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Somewhere in Les Vogt’s foundation level of Cowhorse U. program, he says, “Don’t make a big deal out of anything you don’t want to be a big deal.” Well, I didn’t heed the warning, and I think I may now be suffering the consequences.

Les also says that you basically have two horses to train, the right side of the horse and the left side. This is how the big deal started—I only trained one horse.

First I noticed that, ya, Leo was doing a turn-on-the-forehand to the left. But then I realized that somewhere along the line, he totally forgot how to do it to the right (my fault for sure – practice both sides consistently goof!). I also realized the I DIDN’T HAVE THE NECK!!! ACH! I realized that even on his good side, his head was up in the air and pulling hard on the bit all the way around. Yikes!

Solution, I thought = get annoying with the bit. Alternate pulls until he drops his head and gets off the bit. That worked pretty good on his good side. I have the neck…in one direction.

I kept trying for the turn-on-the-forehand on his bad side. He would back up, go sideways, and almost always try to go forward. He would push through the bit and walk on. When he did that I would get more aggressive with the bit, not a dead pull, but obnoxious alternate tugs. If he even made a step in the right direction, I would release and tell him what a good boy he was. BUT, I think I tried too many times, for too long, two days in a row. He finally, out of frustration, brought his front two hoofs off the ground. Continue Reading »

With the equine dentist’s visit come and gone, I was ready to see if it really was Leo’s teeth. I gave him a few days after the visit before going for a ride. I switched out the Billy Allen shank bit to a D-ring “slow twist” snaffle. Here’s a link to one so you can see what it looks like (this one looks more severe than the one I have in his mouth): Slow Twist Snaffle

His behavior with a snaffle before the dentist’s visit wasn’t good. He would aggressively toss his head up and down when I applied any pressure to the bit. After being able to feel the sharp spikes on the sides of his teeth before the dentist worked on them, I imagine that the snaffle was pressing the skin on his cheeks into those spikes. Ouch!

His behavior with the snaffle after the visit was completely changed. It WAS his teeth! No more head tossing. Pretty amazing really, it’s as though he has that old shank bit in his mouth—he’s just as responsive.

He did do one little “head whip” the first two rides with the snaffle, but that was it. It’s a huge difference from the incessant head tossing up and down. What do I mean by “head whip?” I know you’ve seen it. When a horse is in the field and it’s feeling frisky, so it whips its nose down and around in a big “U?” It made me nervous because in the field, that’s generally followed by a playful buck. He didn’t do that part though, whew!

I got four rides in last week. All with the snaffle! He’s being great. We’re still getting used to it, but I’m feeling a lot more confident about his behavior. I think next week, I’ll take the slow twist bit out and change it to a regular, smooth, D-ring snaffle.

This experience has really got me thinking about horse behavior. Had I not had more knowledgeable people around, I may have interpreted his head tossing as a sign of aggressive behavior and meanness on his part. I wonder how often that happens to horses—they’re trying to express pain or discomfort and instead are disciplined for “bad behavior.”

The moral of this story? If your horse acts ornery with a bit, have his teeth checked!

It rained my first three days back from vacation, so I didn’t get out to the stables until yesterday. I hurried to saddle him up before it got too dark to see. It was 33 degrees and the ground was just as wet as it could be. His hooves sounded like toilet plungers as we walked into the muddy arena (why do I know that sound so well? Don’t even get me started on my landlord…).

It was just a dreary and dark out as it could be. Leo was none to happy to be put to work after his vacation either. After 15 minutes he started in with his old habits that I haven’t seen in about three months: tossing his head, bunching up, and dancing around like he was revving up for a good bucking session. I probably shouldn’t have gotten off his back, but I did. I got on the ground for the ground check I didn’t do before I go on. Had him yield in a circle to the left, then right, then I backed him up several times. When I hopped back on, he was fine. No more head tossing or dancing around.

He was very chargy though. Continue Reading »

One of the tricks that Sandy Collier stressed in her DVD, “Bag of Magic Tricks,” is to work on convincing the horse that what HE wants to do is going to be a lot more effort than what YOU want him to do. I had heard before that if you have a horse that doesn’t want to slow down into an easy canter, but instead wants to race around, you let him race around until he wants to stop, and then make him race around some more. After a few lessons like that, theoretically, the horse will begin to think, “hey, I should just listen to what she wants me to do cause it’ll be way less effort on my part in the end.” Well, I’ve recently discovered that this technique can be applied to many ornery situations.

After about a half an hour’s work in the arena, Leo’s owner showed up to chat, so I asked Leo to whoa and hold still. But normally when “dad” gets home, it’s feeding time and Leo wanted to hit the road back to the barn. So, he began dancing to the left and dancing to the right, acting like he had ants in his pant (if he had pants). I asked him a few more times to whoa and then looked at Jim (the owner) and said, “well, lets just let him do what he wants to do.” We’ll try some Sandy magic. So I had him side pass to the left and then to the right and then to the left and then to the right and then once more to the left (I’ve never been on a horse that is that fast going sideways). Finally I asked him to whoa. And, like magic, he became the definition of “whoa,” the picture of “hold still.”

Nice trick. Les Vogt says that you don’t want things to become an argument. That’s what was so nice about it: there was no argument, just a short, logical, negotiation of sorts.

In Al Dunning’s book, “Reining,” he recommends arc drills for improving control of the horse’s body. He says you should have the horse walk around in small circles so it has a small arc in its neck. THEN, and here’s the tricky part, you’re supposed to back the horse in the tracks of that same circle. He says that when you can do this, “you have very good control of you own body as well as that of your horse.” Now I don’t know about you, but I think Al is something of an authority on the subject, so I’ve been working at it for about a month. This is what I’ve learned – I have no control of my body.

Getting this horse to bend while backing up is like trying to bend a plank. There I am, applying pressure with my legs, torquing my body around, and pullin’ on reins up high like some kind of crazy puppeteer. After a few seconds I end up with a very irritated horse who expresses this by tossing his head up and down. I’m fairly certain that he would like to know just exactly why I spent all that time teaching him to back straight only do what seeeeeems like, ask him to back crooked. It’s become an obsession of mine though. I feel like Daniel in the Karate Kid trying to catch a fly with chopsticks. The girls at the barn started giving me funny looks, and I was beginning to think it was impossible.

But recently, I saw the impossible! Out at that the ranch that we go to for Team Roping (Leo’s owner is a roper and lets us tag along) in the center of the arena was a cowboy backing his horse in a circle, a perfect circle. It was beautiful. I of course immediately introduced myself, and he gave me the name of a training video. It was the very video that taught him how to train his horse. He said it was the best purchase he’d ever made. I didn’t have a pen on me, so promptly forgot. Great. It was something Von…Van…Voughn…ugh. The quest continues….

This photo is of Leo, a.k.a., “The Leonator.” Leo spent 3 months with a trainer a few years ago. One day, after spending the day in the field working cattle, Leo refused to respond to a cue. So the trainer reportedly, “put the spurs to him.” They were on a hill. Leo, being the powerfully athletic horse that he is, put everything he had into bucking that trainer off. Not only did he toss the trainer into some bushes, he bucked himself right off balance and tumbled head-over-hoof all the way down the hill.

A few years later, his owner took him out into an arena filled with riders warming up their horses for team roping. Leo was cued into a canter, but would not slow down when asked to. His owner gave him an impatient jerk on the bit. Leo, being the powerfully athletic horse that he is, put everything he had into bucking off his papa. I hear it was a pretty spectacular display, complete with horse butt going nearly vertical on a few occasions. He not only launched his papa high over the heads of other riders, he continued his bucking spree for a full lap and a half around the arena (just in case anyone hadn’t noticed he was irritated).

Leo was intended to be a roping horse, and he will be. Why do I think he’ll be a great reining horse as well? You should seeeeee him! I’ve never ridden a horse with a softer mouth or more sensitive sides. He’s a speedy little guy and has delivered some impressive stops. Did I mention his agility in turns? Ok, so I don’t know a lot about what makes a great reining horse, but I’ve seen the videos! I think he can do it.

Training: We began training together a few months ago, and have had all kinds of challenges. I am learning about reining through books, training dvd’s, and other riders. I’m hoping to create a community here where reiners can share their experiences and build a knowledge base for the discipline. I will be logging the challenges that I’m having with Leo, who will definitely provide plenty of material.

First obstacles? How to start him on turn arounds properly and how to keep from getting launched. So far so good. I don’t use spurs and the most he’d ever get out of me in terms of punishment for bad behavior is backing him, a series of small circles, or some extra work in the round pen. Does anyone have any advice on curing a horse that bucks? He seems to be getting a lot more gentle with just consistent riding, but there are times when I can tell that he wants to get rid of me. I usually change the subject when that happens.