Last weekend, we celebrated the beautiful weather we are (finally) getting here in north Texas with a fun trail ride here at the house with our friends – it was great to be back on our good horses and they did excellent, especially in light of them barely being ridden this whole long hot (and ridiculously busy) summer. Here’s a little Tik Tok I made of our trail ride day.
Today, we were invited to join my friend Courtney at her riding lesson, where our wonderful trainer Ben was going to give her and her horse, Jessie (very experienced rodeo horse, in team-penning) a little preview of using the mechanical flag, a training tool for teaching a horse to “track” a cow, in arena work and competitions, such as cutting (where a horse and rider separate a single cow from the herd). Cutting has evolved as a sport as it showcases its original purpose, where on ranches separation is needed for branding, medical treatment, or sorting calves.
Neither Jessie nor Six seemed particularly interested in tracking the flag after a few minutes – probably because they both move real cows back home in their respective pastures every day.
Jessie was wanting to take the opp for a lil grass snackie and after a fleeting couple seconds of interest in the flag moving seemingly on its own, Six was simply just ready to call it a day. We have “helped” Ben move a herd of steers around on his property once and it was fun. Six and Ranger did well and were both owned by Ben previously – so both have some cow experience – and Parker (he has cutting horse strong in his bloodline) did a little *too well* for me – nipping the cattle on their hinds and backs and going after them with intent – not really my cup of tea! Park’s a former Fort Worth cattle drive horse and definitely was familiar – and hasn’t forgotten – the assignment.
Back to today – because Six was a little “sticky” and non-cooperative with the repetition of the drill, Ronnie and Ben made sure to find a good stopping point where Six completed what was asked (important) then let him return to his homies, Parker and Ranger, who were practicing hanging out tied, calmly (another important job horses need to know how to do) and just enjoying a day out of the pasture that didn’t include a vet appointment. You can hear Ranger calling out anxiously to Six during the lesson a few times, so not sure he understood the “calm” part of the assignment, but we got it done – everyone had a little workout of some kind (physical or emotional, haha) and that makes for a good day!
Here’s the video of our day. Some of the captions are a little wonky or didn’t translate well, but you can get the jist!
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