Month: December 2011

Magic and I rode up to the spring on Pinnacle Mountain today. Nice bright, cold morning. Magic was at the top of his game and was not interested in practicing. He used up most of his patience and good will yesterday so we mostly just rode. Today he had plenty of exuberance and almost more energy than we could contain. He was very determined to show me his jog trot. He is a good boy and never did a wrong thing. It was a good ride. Invigorating.

Magic and I worked on our exercises this morning. I have been lucky to achieve success in my efforts training bird dogs. It did not come easy. It took close to 30 years. My definition of bird dog training success is that they will point and hold birds. I worked at it with plenty of good dogs for 20 years but I never was certain that they would not bust birds. And they very often did. In my last years of bird hunting Roger Harness and I had from 10 to 14 very good dogs. They all would hold birds. We usually got a pup or two each year and at the end of the first year of hunting, they would be trustworthy. And it was no trouble at all, just fun. Since success was so difficult to obtain, I reflected a lot on what made success happen. (I learned a lot from friends that were good trainers and we finally found a place with enough birds.) I never identified the key to our success but I did recognize one huge difference. We expected the dogs to point. The doubt was gone.

Magic and I have not gotten there yet but we’re on our way. Magic stood perfectly still when I mounted this morning. (!?) The bending of the neck has improved. He often would turn but stop sooner. Once or twice I was able to ask for the bend and he gave it without moving his feet. We’ll see what happens tomorrow morning. I’m looking forward to it.

I worked him in a halter this morning rather than the snaffle bridle both on the ground and while riding. I was surprised that he seemed to be more responsive to the halter. It is a rope halter with two knots on the noseband. I tried to ride bareback but he is a little too tall for me to mount without stirrups even with the mounting block. I want to train him to position himself for mounting when I climb up on something. I did that with Glory just to get my foot high enough to find the stirrup.

When I rode with Paul Roten Sunday he had two suggestions that I am working on. The first was for Magic to bend his neck laterally. The second was to work on Magic’s inclination to push me around when I am on the ground, particularly when he is nervous. The suggested solution is to keep my feet still and get Magic to move his feet. Another solution to the pushing is to control his tendency to move past me by stopping him with the bit. I worked with Magic on the ground yesterday. Today we did the ground work and I rode him for a short time.

Flexing his neck laterally seems to work good on the ground either with the rope halter or with the snaffle bit. When I am mounted and we are stopped, I ask for him to bend with the rein and place my hand holding the rein solidly on my leg. His reaction is to flex his neck and move his feet in a circle in the direction of the bend. He seems to give his head enough that there is no pressure on the rein as long as his feet are moving. When he finally stops circling he puts pressure on the rein. I hold my hand solid waiting for him to give. He may give but he starts moving his feet again. The desired behavior is to give to the rein and stand still. He is supposed to do both at the same time. Instead, when he gives to the rein, his feet are moving. When he stops his feet, he puts pressure on the rein. I have to be very patient and wait for the short instance where he does both and then give the rein. It is not so much an intended action on his part but an accidental coincidence when both happen.  We are working on it. I can tell he gets impatient after this goes on for a long time but he is a good horse and does not explode.

Correcting his pushing seems to go pretty good. Of course it is very helpful that he does not do it much when we are here at home. So I am putting more effort into having him stand untied and stationary while I groom and tack up.

We are being very deliberate with these exercises. We don’t do much else and the session is short. I hopped off in the pasture and removed the saddle and bridle. Kind of like a reward. He took off and cantered into the barn. Well, maybe he did enjoy the release.

Magic and I went to the Krooked Kreek Cowboy Church cattle sorting practice today. That is a mouthfull but that is the name of what we did today. Cowboy Church has built an arena at the sale barn north of Harrison. Someone brings cattle, actually roping steers, that are put in the arena and you can ride your horse and cut, or sort, cattle. It happens every two weeks weather permitting. They put a fence across the arena with an opening, or gate, in the middle. There were about 20 people and maybe 15 horses in attendance today. There is also a time to run, or ride, barrels and rope steers if you have such an inclination. It is very informal, costs nothing and everybody is nice. It was the first time for Magic and me and we had fun.

Tommy and Wanda were there with Levi and Rio. Paul Roten attends regularly and was there today. I met Paul about 20 years ago on a cattle drive Don Miller had to move his cows the 5 miles from his pasture on Well’s Creek to the home place at Macy Spring. Paul had trained a horse named Wendy for Don and we got to talking about horse training. Paul told me that there was a new trend in the horse world to train horses with gentle methods and more consideration for the horse. I was raising three kids and not active in the horse training world but it was something that interested me and I remembered what he said. Paul has been to many, many clinics and seminars. He seems to pick up something from each clinic, or “performance” as he calls them and he uses what works for him. He is very interested in horse training and the human – equine relationship. He is very willing and eager to share what he has learned. Not everybody wants suggestions but Paul has figured out that I am interested, I want to learn and welcome suggestions. So he talks to me a lot. This is a good situation for me and Magic. I am very lucky.

Magic loaded good with the help of a rump rope. He was excited at the new place with new horses, the stockyards, cattle trucks with jake brakes, etc. He is very good when I am on him but tacking up involved quite a bit of moving around which I am sure Paul noticed. We rode in the arena for quite a while before the working steers arrived. Magic was excited but he does not act up when I am on him. There were lots of kids running their horses and Magic paid attention. When we started working the cattle, Magic was unsure of what was expected of him. “Are you sure you want me to walk into the middle of that herd of horned beasts and start pushing them around?” I think Magic learned from watching the other horses. We made lots of improvement and I was happy with the way he was cutting, moving and heading the cattle.

We had a lot of fun. We learned a lot. We found a very good learning resource in Paul. And Nobody made fun of the only helmet and English saddle that has ever been to a Krooked Kreek Cowboy Church cattle sorting practice.