Benefits
of Working your Horse on Cattle
By Todd Martin
After talking last
month about how to start your horse on cattle I thought that it would
be an opportune time to explain the benefits of working your horse
on cattle, regardless of whether or not you are aiming towards training
your horse for a cattle event. Not all of the reining horses that
I train have a lot of cow sense. But it is to their benefit to be
worked on cattle for the sole purpose of giving them something new
to do.
While training horses to perform
the maneuvers required for reining, there is a lot of repetition and
times of pushing to get better and excel. However, not all horses
learn the same way, much like people. Some learn best with repetition
and that is all that is needed. I kind of equate them to the kid that
is taught how to shoot free throws in basketball, but practices on
his own and finds his rhythm. But, many horses are different and need
to find a reason for the maneuver.
Lets look at a couple of maneuvers
and see how we can use cattle to give them a purpose for the maneuver.
Basically another reason to perform besides, "because I said
so". Let’s use the stop for the first example. When you
are working your horse on mirroring the cow and stopping him when
the cow stops, you are giving him another reason to stop beside you
just helping him with your hands. The other important thing to remember
in doing this is, you are also taking some of the man made elements
out and putting more of the natural stop back into the horse. Meaning
that if he has any natural ability in his stop, he will use it more
willingly. This is due to the fact that he is not trying to understand
your cues so much and resist, rather he will start to gradually use
his natural ability to help him stay with the cow.
Another area where this helps
a lot is in the roll back. While mirroring the cow in the roll back
or change of direction you will find that through repetition your
horse will start to read this and start to let the cow pull him through
the roll back. As this instinct builds in practice you can use this
to help you teach your horse to roll back on his hocks and push off
with his hind end. He will get quicker on his roll backs with less
encouragement on the riders part. Where this helps the most is getting
a snappier roll back with out having to manually instill a rush during
the roll back. This also helps the horse understand that he needs
to stay on his hocks in the roll back and not fall out to early. This
also allows you to get softer on the reins and create a prettier and
more willing look to your rollbacks.
While mirroring and tracking
cattle you will also help on your control of speed, which gives them
a reason to rate their speed. Using your seat to help adjust speed
can be better achieved while tracking cattle. The biggest thing to
remember while doing this is to stay out of the mouth of the horse
if he is rating with the cow. The horse will not learn to rate his
speed and work willingly if he is not taught to be held accountable.
Just remember, while working a horse on cattle you need to spend more
time out of his mouth than hanging on the bit. When they are doing
well, show them by releasing pressure off the mouth. Put them in the
position that you want and then let them go. If they fall out of position
again, help them by putting them where they should be and then release.
I would recommend to the inexperienced
rider or to someone who has not worked cattle before, to get some
help from a pro. If you are wanting to move into doing some cattle
events, it is important that you start your horse right, and not allow
them to start off with bad habits when working cattle. Some of the
bad habits can cause them to loose advantage of a cow, and they are
often times harder to re-teach than to teach correctly the first time.
The most important thing to remember is to start slow and correct
and not just run around like a chicken with your head cut off. You
should have a purpose to what you are doing.
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