Tommorrow morning I will load Maggie up for a 3 day Cow clinic with a local trainer, who is a supposed good hand when it comes to working cattle. I have never even met the trainer, just going off various feedback I have received from various people I know that have ridden with him in the past.
This particular trainer is supposedly a BB student. Honestly, I just cringe when trainers use name-dropping of the masters of natural horsemanship , deeming themselves "so-and-so's preferred student , worked exclusively with so-and-so for xx number of years, ".. and so on. I get they are trying to build clientele . In my home area, they sem to be a dime a dozen and maybe unfortunately, in my experience, MOST of those that are self proclaimed "natural horsemanship" trainers, are anything but....those that I refer to as
"All hat, no cattle"
Ok- stepping off my soap box now..
The feedback that I have received is that he is good with cows. He keeps people and horses safe. He's a champion roper and he does okay with horsemanship. OK, there 's some opportunity there I guess.
The morning sessions will be focused on horsemanship. The afternoons, we get to apply what we learned with working the cattle.
I am hoping the horsemanship is good enough and we aren't going to spend the morning turning our horses in tiny circles or backing our horses up ad nauseum until the cows come home (no pun intended) That will send me home in a hurry. Yes, I am a pessimist when it comes to natural horsemanship trainers.. what makes you ask?????
For me and Mags, cows are the focus. It's time to see if cows are where Maggie's niche lies.
Ideally ,someone will fall in love with her, offer my my asking price and I load her up to go be a cow pony.. But before that can happen , she has to like cows and she has to like moving cows. So , that is what we will set out to do and since I don't have free access to cows, this clinic was the best option that has come my way.
The clinic fee seems reasonable for three days (assuming this guy is not a total boob) and it includes the cow fee.. yes a cow fee. Apparently (and this was something new to me) when people do cow work, they are charged for the use of the cows. This trainer had to "rent" the cows from a cow dealer or local farmer. As it is with all economics, the fee is passed onto the consumer..
I honestly have no idea how good this guy really is. I couldn't pick him out of a crowd if my life depended on it. I have talked to him several times on the phone. He seems ok.. He has a pretty nice facility and he's not from here.. That could be good, actually.
All in all , I am looking forward to trying something totally foreign and new. It's exciting to get out of my comfort zone.. I hope I can take some good stuff away from it.
Stay tuned for the updates and hopefully video and pics!
This particular trainer is supposedly a BB student. Honestly, I just cringe when trainers use name-dropping of the masters of natural horsemanship , deeming themselves "so-and-so's preferred student , worked exclusively with so-and-so for xx number of years, ".. and so on. I get they are trying to build clientele . In my home area, they sem to be a dime a dozen and maybe unfortunately, in my experience, MOST of those that are self proclaimed "natural horsemanship" trainers, are anything but....those that I refer to as
"All hat, no cattle"
Ok- stepping off my soap box now..
The feedback that I have received is that he is good with cows. He keeps people and horses safe. He's a champion roper and he does okay with horsemanship. OK, there 's some opportunity there I guess.
The morning sessions will be focused on horsemanship. The afternoons, we get to apply what we learned with working the cattle.
I am hoping the horsemanship is good enough and we aren't going to spend the morning turning our horses in tiny circles or backing our horses up ad nauseum until the cows come home (no pun intended) That will send me home in a hurry. Yes, I am a pessimist when it comes to natural horsemanship trainers.. what makes you ask?????
For me and Mags, cows are the focus. It's time to see if cows are where Maggie's niche lies.
Ideally ,someone will fall in love with her, offer my my asking price and I load her up to go be a cow pony.. But before that can happen , she has to like cows and she has to like moving cows. So , that is what we will set out to do and since I don't have free access to cows, this clinic was the best option that has come my way.
The clinic fee seems reasonable for three days (assuming this guy is not a total boob) and it includes the cow fee.. yes a cow fee. Apparently (and this was something new to me) when people do cow work, they are charged for the use of the cows. This trainer had to "rent" the cows from a cow dealer or local farmer. As it is with all economics, the fee is passed onto the consumer..
I honestly have no idea how good this guy really is. I couldn't pick him out of a crowd if my life depended on it. I have talked to him several times on the phone. He seems ok.. He has a pretty nice facility and he's not from here.. That could be good, actually.
All in all , I am looking forward to trying something totally foreign and new. It's exciting to get out of my comfort zone.. I hope I can take some good stuff away from it.
Stay tuned for the updates and hopefully video and pics!
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