Silversand Horsemanship

Buck Brannaman Clinic, Feb 6/7/8^th 2010

“You don’t train a horse – you get with the horse”.

This was the message Buck was trying to get across to the many participants and spectators that attended his Australian clinic in Tatura.

Buck finally made it back to Oz so a few of us made the most of his visit and traveled up, across or down to Tatura, in Northern Victoria to watch his 3 day clinic.

Steve hired a mini bus and together with Jason, Kurt, Reiner, Rose, Justyna and Janella traveled over the day before and met up with Dominique, Kylie, myself (Helen) and Joyce (who was actually riding in the horsemanship lessons),.

Tatura boasts a very large horse facility which includes an Olympic (or bigger) size indoor arena as well as a large outdoor arena attached at one end. There is a stable complex and undercover float parking, as well as a separate float and truck/camping area. This is adjacent to a caravan/cabin park and is over the road from the local swimming pool so as you can see it has an ideal setup/location for events such as this.

The morning session of the 3 days was dedicated to colt starting and the horsemanship lessons started after lunch. Nine people brought their colts into the indoor arena and Buck began the day with unsaddled ground work as he worked his borrowed mare inside the portable round yard that was erected inside the arena. Once the colts were saddled this was probably the safest place as he instructed the handlers to take halters off and then form a human fence to stop them from using the whole arena. A couple of the colts showed some mild rodeo displays. They soon settled but one coloured gelding in particular took a dislike to anything that came within cooee of his space by kicking out. Buck then roped this horse with a fine display of rope handling skills and let the horse sort things out for himself, instead of taking it out on innocent bystanders.

Over the 3 days these colts were ridden, firstly in the round yard then in the bigger arena, by some very ‘brave’ people as it would have been very scary to do this in front of a large crowd of spectators. By the end of the clinic these horses were left in a pretty good place, emotionally, and hopefully they will continue to improve in the coming months.

The horsemanship class had 22 riders which, at first glance, seemed a lot of horses in the one arena but everyone got on well together and there was actually lots of space to practice what Buck was trying to get across to them. I took down some notes so I’m going to do a quick rundown of SOME of them, if I can decipher my writing with a pen that didn’t want to write!

• Buck’s emphasis was on the horse’s EXPRESSION and not to be so worried about how he was moving because as his expression changes for the better, so the movement will come with it. Also, don’t accept a bad expression now (talking particularly with the colts) as it’ll become worse later on.
• Buck explained that he has 3 main positions when riding – Position 1 is a forward seat as if you were about to do a small obstacle, position 2 is sitting upright on your pelvis and position 3 is sitting back on your pockets in a more relaxed place.
• Ride your rectangle. Get the horse centred within this rectangle. The greener the horse, the larger the rectangle. If the horse goes forward, you ride back. If the horse goes left, you go right until he is soft and waiting for you. If he anticipates, stop then wait.
• A backup set is as follows – walk forward 10 steps then back 10 steps, walk 9 steps then back 9 steps, walk 8 steps then back 8 steps etc. Just because you are backing a set number of steps, say 7, doesn’t mean that you have to back those 7 steps all at once. If the horse offers you softness at step 3 then stop and release and then continue your set, stopping again if softness is offered at say step 5, then continue on again. If, when you come to step 7 and there is no softness then back a few more steps until this is obtained then release. Every transition must end with a soft feel.
• To get a soft feel, firstly at halt, take a firm hold with the reins (don’t pull) and just wait. Keep hands low to help horse to turn loose. Release IMMEDIATELY there is a change. If he doesn’t give a soft feel straight away then he’s not ready to hold it so don’t hurry the horse at first. Once this is coming along then we can ask for it at walk by doing the same thing – holding and RELEASING – at the slightest try but start off by walking with a longer rein, shorten reins, hold then release back to a long rein. This can be done gradually over every, say, 10 strides until the horse is accepting of this then you can do it more often. To get a soft feel at trot – start with a long rein trot, soft feel (as above) for one step, release into a long rein. Do this a few times then get a soft feel down to walk and a then a long rein again. Gradually shorten your times between asking as long as the horse is accepting of this.
• To stop with a soft feel – ride in position 2 with the hands low then once stopped go to position 3 and just teeter back until the horse transfers his weight to the hind quarters, then release once soft.
• For a horse that drags his front feet when backing – back him in a circle as they can’t drag both legs when backing circles.
• Every transition must finish with a soft feel. The better the soft feel in forward the better it will be on turns, stops etc.
• Hook the rein to the feet – get to the legs and any bit chomping will stop.
• Lots of backing in circles, hind quarter and fore quarter yields will help a horse that lifts his head in transitions.
• Buck does a lot (read hundreds) of short serpentines – eg, as if you were riding circles around lots of bushes. Take a short rein in Position 1 and ask for a soft feel as you walk around the object. Bend the horse short and keep them going forward and get the horse to bend around your inside leg. If going to the left, put your left leg back and right leg forward. You have to be in time with the feet and all quarters of the horse have to feel the same. Don’t let the horse just bend his neck only, to get around.
• If the horse has trouble taking the right canter lead – do lots of left backing circles and left hind quarter turns.
• For a left lead in canter from a walk (or a trot) ask as left front leg leaves the ground. The right hind will be about to leave and this is the leg that initiates the canter transition.
• There are 4 ways to shift the hindquarters -

                   Bend neck and use inside leg                       No rein and use inside leg only

                   Soft feel and use inside leg                          Bend neck and use no leg

• In the round yard don’t let the horse come to a standstill (on the outer circle) and just do nothing. They need to be moving or turning loose to you. They also don’t need to be let run needlessly round and round in circles as this causes them to escape. Do something to get them back with you and start again.

Buck gave a very funny display about mounting blocks and asked the question – Why would someone want to move an inanimate object (mounting block/crate etc) to an animate object (horse) when you could ask the animate object to move to the inanimate object? Isn’t he right? How many people struggle getting the mounting block to the horse, then get on the mounting block only to find that the horse has shifted in the meantime? He said to get your horse to where he can be mounted from any object in any situation.

Also he was very serious about not physically looking for your stirrup iron once mounted. You need to be able to do it through feel as very serious accidents have happened through a rider actually leaning over the horses shoulder when trying to find their stirrup irons.

This was an amazing clinic to watch and I would recommend anyone that is serious about their horsemanship to go and see Buck ‘at work’ if ever you get the opportunity.