At the ranch versatility show I said that I sucked out loud at the herdwork and I did. But I did learn something.
First let me say that the herdwork at a NVRHA versatility show is a little different that herdwork at a NRCHA show. At a NVRHA you are given a specifically numbered cow to work out of the herd. When you are done working it in front of the herd you must drive it between a cone and the fence and pen it.
Things learned:
It is important to watch the riders before you to see how the cattle are working.
Don't focus on your numbered cow to early.
Make a deep cut and drive the herd out into a good working position.
Use and communicate with your herd help.
I went into the herd quietly, maybe to quietly. The cows weren't moving out of my way. Semper was wanting to take a bite out of them to get them to move. I was having to remind him that wasn't acceptable but he was still showing his teeth and penning his ears. Not a pretty site. I found my cow and I tried to drive her out. But she wasn't having it. She would stop and turn into Semper. I got behind her and tried to drive her out but she didn't want to go away from her buddies (they are herd animals duh!) I would get her to move out a little but I couldn't get HER out far enough to work out of the herd. I unsettled the herd made a mess and used all my time just trying to get her unstuck from her buddies.
After it was over I spoke with the judge and he gave me some pointers and told me where he felt that I went wrong. It was like the light went on and I thought... how come I didn't think about that?
First off let me tell you a little story... My daughter was the a pig princess... she was a superb hog showman. Ridiculously good. When she would get to the show ring and her pig would take off running...she would just show someone elses pig till she found hers then switch. She never lost her cool just moved through the "herd" showing whatever came in front of her till she got to her animal and continued on. She never lost focus and keep her eyes on the judge continually. You may not understand any of this unless you have actually watched 30 white pigs with 30 kids dressed in white carrying sticks or canes in a small show pen. Showing hogs is an art. Trust me.
That is what I should have done. I should have driven the entire herd out or at least a good part of it, with my cow in the mix and then let the others filter off when I had them out far enough that I could actually work a cow. I might not have ever been able to work my cow but I would have gotten points for driving the herd out and making a deep cut etc. I focused on my cow and tried to no avail to get HER out. She would have gone out if her buddies were out there with her. Duh - herd animals remember.
Because of the way things were scheduled at this show I wasn't able to watch the previous rider work the cattle. If I had been able to watch the riders go before me I would have known that the cows were sticky and pretty much done with being worked. Not that my brain would have engaged but it might have.
Showing posts with label herd work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label herd work. Show all posts
Monday, June 18, 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Jim Paul
Last week I played hookie from work and went to a Jim Paul clinic. This is California and the end of March is supposed to be springtime. But mother nature hasn't been cooperating very well and last weeks weather was anything but spring like. It was in the 40s when I left home at 6:30am. I was meeting RD at her house and following her to the ranch where the clinic was to be held. It was about 20 minutes from her place out in the middle of no where. I took a picture of no where so you all would no I wasn't making no where up.
So no where has no indoor arena either. You all remember that I ride a desk five days a week right? Not really conditioned to be out in the rain, wind and weather for 6 or 7 hours.
Back to the clinic. RD was kind of the hostess with the mostest for this clinic. Jim was here for three days. Wed and Thur were for outsiders (me) and Friday was for RD and a couple other trainers. I had never met Jim or really heard anything about him. But when the offer came up to ride with him I did some homework. I went on line and googled him, asked a few horsey friends and the consensus was that I should go. It was a good opportunity to ride with someone who really knows their stuff.
I hadn't ridden Semper in 10 days (this is getting to be a pattern with me) and when I got there I wanted to get him warmed up before we started. I went out into the arena and just let him walk around, then we were trotting, then he went into a fast moving long trot, then to a lope.. you see where this is going? He was full of himself. After about 20 miuntes of just moving he started to settle in. Jim Paul came out and studied me. I could feel him watching me. It was somewhat unnerving. At one point he asked me if I ever showed Semper. To which I replied yes. Then he asked me if he could change leads and turnaround. I answered his questions but I was a little puzzled. Then he says... "show me". So off we go and lope a few circles, change leads a few times, stop - not hard because the ground is too deep and too wet, then did a couple turn arounds. He comes over and says "nice... no one yesterday could do that". I think that was a compliment. pretty sure. don't know for absolutely positive. He immediately started working with me. It was very nice to get some one on one time with him. He had me do some turns teaching Semper to roll over his hocks. He helped me with my hands and seat. He asked me what I wanted help with and said that when we started working cattle that he would show me some tricks.
A lot of times when I go to a reining or cow horse clinic with Semper I can feel the clinician rolling their eyes and saying to themselves... "what the hell does she think she is doing here with that big white wanna be halter horse?" I didn't get that feeling with Jim Paul.
So on to the boxing and fence work. This is what I went for. The reining comes together for us pretty well, but the opportunities to work cattle are few and far between. Unless you and your horse work cattle often, it can be a real challange. Semper tends to get a little ahead of himself and pushy when things get to moving fast. I told Jim that Semper will get pushy in the bridle, that he will get ahead of the cow when things get moving fast and that he tends to want to shoulder in to the cow. Of course this makes me want to hold him back some and I am usually behind on my cow. I was second to go to work. We started with the boxing, and I could hear Jim saying "you are behind, get up there!" He took his horse on the opposite side of the cow and had me mirror his position. This was extremely helpful for me. What I learned is when I thought I was in position I was about twelve inches or a stride behind. Eventually it should become second nature to me to know my position on the cow but for right now I have to really concentrate on position. After I got a little more confidence with boxing Jim said to take one down the fence slowly and get a turn. Semper did an outstanding job at rating and keeping himself together. We made a couple of nice (very rookie) turns. It felt good to me but you never know how it looks from the outside. I don't exactly know what I was expecting when I walked back to hear what Jim had to say. His comment was "I didn't see anything wrong with the run, good job". Then as the other rider was getting ready he looked over and said "nice horse, he is stout made and you can sure tell he is a solid broke horse". The sun wasn't out but I sure felt like we were shining!
After lunch we worked out of the herd. This is where I really needed work, experience, and guidance. When Semper walks into the herd he pens his ears and wants to take a bite out of whatever is close. So that was the first thing I needed to address. Jim had me bump him up with the bridle reins everytime he would start to move his nose out. Our first cut was deep and as we came out Jim said to keep my eyes on the cattle farthest out. When I got to the middle of the pen he said now just work right and left and keep my eyes on the cattle farthest out. The cattle all peeled off and I was left with a fugly little steer that worked pretty slow. Jim made it feel so easy and relaxed. We worked the little steer back and forth 5 or 6 times and kept it on a nice straight line away from the herd. Jim was still having to tell me - your late, get up there, go all the way to the fence, and stop straight. The other thing that I was doing was over reining my horse. I had asked Jim to watch my hands because when we were doing the boxing I felt like I may have been over using my hands because Semper was slinging his head a little. It didn't really show up in the boxing but it stuck out like a sore thumb in the herd work. Jim said to keep my hands in a 6 inch box in front of the horn and just use them to start the turn and use my legs to drive it through. The next cut we didn't make as deep and brought out a fiesty good sized animal. This steer kept us moving pretty fast, but we stayed in a better position and I concentrated on using my legs more and my reins less. When we finished working this steer, Jim said that the turns looked much better with me concentrating on my legs and letting Semper make the turns without me pulling on him. It wasn't pretty for sure. But it wasn't a train wreck either.
I watched others go and one thing that I noticed was that as people were working the cattle they would get closer and closer to the herd until the steer was back into herd. This makes it really hard to work your cow without unsettling the herd and it looks like you are out of control. So I asked Jim "how do you keep them out on that line and not let them come back to the herd?". Position, Position, Position. You have to be in that sweet spot to hold the cow out on that line. So he had me go again so that I could practice just holding that line and know where I was at in the pen at all times. The goal is to work your cow in the middle of the pen. When you are moving with the cow and things are really going fast it is easy to lose your bearings. We worked several more and really concentrated on just being in the right position. By the time we were done I was feeling pretty confident that I know where I want to be. It isn't second nature yet, but I am getting the it. Maybe if I work say... a couple more thousand cows... it will come.
All and all I really learned a lot and had a great day with a truly generous gentleman. It was a golden opportunity and hopefully I will get to do it again soon.
So no where has no indoor arena either. You all remember that I ride a desk five days a week right? Not really conditioned to be out in the rain, wind and weather for 6 or 7 hours.
Back to the clinic. RD was kind of the hostess with the mostest for this clinic. Jim was here for three days. Wed and Thur were for outsiders (me) and Friday was for RD and a couple other trainers. I had never met Jim or really heard anything about him. But when the offer came up to ride with him I did some homework. I went on line and googled him, asked a few horsey friends and the consensus was that I should go. It was a good opportunity to ride with someone who really knows their stuff.
I hadn't ridden Semper in 10 days (this is getting to be a pattern with me) and when I got there I wanted to get him warmed up before we started. I went out into the arena and just let him walk around, then we were trotting, then he went into a fast moving long trot, then to a lope.. you see where this is going? He was full of himself. After about 20 miuntes of just moving he started to settle in. Jim Paul came out and studied me. I could feel him watching me. It was somewhat unnerving. At one point he asked me if I ever showed Semper. To which I replied yes. Then he asked me if he could change leads and turnaround. I answered his questions but I was a little puzzled. Then he says... "show me". So off we go and lope a few circles, change leads a few times, stop - not hard because the ground is too deep and too wet, then did a couple turn arounds. He comes over and says "nice... no one yesterday could do that". I think that was a compliment. pretty sure. don't know for absolutely positive. He immediately started working with me. It was very nice to get some one on one time with him. He had me do some turns teaching Semper to roll over his hocks. He helped me with my hands and seat. He asked me what I wanted help with and said that when we started working cattle that he would show me some tricks.
A lot of times when I go to a reining or cow horse clinic with Semper I can feel the clinician rolling their eyes and saying to themselves... "what the hell does she think she is doing here with that big white wanna be halter horse?" I didn't get that feeling with Jim Paul.
So on to the boxing and fence work. This is what I went for. The reining comes together for us pretty well, but the opportunities to work cattle are few and far between. Unless you and your horse work cattle often, it can be a real challange. Semper tends to get a little ahead of himself and pushy when things get to moving fast. I told Jim that Semper will get pushy in the bridle, that he will get ahead of the cow when things get moving fast and that he tends to want to shoulder in to the cow. Of course this makes me want to hold him back some and I am usually behind on my cow. I was second to go to work. We started with the boxing, and I could hear Jim saying "you are behind, get up there!" He took his horse on the opposite side of the cow and had me mirror his position. This was extremely helpful for me. What I learned is when I thought I was in position I was about twelve inches or a stride behind. Eventually it should become second nature to me to know my position on the cow but for right now I have to really concentrate on position. After I got a little more confidence with boxing Jim said to take one down the fence slowly and get a turn. Semper did an outstanding job at rating and keeping himself together. We made a couple of nice (very rookie) turns. It felt good to me but you never know how it looks from the outside. I don't exactly know what I was expecting when I walked back to hear what Jim had to say. His comment was "I didn't see anything wrong with the run, good job". Then as the other rider was getting ready he looked over and said "nice horse, he is stout made and you can sure tell he is a solid broke horse". The sun wasn't out but I sure felt like we were shining!
After lunch we worked out of the herd. This is where I really needed work, experience, and guidance. When Semper walks into the herd he pens his ears and wants to take a bite out of whatever is close. So that was the first thing I needed to address. Jim had me bump him up with the bridle reins everytime he would start to move his nose out. Our first cut was deep and as we came out Jim said to keep my eyes on the cattle farthest out. When I got to the middle of the pen he said now just work right and left and keep my eyes on the cattle farthest out. The cattle all peeled off and I was left with a fugly little steer that worked pretty slow. Jim made it feel so easy and relaxed. We worked the little steer back and forth 5 or 6 times and kept it on a nice straight line away from the herd. Jim was still having to tell me - your late, get up there, go all the way to the fence, and stop straight. The other thing that I was doing was over reining my horse. I had asked Jim to watch my hands because when we were doing the boxing I felt like I may have been over using my hands because Semper was slinging his head a little. It didn't really show up in the boxing but it stuck out like a sore thumb in the herd work. Jim said to keep my hands in a 6 inch box in front of the horn and just use them to start the turn and use my legs to drive it through. The next cut we didn't make as deep and brought out a fiesty good sized animal. This steer kept us moving pretty fast, but we stayed in a better position and I concentrated on using my legs more and my reins less. When we finished working this steer, Jim said that the turns looked much better with me concentrating on my legs and letting Semper make the turns without me pulling on him. It wasn't pretty for sure. But it wasn't a train wreck either.
I watched others go and one thing that I noticed was that as people were working the cattle they would get closer and closer to the herd until the steer was back into herd. This makes it really hard to work your cow without unsettling the herd and it looks like you are out of control. So I asked Jim "how do you keep them out on that line and not let them come back to the herd?". Position, Position, Position. You have to be in that sweet spot to hold the cow out on that line. So he had me go again so that I could practice just holding that line and know where I was at in the pen at all times. The goal is to work your cow in the middle of the pen. When you are moving with the cow and things are really going fast it is easy to lose your bearings. We worked several more and really concentrated on just being in the right position. By the time we were done I was feeling pretty confident that I know where I want to be. It isn't second nature yet, but I am getting the it. Maybe if I work say... a couple more thousand cows... it will come.
All and all I really learned a lot and had a great day with a truly generous gentleman. It was a golden opportunity and hopefully I will get to do it again soon.
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