of these essays. If not, that's fine too. Writing it is mostly for me anyway. I welcome comments and questions.

Cheers and happy blogging!

Fort Worth...good place to start off

Oh we are finally back from Texas!Wow what a drive. I have done it several times, but I must be getting old or something. I used to be able to crash in the truck, heck I would sleep in the bed of my pickup, or on the beach, or in a pasture; I did that plenty throughout my twenties... it didn't matter. LOL the first thing I did when I got home yesterday was head for the chiropractor!!!!I got cracked back into shape and now I feel much better. Anyway, we went to Fort Worth to the NCHA Futurity. We transported 6 horses there for the NCHA Select Sales- five yearling colts and one broodmare. And we brought one back, a four year old show mare for one of my trainers clients. The new mare is by Peptoboonsmal out of a daughter of CD Olena. She seems very nice so far! Anyway, the haul to Fort Worth takes 2 days. We leave the ranch around 11am and pull into Tucson fairgrounds at about 6am the next morning. This is with a few stops for water and such for the horses. My trainer and I trade off driving and sleeping. We put up the horses at Tucson for about 7 hours, get some sleep, and then head out from there around 5pm, and get to Weatherford around 8am. We got a new truck this year, a 6 speed Dodge one ton. I have hauled our three horse with it a few times, and driven it to town several times. I don't usually haul the 7 horse; it is so long it is tricky to maneuver. I will only haul it on long hauls in the long flat straight parts We set out in the rain. Our first stop was a south 99 truck stop, where I was hit on by a marine fighter pilot. You should have seen this guy. It would not be hard to imagine him sneaking through an abandoned warehouse or bombed out building, automatic weapon in hand, searching out bad guys, like the bourne identity or 007 or something. He has been in Iraq twice, among other places. He was a colonel. He had some sort of Russian or Eastern European accent, and a name of a Roman Gladiator or something. Of course I am so clueless and oblivious I didn't realize he was hitting on me until about 50 miles later my trainer was laughing quietly to himself, and I was like, "what?" He said, "that guy was hitting on you and you didn't even know it." LOL. Well I guess I just don't understand things like that. I mean, sometimes I dress up like a girl, with my hair down and nice clean jeans and a nice sweater, maybe something form fitting or something...this was NOT one of those times. Lets see, I was wearing birkenstocks, a pair of low rise wranglers that are a size or two too big...big enough that I have to keep hitching them up every couple of steps so they dont' fall off, and a baggy old sweatshirt with a frog on the front of it, giving the peace sign, sitting in front of a campfire, with a tent, some mountains in the background, and stars in the sky. It says "Peace Out." My hair was scrunched haphazardly into a bun of some sort, and I had lipgloss on I think, but nothing else. Now what in this picture makes one think a marine fighter pilot would find a girl like this attractive???? Well anyway. I slept most of the way through So Cal as my trainer drove and then took over driving right before we reached the Gala Bend turnoff (to bypass Phoenix). Of course, it always is a bit nerve racking at first, hauling other people's horses. I figure I had about $150,000 or $200,000 worth of horses behind me. Yeah. It's a little stressful at first. Lucky I get the flat part, and the 3 in the morning till sunrise shift. This means there isn't much traffic; most of the other vehicles on the road at that point are long distance truckers. I would rather drive among these guys than regular traffic any day of the week. These guys are professional drivers and know road etiquette, unlike many commuters. I love the passing game. A big rig goes to pass and then before they get back in the lane in front of you, they put their turn signal on and wait, and you give the "okay you are far enough past me for safety" signal by blinking on your high beams once or twice. They then merge and give you a "thank you!" signal by blinking their tail lights at you. Different truckers have different signals. It is a polite thing, and a neat thing, communicating a bit in the dark with "ships passing in the night." I set my ipod low and mellowed out to some Neil Young and the miles just flew by. When we pulled into Tucson, it was rainy and windy. Now usually we put the horses up in the outside pens. They have 2 whole rows of 36x36 pens, set slightly apart, with an aisleway in between. We will pull right in that aisleway and turn them all out, crawl up into the gooseneck and catch some z's, in a good position to keep an eye on the horses, ensured they are safe. Since the weather was bad, this was not an option so we put them in stalls in one of the barns, every other stall. Everyone was well behaved except one. He was nervous and herdbound, worried about his new surroundings, and was standing on his hind legs trying to climb out of his stall. So instead of getting my nice nap, I had to settle for sitting in a folding lawnchair outside his stall, holding onto his leadrope until he settled down. Ahhhh. The glamourous life. I slept through the entire state of New Mexico. We always go through New Mexico during the night, so there isn't much to see anyway. If we were on 40 instead of 20, I would be more interested, I guess. I was born and raised in New Mexico, but in the Northern part, off of 40. The southern part is like most of the Panhandle country of Texas...long, flat, and straight, smelling of crude in many places, oil wells endlessly pumping with heads like bucking broncos, up down up down. My trainer asked to use my iPod. I said sure! I have a dealie that hooks it to the truck radio so you can play it through the vehicle speakers, but he opted for the earphones so I could sleep. I was somewhat thankful for this...see I have more than 2600 songs on my iPod...out of those, my trainer likes exactly 1 of them. The Traveling Wilburys, "End Of The Line." This is not exactly true; if I made him listen to some of the others, he would like them, too, but he has very limited musical taste. He is the type of guy who is happy enough to listen to one song he likes.. over and over and over and over. So I made him a playlist, with that one song, and set it to repeat. The only problem was he sang along. Well, he sang along with George's part, and sometimes Roy's part. He doesn't know all the words. I took over driving right outside El Paso. Now that is a funky city. Any of you ever been along 20 through El Paso? The border fence is right there, this huge prison looking fence, topped with concertina wire. Look to the US side, you can see the high rises of El Paso, sparkling silver in the sun. Look to the other side, shanties, made of cardboard and pressboard, as far as the eye can see. Its a trip. My trainer fell right asleep. This is his least favorite part of the drive, he calls it the most boring part. Truthfully, there isn't much for scenery. If one looks on a map, Texas looks filled up, every nook and cranny, with roads and towns and such. But Texas is BIG. And there are a lot of wide open spaces, darkness for miles around, intersperced only with an occasional oil rig, lit up like christmas, like a beacon in the night, an alien outpost on a far away planet. I set the cruise control and wiled away the miles. Driving long hours is tough on me in some ways. I am an active type person. Sitting still that long is difficult. I can make it fun by writing stories in my head, but I get pretty restless. Driving through that darkness is something else though. Sometimes I was the only one on the road for miles, not another headlight in sight. Despite such a populated planet I felt alone out there, peaceful, as if I were in the Voyager 11, slingshotting my way around Saturn, somewhere out in space, dark and absolutely silent. I think it would be quite an experience to be out there, like Major Tom or something, surrounded by nothing, just silence. I could be underwater, deep, deep under, swimming and floating through miles of deep blue. I often think of what it would be like to be an animal, to not speak or have language. We always have all this noise. Even out here at our ranch there is lots of noise. The highway is close, and we are surrounded by almond orchards. Often we hear the shakers or the sweepers or the tractors. If not them, we hear the crop dusters or the neighbors atv. What it must have been like before all this busy-ness! We got into Weatherford around 8am, on schedule. Somewhere around Sweetwater the temperature dropped to freezing sleet, and a film of ice built up around the antenna, growing until we were forced to pull over and scrape it off, for fear the added weight would tear the antenna completely off. It was miserable cold when we arrived at the ranch we were to drop the sale horses. Weatherford is like cutting horse mecca. On the roads between weatherford, there are huge spreads, one after another, with miles of drill pipe fencing and broodmares in immaculately groomed pastures, fancy entry gates, roads leading to huge indoor arenas and outdoor round cutting pens done in texas style mesquite stake, each place more beautiful than the last. It is the start of me, every year, feeling a bit overwhelmed. In Texas, everything is big. Done big, in every single way. I love going through all the places, going through their barns, etc. It puts anything in California to shame. It makes our place look pretty sub-par, though it is more than adequate and I remember all the time to be thankful for the indoor arena and other amenities I know many are without. I always have to remember to keep things in perspective when in Texas. It is easy to get carried away, seeing all the money there, the things some cutters have. Heck, when it comes down to it, it is about the riding. Our horses are happy and well trained, and well fed, and secure. I have the best job in the world, and I get to ride some fancy horses. I was never one for material things, anyway, heck, my parents are hippies and I am not too far from that myself. Money helps, fancy places are nice, but what it comes down to is ridng, and the horses. For that, all you need is want and desire.