Buck Brannaman Chico Clinic

Buck Brannaman Chico clinic, day one:

After 6+ years of riding with Buck, Ray, Peter and Co, I thought last Sunday at Gilroy Gaits was my Best Clinic Day Ever. Well... TODAY was my best clinic day ever. Captain Jack was a champ... softer than ever, listening back, moving out without needing to be pedaled. He was able to get soft and carry the softness through up and down transitions and roll smoothly into the backup. He was able to carry his momentum through turns, leg yield smoothly into the corners... basically, he was a champ. He even made me look good :)

Y'know, it's funny. My epiphanies these days seem to consist of profoundly realizing at some deeper level truths that are patently obvious, even on the surface. Like today, I suddenly realized at a deep, internal level something which is already obvious to everyone: I realized that if I didn't like the way something felt and wasn't enjoying it, then Jack wasn't liking it either.

Duh!

I've known this forever. But I didn't *know* it. Today I really realized it at some deep internal level, and it totally affected the way I asked him for things and correspondingly, the way he came thru for me. We spent quite a productive afternoon hunting for feel that felt good to both of us.

We were also playing the game of "see if we can be so soft that we can get everything done without the ball of the bosal even lifting off his chin." With that little pressure. We weren't always successful at it at the trot, but we were successful at the walk, and at the trot we managed to get the job done without getting to the point of having to pry on his face, so good progress all around.

Buck Brannaman Chico clinic, day two:

Personally, I think day two is always the hardest. Day one is for introducing the noobs to what's going on, getting the horses to settle down and reminding people what it means to WORK with their horses instead of just putzing around for an hour at their stable and then putting them up. Day two is where we get to work on a serious basis.

One of the key exercises we focus on for day two involves going from a fast walk, bringing your horse 360 degrees and then walking on. Theoretically without a loss of energy. Colloquially known as "getting the hind and then getting the fore", it teaches the horse (and rider) to separate movement of the front quarters from movement of the hindquarters and sets the horse up for lots of great stuff later, like spins or working a cow.

Horsemanship class isn't (well, ought not to be) the first time a horse encounters this. Most colts see this during colt starting, with some judicious help from a flag to get them moving over with some life.

The basic exercise involves untracking the hind end at a fast walk (disengaging the hindquarters) and drifting the hind end through 180 degrees. Then helping the horse shift his weight back and opening up the leading rein to get him reaching out and back with his front foot, then having his other front foot cross over as his front end follows around the remaining 180 degrees.

When you do it right, there should be a rhythm to it. Hind foot reaches under 1...2...3... Front foot reaches out and back 1... 2... 3...

Unfortunately, while I've practiced hard (for years!) at feeling the timing of Jack's front feet, I'm not very accurate yet at feeling when his hind feet are reaching. So we're having a tough time taking this exercise to the next level.

I discovered a way to practice doing a better job of feeling Jack's hind feet though. As we're walking out, I ask him to untracked the hind. Then as he brings the hind around, I let him bring it full circle, just feeling of his feet. As I start to feel when the inside hind is leaving the ground, I time up my body's movement with it and encourage him to carry it far under himself.

So far this seems to have been helping my feel for the timing.

Other stuff today: getting soft and carrying the soft feel up and down through transitions from trot to walk to slow walk rolling into the backup without letting the bulb of the hackamore lift off his chin. Getting him to pick up a soft feel and carry it at the walk and trot maintaining an even rhythm and not surging as I release it.

Key win today: with a pretty crowded arena (35 horses), Jack was more willing to trust me to take him safely between the milling chaos. Last week in Hollister and even yesterday, he was markedly hesitant, preferring his own judgement to drop back or turn and go somewhere else. Today though he was willing to trust me and to even pick up a trot and pass pretty smoothly between two other horses busy doing their thing without getting too stiff or worried.

We were both mentally cooked and doing the thousand yard stare by the end of the day.

Tomorrow should be fun. It includes long-trotting on a loose rein and doing 180 degree rollbacks in preparation for chasing "cows" (other riders) around the mock rod ear.

Oh yeah, and serpentines. Did I mention short serpentines? We do boatloads of them every day. Here's a description of them from a previous clinic: Here's a description of them from a previous clinic.

Buck Brannaman Chico clinic, day three:

Jack was kind of fussy during the start-of-class monologue. He was tossing his head and rooting into the bosal. Pondering for the first half of the talk, it finally occurred to me that yesterday I hadn't been riding Jack with a light enough feel.

I realized that he'd progressed to the point where he was expecting much lighter cues than I had been offering -- especially when things got quick.

So I made it my mission to try to offer with less than half the pressure today. I also spent the rest of Buck's introductory talk asking Jack to 'get soft' with the lightest pressure I could possibly manage -- basically just touching the mecate reins. Then when he got soft in response, throwing him a ridiculous amount of slack -- like a foot or more. When he felt the release and went to automatically root against the reins, there was no back pressure for him to push against and by the second try he stood stock still, cogitating. After a couple of more iterations, the lightbulb went on and he stood quietly thereafter.

Then when we were riding... Today's menu included more of 'get the hind, get the front' from yesterday, walk-trot transitions while carrying a soft feel, more tight serpentines and also walking long serpentines with no reins, operating entirely off of leg cues. There was also plenty of backing circles... I really struggled to offer the lightest possible feel when I asked for something.

Jack seemed to respond positively and we did great, except for the first half of the walk-trot transitions which kinda resembled a snake killing. (Not for the obvious reasons, but because Jack wanted to cut the corners on the arena and skip one end all together while trotting. I would up having to be rather firm leg-yielding him into the corners, which made me fear we would lose our lightness, so I dropped back down to a walk and worked on fast walk-slow walk-stop-roll into backup while carrying a soft feel to make sure we hadn't lost our nice softness.

By the time we finished with walk-trot transitions, Jack was able to pick up a soft feel while stopped, carry it into the slow walk, up to a fast walk and into a trot. Then I would pitch him slack and we'd trot on a loose rein for a while and then pick up a soft feel again, carrying it down to a walk, to a stop and rolling into backing a half circle.

We finished ears forward and with a soft expression.

Beth says she caught me with poor posture and my legs too far forward sometimes, but all in all, a really hard day but a an excellent one.

Buck Brannaman Chico clinic - Day Four:

This is sum-up day for everything we worked on from the three preceding days.

So the menu on offer was "get the hind, then get the front", getting soft at the walk and stopping, then rolling into the backup, backing circles, an exercise designed to prepare the horse for doing rollbacks when working a cow (get soft, stop, back a couple of steps, then walk the front-end around in a half circle, finally backing a couple of steps and then taking off in the opposite direction.)

And the biggie (for over-achievers like Jack): getting soft while stopped and carrying it up through the walk to the trot, throwing slack for a minute or two and then getting soft again and carrying it through downward transition to the stop and backup.

I was still on the hunt for that super-light feel, trying to have Jack feeling back to me without lifting the bulb of the bosal off his chin. We made steady progress in that regard, though still not where we want to be yet. We were, however, able to avoid "burning out" the hackamore except for one or two instances. ("Burning out" is one term for when the horse doesn't give softly to the movement of the hackamore and you wind up pulling hard against his face… the "Do What It Takes" part of "First do less than you think you will need, then do as much as it takes" mantra.) The price we paid for staying in the positive zone was slower response time. That was okay with me, even though it made us the laggards in class sometimes. There's another mantra: "first you go slow in order to later go fast."

The arena of the Tehama District Fairgrounds outside Chico is smaller than the covered arena we had at Gilroy Gaits, and we had more than thirty-five horses in there, so it was cramped and we spent a lot of time dodging other riders and avoiding collisions.

One of the big ways I was measuring success is that Jack was trusting me more and letting me take him softly through gaps between other horses and ask for trot transitions to avoid tight spots without having to peddle him or thump him up to the trot. Major win for a horse who is not very forward by nature. (Major props to Bonnie Stoehn for helping Jack learn to be okay with being more forward and for helping me learn to keep him there without endless pedaling and not immediately throw it all away again.)

We also did more long serpentine work, with the reins looped over the horn and riding just off leg and seat cues. Jack was getting softer and smoother at it and we were able to carry it up to the trot a few times. We were still working at being able to come down to a stop and roll into the backup just from my change in body position without me having to pick up the rein to help him out. Oh well, more to do yet.

We're not yet throwing spins, rollbacks and sliding stops like a cutting horse, however the foundation for all those things is starting to feel a little bit solid.

Again we finished nice and soft with ears forward.