11/14/98
Cow Clinic was out on 60 acres of landed divided into three pastures. A herd of unlucky cows were minding their own business when 22 riders showed up.
It was the best clinic that I’ve ever seen or participated. It was 3 days of constant challenge. The 1st two days, we played games and were given tasks to increase those skills needed for working with cows. We played ground games with our horses to get them to get better at backing up and loading the hindquarters so we could begin to get that “cutting horse” spin!. It was a Parelli Cow Clinic with David Ellis the clinician in charge of our lives for 3 days from (9:00 am till dark at 6:00pm)
Our “Ten-Commandment” unbreakable cow rule was handed down from the instructor: “When the cow stops and turns, the horse and rider must back, make a small turn with the hindquarters followed by that cutting horse forequarter turn.” If the cow beat us before we were able to get through with the back and hindquarter turn, we have to continue our maneuver, then run like hell to catch up with the cow.
On the horse, we were given an imaginary cow on our left or right to follow. Our cow turned, stopped, turned the other way and we had to focus on our imaginary cow.
The horses and riders played follow the leader –nose to tail. We walked trotted and galloped to keep up with that tail in front of us.
Our instructor became the cow. He was in the middle of our Calvary charge line and held up a stick so we all could see. Our task was to keep even with the “cow”. He went forward, circled, went one way and then went another way. The RULE was hard to follow and the cow faked us out a lot. The cow turned and the horses and riders did our backup, hindquarter and forequarter turn. By the time we were done with that, the cow had turned back the original direction and was way ahead of us…and this was at both the walk and then the trot. The cow turned and said, “GOTCHA!!!” We learned to back when the cow did a 180 until we were certain that the little begger was going to stay in that direction. Then we did our quick back, turn and turn.
Synchronized Riding didn’t happen that day. We did get better. We got better every day.
The riders circled the “cow”and stood pointed into the circle looking at the cow. The “cow” tried to get out between the horses. The “cow” would stare at the hole, point at the hole and try to go through it. The riders were to back, turn the hindquarters, then the fore quarters and then run to meet the neighbor horse nose to nose before the cow could get to the hole. The horses were to form a GATE to block the cow from getting to the outside of the circle. Sage let the “cow” get through her gate plenty of times. Her problem was not the turns, it was the rushing to meet the nose of the other horse. Sage had no thought of rushing anywhere when my “cheeks” smiled and my legs squeezed. My “former” friend made disparaging remarks about detecting a “slowness trend”.
sigh…
We learned the “outrun.” The “cow” took off straight towards the opposite corner of the large pasture, and two riders on each side galloped off at a 45-degree angle away from the cow. This maneuver fooled the “cow” into thinking we weren’t chasing it. It is forbidden to run all the valuable meat off the cow’s body. Sage, the impulseless, bucked when I gave her my body signs to gallop. She finally managed a slow canter, at first nearly running into the line of horses waiting their turn to be the outrider. She was telling everyone that she didn’t want to leave the herd! We cantered slowly on her 1st outrun while our opposite rider knitted a sweater, waiting for us. After more outruns, Sage managed a slow gallop as her very fastest speed.
sigh again…