Cow Clinic: 3

We always try our best to prepare our horses for whatever comes their way, but it isn’t always possible, is it? 

Nowhere is hindsight more 20/20 than in working with horses. 

On the day of the clinic, we woke to a cloudy, cool day. That was a change from the days that had come previously, and the days that have come after, which have all been warm, calm, and sunny.

That alone did not alert us to any real issues, because we have been working with Tweed and Epona in wind and rain all year. Not a biggie.  

In that 20/20 hindsight, however, I can see where it set a lot of pieces into motion, pieces we didn’t even know would exist. 

One of the pieces was how the weather set off the horses at liberty in the adjoining pasture. Behind the fence in the above pasture, and back behind me, to the east, their horses were loose and feeling frisky.

At first, we were just working one by one on a wonderful circle exercise where you keep your hands low, set the inside rein so you can see 1/4 of an eyelash, then use your legs to keep your horse on a circle. After a while, you turn directions, still keeping your hands low, and direct their body the other way with your leg. 

Sounds easy, but it isn’t.

It does, however, really help when you introduce cows. Your horse has less to think about and can concentrate on moving them.

Right before lunch, our clinician gave us the choice to break and eat or bring the cows in and push them a little as a group.

We chose to bring the cows in.

Tumbleweed was the first to take the lead and push them.

He did great, and all was well. 

In these two photos, Tweed and Epona are close together.)

As the other horses took the lead to get their turn, and Epona got with the other geldings ahead of Tweed, he became agitated. He wanted to be in front pushing the cows, not behind, and he didn’t want me rating his speed or keeping him away from Epona. (As an aside, that is an issue we had with hill work last year, too.)

So, as I was there trying to get his mind back, the wind gusts picked up and all the commotion set the free pasture horses to running and bucking near us.

Tweed and the horses on the cows got more restless, but I’m not really sure what was happening with them all because what happened next happened fast:

My daughter turned around to check on me and T, and Epona got set off to running. My daughter turned her in and, in the commotion, got a little off balance causing her spur to come under Epona’s belly and get her bucking. My daughter took the opportunity to come off and hit the ground hard on her seat. It was a buck off, but it was also a deliberate “get off now while it’s still safe.”

She was rattled and sore, and a bit confused about how it happened since Epona didn’t seem at all nervous to her beforehand.

I dismounted and caught Epona as other riders went to help my daughter up, and we all met back together with Epona and daughter, who needed to rest up.

The clinician wanted to work with Epona while we broke for lunch and let my daughter evaluate her injuries. He ponied her around the cattle, then he let her free with them.

His opinion was that it wasn’t the cows, it was the other horses. Every time horses came up behind her, she tucked her tail hard and looked bothered.

Let me back up here for just a second. If you have been following Epona’s journey, she hates arena work, but loves to work out of the arena. We knew that about her going in, but we didn’t realize how reactive she was to other horses getting in her space.

That said, the incident was the perfect storm of things, not just one thing.

After the lunch, everyone went back out and got more one on one with great success. Even my daughter got back on Epona and rode for awhile (until the herd of bison appeared, where daughter decided to call it good and end on a positive note.)

Tweed was not liking the bison, but we were the last ones to work cows 1 on 1, and it was after the bison appeared. He was able to bring his head back into the game, and I was able to, finally, rate his speed on the cows.

The clinician said he was a bit cow aggressive, but the more he works them the less he will care about them. He said that if Tweed went out for a long cattle drive they would soon be old news and he’d want to conserve his energy.

One of the things he had me do to rate his speed was work the cows, then stop and pet him. Then work them, and stop and pet him again. It was a successful technique.

I’m going to write one more post in this series about what has happened since the clinic.