Making it Hard

For the past few days, Buddy has been making life hard.  Thursday Jen used him for a beginner lesson, the girl has only ridden maybe 3 times, and he kept trotting off with her.  Jen eventually put him on the lunge line and he calmed down.

Friday I went to get him and he was minus a shoe.  The other was missing a nail and loose so I pulled it the rest of the way off.  It was the first time I've ever pulled a shoe off myself, and boy do I have more respect for my farrier!  It took me about a half hour to work it off and I was pouring sweat by the end.  Luckily Buddy was due to get redone this week anyways so he'll only have a few days barefoot.

 

I was a little worried how ouchy he'd be because Saturday we were scheduled to ride in a cutting clinic. I've been to the barn where it was held before and knew they had really nice cushy footing.  It was the walking on the gravel/hard pasture that worried me.  I gave him a little preventative bute Friday night and Saturday morning and he was fine.

It's been six months since Bud's been on cows, so I figured he'd be pretty excited.  Wrong.  He perked up a bit when he first saw the cows but then promptly lost interest.  We started by practice moving the herd and then being "herd holders" for the person cutting.  Basically the herd holders keep the group of cows back while the cutter cuts their cow out and works it.  There are two herd holders, one in each corner of the short end of the arena.  Buddy and I were actually pretty good at holding the herd, we got compliments and didn't get yelled at as much as some of the real cow horse people.

At least he's cute, right?

Unfortunately Buddy's lack of interest in the cows killed us when it was our turn to cut.  He wouldn't focus on a cow and was dead to my leg.  We couldn't keep a cow separated from the herd and it was pretty frustrating.  The clinician called me off and said that Buddy was loosing confidence because he couldn't get a cow. He then said to go somewhere else and work with just one cow till we could get it. In the moment I was pretty hurt, no one likes being told their horse is loosing confidence and to be called out like that in front of the group was pretty humiliating.  I walked Bud around for a few minutes, then got off and went back to the trailer.

By this point I was trying my hardest to hold back the tears.  My barn owner who had come to watch came out to talk to me and said the clinician was wrong, that Buddy was just being incredibly lazy and wasn't loosing confidence.  He just couldn't be bothered to care. She also offered me her spurs that she had in the truck if I wanted to get back on him. I thought about it as I untacked and groomed him and she was right.  Buddy normally locks on to his cow and is pretty enthusiastic about moving them.  He just didn't care and wasn't paying attention.

One of the clinic organizers came out and talked to me saying they were sorry I had a bad go and offered to have me work one on one with a cow. She said she'd been in my place and she knows how hard it is to be called out in a group setting. I stared getting teary eyed again and that set her off and the two of hugged and cried it out.  I got Bud tacked up again, put on the spurs, and headed back to the arena. 

There were only two cows in the arena this time and we worked on just following one and moving with it.  Buddy woke up after a couple jabs with the spurs and was his normal cowy self.  He was locking onto the cow and moving with it.  The clinician was having me go slow and emphasize moving Buddy's shoulders when the cow moved.  At one point he told me to move Bud's shoulders away from the cow, and thanks to the spurs, Buddy did almost a 180 spin.  That got everyone laughing and saying that when he wakes up he could move.  It ended on a good note, I felt that I had redeemed us, and that Buddy at least remembered how to work cow.

Cow Pony

Last night my friend L and I took Buddy and her mare Dar to a 3 man ranch sorting.  For $20 we rode for 3hrs and were able to get 5 runs in with the cows and a wonderful home cooked meal!  We partnered up with two different women for our runs and managed to do pretty well.  The goal was the move the 10 cows in order from one pen to another in less than 2 and a half minutes. The 90x200 arena was divided into thirds; the far end and the middle were the two pens for the cows and the last third was where everyone waited to go.

When we first got there, we had about 10mins to warm up while the cows roamed around the arena.  Buddy immediately perked up and wanted to see the cows, but we were able to have a decent warm up with a little w-t-c each way. We watched a few other groups go and when we went in for our turn Buddy took off trotting down towards the end and the cows.  He was amped!  The first few runs went ok. Bud was pretty excited and wanted to keep chasing the cows so we had to have a discussion about what it means when I asked him to stop.  L's mare hasn't been on cows much but she's starting to figure out how to chase them and cut them out of the herd.

We took a break for dinner and let the horses rest for bit.  Dinner was pulled pork sandwiches, pasta salad, and an awesome blackberry cobbler. Seriously I would pay $20 just for the food!

When we got back on, the managers had put up a heater where everyone was waiting. It was hovering around 30* and it was very appreciated.  All the horses didn't seem to care about it and L's mare really loved standing next to it.  When we went back for our final couple rounds Dar didn't want to walk away from the heater. 



Pic of the heater shamelessly stolen from the farm's FB page.  The paint in the background is L's mare Dar.


Our final couple rounds went really well.  Buddy started really listening to me, and would lock on to the cow I wanted.  He was flying down the arena, but was tired enough at this point to stop when I asked.  I still think that next time I'll use a bigger bit.  I usually use a short shanked plain snaffle, and since I'm not real familiar with Western bits I'll ask Connie what she thinks would be good for him. I think they are doing cows almost every Friday and I would love to be able to go once a month.



Ranch Sorting

I took Buddy to a ranch sorting practice last night.  Another woman from the barn was going, and I thought it would be a good change for Bud.  I've never sorted before, but when Connie had Bud she did a lot of it with him.

Ranch sorting is basically taking a group of cows, one at a time, from one pen to another.  There are two round pens set next to each other with the middle panel taken out; the opening is called the hole.  One rider blocks the hole while the other gets the cow and runs it towards the hole.  The riders then switch and go back and forth every other cow.  There are a dozen cows and ten of them are numbered 0-9.  You have to go in numerical order and leave the two unnumbered or "dirty" cows in the first pen.  And you have to do this all in 60secs.

Bud was pretty tired from his workout on Thursday, so we did a light warm up when we got there.  Once they had the cows set up, he perked up a bit but was still pretty laid back.  Which was a good thing since Dar, the mare who came with us, had never been around cows before and was nervous.  Laura, her owner, and I walked around together and let Bud show Dar that the cows were nothing to be afraid of. 

There were about 20 people, and we wanted to watch the others go so we waited awhile till our go.  The man running it was very nice, and gave us about 5 minutes just getting Dar used to sorting the cows out.  We didnt' worry about getting them in the correct order, just moving them from one pen to the other.  Dar did pretty well, but Buddy got a little hot and bit one of the cows when it wouldn't move.  Bad Buddy!

The cows, and part of Dar's head.  You can see the while numbers on their sides

While we waited around for our second attempt, the barn hosting it opened up their kitchen and gave us free dinner!  There was a big pot of spaghetti, salad, and cake.  I held the horses while Laura grabbed a bite then she held when I went to eat.  Apparently they host the ranch sortings about once a month and always serve dinner. The food was good, and I thought it was awesome that they feed everyone who comes.

Our second and third tries were much better.  We were still slow, and didn't always get the correct cow in the correct order.  Dar gained more confidence and only had a couple little spooks.  Buddy didn't try to eat any other cows, and I was able to work on getting him to focus on a particular cow and move it where I wanted.  It was a lot of fun and we'll defiantly go back!