Buckaroo Texan Blog

We have all heard Ray Hunt say “ Prepare for the position for the transition” and “get the horse even on all four corners”.  This was his way of telling us to get the horse balanced, then you can position to make transitions.  This is all horsemanship and guiding your horse is about.  Sounds so simple and is it, until you try to do it.   How do you go about finding that balance?

Lets go all the way back to lateral bending or flexions.   Ask yourself, are they really good?   Do I feel for my horse, he feels of me and we feel together?   If not, then maybe you haven’t really done a thorough job of your homework with flexions.   This can be started when you are working with a foal and his first halter lessons.  But, even your older horse in his teens can go back and really learn these flexions and get balanced, so there is harmony between you and your horse when you ride.  A true softness, balance and feel.

 Start you flexions from the ground with a green or young horse that has not been ridden.  All these flexions are done at a standstill.   These flexions should be revisited a lot during every ride to get them really good and for checking in with your horse through out his riding career.  Not just for a few sessions, few rides or a month or so. You should start flexions with your halter and lead, then progress with your snaffle.   These flexions will be revisited often as you progress into the hackamore and with greater refinement as you advance into the two-rein and bride.

 LATERAL FLEXIONS: Be sure the horse is balanced and square on his feet before you ask for flexions.  Your want the horses’ head from his foretop to his nose to be perpendicular, You want his nostrils perpendicular to the ground and you want elevation of the poll.  You will take the head to the side (flex) up to a 90 degrees bend.  But this will be done in increments.  Let the horse find that this is the most comfortable way to flex.    At first you may get only one of the three positions.  Release for that.  You may get 2 of the 3 positions, release for that, it is a try.  As you work these flexions you may get any combination of the 3 positions and this is acceptable at first.  Remember to keep yourself mellow, even if your horse is not, he is searching and trying.   Just hold until the horse gives you a try in the right direction.  His mouth may get busy during a session of working on flexions.  He is processing, so hold until you get a try and he is not fussing with his mouth.  If you release while he is fussing with his mouth even when you got a response to the asking for a flexion, you will get what you released for, a sloppy flexion with lots of mouth.  Once they start to understand, you hold a little longer to get them to search for the exact proper place for the release and true balance point of the flexion.  Be sure to keep your hands about your shoulder width apart on the snaffle bit horse.  Wide hands will make you timely.  If you ask for a flexion that moves the horse’s head about two inches to the right, for example, you have moved your right hand about 2 inches out and back, be sure to give 2 inches with your left.   Your feel will change a lot as you work on the flexions and all during your ride.   As the horse gets better in the flexions but you find he   still needs more vertical in his face, take the rein more toward his mane than to you hip and hold and let him search.   The horses’ forehead and nose should be perpendicular and his poll between his ears, horizontal and level with each other.

SOFT FEEL:  After you and your horse have the lateral flexions working pretty well, you will combine working with soft feel.    Soft feel is nothing more than you reaching for the horse and he responds to that reach. It ultimately leads to the true form of collection. You feel of him, feel for him and you both feel together.  Ray Hunt would say this many, many times during each of his clinics.  It takes a while to understand and get the true feel of this phrase.  Buck Brannaman has emphasized in his clinics how important it is to master these flexions and soft feel before you ever get on your colt for the first time.  Once you understand and have a feel for these flexions, spending about an hour working on flexions and soft feel, can make all the difference in that first ride!  Then you are ready to go – in balance!

Again, we are looking for balance through the whole horse.  The horse needs to raise his poll up to a feel.  Lifting and elevation is not head throwing.  Elevation in the neck and poll is not gotten by bumping, just hold.  If the muscle down the neck of the horse is tight, the horse rises but looks like a lama.  The horse should rise softly to open his shoulders, clear through   his rib cage. The shoulder blades are closed if the head is lower than the withers.  First, ask you horse to elevate his neck slightly, by having your hands shoulder width apart, in front of the horn of your saddle and raise your hands no higher than you elbows. You will have your reins short enough to make soft contact. Release for the slightest try.   After your horse gets good at elevating his neck softly, then you will bring you hands slightly back to encourage vertical flexion with softness, think of it as rolling into softness.  Remember, the key is reward the slightest try. If the horse bobs his head and does not lift, do not reward this, just wait, he is searching.   If you do too much he reacts instead of responding to you.  Take a feel of your horse, do not think of it as you lifting your horse, let him find you.   Make sure you hands are soft on the reins to ask for this softness. Also, remember, that a chin dropped towards the chest does not always mean soft feel, this position can be the horse avoiding you. 

Practice the flexions and soft feel anytime you are sitting around on your horse throughout you ride.  As you are walking ask for soft feel from you horse.  You will ask for thousands before this becomes really good, so be patient.   Just wait for a little change and release. When you are moving, do not allow your horse to slow, just take a feel of you horse with the elevation and giving to you, in mind, while you ride.    All the time put in on flexions will get you better and better and you and your horse will have a very good feel of each other.

Photo 1–Kate and Ranger, slight bend, notice width of her hands and softness in her hands, notice there is no tension in the rein and the relaxed giving expression on Ranger’s face.  This horse is advanced in the bride. 

Photo2- Kate and Ranger doing a flexion at 90 degress. Notice the horizontal line between the ears, slight elevation of neck and almost vertical postion of the front of his face.

Guest Post By:  Dr. Madalyn Ward, Fischer, Texas

With many parts of the country experiencing extreme and unusual
weather this spring, it seems to be a good time to talk about the best
types of horse feed and supplements to help horses cope with this kind
of unexpected weather. Horses seem to be dealing either with hot dry
weather or cold damp conditions. Both of these extremes can definitely
affect your horse’s health. Luckily, you can prevent health problems
by having a flexible feeding program tailored to weather conditions.

 Horse Feed for Hot Dry Weather :

To help your horse cope with hot dry weather, you need to ensure that
he stays hydrated, avoids colic, and has access to enough high quality
green foods. Here are steps you can take to keep your horse healthy
and comfortable in hot drought-like conditions:

 Offer Electrolytes: Horses keep cool by sweating and their need
for salt and electrolytes is related to the amount they sweat. Sweat
evaporates quickly in low humidity, often leaving a salty residue on
dry skin. Electrolytes are important under these conditions. It’s
important to give your horse electrolytes before dehydration occurs.
Salt blocks and loose salt will meet the needs of most horses at rest,
but if your horse is going to be working or stressed in any way it is
a good idea to give a good commercial electrolyte beforehand.

Boost Gut Health: Feeding pre- and probiotics daily will support
the healthy bacteria in your horse’s gut and this will keep the
digestive tract functioning well during hot weather. Acidophilus and
bifidus from Simplexity Health work well, as does KLPP from KAM.
Pre-Pro from Arenus/Equilite is also a good supplement that promotes
gut health.

 Reduce Hay and Increase Cooling Foods: Normally I am a fan of free
choice hay but during very hot weather it may be necessary to cut back
on hay to decrease the heat generated by its fermentation in your
horse’s gut. Cutting back on grass hay and adding a flake of alfalfa
will give your horse the calories and fiber he needs without producing
as much heat during digestion. Other cooling foods can be fed in
moderation, including apples, watermelons, citrus fruits, blue-green
algae, wheat and barley grass.

Water: Horses need to be able to drink deeply during the heat. I
prefer using five-gallon buckets or troughs rather than automatic
watering systems since these systems don’t allow me to monitor a
horse’s water intake. Plus, some horses like to take deep drinks
rather than sip their water, and most automatic water systems force
horses to sip water. Keep the water as cool as possible as this will
help your horse cool down when he drinks and also encourage him to
drink more.

Horse Feed for Cool Damp Weather
If your horse is coping with unexpectedly cool damp weather, he will
need extra care and feeding. Damp weather tends to produce lush grass,
which can lead to a horse who is overweight and underworked. The end
result could include colic, hoof soreness, or laminitis. To avoid
these problems, here are some changes you can make to your horse’s
management program.

Manage Lush Pastures: If your horse is overweight or prone to
laminitis, monitor him closely for any symptoms. At the first sign of
trouble, such as an increase in the digital pulse, pull your horse off
pasture and restrict access to grass. Cut back on the amount you feed
and add extra probiotics to re-establish the healthy bacteria in the
intestines. You may also want to slightly increase the amount of
mineral supplements you feed to help with glucose metabolism.

Balance the Gut: Any extreme change in weather can affect your
horse’s gut health, which in turn affects your horse’s overall health.
To keep your horse’s gut balanced, support the digestive tract by
feeding prebiotics and probiotics on a daily basis. Examples of
prebiotics include KAM KLPP and PrePro. Probiotics include acidophilus
and bifidus. Some horses also need digestive enzymes to ensure that
feed is properly digested before it reaches the large intestine.
Simplexity Health’s Essentials provide a convenient source of
probiotics, enzymes, and chlorophyll-rich food.

 Add Antioxidants: If you plan to work your performance horse under
adverse weather conditions, you will want to supplement his diet with
antioxidants. Extreme weather creates added stress in working horses,
which tends to generate free radicals. Unless the free radicals are
eliminated from your horse’s system with antioxidants, he can become
stiff and sore. Natural antioxidant sources include wheat sprouts and
coenzyme Q10 (Simplexity), mangosteen juice, and noni juice.

 A Little Flexibility Goes a Long Way
Being flexible when it comes to horse feed and supplements can go a
long way toward keeping your horse healthy and happy in unusual
weather conditions. You have probably noticed that the basics of
keeping your horse healthy are similar regardless of whether you are
coping with hot dry conditions or damp cool weather. That’s because a
solid nutritional foundation doesn’t really change. Adapting to
circumstances is more a matter of tweaking the feeding program rather
than making drastic changes.

 This year at the Belton, Texas,  Buck Brannaman Clinic,  I rode Button in the Horsemanship 2 Class.   It is always fun to work on the advanced manuvers and learn new skills in getting these better.  The roping and cow work are just more ways to advance your skill level and give your horse real jobs to do.  It’s a real test on how well you and your horse are working together.   We spent a lot of time over the four days working on the soft feel at all gaits.  I was working in a hackamore.  I felt I had advanced to a ½ inch hackamore  with the idea of getting ready to more on to the two rein.  As the work in the class advanced with more loping, Buck pointed out to me that Button was really pushing back on me, so I changed back into our 5/8ths hackamore.   I had a better communication with him then and we were able to get some better feel between us.   I realized from the discussions in the morning,foundation class, on the flexions and soft feel, that these were not as good as they needed to be at the level Button was at in the advanced class.   The flexions and soft feel are ways of working to get the horses to engage his hind end and to be more balanced on all four corners.   These last few weeks after the class, Button and I have really gotten more balance between us,  I am being more assertive in asking for him to move in balance at all gaits, forward and backwards,  two tracking, side passing and during haunches in.  I am constantly thinking about my position in relation to where all four feet are of my horse.  Its getting to be a true feel between us so that when I ask for a change we change together, most every time, as it should be.   Photo by:  Jenny Hasz

Phot by

 I took my 2 year old filly, Bubbles to the Buck Brannaman Clinic in March.   I rode her in the Foundation Class.   This class is for young horses, green horses, horses with problems needing a restart with the snaffle bit and green riders.   This class never ceases to amaze me on the holes my horsemanship has.  It all starts with the fundamentals.  You can never get these too good.  Revisiting this class from time to time can really help you improve on all those advanced manuvers you have been working on.   You will always find an area in foundation, that needs some polish.

 The first day involved working on flexions from the ground.  Correctly bending the horse with his neck and head even or slightly higher than the withers, depending on the natural conformation of each horse.   With Bubbles, I needed to lift slightly as I asked for a bend to get her to bring her head around with a proper bend in her neck but keeping her head vertical and her ears horizontal.    Without the proper bend, the horse is stuck in the shoulders and out of balance.   Without really feeling of your horse, you are either building a brace just by bending and or setting your horse up to be out of balance before you even take a step.    Flexions also include asking the horse to slightly lift its neck and then roll over into a soft feel off the bit.   The neck should be slightly raised above the withers and the face of the horse vertical.   This is what you are looking for and may take some work and patience to get it.   Once you understand this, you can get the horse working in balance just at a standstill.  You ask the horse for these flexions, you cannot force a horse to do them and get the balance and softness you are looking for.  You give the horse time to figure this out on their own by holding not pulling until they make a gesture in the right direction and you build from there.   You have a really good feel going on between you and your horse when you both find this together.

Over the next three days we added more riding each day, more ground exercises that built on the use of the flexions and flexions in the saddle. With the proper flexions in mind, we progressed to asking the hind end to step over and then the front, backing straight and backing circles.  With out the proper flexions the horse would be out of balance and have trouble moving its feet.  Really feeling the horse try to understand what you were asking is a great feeling and makes the manuvers easy.  After all, we were getting the horses to make moves they do all the time, without a rider.

 Bubble got to really chopping her bit one of the days and I asked Buck about this.   She was processing the information I was asking of her.   I just ignored it, as suggested, it would go away as she felt more comfortable and more confident.  Buck also reminded me to be sure and feel of her and be very aware when she was chopping the bit during a time I was asking for a maneuver and to be sure and not release until her mouth got quite so she would know without a doubt that was what I was asking for.   Releasing while her mouth was real busy could very easy give her the idea to chop her bit every time I asked anything of her.   The chopping was gone by the end of the clinic. 

Photo by: Kathleen Morris

  A Ranch roping clinic is coming up on February 26 & 27, 2011 at Elkanah Ranch,  518 FM hwy 107, Gateville, Texas.  Contact Jeff Spooner at 254-383-4651 for more information.   This style of roping is typically used at brandings.  It is a calm, loss stree way of handling cattle.  It is not about speed.  It is about Horsemanship, skill and finesse.  Clinic includes ranch rope with two hondos, dinner each day,numerous basic head and heal shotts, practice on roping dummy, roping from your horse and how to handle the cow after it has been roped.  Sunday afternoon concludes with a small competition with prizes paid out.

 Last spring I aquiredt a 2 year old quarter horse mare with a couple months of riding.   She is considered to be green broke.  She can stand to be saddled, mounted, walks, trots, lopes both ways and will back a straight line.   Bubbles has a good start riding, but I feel like I am stealing rides, due to she is not halter broke.

 What do I mean by halter broke?  She should lead without dragging behind or running off in front of me, stand tied and be able to move around mostly with her hind end and never tighten the rope.   She should operate off a feel from my hand through the halter rope to her mind to move her feet any direction I direct.  Although you could get her to bend her head softly to either side it had no meaning to her feet or rear quarters.

The first  session I worked with her I introduced her to going around me.  This was all new to her.  She showed a lot of concern, not knowing what I was asking.  I gave her lots of time to take a step or indicate with her eyes or leaning of her weight that she was trying.  It did not take her long to figure out to move around me.  I needed to get her to lead by me so she could pick me up off the fence.   I have a bad knee so I mount all my horses from a fence, block, bumper, log or lead the horse by me to a lower spot than me.  This keeps me from pulling the saddle too much, which I feel is unfair to the horse. Yes, I could insist that they stand for me to climb on sloppy, but I do not.  We got this working for us pretty quick for our first ride together.   

After another couple of sessions I brought out my flag.  This was a big eye opener for her and for me to know she could be pretty scared of things flapping around.   She felt scared enough to bring out some bucking.   It took awhile to work through and let her know she was ok.  Getting her sure about it took repeating the flag work at every session.  She would settle down faster each time I picked it up.  I carried it everywhere we went so she could see that it could be anywhere, anytime.   I really didn’t want to have a plastic sack blow up around her legs and me getting a look at it while sitting on the ground.

She also had a lot of trouble changing eyes smoothly.   She was good about it on one side but when it changed to the other side in front of her face, it would make her throw her head  and jump away from it.   This brace made it hard to get her to take her hind away from me and then cross in front of me and go the other way without being troubled.   She would take off bolting around me hoping that was what I wanted.  I broke it down into bending her neck both directions, taking her hind, one step at a time. We worked on this in the barn, in her pen, just anytime I caught her up.  As this got better and better our work under saddle was smoother and softer.  I worked her from my saddle horse to also get her to take her hind and then her front. She was not able to bolt off around me.  This brace was on her left side only, going counter clockwise, changing back to clockwise.  I also, worked on this against the round pen fence to block her from running from the flag. Since she couldn’t bolt around me and she would stop at the fence, until she felt free to bend her hind and then bring her front, she even tried pawing the ground to see if that worked.  I gently waved the flag and let her figure out where to go.  I worked her in the alley of the barn, going in and out of a stall also, with and without a flag.  This work gave her boundaries and a reason to bend and change eyes.  Now that she has some bend, is confident about the rein meaning to bend and move her feet she has very little brace on either side when we ride.

She is a smart little horse who works at new things at her own pace.  She is one that is very graphic on how she feels about something.  It is great fun to watch the cogs turning and her mind accepting and figuring things out.  She will be bolting, pawing the ground one minute and then licking and chewing with bright eyes the next.   When she licks and chews and her eyes get bright,  you really know  that she is on the right track.

I am looking forward to riding her in the Foundation Class at the Buck Brannaman Clinic in March.  We will get lots more groundwork with a group and Buck can help me refine our movements and work on the braces that are still there at times.

Best wishes to all my friends and horsemanship pals across the miles.  May you have a great holiday with your family, friends and horses!!  Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!!!

 I finally got a chance to take my ranch horse to a Ranch Horse Versatility Show this year.   My good friend, Kate, wanted to go and compete with her horse, Ranger, also.   I went with the emphasis in mind to just do the events as soft and as prepared as we were at the time.  I knew to complete the 5 events over the day I would need to conserve my horse due to our limited amount of riding and conditioning for the events.   We had five events to show in.

Ranch Cutting:   We cut out a nice cow that allowed me to show how quite my horse could be in the herd.   We had to wait and sort the 3 head that moved out from the herd and then drive the cow I wanted out from the herd  to show the judge we could hold the cow away from the herd.  It did not take but a few turns to have my cow hunting another spot to go since Button would not let her back into the herd.  We took her down the arena and had to bring her part way back to get her between  a cone and the fence.  This gave me the opportunity to show how my horse could rate and handle the cow.  We were then able to drive her down the fence and into the pen at the far end of the arena.  We won this class.

Working Ranch Horse:  This class started with a reining pattern that all the contestants performed.    We had to lope four lines with two rollbacks to the right and two to the left, a stop and  back.   I was able to get a fairly nice performance from Button on this section of the class.  He worked really soft for me.   I did not try to overdue the rollbacks or stop or back, just attempted to get the whole pattern to look correct and smooth.   I did not ask for more than I thought I could get, in other words I did not at this show ask for any extra than I would normally get in a workout.   I then asked for our cow.   We had to step up and really put some pressure on the cow to get her to move across the end of the arena to be boxed.  She tried to sull down so I did not spend much time before taking her down the fence and she turned on some gas then.   We turned her back a couple of times and then brought her off the fence and got her circled to the left and then to the right.  The right circle spiraled right down to a stop.  My horse and I both felt good about our ride in this event.  We placed 2^nd.

Ranch Trail:  This class had lots of loping, loping through a square of logs,  a change of leads, dragging a pumkin, roping a barrel,  and dismounting and picking up the left hind foot of my horse, then writing my name on a pumpkin on a barrel-  Most of the class was very smooth.  We placed 3^rd in this class.

Ranch Riding:   This class was shown as a group at a walk, tot, lope, extended trot and lope, stopping and reversing.   We had a few little bobbles in this class, I miss heard the announcer to come from a lope to a walk, and it was suppose to be a trot, and we missed taking off on the wrong lead once.  No biggy, we just slowed and restarted.   The judge did not see all our bobbles.  Button finds this class boring after doing a real job in the prior three classes, so it is a challenge mentally for both of us to keep him interested. We placed 3^rd.

Ranch Confirmation:  This class is not a strong point for my little cowhorse.  But knowing his confirmation, I set him up next to another small horse and knew how to show his strong point.   We pull the saddle off in class and the judge looks the class over without any primping.   We placed 2^nd in this class.  We generally do not place this high in the class.

The points are added up after the final class and Button and I had the high total to win the  Open Versatility Champion for the day.

I was well pleased with each class performance and knew where we needed more refinement.   We may be ready to start in our two-rein this spring to advance our refinement between horse and rider.

If you would like help in developing the try in you and your horse contact me. My training is in the Buckaroo Way and I offer consultation services to those who believe in partnership of horse and rider.  

Buck Brannaman will be coming back to Texas for horsemanship clinics at the Bell County Expo Center March 25, 26, 27 & 28th, 2011.   We will be having Foundation Horsemanship and Horsemanship II.   The foundation class is for green horses and/or green riders.  We will work the horses each day, under saddle with emphasis on quality ground work  and then put these maneuvers to work with rider in the saddle.   The afternoon class will be Horsemanship II which is the advanced class for horses and riders.  The exercises learned in Foundation and Horsemanship I are taken to refined levels and new exercises added to advance the horse from the snaffle bit to the hackamore.   Introducing cattle work and ranch roping to the horses is part of this class.

In the horse world you will hear people talking about “presence”.  This is something every human and every horse has.   To portray a positive “presence” that is confident and at peace with oneself, is not always easy.  

How do I portray a good “presence’?   A person who believes in himself, and his   abilities, is humble, is confident, is at peace with himself and the world around him, will have this good presence just flow off of him.   This is usually gained through lots of experience.  Experience can not be taught, it is lived. Experience is all the times that things went right and when things went wrong.   The combination of all these experiences helps you build confidence in many situations and to be able to make the split second decisions that help the moment turn out good.  Presence is something you earn as you learn.  Presence develops overtime and is a combination of your life experiences, not just the time around horses.   You need to be open to observe, remember and compare. 

Horses will react good and bad to your presence.   The better your presence portrays leadership, authority, respect and humility, the better a horse will respond to you, in other words, the horse will have a good presence.   Your presence must be an ability to adjust your actions and outlook to fit a given situation.  Now we are back to looking at your experiences.   To develop your relationship with your horse or any horse you are around you need to gather lots of experience and it does take effort on your part to observe, remember and compare. 

Study books and videos of riders you admire and get a sense of their presence and how it flows to the horses they work with. Also, study the presence of the horses you see and how their presence changes.  Go to as many events that you can to observe the masters in their fields of horsemanship, to get the presence of their relationships in person.  Now compare  your presence, the presence of your horse and the presence of your friends and acquaintances you come in contact with.   You can get an idea of how your presence influences your horses for good or bad and see where you need to make changes to improve your flow.  Getting lessons, participating in clinics and asking questions about presence will help you see yourself as you are now and help you adjust at a faster rate to make all your relationships with horses grow into a calm, healthy, self confident ability.

My training is in the Buckaroo Way and I offer consultation services to those who believe in partnership of horse and rider.                    Jeannie