With visions of horses dancing in my head, I laid there in bed after a full day of being absorbed in the first day of a clinic with Buck Brannaman. Not only was this my first Buck clinic, but it was the first clinic I had attended in decades. I attended the clinic with my rescue Smokey. Smokey is a former barrel racing horse who got a bad reputation after he tossed a few kids in the dirt as he rounded the barrel pattern. Smokey came to me, as a very nervous and jumpy horse. He often snorted when I approached him too quickly and was the first to run off when I got within a 10 foot radius. Over the months, Smokey and I had built quite a relationship, of course this was after he sent me sailing through the sky with his bronc skills as we rounded the final barrel in my small arena at home. Nevertheless, it had to happen in order for me to better understand him, and vice versa. So by the time we hit the road for this clinic, we had a pretty strong and trusting relationship with one another, even though we had only recently celebrated our six month anniversary together.
The morning started off with Buck doing a demonstration of the exercises that we would go through during our time with him. Right then and there, I was overwhelmed. This was not a clinic for the new or timid rider. This was meant for the rider who had years of experience with horses, and was ready to refine their skills and hone in on their communication with the horse. Buck’s horse was his legs. He could manipulate each leg ever so slightly. It certainly was an amazing experience to see him in action.
The morning class had about 25 participants and another 50 or so spectators, and as Buck went through the demonstration of what we would be practicing through out the next three days in the horsemanship 1 class, we all patiently watched and tried our best to mimic dry sponges so we could absorb every last wise word that he shared. Once he was finished, he offered us the chance to ask questions, then sent us into our first exercise.
Numero Uno:
Our first exercise was to do get lateral flexion with the horse. This means get the horse to flex his head towards your stirrups nicely so he is giving, and not being forced. From there we moved on to do doing serpentines. All though we were playing bumper cars trying to avoid one another, we, Smokey and I, were able to find a nice rhythm as we moved through the crowd with the phrase ringing as Buck had said it “look, turn, then look, turn” reminding us to always prepare our horse for our next move. “Surprises don’t get us anywhere when it comes to horses.” The goal with the serpentines was to practice offsetting your legs in proper placement, so you can begin to use less rein and more leg. All of your cues are meant to become more gentle and subtle throughout his training.
Numero Dos:
The second exercise was drifting your horse. This means to start moving the horses hind end as we did a nice smooth circle. Your legs should be set so that your inside leg is behind the cinch, and your outside leg is at the cinch. We completed several 10 meter circles, and on occasion, take that inside leg and press his hind end out, keeping his front end going in the circle. Do this for about 2-5 steps, then get him back in line with his circle. We didn’t do this on every circle, because we don’t want the horse to anticipate our next request. But was very admin at about not allowing the horse to anticipate. In this exercise, the hind legs should cross over each other and you should only ask for the command when the inside hind leg is off the ground. Otherwise he will just trip right over his legs.
“Timing is everything”
As we went through this exercise, I realized how my arm placement affected the outcome. When asking for flexion at a 90 degree angle your arm should be in line with your body- that is how far down you will need to grab the rein. Also, the 90 degree angle is the flexion you will need to ask for the drift. When asking for a rollback, you will pull your arm farther back so that your elbow is behind your body. A rollback is him rolling his hind end around.
Numero Tres:
The third exercise was working on Vertical flexion. From a stop, ask the horse to give his head, and release, then ask a bit longer, etc. Then do this at a walk. This is where Smokey refused, so I rode with my muscles flexed asking him to give an entire lap around the arena. He still did not give. A few other parts of this exercise including
- walking, asking for them to give, once they give, ask for a stop- practicing moving your seat position to 3. Seat position 3 is on your pockets, (almost with feet in front of you for that extra nice cowboy look). Once you are stopped, get him to give his head again, and ask him to back. Now my horses all back with some some leg pressure. I got yelled at for this (ok, not yelled at, but he told me to “quiet my legs”, and I explained that he was trained to move with leg movement. Then I realized that just because we have been doing it wrong all along, doesn’t mean that we should keep doing it. So now, although it is challenging to back him without leg, we are working on it.
- Next, sit up on your pelvis for position 2 and ask him to walk. You want to do this until your legs are no longer needed to ask for a walk, and your reins are no longer needed to ask him to stop, just your seat.
- Eventually you want one fluid motion, get him to give his head, stop and back, all as one exercise.
These exercises took us 3 hours, and we were expected to be back in the evening practicing with our horses. The goal was to get this things accomplished at a walk and a lope. This would mostly cover horsemanship 1. Once those things are mastered at faster gaits, you move to Horsemanship 2.
During this class, I realized that I needed to work on being more obvious in my seat position 3, this is not a normal position for me. I also need to better feel where each hoof is during the different gaits, so I can be sure to ask for commands on the proper footfall. Because as Buck said, “I’m sure your horse likes you, but he isn’t willing to trip over is own feet and fall over for you.” Additionally, I need to work on being more aggressive when having to ask for a cue a second time. According to Buck, you ask once politely, and then harsh, no in between. The next time you ask, he will choose to accept the gentle cue instead of a spur roll to the side.
Buck was adamant that we return and watch the horsemanship two class in the afternoon where I have much more extensive notes, because they were not from memory nor from atop a horse.
No comments:
Post a Comment