And well, I have a lot of mixed feelings. It was a ranch sorting clinic. I rode Ruger, our three year old. And Mom rode my other mare Selena, our six year old. Now, Ruger has had 90 days riding. Selena was started at two, so she has four years.
I'll just go in order of what we did and tell you what happened.
First off, the clinician was an idiot, flat out.
Sooo. I have never done sorting before, only team penning, so we went to the clinic day labelled "new riders who have never done sorting".
First, we spent THREE HOURS talking about "basic horsemanship". The guys said things like "I'm glad to see you all in snaffles" when there was seven riders and only two of us in snaffle bits. Then he harped on us about having our halters on under our bridle (for quick tying) saying how much that disrupts the bit....Which...it didn't. And then he yelled at my Mom for riding in a billy allen bit, saying that NO curb bit could ever achieve lateral flexion. Which is a lie because Selena then proceeded to be the best horse at the clinic as far as lateral movements go.
Following this three hours of freezing our rumps off listening to him ramble, he started teaching us how to warm up for another lenghy period of time. And lets just say, I was riding the colt, and I will never ride him like that again. First thing he did was tell me I should NOT be wearing spurs on him and that I was holding his mouth too much. Well, this particular colt takes a lot of work to get framed up and driving into the bridle. I take up contact and he works well onto it. I was NOT hanging on his face at all. I gave him a ton of release when he dropped his head and if I held steady he will stay framed. Well, the clinician hated this, and made me "cruise" around the arena on a loose rein. Which proceeded to undo a lot of training on Ruger. I spent the rest of the clinic trying to get him back into his framed up position. I had NOT seen him that bad since his first 30 days. I had worked SOOOO hard to get him soft and driving onto the bit, and I was really upset that the clinician wouldn't let me ride on the bit. Especially when HIS "world class roping horse" was DUMPING on the forehand, practically falling around on a loose rein, absolutely ridiculous looking....
So, we all went through that. Then we breaked for lunch. By the time we came back, the horses were cooled off again and needed to be warming up. I tried to warm up quick, I trotted a couple laps then tried to lope a couple circles. (Both directions) then brought Ruger to the middle and pushed all his buttons, sidepassing, forehand turns, spins. I spun him two times and trotted him off. Well you'd think I'd shot the clinician in the foot. He got on me imediately, saying that I shouldn't be spinning my colt because its too advanced of a manuever. Well....He can spin. he does it correctly. Why SHOULDN'T I? It's not like I drilled him into the ground....They weren't even fast spins.And I only did two of them. Whatever.
We finally got to see the cows after all that. He spent FOREVER explaining how to just follow a cow around the ring. Much, much longer than necessary...believe me. We were all falling asleep and our horses were cooled off again we were waiting so long. Then he brought us in one by one to work the one cow.
Let me just say, Ruger did AH-MAZING. I did NOT expect him to be so catty and have any cow sense at all for that matter, but the second he saw that cow his ears went back and he put his head down, watching it, and after a little bit he was following it like a real pro! It turned and sucked back on way and he would put a slide in the ground and roll back right after it. (Oh and by the way according to the clinician I was wrong to let him roll back too, because THAT'S also too advanced of a maneuver and there's no possible way my colt could ever be able to do that at just three years old....*eyeroll*
We went in twice. Once with just the one cow, then they let us walk in the herd of cows and cut one out and chase it around. (Ruger had the exact same response to this one) and let me just say my mare Selena who Mom was riding, is one AGGRESSIVE cow pony! I mean she LUNGED for that cow and totally grabbed it and held it. Mom wasn't really expecting it and couldn't grab the horn fast enough, LOL! We suspected she had been put on cows before because she had been at a cowhorse trainer for awhile, but we didn't have a lot of info on her time there. So I was pleasantly surprised with both of them!
After that we went in with teams and actually sorted cows. Ruger took one hell of a run, took to any cow I wanted him to and let me steer him around wherever and sort it out. He did get really pushy on me some of the time (Like most young horses on cows do) but he's so good minded, he came right back to me once he realized what he did wrong.
On our second run, I rode Selena and Mom rode Ruger. And let me just tell you, Selena can flat out FLY on a cow. Mom isn't very confident on her after her saddle bronc phase, so she took it slow, but I got on her and just HAD to go all out. I asked permission just to work on cow and took it out, circled it some, turned it down the fence...I never knew Selena had those skills! There is no way she could do all that without having been on cows before, so I'm absolutely sure that one trainer put her on them. There was several little things that needed work but DANG! I think its her calling! And Ruger wasn't too shabby either!
So besides the clinician, I am very happy! There were several other little details that were driving me up the wall too about him, but I couldn't even begin to list them all.
I'm going to order the DVD of us working the cows. I have GOT to see how that turned out, because it felt so amazing!
I'll just go in order of what we did and tell you what happened.
First off, the clinician was an idiot, flat out.
Sooo. I have never done sorting before, only team penning, so we went to the clinic day labelled "new riders who have never done sorting".
First, we spent THREE HOURS talking about "basic horsemanship". The guys said things like "I'm glad to see you all in snaffles" when there was seven riders and only two of us in snaffle bits. Then he harped on us about having our halters on under our bridle (for quick tying) saying how much that disrupts the bit....Which...it didn't. And then he yelled at my Mom for riding in a billy allen bit, saying that NO curb bit could ever achieve lateral flexion. Which is a lie because Selena then proceeded to be the best horse at the clinic as far as lateral movements go.
Following this three hours of freezing our rumps off listening to him ramble, he started teaching us how to warm up for another lenghy period of time. And lets just say, I was riding the colt, and I will never ride him like that again. First thing he did was tell me I should NOT be wearing spurs on him and that I was holding his mouth too much. Well, this particular colt takes a lot of work to get framed up and driving into the bridle. I take up contact and he works well onto it. I was NOT hanging on his face at all. I gave him a ton of release when he dropped his head and if I held steady he will stay framed. Well, the clinician hated this, and made me "cruise" around the arena on a loose rein. Which proceeded to undo a lot of training on Ruger. I spent the rest of the clinic trying to get him back into his framed up position. I had NOT seen him that bad since his first 30 days. I had worked SOOOO hard to get him soft and driving onto the bit, and I was really upset that the clinician wouldn't let me ride on the bit. Especially when HIS "world class roping horse" was DUMPING on the forehand, practically falling around on a loose rein, absolutely ridiculous looking....
So, we all went through that. Then we breaked for lunch. By the time we came back, the horses were cooled off again and needed to be warming up. I tried to warm up quick, I trotted a couple laps then tried to lope a couple circles. (Both directions) then brought Ruger to the middle and pushed all his buttons, sidepassing, forehand turns, spins. I spun him two times and trotted him off. Well you'd think I'd shot the clinician in the foot. He got on me imediately, saying that I shouldn't be spinning my colt because its too advanced of a manuever. Well....He can spin. he does it correctly. Why SHOULDN'T I? It's not like I drilled him into the ground....They weren't even fast spins.And I only did two of them. Whatever.
We finally got to see the cows after all that. He spent FOREVER explaining how to just follow a cow around the ring. Much, much longer than necessary...believe me. We were all falling asleep and our horses were cooled off again we were waiting so long. Then he brought us in one by one to work the one cow.
Let me just say, Ruger did AH-MAZING. I did NOT expect him to be so catty and have any cow sense at all for that matter, but the second he saw that cow his ears went back and he put his head down, watching it, and after a little bit he was following it like a real pro! It turned and sucked back on way and he would put a slide in the ground and roll back right after it. (Oh and by the way according to the clinician I was wrong to let him roll back too, because THAT'S also too advanced of a maneuver and there's no possible way my colt could ever be able to do that at just three years old....*eyeroll*
We went in twice. Once with just the one cow, then they let us walk in the herd of cows and cut one out and chase it around. (Ruger had the exact same response to this one) and let me just say my mare Selena who Mom was riding, is one AGGRESSIVE cow pony! I mean she LUNGED for that cow and totally grabbed it and held it. Mom wasn't really expecting it and couldn't grab the horn fast enough, LOL! We suspected she had been put on cows before because she had been at a cowhorse trainer for awhile, but we didn't have a lot of info on her time there. So I was pleasantly surprised with both of them!
After that we went in with teams and actually sorted cows. Ruger took one hell of a run, took to any cow I wanted him to and let me steer him around wherever and sort it out. He did get really pushy on me some of the time (Like most young horses on cows do) but he's so good minded, he came right back to me once he realized what he did wrong.
On our second run, I rode Selena and Mom rode Ruger. And let me just tell you, Selena can flat out FLY on a cow. Mom isn't very confident on her after her saddle bronc phase, so she took it slow, but I got on her and just HAD to go all out. I asked permission just to work on cow and took it out, circled it some, turned it down the fence...I never knew Selena had those skills! There is no way she could do all that without having been on cows before, so I'm absolutely sure that one trainer put her on them. There was several little things that needed work but DANG! I think its her calling! And Ruger wasn't too shabby either!
So besides the clinician, I am very happy! There were several other little details that were driving me up the wall too about him, but I couldn't even begin to list them all.
I'm going to order the DVD of us working the cows. I have GOT to see how that turned out, because it felt so amazing!