Buckaroo Texan Blog

 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.