Vinyl Horse Fencing

[Pat]

Working stock from horseback is not only picturesque and sometimes fun, but depending on terrain and brush it can allow you to "git 'er done" when a macho belchfire 500 4 wheeler can't get there.

I have accrued some saddle time on a cutting horse. Let me rephrase that... I have been up on cutting horses but not always firmly in the saddle [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] I don't always read the terrain and the stock's intent the same way the horse does and so when I anticipate a turn and begin to lean in to it and the horse goes the other way on a dead run, I have gotten a little light in the saddle. Never came off but came close enough to force me to re-evaluate my approach.

I think there are two schools of thought (at least two) on actually working stock with a cutting horse as opposed to a contest in a ring. I am of the opinion that once the horse is shown what animal you want and where you want to take it, let it do its own thing like on auto pilot until or unless you have need to exert control. I don't know what percentage of folks think I'm wrong but in general my experience is less than a good horse's and I can't often find fault with the results I got.

I haven't been on a horse for 10 years but I remember which end points in the direction of advance. A friend of mine leased a 2500 acre valley along the US/Mexican border just west of Tecate, BC Mexico (Yes, that Tecate of beer fame) The Mexicans used more riders in their operations but we technically advanced gringos still found use for horses.

Along there, much of the border wasn't fenced and was often ignored by riders from both sides. At roundup there were "prisoner exchanges" where both sides returned the other folks beef. The honor system was still working then. The US Border Patrol officers would set up on a hill at one of their favorite observation posts and watch all this innocent cross border activity and never bother anyone. They were looking for smugglers of illegal substances and people.

Oh, by the way... although the Cooley Camp employs a considerable number of folks they have 10 full time resident families with their own houses in addition to the bunk houses for others. A fair numbr live "off ranch" and commute to work. the ranch is close to good roads and has "open to the public" sales.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Bird]

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not always firmly in the saddle

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I've been there. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] When I was a kid and had a plain old cheap untrained horse, but gentle and easy to ride, an uncle (farmer, rancher northwest of Oklahoma City) bought a pretty sorrel mare. It was the first horse my older cousin had been around; he didn't even know how to get the saddle and bridle on the horse, and the uncle wasn't around at the time, so I took the opportunity to show off a little. I saddled that mare and took off across the pasture at a gallop, intending to make a wide circle. And when I touched the rein to her neck, she doubled back so fast, it left me hanging out there in air hanging onto the saddle horn with one hand. I stayed with her, but dropped one rein; terribly embarrassing at the time. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Bird, Yet more parallel experiences for us to mutually chalk up...

When I was a senior in highschool I dated one of my math teachers daughters, a bit. His son joined the navy leaving behind a registered quarter horse mare that was getting a bit green from not being worked. He invited me to come out and exercise her. The first time out she really didn't want to leave the barn/paddock and go afield. She fought the reins for nrearly half a mile but I was determined to show her who was boss. When I turned her to head back she wheeled around in a wink and accelerated to full speed in about three high G force leaps. I just managed to stay on board but happened to notice that my high school class ring (very important to a highschool senior) was just then falling off my finger. All that working with the reins had pushed it off my finger. Without a thought I threw my right leg over her head and bailed off. I hit at an angle and skied to a stop, not falling down. I retraced my skid marks and found the ring.

She was waiting for me at the barn. No one but me and the horse witnessed this tableu, luckily for my delicate teenaged ego. I was better prepared after that. Apparently the son had alternately been walkiing her across the pasture and running her back and I unwittingly repeated the activity, hence the lightning quick spin around and max acceleration run back across the field.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[mfaley]

It's widely laughed at every Thanksgiving that, when we were young, I single handedly taught my sister cranky Morgan mare that running full blast through a local apple orchard would scrap people out of the saddle. I am not sure how it could tell exactly what branches would clear the horn but still clear the saddle. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Lately it feels like the only difference is that now when I come out of the saddle its accompanied with a trip to the doctor to learn that, once again, I have broken a rib or two or three.

I sure need to quit making those sorts of memories......

Mark

[Pat]

Mark, I had an older cousin in Mississippi whose horse my sister was riding. Long reins, one dropped, horse stepped on it at a run and threw sister off onto road and gave her a concussion. After returning from the hospital visiting her I hopped on the horse and went out jumping creeks. This horse knew the run under the tree trick too but I leaned way down next to his neck and only got a few scrapes and then ran and jumped him a lot more. This mount was a handful for a kid but was a real performer for my cousin. I fared better than my older sister.

I recall an old horse with about 4-5 little kids on it, bareback, just walking around the yard, parading for the parents. It walked out into a farm pond and layed down. Lucily It wasn't my turn yet.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[mfaley]

“I recall an old horse with about 4-5 little kids on it, bareback, just walking around the yard, parading for the parents.”

It’s amazing to me how many horses know when it’s a kid on their back and how quickly they can become great babysitters. I like watching a horse with a youngster on its back trying it darnedest to figure out what the kid is really trying to tell it……only to give up and slowly plod along. Watching something like that on a nice summer evening is a little slice of heaven.

Mark

[Bird]

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I recall an old horse with about 4-5 little kids on it, bareback, just walking around the yard

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Pat, I don't recall us ever having more than 3 at a time on a horse, but somewhere around here I have a picture of my dad and his 3 sisters on a horse like that when they were little kids just north of Ardmore.

And while I can remember very little about when I was a toddler, I do remember my grandmother putting me in the horses' feed trough while she milked a cow. My grandfather farmed with a team of horses; a bay mare named Nellie and a gray mare named Snip. They were both very gentle, but Nellie bit me (accidentally, I'm sure because I was feeding them out of my hand), and I did a lot of yelling for my grandmother to get me out of that trough. And from that day on, I liked Snip, but was scared to get near Nellie.

My grandparents moved to town when I was 3, so I don't know how old I was when Nellie bit me, but even after they moved to town, they still had chickens and a milk cow in town, and my granddad kept the farm, too. I was 5 when I saw my granddad putting a saddle on Snip one day, so I hot footed it out there to see if I could go with him, and he put me up behind him, but that was when I discovered that wherever we were going, he was going to be leading Nellie, and that's when I bailed out. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] I learned later that where he was going was to sell those horses.

[Pat]

Some horses are great with kids and will make a well practiced circuit or just follow others if in a group and the kid(s) just have to sit there and enjoy. Other animals are pranksters and know they can get away with behaviors with kids that would NOT be acceptable with an adult. I have come across horses that "TEST" the rider and will perform well for a rider but act out with just a "passenger."

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Bird, My grandfather on my mom's side was a farmer. My mom was born on the farm near Bray, Oklahoma (close to Marlow.) He never owned an internal combustion engine or drove a motorized vehicle in his life. He worked the farm with a pair of horses that were NEVER ridden. The quickest way for my mom or any of her 4 siblings to get in "Dutch" was to even suggest riding one of the horses. They were what fed the family and could not be used for toys. She said that she often thought he cared more for those horses than some of the kids but realized later it was those horses that fed the family and if there were to be any problem with thte horses it would cause severe economic hardship, beyond the typical circumstances of a relatively poor sharecropper during the great depression.

By the way Bird, were you ever amused by HOW WRONG John Steinbeck got it in the "Grapes of Wrath?" His stated location in eastern Oklahoma was never really such a desperate part of the dust bowl but was nearly a green paradise compared to western Oklahoma and the pan handle. Odd how movies and their poetic liscense get substituted for history and entire generations get sadly misinformed.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Bird]

Gosh, Pat, it's been so long since I read Grapes of Wrath that I don't even remember just where his stated location was. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] But, yes, there's a considerable difference in eastern and western Oklahoma.

And I can't recall ever seeing my grandfather ride a horse except for that one time. I do remember him talking about the "sport" of riding while chasing jackrabbits and coyotes with dogs when he was a youngster.