GrungeEquestrian
08-01-2010, 07:53 AM
So I finally got to bring my own horse to a team penning/team sorting night with one of the fellow boarder's. He is super nice and trailered my horse with his.
This was a different place than I went the first time with the BO's Tennessee Walker, and here there were actual cow horses. Really its not only fun to do, but to watch those horses. But you can say we stuck out like a sore thumb in the warm up arena. :p I mean there were some nicely behaved horses and good riders, but there were some that were rearing, wouldn't stop, and the riders had to jerk their reins muscling the horse to turn. Trouble and I did a nice little lope, jog, extended trot, and some tight turns at the end. A lot of people asked me, "So what do you usually do with that nice little buckskin? Dressage?" (some people pronounced it dess-a-ged).
But over-all it was a nice experience. There was a nice lady named Patty, who came with her whole family. She was explaining a lot of things to me and little tips. She had been working cows since she was 4 years old and boy was she good.
The one thing that would have been nice was if Trouble could have been around the cows in a less pressured setting before they started. The announcer was really adamant about not wasting any time. So we went in there and Trouble could only stare at them for a few minutes. She did fine keeping cutting them off until 8 of them came flying at her. She spun around and let them go around her. So....we will have to work on that. After that they started to do the pay back runs, Patty suggested I should settle when they need another settler so that Trouble could be up by the cows. Her son came with me to get Trouble closer than she really wanted to and by the end she did pretty well.
I was also really impressed and happy on how well she did by the other horses. Had a few horses bump into her and no kick :), no ear back or anything, a huge improvement. So it was stressful but fun. For the most part everyone was really nice. A few people that I kind of shock my head about, like a "know it all" farrier who does a lot of our at the barn I board at. One time I had to get Trouble back after a settled fast since the cows moved. When I got close to the gate I gave a little pull on the reins, sat back, and asked her to trot, she was a little hesitant and shock her head. After wards the farrier comes up to me and tells me to loosen my chin strap because its too tight and that's why she is popping her head. Well...she was wearing her full cheek snaffle so there was no chin strap :rolleyes:. And a chin strap would have nothing to do with that, she just was upset I was asking her to slow down.
So I'm excited about my next time. Plan on taking her to the first place, they don't allow real veterans there so its much more low key. They also don't yell about allowing your horse to actually take a look at the cows for more than two minutes.
But yup I'm addicted. :cowboy:
This was a different place than I went the first time with the BO's Tennessee Walker, and here there were actual cow horses. Really its not only fun to do, but to watch those horses. But you can say we stuck out like a sore thumb in the warm up arena. :p I mean there were some nicely behaved horses and good riders, but there were some that were rearing, wouldn't stop, and the riders had to jerk their reins muscling the horse to turn. Trouble and I did a nice little lope, jog, extended trot, and some tight turns at the end. A lot of people asked me, "So what do you usually do with that nice little buckskin? Dressage?" (some people pronounced it dess-a-ged).
But over-all it was a nice experience. There was a nice lady named Patty, who came with her whole family. She was explaining a lot of things to me and little tips. She had been working cows since she was 4 years old and boy was she good.
The one thing that would have been nice was if Trouble could have been around the cows in a less pressured setting before they started. The announcer was really adamant about not wasting any time. So we went in there and Trouble could only stare at them for a few minutes. She did fine keeping cutting them off until 8 of them came flying at her. She spun around and let them go around her. So....we will have to work on that. After that they started to do the pay back runs, Patty suggested I should settle when they need another settler so that Trouble could be up by the cows. Her son came with me to get Trouble closer than she really wanted to and by the end she did pretty well.
I was also really impressed and happy on how well she did by the other horses. Had a few horses bump into her and no kick :), no ear back or anything, a huge improvement. So it was stressful but fun. For the most part everyone was really nice. A few people that I kind of shock my head about, like a "know it all" farrier who does a lot of our at the barn I board at. One time I had to get Trouble back after a settled fast since the cows moved. When I got close to the gate I gave a little pull on the reins, sat back, and asked her to trot, she was a little hesitant and shock her head. After wards the farrier comes up to me and tells me to loosen my chin strap because its too tight and that's why she is popping her head. Well...she was wearing her full cheek snaffle so there was no chin strap :rolleyes:. And a chin strap would have nothing to do with that, she just was upset I was asking her to slow down.
So I'm excited about my next time. Plan on taking her to the first place, they don't allow real veterans there so its much more low key. They also don't yell about allowing your horse to actually take a look at the cows for more than two minutes.
But yup I'm addicted. :cowboy: