Clinic; Sunday, Day 3

We started off the morning with Cowboy Church; one of the ladies who was in the Ranch Roping class played some good gospel tunes, and gave us a scripture passage and reflection on it; nice way to start the day.

We hung out in the shade, it was already blistering hot at 9 AM. We did our usual routine of watch, listen, and ask questions before reviewing the previous day's lesson. This day, we got on from the fence, and had the horse flex 90 degrees without moving feet, pet the face, and flex the other way etc. Then flex, move the hip over, still without asking the horse to go anywhere. After that, we moved out a little bit and worked on the one rein stop- same thing, except at a walk, and only have leg on to move the hip over and take leg off once the front feet stop going forward. All this is excellent prep for me when I start Josie later this summer. (Still have to put my round pen back up!)
Once the class was doing this smoothly we progressed to doing the one rein stop from the trot. Then on to the small serpentine. 90 degree bend, inside leg forward, outside leg back, walk a couple of steps and pick up the bend in the new direction, switching rein and legs. Set the horse in the right position before applying leg. Bend and then send.
This was similar to what they did in the next class, only they were doing large serpentines, with more detail on the soft feel, hand position and leg position. Soft feel, hands wide, vertical flexion, stay straight, soft and centered before asking for the bend. They also worked on transitions up and down using body energy, only going to plan B (using the reins) if the horse didn't take the offered energy.

One of my favourite horses in the H1 class.

The other thing they worked on was do the serpentine, then ask for the hind end over, then pick up the front end and sweep it over. It was interesting to see the different horse/people combinations and the different levels of success they had with this one. Sounds easy, but making it flow like a dance isn't so simple!

Two of the horses we enjoyed watching; the Hafflinger and a nice Quarter Horse that looks running bred.

During the Ranch Roping class, they brought in cattle that needed doctoring and had the ropers practice their swings, then actually rope and doctor (pink eye). 

There were several proficient ropers that handled the head shot, while the remainder worked the heels. At no point were the cattle overworked or stressed out (except for it being so dang hot!)

Buck had the heel shot on this one. It was interesting to see how the ground crew worked, and what they had to do to stay safe. Position is everything!

I think what I picked up most on this day, was prepare, position, feel and follow through.