Clinic; Monday, Day 4

Our last day.... We reviewed, got on, did serpentines and one rein stops. Doxee decided that some saddles over by the fence were horse eatin' monsters, and did the whirlaway trick that had unseated me that first time I rode her- not this time though, I had more tools in my toolbox and was ready for her! Buck did get after me for continuing to work her in the spot where she was fearful, which kind of surprised me because I was always taught to have the horse face their fears. I was working her a little farther away from the saddles, but still in her fear zone, and he had me take her right out of there and get to where I had some control over her feet and her mind. I was thankful for that, because it got Doxee back to trusting that I wasn't going to get her in trouble. I thanked Buck for helping me with that.
He also showed us a method for teaching young horses to back from the ground. Most people were geared up with a snaffle and mecate reins. Holding the slobber strap, gently tug rearwards, if the horse doesn't respond, plan B is to bump the side of the face with the ring of the snaffle, then as he steps back go back to just the gentle tug on the strap. You can also hold the strap and walk forwards.  Can also teach the horse to back in an arc doing this.
The afternoon class we watched the first hour and a half, then we had to hit the road to make the border crossing.
There were a couple of things discussed; 4 ways to move the hind quarters: 1. Bend the neck, move the hip over with a leg. 2. Stay soft, straight and centered take a soft feel, move the hip with your leg.3. Use just your leg, no hands. 4. Use just your hands, no leg.
Someone asked about the transition to the hackamore. These are the things Buck said he wants a snaffle bit horse to accomplish before moving on to a hackamore: 1. Walk, trot, or lope either on a loose rein or collected. 2. Upward transitions with a soft feel. 3. Lope small circles. 4. Move the hind quarters with all 4 methods listed above. 5. Simple lead changes. 6. Rope and work a cow. 7. Be safe enough for a kid to ride.
At one point, he brought in his bridle horse for a demo; I think the horse's name is Rebel, and he will be retiring him soon. Here are some photos- what a treat to watch this horse work.

As we left, it was over 100 degrees, and we ran into a road closure due to fire and had to detour. Fortunately we didn't have to sit still for long with a horse in the trailer, we found a detour and kept on going.
I definitely got a lot out of this clinic, and I think I'd like to audit the one coming up in High River in November; Nitro and his person will be in it so it will be a lot of fun to watch him progress.

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.

Clinic; Saturday, Day 2

Another hot and dusty day dawned, and our routine was to get up and go feed the horses, then come back, have breakfast then go get the horses and head to the arena for warm up.

Crystal was kind enough to warm Doxee up by ponying her for a few minutes each day; her horse Razz is a pretty nice mare, and little Doxee had to move out pretty good to keep up with her even at the walk. I figured ponying was a safer option for warm up rather than have to deal with fear issues on a horse I barely know.
Each day would start with Buck's demo. For our class, he rode a 3 year old mare who had only 3 weeks of training. Nice big mare, and it was interesting to see her progression as the clinic went along.

With Buck being on the road most of the year, he takes his training horses along and works them at the clinics. For the Horsemanship 1 class, he rode his roan stallion Guapo, and then a sorrel mare who I think is a half sister to the stud.
After the question session, we reviewed the previous day's lessons, and then he showed us how he wanted us to teach the horse to position for mounting off the fence. As this is a Foundation class, he wanted us to learn things we would do with a green horse, even if we were riding broke horses.
This exercise will really help with Clancy, who was never taught to stand still for mounting.
We also worked on moving the shoulder over to cross over in front, then stop and "teeter back " (another Buckism). I actually saw someone wearing a t shirt that said, Teeter Back.
 Anyway, this was part of what we did for teaching mounting from the fence. Pretty much the same as Parelli teaches in his squeeze game; send the horse between you and the fence, move the hip over just as it is passing you the horse faces up and you teeter him back. Once the horse was comfortable with that, we climbed on the fence and worked on positioning the horse. No getting on in that session. We were encouraged to do everything but get on - rub with the flag, toss the lead rope, pet the off side, swing offside stirrup leather etc. the same as we would do with a green colt.
Things of note:
Every turn begins with a reach.
Be in time with your horse's feet.
Reach for your horse, of your horse, and reach together with your horse.

The afternoon class was interesting; he had them do open serpentines, using correct hand position and soft feel. Emphasis was on flexion and foot being connected, the helping rein being in time with the reaching foot.  Also used the one rein stop. He got after the students lots on correct hand position, especially if they weren't going wide and low. This class is also for fairly green horses.

Someone getting help with hand position

It was interesting to see all the different horses; there were the usual quarter horses as well as a Tenessee Walker, a Hafflinger, Appaloosa, Missouri Fox Trotter, Icelandic, Rocky Mountain Horse, and just about every colour there is. Was also interesting to see so many Wade saddles, but there were also English saddles, treeless saddles, and other trail type saddles. 

And lots of Aramita chinks!

Clinic, Friday; Day 1

There were a couple of things Buck emphasised right at the start. First is to always start with a soft feel; if it gets ignored you go to plan B which is to drive. For example, offer a direction with the lead rope, and his feet should start to move. If they don't, then use your flag or the tail of your lead rope to drive; not frantically, just with as much energy as it takes to create movement of the feet. Getting to the horse's feet is the key to getting to his mind. His phrase is "offer a good deal;" if the horse doesn't take it then go to plan B. This is for all aspects of ground work or riding.
The other thing he was serious about was always keeping the horse's mind with you. My horse, for example would look at things going on, or would creep too close to me or to another horse while we were standing there listening to Buck. He showed us to do little things to keep the horse with us; maybe ask for a step back or sideways, or ask for a step over with the hip, etc. At the beginning of the clinic, several people had horses that were pushy and disrespectful with their humans, they were controlling the feet of their handlers instead of the other way around and by the end of the clinic, their handlers had much quieter, respectful horses. But it meant that you had to be aware of what your horse was doing at all times; you had to be with the horse at the level that you want him to be with you.
Buck does not tolerate a couple of things; one is violence or abuse of the horse, and the other is students who disregard what he is teaching. The first we all get; but there were little things that he corrected, such as frantic use of the flag creating fear in the horse instead of using it just enough to get the horse to do what we were looking for; timing the release.
As for the second part, he did say a couple of times that if students were just doing their own thing, they would be politely excused from the class, and may or may not be allowed back. I understand that he spends the majority of his year on the road teaching, and if people aren't there to learn then don't waste his time, he'll work with the ones that are there to truly learn. I get that. He gives us things to work on during the class and expects us to try; we may not get it right at first, but we do have to try. I actually like this style of clinic because it puts the onus on us to apply ourselves instead of just being babysat.
We worked a progression of exercises; moving out on the soft feel, moving the hip over, backing, circling with the front and hind united and then asking for a hind end step over and then back united; change of direction by moving the hip over then asking for the front shoulder to come across in the new direction. For all of these things, we were to time our ask with the reaching of the appropriate foot. This really got me paying attention to what the feet were doing and what it felt like when the ask was out of time with the feet, and how smoothly it worked when the ask was in time with the reaching foot. All of which translates to work under saddle. There were lots more details with each element we worked on, this is just to give you the basics of the first session.
Just as he started each class with a question session, he ended them the same way; if anyone was confused about something or needed help, this was the time to get individual help.

We were not allowed to video, and I was not comfortable with taking photos during the class but I did sneak this one in of Doxee. She was paying attention to me!

During the afternoon, we watched the horsemanship class, and could see how what we were doing in ground work in our class would progress to the exercises they started out doing. I won't go into detail on what their exercises were, but I could see that the same principles applied; soft feel first; bend and then send; stay in time with the feet.

Getting some help with handling the reins on a two rein horse 

The evening class was ranch roping, and Buck wanted them to put their horsemanship first, and learn to rope and work cattle with that as the first consideration.

The Buck clinic

What a weekend!
Thursday, Crystal and I headed south, I was pulling the camper trailer and she had her mare Razz in the horse trailer. Remember, I was borrowing a horse for the clinic because of Clancy being lame.
On the way down, we stopped to meet up with blogger Nikki and her oh so cute son Kase.

Kase was pretty quiet with us until we showed him Crystal's horse!

I made the mistake of believing my fuel gauge which apparently has a bigger upper half a tank than bottom half a tank, and very nearly ran out of fuel, but made it to Moses Lake just as the truck was sputtering. That was a tense 50 miles until I found a gas station!

Once we got to Ellensburg, Tracy Westbury very kindly lent me her mare Doxee for the clinic, and they were waiting for us when we arrived. And another surprise, blogger Karen Jackson Simmons was there too, she was bringing a rescue dog up for Tracy!

Left to right: Crystal, Tracy with George the dog, Karen, Doxee and me.

It was awesome to meet people that you have "known" for years but never met. Like meeting old friends. Totally cool!
I did ride Doxee after that , just to get to know her a bit before the clinic started the next morning..... thought I was getting along good, but she made a dirt dart out of me! She went west, I went east.... Very quick little mare,  former turn back horse in the cutting pen. Tracey rode her after that and she was much more relaxed. Too much new and different at once I think, new place, long trip, new rider and those horse eating white letters painted on a brown background on the arena walls. The nice thing- it was only about 2 feet to fall! Gotta love little horses!

 Me and Doxee once we got to know each other a little better. I normally ride with a longer stirrup than that! Now I know why cutters ride with short stirrups.

Anyway, the next day- and all the following days- it was scorching hot. We were really glad that our class was from 9 AM to noon.  Buck was out there all day, an hour break for him at noon, and a half hour break at 4 PM and then he was out there till 7:30. Don't know how he handled it, cowboy tough I guess.

Buck and his young stallion Guapo during one of the demonstrations

Our Thursday session was all ground work, Friday too. We were entered in the Foundation class. We did get to ride Saturday and Sunday. The clinic format was this: we would go to the arena and warm up our horses in whatever way suited us, then Buck would come in and do a demonstration while we watched. Then he would ask, "Any questions?" and there would be about half an hour of that, then he would give us what we were to work on, and while we went to work he would watch, advise where needed, and demonstrate as needed, and at the end of the session he would give us homework. Also, he expected us to watch  the other classes during the day, because everything ties in together.
The thing he emphasises most is getting the horse to follow a soft feel. Always offer first with softness, as subtle as possible, then if the horse doesn't respond, drive. There were several different ways of doing that, depending on what you were asking the horse to do, and he showed us first in the demo, then broke it down in detail, and then had us try.

The question and answer session during the afternoon  Horsemanship class

If you were really paying attention, you would see that during the demonstration ride he did before each class, he was showing us the elements we would be working on- and then a bit extra, what it would look like when we progressed from those elements.

Sunday afternoon, we were blessed to meet up with two more blog friends, Jennie (Paint Girl) and her sister Michelle (Ranch Girl Diaries)

Michelle, Jennie and Crystal

The pink thing Crystal has on her shoulders is like a shammie, you get it wet and it keeps you cool as long as it stays wet, which is a few hours. There were several ladies wearing vests, which we thought was totally nuts, until we found out that they worked on the same principle; get them wet and they keep you cool for hours. HyperKewl cooling vests, they are called.

Considering the temps were from 95 - 100 F, they must have worked very well! I think I want one. They make horse gear too!

There is lots more to post on, this just gives an overview; tomorrow I'll show some of the interesting and colourful horses and gear, as well as talk about some of the things we worked on.