Buck Brannamn clinic Day 2

Day 2
We started off the morning with working on the serpentine but with less to now hands, the goal here is to really get your horse to respond just off of your legs and do a nice serpentine with your arms crossed. We added in drifting so we didn’t drill the horse too much on the same thing, asking for a circle with legs and not so much with the hands. 

• work on a soft feel during these exercises
• randomly ask for a stop and back- but only when you have a soft feel 

The Dance:

Our next exercise was the Dance that was an exercise in H2 on Day 1. Staying on the rail, do a circle, then ask the horse to move his hindquarters 180 degrees, then his front end 180 degrees to make a complete circle. This is where hands came in- (see drawing for hand positions 1, 2 and 3. 

Hand position one is a more forward elbow in front where hands normally sit, but also reaching down the reins, so to ask for a circle, use hand position one, to ask for hind quarters to move, move to hand position two, elbow to your ribs, move to hand position which is elbow behind ribs, to ask for front end to move “reaching”

Reaching:

Reaching is asking the front legs to move, “the horse is reaching across”. You always want the leg closest to the direction of travel to move first. IF they move the other leg, do not stop (reward) until he moves the correct leg, then stop- which is his reward. 

1. bring his head around so your hands are at position 2- if he does this without moving his feet, continue to step two, if not, repeat later.
2. move hands to position 3, and both hands towards the direction of travel so that the outside rein is laying on his neck (this is in preparation for more advanced spin)
3. Using as little leg as possible, push with your forward outside leg, you don’t want him to focus on the leg, just the rein.

Side note on a horse pinning his ears/biting at other horses:

Block your horse from moving his head, and if he gets through the block spur his opposite side. Whose to say that the horse on the other side isn't a super ninja with spurs that got him, He can’t blame you as he wasn’t paying attention to you in the first place. .Don’t allow that behavior, make your horse stay in his box. Make the wrong choices hard. Back him, spin him, work him until standing calmly sounds like a good idea to him 

Backing in circles: 

Tilt the head to the outside of the planned circle and back. Pull with each step and release when he takes a step, pull, release. Start out asking for 1/4 circle. Then work your way into backing a full circle, slowly.

Side note: Always look for an opportunity to catch your horse off guard for a stop and a back. Don't let him anticipate what you want.