Weekend Clinic

As you know I spent this weekend in Rättvik holding a Hackamore clinic. It was a two day deal split between a theory session followed by a "hands on" portion both day´s. We covered the history and makeup of the bosal, it´s construction from the core to the nr of plaits in the cheeks and what differences there are in materials, stiffness etc. We got in to function, nosebutton length, shape, swell etc. And finally got to the handling of the reins part with the "bump & realese".

I hope I didn´t bore you all to death with all the details, but to me it´s important to know the how´s and why´s of a piece of equipment to fully be able to apply & handle it the way it´s designed to work.

I think you all did great by the way. It´s a bit challenging to have a clinic for a weekend and cream in maybe 4 years of slow, steady progress. But I hope you all take it for what it is, a general overview to get the overall picture and learn the philosophy of how to handle the reins and bosal corectly and from there go back and ask for baby steps and let the horse learn at his own pace.

Saturday started out great. Drove 350 km (200 miles) to Rättvik in a semi snowy, slushy morning and arrived at Mimmi´s barn where Brady was to be stalled over night. Molly, the filly Mimmi and Stefan bought from us earlier were also in the clinic although limited to groundwork. We then drove convoy up to the arena were the clinic were to be held, a sort of junior agricultural college. The arena had lecture halls where we set up for the theory part of the day. It was well attended and although we´d limited the riders to 10, there were several who showed up for the lecture part only. Back in the arena we started from the ground with some basic flexing, backing and weight shifting exercises . We then graduated to some basics in the saddle. Stopping, backing, turning etc all the while thinking about how we handle the reins. Without steady pulls, only tap, tap, tap when asking and likewise using our legs and body to enhance our requests. I think all of you got the picture and made great progress.

Brady did great and was a valauble asset in showing how it´s supposed to look and I think gave people an clearer image of what we´re after than if I just stood in on the ground, explaining something in words only.

We slowly worked in a drill I´m proud to say I "stole" from Les Vogt, namely his 5 easy pieces. It´s the most logical and valuable exercise I know to get full control of our horses body parts. It gives you a tool to control the neck, shoulders, ribs and hindquarters. You can make it as advanced or as newbie as you like by upping or lowering your demands, rewarding the slightest try or for more advanced horses demanding near perfection. But don´t forget, you´re in a hackamore, use the bump & realese! it´s easy to restort to pulling or dragging if your horse gets stuck. More leg should in most cases do the trick and save you from getting a horse heavy in the bosal.

Got a real treat from Mimmis husband, Stefan when we got back to the house late Saturday night. Dinner was on the table, a delicious Porter steak of Moose! Sauna hot and ready after dinner and a glas of single malt. Thank you, Stefan!
After the sauna I felt like someone whacked me in the head with a sledgehammer and I barely made it to bed!

Sunday was wierd! Brady was stalled next to Molly and another mare over night. They got along great! A little to great actually. He´s never been stalled next to a mare before and it showed Sunday! He was sooooo in love and couldn´t focus on anything besides Molly and another filly in the arena on sunday. We did spend the morning in the classroom first though, revisited some bosal and hackamore issues and than moved along to bits. Man, I could talk for hours about this stuff! We had limited time though, thankfully! So we skimmed the basics on how a snaffle works, a signal bit, why tounge relief actually isn´t any relief at all etc. We covered a bunch of different ports & mouthpieces you may run in to and the correlation between the spade and the horses mouth anatomy. We had a horse skull handy wich was great and really helps visualize the points I was trying to make.

Back in the arena we again covered the 5 easy pieces and then we took a quick look at how to narrow the hands, hold the reins etc when it´s time to move onto riding on one hand. How to slip rein and bump the nose when squaw reining or use the free hand to reach down and bump.

Back to Brady. He was in a FOUL mood! Adgitated, iritable and just not there mentally. He kept searching for Molly and had to have full control of her wherabouts at all times. Oh, he did what I asked but always under protest, switching his tail, throwing his head around and not in the soft, quiet and pleasing frame of mind from the day before. When circling and working on downward transitions things got really cowboy and he lit into buckin in a leadchange. And he BUCKED! High, Wide & Handsome, as Chief Rojas would put it. Burried his head and went kickin and hopping there for a while. I lost a stirrup, my hat and a good deal of my pride there, but we weathered the storm and I rode him through it and made him work some as a thank you!

Well, atleast the crowd got some bang for their buck I reckon!

After he quieted down some we got back to work. The last portion of yesterday´s clinic we tried to go over some basics regarding cow handling and cowwork. To me, everything I do horseback I do to enable us to work a cow in one way or the other. Sure pretty circles, spinning and the like might look good, but I´m teaching my horse control and using his agility to be able to work a cow, period. It may be roping, sorting, herdwork, fencework or even cutting. But without the cow as a venue to work my horse, most of the manuvers to me lack meaning. So with time running short we had to rush it there alittle at the end and I had the participants mirror each other, using the bump & realese to stop, draw back and turn. One simulated the cow and the other reacted to what the first was doing. Always a complete stop, draw and using the pull to your hip in the turn to get out of your horses way.

There, a little run through of my weekend! I had a great time and really hope all you who participated got something out of it. The one thing I regret is that I wish I had had more time to spend with each and every one of you. Now I kinda left the people who I thought had the hang of it alone to run of and help somewhere else. I know there are details I could´ve helped the more accomplished with also but it is what it is...

Anyway, Thank You all for having me up there and I´d sincerely like feedback and thoughts & ideas on how I could make it better.

/Martin "Buckin Bob" Langels