One of my greatest passions is working with cow bred horses and using thier natural ability to work stock,
A lot of people presume that because a horse is cow bred that it will be born without a fear of cattle and it will know what to do instictivly, well unfortunatly it doesnt quite work that way,
There are many differences to working life of the horses in the states to here,
We dont have nice big dry dirt areas where we can cut cattle, in fact we dont 'cut' cattle with the horses in yards here at all, as it is all concrete, so not such a good place to do close work where the horses could slip,
We have to cut the cattle by hand with the dogs while the horses wait outside the yard,
our terraine is also very different, we dont have the vast open spaces that the horses are sometimes used to in the states, and they can sometimes find it a little over whelming just walking along the roads with high hedges when they first come over,
It must be such an experience for them to come all that way, to another world and get used to a totally different way of life,
When Mollie came here from Oakridge, they quite honestly told me that she was a reluctant riener, and really didnt like it in the arena, these are the types i like the best, i usually find that they have far too much going on in the grey matter upstairs to do the same thing day after day, and eventually they resent it and sourness can set in with avengence, so before this happened, Lita thught it would be a good place for her, so the rest you could say is history,
Now for all the good names she has on her pedigree it didnt make her a immediate cow horse, in fact she was the most reluctant i have come across, i knew she could work stock, it was just that she didnt know it yet,
but first we had to get her near a cow,
she couldnt bear the sight of them,... this is where the work began!
She took a couple of weeks to stop staring at the sheep every time they moved, but if she saw a cow, she would be at the other end of the field before you knew it, where she didnt have to look at them too closely,
She had also been working with me on a lot of groundwork from the time of her arrival, and she had began to trust me, and i really liked this rather naughty little horse,
Anyway, the only thing for it was to feed her nearer and nearer to the cattle each day until she was eating right next to them,
Once she realised that they were not going to eat her, she settled to being near them fairly quickly,
From here i put her in a small paddock adjoining the cattle field, so they could all come and have a look at her but they couldnt touch her, and within 2 days, i opened the gate and let her in with them,
now there is method in my madness, and here is why!
I needed Mollie to realise that she can handle these cattle and to boost her confidence, i had to be cruel to be kind,
As she went into the field i put her food on the floor knowing that my pet cow had seen the bucket, and also knowing that as Mollie would be eating her course mix, they would come up and start nagging her for her food,
And as they predictably did, If Mollie was to save her dinner she was going to have to stand up to them,
This was a phycological turnaround for Mollie, once she realised that they listened to her and kept away, her confidence soared over the next few days and she could handle a whole group with just a sour look, from that day on, she never had to share her dinner again, and got over the fear of cattle for good,
We still had a long way to go, so she remained grazing with the cattle for at least a month without any other horses, so she had to graze along side them or be alone,
and she ended up being one of the group.
When she got bored of hanging around them while they snoozed in the field, she would pick out one of the paler coloured cattle and make it get up and move around a bit, and then she would leave that one alone and go and find another one, and she would spend ages keeping herself occupied, and all the while revelling in her new found power.
Mollie had now got to the stage where she considered herself an expert at handling cattle and considered them not worthy of being in my company and she took great pleasure in making sure that they never got anywhere near me, and a twenty yard dash at the cows always made her happy.
It was time to start ridden work with the cows.
The easiest way for me to ease her into it, was to use her new found friends, so thats what happened, when it came time to move the steers to the other farm, she went right in nice and calm and gathered them up and drove them a mile to pastures new with no hitches,, and she enjoyed every minute,
This is what Mollie was destined for.
Mollie has been used throughout the season for cattle and sheep work, and pleasure riding and forestry trails, and i look forward to continuing her training after the foaling season in 2007.
Best of Friends!
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