1. There are no bad bits, just bad hands.
2. Sliding your boot further into your stirrup prevents you from putting too much weight in your stirrup and makes you sit down.
3. Riding a horse like he's broke will help make him a broke horse.
4. The 5 most important things in cattle work is: 1. Stop, 2. Stop, 3. Stop, 4. Stop and 5. Stop.
5. The 6th most important thing in cattle work is backing up.
6. Look where you're going, and keep your eyes up all the time. If you're headed straight forward, look up and straight forward. If your cutting a cow out of herd, look at the cow you're cutting, no where else. Sounds simple, it's not!
7. Ninety-five percent of the time your horse's nose is tipped outside, it's because your reins are uneven.
8. Keeping your reins perfectly even is a lot harder than it seems, especially if you're not used to riding with a loose rein.
9. It's better to use 3 or 4 different bits all the time, because different styles of bits rub different areas of your horse's mouth, and then they callus. Move on to a different bit until a new part of the mouth gets tough and when you "hang up" your previous bridle, it recharges on the wall. If you cycle through 3 or 4, the bit will be effective again when the calluses are gone.
10. Expect your horse to succeed and be behaved, and he probably will. Let him fail you, don't expect him to fail.
More detail about our week at "boot camp" later!
South Sandia Crest Loop Ride
6 years ago
Posts
5 comments:
I needed some of those. Good advice. I never tried the boot farther into the stirrup thing. And I need to ride my green horse like a broke horse. I hope your boot camp is going well!!
Good tips! Can't wait to hear more about it!! How do you think the experience would have been different if you'd been on Yellow?
Cool! Great tips. I especially agree with the "expect your horse to succeed and he probably will"... I think to many people set their horses up for failure instead of success just by having a mindset that something is going to be a problem. A lady said to me the other day (after getting bucked off her horse, "you know, its the weirdest thing... A few mintues before he bucked me off, I just KNEW it was going to happen." I was so tempted to say, "Well then YOU made it happen"...but kept my trap shut instead :)
Glad you are getting back in the saddle and having some fun!
And always be alert and and living in the now.
That's what I learned from my fall. I was too relaxed, trustung that my horse was being good and would stay being good. Already thinking about what I planned to do when I got back to the barn.....and BAM!!
Totally didn't expect for my horse to teleport sideways from a spook. One minute she seemed fine, and I was, too.
And the next minute I was on the ground.
Live in the moment and be alert!
~Lisa
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