Stockmanship Clinic day 1(June 3, 2023)-by Anne

It was a sweaty night and I didn't get much sleep with the thunder and the rain. Early in the am, a dog barked and a few drips from the leaky fly, reminded me that I had brought ear plugs. I must remember to use them tonight. I get up about 6 am. The calves see me and start mooing . I gvie Takota his breakfast and head to the viewing room to make a much needed cup of coffee. I heat up water for some oatmeal and warm a blueberry muffin to go with my coffee. I sit enjoying the peace and quiet readying myself for the busy day ahead.

After breakfast, I put Takota out in his paddock and clean his stall. The morning is now cold and damp. I am glad that I brought a fleece jacket and fall pants. The clinic starts at 9 am. The arena is freshly dragged and the country music is playing on the speaker system. Our clinic begins with introductions as we sit in chairs in a semi circle facing Sandy our clinician. Our first exercize is working in pairs as if we are a horse. The simulation allows us to practice the moves we will be asking our horse for later in the day. We all laugh as we step on each others toes and Sandy has to remind us again what foot we are talking to. it is all brain games, but I am glad we are doing this now before our brains are full for the day. Sandy says " Go forward around the right fore" or " Go backwards around the right hind."

At 10:30 we tack up[ our horses and head to the arena to warm up. We start on the ground with asking our horses for forequarter and hindquarter yields that we practiced earlier without horses. I stop and ask Sandy for help as I just can't visualize what I need to do. My first big take away from this clinic : You have to understand and be able to visualize what you want to have the horse do before you can ask them to do it. Have a plan. Be a leader. All these yeilds are needed to help manuver the calves where we woud like to have them go . Once mounted we go down the rail and work on doing all the yields in flow like a river. I think my river had some rocks in the way until I practiced for awhile.

Another concept that was very important when working with cattle is straighness of the horse and having focus in a straight line. Once the cattle were moving you can influence their direction of travel by going on a 45 degree angle straight line away from them, causing them to move away from you. If you are in front of the cattle you can move in a sig zag motion back and forth to cause them to move away from you also. We also learned to stop[ when they stopped, so that they would learn to stand still. Our first experience with the real calves was to have us all be a rodeer or a circle around the herd as it stayed in the center of the arena. We learned to have our horses always face the calves. It was our job to not let the calves out of the middle. Each rider took turns just going in a straight line through the herd. When one rider was doing this it was the other riders job to fill in the gap and make sure the calves stayed in the center. Sometimes the calves would just stare you down and not move. Sandy would encourage us to do something, and eventually they would comply. Occasionally, one would get out and one of us would have to go and encourage it back into the center.

At around 2 pm we broke for an hour lunch. We were all tired and ready for a break. We had a nice lunch of sandwiches etc and some much needed coffee. We all chatted and encouraged each other. We were back on our horses at about 3 pm. We are excited to practice what we had learned from this morning. We started with the rodeer again. Then each rider indivdually went around the herd and stripped off one calf from the back and asked it to stay away from the herd and stand still. When it did, we would forequarter yield away from the calf and allow it to go back to the herd. We each did this a couple of times until we got it. We also had to remember as the calf is moving to stay behind it's ears. If you got too far in front of them, they woud not go straight, they would turn away from you and you would lose them. So much to remember. The day finishes at 5pm . Our brains are full, our muscles are tired, and our horses are as ready for dinner as we are.

We have dinner at 6 in the farm house. It is a nice spread of Tacos and all the fixings. After dinner, we play a brain game where one person has to describe an image of shapes and lines that they see on a paper. The other players have to draw on the paper what they think the shapes are and how they are placed according to the leaders instructions. We all did pretty well considering our brains were already full from the days activites. After the game we all said our good nights. I settled Takota in for the night and headed for my tent. Tonight I would need my sleeping bag. I cuddled up, put in my earplugs and tried to get some sleep.